Hussein: liberal arguments 'grounded in reason' (and I'm the Pope)

Barrack Hussein Obama believes liberal arguments are closer to reality, according to The Examiner:

“The arguments of liberals are more often grounded in reason and fact,” the Illinois Democrat wrote in “The Audacity of Hope,” a memoir published last year. “Much of what I absorbed from the sixties was filtered through my mother, who to the end of her life would proudly proclaim herself an unreconstructed liberal.”

Obama has a 95 percent liberal rating from Americans for Democratic Reform, a liberal advocacy group that ranks all members of Congress. Yet he is often portrayed as a centrist.

“His record is liberal, and his rhetoric is moderate,” explained Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.

Grounded in reason, eh? Let's review:

+ Stalin isn't such a bad guy.

+ Hitler isn't such a bad guy.

+ Mao isn't such a bad guy.

+ Castro isn't such a bad guy.

+ Saddam Hussein isn't such a bad guy.

+ Global cooling is going to kill us all.

+ Tax cuts cause financial harm to American families.

+ The oil will run dry in 1972 1978 1980 1986 1989 1995.

+ An oil pipeline will decimate the caribou herd in Alaska.

+ Acid rain is going to kill us all.

+ 9/11 was caused by U.S. foreign policy, not terrorists who hijacked planes and flew them into skyscrapers.

+ Hugo Chavez isn't such a bad guy.

+ Iran can have nuclear weapons because we have them.

+ Global warming Climate change is going to kill us all.

Harper has the right stuff

CBC News is reporting on a letter written by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to supporters:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper once called the Kyoto accord a "socialist scheme" designed to suck money out of rich countries, according to a letter leaked Tuesday by the Liberals.

The letter, posted on the federal Liberal party website, was apparently written by Harper in 2002, when he was leader of the now-defunct Canadian Alliance party.

I'll take sanity anywhere I can get it. Even Canada.

Turner causes bomb scare in Boston

What was Turner Broadcasting thinking? From WCVB-5 television, Boston:

Turner Broadcasting plans to take responsibility for the "hoax devices" that were found at several locations in and around Boston Wednesday that forced police bomb units to scramble throughout the area.

The incidents were part of a marketing campaign that involved a character from the cartoon show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force."

"The 'packages' in question are magnetic lights that pose no danger. They are part of an outdoor marketing campaign in 10 cities in support of Adult Swim's animated television show 'Aqua Teen Hunger Force,'" Turner Broadcasting, the parent company of Cartoon Network, said in a statement.

The company said that they have been in place for two to three weeks in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Francisco and Philadelphia.

Remember how some people couldn't bring themselves to understand that taking knives, guns, and other potentially dangerous items onto airplanes was a bad idea right after 9/11? We laughed at them.

Now, we have a large media corporation unaware that odd-looking, magnetic lights hidden around major cities would make people uneasy. More than five years after 9/11, this isn't a case of being slow to acknowledge a changed world. This is denial.

There are large numbers of people -- liberals -- who believe there is no war on terror, and that terrorists are just oppressed souls reacting to our bad foreign policies. The rest of us are taking this seriously.

A dead horse is a good horse: Barbaro, winner of Kentucky Derby, euthanized

This blog post is dedicated to the Nataleeeeee Holloway blog.

Lefty review of right wing blogs

I thought this write-up of a lefty experience trolling right-wing blogs was interesting. It's a Daily Kos "diarist" who spent six months on sites like Instapundit and Little Green Footballs. Posts and comments were monitored, and reasons for getting kicked off were listed. The writer also made comments to test the water.

The purpose, it seems, was to inform other lefties about how right-wingers think, and what they're up to. But it also had the reverse effect. I learned a lot about how they think from reading the write-up. (And please be mindful that old Donnie Long is not a conservative or a Republican; he's a practical libertarian who leans right -- thanks.)

Here's a selection:

RWBloggers often write comments in long threads and threaten to kill Michael Moore, suggest that Gore and Kerry be jailed, Barbara Streisand should be pilloried. Attacks on RWB are rarely just on principle. The attacks are on people, and/or groups of people who should all be jailed and tortured by Keifer Southerland. It’s vitriol maximus on RWB. Not much decency and almost no actual discussion unless it’s just an agree-a-thon. Ann Coulter could shit in their dinner plate and they would eat it.

And here's something interesting. Note the phrase, "their corporate press."

FDR caused 9/11, Clinton caused 9/11, the press caused 9/11, liberals caused 9/11, Gays eat feces, the world is only 10000 years old. As one state representative said "it’s either America...or it’s Al-Quaeda." Also they hold dear other false memes that once repeated are believed to be true. Reagan defeated the Soviet Union is one of those overly simplistic, mostly untrue notions that they and their corporate press like to fan.

Corporations are evil; ask any socialist. Another interesting bit was global warming. Apparently the "diarist" doesn't realize that when nobody was biting on the catchphrase, it was changed to "climate change". This was to thwart North Dakotans from questioning "warming" in the winter, when the mercury falls well below zero.

All the climatologists in the world are wrong about Global Warming when compared to the paid-critics who deny it. Valerie Plame sent her husband to Niger and she really was not a secret agent.

"All the climatologists in the world" do not believe in global warming. Just because Miles O'Brien has been ramming it down our throats, does not make it so. The "diarist" even used initial caps for Global Warming, as if it was a proper noun. Besides, anyone who doesn't believe in "global warming" is a fool. That part of the issue is factual. Intelligent right-wingers understand this. The anthropogenic facet is where the debate lies.

As far as "paid-critics", it's well understood now that climate change enthusiasts are scientists in receipt of hefty grants. As this ABC weatherman said, "Always follow the money trail and it tells a story."

The conclusion of the experiment has some redemptive value, and humor:

I purposely pulled out the worse stuff and wrote about it.

But not all is terrible or the same on RWB.

It is impossible to summarize all of the stuff I read. Anytime I spent more than ten minutes on Michelle Malkin or LGF I had to take a shower. (Michelle, by the way, has an anger management problem.) But there were some high notes. RWB are places where libertarians often try to find solace or logic. Or true Conservatives. Also, not everyone on the RWB were vicious. Many were looking for a small government, more accountability, or even a good argument. I agreed with he analyses of a lot of RWB posters. So, no, it wasn’t all the same stuff. I just felt that real conservatives, not the neocon extremists or christianists, have a hard time finding a home on the blogosphere. Which why we should be more open to disagreement here.

Christianists. Christianists? I'm an atheist, and I find that term truly strange.

Zeroing in on blog commenters is not a terribly useful thing to do, although it is interesting. I think Kos and LGF spend too much time getting excited about what the enemy commenters are saying. These are mostly kooks hiding behind the internet's curtain of anonymity. Just as these types shouldn't be taken seriously, the posts about them shouldn't be, either.

I'll get into the act. Here are some comments on the diarist post itself. You decide if they're representative of mainstream liberal thought:

"I could not even read all of your post here. They sicken me."

"would've sent me into a deep depression of equal duration. You must have a strong mental constitution."

"the Bush admin & Repubs create their own reality and PAID rightwing pundits carry the lies 24/7/365. Americans voted for sanity - STOP FUNDING THE WAR!

"Their worldview is depressing and horrifying, and they attack every slightest dissent or even questioning of their beliefs with the speed and ferocity of a school of piranha."

"I sometimes frequent these infested waters as well and my (own) take is that you are absolutely correct, and I may add one disturbing fact: it is a crime to be poor, in their twisted, under-i-qued little minds. It feels good though to be able to destroy their creationism crappola with a well delivered fact! Chimpee is an embarrassment to stupidity! GTFO ASAP! AAF

"Was a shower enough after Malkin or LGF? I find myself wanting to engage in some Keith Olbermann style puppet theater after just a couple minutes at either of those blogs."

"Just keep on taking multiple showers a day for the next six months. Also, I don't want to sound goofy or new-agey (I am a scientist by profession), but when you want to cleanse your mind of unpleasantness, Buddhist chanting (many repititions, done silently) seems to work (at least for me)."

"Is it OK for me to describe winger blogs as dead-enders in their last throes?"

"I have a rwinger friend who I argue with all the time, our latest topic is how people "choose" to be poor (yes, he really believes that.) So, during this last conversation I reminded him of all those who are either poor or struggle because of mental illness (most of whom can't get the health care to take care of the issue), and how those who do succeed are lucky enough to have families to help them."

Anti-war rally photos -- what MSM doesn't want to show you

The Age of Hooper has an excellent collection of photos from the D.C. anti-war protest. Why didn't MSM cover this aspect of the event? Somehow all the pot-smoking, hippie insanity was missed by the network TV cameras. The commentary at Hooper is almost as funny as the photos. Also, see his home page for additional photo and video posts.

Via LGF.

D.C. hippie march 'different'

Salon.com has an entertaining report of the D.C. anti-war protest and march. Amid the usual crowd of weird socialists and commies, with signs reading "Free Mumia!" and "Bombing for peace is like f****** for virginity", there were a lot of folks who seemed ... ordinary.

Regardless of size, the protest felt different. The demographics of the crowd had changed. As opposition to the war in Iraq mounts, sparked by the president's decision to send 21,500 more troops, protesting against it has become mainstream. There were plenty of professional protesters in evidence Saturday, the kind for whom protests are a lifestyle choice, but there were also more yuppies, more families with small children, more older people and even a fair number of stylishly dressed young girls in North Face jackets and Ralph Lauren sunglasses. Just as important, the confused, off-topic rhetoric of so many past protests was noticeably muted.

But the usual suspects were there, of course. You know the type -- chicks with hairy armpits, young men with big, liberal beards and Che Guevara t-shirts, and what would an anti-war march be without a contingent of anarchists?

And there were still some of the kind of colorful, not ready for Middle America displays that these protests are known for: a sign reading, "Will give blow job for impeachment"; a man in a gorilla suit carrying a sign that read, "Another gorilla against the escalation"; the occasional whiff of marijuana smoke; the odd, pointless dash of 30 or so black-clad anarchists into the crowd, waving black flags and screaming. And, of course, plenty of drum circles.

Not drum circles! Here come the tears. I can't help myself! And this:

There was a distinct radical element in the crowd. Besides the anarchists, there were members of the Revolutionary Communist Party, which lead a feeble chant of "Fuck the U.S. and all its might, revolutionary war is what we'll fight," and there were three lonely signs produced by the Spartacist League, one of which read, "Defend China, North Korea and Vietnam against imperialism and capitalist counterrevolution! For workers [sic] political revolution!"

Defend China? How about defending the Chinese from the Chinese government.

Rounding out the event were Hollywood's big, bleeding hearts -- Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Jane Fonda, and Danny Glover. Danny, you'll remember, called Hugo Chavez "my brother" right after the dictator called our president "satan" in New York City. And when is the traitorous bitch Jane Fonda going to die? I don't hope for anyone's death, but when Jane bids farewell, people who don't hate America will breath a big sigh of relief. Who am I kidding? We're going to throw a party.

Fortunately, the president is still Commander in Chief, and he doesn't care what any of these crackpots believe. Just like me.

Federer takes Australian Open (again)

Roger Federer has many equals in set one, few in set two, none in set three. At ten Grand Slam titles, he's closing in on Sampras (14).

There have been only two other athletes at Federer's level in my lifetime: Tiger Woods and Michael Schumacher. Not even Jeff Gordon or Wayne Gretzky stand out like Fed, Woods, and Schuey.

The 24-shot rally in game seven of set three is the reason I watch tennis. It also justifies many late nights in front of the TV. Winning a point was not enough for Federer, he had to prove a point.

Who's going to put it on YouTube?

UPDATE: Tiger Woods came from behind in the last round to win the Buick Invitational. BBC says it's the 2nd longest winning streak:

Tiger Woods overturned a two-stroke deficit in the final round at the Buick Invitational in San Diego to win his seventh consecutive PGA Tour title.

It is the second longest winning streak in PGA history behind Byron Nelson, who holds the record with 11 straight wins.

Why Obama should never be president

1. His name is Barack Hussein Obama. If that doesn't give you pause, you're not paying attention.

2. Admits to cocaine and marijuana use. He doesn't deny inhaling (or snorting lines of blow), so he may have better character than Bubba Clinton. But that's not saying much.

3. Far-left liberal by the voting record.

4. Two years in the U.S. Senate is sufficient experience to lead Ecuador, but not the richest, most powerful country in the history of the world. It ain't braggin' if you done it. -- John Wayne


Freshmen senators do not lead the USA.
Partial credit for image idea: Bryan at PointB

5. He's a smoker. Wait! That's not a bar to the presidency. Liberals, who normally treat smokers like plague carriers, don't seem to mind.

6. He wants universal, government-run health care. When is the last time you dealt with the federal government and didn't come away feeling like you had been raped by a gorilla? I challenge you to request your 2002 tax records from the IRS and still support nationalized health care.

7. Attended an Indonesian school that may or may not have been a madrassa.

8. CNN reporters are lining up to blow him.

9. Spielberg likes him.

Sweden creates first virtual embassy

Sweden is going to create an embassy in an MMORPG, which is fantastic. AFP:

Sweden is to become the first country to establish diplomatic representation in the virtual reality world of Second Life, officials said.

"We are planning to establish a Swedish embassy in Second Life primarily as an information portal for Sweden," Swedish Institute (SI) director Olle Waestberg told AFP.

The embassy would not provide passports or visas but would instruct visitors how to obtain such documents in the real world and act as a link to web-based information about the Scandinavian country.

"Second Life allows us to inform people about Sweden and broaden the opportunity for contact with Sweden easily and cheaply," Waestberg said.

The Swedish Institute is an agency of the Swedish foreign ministry tasked with informing the world about Sweden. The ministry fully backed the initiative, he added.

Second Life -- a fantasy world inhabited by computer-generated residents created by San Francisco technology company Linden Lab -- has attracted several real-world companies, including car manufacturers and sports clothing makers, which created 3-D stores.

There are exchange rates between various MMORPG money and real currency, lawsuits that stem from gameplay, and other interesting examples of how "real" these worlds are becoming.

I'm not presently playing these games, but I distinctly remember that clubbing hapless noobs building a character in Ultima Online was a very good time.

Moving to Windows Vista

PC World has a list of 15 reasons to switch to Vista, which I liked more than the last Vista list I critiqued.

Better interface -- doesn't seem that important, since XP is good, but every time I make a change, I'm glad I did.

Flip3D -- seems cutesy, but beta testers really like it.

ReadyBoost

Performance tools

Software gadgets -- cute stuff Mac has had for years, and add-ons were available for XP, but it's always nice to have some new stuff bundled.

Better wireless networking

Better networking, in general -- XP is pathetic for networking, as was 2000, 98 and 95.

Better movie maker -- still going to be limited compared to add-on apps, but it's always nice to have a freebie that gets the job done.

Better notebook support

The rest are worth reading, too...

Bill Gates wrong this time

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, Gates said that the internet would revolutionize TV in five years. al-Reuters:

The Internet is set to revolutionize television within five years, due to an explosion of online video content and the merging of PCs and TV sets, Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) chairman
Bill Gates said on Saturday.

"I'm stunned how people aren't seeing that with TV, in five years from now, people will laugh at what we've had," he told business leaders and politicians at the
World Economic Forum.

The rise of high-speed Internet and the popularity of video sites like Google Inc.'s (Nasdaq:GOOG - news) YouTube has already led to a worldwide decline in the number hours spent by young people in front of a TV set.

In the years ahead, more and more viewers will hanker after the flexibility offered by online video and abandon conventional broadcast television, with its fixed program slots and advertisements that interrupt shows, Gates said.

"Certain things like elections or the Olympics really point out how TV is terrible. You have to wait for the guy to talk about the thing you care about or you miss the event and want to go back and see it," he said.

"Internet presentation of these things is vastly superior."

We'll revisit this in January 2012. The internet is way, way too slow for what we all want to do -- video, movies, TV, and other apps requiring blistering speed. And that won't change by 2012.

The counter to Muslim cabbies

Leonard Pitts, in an article published by The Houston Chronicle, has the non-CAIR response to the Muslim cabbie problem in Minneapolis / St. Paul:

...it is a group of men who refuse to do their jobs because of a perceived conflict with their religious beliefs. You're entitled to your religious beliefs. You're not entitled to require your employer or customers to go to extraordinary lengths to accommodate those beliefs.

This was a particularly dubious fight for the cabbies to pick. In the first place: If this were as critical a religious issue as they would have us believe, why aren't Muslim cabbies all over the country refusing to haul liquor-bearing passengers? In the second place: In the atmosphere of "fear and misunderstanding" Elmasry cites, it is foolish to needlessly invite negative attention. Why write Rush Limbaugh's script for him?

Cuban daily life not what liberals want to believe

The BBC is featuring a Cuban blogger, and his take on the country and its brutal dictator. The next time you hear a socialist (Democrat, liberal) talk about how great Cuba is, or how wonderful their nationalized healthcare or university systems are, remember this:

Twenty years ago, expressing opinions contrary to those of the government in the street could result in a beating from passers-by.

Today, things are very different. You can say whatever you like in the street without anything happening to you. People have lost that political fanaticism.

But that is only in the street, among the ordinary people. Questioning any official policy or leader in front of an official or policeman is classified as subversion. There is no middle ground - you are either with the government or against it.

Similarly, the internet is completely under state control. The state monopolises 100% of the information that a normal Cuban receives - the internet is seen as a threat to the system.

Most people who have access to the internet only do so from a state-run workplace, like a university or a hospital. Even in those places, there are many restrictions on internet access.

There is also an internet "black market" - people who can afford it can try to get internet services in their homes, but they are a minority.

I would go so far as to say that less than 1% of the Cuban population have internet access in their homes.

Hillarious Clinton and Barack Hussein Obama want to take us one giant step in Cuba's direction.

Give Windows Vista a chance?

Something called Pop Matters has an article detailing eleven good things about Windows Vista, which hits the consumer market next month (or next year; you never know with MS).

I enjoyed the article (even though I rip it below), and I do realize that Vista is for the masses, which means unwashed hordes of people who think professional wrestling and American Idol are entertaining. Still, most of the points made in this article are for real dummies. You know the type -- people who are, perhaps, good at their professional career, but absolutely clueless about the rest of the world.

1. When you move your mouse over the borders, you’ll find they’re a little thicker so it isn’t as hard to grab them and expand the size of a window.

I've seen people who have trouble resizing windows, and they're mostly idiots. No problems resizing, so why mess with it?

2. If you hold the Tab and Windows keys down (as long as you’re not using the low-end Basic version), Vista takes all of your open Web pages and presents a sideways 3-D view of them.

I'll withhold judgment until I get a chance to see this feature.

3. With the “preview pane,” you have the ability to preview files and Web pages before you open them.

Some websites use a similar gimmick, and it annoys the hell out of me. Yahoo News is one example. Can't stand it.

4. Search ability is integrated throughout the operating system so you can search for something inside any folder or dialog box.

Again, I know this feature is handy for morons. I can't ever remember losing files on my computer(s), and I've owned PCs since the early 1980s. A file structure is no different than paper files in a desk drawer, where I've likewise never lost anything BECAUSE IT'S FUCKING ORGANIZED.

5. Vista has a built-in version of the Windows Media Center user interface, which was once a separate version of Windows XP.

I would have to try this before I comment, but my initial feeling is not good. For $100 I got an excellent video capture card, with in's and out's, and it has a media center interface with remote control. The Windows Media Center would have to be a lot better than my add-on before I'd care.

6. I like the built-in parental controls that you once had to install on your own.

Good idea for anyone with kids, but as is so often the case, 3rd party vendors can sell you a much better system.

7. Vista comes with DirectX 10, graphics software that enables game developers to pack more action into 3-D animated games.

This has no meaning. XP and earlier versions of Windows can be easily upgraded as each new version of DirectX is released.

8. If you have the bad habit of not backing up your PC, there are fewer excuses with Vista.

Another feature exclusively for people with low I.Q.s. Let me get this straight -- people have important files they don't want to lose, and it's a simple task to make a backup, and they don't do it. And now an even simpler scheme for making backups comes along and that's going to save people from their own idiocy? I have nothing more to say.

9. One of the big improvements in Vista is the Windows photo gallery. You can easily take the “red eye” out of photos by clicking on someone’s eyes and dragging a box around them with the mouse.

Another moron feature. I use Photoshop because I possess the intelligence to use it.

10. The best-looking feature of Windows Vista is Dream Scene, a cute visual detail that Microsoft kept secret until Bill Gates’ keynote Jan. 14 at the Consumer Electronics Show. With Windows Vista Ultimate, the high-end $399 version of the operating system, you can set any video as the background wallpaper of your computer.

My $100 add-on card I mentioned earlier does this. I've had it for years. Even better, I can have any of my 350 cable channels as my desktop wallpaper. Most of these new goodies for Vista have been around a long, long time for anyone with the basic intellectual curiosity to discover them.

11. One feature guaranteed to save a few years from your life is that you can change the default on how to either put the computer to sleep or to shut it down with a single mouse click. No more questions like, “Turn off computer?” when you click to shut down.

This is worth mentioning? Until I can say, "Computer, shut down," with a Patrick Stewart accent, I really don't care about the button scheme to shut them down.

Look, all I really want in my next version of Windows is for the damned OS to remember my universal folder setting, which is "detail". Every version of Windows I have used since Win95, which includes 98, 98SE, 2000, and XP, has the flaw of forgetting universal folder settings, and it infuriates me. If Vista fixes that problem, I'll consider buying it.

Bitching aside, the article was fairly good. I recommend it, and I didn't spoil everything.

Carter apologizes for book passage

Jimmuh Carter at Brandeis, according to The Washington Times:

"I apologize to you personally and to everyone here," Mr. Carter said when asked about the passage by a student during his appearance at Brandeis University on Tuesday. After explaining that the passage was "worded in a completely improper and stupid way," Mr. Carter said he has asked publisher Simon & Schuster Inc. to change the wording in future editions of the book.

The questionable passage, which appears on Page 213 of the book, reads: "It is imperative that the general Arab community and all significant Palestinian groups make it clear that they will end the suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism when international laws and the ultimate goals of the Roadmap for Peace are accepted by Israel."

Some of Mr. Carter's critics, including the Carter Center board members who resigned, say the text reads as defending terror tactics until a peace accord can be reached between Israel and Palestinians.

It's too late; the Carter cat is out of the bag.

LA Times headline resides outside brain

Right now (10:22 p.m. PST) the front page of the LA Times website has this headline: "Smoking addiction resides in brain". Thanks, Times. I thought it resided in my ass.

Can you imagine life before The Los Angeles Times?

Keep Bill Clinton from White House

We should pass a constitutional amendment barring Bill Clinton from the White House, just in case Hillarious gets elected. Hillarious can live there, and Bubba can divide his time between their New York mansion and a D.C. motel with hourly rates.

Idiot with low-riding pants nabbed by cops

From the Associated Press:

COVINGTON, La. - Police said they caught a 16-year-old robbery suspect who had eluded authorities on several previous occasions when his baggy pants fell down, causing him to stumble as officers chased him.

"We literally caught him with his pants down," Lt. Jack West of Covington police said.

Suspected of robbing a man at gunpoint and stealing another man's car after beating him with a brick, the teenager had run away from police several times in recent weeks, West said.

An officer spotted the teen standing on a street corner Monday, called in for two backup officers, then tried to make an arrest.

"They all converged on him from different directions," West said. "He started to run, but his low-riding pants fell down and he stumbled to his knees."

The suspect, whose name was not released because he is a juvenile, was booked on warrants for armed robbery, carjacking, two counts of aggravated battery and being a child in need of supervision.

Not only was this kid walking around with his pants halfway down, he was charged with "being a child in need of supervision." I think rehabilitation is out of the question.

'Terrified undocumented immigrants'

Reach for your handkerchief, because al-Reuters pulled out all the liberal stops today to make us feel guilty about deporting law breakers who have no business being here.

Cook Rosa Maria Salazar's eyes dart anxiously to the door as customers file into the Salvadoran cafe in a heavily Hispanic neighborhood near downtown Los Angeles.

"We're terrified. The police could come for us at any time and deport us," she said in Spanish earlier this week as diners fingered maize tortillas stuffed with beans and pork scratchings and chatted softly.

The 55-year-old undocumented worker from Guatemala is among many Hispanics deeply shaken by recent immigration raids at the heart of Latino communities in southern California.

The-seven day Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sweep, dubbed "Operation Return to Sender," targeted jails across five counties in the Los Angeles area, where police took 423 of what they called "criminal aliens" into federal custody for deportation, after being held on charges unrelated to their immigration status.

In case you were wondering, "deeply shaken" is a much more severe form of the condition, "shaken."

I don't have much pity for folks who sneak into the country illegally -- criminal aliens -- and then get "terrified" they will be asked to leave.

Carter stands by anti-Semitic book

Jimmuh Carter says his book has succeeded in its mission of prompting discussion. The disgraceful, failed president should consider facing reality: the book has prompted near-universal derision.

ABC News:

Jimmy Carter, whose new book has been attacked as slanted against Israel, received two standing ovations Tuesday as he answered critics during a much-anticipated talk at a historically Jewish college.

The former president and Nobel Peace Prize winner acknowledged to an audience at Brandeis University that "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid" has "caused great concern in the Jewish community," but noted that it has nonetheless prompted discussion.

The uproar of several months recently prompted 14 members of an advisory board at Carter's international-affairs think tank, the Carter Center, to resign in protest.

The terms of his appearance had caused a controversy after he declined to debate Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz, a critic of the book.

Criticism of Carter isn't quite universal. One Joseph E. Lifschutz, unsurprisingly published in the Berkeley Daily Planet, is standing up for the peanut farmer:

We owe a debt of gratitude for Dan Spitzer’s contribution to the Carter book debate. But not in the way he supposes. He represents the typical conservative position. His letter is full of generalizations and non-specific attacks. Where is the evidence? Saying that Carter misrepresents Security Council resolutions is not evidence. How does he misrepresent? Merely saying so and faithfully quoting authority is not enough. His authorities represent the neo-con, pro-Israel Lobby line. Their Israel ally is the extreme reactionary wing of the Likud Party, led by Netanyahu. Mud slinging against our honorable former President is disgusting.

I don't want to sound too much like a child out for recess, but the "honorable former President" asked for it.

The anti-surge surge

Democrats are stepping up their opposition to everything Bush says, does, and stands for. This time it's the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. San Jose Mercury News:

A day after President Bush asked Congress to give his troop buildup in Iraq a chance to work, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 12-9, mostly along party lines, to oppose it.

Even though most Republicans on the panel voted against the nonbinding resolution, they joined Democrats in speaking out against the president's policy in an emotional debate before the vote. One after another, the senators called for a way to turn over responsibility to Iraqis and avoid more American deaths and casualties in the midst of heavy sectarian bloodletting in Baghdad.

The full Senate will continue the debate when it considers the resolution next week.

"We'd better be damn sure, all of us, before we put 22,000 more people in that grinder," said Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb. He helped write the resolution and was the sole Republican who voted for it. "Maybe I'll be wrong, and maybe I'll have no political future, but I don't care about that," Hagel said. He told his colleagues that if they didn't want to make tough decisions, "go sell shoes."

The resolution says it's not in the national interest to increase military forces in Iraq. It suggests that the United States should transfer responsibility for security to Iraqis while American forces focus on such tasks as fighting terrorism.

Several reps and senators are on record supporting a troop increase, but when Bush wanted it, they said it was a bad idea. It's just like social security and Saddam Hussein's pursuit of WMDs. Democrats enjoy changing their minds 180 degrees the moment Bush agrees with them.

Obama did not attend madrassa?

The National Journal is claiming CNN debunked the madrassa story. Many of us weren't aware of this because we no longer get our news from CNN. And that's because CNN can't be trusted. After all, they believe the oceans will rise 10-20 feet in 20 years, causing devastation similar to the movie, The Day After Tomorrow. CNN makes me laugh, but I can't get my news there.

Hi-Def not so good for porn industry

According to an article in The New York Times, the porn industry is facing a problem with HD -- moving to HD-DVD reveals every little imperfection.

Pornography has long helped drive the adoption of new technology, from the printing press to the videocassette. Now pornographic movie studios are staying ahead of the curve by releasing high-definition DVDs.

They have discovered that the technology is sometimes not so sexy. The high-definition format is accentuating imperfections in the actors — from a little extra cellulite on a leg to wrinkles around the eyes.

Hollywood is dealing with similar problems, but they are more pronounced for pornographers, who rely on close-ups and who, because of their quick adoption of the new format, are facing the issue more immediately than mainstream entertainment companies.

Producers are taking steps to hide the imperfections. Some shots are lit differently, while some actors simply are not shot at certain angles, or are getting cosmetic surgery, or seeking expert grooming.

“The biggest problem is razor burn,” said Stormy Daniels, an actress, writer and director.

Ms. Daniels is also a skeptic. “I’m not 100 percent sure why anyone would want to see their porn in HD,” she said.

The technology’s advocates counter that high definition, by making things clearer and crisper, lets viewers feel as close to the action as possible.

“It puts you in the room,” said the director known as Robby D., whose films include “Sexual Freak.”

Via TechDirt.

Another 600 goons from Sadr's army arrested

Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi Army is a new Hezbollah -- an illegitimate Shia army taking advantage of a weak, democratic government. Same faction of Islam, same murderous tendencies, same agenda. Unlike the situation in Lebanon, the Iraqi government has the benefit of 165,000 U.S. soldiers to help destroy the menace.

From the BBC:

About 600 fighters and 16 leaders of the radical Shia militia, the Mehdi Army, have been captured by security forces in Iraq, the US military says.

The statement said 52 operations had been conducted in 45 days targeting the militia, which is loyal to Najaf-based cleric Moqtada Sadr.

Sunni extremists were also the focus of the crackdown, the US military said.

US and Iraqi forces are currently preparing for a broad offensive in the strife-torn Iraqi capital Baghdad.

Speaking of Hezbollah, the BBC is reporting the terror group began the overthrow of the Lebanese government today:

Thousands of Lebanese demonstrators have paralysed parts of the country, barricading roads as part of a strike aimed at toppling the government.

Smoke billowed over Beirut as protesters burned tyres and flights in and out of the city were cancelled as roads to the airport were blocked.

The Hezbollah-led opposition called the strike as part of its drive to dislodge the government and hold new elections.

Frenchies turning off electricity Feb 1

Tim Blair has brought to my attention French plans to turn off all electricity on February 1st. The event, to last between 7:55 and 8:00 p.m., is being organized by Alliance For The Planet, "a grouping of 72 environmental organizations".

Sigh.

As a counterbalance to this nuttiness, and because the planet doesn't need saving, I plan to turn on all four PCs at 7:55 p.m., plus turn on all the lights, run the coffeemaker, toaster oven, microwave, and both TVs. I don't usually run my ceiling fans during the winter, but I'll make an exception.

Greenies, lefties and outrageous commies say we have a responsibility to the planet. I agree, but in a very different way. My responsibility is to live my life the way I please, and if anybody doesn't like it, they should develop a replacement for fossil fuels that doesn't compromise my lifestyle.

Europeans might say this is typical American arrogance, and perhaps it is. I'm just not interested in giving up my comfortable, six-passenger sedan in favor of a tiny "Smart Car" ("Stupid Car" is more like it). Anything less than 3-liters and 200hp is absurd.

Pipes v. Red Ken

Several right-leaning blogs are reporting that Daniel Pipes did well against Red Ken in the "Clash of Civilisations" [sic] debate in London (which I mentioned in December).

Pipes has a write-up, which included technical details about the debate and links to blogs covering the event:

Despite the many journalists and video cameras, and despite the GLA having recorded and simultaneously transcribed the event, and despite two and a half days having passed since it took place, there has been – quite to my surprise – not a single media account of the debate, nor a video made available, nor a transcript. (This reminds me in a way of my University of California-Berkeley talk three years ago, which created quite a stir but had zero media coverage.)

Jonathan Hoffman, after expecting a gloomy Daniel Pipes, had this to say:

I’m so happy to admit that I could not have been more wrong. Pipes was magnificent at the Conference. Daniel went into the lion’s den and not only did he survive, he pulverised the lion.

Moreover, he (and his co-speaker, Douglas Murray) got just as much applause as Ken and his co-speaker, Councillor Salma Yaqoob. This was quite remarkable, given the timing of the Conference, which meant that many in the Jewish community missed the daytime programme. And yet more – Israel was not even mentioned in any of the four principal morning speeches on the main topic.

Beila Rabinowitz and William A. Mayer at PipeLineNews:

In keeping with Livingstone's bogeyman attitude toward the West in general and the U.S. in particular at the conference Yaqoob denied that Islamism presents any threat at all, claiming that terrorist attacks are motivated - and presumably justified - because of Western actions, "imperialism" et al.

The sense of those who witnessed the event was that Dr. Pipes and Douglas Murray won a clear-cut victory, defeating Livingstone and Yaqoob on their home turf and in front of an audience of 5,000.

Via LGF.

Did Basil Fawlty kill Turkish journalist?

U.S. media aren't reporting the reason Hrant Dink was murdered, though they certainly know. To find out why, visit LGF.

Hillary Clinton makes it official

Hillarious Clinton -- a shameless political chameleon -- has announced her intention to run for communist party leader president. She couldn't resist bashing Bush. In fact, the only thing she neglected to say was the tired old socialist slogan: speak truth to power. From ABC News:

"I'm in," she said on a Web site, hillaryclinton.com. "And I'm in to win. As a senator, I will spend two years doing everything in my power to limit the damage George W. Bush can do," Clinton's statement added. "But only a new president will be able to undo Bush's mistakes and restore our hope and optimism."

If there ever was a woman who should not be president, it's Hillarious Clinton.

UPDATE: Vinnie at The Jawa Report asks Hillarious a key question: If you're elected, how many suicides will show up in Fort Marcy Park?

UPDATE: A BBC reader submitted this comment: "She is Europe's darling, but most American voters would rather eat their young than see her in office."

ABC meteorologist responds to Weather Channel's climate hysteria

UPDATE: Go here for a good summary of the controversy.

Go here for the blog entry. You will need to scroll down a ways to a post called "'The Weather Channel' Mess", posted January 18 at 5:45 p.m.; I couldn't find a direct link.

Well, well. Some “climate expert” on “The Weather Channel” wants to take away AMS certification from those of us who believe the recent “global warming” is a natural process. So much for “tolerance”, huh?

I have been in operational meteorology since 1978, and I know dozens and dozens of broadcast meteorologists all over the country. Our big job: look at a large volume of raw data and come up with a public weather forecast for the next seven days. I do not know of a single TV meteorologist who buys into the man-made global warming hype. I know there must be a few out there, but I can’t find them. Here are the basic facts you need to know:

*Billions of dollars of grant money is flowing into the pockets of those on the man-made global warming bandwagon. No man-made global warming, the money dries up. This is big money, make no mistake about it. Always follow the money trail and it tells a story. Even the lady at “The Weather Channel” probably gets paid good money for a prime time show on climate change. No man-made global warming, no show, and no salary. Nothing wrong with making money at all, but when money becomes the motivation for a scientific conclusion, then we have a problem. For many, global warming is a big cash grab.

*The climate of this planet has been changing since God put the planet here. It will always change, and the warming in the last 10 years is not much difference than the warming we saw in the 1930s and other decades. [I've been posting about these natural changes for a long time.] And, lets not forget we are at the end of the ice age in which ice covered most of North America and Northern Europe.

If you don’t like to listen to me, find another meteorologist with no tie to grant money for research on the subject. I would not listen to anyone that is a politician, a journalist, or someone in science who is generating revenue from this issue.

In fact, I encourage you to listen to WeatherBrains episode number 12, featuring Alabama State Climatologist John Christy, and WeatherBrains episode number 17, featuring Dr. William Gray of Colorado State University, one of the most brilliant minds in our science.

WeatherBrains, by the way, is our weekly 30 minute netcast.

I have nothing against “The Weather Channel”, but they have crossed the line into a political and cultural region where I simply won’t go.

The blog also contains links to the WeatherBrains podcasts the author references at the bottom of the post.

Robert Redford wants Iraq apology

Robert Deadford told the crowd at his Sundance Film Festival that U.S. leaders should apologize for the Iraq War. BBC:

Redford said he, like many others, had shown a "spirit of unity" with the US government after 11 September 2001.

"We put all our concerns on hold to let the leaders lead," he said. "I think we're owed a big, massive apology."

Deadford's problem, aside from being a disloyal lefty, is that he still believes he's the young actor who starred in Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid. He was so enthralled with his performance that he named his ranch Sundance, and also his film festival. Well, somebody needs to tell him that he's a bitter, old socialist who is relevant only to pot-smoking college students.

What's worse, Deadford tantalized us by saying he would move to Ireland if Bush won a second term -- then stayed. Irish medicine is very good. They can be trusted to perform his monthly face lift.

Democrats choosing between Clinton and Obama

Hillarious Clinton has a long history of changing her mind on key issues -- in lockstep with opinion polls. If you would be comfortable with Gallup running the country, vote for Hillarious. She is also a consumate liar and socialist.


The Chameleon

After liberalism, Barak Obama's problem is that he's not qualified to be president. Two years in the Senate is not sufficient to run a country with an annual budget greater than $5 trillion and a population over 300 million.


The Inexperienced

Bias? What bias? No bias here...

ABC's story about the 400 new detainees of Shia militiamen includes a photo with this caption: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki takes a step to appease the Bush administration by going after the Shiite Mahdi army.

Did it occur to ABC that Maliki might believe disarming a standing, renegade army in his midst is a good idea?

Channel 4 accused of racism

Surprise, surprise! Britain's Channel 4 documentary about extremism in mosques is getting complaints of racism. (The Guardian). I watched the show on YouTube, and there is nothing racist about exposing the hate Muslims have for us kuffaars (deragatory term Muslims use for non-Muslims).

The only racism I've seen is from Muslims inside the mosques of Britain.

Watch the documentary here.

Chavez to rule Venezuela by decree?

This is precisely what happened in Germany when the Weimar Republic began to unravel. Read The Burden of Guilt: A Short History of Germany, 1914-1945 by Hannah Vogt to learn about what happens when a president (or chancellor) becomes a dictator.

From The Houston Chronicle:

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela's National Assembly gave initial approval Thursday to a measure that would let President Hugo Chavez enact laws by decree for 1 1/2 years, a key step in what the leftist calls an accelerating march toward socialism.

The law is expected to easily win final approval next week by a legislature filled with Chavez allies. Among the laws planned by Chavez are moves to nationalize Venezuela's main telecommunications company and the electricity and natural gas sectors.

"This process is unstoppable," lawmaker Juan Montenegro Nunez told the National Assembly. "This process is a historic necessity."

Somalians weigh in at BBC

The four Somalians who the BBC chose to represent feelings about recent strife are unanimous -- they're against the Ethiopian involvement and thought life under the Islamic Courts was better.

I don't believe this is an accurate view of most Somalians. Do you remember what happened when Muslims made watching soccer illegal during the World Cup? Somalians learned what Sharia was like, and they didn't like it.

Democratic hypocrisy

The latest round of Democratic hypocrisy comes from Rep. Silvestre Reyes. Here's his take on a troop surge before Bush announced his plans, from The Washington Times:

"We have to consider the need for additional troops to be in Iraq, to take out the militias and stabilize Iraq," the Texas Democrat said to the surprise of many, "I would say 20,000 to 30,000."

And after Bush's announcement:

Wouldn't you know, hours after Mr. Bush announced his proposal, Mr. Reyes told the El Paso Times that such a troop buildup was unthinkable.

"We don't have the capability to escalate even to this minimum level," he said.

Earlier rounds of hypocrisy include the reasons for making war on Saddam Hussein. Liberal Dems, including John Kerry, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and many other leaders, knew Saddam had and was pursuing more WMDs, and were very outspoken about stopping the threat Hussein represented to the United States and the world -- that is, until Bush went to war.

The same goes for the editorial pages of The New York Times, which, in the early and mid 1990s, wondered if we might have to fix the Iraq problem without the UN. After the war, The Times took up a position against Bush, in part because he went forward without UN approval.

Another round of hypocrisy was the social security issue. Many Dems are on record as saying the program is in serious trouble, that it is bankrupt (and this is true; social security is a pyramid scheme). The moment Bush announced plans to re-fund, Dems came out in droves (Harry Reid comes to mind) claiming there is no problem.

Politicians of all stripes are mostly devious characters interested in advancing their own power, money, and re-election prospects. However, I see many more problems on the left than on the right.

This is evident with the new power Dems yield in Washington. We were promised that business as usual in Washington is over, that a new era of responsible leadership had arrived. The "first 100 hours", which CNN wet its pants for, is already off to a rocky beginning. The anti-pork bill would only stop a very small percentage of pork. And the minimum wage bill had similar problems.

Democrats in action

Here is the Democratic bill attempting to stop a troop surge in Iraq:

SECTION 1. PROHIBITION ON USE OF FUNDS FOR ESCALATION OF UNITED STATES MILITARY FORCES IN IRAQ.

(a) Findings- Congress makes the following findings:

(1) Congress, the representatives of the American people, should vote before any additional United States military forces are sent to Iraq.

(2) The Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 (Public Law 107-243) authorized a war against the regime of Saddam Hussein because he was believed to have weapons of mass destruction and to have an operational relationship with Al Qaeda and because he was in defiance of United Nations Security Council Resolutions.

(3) The mission of the Armed Forces of the United States today in Iraq no longer bears any resemblance to the mission of the Armed Forces authorized by Congress in the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002.

(4) Iraq has descended into civil war, and sectarian violence continues to escalate.

(5) On March 5, 2006, General Nash said `[w]e're in a civil war now; it's just that not everybody's joined in'.

(6) On December 3, 2006, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said `[w]hen we had the strife in Lebanon and other places, we called that a civil war--this is much worse'.

(7) On December 17, 2006, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said `I am not persuaded that another surge of troops into Baghdad for the purposes of suppressing this communitarian violence, this civil war, will work'.

(8) A political solution is required in Iraq, not a military solution.

(9) The open-ended commitment of the Armed Forces continues to enable the Iraqis to avoid taking responsibility for their own future. Tens of thousands of additional United States troops will only serve to make the Iraqis more dependent on the United States, not less.

(10) On November 15, 2006, General Abizaid was unequivocal that increasing our troop commitment is not the answer in Iraq, saying `I've met with every divisional commander. General Casey, the corps commander, General Dempsey--we all talked together. And I said, `In your professional opinion, if we were to bring in more American troops now, does it add considerably to our ability to achieve success in Iraq?' And they all said no'.

(11) On December 29, 2006, General Casey said `[t]he longer we in the United States forces continue to bear the main burden of Iraq's security, it lengthens the time that the government of Iraq has to make the hard decisions about reconciliation and dealing with the militias... They can continue to blame us for all of Iraq's problems, which are at base their problems'.

(12) More than 3,000 United States troops have died in Iraq, and more than 22,000 have been wounded. [This is the only part Democrats truly care about.]

(13) President George W. Bush should not be permitted to increase the number of United States troops in harm's way [Again, this is the Democratic priority.] in the civil war in Iraq without a new authorization from Congress that reflects the reality of the changed circumstances on the ground in Iraq.

(b) Prohibition- Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no Federal funds may be obligated or expended by the United States Government to increase the number of United States military forces in Iraq above the number for such forces which existed as of January 9, 2007, without a specific authorization of Congress by law for such an increase.

Calendar No. 7

110th CONGRESS

1st Session

S. 287

A BILL

The bill is online at S.287 (If the link doesn't work, search for s.287 at thomas.loc.gov)

Bill title: A bill to prohibit the use of funds for an escalation of United States military forces in Iraq above the numbers existing as of January 9, 2007.

Senator Edward "Chappaquidick" Kennedy, D-Mass., is the sponsor, along with seven cosponsors:

Sen Boxer, Barbara, D-Calif.
Sen Brown, Sherrod, D-Ohio
Sen Harkin, Tom, D-Iowa
Sen Kerry, John F., D-Mass.
Sen Leahy, Patrick J., D-Vt.
Sen Menendez, Robert, D-N.J.
*Congressman Sanders, Bernard, I-Vt.

The bill was first read before Congress on Jan. 16, 2007.

*The bill cosponsor page incorrectly lists Sanders as a senator. He is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

It's interesting to note that one day after the bill was read before Congress, Hillarious Clinton came out in favor of a troop cap (see AP story here), but she didn't cosponsor S.287. The chameleon strikes again!

Democrat bill limiting troop levels

Democrats are appealing to their base of anti-war hippies, who do not understand that running away when things get difficult weakens America. Or they don't care. They also fail to understand that 3,000 soldiers dead in a major war is nothing short of phenomenal. We lost more than that on several different afternoons in WWII, Vietnam, and Korea.

The New York Liberal Times:

The resolution, proposed by Senators Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware and Carl Levin of Michigan, both Democrats, and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, a Republican, would not be binding, and the White House said it would have no effect on Mr. Bush’s plan to send more than 20,000 additional troops to Iraq.

But sponsors of the measure said Congressional passage would send a powerful message that the president could not ignore, and its adoption could be a precursor to further efforts by opponents of the war to place limits on his use of the military in Iraq or to limit financing for the war.

Q: By increasing troop levels, was Bush playing politics or trying to stabilize Iraq?

Q: By submitting a bill capping troop levels, were Democrats playing politics or trying to stabilize Iraq?

It's fairly obvious that Bush, whether a surge works or not, is doing what he feels is right. Democrats are reacting to opinion polls instead of showing leadership. It's Bill Clinton all over again. Left to their own devices, Dems would skip presidential elections and appoint Zogby or Gallup to run the nation. Leadership involves making hard decisions, and Democrats don't seem interested in that.

Glenn Reynolds on gun control

The Big Blogstar himself gets column inches in The New York Liberal Times:

Greenleaf is following in the footsteps of Kennesaw, Ga., which in 1982 passed a mandatory gun ownership law in response to a handgun ban passed in Morton Grove, Ill. Kennesaw’s crime dropped sharply, while Morton Grove’s did not.

To some degree, this is rational. Criminals, unsurprisingly, would rather break into a house where they aren’t at risk of being shot. As David Kopel noted in a 2001 article in The Arizona Law Review, burglars report that they try to avoid homes where armed residents are likely to be present. We see this phenomenon internationally, too, with the United States having a lower proportion of “hot” burglaries — break-ins where the burglars know the home to be occupied — than countries with restrictive gun laws.

Via Tim Blair.

Jimmy Carter continues to disappoint

"It's not legal, proper, or morally right" for the U.S. to deny funds to Hamas, a recognized terrorist organization who routinely kills innocent people, including children, says Jimmy Carter.

He also believes that when Palestinians blow themselves up inside Israeli buses, it's terrorism, but shooting rockets into civilian areas is not.

Watch the video of Jimmy embarassing himself and us at LGF.

Also, Newsbusters has Fox News video of a former Carter Center employee (they've been quitting in droves because of Carter's insanity) criticizing the former president.

Beckham and a sobering reality

Business Day held nothing back in their appraisal of Beckham's move to American soccer:

Or perhaps the Americans are actually a lot more gullible than any of us ever dared to imagine.

Both of the above may well be true when you consider the announcement last week that Beckham would take his circus act to the well-heeled retirement village that is Major League Soccer — the dodgy US interpretation of the sport — when his stillborn career with Spanish club Real Madrid is contractually put out of its misery in June.

Apparently our Becks will join the Los Angeles Galaxy on a five-year deal that could earn him $250m in salary and commercial endorsement deals in that time.

The Yanks jumped at securing such a deal even though the Spaniards and the English are in agreement that Beckham is way past his prime and will not be missed in Europe, where real football is played.

Not the Yanks. They like to do things their own way because the rest of the world does not matter as far as they are concerned.

I'd like to point out that "real football" is extremely dull compared to about 75 other sports, such as Australian rules football, American football, hockey... Even curling is more entertaining to me.

Google and Blogger can kiss my ass

Google / Blogger finally forced me to switch to the "new version", which involved setting up a Google Account. Fine, except it won't take my password. I have to choose a new one every time I try to log into my account. Plus, I can't see the letters for word verification, not to mention there is no button for signing in. This is just pure incompetence. None of this showed up in testing?

Can't see all the letters, no sign-in button...

I was amused at first. Then frustrated, and now I'm closing in on bitter hatred -- considering I will use none of the features offered by the "new version". The last time something in my life malfunctioned this badly, I broke it with a hammer (no joke, it was a telephone).

So how's your day going?

UPDATE: There's no image visible for word verification. I can't publish once I get inside Blogger. It's time to consider Typepad or another competitor. Maybe a free service is useless.

New energy sources require new people

The New York Liberal Times has an editorial today called "Energy Time." It bashes Bush, which is the bread and butter of a liberal paper. But it fails to understand that Bush's time has already come and gone.

Al Hubbard, the economic adviser who’s coordinating the administration’s energy strategy, recently promised that President Bush would produce “headlines above the fold that will knock your socks off in terms of our commitment to energy independence.” Every president since Richard Nixon has talked this way, while every year the country slides further into dependency. Mr. Bush’s overpromising has included a forecast that we would all be buying hydrogen-fueled cars in 20 years and his pledge a year ago to rid the country of its addiction to oil.

Still, we must hope that Mr. Bush is serious this time, because we simply cannot continue to hold our national security and the health of the planet hostage to our appetite for fossil fuels.

Bush is an oil tycoon, or at least an heir to a fortune made of oil. I believe he has been a good president, but we need a different sort the next time.

Instead of using the European model (and that of Liberals here) of scrunching into ever smaller cars and riding buses with poor people who smell of urine, we should direct all of our attention to developing energy sources better than oil and coal -- and much better than solar and wind. I don't know what that may be; possibly fusion, or something not yet invented or discovered. But it needs to be done soon.

I'm considering voting for the 2008 presidential election on a single issue: ENERGY INDEPENDENCE, although not for a green or liberal fool who will ask me to curb my lifestyle.

The Times editorial says, "we must hope that Mr. Bush is serious this time." We will know an American president is serious about energy independence when he talks about ONE TRILLION DOLLARS for new energy development. If we succeed, and there's no reason to believe we can't in light of human achievements of the past, the money will be repaid a hundred times.

Deported Ohio imam not wanted anywhere

AP is reporting that "Fawaz Damra was rejected by 72 countries" in his search for a new home after being tossed out of the USA. Poor terrorist supporter! He ended up in the West Bank, where I hope he enjoys the poverty and violence Palestinians have chosen for themselves.

PARMA, Ohio – The former imam of Ohio's largest mosque became a man without a country after being convicted of concealing his ties to terrorist groups.

Fawaz Damra was rejected by 72 countries and left with no choice but to be deported to his native West Bank, leading to his arrest by Israeli authorities on Jan. 4.

The arrest has angered Muslim leaders in Ohio, some of whom complained that he was double-crossed by U.S. immigration officials and delivered up to the Israelis.

Damra, 46, a Palestinian from the West Bank city of Nablus, was the spiritual leader of the Islamic Center of Cleveland, raising three American-born daughters with his wife in suburban Strongsville, at the time of the Sept. 11 attacks. He condemned the attacks and urged others not to judge all Muslims as a group.

Russian criminals just like ours

Russia began cracking down on "millions of illegal workers" this week. Naturally, Russia's criminal aliens are playing the race card, just as they do here.

Associated Press:

"They don't like the color of our skin here," said a 26-year-old Azerbaijani produce seller at a Moscow food market who gave his name as Alek. He predicted that he and many of his fellow migrants would have to leave Russia.

Under the new rules, which set a quota of 6 million foreign workers for 2007, authorities are carrying out strict checks of the estimated 10 million to 12 million foreigners who are already working in Russia, most of them illegally.

I wonder if "Alek" ever considered that Russians don't like him because he's a criminal who may be soaking up taxpayer funded social services and taking jobs away from legal residents? Probably not, because he can create more pity by crying, "Racism!"

'Restorative justice'

Tonight Bill O'Reilly mentioned "restorative justice" in a piece about the latest bad ruling by a liberal Vermont judge. He says it also appears in his book, Culture Warrior (on Amazon), and that Vermont and Minnesota are the only two states currently applying restorative justice.

So what is it?

RestorativeJustice.org has this: "Restorative justice is a theory of justice that emphasizes repairing the harm caused or revealed by criminal behaviour. It is best accomplished through cooperative processes that include all stakeholders."

The same site says "restorative programmes are characterized by four key values:

Encounter: Create opportunities for victims, offenders and community members who want to do so to meet to discuss the crime and its aftermath

Amends: Expect offenders to take steps to repair the harm they have caused

Reintegration: Seek to restore victims and offenders to whole, contributing members of society

Inclusion: Provide opportunities for parties with a stake in a specific crime to participate in its resolution"

Encounter, amends, reintegration, and inclusion are all liberal buzz words. Is restorative justice responsible for letting child rapists off the hook? Bill O'Reilly alluding to this doesn't make it so, but it is worth looking into.

Don's NFL picks

I was 75% the last time I did this.

Baltimore over Indy

New Orleans over Philadelphia

Chicago over Seattle

San Diego over New England

UPDATE: I was 50% this time, the odd ramblings of one "Shane McAdams" notwithstanding. Besides, Da... I mean Shane doesn't even like America's Game, which should preclude him from commenting on this noble sport.

UPDATE: The best running back in the history of the game criticized Patriots on-field celebrations, as reported by the New York Liberal Times.

Funny British stuff

Want a slice of life from across the pond? Here's the 1A story at This is Cornwall:

BADGERS FREED INTO TB HOTSPOT

11:00 - 11 January 2007

The rspca has been labelled "irresponsible and provocative" by Westcountry farmers for releasing badgers into the wild near a bovine TB hotspot.The animal charity has released juvenile badgers fitted with radio tags into the West Somerset countryside around Lydeard St Lawrence, as part of a study to see how they disperse and survive.

The study came to light after farmers in the area demanded to know what a Land Rover fitted with a long aerial was doing driving around the lanes near their farms.

The farmers are furious that the project could add to the spread of bovine TB, the disease which has blighted many farms across the Westcountry.

They condemned the project and pointed out it was being carried out at a time of heightened concern about bovine TB.

Now how would you know that farmers in Cornwall are angry about badgers without the internet?

Dems hit first snag in "first 100 hours"

You mean a razor-thin majority isn't an exciting new mandate for change?! CNN should change their exciting "FIRST 100 HOURS" graphic (and theme song) to "THE BUBBLE BURST".

WASHINGTON - The Senate's new Democratic leaders, the fragility of their thin majority on display for the first time, were set back Thursday when nine Democrats joined with Republicans in support of stricter House-passed rules on lawmakers' pet projects.

Majority Leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record), D-Nev., was forced to delay a final vote on a measure he opposes after losing 51-46 a parliamentary attempt to kill it.

The measure, an amendment to an ethics and lobbying bill, would have adopted a wider definition of "earmarks," specific projects inserted in bills, to include Corps of Engineer water projects, Pentagon weapon systems and items from other federal entities.

It seems Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) doesn't feel Reid's bill to make earmarks (pork) public and transparent is strong enough.

DeMint insisted that the Senate definition would catch only about 5 percent of earmarks, saying that in most instances lawmakers insert their pet projects not into the bill itself but into the explanatory report language that accompanies the bill and is not subject to a vote.

Sen. Tom Coburn (news, bio, voting record), R-Okla., said that of some 12,852 earmarks found in bills last year, only 534 would be subject to Senate disclosure rules.

The conservative DeMint praised new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., for backing the more comprehensive earmark rules that the House approved last week. "I'm here to defend her language on behalf of the Democrat colleagues on the House side."

I tentatively agree with DeMint, but with the devious nature of politicians, it's very difficult to tell exactly what is going on.

Rocket fired at U.S. embassy in Greece

AP:

ATHENS, Greece - A rocket was fired at the U.S. embassy early Friday, striking the front of the building but causing no injuries. A senior police official said the blast was an act of terrorism.

Police cordoned off streets around the heavily guarded building after the explosion shortly before 6 a.m. The shell struck the third floor and smashed glass in nearby buildings.

Investigators found the device used to fire the rocket shell at a construction site near the embassy.

"This is an act of terrorism. We don't know where from," Attica Police Chief Asimakis Golfis said. "There was a shell that exploded in the toilets of the building ... It was fired from street level."

Do you think it was a Buddhist?

Dutifully prepared for The Big One in Laguna Beach, California

I flipped open the digital equivalent of the San Diego Union-Tribune this afternoon and lo!, a Copley News Service story said that a "major earthquake along the San Andreas fault could bring Hurricane Katrina-scale devastation and disruption to Southern California."

Now I'm no stranger to quakes, having felt a half dozen of them. Usually they're very small, and amount to 15-20 seconds of a strange jiggling. I usually have to look around to see if anybody else feels it to be sure it's actually happening. One time some shelves fell down in my bedroom, but that's more a reflection of my carpentry skills than any "Katrina-scale devastation" caused by an earthquake.

In the news story today my leaders are encouraging me to prepare for the "inevitability of a power quake," which I've never felt before. So that's what I'm going to do -- prepare. Since it will be "Katrina-scale devastation," I shall use that disaster as my example.

1. Already planning on a pardon from Celine Dion. When The Big One hits I'll put the trusty 10mm in my waistband and venture out into the wrecked labyrinth of Laguna Beach in search of big screen TVs and sports apparel. This is the land of strip malls, and I plan to break into all of them.

If Celine doesn't pardon me after the fact, because I just want to "touch those things," maybe a white version of Jesse Jackson will give a speech on my behalf from a hotel balcony off the 5.

Jesse can say, "Laguna Beach looks like the hull of a slave ship!" As a whitey (someone who was granted riches and respect at birth), that might not work for me. Well, actually, my ancesters came from an area once controlled by Rome, so my people were probably slaves at one time or another. Damn them all to hell, those white (Roman) devils!

2. I'll sit on my roof cursing the gubment for not having 400,000 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches sitting in idling helicopters 48 hours before the quake strikes.

3. As I mug people in the ruined streets and take pot shots at emergency workers, I will smile at the thought of a free FEMA trailer and drinking away a $2,000 credit card courtesy of my fellow Americans.

4. Simply because I'm not a wealthy capitalist, liberal elites won't mind when I revert to total barbarism. I'm not sure how to survive on looted Nikes and wrist watches, but Huffington Post writers will figure it out for me. With so many liberal apologists, I will feel like God himself.

5. It may occur to me that when the mayor comes on all TV and radio stations 14 hours before the quake and says "Life in Laguna Beach as we know it is coming to an end," and that I must leave, I should spend $14 to get on a Greyhound. Naw. Why go? I'm poor, and therefore not expected to make reasonable decisions.

6. My crank-up radio will keep me informed, minute-by-minute, of how Bush caused the earthquake. Al Gore, Miles O'Brien, and European heads of state will say the quake happened because Bush refused to sign the Kyoto protocol. It's global warming, of course. Bush is quite a bastard for putting me in this tough situation, big screen TVs notwithstanding. I mean, we didn't know we chose to live right next to the San Andreas fault line.

All in all it's going to be a great quake. Wish you could be here with me.

Four great new blogs on the sidebar

I encourage you to try them. There is a brief description of each below.

Neptunus Lex

Mr. Lex is a former Naval aviator, with experience in F-18s and other legendary military equipment. I had perused his blog a few times over the last few months, but when I read his post, "Worst day ever," I was sold. Plus, he's in San Diego, which is just down the coast from my Laguna Beach.

Five "g" turn nose high, hook the slats out, flaps twenty degrees, trim up 7-8 units, rudder, rudder rudder, throttle chop, throttle up, flaps half, 15 units AOA, hold the slats out, HOLD THEM! "Pipper's on, guns kill, knock it off."

Terry had flown A-7s, mud movers, attack jets - and I was a Hornet pilot, I had flown fighters. What could Terry teach me about fighting I didn't already know?

Volumes, as it turned out. Starting with humility. Which he treated me to in heroic doses, over time. Man, he was good...Lex is dead, set up another.

He usually doesn't write about specific military experiences, like above, rather it's an interesting blog from the perspective of a Naval officer.

QandO Online Magazine

This is a blog done by a trio of guys who lean libertarian and right, just like myself.

If California thinks that providing health care to illegal immigrants will in some way discourage more illegals from seeking residence there, I'd have to question their rationality. And, of course, the usual suspects will be footing the bill for this grand act of economic stupidity.

RWDB

J.F. Beck is an Aussie critical of socialists and anyone else exhibiting idiocy.

The hugely negative Antony Loewenstein reckons 2006 was "hugely positive" and promises surprises for 2007. If he writes something worth reading it'll be more than a surprise, it'll be a fucking miracle.

Gorse Fox

An excellent mix of politics, current events, and daily life in the British countryside, complete with photos.

Gorse Fox should know better. He should know by now that the media are a bunch of hypocrites.

The BBC Online, the Daily Mail, and the Times all bemoan the photos / videos that were made available of Saddam Hussein's execution. But all of them have used the stills from the sequence or pointed the reader to sites on the web where they can be viewed.

If they really want to wring their hands in horror - they should do so without providing further publicity to the sordid display.

Dershowitz slams Carter again

Boston Globe:

Carter's refusal to debate wouldn't be so strange if it weren't for the fact that he claims that he wrote the book precisely so as to start debate over the issue of the Israel-Palestine peace process. If that were really true, Carter would be thrilled to have the opportunity to debate. Authors should be accountable for their ideas and their facts. Books shouldn't be like chapel, delivered from on high and believed on faith.

What most rankles is Carter's insistence that he is somehow brave for attacking Israel and highlighting the plight of the Palestinian people. No other conflict in the world -- not even the genocides in Rwanda and Sudan -- evokes more hand-wringing in the media, universities, and human rights organizations than the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Jimmy Carter isn't brave for beating up on Israel. He's a bully. And like all school-yard bullies, underneath the tough talk and bravado, there's a nagging insecurity and a fear that one day he'll have to answer for himself in a fair fight.

When Jimmy Carter's ready to speak at Brandeis, or anywhere else, I'll be there. If he refuses to debate, I will still be there -- ready and willing to answer falsity with truth in the court of public opinion.

I never thought to see a day when a man would be allowed a national podium to voice opinions against two things held dear to the liberal heart -- taking a position in favor of Israel and against Jimmy Carter.

Dershowitz's first big, public slam on Carter was at the Huffington Post. See my post here.

Good day for news junkies

U.S. nuclear submarine collides with Japanese ship. This is the second time in three years. Do Japanese ships attract our subs like magnets? (AP)

U.S. airship strikes Al-Qaida targets in Somalia. Here we go again. The only difference this time -- we don't have a Bill Clinton to order our military to run away when a single helicopter gets shot down. Oh, and CNN wasn't waiting for the arrival of U.S. forces. (LA Times)

Mystery smell across NYC and parts of New Jersey. Many are wondering if Teddy Kennedy was in town eating Polish sausages. (NY Times)

Another scumbag goes away: German justice system gives 9/11 conspirator 15 years. (The Australian)

Russia cuts off Belarus from its big gas pipeline. I think 2008 may be the year I become a single issue voter for U.S. president: ENERGY INDEPENDENCE. (The Independent)

Pelosi & Co. will write a stem-cell funding bill. I'm unashamedly liberal on this issue. Bush will pen an uncharacteristic veto, of course. (Washington Post)

Mr. Bill Microsoft touts deal with Ford at CES. We've been making funny analogies about Microsoft software in vehicles for years... (Chicago Tribune)

No major terror attacks in U.S. since 9/11

Here's why.

BBC:

Man jailed over NY bombing plot

A Pakistani immigrant to the US convicted of plotting to detonate a bomb in a New York City subway station has been sentenced to 30 years in jail.

In May a federal jury found Shahawar Matin Siraj, 24, guilty of scheming to blow up the Herald Square subway station in Manhattan in August 2004.

The arrest took place shortly before the Republican Party convention, which was held at a nearby venue.

Siraj admitted to taking preliminary steps to carry out the bombing.

However there was no proof he ever obtained explosives or was linked to any terror group.

Defence lawyers had argued that their client was only a "confused and misguided youngster" rather than a dangerous terrorist.

MUST READ: Reader comment at BBC

The BBC has posed a question to readers this morning: Should the U.S. send more troops to Iraq? One interesting person named "mario jose" had this:

How on earth does the whole world allow this mad man Bush to keep fooling every one with his policy in Iraq.When is the civilized world going to stop this madness that is going on in Iraq.Now he wants to send more troops for what reason.It saddens me to see so many people killed just because of the greed on Mr.Bush and Dick Cheeney with his company making billions of dollars while inocent peoples blood is spilled day by day.
Where is our decensy, has the world gone mad.I wonder.Bush and his alias should be the ones being judged by an international court.History will remember him The botcher.

The botcher?

I don't know why I sometimes get bothered by the anti-war crowd. There's nothing to worry about.

'Climate change' as socialist club

I am 100% convinced that "climate change" is merely the newest weapon socialists are using to fight capitalism. Anyone who concludes that current global warming is anthropogenic is a sucker or a socialist, considering the earth has a 1.2 billion year history of warming and cooling, naturally, with no possible human factor.

Fortunately some capitalists are fighting back. See this Financial Times article, via Tim Blair:

A UK government minister who attacked leading European airlines for failing to take climate change seriously was slapped down on Friday by industry critics and government colleagues.

Ian Pearson, the minister for climate change, branded Ryanair, Europe’s leading budget airline, as “the irresponsible face of capitalism” because it refuses to believe that air travel is a significant contributor to global warming.

He also took aim at Lufthansa for leaning on the German government, holder of the European Union presidency, to water down plans to include aviation in the EU emissions trading scheme. Mr Pearson described US airlines as “a disgrace” and said British Airways was “only just playing ball” on the need to curb emissions.

His outburst, in an interview with The Guardian newspaper, met a ferocious response from Michael O’Leary, Ryanair’s outspoken chief executive, who said the minister was “foolish and ill-informed”. Being criticised by Mr Pearson was like being “savaged by a dead sheep”, the airline boss added.

Mr Pearson was also rebuked by furious colleagues, who said his outburst contradicted the policy of the government of Tony Blair, prime minister, of working with industry to curb emissions.

A senior official in the environment department said Mr Pearson had been told: “Get back in your box and stay there.”

“We want to be at the centre of government decision-making not an arm of Greenpeace.”

And what do we make of people who believe in "thousands more people being killed because of climate change within a decade."? Especially when this crowd blamed Katrina on Bush and global warming with no evidence other than it feels right to them? See below, from the London Times:

George Bush will be challenged by Europe today to back a post-Kyoto climate change agreement that would involve developed countries making a 30 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

The President rejected the Kyoto Protocol — which called for a US reduction of 7 per cent on 1990 levels by 2012 — as “fatally flawed” and likely to damage American industry.

But José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission President, will arrive at the White House for talks in an optimistic mood and set out his proposals for introducing a higher target.

He is expected to repeat the dire warnings of economic disaster that were made in the Stern report last year. An EU study that will be published this week will paint an apocalyptic picture of thousands more people being killed because of climate change within a decade.

I hope Bush keeps Mr. Barroso waiting in the lobby -- lit by a dozen incandescent light bulbs -- for hours on end.

3 Iraq plans: Democrat, Republican, Don Long

I watched Biden (D) and Graham (R) discuss Iraq with Tim Russert this morning on Meet the Press. They represented the standard Democrat and Republican viewpoints on the war situation. They agreed that losing the war would be a disaster. I was happy to hear that from Biden. After all, many of his fellow Dems, like Murtha, Kucinich, and Bill Clinton, believe in running away when things get tough, or that war is always bad, no matter what.

Biden and Graham also agreed that cutting funding for the war is a bad idea. Russert pressed Biden, who essentially said that the constitution gives the commander in chief control in war matters, and he supports that concept.

On balance, Biden had better things to say about the war than Graham. Biden was thinking, even though I mostly disagree with him, whereas Graham was obviously parroting the president. Even though I deplore liberalism's central tenet of "defy authority even when there is no reason", I immediately distrust anyone who agrees with any president 100%.

When asked if a surge could be tied to a wind-down, Graham said, in not so few words, "No." I disagree. I feel about this the way I feel about immigration: If amnesty is on the table, it must be tied to both a full-length border wall and strong action against companies who hire illegals. Having one without the other is misguided.

Russert showed poll numbers on public feelings about Democratic war plans: 8% think Democrats have a plan, 82% think they don't.

Here's the problem:

Democrat Plan: None
Republican Plan: Whatever Bush says

I can do better.

The Don Long Plan For Iraq

1. Give the Iraqi government an ultimatum: They have two years to get control of their problems. We tell them our forces will be reduced to one military base with 20,000 troops by January 2009. This, along with a carrier group, can help repel any invasion. Bush will have two years to resolve the Iraq problem, for better or worse.

2. Surge troop levels by 50-70,000, with the understanding this will be the last concerted effort we make in Iraq. We cannot make barbarians live as civilized people. They must want it. Clean out the Sadr City militia, increase training of Iraqi troops, continue to turn over security responsibilities to Iraqis.

3. If there are no concrete results in one year, we begin winding down to the single base mentioned in Item No. 1, and wish them the best. Also, we should continue to aid Iraq financially, unless it implodes and a new dictator arises (in which case we crush him if he goes for WMD, not wasting time setting up democratic elections and rebuilding the country.)

A potential wild card is an Israeli strike against Iran. This could disrupt the flow of money, people, and weapons from Iran to Iraq.

CNN pleased with Democrat power

Last night I noticed that CNN has a special new graphic and theme song for Nancy Pelosi's "first 100 hours" plan. They're giddy like schoolchildren running onto the playground. I don't know what causes me greater nausea, CNN's ongoing love affair with Barak Osama or this new excitement about Nancy Pelosi & Co.

I guess CNN and the other liberal media outlets don't realize that Dems can do nothing without Bush's help and approval. Veto, folks? Dems criticized Bush mercilessly for not vetoing so far, but it's a safe bet the next two years will change the statistics. I'd like to see "the first 100 hours" morph into "the first 100 vetos", with the exception of increased funding for stem cell research.

Don Long's New Plan

"The first 100 bottles of Pepto Bismal so I can stomach hyperliberal mainstream media fawning over unqualified morons." I'll need a graphic and theme song, as well.