"ALL CAPS IN DEFENSE OF LIBERTY IS NO VICE."

Saturday, April 26, 2008

DAN GILLERMAN SUMS IT UP CORRECTLY ABOUT JIMMY CARTER

The Israeli ambassador to the UN has called Carter a bigot (Hat tip: Hot Air Headlines):
NEW YORK - Israel's ambassador to the United Nations on Thursday called former President Jimmy Carter "a bigot" for meeting with the leader of the militant Hamas movement in Syria.

Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, "went to the region with soiled hands and came back with bloody hands after shaking the hand of Khaled Mashaal, the leader of Hamas," Ambassador Dan Gillerman told a luncheon briefing for reporters.

The diplomat was questioned about problems facing his country during a wide-ranging discussion with reporters lasting more than an hour. The briefing was sponsored by The Israel Project, a Washington-based, media-oriented advocacy group.

The ambassador's harsh words for Carter came days after the ex-president met with Mashaal for seven hours in Damascus to negotiate a cease-fire with Gaza's Hamas rulers. Carter then called Mashaal on Monday to try to get him to agree to a one-month truce without conditions, but the Hamas leader rejected the idea.

The ambassador called last weekend's encounter "a very sad episode in American history."
Gillerman is much more suited to be a politician than Ehud Olmert, if you ask me.

NEW NANO-TRANSISTOR 50 TIMES MORE ENERGY EFFICIENT

SCIENCE DAILY: First Transistor Using Nanotechnology Is 50 Times More Energy Efficient Than Current Models
Transistors are an indispensable building block in electric appliances, where they amplify weak electric currents.

Now researchers have developed a new type of transistor that is 50 times more energy efficient than today’s models.

It is also the first to be developed using nanotechnology.

“This kind of transistor should be able to reduce energy consumption in mobile phones and computers, for example, so they wouldn’t have to be recharged so often. What’s more, it can pave the way for communicating in frequencies that are too high for today’s technology,” says Lars-Erik Wernersson, professor of solid state physics at the Faculty of Engineering, Lund University, in Sweden.
COOL.

AL QAEDA TARGETING CHINESE OLYMPICS

SBS (AUS):
The United States and Britain issued new travel alerts warning of an increased terrorist threat in China Friday, as Interpol says Beijing must prepare for a possible Al-Qaeda attack at the Olympics.

The US State Department warned Americans travelling to the Asian country of a "heightened risk that extremist groups will conduct terrorist acts within China in the near future."
If al Qaeda succeeds, then they will have unleashed the wrath of an unbridled power willing to do anything. This should worry China's ally Pakistan.

Stay tuned...

WE JUST WHACKED ANOTHER AL QAEDA BIGGIE IN IRAQ

KUNA:
U.S. forces have killed a leading al-Qaida commander and three of his lieutenants in an airstrike, an Iraqi police official said Saturday.

... U.S. forces targeted the car in which Mohammad Muzahem al-Harbouni was riding with a missile, east of Samara.
TOO BAD FOR AL QAEDA AND BARACK.

GOOD NEWS: POLLS SHOW IRELAND SOURING ON EUSSR TREATY

RTE:
The latest opinion poll shows a dramatic swing against the Lisbon Treaty, with the 'Yes' side leading by just 6% when undecideds are excluded.

The Red C poll in tomorrow's Sunday Business Post has been welcomed by anti-Lisbon campaigners, while the Government says the result is disappointing, but not entirely surprising.

Up to now, opinion polls have suggested a two to one majority in favour of the treaty.


The poll for the Sunday Business Post says that among those entitled to vote, 35% are backing the Treaty, a fall of eight per cent since the last poll two months ago.

31% are opposed to Lisbon, an increase of seven points, while one third of voters, 34%, do not know.
  • IRELAND IS THE LAST CHANCE EUROPE HAS TO PREVENT SOVIETIZATION.
  • I PRAY IRELAND VOTES NO.

EGYPT ARRESTS 4 HAMAS PLOTTERS

Reuters:
Egyptian security forces detained four people and have accused them of plotting to buy fuel for a pilotless aircraft for Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, security sources said on Saturday.

The sources said two of those detained were members of Egypt's opposition Muslim Brotherhood. They said the two men had given 20,000 Egyptian pounds ($3,700) to two other Egyptians to buy fuel and a remote control device for a small aircraft.

The sources said the small aircraft was meant to be loaded with explosives for an attack. They did not say what the target would have been.
Egypt is doing the right thing here - albeit for their own national-interest: Hamas and the MB are a direct threat to Egypt; they would love to topple Mubarak and take-over; (Zawahiri is a leading MB leader who was once jailed for trying to overthrow Egypt's government).

Those who argue that Israel is instigating the regional unrest, and are too tough on Gazans and "West Bankers" - folks like Jimmy Carter - are in denial about the jihadist enemy and their hegemonic goals. Even a despot like Mubarak is more realistic than "doves" like Carter and Pelosi, and this incident proves that - of we want peace in the region - we need to be MUCH MORE harsh with Hamas, not less.

What Maliki did Basra repeated in Basra must be done in Gaza: Hamas must be eradicated for Gaza to become civilized and prosperous.
  • HAMAS AND THEIR JIHADIST COMRADES ARE A REGIONAL THREAT, AND OVER TIME THEY'RE NOT GETTING WEAKER.
  • THEY WILL USE UAV'S AND EVEN MISSILES WHEN THEY GET THEM - AND THIS WILL ESCALATE THE CONFLICT, NOT BRING IT "PARITY".
  • NEITHER HUDNAS OR TRUCES OR OR "HUMANITARIAN" AID TO GAZA WILL AMELIORATE THIS THREAT:
  • HAMAS MUST BE UTTERLY VANQUISHED FOR THE REGIONAL THREAT THEY REPRESENT TO BE ERASED.
  • THE LONGER WE WAIT, THE STRONGER THEY BECOME AND THE MORE LIKELY A JIHADIST MEGA-ATTACK BECOMES - ONE WHICH MAY VERY WELL IGNITE A MAJOR WAR.
  • BUT THIS MIGHT BE INEVITABLE AND NECESSARY:
  • AFTER ALL: PEACE IS A BY-PRODUCT OF VICTORY, NOT APPEASEMENT.

MOOKIE FINISHED: " Iraqi forces seize last Sadr bastion in Basra"

AFP:
Iraqi forces have taken control of the last militia stronghold of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in the southern city of Basra, the US military said in a statement on Saturday.

It said Iraqi troops began the last stage of Operation Saulat al-Farsan (Charge of the Knights) on Friday in Basra's northern neighbourhood of Al-Huteen, a bastion of Sadr's Mahdi Army militia.

The operation included clearing and searching homes in the area, it said.

"Al-Huteen, part of the Five Mile Market neighbourhood of Basra, had been considered a stronghold for criminal elements of the Jaysh al-Mahdi (Mahdi Army) militia," the statement said.

"But, when the soldiers.... moved into the city, the local citizens actively welcomed and cooperated with them."
Despite what al Qaeda, Iran and the Democrats may want: we're winning.

If only they would occasionally be silent about it!

Court Rules Unanimously: Illinois School Must Allow "Be Happy, Not Gay" T-shirt

We read:
" The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit reversed a lower court's ruling against an Illinois student Wednesday, saying the district court must order a Naperville high school to suspend its ban on a T-shirt that reads "Be Happy, Not Gay" while the student's lawsuit proceeds. School officials prohibited student Alex Nuxoll, who is represented by Alliance Defense Fund attorneys, from wearing the clothing.

"Christian students shouldn't be discriminated against for expressing their beliefs," said ADF Senior Counsel Nate Kellum. "Public school officials cannot censor a message expressing one viewpoint on homosexual behavior and then at the same time allow messages that express another viewpoint. The court's ruling is a victory for all students seeking to protect their First Amendment rights on a school campus."

Nuxoll, a student at Neuqua Valley High School, desires to express his perspective at various times throughout the year, including the next school day after the "Day of Silence." Other students at the school are permitted to wear shirts with messages supporting homosexual behavior as part of the "Day of Silence," which is sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network. The 7th Circuit ruling prevents school officials from singling out Nuxoll's message for censorship.

Source
Parents warned of 'hate speech' during homosexual celebration

We read:
"A principal in a Massachusetts school district with a well-established reputation of promoting homosexuality to students has written to parents to tell them distributing "religious materials" during the school's annual observance of the pro-homosexual "Day of Silence" is not appropriate.

The letter from Michael Jones of Lexington, Mass., High School also confirms "hate speech" is "subject to legal constraints" and messages communicated through slogan T-shirts, buttons or stickers that express "condemnation" are "discouraged." Students with such a message will be counseled by school officials to meet the guidelines of the school handbook, he wrote.

However, groups that have been given his approval are allowed to hand out promotional materials to others and positive messages about the "Day of Silence" such as "Vocal Supporter" and "Silent Supporter" fall under free speech guidelines, Jones said.

Source

Leftists always seem to think that the law does not apply to them.


(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, EYE ON BRITAIN, OPTUS and TELSTRA/BIGPOND. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

FOLLOW UP: FRENCH POLICE ARREST SUSPECT IN SWEDISH TEEN'S MURDER

Reuters:
French police said on Friday they had arrested a man in connection with the killing of a Swedish teenager who was abducted and murdered in Paris.

Police launched a large operation involving about 40 investigators after the charred body of Sussanna Zetterberg, 19, was discovered on Saturday in woods outside Paris just hours after she left a nightclub in the heart of the city.

Her hands were tied behind her back and a post-mortem showed she had four bullet holes in her head.

No further details were immediately available about the man who was arrested in a Parisian suburb and is being held for questioning.

Prosecutors are also investigating whether there are any links with a case in February when another 19-year-old Swede was raped by a man who had posed as a taxi driver.

The two cases prompted the Swedish embassy to use national press to warn Swedish women not to go out alone in the French capital at night.
  • WHY ARE THEY HIDING THE ID OF THE SUSPECT? COULD IT BE HE'S MUSLIM?
  • IT'S PROBABLE FOR REASONS MENTIONED HERE, AND THE FACT THE ARREST WAS MADE IN THE MUSLIM-FILLED SUBURBS.
STAY TUNED...

Friday, April 25, 2008

EUSSR BUREAUCRATS CAUGHT DISSEMBLING IN IRELAND

TELEGRAPH:
Two leaked memos suggest that the Irish government and Brussels are going to great lengths to suppress bad news that might encourage a No vote - a result that would delight Eurosceptics everywhere, since if Ireland does not ratify the treaty it cannot come into force anywhere in Europe.

An internal email from a British diplomat in Dublin let slip that the commission's vice-president, Margot Wallström, had promised the Irish government to "tone down or delay messages that might be unhelpful".

The diplomat, Elizabeth Green, also said Ireland had decided to get the vote out of the way before France took over the EU leadership in July, to avoid "the risk of unhelpful developments during the French presidency" - noting that President Nicolas Sarkozy was "completely unpredictable".

The second memo, from Jo Leinen, the German chairman of the European Parliament's committee on constitutional affairs, warned that "politically sensitive" aspects of the treaty should not be discussed until it was in force.
THE EU = FASCISM WITH A HAPPY FACE.
  • IF IRELAND VOTES THE "TREATY" DOWN, THEN IT'S KAPUT.
  • THE EUSSR FOLKS KNOW THIS, AND ARE DOING ALL THEY CAN TO PREVENT IT: LYING; CHEATING... WHATEVER.
  • THEY'RE ANTI-DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST SCUM.
  • I PRAY THE IRISH DO THE RIGHT THING.

JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN SAYS U.S. PREPARING MILITARY OPTIONS AGAINST IRAN

From the Washington Post:
The nation's top military officer said today that the Pentagon is planning for "potential military courses of action" against Iran, Criticizing what he called the Tehran government's "increasingly lethal and malign influence" in Iraq.

Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said a conflict with Iran would be "extremely stressing" but not impossible for U.S. forces, pointing specifically to reserve capabilities in the Navy and Air Force.

"It would be a mistake to think that we are out of combat capability," he said at a Pentagon news conference.

Still, Mullen made clear that he prefers a diplomatic solution to the tensions with Iran and does not foresee any imminent military action. "I have no expectations that we're going to get into a conflict with Iran in the immediate future," he said.

Mullen's statements and others by Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently signal a new rhetorical onslaught by the Bush administration against Iran, amid what officials say is increased Iranian provision of weapons, training, and financing to Iraqi groups that are attacking and killing Americans.

In a speech Monday at West Point, Gates said that Iran "is hell-bent on acquiring nuclear weapons." He said a war with Iran would be "disastrous on a number of levels. But the military option must be kept on the table given the destabilizing policies of the regime and the risks inherent in a future Iranian nuclear threat."

Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, who was nominated this week to head all U.S. forces in the Middle East, is preparing a briefing soon to lay out detailed evidence of increased Iranian involvement in Iraq, Mullen said. The briefing will detail, for example, the discovery in Iraq of weapons that were very recently manufactured in Iran, he said.

"The Iranian government pledged to halt such activities some months ago. It's plainly obvious they have not. Indeed, they seem to have gone the other way," Mullen said.

He said recent unrest in the southern Iraqi city of Basra had highlighted a "level of involvement" by Iran that had not been understood by the U.S. military previously. "It became very, very visible in ways that we hadn't seen before," he said.

But while Mullen and Gates have recently stated that the Tehran government certainly must know of Iranian actions in Iraq, which they say are led by Iran's Revolutionary Guard, or Quds Force, Mullen said he has "no smoking gun which could prove that the highest leadership [of Iran] is involved in this."

RELIAPUNDIT:
  • IN A POLICE STATE, THESE ACTIONS MUST BE APPROVED; THEY COULD NOT BE CARRIED OUT WITHOUT APPROVAL.
  • THE USA MUST HOLD THIS POLICE STATE ACCOUNTABLE.
  • IF BUSH FAILS TO NEUTRALIZE IRAN BEFORE LEAVING OFFICE, THEN HE WILL GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS THE SECOND WORST PRESIDENT - TO JIMMY CARTER, WHO ALSO FAILED TO DEAL WITH IRAN PROPERLY.

Self-Inflicted Tyranny: Deception, Servitude, and the Iron Boot

Reacting to the Wesley Snipes tax-avoidance verdict, Dan Riehl nails it. As you read Riehl's passage, keep in mind Harry Reid's telling and abominable remarks earlier in the month about our tax system being "voluntary":
... I'm not suggesting Snipes isn't guilty, or shouldn't go to jail, but you never hear a peep from the supposed freedom loving liberals when it comes to how government taxes and spends, thereby controlling our lives, as well as our livelihoods.

You can peace march all you want, try to persecute telco's for providing information to the government, and stage all the faux torture events you want in protest of government actions.

But what's perfectly clear in America today is one thing - you don't screw with the tax man. Never let it be said that our government doesn't know from whence its power springs.

It would be wise to consider that when debating hyper-regulative responses to issues like global warming and supporting politicians who love big government. It always comes with a price. And ultimately that price is freedom, just as much as it is dollars.

In relative terms, there will be little or no liberal hand-wringing over the Snipes conviction, which causes one to wonder if they really understand freedom at all. Snipes appears to be guilty, but he WAS striking Big Brother at its heart in a way few if any anti-war protesters ever do.

And the message is clear - Big Brother knows how to deal with threats to its collective heart when they really matter.

Issues like the above are why I genuinely question the motivations of liberals today. They claim to be championing liberty. Yet nearly everything they champion calls for more taxation and regulation. One can't do both and be intellectually consistent, or honest.

Bravo! Read the whole thing.

The most evil and insidious "trick" our Congress--which is so eager to ever greater amounts of our money--plays on the public, is to force a great majority of its employed citizens to have their taxes deducted from their paychecks throughout the year; for if all of our taxpaying citizens were allowed to let their own money earn interest for their own families over that same year--and then to be forced to write one enormous check from their savings at the end of the year--these citizens would not so easily vote for the very liars and thieves who would deprive them of even more.

I have my own business, and therefore have the "pleasure" of paying ridiculous sums of money four times per year instead of 26 (or 52...). And therefore I have a clearer--and starker--picture of what our wasteful, frivolous, pork-loving Politicians are doing to each and every one of us (at least those of us without our hands out...) It makes my blood boil, especially when I hear the Marxist bastards running our Congress (and running for President..) imply that it is the Government's money which they are graciously allowing us to keep some of--rather than the other way around.

As for Harry Reid's "voluntary" tax: I give you Mr. Wesley Snipes.

The Cannibilism Begins (but what's Eating McCain?)

Don Surber shows us how bad it is getting inside the Democrat Party:

The Democratic Party begins eating its own.

How do you bring a country together when your party is falling apart?

The No. 3 House Democrat James Clyburn of South Carolina (via Talk Left): “I heard something, the first time yesterday (in South Carolina), and I heard it on the (House) floor today, which is telling me there are African Americans who have reached the decision that the Clintons know that she can’t win this. But they’re hell-bound to make it impossible for Obama to win.”

Supporter of Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton, Taylor Marsh, on House Speaker Democrat Nancy Pelosi: “I’ve supported Pelosi through all of her tenure, proud to have the first woman Speaker of the House. But recently she simply sounds like The Queen Political Bee intent on keeping any other female from hogging her spotlight. Her performance on Larry King Live was embarrassing. It reminds me of high school when the top cheerleader is about to be deposed by someone who can do a better jump. Truly beneath what I’d expect of a woman of this stature in the 21st century. Unless women get past this nonsense we’re doomed.”

The voice of reason? Paul Krugman!

No, I’m serious. Check it out:

But the message that Democrats are ready to continue and build on a grand tradition doesn’t mesh well with claims to be bringing a “new politics” and rhetoric that places blame for our current state equally on both parties.

And unless Democrats can get past this self-inflicted state of confusion, there’s a very good chance that they’ll snatch defeat from the jaws of victory this fall.

It’s all a plot to lull popcorn-munching Republicans to sleep.

Pass the popcorn anyway.

I am an Orville Redenbacher man myself... but how can one possibly sleep when one is having so much fun?

"Defeat from the jaws of victory" -- hell Krugman might as well be describing McCain's "suck up" performance in New Orleans yesterday, or else his dust up over the Reverand Wright ad in NC... Neither are exactly going to motivate the Conservative base to turn out in the fall. It is telling about the state of chaos at the DNC that the Republicans are basically running a Democrat-lite as their Presidential candidate, yet the Democrat candidates are so pathetic that this Copperhead Republican will probably win. Still, if McCain turns in too many more performances like yesterday, he may be the one snatching defeat from victory--good grief, John: how about knowing when to put a sock in that pie hole of yours? Sun Tzu said something famous about never going about destroying your enemy when he is in the process of destroying himself; I think we need a corollary to that: never destroy yourself when your enemy is destroying himself...

ANZAC DAY



Australia's main national day today, when we remember members of our families who died in the many wars where Australian troops have lent a hand to other people far away across the sea. And in one case -- the war with Japan -- we were actually threatened ourselves.

In WWII, the Japanese were stopped in their advance through New Guinea towards Australia by the CMF -- the "weekend warriors" of whom I was myself once a part. There are few weekend warriors any more. I myself served full-time for part of my enlistment and half of the American army in Iraq is made up of reservists. The CMF is now referred to simply as the "Reserves".

Commemoration of Anzac day traditionally includes attendance at an interdenominational "Dawn service" -- held at dawn to commemorate the time when the original Anzacs landed at Gallipoli. After that there is a huge march through the city featuring "ex-diggers" (former members of the military) and their relatives. It is a long time since I have attended the service or watched the march but my heart nonetheless goes out to the families who have lost loved-ones. Perhaps fortunately, the relatives I lost were distant ones whom I never knew personally.

But this evening I will do one very Australian thing: I will attend a family BBQ to celebrate a birthday. The picture above is from Brisbane's shrine of remembrance. It is most pleasing to note that the commemoration seems to get bigger every year -- with many young people involved.

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 summary of Obama news and commentary at OBAMA WATCH

THAT WAFFLE WAS MORE SIGNIFICANT THAN YOU MIGHT THINK

Obama's now-famous remark: "Why can't I just eat my waffle?" has been much noted. Google has over 19,000 mentions of it. And the message taken from it has generally been that Obama is a haughty elitist who does not like to be questioned. I think that there is much more than that to it, however. Read the following report from last month to put it in context:
Early morning trainers and exercisers at the Greenville, Miss., YMCA on Mississippi primary day last Tuesday got a taste of Sen. Barack Obama's reclusiveness, which the traveling press corps has learned to accept.

After speaking at Tougaloo College on Monday night, Obama went to the "Y" at 6:30 a.m. for a workout. He greeted nobody and did not respond when people there called out to him. That aloofness has been the pattern in the Democratic presidential candidate's behavior toward reporters who cover him.

After finishing his workout, Obama returned to his gregarious campaign mode with a visit to black-owned Buck's restaurant in Greenville before leaving the state. He won Mississippi comfortably against Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Source

The above quote and the waffle remark are both telling us the same thing: That Obama has difficulty keeping up his "nice guy" image. Keeping it up quite simply wears him out. It is not who he really is so keeping up that image tires him and he just HAS to rest from it. It is not who he really is.

And as someone who has studied psychopathy (I have a couple of academic journal articles on the subject) that is very familiar. Psychopaths also typically present a "nice guy" image -- something that sucks in the females wholesale. The psychopath says and does all the right things and people promptly put their trust in him. And then when they least expect it, he "goes bad" on them. "Why did he do that?" is the typical distressed response, "He was so nice and then he went and did ....".

The sucker in the story gets very thoroughly betrayed and has no clue as to why the psychopath suddenly changed. The answer, of course, is that the nice guy act was all a pretense in the first place and because it was not genuine the psychopath just could not keep it up for long. The "change" that distressed the sucker was the mask being dropped and the psychopath reverting to his true type.

And that is what we see in both reports of Obama's behaviour above. By the time he got to his waffle he just could not keep up his act, even under the full glare of media scrutiny. He HAD to have a rest from acting. So the Obama we see on the campaign trail is just a false front for the very dismal soul that lies beneath it. If America elects Obama, it will not get what it voted for. It will get a horror. An entire nation will have been conned.

Bill Clinton is a psychopath too. He too is known for suddenly "losing it" at times. But Slick Willy was led around by his penis. Obama will probably be led around by the hate that he sucked up in listening to 20 years of Jeremiah Wright's preaching.

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 summary of Obama news and commentary at OBAMA WATCH

OBAMA: MARXIST and LIAR


Andy McCarthy makes an excellent point at the Corner, commenting on Sol Stern's City Journal article about Barack [middle name redacted] Obama and Bill Ayers.

Stern had noted:
In his last debate with Hillary Clinton, Obama referred to Ayers as a “professor of English,” an error that the media then repeated.
But as McCarthy points out, that was not an error. It was deliberate misdirection.
As I recounted in this piece, Obama not only served for years on the Woods board with Ayers; he also appeared with him on a panel arranged by Associate Dean Michelle Obama at U-Chicago in connection with which (a) Ayers' "social justice" work to fight against the incarceration of juvenile criminals — which had utterly nothing to do with teaching English — was elaborately described, and (b) Obama was joined with Ayers precisely because his (Obama's) work as a state legislator to fight jail sentences for juvenile criminals dovetailed perfectly with Ayers' conception of "social justice." Obama did not call Ayers an English teacher because he was confused or misinformed. He called Ayers an English teacher because he was lying. That is, he was intentionally minimizing his relationship with an anti-American revolutionary with whom Obama has been friendly, collaborative and entirely comfortable. [Emphasis added.]
Everyone who has followed the campaign knows that Obama is a liar. He is a very skillful liar, but of course he is aided and abetted by a complaisant press.

What should also be clear is that by defending Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers, Obama is unmistakably identifying himself as an America-hating left-wing extremist.

What we are talking about is not "guilt by association." What is most important is not that Obama has for many years associated himself with anti-Semites, anti-Americans, and communists. What is most important is the way he has behaved as a Presidential candidate when confronted with those associations. That's what is so revealing about his character and his inner moral compass.

It is astonishing that a national party seems determined to nominate for President a red-diaper doper. He will certainly garner 90% of the African-American vote (which the Democrats would win, anyway, with Hillary Clinton or any other candidate.) But his hate-whitey, blame-America-first campaign is not going to make it. I think that the Democratic party leadership understands that. They probably would like to think that George Soros's money can help them, but Obama outspent Hillary 3 to 1 in Pennsylvania, and the money didn't help. The superdelegates' conundrum is that the African-American vote is the Democratic party's most loyal demographic block -- and they think of everything in terms of demographic blocs and identity politics. If they fail to nominate Obama, they risk alienating African-American voters, and thereby depressing the African-American vote in the big cities, without which they cannot take very many statewide elections. If they do nominate Obama, he leads the ticket into a defeat of McGovern-Dukakis proportions.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

PREDICTION: IF OBAMA FAILS ON THE FIRST BALLOT, THEN GORE GETS NOMINATION






AND OBAMA WILL BE HIS VEEP.

AND I THINK THIS IS THE STRONGEST TICKET THE DEMS COULD WISH FOR.

THE EXISTENTIAL THREAT POSED BY THE LEFT: A NATION CANNOT SURVIVE TREASON

CICERO (VIA CANNONEER NO. 4 COMMENTING AT BELMONT):
“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within.

An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly.

But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself.

For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist.

A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague.”
  • HENCE THIS BLOG'S COMMITMENT TO DESTROYING THE LEFT.
  • LEFTISTS ARE TRAITORSM THE PLAGUE.
  • TO DEFEAT THE JIHADIST ENEMY ABROAD WE MUST FIRST DEFEAT THE LEFTIST TRAITORS AT HOME.
AND THAT MEANS DEFEATING THE DEMOCRAT PARTY AND THE MSM.

MCCAIN: KNEE-JERK LIB


I THINK ALL THIS PROVES MCCAIN IS A LIB.

I COULD NEVER EVER VOTE FOR HIM.

EXCEPT OF HE RUNS AGAINST A DEMOCRAT.

SIGH.

WHOOPI GOLDBERG: RACIST

WHOOPI IS RACIST SCUM. JAWA:
Would it be acceptable, for example, for a white male to say that there are things that black women like Whoopi Goldberg are just incapable of understanding?
NOPE.

ARE MUSLIM CABBIES IN PARIS MURDERING THEIR "SLEAZY" INFIDEL FARES?

NYTIMES/REUTERS:
Sweden has urged its young women not to go out alone in Paris at night after a Swedish teenager was abducted and murdered in the French capital.

The charred body of Sussanna Zetterberg, 19, was discovered on Saturday in woods outside Paris just hours after she left a nightclub in the heart of the city.

"I am in a taxi, the driver is odd," Zetterberg said in a text message to a friend. She was not heard from again.

A postmortem showed she had been stabbed, a judicial source said. French press reported she had also been shot four times and was found with her hands tied behind her back.

Prosecutors are investigating whether there are any links with a case in February when another 19-year-old Swede was raped by a man who had posed as a taxi driver.
  • I DON'T THINK THAT THIS IS ANTI-SWEDISH BEHAVIOR BY FRENCH CABBIES.
  • I FEEL THAT IT WAS PROBABLY A JIHADIST INSPIRED MURDER.
THERE'S A NASTY TREND HERE...

NUNN ENDORSES OBAMA

AJC:
Said Obama on Nunn, in a prepared statement: “Few public servants have done more than Sam Nunn to keep America safe, and I look forward to drawing on his counsel as we work to combat nuclear proliferation and other threats to America’s national security.”
  • I PREDICT THAT IF OBAMA WINS THE NOMINATION, HE WILL PICK NUNN AS HIS VEEP.
  • THAT'S WHY NUNN - WHO IS MORE LIKE HILLARY THAN OBAMA - MADE THE ENDORSEMENT: HE WANTS THE JOB.
  • BUT OBAMA MIGHT NOT WIN THE NOMINATION.
  • RIGHT NOW, I FEEL THAT HILLARY WILL PREVENT A FIRST BALLOT WIN FOR OBAMA, AND THAT THE CONVENTION WILL TURN TO GORE, AND THAT GORE WILL PICK OBAMA AS HIS VEEP.

UK'S HIGH COURT KNOCKS DOWN ANTI-TERROR STRATEGY OF FREEZING TERRORISTS' MONETARY ASSETS

So many ludicrous things in England work together to make it almost impossible to fight terrorism properly in that country. From the Telegraph:
The Government’s anti-terrorism strategy was dealt a devastating blow today as the High Court ruled that its powers to freeze suspects’ assets were unlawful and unconstitutional.
Geez, just look at those two words they used to describe the government's steps. Truly, if this is how things are going to be there, then there is no constitution and no justice in England.
A judge said the measures, introduced when Gordon Brown was Chancellor, had not been thought through properly and Parliament had been “bypassed”.

Around 70 suspects are currently subject to orders freezing bank accounts containing about £500,000.

The Treasury immediately announced it will appeal the ruling and the judge agreed that suspects’ assets will remain frozen until the outcome of the appeal.

If the appeal fails ministers are considering rewriting anti-terrorism legislation to incorporate asset-freezing powers into the Counter Terrorism Bill.
Well, let's hope they do, but somehow, I just can't feel optimistic that proper justice will prevail.
At the High Court Mr Justice Collins allowed legal challenges by five men, all British citizens, who have never been charged with terrorist offences but have had their assets frozen.

[...]

The five men making the legal challenge - referred to as A, K, M, Q and G - denied terrorist links and said there had been a “humiliating and devastating” effect on their lives.
The article isn't really clear here about whether the men are terror-suspects. Do I detect a possible sob-story in the works for them?

At the Counterterrorism Blog, Jonathan Winer says:
There is thus a growing risk that the entire international regime to freeze terrorist assets is in a process of disintegration.

In light of this risk, the U.S. and other countries seeking to maintain the ability to freeze terrorist assets need to proceed quickly to develop mechanisms that would provide those subject to sanctions with baseline elements of the right to be heard by by an independent and impartial authority that has the power to grant appropriate relief with procedural guarantees for affected individuals or entities. Some of the most obvious possibilities were laid out two years ago by Professors Thomas J. Biersteker and Sue Eckert of the Watson Institute in a paper for the UN.
That's right, some kind of special legislation is required, perhaps to make it impossible for potential terrorists to use funds within what countries wisely take measures to combat terrorism. However, I'd advise against trying to make any such proposal at an entity as corrupt as the UN. They simply cannot be trusted to follow through on any of that.

"ETHICISTS" WORRY ABOUT GREEN PLANTS

Plants must be respected, and it's a matter of morality:
PLANTS deserve respect, a group of Swiss experts says, arguing that killing them arbitrarily is morally wrong - except when it comes to saving humans or maybe picking petals off a daisy.

In a report on "the dignity of the creature in the plant world", the federal Ethics Committee on non-human Gene Technology condemned the decapitation of flowers without reason, among other sins.

Still, commission member Bernard Baertsche suggested the body weighed such cruel acts on a case by case basis, noting "the simple pleasure of picking the petals off a daisy might suffice as a reason".
So, he-loves-me-he-loves-me-not is okay. What a relief!

On a more serious note, I wonder if that same group of "Swiss experts" is at all concerned about beheadings perpetrated by Moslems.

Police go after blogger who criticized them

We read:
"An anonymous blogger in Whitewater, Wisconsin has been critical of the police chief and how he runs things. He has been critical of various aspects of the town government as well. He recently criticized government roundups of alleged illegal immigrants for instance.

Police chief James Coan did not take kindly to be criticized so he had city employees begin an investigation in order to try to find out who was publishing the blog. Coan used his position in the police department to get two detectives, the director of public works, the information technology officer and the city clerk involved in searching for the identity of the blogger -- all at taxpayer's expense."

Coan had the blogger listed as a "suspect" even though he had broken no laws. Coan tried to bullshit his way out of the mess he created by claiming that the blogger was a "potential threat" because he was "so extremely angry at me".

Source

Sounds like they didn't find him, though. Lucky for him! More background here.

There is a lot of misbehaviour by police and prosecutors. Strange Justice documents a lot of it.

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 summary of Obama news and commentary at OBAMA WATCH

The Democrats Have a Nominee

Says Dan Henninger of the WSJ

So what? Other than ensuring the Greatest Show on Earth will continue, does it matter that Hillary Clinton defeated Barack Obama Tuesday in Pennsylvania by nine-plus points? Barack Obama is the nominee. No matter how many kicks the rest of us find in such famously fun primary states as Indiana and South Dakota, it's going to be McCain versus Obama in 2008.

I believe the cement set around the Clinton coffin last Friday. The Obama campaign announced it had received the support of former Sens. Sam Nunn of North Carolina and David Boren of Oklahoma. Both are what some of us nostalgically call Serious Democrats. They represent what the party was, but is no more: sensible on national security, spending and middle-class values. Obama receiving their imprimatur is like hands reaching out from the graves of FDR, JFK and LBJ to announce: "Enough is enough. This man is your nominee. Go forth and fight with the Republicans." Make no mistake: Superdelegates with sway took notice.....

Sam Nunn and David Boren by political temperament should be in her camp. Instead, they threw in with Obama, who calls his campaign "post-partisan," a ludicrous phrase. The blowback at ABC's debate makes clear that Obama is the left's man. So what did Messrs. Nunn and Boren see? The biggest event was the Clinton Abandonment. In a campaign of surprises, none has been more breathtaking than the falling away of Clinton supporters, loyalists . . . and friends. Why? Money. Barack Obama's mystical pull on people is nice, but nice in modern politics comes after money. Once Barack proved conclusively that he could raise big-time cash, the Clintons' strongest tie to their machine began to unravel. Today he's got $42 million banked. She's got a few million north of nothing....

Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania prove it won't be easy. Barack Obama himself said Tuesday night, "I'm not perfect." He heads to the nomination freighted with all the familiar Democratic tensions that keep a Sam Nunn off the ballot: race and gender obsessions, semipacifism and you bet, bitter white voters. So be it. For modern Democrats, winning the White House always requires some sort of magic to get near 50%. For the Clintons, that bag is empty. The Democrats have a new magician. It's Obama.

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 summary of Obama news and commentary at OBAMA WATCH

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Megan Fox: sexiest woman in the world

AP:
Megan Fox is the sexiest woman in the world — at least according to FHM magazine. The "Transformers" co-star tops FHM's annual 100 Sexiest Women in the World poll of FHM readers. The 21-year-old model-actress beat out the likes of Angelina Jolie (No. 12), Rihanna (No. 14), Kim Kardashian (No. 17), Paris Hilton (No. 77) and last year's champion, Jessica Alba (No. 3). Fox debuted on the annual list in 2006 at No. 68 and ranked at No. 65 in 2007. Joining her in the top 10 this year are — in descending order — Jessica Biel, Alba, Elisha Cuthbert, Scarlett Johansson, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Hilary Duff, Tricia Helfer, Blake Lively and Kate Beckinsale. Britney Spears came in last place at No. 100.
I AGREE. HERE'S WHY:


MORE PROOF OLD MEDIA AND THE MSM ARE DINOSAURS

Reuters:
McClatchy posted a net loss on Wednesday because of plunging advertising sales hurting newspapers in some of its key markets, and said the ad slump will continue in the second quarter.

The company also said it will buy back millions of dollars of its public debt, much of which it took on in its ill-timed purchase of the Knight Ridder newspaper chain in 2006.

Its shares fell more than 9 percent to $8 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange, hitting a new 52-week low. McClatchy shares have fallen 73 percent in the past year.
  • THEY'RE A BUNCH OF LIBERAL DEM SHILLS AND DESERVE TO GO UNDER.
  • YOU CAN'T DIS HALF OF YOUR PUBLIC AND DO VERY WELL.
  • THAT'S WHY CNN HAS SHITTY RATINGS AND FOX DOESN'T.
  • IF THE MSM WERE AS INTERESTED IN PROFITS AND THEIR CUSTOMERS AS THEY WERE IN ADVANCING THEIR LIBERAL AGENDA, THEN THEY'D HAVE A BETTER PRODUCT WHICH WOULD BE MORE APPEALING TO MORE PEOPLE.
THE MSM/OLD MEDIA WILL EITHER BECOME LESS LEFTIST AND PROSPER, OR DISAPPEAR. EITHER WAY: WE WIN!

THE REZKO CASE HEATS UP - AND BLAGOJEVICH AN OBAMA MUST BE SWEATING BULLETS!

NYTIMES:
A former high-ranking state official pleaded guilty Tuesday to lying to a federal agent when he denied receiving anything in return for political contributions to the campaign of Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich.

The guilty plea by Ali Ata, former executive director of the Illinois Finance Authority, carries strong accusations against Mr. Blagojevich, who has not been charged with any wrongdoing but whose name and administration have surfaced repeatedly in a trial against a former fund-raiser, Antoin Rezko. Mr. Rezko is on trial here on federal charges of soliciting kickbacks from companies seeking business or regulatory approval from the state.

As part of his plea agreement, Mr. Ata admitted to knowing that he had received his state position, with a salary of $127,000 a year, because he made political donations to Mr. Blagojevich. He also admitted lying when he said he was unaware that Mr. Rezko played a role in his appointment to head the finance authority.

THIS IS GETTING MORE SERIOUS AND CLOSER TO OBAMA AND THE DEM CHICAGO MACHINE.

EXIT QUESTION: REZKO.... AUCHI... ATA... THEY'RE ALL ARABS.

AND OBAMA AND WRIGHT ARE FORMER MUSLIMS.

ANY CONNECTION?

GERMANY CRACKS DOWN ON RADICAL MOSQUES

IHT:
Scores of German police officers carried out raids on Islamic centers in several big towns and cities Wednesday, detaining nine German citizens suspected of trying to establish a criminal organization and winning over converts to their radical form of Islam, prosecutors said. No terrorism charges were filed, they added.

The 16 raids, carried out by 130 police officers, took place in Ulm, Bonn, Berlin and Leipzig. The security authorities had been observing cultural centers, a publishing house and private houses for more than two years.

One of the main focuses of the raid was the Bavarian town of Neu-Ulm, where several raids have been staged over the past few years during anti-terrorist operations. There, according to the police, the Multi-Kultur-Haus, an Islamic cultural center, had become a meeting point for radical Islamists. At one stage the center was under surveillance by U.S. anti-terrorism agencies, according to media reports here.
RTWT.

MORE PROOF OF GLOBAL JIHAD. SOMEBODY TELL THE DEMOCRATS!

OBAMA'S THREE BIGGEST ISSUES ARE BOGUS

When he congratulated Hillary last night, Obama said this:
Mr. Obama congratulated his opponent at a Tuesday night rally in Evansville, Ind. But he also implicitly chided Mrs. Clinton for the negative tone of her attacks over the past week — and, tacitly, acknowledged his own missteps.

“It’s easy to get caught up in the distractions and the silliness and the tit-for-tat that consumes our politics, the bickering that none of us are entirely immune to,” he said. “That trivializes the profound issues — two wars, an economy in recession, a planet in peril.”

He added that Americans “believe that the challenges we face are bigger than the smallness of our politics.”
IOW: THE BIG THREE ISSUES FOR HIM AND HIS SUPPORTERS ARE:
  1. two wars, [HE MEANS AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ - NOT THE GLOBAL JIHAD]
  2. an economy in recession, [IN WHICH UNEMPLOYMENT IS LOWER THAN IN 1996 AND THE STOCK MARKET IS FLAT]
  3. a planet in peril [EVEN THOUGH 2007 WAS THE COLDEST IN DECADES AND THE WORLD HASN'T WARMED SINCE 2001]
THESE THREE PROBLEMS ARE JUST NOT AS BIG OR AS BAD AS OBAMA CLAIMS:
  1. WE ARE WINNING BOTH WARS.
  2. WE ARE NOT IN A RECESSION, AND IF ONE OCCURS IT WILL PROBABLY BE SHORT, AND SHALLOW.
  3. AND AGW IS BULLSHIT.
IOW: ALL THREE ARE BULLSHIT.

JUST LIKE OBAMA AND THE LEFT. AND THE DEMOCRATS:

ALL THEY HAVE IS A FAULTY DIAGNOSIS AND A BAD PRESCRIPTION

Thank your local Democrat for $4 gas!

Ticked off at $4-a-gallon gas?

Despite the catastrophic damage that high oil prices can wreak on our economy, Democrats oppose virtually every measure that would relieve the pain on average Americans.

The accompanying map depicts "The No Zone." This is the region surrounding the United States in which Democrats have blocked oil exploration.

Democrats oppose drilling in deepwater, even though Hurricanes Katrina and Rita proved that modern offshore drilling platforms pose little or no pollution risk. Democrats oppose exploration in a tiny, postage-stamp sized region of Alaska. As for new refineries or nuclear energy, well, the Democrats oppose those, too. The net impact of Democratic behavior is that America will become increasingly dependent on foreign oil.

While alternative energy sources remain an admirable goal, they are decades away from becoming serious alternatives to oil. For good or bad, America's economy and national security hinge on access to oil. Ben Stein comments:

...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.

The Democrats like to pretend that oil is a needless luxury by preventing exploration in sensible locations. But, in the mean time, Cuba is permitting foreign countries to drain the Gulf of Mexico of its oil. Cuba granted China drilling rights in the Gulf. And, in fact, China will be drilling within 50 miles of Florida.

Thus, while countries such as China suck oil out of the Gulf, Democrats continue to stonewall against sensible energy policies.

Vote accordingly in 2008.

MORE ON THE CARTER PROBLEM

In her latest column this week, Michelle Malkin talks about the continuing problem with the disgusting Jimmy Carter. More available here.

He most definitely must have his passport revoked, and even quarantined/confined to his house that he doesn't even deserve. He is a one-man menace who led to much of Israel's current problems, and it's clear that he's incorrigable.

And while we're on the subject, I strongly recommend reading Prof. Paul Eidelberg's book called Sadat's Strategy, to learn about the evil entity Anwar Sadat really was.

Australian Cardinal says that global warming is over

It ended 10 years ago but a few courageous people are now being allowed to note the fact in print. Article below by Cardinal George Pell, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney



Canada has just experienced the coldest winter and the heaviest snowfalls since 1970-1, which was called a once in a thousand years event. Another 18 centimetres of snow would set an all time record. A Kingston newspaper had a marvellous cartoon of a tough old Canadian, rugged up against the cold and hacking the ice off the windscreen of his car. The caption read "Global warming my a."!

In China the Chinese New Year coincided with a fierce cold snap and snow storms which prevented many city workers returning to their villages for the celebrations. Police had to deal with the ensuing riots. London has just experienced snow at Easter.

The world is much bigger than both China and Canada combined, which might be the exceptions to the new rule of man-made global warming, but they are inconvenient facts for the climate change bandwagon. And it is an intolerant bandwagon with loud exaggerated claims that the issue is settled and that an unchallenged consensus among scientists confirms the hypothesis of dangerous humanly caused global warming. In fact the issue is far from settled. Politicians sceptical of these claims would need unusual courage to resist the strong tides of public opinion. However the rest of us are not so constrained and we should consider all the available information. Three points are of some significance.

Last December more than 100 prominent international scientists, some of them members of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, warned the U.N. that attempting to control the earth's climate was "ultimately futile". So did 500 experts in Manhattan in March. Fighting climate change was distracting governments from helping the most vulnerable citizens adapt to the threat of inevitable natural climate changes, whatever they might prove to be. Futile attempts to prevent global climate change would be a tragic misallocation of resources, they claimed.

Secondly none of the natural changes observed with glaciers, sea-levels and species migration is outside the bounds of known variability, including the warming of 0.1 to 0.2 degrees Celsius per decade in the late twentieth century. But the 1930s decade was warmer than the 1990s. Most importantly the global temperature has not increased since 2001. Global warming has ceased (New Statesman 19/12/2007). This finding invalidates the global warming hypotheses because the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere continues to increase and the temperature should be increasing too. It isn't.

The last point to be acknowledged is that today's computer models cannot predict climate over long periods because there are too many unknowns and variables. We should never forget that while computers are miracles of human ingenuity, able to assimilate extraordinary amounts of information in the briefest time, they are also limited, cannot think for themselves and are totally obedient to their last human master. More than this is needed to predict the future.

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 summary of Obama news and commentary at OBAMA WATCH

Must not mention reality

We read:
"A coalition of American Muslim groups is demanding that Sen. John McCain stop using the adjective "Islamic" to describe terrorists and extremist enemies of the United States.

Muneer Fareed, who heads the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), told The Washington Times that his group is beginning a campaign to persuade Mr. McCain to rephrase his descriptions of the enemy. "We've tried to contact his office, contact his spokesperson to have them rethink word usage that is more acceptable to the Muslim community," Mr. Fareed said. "If it's not our intent to paint everyone with the same brush, then certainly we should think seriously about just characterizing them as criminals, because that is what they are."

An aide to Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee who is counting on his pro-Iraq war stance to attract conservative voters, said the senator from Arizona will not drop the word.

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 summary of Obama news and commentary at OBAMA WATCH

BBC: Iraq army 'in control' of Basra

BBC:
The Iraqi Army commander in Basra says his forces are in "almost complete control" of the city.

The commander, General Mohan al Freiji, denied reports that he had given the leaders of Shia militias in the city 24 hours to give themselves up.

The US has sent 1,000 combat troops to Basra to help the Iraqi army and UK and US special forces are launching raids to detain key figures in the militias.

Iraqi forces launched a campaign against the militias three weeks ago.

It got off to a shaky start, but appears to be gaining ground with increased support from coalition forces, says the BBC's Patrick Howse in Baghdad.

The most influential of the militias in Basra is the Mehdi Army of cleric Moqtada Sadr. There are also the Badr Brigades - linked to the political party the Supreme Islamic Council in Iraq

There are signs of the militias' hold on the city weakening, says our correspondent.
We're winning; (even the BBC has to admit it!) - and the only people pissed off by this are either Iranian mullahs, al Qaeda, or Democrats.

WE'RE IN AN OIL BUBBLE: "this is the riskiest time to be long in crude oil since 1980"

REASON - via M SIMON, (hat tip Evil Glenn):
Whenever you begin to hear market gurus decree that "this time it's different," as we did during the dot-com bubble and the housing bubble, that's a sure sign of danger in the market.

... since September 2003, the total number of open crude oil futures and options contracts rose by 364 percent.

Meanwhile the global demand for petroleum rose by just 8.2 percent.

"So the futures and options market has become more important than the physical supplies in driving the price," concludes Evans.

"We are seeing investment flows into the oil market that don't have anything to do with the demand and supply of oil."
The bubble will burst soon, too - sooner than you think...

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Another Rude Awakening (Steyn comments on Hillary's Win in PA)

Regardless of the mantra we are hearing ad-infinitum these days from big media and the ultra-left of the Democrat Party, i.e. that Obama has more delegates and votes (not counting Michigan and Florida), and therefore Hillary should simply step aside, despite his not having enough to win at the convention--and having prevailed in NO large states so critical to an electoral victory.

Today--in a very astute observation--Mark Steyn points out that it really is Obama who is looking like the biggest loser now.

As an observer to this Keystone Cops campaign, it is an amazing scene to behold: when I "crossed over" in Texas to vote for Hillary, it was because I thought Obama would be the more difficult of the two for McCain to defeat in the General Election; but not anymore. I I think if Obama is the nominee, it very well might result in a Republican landslide in the fall. The luster has come completely off of the "fresh"mythical Obama who is "above" petty politics and the smartest man on earth. The truth is out now. That truth may well be too late to derail his nomination; but Obama is playing defense almost all the time now--and not playing it well. He has cancelled his North Carolina debate with Hillary, and one gets the impression that it is more out of fear of losing ground than any other consideration. Meanwhile the General Election--with debates against an opponent who is as seasoned in debates as one can be--loom ahead.

If you think about what Steyn is saying here about Obama, its truth is like throwing cold water on the myth of the Messianic Obama. And there are miles and miles and miles to go before he sleeps:

Hillary muses:

Speaking to reporters in Conshohocken, Pa., today, Clinton rejected that common argument, saying "a win is a win."

"But maybe I'm old fashioned about that. But you run a very competitive race at a considerable financial disadvantage. I think maybe the question ought to be why can't he close the deal?"

Which is a fair question. He's the new face in a party that loves new faces (as long as they peddle the same old cobwebbed policies), and he's cool and glamorous, to boot. She's a divisive figure with high negatives who's fought an inept campaign with far worse press coverage hobbled by a blundering hubby who's turned the buy-one-get-two double-act into a pantomime horse with two rear ends. Why can't he close the deal? The Vodka Pundit suggests:

If the Democrats ran a winner-take-all system like the Republicans and the Electoral College do, she’d have this thing clinched — and Obama would look like a regional candidate who can’t win much outside the South and his home state of Illinois.

Instead, the race goes on and on and the candidates get weaker and weaker and without an end in sight.

There's some truth in that, beyond the Dem system. Where is Barack's Mobamamentum?

Welcome to the "Perfect Storm" we've all been hoping for...

REAL Reason for Panic on Climate (maybe--but not what you think...)

Just what exactly is the instigator of the Biggest Scam in World History going to say when it becomes clear to the entire world exactly how rich big Al (and others) have been getting by perpetuating this fraud upon the entire planet? History may one day view Al Gore much as it now views Hitler, especially if the current trend continues (via The Australian)--but like the Germans of the 1940's, those who sat by and allowed the big lie to go unchallenged will be seen as equally accountable.

Bottom line--It's the SUN, stupid:


THE scariest photo I have seen on the internet is www.spaceweather.com, where you will find a real-time image of the sun from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, located in deep space at the equilibrium point between solar and terrestrial gravity.

What is scary about the picture is that there is only one tiny sunspot.

Disconcerting as it may be to true believers in global warming, the average temperature on Earth has remained steady or slowly declined during the past decade, despite the continued increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, and now the global temperature is falling precipitously.

All four agencies that track Earth's temperature (the Hadley Climate Research Unit in Britain, the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, the Christy group at the University of Alabama, and Remote Sensing Systems Inc in California) report that it cooled by about 0.7C in 2007. This is the fastest temperature change in the instrumental record and it puts us back where we were in 1930. If the temperature does not soon recover, we will have to conclude that global warming is over.

There is also plenty of anecdotal evidence that 2007 was exceptionally cold. It snowed in Baghdad for the first time in centuries, the winter in China was simply terrible and the extent of Antarctic sea ice in the austral winter was the greatest on record since James Cook discovered the place in 1770.

It is generally not possible to draw conclusions about climatic trends from events in a single year, so I would normally dismiss this cold snap as transient, pending what happens in the next few years.

This is where SOHO comes in. The sunspot number follows a cycle of somewhat variable length, averaging 11 years. The most recent minimum was in March last year. The new cycle, No.24, was supposed to start soon after that, with a gradual build-up in sunspot numbers.

It didn't happen. The first sunspot appeared in January this year and lasted only two days. A tiny spot appeared last Monday but vanished within 24 hours. Another little spot appeared this Monday. Pray that there will be many more, and soon.

The reason this matters is that there is a close correlation between variations in the sunspot cycle and Earth's climate. The previous time a cycle was delayed like this was in the Dalton Minimum, an especially cold period that lasted several decades from 1790.

Northern winters became ferocious: in particular, the rout of Napoleon's Grand Army during the retreat from Moscow in 1812 was at least partly due to the lack of sunspots.

That the rapid temperature decline in 2007 coincided with the failure of cycle No.24 to begin on schedule is not proof of a causal connection but it is cause for concern.

It is time to put aside the global warming dogma, at least to begin contingency planning about what to do if we are moving into another little ice age, similar to the one that lasted from 1100 to 1850.

There is no doubt that the next little ice age would be much worse than the previous one and much more harmful than anything warming may do. There are many more people now and we have become dependent on a few temperate agricultural areas, especially in the US and Canada. Global warming would increase agricultural output, but global cooling will decrease it.

Millions will starve if we do nothing to prepare for it (such as planning changes in agriculture to compensate), and millions more will die from cold-related diseases. ...

This is not something to take lightly folks--he's not making this stuff up. Not only are we wasting billions every year on a threat that is completely false (which already is having catastrophic consequences to real people who are already dying), but we are also not even looking at what might be needed to respond to what actually might become the biggest catastrophe in human history (yes: even a greater catastrophe than an Obama Presidency or an Iranian bomb...).

Wake up and smell the coffee, Americans; you are being had. You are being taken to the cleaners by liars and thieves. And it isn't only costing you money, it is costing lives. Yet none of our politicians seem to be able to resist being the next person to step up to the mikes and state that this Emperor is wearing clothes, all evidence to the contrary...

JUAN DIEGO FLOREZ GETS FIRST "SOLO ENCORE" AT MET SINCE PAVAROTTI IN 1994

NYTIMES:
After the tenor Juan Diego Flórez popped out his nine shining high C’s in “La Fille du Régiment” at the Metropolitan Opera on Monday night, the crowd rose and cheered. Mr. Flórez obliged with something not heard on the Met stage since 1994: a solo encore.

He sang the aria “Ah! Mes Amis” again, nailing the difficult note — a kind of tenor’s macho proving ground — nine more times. It was one of those thrilling moments that opera impresarios live for.
HERE ARE A PAIR VIDEOS OF HIM SINGING THIS ARIA. ENJOY.






AND HERE'S A RECENT NEWS STORY ON THIS SINGER FROM THE UK:



HE IS A PERUVIAN. MARVELOUS.

GLOBAL CO2 UP STEADILY, BUT GLOBAL TEMPS DOWN STEADILY?



GO FIGURE.

MORE HERE.

EVEN MORE HERE.

A GLOBAL ICE AGE MIGHT ACTUALLY BE STARTING.

HAPPY LENIN'S BIRTHDAY!

HAPPY LENIN'S BIRTHDAY!

CELEBRATE BY:
  • CASTIGATING THE FREEMARKET,
  • AGITATING FOR MORE REGULATIONS ON CAPITAL AND TRADE AND INDUSTRY,
  • AND DEMANDING THAT MORE PERSONAL WEALTH BE REDISTRIBUTED ACCORDING TO THE GOVERNMENT'S WISHES
  • THIS WOULD HAVE MADE LENIN VERY HAPPY.
  • AND THE GREENIES
  • AND THE DEMOCRATS.
BIRDS OF A FEATHER.

Earth Day At The Un: Abolish Capitalism

From the BBC:


Two Latin American leaders have issued warnings about the effects of
biofuel production on food supplies.

Speaking at the UN in New York, Bolivian President Evo
Morales said the development of biofuels harmed the world's most impoverished
people.


And President Alan Garcia of Peru said using land for biofuels was
putting food out of reach for the poor.

Meanwhile UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown is hosting a
meeting to discuss European policy encouraging biofuels.


Ahead of the meeting, Mr Brown said that the UK should be "more
selective in our support" for biofuels, which convert cereals into fuel.

Campaigners say providing a renewable alternative for
conventional fuels could help stop global warming.


But as food prices climb worldwide, there is a fear that development of
biofuels could reduce the production of badly-needed basic foodstuffs.

Ethanol production is on course to account for some 30% of the US
maize crop by 2010, dramatically curtailing the amount of land available for
food crops.

The EU has meanwhile come under criticism for its target of getting
10% of road transport fuel from crops by 2020.

The head of the UN World Food Programme and the chief of the
African Development Bank chief are among those attending the London meeting.

Bio-ethanol project

Opening a UN forum on the global impact of climate change
on indigenous peoples, Mr Morales said that capitalism should be scrapped if the
planet is to be saved from the effects of climate change.


"If we want to save our planet earth, we have a duty to put
an end to the capitalist system," he said.


Be glad you are a conservative

"Chelsea Clinton stopped traffic Friday night as she wandered the streets of Philadelphia on a gay bar crawl, winning rave reviews for both her politics and her appearance. Led around the neighborhood by Gov. Ed Rendell, Chelsea was mobbed by local gays and lesbians, as she walked from one club to the next. They ran up to hug her, posed for pictures and certainly invaded her personal space. "I grabbed her ass," one young woman exclaimed to her friends after snapping a picture with her arm around the former first daughter."

More here:

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 summary of Obama news and commentary at OBAMA WATCH

German researchers find that the Antarctic is getting colder!

The translation into English supplied below is a little clumsy. The German original reads: "Die Tiefsee der Antarktis wird kaelter" -- which is best translated as "The Antarctic deep is getting colder"

The Antarctic deep sea gets colder, which might stimulate the circulation of the oceanic water masses. This is the first result of the Polarstern expedition of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association that has just ended in Punta Arenas/Chile. At the same time satellite images from the Antarctic summer have shown the largest sea-ice extent on record. In the coming years autonomous measuring buoys will be used to find out whether the cold Antarctic summer induces a new trend or was only a "slip".

The Polarstern expedition ANT-XXIV/3 was dedicated to examining the oceanic circulation and the oceanic cycles of materials that depend on it. Core themes were the projects CASO (Climate of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean) and GEOTRACES, two of the main projects in the Antarctic in the International Polar Year 2007/08.

Under the direction of Dr Eberhard Fahrbach, Oceanographer at the Alfred Wegener Institute, 58 scientists from ten countries were on board the research vessel Polarstern in the Southern Ocean from 6 February until 16 April, 2008. They studied ocean currents as well as the distribution of temperature, salt content and trace substances in Antarctic sea water. "We want to investigate the role of the Southern Ocean for past, present and future climate," chief scientist Fahrbach said. The sinking water masses in the Southern Ocean are part of the overturning in this region and thus play a major role in global climate. "While the last Arctic summer was the warmest on record, we had a cold summer with a sea-ice maximum in the Antarctic. The expedition shall form the basis for understanding the opposing developments in the Arctic and in the Antarctic," Fahrbach said.

In the frame of the GEOTRACES project the scientists found the smallest iron concentrations ever measured in the ocean. As iron is an essential trace element for algal growth, and algae assimilate CO2 from the air, the concentration of iron is an important parameter against the background of the discussion to what extent the oceans may act as a carbon sink.

As the oceanic changes only become visible after several years and also differ spatially, the data achieved during the Polarstern expeditions are not sufficient to discern long-term developments. The data gap can only be closed with the aid of autonomous observing systems, moored at the seafloor or drifting freely, that provide oceanic data for several years. "As a contribution to the Southern Ocean Observation System we deployed, in international cooperation, 18 moored observing stations, and we recovered 20. With a total of 65 floating systems that can also collect data under the sea ice and are active for up to five years we constructed a unique and extensive measuring network," Fahrbach said.

Background:

The Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) conducts research in the Arctic, Antarctic and in oceans of mid and high latitudes. The AWI coordinates polar research in Germany, and provides important infrastructure, such as the research icebreaker Polarstern and stations in the Arctic and Antarctic, for international science organisations. The AWI is one of 15 research centres of the 'Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft' (Helmholtz Association), the largest scientific organisation in Germany.

In the International Polar Year more than 50,000 scientists from over 60 countries investigate the polar regions. It is their aim to investigate the role of the Arctic and the Antarctic with regard to the Earth's climate and ecosystems. Germany has very good preconditions for research in the Arctic and in the Antarctic, having the worldwide most efficient research icebreaker Polarstern, several polar stations and two polar planes. In particular, Germany can contribute to the key issues: polar regions and climate change, shifting continents, venture into unknown regions, and development of innovative technologies.

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 summary of Obama news and commentary at OBAMA WATCH

Monday, April 21, 2008

Muslim Groups Object To McCain's Terminology

From this article in the April 21, 2008 edition of the Washington Times:
A coalition of American Muslim groups is demanding that Sen. John McCain stop using the adjective "Islamic" to describe terrorists and extremist enemies of the United States.

Muneer Fareed, who heads the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), told The Washington Times that his group is beginning a campaign to persuade Mr. McCain to rephrase his descriptions of the enemy.

"We've tried to contact his office, contact his spokesperson to have them rethink word usage that is more acceptable to the Muslim community," Mr. Fareed said. "If it's not our intent to paint everyone with the same brush, then certainly we should think seriously about just characterizing them as criminals, because that is what they are."

An aide to Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee who is counting on his pro-Iraq war stance to attract conservative voters, said the senator from Arizona will not drop the word.

[...]

Michael Ledeen, a terrorism analyst at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, backed Mr. McCain's definition of the enemy.

[...]

Of ISNA's criticism, Mr. Ledeen said, "They're just silly. What a silly thing to say. I talk of Marxist extremists and nationalist extremists. They just don't want people to say there are Islamic terrorists, which there are. Too bad."
The WaPo article also contains this surreal information:
The publication Jewish Week, in an April 2 article, quoted a rabbi as praising ISNA for reaching out to the Jewish community in the United States. "They feel strongly it is time to move forward," the rabbi said.
Information about ISNA, from Discover The Networks.org, clearly explains what ISNA is all about:
...ISNA focuses heavily on providing Wahhabi theological indoctrination materials to a large percentage of the mosques in North America. Many of these mosques were recently built with Saudi money and are required, by their Saudi benefactors, to strictly follow the dictates of Wahhabi imams -- an edict that affects the tone and content of the sermons given in the mosques, the selection of books and periodicals that may be read in mosque libraries or sold in mosque bookshops, and the policies governing the exclusion or suppression of dissenters from the congregations.

Through its affiliate, the North American Islamic Trust -- a Saudi government-backed organization created to fund Islamist enterprises in North America -- the Saudi-subsidized ISNA reportedly holds the mortgages on 50 to 80 percent of all mosques in the U.S. and Canada. Thus the organization can freely exercise ultimate authority over these houses of worship and their teachings....
The entire article is HERE.

Here's to hoping that Senator McCain understands what ISNA really is and really stands for. In any case, Hillary and Obama aren't taking a strong stand against Islamic terrorism.