Other News For The Week Of Mar 22 - Mar 28

This thread is for the busy bees of S&L to post news items themselves.

In order to make the articles as readable as possible, please try to stick to the format described in the first of these weekly editions here.

Of course articles that fit under the topic of a recent thread should be posted there. As always, remember to excerpt heavily and to provide a link to the original source.

Related Articles:

This article was posted by Steve Gilbert on Saturday, March 22nd, 2008 at 12:01 am. You can leave a response.

92 Responses to “Other News For The Week Of Mar 22 - Mar 28”

Gila Monster
March 22nd, 2008 at 3:04 am
One of the few times I’m proud to come in last, from my local fish-wrap;

Ariz. last in pork-barrel cash, lawmakers say it’s a waste
Key lawmakers say earmark process wastes taxpayer money

Diana Marrero
Republic Washington Bureau
Mar. 22, 2008 12:00 AM

WASHINGTON - Arizona has some powerful lawmakers in Washington, including Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

But when it comes to pork-barrel spending, otherwise known as earmarks, the state isn’t very powerful. In fact, it ranks last.

That’s mostly because three of the state’s 10 lawmakers in Washington, McCain and House Republicans Jeff Flake and John Shadegg, refuse to ask for any federal money for local projects. Another Arizona Republican, Sen. Jon Kyl, strictly limits his earmark requests. They all say the earmark process wastes taxpayer money and desperately needs reform. But other Arizona lawmakers counter that their colleagues’ stance hurts the state.

Arizona, one of the fastest growing states in the nation, will receive $18.70 per capita in federal earmarks this fiscal year. By comparison, Alaska, with roughly a 10th of Arizona’s population, is set to receive $506.34 per capita, the highest in the nation, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a watchdog group that tracks earmarks.

Alaska receives about three times as much as Arizona in actual dollars, $346 million to $119 million. That means Arizona gets less money for water projects, bridge repairs, road construction and rural clinics.

“When you have reformers and purists, you end up not getting a reasonable share of money coming out, which hurts the state,” said James Thurber, director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University. “When you’re holier than thou, you don’t get much of the money.”

http://www.azcentral.com/news/.....s0322.html

That last quote, from an obviously socialist-centric MORON takes the cake.

I, along with a lot of Arizonan’s, will take this hit because this crap should end immediately.
This is one of the few things that I totally agree with McCain on. Pork barrel politics needs to end now!!
spiffyw
March 22nd, 2008 at 9:55 am
The Associated Press has run out of Headlnes and poeple to blame

Obama Chair Likens Bill Clinton To McCarthy

Hillary Rodham Clinton Campaign Rejects Comparison

UPDATED: 7:09 am EDT March 22, 2008

SALEM, Ore. — A retired Air Force general compared former President Bill Clinton to Joseph McCarthy, the 1950s communist-hunting senator, on Friday after Clinton seemed to question Democrat Barack Obama’s patriotism.

Merrill “Tony” McPeak, a former chief of staff of the Air Force and currently a co-chair of Obama’s presidential campaign, said he was disappointed by comments Clinton made while campaigning for his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, in a speech Friday in Charlotte, N.C…

McPeak learned of the remarks while at an Obama rally in Salem, Ore. Afterward, he called Clinton’s statement horrible and compared it to McCarthy, the Republican senator from Wisconsin who held hearings on suspected Communist sympathizers in the 1950s.

sounds more like McCarthy,” McPeak said. “I grew up, I was going to college when Joe McCarthy was accusing good Americans of being traitors, so I’ve had enough of it.”

Clinton campaign spokesman Phil Singer rejected the comparison.

“To liken these comments to McCarthyism is absurd,” Singer said. He said McPeak was “clearly misinterpreting” the remarks and suggested that might be an intentional effort to divert attention from a recent controversy involving controversial statements by Obama’s former pastor…

http://preview.tinyurl.com/ysw864

This guy does not have a clue.

Is this the blind leading the blind or what.
nuthingbettertodo
March 22nd, 2008 at 12:31 pm
I’m sorry but this just tears me to pieces. I wish there was something someone can do for this little girl…

http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=66554

Notice no national MSM coverage.

http://search.yahoo.com/search.....&type=
clifcrds
March 22nd, 2008 at 12:40 pm
On Easter Weekend Michelle Malkin tells us there is justice after all:

The beating on the Baltimore bus: Judge rules five students guilty

A Baltimore juvenile court judge found five Robert Poole Middle School students responsible yesterday in the December attack on a city bus passenger and her boyfriend, concluding a divisive case fraught with racial overtones.

Judge David W. Young’s decision followed nearly two months of court hearings on the Dec. 4 fight in Hampden, described by several 911 callers as a riot. The attack prompted stricter safety standards on city buses and left Sarah Kreager, 26, with two broken bones around her left eye.

Nine black teens were initially accused of “rising up en masse” and attacking Kreager on the No. 27 bus after school had let out for the day.

Defense attorneys argued that Kreager’s left eye was already bruised when she boarded the bus and that when the students began snickering at her, Kreager’s boyfriend, Troy Ennis, ordered her “to spit on them [racial slur].”

But prosecutors said the youths attacked Kreager, who is white, after her boyfriend accused one of them of immaturity for refusing to relinquish an empty seat.

“We’re pleased the judge was able to reach justice and that Sarah Kreager and Troy Ennis have been vindicated,” Janet Hankin, the lead prosecutor in the case, said after the hearing. “This was a brutal, vicious and unnecessary beating, and what the respondents accused them of was untrue, unfair and uncalled for.”

http://michellemalkin.com/2008.....ts-guilty/

Of course the perps showed no remorse what so ever:

Girls told stories that didn’t match, and at one point, while they were in a holding cell, a city police officer watched them mimic the beating they were accused of carrying out — laughing as they threw kicks and punches into the air.

But my favorite part is the first comment to the story:

Black racism at its finest.

Hey Obama - are these “typical black people”?.

To all fellow Bees - Happy Easter!

He Has Risen!”

Your own comments about the article.
SG
March 22nd, 2008 at 12:57 pm
CC, I did post the news of this earlier, thanks to your heads up:

Other News For The Week Of Mar 15 - Mar 21 | Sweetness & Light
http://sweetness-light.com/arc.....r-5-mar-21

Not that it doesn’t bear repeating.
Petra
March 22nd, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Obama’s Church Published HAMAS Manifesto - a BizzyBlog Scoop Ripped Off by WND/Aaron Klein

By Debbie Schlussel

I once made the mistake of writing for the nutjobs and phonies at World Net Daily, more aptly called World Nut Daily. But I got fed up with their horrid treatment and sabotage, in addition to Editor-in-Chief and bizarro Joseph Farah’s warm embrace of Hezbollah Congressman Darrell Issa and Anti-Israel, Anti-Semitic Neo-Nazi Justin Raimondo. And the site–under Farah’s “leadership”–published the anti-Semitic rantings of Jude Wanniski, a Louis Farrakhan advisor. By reading that site, you enable all of this.

Since then, World Nut Daily has repeatedly–and admittedly–plagiarized my writing and this site. And it has ripped off many other writers. Even after I called the site on it, Joseph Farah–a huge phony on Israel and terrorism (quit being so gullible and buying his carefully-calculated act–had the gall to beg me to return to his lackluster site. I told him where to go. And the site has kept on ripping me off……contin:
debbieschussel.com

WMD at it again. Nasty. (how does one do ‘bold’?)
SG
March 22nd, 2008 at 1:59 pm
< b > and < /b > without the spaces.

Thanks for the heads up on Ms. Schlussel’s piece. Talk about timing!
Gila Monster
March 22nd, 2008 at 2:16 pm
For those interested, here is a link to the Debbie Schlussel article that Petra posted above.

http://tinyurl.com/22sln3
Mr Michael
March 22nd, 2008 at 2:31 pm
This isn’t a news story yet, but I hope it will be… there is a lady who is promoting a way to say “Thank You” to our Troops. It’s a simple gesture, very close to the ALS motion of Thank You, but with a heartfelt twist.

The website is called “The Gratitude Campaign”, and it has all the details. I’m sure looking forward to using this simple and beautiful gesture of thanks.

http://www.gratitudecampaign.org/index.php
Noyzmakr
March 22nd, 2008 at 9:53 pm
From our illustrious friends at Reuters

Catholic leader attacks “monstrous” embryo research
Fri Mar 21, 2008 1:54pm EDT
By Peter Griffiths
LONDON (Reuters) - Research using hybrid human-animal embryos for experiments is “monstrous” and should be banned, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland said on Friday.
Cardinal Keith O’Brien said a proposed new law — the Human Fertilization and Embryology Bill — should outlaw the practice.
The House of Lords rejected attempts earlier this year to include a ban on hybrid research in the draft legislation.
“This Bill represents a monstrous attack on human rights, human dignity and human life,” O’Brien will say in his Easter Sunday sermon, according to extracts published in Friday’s Daily Record newspaper. “In some other European countries, one could be jailed for doing what we intend to make legal.”
In an interview with BBC radio on Friday, he added: “This is Frankenstein science and it must be stopped.”
Scientists said the cardinal did not understand the issue properly and accused him of “scaremongering”.
Supporters of hybrid research say it will give scientists the large number of embryos they need to make stem cells to help find cures for a range of diseases.
Researchers create inter-species hybrids by injecting human DNA into a hollowed-out animal egg cell. The resulting embryo is 99.9 percent human and 0.1 percent animal.
Britain is one of the leading states for stem cell research, attracting scientists from around the world with a permissive environment that allows embryo studies within strict guidelines.
Scientists in China, the United States and Canada have carried out similar work, the same technique used to create Dolly the sheep, the world’s first cloned mammal.
Dr Stephen Minger, director of the Stem Cell Biology Laboratory, King’s College London, said the cardinal “didn’t understand the basic facts”.
“The church should carefully review the science they are commenting on, and ensure that their official comments are accurate, before seriously misinforming their congregations,” he said in a statement.
Dr Lyle Armstrong, of the Institute of Human Genetics at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, northeast England, said: “The aim of our experiments is to discover ways to make stem cells for anyone that will be invaluable in treating human diseases, not to give birth to some abnormal chimera.”
The BBC reported on Friday that at least one member of the cabinet may resign over the proposed law. It did not name the politician.
A spokeswoman at the prime minister’s office said there would be no response to the cardinal or the BBC report.
The Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority, which regulates the research, gave permission to two groups of UK-based scientists to use hybrids in January.
The draft law is making its way through parliament and is due to return to the House of Commons in the coming weeks.
(Editing by Paul Majendie and Tim Pearce)
http://www.reuters.com/article.....mp;sp=true

God help us.
texaspsue
March 23rd, 2008 at 12:42 am
From San Francisco Chronicle:

Marine supporters on motorcycles roar in Berkeley

Carolyn Jones, Chronicle Staff Writer

Berkeley hosted a decidedly different kind of protest today when about 400 flag-waving, leather-clad, pro-troops bikers roared into town to show their support for an often besieged Marine recruiting center in the city.

“I’m here because I support my Marines,” said Steve Bosshard, a retired San Francisco police officer who came from Santa Rosa. “I don’t like what Berkeley’s done. They don’t realize the effect it has on the troops.”

The center was criticized by the Berkeley city council and is often the target of protests.

Today’s demonstrators, most of whom are military veterans, said they were protesting the Berkeley city council decision in February to waive the amplified-sound permit fees and provide reserved parking in front of the Marines’ office for Code Pink, an anti-war group that stages protests at the recruiting center.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....5VOTU9.DTL

A great big WHOO-HOO to all of the Pro Troop supporters!

Pictures………… http://www.protestshooter.com/20080322Eagles/

Gateway Pundit has more………………. http://www.gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/

God Bless the Troops!
BillK
March 23rd, 2008 at 12:54 am
From Fox News:

Man Accused in High School Football Star’s Shooting Reportedly in Country Illegally

The alleged gang member accused of killing Los Angeles high school football star Jamiel Shaw is in the country illegally and had been released from jail without anyone questioning his citizenship the day before Shaw’s shooting, according to a report by MyFOXLA.com.

Meanwhile, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Saturday afternoon was scheduled to join with Shaw’s family to dedicate a memorial honoring the 17-year-old at the spot where he was killed.

Police say Pedro Espinoza, the 19-year-old suspect arrested in Shaw’s death, has been in a street gang since he was 12. Until this month, he had been in jail on charges of exhibiting a firearm and obstructing an officer, MyFOXLA.com reports.

Immigration officials told the TV station that Espinoza is an illegal immigrant, but no red flags were raised when he was released from jail March 1.

“The system is not 100 percent,” Lori Haley, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told the station.

Police say Shaw was walking home from a mall on March 2 when Hispanic gang members pulled up in a car and asked him, “Where are you from?” — code for what gang did he belong to, police said. Espinoza then allegedly shot Shaw, who was not a gang member.

Espinoza was arrested March 7 and charged with murder. The charge has been labeled gang-related, which could make him eligible for the death penalty. He is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,340650,00.html

Surely I can’t be the only one seeing a race war brewing between Hispanics and Blacks in LA over things such as this.

But of course it’s only those right-wing whites who care about immigration, right?
BillK
March 23rd, 2008 at 1:08 am
Let’s all cry for her.

From the Los Angeles Times:

Sara Jane Olson re-arrested

The former member of the SLA, paroled Friday, is detained at LAX. Officials says she has to serve one more year.

By Henry Weinstein and Andrew Blankstein

California authorities re-arrested Sara Jane Olson at noon today as she was about to fly to Minnesota from Los Angeles and said she must serve one more year in prison.

The former member of the radical Symbionese Liberation Army had been paroled on Monday from a California women’s prison after serving about six years for her role in a plot to kill Los Angeles police officers by blowing up their patrol cars.

Officials from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said at a news conference this afternoon that they had miscalculated the amount of time she should serve in a separate case in which she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for participating in a Sacramento bank robbery in which another SLA member killed a customer.

“Sara Jane Olson’s case is extremely complicated, given the amount of changes to the sentencing laws that have occurred over the last 30 years,” said Scott Kernan, the correction department’s chief deputy secretary of adult operations. “Upon request for review, [Corrections Department] case records staff immediately reevaluated this sentence calculation and, in coordination with our legal affairs unit and the Board of Parole hearings, has revised the sentence accordingly to ensure that all appropriate time is served.”

When news organizations reported her release on Friday, law enforcement officials reacted with dismay and raised questions about whether she had been released too early. Corrections Department officials acknowledged that they began an intensive review of their internal calculations about the sentence after those concerns were raised, but they denied that they had bowed to pressure.

Shawn Chapman Holley, the attorney for Olson, who had changed her name from Kathleen Soliah, said her client called her Friday night and told her that prison officials had detained her at Los Angeles International Airport when she was about to board a plane for Minnesota and that she had then been taken to her mother’s home in Palmdale.

Holley said that on Saturday morning, she called an official of the Corrections Department and was told that there might have been “a computation error” regarding the amount of time Olson was supposed to serve.

Holley said Olson’s husband and an official from the Corrections Department told her that her client was being taken to a prison in Frontera. She said she was outraged by the action and asserted that her client had been illegally arrested and is now being “illegally imprisoned.”

http://www.latimes.com/news/lo.....1203.story

Granted, her parole should not have happened at this time, but only the left can make the case that being released on parole at any time can be compared to being “illegally imprisoned.”
BillK
March 23rd, 2008 at 1:14 am
No shock, from the Los Angeles Times:

Calls grow for U.S. to bail out Calls grow for U.S. to bail out homeowners, prevent foreclosures

By Michael A. Hiltzik

From Wall Street to Capitol Hill, calls are growing for the government to get into the mortgage business as the only way out of the housing crisis roiling the economy and the financial markets.

Proposals to shore up tottering home loans with taxpayer money are gaining traction in Congress and moving to the forefront of presidential politics.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke has also called on the lenders themselves to reduce the amount of principal that troubled homeowners owe on their loans.

The Fed has recently taken a series of aggressive steps to assist financial companies staggered by the credit crunch — including providing a $30-billion short-term loan to JPMorgan Chase & Co. to facilitate its purchase of struggling Bear Stearns Cos.

Democratic contender Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton cited that action this week in calling for a new initiative to provide $30 billion to help homeowners.

“If we can extend a $30-billion lifeline to avoid a crisis for Wall Street banks, we should extend at least $30 billion in immediate assistance to at-risk communities and families facing foreclosure,” Clinton’s campaign said in a statement.

But while the Fed can help lenders and the investment industry, it has little authority to help individual borrowers or to force their lenders to modify repayment terms so that strapped borrowers can stay in their homes. That is putting pressure on Congress to step into the breach.

“It does seem increasingly likely that we’re headed toward a compromise on taxpayer assistance to prevent a greater number of foreclosures,” said Stuart G. Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group.

Thus far the Bush administration has resisted anything that resembles a taxpayer- financed homeowner bailout. Instead, it has placed its faith into several programs that encourage lenders and distressed homeowners to work things out voluntarily.

And Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., former chief executive of investment bank Goldman, Sachs & Co., has said he believes the housing bubble should be allowed to work itself out naturally.

Critics say that’s tantamount to bailing out the big players while throwing the little guys to the wolves, and that a more evenhanded approach will make any government action more broadly palatable.

“Some say, let market discipline rule,” said Jared Bernstein, an economist at the liberal Economic Policy Institute in Washington. “But some banks are too big to fail, and some homeowners don’t deserve to lose their shirts.” …

http://www.latimes.com/busines.....5907.story

Is it too late for me to buy a house I can’t afford, not make my payments and get the Government to bail me out?

I wish someone would have told me earlier…

“All the talk about bailing people out is really a slap in the face of those of us who have been financially responsible,” said George Sylak, 43, a television producer from Venice who is renting his home. “Now the federal government and the candidates are saying, ‘You didn’t need to be responsible.‘ “

Just another way the Democrats can get more people suckling at the Government teat.
BillK
March 23rd, 2008 at 1:28 am
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Jihadists and their sugar daddy

By Patrick McIlheran

The Iraq war finished its fifth year last week. Thanks to a Pentagon paper quietly released the week before, we are clearer about who the enemy is.

The paper detailed just how deep into terrorism Saddam Hussein was. The headline was made by an early leak that the report “found no ’smoking gun’ ” linking him to al-Qaida.

In the report, however, that line came right after one that said the Pentagon’s Iraq Perspectives Project, which reviewed 600,000 captured documents, “uncovered strong evidence that links the regime of Saddam Hussein to regional and global terrorism.”

The paper also says, “Saddam supported groups that either associated directly with al-Qaida . . . or that generally shared al-Qaida’s stated goals.”

Smoking gun? More like smoking wallet. Hussein was sugar daddy to terrorists of any stripe.

For instance, Iraq trained men for suicide bombings and assassinations worldwide. One document lists weapons - missile launchers, plastic explosive, booby-trapped suitcases - stashed at Iraqi embassies for these grads to use. The regime recruited so heavily it had to set up a summer vacation training schedule.

Iraq also trained and supplied freelance groups. One 1993 memo briefs Hussein on his allies, chiefly Palestinian and Egyptian terror groups. It details who got money and help from Iraq and who did missions on Iraq’s behalf, many against “American interests.”

As of 1993, several memos show, Hussein decided to “form a group to start hunting Americans present on Arab soil, especially Somalia” - site of the humanitarian mission that went disastrously wrong. Now we know who taught the bad guys to shoot.

Among those on the Iraqi payroll was Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the Afghani warlord who hosted Osama bin Laden’s training camp during the 1990s. An Iraqi memo notes that Hekmatyar’s outfit is an “extreme religious movement against the West,” one that Iraq had “good relations” with since 1989. Exactly in the time that bin Laden was incubating al-Qaida, he was under the wing of this “extreme religious” client of Iraq.

Iraq also supported the Egyptian group led by Ayman al-Zawahiri, the fellow who matched up manpower and ideology with bin Laden’s money and will. Iraqi agents met with Zawahiri’s people in Sudan at just the time Zawahiri was merging his Islamic Jihad into al-Qaida. The Iraqis “agreed to renew our relations.”

The report is careful to note that Hussein and bin Laden had different ends. But pursuing separate but parallel visions, the two men “often found a common enemy in the United States.” …

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=730870

It’s amazing that the Democrats have been able to pervert the Global War on Terror into somehow being not even about al Qaeda, but simply about bin Laden.

But that’s their modus operandi - we don’t face a larger battle, one that Bush warned us we had to fight since that September night in 1991, in favor of making it all about the search for bin Laden, as if if he were killed, al Qaeda and all our other enemies would disappear and slink away into the night.

If only they were as quick to give up on their “War on Poverty” which has been going on for far longer with much worse results.

McIlheran concludes:

The Pentagon report is important, least because it shows Iraq, far from being a distraction in the war on Islamist terrorists, was central to it. The captured Iraqi documents show that Hussein was a key supporter of jihadists precisely because he saw them as a tool against the United States.

More important, the report is less hindsight, however, than headlight. It illuminates the reality that al-Qaida isn’t an isolated actor but is part of a whole - born into a constellation of jihadists cohesive enough in its hostility to the U.S. that Hussein saw fit to track it, train it and fund it.

This contrasts to the view, current among those who think the Iraq war was a massive fraud, that al-Qaida alone was the problem. That presumes that nations handle sneak attacks the way police handle a bank robbery - by finding the suspects and bringing them to justice, with no delusions of rooting out the idea of robbery overall.

This view would lead us back to the whack-a-mole that we saw through the 1980s and 1990s - hijackings, kidnappings, bombs here, blown-up embassies there, all of them pursued and the next never deterred by criminal justice.

What the uncovered Iraqi documents make plain is exactly how these were connected. The incontrovertible fact is that they were, by a common hostility to the west. Hussein could see that, so the secular pan-Arabist funded people wanting to set up a caliphate.

Which is exactly what the left wants.

After all, they too hate America and want to see it destroyed.
BillK
March 23rd, 2008 at 1:42 am
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

FDA relied on industry studies to judge safety

Response comes in congressional inquiry on use of bisphenol A

By Susanne Rust

Ignoring hundreds of government and academic studies showing a chemical commonly found in plastic can be harmful to lab animals at low doses, the Food and Drug Administration determined the chemical was safe based on just two industry-funded studies that didn’t find harm.

In response to a congressional inquiry, Stephen Mason, the FDA’s acting assistant commissioner for legislation, wrote in a letter that his agency’s claim relied on two pivotal studies sponsored by the Society of the Plastics Industry, a subsidiary of the American Chemistry Council.

One of the studies has never been published, and therefore never subjected to peer review; the second has been heavily criticized by researchers who say the results are inconclusive because of flawed experimental methods.

“The FDA is really going to have problems over this,” said Frederick vom Saal, a bisphenol A researcher at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

In January, Michigan Democrats Rep. John Dingell, chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Rep. Bart Stupak, who leads a subcommittee, launched an investigation into the use of bisphenol A in cans containing baby formula and other products aimed at infants and toddlers.

Studies have shown that bisphenol A causes breast cancer, testicular cancer, diabetes and hyperactivity in laboratory animals. Two government panels, including one that has come under fire as being biased in favor of chemical-makers, have warned that bisphenol A might be dangerous to developing fetuses and children younger than 3. …

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=730965

Of course it’s no problem when the EPA relies on the research of environmental groups…
Petra
March 23rd, 2008 at 2:40 am
Obama: Another skeleton in the closet?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/t.....602710.ece
http://www.houstonpress.com/ph.....83&p=2
http://www.houstonpress.com/20.....t-me/print
Noyzmakr
March 23rd, 2008 at 3:21 am
Great catch Petra!
Now Obama’s got a Godfather!!!??? He talks like one too…..

“When Jones secured the two men’s support, Obama asked his mentor how he had pulled it off. “I made them an offer,” Jones said in mock-mafioso style. “And you don’t want to know.”

Maybe they couldn’t refuse. LOL! Holy cow! His whole candidacy is turning into a bad “B” movie.

How many mentors does BHO have????
Petra
March 23rd, 2008 at 3:25 am
When Barry Became Barack

It didn’t happen overnight. But in college, the young Barry took to being called by his formal name. What this evolution tells us about him.

Barry Obama decided that he didn’t like his nickname. A few of his friends at Occidental College had already begun to call him Barack (his formal name), and he’d come to prefer that. The way his half sister, Maya, remembers it, Obama returned home at Christmas in 1980, and there he told his mother and grandparents: no more Barry. Obama recalls it slightly differently, but in the same basic time frame. He believes he told his mom he wanted to be called Barack when she visited him in New York the following summer. By both accounts, it seemed that the elder relatives were reluctannt to embrace the change. Maya recalls that Obama’s maternal grandparents, who had played a big role in raising him, continued long after that to call him by an affectionate nickname, “Bar.” “Not just them, but my mom, too,” says Obama.
newsweek.com

It’s a puff piece of recycled stuff I’ve read before - mostly about him trying to find himself. The member comments are a lot better especially the second one - chrisfromchicago. People aren’t as bamboozled by this character as the media likes to portray. Lots of unanswered questions.
BillK
March 23rd, 2008 at 11:44 am
A great editorial from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Voter ID madness: At least I’m mad

By Gary Kraeger

Are Gov. Jim Doyle and state Sen. Judy Robson (D-Beloit) in favor of voter fraud? Yes, that’s the only conclusion you can reach. For one thing, they’re chief obstructionists to the very simple solution of requiring a photo ID to vote.

From tire slashing to cigarettes for votes, every proven election law violation or credible suspicious vote fraud activity has involved Democrats or Democrat-supporting groups. That’s not lost on Doyle.

When you consider that in 2000, Al Gore “officially” won Wisconsin by about 5,000 votes out of 2.5 million cast, Gore won Oregon by 380 votes and President Bush won Florida by 550, the temptation to allow cheating is irresistible to the integrity-challenged.

Of course, if being in favor of cheating were people’s reason for resisting a photo ID requirement, they’d never admit it. Instead, they’d claim a fear of disenfranchisement.

People break laws all the time. Why would anyone think elections laws aren’t being broken? Some people will cheat to win. That’s a fact of life. Make it easy to cheat, and it’s guaranteed.

And it is easy to commit voter fraud in Wisconsin.

Why would you set up something that’s so important with such glaring security flaws? No one would protect something valuable that way. Normally to protect valuable things, we have armed guards, security systems, safes, cameras, etc. Clean elections? “Please don’t cheat” is about it. Purple-inking fingers is more advanced than our system.

Clean elections should be a goal of everyone. This should not be a partisan issue, but that’s what it has become in Wisconsin. Every Republican in the Assembly and Senate is for it; nearly every Democrat is against it.

You need a photo ID to fly, drive, bank or rent. We require people to show ID to use city dumps. I have never heard anyone object to that. So it’s more important to make sure Greenfield’s leaves don’t go to West Allis than keeping elections clean?

We have drafted kids into war. We sent thousands of soldiers to their certain deaths at Normandy. Hundreds of thousands have died to attain and preserve the vote, but it’s too much to require this very simple thing from the people they’ve protected? That’s offensive.

You could ask Robson or Doyle to write a bill any way they want, and they’d be against it if it had teeth in exposing felon voting, multiple voting, identity theft, etc. You could require that the government has to come to you for your ID. You could require that election commissions send out representatives to homeless shelters, nursing homes, anywhere you can think that might have the very rare person who doesn’t have an ID; it wouldn’t matter to the opponents. If I’m wrong, Governor, please prove it.

Photo IDs were to be made free of charge for those who couldn’t afford it.

Doyle has felt the pressure on this issue in the past and came up with some recommendations. None of them would be difficult to get around. One was requiring the voter to give the last four digits of their Social Security number. That one was for the chump constituency.

The Milwaukee Police Department recently came out with an ID recommendation after an extensive investigation. Doyle’s response was to question why Milwaukee police did an investigation.

Former President Carter, who has made overseeing elections a cause, has said a photo ID should be required. No comment from Doyle.

As for Robson, she claims Republicans have a hidden agenda of making sure fewer Democrats vote. She said, “The intent is to suppress voting.” Senator, making sure elections are fair is an attempt to suppress voting? A requirement placed on everyone would suppress more Democrats? You know all this how?

So these theoretical, hapless voters can get to the polls at the correct time and day, but they can’t get an ID? Please. That herring is redder than a fire truck.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=730529

Well said.

But considering at least some Democrats now want to rerun entire elections to get the results they want, nothing is surprising.
U NO HOO
March 23rd, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Mentors, godfathers, Mike Royko used to call them “Chinamen.”

You can look it up.
U NO HOO
March 23rd, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Barry Hussein O’bama, wasn’t he the old man with the horse cart in “The Quiet Man?”
Petra
March 24th, 2008 at 12:15 am
Thanks Noyzmakr. :)
BillK
March 24th, 2008 at 12:57 am
Blah blah real estate crisis blah blah blah.

From the Los Angeles Times:

A sizzling summer in Malibu: Rentals hit $150,000 a month

By Ann Brenoff

For summer lease: Four-bedroom, eight-bathroom bluff-side Malibu house. Price — $150,000 a month.

That’s a jaw dropper, even for Malibu. The Cliffside Drive property’s rental price is a local record, according to the Multiple Listing Service, but it’s just the pinnacle in a summer rental market that seems to have no high-water mark. Even mundane beachfront houses are renting for as much as $70,000 a month, and they’re still expected to be snapped up by mid-April.

It all seems impossible, when real estate is wilting just about everywhere else. But Malibu in the summer isn’t like everywhere else.

The housing market’s troubles haven’t touched homes valued at $10 million or above — which pretty much defines the Malibu beachfront, according to John Karevoll of DataQuick Information Systems, a real estate research firm. And rents reflect that.

A big chunk of the summer crowd is from the entertainment industry, and hobnobbing never comes cheap. Plenty of deals are made at the beach — and if you aren’t there, someone else will be. And of course, there’s also the opportunity to bump into Pamela Anderson buying organic carrot juice at Ralphs or to sip a latte next to Pierce Brosnan at Starbucks.

Finally, corporate money is pumping up Malibu prices as large publicity firms and companies with products to sell use summer rentals to host celebrity-studded bashes — chock-full of product placements that wind up in photos in magazines and online. The “party houses” may find themselves on a tighter leash this summer, though, as the Malibu City Council takes steps to curtail noise and traffic complaints.

Still, the prices are head-spinners.

Chris Cortazzo, listing agent for Malibu’s new top seed — all 11,000-plus square feet of it — touts the property’s completely private location (that’s Realtorspeak for paparazzi-proof). The Mediterranean-style home has direct beach access via steps down a cliff and interior furnishings described alternately as “tons of marble and fancy chandeliers” or “on the gaudy side.” That last description from a competing listing agent. Leasing requires a two-month minimum and a hefty $300,000 security deposit.

Not far behind in price is a $135,000-a-month architectural four-bedroom house plus a detached studio with a pool and spa on Malibu Colony beach, listed by Coldwell Banker Previews agent Susan Monus. Gorgeous as it may be, tire-kickers might not like that the property is on a through street. Still, there are few better addresses than this — you’ve got Adam Sandler and Jeremy Piven up the street, Brian Grazer and Mel Brooks around the corner. And it’s quite close to where Paris Hilton rented last summer.

The official realty line is that those who don’t secure a lease by mid-April are likely to lose out on the primo beach neighborhoods of the Colony, Broad Beach and Carbon Beach, and there seems to be plenty of people ready to pony up more than what average Joes earn in a year for a month of lounging along the gilded coast. (Gawkers can access http://idx.themls.com/caroldarrow/lease.cfm and mosey through the marble halls.)

It’s the same story on the East Coast, where a house on Long Island’s Southhampton Village is listed at $450,000 for the month of August.

“The choice Hamptons properties get rented early,” said Silke Oellrich of Prudential Douglas Elliman. “People started coming to look for summer homes in November,” she said. (The Hamptons’ siren song must have captured the heart of Hollywood heavyweight Steven Spielberg, who just bought a property there for about $20 million.)

Of Monus’ three Malibu summer beach listings, one listed at $100,000 a month already has been scarfed up, and she expects the remaining two — the aforementioned listing at $135,000 a month and another at $80,000 a month — to go shortly. A count of top agents’ websites found at least 11 summer listings for $75,000 or more a month, and there are more that are discreetly held by agents, who don’t post them on websites or the MLS.

“Malibu is the Riviera of the United States,” Monus says, shrugging off the prices. And she may be right. Even Newport Beach and Laguna Beach top out at about $60,000 a month.

http://www.latimes.com/classif.....2261.story

Funny how almost all of those who will be renting those homes in Malibu and Southhampton tend to be liberal Democrats, no?

That’s because for them, taxing the rich is OK because all the rich people they know have so much money it doesn’t matter.

Now small business owners? Nah, they’re in the noise and don’t have political power anyway.
BillK
March 24th, 2008 at 1:57 am
The left shows themselves for the loving, tolerant folks they are.

From the AP:

Chicago Police Arrest Six Iraq War Protesters for Squirting Fake Blood on Easter Churchgoers

CHICAGO — Six Iraq war protesters disrupted an Easter Mass on Sunday, shouting and squirting fake blood on themselves and parishioners in a packed auditorium.

Three men and three women startled the crowd during Cardinal Francis George’s homily, yelling “Even the Pope calls for peace” as they were removed from the Mass by security guards and ushers.

One Mass attendee, Mike Wainscott of Chicago, yelled at the anti-war protesters.

“Are you happy with yourselves?” he said. “There were kids in there. You scared little kids with your selfish act. Are you happy now?”

The group, which calls itself Catholic Schoolgirls Against the War, said in a statement after the arrests that they targeted the Holy Name Cathedral on Easter to reach a large audience, including Chicago’s most prominent Catholic citizens and the press, which usually covers the services.

Kevin Clark of International Solidarity Movement told the Chicago Tribune that he attended the Mass to serve as a witness for the protesters.

“If Cardinal George is a man of peace and is walking the walk and talking the talk, he should have confronted George Bush and demanded an immediate end to the war,” Clark said.

Speaking after the service, George said, “We should all work for peace, but not by interrupting the worship of God.”

Police charged each of the six protesters with one count of felony criminal damage to property and two counts each of misdemeanor simple battery. …

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,340794,00.html

Why can I guess from this article that none of those involved are even Catholic and none were ever Catholic schoolgirls?
BillK
March 24th, 2008 at 2:04 am
From the Times of London:

Saddam Hussein’s son Uday plotted to send hit squad into UK

By Michael Smith

Saddam Hussein’s son Uday hatched a plot to assassinate the leader of the Iraqi opposition in London in April 2000, according to a new Pentagon study based on documents seized during the Iraq war.

The abortive conspiracy called for an elite recruit in the Fedayeen Saddam paramilitary group to kill Ahmed Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress, who was based in London.

The plot is outlined in Iraqi memos that detail Saddam’s support for a wide network of Middle Eastern terror groups, including Islamists linked to Al-Qaeda. They include a 1993 cooperation deal with Egyptian Islamic Jihad, headed by Ayman al-Zawahiri, who became second-in-command of Al-Qaeda when the two groups merged in 2001.

There is, however, no evidence of the firm link to Osama Bin Laden that the Bush administration had claimed as one of the justifications for attacking Iraq: “This study found no ‘smoking gun’ [ie, direct connection] between Saddam’s Iraq and Al-Qaeda.”

“Nothing we have seen has changed our prewar position that there was no link between Saddam and Bin Laden.”

However, there was strong evidence of Uday Hussein planning to order the Fedayeen, which he set up in the 1990s as answerable only to himself or his father, to carry out assassinations and bombings in London.

In a possible recognition that Britain would be one of the most difficult targets to attack, officials ordered that only the best recruits should be based there. …

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/t.....602664.ece

Once again, what’s the preoccupation with al Qaeda?

Yeah, those other terrorists in the UK and worldwide?

Just ignore them, no big deal.

The official then listed Uday’s orders on how to prepare the recruits: “Select 50 Fedayeen martyrs according to the required specifications. Admit them to the Intelligence School to prepare them for their duties.

“After passing their tests they will be selected for their targets as follows. The top 10 will work in the European field – London. The next 10 will work in the Iranian field. The third 10 will work in the self-ruled area.”

The plot to attack Chalabi in April 2000 is the only example of a specific attack planned in London. It called for a Fedayeen operative to make his way across Europe “for the purpose of executing a sanctimonious [sic] national duty, which is eliminating hostile agent Ahmed Chalabi”. …

Silly me.
Clarissimus
March 24th, 2008 at 2:21 am
That’s right. According to the MSM we’re not allowed to go after any terrorists anywhere unless they have a proven connection to bin Laden and/or 9-11. Because all the other terrorist organizations in the world are no threat to anyone anywhere and never have been.
Gila Monster
March 24th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Another race baiting poverty pimp bites the dust, maybe, and guess the party affiliation.

Detroit Mayor Charged With Perjury

By COREY WILLIAMS

DETROIT (AP) - Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, a one-time rising star and Detroit’s youngest elected leader, was charged Monday with perjury and other counts after sexually explicit text messages contradicted his sworn denials of an affair with a top aide…

http://tinyurl.com/ysv7ok

Once again, the AP fails to identify Kilpatrick as a Dhimmicrat. I wonder why?

The headline is very misleading. Kilpatrick was indicted on several counts, not simply perjury. Additional charges are conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and misconduct of office.
Contrast the AP story above with this from Fox News;

http://tinyurl.com/2skqel

Quite a difference, eh? What media bias?

[Moved to its own thread.]
Petra
March 24th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
The MSM no longer care that we know they’re biased. I used to get the NYT’s and canceled it - also canceled their electronic medium. I try not to use their sites especially the slanted left MSM who make stuff up and then come back and apologize in small print at the bottom of pge 20. Didn’t the AP recently place an (R) after Spitzers name - it went out internationally unchanged. They apologized later…
Petra
March 24th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
One Year Ago: Obama proposed the summit Clinton is offering today

By Sam Graham-Felsen - Mar 24th, 2008 at 11:28 am EDT

Almost one year ago to the day, Barack Obama sent a letter (below) to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson urging them to convene a homeownership preservation summit. Today, Clinton is proposing essentially the same thing.

One key difference, however, is the diversity and representation that Obama called for – not just some of the same people who helped to create these problems or have a direct financial industry stake in the outcome: “I urge you immediately to convene a homeownership preservation summit with leading mortgage lenders, investors, loan servicing organizations, consumer advocates, federal regulators and housing-related agencies to assess options for private sector responses to the challenge.”

Here’s the letter Senator Obama wrote to Bernanke…

March 22, 2007

The Honorable Ben Bernanke
Chairman
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
20th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20551

The Honorable Henry Paulson
Secretary
U.S. Department of Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, D.C. 20220

Dear Chairman Bernanke and Secretary Paulson,

There is grave concern in low-income communities about a potential coming wave of foreclosures. Because regulators are partly responsible for creating the environment that is leading to rising rates of home foreclosure in the subprime mortgage market, I urge you immediately to convene a homeownership preservation summit with leading mortgage lenders, investors, loan servicing organizations, consumer advocates, federal regulators and housing-related agencies to assess options for private sector responses to the challenge.

We cannot sit on the sidelines while increasing numbers of American families face the risk of losing their homes. And while neither the government nor the private sector acting alone is capable of quickly balancing the important interests in widespread access to credit and responsible lending, both must act and act quickly.

Working together, the relevant private sector entities and regulators may be best positioned for quick and targeted responses to mitigate the danger. Rampant foreclosures are in nobody’s interest, and I believe this is a case where all responsible industry players can share the objective of eliminating deceptive or abusive practices, preserving homeownership, and stabilizing housing markets.

The summit should consider best practice loan marketing, underwriting, and origination practices consistent with the recent (and overdue) regulators’ Proposed Statement on Subprime Mortgage Lending. The summit participants should also evaluate options for independent loan counseling, voluntary loan restructuring, limited forbearance, and other possible workout strategies. I would also urge you to facilitate a serious conversation about the following:

* What standards investors should require of lenders, particularly with regard to verification of income and assets and the underwriting of borrowers based on fully indexed and fully amortized rates.

* How to facilitate and encourage appropriate intervention by loan servicing companies at the earliest signs of borrower difficulty.

* How to support independent community-based-organizations to provide counseling and work-out services to prevent foreclosure and preserve homeownership where practical.

* How to provide more effective information disclosure and financial education to ensure that borrowers are treated fairly and that deception is never a source of competitive advantage.

* How to adopt principles of fair competition that promote affordability, transparency, non-discrimination, genuine consumer value, and competitive returns.

* How to ensure adequate liquidity across all mortgage markets without exacerbating consumer and housing market vulnerability.

Of course, the adoption of voluntary industry reforms will not preempt government action to crack down on predatory lending practices, or to style new restrictions on subprime lending or short-term post-purchase interventions in certain cases. My colleagues on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs have held important hearings on mortgage market turmoil and I expect the Committee will develop legislation.

Nevertheless, a consortium of industry-related service providers and public interest advocates may be able to bring quick and efficient relief to millions of at-risk homeowners and neighborhoods, even before Congress has had an opportunity to act. There is an opportunity here to bring different interests together in the best interests of American homeowners and the American economy. Please don’t let this opportunity pass us by.

Sincerely,

Barack Obama
United States Senator
http://my.barackobama.com/page.....sen/gGBnCJ

Operation Chaos?
JohnMG
March 24th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Of course, never mind that federal involvement in mortgage lending was/is at the root of the whole crisis. Amazingly, it never occurs to these geniuses that the market will right itself more quickly and efficiently without government interference. But then, that goes counter to the socialist philosophy.
Petra
March 24th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Blind FaithThe statements of clergymen like Jeremiah Wright aren’t controversial and incendiary; they’re wicked and stupid.
By Christopher Hitchens
http://www.slate.com/id/2187277/pagenum/all/

I’ve been waiting for this…didn’t read it yet but it should be interesting. Now back to work.
JohnMG
March 24th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
I did find this particular statement offensive, though.

…..”How true it is that religion poisons everything…….”

A more accurate statement would be to the effect that certain practitioners with religious affiliations and personal agendas poison everything. Or to put it another way…..”Guns don’t kill people. People kill people!”
esthier
March 24th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
I did find this particular statement offensive, though.

Hitchens is a very passionate atheist. He’s not a fan of religion at all.
U NO HOO
March 24th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
In case I’m not the last to know:

http://www.aim.org/aim-report/.....xist-mole/
U NO HOO
March 24th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
“the market will right itself more quickly and efficiently without government interference.”

Again, please, don’t confuse us with facts.
U NO HOO
March 24th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
“Saddam Hussein’s son Uday plotted to send hit squad into UK”

Uday is dead.

Therefore, 9/11 was just an isolated incident.
JohnMG
March 24th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
esthier; ….”Hitchens is a very passionate atheist. He’s not a fan of religion at all…..”

Yes, I did realize this, thus my “gun” analogy, (i.e. no amount of factual discourse could sway him). I probably should have put a smiley-face after it, or a /sarc. Thanks. ;-}
pagar
March 24th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
Friend of Sen Obama accused of stealing Link

“A son of Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad is suing Rezko and the chief urologist at Cook County’s Stroger Hospital, claiming the two of them bilked him out of his South Side mansion.”
“Jabir Muhammad — a former close friend and business associate of Rezko’s — and Muhammad’s wife, Antonia, filed suit Friday in Cook County Circuit Court against Rezko and Dr. Paul S. Ray.”
“Rezko’s lawyers have produced a real estate contract that shows the Muhammads sold the mansion and three adjacent lots to Rezko in 1993 for $519,000. Under their contract with Rezko, the Muhammads were to leave the house by Dec. 31, 1995, but they still live there.”

“Ray now has clear title to Muhammad’s house. “
DW
March 24th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
Something a little different:

Pilot’s gun fires on US Airways flight from Colorado to N. Carolina

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

DENVER - U.S. authorities say a gun belonging to the pilot of a US Airways plane discharged as the aircraft was on approach to land in North Carolina over the weekend.

They say it’s the first time a weapon issued under a federal program to arm pilots was fired.

The “accidental discharge” occurred Saturday aboard Flight 1536 from Denver to Charlotte.

Greg Alter of the Federal Air Marshal Service says the discharge did not pose a danger to the aircraft or the 124 passengers, two pilots and three flight attendants aboard.

Full story:
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Wo.....31-ap.html

Personally, when I’m in an airliner that’s about to land, I prefer that my pilots have their hands occupied with things like the control yoke, the throttles, flaps, landing gear -that sort of thing -rather than fiddling with a handgun.
It’ll be interesting to hear the story on this one (if we ever do).
JohnMG
March 24th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
DW; ….”It’ll be interesting to hear the story on this one (if we ever do)…..”

I’m sure we’ll hear somethiing about the incident. The question is, will what we hear actually be the truth?
BillK
March 24th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
No, what you’ll hear is this is yet another reason why it was a mistake to allow pilots to be armed, and how any weapon aboard a plane - even those carried by Federal Air Marshals - needlessly endangers the flying public.

You can count on it.
DW
March 24th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Here’s one (two, actually) where maybe a gun should have been fired on board an airliner:

Rowdy passengers force 2 separate emergency landings in Poland

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WARSAW, Poland - Two passenger jets made unrelated emergency landings in Poland Monday to remove rowdy passengers, one of whom claimed to be a terrorist.

In the first incident, a Lufthansa-operated flight from Germany to the Ukraine was diverted to Pyrzowice airport, near the southern city of Katowice, after a Russian citizen on the plane claimed to be a terrorist.

Polish border guards at the airport examined his luggage but found no evidence that he was a terrorist, said Maj. Cezary Zaborski, spokesman for local border guards. Zaborski said the man appeared to be inebriated.

The plane, an Airbus 320 that took off from Frankfurt with more than 110 passengers, continued on to Kyiv, Ukraine.

A few hours later, an Airbus A330 operated by German budget airline LTU landed at Warsaw’s Okecie airport because a German man onboard became unruly after drinking too much alcohol. The man was removed from the plane, which had been on its way from Bangkok, Thailand, to Duesseldorf, Germany.

Full story:
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Wa.....66-ap.html

You see more and more of this. A couple of weeks ago some idiot ran onto one of the runways at Heathrow with a backpack. Another one in BC was recently convicted of making false terror threats.
They should let security whack one or two of these morons and then see if they still think it’s funny.
1sttofight
March 24th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
BREAKING NEWS:

Hillary Clinton claims she was on that plane and had to run, duck and dodge pilot snipers bullets while exiting the plane.
JohnMG
March 24th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Well, 1st, that might have been the case if you or I were piloting that plane, but I fired expert so…………

BTW, how’s the head?
1sttofight
March 24th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Better now than it was this morning, Thank God.

Ask Steve for my email and I will send you some pics of the festivities.

Apparently I was having a good time.;)
BillK
March 25th, 2008 at 12:23 am
From the AP:

Web Site for Anti-Quran Film Blocked

By Toby Sterling

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - A Web site where a Dutch lawmaker was promoting an upcoming film that criticizes the Quran has been suspended by its U.S. hosting service.

The site had shown Geert Wilders’ film’s title, “Fitna,” the words “Coming Soon” and an image of a gilded Quran. Now it shows a note that the company is investigating whether the site violates the firm’s terms of service.

Wilders has not described the 15-minute movie, due to be released by March 31, in detail but has said it will underscore his view that Islam’s holy book is “fascist.”

Dutch officials fear the movie could spark violent protests in Muslim countries, similar to those two years ago after the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper.

Wilders said he would release his movie on the Internet after television stations refused to air it.

“In this situation with the dialogue that’s happening throughout the world we’ve made the choice to suspend the site as of last night,” said Susan Wade, spokeswoman for Network Solutions. “This site is suspended so people can’t see the content right now but the customer still has access to their site. They can make whatever changes are necessary as we complete our investigation.”

Wilders, who lives under police protection due to death threats, could not immediately be reached for comment Sunday.

“How many ways are there left for me to be worked against?” he was quoted saying Saturday night by Dutch press agency ANP.

“If necessary, I’ll go hand out DVDs personally on the Dam,” he said, referring to Amsterdam’s central square.

Thousands demonstrated on the Dam against Wilders’ film Saturday in a protest intended to show that he does not represent the whole country.

http://apnews.myway.com/articl.....BTQ02.html

He’ll likely just be assassinated anyway, like Theo Van Gogh.

I wonder how many anti-Semite, anti-Christian, anti-Bible and miscellaneous far left websites Network Solutions currently hosts?

Recall that it wasn’t all that long ago that Network Solutions was the only company from which you could buy a domain name.

Trade magazine Information Week states things a bit more succinctly:

Network Solutions on Saturday suspended a Web site registered by controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilders who said he planned to use the site to host a movie critical of Islam and the Koran. “Network Solutions has suspended the fitnathemovie.com Web site while Network Solutions is investigating whether the site’s content is in violation of the Network Solutions Acceptable Use Policy,” the company said in a statement. “We have received a number of complaints regarding this site that are under investigation.”

Networks Solutions did not respond to multiple requests to clarify how it determined that Fitna, a movie that has not yet been released, has violated its Acceptable Use Policy.

The Networks Solutions Acceptable use policy forbids, in addition to protected intellectual property, “material that is obscene, defamatory, libelous, unlawful, harassing, abusive, threatening, harmful, vulgar, constitutes an illegal threat, violates export control laws, hate propaganda, fraudulent material or fraudulent activity, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable material of any kind or nature.”

The inclusion of the clause “otherwise objectionable material” appears to give Network Solutions the right to block sites because of any imaginable objection.

http://www.informationweek.com.....=206905379
BigOil
March 25th, 2008 at 12:50 am
From the TimesOnline:

If you think it’s bad here, don’t try Switzerland

By Michael Evans

The United Kingdom has been ranked as one of the most stable and prosperous countries in the world, beating the United States, France and even Switzerland in a global assessment of every nation’s achievements and standards.

A one-year investigation and analysis of 235 countries and dependent territories has put the UK joint seventh in the premier league of nations. The top ten comprise also the Vatican, Sweden, Luxembourg, Monaco, Gibraltar, San Marino, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands and the Irish Republic.

The US lies 22nd and Switzerland, normally associated with wealth and untouchable stability, is rated 17th, losing points in the assessment of its social achievements.

The bottom ten, surprisingly, do not include Iraq. They are listed as Gaza and the West Bank, Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan, Ivory Coast, Haiti, Zimbabwe, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.

…He explained that Iraq had managed to escape the ignominy of being in the bottom ten because, despite “extremely high levels of violence”, it had a “relatively stable Government” that controlled a significant area of the country and had good economic prospects.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/t.....613926.ece

They must not have forgotten to factor the opinions of Congressional Democrats into their ratings. After all, haven’t our vaunted Democrat leaders told us there can be no stability without political reconciliation?
BillK
March 25th, 2008 at 1:35 am
From Reuters, a sad reminder of what could have been:

Fred Thompson heads back to Hollywood

Former Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson is returning to his career as an actor and signed a deal to be represented by the William Morris Agency, the talent group said on Monday.

Thompson, a former U.S. senator from Tennessee, is best known in the entertainment world for portraying New York District Attorney Arthur Branch on the television crime drama “Law & Order,” but has appeared in numerous films and TV shows over the years.

The 65-year-old actor and politician was a candidate for the Republican nomination for U.S. president before dropping out of the race in January after garnering little support. Arizona Senator John McCain is the presumptive Republican nominee.

Thompson gained notoriety as minority counsel for the Senate Watergate Committee investigating the scandal that led to the resignation of U.S. President Richard Nixon in 1974. …

http://www.reuters.com/article.....5620080324

I wouldn’t say little support, just not as much as the MSM felt was necessary.

Alas, since Thompson’s since endorsed McCain, I’m somewhat disappointed I ever supported Fred. :-(
BillK
March 25th, 2008 at 1:41 am
From the liberals at Reuters:

“Pay day” loans exacerbate housing crisis

By Nick Carey

CLEVELAND (Reuters) - As hundreds of thousands of American home owners fall behind on their mortgage payments, more people are turning to short-term loans with sky-high interest rates just to get by.

While figures are hard to come by, evidence from nonprofit credit and mortgage counselors suggests that the number of people using these so-called “pay day loans” is growing as the U.S. housing crisis deepens, a negative sign for economic recovery.

“We’re hearing from around the country that many folks are buried deep in pay day loan debts as well as struggling with their mortgage payments,” said Uriah King, a policy associate at the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL).

A pay day loan is typically for a few hundred dollars, with a term of two weeks, and an interest rate as high as 800 percent. The average borrower ends up paying back $793 for a $325 loan, according to the Center.

The Center also estimates pay day lenders issued more than $28 billion in loans in 2005, the latest available figures. …

http://www.reuters.com/article.....3120080324

Of course, what do you think will happen to these folks when they get behind and pay day loans aren’t available?

Either they’ll go into foreclosure more quickly, or they will turn to crime since no other source of money is available.

Spectacular thinking as always from the left, who will of course give those crimes a wash as it’s just people “doing what they need to to support their families” - just like illegal aliens.

Where do liberals think the people who got those $28 billion in such loans in 2005 will turn instead?

I suspect there will be new legislation coming soon to force banks to provide certain lending services - the same type of governmental meddling that was one of the creative forces behind the subprime mortgage mess (note - mess, not a crisis, unless you’re a financial institution heavily leveraged into funds made of subprime mortgages.)
Petra
March 25th, 2008 at 1:45 am
Obama Connection to Terrorists Revealed by Talk Show Host
By Jim Kouri, 3/24/2008 9:02:29 AM

There is a far-reaching scandal brewing for presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, thanks to a radio talk show host based in Oregon. Syndicated talk host Laurie Roth’s revelations make the news story about Obama’s relationship with a racist, anti-American pastor look like child’s play.

A top official at the Pentagon during former-President George H. W. Bush’s Administration and a former CIA intelligence officer maintain that Barack Obama and former Weather Underground honcho William Ayers funneled money to Professor Rashid Khalidi, a known terrorist sympathizer.

Khalidi serves on the faculty of Columbia University in New York and is best known as the professor who invited Iranian President Ahmedinejad to visit Columbia University after he finished his speech at the United Nations. According to confidential sources, Khalidi has direct ties to the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), a group on the US State Department’s list of known terrorist groups.

“One source for this information was once a top military figure in the 1990s. He doesn’t take making allegations lightly. If he says something happened, believe me, it happened,” said syndicated radio talk show host Laurie Roth - http://www.therothshow.com

“Another source is a former agent for the Central Intelligence Agency, who is an expert in counterterrorism,” said Roth, who broke the story on her show Friday night.

“I certainly don’t want to demonize someone because they are a woman, black or liberal running for President. I love the idea that in our culture, a black and woman can now run. However, it does matter to me with any candidate, their consistency with good judgment, their voting record, their association with people with questionable backgrounds and commitment to our country,” she said during her show.

Here are the connections as described by very reliable sources, who possess impressive military, national security and intelligence backgrounds:

Allison Davis, who hired the young Obama into his small, Chicago law firm Davis, Miner, and Barnhill in 1993, left the firm in late 1999-2000 and became a housing developer. Davis went into business with Tony Rezko, the indicted businessman who’s scheduled to go on trial for corruption in Illinois, and who was a major fundraiser for Obama.

Davis met Rezko when he was a client of Davis, Miner, and Barnhill. Rezko is currently under indictment in Illinois for demanding kickbacks from companies seeking state government business contracts under Governor Blagojevich. Obama was identified as one of the politicians cited in the indictment as having received political contributions from Rezko out of his kickback funds.

Tony Rezko hosted fundraising events for Obama in his home and was on Obama’s US Senate campaign finance committee which collected $14 million for his campaign against conservative Alan Keyes, an African-American who served as an Ambassador during the Reagan Administration. In order to avoid a scandal during his presidential campaign, Obama returned $85,000 that Rezko and his family had donated to him.

In early 2000, while Obama served as a state senator in Illinois, he also sat on the board of the nonprofit Woods Fund. The Woods Fund is a Chicago-based foundation that claims its primary mission is to make financial grants in order to increase and/or create opportunities for disadvantaged people and low-income communities.

The chairman of the Woods fund board in 2000 was Howard Stanback, who like Obama also had connections to Davis, according to the reliable sources.

Davis submitted a grant request to the Woods Foundation for a $1 million investment in his development partnership, Neighborhood Rejuvenation LP, that would be used to finance low-income senior-citizen housing. Under normal circumstances, a board member is supposed to recuse himself or herself from decisions where they have a business or personal relationship.

Obama, who did not recuse himself, voted to approve Davis’ grant request. Stanback, on the other hand, abstained from voting. The housing project, which also received a $5.7 million loan from the city of Chicago, in turn donated almost $70,000 in political contributions to Obama’s presidential campaign.

In the past, Rezko gave Obama — who served as an Illinois State Senator — his first two political contributions in 1995, $1,000 each from two of his companies. In 1998, State Senator Obama wrote letters to city and state officials urging them to fund a Davis-Rezko housing project. It was an obvious quid pro quo arrangement.

Another major fundraiser for Obama is William Ayers, who also sat on the board of the Woods Fund with Obama and is a professor at the University of Chicago.

Bill Ayers, along with his wife Bernadine Dohrn, was an active member of the Weather Underground, a radical left-wing group that advocated violence against the United State. Both Ayers and Dohrn went “underground” in 1970 after others in the group accidentally detonated a bomb in a Greenwich Village (New York City) townhouse. The blast killed three of the group’s members including Ayers’ girlfriend at the time.

While Ayers and Dohrn were hiding from law enforcement, the Weather Underground participated in the bombings of the US Capital, the Pentagon and a State Department building. In 1981 Ayers and Dohrn turned themselves in to federal authorities, but all charges were dropped as a result of alleged “government legal misconduct.” In his 2001 memoir, Ayers wrote, “I don’t regret setting the bombs. I feel we didn’t do enough.”

Ayers and Dohrn are known to have held at least one fundraiser for Barack Obama in their Chicago home.

During Obama’s last year on the board of The Woods Fund (2002), he participated in awarding grants, including a $70,000 grant to the Arab American Action Network, a Chicago-based group founded by Rashid and Mona Khalidi.

In another suspected quid pro quo arrangement similar to those with Ayers and Rezko, Rashid Khalidi also held a fundraising event in his home for Barack Obama.

In the Middle East, Rashid Khalidi was known as a man to be reckoned with. From 1972 through 1983, Khalidi was the director in Beirut of the official Palestinian press agency, FAFA. His wife worked there as well.

According to sources, when the Khalidi’s left Chicago for Columbia University in New York, Rashid was honored with the Edward Said Chair in Arab Studies at that Ivy League university. Their goodbye party in Chicago included testimonials from Bill Ayers and Barack Obama.
Contin:
http://www.hawaiireporter.com/.....67b49f5f1c
BillK
March 25th, 2008 at 1:48 am
More from the two-faced whiners at Reuters:

Wall Street may cut 20,000 jobs over 2 years: report

By Joan Gralla

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City risks losing more than 20,000 jobs in the high-paying financial sector over the next two years as the crisis in mortgage markets drives down Wall Street’s profits, according to a report issued on Monday.

The city’s Independent Budget Office, in its report, estimated that Wall Street’s profits for 2007 will sink by more than 80 percent to the lowest level since 1994.

Profits for 2007 are expected to total just $3.2 billion, down from $20.9 billion in 2006, the report said.

Banks and brokerages account for almost 35 percent of all salaries and wages in New York City. Fallout from investments in the risky subprime mortgage market has forced Wall Street banks to write-down more than $150 billion — and more red ink is expected.

“The economic situation is particularly precarious. If the problems affecting Wall Street and housing worsen, the recession will be deeper and the fiscal pressures on the city will quickly mount,” said Ronnie Lowenstein, director of the Independent Budget Office.

Lowenstein said the projections do not include any impact from the buyout of Bear Stearns & Co Inc by JPMorgan Chase. JPMorgan agreed to buy Bear, which until recently had been the fifth-biggest Wall Street investment bank, after Bear collapsed 10 days ago because large subprime losses and failing confidence in the firm prompted a run on the bank.

Wall Street’s profits in 2008, however, are expected to double to $6.6 billion and rise again in 2009 to $12.2 billion, the agency said.

The bulk of Wall Street’s job cuts, meanwhile, are expected to occur this year, with an estimated reduction of 12,600, followed by 7,600 cuts next year, the report said. …

http://www.reuters.com/article.....6820080325

Funny coming from Reuters, who often reported on Wall Street brokers as if they were the scum of the earth, the root of all evil itself.

Now they’re bemoaning their possible unemployment as a sign the economy is in the toilet.

I never cease to be amazed Americans allow the MSM to get away with things like this.

But then again, Big Brother is still on the air, so nothing surprises me anymore.
Petra
March 25th, 2008 at 1:59 am
Obama Soft On Crime?

By INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Monday, March 24, 2008 4:20 PM PT

Law and Order: Obama doesn’t talk much about his views on crime and punishment — at least not in front of general audiences — and for good reason.

Read More: Election 2008

While his Web site says he’s “a strong proponent of tougher measures to fight crime,” his record tells a different story.

As an Illinois state senator, for example, he acted more as a friend to criminals than to cops, legislating among other things:

• Curbs on what he called a “broken” death penalty system.

• A measure to expunge some criminal records and give job grants to ex-cons.

• Tougher handgun controls.

• A vote against making gang members eligible for the death penalty if they kill someone to help their gang.

• Opposition to a bill requiring juveniles to be prosecuted as adults for firing a gun at or near a school.

At the federal level, Obama would:

• Repeal “unfair” mandatory sentences for crack convictions.

• Provide drug counseling instead of jail time for some abusers.

• Rethink criminal penalties for pot.

• Ban profiling by federal law enforcement, even if it helps catch violent criminals including terrorists.

• Strengthen hate-crime laws and beef up civil rights enforcement against police chiefs who profile.

• Provide job training, drug rehab and counseling for ex-cons.

• “Re-enfranchise” felons denied the right to vote.
contin:
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/I.....1769393224
BillK
March 25th, 2008 at 2:05 am
From the San Francisco Chronicle:

In black churches, fiery sermons are the norm, not exception

By Cecilia M. Vega

The Rev. Amos Brown’s Easter sermon at the Third Baptist Church of San Francisco didn’t have much to do with Jesus’ crucifixion or resurrection from the dead and instead covered everything from skyrocketing gas prices and the subprime mortgage crisis to race relations in the United States and presidential politics.

During his fiery Sunday morning speech, he called President Bush a “one-eyed man,” told the predominantly African American congregation that the country is as segregated now as it was 50 years ago and said “America is running on fumes right now … we are on the wrong road.”

It’s no coincidence that Brown’s raspy-voiced, roaring sermon sounded vaguely familiar to the controversial sermons delivered by Sen. Barack Obama’s longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Brown and Wright are friends and graduated years ago from the same seminary class in Dayton, Ohio. Brown, whose own sermons have sparked controversy and grabbed headlines, has a picture of Wright in his church office.

“I don’t want nobody to accuse me of being angry,” Brown said from the pulpit. “I’m just excited about the Gospel.”

Excerpts of Wright’s sermons as he rails against the United States and accuses it of responsibility for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have been airing regularly on cable news stations in recent days, creating a political firestorm for the Democratic candidate for president that prompted his speech last week on race relations.

Brown and many congregants at the Third Baptist Church wonder exactly what the controversy is all about.

Wright’s sermons are no different than sermons that get delivered every weekend in black churches around the country, said Gordon Greenwood, a lawyer who attends the Western Addition-area church. “And it’s not just churches,” Greenwood said. “You could walk into a black barber shop or beauty shop and this is being talked about all day.”

rown, who is active in San Francisco politics and is president of the city’s Housing Authority Commission, came under fire in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks for a sermon he gave in which he asked what America had done to invite the attacks upon itself.

On Sunday, he told a packed church that the criticisms being hurled at Obama for his close ties to Wright are part of a conspiracy aimed at damaging the candidate on the issue of religion because there’s not another negative issue out there that has tarnished his reputation.

“What you are seeing happening to Barack Obama was hatched, crafted and developed a year ago when you were sleeping,” Brown told churchgoers. “This kind of nonsense does not just happen.”

The sermon was met with roaring applause. Women in their best Sunday hats and pastel Easter suits stood in the isles and cheered. Men waived their hands in praise and shouted, “Amen.”

“White people do not understand the experience we’ve had in this country,” said Doris Ward, a former San Francisco supervisor who attends Third Baptist.

Part of the reason people might have been surprised to hear Wright’s comments about race in the United States, she said, boils down to the fact that in many ways, blacks and whites in America still live segregated lives.

“White people don’t live in our neighborhoods,” Ward said. “They don’t worship with us.” …

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....8VP5UA.DTL

What do any of these statements have to do with the gospel?

If this is really what is normal for black churches, what are they preaching other than racism, hate for whites, conspiracy theories and a continued victimology that teaches them they can not succeed, everything is the white man’s fault, and that the country is simply unfair and evil?

Come to think of it, how is that any different from what any Democrat believes?
BillK
March 25th, 2008 at 2:16 am
From the AP:

Chinese-Born Engineer Convicted of Conspiracy Gets 24 1/2 Years in Prison

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A Chinese-born engineer convicted of conspiracy to export U.S. defense technology to China was sentenced Monday to 24 1/2 years in federal prison by a judge who said the defendant betrayed his adopted country.

Chi Mak, 67, a naturalized U.S. citizen who worked on naval propulsion systems, was also convicted of acting as an unregistered foreign agent, attempting to violate export control laws and making false statements to the FBI.

Federal prosecutors asked for 30 years, while Mak’s defense team proposed 10 years.

Mak asked U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney for leniency before sentencing. Four of Mak’s relatives, including his wife, pleaded guilty last year to related offenses in exchange for leniency.

“I don’t know so much about the law, but I feel I never intend to violate any law at all. I never intend to hurt my country. I love this country. I don’t believe I hurt this country,” Mak told the judge. “The truth is not like the one the prosecutor says. I still hope for justice.”

The judge said Mak lied on immigration and government security clearance forms and perjured himself on the witness stand.

“I do believe a high-end sentence is appropriate here. Mr. Mak sadly, I believe, betrayed the United States. … I really don’t know how much damage he’s done to us,” Carney said.

“He’s a very humble man, a very warm man and he wants to be helpful,” the judge said, referencing letters of support from Mak’s friends and former colleagues and friends. “But it’s those traits and that persona that allowed him to pass information to the People’s Republic of China.”

Mak, who worked for Anaheim-based naval defense contractor Powe

Buzz

Articles

Links

S & L

Other News For The Week Of Mar 22 - Mar 28

92 Responses to “Other News For The Week Of Mar 22 - Mar 28”