Did Radical Islamist Dr. Khalid al-Mansour Pay Obama's Way Through Harvard?

The Daley Gator brings some astounding news:

…However, one of Sutton’s most notable moments is absent from the media hagiographies I have seen: he stated on television that he knew that an Islamic supremacist, Dr. Khalid al-Mansour, and advisor to a wealthy Saudi, had paid for Barack Obama’s education at Harvard Law School.

The details of Obama’s education have long been murky at best. Obama himself has refused to release any details of how he ended up at Harvard, how his education was paid for or what he did while he was at Harvard. Considering that a huge element of Obama’s aura is his ‘remarkable’ life, it has always seemed odd that his years at Harvard are a blank.

The video:




Read Doug’s entire piece here.

Another Airline "Incident" UPDATED

Fox News has just broken in to the program I was watching to announce that there has been another "incident" on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. The plane is on the ground and everyone appears safe. Other than that, there is no information. I will update as soon as information becomes available.

UPDATE:

They are now announcing that a thirty year old Nigerian boarded the flight in Lagos without any luggage and then switched planes in Amsterdam. Mid-air he locked himself in the restroom and when he refused to exit, an air marshal broke the door down and took the man in to custody.

Nobody knows at this point what the man's intentions were but he followed the exact flight pattern followed by the Northwest flight 253 bomber.

Napolitano in Denial: “The system worked.”

Jonah Goldberg writing in The Corner:

Napolitano has a habit of arguing that DHS is a first responder outfit. Its mission is to deal with "man-caused-disasters" after they occur. It appears she really believes it. If the White House wants to assure people that it takes the war on terror seriously (a term Robert Gibbs used this morning by the way), they could start by firing this patently unqualified hack.

Goldberg is being kind.

Upon learning of the attempted bombing of Northwest Flight 253, our President continued his golf game and then went to the gym. That is this administration’s idea of taking the war on terror “seriously.” Their whole “alls well that ends well” attitude would be merely frustrating if it didn’t belie how unseriously they take the war on terror and by extension, the safety of the American people. One wonders what, if anything, these people think their job is.

We did not hire these people as janitors. It is not their job to come along after the fact and mop up the mess. If Napolitano doesn’t understand that, and it doesn’t appear she does, then Goldberg is right, she needs to go.


More at:

Memeorandum
The Other McCain
The Riehl World
Michelle Malkin
Hot Air

Incredible Act of Bravery in Iran

Doug Ross is reporting that protesters in Iran rushed the scaffolding where two men were being hanged, saving their lives. The protesters have shown incredible bravery in the face of overwhelming force and without so much as a word of encouragement from President Obama. It is past time for this Administration to stand up on the side of freedom.

Read more here.

Video here.

Lefties: What's the Big Deal About Blowing Up a Plane Full of People?

Prof. Jacobson, following up on his earlier post, brings us this gem from Matthew Yglesias:

Obviously, people shouldn’t be lighting anything on fire inside airplanes. That said, all the big Christmas airline incident really shows to me is how little punch our dread terrorist adversaries really pack. Once again, this seems like a pretty unserious plot. And even if you did manage to blow up an airplane in mid-air, that would be both a very serious crime and a great tragedy, but hardly a first-order national security threat....

Ultimately, it does no favors to anyone to blow this sort of thing out of proportion. The United States could not, of course, be “devastated” by anything resembling this scheme. We ought to be clear on that fact. We want to send the message around the world that this sort of vile attempt to slaughter innocent people is not, at the end of the day, anything resembling a serious challenge to American power. It’s attempted murder, it’s wrong, we should try to stop it, but it’s really not much more than that.

Then there is this post from Donald Douglas at American Power:

But there's something more significant to consider with regards to how the left perceives this terror plot. I'm reading Spencer Ackerman's post on this, "al-Qaeda’s Desperate Bid For Relevance, The Failed Plane Attack & Afghanistan." Despite his purported national security "credentials," Spencer Ackerman's woefully unserious about war and terrorism. Recall that this is the guy who called for President George W. Bush's death at the Hague, and for that reason alone his rants will garner the attention of leftist foreign policy vultures. A good example of this childishness is Ackerman's tweet from yesterday, seen here:

What is it going to take for the Left to take the threat that terrorists pose to this country serious? Let people gather for a peaceful Tea Party protest and the Lefties are screaming their fool heads off about "radicals" but let a real radical attempt to blow up a plane with 300 people on it and all you get from the Left is "eh, no biggie."

Of course, if they took the threat seriously then they would also recognize the need for action. Let's face it, the men of the Left aren't exactly known as real men of action. No, for this crowd, the only action they are interested in consists of the bong and sushi fete after the gallery opening.

The "pee pee pants" crowd ignores and/or downplays the dangers that radical Islam poses to all free people in part because their worldview doesn't allow for 'good vs. evil' or 'right vs. wrong'. Again, recognizing evil or wrongdoing requires action, and that is a no go.

Let them going quietly back to their fetes. Serious issues should be dealt with by serious people.

All Hail Our New Overlords at Interpol

This just in from Andrea Shea King at RadioPatriot:

With Obama, always, always look at the other hand…

Yesterday, it was brought to my attention by Pierre Legrand that President Obama signed an Executive Order on December 17th that no one and I mean no one, reported on. Cue the crickets… As horrifying as the health care legislation is and I personally believe it is worthy of revolt, this Executive Order has the potential to be monstrous.

Here is the Executive Order:

The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate ReleaseDecember 17, 2009
Executive Order — Amending Executive Order 12425
EXECUTIVE ORDER- – – – – – -AMENDING EXECUTIVE ORDER 12425 DESIGNATING INTERPOLAS A PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION ENTITLED TOENJOY CERTAIN PRIVILEGES, EXEMPTIONS, AND IMMUNITIES
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 1 of the International Organizations Immunities Act (22 U.S.C. 288), and in order to extend the appropriate privileges, exemptions, and immunities to the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), it is hereby ordered that Executive Order 12425 of June 16, 1983, as amended, is further amended by deleting from the first sentence the words “except those provided by Section 2(c), Section 3, Section 4, Section 5, and Section 6 of that Act” and the semicolon that immediately precedes them.
BARACK OBAMA

Nudge, nudge folks… This seems a minor change but let us break it out for you as we see it. Let’s look at the section from Executive Order 12425.

Here’s the text of 2(c), which this Executive Order now has applying to Interpol:

(c) Property and assets of international organizations, wherever located and by whomsoever held, shall be immune from search, unless such immunity be expressly waived, and from confiscation. The archives of international organizations shall be inviolable.

This now says that Interpol is no longer subject to the Freedom of Information Act. Their premises or staff can no longer be searched either. Their files are not subject to legal subpoena or discovery. Our government could just hand documents and files over to Interpol and Americans would no longer have access to them. Interpol can legally keep files now on all citizens of the US with no right to redress.

In reality, we have just handed over our sovereignty. Interpol headquarters in the US is currently headquartered in the Department of Justice. A ‘separate’ Interpol agency has been created in the DOJ – let that sink in for a moment. Interpol has been granted diplomatic immunity now by Obama – they have exemption from being subject to search and seizure by law enforcement, US taxes and immunity from FOIA requests, etc. This action could also be used to divulge American military secrets and a whole host of horrific practices having to do with going after our military. It’s the road to internationalism on steroids.

I contend this is the foundation for an international governing and policing body. A modern day SS here in the US if you like. Remember how Obama wanted to create a civilian police force? Well, it’s here, just from a direction I never saw it coming from. I really believe you will see Interpol police forces on US soil in the near future. It will resemble the Gestapo and their intelligence gathering techniques. This police force would not be subject to our normal Constitutional oversights – remember, no search and seizure etc. You have to admire the evil genius behind all this. Just stunning.

"Stunning" doesn't begin to describe this move by Obama. This is a travesty. But the bigger travesty is that this Executive Order was signed on December 17th and not one outlet in the "main stream" media has reported on it. What further proof does anyone need that the media have long ceded their mantle as watchdogs and have become full fledged members of Obama's Fifth Column.

Read the rest of the story at RadioPatriot.

Officials Have Known About Northwest Airlines Bomber for Two Years

I am sitting here watching Fox's America's News Headquarters, who are reporting that an un-named source is claiming that our government has known about the terrorist who attempted to blow up Northwest Airline flight 253 for two years! And there is this report from Don Surber:

Abdul Farouk Umar Abdulmutallab, 23, who tried to blow up Flight 253 flying from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day, is the son of Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, the recently retired chairman of First Bank in Nigeria.

From AllAfrica.com: “According to the family members, Mutallab has been uncomfortable with the boy’s extreme religious views and had six months ago reported his activities to United States’ Embassy, Abuja and Nigerian security agencies.”(emphasis added)

Coming on the heels of the Ft. Hood massacre, how the Hell could this happen? How is it that our government has evidence that people are dangerous yet they fail to protect us? Prof. Jacobson has written Terrorist Attacks Plane, Think Progress Attacks Pete Hoekstra, detailing the Left's attack on Rep. Hoekstra because Hoekstra dared to say “People have got to start connecting the dots here and maybe this is the thing that will connect the dots for the Obama administration,” said Hoekstra.

Apparently this guy was on the "Watch List" but not the "No Fly List". Fat lot of good it does to watch someone if the government doesn't lift a finger to act on the information they receive. Hoeksra is on Fox right now pointing out that both Hasan, of Ft. Hood, and the Northwest Airlines bomber have ties to Yemen and radical imam Anwar al-Awlaki.

The Left can say anything they want but the fact is that President Bush did keep us safe for the seven years after 9/11. In Obama's first year we have already had one successful terrorist attack and we would have had a second one yesterday had it not been for dumb luck. I for one don't want to rely on dumb luck for my family's safety.

Fads

Mark Steyn writing in McCleans:

According to the CIA’s analysis, “detrimental global climatic change” threatens “the stability of most nations.” And, alas, for a global phenomenon, Canada will be hardest hit. The entire Dominion from the Arctic to the 49th parallel will be under 150 feet of ice.

"Climate change" was all the rage back in the seventies. We were told that if we didn't act, and act soon, we were all going to freeze to death. As memory serves me, we pretty much ignored all the hysteria, we didn't freeze to death and the scientists moved on to the next crisis.


I have reached the age where I don't pay much attention to fads. I didn't pay that much attention to the predictions of the impending Ice Age back in the seventies because quite frankly, I was more worried that Gary liked Rene more than me. (He did. They married)


That is the thing about fads. They come and go. And we forget about them. But there are fads and there fads. When Nehru jackets were the craze, I just had to have one. But the only thing that suffered due to the purchase of my tan leather Nehru jacket, that went out of style the day after it was bought, was my parent's bank account.

Back to Steyn:

The man with the sandwich board announcing the end of the world on Jan. 7 is usually unfazed when he wakes up on the morning of Jan. 8. He realigns the runes, repaints the sign, and reschedules Armageddon for May 23. The rest of us, on the other hand, scoff.


The fact is that Global Warming is no different than the hula hoop and the slinky. It is a fad that has made it's inventors a boat load of money but the fad will pass. The difference is that with this fad it isn't just individual Moms and Dads getting suckered out of their hard earned money by their pleading children. If this fad doesn't pass soon everyone is going to pay and pay and pay.


The true believers in the Church of Global Warming are unfazed by ClimateGate or any other evidence that comes down the pike. Fortunately, the ObamaCare debacle has our esteemed Congressmen gun shy and battle weary, as well they should be, and thus Cap and Trade is being "put on ice", pun intended, for the time being. And with time, all fads pass.


I look at the picture of myself in flowered bell-bottoms and matching floppy hat and feel silly. I predict that long before the north polar cap melts, Al Gore and the entire Global Warming crowd will be looking pretty silly, too.

Let the Merriment Begin!

From Don Surber:

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said the public would cheer Democrats when they got home, so beloved is Obamacare. When Democrats go home, Reid said, “Yes, we’ll hear an earful, but it will be an earful of wonderment and happiness.”

Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd arrived in Connecticut, and got this “earful of wonderment and happiness”:

A man cried out, “You’re not gonna get re-elected.”

Is it just me, or does “an earful of wonderment and happiness” sound like part of a saying of Chairman Mao?

Now, in the spirit of the Season, I'm not wishing bad on the people who've served up that crap sandwich known as ObamaCare, but I think I should be forgiven if I pop some popcorn and kick back to enjoy the show. What do you want to bet that our Congressmen go to avoid their constituents during their break?

Are Bonuses for “Fat Cats” Bad? Depends on Which “Fat Cat”

That was then:

US President Barack Obama has hit out at Wall Street "fat cats," expressing anger that banks bailed out by the government again plan huge bonuses as millions of Americans battle poverty and unemployment.

"I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street," he said in an interview with CBS television to be aired today.

And this is now:

The Obama administration pledged Thursday to provide unlimited financial assistance to mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, an eleventh-hour move that allows the government to exceed the current $400 billion cap on emergency aid without seeking permission from a bailout-weary Congress. (emphasis added)

The Christmas Eve announcement by the Treasury Department means that it can continue to run the companies, which were seized last year, as arms of the government for the rest of President Obama's current term.

But even as the administration was making this open-ended financial commitment, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac disclosed that they had received approval from their federal regulator to pay $42 million in Wall Street-style compensation packages to 12 top executives for 2009. (emphasis added)

Let’s see, the “fat cats” who are paying back the taxpayers are undeserving of bonuses but the crooks at Fannie and Freddie who were instrumental in causing the housing bubble and are permanently living off the taxpayer dime, now they deserve bonuses of up to six million dollars each. Gotcha.

While President Obama has been demanding accountability of Wall Street he sets a different standard, a lower standard, for himself and his administration.

Good Golly, Miss Molly! Did He Say, "Yield"?

Was Sen. Cornyn sucking on a hookah when he made this ass backwards pronouncement?

"Folks on the right, and frankly I'm one of them in terms of voting record, have to yield to the world as it is and not necessarily how they wish it would be," Cornyn told Reuters for a story about centrist Rep. Mike Castle's (R) bid for Senate next year in Delaware.

If I understand, and I hope I don't, Cornyn is saying that if a voter's candidate of choice does not meet Cornyn's definition of reality, that voter should dump their conscious and yield to Cornyn's reality. If that is the case, why don't we do away with primaries and just let Cornyn's little club just appoint our candidates for us? What a putz.

It is this "I know better than you" attitude that has turned voters in droves away from the Republican party and straight in to the arms of the Tea Party. And the Tea Party doesn't even exist.

I am trying to be a good Republican. I've been a Republican my entire adult life. But don't talk down to me. Don't tell me who to vote for. And by all means, get over any thought of taking me for granted.

That is reality.

Why Are We Adding Another Entitlement Program When The Ones We Already Have Are Broke?

Washington Post:

The recession's jobless toll is draining unemployment-compensation funds so fast that according to federal projections, 40 state programs will go broke within two years and need $90 billion in loans to keep issuing the benefit checks.

The shortfalls are putting pressure on governments to either raise taxes or shrink the aid payments.

Debates over the state benefit programs have erupted in South Carolina, Nevada, Kansas, Vermont and Indiana. And the budget gaps are expected to spread and become more acute in the coming year, compelling legislators in many states to reconsider their operations.

Currently, 25 states have run out of unemployment money and have borrowed $24 billion from the federal government to cover the gaps. By 2011, according to Department of Labor estimates, 40 state funds will have been emptied by the jobless tsunami.

Chances are that on Christmas Eve we will be gifted with yet another entitlement program. Let’s look at the entitlement programs we already have-Medicare will be broke by 2017, Social Security may well beat Medicare to insolvency and now we learn that 25 states are out of their employment funds and that number will soon swell to 40.

In order to “rescue” these programs either benefits will be cut or taxes will be raised. Most likely, there will be a combination of both. Reid and Company recognized that ObamaCare would also require services/treatments be limited (rationed) so deep in the belly of the bill they hid a provision:

Section 3403 of Senator Harry Reid’s amendment requires that “it shall not be in order in the Senate or the House of Representatives to consider any bill, resolution, amendment, or conference report that would repeal or otherwise change this subsection.” The good news is that this only applies to one section of the Obamacare legislation. The bad news is that it applies to regulations imposed on doctors and patients by the Independent Medicare Advisory Boards a/k/a the Death Panels.

The Dem’s aim is to lock-in the Advisory Board’s ability to cut costs through rationing. In other words, while the Dems have been denying that rationing is a feature of government health care, they have been simultaneously planning for it.

Rather than pushing through yet another entitlement program that will increase taxes, increase hardship and decrease productivity our government should be concentrating on fixing the broken programs we already have. They should start by getting people back to work.

Reid Confuses "Compromise" and "Corruption"

From Politico:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) offered a vigorous defense Monday of the deals in the Senate reform bill that benefit individual states, saying “it doesn’t speak well” of senators who didn’t secure such deals.

..."That’s what legislations all about,” Reid said of the compromises. “It’s the art of compromise. In this great country of ours, Nevada has many different problems than does New Hampshire. Michigan has many different problems than does Georgia.”

Now, Sen. Nelson held out on the pretext that he was pro-life. Had that been the case, and had Reid added true pro-life language to the bill and because of that language Reid secured Nelson's vote, that would have been a compromise. But that isn't what happened. Nelson sold his vote, Reid bought it. That is corruption.

I understand why a smarmy son of a bitch like Reid would be confused. Knowing the difference between compromise and corruption requires knowing the difference between right and wrong. He's not alone in his deficiency. For too long our Capitol has been manned by amoral corruptocrats who've used the power that we gave them to entrench and expand that power while lining their pockets with taxpayer money. The best, and worst, that can be said of Reid is that he is typical.

Speaker Pelosi Breaths a Sigh of Relief

Whew, that was close! Originally the Senate version of ObamaCare included a 10% tax on cosmetic surgery but Speaker Pelosi will be relieved to know that among the backroom deals cut to get this stinker passed, the cosmetic surgery tax was dropped and a tax on tanning salons was substituted in its place.

Actually, it was the AMA that objected to the tax on cosmetic procedures. Seems like an odd thing for the association that represents about one third of the country's doctors to hold out for. The majority of cosmetic procedures are voluntary, not medically necessary and are not covered by insurance.

In any case, fake tans will cost a little bit more and fake boobs will be surtax free. I'll pass on both.

Pro Abortion "Feminists" Won't be Happy Until They are Free to Kill Children Right up to the Age of Majority

This level of tripe is common among pro abortion "feminists":

I think there’s a bit of reverse psychology going on with respect to the issue of abortion. Let’s dispense with the term anti-abortion, shall we? Let’s call it what it really is: The movement to deny women the ability to decide for themselves whether to be parents as most persons endowed by their creators with unalienable rights have the right to do. With anti-abortion measures, women are not just subject to the state, they are forced to recognize a religious presence in their lives whether they have faith or not. Men do not need to recognize any faith. They are allowed complete freedom of conscience.

Aside from any other illogical, not to mention incorrect, frothing in the above paragraph, the writer has much in common with her pro-abortion sisters. There seems to be a hard-wired belief amongst these women that pregnancy is inevitable and unavoidable; sooner or later it’s going to get them through no fault of their own. Yet oddly, there are sexually active women who never find themselves under the brute force of the theocratic state compelled to become pregnant. How do they do that?

One wonders if “riverdaughter” is as pleasant in person as she is in paper. As a (somewhat) older woman I feel that I should pass on the wisdom of my years-lighten up, smile, enjoy life and for goodness sake, use birth control.

Happy Birthday, Nadia!

Happy birthday to my beautiful baby girl who has grown in to such an incredible woman. I am proud of the talented person and loving mother that you have become.

Even though we are on opposite sides of the country, you are always in my heart.

Have a wonderful birthday.

Love,

Mom

The Big Mouth From the Small State

How's this for the Spirit of Christmas:

Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) is a piece of work:

"Far from appealing to the better angels of our nature, too many colleagues are embarked on a desperate no-holds-barred mission of propaganda, obstruction and fear. History cautions us of the excesses to which these malignant, vindictive passions can ultimately lead. Tumbrils have rolled through taunting crowds, broken glass has sparkled in darkened streets. Strange fruit has hung from Southern trees. Even this great institution of government that we share has cowered before a tail-gunner waving secret lists. . . .

"We see it in Christmases and holidays ruined by the Republicans for our loyal and professional Senate employees. It’s fine for me. It’s fine for the president. We signed up for the his job, but why ruin it for all the employees condemned by the Republicans to be here?” (Emphasis added.)

Gee, don't hold back there Bucko. I'm going to skip over that first paragraph because frankly, it does little good to address the clearly unhinged. But as to your staffers ruined Christmas, go flipping home. The Republicans aren't keeping you there. Republicans don't want you there. Nobody asked you to cram this down our throats. In fact, we asked you not to. You didn't listen. You're not listening now. You stand on the floor of the United States Senate and speak like a petty, third world tyrant. Sen. Whitehouse, I will give the respect that you have earned. None. Kiss my ass.

India's Prime Minister was Teaching but was Obama Learning?

Doug Ross:

The Calcutta Telegraph offers a compelling and detailed view into the diplomatic machinations of Copenhagen. We're forced to turn to India's media outlets because state-run media in the United States continues to ignore the week's biggest stories from the climate summit (e.g., "Obama snubbed by Chinese premier at meeting", Economic Times of India).

In a last ditch effort to salvage a deal, Obama walked into a room unannounced where the leaders of China, India, Brazil and South Africa were meeting.

When Obama entered the room, there was no chair for him. Obama himself was reported as saying that there weren’t any seats......At the “accidental” five- nation meeting, Prime Minister Singh told Obama that international review of voluntary mitigation action was unacceptable as he was answerable to Parliament. Any international review of India’s voluntary mitigation actions would go against public opinion, he said.Wen also had similar views, while Lula voiced concerns over imposition of trade barriers on developing countries under the garb of environment protection... The group stuck to its stand on review of voluntary mitigation action, which it said would be an intrusion on members’ sovereignty.

In short, India's prime minister gave Obama the "Acting Presidential 101" class: leaders of democracies are accountable to the people.

It is a shame that leader of the free world needs to be schooled by the Prime Minister of India. You would think it self evident that politicians are accountable to the people who elected them. But accountability doesn't appear to be one of Obama's strong points and I've seen no indication that he gives a flip about the will of the people.

We could have avoided all of this had so many people not have been willing to elect a complete unknown who had never done or accomplished anything simply because they believed that his election would be "historic". They may in the end be right, but for all the wrong reasons.

Civil Disobedience

Writes Pat at And So it Goes in Shreveport:

What kind of Senate does business like this? Voting in the dead of night, conducting business behind closed doors, totally and completely corrupting and hijacking the legislative process, buying votes and trading favors...it smacks of corruption, lies, and dirt. One feels used, ignored and belittled as an observer in this whole process.

Cheap. Tawdry.

Amen. As I wrote yesterday, McConnell rightly points out that were this not an attempt to deceive the American people, they would not be holding the vote at 1 A.M. on Monday morning. Thieves do their business under the cover of darkness. Is that what our government has become? The Dems ARE a bunch of thieves stealing our very liberty.

The question becomes what are we going to do about it? I can sit here and bang on this keyboard until Hell freezes over but what would does accomplish? The Tea Party movement has had an effect. Cap & Trade is being delayed. The Senate is sneaking in to the chamber to vote in the middle of the night. Congressmen in "safe districts" are announcing their retirement.

As I said in the comments at Legal Insurrection, defeated does not mean deflated. This battle has not gone well but the war is not lost. The Left is fighting for power. We are fighting for freedom and liberty. Momentum and history are on our side.

This is a comment that was left on an earlier post:

NATIONAL STRIKE JAN 20, 2010 to coincide w/ STATE OF UNION SPEECH NATIONWIDE STRIKE over Obamacare...

Call into work sick. Buy nothing. Find a union hall, congress creature office, State or Federal building and form picket lines. Come ready to party...

NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE! Put that right back in their face!

NATIONAL STRIKE JAN 20, 2010 to coincide w/ STATE OF UNION SPEECH NATIONWIDE STRIKE over Obamacare...TAKE BACK AMERICA

I don't know if this will catch on or not but I've put some thought in to it and I've decided that I will be spending January 20th sitting in front of Rep. Kathy Castor's office. I am aware that going on strike is not exactly number one with a bullet on the average Conservative's to do list but maybe it should be.

Any thoughts?

The Perfect Scam aka "Pay up, Sucker"

Having spent the last two and a half decades in banking on the branch level I've seen far too many people fall victim to scams. Scams take all manner of forms but the result is the same-the victims voluntarily give their money to the scammer. For all the millions of dollars that Nigerian scammers have suckered out of the pockets of willing victims, they are rank amateurs compared to the perpetrators of the "Global Warming" scam.

The "first name" in the Global Warming scam may be Al Gore but it turns out that Gore is a mere princeling compare to the King of the Fraud, Dr Rajendra Pachauri:

No one in the world exercised more influence on the events leading up to the Copenhagen conference on global warming than Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and mastermind of its latest report in 2007.

Although Dr Pachauri is often presented as a scientist (he was even once described by the BBC as “the world’s top climate scientist”), as a former railway engineer with a PhD in economics he has no qualifications in climate science at all.

What has also almost entirely escaped attention, however, is how Dr Pachauri has established an astonishing worldwide portfolio of business interests with bodies which have been investing billions of dollars in organisations dependent on the IPCC’s policy recommendations.

These outfits include banks, oil and energy companies and investment funds heavily involved in ‘carbon trading’ and ‘sustainable technologies’, which together make up the fastest-growing commodity market in the world, estimated soon to be worth trillions of dollars a year.

Today, in addition to his role as chairman of the IPCC, Dr Pachauri occupies more than a score of such posts, acting as director or adviser to many of the bodies which play a leading role in what has become known as the international ‘climate industry’.

It is remarkable how only very recently has the staggering scale of Dr Pachauri’s links to so many of these concerns come to light, inevitably raising questions as to how the world’s leading ‘climate official’ can also be personally involved in so many organisations which stand to benefit from the IPCC’s recommendations. (emphasis added)

A long time criticism of the IPCC is that it ignores and very effectively silences scientists who present scientific evidence contrary to the IPCC's findings. Well, of course. The Nigerian scammer doesn't disclose negative information in the "Congratulations, you have won the Canadian lottery letter" and the chairman of the IPCC isn't going to allow information to become public that interferes with the "pay up, Sucker" conclusions that have made him one very, very wealthy gangster.

The Nigerians, and their counterparts, are able to pull off their scams over and over again because their victims are too embarrassed to speak out. ClimateGate is providing a (rare) window for the victims of the Global Warming scam, scientists and citizens alike, to speak out without embarrassment.

Read more about how Pachuri uses the IPCC to line his own pockets here.

For a pretty good clue about Pachuri's character read this post my Mark Steyn.

And to inject a bit of common sense in to the Global Warming nonsense: In other words, CO2 is not a pollutant in the air–it is air.

No War for Oil

Remember all those people who claimed that the invasion of Iraq was really just Cowboy Bush's way of stealing Iraq's bounty of oil and giving it to his buddies "Big Oil"? It seems that Michael Moore and Viggo Mortensen have moved on to tackle other evils (for the anti-America crowd there will always be something). Still, I wonder how they and their ilk react to this little bit of news:

Those who claim that the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003 to get control of the country's giant oil reserves will be left scratching their heads by the results of last weekend's auction of Iraqi oil contracts: Not a single U.S. company secured a deal in the auction of contracts that will shape the Iraqi oil industry for the next couple of decades. Two of the most lucrative of the multi-billion-dollar oil contracts went to two countries which bitterly opposed the U.S. invasion — Russia and China — while even Total Oil of France, which led the charge to deny international approval for the war at the U.N. Security Council in 2003, won a bigger stake than the Americans in the most recent auction. "[The distribution of oil contracts] certainly answers the theory that the war was for the benefit of big U.S. oil interests," says Alex Munton, Middle East oil analyst for the energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie, whose clients include major U.S. companies. "That has not been demonstrated by what has happened this week."

Of course, most thinking people realize that if the invasion of Iraq had really been about taking over the oil fields we would have just done it. You can't argue that America is a vast military-industrial complex bent on world domination and ignore the fact that a no point did we make any attempt to take over Iraq's vast supply of oil.

History will judge the war and President Bush based on the ideology of whomever writes it. One thing is certain-there was no "blood for oil."

Dems Gloat About Screwing Over the American People

I'm going to paraphrase Sen. Harkin's remarks during the announcement that the Dems have the votes for ObamaCare:

This is not a mansion. This is a starter home. It has has a good foundation and a good roof for protection AND IT HAS ROOM FOR EXPANSION.

Do not doubt for one moment that once the Dems jam this bill through the race will be on to expand it and expand it until they have the single payer, government run system that they have wanted all along.

Sen. McConnell, speaking right now, says that the Dems talk alot about "making history" but history will note that this is the moment that our government completely ignored the will of the American people. McConnell rightly points out that were this not an attempt to deceive the American people, they would not be holding the vote at 1 A.M. on Monday morning. Thieves do their business under the cover of darkness. Is that what our government has become? The Dems ARE a bunch of thieves stealing our very liberty.

Read about Sen. Nelson's sellout at The Other McCain. He sold out our nation's unborn children for a sweetheart deal for his state. He no longer has the right to call himself pro-life.

Marco Rubio on Fox Business

Watch Marco Rubio's appearance on Fox Business:

Mood Enhancement

Nothing improves a really crappy day like the utterly perfect Tweet.

Personal favorite: There are 27 bones in the human hand. I'm just going by sound here.

Golden Words

This, my friends, is eloquence:

Speak for yourself, pussy. But how emblematic of liberal weakness and the odd, seemingly contradictory arrogance that is its ugly, constant companion: this worm is so gutless he even loathes himself for his boundless self-loathing, and he can’t imagine that other intelligent people might not be as inclined to wallow in the shallow cesspool of impotent futility as he is. It’s every bit as pathetic as it is contemptible. And it’s remarkable that so many people are drawn to such a weepy, adolescent world view, seeing as how the only thing it really has to offer is misery and despair — ie, limits.

I read the paragraph, paused, thought, and then read it again. The writer could be talking about anyone, or everyone, on the Left. True Progressives are a (thankfully) small minority in this country. A movement simply can’t “catch on” when it is comprised of individuals completely devoid of basic survival skills.

The unyielding belief in self preservation is unheard of and unthinkable among our Progressive brethren. The first tenant of unworthiness espoused by the Left is that no man is greater (though often lesser) than the lowest creature. Human exceptionalism is mocked by those who take to the streets to save a snail but scoff at the mere idea of saving an unborn child. The utter backwardness of the Progressive movement is breathtaking.

I think too highly of myself to ever be accepted by the Left. I’m proud of that.

Read the entire glorious post.

The Jerk

What would any sane thinking person do when someone is saying “mean” things about them? Probably just ignore it, but hypocritical blowhard Rep. Alan Grayson (D) Jerk nixed the sane response in favor of writing a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder demanding that his critic be thrown in jail for five years.

Grayson is frothing over the website ”mycongressmanisnuts.com” which highlights Grayson’s penchant for irrational bluster. For those of you who can’t tell the nutty Democratic players without a scorecard, Grayson is the wacko known for calling an aid to Fed Chairman Bernanke a “K Street whore” and opining that Republicans “want you to die quickly.”

One would think that as an attorney Grayson would be aware that this country has something called the First Amendment which guarantees citizens the right to free speech. But lately it seems that Democrats care little for our Constitution or Bill of Rights.

Lefty Outrage Over ObamaCare

Doug Ross writes:

Over at 538.com, Nate Silver devotes significant attention to the faux liberal outrage erupting over the nationalization of health care. Silver analyzes the responses to 20 of his questions posed to Markos Moulitsas (Daily Kos) and Jon Walker (FireDogLake).

I'll save you the effort of reading their neural diarrhea. Suffice it to say that the "Reality-based" Community devotes thousands of words to government-run health care without mentioning:

• The "dangerous" amount of national debt that we are assuming ($50,000 for each and every American by 2019 without a health care takeover);
• The exploding and extremely risky deficit;
• The impending bankruptcy of Medicare and Medicaid (the time-bomb is set to explode in less than a decade);
• Slashing $500 billion from Medicare while claiming to "improve quality";
• And the utter accounting fraud associated with booking six years of benefits against ten years of tax revenues.

Bernie Madoff is serving time for running a Ponzi scheme like this, only a 100 times smaller. Best of all, Silver is the supposed "numbers guy" for the socialist left. So he turns out to be just as intellectually honest as the rest of the Soros-funded troupe.

The numbers are real. And they are dangerous to the future of this country, according not to me, but the Congressional Budget Office.

So the "Reality-based" Community is either delusional or intent on the utter destruction of the American experiment. Choosing which is an exercise best left to the reader.

Note: Yes, this is the same Nate Silver of the Dealergate beclownment. No one tell Natey that a variety of lawsuits by dealers alleging partisan activities by the Obama administration are still wending their way through courts.

To answer Doug's question as to whether The Left is delusional or intent on destroying the country, I'm going with both. The "Reality-based" Community that Doug speaks of has done quite well off of the "American experiment" yet they despise everything that they have profited from. They are delusional in that they believe they can take the country down and rebuild it in to some Socialist utopia and that only the "evil doers" will be affected. Perhaps they see themselves in the role of dominant over-seers in the New World order but toady schmucks is much more likely.

This the ugly result of emoting without thinking.

Carbon Emissions is Causing Rapid Cooling

Increased carbon emissions is leading to rapid cooling that is threatening to decimate crops and destroy fragile eco-systems.

Okay, I totally made that up but if it turns out to be the next scam up the pike remember, you heard it here first.

From Don Surber:

Solar activity (sunspots and solar storms) dropped to zero in August 2007 and have barely increased since.

Is this a precursor to a lengthy period of little or no solar activity which may coincide with a mini-Ice Age — the so-called Maunder Minimum?

How the heck should I know, Jim? I’m a writer, not a doctor.

But it is worth keeping an eye on.

Science.com reported that the Earth’s thermosphere (100 miles up) is cooling rapidly. NASA launched the Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Mesophere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) mission in 2001 to get a better picture of this outer layer, Science.com reported.

“The sun is in a very unusual period,” said Marty Mlynczak, a TIMED team member at NASA Langley in Virginia. “The Earth’s thermosphere is responding remarkably – up to an order of magnitude decrease in infrared emission/radiative cooling by some molecules… I certainly didn’t expect to see this eight years ago.”

I wonder if that legendary Computer Model that the Church of Climate Scientology worships expected it.

“More work is needed to fully understand the links between the sun’s energy, rising greenhouse gas emissions and the Earth’s outer atmosphere, the scientists said,” Science.com reported.

Ya think?

Hey, maybe we ought to wait until we have facts — unadulterated by minions for the the Church of Climate Scientology — before we spend trillions retrofitting the world’s economy.

Well its been my experience that the climate changes over and over again but if Al Gore is predicting that the entire north polar ice cap will disappear in five years and that each meter of sea-level rise displaces 100,000,000 people. "It is not a matter of theory or conjecture." then I'd say chances that we'll have another Ice Age are pretty good.

Liars, Scammers and Frauds (and Hillary Clinton), Oh, My!

Hillary Clinton went to Copenhagen and as my Mom would say, talked out of her ass:

"In the context of a strong accord in which all major economies pledge meaningful mitigation actions and provide full transparency as to those actions, the U.S. is prepared to work with other countries towards a goal of mobilising $100bn a year to address the needs of developing countries," Sec. of State Hillary Clinton said, according to BBC.

As Darlene Click said at Protein Wisdom said, It’s not like, you know, it will be coming out of Hillary Clinton’s own bank account. It's also not like Hillary has the authority to commit the United States to anything, but in this case, it is the thought that counts.

Clinton's pledge feeds the notion that we owe the world. But were we to give all that we have "the world" would demand more while still insisting that we hadn't done enough. Those gathered in Copenhagen care little about our exceptionalism. If they think at all of the innovations born in the USA that have benefited the world as whole it is to complain we are destroying the planet. On one hand they insist that as a "rich" nation we have a duty to the world but then they cheer wildly when Hugo Chavez claims that "capitalism is the road to Hell."

This is a summit of liars, scammers and frauds and soon our president will be among them. The Apology Tour continues...

The Plant City Tea Party Gives Marco Rubio a Rousing Welcome!

An enthusiastic crowd met in Plant City today to listen to Willie Lawson of BlogTalk Radio, Dr, Gonzalez-Orthopedic Surgeon and Marco Rubio, who will be facing Gov. Charlie Crist in the Republican primary race for the US Senate.

Lawson, active in the local Tea Party, warmed the crowd up and Dr. Gonzalez spoke passionately about the need to stop the Democrats from passing their version of health care reform. The crowd broke out in cheers when Dr. Gonzalez reported that Sen. Bernie Sanders had withdrawn his "single payer" amendment today after Sen. Tom Coburn forced a reading of the 767 page amendment. Both speakers noted the importance of voting for a conservative candidate rather than a "Dem lite" in the August Republican primary. There were no names mentioned but it was clear that Rubio was considered the conservative candidate.

Rubio received a standing ovation when he took the stage. His message of personal and fiscal responsibility plays well across Florida and particularly resonates in Plant City, a small mostly rural community. After speaking, Rubio mingled with crowd answering questions and having his picture taken.

No one in this crowd was surprised that Rubio had tied Crist in the most recent Rasmussen poll-he was obviously their choice.

Rasmussen Has Rubio in a Tie With Crist

The latest Rasmussen poll has Marco Rubio tied with Charlie Crist in the Republican race for the US Senate:

Governor Charlie Crist and former state House Speaker Marco Rubio are now tied in the 2010 race for the Republican Senate nomination in Florida.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely GOP Primary voters finds Crist and Rubio each with 43% of the vote. Five percent (5%) prefer another candidate, and nine percent (9%) are undecided.

Crist’s support has fallen from 53% in August to 49% in October. Rasmussen Reports noted at the time, “The fact that Crist has fallen below 50% in a primary against a lesser known opponent suggests potential vulnerability.”

Rubio’s name recognition has grown in recent months and he is now viewed Very Favorably by 34% of Likely Primary Voters. That’s up from 18% in August. As his name recognition increased, Rubio’s support in the polls has jumped from 31% in August to 43% today.

Crist, well known throughout the state, has seen his ratings go in the opposite direction. Just 19% now have a Very Favorable opinion of him, a figure that represents a double digit decline since August.

I'll be attending a Plant City Tea Party tomorrow where Rubio is scheduled to speak. Plant City is a fairly small, mostly rural area best known as the "Winter Strawberry Capital of the World." Rubio's willingness to venture into smaller venues is one of the reasons his poll numbers have risen so quickly. I've heard him speak at one prior event and he showed a genuine interest in listening to the voters and answering any questions put to him. He's a far cry from the typical politician who jumps up on stage, gives a speech lacking in particulars and rushes off to the next engagement.

I'll have more on Rubio tomorrow night.

h/t Richard McEnroe at Not One Red Cent

We Don't Need No Stinkin Facts

It appears quite clear since the advent of ClimateGate that those who worship at the alter Global Warming are uninterested in facts. And don't even try to talk common sense to them-not their forte. So, the European Foundation's 100 reasons why climate change is natural and not man-made won't sway the AGW lemmings but for those who aren't anti-science or common sense impaired, the list is an excellent read. My ten favorites:

7) The 0.7C increase in the average global temperature over the last hundred years is entirely consistent with well-established, long-term, natural climate trends.

8) The IPCC theory is driven by just 60 scientists and favourable reviewers not the 4,000 usually cited.

16) A Harvard University astrophysicist and geophysicist, Willie Soon, said he is “embarrassed and puzzled” by the shallow science in papers that support the proposition that the earth faces a climate crisis caused by global warming.

19) A petition by scientists trying to tell the world that the political and media portrayal of global warming is false was put forward in the Heidelberg Appeal in 1992. Today, more than 4,000 signatories, including 72 Nobel Prize winners, from 106 countries have signed it.

35) It is a myth that computer models verify that CO2 increases will cause significant global warming because computer models can be made to “verify” anything

55) The argument that climate change is a of result of global warming caused by human activity is the argument of flat Earthers.

57) William Kininmonth, a former head of the National Climate Centre and a consultant to the World Meteorological Organisation, wrote “the likely extent of global temperature rise from a doubling of CO2 is less than 1C. Such warming is well within the envelope of variation experienced during the past 10,000 years and insignificant in the context of glacial cycles during the past million years, when Earth has been predominantly very cold and covered by extensive ice sheets.”

64) Michael Mann of Penn State University has actually shown that the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age did in fact exist, which contrasts with his earlier work which produced the “hockey stick graph” which showed a constant temperature over the past thousand years or so followed by a recent dramatic upturn.

67) Global temperatures have not risen in any statistically-significant sense for 15 years and have actually been falling for nine years. The “Climate-gate” scandal revealed a scientific team had expressed dismay at the fact global warming was contrary to their predictions and admitted their inability to explain it was “a travesty”.

70) Richard Lindzen, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wrote: “The notion of a static, unchanging climate is foreign to the history of the Earth or any other planet with a fluid envelope. Such hysteria (over global warming) simply represents the scientific illiteracy of much of the public, the susceptibility of the public to the substitution of repetition for truth.”

Read the entire list.

h/t Cold Fury

A B+? What's He Smoking?

Obama tells Oprah that he gives himself a B+ for his first year as president. Let's review. In his first year he has added more to our national debt than all previous presidents combined. The "stimulus" hasn't stimulated a thing and the eight percent unemployment he said we would hit if he didn't get his way is now ten percent.

I give him credit for finally making a decision on Afghanistan but he left our troops hanging forever before deciding to give his generals less than they asked for.

Obama claims that we have made progress at halting Iran and N. Korea's development. Citation, please Mr. President. From where I stand, all of President Obama's "pretty pleases" have resulted in a resounding "pound sand."

Unbelievably, the president claims that passing health care reform will raise his grade to an A-. Puppy please. Fifty-six percent of Americans are against ObamaCare.

Consider the current Rassmussen daily tracking poll. Forty-four percent of the population somewhat approve of the president while forty-two percent strongly disapprove and overall, fifty-five percent disapprove.

Doesn't sound like a B+ to me.

The Lending Pickle

When it comes to lending the rule of the day seems to be damned if you do, damned if you don’t. President Obama’s command to banks today to “make it so” belies a deep ignorance of the role that lending plays for financial institutions.

Based on fifteen years in lending let me put this succinctly, banks love making loans. Banks do not turn down credit worthy applicants. Think of loans as “widgets”. The company that produces the widgets makes money by selling the widgets for more than the cost of producing the them. Banks make money by selling money (lending) for more than it costs them to purchase the money (deposits). That is a bit simplistic but it gets to the gist of it.

Deposits that are not lent out cost banks money. Every incentive is to get the money out on the street. However, “creditworthiness” is more than just a credit score. Incomes have shrunk but debts haven’t. Even people who have managed to keep up their payments through this recession may not have the room to add another payment. Traditionally people who ran in to a debt to income wall would do a debt consolidation loan using the equity in their homes and generally lowering their monthly payments. For the record, I HATE debt consolidation loans. In my experience, in the long run they hurt more people than they helped. Nonetheless, rare is the person who has equity in their own these days.

Government pressure on financial institutions led to scores of people being put into mortgages that they could not afford. Let’s not repeat the mistake with the small businesses in this country.

Santa's Checking His List

Our friends in the Senate have passed a $1.1 TRILLION spending bill and if their previous spending habits are any kind of clue the 1,000+ page bill has all kinds of goodies in it.

For a hint, let's look at what has passed as wise use of taxpayer so far.

Oh, and don't forget these names: Shelby, Collins and Snowe. These are the Republicans who crossed the aisle and in the spirit of bi-partisanship joined with the Democrats to screw us over.

Enjoy:

Spending on just plain foolishness:

$107,000 to study the sex life of the Japanese quail.
$1.2 million to study the breeding habits of the woodchuck.
$150,000 to study the Hatfield-McCoy feud.
$84,000 to find out why people fall in love.
$1 million to study why people don't ride bikes to work.
$19 million to examine gas emissions from cow flatulence.
$144,000 to see if pigeons follow human economic laws.
Funds to study the cause of rudeness on tennis courts and examine smiling patterns in bowling alleys.
$219,000 to teach college students how to watch television.
$2 million to construct an ancient Hawaiian canoe.
$20 million for a demonstration project to build wooden bridges.
$160,000 to study if you can hex an opponent by drawing an X on his chest.
$800,000 for a restroom on Mt. McKinley.
$100,000 to study how to avoid falling spacecraft.
$16,000 to study the operation of the komungo, a Korean stringed instrument.
$1 million to preserve a sewer in Trenton, NJ, as a historic monument.
$6,000 for a document on Worcestershire sauce.
$10,000 to study the effect of naval communications on a bull's potency.
$100,000 to research soybean-based ink.
$1 million for a Seafood Consumer Center.
$57,000 spent by the Executive Branch for gold-embossed playing cards on Air Force Two. Total: $ 45,980,000

Spending on private concerns:

$3.1 million to convert a ferry boat into a crab restaurant in Baltimore.
$6.4 million for a Bavarian ski resort in Kellogg, Idaho.
$13 million to repair a privately owned dam in South Carolina.
$4.3 million for a privately owned museum in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
$11 million for a private pleasure boat harbor in Cleveland.
$6 million to repair tracks owned by the Soo Railroad Line.
$320,000 to purchase President McKinley's mother-in-law's house. Funds to rehabilitate the South Carolina mansion of Charles Pickney, a Framer of the Constitution, even though the house was built after he died.
$2.7 million for a catfish farm in Arkansas.
$3 million for private parking garages in Chicago.
$500,000 to build a replica of the Great Pyramid of Egypt in Indiana.
$850,000 for a bicycle path in Macomb County, Michigan.
$10 million for an access ramp in a privately owned stadium in Milwaukee.
$1.8 million for an engineering study to convert Biscayne Boulevard in Miami into an "Exotic Garden."
$13 million for an industrial theme park in Pennsylvania.
$500,000 for a museum to honor former Secretary of State Cordell Hull.
$33 million to pump sand onto the private beaches of Miami hotels.

Total: $109,470,000

Note, this is by no means an all encompassing list. Just a small taste.

Terrorists Attack UC Berkeley Chancellor's Home. Attempt to set home on fire. With Chancellor inside.

From American Power:

As many as 70 protesters, many carrying torches and smashing windows,
attempted to storm UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau's on-campus residence
late Friday in a violent act condemned by university officials and student
activists alike.

Eight people, including two UC Berkeley students, were arrested on
suspicion of rioting, threatening an educational official, attempted burglary,
attempted arson, felony vandalism and assault with a deadly weapon on a police
officer, the university said.

Some protesters threw incendiary objects at the house in an attack that
left the chancellor and his wife fearing for their lives.

The group was apparently protesting student fee hikes and budget cuts. The
demonstrators chanted "No justice, no peace," as the chancellor slept. His wife
woke him up about 11 p.m.

"These are criminals, not activists," Birgeneau said in a statement
Saturday. "The attack at our home was extraordinarily frightening and violent.
My wife and I genuinely feared for our lives. The people involved in this action
will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. I want to emphasize that they
represent an extreme minority of our students.

"UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof said it was a "matter of luck" the
protesters were unable to break into the home before police scattered most of
the crowd. Protesters smashed lights, shattered windows, scattered trash and
flipped over planters, Mogulof said ....

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued a statement calling Friday's protest
"terrorism" and said "those who participated will be prosecuted under the
fullest extent of the law." UC President Mark Yudof called the attack
"appalling" and said the "matter is now appropriately in the hands of law
enforcement authorities."

Probably an odd thing to focus on but the report says eight people were arrested including two students. If two were students, who were the other six? Parents of students? High school seniors who had applied to Berkeley? If they aren't students, how does the tuition increase affect them?

My curiosity aside, California has taxed and regulated itself in to a deep, deep hole. It just stands to reason that when a state runs out of people it can tax it is left to cut services and increase fees, even Berkeley students, regardless of how precious they view themselves, are not immune to the realities of life. If there is a solution, the students won't find it by destroying property.

Now That EPA is Threatening to Regulate Carbon Dioxide, are We Still Allowed to Exhale?

If the EPA has the power to regulate carbon dioxide, what human activity doesn't the EPA have the power to regulate?

And Yet, It Can Still Get Worse

For those who are not aware, THIS is called "sucking hind teat":

There is absolutely no good news in the latest Gallup poll except that he hasn't hit rock bottom yet. The poll has all kinds of little interest tidbits (independents think that Obama really sucks) but my personal favorite is:

Among those who consider fiscal policy issues the most important, just 1% Strongly Approve and 81% Strongly Disapprove.

Kinda makes you wonder who that whacky one percent who strongly approve of Obama's fiscal policies are. Please feel free to enlighten me in the comments...

Others posting on the freefall: RedState, A Conservative Lesbian, and Legal Insurrection

Carter "Out Obamas" Obama

Every time he has bowed, every time he has apologized for America's greatness, every time he has inexplicably failed to act in the defense of democracy, I have compared Barack Obama to former president Jimmie Carter. But (so far) Obama has never gone this bat sh*t crazy:

Carter singled out the Southern Baptist Convention and Roman Catholic Church, claiming that they “view that the Almighty considers women to be inferior to men.” However, both Christian faiths hold to the Scriptural truth that God created men and women equal.

“Their continuing choice provides a foundation or justification for much of the pervasive persecution and abuse of women throughout the world,” said Carter. Carter goes on to list horrific violations against women such as rape, genital mutilation, abortion of female embryos and spousal battery.

Now, I am not currently affiliated with any particular Christian denomination but I have attended plenty of both baptist and catholic services in my life and just like Obama was "absent" when the Rev. Wright was spewing his hateful crap, I must have been sleeping through the sermons that called for genital mutilation.

Carter has completed his short trip Nutsville. Many, many women throughout the globe face horrendous abuse based on the religious affiliation of their abusers. Even mentioning baptists and catholics as "causal" to the rapes, stonings and degradation heaped on women by adherents to the "religion of peace" obscures and excuses the terror that Muslim live with every day of their lives.

It is past time for Carter to shuffle quietly in to the sunset.

Congratulations All Around

I am a bit late at this. Every time I tried to post yesterday I got kicked off the 'net.

Congratulations to Mark Ingram, winner of the Heisman and to Bama fans everywhere but particularly to Stacy McCain and Carol. Now, go hit Stacy's tip jar and send him to Pasadena!

We Fight

Via Memeorandum

Erick at RedState is calling on all Republican senators to stand up and fight to stop the health care bill from advancing. Stacy McCain asks, If Not Now, When? We know the answer, if not now, never. If we don't stand up when the government is poised to takeover one sixth of our economy we will never get another chance.

Each of us only has two senators. If you have a Republican senator email Erick's article to them. If you have a Democratic senator, email them and let them know where you stand. Follow up with a phone call.

Poll after poll has shown that we don't want this bill. It does no good to talk to pollsters. Talk to your neighbors. Talk to your family. Talk to anyone who will listen. But most of all, talk to your senator.

We fight!

Does Sarah Have You Flummoxed?

God bless, Sarah Palin. She has a whole lot of people not knowing what to think. And that my friends, is a good thing.

My goodness the "political formula" has become staid. They all look alike, they all sound alike. Barack Obama is just a darker version of "same thing, different day." Sometimes I feel like good ol' Charlie Browm sitting in the classroom listenning to " waa waa waa waa waaaaa." And along comes Sarah.

No offense boys but leave it to a woman to shake things up. To be sure, there are other female politicians but Pelosi drips "bitch" from every fiber of her being. Ditto Boxer. Hillary sold out her potential for a job she'll never make her own. But Sarah, she's original. She's not going to conform to the accepted "norms" of political life for anyone. Throw everything including the kitchen sink at her and she will stand there, without any sign of fear, and pick up her sentence right where she left off.

The "Ugly Beast" Was Never Really Gone

Today Jonah Goldberg wrote The Ugly Beast Returns which deals with Diane Francis' call for a "one child policy" to deal with, in her opinion, the over-population that is destroying the planet. The thing is, the ugly beast never left. The Bride of Rove ran in to one of these "one child" idiots yesterday. I've got a co-worker who is a "one childer." Back in October, I named Alex Renton as my dumb ass of the week for this comment:

But how do you reduce population in countries where women's rights are already achieved and birth-control methods are freely available? Could children perhaps become part of an adult's personal carbon allowance? Could you offer rewards: have one child only and you may fly to Florida once a year?

And lets not forget about population offsets. Francis doesn't sugar coat where she stands:

Humans are the only rational animals but have yet to prove it. Medical and other scientific advances have benefited by delivering lower infant mortality rates as well as longevity. Both are welcome, but humankind has not yet recalibrated its behavior to account for the fact that the world can only accommodate so many people, especially if billions get indoor plumbing and cars. (emphasis added)

The fix is simple. It's dramatic. And yet the world's leaders don't even have this on their agenda in Copenhagen. Instead there will be photo ops, posturing, optics, blah-blah-blah about climate science and climate fraud, announcements of giant wind farms, then cap-and-trade subsidies.(emphasis added)

None will work unless a China one-child policy is imposed....

Wow, by invoking China as the model Francis is coming out as pro forced abortion. Thats downright John Holdren of her. Goldberg responds:

But one point does cry out to be made. Imagine if someone wrote an op-ed saying that we need a planetary ban on abortion. Feminists would get their dresses over their heads in outrage about such a naked assault on "reproductive freedom." But here is a woman in a very prestigious Canadian newspaper arguing, in effect, that every country in the world should force women everywhere to have an abortion if they already have a child. Put aside, for a moment, the pro-life objections to this. Even if you think the unborn are really just a bunch of cells, mere "uterine contents" with no more moral import than fingernail clippings, how on earth can anyone believe in "reproductive freedom" and not be absolutely horrified by the police-state evil of such proposals? (emphasis added)

But Francis feels perfectly comfortable suggesting that the government has the right to impose a one child policy. She appeared on O'Reilly tonight and trust me, she feel no shame or embarrassment about her views. And that is the rub isn't it? When people are comfortable not only thinking the unthinkable, but imposing their will on others, we are in big trouble.

More at Memeorandum

What is He Suggesting?

Consider this from Matthew Yglesias:

We’re suffering from an incoherent institutional set-up in the senate. You can have a system in which a defeated minority still gets a share of governing authority and participates constructively in the victorious majority’s governing agenda, shaping policy around the margins in ways more to their liking. Or you can have a system in which a defeated minority rejects the majority’s governing agenda out of hand, seeks opening for attack, and hopes that failure on the part of the majority will bring them to power. But right now we have both simultaneously. It’s a system in which the minority benefits if the government fails, and the minority has the power to ensure failure. It’s insane, and it needs to be changed. (emphasis added)

How does Yglesias suggest that it be changed? I would remind Yglesias that the Democrats have the White House, the Senate and the House. They can do any damn thing they want and there is not a whole lot the Republicans can do about it. The Left's problem has nothing to do with "the minority"; their problem is that even Democrats face re-election and as such, some of them, and occasionally enough of them, balk at backing a far Left agenda. So unless Yglesias is suggesting that the entire election process be chucked and instead hand-picked Leftist are permanently installed in the halls of power I would suggest that he adjust to the messy mechanisms of democracy.

Update:

American Power has an incredible post on this. Donald makes the point that the majority, in this case "progressives", who care care about the poor, down trodden minority when it suits their agenda.

An Army of Sgt. Schultzes?

Don Surber:

Glenn Reynolds has his Army of Davids.

Harry Reid has, well, Dick Durbin, who said of the latest version of Obamacare: “I would say to the senator from Arizona that I’m in the dark almost as much as he is. And I’m in the leadership… We had a caucus after this was submitted to the Congressional Buidget Office where Sen. Reid and other senators who were involved in it basically stood up and said, ‘We’re sorry we can’t tell you in detail what was involved here, but you will learn. Everyone will learn.”

I know nothing. Noth-think!

They are just following orders, Colonel Hogan.

Sheesh, you just can't make this stuff up. It just gives a warmy and fuzzy feeling.

Tiger Woods is Taking an "Indefinite" Leave From Golf

Fox News is reporting that Tiger Woods has announced that he will take an indefinite leave from golf:

JACKSONVILLE, Florida — Tiger Woods is taking an indefinite leave from professional golf to work on saving his family, using the word "infidelity" for the first time in a statement posted on his Web site.

Woods says he is aware of the disappointment that "my infidelity" has caused to his wife and children. He says he might not be able to repair the damage, but he wants to try.

He did not disclose Friday evening how long of a break he would take from the PGA Tour. He again asked for privacy, saying his family would need a "safe haven" to try to heal.

There is a rumor that he will be moving his family to his wife's country of Sweden. It appears that Tiger and his wife have a sincere desire to heal their family. With that in mind, I will wish them the best of luck.

Updated to include Tiger Wood's statement:

I am deeply aware of the disappointment and hurt that my infidelity has caused to so many people, most of all my wife and children. I want to say again to everyone that I am profoundly sorry and that I ask forgiveness. It may not be possible to repair the damage I've done, but I want to do my best to try.

I would like to ask everyone, including my fans, the good people at my foundation, business partners, the PGA Tour, and my fellow competitors, for their understanding. What's most important now is that my family has the time, privacy, and safe haven we will need for personal healing.

After much soul searching, I have decided to take an indefinite break from professional golf. I need to focus my attention on being a better husband, father, and person.

Again, I ask for privacy for my family and I am especially grateful for all those who have offered compassion and concern during this difficult period.

American Power is posting on the lastest "round" of women who are crawling out of the woodwork. Every day the Tiger news becomes more and more tawdry. I've got to say that if I were Elin Woods I would take the money and run. It appears that she has chosen a diferent path and if she has the strength to forgive her husband I give her a credit for being a much better woman than I.

A Blog Post That I am Proud to Pass Along

Please read Paco's post on Shirin Ebadi. Reading her words, my heart began to ache.