REAL HOPE and CHANGE

h/t: KT

We OUGHT to be celebrating!

Couldn't say it any better

than this guy at MM:
***
On January 31st, 2009 at 9:07 am, PKAmmoTroop said:

On January 31st, 2009 at 6:35 am, backwoods conservative said:
I’ll pass. Considering that word just got out about his proposal to cut the defense budget by 10% while pushing a pork-laden “stimulus” package, I’m not feeling very warm and fuzzy toward the president right now.

I’m sorry, but anyone who didn’t see this coming back on November 5th needs a wall-to-wall reality check. This is the modus operandi of the Democrat party. There will be further, deeper cuts coming to the military, GI Bill, veterans benefits, and what little remains of survivors benefits. And their defense will be the tired old lie “Bush and Reagan did it”

There will also be deep cuts in services not related to election payoffs: bridges and roads - forget it. The Democrats have already forgotten that there are roads beyond what pork they have shoved into the Big Turdburger. The FCC? Once the analog switch is complete you won’t hear a thing about communications except for the Democrats monthly cramping over Rush Limbaugh.

Don’t forget - we have a Chicago politician that learned at the feet of some of the most foul, vile dregs of radical socialism in office. I’m surprised President Obama and the Unofficial Vice President Ayers waited this long to start their beat down of the military. Look for the national guard to become just another thug squad until Obama gets the Hitler Youth “civilian national security force” to start turning their parents in for sins against The State.
***
For anyone who actually looked at Obama's record, the pattern of huge pork giveaways in exchange for campaign money is clear, and being repeated today. The abandoned well-funded slum projects in Chicago stand in stark tribute. It transcends any allegation about Halliburton.

The Federal Government has some primary directives and responsibilities. DEFENSE is absolutely The Number One priority - or should be.

The STATES have responsibility for other aspects - like roads, and schools.

So far, the Congressional PORK giveaway package has completely obliterated all traditional lines of responsibility. And now they are abandoning their own primary responsibility.

The people know it. The markets know it. The people watch with growing horror as Zeus and the other gods hurl thunderbolts in the sky above reality. With the lightning strikes, the forest will burn. Only this time they've set the whole world on fire.

And we have no say in our destiny. Our representatives (Mike Thompson!) have abandoned all reason. They have abandoned us.

Hurry! Hurry, Quick, before anyone has time to think!

Just push it through. Belittle and degrade anyone who questions what's in it, defend it at all costs, even if you don't have a clue what is in it yourself.



americansunitedforchange.org = Charlatans

It's a Democrat/Soros Front scroll down on this one, to learn who this group really is - "Officials said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California met with potential donors in Los Angeles earlier this month, underscoring their personal interest in the group’s efforts....

...Americans United seeks to shape public opinion on issues such as health care, homeland security and education rather than advocate for the election or defeat of specific candidates in the November elections. As a result, it is permitted to accept donations of unlimited size from donors, and is not required to disclose the names of its contributors.

It is headed by Karen Olick, a former chief of staff to Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and will rely on several other Democrats with long experience in political campaigns....

...This time, according to the memo, the renamed group “will take the offense in a number of issue areas.” The first will involve “corruption and honest leadership,” emphasizing that the group plans to dovetail its efforts with those of Reid, Pelosi and other Democrats in Congress seeking to gain a majority in the elections in November....

...And, lest we forget, Americans United For Change was a major player in the so-called Americans Against Escalation group that George Soros hired to harass “pro-war” Congressmen 24/7 during their summer recess last August.

Again, a detail that the AP didn’t think worthy of mentioning....

◼ Everywhere you look, it’s MoveOn.org
It seems that Organizing for America (aka Obama 2012) is not the only tool available in The Unpresident’s toolbox to hammer disobedient members of Congress into submission.

An RBO tipster sent along this interesting little tidbit from MoveOn.org:

Can you chip in to pass Obama’s economic recovery plan?
If we don’t raise the heat on swing-vote Republican senators, then the plan is likely to fail—or get gutted. That’s why we put together a powerful new TV ad targeting Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Judd Gregg (R-NH), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Charles Grassley (R-IA).

Although the email that accompanied the link only asked for $25, the action page asks for $25, $50, $100, $250, $500, $1000, $2000 or “Other $”.

As we asked in our November 18, 2008, article reposted below, is this a “Coincidence or not?” It certainly raises a number of questions.

Why, if Organizing for America was formed to help drive home PSBHO’s agenda using his mega list of campaign contacts, is it necessary for MoveOn.org to be emailing its list begging for dollars?

Besides, where’s PSBHO’s post-partisan Congress? You know, the one that was going to work as one-aisle-united and hand him everything he needs.

Most importantly, if PSBHO’s economic recovery plan is a shoo-in for Democrats to pass in the Senate, why the full-court financial press — to raise funds to harrass Republicans?
***

Then there's the "ChangeToWin.org guy on the talks hows tonight all pumping the message - now they are carrying Obama's presidential water.

Sickening.

Now Online: Searchable text version of Senate Generational Theft Act; House Dems’ package tops $1.1 trillion .... VIEW IT HERE

Sickening. It has passed.

Far from a "Stimulus Package" designed to right the wrongs inflicted by the Economic Crisis, this thing is nothing more than rampant spending increases to already existing aspects of the Federal Budge - and then some.

This is theft, pure and simple, Looting on a mass scale.

This is looking at the Katrina victims, knowing they need funds to restore their lives and their homes, and taking the money and giving it to construct a dog park in San Diego. No relation to reality, and no care whatsoever.

Scare Tactics - This time it's Mercury and Corn Syrup

Jus' lookit that SCARY fac-t-o-r-y! Spewing out all those toxins! OOOhhh, The horror.

It's reached the point where, when I read these 'food scares' I look up the names of the "Institutes" and Foundations on activistcash.com and then I check out junkfoodscience.blogspot.com.

So, when this story about the dangers of High Fructose Corn Syrup and Mercury shows up in my email box, I followed the link and read the article, really a press release from the "Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy." (The Washington post actually NAMES the SOURCE: Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, news release, Jan. 26, 2009.)

Lo and Behold! They're not on the Good Guy List at all. IATP is a prime example of a nonprofit that engages in “black marketing”: the public disparagement of one set of products in order to turn a profit with the competition. By condemning conventional methods of agriculture, for instance, IATP hopes to drive the American market toward “organic-only” food production, a segment of the market in which its directors hold a financial stake.

Blackeye: In addition to the nonprofit Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy, Mark and Neil Ritchie also operate a business on the side. It’s an organic retailer called Headwaters International, but it’s generally known by the name of its principal product: Peace Coffee (also called Café Paz). The packages of roasted beans carry the photograph of Guatemalan activist-turned-fraud Rigoberta Menchú, who admitted fabricating much of the narrative in her autobiography after winning the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize. The for-profit Peace Coffee shares office space with IATP and uses the nonprofit’s address for the administration of its finances and web site.

IATP received over $177,000 from the radical Tides Foundation between 1998 and 1999. The for-profit Headwaters also got at least $25,000 in seed money from Tides in 1997 and 1998. One year earlier, when the Tides Foundation wanted to spin off some of its grant-making functions, the Tides Center was born; Mark Ritchie was listed as the fiscal agent on this new corporation’s legal documents. He’s clearly a foundation insider. Publicly available IRS records indicate that while Ritchie was in this position, money passed from the tax-exempt foundation to his own for-profit business. You can search ou the rest of the info at activistcash by using the search term 'Institute for Agriculture.' While you're at it, if you have time, read up on how the Foundations work, starting with Tides Foundation. It's not a pretty sight.

Then, I read what Sandy at Junkfood Science has to say, and sure enough, it's all a bunch of hooey. The latest Scare du Jour: mercury in HFCS "...The scare in the news this week combines two currently trendy evils: mercury and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) — but attempts to worry us about the findings of a new study make no biological or scientific sense. Since the mainstream media isn’t reporting the science and is only giving the press release version, at reader request, let’s take a quick look at the facts...." Check it out!

It's not clear yet what the "Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy" is really up to, but this is sure to be followed by some sort of ad campaign, likely for a client/product of theirs that stands to make money. Keep your eyes peeled.

Assassins of the Mind

◼ vanityfair.com/politics/ Christopher Hitchens
When Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa on novelist Salman Rushdie for The Satanic Verses, it was the opening shot in a war on cultural freedom. Two decades later, the violence continues, and Muslim fundamentalists have gained a new advantage: media self-censorship....

...it is not the job of writers and thinkers to appease the faithful. And the faithful, if in fact upset or offended, are quite able and entitled to explore all forms of protest. Short of violence.

Those last three words are not a proper sentence, but they summon to mind the various “sentences” that have since been pronounced by the faithful in their periodic fits of rage. The Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, descendant of the painter, shot down and then ritually butchered on an Amsterdam street after making a short film about the maltreatment of Muslim women in Holland. His colleague Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an elected member of the Dutch parliament, forced into hiding and ultimately into exile by incessant threats of death. Another small (and unusually open and multicultural) European democracy, that of Denmark, its embassies burned and its exports boycotted and its citizens threatened, because of a few cartoons of the prophet Muhammad published in a morning newspaper in Copenhagen. Daniel Pearl, of The Wall Street Journal, taunted on video for being a Jew and then foully beheaded. Riots and burnings and killings all across the Muslim world, some of them clearly incited by the authorities, in response to some ill-judged words about Islam from the Pope....

...among the things that have happened, and have become depressingly taken for granted, since the fatwa of the ayatollah. We live now in a climate where every publisher and editor and politician has to weigh in advance the possibility of violent Muslim reprisal....

Much more in this article. Well worth the time.

Mob Rule.

h/t: ◼ ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ

The best and the brightest

In all the nation, a TAX CHEAT was the only man qualified to be Secretary of The TREASURY.

Disgusting.

◼ Geithner Sworn in as Treasury Secretary

And it gets better.

◼ Dems Plan to Hand Over $Billions to Vote Fraud Outfit ACORN
The staggering arrogance Democrats have displayed by spending hundreds of $billions we can’t afford on counterproductive pork during a recession goes beyond showering cash on abortion mills. They are also using the loot to ensure they stay in power by injecting massive amounts of cash into ACORN, the radical left activist group best known for conducting systematic voter fraud on behalf of Dems across the country....

...The House Democrats’ trillion dollar spending bill, approved on January 21 by the Appropriations Committee and headed to the House floor next week for a vote, could open billions of taxpayer dollars to left-wing groups like the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). ACORN has been accused of perpetrating voter registration fraud numerous times in the last several elections; is reportedly under federal investigation; and played a key role in the irresponsible schemes that caused a financial meltdown that has cost American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars since last fall....

◼ PELOSI SAYS BIRTH CONTROL WILL HELP ECONOMY
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi boldly defended a move to add birth control funding to the new economic "stimulus" package, claiming "contraception will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government."


Obama said there had been a "devastating loss in trust and confidence" in the U.S. economy.

NO SHIT!

***

Update: Apparently they've dropped the Contraceptives form the "Stimulus Package" but there's still $75 million in there for "Smoking Cessation."

Now online: Searchable text version of Senate Generational Theft Act; House Dems’ package tops $1.1 trillion
VIEW IT HERE

Well, this'll be interesting.

The Obama Deception — Coming March 15 will be the first hard-hitting film to expose Obama, his agenda & handlers cutting through all the media hype, side-issues and Left/Right rhetoric. Alex has made several films exposing the Bush agenda and will approach the Obama Administration’s plans from the same non-partisan point of view looking past the frontman in the White House to the real owners on Wall Street, in the Bilderberg group and at the Federal Reserve.
h/t: RBO

Obameter

PolitiFact is a project of the St. Petersburg Times to help you find the truth in American politics. Reporters and editors from the Times fact-check statements by members of Congress, the White House, lobbyists and interest groups and rate them on our Truth-O-Meter. We’re also tracking more than 500 (510) of Barack Obama’s campaign promises and are rating their progress on our new Obameter.... ◼ politifact.com/truth-o-meter

Browse the Obameter:

◼ All promises with No Action
◼ All promises In the Works
◼ All promises Stalled
◼ Obama's broken promises
◼ Obama's compromises
◼ Obama's kept promises
◼ By subject

Browse the Truth-O-Meter:

◼ By person
◼ By our rulings
◼ By subject
◼ Pants-On-Fire rulings
◼ Barack Obama's file
◼ Joe Biden's file

h/t: The Goracle, He Come, Mon...

The $78,000 engagement ring! Eureka! w/update

◼ PHOENIX Just a case of plumb luck. It took a plumber to retrieve a woman's 7-carat diamond ring after city workers failed in efforts to flush the gem out of the pipes of a restaurant toilet.

The $78,000 engagement ring fell from Allison Berry's hand when she flushed the toilet in the restroom of the Black Bear Diner on Jan. 14. The ring plopped in and the water whisked it away, said Elena Castelar, the restaurant's shift manager.

City workers opened a pipe outside the restaurant and continuously flushed the toilet, hoping to push the ring out to the opening. When that didn't work, the city called the office in suburban Tempe of Mr. Rooter, a plumbing services franchise based in Waco, Texas.

"This is going to be like dredging for a treasure chest in the ocean," Mike Roberts, general manager of Mr. Rooter, said at the time.

Roberts guided a tiny video camera into the pipe with an infrared light attached. He eventually spotted the ring just 3 feet down and 5 feet over from where it was flushed.

Then it took an hour-and-a-half of jackhammering and pipe removal before Roberts and a technician could recover the ring, eight hours after it fell in the toilet.

"They always say diamonds are a girl's best friend. In this case, a plumber is a girl's best friend," Roberts said. "She was just so excited, she had tears in her eyes. She gave us a hug and said 'Thank you so much.'"

The Mr. Rooter bill came to $5,200 and the city's bill was $1,000.

Berry, of Eureka, Calif., and her fiance also tipped Roberts and the technician $400 each and gave $200 to a diner employee for staying late. h/t: cheaperthantherapy

Just one question - what's the wedding going to cost?

But the real question is…

UPDATE:
◼ Humboldt County men plead guilty to marijuana real estate buys
...felony charges of maintaining property to cultivate marijuana and conspiring to launder money...Jordan Pyhtila, 29, of Rio Dell, and Jessie Jeffries, 27, of Garberville...4,677 marijuana plants growing on properties located in Garberville, Eureka, Miranda and Blocksburg...a promissory note in the amount of $945,000, obtained from the sale of a subdivision the two men were developing on the Dinsmore Plateau in Rio Dell...began purchasing the properties in 1999... made the properties available to others for the cultivation of marijuana, and financed real estate purchased by others who planned to use the land to grow marijuana... helped other marijuana growing operations by financing equipment, building materials, plant clones, fertilizer, labor wages and various other expenses. In exchange, the two men received a portion of the profits made from the sale of marijuana grown on the properties... admitted to using the net profits of the marijuana cultivation to finance their business, J&J Earthmoving, and to buy numerous other properties across Northern California, in order to conceal the profits earned from drug sales... used nominee owners on the various properties to conceal their ownership of the properties....

Protocol

◼ There's Only One Mr. President

The sitting president should be addressed as Mr. President. His wife is addressed, both in writing and in speaking, as Mrs. Obama. No first name, neither his nor hers, is used.

The former president is correctly addressed as Gov. Bush. His wife, who was the Mrs. Bush when he was president, reverts to being Mrs. George W. Bush, as her mother-in-law became again Mrs. George H.W. Bush after her husband's administration. (Miss Manners has nothing against their using Ms. and their first names if they wish, but is assuming the more conventional style.)

Similarly, the sitting vice president is the only Mr. Vice President, and his wife is simply Mrs. (or Dr.) Biden.

AP, Reuters and AFP show some balls

A very interesting development actually... ◼ AP, Reuters, AFP Refuse to Distribute Obama White House Photo
NEW YORK -- Three news agencies refused to distribute White House-provided photos of President Barack Obama in the Oval Office on Wednesday, arguing that access should have been provided to news photographers.

The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse said the White House was breaking with long-standing tradition in not allowing news photographers to capture the president at work in the Oval Office on his first day.

"We are not distributing what are, in effect, visual press releases," said Michael Oreskes, managing editor for U.S. news at the AP....

...The White House later released a photograph of the president retaking the oath of office with Chief Justice John Roberts, which the AP also rejected....

Wonder how long the Press is going to be tolerant of "openness and transparency" in the proclamations, and well, something else in reality... ◼ Obama flashes irritation in press room
President Barack Obama made a surprise visit to the White House press corps Thursday night, but got agitated when he was faced with a substantive question.

Asked how he could reconcile a strict ban on lobbyists in his administration with a deputy defense secretary nominee who lobbied for Raytheon, Obama interrupted with a knowing smile on his face.

"Ahh, see," he said, "I came down here to visit. See this is what happens. I can't end up visiting with you guys and shaking hands if I'm going to get grilled every time I come down here."

◼ The Press v Obama
"How is it transparent when you control the only image of the re-swearing," demanded Bill Plante of CBS News at the first White House briefing of Obama Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

"There's nobody in there but four print reporters, there's no stills, there's no television?"

Gibbs tried his best to sidestep the issue, but other reporters started piling on, aggravated that Gibbs used the name of one of the senior administration officials who had briefed reporters earlier on Thursday, but wouldn't let reporters use that person's name in stories.

"Why did the administration believe it was important for the American people not to know the names of the two senior adminstration officials who briefed us on the Guantanamo Bay matter?" asked Ken Herman of Cox Newspapers, who just spent the last four years aggravating the Bush White House.

"We have a tradition here of covering the President," said an aggravated Plante.

What I am seeing is a pattern of say one thing, do another. And the public laps up the former and ignores the latter.

◼ Great Limits Come With Great Power, Ex-Candidate Finds

Compare and contrast

out of the daily viral emails:
Headlines About Inauguration Day 4 Years Ago:

"Republicans spending $42 million on inauguration while troops die in unarmored Hum-vees"

"Bush extravagance exceeds any reason during tough economic times"

"Fat cats get their $42 million inauguration party, Ordinary Americans get the shaft

"

Headlines About this one: (in the midst of 'the worst economic crisis since the Depression' mind you)

"Historic Obama Inauguration will cost "only" $120 million"

"Obama Spends $120 million on inauguration; America Needs A Big Party"

"Everyman Obama shows America how to celebrate"

"Citibank executives contribute $8 million to Obama Inauguration"

Nothing like fair & unbiased coverage of the news !!!

◼ More Boos Than Balls Ann Coulter has another take on it.

no "White Male Construction Workers" gettin' no money no how

No money to highly skilled people who are already professionals, or to white male construction workers.

In other words your Infrastructure stimulus package is really a blatant welfare giveaway program for poor black people.

Racism in reverse. Affirmative action at its worst. The new world order.

About that peanut butter

◼ Helping peanut butter heads prevail
...No national brand of peanut butter is affected. “There is no indication that any national name brand jars of peanut butter sold in retail stores are linked to the PCA recall,” states the FDA.

Those jars of peanut butter in your pantry and peanut butter cookies and PB&Js your mother makes have not been linked in any way to this outbreak....
Get the facts at ◼ junkfoodscience.blogspot.com

Her links to info: Salmonella Typhimurium
◼ Peanut Butter Product Recall List
◼ FDA updates and FAQs here
◼ CDC updates and FAQs here

Flush only after a deuce

MySpace Celebrity and Katalyst present The Presidential Pledge

h/t: Breitbart ◼ I Pledge...

HILARIOUS Take-off: from Iowa Hawk

Perspective

◼ At this time, to be black in the U.S.

Why secular Arabs are unmoved by the plight of Hamas

◼ Because unlike "gullible Westerners [who] can delude themselves that a Sharia (Islamic rule) state in Gaza will care only about itself and Israel," they know better, know that the natural state of a sharia-state is to grow and expand, spilling into neighboring land. After all, though they may be "secular," they do come from an Islamic background and now exactly how totalitarian Islamic law is.... read the rest here

Meanwhile, Barack Obama isn’t wasting any time making an impression: he has selected the leader of a group that has been named an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case to present a prayer during his inauguration festivities. Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), will offer a prayer at the National Cathedral Tuesday... ◼ Obama selects a Muslim with ties to Hamas to pray at the inauguration

Did you know...?

Martin Luther King Jr. was a republican. May surprise you - I post this for my own reference - but you may find it interesting, h/t: Wolfhowling

◼ The Republican Party - the party of Abraham Lincoln - was borne in 1854 out of opposition to slavery.

◼ The party of Jim Crow and the Ku Klux Klan was, as Jeffrey Lord points out in an article at the WSJ, the Democratic Party. And Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) is the only living member of the Senate who was once a member of the KKK.

◼ The 13th (abolishing slavery), 14th (due process for all citizens) and 15th (voting rights cannot be restricted on the basis of race) Amendments to the Constitution were enacted by Republicans over Democratic opposition.

◼ The NAACP was founded in 1909 by three white Republicans who opposed the racist practices of the Democratic Party and the lynching of blacks by Democrats.

◼ In fairness, it was the Democrat Harry Truman who, by Executive Order 9981 issued in 1948, desegregated the military. That was a truly major development. Yet - the military has been the single greatest driving force of integration in this land for over half a century.

◼ It was Chief Justice Earl Warren, a former Republican Governor of California appointed to the Supreme Court by President Eisenhower, also a Republican, who managed to convince the other eight justices to agree to a unanimous decision in the seminal case of Brown v. Board of Education. That case was brought by the NAACP. The Court held segregation in schools unconstitutional. The fact that it was a unanimous decision that overturned precedent made it clear that no aspect of segregation would henceforth be considered constitutional.

◼ Republican President Ike Eisenhower played additional important roles in furthering equality in America. He "proposed to Congress the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960 and signed those acts into law. . . . They constituted the first significant civil rights acts since the 1870s." Moreover, when the Democratic Governor of Arkansas refused to integrate schools in what became known as the "Little Rock Nine" incident, "Eisenhower placed the Arkansas National Guard under Federal control and sent Army troops to escort nine black students into an all-white public school."

◼ The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was championed by JFK - but it was passed with massive Republican support over 80%) in Congress and over fierce opposition from Democrats who made repeated attempts at filibuster. Indeed, 80% of the vote opposing the Civil Rights Act came from Democrats.( Women were added to the Act as a protected class by a Democrat who thought it would be a poison pill, killing the legislation. To the contrary, the Congress passed the Act without any attempt to remove the provision....

◼ Martin Luther King Jr. was the most well known and pivotal Civil Rights activist ever produced in America. His most famous speech, "I Had A Dream," was an eloquent and stirring call for equality. If you have not read the speech or heard it, you can find it here. I would highly recommend listening to it. Rev. King was, by the way, a Republican.

◼ h/t, and credit to: Wolfhowling: Standing At The Crossroads - Identity Politics, Multiculturalism & The Melting Pot (Updated & Bumped)
◼ article in WSJ

◼ DR. ALVEDA C. KING founded King for America, Inc. "to assist people in enriching their lives spiritually, personally, mentally and economically." She is the daughter of the late slain civil rights activist Rev. A. D. King and his wife Naomi Barber King. Alveda is the grateful mother of six children and she is a doting grandmother. She says, among other things: (...) My grandfather, Dr. Martin Luther King, Sr., or “Daddy King”, was a Republican and father of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who was a Republican. (...)

The Plague kills 40 Al Qaeda

◼ Deadliest weapon so far... the plague
At least 40 al-Qaeda fanatics died horribly after being struck down with the disease that devastated Europe in the Middle Ages.

The killer bug, also known as the plague, swept through insurgents training at a forest camp in Algeria, North Africa. It came to light when security forces found a body by a roadside.

The victim was a terrorist in AQLIM (al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb), the largest and most powerful al-Qaeda group outside the Middle East.

It trains Muslim fighters to kill British and US troops.

Now al-Qaeda chiefs fear the plague has been passed to other terror cells — or Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

One security source said: “This is the deadliest weapon yet in the war against terror. Most of the terrorists do not have the basic medical supplies needed to treat the disease.

“It spreads quickly and kills within hours. This will be really worrying al-Qaeda.”

◼ Al Qaeda and Biological Weapons
A report from the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation, released in December, warned that "terrorists are more likely to be able to obtain and use a biological weapon than a nuclear weapon."

With that said, yesterday a news article was released by The Sun, claiming that al-Qaeda has been experimenting with the Bubonic Plague aka Black Death, which killed tens of thousands of people in the Middle Ages.

The report alleges that the al-Qaeda experiment went wrong and ended up killing over 40 al-Qaeda operatives.

The killer bug, also known as the plague, swept through insurgents training at a forest camp in Algeria, North Africa. It came to light when security forces found a body by a roadside.

The victim was a terrorist in AQLIM (al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb), the largest and most powerful al-Qaeda group outside the Middle East.

It trains Muslim fighters to kill British and US troops.

Now al-Qaeda chiefs fear the plague has been passed to other terror cells — or Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

Following up on that report, the Washington Times, says according to an intelligence official, it is confirmed there was and experiment gone "awry" although the Bubonic Plague aspect itself was dismissed by the official and it was referred to as "biological or chemical."

The official, who spoke on the condition he not be named because of the sensitive nature of the issue, said he could not confirm press reports that the accident killed at least 40 al Qaeda operatives, but he said the mishap led the militant group to shut down a base in the mountains of Tizi Ouzou province in eastern Algeria.

He said authorities in the first week of January intercepted an urgent communication between the leadership of al Qaeda in the Land of the Maghreb (AQIM) and al Qaeda's leadership in the tribal region of Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan. The communication suggested that an area sealed to prevent leakage of a biological or chemical substance had been breached, according to the official.

Interesting chart

◼ FiveThirtyEight Barack Obama: The First Urban President?
◼ Esquire How Obama Really Won the Election

herding cats

Weather the recession on $3,000 a day

◼ Film, Porn Shoots Sought by Los Angeles Homeowners Hit by Slump

Who needs a bailout!

Funny thing about this Pay To Play thing

the wives get cushy high-paying jobs, and hubby's hands look so clean... til you take a closer look.


In 2002, Michelle Obama was hired by the University of Chicago Hospital as its “Executive Director for Community Affairs” at a salary of approximately $120,000.

In January of 2005, Barack Obama was sworn in as a United States Senator.

In March of 2005, Michelle Obama was promoted to “Vice President for Community and External Affairs” and her salary bumped nearly $200,000 (from $121,910 to $316,962). This position was “newly created” for Mrs. Obama.

In February of 2006, Barack Obama requested a $1 million earmark for a new hospital pavilion at the University of Chicago.

Effective 9 January 2009, Michelle Obama resigned her position at UCH.

Effective 14 January 2009, Michelle Obama’s VP position was eliminated, its functions absorbed into another executive’s position. This prompted writer Don Rose to ask “[If] that work can be folded into another guy’s, why was it separate in the first place?“

Excellent question. Some roguish wags might speculate that a quid pro quo arrangement was in effect; pay-to-play as it were. But that seems highly unlikely given Barack Obama’s high ethical standards *.
* Ignoring, of course, Auchi, Ayers, Blagojevich, Jarrett, Jones, Rezko, etc.

Another wrinkle

WTF - in this case, WHY THE FUCK don't you just turn over the Goddam certificate, Mr. Office of the President Elect, so happy to pose with all this fake documentations and seals... It's getting old.

This puts and entirely new wrinkle on the whole thing
◼ Zapem: 'Obama Knew He Wasn't Eligible for POTUS'

on February 28, 2008, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) introduced a bill to the Senate for consideration. That bill was known as S. 2678: Children of Military Families Natural Born Citizen Act. The bill was co-sponsored by Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), and Sen. Thomas Coburn (R-OK).

Bill S. 2678 attempted to change article II, section 1, clause 5 of the Constitution of the United States with reference to the requirements of being a “natural born citizen” and hence; the entitlement to run for President of the United States. This bill met the same fate that similar attempts to change the Constitution have in the past. Attempts such as The Natural Born Citizen Act were known to have failed and the text scrubbed from the internet, with only a shadow-cached copy left, that only the most curious public can find....

...Within only five short weeks after Senate Bill 2678 faded from the floor, we find Sen. Claire McCaskill back again, making another attempt with Senate Resolution 511. On April 10, 2008, she introduced a secondary proposal in the form of a non-binding resolution, recognizing John McCain as a “natural born citizen” in defiance of the Constitution. Curiously, it contained the same identical co-sponsors, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

ABCNews.com reported:

“With questions - however serious - about whether Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is eligible to run for president since he was born outside U.S. borders on an American Naval base, Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. today introduced a non-binding resolution expressing the sense of the U.S. Senate that McCain qualifies as a “natural born Citizen,” as specified in the Constitution and eligible for the highest office in the land.

Co-sponsors include Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, and Barack Obama, D-Illinois; Leahy said he anticipates it will pass unanimously.”

One has to wonder — what dire urgency could there possibly have been in persisting with trying to legislate a candidate into being a “natural born citizen”? Certainly providing a birth certificate and reading the Constitution would be more than sufficient. Why did these candidates and their wishful nominees go to such lengths in the Senate when obviously, they had more pressing matters to attend to? And why were there two Senators co-sponsoring such an issue, twice, who were in direct competition with John McCain in the 2008 election?...

Why were there two Senators co-sponsoring such an issue, twice, who were in direct competition with John McCain in the 2008 election?

nuclear holocaust fiction

◼ Pretty extensive list

◼ How-to survive

The conversation in the coffee shop this morning, and on the blog/lounge tonight was about the same subject. What would you do if? What would you take? How would you carry it? What food would you take? Where would you go?

Would you try to drive? Would the roads get congested? Would you get out and walk, abandon the car? Would you remember to carry water?

What about weapons?

About storing food - how long would it last? Could you fish? Would it be contaminated? Could you grow food? Would you even have saved seeds? Would they be heirloom seeds or sterile hybrids?

What about people with Thyroid conditions, or heart meds? What about antibiotics?

Odd that this topic came up at both ends of the day.

H.R. 45: Here Comes Gun Control

◼ Will the ACLU stand up against a clear violation of the 2nd Amendment?

◼ H.R. 45: Blair Holt’s Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009 (Introduced in House)

Obama's buying Gucci purses

Some New Orlean's residents spent their relief money, intended to help them get housing, on Gucci purses and $500 haircuts.

Obama's "stimulus" package is nothing more than than - using it to fund every environmental activist project is just that, and it isn't going to help the economy one bit. He is using the 'crisis' to go ahead with plans he already had. Maybe he figures he can just crank up the printing presses, after all it isn't his money, any more than the Chicago Annenberg Challenge money was his. Blow it all on activist agendas. That's his record. What? You thought he was going to CHANGE?

The Danish MSM Wakes Up

from The Gates of Vienna ◼ link
Last weekend we posted Ted Ekeroth’s video of the appalling behavior of pro-Hamas demonstrators in Copenhagen. Were it not for the internet, the mainstream media in Denmark and elsewhere would almost certainly have ignored the incident and dropped it down the memory hole. But the dedicated efforts of Ted and other volunteers like him drew enough attention to force the MSM to address what happened.

Below are translations of two editorials from today’s Danish newspapers. One is from Jyllands-Posten, which is a sane and sensible paper that most of our readers are already familiar with. The other is from Politiken, which is another matter entirely....

Read the rest. I can't believe, that in this post Hitler world, we are still allowing anti-Jewish sentiment to have even a toehold anywhere in the world. Did we learn nothing? Apparently not, since even people here in America are getting on the anti-Israel, anti-Jew bamdwagon.

This must stop. And standing up against it is the only way to MAKE it stop.

Why has the media - worldwide - chosen sides, and decided to aid in the annihilation of Israel?

'Obama, Biden to Visit Supreme Court,' Today, says CBS News

◼ Wonder what they'll talk about?

Honeymoon's over

Before it begins.◼ Hamas sympathizers burning Obama flags to protest Israel
This could be a good thing. Maybe it'll keep Obama's head in the right place. Make him realize who the enemy is. He and Madonna. It's a start.

President Bush's Closing Press Conference

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Joe the Plumber - Pajamas TV

◼ can't find the embed code, so click on the link.

And think about what he is saying.

Tears for fears

She made her fame and fortune spitting on the Catholic religion. And no one threatened to behead her.

But now ◼ Jihadists threaten to behead Madonna over Gaza
Madonna has urgently beefed up her family's security after being targeted by Muslim fanatics seeking revenge for Israel's attacks on Gaza.
One Palestinian terrorist chief has threatened to BEHEAD the superstar who is a dedicated member of the Jewish Kabbalah sect.

Madonna is also desperately worried for the safety of her children Lourdes, 12, Rocco, eight, and adopted David Banda, three....

...Last week ◼ The People uncovered the hatred aimed at Madonna when we infiltrated secret fundamentalist Muslim websites. Our investigator posed as a British extremist to gain entry to the password-protected sites.

On the notorious Islambase site, a Palestinian terror leader says: "If I meet these whores I will have the honor to be the first one to cut the head off Madonna if they will keep spreading their satanic culture against Islam."......

Looks like publicly pronouncing your Bush hate isn't enough to save you.

Madonna's Chickens. Coming Home. To Roost.

WHEN will Hollywood actors, actresses, singers, and artists come to realize that people who riot and murder over cartoons, people who kill women for showing their ankles or walking with men who are not their fathers or husbands, who sentence women to a lifetime of never having their faces seen, who blow up their teenagers to make political statements ARE NOT good people?

Of all of us, the artistic community should be the MOST offended. The most defiant against these oppressive regimes. But instead they have chosen to hate the one person who does stand up for their rights, and stands up to protect us all.

I hate to say it, but I have no sympathy for Madonna. She deserves whatever she gets out of this one. Wake up. Before it is too late.

Time machine

Sometimes it seems like we are still talking about the same old same old same old, can't we get over it already?

20-pound supercentenarian crustacean FREED

◼ NYC eatery grants freedom to lobster centenarian
George, the 20-pound supercentenarian crustacean, was freed by City Crab and Seafood in New York City. George had been caught off Newfoundland, Canada and lived in the tank for about 10 days before his release.
Some scientists estimate lobsters can live to be more than 100 years old. PETA and the restaurant guessed George's age at about 140, using a rule of thumb based on the creature's weight.
He was to be released Saturday near Kennebunkport, Maine, in an area where lobster trapping is forbidden.
h/t: neo

So very Presidential

Change you can believe in.
Barack Obama's new website USAService.org

This is what you voted for.

You might be an Obot if...

What’s An Obot?
It's all in the comments.

Not a bad resume

The First African American in Illinois to become:

Illinois Attorney General 1991-95
Illinois State Comptroller 1979-91
Vice President of Continental Illinois National Bank 1964-73
National Bank Examiner U.S. Treasury Dept.
(First Black in the Nation) 1963-64
President of the National Association of State Comptrollers 1981-82
President of the National Association of State Comptrollers and Treasurers 1985-86
SIU Exchange Student to University of Germany 1959-60

Also
National Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of 'Operation Push' 1977-78
Director Dept. of General Services State of Illinois (Governor's Cabinet) 1973-77
Board of Directors Illinois CPA Society
(First Non-CPA Member) 2000

You write the caption: Roland Burris' tombstone

No joke.

Public service post

Gotta love that!

"He assumed you were just another dumb Western journalist."

Irshad manji's latest post/column It's time for all of us to embrace ijtihad
In Gaza a few years ago, I conducted an on-camera interview with the political leader of Islamic Jihad, Mohammed al-Hindi. With his finely trimmed beard and gracious manners, he symbolized the modern - and moderate - Muslim man.

But his interpretation of the Koran suggested something else. "Where," I asked, "does it say that you can kill yourself for a higher cause? As far as I know, the Koran tells us that suicide is wrong."

Through his translator, the physician assured me that the verses endorsing suicide operations could be found "everywhere" in Islam's holy book. I challenged Dr. al-Hindi to show me just one passage.

After several minutes of reviewing the Koran, then calling for help on his mobile, then looking through companion booklets, he told me he was too busy and must go.... and it gets better.

As we left, I asked his translator why Dr. al-Hindi would give me an on-camera interview, knowing that he could not find a single verse to prove his claim that the Koran justifies suicide operations.

The translator replied: "He assumed you were just another dumb Western journalist." Reporters from the West had never asked this veteran terrorist the most basic of questions: Where is the evidence for what you do in God's name?...
Then it gets even more interesting, in the comments that follow. You can imagine.

Clueless.

We'll spend our way out of this. Trillions and gazillions.
I'll invest in education.
ROAD BUILDING CREWS.

And that is going to fix things - HOW?

Remember, he's already shown how he 'invests' in education. That was why the Annenberg Challenge boondoggle was relevant. A hundred and ten million dollars pissed away. NOTHING to show for it. That's his record. It was there for anyone to see. (After Stanley Kurtz FORCED them to let it be seen) Oh, but it didn't matter. He (Kurtz) was a right-winger. Nothing he uncovered or exposed or revealed mattered.

He's already shown how he invests in 'infrastructure' in Illinois - slums and Rezko, campaign payoffs. All there. All documented. All in court. Nothing mattered.

Til now.

Gonna need a BIG BROOM

to sweep this Blogojevich mess under the rug. Seating Burris and halting the impeachment hearings might do it. You can bet Obama wants and needs it to go away.



Looks like all the players have lawyers lined up trying to block release of those taped conversations.

I agree with Hillbuzz, There are a great many people, all Democrats, who do not want those tapes to ever be released.

If Republicans were smart, they’d find a way to leak the lot of them.

Porn industry needs a boost

a nice Trillion Dollar bailout sort of Viagra -
◼ Porn industry seeks federal bailout
...everyone and their mother want to be bailed out from the banks to the big three,” said Owen Moogan, spokesman for Larry Flynt. “The porn industry has been hurt by the downturn like everyone else and they are going to ask for the $5 billion. Is it the most serious thing in the world? Is it going to make the lives of Americans better if it happens? It is not for them to determine.”

Francis said in a statement that “the US government should actively support the adult industry's survival and growth, just as it feels the need to support any other industry cherished by the American people."...

...But the industry leaders said the issue is a nation in need. "People are too depressed to be sexually active," Flynt said in the statement. "This is very unhealthy as a nation. Americans can do without cars and such but they cannot do without sex."

"With all this economic misery and people losing all that money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind. It's time for congress to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America. The only way they can do this is by supporting the adult industry and doing it quickly."

So far, there has been no congressional reaction to the request....

◼ US porn industry seeks multi-billion dollar bailout
◼ Francis and Flynt Hustle Congress for Porn Bailout (photo source)
◼ Porn Industry Goes Limp, Seeks $5 Billion Federal Injection

Whaddya wanna bet?

Beyond the guide dog

◼ Creature Comforts
...there’s actually a Guide Horse Foundation that’s been around nearly a decade. The obvious question is, Why? In fact, Edie says, there are many reasons: miniature horses are mild-mannered, trainable and less threatening than large dogs. They’re naturally cautious and have exceptional vision, with eyes set far apart for nearly 360-degree range. Plus, they’re herd animals, so they instinctively synchronize their movements with others. But the biggest reason is age: miniature horses can live and work for more than 30 years. In that time, a blind person typically goes through five to seven guide dogs. That can be draining both emotionally and economically, because each one can cost up to $60,000 to breed, train and place in a home....

...the United States government is considering a proposal that would force Edie and many others like her to stop using their service animals. But that’s precisely what’s happening, because a growing number of people believe the world of service animals has gotten out of control: first it was guide dogs for the blind; now it’s monkeys for quadriplegia and agoraphobia, guide miniature horses, a goat for muscular dystrophy, a parrot for psychosis and any number of animals for anxiety, including cats, ferrets, pigs, at least one iguana and a duck. They’re all showing up in stores and in restaurants, which is perfectly legal because the Americans With Disabilities Act (A.D.A.) requires that service animals be allowed wherever their owners want to go....

Meet ...a man named Jim Eggers, who uses an assistance parrot, Sadie, to help control his psychotic tendencies....

...two questions that are often mistakenly treated as one. The first: What qualifies as a service animal? The second: Can any species be eligible?

There are two categories of animals that help people. “Therapy animals” (also known as “comfort animals”) have been used for decades in hospitals and homes for the elderly or disabled. Their job is essentially to be themselves — to let humans pet and play with them, which calms people, lowers their blood pressure and makes them feel better. There are also therapy horses, which people ride to help with balance and muscle building.

These animals are valuable, but they have no special legal rights because they aren’t considered service animals, the second category, which the A.D.A. defines as “any guide dog, signal dog or other animal individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability, including, but not limited to, guiding individuals with impaired vision, alerting individuals with impaired hearing to intruders or sounds, providing minimal protection or rescue work, pulling a wheelchair or fetching dropped items.”... Read the rest. it is very interesting.

Having a bad day?

Can't be worse than this guy's day...
◼ Skier Left Dangling Half-Naked On Vail Lift

Feinstein slams Obama CIA head pick

Feinstein slams Obama CIA head pick
(CNN) –- Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the Senate’s incoming Intelligence committee chair, slammed President-elect Barack Obama’s choice of Leon Panetta as director of the CIA Monday.

“I was not informed about the selection of Leon Panetta to be the CIA Director. I know nothing about this, other than what I’ve read,” Feinstein said in a statement. “My position has consistently been that I believe the Agency is best-served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time.”

Good for you, Dianne.

Shug

http://www.koat.com/video/17215831/
h/t: RBO

Indonesia Hit With 7.2 Magnitude Earthquake, 5.9 Earthquake Rocks Afghanistan, Pakistan

Image source
◼ The country's meteorology and seismology agency warned that with a preliminary magnitude of 7.2 it was strong enough to cause a tsunami. There were no immediate reports of giant waves.
It struck at 2:43 p.m. EST, around 85 miles off of Manokwari, Irian Jaya, at a depth of about 6 miles
Earthquake Details

Seismogram Explanation

Location: Southern Sumatra, Indonesia
Date: July 15, 2004
Time: 14:35:18 (UTC); 9:35:18 am (local)
Latitude: 2.40 S
Longitude: 104.02 E
Magnitude: 7.2 Mw
There are few surface waves because this event was so deep.
Depth: 593 km
Distance: 137.95 deg (9,525 miles from Milwaukee)

AND - ◼ 5.9 Earthquake Rocks Afghanistan, Pakistan
KABUL, Afghanistan — Officials say a strong earthquake has hit northeastern Afghanistan, a quake that rattled the capital Kabul for about a minute.

The U.S. Geological Survey says Sunday's quake had a preliminary magnitude of 5.9 and was located in the northeastern province of Badakhshan in the Hindu Kush mountains. The area is often hit by earthquakes, but is sparsely populated.

A Badakhshan police official, Fazel Ahmad Naderi, says the quake was strong but noted that his cell phone still worked, meaning that towers hadn't been toppled. The quake hit about 12:50 a.m. local time and Naderi says he won't know about damage until daylight.

The quake rattled buildings in Kabul, about 160 miles southwest of the epicenter.

Fast-Food Worker Saves Girl From Possible Abduction

◼ Serenity LaChapelle was working at a McDonalds on Plum Street in Olympia when she protected a girl from being abducted by a stranger.
LaChapelle approached Richard Knauss when she saw him grabbing an 8-year-old girl.
“First, he was like I know you and she was like I don’t know you and she looked at me and said I don’t know him, I don’t know him,” LaChapelle said. “He kept touching her and pulling on her shirt and I was like you need to keep your hands off of her and he didn’t. He kept touching her and stuff…I was like keep your hands off of her and I grabbed the little girl and pulled her over the counter.”
LaChapelle also protected the girl’s young brother.
The kids were in the restaurant waiting for their mom who was stuck in the snow.