Can we keep our Republic?

Obama DOJ Response to Fast and Furious

2011-10-25T07:49:00.000-07:00

Many of us have seen the huge volume of redacted documents that Holder's Justice Department has handed Congressional investigators pertaining to their involvement in a series of activities/operations where the US Government facilitated the sale of well over two thousand firearms to drug cartels in Mexico and Central America.

Those documents can be damning even if you black out most of the information in them. So the Obama Administration is working to change the rules under which Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) data is shared. READ ABOUT IT HERE.

In an effort to obscure the truth, the Department of Justice proposes that it should be able to lie to anyone requesting data and tell them that it doesn't exist, even when it does.

The Justice Department has proposed the change as part of a large revision of FOIA rules for federal agencies. Specifically, the rule would direct government agencies who are denying a request under an established FOIA exemption to “respond to the request as if the excluded records did not exist,” rather than citing the relevant exemption.

The proposed rule has alarmed government transparency advocates across the political spectrum, who’ve called it “Orwellian” and say it will “twist” public access to government.

In a public comment regarding the rule change, the ACLU, along with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and OpenTheGovernment.org, said the move “will dramatically undermine government integrity by allowing a law designed to provide public access to government information to be twisted to permit federal law enforcement agencies to actively lie to the American people.”
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/10/24/justice-dept-proposes-lying-hiding-existence-of-records-under-new-foia-rule/#ixzz1bnx2YhbU

Even the American Civil Liberties Union thinks that this is screwed up. I thought hell would freeze over before I agreed with them on anything.

How do you view the Middle East?

2011-10-22T06:25:00.000-07:00

This Michael Ramirez cartoon captures my view in a way that words can not adequately express:

I do know that there are nice people in the Middle East. However, much of the place is simply 'toxic' in my opinion. And I don't think that many of the policy executives in the US have an adequate grasp of the place.

CBS News Coverage of Fast and Furious

2011-10-15T21:07:00.000-07:00

CBS News coverage of the BATFE Scandal, Operation Fast and Furious.

Another viral Hitler video:

The Arbabsiar Plot and the Mexican Drug Cartels

2011-10-14T12:04:00.000-07:00

Manssor Arbabsiar (56) and Gholam Shakuri were charged on October 11 by the US Justice Department for an alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United States.

Shakuri is a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Qods force, a foreign special operations element tasked with promoting the IRG's interests outside of Iran.

Once the FBI took Arbabsiar into custody, they had him make consensual telephone calls to Iran (source DOJ)

"Arbabsiar made phone calls at the direction of law enforcement to [Gholam] Shakuri [a member of Qods Force] in Iran that were monitored. During these phone calls, Shakuri allegedly confirmed that Arbabsiar should move forward with the plot to murder the Ambassador and that he should accomplish the task as quickly as possible, stating on Oct. 5, 2011, '[j]ust do it quickly, it’s late.' "

Because the Obama Administration is under fire for Operation Fast and Furious, some have floated the opinion that the Arbabsiar plot is a smokescreen by USGOV to obscure the Congressional investigation into the misconduct of Attorney General Eric Holder and possibly of President Obama, himself.

I have no idea whether this is a USGOV smokescreen to obscure their Operation Fast and Furious fiasco or not because I have no first hand information. However, on the stupid scale, isn't 'walking' 2,000 firearms to the Sinaloa Federation Drug Cartel just about as goofy as Iranians working with Los Zetas proxies to assassinate a Saudi Ambassador in the US?

If true, the Iranian tradecraft was sloppy and amateurish. They didn't vet their Mexican assassin adequately with a more benign move first (they rushed), etc. We can criticize their methodology. However just because it's stupid, doesn't mean that they didn't plot to do it. The truck bomb in the basement of the World Trade Center didn't bring a tower down. But Al Qaeda kept at it and eventually succeeded by smashing jet liners into it.

For me, it is not difficult to envision to Persian conspiracy as the operational norm for millenia. The only thing keeping the Islamic Republic from committing atrocities is their political calculus of the repercussions. With the Obama Administration's commitment to the Lloyd George school of diplomacy, what repercussions are there that matter? A harshly worded letter from Obama to the Iranian Supreme Leader and his toadies won't dent their armor or resolve.

The government’s complaint [.pdf] outlines an almost outlandish comedy of errors. Now we’re finding out that the administration itself had “expressed concern that the plot’s cartoonish quality would invite suspicions and conspiracy theories.”

The only place that I feel that I have room to comment with any degree of clarity is on the Mexican Cartels and on their methods of operations. I work with that every day. I’m continually frustrated by the way that law enforcement and others view the organizational structure of the cartels, because despite broad evidence, they cling to traditional organizational wire diagrams to demonstrate relationships. Los Zetas and every other cartel consists of separate actors, each with their own distribution network in the US. They are not monolithic organizations.

The only organizational model that I find applicable to the traditional cartels is that of a feudal society. When analysts view the Sinaloa Federation, the Beltran Leyva Organization and other cartels within a feudal framework, they come fare closer to understanding how things are organized than if they view them in another way. The Zetas are a 'franchise operation' but move in much the same way as the more traditional cartels.

I've heard commentators express disbelief that members affiliated with Los Zetas would blow up [Saudi Ambassador Adel] al-Jubeir (and potentially a hundred people nearby, explicitly including possible U.S. senators) having only been fronted $100,000 of the $1.5 million payoff, and holding Arbabsiar as collateral.

I don't have ANY problem with that part of the story at all. That part does make some sense, particularly if Qods was providing the explosives. Having a couple of Los Zetas drones embedded in a drug distribution network plant a bomb in a restaurant is an easy task. A chimp could be trained. They'd be paid pennies on the dollar and the prime actor, back in Mexico, would keep the bulk of the money.

2011-10-12T18:53:00.000-07:00

The sign on Harry Truman's desk read, "The Buck Stops Here".

The innovators in our age or in any age, dared to dream big, dared to take risks and when those risks paid off, they reaped the profit from the chances they took. The Two Steves who started Apple and Bill Gates, who started Microsoft are noteworthy examples. The life of the late Steve Jobs is an inspiration to many people including me because he wasn't afraid to fail and he kept on going until he died. The world is less somehow without him.

Neither of the examples that I cited were people who took government hand-outs in order to build their commercial empires, both of which have changed the world.

It's something to ponder when you hear the President of the United States blame everyone for his dismal failures and for his morally bankrupt administration. Hand-outs and stimulus did not build the nation in the first place and they will not lead to its repair.

Hold onto your Wallet

2011-10-09T10:26:00.000-07:00

President Obama's efforts to play the class warfare card and to blame George Bush for everything from the clouds in the sky to the malaise of the first two years of his administration when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress, may be the only card that he has. And if people are dumb enough to believe him, they may usher in another four years of this bumbling politician.

The New York Times, hardly a bastion of conservative thought, is predicting another recession with unemployment approaching or even exceeding 10 percent. (READ HERE)

At the same time, the jobless liberals are trying to convince America of something in their occupation on Wall St. Nobody really knows what they want. Some signs I've seen plea for an end to whaling. Others express a need for free money (more free money than they're getting from the government, a code word for tax payers)

Some feel that corporations should be looted in an effort to promote more job growth. Don't ask me to explain their position. I simply report it. I don't think that any of them have read Atlas Shrugged. I'm sure that most have read Alinsky's Rules for Radicals. The whole community organizing crowd seems to be very comfortable sitting around, collecting welfare and complaining about the lack of jobs. If they push Obama into the White House again (The Class Warfare Struggle), I'm sure that will get them the jobs that they pine for. God knows, the government is really the only solution to more employment. Corporations are too unreliable to trust with job creation...

The Wall Street protest radicals involved with the struggle against the middle class job creators and corporations who employ people are dragging out the wrong playbook, though. Pointing to Mao's efforts to crush the upper and middle class led to the Cultural Revolution and 50 million dead Chinese. Afterward (today), China is the world's bastion of capitalistic production. Walk through WalMart and count the products made in China vs the USA.

Capitalism works. Nothing else delivers. I know that those words sound sour to Obama Democrats, but if America goes in the direction that Barack Obama leads, all I can advise is that you should hold onto your wallet.

Biden for Team Obama in 2012!

2011-10-06T13:35:00.000-07:00

Is Vice President Joe (Slow Joe) Biden suffering from dementia? It's an honest question since he's a heartbeat away from the Big Job. (h/t Dale for the graphic, right)

While I support his continued position on Team Obama, because he has every bit as little credibility as his boss, Barack, I question whether or not he's qualified to hold high public office.

He doesn't seem to be able to get anything straight, and I think that I speak for many Americans and most world leaders when I write this. Don't get me wrong. I'm sure that he's a fine grandpa and yes, he's always good for a quote on how Barack Obama was one of the first articulate black people he'd met. But to give him control of nuclear launch codes is, frankly, frightening.

One thing that Vice President Biden is good for is that he is able to blame former President George Bush for his (Biden's) failure in office (a familiar refrain from the Obama White House whenever they screw something up). At least he's able to remember to say that.

And we're told that if you pull his finger, he'll fart on command. That talent alone, while noteworthy, is not the only talent that an American Vice President should have.

Taxation and the Gray Market

2011-10-04T04:17:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of taxation schemes being floated in the US and elsewhere to attempt to 'fix' the financial situation that primarily the US and European nations find themselves in. The problem relates specifically to banks that have grown so large that they rival the assets of some of the European nations they do business in. As with US Banks, they are deemed to be 'too big to fail'.

Taxation and banking secrecy in the same world (on the same planet) leads to a 'gray market' where capital moves for the sake of its own preservation to avoid the taxes governments levy. Where a nation's internal corruption reaches a tipping point - Greece, for example, you're bound to find a thriving gray economy. In fact, recent EU researchers point to 40% of Greeks claiming to work in the gray market. That means that they don't pay taxes.

A grey market or gray market also known as parallel market is the trade of a commodity through distribution channels which, while legal, are unofficial, unauthorized, or unintended by the original manufacturer. The term gray economy, however, refers to workers being paid under the table, without paying income taxes or contributing to such public services as Social Security and Medicare. It is sometimes referred to as the underground economy or "hidden economy."(Wikipedia)

The simpler and more reasonable the taxation system in any country, the more likely that it will be paid. Whenever one nation-state decides to pile taxes on the public, particularly the richer portion of that population, the quicker you will see that capital move to a more favorable taxation environment. This is why the present class warfare taxation scheme envisioned by US President Barack Obama will fail to increase revenue. Then again, he's using it as an election strategy, not as a method of increasing the flow of money to the government.

Taxes are rarely levied for the benefit of those who are taxed. As a result, through out democracies worldwide, lawmakers understand that taxpayers can be influenced to vote based on a strategy aimed at looting one sector of society. And the result will inevitably be that capital will either move or will enter a gray market scenario.

Operation Fast and Furious - How High does it go?

2011-09-29T21:39:00.000-07:00

Dennis Burke, the United States Attorney for Arizona resigned over the Operation Gunrunner/Operation Fast and Furious Scandal.
Acting ATF Director, Ken Melson was reassigned to the Office of Legal Policy as an advisor on forensic science issues due to the scandal. Todd Jones, US Attorney for Minnesota took his place as (another) Acting ATF Director
Operation Gunrunner was managed in Arizona. Operation Castaway, a clone of the Operation Gunrunner program was managed in Florida. Two programs point to a nationwide POLICY. Acting Director Melson didn't have the spleen to order this sort of nationwide program without approval from his boss, Attorney General Eric Holder. The quickest way for an acting director to keep from being a director is to do things that are not sanctioned.
The White House (LINK to NY Times) was aware of Operation Fast and Furious. ATF Supervising Agent William Newell testified before Congress that he occasionally spoke to Kevin O'Reilly, a member of the White House's national security staff about the progress that they made on the case. The Obama Administration conveniently transferred O'Reilly to the US State Department, which sent him to Iraq, where he is presently unavailable to respond to Congressional subpoena.
Dan Restrepo the National Security Advisor for the Western Hemisphere and Greg Gatjanis, the director of Counterterrorism and Counter Narcotics on the National Security Council were also briefed by ATF Supervisor Newell.
Dan Restepo told the Mexican News Media that, "The US will work to inhibit the flow of weapons...across our border." Restrepo has not been available to receive a subpoena from Congress. "That blows apart White House claims that it had no idea the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was encouraging frontmen for Mexico’s cartels to buy weapons from U.S. gun dealers — to “trace” them afterward."(Investors Business Daily)
DOJ Criminal Division Chief Lanny Breuer said time and again in public speeches that he supported Operation Gunrunner.
Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano was aware of this operation and approved of it. (LINK) "Last week, our administration launched a major new effort to break the backs of the cartels. My department is committing 100 new ATF personnel to the Southwest border in the next 100 days to supplement our ongoing Project Gunrunner, DEA is adding 16 new positions on the border, as well as mobile enforcement teams, and the FBI is creating a new intelligence group focusing on kidnapping and extortion. DHS is making similar commitments, as Secretary Napolitano will detail."
Both the FBI and DEA had their hands involved in Operation Fast and Furious. "Confidential sources have told Congressional investigators that a main target ATF was trying to identify in Fast and Furious was actually a DEA confidential informant working with the FBI." (LINK to CBS News) Clearly, FBI and DEA were aware of Operation Gunrunner/Fast and Furious.

Despite all of the evidence to the contrary, Attorney General Eric Holder said (to Fox News, September 7, 2011), "The notion that somehow or other this thing reaches into the upper levels of the Justice Department is something that. ... I don't think is supported by the facts," Holder told reporters at an unrelated press conference in Washington. "It's kind of something I think certain members of Congress would like to see, the notion that somehow or other high-level people in the department were involved. As I said, I don't think that is going to be shown to be the case -- which doesn't mean that the mistakes were not serious."

Fox News reported today (LINK to Fox) that the US Taxpayers paid for firearms that were supplied to the Sinaloa Federation narcotics cartel.

Is there any real question in your mind, dear reader, how high this scandal went in the Obama Administration?

Obama and Class Warfare (point/counterpoint)

2011-09-19T09:43:00.000-07:00

The best way to discourage job creators is to levy more and higher taxes on them. Yes, it is class warfare and it's about turning one more numerous voting block on another less numerous (but more prosperous) voting block.

I've never been employed by a company or person who makes less than I do.

It's just something to keep in mind when you're out there looking for work.

counterpoint

Isn't it Time for the Obamas to go on Vacation Again?

2011-09-15T09:22:00.000-07:00

The Obama Family has become known for their lavish vacations, enjoyed at taxpayer expense. The reporting from both US and foreign media on these lavish trips where they're accompanied by as many as 350 staff people to keep them happy. Google it if you're a denier.

Graphic h/t WoFat

However, it wasn't until I looked at this cartoon that I realized that it was more about trying go get Michelle out of the dumps than allowing Barack some time on the links. It's true that she never felt good about being an American until after her husband was elected president. Now, it's just a matter of keeping her spirits up.

Michelle Obama's $500,000 European Dream Vacation

In a "Dear Republican" fund-raising message e-mailed to potential contributors this morning, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said, "He sure needs a break after a long year criss-crossing the country raising money to save his job—all the while over 14 million Americans are out of work and even more are suffering because of his policies."

But maybe it's not about the Chief Executive at all. Maybe it's about trying to make Michelle feel good about the tough job that she has as First Lady.

Let's face it, she doesn't look as good as French First Lady, Carla Bruni. From what we've heard, she doesn't even like Carla Bruni. Then again, Carla's rear isn't wider than her husband's.

So what can the American people do to try and cheer her up? Vacations. Lots of vacations - all over the world. The Obama Family doesn't go to its home in Chicago when it's on vacation or to Camp David the way most presidents did. They jet set around the world. However, much she travels, I don't think that Michelle's rear will shrink or that her attitude will improve. So far, she's spent one of every nine days in office "on vacation" (not including weekends at home with the kids while Barack is off working).

Then again, that's just my opinion.

Felines to Aid in Traffic Safety

2011-09-13T15:58:00.000-07:00

Based on this article (LINK HERE), we won't be seeing any of those cat's eyes** on the highway in the future. Soon they will be replaced by real cats, possibly chained to the highway.

Scientists at the Mayo Clinic have invented whole cats, that can sit in the middle of the interstate highways and prevent accidents. After years of waiting, might this be that moment when cats can finally help mankind and do a day’s work? Maybe. (LINK TO THE MAYO CLINIC HERE)

The Highway Departments in some states will issue decals (left) for motorists who want to place them on the door of their car to announce to the world that they were able to stay on the highway thanks to the new glow-in-the-dark cats. Supplies are limited.

So for all you doubters and cat haters out there, this doesn't appear to be a hoax - well not about the glowing cats. The implementation of the glowing cats wasn't conceived by researchers at the Mayo Clinic but technology does have its spin-offs.

Cat lovers have endorsed the idea, feeling that with glow-in-the-dark cats on the highway, Tabbie will be just a little safer and less likely to have motorists swerving to hit her in the dark.

**The cat's eye is a retroreflective safety device used in road marking and was the first of a range ofraised pavement markers. It originated in the UK in 1933 and is today used all over the world.

Sadly, this technological breakthrough won't do anything to save imperiled small, yappy dogs owned by fat women.

Operation Gunrunner - Time to Appoint a Special Prosecutor

2011-09-12T12:02:00.000-07:00

The investigation into potentially criminal behavior on the Operation Gunrunner Scandal has expanded to the White House per CBS News

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20104044-10391695.html

Laura Ingram interviews Congressman Darrell Issa about the latest in the American Government's gun smuggling effort that resulted in arming Mexican narcotics cartels, which resulted in deaths to at least one American agent and countless Mexican soldiers, police officers and civilians.

Congressman Issa believes that Holder knew or should have known about this program.

"The only way the attorney general didn't know is that he made sure he didn't want to know." (Congressman Issa)

That being the case, it's time for the PRESIDENT to appoint an independent special prosecutor on this matter pursuant to 28 C.F.R. PART 600. The role of the prosecutor(s) would be as follows:

1. Fully investigating the facts and circumstances surrounding "Operation Fast & Furious", "Project Gunrunner", "Operation Castaway", and any other related federal law enforcement activities as Congress should deem appropriate, and;

2. Determining whether any federal, state and/or international regulations, laws, statutes, treaties, agreements or other binding conventions were violated, and;

3. Determining which officials and/or employees, whether elected or appointed, of the U.S. Government, had substantial knowledge of, or should have had knowledge of, the activities resulting in any such violations, and;

4. Determining which officials and/or employees, whether elected or appointed, of the U.S. Government, were materially responsible for planning, approving and/or otherwise enacting any operations or activities leading to such violations, and;

5. Determining whether any such officials and/or employees of the U.S. Government may have engaged in improper activities aimed at "covering-up", obstructing, frustrating, obfuscating, minimizing or preventing efforts by Members of Congress to conduct lawful oversight inquiries, and/or designed to evade rightful accountability for wrongful acts by such officials or employees;

6. Insuring that any officials and/or employees of the U.S. Government who committed substantial acts of wrongdoing are held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.

7. Issuing a comprehensive Report of Investigation and Recommendations to the Congress and American people.

(h/t cleanupatf.org)

Because such a prosecutor couldn't be appointed by Eric Holder, a suspect, it would be appropriate given the current political make-up of the Senate and the House of Representatives that the people selected to head this prosecution team be selected by Senate Majority Leader Reid and Speaker Boehner.

How high does this scandal go?

You be the judge.

Movie Review: The Kingdom

2011-09-09T14:09:00.000-07:00

"What would a murder investigation look like on Mars?" (Screenwriter Matt Carnahan used that sentence to describe the movie that he wrote which made it on the big screen.)

The Kingdom is a 2007 film directed by Peter Berg and starring Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Ashraf Barhom, with Kyle Chandler, Jeremy Piven and Ali Suliman.

The film is fictional, but inspired by bombings at the Riyadh compound on May 12, 2003 and the Khobar Barracks housing complex on June 26, 1996, in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The story follows a team of FBI agents.

Is the film worth sitting through in the comfort of your own home (interspersed with commercials to pay for it)? Not really.

It's a formula film that takes jabs at Saudi sensibilities on gender, on many of their citizen's opinions about the United States, etc. Just because they're stereotypes doesn't make them untrue. It's just that this sort of movie always revolves around those issues.

Jamie Foxx is not credible playing a government agent to those who understand where his heart is. He's ok playing an informant, or as Ray Charles, but he doesn't cut it in a law enforcement role. His acting isn't bad - it's just that his personal life abuts his role, and not in a good way.

Radical Wahhabism, the sect of Islam that al Qaeda identifies with finds a nexus within the borders of our Saudi Allies. (read the wikipedia account to see how the Saudis distance themselves from that association). The movie could have taken a more risky and possibly more artistic perspective by including some of the genuinely politically incorrect facts that made the actual investigation interesting.

There is a duality to the Saudi government. Some of them support terrorism and others genuinely oppose it. The Kingdom danced around the issue.

Employment - Left and Right

2011-09-05T13:48:00.000-07:00

I think that as September advances, the Obama Administration's predictions of 'a summer of recovery' have fizzled seriously again. Asian stocks fell today following the dismal US jobs report on Friday.
SFGate reported:

Asian stocks fell for a second day, led by mining companies and exporters, after U.S. unemployment stagnated in August, fueling concern that the world’s largest economy may be headed for a recession.

Samsung Electronics Co., a South Korean exporter of consumer electronics that gets 22 percent of its revenue from America, sank 3.1 percent in Seoul. Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s biggest carmaker by market value, declined 1.6 percent in Tokyo. Clothier Fast Retailing Co. sank 3.6 percent after reporting sales fell at its Uniqlo stores. BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s largest mining company and Australia’s No. 1 oil producer, retreated 1.1 percent after crude and metal prices slipped.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index dropped 1.3 percent to 122.60 as of 9:27 a.m. in Tokyo. More than six stocks fell for each that rose on the gauge. The measure slumped 8.6 percent last month, the most since May 2010, amid concern global economic growth is slowing as Europe’s sovereign debt crisis spreads and after Standard & Poor’s cut the U.S. credit rating

“People didn’t expect an increase in U.S. jobs would come to a halt, which was a negative surprise,” said Toshiyuki Kanayama, a market analyst at Tokyo-based Monex Inc.

In Europe, Deutsche Bank shares lost 6% after CEO Joseph Ackermann told a banking conference that the euro zone debt crisis could kill weak banks and stunt profits for the rest of industry for years to come. (CNBC)

Democratic Party Philosophy vs Republican Party Philosophy

The Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics (REPORT) indicates that the US is entering another phase of recession or perhaps even depression as this lingering economic crisis and malaise drags on - and on.

President Obama poises himself (THE PRESIDENTIAL LABOR DAY SPEECH) as reported by Voice of America to launch yet another stimulus package [maybe as much as another trillion dollars?] to put America back to work. In his speech in Detroit (famous 'union city') where the genuine jobless numbers approach 35%, the President remained hopeful that government borrowing to pay workers to keep the unemployment numbers down will boost his re-election campaign prospects.

Albert Einstein defined insanity this way: "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Another trillion dollar stimulus package?

Really?

Will some of the money for the new stimulus be used to smuggle firearms to Mexican Drug Cartels the way that the last one did?

Today, Texas Governor Rick Perry said, “We [have] got to get America back working again. And government’s role is to create an environment [conducive to job growth]. I did not create those jobs. Americans created those jobs. Texans created those jobs, because we allowed them to have an environment where they were not overtaxed, over-regulated, or over-litigated. We got out of the way and let the private sector do what the private sector does best: create jobs.”

The difference between the (so far failed, dismal) Democratic Party's approach to borrowing a trillion or two that is subsequently wasted and the Republican Party's concept of enabling the private sector couldn't be more different.

Happy Labor Day

Eric Holder is Obstructing a Congressional Investigation

2011-09-04T08:54:00.000-07:00

There is only one reason why the Attorney General of the United States is continually obstructing the Congressional Investigation surrounding BATF Operation Fast and Furious. It's because he knew about it and likely so did the President.

In a stunning development late yesterday, the Justice Department told me that there had been 31 firearm recoveries in the United States and Mexico linked to Operation Fast and Furious, the ill-advised strategy that allowed guns to be purchased by known straw buyers and then transferred to people often transporting the guns across the border into Mexico.

The latest revelation comes from answers to questions for the record to Attorney General Eric Holder when he was testified on May 4 before the Senate Judiciary Committee, of which I am the Ranking Member. Questions for the Record are written questions for witnesses testifying before the committee that Senators are unable to ask in person.

The Justice Department initially answered my questions on July 22. I was disappointed that the Attorney General didn't answer all of my questions and even the questions the department answered were not complete. Soon after receipt of the answers, the department indicated to my staff that one answer in particular was inaccurate.

The question asked, "In addition to the two guns recovered at the Terry murder scene, how many of the guns connected to Operation Fast and Furious that have been recovered were recovered in connection with violent crimes in the U.S.?"

In the July 22 response, the department said that "…ATF is aware of 11 instances where a recovered firearm associated with this case was recovered in connection with a crime of violence in the United States."

Now, in revised answers, the department said that instead of 11 instances where a recovered firearm associated with this case was recovered in connection with a crime of violence in the United States, there is one additional firearm associated with Fast and Furious recovered in the United States (in addition to the two recovered at the murder scene of Brian Terry).

"21 additional firearms associated with Operation Fast and Furious that were recovered in Mexico and reportedly were associated with violent crimes."

The Justice Department has been less than forthcoming since day one, and this latest response is so convoluted and incoherent that it appears the department is trying to hide something instead of providing straight answers. So, the revisions here are hardly surprising, and the numbers likely will rise until the more than 1,000 guns that were allowed to fall into the hands of bad guys are recovered, most likely years down the road. What we're still waiting for are the answers to the other questions the Attorney General failed to answer per our agreement. The cooperation of the Attorney General and his staff is needed if we're ever going to get to the bottom of this disastrous policy and help the ATF and the department move forward.

Friday, September 2, 2011

Senator Grassley

The BATF began Project Gunrunner as a pilot project in Laredo, Texas, in 2005 and expanded it as a national initiative in 2006. Project Gunrunner was part of the Justice Department's broader Southwest Border Initiative, which sought to reduce cross-border drug and firearms trafficking and the high level of violence associated with these activities on both sides of the border. Many people are concerned that what started out as a legitimate program morphed into the abortion we see today because the Democratic Party wanted to make a case that firearms from the US ended up in Cartel hands in Mexico. They had difficulty demonstrating that, so they sold the guns themselves in order to "make their case" to the American people.

The lie that began this program expansion in 2006 is a cover-up in 2010 and 2011.

Does Allah like Infidels better?

2011-09-01T14:31:00.000-07:00

Islamic Sensibilities and Breast Cancer

While the official numbers are skewed by under-reporting, there is a general consensus that women living in the Islamic World have a much higher incidence of breast cancer than in the West. One might ask is Allah loves the infidels more to provide protection not generally available in fundamentalist Islamic societies.

There is also a vastly higher incidence of rickets (Vitamin D deficiency) among nations which require women and young ladies to wear traditional Islamic dress. Another example of how Allah seems to favor the infidels.

Even though I detest Bill Maher, he does slap the nail on the head with this 12th Century Fashion Show. So I'm running with Maher's production -

Sidebar: It is interesting to note that, on the basis of surveys conducted by the prestigious Pew Research Centre, that 82% of Egyptian and Pakistani Muslims support stoning for adultery based on the non-evidential accusation of one man without allowing for a woman's defense. That's chilling enough, but 84% Egyptians, 86% Jordanians, 76% Pakistani Muslims support the death penalty for people who leave Islam. These views, formed from an intransigent adherence to ancient revelation, are incompatible with democracy.

Muslim rape culture began in the year 624 when Mohammed came up with an ingenious means of rewarding his followers. In addition to the trophies of war, he made it legal for them to capture and rape married women. Previously that would have been considered adultery. Now it was an incentive to become one of Islam's Holy Warriors. It doesn't take much to imagine how ugly and awful the camp of Mohammed's followers was for a woman. That's why the Burka was invented.

Muslim apologists insist that the Burka has something to do with female modesty. But the Koran spells out clearly the reason for it. "Tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks (veils) all over their bodies that they may thus be distinguished and not molested." The Hijab was invented for similar reasons in 1970's Lebanon to mark out Shiite women so they wouldn't be molested by Muslim terrorists. The purpose of the Burka was closer to a cattle brand, separating women married to Muslim husbands, from slave women who were captured in war. The former were the property of their husbands and untouchable, the latter were fair game for everyone. To a Muslim, the Burka is a sign that says, 'only my husband may rape me' and the lack of a Burka means, 'everyone can rape me.'

When Australia's Grand Mufti Sheikh Hilaly justified a notorious series of gang rapes by comparing women to uncovered meat left out in the presence of a cat, he laid out the basis of Muslim rape culture. Women are always the guilty party, because they are women. If they refuse to defeminize themselves by putting on a Burka and becoming just another dark ghost haunting the streets of Cairo or Sydney with their lack of selfhood, then they are automatically guilty of their own rape.

In the West rape is a crime because it an assault on a human being. In Islam, it is only a crime because it is a sex act that takes place outside of marriage. In many Islamic countries, 'Zina' meaning adultery or immoral sexual conduct in general, is a charge that can be levied against both the rapist and his victim. Even in a case where Mohammed ordered the execution of a rapist, he first 'forgave' his victim for her part in it. To the extent that Islam criminalizes rape, it is as a property crime or a disruption of public order. And it imposes a high standard of proof that is unlikely to be met.

In Islam, women are objects, not subjects. Physically their entire bodies are considered 'Awrah', an Arabic word meaning 'nakedness', 'fault' or 'defect', terms that amply sum up the Islamic view of women. Even their voices are considered 'Awrah' meaning that even a fully covered up woman speaking is an immoral thing. A woman exists within Islam as an immoral object. And that gives Muslim men implicit permission to assault her, while holding her very nature accountable for tempting them to commit the act.

In a tribal society, rape is a crime against property and honor. To a father, his daughter's virginity is a valuable item that increases her market value. Marrying her off is way to build a relationship between two families. To a husband, his wife's chastity maintains the value of his property and insures that the offspring is his. To assault a woman is to commit a crime against the communal property of a family. But a woman herself has no rights over her body that any man is bound to respect.

Why else do women have to be defeminized, their faces masked and their voices silenced, if there isn't some terrible mysterious force about femininity that causes men to act out?

That is exactly what the first president of Iran claimed, when he said that, "Scientific research had shown that women's hair emitted rays that drove men insane." (emphasis added)

More recently an Iranian cleric explained that women who do not dress modestly corrupt men and cause earthquakes. The flight routes of Iranian planes had to be diverted from a stadium where women played soccer for fear that their hair rays might affect passengers in the planes above.

Behind this hair ray nonsense lurks an uglier notion, that women are unnatural creatures and that men are not responsible for their conduct around women. If a man rapes a woman, maybe her hair rays made him do it. If they can cause earthquakes, why not. Western legal culture says that men have more control over a situation with a woman. Islamic jurisprudence creates reasons why women do to exonerate their rapists.

How do you sell the notion of equal rights to people who view women as dangerous objects that have to be kept under lock and key? In Islam, you can't - which is why I think that Allah likes Infidels (or at the very least, infidel women) better despite what Muslims say.

The Value of a Libyan Hostage

2011-08-30T12:37:00.000-07:00

The Libyan forces are using children as human shields, seating them on tanks to deter NATO attacks. (LINK TO MSNBC HERE) - referenced below.

Human shields seem to be the norm for operations in the Middle East and to the extent that they're successful, they only encourage more human shields. The only value a hostage has in what it makes the other party do. Therefore hostages should be shown to have no value. It sounds cruel, but it's really the only way to bring change in a practice that Saddam Hussein and many other dictators have made 'normal'.

Pro-Gadhafi troops perched children on tanks to deter NATO attacks, human rights investigators said in a report on Tuesday. It was part of a pattern of rapes, slayings, "disappearances" and other war crimes that they said they found.

The report by Physicians for Human Rights, titled "Witness to War Crimes: Evidence from Misrata, Libya," is based on interviews of residents in the embattled city of Misrata conducted in June.

A popular uprising in Libya in February against Gadhafi's 42-year-old rule resulted in a civil war with rebels backed by a NATO bombing campaign from the air starting in March.

"Four eyewitnesses reported that (Gadhafi) troops forcibly detained 107 civilians and used them as human shields to guard military munitions from NATO attacks south of Misrata," said the PHR report.

The Libyans will stop taking hostages when they learn that nobody cares. The US Military prepare(d) pilots for these eventualities through different means. One was the Jody Call - running cadence. I'll share a few here.

>>WARNING<<

Politically Incorrect

"Flying low and feeling mean,

See the children by the stream,

Drop the bombs and hear them scream,

'Cause napalm sticks to kids."

"Flying low and feeling fit,

Little baby sucking on mommy's tit,

Dow Chemical don't give a shit,

'Cause napalm sticks to kids."

"I want to fly with the cockpit open,

I want to hear the rag-heads scream,

Throw some napalm in the square,

Kill them on their way to prayer."

"All war is hell." (General W. T. Sherman) It's important that we remember that before we become engaged in a war. All too often, Americans have come to view war as a video game or a film clip on the news. "The Progressives" always want to have a clean war where we kill them off by peaceful means. Sadly, as with all things attached to the progressive movement, it doesn't wash in the real world.

Natural Political Disasters

2011-08-26T18:00:00.000-07:00

The vacationing Obama Cautions: "The Republican Hurricane may wipe out the Eastern Seaboard!"

Liberals are heading inland in the fear of being swept off the mainland and out to sea by Hurricane Irene, said by many to be the work of Pat Robertson's prayers to 'flush the wicked from this land'. Yes, when you look at Hurricane Irene, it does have that Coriolis Effect, much like watching their hero Obama circling the toilet bowl.*

The big question(s) may be framed this way:

The hurricane is the result of massive global warming brought about by Americans turning on incandescent lightbulbs. Al Gore warned us and we laughed. Who's laughing now?
Mitt Romney and Rick Perry have teamed up using their religious mojos to give Obama an excuse for low employment numbers - out of a sense of pity for the Chief Executive who has had no answer to date.
Hurricane Irene is simply masking the movements of a large alien space ship moving off the coast of the United States. It will be dropping off people from Guadalajara and Sinaloa who will be hanging out in front of the Home Depots and Lowes.

* No, I'm not suggesting that I muse when I leave the washroom that I left Obama behind on his way to a settling pond. Nothing so crass as that.

Virginia Earthquake - Attribution

2011-08-23T14:34:00.000-07:00

EARTHQUAKE STRIKES VIRGINIA: OBAMA SAYS BUSH IS TO BLAME

Minutes after a 5.8 earthquake struck northern Virginia today, an administration spokesman issued a statement from the President;

"What we saw today was the direct result of the prior administration's neglect and mismanagement of environmental and geological issues. The effects of the Bush administration's eight years in office was so devastating that our two years in office have been inadequate to reverse the trend of geological catastrophes that are directly attributable to the Republicans' unwillingness to address and remedy pressing environmental issues. We hope every American will join us in our fight to prevent future cataclysms of this nature from destroying our national environmental heritage, and suggest you write your congressperson today to demand they support the administration's efforts to bring meaningful compromise and reform to our geo-environmental policies." [From POTUS Blackberry on the fourth hole of the Hampton Greens]

Congresswoman Maxine Waters also issued a statement commenting that racism was apparent in this latest tragedy because the earthquake struck where [she has been told] "large numbers of black people live in rural Virginia, and just across the Potomac in D.C., just like here in California, where we get earthquakes all the time, and you don't see any earthquakes in Minnesota or Wisconsin or Montana, do you! It is New Orleans all over again!"

Thoughts on Wealth Creation

2011-08-19T21:53:00.000-07:00

Wealth is created by people who do, not who people

who think about doing. Therefore punishing the doers

with excess taxes makes no sense because they stop doing.

Then there are parasites - who become politicians.

Understanding America's Principal Adversary

2011-08-14T07:42:00.000-07:00

"The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States." -- George Soros

LINK to Amazon.com

From the book:

We are today living out the script for America and the world that was dreamt up not by Obama but by Obama’s father. How do I know this? Because Obama says so himself. Reflect for a moment on the title of his book: it’s not Dreams of My Father but rather Dreams from My Father. In other words, Obama is not writing a book about his father’s dreams; he is writing a book about the dreams that he got from his father.

Think about what this means. The most powerful country in the world is being governed according to the dreams of a Luo tribesman of the 1950's—a polygamist who abandoned his wives, drank himself into stupors, and bounced around on two iron legs (after his real legs had to be amputated because of a car crash caused by his drunk driving). This philandering, inebriated African socialist, who raged against the world for denying him the realization of his anti-colonial ambitions, is now setting the nation’s agenda through the reincarnation of his dreams in his son. The son is the one who is making it happen, but the son is, as he candidly admits, only living out his father’s dream. The invisible father provides the inspiration, and the son dutifully gets the job done. America today is being governed by a ghost.

"Clearly in Barack Obama we are dealing with a strange, complex man. Ironically we have ironed out that strangeness by making Obama the embodiment of American multiculturalism. Somehow we have taken this lonely, driven figure and turned him into an image of diversity. He is our Kumbayah man, our post-ideological president, an ultra-modern leader with a twenty-first century agenda. Obama recognizes this; he has himself commented that 'I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views' ...But whatever Obama is, he is not diverse or multicultural, at least not in his thinking or his fundamental values...He is fighting a private war that started far away and goes back to the middle of the last century, with roots that are even earlier. If we want to understand his actions in America and in the world, we have to understand Obama as he really is, not as we want him to be." -- The Roots of Obama's Rage, by Dinesh D'Souza

Fiscal Responsibility and Irresponsibility

2011-08-06T02:47:00.000-07:00

It's really not all that difficult to understand. US Government spending increased by 28% under the Obama Administration. In order to set things right, we need to cut government spending by at least 28%.

The United States lost its top-tier AAA credit rating from Standard & Poor's on Friday in an unprecedented blow to the world's largest economy in the wake of a political battle that took the country to the brink of default.

S&P cut the long-term U.S. credit rating by one notch to AA-plus on concerns about the government's budget deficit and rising debt burden. The action is likely to eventually raise borrowing costs for the American government, companies and consumers.

"The downgrade reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the Administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government's medium-term debt dynamics," S&P said in a statement.

The outlook on the new U.S. credit rating is "negative," S&P said in a statement, indicating another downgrade was possible in the next 12 to 18 months.

You can pat yourself on the back all that you want to and tell the electorate that you won't cut entitlements but there is a price to pay for that policy. And we're paying it. All of the politician's foolish shit-eating grins in the world and self congratulatory B. S. don't amount to a hill of beans when it comes down to numbers.

And fighting a class-envy war by raising taxes only on the job creators won't solve the problem. The problem with socialism, Mr. President is that eventually you run out of other people's money.

###

The Economy is not Rocket Science

2011-07-28T10:16:00.000-07:00

I haven't ever worked for a poor person or institution. Not ever.

Rich people and rich companies hire people. Failed (poor) companies don't. Is that too difficult to understand? What am I missing? Punishing people and companies for making money does not inspire them to add employees to their rosters - does it? I don't think that it's too tough for a fifth grader to comprehend, but the White House seems completely mystified.

The US Senate reports that there are 4,257 new regulations being written. Of those 219 are economically significant. Would you be eager to hire amid that uncertainty?

We're in the Obama Administration's third "Summer of Recovery" and unemployment is going up - in many parts of America (I live in California) home prices continue to slide downward. It's good if you're buying. It's not good if you kept your wealth tied up in mortgage equity.

American growth is anemic - and the White House wants to saddle businesses and those people who hire others with higher taxes. Which is a not so subtle signal that they shouldn't hire. The solution is less government spending and no more blank checks for Obama, who spends money like a sailor on liberty in a whore house with somebody else's credit card.

Take car keys and whiskey away from the kids...

2011-07-27T10:05:00.000-07:00

At least that's what P. J. O'Rourke once said.

The Tea Party is not a fringe element. The loosely knit organization represents how many mainstream Americans feel about government spending. The GOP had better listen to them because they are grass roots America. The Republicans can listen to Beltway noise or they can listen to America - because the they are not the same thing.

It was largely due to Tea Party pressure that House leaders came up with "cut, cap and balance" and passed it by a vote of 234 to 190 on July 19, although the Senate tabled it on July 22.

The Tea Party position is that if the debt ceiling is not raised, the country does not have to go into default. With billions in current tax revenue, Obama can write checks for interest payments, Social Security, Medicare, veterans, and to pay our soldiers. After that, he can play the Washington Monument Game. That's when liberals shut down popular government services instead of the massive bureaucratic leviathan that stretches for miles across Washington and the nation.

What really needs to happen long-term is serious reform of the entitlement systems that are bankrupting the country. A key element is block granting funds to the states so Washington won't be able to skim so much and create perverse incentives. For a primer on why the 1996 welfare reform can be a model for restructuring entitlements, see the Carleson Center for Public Policy's website.

In the current debt drama, Obama is posturing outrageously, threatening old people, the disabled, and others that he would turn into victims. The whole thing reminds me of that tongue-in-cheek magazine cover years ago showing a dog with a gun to its head, and the words, "Buy this magazine, or we'll kill this dog." Replace the dog with a picture of grandma and you have Obama's subtle message.

As the debt ceiling deadline approaches, Republicans, and Democrats who want to save what's left of our country, had better throw away the bottle of Old Profligacy, sober up, and take up the Tea Party mandate to cut back government and restore our constitutional republic.

Extraordinary Valor

2011-06-18T21:56:00.000-07:00

Extraordinary Valor - CIA: The story of Fecteau and Downey

Save the Planet

2011-06-16T13:55:00.000-07:00

The Register (UK) Reports what I have long feared. The planet is on the cusp of (another mini-ICE AGE). Twenty years from now people might be looking back on the early part of this century as the 'warm years' and the actions people took to avoid global warming --- had unintended consequences. I watched the HBO mini-series, Game of Thrones, and in the program, they're continually warning that "Winter is coming". I don't think that the mini-series has anything to do with this, but who knows with Hollywood? I'm sure that Al Gore would oppose the mini series broadcast based on that assertion alone.

(Register) What may be the science story of the century is breaking this evening, as heavyweight US solar physicists announce that the Sun appears to be headed into a lengthy spell of low activity, which could mean that the Earth – far from facing a global warming problem – is actually headed into a mini Ice Age.

Ice skating on the Thames by 2025?

The announcement made on 14 June (18:00 UK time) comes from scientists at the US National Solar Observatory (NSO) and US Air Force Research Laboratory. Three different analyses of the Sun's recent behaviour all indicate that a period of unusually low solar activity may be about to begin.

The Sun normally follows an 11-year cycle of activity. The current cycle, Cycle 24, is now supposed to be ramping up towards maximum strength. Increased numbers of sunspots and other indications ought to be happening: but in fact results so far are most disappointing. Scientists at the NSO now suspect, based on data showing decades-long trends leading to this point, that Cycle 25 may not happen at all.

This could have major implications for the Earth's climate. According to a statement issued by the NSO, announcing the research:

An immediate question is whether this slowdown presages a second Maunder Minimum, a 70-year period with virtually no sunspots [which occurred] during 1645-1715.

NASA weighs in on this very issue (LINK)

"Early records of sunspots indicate that the Sun went through a period of inactivity in the late 17th century. Very few sunspots were seen on the Sun from about 1645 to 1715. Although the observations were not as extensive as in later years, the Sun was in fact well observed during this time and this lack of sunspots is well documented. This period of solar inactivity also corresponds to a climatic period called the "Little Ice Age" when rivers that are normally ice-free froze and snow fields remained year-round at lower altitudes. There is evidence that the Sun has had similar periods of inactivity in the more distant past."

Global Cooling Confirmed?

"This is highly unusual and unexpected," says Dr Frank Hill of the NSO. "But the fact that three completely different views of the Sun point in the same direction is a powerful indicator that the sunspot cycle may be going into hibernation."

Everyone's Favorite Weiner

2011-06-13T20:51:00.000-07:00

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) has been under a lot of scrutiny lately. At first there were denials accompanied by hubris and a 'cocky' attitude. Then we find out that he had been 'sexting nationwide'. Then the police found out that one of the victims of his sexting was a minor female.

Now the press is taking a closer look at Congressman Weiner and guess what?

The New York Daily News reported today (LINK) that the license plate on his Nissan Pathfinder doesn't belong to that car. In fact, he hasn't bothered to register his cars for years -- the way the little people are required to do it.

The New York license plate bolted on Weiner's Pathfinder - US Congress 9 - had expired as of 2006, according to the DMV. "That license plate should not be on a car," a DMV spokeswoman said. It wasn't even issued to the Pathfinder, but to another one of Weiner's cars, a Honda, according to vehicle records.

Valid plates were issued to Weiner's Pathfinder, but they don't have the helpful words "US Congress" on them, and so look less official. It's unclear what happened to those plates. Driving a car with expired plates, let alone those pulled off another vehicle, meant Weiner's Pathfinder was unregistered, according to the DMV.

"Switching around license plates is what criminals do," noted a retired Brooklyn accident investigator. "If you are a congressman, you aren't supposed to be switching out your plates. I guess that's the least of his worries."

I'm absolutely positive that all of his liberal friends will rally around Weiner -- because he's been distracted about being so very progressive -- that he's deliberately avoiding the same motor vehicle tax that all of his constituents are required to fork over every year.

When you're an elitist, it's okay to do whatever you want.

ALL PIGS ARE EQUAL

SOME ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS

what a weiner...

Is NATO Irrelevant?

2011-06-10T08:01:00.000-07:00

NATO-led operations in Libya have exposed significant shortcomings in both the political will to conduct military operations and the military capabilities of the allied nations. Where do we go from here?

(1) The United States MUST reconsider its commitment to fund 75% of NATO defense spending. While the US does get something back from that in terms of foreign orders for US made weapons, that number is not sustainable in light of the current US debt/deficit.

(2) Only the US, France, Great Britain, Albania and Greece spend the 2% of GDP on defense that participation in NATO requires. The other 24 allied nations spend less.

(Reuters) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates delivered a sharp parting shot at European allies on Friday, saying NATO risks "collective military irrelevance" unless they bear more of the burden and boost military spending.

"If current trends in the decline of European defense capabilities are not halted and reversed, future U.S. political leaders -- those for whom the Cold War was not the formative experience that it was for me -- may not consider the return on America's investment in NATO worth the cost." (Gates)

The real question is whether or not the NATO allies feel that NATO is in THEIR best interests. When somebody else pays the bill, you find that there are a lot of boutique items that you can buy and look good on the shelf. It changes when you are paying for it yourself. The Libyan gambit was not a US problem. European powers decided it was time for Gadaffi to go. Because of NATO, the US reluctantly went along with it. AND then some, but not all, of the Europeans (Italy) decided not to play in the sandbox.

Former NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer warned the forum that the current imbalance was "not sustainable...Europe has a rather pale face as we speak," he said, criticizing "totally uncoordinated budget cuts" and urging his own nation, the Netherlands, to join strike missions in Libya.

A Validiction for Memorial Day

2011-05-28T19:15:00.000-07:00

We used the dip tank to test outboard motors used on the combat rubber raiding craft.

The raiding craft were nothing more than black zodiac inflatable boats but they formed an integral part of the Naval Special Warfare program’s mission flexibility. When they were dumped out of the back of a C-130 flying low over the ocean, followed by five SEALs, they were referred to as limp ducks.

Uninflated, packaged with an outboard motor, they fell from the sky to the foaming waves below. After a hearty splash, they slipped beneath the waves, inflated and popped back to the surface.

The SEAL’s came later, floating, not falling, braked by parachutes, water landing protocol. They detached themselves from the chutes before they hit the water so that the silk wouldn’t drag them down to Davy Jones. Everyone swam to the combat rubber raiding craft, boarded it carefully, whoever was appointed coxswain cranked the outboard motor and off they went.

Salt water is hard on equipment. The dip tank is used to test the motors after each operation and training evolution. It’s important that they work. Sitting mid-ocean in a limp duck is not fun. Paddling to shore, wherever shore may be, is not fun either. It puts everyone in a bad mood.

Dip tanks have other uses, more traditional and esoteric uses. They’re baptisteries of a different nature.

The SEAL Team Five facility – not the shining new one, the sprawling old one of the 1980's - built in the sixties, the green-painted, one-story, flat-roofed, dinosaur of a building had a rusty old dip tank outside the outboard motor shop. There was always at least two inches of fuel and oil floating in a rainbow slick on the top. Maybe emptying it constituted an environmental hazard so it was never cleaned properly. On the other hand, keeping it foul might have served its other purpose well.

There is no saluting on a SEAL facility, but if you wave, they’ll wave back. Formations are equally lax and lacking in all pretense of spit and polish. That sort of thing is not necessary to good military order. Rate and rank are observed though, and promotions are celebrated.

No matter how high you climb in the Navy’s bureaucratic structure, if you’re promoted or if you mention your recent promotion on the facility, strong hands take you. You’re expected to fight. Nobody who goes to the dip tank willingly garners any respect, but they all treasure the drop into the oily filthy water as a rite of passage.

Men may curse their bad fortune. The uniform was clean. They just showered. Other excuses are muttered beneath their breath, but beneath all that, there is a deep satisfaction that comes with belonging to an exclusive club with others who share your commitment and skill at life taking and heart breaking.

It was winter and while Coronado is never so cold that you’d freeze but the wind whipping rain from the ocean can make it brisk. The dark clouds threaten, sheets of rain follow, and the facility always flooded. I’m sure that the new SEAL Team Five compound isn’t prone to flooding, but the old one always did.

Don B. showed up late that day in January when the San Diego Coast was lashed with rain. He checked in at the quarterdeck and being Don B., he flashed his CIA credentials in their blue case for the Officer Of the Day to see. There was no escort required and he knew the way, but Don B. wanted an escort. I suspect he wanted a witness.

I sat behind the World War Two vintage wood desk with a chart spread across it when he waltzed in with the OOD trailing behind him. Rain blew in with the two men because my office was in the quadrangle that opened to the weather. I tried to shield my chart; paper flew, driven by the wind.

“You’re here.” I said dryly. Don B. was my best friend and I hadn’t seen him for about a month.

“As per our arrangement, I was promoted and I’m here to take you to lunch.”

A sly glance crossed the face of the OOD, who excused himself politely.

I knew what was coming. The SEAL’s like nothing better than dropping some pseudo-civilian spook like Don B. into the dip tank. Nobody was immune, certainly not Don. Though he never admitted it, I’m certain that Don was hoping to be dropped unceremoniously into the dip tank as so many other warriors had before.

“Rainwater’s sounds like an appropriate lunch for the weather.” I picked the most expensive place I could think of.

“Sounds good.” Don B. was a man of few words.

I threw the chart into a locking file cabinet, spun the lock and put one of those magnetic signs on it that read “secured”.

A step into the quad met two-dozen smiling faces and drenched uniforms. Don B. acted the soul of surprise and protested wildly as strong men grabbed him by his hands and legs. Before they had him completely he slipped me his credential case and I palmed it.

He dropped beneath the surface of the dip tank and emerged to howls of laughter. Hands grabbed him, patted his back and honored his promotion to the Senior Intelligence Service-One grade.

I told him that I had a uniform he could slide into. We wore the same size.

“Where’s your wallet,” I asked. “We need to dry off those credit cards.”

His reply, soto voce, “I left it in the car.”

This is a non-fiction story and Don B. was my best friend. He lost his life in the war against radical Sunnis/the war on terror. He didn’t die alone. I was there and I held his hand as he passed from this life.

Drone Aircraft

2011-05-20T09:06:00.000-07:00

The US Military (and the military of other nations) are becoming more heavily invested in drones such as the Reaper and Predator.

The US Navy is moving ahead with its unmanned X47B program (above).

How survivable are these aircraft in a battlefield environment where the enemy isn't living in the Bronze Age, carrying 20th Century small arms? Take a look here (LINK) at Heartache Noise.

I don't know the answer to my question, I'm simply posing it for the sake of discussion.

Was it Fair to the Fish?

2011-05-17T11:01:00.000-07:00

Where is Greenpeace? Where are the sea hippies? Where is the protest to dumping toxic waste into the ocean?

I'm just asking...

A Dispatch from the Post American Presidency

2011-05-15T07:22:00.000-07:00

h/t WoFat

Obama Accomplishments

2011-05-05T07:02:00.000-07:00

Is the United States better off economically because of the Obama presidency?

Is the U. S. and the world safer because of Barack Obama (BHO)?

Is our future brighter and are Americans more optimistic because of the past three Obama years?

ObamaCare, the hallmark of BHO's presidency is not popular in the country and nobody knows what the Supreme Court will say on the matter, but its vote to render part of the bill unconstitutional will likely be split along partisan lines. The lack of severability with the legislation may doom it, but in the meantime we can sit on the sidelines and watch.

In a sense, I give some credit to BHO for saving the conservative movement in the nation and for almost single handedly creating the Tea Party. In that sense, BHO has been a valuable president. And perhaps as a slight antecedent to that, he became responsible for more firearms and ammunition sales than any other president in US history. BHO's radical actions, radical associates and utopian socialist beliefs, that seemed 'cute' while he campaigned for office, somehow soured for many.

BHO's rise to power should have silenced all those black activists who said that a negro/mulatto couldn't get a fair shake in America -- but it didn't. They still rant about the white man's boot on the neck of the black man. So perhaps BHO let his black community down to some respect? Or maybe they simply need to continue to have something to complain about.

BHO supporters still blame President George W. Bush for the nation's woes - even though he had a Democratic majority in Congress during his last four years in office, spending money like drunken sailors. However, the drunken sailor award really belongs to BHO, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, who gave a completely new definition to government opacity, out-of-control spending and hubris in office.

In the end, 'progressive' policies led to disastrous results and many parts of the US are gripped in a depression despite summer after summer of 'recovery' as Democratic Party projections that 'happy days are here again' turn out to be nothing but VP Joe (Slow Joe) Biden's baseless ranting.

The Search for Credit

2011-05-04T05:04:00.000-07:00

The US Invasion of Iraq distracted the US from the larger war against terrorism and cost the nation a fortune. President Bush used pretexts for invasion that he knew were false when he used them. Nobody can know precisely when Bin Laden (OBL) would have been killed if we hadn't preoccupied the nation with Iraq (where Al Qaeda was an enemy of the state). However conservatives are crowing about thanking George W. Bush for the take-down of OBL in his compound. The congratulations are misplaced in my opinion.

I don't know that anyone is stupid enough to credit Barack Obama (BHO) for doing anything but riding the coat tails of the people on the ground who brought OBL down. However you have to give him credit for giving the green light on Muslim terrorists when true to his roots, he might have been disposed to have done otherwise. BHO is the man who sat in the church and clapped to Wright's rants and screaming "God Damn America!" -- and then contributed heavily to that church. If it sounds as though I'm damning BHO with faint praise, I am.

The credit goes to a lot of men and women who had the courage and fortitude to take out OBL.

Stressed interrogation worked as Investors Business Daily pointed out (below):

In January 2004, Kurdish forces near the Iranian border apprehended Hassan Ghul, a top al-Qaida lieutenant once under the direct command of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Muhammad. After quickly being handed over to U.S. forces, Ghul was sent to one of the CIA's foreign "black site" prisons. It wasn't long before this particular terrorist canary started singing.

Ghul told the CIA that "Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti" — determined years later to be Sheikh Abu Ahmed — was a high-value courier for al-Qaida and key associate of KSM successor Faraj al-Libi. When al-Libi was captured and interrogated the next year, U.S. intelligence began putting together the pieces, finally concluding that al-Kuwaiti was a courier to bin Laden himself.

Some feel that if we hadn't invaded Iraq, we might not have obtained this information (the IBD Editorial supports the Iraqi invasion for this information recovered). I disagree, but we're arguing how many angels can dance on the head of a pin at this point because the die was cast and we're stuck with history, not what might have been.

Waterboarding worked. The CIA's black sites (prisons) were key to dealing with terrorists, preventing attacks on US Soil. President George W. Bush deserves a great deal of credit for authorizing this sort of aggressive activity against America's enemies. It's difficult for a president to do things that he knows might come back to bite him. The CIA black sites were one of those things. But President Bush made the call and it turned out to be a good one.

The public doesn't understand what it takes to protect a nation from the animals out there beyond the wall. The men and women who stand on the wall get it -- and so did President Bush. BHO, sadly, hasn't got a clue.

Do you Love the Federal Reserve?

2011-04-29T07:53:00.000-07:00

h/t Dale

Well, it doesn't matter whether you love them or not, because the mandarins on the Federal Reserve set US monetary policy, not the President or Congress. It's a private corporation and it decides the fate of the nation. The US has struggled with national financing since before we were a nation. James K. Polk & Andrew Jackson had a record of firing the national bank and then dealing with the consequences.

“The dollar is clearly expendable under the Fed’s easing regime,” said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital LLC, a New York-based hedge fund that focuses on energy. “It’s likely further declines will advance oil and commodity prices in the coming week. (LINK)

Crude oil for June delivery has risen 57 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $112.86 a barrel so far this week on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures are up 36 percent from a year ago. (op cit Bloomberg) And that means there will be no relief in at the gas pump. The place to watch indicators is in the futures market as institutional and corporate buyers attempt to lock in future prices for oil. There is speculation in the futures market, but it's the best indicator that I know of.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke has signaled he wants to ensure the U.S. economy has achieved self-sustaining growth before the Fed starts to raise borrowing costs and trim its $2.69-trillion balance sheet. And what it really means is that the "recovery" isn't because it's predicated on false sets of assumptions. To have a genuine recovery from the depression that much of the nation is struggling through, would require a return to the Carter Years where home mortgage rates ran as high as 18% interest.

Every indicator shows that the economic situation will get worse before it gets better. The reason for this pessimism is the lack of resolve within the Obama Regime to deal with our debt issues. The American people can deal with pain in their wallets if the future has some promise. And for you who don't live in the US - as goes American fortunes, so go the worlds. We live in a place where the big players like China, the US, Germany, the UK and Russia's fortunes are linked. The loss of the US as an economic powerhouse will please America-haters in the Middle East, (the White House), and in Europe, but in the long run, our MUTUAL financial strength through trade is what generates real wealth that we can all enjoy. It's a pity that the US Executive Branch of Government can't understand that.

The Purpose of Entitlements

2011-04-24T08:58:00.000-07:00

"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money".

--Alexis de Tocqueville

Global Cooling and Crop Failures

2011-04-22T18:24:00.000-07:00

I think it's time to get the car out and drive around the block to create more greenhouse gasses to try and save agriculture... Have you wondered why the price of tomatoes has gone up 30% and the quality has gone down? Blame global cooling (LINK to REUTERS)!

"Mexico's No. 1 tomato producing state says up to 70 percent of its tomato crop was wiped out by a cold snap this month, potentially causing price rises in produce on U.S. grocery shelves..." (op cit Reuters)

It wasn't only tomatoes, but bell peppers, eggplant and corn crops were also more or less wiped out by the cold. Moreover, there are Mexican farmers who are very concerned about future failures of crops that may be attributed to the global cooling crisis. (Where is Al Gore when you need him?)

I've been discussing starting a business with Mexican tomato growers who are interested in hedging their crops by beginning hydroponic tomato and garlic growing operations in the US. A hydroponic farm can produce 450 tons per hectare (2.5 acres) where the best a standard farm can be expected to produce is about 1/4th that amount. They are interested and so am I. I don't know if it's going to happen, but let's think about this whole situation for a moment.

NOW, where would you site such a business? Pure water is necessary for hydroponic growing operations and so water studies would seem to be a first step. BUT the other issue is taxation. California is out. The price of land, wages and taxation have placed them completely off the map. Utah is a right-to-work state, which means that people won't be pushing for auto-worker level wages, there is available manpower and Utah's economic development plan allows for minimal to no state taxes for the first several years of operation if you meet the criteria, hire over 30 local people, etc. The Reno, Nevada area is also a possibility. Utah is the front runner now because Southern UT is close to I-40, I-70 and I-15 transportation corridors. The Mexican grower/investors also hedge their bets with fuel prices skyrocketing. It's a shorter drive to market from the Southwest US than it is from the Mexico City latitudes.

How can it be that a business would choose to locate itself in an area with LESS taxes and MORE government cooperation (meaning less interference) with the development of a new business? What a concept, Barak!

Are people from UTAH crazy? How do less taxes on a business equate to job growth and prosperity?

(1) Workers pay taxes, and they spend their money locally and those people pay taxes. Each earned dollar changes hands about 14 times according to the studies they've done so the taxes roll swell.

(2) Eventually the businesses will pay taxes once they're established and profitable.

(3) Agricultural businesses are good for the environment, they produce goods that people want, feeding us all, and as they grow and expand, they end up paying a LOT of taxes on their PROFITS.

(4) A business such as this one can sell its crops on the futures markets during summer months when the prices traditionally dip protecting the grower's price and offering a guaranteed supply to factories that make tomato products. This means more jobs, more prosperity. And more taxes are paid.

I wouldn't understand a liberal or the president of the United States to grasp these few concepts of business generation, job generation or taxation.

There is no financial "Recovery" underway

2011-04-21T14:28:00.000-07:00

The mainstream media touts the burgeoning recovery, but I don't see it. The dollar fell for the third straight day today as record low interest rates and the crushing weight of the U.S. budget deficit pushed it closer to an all-time trough against major currencies. The euro soared to a 16-month high above $1.46 before easing to $1.4550, while the dollar fell 0.8 percent to 81.82 yen. The Australian dollar rose above $1.07, its highest in nearly three decades, as Australia's 4.75 percent interest rate and its role as a supplier of raw materials to booming Asian markets attracted investors.

The dollar's slide accelerated days after Standard & Poor's slapped a negative outlook on the United States' top AAA credit rating. The agency said a downgrade was possible if authorities can't slash the massive U.S. budget deficit within two years. (REUTERS)

Some investors fear a fragile U.S. economic recovery could sputter if the White House and Congress agree to cut the deficit with significant spending cuts or tax hikes. That would likely force the Federal Reserve to hold interest rates at record lows even as other central banks raise them. It's not a recovery if it's based on a false premise.

"There is no clear sign that the U.S. is going to raise interest rates, and that is causing the dollar to depreciate by the day," said Jonathan Xiong, who helps manage about $30 billion at Mellon Capital Management in San Francisco.

The US Government must take stands on reducing entitlements and must make decisions on the sustainability of a military that is larger than all the other nations on earth (combined). Free medical care (MedicAid) and other programs will take a hit and we need to let it happen. We've been eating at a trough that we can't sustain. There will be no recovery until we come to grips with that.

Bloody Mexico - Drive a Bullet-Proof Car

2011-04-20T13:48:00.000-07:00

In Bloody Mexico, when you're on vacation, you should try to book a bullet proof car. I'm not saying that you have to, but it makes good sense to do that.

This Jeep Grand Cherokee belonged to Minerva Bautista. She survived an assassination attempt in Michoacan, Mexico because she had Level 5 armor surrounding her. This vehicle was hit by over 350 projectiles and she will live to drive down the road in Mexico again!

Union Greed, Government Incompetence and a few facts

2011-04-14T14:15:00.000-07:00

I don't know if any readers here saw what I posted on Virtual Mirage yesterday, "PUBLIC EMPLOYEE UNION FIGHTS BACK" In that piece, we saw a county government intent on taking pension benefits (33% reduction) retroactively from deputy sheriffs who had retired as long as eleven years before. In some situations they would be taking that percentage from widows/widowers living on 50% of pension leaving them with just about enough to buy dog food in case lots from Costco to see to their nutrition needs.

Two trial courts dismissed the lawsuit, the Third District Court of Appeals ruled against the County unanimously and the California Supreme Court ruled against them 6-0. (COUNTY OF ORANGE v. ASSOCIATION OF ORANGE COUNTY DEPUTY SHERIFFS et al., Case #S191218) The members of the both appellate bodies are Republicans.

Today, the Orange County Retirement System Newsletter, At Your Service (Volume 10 Number 2 Magazine for all Members April 2011), reported:

"OCERS earned an investment return of 11.70% for the year ended December 31, 2010. Assets increased over the previous year by more than $900 million."

They netted 18.52% return on investment in 2009 and the retirement portfolio is at an all time high of about $8.7 billion as of January 31, 2011. For more on OCERS' investments and profit, visit www.ocers.org and click on Finance & Investments. The retirement system is adjudged to be healthy enough by the Board of Directors that they announced discretionary cost of living adjustment benefits to membership.

Egotistical Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach

This begs the question of right and wrong. The rule of law clearly favors the Deputy Sheriff's Union. The County's pension system (separate from the California Public Employees' Pension System) is doing well, and nowhere did County Supervisor John Moorlach (the prime mover in this scandal) suggest any criminal wrongdoing on the part of county workers or the deputy sheriffs.

County Supervisors ex-post facto decided to strip pension benefits from people who earned them and paid for them in an attempt to generate revenue. In so doing, Supervisor John Moorlach and his cronies will have racked up over $5 million in legal fees by the time the dust settles.

The Queen of England Strikes Back (at Obama)!

2011-04-12T05:37:00.000-07:00

The Obama Administration has gone out of its way to insult the people and government of Great Britain at every possible turn since it swept into office.

The Royal Wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton:

On April 30, there will be Buddhist Monks, heads of state, strange Muslims and a panoply of charity workers, the head of PR for Audi, David and Victoria Beckham, assorted sheikhs, a Romanian count, parliamentary assistants from small European states, a Texas billionaire, Spanish tile company execs, a favorite Caribbean bartender, but NOT America's first family.

I can't blame the Queen for not inviting the cheezy Obamas. You'll recall that the Clintons didn't invite the First Couple to their daughter's wedding either. I wonder if Michelle steals silverware or passes gas inappropriately--I'm just wondering, I don't know that she does (or doesn't). Personally I wouldn't invite the Obamas to a family event like a wedding, either, unless they agreed to come dressed as court jesters or something like that.

Obama - not a nice entertainer. He'll frighten the kids.

And who can blame the Queen of England for not wanting the American president or his churlish (and some would suggest, senile) Vice President at an event of state that will include people who are important to the Empire, such as bartenders, Buddhist monks, and Spanish tile merchants.

Here is the London Telegraph's Top Ten Insults by the Obama administration against Great Britain:

(don't consider this a complete list)

1. Declaration of neutrality over the Falklands

For sheer offensiveness it’s hard to beat last week’s incredible statementfrom the State Department on the Falklands dispute, not least considering the fact that 255 British soldiers died retaking the islands from Argentina in 1982. Here it is:

“We are aware not only of the current situation but also of the history, but our position remains one of neutrality. The US recognises de facto UK administration of the islands but takes no position on the sovereignty claims of either party.”

As I wrote previously, over the course of the last year, we’ve seen a staggering array of foreign policy follies by this administration, from the throwing under the bus of the Poles and the Czechs over missile defence to siding with Marxists in Honduras. But this latest pronouncement surely takes the biscuit as the most brazen betrayal so far of a US ally.

2. Downgrading of the Special Relationship

Barack Obama never refers to the Special Relationship, and has not even mentioned Britain once in a major policy speech, either before or after taking office. The Anglo-American alliance is barely a blip on Obama’s teleprompter screen, and he acts as though it simply does not exist. The Special Relationship has also been largely erased from the official lexicon of the State Department, and is not even used by US officials in London. Despite being America’s only major reliable ally when the chips are down, London is now treated in Washington as though it were the same as any other European power, albeit less charitably than either Paris or Berlin.

3. Support for a federal Europe

The Obama administration’s relentless and wrongheaded support for the creation of a federal Europe, from backing the Treaty of Lisbon to the European Security and Defence Policy, is a slap in the face for the principle of national sovereignty in Europe. While the Bush Administration was divided over Europe, the Obama administration is ardently euro-federalist, despite the fact that the likely next British government will probably fight them tooth and nail over it. British sovereignty is non-negotiable, and Obama’s willingness to undermine it is both insulting to Britain and self-defeating for the United States.

4. Undermining of British influence in NATO

Despite Nicolas Sarkozy’s distinctly unflattering opinion of Barack Obama, the president has gone to great lengths to appease French interests, even going as far as apologising to the French people in Strasbourg for hurting their feelings over the war in Iraq. The Obama administration has also done its best to give Paris a lead role in the NATO alliance at Britain’s expense, granting it one of two supreme NATO command positions – Allied Command Transformation (ACT). And this, despite the fact that France has for decades been ambivalent and obstructionist over NATO, and is failing to carry its weight in Afghanistan. And as I noted before, there is currently not a single British general in charge of any of the big five supreme and operational commands in the alliance (in contrast to two Frenchmen and a German), even though Great Britain provides more troops for NATO operations than any member apart from the United States.

5. Refusal to recognize Britain’s sacrifice in Afghanistan

It is particularly galling that the president cannot even be bothered to acknowledge the sacrifice made by over 250 British servicemen and women on the battlefields of Afghanistan alongside their American allies – especially evident during his lacklustre speech at West Point in December. Britain currently has as many soldiers stationed in Afghanistan – 10,000 – as all the other major European powers combined. In contrast to George W. Bush, who frequently thanked the British armed forces and people for their role in the War on Terror, Obama has spectacularly failed to do so.

6. Throwing Churchill out of the Oval Office

It is hard to think of a more derogatory message to send to the British people within days of taking office than to fling a bust of Winston Churchill out of the Oval Office and send it packing back to the British Embassy – not least as it was a loaned gift from Britain to the United States as a powerful display of solidarity in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. Obviously, public diplomacy is not a concept that carries much weight in the current White House, and nor apparently is common sense.

7. Insulting words from the State Department

The mocking views of a senior State Department official following the Prime Minister’s embarrassing reception at the White House in March last year says it all:

“There’s nothing special about Britain. You’re just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. You shouldn’t expect special treatment.”

One would have thought that this kind of hugely damaging gaffe would have resulted in at least a formal apology and a reprimand for the official involved, but unfortunately Obama administration apologies are strictly reserved for the French and assorted enemies of the United States.

8. DVDs for the Prime Minister

Readers of this blog will know I’m no fan of Gordon Brown, but whatever one thinks of his less than stellar leadership skills or his downright awful policies, Brown travels abroad not as a private individual but as the leader of America’s closest ally. He represents 61 million Britons including the Armed Forces, as well as a huge amount of British trade and investment with the United States. He was treated shabbily when he visited the White House last March, and denied a Rose Garden press conference as well as a dinner. To cap it all, the decision to send him home with an assortment of 25 DVDs ranging from Toy Story to The Wizard of Oz – which can’t even be played in the UK - was a breathtaking display of diplomatic ineptitude that would have shamed the protocol office of an impoverished Third World country. And we haven’t even mentioned Obama’s iPod for the Queen.

9. Refusal to meet the Prime Minister in New York

Not content with humiliating the Prime Minister with a bargain basement DVD collection, President Obama proceeded to give him the run-around at the UN General Assembly in New York last September in a farce worthy of an episode from Benny Hill, declining to meet with him privately after no less than five requests. I can understand why Obama might not want to spend much time with the dour and easily angered Brown, who was apparently mightily enraged over the whole affair. It is also the case that Brown himself has done a good deal to undermine the Special Relationship and shares much of the blame himself for this debacle. But it is insulting to the British people as a whole when the president of the United States is happy in principle to sit down and negotiate with tyrants like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad but won’t hold a bilateral meeting with the leader of America’s top ally, when thousands of British troops are fighting in Afghanistan.

10. Robert Gibbs’ embarrassing attack on the British press

No list of Obama administration slights against Britain would be complete without mention of White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs’ sneering rant against the British press (first reported by Politico) after spotting an article in The Telegraph he disagreed with. Here’s what Gibbs said:

“Let’s just say if I wanted to look up, if I wanted to read a write-up of how Manchester United fared last night in the Champions League Cup, I’d might open up a British newspaper. If I was looking for something that bordered on truthful news, I’m not entirely sure it’d be the first pack of clips I’d pick up.”

As I wrote at the time, this kind of attack would normally be made against the likes of the North Korean or Iranian state media, but in the current climate of “engagement” with America’s enemies the White House is far more likely to attack its own allies. And by the way, Gibbs, as my colleague James Delingpole noted in a superbly penned response, it’s the “Champions League” not the “Champions League Cup”.

Don't Drink the Water

2011-04-08T08:01:00.000-07:00

The world inches toward crisis after crisis and you can only care so much about so many looming disasters, but highly resistant bacteria are a BIG problem. The Third World contributes to these problems regularly with exotic viruses such as the Bird Flu and the Pig Flu. Now India offers us the SuperBug.

The NDM 1 gene, which creates what some experts describe as "super superbugs", has spread to germs that cause cholera and dysentery, and is circulating freely in other bacteria in the Indian city capital of 14 million people, the researchers said.

NDM 1 first emerged in India three years ago and has now spread across the world. It has been found in a wide variety of bugs, including familiar pathogens like Escherichia coli, or E. coli.

No new drugs are on the horizon for at least 5-6 years to tackle it and experts are concerned that only a few major drug companies, such as GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L) and AstraZeneca (AZN.L), still have strong antibiotic development programmes.

And when Indian people carry bacteria in their intestines outside of the infected area, those areas where they excrete -- are exposed. And if YOU ARE infected with one of those bacteria strains, there are no antibiotics that can be used to defeat them.

Experts say the spread of superbugs threatens whole swathes of modern medicine, which cannot be practiced if doctors have no effective antibiotics to ward off infections during surgery, intensive care or cancer treatments like chemotherapy.

KLOPPENBURG WINS!

2011-04-07T19:18:00.000-07:00

Kloppenburg declares VICTORY for the her candidacy for the Wisconsin Supreme Court and for the public sector labor unions who funded the BIG WIN!

We know now that Prosser is roughly 7000 votes ahead of Kloppenburg, which shoves it out of recount range. Sorry JoAnne.

Will the UN 'dissolve' Israel?

2011-04-03T08:12:00.000-07:00

I'm sure that the caption will make sense to some of this blog's readers. With the dissent in the Middle East from Tripoli to Bahrain, Egypt and Yemen, the Palestinians are pushing for the United Nations to "give the back" a large portion of the State of Israel. The New York Times weighed in on this and this article is worth reading (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/world/middleeast/03mideast.html?_r=2&hp)

Despite the present trend for the US to be in league with the United Nations, I feel that we are not well served by it in the long run. We use it's weak mandates as the cause (in and of itself) for our ventures onto foreign soil. While I don't necessarily oppose the US doing that, I find that a UN Resolution is not the vehicle that we should be using.

There seems to be growing support for Israel to return land to "Palestine".

(NYT - cited above) Germany, France and Britain say negotiations should be based on the 1967 lines with equivalent land swaps, exactly what the Netanyahu government rejects because it says it predetermines the outcome.

“Does the world think it is going to force Israel to declare the 1967 lines and giving up Jerusalem as a basis for negotiation?” asked a top Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity. “That will never happen.”

While the Obama administration has referred in the past to the 1967 lines as a basis for talks, it has not decided whether to back the European Union, the United Nations and Russia — the other members of the so-called quartet — in declaring them the starting point, diplomats said. The quartet meets on April 15 in Berlin.

Israel, which has settled hundreds of thousands of Jews inside the West Bank and East Jerusalem, acknowledges that it will have to withdraw from much of the land it now occupies there. But it hopes to hold onto the largest settlement blocs and much of East Jerusalem as well as the border to the east with Jordan and does not want to enter into talks with the other side’s position as the starting point.

Will Israel give up control of Jerusalem to the Hamas, the government of the Palestinians, if the UN tells them to?

Does the US have a Border Strategy?

2011-03-30T19:25:00.000-07:00

The Obama Administration seems to falter at every turn because of a lack of visionary and even competent leadership. Nowhere is this more apparent than their policy on securing America's Southern Border.

(LINK) Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, took sharp aim Tuesday at Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton over the controversial ATF gun program dubbed Operation Fast and Furious.

“On March 4, 2001, Senator Charles E. Grassley wrote to you requesting basic information about the connection between Operation “Fast and Furious”conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), and the December 14, 2010 firefight that claimed the life of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry,” Issa wrote. “I understand you have yet to respond and are likely to refuse Senator Grassley’s request for information without a letter from the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“This refusal is mystifying in its own right, given Senator Grassley’s standing as the Ranking Member of that Committee. More inexplicably, your refusal stands in stark contradiction to the promise of transparency promoted by President Obama. During Sunshine Week last year, the President stated that he had “recommit(ed) (his) administration to be the most open and honest ever.”

“Given the gravity of this matter, this refusal is simply unacceptable,” he wrote. “Therefore, I am joining Senator Grassley’s request for any and all records relating to a meeting involving the then-U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Carlos Pascual with Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, Mr. Breuer’s deputy, and other officials in Mexico City in the summer of 2010 regarding “on-going investigations” related to Project Gunrunner and its “Fast and Furious” component….Additionally, please explain in detail the reasons behind your refusal to answer the Senator directly.” (DEAFENING SILENCE FROM OBAMA'S ADMINISTRATION)

ATF Operation - Fast and Furious let guns “walk” into hands of Mexican drug cartels with aim of tracking and breaking a big case. Federal agent John Dodson says what he was asked to do was beyond belief.

CBS News: He was intentionally letting guns go to Mexico?

“Yes ma’am,” Dodson told CBS News. “The agency was.”

Documents show the inevitable result: The guns that ATF let go began showing up at crime scenes in Mexico. And as ATF stood by watching thousands of weapons hit the streets… the Fast and Furious group supervisor noted the escalating Mexican violence.

One e-mail noted, “958 killed in March 2010 … most violent month since 2005.” The same e-mail notes: “Our subjects purchased 359 firearms during March alone,” including “numerous Barrett .50 caliber rifles.”

On Dec. 14, 2010, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was gunned down. Dodson got the bad news from a colleague. According to Dodson, “They said, ‘Did you hear about the border patrol agent?’ And I said, ‘Yeah.’ And they said ‘Well it was one of the Fast and Furious guns.’ There’s not really much you can say after that.”

It seems that the most problematic gun runners into Mexico was the Government of the United States. Is this a key component of Obama's Strategy? At the same time that the Obama Government was running guns to the Mexican cartels, they were howling about the "gun problem" along the US Border. How can the Obama Administration possibly condone arming Mexican cartel members at taxpayer expense and then criticize Americans who live along the border from banding together for self protection -- as it turns out -- from American firearms and ammunition that was being used against them.

The Obama Administration has been faithful in telling Americans that there are areas where the narcotics cartels are in control. We ceded territory to criminal organizations... when in history have we done that before?

Where is the coherent policy? Where is the aching concern for the lives and property of American citizens?

Obama stands behind the lecturn and speaks from his teleprompter - but WHAT is his REAL Border Strategy? Actions speak louder than words.

Does America need an ATF? What do they do that can't be done by other agencies? Should we fold the agents into some other agency where the work can be more carefully managed?

Bloody Mexico - Vincente's Defense

2011-03-29T06:31:00.000-07:00

Vangardia (LINK) reports (in the Spanish language) the strategy of the legal defense team in the matter of Vincente Zambada Niebla, coming to trial in Chicago on Wednesday, March 30, 2011. But before we go there, let's take a step back and put it in context with his arrest.

CNN Reported (http://edition.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/03/19/mexico.drug.arrest/index.html) "Vicente Zambada Niebla, known as "El Vicentillo," was arrested Wednesday (March 19, 2009) along with five subordinates, Mexico's defense department and attorney general's office said in a joint release. The men were acting suspiciously and had military-grade weapons, officials said.

"Zambada is the son of Ismael Zambada García, known as "El Mayo." The elder Zambada is a top lieutenant in the Sinaloa cartel, headed by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, officials said."

Vincent Zambada would be hard pressed to assert that he had not trafficked or caused to be trafficked, tons of cocaine, firearms, and had conspired to do the things that drug kingpins do. The US Government's case (1:09-CR-00383) is well defined, the witnesses are stacked up and to that extent there are no surprises. The defense team are not alleging that Vincente didn't do it. They are saying that the US Government was complicit in his drug dealing. In some cases, the "dog ate the homework" defense works and in others, it doesn't. While we don't know what the US Government did and didn't do, we can presume that they helped the Mexican government in their counter-narcotics efforts and we're also safe in presuming that many Mexican officials were complicit in the Sinaloa Cartel's drug empire.

To quote Vangardia and reporter Anabel Hernandez (with slight editorializing because she writes in Spanish), the defense filed a motion on March 15 (2011) that shows that the narcotics trafficking undertaken by Vincente Zambada was done with the consent of the US Department of Justice, DEA, FBI, the US Department of Homeland Security and US Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE). They specify that the DEA's regional assistant for South America, the Director General of DEA in Mexico as well as DEA agents assigned to Monterrey, Hermosillo and Mexico City as well as FBI Agents assigned to Mexico are involved in the complicit activities alleged.

Was the Obama Administration complicit in drug running? I personally doubt it. There is a substantial burden on the defense when they make this sort of "public authority" allegation. All we can do now is to wait and see how it plays out.

2011-03-24T23:32:00.000-07:00

While I like to appear optimistic when discussing the situation in the Middle East, the revolutionary movements don't seem to be leading to increases liberty and tolerance there. Our indecisive, post-American president simply adds fuel to the fire as he sends the wrong message by golfing and vacationing his way through office.

There are many people in Iran and the Arab nations of the world who yearn for freedom and who want to take themselves and their culture and religion move toward the 21st century (and since their starting point is psychologically in the 12th century, they have a huge task before them). However, history stridently shows us that voices of reason will be subsumed into the collective paranoia of the Arab mind and fanned by ideology of Islam.

For too long that collective mind, marinating in Islamic fundamentalism, has been flying in the face of reality and willfully refusing to acknowledge it. Why? Because there are far too many unpleasant truths and painful self-knowledge that need to be faced about both their culture and their religon before thay can escape from the medieval rut they are in.

The Obama presidency has been marked by intense pandering to Islam and it has been rewarded very predictably, with contempt. I don't know that things can change while this president is in power. AND I don't know that Islam will become a kinder, gentler system of faith while I draw breath.

The Recession in a Nut Shell

2011-03-12T07:28:00.000-08:00

Why are we as a nation, bankrupt?

There are a lot of people out there who would make the answer very complicated, but it's a very simple matter. (note above)

Housing - Landscape for the Soul

2011-03-10T09:15:00.000-08:00

I take a keen interest in what my neighbors do to their homes, because their improvements and the look of the area reflects on me personally, as does my home. When you walk into my house, the decor reflects my personality, my preferences, and that of my family. I don't look up to those with more means and a better home with a better view, or down on those who have less than I do. I grew up as one of those people with less, but my lawn was always mowed and the house looked bright and fresh. My home as a child and my home as an adult were/are the results of personal achievement.

But what about public housing projects? Are they a solution to the problems that they purport to cure? I find the evidence less than encouraging. Most of them turn into slums, sinkholes of human misery where the problems that people had when they moved in are only magnified. Politicians see housing not as the consequence of lifestyle choices but as the cause of lifestyle. They have the equation skewed beyond recognition and the result was public policy making housing available to everyone irrespective of their ability to pay -- and it bankrupt the planet.

The architectural terrain is a mere reflection of human terrain. Buildings are an expression of the economic, social and cultural conditions of the human beings they enclose. They are like the Picture of Dorian Gray, they show the soul within the man. The place to start isn’t by giving a man a house; it is by giving him an opportunity. Socialists and communists are convinced that the soul can be altered by a change of clothes. After all, politicians do it all the time. And public housing is popular with the construction industry and only costs the taxpayers a few dollars more.

Whether we're speaking of bloated fools like Al Gore or other "social engineers" developing grandiose plans to save the environment from humans, or building the next housing project for the poor, they all miss the point. The internal landscape of the soul of any human being at any moment in time will be externalized and reflected in that human's behavior; or, how he presents himself to the world. Character and one's state of mind will find expression in the environment the human creates around himself and in which he chooses to live. It can also be found by examining those with whom he chooses to associate.

Poverty does not have to translate chaos, crime, or ugliness--but sadly, it often does because those realities lurk inside the soul of many poor persons. They are nurtured within a culture of victimhood--a culture in which they are taught early that there are only two options in life: being a victim, or victimizing others.

Handouts and programs that are created with the "best" of intentions, including all those wonderful public housing programs for the poor--fail to take all this into account. All those do-gooders with the grandiose plans for the poor probably don't deliberately intend to make people feel like losers; but that is what is reinforced by all those government programs.

The Democratic Party has been the party which has enabled that victimization philosophy through their concept of keeping black people on the 'plantation' where they will remain poor and dependent on hand-outs. It's a way to keep them voting Democrat at the expense of their own souls. Freedom means making choices about your own life - not having those choices made for you.

The Shores of Tripoli

2011-02-24T16:24:00.000-08:00

From the Halls of Montezuma
To the Shores of Tripoli; (emphasis added)
We fight our country's battles
In the air, on land and sea;
First to fight for right and freedom
And to keep our honor clean;
We are proud to claim the title of United States Marine.

--US Marine Corps Hymn

The DAILY MAIL reports: The U.S. government came under fire today for chartering a rescue boat for Americans stuck in Libya on a boat that is too small to cope with the rough Mediterranean sea. Hundreds of American citizens are spending a second night in Tripoli aboard the Maria Dolores, a small passenger ferry chartered by the U.S., trapped there because of adverse weather conditions.

At the same time larger Greek and Turkish vessels have transported thousands of their own citizens to safety, crossing the choppy water to mainland Europe.

So while President Obama dithers, US Citizens remain in jeopardy. I don't think that anyone is surprised that this indecisive metrosexual cur can't make up his mind. For more on this, check out Gateway Pundit.

Hey Barry O, take a bow!

Chinese Anti-Ship Ballistic Missiles

2011-02-23T04:47:00.000-08:00

There has been a lot of effort put into development of anti-ship ballistic missiles by the People's Republic of China in their efforts to counter US Naval carrier battle groups operating in the ocean near its shores. To do this, they have had to develop a missile that can reach a terminal velocity approaching Mach 10 (speed of sound x10). With that sort of speed inbound, interception is difficult. The problem that the Chinese have is hitting the target squarely because precision for that sort of weapon is the key.

The DF-21D (CSS-5 Mod-4) Anti-ship ballistic missile is their latest attempt to fulfill that capability.

To counter the Chinese threat, the US is developing the Navy Standard Missile (Block 4):

The Israel-US Arrow ABM program has been showing promise:

Wisconsin Red

2011-02-21T08:59:00.000-08:00

There has been a lot of chatter from Wisconsin that surrounds the 'union busting' efforts of Governor Walker. Their main rallying cry has been that Hitler broke up the labor unions in pre-Nazi germany. Unfortunately the labor marchers have forgotten a few historical facts. (Those who don't read history are doomed to repeat it and apparently that would include Wisconsin teachers.)

Hitler, Mussolini and Lenin were labor leaders who made their labor union the labor union. They forbade competition as they socialized their nations (NAZI = National Socialist Workers PARTY). Hitler was a socialist, and he thought that his form of socialism had some sort of superior tint to it than the Russian form of absolutism.

All manifestations of socialism are toxic to humanity. The activity in the State House in Wisconsin has nothing to do with socialism. In fact, it is precisely the opposite.

Obama, a socialist, predictably turned his thugs loose on Wisconsin in support of the striking teachers who left their classrooms to take to the streets and protest.

Governor Walker wants workers to have the choice of whether or not to belong to unions. The unions don't think that's a very good idea. He said the state will no longer automatically deduct union dues from worker's checks - but the workers can still pay their money directly to the union...if they want to. I understand that the union bosses are upset by this because easy street may be hitting a t-intersection for them.

There is not enough money to pay them what the feel entitled to anymore. As President Lincoln said, "there aren't enough tits for the piglets."

Paradigm Shift? (Reality Hurts)

2011-02-17T10:02:00.000-08:00

The Berkeley City Council, after passing a resolution calling for the resettlement of detainees released from Guantanamo in the United States, voted against inviting such persons to live in their fair city, according to the San Jose Mercury News. Earlier, an organization called “Move America Forward, proposed in a statement that Berkeley City Council members ‘go live in GITMO where they can hang out with hundreds of terrorists.’ The group said it would pay for their air fare.”

I think that the only place that terrorists should live is BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA. Put some kind of shock collars on them and park them in Berkeley where they will find friends -- infidels to be sure, that they're going to want to kill -- but willing victims.

---

Nir Rosen, who scoffed at reporter, Lara Logan’s assault in Tahrir Square, was fired from his position as fellow at the NYU’s Center on Law and Security. Jim Geraghty at the National Review says he never thought to see the day, but is glad the Center on Law and Security did it anyway.... Liberals eating their own for one of their number making fun of a newspaper reporter who was raped like an animal being eaten alive by wolves? What is the liberal world coming to?

A succession of recent events, from the financial crisis to the wave of unrest sweeping the Middle East, has created a new sense of mortality in everyone. Dick Morris, in an article titled “The Damage Obama Has Done,” presents a table, which while not entirely the best source for identifying the various factors which went into causing the change, nevertheless gets the point across: reality hurts. Reality is not something that liberals are used to dealing with.

---

Families in suburban Yorba Linda, California were shocked when Islamic terrorists held a fundraiser at their community center. Read about it on AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE. Things look different to frightened 40-60 something year old people facing an uncertain future than to 18 year olds at Yasgur’s farm on their way to Paradise.

Maybe some sense of perspective is coming to the world? Again, REALITY HURTS.

Obama on Unsustainable Debt

2011-02-15T03:10:00.000-08:00

Obama 2009: Today, I am pledging to cut the deficit we inherited by half by the end of my first term in office. I refuse to leave our children with a debt they cannot repay"..."We cannot and will not sustain deficits like these without end."

When the guy is reading from the teleprompter he doesn't do a bad job with the black-minister cadence and the strong message. Unfortunately he's a liar.

Yeah, it sounded good right after he took office. But today, we find out that the 2011 deficit projection will be $1.65 trillion, a number twice revised upwards, with next year's deficit projected to be $1.1 trillion. We spent $5 trillion in the first two years of the Obama Administration. This is NOT sustainable, and Chief Executive's utopian socialist agenda needs to be ended.

His foreign policy decisions have been almost universally wrong, and when you consider how many blunder's he's made, it's difficult to fathom that they've been made completely by accident. A stopped clock is right twice daily and Obama hasn't been able to manage that sort of record.

Keep Sharia Law OUT of the USA

2011-02-14T16:19:00.000-08:00

There is no place for Sharia Law in the US. Actions considered right and prudent in the barbaric Islamic World are crimes in the West.

We should show NO tolerance for Sharia Law to the extent that it violates penal and civil codes in the United States. Great Britain has allowed Sharia Courts to exist. That's their problem.

"In Bangladesh a 14-year-old girl named Hena was raped by a 40-year-old man, Mahbub, who is described in a report as her “relative.” Apparently — the report is not clear on how this happened — the matter was brought to the attention of the sharia authorities in her village of Shariatpur. You’d think this was a good thing … except, in Islam, rape cannot be proved absent four witnesses — i.e., it’s virtually impossible to establish that what happened happened. That’s a dangerous thing for the victim — deadly dangerous in this instance — because if she has had sexual relations outside marriage but cannot prove she has been raped, she is deemed to have committed a grave sin. In Hena’s case, the sharia authorities ordered that she be given 100 lashes. The young girl never made it through 80; she fell unconscious and died from the whipping." (READ ON HERE)

I admit that America was dumb enough to elect a closet Muslim to be its president. While that has had disastrous consequences on its own, embracing the "religion of peace" and it's "peaceful punishments" and violence toward women can not be tolerated.

Conservative Options for 2012

2011-02-13T09:03:00.000-08:00

There are only three potential candidates for president in 2012 that actually move me.

Chris Christie

Mike Pence

Allen West

I know that Gov. Christie isn't going to run, that Congressman Pence is running for governor and that Congressman West is too new to the political scene. However, I'm not impressed by the rest of the Republican field. They may be good people with good conservative credentials, but we need a LEADER, and they just don't pull the weight.

Overhaul the US Postal Service

2011-02-09T14:38:00.000-08:00

Washington DC is calling our financial crisis a 'recession' because we're being propped up by the Chinese who are buying out near worthless Treasury notes to keep the ponzie scheme running. So, to begin, let's call it for what it is, a depression (with Chinese benefits). So it's time to cut. One place (among many) is the US Postal Service.

Overhaul the US Postal Service:

(1) Offer mail service three times weekly. E-mail, Fed Ex, and UPS have just about wiped out the minimum revenue needed to keep the post office alive as it is presently constituted.

Most of your mail every day is junk mail and bills. Most people can wait an extra day to get a bill in the mail. Credit cards and on-line transactions will lead to the demise of the mailed paper bill and paper check within 10-15 years anyway. Once that's done, the post office will be almost completely out of a job. The government should plan now for that day.

(2) Eliminate the US Postal Inspection Service and turn their duties over to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.

(3) Close at least 80% of US Post Offices, and place them in existing buildings where they can be tenants such as grocery stores and other businesses. I know that this raises issues with mail security (classified material can be sent by mail) but those issues can be addressed and literally billions can be saved.

Savings - At their present rate of projected loss, the US Postal Service will LOOSE $23 billion each year over the next ten years. Cutting the Postal Service by at least 50% would reduce their budget and would stop loss the red ink. Reduce expectations on what the Post Office will do. Congress doesn't want to do that, but it's prudent and timely. Renegotiate the labor contracts to reflect reality.

Blowback - Higher unemployment as government workers hit the streets. Since we don't have the money to pay the workers anyway without borrowing to do it, there is no other choice.

Who Speaks for YOU?

2011-02-07T07:14:00.000-08:00

"The more the plans fail, the more the planners plan." -- Ronald Reagan

Apologies to Great Britain

2011-02-05T06:49:00.000-08:00

American Perspective covered a story that President Obama and his administration provided British nuclear nomenclature, numbers and other data to the Russians in order to obtain concessions for the START talks. The profoundly sad thing is that it's simply another of the Daily Outrages that we have come to expect from our apologetic, anti-British (anti-American ally) utopian socialist president.

He's sold the US down the river for shits and giggles, and it only stands to reason that he'd do the same thing to those with whom we share a special relationship. And that brings me to Wiki Leaks. As contemptible as the leakers are, I don't know how they can be held to a higher standard than Obama - who would be impeached and discharged from office for doing this is another time in America.

The US has a lot to apologize to the British people for when it comes to President Obama, that shameful cur who occupies the highest office in our land. Two weeks ago, Obama praised the French and declared that France is America's greatest ally?? Since when?

This from the Daily Mail:

Barack Obama has declared that France is America’s greatest ally, undermining Britain’s Special Relationship with the U.S.

The President risked offending British troops in Afghanistan by saying that French president Nicolas Sarkozy is a ‘stronger friend’ than David Cameron.

The remarks, during a White House appearance with Mr Sarkozy, will reinforce the widely-held view in British diplomatic circles that Mr Obama has less interest in the Special Relationship than any other recent American leader.

Mr Obama said: ‘We don’t have a stronger friend and stronger ally than Nicolas Sarkozy, and the French people.’…

Nile Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Centre For Freedom at the Heritage Foundation think-tank, said: ‘Quite what the French have done to merit this kind of high praise from the U.S. President is difficult to fathom.

Perhaps the only olive branch that I can offer to the British People is that many of us in the US don't take what Obama says as representative of how we feel. He's been just as treacherous toward the American People as he has toward the British. While that is cold comfort, it's about all that we can do at the moment.

Bloomberg Investigates Arizona!

2011-02-01T11:10:00.000-08:00

New York's Mayor Bloomberg investigates Arizona!

One Day, Fifteen Hours - 2,500 miles

According to Google Maps, driving directions, it takes a driver, moving continually one day, fifteen hours to drive from the heart of New York, NY (The Big Apple) to drive to Phoenix, AZ (Cartel Kidnap Capital).

The Distance between New York Skyports Incorporated Seaplane Base (New York County, New York) [Airport] and Phoenix (Maricopa County, Arizona) is : 3446.42 kilometers (km) in a straight line.

The approximately estimated travel/road distance can be between 3963.38 km and 4308.02 km, depending on the route you take.

In miles it breaks down this way: 2141.51 miles in a straight line. The approximately estimated travel/road distance can be around 2462.74 miles to 2676.89 miles

Radical left wing fringe player, NY Mayor Bloomberg

The New York Sun Reports

The New York Sun reports: (LINK) "Now that Mayor Bloomberg has sent investigators into Arizona to report on what he insists is lax enforcement of federal regulations at guns shows, the question that leaps out is what retaliatory investigation Arizona is going to launch in New York. The first thing that comes to mind is whether Governor Brewer, who is rising to fame for her use of state law to deal with undocumented aliens, is going to send Arizona officers into New York City to see whether the Bloomberg administration has been looking the other way in respect of undocumented aliens working in New York City.

"Just for the record, The New York Sun doesn’t have any evidence that Mrs. Brewer is plotting to launch such an investigation. If she were, we’d be against it. But it wouldn’t be any more outrageous than New York City sending its investigators into Arizona to look into lax enforcement of federal regulations in respect of guns. One could argue that Mr. Bloomberg’s demarche is even more outrageous, because the impact in New York of gun sales in Arizona is minimal. But the impact of New York’s lax enforcement of the immigration laws has a huge impact on interstate commerce."

The question that is raised by the Bloomberg raids is whether a state or city has the authority to regulate the sale of guns in another state. Now that the mayor has asserted that it does, we wouldn’t be surprised were Mrs. Brewer — or another governor — to send undercover officers into Mr. Bloomberg’s home town to see how far the principle of out of state raids extends.

It's no secret that Mayor Bloomberg wants to be the next US President, or God, whichever he can manage for himself. Using his theory of jurisdiction, one would expect a Bloomberg presidency to order the invasion of Norway or perhaps Greece, simply because he frigging felt like it.

Mayor, keep pushing to build the 911 Victory Mosque at Ground Zero and keep your little rat claw hands inside the City of New York and out of other State's affairs - 2,500 miles away.

Tales from the Eurabian Nights

2011-01-31T10:55:00.000-08:00

Science Fiction usually paints a bleak picture of the future by seizing on present events and extrapolating the impact of this or that variable. The transformation of Europe into Eurabia isn't part of a SciFi scenario. It's real, it's here and it's something we need to consider. “The Future of the Global Muslim Population”, produced by the Pew Research Centre, a non-profit outfit based in Washington, DC, predicts that Muslim numbers will soar from 1.6 billion in 2010 to 2.2 billion by 2030. In other words, from 23.4% to 26.4% of the global total. (The Economist)

The authors call their calculations demographic, not political. Drawing on earlier Pew research, they say conversion is not a big factor in the global contest between Islam, Christianity and other faiths; the converts balance out. Nor do they assess piety; via the imperfect data of the United Nations, the European Union and national statistics, they aim simply to measure how many people call themselves Muslim, at least culturally, if asked. (EU Times)

The total Muslim share of Europe’s population is predicted to grow from 6% now to 8% in 2030: hardly the stuff of nightmares. But amid that are some sharp rises. The report assumes Britain has 2.9m Muslims now (far higher than the usual estimates, which suggest 2.4m at most), rising to 5.6m by 2030. As poor migrants start families in Spain and Italy, numbers there will rocket; in France and Germany, where some Muslims are middle-class, rises will be more modest—though from a higher base. Russia’s Muslims will increase to 14.4% or 18.6m, up from 11.7% now (partly because non-Muslims are declining). The report takes a cautious baseline of 2.6m American Muslims in 2010, but predicts the number will surge by 2030 to 6.2m, or 1.7% of the population—about the same size as Jews or Episcopalians. In Canada the Muslim share will surge from 2.8% to 6.6%. (The Economist, op cit)

Make of it what you will.

Birthdays

2011-01-30T15:26:00.000-08:00

Let's face it, we all grow older -- and as birthdays come and go they are marked by rites of passage. High school graduation, that college degree, military service, a wedding day and the birth of that first child all stand as other hallmarks -- but the birthdays keep coming, until they don't.

In most of the world, birthdays are times for joy. My grandson turned two and we're celebrating today. This is a photo of Griffin and his father, taken yesterday:

Today the family is gathering to eat a massive meal, followed by cake, candles, balloons and presents. The birthday of one is a time of joy for all...and everyone has their turn - in turn as pages are torn from the calendar.

There are other parts of the world where a birthday means that you're getting old enough to blow yourself to pieces to honor a faith that remains in the Bronze Age and resists any attempt to move beyond the bigotry, hatred and cruelty of the past.

Here a mother dresses her child for self-extermination as a rite of passage.

Fundamentalist Islam remains a threat to the planet and it doesn't take much study or soul searching to arrive at that conclusion. The battle rages and it's not simply a geographic thing or a racial thing. There is a fundamental difference between Islam and everyone else and it is chilling - and stark in its reality.

Obama's attachment to Islam disturbs me not because it's another religion - but because it is political and dangerous. Think about it. And ask yourself what is in America's best interests.

True or False?

2011-01-27T22:04:00.000-08:00

Statement of Fact: The City of Detroit has declared itself a failed city and is now providing traditional city services to only about 70% of the incorporated area.

True or False

Detroit's problem is too few unionized autoworkers! Labor unions need to build a more powerful base in Detroit in order to turn the city's problems around.

_____

Statement of Fact: For generations, CBS, ABC and NBC anchors had the respect of the American people and enjoyed credibility because they worked hard to report the news and not 'make' the news.

True or False

Americans no longer count on their news to be filtered and shaped by the Associated Press or the New York Times. Other outlets including the Internet, cable news, talk radio and other social media including Twitter, etc. Now have more credibility than the mainstream media.

_____

Statement of Fact: With the tough reality of the 'new world economy', the youth need to be prepared to fact a set of circumstances that their parents didn't have to.

True or False

Universities offering 'therapeutic' college curricula and hyphenated 'race-based' studies courses serve the interests of students who will be entering a workforce where competition for jobs will be far fiercer than anything Americans have experienced in the last hundred years.

_____

Statement of Fact: Our neighbor Mexico is failed narco-state, bearing a greater resemblance to Afghanistan than to the US and Canada which share North America with it.

True or False

The traditional media, radical tenured professors teaching racial studies, Democratic Party functionaries, rigid ethnic and racial lobbies, unions, and open-borders advocates are correct in their assertion that blocking illegal immigration, which brings with it organized crime, narcoterrorism and an unsustainably wicked financial burden, is a function of a radical racist element in society (the Tea Party).

_____

Statement of Fact: Unemployment in the US has reached near 10% nationwide. In areas of the country, unemployment and underemployment account for roughly 22% of the population (as in California). The US faces an increasing deficit that could completely consume the nation within a generation.

True or False

President Obama's program of 'spread the wealth' and extending unemployment benefits and unbounded medical entitlements will solve the problem and turn the nation around. We should look to the government to solve our employment woes.

Muslim Doll

2011-01-26T19:47:00.000-08:00

This new toy hit the shops - a talking Muslim doll.

Nobody knows what the she says because nobody has the guts to pull the string.

A BIG eye in the sky

2011-01-25T19:50:00.000-08:00

The Global Observer

The Global Observer, made by Monrovia, Calif.-based AeroVironment Inc., is bigger than a 767, flies in the stratosphere up to 65,000 feet, twice as high as Mount Everest - out of sight and out of range of most anti-aircraft missiles. From there it will be able to see 600 miles in every direction, enough to cover the entire country of Afghanistan.

It is powered entirely by liquid hydrogen fuel - light enough to power the drone for a week at a time, far longer than anything in use today. "It uses hydrogen for fuel, which has three times the energy density of gasoline, which enables it to fly much longer and at much lower costs and - oh, by the way, has zero emissions," AeroVironment CEO Tim Conver told ABC News.

The aircraft weighs about as much as a large SUV, but in order for it to fly so high for so long, the wing span has to be enormous - about half a football field. That way even when you can't see it, it can see you.

"It turns into a guided missile," AeroVironment's Steve Gitlin said, "and it'll follow the target if the target moves."

The new drone takes that unmanned capability much further, doing the work of a satellite for just tens of millions of dollars - some analysts say it would cost about $30 million - compared with hundreds of millions to $1 billion for a satellite. Unlike satellites, it can be up within hours and has the ability to instantly reposition.

The plane orbits above a target for a week at a time. In addition to on-board cameras that offer an unblinking eye, communications equipment offers cell phone, TV and broadband Internet for the same area.

When it refuels, a second plane takes its place. The military would swap out the plane every week, so it has constant surveillance.

It has an interchangeable payload that can carry cameras or communications equipment. The company initially envisioned it as a cheap way to supply broadband Internet, television and phone service cheaply in the Third World.

It has the potential for a more controversial use: border patrol. "Certainly if one wanted to see what was going on their border, looking at a 600-mile swath or area from one point would be a good way to do that," Conver said. [Hendren/ABCNews/24January2011]

Creating the Perfect World

2011-01-22T16:44:00.000-08:00

Keying on a post by Opus#6, it's time to consider the plight of progressives - as best expressed by Diversity Lane, a cartoon series:

How can eternally angry lesbian intellectuals and under actualized ACLU attorneys cope in a world that seems to be dominated by references to God, the US Military, and outmoded relics of a dimmer day in America -- like the Constitution?

XXX

Choosing Life

2011-01-20T16:40:00.000-08:00

(H/T Dale)

Making the decision to snatch life away shouldn't be easy. It shouldn't be comfortable. It shouldn't be unilateral -- but it is.

No Limit

2011-01-12T10:28:00.000-08:00

When it was instituted over 70 years ago, the statutory debt limit was intended to control congressional spending by limiting the amount of debt that the federal government could accumulate.

It has not fulfilled its legislative purpose. In the last ten years, Congresshas increased the debt limit ten times, raising the limit twice annually in 2008 and 2009. This data provides evidence that the debt limit, far from providing its intended fiscal discipline, has recently served as a symbolic cap that Congress will simply push higher and higher as spending increases dictate.

Any addict will tell you that they can't be cured so long as the fix is readily available and easily managed. Race for Justice has an interesting take on the situation in Illinois where debt is treated cordially, like an old, dear friend.

A Commentary on Mismanagement

2011-01-06T07:10:00.000-08:00

Why do the best US Army officers leave the service?

As a former Naval officer, I can tell you that it's the same in the Navy and Marine Corps...

From an article in THE ATLANTIC [LINK HERE]

(Quote from the Article) Why is the military so bad at retaining these people? It’s convenient to believe that top officers simply have more- lucrative opportunities in the private sector, and that their departures are inevitable. But the reason overwhelmingly cited by veterans and active-duty officers alike is that the military personnel system—every aspect of it—is nearly blind to merit. Performance evaluations emphasize a zero-defect mentality, meaning that risk-avoidance trickles down the chain of command. Promotions can be anticipated almost to the day— regardless of an officer’s competence—so that there is essentially no difference in rank among officers the same age, even after 15 years of service. Job assignments are managed by a faceless, centralized bureaucracy that keeps everyone guessing where they might be shipped next.

The present system ensures that the services retain the most risk-averse, and leads to long-term mediocrity. The military service follows the track of the country where it's politically incorrect to single out greatness or to mediocrity. The rewards come to those who go along to get along and the outstanding men and women in the armed services who dare to win and take calculated risks are often repudiated.

(Quote from the Article) But the Pentagon doesn’t always reward its innovators. Usually, rebels in uniform suffer at the expense of their ideas. General (Billy) Mitchell was court-martialed for insubordination in 1925; and who can forget the hostile treatment afforded General Eric Shinseki in 2003 after he testified that “something on the order of several hundred thousand soldiers” would probably be required to stabilize post-invasion Iraq?

In a 2007 essay in the Armed Forces Journal, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Yingling offered a compelling explanation for this risk-averse tendency. A veteran of three tours in Iraq, Yingling articulated a common frustration among the troops: that a failure of generalship was losing the war. His critique focused not on failures of strategy but on the failures of the general-officer corps making the strategy, and of the anti-entrepreneurial career ladder that produced them: “It is unreasonable to expect that an officer who spends 25 years conforming to institutional expectations will emerge as an innovator in his late forties.”

One of the most strident indictments of General Billy Mitchell was his preposterous prediction in 1925 that the Empire of Japan would attack the US Naval Base at Pearl Harbor with aircraft. Can you imagine any Army officer being that politically incorrect? That sort of thing needs to be punished...

Graphic Commentary

2011-01-02T06:59:00.000-08:00

click to enlarge

New Year's Eve

2010-12-31T10:04:00.000-08:00

I tried to find something to share that will echo my anticipated New Year's Eve.

Happy New Year!!

I'm not in Toledo, Ohio. But the vibe seems to clone the experience I'd be having if I lived in Toledo.

Achmed the Dead Terrorist sends Jingle Bombs...

2010-12-22T12:11:00.000-08:00

Christmas Wishes!

Dashing through the sand
With a bomb strapped to my back
I have a nasty plan
For Christmas in Iraq

I got through checkpoint A
But not through checkpoint B
That's when I got shot in the ass by the U.S. military

It's not funny!

Ooo, Jingle bombs, jingle bombs mine blew up you see
Where are all the virgins that Bin Laden promised me
Jingle bombs, jingle bombs your soldiers shot me dead
The only thing that I have left is this towel upon my head

I used to be a man, but every time I cough
Thanks to uncle Sam my nuts keep falling off

My bombing days are done, I need to find some work
Perhaps it would be much safer as a convenient store night clerk,
Ooo, Jingle bombs, jingle bombs I think I got screwed
Don't laugh at me because I'm dead or I keell you

It sounds like this

2010-12-13T21:56:00.000-08:00

Georg Friedrich Händel - Halleluja (Messias) is best when heard in German since that is the language in which it was written. When I was a young boy we had records of the complete Messiah - in German. We often sang Christmas songs in German. I still love the songs best when sung in German because it evokes memories of home, snow at Christmas, and holidays celebrated with a great deal of love and not much money.

The spirit of the Season is not an orgy of spending, but it is about being with those you love and dragging "Peace on Earth and Good Will toward all Men" out of the drawer. Enjoy the sounds of Christmas:

Gift Giving

2010-12-06T16:30:00.001-08:00

I've been trying to come up for the perfect Christmas gift. This is one option...

It has the virtue of being endorsed by the Democratic Party!

Federal Employee Pay Freeze

2010-11-30T04:28:00.000-08:00

Times are hard. Federal Employees are having their cost of living raises, and to many of us who do not lap at the federal trough, it seems more like a public relations stunt than a serious attempt to do something. To me, personally, it sounds like something David Axelrod came up with to help President Obama crow about how tough he really is. However is the panic gesture being made by Obama worth anything?

The Tea Party asked the Federal Government to devolve power in key areas to the US States. I've never heard anyone call for a reduction of cost of living raises to workers. However, if that's what the US Government plans to do, we should cut any scheduled pay increases to Congress as well. In fact, Congress should lead the way and roll their own pay back to 2008 levels, just to show that their hearts are in the right place. But I haven't seen them moving in that direction.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, released the following statement reacting to President Barack Obama's enactment of a two year freeze in civilian pay for federal employees:

"At a time when our nation's seniors have been denied a cost-of-living-increase and private sector hiring is stagnant, it is both necessary and quite frankly, long over-due to institute a pay-freeze for the federal workforce. As Republicans outlined in our Pledge to America there are a number of actions the President and Congress should immediately act on to demonstrate a real commitment to reigning in the excessive growth and spending of the federal government.

"To put this in perspective, the Obama Administration says this two-year pay freeze will save $2 billion, however, just last week, OMB released a report revealing that the federal government's improper payments for FY-2010 totaled $125 billion, $15 billion higher than the previous year. It is unthinkable that we have come to accept having a bureaucracy that has institutionalized waste, fraud and abuse to the point where $125 billion in improper payments were made last year. The first place we should look to make progress on higher costs, increased debt and a stagnant economy is look inward at how taxpayer dollars are being spent and doing more to ensure that tens of billions of dollars are no longer erroneously paid out."In their Pledge to America, Republicans proposed a number of actions to put government on a path to a balanced budget and to reign in the deficit:

§ Cut government spending to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels

§ Establish a hard cap on new discretionary spending

§ Reduce Congress' budget

§ Hold weekly votes on spending cuts

§ End TARP once and for all

§ Address government control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

§ Impose a net federal hiring freeze of non-security employees

§ Root out government waste and sunset outdated and duplicative programs

§ Reform the budget process

I believe that Congressman Issa has hit the nail on the head and if the reduction in COLA increases for federal workers is combined by instituting these other measures, it would make sense. However, taken by itself, the Obama plan to single out federal workers will likely cause more harm than good.

Thanksgiving Day Proclamation (George Washington)

2010-11-25T22:36:00.000-08:00

This wasn't mentioned on any of the Media outlets so I thought it should appear here on this day.

George Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor -- and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me "to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness."

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be -- That we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks -- for His kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation -- for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of His Providence which we experienced in the tranquility [sic], union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed -- for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One [capital O] now lately instituted -- for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which He hath been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions -- to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually -- to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed -- to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn [sic] kindness onto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord -- To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease [sic] of science among them and us -- and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand at the City of New York

the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789

George Washington

Why are Americans so stupid?

2010-11-19T14:01:00.000-08:00

Ever since the elitist left lost the mid-term elections (by in large), the mainstream media has been asking that question. How could Americans be so stupid? The president himself has expressed that it's his failure to explain his genius to us (the common folk who cling insensibly to God and guns in fly-over states) that led to Republicans gaining 64 seats and a majority in the House of Representatives.

(graphic, h/t Dale)

American people have a difficult time reconciling themselves to socialism. They don't want nationalized anything because most of them find that the Federal Government can't run ANYTHING efficiently. Giving them control of healthcare (20% of the economy) means that they'll run it at a loss at twice the cost of allowing private enterprise to do it.

They just don't get it.

Airport Security & Common Sense

2010-11-14T08:04:00.001-08:00

We all want to be safe and in the airport and in the air. Let's face it, fundamentalist Muslim terrorists are no joke. So everyone is subjected to general misery at the hands of TSA because heaven forbid that fundamentalist Muslim terrorists are "profiled".

My 80 year old mother, flying from one California city to another is not a Muslim, and not a terrorist, and they kept her in security for about 30 minutes as they went through her medications and vitamins to insure that she wasn't smuggling ILLEGAL pills. Oh, come on, TSA - I know these screeners are making near minimum wage but REALLY?

TSA Searches (and traumatizes) a 3 year old girl. (H/T Gateway Pundit)

There is a profile of people who present a danger to the public. I don't think anyone explains this to people at TSA. Yes, anyone can be a terrorist - but a modicum of common sense can solve SO many problems.

Pelosi for Minority Leader!

2010-11-06T23:52:00.001-07:00

The Democrats don't want to change horses in mid-stream.

At least that's what former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is telling the nation, and it forms the basis for her bid for House Minority Leader. Less than one week ago Republicans piled up the biggest gains in the House in over 70 years, while the Democrats will preside over the lower chamber for the shortest period since the 1950s.

Keeping Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi in leadership roles in Congress will tend to reassure the voting public that the Democratic Party did not get the message. Or maybe they did - as Obama put it, he simply hasn't explained himself to the American people enough. He needs to talk more.

"We have no intention of allowing our great achievements to be rolled back," Pelosi, 70, said in a letter to her colleagues. One has to pause for a moment and ask if "our great achievements" means Pelosi's perceived achievements or America's achievements. Having the Democratic Party soundly repudiated in the election last week has not deterred Pelosi! Not one bit.

Pelosi's bid presumably will keep her atop the Democratic caucus, which will number about 190 members next year. Many Republicans are secretly (and some not-so-secretly) hoping that she turns out to be the anointed Minority Leader. Her unpopularity combined with the reptilian Harry Reid (retained as Senate Majority Leader) puts Republicans in a spectacular position to take the White House in 2012.

If conventional Democratic Party wisdom holds, Reid, Pelosi and Obama will join hands to get Obama another four year stretch as commander-in-chief. How will that play in Peoria?

Cutting Spending

2010-11-03T21:45:00.000-07:00

Nobody seems to want their particular government entitlement to be cut. I understand that. It's common wisdom that one is committing political suicide to suggesting a cut in government benefits.

I'm not a politician - so I'm going to offer a place to start.

1. Increase the age at which people can collect Social Security benefits to 70. (increase of 5 years) SAVINGS estd. $120 billion per year (politicians like to discuss how much it will save over ten years and I don't know what it will be in ten years but 10x$120 billion = $1.2 trillion.

2. Transition new workers into a tier 2 SSI system that is a restricted fund, immune from Congressional/Presidential raiding. No, I don't know what sort of system that should be. I'm not an annuities expert. Anything should be better than the present system -- that's going broke.

3. Medicare increased at 6.6% this year. The costs have gone up between 4% and 8% each year. Freeze what the government will pay at 2008 levels (a savings of over $50 billion per year). ObamaCare effectively eliminates Medicare so unless this is repealed or found unconstitutional by the court, freezing it won't do much. The ObamaCare Gordion Knot must be cut and resolved before this can be managed.

4. Medicaid should not be offered to illegal aliens. That provides an annual savings of something on the order of $10 billion each year. I don't know if that number is completely defensible but it's going to be in that range. ($100 billion over ten years)

5. No federal unemployment benefit payments by 2012. Employees pay into the state fund. If they want to have the insurance, perhaps they need to pay higher premiums. It's becoming WELFARE these days since people no longer have to look for work to collect. I paid into private salary continuance insurance (private, not government) for 30 years and never collected. The premiums were high, but I felt it was worth it. Maybe others will agree? ($80 billion per year - and if the job situation improves, there need be no spending at all so the cost is indeterminate)

6. Department of Education. Education is a state problem. States and localities need to decide what they will teach and how they will teach it. Additionally, they can decide how much they want to spend. The Federal Budget is $46.7 billion per year. Reduce funding to 50% of present levels and continue to reduce funding by 10% per year until the states assume full control of education. Savings $23 billion this year, ultimately about $50 billion per year. ($500 billion over ten years)

We're at $1.8 trillion over ten years - but we're freezing Medicare and when you plug all that in, the savings will be about $2 trillion.

7. Health and Human services - Well over half of the money goes to federal welfare. While I have no problem with the Centers for Disease Control or the National Institutes of Health research, the welfare component should be eliminated. If the states want to dole out welfare, they can decide how much they want to pay. So cut the budget by 60% to $30 billion (saving $48 billion per year or $480 billion over ten years)

8. Housing and Urban Development - What a money pit! Eliminate the agency. If the states want to pick up the cost, they're welcome to. (saving $48 billion per year, or another $480 billion over ten years)

We're up to almost $3 trillion in savings now -- over ten years.

9. National Endowment for the Arts, National Public Radio, etc. -- adios. It's not the savings to the public so much as it is the absolute waste.

Taking these steps reduce the present national spending by 10%.

Voting Results

2010-11-02T23:55:00.000-07:00

I wanted to make a few comments on the election. I don't know that my observations are any more or less valid than anyone else's.

I live in California and voters in the Golden State simply amaze me. I'm ashamed of them -- Boxer and Brown? Ok, I thought that both Fiorina and Whitman were unappealing, lame RINO candidates and didn't do much to support them except for reluctantly voting for them as the lesser of two evils. Jerry Brown's speech included the revelation that he married -- a woman. That's just a bit shocking. There wasn't much else from the Brown speech except that things in California will get a whole lot worse before they get better. Brown feels that renewable energy will turn the corner in California...Governor Moonbeam returns. He's every bit as much a space cat as he was when Californians ran him from office years ago.

Florida did well. Marco Rubio was an excellent choice for the US Senate. Allen West will be a great Congressman and Alan Grayson was sent packing back to the rock he crawled out from under.

John Kasich won the governor's race in Ohio. Ohio won. The Obama seat in the US Senate has gone to Mark Kirk (a Republican), which is a pleasant message, sent to the Chief Executive on the eve of his trip to India where he will bow and scrape, begging the Indians for forgiveness for whatever (since that's sort of what Obama does).

The House of Representatives will have the ability to investigate irregularities in the Obama regime nobody knows how the chips will fall with that. Pop some corn, watch and wait.

Women Anchors on Fox (Rule 5)

2010-10-31T12:41:00.000-07:00

I'll let you all vote:

Megyn Kelly (personal favorite)

Jill Dobson

Martha McCallum

Laura Dhue

Jane Skinner

And the latest addition --

Sarah Palin

American Debt - Political Hope?

2010-10-30T23:51:00.000-07:00

America is a nation in crisis. By next year, the United States will reach Third World debt ratios. Yet both major parties seem oblivious. Neither of them has a plan, or even publicly acknowledges the severity of the crisis. If the Tea Party does nothing else, it may at least force the Republicans to face this highly unpleasant fact. Then again, the long-term Republican incumbents in Congress seem to sound just a little like Democrats these days.

The smug editors at the New York Times are sincerely convinced that Tea Partiers are dangerous crackpots – even though they’ve never met any. But they have yet to present a viable plan to fund Medicare, Social Security -- and would tell you if you asked them that their job is merely to critically review every other failed plan. The Tea Party suggests that there is no choice but to restructure Social Security and Medicare to make them financially viable for future generations. Democrats, intent on re-election 'promise' their constituents that 'they' will save Social Security. The truth is that they can't -- the way it's currently structured. Politicians have robbed the restricted fund, thrown it into the general fund and now that's what we have to deal with.

Tuesday, the U.S. Democrats will face the voters. The liberals are sure to blame the (great unwashed) masses, not themselves for the outcome. They'll tell us that the Tea Party whipped up voter discontent with their simplistic slogans.

Barack Obama insists that the voters simply don’t appreciate what they’ve accomplished. He claims that his only real mistake was to not focus enough on positive PR. (though he has been in "campaign mode" ever since he was elected) He believes the people on the other side are basically bigoted, intolerant, anti-immigrant, Islamophobic racists who cling insensibly to God and guns.

Most Americans feel that even though Obama didn't create the problem, that he and his party made it worse. Most Americans are not socialists and are not interested in having their nation radically transformed. Most Americans have good common sense and will express themselves -- on Tuesday.

That Dastardly Potato!

2010-10-25T09:17:00.000-07:00

The Potato - an enemy of the State?

When I heard that the United States Government was working to BAN people receiving government assistance and schools from buying potatoes, I took a step back. Could this be true? Could Big Brother be that -- intrusive? It turns out that it's true and the government is taking steps to eliminate potatoes from the diets of welfare recipients and children who eat school lunch. Since when did the potato become our enemy? Will potatoes eventually be banned from consumption in the US?

The Institute of Medicine, the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences, recommended that the U.S. Department of Agriculture stop participants of the federal Women, Infants and Children program, known as WIC, from buying potatoes with federal dollars. The institute also called for the USDA-backed school lunch program to limit use of potatoes. This is a program that Barack Hussein and Michelle Obama are pushing hard to see implemented. I wonder if any of it has to do with the fact that the potato producing states have not voted for him or his cronies? The State of Idaho would be CRUSHED economically by this decision.

Under an interim rule, the USDA agreed to bar WIC participants from buying potatoes with their federal dollars. Potatoes are the only vegetable not allowed. Next year, the agency will roll out a final rule on the WIC program, which last year served 9.3 million children and pregnant and breast-feeding women considered at risk for malnutrition.

Associated Press

GLEED, Wash. - Potato growers are fighting back against efforts to ban or limit potatoes in federal child nutrition programs, arguing the tuber is loaded with potassium and vitamin C and shouldn't be considered junk food.

One Washington man is so exasperated by the proposals that he's in the midst of a 60-day, all potato diet to demonstrate that potatoes are nutritious.

"We're just really concerned that this is a misconception to the public that potatoes aren't healthy," said Chris Voigt, head of the Washington Potato Commission. "The potato isn't the scourge of the earth. It's nutrition."

The USDA is expected to release changes to the federal school lunch program by the end of the year. The program subsidizes lunch and breakfast for nearly 32 million needy kids in most public schools and many private ones, and those schools must follow guidelines on what they serve.

Relax, it's just a test

2010-10-21T16:20:00.000-07:00

Would you want to sit next to any of these people on an airplane?

I don't think that Juan Williams would want to...

Don't report me to CAIR. It's only a test to see how sensitive you are to Muslims.

Muslims are exempt from the joys of ObamaCare based on the Bill that Congress passed (LINK). Maybe they're mad about that? Can we swap them? They can pay for the trillion dollar healthcare program themselves and exempt the rest of us...

Until then, I really don't want them on any airplane I'm flying on. I know that the religion of peace will call for my beheading for suggesting that, but I'm not very politically correct.

A Tough Night on Patrol

2010-10-17T07:48:00.000-07:00

This is a street cam video from Russia.

A police officer stops a motorist for having a headlight out -- and then jumps into the back seat of the car to avoid a pack of wolves.

You can't make this stuff up.

Nidal Hasan - Assassin!

2010-10-16T14:08:00.000-07:00

NY Times -- FORT HOOD, Tex. -- Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, with a blanket draped over his shoulders and a watch cap pulled low over his dark eyes, listened impassively in recent days as several survivors of his murderous rampage a year ago rose and pointed to him as the gunman who had shot them.

No emotion or hint of the defendant's thoughts flickered across his pale features, as more than two dozen other soldiers and civilians spoke under oath about their struggle to survive in the terrifying minutes after he yelled "Allahu akbar!" -- "God is great" in Arabic -- and started shooting. He sank low in his wheelchair -- he is paralyzed from the waist down after the police shot him to end his shooting attack on Nov. 5 -- and stared intensely at the witnesses. At times he made small, precise notes on a legal pad, but he said nothing to his lawyers....

Major Nidal Malik Hasan, US Army Medical Corps

I find it curious that educated men and women reporting for The Gray Lady (NY Times) can't figure out why Nidal Hasan murdered 14 fellow service members at Ft. Hood Texas. I know it's impolite to claim that it's because he's a Muslim to spite his screams of, "Allah u akbar!" as he gunned down innocent men and women, who, moments before would have considered him a brother-in-arms. One might resort to the Holy Book of Islam, the Qur'an for an answer.

Verse 9:11 means what it means. A Muslim who is killed or who kills fulfilling teachings 9:5, 9:29 and all the other teachings of murder, rape, terror, torture in the Quran ARE GUARANTEED ACCESSION TO AN EVIL PARADISE FILLED WITH FULL BREASTED, LUSTROUS EYED VIRGINS WHO REGENERATE AS VIRGINS AFTER EACH SEX ACT AND WHOM THESE KILLERS AND MURDERERS OF ISLAM CAN SEXUALLY MOLEST FOR ALL ETERNITY.... But I don't think that would be politically correct to quote in the NY Times, would it?

How will the NY Times cope with Major Nidal Hasan, US Army, if he follows the the example of the Times Square bomber and truthfully proclaim his motives? He should lecture the court about how it lacks jurisdiction in the matter, since it is not based on Shariah and God's law. He can carefully explain that since the dead soldiers were infidel dogs there should be no penalty for his killing them. If he is thorough he will make use of legal precedents from Islam, complete with citations from the Qur'an and Hadith. That's what a good Muslim should do in order to anchor his martyrdom.

The NY Times Article goes on:

Staff Sgt. Patrick Zeigler said he thought at first the attack was a training exercise. He froze in disbelief as the laser guide crossed his eyes. Then he was hit.

“It felt like someone hit me in the head with a metal baseball bat,” Sergeant Zeigler said, touching the right side of his head where doctors later had to remove part of his brain. He recalled hitting the floor and crawling desperately across the ground toward the door before passing out. “There was a pool of my own blood on the ground in front of me,” he said.

Major Hasan can become a model to Muslims worldwide by telling the court that as a Jihadi, he merely did what he had been commanded to do by the Qur'an!

Who Loves Obama?

2010-10-11T12:56:00.000-07:00

If you read Time Magazine, noteworthy liberal rag, the answer would seem to be the same answer you'd get from the man on the street: NOBODY.

Mark Halperin, Staff Writer for Time writes in part:

"With the exception of core Obama Administration loyalists, most politically engaged elites have reached the same conclusions: the White House is in over its head, isolated, insular, arrogant and clueless about how to get along with or persuade members of Congress, the media, the business community or working-class voters. This view is held by Fox News pundits, executives and anchors at the major old-media outlets, reporters who cover the White House, Democratic and Republican congressional leaders and governors, many Democratic business people and lawyers who raised big money for Obama in 2008, and even some members of the Administration just beyond the inner circle."

Obama has become the international apologist for all things American and has been revealed as a man who blames EVERYONE but himself for his inept performance as the President of the United States. He blasts George W. Bush, Fox News, the Republican Party, Independent Voters (The Tea Party), businessmen, etc.

He's going to be the president for the next two years and he'll have to deal with a very different Congress than he had in his first two years. If he's LUCKY, he'll inherit former President Jimmy Carter's legacy of a failed term in office. If he's not, he may be branded a traitor by future generations who will recall his unabashed love for every petty dictator and potentate on the globe and his disdain for America and Americans.

President Obama has laughed when people asked him whether he's a socialist, a Muslim and many Americans wonder if he is even a 'natural born citizen' as the Constitution requires. A lot of that can be traced back to his failure disclose facts about his life that should still be made known to the American people. It would serve to reinforce or dismiss allegations of a Manchurian Candidate.

Irrespective of his questionable roots, the racist agenda of his Justice Department with their obvious bias against anyone who is not black, the corrupt Chicago Machine who surrounded him in the White House, he will have a very different end-of-term than he had in the beginning.

Skill Sets Needed

2010-10-10T13:01:00.000-07:00

I'd like to be able to hack the obama speechwriting computer that feeds to the teleprompter. Who knows what great and marvelous things would happen to the country?

New presidential directives would change the whole momentum of the obama presidency.

He'd disavow socialism, embrace the Tea Party and swear to dismantle ObamaCare.

He'd repudiate Reid, Pelosi and Holder as corrupt politicians and would call for a congressional investigation...

Photo courtesy presidential archives.

You'd see a mighty change in how the president undertakes even the most routine tasks if I could hack the teleprompter. People might even change their opinion of President Obama and think that he is a competent and rational leader. George Soros would be really frustrated -- because his teleprompter hack no longer worked.

We'd need to set up a sun shade or something to insure that he could spew my words of wisdom, his apologies to the American people for his Marxist agenda, etc.

He'd stop calling himself Barry Soetoro, and would stick to the message. You know what he says when there's no teleprompter...that he's proud to be a Muslim, that they need to build the Ground Zero Victory Mosque, that the Federal Government won't help the people in the Gulf recover from the oil spill because they didn't vote Democrat, etc.

Incidents such as this one would be things of the PAST. In the future, the President would be able to go through the process without fear!

But I have a problem - I don't know how to hack into the teleprompter...

There's an opening for Chief of Staff!

2010-10-02T16:04:00.000-07:00

The word is out that Rahm Emanuel wants to leave the White House and run for the position being vacated by Mayor Richard Daley in Chicago.

He brought "the Chicago Way" to the White House and he's leaving to help bring the nanny state to the heartland.

On the surface, Rahm Emanuel is leaving to fulfill a personal ambition — to be mayor of Chicago. In reality, he's jumping a sinking ship, and the credentials he brings to a mayoral race in the Windy City may also be his political albatross. He heads for the self-described "city that works" leaving behind a country that doesn't.

Emanuel is famous for saying what has become the mantra of the Obama administration: "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste..."

"He and his boss would not let the economic crisis generated by government meddling in the housing market through the Community Reinvestment Act and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac go to waste. After our ship of state began taking water, Rahm helped Obama drill a hole in the other end of the boat to let the water out." (IBD)

Rahm's accomplishments in the White House include steering passage of the failed trillion-dollar stimulus package that has saved or created no jobs and a health care overhaul that will raise medical costs while leading to de facto health care rationing. He leaves an administration responsible for an economy foundering in unsustainable debt and an unemployment rate near double digits.

Maybe he can do better in Chicago? More to steal? Chicago, like most U.S. cities and states, is suffering from budget shortfalls made worse by an economic crisis Emanuel helped engineer. It is a one-party state that has succumbed to decades of urban liberalism. He should feel right at home.

Heard playing on Rahm's car stereo (above)

Climate Change Solution

2010-10-01T16:55:00.000-07:00

>>WARNING<<

Gore is Coming!

(Apparently Great Britain is more into the whole Enviro-Nazi thing than I am.)

Not that there's anything wrong with that. I like the solution, but the cause is sort of BS - Europe, go figure?

What I really want is one of those button thingies.... And there are a lot of Middle Eastern people whose carbon footprint won't be polluting the planet ANYMORE! Which gets me to the point and I think that even Al Gore would agree. If we simply eliminated everyone on the planet who didn't agree with "me" (using the Obama model of narcissism) - the whole carbon footprint thing would be, well it would be a thing of the past.

Economics 2010

2010-09-28T11:05:00.000-07:00

They don't teach Econ 2010 in Universities -- but they'll be doing that one day.

There are several realities that most Americans (to include Canadians) and many Europeans are faced with. We as individuals have to be content with less and we need to focus on balancing our own budgets and living within our means. Ever since the 1980's Western governments have been on a spending and leveraging spree and the US/Canada and Europe hit the wall.

In the US, the Federal Reserve lowered the interest rate to nearly 0%, the Barack Hussein Obama Regime and the Democratic Party-dominated Congress enacted nearly a trillion dollars in stimulus spending that focused on pet projects. They rammed it through the legislature who didn't even have something to read about before they voted in the blind. They tried cash-for-clunkers, housing tax credits and petty tax breaks, which all ended as dismal failures.

The unemployment/underemployment rate is very high and people are putting off purchases on all but the necessities. Retailers worry about another dismal, sluggish, holiday season. Politicians blame each other instead of being constructive. Fools like Vice President Joe (Slow Joe) Biden and President Barack Hussein Obama, who have never actually worked for a living, or had to meet a payroll, are telling us that "happy days are here again!"

We the People know now that:

Bail-outs don't work. If your business has been failing for years like General Motors, it's best to let it go the way of the iron horse. Other automobile manufacturers will appear in the void.
Stimulus only works if it's aimed at STRUCTURE including pro-growth tax reform, infrastructure investment and solid support for small businesses and start-up companies who are the true job creators. Stimulus works if it's focused on human capital.
Trust in Congress hovers somewhere around 15%. Faith in the government can only be restored when law makers are trustworthy. Today, over 3/4 of all Americans believe that they're not. We'll see what happens with the November 2010 vote and what Republicans decide to do about it.
The Government must CUT jobs, cut spending and allow business to grow. If it doesn't, there will be no recovery. Barack Hussein Obama is a narcissistic cretin who reads well from a teleprompter. Putting that clown in charge of a national recovery is like expecting a circus ringmaster or a sideshow barker to lead the country. He and his friends must be voted from office.
ObamaCare is unsustainable and needs to be repealed and replaced with a common sense approach to healthcare that will not cost us trillions of dollars that we don't have.

The Democratic Party faithful seem to be distancing themselves from Obama because they understand that he's an empty suit and that the American people have recognized that. Democrats can redeem themselves by working to save the country rather than to follow the failed practices of a failed presidency. It remains to be seen whether or not they're able to take the high road or not.

What do you owe?

2010-09-27T09:33:00.000-07:00

Real tax calculation table assuming a $74,000.00 base salary.
Ending tax rate is 72% including all state and federal. Just review the numbers and note that they include a few estimates that are based on national averages for state property tax, etc.

It's important to know where you stand.

$2,376 Employee paid share of medical and dental insurance
$126 Employee paid share of state unemployment insurance
$149 Employee paid share of disability insurance
$1,893 Employee paid share of state income taxes
$3,661 Employee paid share of federal Social Security
$6,250 Employee paid share of income tax withholding

$856 Company paid share of Medicare
$9,561 Company paid share of medical and dental insurance
$153 Company paid share of life and other insurance premiums
$56 Company paid share of federal unemployment coverage
$505 Company paid share of state unemployment insurance
$300 Company paid share of workers' comp
__________________________________________________
= $25,866.00 total Federal & state deductions from actual base salary

$74,000.00 Actual base salary
- $25,866.00 taxes & Fees
_________________________________
= $48,134.00 real base salary

This is a 33% tax rate on actual earned income. Now for additional taxes:

$12,033 Deduction of taxable income of 25% on April 15th
$1,144 Federal gasoline tax [1]
$3960 State property & school taxes [2]
$65 Vehicle registration
$45 Car Inspection
$240 Federal & State Electricity taxes & fees
$72 Federal & State Water & trash taxes & fees
$120 Federal & State Cable Tv / internet taxes & fees
$180 Federal & State Phone taxes & fees
_________________________________________________
= $17,859.00 basic needs taxes & fees

$48,134.00 (adjusted gross) income on your W-2
- $17,859.00 basic needs taxes & fees
_________________________________
= $30,275.00 (actual real net income)

This is now a 54% tax rate on actual earned income.

What if we add just a few luxury items...

$1,985.00 Federal & state for a new car purchase
$30 Federal tax on tanning [3]
$1,004 Federal & state cigarette tax [4]
$187 Federal & state Alcohol tax [5]
$529 Food & clothing state sales tax [6]
$200 New computer State sales tax [7]
_________________________________________________
= $3,935.00 basic luxury items

$30,275.00 (actual real net income) left after basic needs
- $ 3,935.00 Federal & state luxury items taxes & fees
_________________________________
= $26,340.00 (actual real net disposable income)

This is now a 66% tax rate on actual earned income.
What if we add just a few more luxury items...

$100 Federal & state for 40 movie tickets [8]
$85 Federal & state for baseball season tickets [8]
$85 Federal & state for football season tickets [8]
$25 Federal & state for 10 popular music concert tickets [8]
$1,985 Federal & state for a second new car purchase
$1,985 Federal & state for a fishing or pleasure boat purchase
$1537 Federal & state for a 15,000 Home renovation [8] [9]
__________________________________________________
= $5,802.00 secondary luxury items

$26,340.00 (actual real net income) left after basic luxury items
- $ 5,802.00 Federal & state on secondary luxury items taxes & fees
_________________________________
= $20,538.00 (actual real net disposable income)

This is now a 72 % tax rate on original amount of actual earned income.

Note that no investment income was included here, including Estate tax or other proceeds that qualify for AMT or Capital Gains.

Calculations:

[1] Based on $.63/gallon - 2 fill ups/wk x 52 weeks
[2] Based on Dallas Texas property assesment of 100K home
[3] Based on a $300/ year tanning package
[4] Based on $7.50/pack @ $2.75/pack tax smoking 1 pack per day
[5] Based on $9.00/ gallon (1 gal = 30 servings of 5 oz) 6 glasses/weekend or 624/per year
[6] Based on 8.25% sales tax with an average general purchase $534/month or 6,408/year
[7] Based on 8.25% sales tax with an average 2,000 purchase price
[8] Based on 8.25% sales tax and aproxamate value of regional pricing
[9] This may change assesed taxable value of home generally increasing property tax

Source:

http://www.convertit.com/
http://www.taxfoundation.org/

Honor your women by beating them!

2010-09-25T09:02:00.000-07:00

This comes from THE NATIONAL REVIEW (LINK). I never thought that women wanted to be beaten up by men. In the US, being called a "wife beater" is an insult. It implies a criminal assault on somebody weaker. In Islam, it seems that it's a badge of honor! Go figure?

Imam-sanctioned acid attack for being "disrespectful" to the in-laws.

h/t grendelreport.posterous.com

As you read below, please take note that Sa'd Arafat is an Egyptian cleric broadcasting on Egypt TV not an ignorant Taliban provincial hiding up-country.

That’s from the avuncular Muslim cleric Sa’d Arafat, from an interview on Al-Nas TV in Egypt last February, featured by the invaluable MEMRI. You can watch the interview excerpthere. And, since we certainly wouldn’t want to take the sheikh out of context, here’s atranscript (presented without further comment because, well, what more can you say?)

Interviewer: Wife beating is a serious accusation [leveled against Islam]. Let us examine this matter bit by bit.

Sa’d Arafat: Allah honored wives by instating the punishment of beatings.

Interviewer: Honored them with beatings? How is this possible?

Sa’d Arafat: The prophet Muhammad said: “Don’t beat her in the face, and do not make her ugly.” See how she is honored. If the husband beats his wife, he must not beat her in the face. Even when he beats her, he must not curse her. This is incredible! He beats her in order to discipline her.

In addition, there must not be more than ten beatings, and he must not break her bones, injure her, break her teeth, or poke her in the eye. There is a beating etiquette. If he beats to discipline her, he must not raise his hand high. He must beat her from chest level. All these things honor the woman.

She is in need of discipline. How should the husband discipline her? Through admonishment. If she is not deterred, he should refuse to share the bed with her. If she is not repentant, he should beat her, but there are rules to the beating. It is forbidden to beat her in the face or make her ugly. When you beat her, you must not curse her. Islam forbids this.

Interviewer: With what should be beat her? With his bare hand? With a rod?

Sa’d Arafat: If he beats her, the beatings should not be hard, so that they do not leave a mark. He can beat her with a short rod. He must avoid beating her in the face or in places in the head where it hurts. The beatings should be on the body and should not come one right after the other. These are all choices made during the process, but beatings are allowed only as a last resort. [...]

The honoring of the wife in Islam is also evident in the fact that the punishment of beating is permissible in one case only: when she refuses to sleep with him.

Interviewer: When she refuses to sleep with him?

Sa’d Arafat: Yes, because where else could the husband go? He wants her, but she refuses….

Where are the voices of the Women's Movement condemning this kind of outrageous behavior?
Where is our foolish President, who apologizes daily for Western values and bows to Saudi princes?
Where is Code Pink?

Where are the useful idiots of the political left? Usually, they can be found rationalizing and aggressively supporting this deeply misogynistic and backward religion; insuring that it is incorporated into the K-12 curriculum so our children accept the idea that Islam is "peaceful" and that we are not; and ensuring that Islam has a special place in the public sphere (not granted to any other religion) so that they won't be labeled Islamophobic-- that's where they are.