34 1/2 YEARS FOR HONOR MURDERER

Phyllis Chesler writes about the sentence Faleh Almaleki has received - 34 and a half years - for murdering his daughter Noor with a Jeep Grand Cherokee 2 years ago. A sentence most justly deserved, though it would have been far better if he'd been sent to the chair or gotten a lethal injection.

And those who were accomplices in the murders must be tried as well.

UPDATED: WHY AND WHEN DID OBAMA REALLY GAIN HIS CONNECTION TO CHICAGO AND THE CHICAGO MACHINE?

OBAMA IS A CREATURE OF THE CHICAGO MACHINE.

HOW AND WHEN DID THIS CONNECTION BEGIN?

• THE EARLIEST KNOWN CONNECTION BETWEEN BARACK OBAMA AND CHICAGO IS THROUGH HIS MOTHER:

ACCORDING TO OBAMA HIMSELF, OBAMA'S MOTHER WENT TO CHICAGO TO WORK AS AN AU PAIR IN THE SUMMER OF 1960.

• HOW DID THIS COME ABOUT!?!?

• WASN'T HER FAMILY WAS FROM WASHINGTON AND KANSAS AND HADN'T THEY JUST MOVED TO HAWAII!?!?

• SO WHY DID SHE SPEND WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN HER FIRST SUMMER IN HAWAII IN CHICAGO TO WORK AS AN AU PAIR!?!?

WEIRD.

• WHO DID SHE WORK FOR?!?

• HOW DID SHE FIND THEM - OR HOW DID THEY FIND HER?!?

THEY MUST'VE BEEN RICH:

POOR PEOPLE DON'T HAVE AU PAIRS AND MIDDLE CLASS PEOPLE DON'T REACH OUT 5000 MILES TO FIND ONE.

• DID SHE WORK FOR TOM AYERS? DID SHE BABYSIT FOR LITTLE BILLY AYERS?

• OR FOR THE JARRETT'S AND LITTLE VALERIE JARRETT?

• HOW MIGHT SHE HAVE BECOME CONNECTED TO CHICAGO?

FRANK MARSHALL DAVIS IS THE ONLY PERSON IN OBAMA'S MEMOIR WHO IS BOTH CONNECTED TO HIM AND CHICAGO BEFORE HE PHYSICALLY GOES TO CHICAGO.

• DID OBAMA'S MOTHER GET CONNECTED TO CHICAGO VIA FRANK MARSHALL DAVIS?

THIS SEEMS VERY LIKELY, TO ME.

WHY?

FOR A FEW REASONS:

• IT'S THE SIMPLEST EXPLANATION AND REQUIRES THE INTRODUCTION OF NO ADDITIONAL CHARACTERS.

• IN DAVIS'S MEMOIR/ROMAN A CLEF, HE RELATES HAVING HAD A THREESOME WITH HIS WHITE WIFE AND A YOUNG WHITE GIRL - AROUND OBAMA'S MOTHER AGE AT THE TIME - AND HE NAMED HER "ANN" - OBAMA'S MOTHER'S MIDDLE NAME.

I THINK IT IS FAIR TO SURMISE THAT THIS "ANN" WAS STANLEY ANN DUNHAM, AND THAT FRANK MARSHALL DAVIS AND STANLEY ANN DUNHAM HAD SEX - AND SHE GOT PREGNANT AND THAT THEY LOOKED FOR AND FOUND A SUITABLE HUSBAND FOR HER GIVEN HER CONDITION:

AN AFRICAN WHO WANTED THE MARRIAGE IN ORDER TO STAY IN THE USA - AND THAT THIS CHILD WAS.... BARACK.

THIS WOULD EXPLAIN:

WHY FRANK DAVIS WAS REALLY SELECTED TO BECOME BARACK'S SUBSTITUTE FATHER AND BLACK ROLE MODEL WHEN STANLEY ANN DUMPED LITTLE BARRY AND WENT BACK TO ASIA TO DO ANTHROPOLOGY.

(THE "OFFICIAL STORY" IS THAT FRANK WAS GRAMPA'S POKER/DRINKING BUDDY. HMMMM: IS THAT REALLY A SUITABLE AND BELIEVABLE EXPLANATION!? DOES IT PASS THE SMELL TEST!? NOPE. NO DECENT GRANDMA WOULD HAVE BEEN PLEASED TO HAVE A WHICKY-DRINKING POKER PLAYER BE A ROLE MODEL FOR HER ONLY GRANDSON!)

MOST IMPORTANTLY:

• DAVIS CONNECTS OBAMA TO CHICAGO
• AND TO AYERS
• AND TO THE JARRETTS
• AND TO THE MACHINE.

[NOTE:

TOM AYERS WAS A BIG $ PART OF THE ERIKSON INSTITUTE WHICH WAS RUN BY VALERIE JARRETT'S MOTHER.

VALERIE MARRIED VERNON JARRETT'S SON.

VERNON WORKED WITH FRANK MARSHALL DAVIS AT THE CHICAGO DEFENDER - A BLACK NEWSPAPER.

MORE ON THIS HERE.

ADDENDUM:

PAUL ROBESON IS CITED AS THE PERSON WHO TOLD FRANK DAVIS TO MOVE TO HAWAII -

AND ROBESON WAS A COMMUNIST WHOSE LAWYERS WERE THE SAME FOLKS WHO LATER DEFENDED BILL AYERS AND THE WEATHERMEN.

SMALL WORLD!]

• THE AYERS AND THE JARRETTS WERE BIGTIME LEFTIES IN CHICAGO AND WERE CONNECTED TO THE MACHINE - AND TO ORGANIZATIONS THAT FRANK MARSHALL DAVIS WAS ALSO CONNECTED TO,

• AND THAT ALINSKY AND ALINSKY'S ACOLYTE KELLMAN - WHO GAVE OBAMA HIS FIRST JOB AS A "COMMUNITY ORGANIZER" - WERE CONNECTED TO, TOO.

OBAMA REALLY GOT HIS FIRST JOB A CHICAGO CONNECTION - AND NOT FOR ANY OF THE FOUR EXPLANATIONS HE AND KELLMAN HAVE OFFERED.

(WHEN YOU'RE TELLING THE TRUTH, YOU AND YOUR COHORTS TELL ONE VERSION!).

IT WOULD ALSO EXPLAIN:

HOW HE GOT HIS FIRST INTERNSHIP DURING LAW SCHOOL AND HIS FIRST JOB AS A LAWYER.

IT WOULD ALSO EXPLAIN:

HOW AND WHY HE CHOSE MICHELLE - OR WHY THE MARRIAGE WAS ARRANGED: HER FATHER WAS A CHICAGO ALDERMAN AND PART OF THE MACHINE.

IT WOULD ALSO EXPLAIN:

HOW HE GOT THE GIG WITH ANNENBERG - WHICH HE CO-CHAIRED WITH BILL AYERS.

IT WOULD ALSO EXPLAIN:

HOW HE GOT HIS STATE SENATOR'S GIG, AND HIS US SENATE GIG.

IT WOULD ALSO EXPLAIN:

WHY HE CHOSE RAHM TO BE HIS COS AND WHY HE CHOSE BILL DALEY TO BE HIS SECOND COS WHEN RAHM WAS CALLED BACK TO TAKEOVER THE MACHINE FOR BILL'S BROTHER RICHARD.

IT WOULD ALSO EXPLAIN:

HOW HE GOT TEDDY'S EARLY ENDORSEMENT:

THE KENNEDY'S GO WAY BACK WITH THE MACHINE -ALL THE WAY BACK TO PROHIBITION - (AND ALL THOSE DECADES OWNING THE MART).

BIDEN OWES HIS CAREER TO THE MACHINE, TOO.

JUST LIKE BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA SOETORO.

I ASK AGAIN:

• HOW DID LITTLE BARRY OBAMA ---

• A HALF-WHITE/HALF-BLACK KID FROM HAWAII WHO WAS RAISED IN INDONESIA AND WENT TO COLLEGE IN LA AND NYC AND LAW SCHOOL IN BOSTON ---

• END UP BEING WELCOMED AND GROOMED BY THE CHICAGO MACHINE!?!?

THE BEST EXPLANATION IS THROUGH HIS MOTHER.

• AND HOW DID HIS MOTHER END UP THERE?

PROBABLY THROUGH THE MAN WHO REACHED OUT ON HER BEHALF BECAUSE HE HAD IMPREGNATED HER:
FRANK MARSHALL DAVIS.

A HUNDRED OR SO LINKS FOR THIS NARRATIVE MAY BE FOUND HERE IN NUMEROUS EARLIER POSTS.

UPDATE:

ARE WE TO BELIEVE THAT PRESIDENT OBAMA JUST HAPPENED TO

• (1) MEET HIS CLOSEST ADVISOR - VALERIE JARRETT - AND
• (2) JUST HAPPENED TO MEET THE MAN WHO HOSTED HIS FIRST FUNDRAISER, AND WITH WHOM HE SERVED ON THE WOODS FUND WITH FOR YEARS - BILL AYERS - AND
• (3) JUST HAPPENED TO MEET THE MAN WHO GAVE HIM HIS FIRST JOB IN CHICAGO - KELLMAN, WHO FINANCED OBAMA'S JOB VIA "THE WOODS FUND" WHICH WAS FINANCED BY TOM AYERS - AND
• (4) THAT IT WAS A COINCIDENCE THAT VALERIE JARRETT'S FATHER-IN-LAW AND FRANK DAVIS WERE PALS - AND
• (5) THAT IT WAS A COINCIDENCE THAT LEONARD BOUDIN WAS BOTH FRANK DAVIS PAL PAUL ROBESON'S LAWYER AND BILL AYERS LAWYER - AND ALGER HISS'S LAWYER AND FIDEL'S ALWYER AND KGB AGENT/JOURNALIST IF STONE'S BROTHER-IN-LAW?

THESE ARE NOT COINCIDENCES.

THIS IS A NETWORK OF EXTREME LEFT-WING ACTIVISTS BENT ON TURNING THE USA INTO A SOCIALIST NATION.

AND OBAMA OWES EVERYTHING TO THIS NETWORK.

EVERYTHING:

• HIS ENTRY INTO COLUMBIA,
• HIS ADMISSION INTO HARVARD,
• HIS JOBS AND INTERNSHIPS,
• HIS MARRIAGE - AND HER JOB AT UC,
• HIS CHARITABLE JOB,
• HIS LAW-FIRM,
• HIS STATE SENATE SEAT,
• HIS US SENATE SEAT,
• HIS HOME,
• HIS APPEARANCE IN PRIME TIME AT THE KERRY CONVENTION
• HIS TEDDY ENDORSEMENT,
• HIS NOMINATION AND HIS ELECTION.

MOST IMPORTANTLY: HIS TRUE IDENTITY AND HIS TRUE MISSION.

AND WE MUST STOP HIM AND THEM.

More here and here.

UPDATE: MUCH SIMPLER STORYLINE HERE.

"Three of the five coldest tropical Marches in the 33-year satellite temperature record have happened in the past dozen years"

MARCH WAS COLD.

COLDEST MARCH IN TAIWAN IN 40 YEARS.

COLDEST MARCH IN AUSTRALIA IN 24 YEARS.

BUT IF CO2 KEEPS GOING UP, THEN HOW CAN THIS BE HAPPENING?!?!?

SOME BLAME LA NINA:

Global Temperature Report: March 2011

Global climate trend since Nov. 16, 1978: +0.14 C per decade

March temperatures (preliminary)

Global composite temp.: -0.10 C (about 0.18 degrees Fahrenheit) below 30-year average for March.

Northern Hemisphere: -0.07 C (about 0.13 degrees Fahrenheit) below 30 year average for March.

Southern Hemisphere: -0.13 C (about 0.23 degrees Fahrenheit) above/below 30-year average for March.

Tropics: -0.35 C (about 0.63 degrees Fahrenheit) below 30-year average for March.

February temperatures (revised):

Global Composite: -0.02 C below 30-year average

Northern Hemisphere: -0.04 C below 30-year average

Southern Hemisphere: ±0.00 C above/below 30-year average

Tropics: -0.35 C below 30-year average

(All temperature anomalies are based on a 30-year average (1981-2010) for the month reported.)

Notes on data released April 5, 2011:

Driven by the La Nina Pacific Ocean cooling event, global average temperatures in March 2011 were the coolest March since 1999, according to Dr. John Christy, professor of atmospheric science and director of the Earth System Science Center at The University of Alabama in Huntsville.

It was the fifth coolest March in the tropics, where the average temperature fell 0.35 C (about 0.63 degrees Fahrenheit) below seasonal norms.

Three of the five coldest tropical Marches in the 33-year satellite temperature record have happened in the past dozen years: 5th, 2011, -0.35 C: 3rd, 2000, -0.42; and 2nd, 2008, -0.58 C.

As part of an ongoing joint project between UAHuntsville, NOAA and NASA, Christy and Dr. Roy Spencer, a principal research scientist in the ESSC, use data gathered by advanced microwave sounding units on NOAA and NASA satellites to get accurate temperature readings for almost all regions of the Earth. This includes remote desert, ocean and rain forest areas where reliable climate data are not otherwise available.

The satellite-based instruments measure the temperature of the atmosphere from the surface up to an altitude of about eight kilometers above sea level. Once the monthly temperature data is collected and processed, it is placed in a "public" computer file for immediate access by atmospheric scientists in the U.S. and abroad.

Neither Christy nor Spencer receives any research support or funding from oil, coal or industrial companies or organizations, or from any private or special interest groups. All of their climate research funding comes from federal and state grants or contracts.

BRRRRRR!

AGW = TFBS!

EINSTEIN, GOD AND THE LEFT

The theory says a lot, but does not really bring us any closer to the secret of the "old one." I, at any rate, am convinced that He does not throw dice. - ALBERT EINSTEIN

I believe in Spinoza's God, Who reveals Himself in the lawful harmony of the world, not in a God Who concerns Himself with the fate and the doings of mankind. - ALBERT EINSTEIN

I see a clock, but I cannot envision the clockmaker. The human mind is unable to conceive of the four dimensions, so how can it conceive of a God, before whom a thousand years and a thousand dimensions are as one ? - ALBERT EINSTEIN

THESE QUOTES STRIKE ME AS EVIDENCE THAT EINSTEIN WAS NEITHER AN ATHEIST OR A HUMANIST, BUT A BELIEVER; EINSTEIN BELIEVED IN GOD.

I WOULD ARGUE THAT EINSTEIN WAS WRONG IN SECOND PART OF THE MIDDLE QUOTE:

GOD CARES ABOUT MANKIND AND ALL CREATION; GOD WOULD NO MORE BE UNCARING THAN HE WOULD ROLL DICE.

GOD CARES ABOUT US ALL AND EACH OF US.

SO, I THINK THE POSTMODERNISTIC AND ATHEISTIC LEFTIES AT THINK PROGRESS SHOULD STFU.

AND I HAVE A WARNING FOR THE LEFT: GOD EXISTS WHETHER THEY BELIEVE IN HIM OR NOT.

LUCKILY, HE WANTS US TO BEHAVE RIGHT MORE THAN HE WANTS US TO BELIEVE IN HIM.

RICK SANTORUM SHARES GLENN BECK'S CONCERNS ABOUT CALIPHATE

Politico reports that Rick Santorum concurs with Glenn Beck about the dangers of a caliphate rising in the middle east (via The Blaze):

Rick Santorum told Glenn Beck Thursday that he doesn't disagree with Beck's ominous assertions that Islamic extremists in the Middle East are working with leftists to establish a caliphate across the region.

"I have talked about a caliphate and how these extremists are working with communists and socialists — they are all working together. Whether you believe it or not, this is happening. And people want Sharia law all over the globe," Beck said during an interview with Santorum.

"I don't disagree with anything you've said," Santorum responded.

I'm glad someone on the right has acted responsibly, unlike the awful Bill Kristol, whom Ben Barrack reported nearly 2 weeks ago betrayed his positions from 2006, when he actually spoke against any jihadist who would rampage over the Muhammed cartoons. Kristol owes an apology for mimicking leftist scoffers who don't recognize why it pays to be concerned.

SEVERAL CONGRESSMEN WANT GOLDSTONE REPORT CANCELED

There's no guarantee it'll happen, but in good news, Anthony Weiner and several other Congressman have stated to the US ambassador to the UN that they want her to call on the awful world political organization to withdraw the Goldstone libel on Israel.

China's inflation jumped to a 32-month high

MSNBC:

China's inflation jumped to a 32-month high in March despite government efforts to cool an overheated economy, adding to pressure for more interest rate hikes and other controls.

Prices rose 5.4 percent over a year ago in the world's second-largest economy, driven by 11.7 percent surge in politically sensitive food costs, data showed Friday. That was up from February's 4.9 percent and a setback for communist leaders who have declared taming inflation their priority and raised interest rates four times since October.

"They will have to step up their fight against inflation," said Credit Agricole CIB senior economist Dariusz Kowalczyk.

Analysts say prices are being driven by the dual pressures of consumer demand that is outstripping food supplies and a bank lending boom that was allowed to run too long after it helped China ward off the 2008 global crisis.

 Wait a minute. Think about that last paragraph. Two issues;

1) A lending boom is causing inflation. What did the Chinese people do with the money which flooded the market in the "Lending Boom"? They built cities that no one lives in:



And

2) Consumer demand is outstripping food supplies?

Cities where no one lives.

Not enough food.

Does that sound like the makings of a strong economy?

ITALIAN "PEACE ACTIVIST" WAS MURDERED IN GAZA

In an example of how some moonbats never consider how the enemies they're helping are not grateful, an Italian pro-palestinian activist who was living in Gaza for several years was murdered, seemingly by a rival faction to Hamas:

Vittorio Arrigoni, 36, who had been living in the Gaza Strip for much of the past three years, was seized on Thursday by a radical group that has been in conflict with Hamas. [...]

In a video posted on YouTube, the kidnappers said Arrigoni had been taken hostage in order to secure the release of an unspecified number of their members detained by Hamas security forces, including a jihadi leader called Sheikh Hisham al-Suedani.

The kidnappers, who identified themselves as belonging to The Brigade of the Gallant Companion of the Prophet Mohammed bin Muslima, said they would execute Arrigoni if their demands were not met by 5:00 pm (1400 GMT) on Friday.

But who does Hamas accuse of responsibility? Israel, of course:

Accordingly, Hamas accused Israel of being behind the attack, noting that Arrigoni had often spoken out against Israeli policies in Gaza, going so far as to compare what he called "Israeli crimes against Palestinians" to Nazi crimes. Additionally, he was twice arrested by Israeli authorities.

I don't expect them to conduct any serious investigation into this murder, nor any serious arrests made. But maybe this'll send a message to some would-be peace activists that to live in such a violent, racist, misogynist society can be very fatal.

THE MISERY INDEX IS THE HIGHEST EVER AND GETTING EVEN HIGHER, AND THERE'S NO SLOWDOWN IN SIGHT!

INFLATION IS REALLY 10%, AND GETTING HIGHER EVERY MONTH.

AND UNEMPLOYMENT IS GETTING HIGHER TOO.

WHICH SENDS GOLD UYP AND THE DOLLAR DOWN AND THIS FEEDBACK INCREASES INFLATION EVEN MORE.

I BLAME OBAMA AND THE LEFT AND THEIR IDIOTIC POLICIES.

THE MISERY INDEX IS CLIMBING.

I HOPE MORE AMERICANS WAKE UP AND THAT IT COSTS OBAMA THE ELECTION - DESPITE THE BILLION BUCKS HE'S GONNA RAISE AND SPEND.

MORE PROOF THAT JIHADISTS ARE BARBARIC BEASTS

THEIR INSANE BLOOD-LUST IS SO VORACIOUS THAT THEY EAT THEIR OWN.

NOTHING HAS KILLED MORE MUSLIMS THAN ISLAM ITSELF.

THERE WILL BE NO PEACE UNTIL ISLAM IS ERADICATED.

Update #1: MORE DEPRAVED MURDEROUS BARBARITY HERE - WITH VIDEO.

Update #2.

VISUAL REPRESENTATION OF AMERICA'S FINANCIAL WOES

Grim facts that should be sending both parties scrambling to curb the coming financial disaster for America:


Obama self-righteously declares:

"We have to live within our means..."

Yet his policies have increased our national debt to astronomical levels.

The hypocrisy is astounding. Until one remembers that Obama is in campaign mode. Is he ever in any other mode?

MUSLIM WOMAN IN GEORGIA SENT THE PIG'S FOOT TO KING, AND ANOTHER THREAT LETTER TO GREG BALL

First, let's note this report from The Patch (via Weasel Zippers), which reveals something most disturbing discovered a day or so ago:

A suspicious package containing a letter and a stuffed animal bearing the Star of David was opened at state Sen. Greg Ball’s Albany office Tuesday afternoon.

The letter begins with “Asa Lamu Laikum Dead Man Walking,” (the first part of which some sources translate as “peace be upon you” in Arabic) refers to Ball (R, C – Patterson) as a “crazy, Christian cracker” who lacks political correctness, citing Friday’s hearing on homeland security, veterans and military affairs. The letter, whose signer identifies him or herself as a messenger of Allah and a defender of Islam, calls the hearing a “declaration of war against Muslims.”

According to this report on MSNBC.com, the hearing, which was aimed at assessing New York’s readiness for terrorist attacks, featured speakers who “argued that Islam is a threat to the U.S.” and spoke of terrorist training camps.

A statement released by Ball’s office Tuesday afternoon did not mention any other items in the package, but other news outlets reported the arrival of hazardous materials teams at the office.

Ball is looking forward to the next hearing, which is slated for May 17 in Albany.

Now, guess who sent both that and the threat letter with a pig's foot to Rep. King (via Newsbusters):

A Muslim woman has admitted to mailing a bloody pig’s foot and a threatening letter to Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), as well as another bizarre package to a New York state senator.

The woman, Jameela Barnette, of Marietta, Ga., says she sent the package to King earlier this month to voice her dismay with the hearing he held last month on what he calls the “radicalization” of American Muslims.

“I thought the letters explain themselves,” she told the New York Post, speaking not only of the anti-Semitic note to King, but the one she says she sent to state Sen. Greg Ball, a Republican who has held his own hearings on Muslims and hosted King at the most recent hearing last week.

Just after the package to King was intercepted at a Maryland mail facility earlier this month, a congressional source told POLITICO the accompanying letter was “a rambling type” of message that referred to the congressman as a “Jew,” though he is Catholic.

King told POLITICO on Thursday that Barnette “obviously has problems” and “appears to be a disturbed person who seems to be getting carried away with herself.”

He wouldn’t speculate about what might come next, saying only: “I’ll let the police know how serious this is.” Capitol Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment. They said earlier this month that the investigation was ongoing.

The package sent to Ball included a Curious George stuffed animal with two Stars of David taped to it and a note that said, “FINAL DESTINATION: AUSCHWITZ.” Barnette told The Journal News that she sent the monkey because “I knew the Jews were behind the hearings. A monkey is a representation of who the Jews are.” The “Curious George” series of children’s books were written by Holocaust survivors.

If this woman did indeed send packages, not only will CAIR have to eat their own words victimology, but this shows how some Muslims are not faithful to their restrictions against pork, if that's what it takes to assault infidels.

GOLDSTONE'S CO-WRITERS WON'T JOIN HIM IN RETRACTION

But then, he never really did retract himself anyway. From FOX News:

The co-authors of a scathing report on Israel's conduct during its 2008-2009 invasion of Gaza said Thursday they stood by their work, hitting back at critics who've pushed to have its findings withdrawn after the report's lead author, Richard Goldstone, aired doubts about one of its central conclusions.

In a statement published on the website of Britain's Guardian newspaper, Goldstone's three colleagues said there was "no justification" for any move to review or rescind the 575-page report — which among other things accuses Israel of deliberately targeting civilians in its campaign against Hamas militants. The report also condemned Hamas for targeted Israeli civilians by firing rockets at Israeli cities.

Or does it? Moral equivalence does not solve anything. They can only choose one side or the other, and sadly, no matter what they say in the sham report, they're on the Hamas side.

Yigal Palmor, a spokesman for Israel's Foreign Ministry, said the Israeli position about the Goldstone document remains the same.

"The whole process was deeply tainted by political bias and an extremist dominance over the U.N. Human Rights Commission by nondemocratic countries," he said, adding that the Israelis are still studying the "implications" of Goldstone's newspaper article.

"We will try to take whatever steps are possible in order to minimize the unjust damage caused by the original report," he said.

Thursday's statement from Goldstone's colleagues — Pakistani human rights lawyer Hina Jilani, former Irish peacekeeper Desmond Travers, and international law professor Christine Chinkin — was even more categorical, suggesting that Goldstone had split with his co-authors by writing in the Post.

Jilani confirmed to The Associated Press that she and her colleagues disagreed with Goldstone's latest assessment, saying in a telephone interview that she could not see "anything of substance now in the public domain that merits a rethinking on the findings of the report."

Translation: she and her cronies don't even want to listen to the public. Another example of the damage-is-done situation. Goldstone knew quite well that Hamas is a terrorist group, and could've avoided doing anything to side with them. That he hasn't even sought an actual retraction at the UN on his part shows how phony his whole personal retraction is.

DOJ AND OBAMA SCUTTLED TERROR FINANCE PROSECUTIONS

Patrick Poole at Pajamas Media reports that Obama and Eric Holder appear to have scuttled prosections of terror financing for political gain. This is very disturbing, and Congress needs to address it.

Update: Frank Gaffney has commented on this case too.

SARAH GLIDDEN'S "WAITING ROOM" MAY NOT BE WORTH SITTING INSIDE

Sarah Glidden, the would-be graphic novelist who put together "How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less" that otherwise takes a negative stance on Zionism, has come up with some new potential propaganda called "The Waiting Room" documenting Iraqi refugees in Syria. The article about this says:

Called The Waiting Room, the 20-page story continues the calm and considered documentarian style she employed in How to Understand Israel... and presents an incredibly depressing but touching portrait of what life has been like for Iraqis who've been living in Syria since the American invasion of 2003.

But there's problems abound. First up, this panel:
Really, was it that solid in education? Saddam lived and died a Muslim, holding a Koran at his trial, and his government run universities would most likely have incorporated the Religion of Peace and anti-Israelist education into their curriculum (one of the other panels at the political cartoon site says the colleges were free, which sounds vaguely similar to the notions some communists/marxists/socialists have of how to do things). I'm not sure you can call that solid stuff. Nor can a religion/education/political system that calls for jihad, oppression of women, and considers Jews "sons of apes and pigs" be something to learn from. And why do I get the vibe these refugees wouldn't give a crap about how Saddam fired scud missiles at Israel back in 1991, causing plenty of people, myself included, to have to hide in airtight rooms?

Then, more tellingly about Glidden's newest propaganda effort, there's this panel:
So the woman drawn in the panel blames America for her misfortunes, not Saddam for the oppression, nor the terrorists who went on a rampage after the US raid. Perhaps she might want to consider that nearly a decade ago, when the raid took place, there were terrorists going through Syria to get to Iraq, and Syria helped and encouraged many to do so. But she probably won't. The 7th panel at the political cartoon site has the interviewee saying, "America set fire to my country and we lost everything". Not exactly. There is a legitimate case that could be made that the US military didn't do a good enough job at defeating the invading terrorists properly at the beginning, and this is what led to their misfortunes. But it appears she's only blaming America for invading in the first place, and not the jihadists who crossed through Syria into Iraq. What, they don't have any responsibility?

To make matters worse, Comics Beat says:

Glidden is definitely following in the footsteps of the incomparable Joe Sacco in becoming a graphic reporter on the trouble spots of the world. While there’s only one Sacco, Glidden is finding her own place in the field with her work.

When they start comparisons with a foul fiend like Sacco, something is wrong.

Speaking of which, I found an AP article about Sacco and his Footnotes in Gaza propaganda on Haaretz, which tells a few details worthy of note:

The American-Maltese artist's latest book, "Footnotes in Gaza," chronicles two episodes in 1956 in which a U.N. report filed Dec. 15, 1956 says a total of 386 civilians were shot dead by Israeli soldiers - events Sacco said have been "virtually airbrushed from history because they have been ignored by the mainstream media."

Israeli historians dispute these figures.

"It's a big exaggeration," said Meir Pail, a leading Israeli military historian and leftist politician. "There was never a killing of such a degree. Nobody was murdered. I was there. I don't know of any massacre." Sacco's passion for the Palestinian cause has opened him up to accusations of bias.

Jose Alaniz, from the University of Washington's Department of Comparative Literature, said Sacco uses "all sorts of subtle ways" to manipulate the reader.

"Very often he will pick angles in his art work that favor the perspective of the victim: He'll draw Israeli soldiers or settlers from a low perspective to make them more menacing and towering." Alaniz also said Sacco draws children "in such a way to make them seem more victimized."

Sacco himself admits he takes sides.

"I don't believe in objectivity as it's practiced in American journalism. I'm not anti-Israeli ... It's just I very much believe in getting across the Palestinian point of view," he said.

I'm afraid he only takes one side, and his claim that the massacre took place, from what we can tell via Pail, is clearly a lie just like any claims that Israel drove Arabs out of their homes in Jerusalem, when it was the other way around, as can be read about in this History News Network article (via Richard Landes). There's a saying that "war is deceit", and many jihadists go by this too: this was likely a lie spun by anti-Israelists in the Islamic world, and Sacco followed up on it willingly.

But to say that American journalism is objective is about as convincing as to say that even FOX News is incapable of committing anti-Israel bias just because they're allegedly conservative (and Jeff Dunetz has already made clear they're no more reliable than CNN). Sacco's merely suggested he's a Chomskyite (he was born in Malta, of course). And he can use all the moral equivalence he likes, but it's clear he only cares about the "palestinian side" and doesn't care by contrast if there's no such thing as a "palestinian Arab/Islamic people", and that the name palestina was originally coined by the Romans circa the Bar Kochva revolution, later revived by the British to undermine Israel, by people like Christopher Mayhew and Michael Adams.

Sacco's whole attack on American journalism is laughable, since if there had been a massacre, you can be sure creeps like Walter Cronkite would've said something about it decades ago. It's a rather ironic attack by a leftist against other leftists, implying he doesn't think they're biased enough for his tastes. Which seems to be quite a trait for some leftists - their own aren't good enough for them.

And back to Glidden now, it's tragic that the artform of comics is being abused by such loathsome people to attack Israel and America. I wonder if her next destination will be to attack the Israeli army (which I served in when I was 19-21, even if it was only in supplies duties)? She is just as bad news as Sacco.

UH-OH: DELOITTE: ANOTHER RECESSION MIGHT BE COMING COURTESY OF RISING FOOD AND GASOLINE AND CLOTHING PRICES

REMEMBER: FOOD AND GASOLINE AND CLOTHING ARE STAPLES, NECESSITIES - THE BASICS.

WWD:

Red alert: Consumer fears over inflation are mounting, potentially wiping out the momentum retailers have seen so far this year.

The bad news for retailers came Wednesday, when Deloitte released its latest survey on consumer spending.

Seventy-four percent of Americans believe higher prices could curb their spending in the months ahead, and 53 percent see spring merchandise prices as inflated, according to a Deloitte survey released Wednesday. It’s currently up only a few percentage points, but inflation on most apparel is expected to be up 10 to 15 percent for fall due to higher raw material and labor costs. Higher energy costs, higher medical costs, unemployment levels and job concerns — and political unrest in Africa, the Middle East and Asia — are further driving down the will to spend.

While it will be mass and midtier retailers like Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp., Kohl’s Corp., J.C. Penney Co. Inc. and The TJX Cos. Inc. that will be hit the hardest, no company is expected to escape unscathed.

JUST LIKE WE SAID A WEEK AGO.

BETTER TIGHTEN YOUR SEAT-BELTS FOLKS; IT'S GONNA BE A BUMPY RIDE - AND ALL DOWNHILL.

THE ONLY THING THAT CAN STOP THIS AND SAVE US IS THE GOP FISCAL PLAN.

(REMEMBER: FOOD AND GASOLINE AND CLOTHING ARE STAPLES, NECESSITIES - THE BASICS. AND THEY ALL COST MORE NOW THAN WHEN OBAMA WAS INAUGURATED.

THE ONLY THINGS THAT'VE COME DOWN ARE HOUSE PRICES AND THE AMOUNT OF RESPECT THE USA HAS AROUND THE WORLD.)

SAME OLD SAME OLD FROM OBAMA: RAISE TAXES AND CUT DEFENSE SPENDING

NOTHING NEW AT ALL IN OBAMA'S BIG SPEECH: THE LEFT ALWAYS WANTS TO CUT DEFENSE AND RAISE TAXES ON THE RICH.

ALL THAT WILL DO IS MAKE THE ECONOMY SHRINK AND OUR ENEMIES BOLD.

IF OBAMA WANTED TO DESTROY THE USA AND WITH IT THE FREE WORLD, THEN HE COULD NOT CHOOSE A MORE STEALTHY WAY TO DO IT.

Solar warming and ocean equilibrium, Part 3: Solanki and Schuessler respond

Reliapundit has always been astute about claims of human caused global warming. Since I have been blogging this subject at What's Up With That, I'm posting an excerpt here, as a nod to the realitor.



Solar physicist Sami Solanki and his colleagues at Germany's Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research helped pioneer the use of cosmogenic isotopes from ice cores to create a proxy record for solar activity going back hundreds and thousands of years. Together with a group led by Ilya Usoskin at University of Oulu in Finland, Solanki describes "grand maximum" levels of solar activity from 1920 to 2000, with the sun being especially active since the 1940's.

Comparing this solar record to temperature, these scientists find a strong correlation between solar activity and temperature persisting until quite recently. For example, over the period of the instrumental temperature record, a 2004 paper by Solanki and Krivova finds that the correlation is quite close, "however":

However, it is also clear that since about 1980, while the total solar radiation, its ultraviolet component, and the cosmic ray intensity all exhibit the 11-year solar periodicity, there has otherwise been no significant increase in their values. In contrast, the Earth has warmed up considerably within this time period. This means that the Sun is not the cause of the present global warming.

But does this conclusion follow? Their own evidence says that until 1980 the dominant driver of climate was solar activity (and their longer-term temperature-proxy comparisons say the same thing). So how can they assert that two decades of the highest solar activity on record can't be the cause of concurrent warming?

I suggested to Solanki and his colleagues that they must be implicitly assuming that by 1980 ocean temperatures had already equilibrated to whatever forcing effect the high level of solar activity was having. Otherwise warming would continue until equilibrium had been reached. Yet equilibration is never mentioned in any of their analyses.

Many thanks to Sami Solani and Manfred Schuessler for their important reply, finally making the implicit explicit. Here is the main part of their answer:

Continued at WUWT.

THE REAL "OBAMA MISERY INDEX" SMASHES CARTER'S RECORD - NOW 26.2%!

THE MISERY INDEX IS INFLATION + UNEMPLOYMENT.

What Is The Actual Unemployment Rate?

When we look at the unemployment figures that the government puts out we get two figures. First, we get the standard jobless rate, which only looks at people who have reported looking for work in the past 4 weeks. Then, we get the real (U6) rate, which also takes into account the number folks who are either underemployed or have stopped looking for work because they can’t seem to find anything. From MSN:

The official unemployment index, based on a monthly survey of sample households, counts only people who reported looking for work in the past four weeks. It doesn’t account for part-time workers who want to work more hours but can’t, given the tight job market. And it doesn’t include those who have given up trying to find work.

When the underemployed and the discouraged are added to the numbers, the unemployment rate rises to 16.6%. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, a unit of the Labor Department, began tracking this alternative measure — known as the U-6 for its department classification — in 1995 after economists lobbied for a method comparable to the way Japan, Canada and Western Europe count their unemployed.

When you take into account the underemployed and discouraged workers, the unemployment rate rises to almost 16.6%! That number is up from 16.4% a year or so ago and from 9.7% in May 2008. It was 7.1% in May 2000. Here’s a graphic showing those real jobless rates over the past 10 years.

16.6%. OTHERS HAVE IT AT A WHOPPING 18.8%!

A LITTLE LESS ACCORDING TO THE BLS:

U-6 Total unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force	17.5	16.7	16.2	16.8	17.0	16.7	16.1	15.9	15.7

SO LET'S BE SENSIBLE AND TAKE THE MIDDLE AMOUNT: 16.6%.

WHAT IS THE REAL INFLATION RATE?: Inflation Actually Near 10% Using Older Measure

[VIA DOUG WHO HAS MUCH MORE!!!]

After former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker was appointed in 1979, the consumer price index surged into the double digits, causing the now revered Fed Chief to double the benchmark interest rate in order to break the back of inflation. Using the methodology in place at that time puts the CPI back near those levels.

Inflation, using the reporting methodologies in place before 1980, hit an annual rate of 9.6 percent in February, according to the Shadow Government Statistics newsletter.

Since 1980, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has changed the way it calculates the CPI in order to account for the substitution of products, improvements in quality (i.e. iPad 2 costing the same as original iPad) and other things. Backing out more methods implemented in 1990 by the BLS still puts inflation at a 5.5 percent rate and getting worse, according to the calculations by the newsletter’s web site, Shadowstats.com.

“Near-term circumstances generally have continued to deteriorate,” said John Williams, creator of the site, in a new note out Tuesday.

9.6%.

WE ADD THEM TO GET THE MISERY INDEX - 9.6 + 16.6 = 26.2%.

ER UM... THAT'S WAY WAY BEYOND CARTER TERRITORY AND HIS HAD BEEN THE WORST SINCE WW2:

Jimmy Carter

1977–1980

AVG=16.26

Apr 1978 = 12.6-

Jun 1980 = 21.98

OBAMA IS THE WORST POTUS EVER.

I HOPE AND PRAY WE SURVIVE UNTIL NOVEMBER 2012 AND VOTE THIS AWFUL MAN OUT OF OFFICE.

UNTIL THEN, THE HOUSE GOP IS ALL WE GOT!

IS OBAMA PLANNING A BIG MIDDLE EAST SCAM? WHY ELSE SEND A FORMER FANNIE MAE LAWYER TO MEET WITH KING ABDULLAH

NYTIMES:

A top aide to President Barack Obama has held comprehensive talks with Saudi Arabia's ruler, the White House said on Wednesday, as Washington sought to reassure its Arab allies amid protests jolting the region.

National security adviser Tom Donilon met with Saudi King Abdullah before traveling to Abu Dhabi for talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahayan, who will meet with Obama in Washington later this month.

Donilon's meeting with King Abdullah "highlighted the importance of the U.S.-Saudi partnership rooted in strong historical ties and shared interests," said National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor.

Donilon also "commended" Saudi efforts to mediate a peaceful transfer of power in its neighbor Yemen, Vietor said in a statement issued in Washington.

DONILON IS NEITHER A VET OR A SPOOK OR A PROF OF HISTORY OR FOREIGN POLICY; HE'S A SLIMY MOUTHPIECE:

FROM DONILON'S WIKI BIO:

Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Donilon attended La Salle Academy, earned a B.A. at The Catholic University of America in 1977 and a J.D. at the University of Virginia in 1985. He served on the Editorial Board of the Virginia Law Review.

He worked as Executive Vice President for Law and Policy at Fannie Mae, the federally-chartered mortgage finance company, as a registered lobbyist from 1999 through 2005.^[3] This line on his resume raised eyebrows when his appointment to the Obama transition team was announced, given that the company had been seized by federal regulators.^[6]

DONILON ACTUALLY COMMENDED THE KING ON HIS EFFORTS IN YEMEN!?!?!

THERE'S ONLY ONE WAY DONILON'S COMMENDATION MAKES ANY SENSE;

YEMEN IS GOING ABOUT AS WELL AS FANNIE MAE WENT -
WHICH IS TO SAY IT'S GOING BADLY!

HOW DID DONILON GET THE JOB, ANYHOW? SIMPLE:

Donilon is the brother of Mike Donilon, a lawyer and political consultant who has been chosen to serve as Counselor to Vice-President Joe Biden. He is married to Catherine M. Russell, who has been named Chief of Staff to Jill Biden, and they have two children.^[9][10]

IOW: HE GOT IT THROUGH CONNECTIONS TO THE MACHINE: WHICH IS HOW BIDEN GOT THE VEEP GIG.

IT'S PATHETIC THAT OUR FOREIGN POLICY IS RUN BY THESE LEFT-WING CROOKS.

THAT'S WHY IT'S GOING SO BADLY.

THESE PINKO SCAMMERS ARE NO MATCH FOR THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD OR IRAN OR PUTIN OR CHINA.

I HOPE AND PRAY THAT WE SURVIVE UNTIL NOVEMBER 2012 AND HAVE THE WISDOM AND COMMON SENSE TO VOTE THEM OUT.

EGYPT SIGNALS IT WILL SOON TURN ITS BACK ON DEALS WITH ISRAEL

Egypt's official MENA news agency says the country's premier has ordered a price review of the much-criticized contracts to supply natural gas to Israel and Jordan.

MENA quoted Prime Minister Essam Sharaf's spokesman, Ahmed el-Samman as saying that the revision is aimed at bringing in the greatest returns for Egypt.

El-Samman said revised contracts could boost income by $3 billion to $4 billion.

Egypt's contracts to supply gas to Israel have been widely criticized in the country as offering gas at rates far below market prices.

The contracts have come in for renewed criticism following the ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak, with critics pointing to the deals as an example of the cronyism prevalent in the former government.

THIS IS A PREAMBLE TO APPEASING THE ISLAMISTS/MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD AND IT'S A BAD OMEN OF WORSE TO COME.

HOSNI MUBARAK AND 2 SONS DETAINED

As former Egyptian dictator Mubarak's health deteriorates, he even has to cope with interrogation:

CAIRO – Egypt's ousted President Hosni Mubarak was put under detention in his hospital room Wednesday for investigation on accusations of corruption, abuse of power and killings of protesters in a dramatic step Wednesday that brought celebrations from the movement that drove him from office.

Mubarak's two sons, Gamal and Alaa, were also detained for questioning and taken to Cairo's Torah prison, where a string of former top regime figures — including the former prime minister, ruling party chief and Mubarak's chief of staff — are already languishing, facing similar investigations on corruption.

Whoa, stop the presses; what's the name of that clink? Torah?!? That's kinda weird how it sounds like they named it after the ultimate guide to Judaism, isn't it? It sure sounds like it in the English language spelling.

The move was brought by enormous public pressure on the ruling military, which was handed power when Mubarak stepped down on Feb. 11. Tens of thousands protested in Cairo's central Tahrir Square on Friday, the biggest rally in weeks, demanding Mubarak and his family be put on trial. Many in the crowd accused the military of protecting the former president.

The detention is a new landmark in the stunning fall of the 82-year-old Mubarak, who only months ago appeared unquestioned in his control of Egypt after nearly 30 years of rule. Even after his fall, he seemed untouchable, living with his family at a palace in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

On Tuesday night, Mubarak was taken to a hospital in Sharm el-Sheikh because of heart troubles, and so that his health could be monitored as he submitted to the first round of questioning by investigators. Hours later, the public prosecutor announced early Wednesday that Mubarak was ordered put under detention for 15 days for investigation. He was to be flown later in the day to a military hospital outside Cairo, where he would remain in detention, a security official in Sharm el-Sheikh said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.

The detention also marks a new chapter in Egypt's still unsure transition to what protesters hope will be a democratic post-Mubarak future.

Unfortunately, so long as they worship the Religion of Peace, true democracy will not be possible, and the Muslim Brotherhood's ascension may be very possible.

Yet I'm not so sure we should feel sorry for Mubarak. He's done some most reprehensible things against Israel, was an ally of Arafat, and I don't think his personal fate need concern us too much, now that's been ousted.

HOMES PAINTED WITH ADVERTISEMENTS: A NOVEL SOLUTION FOR MORTGAGE DELINQUENCY?

ARE HOUSE ADS THE SALVATION FOR HOMEOWNERS WHO ARE DELINQUENT?

TURN MY HOME INTO A BILLBOARD

We're looking for houses to paint. In fact, paint is an understatement. We're looking for homes to turn into billboards. In exchange, we'll pay your mortgage every month for as long as your house remains painted

Here are a few things we're looking for. You must own your home. It cannot be rented or leased. We'll paint the entire outside of the house, minus the roof, the windows and any awnings. Painting will take approximately 3 - 5 days. Your house must remain painted for at least three months and may be extended up to a year. If, for any reason, you decide to cancel after three months or if we cancel the agreement with you, we'll repaint your house back to the original colors.

If you're prepared for the bright colors and stares from neighbors just complete the submission form below. We review every submission. If your home meets our criteria, an Adzookie team member will contact you.

THIS MIGHT BE A CREATIVE SOLUTION THAT DOESN'T COST THE TAXPAYER A CENT.

BUT FOR THE PROBABILITY THAT GOVERNMENT WILL STOP IT VIA ZONING LAWS.

THEN AGAIN, MIGHT IT BE PROTECTED BY THE FIRST AMENDMENT?

LIBERAL DEMOCRAT PARTY POLICIES HAVE HURT THE POOR AND BLACKS

Moynihan wrote about it DECADES ago.

(More/backgrounder here.)

The black family survived slavery. It survived the US Civil War. It survived Reconstruction, the KKK, Jim Crow, WW1 and WW2 - but it did not survive the welfare state and the Great Society.

Blacks emigrated from the south to the north to work in big cities and factories. Blacks were known as arduous if not prodigious workers with good church-going traditional family values and intact families.

Welfare changed that. Liberal policies changed that: liberals told black girls it was okay to have kids out of wedlock by paying them more for each kid. These same liberal policies told black men it was okay to knock up black women and not marry them or pay child support. At the same time the liberals were pushing their postmodern leftist crap in the schools and in the media telling everyone that God was dead or that other old leftist chestnut that religion was the opiate of the masses. These liberal policies are why blacks suffer so much today.

NEED MORE PROOF THAT THE LIBERAL WELFARE STATE IS THE WORST THING FOR POOR PEOPLE?

Okay: which ethnic group is the poorest in the USA?

Native Americans. yet they get the most welfare. It's no coincidence. Welfare promotes poverty. Lookit: nobody ever got rich on handouts or charity or the welfare dime. Prosperity has never EVER been created by redistribution.

NEED PROOF?

China. Under TOTAL control of MAO and his socialist comrades for 30 years they just got poorer and poorer and less free. Then Deng Xiao Peng took over and loosened things up, introducing some free-markets and the place became prosperous almost immediately: 400 MILLION people have been lifted out of poverty in China - NOT by socialism or redistribution or welfare but by INVESTMENT, sweat shops, factories globalization and FOREIGN INVESTMENT. NEED ANOTHER EXAMPLE? Okay... Korea: North Korea is the welfare state and it's starving; South Korea is RICH oh, and... er, um... free.

So when the leftist scum running the Democrat party says the GOP wants to starve seniors and destroy the earth - as Pelosi and Markey said this past week - THEY ARE FREAKING LYING.

IN FACT: Nothing could be farther from the truth.

The sad truth is that LIBERAL policies are bad for poor people, and conservative GOP policies are good for them

The left want people to believe that the GOP is for the rich - the top 2%, and corporations, but this is stinky smelly old foul BULLSHIT.

As Reagan said, a rising tide lifts ALL boats.

And all that higher taxes and more government and more regulations do is lower the tide - FOR EVERYONE.

The whole damn CLASS WARFARE argument of the left is BS.

One old lefty asked me the other day if it bothered me that the rich got richer and that the top 2% own 45% of the USA.

I SAID IT DIDN'T; their wealth-making didn't cost me a dime - in act ... IT HELPED ME!

Gates made 50 billion by helping me. Ditto Jobs and the fellas at Google. They - and the other billionaires and multi-millionaires made their money by providing the public goods and/or services the public WANTED. They didn't hold a gun to our heads. They made a better mouse trap and that made my life better, not worse. They improved life for everyone - not just themselves, not just the rich - BUT EVERYONE. That's why they got wealthy.

That's why they DESERVED to get wealthy.

The left thinks the economy is a zero-sum-game - as if the rich can only get richer if they're taking a bigger slice of a finite pie. But that's not REALITY.

In the real world, prosperity is a growing pie. Look at it this way: are nthe folks in the bottom 15% of income better off now than in 1946? YOU BETCHYA! And why? Because of the kinds of things that made some folks rich. Folks like the Fords and the Trump and the Rockefellers.

If you want to see what the world looks like when the rich get POORER then look at the USA in 2009.

It sucked.

Bottom-line: Pelosi and the libs want people to believe that only redistribution through taxes and government spending can fix things.

But they will only make things worse.

They always have; they always will.

The best policies for poor people are CONSERVATIVE polices.

That's why I like them.

I used to be a bleeding heart lib. A lib raised by card-carrying commies. But I saw the light.

And realized that the BEST policies for the poor were not LIBERAL, but conservative.

Reagan and Thatcher and Giuliani were right.

Pelosi and Carter and Obama - WRONG.

Cutting taxes and the size of government and the deficit and the national debt will NOT hurt poor people. It will be the best possible thing for them.

It will open up things here just as much as Deng Xiao Peng's policies did in China in the 1980's.

AFSCME'S MCENTEE SEES THE HAND-WRITING ON THE WALL AND HE ISN'T HAPPY

Perhaps more than any other American, Gerald W. McEntee has surfed the rising tide of public sector unions to success and power.

As leader of the largest union of state and local government workers for three decades, he has amassed enormous political influence and a huge campaign war chest that he has not hesitated to use to advance his union’s interests.

But now, with public sector unions under attack in deficit-plagued states and cities nationwide, Mr. McEntee faces the biggest challenge of his career — avoiding a wipeout.

In Wisconsin and Ohio, newly enacted laws will cripple the bargaining rights of 200,000 members of his union and may cause many to quit, jeopardizing the union’s dues base and political clout.

The union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, known as Afscme (pronounced AF-skmee), is also under assault in Florida and New Jersey, where governors and lawmakers are seeking to curb bargaining rights or achieve far-reaching concessions on what many say are overly generous health benefits and pensions.

Here's some proof McEntee and AFSME are FOS:

1 - They aren't going after Democrat governors in states like Colorado in order to get the collective bargaining rights they lost in Wisconsin.

2 - In 30 years his union grew by 500,000 - that's a measly 17,000/year, hardly setting the world on fire.

3- He's afraid that changes like the ones in Wisconsin will mean he and his union will lose their POWER because they won't always be able to neogtiate with their allies (Democrats) and screw the taxpayer.

I HOPE AND PRAY AFSCME AND SEIU ARE WIPED OUT.

THEY REPRESENT LESS THAN 9% OF THE POPULATION AND IT'S HIGH TIME THE REST OF US STOPPED GETTING SCREWED BY THEM AND THEY'RE WHORES IN THE DEMOCRAT PARTY.

UH-OH: JORDAN APPEASING ISLAMISTS

PITY: IT NEVER WORKS; IT ALWAYS ONLY ENCOURAGES THEM.

PAKISTAN-USA RELATIONS NEARLY COLLAPSE UNDER OBAMA

Pakistan has demanded that the United States steeply reduce the number of Central Intelligence Agency operatives and Special Operations forces working in Pakistan, and that it halt C.I.A. drone strikes aimed at militants in northwest Pakistan.

The request was a sign of the near collapse of cooperation between the two testy allies.

Is this true, or just a cover story to protect the relationship by keeping it more of a secret? Only time will tell. Stay tuned...

ASIDE: OBAMA'S COLLEGE ROOMIES WERE PAKIS - MAYBE EVEN DRUG-DEALERS, AND THE VERY VERY VERY FIRST COUNTRY HE EVER VISITED WAS.... PAKISTAN.

LOST ON OBAMA'S WATCH: EGYPT; LIBYA; LEBANON - SOON MAYBE JORDAN AND PAKISTAN AND BAHRAIN, MAYBE EVEN SAUDI ARABIA.

GOOD GOING BARRY!

EXIT QUESTION:

IF OBAMA REALLY WAS A CRYPTO-MUSLIM WHO WANTED THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD AND IRAN TO WIN, THEN WOULD HE BE DOING ANYTHING DIFFERENTLY?

NOPE.

WILLIAM LANGLEY: FRENCH BAN ON BURKA IS A WIN FOR TOLERANCE

The ban on the burka has begun in France, and William Langley writes in the UK Telegraph that it's justified and helpful:

Despite some high-profile protests, France’s banning of the burka is enormously popular with the public. Unfortunately, as in Britain, almost anything politicians do that the voters approve of tends to be denounced as populisme – a particularly dread charge among the over-earnest French political class – and instead of enjoying the deserved benefits, President Nicolas Sarkozy has found himself on the defensive. [...]

Almost anything, in fact, than an acknowledgement that the public overwhelmingly sees the ban as right for France, beneficial to its Muslim communities and justified – if on no other grounds – as a statement in support of liberalism against darkness. Approval runs right across the spectrum, with Fadela Amara, the Algerian-born former housing minister in Sarkozy’s government, calling the burka “a kind of tomb, a horror for those trapped within it”, and André Gerin, the Communist MP who headed the commission investigating the grounds for a ban, describing it as “the tip of an iceberg of oppression”.

So what do we get in Britain? Theresa May, the Home Secretary, rules out a ban because “it would be out of keeping with our nation’s longstanding record of tolerance”, while the Leftist commentariat continues – with apparent seriousness – to suggest that the face veil is a “lifestyle choice” and essentially no different from a balaclavas worn by middle-class types on the ski slopes of Courcheval. I suspect this thinking is going to have to change.

Yes, but in Britain, who knows how easily that'll come? There's no telling if they'll even cancel the laws allowing libel tourism suits in the UK. If they haven't done so already, there's no telling if they ever will. Such is to be expected, sadly enough, in Britain.

In related news, 2 women were arrested for wearing the veil in public on day one of the ban during a demonstration. You'll notice though, that the article predictably makes an effort to defame Sarkozy and is hostile to him, because the AFP, which did the main reporting, doubtlessly condones the veil. Update: the Guardian's article about this is even worse.

Speaking of which, it's high time already that a FOX News equivalent was formed in France.

THE BUDGET: OBAMA VERSUS BUSH, AND THE GOAL FOR 2012

• BEFORE THE ELECTORATE AND THE TEA PARTY AND THE GOP GOT TO IT, OBAMA'S BUDGET FOR 2011 WAS JUST UNDER $3.7 TRILLION.

• BUSH'S LAST BUDGET FOR 1008 WAS JUST UNDER $3 TRILLION.

THEREFORE, WE NEED TO --- AND SHOULD BE ABLE TO --- CUT AT LEAST $700 BILLION IN ANNUAL SPENDING SO THAT THE 2012 BUDGET IS NOT MORE THAN $3 TRILLION.

ANYTHING LESS WILL BE VERY DISAPPOINTING.

DEEPEST OFF-SHORE OIL WELL EVER HAS BEEN DRILLED OFF THE COAST OF INDIA...

... BY TRANSOCEAN THE FOLKS WHO DRILLED THE ONE FOR BP THAT EXPLODED IN THE GULF.

APPARENTLY, NOT EVERY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD IS AFRAID OF DEEPWATER DRILLING.

BRAZIL DOES IT - AND WHEN THEY DO, OBAMA DOESN'T HAVE A PROBLEM WITH IT; IN FACT, BARACK HUSSEIN THE HYPOCRITE OBAMA IS EAGER TO BUY BRAZIL'S DEEPWATER OIL!

APPARENTLY, OBAMA AND THE LEFT ONLY WANT THE USA TO BE KEPT FROM DRILLING ANYWHERE/EVERYWHERE IN THE USA.

IT'S PART OF THEIR "BLAME AMERICA AND BRING IT DOWN A NOTCH" IDEOLOGY.

WE CAN CHANGE IT IN 2012, AND BRING SANITY BACK TO OUR NATION'S ENERGY POLICY.

ONCE AGAIN, CAIR CONTINUES TO HARRASS THE GAUBATZES

World Net Daily reports that CAIR is continuing to harrass Dave and Chris Gaubatz through the legal system for exposing them. It's getting truly disgusting already, and I think a restraining order is needed, not to mention a serious demand to change CAIR's status to officially indicted.

And the GOP is going to need to start working on passing a law again to protect against frivolous lawsuits.

BLACK STUDENT MOVEMENT OFFENDED THAT ISLAMISTS ARE CALLING ISRAEL APARTHEID STATE

An African-American student organization has found the Islamist description of Israel as apartheidist objectionable:

The African-American student organization Vanguard Leadership Group is standing with Israel when it comes to use of the term “apartheid.” The term is “false and deeply offensive” when applied to Israel, the group said in advertisements published on Thursday.

The Vanguard Leadership Group spoke out in response to “apartheid” claims from the group Students for Justice in Palestine. Under an ad titled, “Words matter,” the group said, “We request that you immediately stop referring to Israel as an apartheid society and to acknowledge that the Arab minority in Israel enjoys full citizenship with voting rights and representation in the government.”

“It is highly objectionable to those who know the truth about the Israelis' record on human rights and how it so clearly contrasts with South Africa's,” the group said.

Students for Justice in Palestine “has chosen to manipulate rather than inform with this illegitimate analogy,” Vanguard Leadership said. “Decency, justice, and the hope of peace and reconciliation in the Middle East compel us to demand an immediate cessation to the deliberate mischaracterizations of Israel.”

Ceasing use of the term “apartheid” when discussing Israel would be a “first step toward raising the level of discourse,” the letter concluded.

Unfortunately, I doubt that pro-PLO student movement will ever heed their sage advice. But it's good to see that the black community is with us on this subject.

ALMOST NO REACTION TO MASS KILLINGS IN SYRIA

There've been more riots and chaos in Syria as these demonstrations against the regimes continue, and even in Egypt, there's been more:

Unrest continued Saturday in both Egypt and Syria, as protesters in both cities were killed by security forces in each country. Meanwhile, thousands of Egyptians rioted outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo over the IDF's response to Hamas terror attacks, increasing concern in Jerusalem that the protests in the Arab world could begin to focus on Israel, instead of on domestic issues.

In Syria, security forces opened fire Saturday on participants in a funeral procession for protesters killed in another attack Friday. At least 37 people were killed in those protests Friday. A Syrian anti-government protest group, the National Organization for Human Rights, accused the government of committing “crimes against humanity.”

Protests took place in several cities in Syria on Friday, with 30 people killed in Deraa, the epicenter of the protests. Witnesses said that dozens of others were wounded, but refused to go to the hospital for treatment, out of fear that the secret police would arrest them.

World reaction was mild, at best. European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton condemned the violence, urging President Bashar Assad to implement “meaningful political reforms.” On Friday, U.S. President Barack H. Obama issued a statement that “strongly condemned the abhorrent violence committed against peaceful protesters.” and called for “meaningful political and economic reforms.” Israeli observers said they were “disappointed with the mild statement. There was no call for a UN meeting on the murders of innocent civilians, as there would most certainly have been had Israel killed dozens of terrorists at a single time.”

And that's another example of how a lot of would-be westerners don't give a damn about human rights in the Arabic/Islamic world, unless they're committed by Israelis and other westerners.

I MUST ADMIT THAT OBAMA DOES DO TWO THINGS WELL...

WELL, THEN AGAIN, MAYBE HE DOESN'T DO WITHER WELL;
MAYBE HE ONLY DOES THEM A LOT.