TRACTOR TERRORIST ATTACKS BUS IN JERUSALEM

An atrocious case of a Muslim terrorist who may have been a construction worker who ploughed into cars and a bus:

(IsraelNN.com) A very large Arab-driven tractor rammed into a bus - and other vehicles - and turned it completely on its side on Jaffa Street in downtown Jerusalem. Two policemen were able to climb the tractor; they struggled with the terrorist-driver, but only after a short time did they shoot and kill him. "This is because the open-fire orders are stupid," said eyewitness and veteran journalist Yitzchak Noi.

The shots ended the tractor-terrorist's destructive spree. Some 20 injuries have been reported, including three dead and six in moderate or serious condition. Most of the bus passengers are reported to have suffered only light injuries, though at least one - an infant - is in serious condition.

Magen David Adom sources confirm that the incident, which began at the intersection of Jaffa and Sarei Yisrael Streets, was a terror attack. The Arab attacker also damaged at least three cars and two buses. One Toyota car, for instance, is totally crushed; the woman driver was killed.

I think this abomination shows exactly why Israelis are going to have to start working in construction themselves and not hire potential Islamofascists to do the work.

SEEING OBAMA AS A POTENTIALLY COMPETENT COMMANDER IN CHIEF REQUIRES A WILLING SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF

The Democrats were all wrong about The Surge.

Especially Obama and Hillary.

Hillary Clinton - from her own website:

.. today you are testifying about the current status of our policy in Iraq and the prospects of that policy. It is a policy that you have been ordered to implement by the president. And you have been made the de facto spokesmen for what many of us believe to be a failed policy.

Despite what I view as your rather extraordinary efforts in your testimony both yesterday and today, I think that the reports that you provide to us really require the willing suspension of disbelief.

In any of the metrics that have been referenced in your many hours of testimony, any fair reading of the advantages and disadvantages accruing post-surge, in my view, end up on the downside.

HERE'S THE VIDEO - FROM HER OWN YOU TUBE PAGE:


Based on this glaring error alone, I believe that seeing Obama as qualified to become POTUS and Commander in Chief, and an Obama victory in November requires a WILLING SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF.

FLASH::: THE FUTURES MARKETS ARE COMPLETELY MISREADING US INVENTORIES!

NYTIMES:

HOUSTON — A sharp increase in oil prices on Wednesday sent shudders through anxious financial markets already worried about the prospect of a global economic slowdown.

Crude oil climbed above $144 a barrel before settling at $143.57, up $2.60 for the day. The Energy Department reported an unexpected decline in inventories, sending oil prices to a record. And now oil slowly is closing in on $150 a barrel, the next psychological milestone to be crossed.

[...]

The crude oil inventory figure was 54 million barrels below a year ago, and nearly 22 million barrels below the five-year average, according to tabulations by Barclays Capital.

There was also some modestly good news in the report. Gasoline inventories rose 2.1 million barrels to 210.9 million barrels, an indication that gasoline demand is slackening a bit as drivers car-pool, buy more efficient cars, and use more mass transit when it is available.

LISTEN UP:

The decline in distillates PROVES actual demand by USERS of oil products is being SEVERELY hampered by the high price. EVERYONE IS USING LESS GASOLINE.

The decline in CRUDE OIL INVENTORIES IS NOT COUNTER-PROOF OF CONTINUED DEMAND OR LACK OF SUPPLY. (Though the increase in the price of a barrel in the futures markets would indicate that this is how the speculators are interpreting these data.)

REDUCTIONS IN US CRUDE INVENTORIES IS A RESULT OF THE FACT THAT ACTUAL PURCHASERS OF CRUDE ARE SLOWING DOWN THEIR PURCHASES BECAUSE THEY EXPECT THE DEMAND TO CONTINUE TO DECLINE - AND THEY EXPECT THE PRICE OF OIL TO DECLINE, TOO.

The fact that both distillate and crude inventories have declined is proof that the speculative futures market is causing the price increase and not natural, ACTUAL demand.

IOW:

There is ample supply of REAL OIL to REAL USERS OF OIL. AND THE REAL USERS DON'T WANT TO TAKE MORE DELIVERY,

THEY ARE SELLING LESS, AND WANT TO BUY LESS AS A RESULT. Their lower inventories are in line with their expectations for sales (lower) and their expectation that prices will decline going forward.

MEANWHILE THE OIL PRODUCERS CAN PRODUCE MORE - AND ARE!

THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF OIL.

BUT THERE IS A SHORTAGE IN A RELATED AREA:

THERE IS NOT AMPLE SUPPLY OF FUTURES FOR THE SPECULATIVE MARKET.

The amount of dollars available for speculative "hedge" purchases of oil is VAST compared to the amount of dollars available to actually buy and use the oil.

This HUGE POOL of speculative hedge money is causing the oil price inflation.

There's too much HEDGE money chasing too little oil, not too much oil user money chasing too little oil.

This is why only users of oil should be permitted to buy futures of oil.

Or why margins have to be sharply increased.

UPDATE: THURSDAY IN ASIA: REUTERS:

Oil hit fresh records on Thursday for the fifth time in six sessions, as the dollar fell on gloomy U.S. jobs data and a broad equity sell-off, and a higher than expected fall in U.S. crude stocks raised supply concerns.

U.S. crude rose as much as 87 cents to $144.44 a barrel, before easing back to $144.25 by 0155 GMT. The contract touched a previous peak of $144.32 on Wednesday.

I'VE ALREADY PROVEN WHY THE INTERPRETATION OF US INVENTORIES IS FAULTY.

I'M NOW GONNA DESTROY ANOTHER MYTH: THAT "THE WEAKENING DOLLAR IS CAUSING THE INCREASE IN PRICE OF OIL":

• THE DOLLAR IS BASICALLY FLAT AGAINST THE EURO SINCE MARCH 1ST.
• BUT THE PRICE OF A BARREL OF CRUDE IS UP NEARLY 50%.
• THEREFORE, THE VALUE OF THE DOLLAR IS NOT A CAUSE.
• THE CAUSE IS SIMPLE: TOO MANY DOLLARS CHASING TOO LITTLE OIL. THIS CAUSES OIL PRICE INFLATION.
• THE HUGE INCREASE IN THE NUMBER OF DOLLARS CHASING THE FINITE AMOUNT OF CRUDE IS DRIVING THE PRICE UP.
• THE INCREASE IN DOLLARS CHASING CRUDE IS NOT FROM OIL USERS BUT OIL SPECULATORS.

IF WE GET THE SPECULATORS OUT OF THE CRUDE OIL MARKET THEN OIL WILL DROP TO $80.

COLOMBIAN ARMY FREES US HOSTAGES!

AFP:

Relatives of the three US former hostages rescued from leftist Colombian guerrillas thanked Colombian soldiers for their daring rescue, their spokesman told AFP.

"The families express their gratitude to the soldiers and the Colombian intelligence forces, who risked their lives in this daring operation," said their representative, Stephen Donehoo.

"We expect that the families will see the faces of their loved ones tomorrow (Thursday) back in the United States, to celebrate the 4th of July (US independence day) together on US soil," said Donehoo, speaking in Spanish.

Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said the men had quickly departed Colombia for the United States following the rescue operation Wednesday.

Colombian commandos rescued the three US nationals along with French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and 11 other hostages from Marxist rebels with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on Wednesday.

THE IS GREAT NEWS - AND THE RESCUE WAS FREAKIN' AWESOME. READ ALL ABOUT IT!

• I'M GLAD THE FARC KIDNAPPERS WERE IDENTIFIED AS LEFTISTS BY AFP.

• THEY ARE ALLIES OF CHAVEZ AND COMRADES OF DEMOCRATS PELOSI AND DELAHUNT AND JIM MCG0VERN.

• IF KERRY - OR ANY DEMOCRAT - WAS POTUS, THEN THIS ACTION WOULD HAVE NEVER HAPPENED.

• BUSH HAS RELENTLESSLY AIDED THE COLOMBIA GOVERNMENT IN WAYS THE DEMS NEVER WOULD'VE...
  

• OBAMA - GIVEN THE CHANCE - WOULD'VE FOLLOWED PELOSI'S LEAD AND BEEN TOUGHER ON THE COLOMBIAN GOVERNMENT THAN FARC.

• IT IS NOT MERE HAPPENSTANCE THAT PUT MCCAIN IN COLUMBIA ON THIS FATEFUL DAY:

• HE WAS THERE FIGHTING FOR FREE TRADE FOR COMBIA -SOMETHING THE DEMSFARC MORE THAN THE COLOMBIAN GOVERMENT.

• MCCAIN WAS SHOWING HIS SOLIDARITY WITH THE COLOMBIAN GOVERNMENT, AN ALLY, AN IMPORTANT DEMOCRATIC AND FREEMARKETALLY IN THE REGION...

• A REGION GROWING MORE SOCIALISTIC...

• AN ALLY THE DEMOCRATS AND OBAMA WOULD HAVE ABANDONED, AS THEY ABANDONED SOUTH VIETNAM - AS THEY WOULD HAVE ABANDONED IRAQ.

THE DEMS ARE DOVISH ENEMY-APPEASING SCUM.

VOTE ACCORDINGLY.

MORE HERE, AND HERE. AND HERE, TOO.

PREDICTABLY, OBAMA THE LEFTIST TURNS TOWARD THE RIGHT - BUT WHO WILL FOLLOW HIM?

HUGH HEWITT ON OBAMA THE LEFTIST:

Here's the core of Obama:

He's hard left.

He wants the marginal rate on total federal taxes, including his social security tax hike, to immediately rise at least 57% on the highest earners. Obama wants to raise taxes even in a weak economy, though this is a recipe not just for recession but worse. Obama also wants to raise taxes on dividend income and to return the death tax to its highs of eight years ago.

Obama has proposed more than a trillion dollars in new spending.

Obama wants to cut and run from Iraq, with withdrawals of crucial forces beginning immediately upon his entry into office. Obama has never met one on one with General Petraeus and has not been to Iraq in more than 900 days. He is indifferent to the incredible progress made by our troops and the Iraqi Defense Forces and the Iraqi government in the last 18 months.

He supports the decision extending habeas rights to Gitmo detainees and he thinks the most liberal member of the Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, is a great model for future Supreme Court appointments.

Obama supports gay marriage, and opposes the California constitutional amendment to restore marriage to the definition overturned by a 4-3 vote of the California Supreme Court in May. He supports abortion on demand, including partial birth abortion.

Obama has the slightest grasp on history, and routinely makes the sort of errors about basic facts that shock knowledgeable observers, like arguing the Kennedy-Khrushchev summit in Vienna was an example of the benefits of one-on-one diplomacy.

Obama is not a strong friend of Israel. He spent 20 years in a church that was openly hostile to Israel, and he reversed himself on Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel after one day of criticism by Palestinians.

Obama is running a dirty campaign, and the serial assaults on John McCain's service, most visibly by Wesley Clark but by many others closely associated with Obama, is repulsive. These are not hits by independent 527s but by close associates and advisors of Obama.

Michelle Obama's campaign rhetoric has been very divisive, is full of anger and resentment about "moving the bar," and not being proud of the country, and has led to her high negatives with the public.

Obama's close friends, mentors and associates are deeply troubling: the radical pastor Jeremiah Wright, the unrepentant terrorists William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, the convicted swindler Tony Rezko, and now a long line of "public housing developers" who took the money and failed to deliver on promises of safe and secure housing for Obama's poorest constituents.

Obama's judgment on key appointees is suspect, and he has had to fire the head of his vice presidential search team because of ties to the subprime mess and dump numerous "foreign policy advisors" for their hostility to Israel.

Obama's deal with the Teamsters to end federal oversight of the union smells very bad indeed and telegraphs the sort of cronyism we could expect from an Obama Adminsitration. Obama's mentor and real estate partner is Rezko, who helped the Obama's buy their home, a home on which the Obamas received a mortgage that looks to many like a sweetheart deal.

Obama, like the other leaders of the Triple D Democrats --the Don't Drill Democrats-- doesn't care about the price of gas, and refuses every initiative to increase supply and thus bring that price down.

Obama has broken his word on his commitment to public financing of the campaign and to meet John McCain in frequent debates. Obama can't be trusted to keep even high-profile promises he made even only weeks ago.

Away from a teleprompter Obama stumbles and stutters and lapses into a closed circle of cliches that betrays almost no reading or curiosity about the world around him,and a massive ignorance of the war in which we find ourselves. Even when he works from a prompter he says nothing at great length with wonder phrasing but zero substance.

His crowds are enormous and his coffers overflowing, the products of a highly energized and vitriolic left that expects --believes it will be owed, in fact-- the spoils of the election. If Obama wins, the sharpest lurch left in American history is ahead of us.

Barack Obama is not only the most radical nominee of a major American political party in history, he is also the least prepared and the least informed. He has spent less than four years inside of the United States Senate, and much of those years have been spent away from his job and away from the capital he wants to lead.

LOWRY:

Recent history shows we don't elect liberal Democrats president, we elect Southern governors who are centrists. It's a little late to move to the south or get elected governor, but Obama can certainly move to the center. Perhaps some of his worshipers on the left will get disillusioned, but I suspect most true Obama fans are so credulous it won't make much of a difference to them. If they could believe Obama's transcendent-figure shtick, they can believe anything...

MCCAIN IS THE MORE CENTRIST OF THE TWO - AND THE MORE EXPERIENCED MAN WITH MORE INTEGRITY AND COURAGE.

I'D PREFER A CONSERVATIVE TO A CENTRIST, BUT I'LL SETTLE FOR CENTRIST.

MOST OF AMERICA WILL, TOO.

THAT;S WHY MCCAIN WILL WIN BY 160 ELECTORAL VOTES.

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH ATTACKS FRANCE'S EFFECTIVE ANTI-TERROR PRACTICES

NYTIMES:

France’s much-praised system of using sweeping arrests and aggressive interrogations and prosecutions to combat terrorism violates the rule of law and prevents suspects from receiving a fair trial, according to a human rights report released Wednesday.

... an 84-page report issued by the New-York-based Human Rights Watch, entitled “Pre-empting Justice,” argues that French practices result in too many arrests and convictions based on scanty evidence, putting the country “on the wrong side of the law.”

Specifically, the reports states that the broad and much-used charge of “criminal association in relation to a terrorist undertaking” is so sweeping that it is in essence “guilt by association” that allows the authorities to arrest and interrogate large numbers of people even when they have nothing to do with suspected terrorist activity.

The charge is used in a number of other countries in continental Europe. Spain, for example, uses the charge much more aggressively than France, particularly against the Basque separatist group ETA.

“No specific terrorist act need be planned, much less executed, to give rise to the offense,” the report says, adding that even a suspect’s family members, friends, neighbors and casual acquaintances can be detained.

The Justice Ministry defended the country’s counterterrorism strategy but said there would be no official comment on the report itself.

... Asked by a French newspaper last October why France, unlike Spain and Britain, had been spared terrorist attacks in recent years, Bernard Squarcini, the chief of France’s domestic and police intelligence service, credited investigative, intelligence and judicial methods used after the attacks in the mid-1990s.

These methods “make it possible to neutralize, before they go into action, any group or individual liable to perpetrate an attack in France,” he said. “So we adopt the principle of precaution and preventive action.”

HRW AND OBAMA WOULD CEASE ALL AGGRESSIVE ANTI-TERROR PRACTICES (LIKE THE NSA INTERCEPTS PROGRAM, THE SWIFT SURVEILLANCE PROGRAM; ETC) AND AS A RESULT MAKE US ALL LESS SAFE.

VOTE ACCORDINGLY.

IRAQ: MORE PROOF WE WON

VIA HOT AIR:

A BRIGHTER FUTURE FOR BAGHDAD?

Optimism Grows in Iraq as Daily Life Improves

There is an unexpected air of normalcy prevailing in Baghdad these days, with consumption flourishing and confidence in the government growing. The progress is astonishing, but can it last?

"The progress is astonishing, but can it last?"

IT WILL LAST - AS LONG AS WE DON'T ELECT OBAMA!

ASIDE: THE IRAQIS OUGHT TO ERECT A STATUE TO DUBYA AND THE US TROOPS!

TURKEY: AKP MAKES A PREEMPTIVE FASCIST MOVE AGAINST SECULARISTS

BBC/TURKEY:

A senior Turkish general has called for calm after a wave of arrests during a police investigation into a suspected anti-government plot.

Two retired generals were among 20 people detained in arrests targeting a shadowy ultra-nationalist group.

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan denied the arrests were politically-motivated.

The arrests came as the country's chief prosecutor appeared in court calling for the ruling party to be disbanded.

Plot allegation

Simultaneous raids took place in Ankara, Istanbul and three other cities targeting alleged members of the Ergenekon group on Tuesday.

At least 20 people were arrested, including figures from the military and journalism.

Former Gen Sener Eruygur - involved in organising anti-government rallies last year - and ex Gen Hursit Tolon were the highest ranking officials arrested so far.

• THE MILITARY IS SECULARIST AND CONSTITUTIONALIST.
• THEY WILL MOVE AGAINST THE AKP IF THE AKP TRIES TO STAY IN POWER AFTER THE TURKISH SUPREME COURT BANS THEM.
• AND THEN TURKEY MIGHT BECOME LIKE LEBANON.

STAY TUNED.

CHICKENSHIT HITCHENS FEELS WATERBOARDING IS TORTURE: maybe they should have added some booze to the water!

HE TRIED IT; VIDEO HERE.

HE NOW ARGUES IT IS TORTURE.

MAYBE IF THEY USED SCOTCH HE WOULDA DUG IT! HEH.

SERIOUSLY:

• IN THE VIDEO HE SAYS THAT IF THE PERSON KNOWS SOMETHING, THAT THE PROCESS IS SO TERRIFYING YOU'D PROBABLY GIVE IT UP.
• SO HE ADMITS IT WORKS.
• AND HE ALSO SAYS IF YOU KNOW NOTHING YOU'D PROBABLY GO CRAZY.
• I BELIEVE THE INTERROGATORS WOULD BE ABLE TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A BROKEN PERSON WITH INFO AND PERSON WHO KNOWS NOTHING.
• ANYHOW, AS GLENN SUGGESTED, IF WATERBOARDING WAS REALLY TORTURE THEN HICTH WOULDN'T HAVE VOLUNTEERED;
• AFTER ALL, NO ONE IS VOLUTEEERING TO HAVE THEIR NAILS PULLED OUT!

OBAMA GOT DISCOUNT ON HIS HOME LOAN

Believe it or not, this is the Washington Post reporting:

Shortly after joining the U.S. Senate and while enjoying a surge in income, Barack Obama bought a $1.65 million restored Georgian mansion in an upscale Chicago neighborhood. To finance the purchase, he secured a $1.32 million loan from Northern Trust in Illinois.

The freshman Democratic senator received a discount. He locked in an interest rate of 5.625 percent on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, below the average for such loans at the time in Chicago. The loan was unusually large, known in banker lingo as a "super super jumbo." Obama paid no origination fee or discount points, as some consumers do to reduce their interest rates.

In Obama's case, he received a lower rate than the average offered at the time in Chicago for similarly structured jumbo loans. He secured his final mortgage commitment on June 8, 2005, and during that week, rates on similar loans for which information is available averaged 5.93 percent, according to HSH Associates, which surveys lenders. Another survey firm, Bankrate.com, placed the average at 6 Percent.

"It's certainly safe to say that this borrower did better than average," said Keith Gumbinger, an HSH vice president, noting that consumer rates vary widely. "It's a good deal."

The Obama campaign called the rate "consistent with Northern Trust policies, and it reflected the base rate set for that period discounted to address the competition for the account and other opportunities, such as personal financial services, that the relationship would bring to Northern Trust."

When the Obamas secured the loan, their income had risen dramatically. Obama assumed his Senate seat in January 2005, with an annual salary of $162,100. That same month, Random House agreed to reissue an Obama memoir, for which it originally paid $40,000, as part of a $2.27 million deal that included two
future nonfiction books and a children's book.

Around the same time, the University of Chicago Hospitals promoted Michelle Obama to a vice president and more than doubled her pay, to $317,000.

The couple wanted to step up from their $415,000 condo. They chose a house with six bedrooms, four fireplaces, a four-car garage and 5 1/2 baths, including a double steam shower and a marble powder room. It had a wine cellar, a music room, a library, a solarium, beveled glass doors and a granite-floored kitchen.

Australia has the latest school tyranny: Obsessive Principal tries to impose his odor hangups on little kids

Little children do have a faint but distinctive smell. You can smell it if you walk into any primary school. This principal obviously doesn't like it. The school's website makes a point of not giving the Principal's name but the Qld. Education Dept. advises that it is Mr Keith Graham. He should get a job where he does not come in contact with those pesky kids. Kids are harassed enough already with "obesity" campaigns etc without adding this latest hatred of normality to their burdens

Children as young as five have been told to wear deodorant to school -- and re-apply once a day. The edict was in Chatswood Hills State School's June 13 newsletter under the title "personal hygiene".

"Please remind your children that, although it is winter. it is still necessary to apply deodorant in the morning and reapply once during the school-day," the newsletter read. "Aerosols are not permitted but rollon brands are encouraged."

The Albert & Logan News spoke to parents, who found the request "odd" and 'weird", while Queensland University of Technology child psychology lecturer Dr Marilyn Campbell said it was "laughable". Dr Campbell, a teacher for 20 years, was shocked. "I haven't heard of such rubbish in my life," she said. "You have to be joking, asking them to reapply during the day. "I don't need to do that and I doubt children would."

Dr Campbell said she had concerns about anxieties such a request could bring. "Will this lead to pretend shaving for the boys, or make-up for the girls?" she said. "I don't think it is right; totally unnecessary. "It's making (pupils) super clean, restricting them from their normal experience."

An Education Queensland spokeswoman said in a statement that the health and wellbeing of staff and students at all Queensland state schools was the department's priority at all times. "Students wearing deodorant is a parental decision and Education Queensland has no policy enforcing its use," she said. "Schools may become involved if there is an issue related to student hygiene or if the issue is impacting on students' social and emotional development, but this is done at a local level, as the need arises." She said schools may also offer reminders to deal with the issue "holistically and sensitively", so individuals were not singled out.

What did Chatswood Hills State School parents think of the statement requesting them to make sure their children wore deodorant? The Albert & Logan News asked 20 parents if they were "comfortable" or "uncomfortable" with the edict. Fourteen said they were uncomfortable, while six said they were comfortable. Only a few of the parents polled were willing to comment publicly. Mother Ali Richards said she agreed with the advice in the newsletter, but thought the school could have worded it better. "It makes it sound like every kid is smelly -- it is generalising every kid," Ms Richards said. "It is up to the parents to teach kids that stuff, not the school." She said she would not instruct her child to reapply during the day, leaving the decision up to the child.

Parent Mitko Kostovski said he thought the school's request was a "bit weird" "If they (children) do wear it, they won't reapply -- they are too busy playing," Mr Kostovski said. One mother, Jaimie Byrne, said she supported the idea and had no problems with the Chatswood Hills school's request. "It is a good thing I think," Ms Byrne said. "I think it could help the kids to stop some getting bullied if they do have body odour." Ms Byrne said her child, who was in Year 5, was given a hygiene talk, which she understood was more for the comfort of the class.

The article above by DANIEL TANG appeared in the "Albert & Logan News" of Friday, June 27, 2008


Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your roundup of Obama news and commentary at OBAMA WATCH

Are Liberals More Open-Minded Than Conservatives?

Self-confessed hater, Jonathan Chait says below that they are. I add some comments below that -- JR

In a paper they wrote about the ideological leanings of blog readers and news-watchers, Henry Farrell, Eric Lawrence and John Sides find that conservatives tend to read only conservative blogs, while most liberals read only left-leaning blogs. That's not a huge surprise. They also find this:

Those few people who read both left wing and right wing blogs are considerably more likely to be left wing themselves; interpret this as you like.

I'm going to go ahead and interpet it: Liberals are more interested in listening to opposing points of view than are conservatives. Now, most people in general do not like listening to opposing views, but those who do are overwhelmingly on the left. I'm going to wallow in smug self-satisfaction for a few minutes, then go over to the Corner to see if anybody has a rebuttal.

Source

Chait is quoting some research about blog readers that appeared on the Leftist "Crooked Timber" website. Even if the findings concerned are sound, therefore, they tell us nothing about the population at large. From blog readership alone, for instance, we can tell that blog readers are far from typical. Leftist blogs in general have far higher readership than conservative blogs. Kos readership completely dwarfs Instapundit readership, for instance. Most blog readers are Leftist but that is not true of the population at large.

So what IS true of the population at large? Are people in general more open-minded if they are Leftist? That is a very old question among political psychologists -- going back to the book The open and closed mind by Milton Rokeach, published in 1960. Rokeach constructed a questionnaire (the D or "Dogmatism" scale) to measure open mindedness. He allowed for it being equally prevalent on both sides of politics but found some tendency for Leftists to be more open-minded.

As it happens, by far the most prolific author of the many subsequent papers in the academic journals on the subject was myself. You can access all my papers on the subject here.

What I found at the end of many years of research was that the "D" scale really measured nothing at all. Since the topic was a very popular one within political psychology, it seems reasonable to say that the best brains on the subject have so far been unable to produce a definitive conclusion. In the circumstances, I think we have to treat Mr Chait's assertions as mere unsubstantiated opinion.

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, DISSECTING LEFTISM, GREENIE WATCH, OBAMA WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

Barack O'Carter: anything but oil

Let me see if I get this straight.

No drilling. No nuclear. No coal. No refineries. Oh, and a bunch of new "Windfall profits" taxes on energy companies.

While alternative energy sources remain an admirable goal, they are decades away from becoming serious alternatives to oil.

...If we lost all oil and gas products tomorrow, ...the world would simply collapse. There would be an immense depression beyond anything we saw in the 1930s -- the economy would go back to a primitive state. There would simply not be a functioning society. It would be as if there had been nuclear war, minus the casualties from blast and radiation... In a word, we cannot as a modern society or even a modestly industrial society live without oil and gas. That is, [it is not] a luxury or a narcotic. [It is] a basic necessity of life, as basic as almost any commodity there is.

Does the name Barack O'Carter ring a bell?

EHUD BARAK'S ERROR LOSES ONE OF HIS ALLIES

Danny Yatom of the Labor party has decided to call it quits. Here's why:

Defense Minister Ehud Barak's Labor Party suffered a blow on Monday when MK Danny Yatom resigned from the Knesset due to Barak's decision last week not to quit Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's coalition.

Yatom became the second security-minded Labor MK in five weeks to quit the Knesset, following the May 25 departure of Ephraim Sneh. Unlike Sneh, who formed a new party, Yatom decided to leave politics in favor of business and academia.

A former IDF general and Mossad chief, Yatom said he had grown frustrated with his inability to change things at the Knesset and his lack of influence as a back bench MK. [...]

Although Yatom described his relationship with Barak as "terrific," he told the Labor faction that he decided to quit politics because Barak had rejected his advice to remove Labor from the government after the Second Lebanon War and after US financier Morris Talansky's testimony against Olmert.

"It's not a secret that in the two years since the war, I have felt uncomfortable," Yatom told the faction. "The leadership in Israel has made political survival its only goal. Moral and ethical codes that were once fundamental have been eroded."

Yatom blamed Olmert for the deterioration of Israeli politics and hinted that Barak was collaborating with the prime minister by enabling him to remain in power.

"Olmert failed in the task of leadership in war and did not succeed in moral and public tasks, [but] he is not alone, and corruption standards and improper behavior continue," Yatom said. "As a Knesset member in a coalition party, I feel as though I am a partner in the deterioration when I vote in favor of the government. I can no longer function in a reality in which political considerations fill the void of leadership and take precedence over basic values."

Yatom said he hoped that his resignation would send a message that the public should not accept corruption.

He's doing the right thing to leave, and is right in any criticism he's got for Barak.

A POSTER FOR ACE AND HIS HOBO HUNTING MORON MINIONS

CNN: MCCAIN-OBAMA A DEAD HEAT!

It's amazing, really. A DEAD HEAT.

Obama should be ahead by 20%.

But Obamessiah is merely tied with a 70 year old former POW who has pissed off the base of the GOP as much as anybody save Hagel.

Why is Obama so far behind where he should be?

Because the people get it. They know that Obama is too young and inexperienced, too far left and too pacifistic. And he worshiped at a racist church for 20 years.

McCain will win by 150 electoral votes.

WILL THIS VIDEO FORCE OBAMA TO THROW AYERS AND DOHRN UNDER THE BUS?

VIA GLENN REYNOLDS:

• IF OBAMA DOESN'T APOLOGIZE FOR EVER ALIGNING WITH THESE ANTI-AMERICAN SCUMBAGS, AND
• TOSS THEM UNDER THE BUS, THEN HE CAN NEVER EVER WIN THE WHITE HOUSE.
• WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE THE USA DOESN'T NEED FOREIGN ENEMIES.
• I COULD NEVER TRUST A PRESIDENT WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE.

WHY IS THE WTC PROJECT BILLIONS OVER BUDGET AND FACING ENDLESS DELAYS? BECAUSE IT'S THE GOVERNMENT, STUPID!

BBC:

The owner of the World Trade Center has abandoned the timetable for rebuilding work at the site of the 9/11 attacks, saying it was "not realistic". Port Authority of New York and New Jersey executive director, Christopher Ward, listed over a dozen issues that had slowed work and raised costs. New dates for the completion of a memorial, skyscrapers and a transit hub are expected to be issued in September. It is unclear if the centrepiece Freedom Tower will now be scaled back.

TIME:

Go to the website for the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., the government agency created after 9/11 to help redevelop Ground Zero and environs, and the first thing you'll see is a slogan that probably sounds a lot more defensive than intended: There Is a Plan for Lower Manhattan. Somebody tell that to Chris Ward. He is executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which, as Ground Zero's landlord, is just one of the 19 government bureaucracies with a say in rebuilding the World Trade Center. On Monday he gave New York governor David Paterson a progress report. The best thing to do, he said over 34 pages, is scrap the budget and timeline for the whole project. He did, however, set a deadline ... for setting deadlines. By September, he said, the public should find out which year this thing will be finished. The only thing that's certain right now is that it will take longer and cost more than you think. Oh, and that 9/11 memorial? It won't be ready anytime soon either. Not for this year's anniversary of the attacks. Not even for the 10th anniversary, in 2011.

NYTIMES:

On Monday, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the site, issued a 34-page report listing the site’s problems, saying, “The schedule and cost for each of the public projects on the site face significant delays and cost overruns.” The Port Authority adamantly refused to offer new schedules or cost estimates, but some officials said the delays could run up to three years. The cost overruns could extend into the billions for a project whose total cost is now more than $15 billion. At the heart of the problem, the report said, were overly ambitious completion dates that were probably inaccurate from the day they were announced. Those dates were set at a time when former Gov. George E. Pataki, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the Port Authority wanted to convey the sense that this most politically, economically and emotionally significant of projects would be completed quickly. The report also illuminated in great detail just why that schedule was so inaccurate: The work entails more than two dozen projects, some of them large and extremely complex, all within the confines of a dozen square blocks. Nineteen public agencies, two private developers and 101 construction contractors and subcontractors are involved.

NY NEWSDAY:

Skyrocketing budgets and unrealistic timetables have forced the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to scrap the original blueprint for completing the World Trade Center's redevelopment, officials said yesterday.

• THE KEY TO THE WHOLE MESS IS THIS:
  
• THE FOLKS IN THE GOVERNMENT RUNNING THIS PROJECT AIN'T SPENDING THEIR MONEY; THEY'RE SPENDING OUR MONEY.
• THIS IS WHY MOST GOVERNMENT PROJECTS SUCK.
• THIS IS WHY PRIVATE MANAGEMENT IS ALWAYS BETTER: A PROFIT-SEEKING ENTERPRISE WILL PUSH TO GET RESULTS BECAUSE DELAYS COST THEM BIGTIME.
• THIS IS WHY -AFTER THE GOVERNMENT HAD FAILED FOR YEARS -TRUMP REFURBISHED NYC'S WOLLMAN RINK IN MONTHS.
• AND IT'S WHY HE OFFERED TO REFURBISH THE UN'S NYC HQ.
• THE PORT AUTHORITY SHOULD SELL THE SITE AND GET OF THE LANDLORDING BUSINESS.

Barack Obama's Nicknames -- if he turned Pro Wrestler

Since his middle name is off-limits, I figured we could use pro wrestling nicknames instead.

Barack "Present" Obama -- as a state senator, Obama voted "present" nearly 130 times to avoid taking positions that could hamper his rise to national prominence.

Barack "The Real Estate Investor" Obama -- Obama fundraiser and convicted deal-maker Tony Rezko, whose partners included the son of Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad, was directly involved in a shady land deal with the Democratic candidate.

Barack "Oil-for-Food" Obama -- No wonder Obama opposed the Iraq War: one of slumlord Rezko's backers -- Nadhmi Auchi -- was an intimate of Saddam Hussein and is reported to have made hundreds of millions off the U.N.'s egregiously corrupt "Oil-for-Food" scam.

Barack "Erector Set" Obama -- Just watch the video. You won't believe a so-called presidential candidate pulled (oops, pardon the terminology) something like this in public.

Barack "Inartful" Obama -- FISA, the DC gun ban, faith-based government initiatives, a "divided Jerusalem", NAFTA,... all could be considered outrageous fabrications... or, for the gullible sort, a series of "inartful" word gaffes.

I'm sure there are plenty of others. Feel free to use the comments to suggest 'em.

Some REAL hate crime

NYC blacks threw rocks at a bus full of Jewish toddlers but no media outrage and student protests about that:

We read:

"Police say four teenagers have been arrested on hate crime charges for throwing rocks at a school bus full of Jewish toddlers.

Police say the three girls and one boy yelled epithets last month as they broke windows on the bus in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights. The children were not hurt.

The case is part of a string of incidents that have stirred tensions between black and Jewish residents in Crown Heights. The teens are all 14-years-old and are black.

Source

As the blogger at the link above says:

"Jew hatred everywhere. Everywhere you go.... there it is. Of course the thing that galls me is if this was a school bus of Muslim children or a school bus of black children and white teens were yelling racial epithets, the country would be in an uproar. The media would be sleeping on lawns in Brooklyn .......... the leftist mainstream is morally bankrupt. Depraved.

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your roundup of Obama news and commentary at OBAMA WATCH

Why do people vote? Genetic variation in political participation

This is only a small advance on what was already known. It is known that Left/Right orientation is strongly genetic and the study below shows that the strength of that orientation is also genetically inherited -- JR

A groundbreaking new study finds that genes significantly affect variation in voter turnout, shedding new light on the reasons why people vote and participate in the political system. The research, conducted by political scientists James H. Fowler, Christopher T. Dawes (of UC San Diego) and psychologist Laura A. Baker (of University of Southern California), appears in the May issue of the American Political Science Review, a journal of the American Political Science Association (APSA).

"Although we are not the first to suggest a link between genes and political participation," note the authors, "this study is the first attempt to test the idea empirically." They do so by conducting three tests of the claim that part of the variation in political participation can be attributed to genetic factors. The results suggest that individual genetic differences make up a large and significant portion of the variation in political participation, even after taking socialization and other environmental factors into account. They also suggest that, contrary to decades of conventional wisdom, family upbringing may have little or no effect on children's future participatory behavior.

In conducting their study, the authors examine the turnout patterns of identical and non-identical twins-including 396 twins in Los Angeles County and 806 twins in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Their findings suggest that 53% of the variation in turnout can be accounted for by genetic effects in the former, with similar outcomes in the latter.

Moreover, genetic-based differences extend to a broad class of acts of political participation, including donating to a campaign, contacting an official, running for office, and attending a rally. According to Fowler, "we expected to find that genes played some role in political behavior, but we were quite surprised by the size of the effect and how widely it applies to all kinds of participation." "The fact that we have found genetic variation in voting, and political participation in general, should not be surprising given the large numbers of behaviors that have already been found to be heritable," observe the authors.

Source

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your roundup of Obama news and commentary at OBAMA WATCH

TRIAL OF ISLAMIST AKP BEGINS IN TURKEY

BBC: Turkish ruling party put on trial

Turkey's chief prosecutor has appeared before the country's Constitutional Court calling for the governing party to be closed down.

Founded by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Justice and Development Party, the AKP, won a landslide victory in the last election. But its critics say it is trying to impose Sharia law on the secular state. The party's attempt to ease a ban on the wearing of the Islamic headscarf is expected to be central to the evidence.

Prosecutor Abdurraham Yalcinkaya, who has argued that the party has become the focal point of anti-secular activities in Turkey, is appearing before judges in a closed-door session.

"This risk has been increasing every day" reads the 162-page petition submitted to the Constitutional Court by Mr Yalcinkaya.

"The danger is clear and concrete. There is no other way to protect society than to close the party down," it reads.

I HOPE THE COURT RULES IN FAVOR OF SECULARISM AND SHUTS THE AKP DOWN.