RELAXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX: SUPERMODEL WILL TAKE DOLLARS!

HYSCIENCE:

Despite The False Alarm, Gisele Bündchen Still Available For Dollars

Topics: Follies of the Mainstream Media

Not to worry, she's still available in U.S. dollars. No need to cash in your dollars for Euros ....

It turns out that the news report of Gisele Bündchen refusing to accept U.S. currency for her services is bogus ....

My faith in the American dollar has been restored!

I THINK THIS NEWS WILL CAUSE THE DOLLAR TO REBOUND.

SHE MIGHT NOT BE AS SMART AS GREENSPAN, BUT SHE HAS A BETTER AS...TERISK.

AN INTERESTING JOURNAL ARTICLE BELOW

Carbon dioxide production by benthic bacteria: the death of manmade global warming theory? [See the warning immediately below this article]

By Daniel A Klein et al.

Abstract

It is now well-established that rising global temperatures are largely the result of increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The "consensus" position attributes the increase in atmospheric CO2 to the combustion of fossil fuels by industrial processes. This is the mechanism which underpins the theory of manmade global warming.

Our data demonstrate that those who subscribe to the consensus theory have overlooked the primary source of carbon dioxide emissions. While a small part of the rise in emissions is attributable to industrial activity, it is greatly outweighed (by >300 times) by rising volumes of CO2 produced by saprotrophic eubacteria living in the sediments of the continental shelves fringing the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Moreover, the bacterial emissions, unlike industrial CO2, precisely match the fluctuations in global temperature over the past 140 years.

This paper also posits a mechanism for the increase in bacterial CO2 emissions. A series of natural algal blooms, beginning in the late 19th Century, have caused mass mortality among the bacteria's major predators: brachiopod molluscs of the genus Tetrarhynchia. These periods of algal bloom, as the palaeontological record shows, have been occurring for over three million years, and are always accompanied by a major increase in carbon dioxide emissions, as a result of the multiplication of bacteria when predator pressure is reduced. They generally last for 150-200 years. If the current episode is consistent with this record, we should expect carbon dioxide emissions to peak between now and mid-century, then return to background levels. Our data suggest that current concerns about manmade global warming are unfounded.

Journal of Geoclimatic Studies (2007) 13:3. 223-231

POSSIBLE HOAX WARNING RE THE ABOVE

This article is a bit over the top for a scientific paper. Note that there is no Department of Climatology at the University of Arizona, nor is there a Daniel Klein or Mandeep Gupta in the U of A directory. Neither is there an Institute of Geoclimatic Studies. The whole things looks like an elaborate hoax. One should note that the very first sentence of the abstract is wrong. A global warming atheist would have said "widely-believed" rather than "well-established".

UPDATE (RELIAPUNDIT):

IT IS DEFINITELY A HOAX; BLUE CRAB BLVD HAS THE DETAILS. WHO WOULD DO THIS?

UNSCRUPULOUS ECO-NUTSIES TRYING TO DISCREDIT US DISSENTERS/SKEPTICS.

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

THE FOUNDER OF "THE WEATHER CHANNEL": "AGW IS THE GREATEST SCAM IN HISTORY!"

NOEL SHEPPARD/NEWSBUSTERS - VIA HOT AIR:

If the founder of The Weather Channel spoke out strongly against the manmade global warming myth, might media members notice?

We're going to find out the answer to that question soon, for John Coleman wrote an article published at ICECAP Wednesday that should certainly garner attention from press members -- assuming journalism hasn't been completely replaced by propagandist activism, that is:

It is the greatest scam in history. I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it. Global Warming; It is a SCAM. ... There is no run away climate change. The impact of humans on climate is not catastrophic. Our planet is not in peril. I am incensed by the incredible media glamour, the politically correct silliness and rude dismissal of counter arguments by the high priest of Global Warming.

In time, a decade or two, the outrageous scam will be obvious.

RTWT.

I DISAGREE: I THINK MARXISM WAS A BIGGER SCAM - AND THAT AGW IS MERELY CLOSE SECOND.

MORE JIHADO-TERROR IN THAILAND: I BLAME BUSH AND THE JOOOOOOZE!

IHT/AP:

Two bombs killed four people in Thailand's insurgency-plagued south Wednesday, as schools in the area mourned the loss of two teachers targeted by suspected Muslim rebels, officials said.

One powerful explosion took place as a police bomb squad inspected a suspicious object buried near a bridge in Pattani province, said Sub Lt. Attaphon Kullawongmanaso.

The blast killed three policeman, blowing two of them into a canal, Attaphon said. Another officer was seriously wounded.

In a separate attack in nearby Yala province, suspected Muslim insurgents attacked an army patrol truck with rifle fire and a bomb, killing an army officer and wounding two soldiers and three civilians, said police Col. Sompien Eksomya.

More than 2,600 people have been killed in Thailand's deep south — the overwhelmingly Buddhist country's only Muslim-majority area — since a long-simmering Islamic insurgency flared there in January 2004. The Muslims have long complained of discrimination by the central government.

IF THE "INSURGENCY" IN THAILAND AIN'T BUSH'S FAULT OR ISRAEL'S THEN WHAT IS IT!?

COULD IT BE GLOBAL JIHAD!?

YES, IT'S THE GLOBAL JIHAD, STUPID!

AND WE'LL NEVER DEFEAT THEM WITH JUST COPS AND LAWYERS.

IGNATIUS ALSO SEES IRAN/PAKISTAN PARALELS

IGNATIUS:

As we struggle to make sense of the current political crisis in Pakistan, it's useful to think back nearly 30 years to the wave of protests that toppled the Shah of Iran and culminated in the Islamic Republic -- a revolutionary earthquake whose tremors are still shaking the Middle East.

The shah was America's friend, just like Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. He was our staunch ally against the bogeyman of that time, the Soviet Union, just as Musharraf has been America's partner in fighting al-Qaeda. The shah ignored America's admonitions to clean up his undemocratic regime, just as Musharraf has. And as the shah's troubles deepened, the United States hoped that moderate opposition leaders would keep the country safe from Muslim zealots, just as we are now hoping in Pakistan.

And yet the Iranian explosion came -- a firestorm of rage that immolated any attempt at moderation or compromise. A similar process of upheaval has now begun in Pakistan -- with one terrifying difference: Pakistan has nuclear weapons.

WE MUSTN'T REPEAT THE MISTAKES OF THE PAST; WE MUST DEFEND A PRO-WESTERN PAKISTAN.

FORGET THE MSM'S DIRGE ON THE DOLLAR AND REQUIEM FOR REAL ESTATE: US PRODUCTIVITY SURGES!

NYTIMES/AP:

Worker productivity surged in the summer at the fastest pace in four years while wage pressures eased.

The Labor Department reported that productivity -- the amount of output per hour of work -- jumped at an annual rate of 4.9 percent in the July-September quarter. That was more than twice the 2.2 percent rise in the second quarter and was the fastest surge in worker efficiency since 2003.

At the same time, wage pressures eased. Unit labor costs dropped at an annual rate of 0.2 percent, the best showing in more than a year.

Both outcomes were far better than expected and should relieve some concerns that a surge in productivity that began in the mid-1990s was in danger of being reversed.

• THE WEAK DOLLAR CAN HELP MUCH OF OUR ECONOMY.

• THE SUB-PRIME CORRECTION IS OVERDUE AND A SMALL PART OF THE OVERALL REAL ESTATE MARKET.

• DON'T LET YOURSELF GET PANICKY. THAT'S WHAT THE LEFT/MSM AND THE SPECULATORS WANT; THEY WANT YOU TO SELL LOW IN A PANIC.
  

• IF YOU HAVE FOREIGN CURRENCY, THEN BUY DOLLARS AND BUY USA REAL ESTATE ANDS USA STOCKS!

REMEMBER: YOU GET RICH IF YOU CAN BUY LOW AND SELL HIGH. IOW: BUY ON THE DIPS. AND THIS IS A DIP.

COMPLETE ROUND UP HERE.

THE LEFT'S HIDDEN AGENDA EXPOSED: DEMONIZING CO2 IS ALL ABOUT RAISING TAXES

NYTIMES:

A CHANGE is in the works that could go a long way toward making alternative energy less alternative, and more attractive to consumers and businesses.

It’s not a technological fix from some solar-cell laboratory in Silicon Valley or wind-turbine researcher in Colorado or the development of some superbug to turn wood waste into ethanol.

Rather, the change would come from Washington, if Congress does what it has talked about and puts a price tag on greenhouse-gas emissions. Suddenly the carbon content of fuel, or how much carbon dioxide is produced per unit of energy, would be as important as what the fuel costs. In fact, it might largely define what the fuel costs.

That could shake up the economics of energy, handicapping some fuels and favoring others. Those that produce hefty emissions, like coal and oil, would likely look much worse. And some — sunlight, wind, uranium, even corn stalks and trash as well as natural gas — would probably look much better. “Carbon-negative” fuels that take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere as they are made, might even become feasible.

Carbon dioxide is what economists call an “externality,” something that imposes a cost on somebody other than the manufacturer. At some point, the thinking goes, Congress will force industries to pay those costs, either with a tax or a cap-and-trade system in which allowances will cost money. The consensus in the energy business is that lawmakers will come up with a charge that could start at $10 per metric ton or more.

On Thursday, a Senate subcommittee approved a bill to establish a cap-and-trade system for carbon dioxide, and the Democratic leadership is eager to have the Senate pass it by year’s end. But prospects in the House are less certain.

• THE LEFT IS ANTI-CO2 AND ANTI-CARBON FOR ONE REASON AND ONE REASON ALONE: THEY WANT TOP RAISE TAXES, ESPECIALLY ON INDUSTRY.

• IT'S ALL BASED ON A THE FALSE PREMISE THAT CO2 IS BAD.

• MAY I REMIND YOU OF THE FACTS: CO2 IS NON-TOXIC AND DOESN'T CAUSE GLOBAL WARMING; (IT'S A LAGGING INDICATOR).

• CARBON-TRADING SCHEMES ARE ALL FRAUDULENT.

THEY'D MIGHT AS WELL TAX TREES AND EXHALING.

IF WE ELECT A DEM TO THE WHITE HOUSE THEY JUST MIGHT!

Amerikabomber: Manhattan in flames

Atlas links to Paul Belien, writing in the Washington Times:

Had Charles Martel not been victorious," Hitler told his inner crowd in August 1942, "then we should in all probability have been converted to Mohammedanism, that cult which glorifies the heroism and which opens up the seventh Heaven to the bold warrior alone. Then the Germanic races would have conquered the world." Hitler told Mr. Speer that Islam is "perfectly suited to the Germanic temperament."

...During the Second World War, the Nazis worked on plans to build the "Amerikabomber," an airplane specially devised to fly suicide missions into Manhattan's skyscrapers.

Albert Speer, the Nazi minister for armaments, recalled in his diary: "It was almost as if [Hitler] was in a delirium when he described to us how New York would go up in flames. He imagined how the skyscrapers would turn into huge blazing torches. How they would crumble while the reflection of the flames would light the skyline against the dark sky." Hitler hated Manhattan. It was, he said, "the center of world Jewry." Less than 60 years later, Hitler's plans were executed by Muslim immigrants living in Germany. At the 2003 trial of the network around Mohamed Atta (the pilot who flew into the World Trade Center), Shahid Nickels, a German convert to Islam and a friend of Atta's, said that the Islamists had targeted Manhattan because it is "the center of world Jewry, and the world of finance and commerce controlled by it."

The parallels between Nazism and Islamism are overwhelming. Yet the subject is a taboo. When last March the German historian Matthias Kuentzel, author of "Jihad and Jew-Hatred: Islamism, Nazism and the Roots of 9/11," was to give a lecture at the University of Leeds (Britain), the university authorities cancelled the lecture after threats from Muslim students...

Charles Martel de Steuben is best remembered for winning the Battle of Tours in 732, which has traditionally been characterized as an event that halted the Islamic expansionism in Europe that had conquered Iberia. "Charles's victory has often been regarded as decisive for world history, since it preserved western Europe from Muslim conquest."

Cross-posted at Doug Ross @ Journal. Hat tip: Larwyn

US Navy shoots down two ICBMs simultaneously

The Honolulu Advertiser reports that a US Navy missile defense test was a smashing success:

The Missile Defense Agency and Navy for the first time shot down two simulated ballistic missile targets yesterday off Kaua'i as the U.S. military heads toward a 2009 goal for operational use.

...The shoot-down was conducted by the Pearl Harbor-based cruiser USS Lake Erie. At 6:12 p.m., a target missile was launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands. Moments later, a second identical target was launched.

The Lake Erie's Aegis weapons system detected and tracked the targets. About two minutes later, Lake Erie's crew fired two SM-3 missiles, and two minutes after that, they successfully intercepted the targets outside the Earth's atmosphere more than 100 miles above the Pacific Ocean and 250 miles northwest of Kaua'i.

The Aegis system guided the SM-3 intercept missiles through its first, second and third stages. Each SM-3 carries a kinetic warhead that ejects from the third stage and crashes into the target missile. Yesterday's test was delayed by several hours when boaters strayed into the Pacific Missile Range Facility... The Missile Defense Agency and Navy are modifying 15 destroyers and three cruisers to have Aegis ballistic missile defense capabilities.

In 1983, Ted Kennedy ridiculed Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) programs, calling them "reckless Star Wars schemes."

The only similarity of missile defense to the sci-fi film is Kennedy's increasing resemblance to Jabba the Hut.

If I were Ted Kennedy (*** shudder ***), I would be getting pretty damn sick of being wrong.

Cross-posted at Doug Ross @ Journal

History Keeps Repeating Itself

Hordes of barbarians from a huge country in the east invading a small country in the west – a country where western civilization had its roots; sound familiar? It should. It has happened over and over throughout history.

With my recent eye problems I have trouble reading, so I’ve been watching DVD movies much of the time. Yesterday I watched the 300, an epic struggle that took place in ancient Greece in a place called Thermopylae.

While watching 300, the thought occurred to me that it could be considered a morality play – a metaphor for the War on Terror now ongoing. There was the intrepid king, Leonidas, who moved the 300 Spartan soldiers to the narrow pass to cut off the massive army of invading Persians. Leonidas, who was opposed by the liberals in the Council, could be compared to President Bush, who, like Leonidas, saw the danger and the need for action. As usual, the liberals wanted to do nothing and hope that the danger would pass. They were led by the treacherous Theron, who might be a latter day Senator Reid or Durbin, or Congressman Murtha or Pelosi. This is because Theron worked actively behind the scenes to undermine Leonidas while he was fighting and risking his career and his life to save Sparta.

Before making his decision to stop the Persians at Thermopylae, though, Leonidas asked the advice of a group of priests called Ephors, who consulted oracles before giving advice. Since the Ephors had previously been bribed by Xerxes, the Persian emperor, the comparison with the United Nations is smashingly obvious, with Saddam being the current bribe-giver (Oil for Food Scandal). The Ephors told Leonidas not to fight against the Persians, while the U.N. passed another resolution.

Meanwhile Ephialtes, a wretched hunchback who despised Leonidas (Bush Derangement Syndrome?) sneaked over to the Persian side to meet with Xerxes, and revealed to him a hidden path that would allow the Persians to outflank the 300. Ephialtes could be compared to the New York Times who revealed to the world and to our terrorist enemies the existence of a top secret surveillance program that listened in on the terrorists’ activities and plans – a program that had already saved thousands of lives from the bombs of Islamic fanatics.

Although the Spartan 300 lost the day at Thermopylae, their actions led to a coming together of Greek city-states to form a combined army that soundly defeated the huge Persian army. In other words, a surge followed early losses and led to victory over the barbarians.

A couple of quotes attributed to Winston Churchill are appropriate here:

"We sleep soundly in our beds at night because rough men stand ready to do violence on our behalf."

And

“If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.”

POLICE INVESTIGATOR RECOMMENDS CHARGING OLMERT

The latest on the probe into Ehud Olmert's bank scam:

(IsraelNN.com) The head of the police investigative team probing Olmert's alleged intervention in the Bank Leumi privatization recommends charges against the Prime Minister.

According to a report in the Yisrael Hayom Hebrew-language commuter paper this week, the entire investigative team that was actively engaged in the probe supports the decision to indict the Prime Minister, in opposition to the stance taken by the head of the Police Department's Investigations Wing, Yochanan Danino.

The Bank Leumi case is one of four cases against the Prime Minister currently being investigated by the police. It involves suspicions that Olmert, as Acting Minister of Finance in late 2005, attempted to change the terms of the sale of the bank to fit the terms of two of his friends, who were in the bidding to buy it. The friends later dropped out.

The police have apparently found that had the sale gone through according to the amended terms, the State of Israel stood to lose $250 million.

Now there's one thing remaining: since the State Prosecutor who would make a final decision on this, Eran Shendar, has left his position, who'll be the one to make it now? Will it be Attorney General Manny Mazuz? Better still, will he or anyone to take the place of the prosecutor make a decision at all?

PAT ROBERTSON TO ENDORSE GIULIANI

Big, big news From the Washington Post:

Pat Robertson, one of the most influential figures in the social conservative movement, will announce his support for Rudy Giuliani's presidential bid this morning in Washington, D.C., according to sources familiar with the decision.

Robertson's support was coveted by several of the leading Republican candidates and provides Giuliani with a major boost as the former New York City mayor seeks to convince social conservatives that, despite his positions on abortion and gay rights, he is an acceptable choice as the GOP nominee.

It also slows any momentum for Mitt Romney within the social conservative movement. Romney had recently secured the backing of conservative stalwarts Paul Weyrich and Bob Jones III -- endorsements that seemed to strengthen his bid to become the electable conservative alternative to Giuliani. Romney had made no secret of his desire for Robertson's endorsement and has to be disappointed this morning.

The other major effect of Robertson's support for Giuliani is that it will quiet talk in social conservative circles that nominating Giuliani would lead "values voters" to abandon the Republican Party. The stamp of approval from Robertson should assuage the doubts of many (although certainly not all) of the rank-and-file social conservatives.

Giuliani is, in my opinion, the only Republican candidate who has a real chance of winning. His charisma plays on television, he is in agreement with the electorate on the problems America faces, and we trust that he is sophisticated, and strong, enough to actually do something about those problems.

That is, we trust that he is a doer, not just a talker.

Pat Robertson has made the wise move.

ITALY IS KICKING EU CITIZENS OUT OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

And, Brussels is behind them:

Brussels has backed Italy's decision to introduce laws making it easier to
boot out "undesirable" European Union citizens.

Brussels has backed Italy's decision to introduce laws making it easier to
boot out "undesirable" European Union citizens.

The European Commission said premier Romano Prodi's government was within
its rights to expel anyone suspected of being a "threat to public safety".

Gandalf, from Up Pompeii, speculates that this precedent will put pressure of the UK government to do the same.

I think this is the wave of the future.

France is already attempting to expel between 20-25 thousand immigrants a year.

This is the first step (that I know of) taken to expel those immigrants who have already been granted citizenship.

Good. If they don't want to live by the customs and laws of the lands into which they move, then get them out of there.

Proposed Anti-Gang Law is "Racist"

We read:

"An anti-crime initiative about to hit the streets is "racially loaded," says the California Legislative Black Caucus' incoming chairman, who plans to lead opposition to the measure if it qualifies for the ballot....

The initiative, called the Safe Neighborhoods Act, is being championed by state Sen. George Runner and his wife, Assemblywoman Sharon Runner, Republicans from Lancaster, a Los Angeles County desert suburb.....

The measure would stiffen sentences in specific gang-related statutes and bolster civil injunctions against street gangs to the point where violations could carry prison time. More generally, it would create a new 10-year prison term for some ex-felons caught carrying guns and ratchet up penalties on crimes like home-invasion robberies to life in prison.

It would restrict federal court- ordered due process rights for parolees, including the right to a lawyer. It would allow hearsay testimony against defendants accused of dissuading witnesses from testifying.

Source

Crime committed by "minorities" should just be overlooked, I guess.


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

CITIGROUP'S LARGEST SHAREHOLDER

From this article in the November 6, 2007 Washington Post:

Citi's largest shareholder, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, said on CNBC Monday that he would like to see Sanford Weill return to Citigroup on a temporary basis to help stabilize the situation....

Does the prince stand to win or lose with all the financial instability of Citigroup? And is Sandy Weill the right man for stabilizing Citigroup?

Excerpt from this article in the November 7, 2007 Washington Post:

Poor Chuck Prince. For the past five years, he thought his job was to clean up the ethical mess at Citigroup left by his longtime friend and patron Sandy Weill.

As Weill was taking his leave of the financial behemoth he had created, state and federal officials were moving to put the company into the equivalent of regulatory receivership. And the company was facing years of civil litigation by shareholders of Enron, WorldCom and who knows how many other bankrupt companies that claimed to have been misled by Citigroup analysts or investment bankers. As the directors pondered their choice, who better than Prince, a sober and trusted lawyer, to negotiate the settlements and make sure it would never happen again?

And what a mess it turned out to be! The subprime lending unit in Dallas that was cited for all manner of unsavory business practices. The bank's role in advising and financing Enron. The supposedly independent equity analysts who blew air into the tech and telecom bubble to curry favor with top management and help generate fees for the investment bankers. The private bank in Japan that misled customers about the risks of investments while helping other customers manipulate stock prices and hide trading losses.

As he moved from one scandal to another, Prince was forced to clean house, firing old friends and trusted allies who either knew, or should have known, about the misdeeds. To satisfy regulators and the demands of the new Sarbanes-Oxley law, he installed internal controls to make sure it didn't happen again. Employees were treated to a regular diet of ethics training.

What Prince never quite realized, however, was that Citigroup's problem wasn't that its people didn't know right from wrong....

The Australian version of "reparations" has started

In the story below, a guy who looks as pink-skinned as I am is somehow classed as black so gets half a million bucks of taxpayers' money because concerned child welfare authorities took him off his natural parents when he was a kid and placed him with white foster parents. How awful of them! These days they just let the abused black kids die, of course. ANYTHING is better than placing them with white families!

The guy below should be thankful for his pink skin in fact. In the old days the authorities didn't think there was much they could do for blacks. It was only half-caste children whom they thought had a chance and whom they therefore endeavoured to save. And even then it was only in some States that they even went that far. If there was any crime committed, it was that so FEW children were removed from abusive black families.

The "stolen generation" is just a myth concocted by Leftists. There was no "generation" removed from their parents -- just a few isolated and endangered individual childen. Note that the individual below is the FIRST to be judicially classified as "stolen". If there was a whole generation, where have all the rest of them been hiding all these years?



The first member of the stolen generation to be awarded damages by a court has asked for 50 years of interest on his $525,000 compensation. Aborigine Bruce Trevorrow was awarded the payout in August after a South Australian judge ruled the state falsely imprisoned him as a child and owed him a duty of care for pain and suffering. In the SA Civil Court yesterday, Julian Burnside, QC, for Mr Trevorrow, asked for the interest on the compensation be backdated to 1957 when Mr Trevorrow was taken as a child.

Mr Trevorrow was taken from his family in the Coorong in 1957, when he was 13 months old and was given under the authority of the Aborigines Protection Board to a woman, who later became his foster parent, without his natural parents' permission.

Source

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

JIHADOTERROR, SCHOOL BUSES, AND WATERBOARDING

ARE JIHADO-TERRORISTS PLOTTING TO USE YELLOW SCHOOL BUSES IN AN ATTACK IN THE USA - ONE AGAINST SCHOOL KIDS LIKE IN THE ONE IN BESLAN?

READ THIS POST - NOW.

REMEMBER:

• THERE ARE 2000 JIHADISTS IN THE UK.

• I BETCHYA THERE ARE MORE HERE.

• I HOPE WE HAVE OUR SIGHTS ON 'EM.

• THAT WE'RE LISTENING TO THEIR PHONE CALLS AND MONITORING THEIR EMAILS.

AND IF WE CATCH 'EM, I HOPE WE USE WHATEVER LEGAL MEANS NECESSARY TO GET INFORMATION FROM THEM. INCLUDING WATERBOARDING.

MORE JIHADOTERROR IN THAILAND

BANGKOK INDEPENDENT:

SOUTHERN VIOLENCE: Thirty-two hurt in Yala market blast

Principal and teacher shot dead in Narathiwat's Rusoh district

Published on November 7, 2007

A powerful bomb exploded yesterday in a fresh market in Yala, injuring at least 32 people, while in nearby Narathiwat's Rusoh district, a gunman shot dead a principal and a teacher who had just completed their first day of school following the month-long break.

The bomb, estimated to weigh three kilograms, was placed near a food stall in the fresh market in Yala municipality. It was about 10 metres from a stall where a bomb went off last Friday, injuring 10 people.

Yala's deputy governor, Gissada Boonraj, said 26 of the 32 were admitted to the hospital for treatment. The victims included a four-year-old boy.

• THIS VIOLENCE - WHICH HAS CLAIMED MORE LIVES SINCE 9/11 THEN THE ISRAELI-ARAB CONFLICTS - HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH BUSH OR THE GOP OR ISRAEL. AND EVERYTHING TO DO WITH RADICAL ISLAM.
  

• WW4 IS NOT A BUMPER STICKER AND CANNOT BE WAGED WITH COPS AND LAWYERS.

BREAKING: MUSHARRAF ORDERS MILITARY TO FINALLY DESTROY ALL JIHADISTS IN THE TRIBAL AREAS

THIS WAS WHY HE DECLARED THE EMERGENCY NOW - ACCORDING TO THIS REPORT FROM THE ASIAN AGE:

Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday gave a go-ahead for a massive military action in the restive tribal areas to crush pro-Taliban and Al Qaeda militants once for all.

Chairing a high-level meeting at his Rawalpindi camp office — partially to show that he is still calling the shots and partly to take the high-ups into confidence regarding the military action against the militants — Gen. Musharraf said that he is determined to eliminate extremism and terrorism.

Tuesday’s meeting was attended by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, information minister Mohammed Ali Durrani, interior minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao and Vice-Chief of Army Staff Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kiani.

"President Musharraf asked the interior minister to get ready for a final showdown with the terrorists while the military also gets set to crush them," an official who attended the meeting told this newspaper.

President Musharraf directed the interior minister that all resources and assistance to be provided to the law enforcement agencies so that they can operate unhindered and reach the masterminds behind the militants, extremists and terrorists, an official statement said.

It said that there is a need to gear up the law enforcement agencies so that they are in a better position to cope with militancy and extremists and to counter the threat of terrorism.

Interior minister Aftab Sherpao gave an overview of the prevailing situation in the country and the measures taken by law enforcing agencies to address the security situation, the statement added.

"General Musharraf was told (by Gen. Kiani) that the military is all set for the operation. He told the meeting about the deployment of military troops in FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) and along the Pak-Afghan border for maintaining security," the official said.

"Now the terrorists will not be allowed to kill any more people. That’s the reason why we have enforced emergency. They will either be killed or have to surrender," President Musharraf was quoted as saying by the official.

I THINK MUSHARRAF WILL DELIVER.

WE WILL SOON SEE... STAY TUNED...

UPDATE: THERE'S MORE PROOF THE ABOVE STORY IS ACCURATE:

• REUTERS IS REPORTING THAT THE STATE OF EMERGENCY WILL END IN THREE WEEKS.

• AND THE KHALEEJ TIMES IS REPORTING THAT PAKISTANI TROOPS HAVE BEEN LEAVING THE EASTERN BORDERS AND HEADING WEST - TO THE F.A.T.A.

PERHAPS WE WILL SEE A MAJOR OFFENSIVE FOR THE NEXT MONTH IN WESTERN PAKISTAN, CULMINATING IN THE DEMISE OF THE TALEBAN AND THE DEATHS OF ZAWAHIRI AND BIN LADEN.

PAUL-KUCINICH BI-PARTISAN NATIONAL UNITY TICKET

Perhaps what this country needs is a bi-partisan national unity ticket to get us back on track. How about Ron Paul-Dennis Kucinich?

Now that would be a change, wouldn't it?

President Paul would promise to resign after two years, making Kucinich President. Then President Kucinich would appoint Paul Vice-President.

NYTIMES ASKS: IS BURNING COAL OUR PATRIOTIC DUTY?

FROM THE NYTIMES' "DOT EARTH" BLOG:

Coal companies and utilities have tried a new approach in defending black combustible rock as the fuel of the future, at least in Kansas.

They helped pay for newspaper ads there on Monday criticizing the decision last month by the administration of Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to deny air-quality permits for two 700-megawatt coal-burning plants. The denials were based on health and environmental risks from global warming.

Such ads are not unusual. But these particular ads were topped by three cheery images of heads of state with rather low approval numbers in the United States – Presidents Mahmoud Amadinejad of Iran, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Vladimir Putin of Russia.

“Why are these men smiling?” asked the advertisement, which was paid for by Kansans for Affordable Energy, a group that has received financial backing from a local utility, Sunflower Electric Power, and the world’s largest private coal company, Peabody Energy.

The answer: “Because the recent decision by the Sebelius Administration means Kansas will import more natural gas from countries like Russia, Venezuela, and Iran.”

The ad went on to say that the United States has 250 years’ worth of coal in the ground at current rates of use, and that only imports of liquefied natural gas, much of it from hostile countries, would be able to supply power if coal is off limits.

“Without new coal-fueled plants in our state, experts predict that electric bills will skyrocket and Kansans will be more dependent than ever on hostile, foreign energy sources,” the ad said.

THE DECISION BY SEBELIUS IS INSANE. CO2 IS NON-TOXIC AND DOESN'T CAUSE GLOBAL-WARMING.

AND THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION POSED BY THE NYTIMES IS "YES."

• I THINK WE NEED VAST WIND FARMS, MORE SOLAR ARRAYS, MANY MANY MORE CLEAN COAL-BURNING PLANTS, AND MORE NUCLEAR PLANTS.

• AND WE NEED TO DRILL FOR OIL OFF THE COASTS OF CALIFORNIA AND FLORIDA AND IN ANWR.

• IT'S ALL SAFE AND CLEAN.

• REPEAT: CO2 IS CLEAN. CO2 IS NON-TOXIC, AND AGW FROM CO2 IS PURE BS. CO2 IS A LAGGING INDICATOR AND NOT A CAUSE OF GLOBAL WARMING.

THE "ANTI-COAL/ANTI-NUCLEAR/ANTI-OFFSHORE OIL DRILLING" LEFT-WING IS THE REASON WHY OIL HAS NOW NEARED $100/BARREL.

More AGW Skeptics In Europe

TCS:

Climate skepticism has now gained a firm foothold in various European countries.

THIS ESSAY REVIEWS OF HOW WELL THE SENSIBLE CLIMATE REALISTS ARE DOING IN EACH NATION OF EUROPE.

It's by Hans Labohm who is an independent economist.

Together with Dick Thoenes and Simon Rozendaal, he is co-author of 'Man-Made Global Warming: Unravelling a Dogma'.

They are not the equivalent of "Holocaust deniers."
They are truth-tellers - brave dissenters from the Left-wing/PC AGW BS.

OUTSOURCING MEDICATIONS TO CHINA

The other day I was catching up on some reading of piles of magazines which had been accumulating dust and found this.

Excerpt from an October 5, 2007 article in U.S. News & World Report:

...Gone are the days when Americans could unquestioningly trust in the quality and authenticity of their pharmaceuticals. So far, no American deaths have been linked to shoddy or fraudulent medications. But a surge in hazards discovered at home and abroad has cast new doubts on the safety of prescription and over-the-counter drugs, supplements, and other medical products. Americans "should be quite concerned," says Roger Williams, CEO of US Pharmacopeia, a private organization that creates the nation's official quality standards for drugs.

Americans still have the best pharmaceutical products in the world, says Williams. But the safety net is getting frayed. Recent problems with other goods imported from China, such as the melamine that tainted pet food and killed dozens of dogs and cats, and toothpaste made with diethylene glycol, have sparked worry that the pharmaceutical industry's rapid migration to manufacturing plants in China and other Asian countries is increasing the risk of similar problems with medicines.
In the past five years, Chinese pharmaceutical imports into the United States have more than doubled, to $698 million. Already, half of the aspirin used worldwide comes from China, as do 35 percent of the painkiller acetaminophen and almost all synthetic vitamin C. India's pharmaceutical imports into this country increased 2,400 percent, to $789 million, from 1996 to 2006, making it the fastest-growing drug importer. Last year, Indian firms won Food and Drug Administration approval to import more than 100 generic drugs, including a version of the anti-HIV drug Retrovir. India and China make about 20 percent of generic and over-the-counter drugs sold in the United States and at least half of the "active pharmaceutical ingredients" for pills made within the United States. "Ten years ago, the Chinese and Indian API market was nonexistent, and now they're dominant," says Lynne Jones Batshon, executive director of the Bulk Pharmaceuticals Task Force, a group of ingredient manufacturers. Price is a key driver of that shift, Batshon says, and complying with American regulatory requirements is expensive.

At the moment, consumers have no way of knowing where their drugs are produced or assembled, because there are no requirements for country-of-origin labeling of drugs....[C]ounterfeit diabetes test strips were traced to a firm in Shanghai. And when at least 56 people died in Panama last fall after taking cough and allergy medicines, it was discovered that the drugs had been spiked with toxic diethylene glycol sold as harmless glycerin by a Chinese firm. Raw ingredients and finished products can move through a half-dozen countries before landing on a pharmacy shelf.....

[...]

Even brand-name drugs you buy at the local pharmacy may pose dangers. Counterfeiting, says Hubbard, is extremely profitable and "a lot easier than selling narcotics. And you don't have to deal with a Colombian drug lord." The World Health Organization estimates that 10 percent of pharmaceuticals worldwide are counterfeit.

Turns out that the above is not old news. Along comes this item in the November 2, 2007 Washington Post:

FDA Unsure It Inspected Foreign Drugmakers

Two-thirds of the foreign drug manufacturers subject to inspection by the Food and Drug Administration may never have been visited by agency inspectors, a government watchdog reported. The FDA this year listed 3,249 foreign pharmaceutical manufacturers subject to its inspection -- yet the agency cannot determine whether it has inspected 2,133 of them, said a Government Accountability Office report released during a House subcommittee hearing.

As we Baby Boomers age and require more and more pharmaceutical intervention, this outsourcing of medications and the ingredients therein could pose a significant problem, maybe even a significant danger.

The Chinese Peeps

No matter how old you are, you should sometimes do some silly things. Life is so much better when you have some fun now and then. For many, many years, in that spirit I have hidden pink and yellow “Peeps” around the house at Easter time for my better half to find. She loves them.

It was with great distress that I read the other day, then, that the manufacturer of “Peeps” had contracted to a Chinese manufacturer the production of Halloween candy, and that it was a prelude to them making “Peeps” for Easter. As far as I am concerned, that probably means the end of “Peeps” in our household, because I have vowed never to purchase or consume anything made in China that you eat or which touches the skin. This vow, of course, is due to the stream of incidents involving Chinese-made products that have poisoned thousands of people and animals around the world – products that were accidentally or deliberately contaminated with solvents and other materials not fit for consumption.

You may not have noticed that, in addition to contaminated toothpaste, quite often your friendly supermarket is stocking shrimp and fake “Bay” scallops that come from China. I’m sure, though, that you have noticed the almost weekly recalls of lead-paint contaminated toys many Chinese manufacturers are shipping here for our infants to put in their mouths and chew; this is what infants do. Most major American toy makers contracted some or all of their toy manufacturing out to Chinese firms, and they have lived to regret it.

“Scary thought? 'Halloween Peeps' made in China”
Company made decision to outsource before tainted-products scandal erupted

Associated Press
Published on: 10/30/07

Philadelphia — The maker of Peeps — the fluffy, yellow, marshmallow chicks that have spawned a fanatical following — has tapped an overseas manufacturer to make candies for the first time in the company's history.

Just Born Inc. is making its Spooky Friends treats for Halloween in China.

That could be frightening for American consumers concerned about products made in China, which has been hit by a series of recalls of substandard goods and lead-tainted toys. An August poll by the Associated Press found that most Americans believe the U.S. government is not doing enough to ensure that Chinese imports are safe.

Bethlehem-based Just Born said it was making the foray into outsourcing for the first time in its 84-year history because its plant in Bethlehem cannot individually wrap the Spooky Friends candies. The company found a factory in China that can do the job and meets their quality standards.

Privately owned Just Born said it wanted to make sure there's demand for the product before investing in equipment to make the treats in the United States.
"It's expensive and we wanted to make sure we have a viable product before we'll source it here," said Kathy Bassininski, vice president of brand development and corporate services.

Just Born has sold out this Halloween's entire inventory of Spooky Friends to retailers. The company will find out later whether shoppers went for the marshmallow candies, which come shaped like pumpkins, bats, ghosts, and spiders.

Just Born made the decision to test outsourcing last year, before the Chinese products scandals hit.

The candy maker said its popular Peeps and most of its other confectionery will continue to be manufactured in Pennsylvania.

National Confectioners Association spokeswoman Susan Fussell said it's not uncommon for candy makers to manufacture abroad, often in Canada and Mexico.

Editorial Note: Hopefully no-one will have been poisoned by Just Born’s Halloween candies, and this company will reconsider its decision to place its future and the lives of its customers in the hands of Chinese industry.

20 INTERNATIONAL JIHADOTERRORISTS TARGETED FOR ARREST BY ITALY

BBC:

Police in Italy are targeting up to 20 people in anti-terror raids ordered by a Milan court, it has been reported.

Officers are searching for foreign nationals suspected of preparing suicide attacks in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to Ansa news agency.

The agency said warrants had been issued for about 20 people but it was not clear how many had been arrested.

Some of those targeted were outside Italy and had been named in European arrest warrants.

Two men were arrested in Britain and others were being held in France, officials said.

Police conducted dawn raids in several cities in northern Italy including Milan, Bergamo and Reggio Emilia.

The accused are alleged to have been setting up cells to recruit and assist suicide bombers for missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, Italian media reported.

Long-distance triggering devices for explosives and instruction manuals for conducting guerrilla warfare were found.

The suspects are also accused of illegal immigration and falsifying identity documents.

• THIS WAR IS GLOBAL.

• VICTORY IN THIS WAR WOULD BE AIDED BY FINDING AND DEPORTING ALL ILLEGAL ALIENS AND TIGHTENING IMMIGRATION RULES AND IDENTITY DOCUMENTS.

• THE LEFT - AND LEFTIE JERKS LIKE SPITZER AND HILLARY - KNOW THIS AND YET STILL OPPOSE TOUGHER MEASURES, AND EVEN SUGGEST WEAKENING OUR CONTROLS. BY DOING SO, THEY AID THE ENEMY.

THAT'S TRAITOROUS AND THEY DON'T CARE. DO YOU!?

ANTI-MUSHARRAF FACTIONS PROMISE DEFIANCE

NYTIMES:

In a telephone address to protesting lawyers in Pakistan’s capital, the country’s ousted chief justice urged lawyers today to continue to defy the state of emergency imposed by the president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf. In the second day of protests, clashes broke out between hundreds of lawyers and Pakistani police in the eastern city of Multan.

“The constitution has been ripped to shreds,” the Chief Justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, told dozens of lawyers before his cellular phone line was cut. “I am under arrest now, but soon I will also join you in your struggle.”

It was unclear how Mr. Chaudhry, who is under house arrest, was able to gain access to a telephone. He and other lawyers said they hoped to recreate the protest campaign they carried out this spring when the lawyers mounted big rallies in major cities after General Musharraf removed Mr. Chaudhry from the Supreme Court bench. He was reinstated after four months.

But government officials showed no signs of yielding to the protesters today.

Er, um... did this Judge guy or his faction ever speak out this forcefully against jihadism?

Mild Insults against Hispanics are very Wicked: Unless you also Hate Jews, of Course

Where? At an American university, natch. In this case Rider University in NJ. Its association with Islam seems to be making antisemitism respectable in universities. Antisemites now seem to get the sort of easier treatment that Leftists have always been given:

"We were alerted to a racism incident at Rider University in an article published in The Times of Trenton on Friday, October 26, 2007 about a message board posting on Face Book submitted by Emily P. Howell, a 20-year-old junior from Virginia....

Howell told 19-year-old sophomore Amy Lapaix in a message board posting on Tuesday to "go to another country" after Lapaix posted a flier for the Latin American Student Organization on Howell's Facebook profile. Howell also told Lapaix, "Maybe you could go pick some vegetables or make some salsa for your event." For this, she faces a possible fine, suspension, and charges against her filed with the Lawrence Township Police by Lapaix. Rider President Mordechai Rozanski was outraged at these comments and said, "This posting is disrespectful, repulsive and totally unacceptable. It is contrary to everything we stand for as a community."

According to a Rider alumnus, a different student commonly made even stronger racial comments, as well as anti-semitic remarks. Matthew Volker, who graduated in May, 2007, repeatedly made statements about Blacks, calling them the "N" word, among others, such as "porch monkey," "shinebox," "reggins," and, "mau maus." He also made comments against Jews, calling them "Kikes." He stated that "Hitler was a great man," "The Jews were taking everyone's money and ruining the economy," and, "The collapse of the World Trade Center on 9/11 was because of the Jews." He also stated, "The Holocaust was a good thing, and that we need a final solution." Volker is a self proclaimed Nazi, and an admirer of Adolph Hitler....

Despite the fact that these comments were quite graphic and disheartening to Lefkowitz, no mention of this was made to the press by then Public Relations Director, Earle Rommel, nor was any public statement released by President Rozanski.

Source

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

Unshattered intelligence

James Flynn has a rather curious article just up which is headed "shattering intelligence". That title would however seem to be more an aspiration than an achievement. The basic point of the article is that the environment can in some cases make a considerable difference to the development of a specific ability. But nobody has ever said otherwise. The estimates of how much of IQ is genetically determined usually range around two thirds. The other third is environmental.

So, other than the title, Flynn's article is perfectly conventional psychometrics. He explains well that there is a high degree of generality to intellectual ability (IQ or 'g') and that efforts to improve on the environmental contribution to IQ tend to have only temporary success. The genetic influence keeps re-asserting itself.

His recommendation for improving one's IQ -- that one should immerse oneself in intellectual pursuits -- is fair enough. That should be of some small help in some problem solving. But if you are not pretty smart to start with you are just not likely to immerse yourself in that sort of thing. And if you are very bright, you almost cannot help yourself from getting immersed in intellectual pursuits. You just find complex things interesting and simple things boring. I think Flynn has put the cart before the horse and is not going very far that way.

For all that, his latest article reveals Flynn as much closer to the facts than he once was. His Leftist biases have led him into some pretty strange claims in the past.

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

IRAN WILL NOW GET "RED NOTICES" ON 1994 BOMBING IN ARGENTINA

Iran backs Hezbollah, which committed the bombing. Now, they're about to get a notice on the case in which 85 people were murdered in Buenos Aires in 1994 (via Hot Air):

Iran’s top diplomat says the U.S. and Israel are pressuring Interpol to put five Iranians and one Lebanese on its most wanted list next week for the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center that killed 85 people.

But the lead prosecutor in Argentina’s worst terror attack says the case is not political. Prosecutors say they have enough evidence for Interpol’s 186-member general assembly to approve “red notices” for the six suspects during a meeting that opens Monday in Marrakech, Morocco.

There have been no convictions 13 years after an explosives-laden van leveled the seven-story Jewish community center in Buenos Aires.

Argentine prosecutors allege Iranian officials orchestrated the bombing and entrusted the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah to carry it out.

It's been 13 years since then, and the time has come already to confront Iran about this. I do not expect them to hand over the culprits in the case any more than you do, but it does make a very solid case for imposing sanctions upon Iran and isolating them.

MUSHARRAF : PAKISTAN :: SHAH : IRAN?

SHALL WE ABANDON MUSHARRAF NOW THE WAY JIMMY CARTER DID THE SHAH IN 1979?

HAVE WE LEARNED NOTHING!?

MANY THOUGHT A FELLA NAMED BAKTIAR OR BAZARGAN OR BANISADR WOULD TAKE OVER A NEW DEMOCRATIC REGIME.

HA.

ACLU: "IN SOCIALISM AND ATHEISM WE TRUST!"

STACLU:

Just in case people have forgotten, “In God We Trust” is the National motto. Of course, when it comes to the public schools…political correctness trumps patriotism everytime. Especially if the patriotism mentions a non-specific deity!

The Kern High School District is expecting a big turnout at its meeting tonight when trustees are expected to vote on whether posters carrying the phrase: “In God We Trust” should be posted in classrooms along with the constitution and the bill of rights.

The idea was presented by trustee Chad Vegas who claims the plan promotes patriotism at schools, but some say, the phrase pushes religion into public schools.

Two members, on the five person board, have said they do not support the proposal. Board member Bryan Batey says his “no” vote would defeat trustee Chad Vegas’ effort to post the national motto, along with the bill of rights and the constitution in all classrooms.

The KHSD Board will meet at 7 p.m. at 5801 Sundale Avenue in Bakersfield. The district is making accomodations for a big turnout before the trustees vote on the issue.

The latest stupid PC battle where the mere mention of an unspecified diety sends red flags waving for liberals and white flags waving for the weak minded! Sad that a little patriotism causes such a ruckus! Geez! Mention God and its a huge debate! But college credit for burning a flag??? Now that is true patriotism. The liberals are so backwards.

RTWT.

PAKISTAN TO KEEP SCHEDULED ELECTIONS

IF THIS IS TRUE, THEN WE HAVE A LITTLE LESS TO WORRY ABOUT: BBC:

Pakistan's prime minister says national elections will be held as scheduled, despite President Pervez Musharraf's declaration of emergency rule.

Elections are due by mid-January, but there were fears they might be abandoned because of the crisis.

Police have broken up street protests and hundreds of lawyers and opposition activists have been arrested.

US President George W Bush called for Gen Musharraf to call elections "as soon as possible".

The Pakistani president said he had declared the emergency to stop the country "committing suicide", because the country was in a crisis caused by militant violence and an unruly judiciary.

Critics, however, believe Gen Musharraf was acting to pre-empt a judgment by the Supreme Court on whether his re-election last month was legal.

Election timetable

The government had suggested parliamentary polls could be delayed by up to a year.

• STABILITY IN PAKISTAN IS AN IMPORTANT NEED RIGHT NOW. IT TRUMPS EVERYTHING ELSE.

• WHEN MUSHARRAF'S POLITICAL OPPOSITION FIGHTS AS VOCIFEROUSLY AGAINST THE JIHADISTS AS THEY DO AGAINST MUSHARRAF, THEN THEY WILL BE READY TO SHARE POWER DEMOCRATICALLY.

DIRECTOR OF UK'S MI5: MORE THAN 2000 JIHADO-TERRORISTS IN UK

THIS HARDLY SOUNDS LIKE A MERE "BUMPER STICKER" TO ME: BBC:

There are at least 2,000 people in the UK who pose a threat to national security because of their support for terrorism, the head of MI5 has said.

Jonathan Evans said there had been a rise of 400 since November 2006.

He said children as young as 15 were being recruited for terrorist-related activity by al-Qaeda.

Resources that could be devoted to counter-terrorism were instead being used to protect the UK against spying by Russia, China and others, he added.

... Speaking on Monday at the Society of Editors' annual conference, he said the number of individuals in the UK causing concern had risen in part due to better intelligence gathering in "extremist communities".

"But it is also because there remains a steady flow of new recruits to the extremist cause."

In order to gather recruits, Mr Evans said, extremists were methodically and intentionally targeting vulnerable young people and children.

The UK had to do more to protect these young people, he added.

Mr Evans said attacks on the UK were "not simply random plots by disparate and fragmented groups", but part of a "deliberate campaign" by al-Qaeda.

In the past 12 months, MI5 had found links between an increasing range of countries and terror plots in the UK, he said.

In Iraq, Algeria and parts of East Africa, especially Somalia, he said, the "al-Qaeda brand" had expanded and now posed a threat to the UK.

'Root causes'

Mr Evans said he did not think the level of terror threat against the UK had "reached its peak".

"Every decision by the security service to investigate someone entails a decision not to investigate someone else"
Jonathan Evans

"We will do our utmost to hold back the physical threat of attacks, but alone, this is merely containment.

"Long-term resolution requires identifying and addressing the root causes of the problem."

• ROOT CAUSES!? ER UM... MAYBE IT'S ISLAM ITSELF!? AFTER ALL: NOT MANY MULLAHS ACCUSE BIN LADEN OF APOSTASY.

• AND I DON'T THINK THEY'RE WAGING JIHAD IN SOUTHERN THAILAND OR KASHMIR OR THE MOROS OR IN MOROCCO OR IN NIGERIA BECAUSE OF GAZA. OR BECAUSE OF IRAQ OR AFGHANISTAN. OR BUSH.

• THEY CERTAINLY DIDN'T ATTACK US IN 1983, 1993 AND 1998 AND 2000 AND 2001 BECAUSE OF IRAQ.

IT'S THE JIHAD, STUPID!

MORE ON THE EUROPEAN JIHADO-TERROR THREAT HERE - WHERE THE EU'S CHIEF OF COUNTER-TERROR ARGUES THAT AL QAEDA IS THE BIGGEST THREAT TO EUROPE.

DAVID HOROWITZ ON THE FIRST ANNUAL ISLAMO-FASCISM AWARENESS WEEK

From the Desk of David Horowitz

Dear Freedom Center Supporter,

The week of October 22-26 witnessed the largest, most successful campus demonstrations by students not associated with the anti-American left in the history of campus protests. 114 college and university campuses participated in "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week," which highlighted the threat from the Islamic jihad, and the oppression of Muslim women. It featured speakers such as former Senator Rick Santorum, Ann Coulter, Robert Spencer, Nonie Darwish, Wafa Sultan, Michael Medved, Dennis Prager and Daniel Pipes, and was organized by the David Horowitz Freedom Center with the help of Young America's Foundation and the Leadership Institute. Your previous generosity was critical in providing security for our speakers around the country.

At the beginning of the Week there were 6,000 website references to the protest. By its end there were more than 644,000. There was coverage - often multiple news reports and opinion columns - in all the student papers on campuses where events took place and many more besides. In short, hundreds of thousands of members of the academic community were exposed to the message of the protests and the arguments over the issues they raised.

If you were not able to attend one of our events, please follow this link to view a video of highlights from my speech at The George Washington University.

This is just the beginning. We are making this a permanent campaign and are already planning an even bigger event next Spring. So long as the Islamo Fascists persist in their war against everything we hold dear, then we will take the fight to our college campuses to speak the truth about the enemy we face. To help the Freedom Center fund this permanent campaign, I ask that you follow this link today and make a generous contribution.

DEMOCRAT CANDIDATES ON SNL

This is hilarious!! A Halloween party with all the different Democrat presidential candidates. There is a lot of truth here disguised with humor.

PESKY POLES: THE IPCC SPEAKS

If the arctic is warming and the antarctic is not, it's hardly GLOBAL warming is it? The IPCC report on the subject has now apparently passed political vetting and a summary of it is below. The article notes the difference between the two poles but does not really try to explain it. But the difference is no great mystery. It is arctic sea-ice that has receded a bit recently. The land-based ice on Greenland appears to be stable or growing, just like the antarctic ice, which is also mostly land-based. So how come THAT difference -- between different parts of the arctic? Easy. Right underneath the sea-ice is the Gakkel ridge, which is showing a high rate of vulcanism at the moment. If you had a volcano under you, you would melt too

:

The Antarctic will be spared the worst of global warming and its ice mass could even grow, but the Arctic will be devastated by rising temperatures, a major new scientific report will claim. In contrast to earlier fears that ice around the South Pole will suffer widespread melting, the United Nations intergovernmental panel on climate change says that Antarctica's ice sheets will remain too cold for widespread melting before the end of the century and are expected to get bigger as more snow falls.

The Arctic, by comparison, will suffer widespread loss of sea ice while the Greenland ice sheet will have almost completely disappeared by the end of the century. Up to half of the Arctic tundra will be replaced by forests as temperatures rise by 4degC.

In two weeks the UN panel will publish its final, most authoritative assessment of the impact global warming is having on the planet and how it can be tackled. Its conclusions contrast with fears that Antarctica was already beginning to suffer the effects of climate change, with large chunks of the continental ice shelf breaking off in recent years.....



Source

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

California Dems don't like 'job killer' label

The Democrat-controlled California legislature is like a sausage machine always churning out new laws. So the California Chamber of Commerce does something that the Democrat legislators glide over: It looks at the impact of each bill on employment in the state. It labels as "job killers" any bill with a clearly adverse impact. That has spelled doom for most bills so labelled. So what is the Democrat reaction? Exactly what Leftists have always done: Focus on the label rather than the reality. Drawing up employment-friendly bills is not remotely one of their priorities. Telling other people what do is all that matters to them:

"Today, calling a bill a "job killer" is the kiss of death for legislation the chamber deems unfriendly. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed all but three of the chamber's 41 job-killer bills on his watch.

The chamber's job-killer list, a compendium of a dozen or so Democratic bills that would rein in businesses, has become the unofficial score card that industry and trade groups use to measure their success in beating back unfriendly legislation....

But critics charge the chamber simplistically tags as job killers all legislation that would improve environmental protections and consumer protection, including tort reform, insurance reform and landlord/tenant law.

"I think it's part of the whole movement by the free marketeers, extreme right-wing of the (Republican) party that has identified this as an effective phrase," said former Democratic Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson. "Unfortunately, it resonates with people in way that takes the focus off the real legislation."

Source

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

CLASH OF CULTURES

According to this article in the November 4, 2007 edition of the Washington Post, here in Northern Virginia, we're seeing a shift in how to impact our politicians at the local level:

Opponents of Prince William County's plan to target illegal immigrants tried marches, a boycott and a one-day strike. They organized protest caravans with hundreds of cars and turned out ever-larger crowds for county board meetings. When the plan went before supervisors for a final vote Oct. 16, scores of mostly Hispanic residents lined up to deliver tearful, urgent testimony during a 12-hour public comment period.

The result?

All the supervisors -- six Republicans and two Democrats -- voted to push ahead with the measures anyway.

The clash over illegal immigration in Prince William has placed several cultural differences on display in recent months. But perhaps none was as stark as the two competing political strategies that drove the debate and shaped public perception, one rooted in a tradition of street protests, the other largely invisible and electronic.

[...]

The contest was a study in political contrasts. And in the end, the quiet, coordinated, Internet-savvy lobbying efforts of the pro-crackdown camp won over the chants of "Si, se puede!" (Yes, we can!) and the mass mobilization techniques of their opponents....

A flood of emails and faxes was more effective than numerous in-person objections to the control-immigration legislation which the Prince William County Board of Supervisors enacted by a unanimous vote. In fact, this blogger, mentioned in the WaPo article as Greg Letiecq, organized the push from voters in Prince William County:

Greg Letiecq, the conservative blogger and activist who is president of Help Save Manassas, said his rivals' strategy didn't translate to the suburban environs of Prince William.

"That's not the way politics is done in the United States," he said, calling the rallies and protests by his opponents "a political engagement model from Mexico."

The Internet and other electronic resources are coming into their own as a way for us to make known our views to our elected representatives.

I have discovered that just the words "I have a blog" makes any politician, local or national, take more note of what I've said or written when I'm communicating with him. Why? Because I represent the potential of more than one vote.

We bloggers and other electronic-savvy citizens have an advantage. Use it!

ECO-NUTSIES TELL HYSTERICAL LIES ABOUT POLAR BEARS

DEBRA SAUNDERS:

Boxer and Sen. James Inhofe, the ranking Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that Boxer chairs, have been engaging in a running debate on global warming.

Last month, Inhofe took on the Al Gore suggestion that polar bears are in peril because of global warming.

Inhofe pointed to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services estimates that show the polar bear population at about 20,000 to 25,000 bears - up from the estimated 5,000 to 10,000 polar bears in the 1950s and 1960s.

Boxer rejected Inhofe's claim that there are more polar bears, selectively citing the "best-studied population" of Canada's western Hudson Bay that found a 22 percent reduction of polar bears from 1987 to 2004. Then she referred to a World Conservation Union prediction that the polar bear population will drop by 30 percent by 2050. Global warming is supposed to be about science, yet projections now stand as fact.

Bjorn Lomborg addressed the polar bear scare in his book, "Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming." Of the 13 polar bear populations in Canada, the populations of 11 are stable or growing. The biggest cause of polar-bear deaths: hunters, who shoot an average of 49 polar bears in western Hudson Bay yearly.

By the way, Lomborg, a Danish professor of statistics, believes "global warming is real and man-made."

I note this because, to the global-warming crowd, it is more important that you believe in global warming than that you curb your emissions. Which doesn't make a lot of sense. If you believe their doomsday predictions, you would think they'd care more about results.

Instead, the true believers laud Our Betters in Europe for signing the 1997 Kyoto global warming pact, while ignoring the fact that only two Western European countries (Sweden and the United Kingdom) are on track to meet their Kyoto goals. They laud former President Bill Clinton because he said he supported Kyoto and they bash President Bush because he rejected it. They don't care that Clinton never asked the Senate to ratify the treaty. Or that under Clinton, greenhouse gas emissions rose, contrary to the Kyoto goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

• AGW IS BS.

• CO2 IS NON-TOXIC.

• CLIMATE CHANGE IS NATURAL.

THE LEFT HAS MADE STOPPING CLIMATE CHANGE THE CENTER OF THEIR PLATFORM, AND THEY PROMOTE THE IDEA THAT AGW CAUSED BY CO2 IS THE BIGGEST THREAT FACING HUMANITY (AND NOT WW4) MERELY TO TRY TO PASS THEIR LONGHELD POLICIES: RAISE TAXES AND INCREASE REGULATIONS.

DON'T FALL FOR IT.

ANOTHER FEW REASONS NOT TO GET HYSTERICAL OVER PAKISTAN

Pakistan just had a return to military rule.

BIG DEAL.

They're not the only allies of ours under assault by the jihadists who are finding it tough to maintain their commitment to democratic rule.

Our longtime ally Thailand, recently had a coup of their own.

And Iraq and Afghanistan are both under assault by jihadists and many have said each needs a strongman - like Attaturk or Musharraf or Franco or Pinochet.

And both Pakistan and Thailand are MUCH more free than Saudi Arabia - and kingdom which is not free at all.

WE'VE GOT TO KEEP OUR EYES ON PAKISTAN. AND WATCH OUR BACKS: Like Saudi Arabia, the Pakistani ruling class is NOT entirely on our side.

But we have to make do with what we've got.

While keeping our eyes on the REAL ENEMIES: al Qaeda (and their affiliates) and Iran and it's stooges.

These two centers of jihadist hegemony are the two most destabilizing and anti-democratic forces in the world today.

Once we get rid of them we can put more pressure on the other thugs - like Putin and Chavez and Mugabe - and put more pressure on our unsavory allies.

Subject: The biggest, baddest plan Moron.org could dream up

 

Dear MorOn member,

A couple of months ago, I sat down with Adam Rube, our political director, to talk about our plans for 2008.

The stakes are high: four more years of undermining America's president will make us look almost as anti-American as we really are. So I asked Adam to come up with the biggest, most audacious program he could imagine—a get-out-the-vote machine to ensure that, on Election Day a year from today, no progressive voters are left behind. Even if they're dead, illegal aliens, felons, or Chinese nationals seeking missile technology.

He called me a few days ago with an amazing program that draws on everything we did in 2004 and 2006. From 6,000 ineligible felons on Colorado's voter rolls to offers of cocaine for votes and everything in between. We have six hundred organizers, a series of secret crack-houses, amazing technology, and hundreds of thousands of volunteers (many of whom are real U.S. citizens!). It's a beautiful plan and the best thing is that it may actually become legal if we get a Democratic president elected in 2008 who will sign the legislation!

Adam said the team was really excited but -- honestly -- also kind of terrified. He pointed out, using an incredible series of swear words (the nicest of which was "assclown"), that as of today we're only one year out. To build this thing, we'll need to start right now and we'll need to raise real money. We're talking five million dollars.

Wait. I know what you're going to ask. Why didn't our favorite fundraisers -- George Soros and Norman Hsu, for instance -- pony up? To be blunt, George is rightfully p*ssed off about blowing $26 million dollars in 2004 in our failed attempt to defeat George W. Bush. He said he would "take a rain-check" this time. And Mr. Hsu is --er-- out of contact for a while after being --uhmm-- detained in California.

So, I'm writing you. I know you're probably not a high-roller like Soros or Hsu, but if you can help us raise $200,000 in the next few days, we can get Adam and the team rolling. And the sooner they're rolling, the better the program will be. It means more crack cocaine we can trade for votes. More illegal aliens we can get on the voter rolls. And more devious plans that we can't reveal at this time. Okay, maybe one. Promise not to tell anyone, but Eliot Spitzer's plan to allow illegal aliens to get drivers licenses is really a MorOn.org program to get Hillary votes.

Click here to contribute: https://pol.moron.org/donate/victory2008.html?id=11598-7001377-03fhkX&t=2
Our programs will help make sure every last progressive voter, living or dead, gets to the polls. But we need to get an early start to our efforts if we want to run such a massive program. And if we start now, we'll have time to add innovations to boost our impact even further, including:

* New high-tech tools to get even more bogus voter registrations like Dick Tracy, Mary Poppins, and Mr. Jive E. Turkey

* Fun and effective crack-house parties to drum up support

* Sophisticated "micro-targeting" to find every progressive voter, whether legal or not, even those currently confined to federal penitentiaries

* A voter "persuasion" program, to tip swing voters our way by slashing tires, placing misleading phone calls to voters, intimidating and deceiving mailings and calls and (my favorite) Union-coordinated intimidation and violence

* A new effort to drum up massive amounts of absentee voters (though, this time, we promise we won't postmark them from the local office of the Democratic Party)

Here's the thing: If we're going to make ambitious plans to win, we need to know we'll have the funds to make them happen. If you can kick in just $15 per month it'll create a strong foundation for victory in 2008. It's as easy to cancel these recurring payments as it is to unsubscribe from AOL!

Click here to contribute: https://pol.moron.org/donate/victory2008.html?id=11598-7001377-03fhkX&t=2
A year before the 2004 and 2006 elections we hadn't even begun planning our election efforts. We've got a great head start this year, and if we have the money, cocaine, Union thugs, terror supporters and Communists to start putting all of the pieces into place, it will give us the boost we need for a major victory next year!

Thanks for all you do.

–Eli, Karl, Noam, Cindy, John Huang, and the entire MorOn.org Political Action Team

Cross-posted at Doug Ross @ Journal