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Selected News For Sep 19 – Sep 25

This thread is for the busy bees of S&L to post news items we might otherwise miss.

To make the articles as readable as possible, please stick to the format described here.

  • Only post ‘hard news’ from established media outlets.
  • Avoid editorials and ‘thought pieces,’ unless they are truly newsworthy.
  • Eschew ‘major news’ items that most people will likely have seen elsewhere.
  • Articles that fit under the topic of a recent thread should be posted as a comment there.

  • Always post less than a third of the original article.

Posts of articles that do not follow these guidelines are susceptible to being edited or deleted.

Related Articles:

 

This article was posted by Steve Gilbert on Saturday, September 19th, 2009 at 12:00 am. You can leave a response.

86 Responses to “Selected News For Sep 19 – Sep 25”

  1. canary
    September 19, 2009 at 2:55 am

    FOXNews.com
    Letter by Former CIA Directors to President Obama
    Seven former heads of the CIA wrote President Obama on Friday to ask him to end an investigation launched by former Attorney General Eric Holder into the actions of CIA interrogators who used “enhanced” techniques to question terror detainees. Friday, September 18, 2009

    Dear Mr. President:

    We have served as directors of Central Intelligence or directors of the CIA for presidents reaching back over 35 years. We respectfully urge you to exercise your authority to reverse Attorney General Holder’s August 24 decision to re-open the criminal investigation of CIA interrogations that took place following the attacks of September 11.

    Our reasons for making this recommendation are as follows.

    The post-September 11 interrogations for which the attorney general is opening an inquiry were investigated four years ago by career prosecutors. The CIA, at its own initiative, forwarded fewer than 20 instances where agency officers appeared to have acted beyond their existing legal authorities.

    Career prosecutors under the supervision of the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia determined that one prosecution (of a CIA contractor) was warranted. A conviction was later obtained. They determined that prosecutions were not warranted in the other cases. In a number of these cases the CIA subsequently took administrative disciplinary steps against the individuals involved.

    Attorney General Holder’s decision to re-open the criminal investigation creates an atmosphere of continuous jeopardy for those whose cases the Department of Justice had previously declined to prosecute. Moreover, there is no reason to expect that the re-opened criminal investigation will remain narrowly focused.

    If criminal investigations closed by career prosecutors during one administration can so easily be reopened at the direction of political appointees in the next, declinations of prosecution will be rendered meaningless. Those men and women who undertake difficult intelligence assignments in the aftermath of an attack such as September 11 must believe there is permanence in the legal rules that govern their actions.

    They must be free, as the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Senator Lieberman, has put it: “to do their dangerous and critical jobs without worrying that years from now a future attorney general will authorize a criminal investigation of them for behavior that a previous attorney general concluded was authorized and legal.” Similar deference needs to be shown to fact-based decisions made by career prosecutors years ago.

    Not only will some members of the intelligence community be subjected to costly financial and other burdens from what amounts to endless criminal investigations, but this approach will seriously damage the willingness of many other intelligence officers to take risks to protect the country. In our judgment such risk-taking is vital to success in the long and difficult fight against the terrorists who continue to threaten us.

    Success in intelligence often depends on surprise and deception and on creating uncertainty in the mind of an enemy. As president you have the authority to make decisions restricting substantive interrogation or any other intelligence collection method, based on legal analyses and policy recommendations.

    But, the administration must be mindful that public disclosure about past intelligence operations can only help Al Qaeda elude U.S. intelligence and plan future operations. Disclosures about CIA collection operations have and will continue to make it harder for intelligence officers to maintain the momentum of operations that have saved lives and helped protect America from further attacks.

    Finally, another certain result of these reopened investigations is the serious damage done to our intelligence community’s ability to obtain the cooperation of foreign intelligence agencies. Foreign services are already greatly concerned about the United States’ inability to maintain any secrets. They rightly fear that, through these additional investigations and the court proceedings that could follow, terrorists may learn how other countries came to our assistance in a time of peril.

    The United States promised these foreign countries that their cooperation would never be disclosed. As a result of the zeal on the part of some to uncover every action taken in the post-9/11 period, many countries may decide that they can no longer safely share intelligence or cooperate with us on future counter-terrorist operations. They simply cannot rely on our promises of secrecy.

    We support your stated commitment, Mr. President, to look to the future regarding these important issues. In our judgment the only way that is possible is if the criminal investigation of these interrogations that Attorney General Holder has re-opened is now re-closed.

    Sincerely,

    Michael Hayden
    Porter Goss
    George Tenet
    John Deutch
    R. James Woolsey
    William Webster
    James R. Schlesinger

    http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....ent-obama/

  2. canary
    September 19, 2009 at 4:33 am

    Haaretz.com/ Iran is wasting time in nuclear talks with West
    By Amos Harel Sept 13 2009

    Eight months have passed since the Obama administration came to office…

    Adding to the sense of a lack of sincerity was a declaration Saturday from Ahmad Vahidi, Iran’s new defense minister, who is still wanted in Argentina for his role in two 1990s bombings that claimed dozens of lives…

    Iran continues to play its game of deception. The former chief of Military Intelligence, Major General (res.) Aharon Ze’evi-Farkash, told Haaretz the Iranians are behaving this way because “they’re at such an advanced stage in their plans, all they need to do is to waste time while pushing hard for their immediate goal, which is to produce sufficient quantities of fissile material for two or three atomic bombs.”

    In Israel, there are suspicions that the pace of Iranian advance has accelerated, and that Tehran “will continue walking on the edge of the cliff” in its exchanges with the international community.

    Apparently, this explains the declaration of Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki that dialogue with the international community might include discussion of the nuclear program “if the conditions are right.”

    This statement diverges slightly from the document Iran offered as its official response to the international community, and also from the comments of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who claimed last Monday that his country will not cease to enrich uranium and will not negotiate on its “nuclear rights.”

    …But the likelihood of tough sanctions is doubtful, as backing from Russia and China will be limited. Even if the U.S. manages to harness broad support for sanctions, with the backing of the United Nations Security Council, these will almost certainly be insufficiently potent.

    As as alternative, the U.S. Congress is planning to announce sanctions that will be adopted by France, Germany, Britain and Canada…It’s hard to know where Iran’s nuclear program stands in terms of urgency. Not the top priority – that’s fairly clear and certainly not something the U.S. is planning to deal with through offensive action.

    http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1114128.html

  3. canary
    September 19, 2009 at 4:43 am

    The Jerusalem Post: IDF nabs Park Hotel attack terrorist
    Yaakov Katz , THE JERUSALEM POST Sep 16, 2009
    The Border Police’s elite YAMAM… arrested Muhammad Harwish, a senior Hamas terrorist and one of the planners of the 2002 Park Hotel Seder night suicide bombing.

    …along with his personal aide, Adnan Samara. The two were transferred to the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) for questioning.

    Harwish had been wanted by Israel since the beginning of the Second Intifada, in 2000. In 2002, he was involved in dispatching a suicide bomber to the Park Hotel in Netanya, in which 30 people were killed.

    In March 2004, Harouish was wounded by IDF gunfire and was treated in a hospital in Ramallah. After his discharge from hospital he continued anti-Israeli terror activity and was involved in the planning of a suicide attack against Israel that was thwarted.

    … jailed in Jericho. In 2006, he was released from prison and returned to Tulkarm where he later became head of the Hamas military wing in the city.
    … in July and August, the Shin Bet and IDF arrested five Fatah-Tanzim operatives in the village of Silwad near Ramallah, including an active member of PA security forces and a Palestinian who lived in the US.

    http://www.jpost.com/servlet/S.....e/ShowFull

  4. canary
    September 19, 2009 at 5:01 am

    UPI: Al-Qaida seeks to ‘rekindle Chechnya war’
    by Staff Writers Algiers, Algeria Sep 16 2009

    Russian forces recently killed a senior Algerian jihadist in the restive North Caucasus region of Dagestan, heightening concerns that al-Qaida’s aggressive North African network is spearheading efforts to reignite the Islamist insurgency in Chechnya.

    … FSB, said the militant was known as “Dr. Mohammed” and identified him as “the al-Qaida coordinator in Dagestan.”

    “Mohammed” was killed with another militant when Chechen security forces raided an insurgent safe house in Dagestan on Aug. 31.
    Russian security chiefs claim that al-Qaida has been striving to revive the insurgency in Chechnya….full-blown wars since the early 1990s…

    This has included a series of suicide bombings, some carried out by Muslim women known as the “black widows.”

    ..president of.. Ingusheta, Yunus Bek-Yevkurov, was gravely wounded in a June suicide attack. Twenty-five policemen were killed in…August.
    … concerned at the growing involvement of foreign militants, many of them Arabs.

    Russia’s deputy interior minister, Arkady Yedelev, claimed in January that such groups were operating in Dagestan and Chechnya.

    The Algeria-based al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb — the Arabic name for North Africa,….active.. “…al-Qaida has become increasingly interested in re-engaging with the North Caucasus.
    ….is also helping raise funds in the Gulf Arab states for the insurgency against Moscow, according to Arab diplomatic sources.

    The GSPC had broken away from the Armed Islamic Group, one of the most ferocious Islamist groups that fought the military-backed government through a civil war that raged in Algeria throughout the 1990s.

    AQIM.. jihadist groups across North Africa,.. Algerian militants have been conspicuous in the conflicts in Bosnia, Chechnya, Afghanistan and Iraq.

    “Some studies have even concluded that Algerians were the single largest group of foreign jihadists who fought in Iraq during the height of the insurgency there,” according to the private
    Texas-based security consultancy Strategic Forecasting.

    http://www.spacewar.com/report.....r_999.html

  5. BillK
    September 19, 2009 at 5:14 am

    On Friday morning, sources like the Denver Post were reporting this man being questioned by the FBI was a poor, innocent man who “spoke to the wrong people” and “was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

    Maybe not.

    From Denver’s KUSA Television and the Associated Press:

    Terror suspect reportedly played key role in planned attack

    DENVER (AP) – A man under investigation in a terrorism probe in New York and Denver has indicated he is associated with al-Qaeda and played a key role in a planned terror attack, a senior U.S. intelligence official said Friday.

    The intelligence official in Washington told The Associated Press that Zazi has indicated that he is directly linked with al-Qaeda.

    The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss intelligence matters, said Zazi played a crucial role in an intended terrorist attack, but that it was not immediately clear what the targets were.

    9Wants to Know has learned Zazi will be questioned at FBI offices in Denver on Saturday, his fourth day of questioning there.

    Zazi was back at his apartment Friday night.

    NBC News is reporting Najibullah Zazi has admitted to ties to al-Qaeda and has admitted attending a terror training camp in Pakistan.

    NBC News says Najibullah Zazi denies planning to stage attacks in the United States.

    On Friday afternoon, 9Wants to Know learned that Zazi’s father, Mohamed Zazi, is cooperating with authorities and was also questioned by the FBI as part of the investigation. There’s no indication he is suspected of any wrongdoing.

    FBI agents are investigating Najibullah Zazi as part of a possible terror plot with ties to the Denver metro area.

    A spokeswoman for Najibullah Zazi’s attorney, Arthur Folsom, said Friday that FBI agents didn’t say why they want to talk to Zazi’s father.

    The spokesperson, Wendy Aiello, says Zazi’s father met with FBI agents at 1 p.m. The family has been fully cooperating with the FBI. She added that she does not know how long the interviews will last, and that updates will be available when she gets them.

    A source with Sen. Mark Udall’s (D-Colorado) office told 9Wants to Know, “The senator is getting regular briefings from the FBI on Zazi. The investigation is ongoing. Details of the investigation are classified.”

    The senator’s office says there is still no threat to Colorado or the United States. Colorado’s Homeland Security Coordinator also says Coloradans were never in danger. …

    http://www.9news.com/news/arti.....;catid=339

    Aside from once again being dismayed that intelligence officials apparently feel free to talk to the press without concern for consequences as long as they remain “anonymous,” as you might expect many of the commenters on this at the originating web site are already stating he was, of course, tortured into confessing…

  6. canary
    September 19, 2009 at 5:14 am

    AP: Three Fort Bragg-based soldiers die in Afghanistan (3 Special Forces)
    Posted: Sep. 17, 2009

    WASHINGTON — Three Special Forces soldiers were killed Wednesday in Afghanistan after enemy forces attacked their vehicle,..

    The Defense Department statement identified the soldiers as Staff Sgt. Joshua M. Mills, 24, of El Paso, Texas; Sgt. 1st Class Bradley S. Bohle, 29, of Glen Burnie, Md.; and Sgt. 1st Class Shawn P. McCloskey, 33, of Peachtree City, Ga. assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg.

    http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/6026392/

  7. canary
    September 19, 2009 at 5:40 am

    AP: Pakistan police raid US-employed security firm
    Sep 19 2009

    ISLAMABAD – Pakistani police say they have raided a local security firm that has a contract with the U.S. Embassy.

    Islamabad police official Rana Akram says the Inter-Risk firm is accused of illegal weapons possession.

    The raid Saturday comes amid intense coverage in the local media of American use of private security firms in the country, much of it negative.

    Akram says police found 61 assault rifles and nine pistols that were allegedly unlicensed.

    U.S. Embassy spokesman Rick Snelsire says the embassy’s contract with the firm took effect at the start of this year.

    Associated Press writer Inamur Rehman in Kohat contributed to this report.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....RhbnBvbGk-

    I do believe Inter-risk was the former private contract company, and Obama sent them back to set them up, sending them back to Pakistan.
    So, what if they had weapons. They had to have them for their job. This is a disgrace. 4 marines died yesterday, because of goat! Thanks to Obama and his suck-ups new rules of engagement. Obama is the violent promoter of U.S. Americans. Please don’t call Obama stupid. He has apologized to every violent sicko country, but hasn’t apologized to America yet. He is not dumb. Just evil. And now Hilary with her nose up his a**.

    That water thing in California was just an experiminet on by the Federal Govt. They are going to create a crisis on top of bankrupting this country. There are not dumb. They are precise, cunning, calculating, but they will not suceed.

  8. Laree
    September 19, 2009 at 11:03 am

    Fox Business News To Imus Leave the Heat At Home.

    http://youhavetobethistalltogo.....un-no.html

  9. Melly
    September 19, 2009 at 12:53 pm

    Per Chris Wallace: O administation is the “biggest bunch of cry babies” he has ever dealt with in his 30 years of reporting.

    video:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....r_embedded

  10. locomotivebreath1901
    September 19, 2009 at 6:59 pm

    Did ACORN get too big for its own good?

    From a perplexed, but candidly in depth AP:

    “The Census Bureau this month cut ties with ACORN for the 2010 census, and a nonpartisan watchdog group, Citizens Against Government Waste, named senators who voted to continue financing ACORN the “September Porkers of the Month.”

    New York Gov. David Paterson on Friday ordered state agencies to examine contracts with ACORN and place holds on them in the meantime.

    ACORN has portrayed its problems as the unfortunate work of a few employees. In the best case, that suggests it made bad hires and gave them poor training and supervision. But when the founder of a national organization admits attempting to keep quiet his brother’s theft of more than $900,000, it’s a sign that ACORN’s problems may rise high and run deep.

    How did ACORN wind up in this mess? Did it simply grow too big for its own good?

    The scope of government investigations into its activities is unknown. Voter registration fraud cases involving ACORN workers are pending. HUD’s inspector general has acknowledged an investigation is under way. ACORN this past week announced it would investigate the video scandal and suspend the admission of new clients into its housing program….”

    Wait. It gets better.

    “ACORN calls itself the largest grass-roots community organization of low- and moderate-income Americans. It claims over 400,000 families and more than 1,200 neighborhood chapters in about 75 cities.

    The group and Obama have long known each other.

    Obama helped represent ACORN in a 1995 lawsuit against Illinois that forced enactment of the “motor-voter law,” making it easier to register to vote.

    ACORN’s political action committee endorsed Obama for president and his campaign gave an ACORN subsidiary $832,000 for get-out-the-vote activities.

    In a video posted on YouTube days before the November election, Lewis told New Yorkers to “vote for the community organizer Barack Obama.”

    “I’ve been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career,” Obama told ACORN leaders in November 2007, according to a posting on Obama’s campaign Web site. “Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work.”

    Pro-Democratic groups, including unions, paid ACORN branches and affiliates for get-out-the-vote activities in the last election.

    ACORN’s connections to unions – Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, is among those with Podesta on the ACORN advisory panel – illustrate some of the contradictions found in its past.

    Despite apparently sharing union priorities such as higher pay for minimum-wage workers, ACORN got in trouble with the National Labor Relations Board during President George W. Bush’s first term for allegedly attempting to thwart employee efforts to unionize.

    According to an NLRB case accusing ACORN of unfair labor practices, “field organizers were expected to work long hours each week – 54 hours – and were paid at a salary of $16,000 annually until January 2001, when the salary was raised to $18,000.”

    The NLRB documented high turnover among ACORN employees: In 2000, far less than 10 percent of Dallas office employees stayed in the job for six months, and “most did not even complete their training period, but quit within a few days or weeks of being hired,” according to the NLRB.

    During the Clinton administration, the Labor Department accused ACORN arm Citizens Consulting Inc. of failing to pay workers overtime.

    Kettenring had no immediate information about the outcome of either case.

    Those cases drew little attention. Not so the embezzlement scandal.

    Kettenring confirmed that Wade Rathke’s brother, Dale Rathke, stole around $948,000 from the organization in 1999 and 2000, and that Wade Rathke became aware of it in 2000 but told only a few people. It wasn’t reported to law enforcement.

    Dale Rathke was removed from a leadership position in 2000. He and Wade Rathke were fired last year, and an anonymous donor compensated ACORN for the missing money, Kettenring said.

    Two board members sued in August 2008, accusing Wade Rathke of failing to properly report the embezzlement.”

    Did I mention this was an AP story?

    • proreason
      September 19, 2009 at 7:08 pm

      Even if ACORN was as honest as Snow White, the incompetance of it’s members would doom it too disaster.

      Add in the long-standing criminal corruption, and the new “we won” rush-to-the-bank-we-just-hit-the-jackpot-of-jackpots corruption, and it seems obvious that the organization was doomed to failure.

      If it wasn’t for the most corrupt media this country has ever seen, that set of crooks would have died of thier own incompetance before the election.

      Remember, ACORN was under indictments from at least 14 state, and being investigated by many more.

      But the media that took calipers to old pictures of Sarah Palin’s pregnancy couldn’t be bothered to ask what was going on with the soul brothers of the criminal in the White House.

  11. locomotivebreath1901
    September 19, 2009 at 7:02 pm

    Link to the above story:
    http://apnews.myway.com/articl.....L3600.html

  12. proreason
    September 19, 2009 at 9:45 pm

    Must listen audio:

    http://hotair.com/archives/200.....e-day-561/

    I keep thinking some eye-popping conservative leaders are going to emerge from the chaos that the Moron and his handlers have created to shove their agenda down our throats..

    You can’t tell nearly enough from a 10-minute interview, but this clip bolsters my hope that there are people out there just tooling around and doing their own thing but who have the ability to knock your f**g socks off.

    Steven Smith for something!!

    • wardmama4
      September 21, 2009 at 5:14 pm

      Wow that was good – and I guess there is hope for America if there are people like him out there – and we know there are.

      It is a shame that the media can’t even be what they are supposed to be and not so in the tank about Obama and his dangerous policies – It would make things a lot easier but between lying politicians and lying media – is it a fair and just fight at all? And wasn’t that what these liars keep claiming that they are about – fairness and justice?

  13. canary
    September 20, 2009 at 2:59 am

    AP: 3 arrested for false statements in terror probe
    By Associated Press Writer Steven K. Paulson, Sept 20 2009

    DENVER – A 24-year-old Colorado airport shuttle driver and his father were arrested on formal charges of making false statements to federal agents in an ongoing terror investigation, and a third man was arrested in New York City on the same charges, the Justice Department said Sunday.

    Najibullah Zazi, 24, and his father, Mohammed Wali Zazi, 53, were arrested by federal agents late Saturday at their suburban Denver homes. Ahmad Wais Afzali, 37, of Flushing, New York, also was arrested, the Justice Department said.

    Each was charged with knowingly and willfully making false statements to the FBI “in a matter involving international and domestic terrorism,” the department said in a statement.

    If convicted, each would face eight years in prison.

    The FBI is investigating several individuals in the United States, Pakistan and elsewhere in an alleged plot to detonate explosive devices in the United States, the Justice Department said.

    In supporting documents filed with the court, federal investigators say a Sept. 11 search of Zazi’s rental car in New York turned up a laptop computer that contained an image of nine pages of handwritten notes. Those notes included formulas and instructions about how to build explosives, detonators and other components of a fuzing circuit.

    The FBI’s court filings also say Zazi admitted to FBI agents last week that in 2008 he received al-Qaida weapons and explosives training at an al-Qaida training facility in Pakistan, near the border with Afghanistan.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....vbWVfY29rZ
    and we know they weren’t tortured.

  14. canary
    September 20, 2009 at 4:01 am

    Greewich Time: Cycling to raise bucks for troops
    Daily News Staff Report 09/18/2009 Belmont

    Cycling to raise bucks for troops

    Over 44 days, Belmont resident Shawn Stingle is riding his bike at Crissy Field in San Francisco — one mile for every U.S. and Coalition soldier who has died in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. With 5,968 casualties as of Aug. 17, the ride will be equivalent to riding a bike across the United States — twice.

    During the ride, Stingle is raising funds for two nonprofit organizations. The first is Operation: Care and Comfort, which sends care packages to the troops overseas. The second is Strikeouts for Troops, which helps wounded soldiers while they are being treated at military hospitals nationwide. The ride ends on Sept. 30.

    To donate to the cause or for more information, visit: http://www.cyclingforthetroops.org/

    http://www.greenwichtime.com/l.....source=rss

  15. canary
    September 20, 2009 at 4:09 am

    TimesUnion: Seized computer reveals stadiums in terror probe
    New York Daily News September 20, 2009

    NEW YORK — A reputed al-Qaida terror cell operative researched baseball stadiums on a personal computer that also held interior maps of several New York venues, sources told the Daily News Saturday.
    Najibullah Zazi, 24, the focus of an expanding federal probe, also had cell phone video of Grand Central Terminal, the sources said.

    ABC News reported Zazi had also used his computer to research football stadiums and sites used in the recent Fashion Week event in Manhattan.

    While the type of plot remained unclear, the FBI had e-mail and audiotaped conversations between Zazi and others — talking in code — saying their plans were steadily moving ahead, sources said.

    The News reported the Colorado quintet was the first a-Qaida cell uncovered in the U.S. since the 9/11 attacks.

    The News reported that Zazi was involved in cutting a deal that would turn him into a cooperating witness in the investigation — although Zazi’s camp has denied the report.

    http://www.timesunion.com/ASPS.....nkFrom=RSS

    “The News reported the Colorado quintet was the first a-Qaida cell uncovered in the U.S. since the 9/11 attacks.” is this a misprint?

  16. canary
    September 20, 2009 at 5:32 am

    AP: Captured Pakistan Taliban commander dies in jail
    Sep 20 2009
    ISLAMABAD – Pakistan’s army says a Taliban commander

    known for beheading opponents has died in custody from wounds sustained during his capture last week.

    The army media center says Sher Muhammad Qasab died in custody Sunday. Qasab’s three sons were killed in the gunbattle with security forces in the Swat Valley when he was arrested.

    Qasab is an Urdu-language word meaning “butcher.” He was given the title because of his ruthlessness toward enemies. He had a $121,000 bounty on his head.

    The Pakistan Taliban has been on the run after being cleared from the scenic valley and surrounding areas in July. Their leader Baitullah Mehsud was killed in an Aug. 5 CIA missile strike.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....s_pakistan
    Maybe he was shot in head, and they cut it off when they tried to fix it. ;)

  17. canary
    September 20, 2009 at 5:58 am

    BloombergPress: CIA Adding Bases in Afghanistan as Taliban Gains, Panetta Says; By Jeff Bliss

    Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) — The growing strength of the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan prompted the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to establish more bases there, the agency’s director said.

    The extra CIA operatives are supporting the 17,000 additional troops President Barack Obama authorized soon after taking office this year, as well as the civilian government employees
    helping to rebuild the country …

    “We are increasing our presence” because the Taliban’s “capabilities have improved a great deal” in Afghanistan, he said…

    Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said the security situation in Afghanistan is “serious” and “deteriorating.” …The CIA buildup, which Panetta said is “going on as we speak,” reflects how fast the insurgency is gaining ground.

    He said he has asked senior CIA officials to develop a plan in case countries with weak or non-existent governments such as Yemen and Somalia…

    Panetta also said the U.S. may get the opportunity to negotiate with North Korea to scale back its nuclear and missile programs. …

    The U.S. and North Korea “are discussing the ability to try to talk with one another,” Panetta said. “We’re in a honeymoon situation right now.” He credited former President Bill Clinton’s… Relations began to thaw after Clinton traveled to Pyongyang and returned with two detained U.S. journalists on Aug. 5.

    “Our operations in Pakistan, directed at al-Qaeda, have been very successful in disrupting al-Qaeda as far as their operations and their planning,” Panetta said.

    …A militant tried to assassinate the top anti-terrorist official in Saudi Arabia in an attack on Aug. 27…Yemeni-based organization took credit.

    Islamist groups including al-Shabaab and the Hisb-ul-Islam movement have gained control of most of southern and central Somalia …

    U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last month during a visit to Kenya that Sharif’s government represents the “best hope” .

    eff Bliss in Washington jbliss@bloomberg.net.
    http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/.....a63RATz1lM

    Panetta says we are having a honeymoon with N. Korea thanks to Bill Clinton. Did Clinton marry us to N. Korea. So, nice the propaganda trying to paint a rosy picture. We aren’t fooled.

    • canary
      September 20, 2009 at 6:01 am

      Enjoying honeymoon with N. Korea, but back in U.S. the liberals are telling the world about all this devision, lying there is some racist war going on. Unbelievable. They sweet talk out enemies, but call conservatives astro-turf, and violent.

  18. BillK
    September 20, 2009 at 7:11 am

    Proving yet again that union members are completely tone deaf:

    Boulder Valley teachers turn down 1 percent cost-of-living raise

    By Brittany Anas

    Contract negotiations between the Boulder Valley School District and its teachers’ union were canceled Friday after a deal offering teachers a 1 percent “cost-of-living” raise flopped at the bargaining table.

    The two sides are deadlocked, and it’s not clear when they will meet again.

    Chris King, superintendent of Boulder Valley schools, said he is “shocked” the teachers’ union turned down the deal — a concession that he said the union has been demanding.

    But the president of the Boulder Valley Education Association said the unionized teachers are disheartened by the offer because it’s outdated and would discard work toward a “professional salary schedule.” That salary model would increase starting teacher salaries and reward them for their education, but district officials say they can’t afford the millions of dollars it would cost.

    Negotiations stalled at the bargaining table late Thursday night, after seven hours of debate with a federal mediator present.

    King said he had expected to reach a compromise with the teachers by offering the 1 percent raise, which would be paid for with extra money from the state because of an unexpected uptick in enrollment at Boulder Valley schools this year. The boost in enrollment — which King suspects is partly a result of more students leaving private schools for public schools amid the recession — would help the district afford the extra $1.2 million for cost-of-living raises.

    “We were so shocked that it wasn’t better received,” King said.

    At a public meeting in June, Bill Lopez of the Boulder Valley Education Association urged the district to be more collaborative and consider a cost-of-living allowance.

    “If you’re willing to put that 1 percent COLA (cost-of-living allowance) back on the table and work with us, I’m confident we can find an agreement,” Lopez said at the June 9 meeting.

    But Melissa Tingley, president of the union, said the district has already offered 1 percent cost-of-living raises and a 1 percent one-time bonus. The unionized teachers want to implement the “professional salary schedule” this year and expected the district to come to the bargaining table with fresh ideas.

    “We want our fair share of the new money the district received from the state, and we want it applied to a professional salary schedule, which will help us attract and retain quality teachers in the BVSD,” Tingley said. “That will benefit our teachers and our students.” …

    http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_13369667

    I wonder how many of these teachers’ students’ parents saw a 1% COLA increase?

    How many saw any increase at all?

    In fact, how many lost their jobs?

    It’s no matter to the teacher’s union – it’s not real money, just property taxes.

    • Mister C
      September 20, 2009 at 10:22 pm

      BillK,

      In a market economy, contracts usually go to the lowest bidder. So it is with Gov’t contracts; that is until the Gov’t demands certain standards of performance. Then the cost of doing business goes up. In the market, you get what you pay for…why should educators be measured by a different yardstick? If you want something for nothing, keep the kids home and teach’em yourself. Or, you can go searching for the cheapest educator in your area. You’ll get what you pay for.

    • BillK
      September 20, 2009 at 11:13 pm

      So let me get this straight – you’re agreeing with the teacher’s union here that they need to be paid raises people in the private sector would love, and that economics should not affect their contracts?

    • Diane
      September 21, 2009 at 2:20 am

      Mister C: Just what “standards of performance” are you talking about? Teacher’s unions have consistently repudiated any notion of “merit-based” pay for teachers. Honestly, as a teacher myself, I have a hard time seeing exactly how merit-based would work in public education, but that’s not what this is about. The government is not demanding a “certain standard.. of performance”. They’re just trying to find a contract the teachers will sign. The union, on the other hand, appears to be attempting to scrap the current contract completely and replace it with a “professional salary schedule”, which I take to mean a guaranteed pay level for x amount of years teaching and a degree at level y. According to the article, the district simply can’t afford that right now. Also according to the article, the union leader wants to be sure that the “wealth” the district receives from the state is spread around.

      BillK is exactly right. They’re treating the district as essentially a bottomless pit of money. I’ve seen things like this develop before. As a rule, at the end of the day, it’s the students who take it in the shorts.

  19. sheehanjihad
    September 20, 2009 at 11:52 pm

    In this article, a question is postured as to whether Olympia Snowe will bolt the Republican Party and become a liberal Democrat. My question is, when has Ms Snowe been a Republican in the past few years? Her voting record speaks for itself. She has bolted from the Republican party years ago….now it’s only a trifling matter of making it official. She, to be blunt, is a liberal snag.

    http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/w.....t-the-gop/

    • canary
      September 21, 2009 at 6:06 am

      Her records speaks for it’s self, for her to say it’s the party changing, and not her, show’s she’s picking up bad habits from the unaccountable
      liberals.

  20. BillK
    September 21, 2009 at 6:58 am

    If you were ever curious about the way the other side thinks.

    From the ultra-liberal Madison, WI Capital Times:

    Give AFL-CIO’s Sweeney credit

    By Harold Meyerson

    At the AFL-CIO convention in Pittsburgh this week, American labor saw a changing of the guard. John Sweeney, head of the federation since 1995, is stepping down, and Rich Trumka, Sweeney’s deputy for the past 14 years, ascended to the presidency.

    How do we assess Sweeney’s tenure as president? That question was actually posed to him, prospectively, at the news conference that immediately followed his initial election. The expectations for American labor were uncommonly high at that moment: Sweeney had just run the only successful insurgent campaign for the AFL-CIO’s presidency in the federation’s history, based on renewing labor’s commitment to organizing after decades of declining membership. No surprise, then, that Sweeney said he should be judged by his record in reversing that decline.

    If we hold Sweeney to that standard, he fails to meet his own test. Labor’s numbers continued to dwindle most of the past 14 years; they have modestly ticked up since 2007. Yet holding Sweeney to his own standard would not provide a fair measure of his presidency.

    If the past 14 years prove anything, it’s that organizing private-sector workers in America is no longer possible given the sad state of labor law (which effectively encourages employers to illegally destroy organizing campaigns by failing to sanction such behavior or imposing almost nonexistent penalties). The reason 37 percent of public-sector workers are unionized, compared with just 7.5 percent of private-sector workers, isn’t that so many teachers are socialists while sales clerks are capitalists. It’s that, unlike many private employers, governments (at least in the blue states) don’t greet their workers’ attempts to unionize by firing them. …

    http://host.madison.com/ct/new.....19aaf.html

    Why in their utopia, we would all belong to labor unions!

    But why do they mistrust the Government in matters of labor when they want to hand that very Government responsibility for health care?

    But that would require logic, which unions discourage.

  21. BillK
    September 21, 2009 at 8:40 am

    What a great moneymaking scheme plan!

    From the Boulder (CO) Daily Camera:

    Boulder to contractors: Send us more money

    By Heath Urie

    Nearly 1,000 contractors are being asked to shell out a total of as much as $5.2 million in back taxes to the city of Boulder, even though most of them didn’t know they owed a dime.

    Bob Eichem, Boulder’s finance manager, said Monday that the first of three rounds of letters has been mailed to contractors asking them to pay up for projects they’ve completed during the past three years — projects the city now says were under-taxed.

    Eichem said the city code taxes contractors on half of the estimated costs of construction, and it requires them to reconcile any differences between the estimates and the actual costs upon completion.

    A recent audit showed a discrepancy in the amount of taxes being collected, Eichem said, because hundreds of contractors haven’t been paying the final assessments.

    “We started to notice there was a large difference between the estimates and what was actually due,” Eichem said.

    He said people haven’t been skirting the tax code; rather, it’s more likely that rising costs of materials over the past few years — along with other unforeseen expenses — have added to the actual cost of construction and escaped the city’s formula for estimating taxes up front. Whether contractors knew about the reconciliation requirement, he said, doesn’t matter.

    “Anyone could say, ‘I didn’t know,’” Eichem said.

    Estimates put the average discrepancy at 389 percent per project. At that rate, the builder of a $1 million home would owe the city about $58,700 more in back taxes.

    In total, the collections were off between $1.9 million and $5.2 million, Eichem said. The city will only be asking contractors on projects worth at least $20,000 to pay up.

    But several Boulder contractors who have been in the industry for decades said they’ve never been asked for the final assessments, and the city’s demand for more money comes as a complete surprise.

    “I haven’t paid (the final assessment) for the last 28 years, because I didn’t know about it,” said John Shively, president of Boulder-based Rosewood Construction. “This is something that’s been in effect a long time, and they never let people know about it.”

    Shively said he received a notice from the city last month that at least seven of his projects completed in the past three years might owe back taxes. The form asks him to fill out the final values for each of them and to send a check for the taxable difference no later than Dec. 31 — or else he’ll face a 10 percent penalty and 1 percent interest for every month since they were finished.

    “They’re changing the way they’re doing business,” said Shively, who is consulting with attorneys about how to fight the city. “The people who are really hurt are the people who are speculative builders” who take on all the financial responsibility for a project.

    One of those developers is Ed Goodman, president of E. Goodman Construction.

    He said the speculative homes he builds have already been hit hard by the sagging economy, and that paying thousands of dollars in back taxes isn’t possible now.

    “I’m at the mercy of the market,” Goodman said. “Now, three years later, the city is saying, ‘Oh, by the way, we think we need some more money from you.’

    “There’s not a pile of cash laying around or in a savings account.”…

    http://www.dailycamera.com/business/ci_13336852

    I wonder how many more “uncollected” fees the left will find in their drive to collect ever more taxes…

  22. canary
    September 22, 2009 at 3:13 am

    FOXNews.com: Obama gave ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos a stern talking-to Sunday for suggesting that the mandate to buy health insurance would amount to a tax. He even taunted the host for citing the dictionary definition of “tax” to make his point.

    “The fact that you looked up Merriam’s Dictionary, the definition of tax increase, indicates to me that you’re stretching a little bit right now,” Obama said.

    But the language of the health care reform plan proposed by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., explicitly labels the penalty attached to the mandate as an “excise tax.”

    Penalties for failing to obtain coverage would range from $750 to $3,800 under the plan. This is addressed in a section labeled: “Excise Tax.”

    “The excise tax would apply for any period for which the individual is not covered by a health insurance plan with the minimum required benefit,” the Baucus plan says.

    “The president cannot orate himself out of this one. If it feels like a tax, it says it’s a tax — Mr. President, it’s a tax,” Blakeman said.

    House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va., said Monday at a forum in Richmond that the House treats the penalty the same way.

    “The president was on TV last night or yesterday morning saying ‘no no no, it’s not new taxes,’ whereas in this bill and in the Senate bill both, it calls what they are charging employers and individuals a tax. It’s an IRS section of our bill,” he said.

    Obama and Stephanopoulos got in a testy exchange over the matter Sunday on “This Week.”

    “Under this mandate, the government is forcing people to spend money, fining you if you don’t. How is that not a tax?” the host asked.

    Obama argued that the government would be providing tax credits for those who have trouble affording coverage…..

    “That may be, but it’s still a tax increase,” Stephanopoulos said.

    “No. That’s not true,” Obama said. “I absolutely reject that notion.”

    Sep 21, 2009
    http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....latestnews

    PAGE 29 has this information, either Obama still has not read the bill, or he is untruthful.

  23. canary
    September 22, 2009 at 3:24 am

    FOXNews.com: Audiotape Reveals Artists Being Asked to Support Obama’s Agenda

    An official at the White House Office of Public Engagement encouraged a group of artists on a conference call with the National Endowment for the Arts to produce works that supported the Obama administration’s agenda, a transcript of the call reveals.

    The 44-page transcript, which was posted Monday on BigGovernment.com, details an hour-long conference call on Aug. 10 hosted by the NEA, the White House Office of Public Engagement and United We Serve, a nationwide initiative launched by President Obama to increase volunteerism.

    “We’re going to need your help, and we’re going to come at you with some specific ‘asks’ here,” said Buffy Wicks, deputy director of the White House Office of Public Engagement….Wicks,..among several officials on the call — along with then-NEA Director of Communications Yosi Sergant and Michael Skolnik, political director for hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons — seeking focused efforts by the artists in health care, energy and environment, education and community renewal.

    Sergant, who was reassigned by the NEA last week, said…on the call…
    , “Pick — I would encourage you to pick something, whether it’s health care, education, the environment, you know, there’s four key areas that the corporation has identified as the areas of service.

    Patrick Courrieleche, one of the artists on the call, first wrote about the experience on the blog Big Hollywood. Courrieleche, 39, of Los Angeles, said the ubiquitous Obama “Hope” poster by artist Shepard Fairey and musician will.i.am’s “Yes We Can” song and music video were offered as examples of the artist group’s clear impact on Obama’s landslide election.

    According to the newly-released transcript, Skolnik told Courrielche and the other artists that he had “been asked by folks in the White House and folks in the NEA” to participate about a month prior to the call.

    “You are the thought leaders,” Skolnik told the artists. “… or create a campaign for a company, and tell our country and our young people sort of what to do and what to be in to;…the goal of this phone call,… as we did during the campaign but continue to get involved in those things, to support some of the president’s initiatives, but also to do things that we are passionate about and to push the president and push his administration.”

    In a statement to FOXNews.com earlier this month, NEA officials denied that the call was intended to promote a legislative agenda.

    White House spokesman Shin Inouye echoed the NEA’s statement, saying it was not intended to promote any legislative agenda.

    “It was a discussion on the United We Serve effort and how all Americans can participate,” Inouye told FOXNews.com on Sept. 10.

    Officials from the NEA and the White House did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

    http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....7846802:z0
    Sep 21, 2009

  24. canary
    September 22, 2009 at 3:36 am

    FOXNews.com: ACORN’s top officer on Sunday dodged repeated calls to come before Congress and testify about the embattled group’s finances and ties to other organizations.

    Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, had pressed chief organizer Bertha Lewis to prove her commitment to reforming the community activist group by showing more transparency.

    “The bottom line is there’s no transparency in ACORN,” Issa said on “FOX News Sunday.”

    Lewis said her organization has “firewalls” to prevent non-political money from going toward political purposes, but Issa said that’s not true.

    “You shouldn’t get another penny of federal dollars until you demonstrate that those dollars are firewalled for only that use, and that has not been the history of the organization,” Issa said.

    Pressed again on whether she would open her books to Congress, Lewis said: “I am willing to do the work that I need to do every single day, not be distracted,…

    She said any employee “too stupid” not to adhere to professional standards will be terminated.

    Soon after the controversy erupted, Lewis released a statement suggesting race was behind an attempt by conservative critics to “destroy” ACORN.

    Lewis said on “FOX News Sunday” that the group would name an auditor Monday.

    http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....-congress/ Sep 21 2009

    So who can fire Bertha.

  25. canary
    September 22, 2009 at 3:52 am

    FOXNews.com Obama’s Late Night Laughs David Letterman was part comedian, part hardened newsman when he tackled the biggest interview of them all, President Obama, Monday night.
    … “I think it’s important to realize that I was actually black before the election,” Obama said to laughter.

    In another light moment, Mr. Obama quipped the main reason he was on the show was to see a woman who’d shown Dave a heart-shaped potato. Letterman promptly retrieved the potato and gave it to the President.

    Courtesy of the press pool who was able to listen in on the taping,…
    Top Ten Reasons Why President Obama Agreed to Appear on the Show

    10. Heard the lady with the heart-shaped potato was gonna be here
    9. Thought it would be fun to watch someone else get heckled
    8. Something to do with that whole cash for clunkers deal
    7. Every president since Teddy Roosevelt has done it
    6. In this economy, if someone offers you 600 bucks, you take it ladies and gentlemen
    5. We told him Megan Fox would be here
    4. Needed some place to hang out before check in time at his hotel
    3. I have no idea
    2. Said yes, without thinking, like Bush did with Iraq
    1. Wanted to congratulate Dave on the big Emmy win

    In a funny but telling moment about the President’s recent media blitz, Mr. Obama noted that the vast majority of Americans want change,

    but they’re scared about a devil they don’t know.

    He said that’s why he ended up being on the David Letterman show.

    Mr. Obama says of Iraq that we’re on pace to withdraw. He noted that though it’s a good thing Saddam Hussein is no longer in power, given the enormous stakes in Afghanistan, we should have finished the job in Iraq first.

    http://whitehouse.blogs.foxnew.....ht-laughs/

    We know who the “star struck devil” without having to watch him on
    Letterman. Too busy to talk about the ACORN he created, gave 800,000 to, but Bertha says they don’t help candidates.

  26. canary
    September 22, 2009 at 4:00 am

    U.S. charges Obama fund-raiser in $290 million fraud
    By Grant McCool Grant Mccool Sep 21, 2009

    NEW YORK (Reuters) – Hassan Nemazee, a fund-raiser for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and other Democrats, has been indicted for defrauding Bank of America, HSBC and Citigroup Inc out of more than $290 million in loan proceeds,….

    …last month’s indictment of Nemazee, head of a private equity firm and an Iranian American Political Action Committee board member, on one count of defrauding Citigroup’s Citibank.

    The new indictment adds allegations that he defrauded two other banks, Bank of America and HSBC Bank USA, …

    The office of the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan and the FBI said he used the proceeds of his scheme to make donations to election campaigns of federal, state and local candidates, donations to political action committees and charities.

    As of August 2009 Nemazee owed Bank of America about $142 million and owed Citibank about $74.9 million, the indictment said. He drew on a line of credit he fraudulently obtained from HSBC to pay the Citibank loan.

    Nemazee, 59,…listed as one of the top “bundlers” of contributions to Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, according to OpenSecrets.org, a website run by the Center for Responsive Politics research group.

    “For more than 10 years, Hassan Nemazee projected the illusion of wealth, stealing more than $290 million so that he could lead a lavish lifestyle and play the part of heavyweight political fundraiser,” …… He is also charged with identity theft.

    The case is: U.S. v. Nemazee, 09-mj-1927 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan)
    (Reporting by Grant McCool, editing by Leslie Gevirtz and Matthew Lewis)
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/200.....ee_charges

  27. BillK
    September 22, 2009 at 11:24 am

    Are you a criminal in Wellford, South Carolina?

    If the police are chasing you, run.

    From the Associated Press:

    SC mayor defends her order banning police from chasing suspects on foot after officer is hurt

    COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The mayor of a small South Carolina town says she banned her police officers from chasing suspects on foot after an officer was hurt running after a man.

    Wellford Mayor Sallie Peake said Monday she issued the order in August after the city had to pay for an officer who missed work after chasing a “guy who had a piece of crack on him.” She said a drug possession charge was not worth the cost to taxpayers. But her written order said she did “not want anyone chasing any suspects whatsoever.”

    The decision came after two town-issued cars were totaled within a month, although her order applies only to foot chases.

    When a local TV reporter asked about the policy, Peake would not answer and clapped her hands in mock praise that the reporter had found a story.

    http://www.kdvr.com/news/sns-a.....1407.story

    Nice policy, huh?

    One wonders if the same policies will apply once ObamaCare is responsible for the health of police officers.

    • Rusty Shackleford
      September 22, 2009 at 11:31 am

      I live in SC. What the story fails to reveal is that in both of the Carolinas (That’s North and South Carolina for those of you in Rio Linda), crack cocaine production is phenomenal. It is a HUGE problem among the small local towns here and most places have a huge police and sheriff budget.

      Much as I despise their “better-than-you” arrogance, they do tend to get the criminals…that is, if they aren’t one themselves.

  28. Rusty Shackleford
    September 22, 2009 at 11:27 am

    From the producers of ever-more erudite writers at the AP:

    Obama: US `determined to act’ on climate change

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....DMQ–

    By JENNIFER LOVEN, AP White House Correspondent Jennifer Loven, Ap White House Correspondent – 29 mins ago

    UNITED NATIONS – President Barack Obama on Tuesday declared that the United States is a serious partner in combating global warming, telling world peers “we are determined to act.”

    “The journey is hard. And we don’t have much time left to make it,” Obama said in brief remarks at a high-level climate summit convened by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

    Obama sought to show U.S. resolve ahead of crucial talks in Copenhagen in December, when nations will try to reach a new global treaty to address climate change. He spoke at the start of a busy day of diplomacy at the United Nations that also was to include a three-way meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in an effort to nudge forward the Mideast peace process.

    “We understand the gravity of the climate threat. We are determined to act,” Obama said. “And we will meet our responsibility to future generations.”

    He spoke after Ban admonished leaders to put aside differences and move more quickly on global warming.

    Obama is under pressure to put political capital behind getting a serious clean-energy law at home and show that the U.S., an economic giant, will do its part to cut heat-trapping emissions. The U.S. House passed a bill this summer that would set the first mandatory limits on greenhouse gases, but a Senate version appears increasingly unlikely this year.

    In his first presidential visit to the United Nations, Obama also sought to show a clear break from former President George W. Bush without referring to his predecessor by name. Bush’s critics said he didn’t take climate change seriously enough.

    “It is true that for too many years, mankind has been slow to respond to or even recognize the magnitude of the climate threat. It is true of my own country as well,” Obama said. “We recognize that.”

    Environmental experts warn of catastrophic changes, from rising sea levels to more drought, if industrial and developing nations cannot collectively address a warming planet.

    “Our generation’s response to this challenge will be judged by history,” Obama said.

    Obama said his administration has made the “largest-ever” American investment in renewable energy. And he called on other nations — the rich and the developing countries alike — to rise to the challenge. He said undertaking costly environmental clean up work is difficult at a time when the world is trying to recover from a recession, but that it has to be done.

    “All of us will face doubts and difficulties in our own capitals as we try to reach a lasting solution to the climate challenge,” Obama said. “But difficulty is no excuse for complacency.”

    Tuesday’s U.N. summit and the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh later this week seek to put added pressure on rich nations to commit to greenhouse gas cuts and to pay for poorer nations to burn less coal and preserve their forests.

    Obama sought repeatedly to hold everyone accountable. He said developed nations such as the United States have a “responsibility to lead” but rapidly-growing nations must do their part.

    ——The article goes on to quote the boy-king several times to the tune of “the sky is falling” and “calling all cars” type of rhetoric that we have grown so quickly accustomed to. Perhaps he’ll make a (rare) TV appearance to tell us all about “globalclimatewarmingchange”

    Honestly, I’ve grown so tired of this a**hole that I really don’t care what he says at all. I just posted this link to prove it.

  29. BillK
    September 22, 2009 at 11:31 am

    Remember when the media would mercilessly flay President Bush for issuing non-specific security bulletins?

    What’s Obama’s excuse?

    From the Associated Press:

    Feds issue security bulletins telling stadiums, hotels to be vigilant against terror

    By Devlin Barrett and Eileen Sullivan

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Counterterrorism officials have issued security bulletins about terrorist interest in attacking sports stadiums, entertainment complexes and hotels.

    The FBI and Homeland Security Department sent two bulletins Monday to police around the country, saying they know of no specific plots against such sites. The bulletins obtained by The Associated Press say those sites remain attractive targets to groups like al-Qaida. …

    http://www.kdvr.com/news/natio.....3221.story

    But I thought these alerts were just Bush administration efforts to frighten people? Could it be there’s an actual threat?

    Not with Obama in charge, certainly…

  30. Rusty Shackleford
    September 22, 2009 at 11:57 am

    Just a side note…

    In the past few days I’ve noticed that our usually obsequious MSM has been on the “cutting edge” and actually putting some harder questions to their beloved masters. First George Stephanopoulos gets the dictionary out to show the boy the meaning of the word “tax”, and now Wolf Blister-on-my-ass, tries for an answer from Axle-head about letting health insurance companies go national vs. the plan of creating a government mess.

    What’s going on here? Has the MSM signed up for sex-change operations to get a pair?

    • proreason
      September 22, 2009 at 12:47 pm

      Fox’s ratings are through the roof.

      Ultimately, it’s all about self-preservation.

      Even for effete group-think news stenographers.

  31. BillK
    September 23, 2009 at 8:50 am

    From Los Angeles’ KTLA Television:

    Al-Qaida Predicts Fall of President Obama by Muslim Nation

    CAIRO — Al-Qaida on Tuesday released a new 106-minute long video predicting President Barack Obama’s downfall at the hands of the Muslim world.

    The Arabic-language video, entitled “The West and the Dark Tunnel,” is part of series of messages by the organization marking the eighth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Bin Laden released a short message of his own on Sept. 14.

    Like similar long messages on previous anniversaries, it featured testimony from several leading al-Qaida figures intercut with news footage from the past year.

    As in the past, al-Qaida attempted to conflate Obama with his predecessor, George W. Bush, who was widely disliked by Muslims for his invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

    Many analysts believe that al-Qaida has been alarmed by Obama’s comparative popularity in the Middle East, especially following his landmark speech to the Muslim world in Cairo in June.

    “America has come in a new, hypocritical face. Smiling at us, but stabbing us with the same dagger that Bush used,” said Al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri in the message.

    “God willing, your end will be at the hands of the Muslim nation, so that the world and history will be free of your crimes and lies,” he said addressing Obama at the end of the two-part video.

    The message also featured several appearances of Adam Gadahn, also known as Azzam al-Amriki, an American who grew up in southern California, converted to Islam and joined al-Qaida. He was charged with treason in 2006 and there is a $1 million reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction.

    Gadahn’s remarks celebrating the defeat of Bush and ridiculing Obama suggest the video was made in late August or early September.

    “The important question is will Obama and his Democrats learn from his predecessor’s mistakes or will they go on repeating them until they too leave office in humiliation and disgrace,” said the heavily bearded American, dressed in a white robe.

    “Unfortunately for the Democrats, and judging by their first seven-and-a-half months at the helm of the sinking American ship, the prognosis doesn’t look good,” he said. …

    http://www.ktla.com/news/landi.....5314.story

    Obviously, Al Qaeda are racists.

    • BannedbytheTaliban
      September 23, 2009 at 3:43 pm

      Its odd they would use the term “the Dark Tunnel” then Qaddafi calls Obama “a glimpse in the dark” at the UN. I’m sure it was just happenstance.

  32. BillK
    September 23, 2009 at 8:54 am

    I wouldn’t say “Only in Los Angeles” as this would likely be the case everywhere.

    From Los Angeles’ KTLA Television:

    Coyote Killings in Griffith Park Spark Outrage

    LOS ANGELES — Some wildlife enthusiasts are outraged after seven coyotes were shot to death by trappers in Griffith Park.

    Trackers were called in to trap and shoot the animals after two people were reportedly attacked in the park in recent weeks.

    One man claimed he was lyng down near the Travel Town area last week when he awoke to find a coyote biting his foot, said Kevin Brennan, a California Department of Fish and Game wildlife biologist.

    The man was not seriously injured.

    Another person was bitten in the park in late August, according to Los Angeles County health officials.

    In response, wardens dispatched U.S. Department of Agriculture wildlife services trappers, who roved the park Thursday and Sunday, trapping and shooting seven of the animals.

    Some park-goers say the action is too extreme and believe other, non-lethal measures can be taken to control the problem.

    The agency’s policy is to capture and kill coyotes only if there’s an imminent threat to public safety. Brennan said someone getting bitten is considered an imminent threat.

    But because authorities learned of the attacks too late to swab the victim for coyote DNA, they will never know which coyote was responsible for the attack. …

    http://www.ktla.com/news/landi.....7810.story

    Who cares about humans if coyotes are killed?

  33. BillK
    September 23, 2009 at 8:58 am

    From the Los Angeles Times:

    Supreme Court to weigh depictions of animal cruelty

    In a case that pits free-speech defenders against animal rights activists, the justices will consider whether the 1st Amendment should protect depictions of animals being hurt.

    By David G. Savage

    Reporting from Washington – The video images were disturbing — a tiny white kitten singed with the flame from a lighter; a gray cat struggling beneath a woman’s spiked heel; pit bulls tearing into a trapped animal.

    The Supreme Court has often said that freedom of speech includes ugly and foul language. But this fall the justices will be looking at video clips like these to decide whether selling films of dogfights or animal torture is protected from prosecution under the 1st Amendment.

    The dispute, expected to be heard in early October, has driven a wedge between traditional free-speech advocates and defenders of the humane treatment of animals.

    Book publishers, movie makers, photographers, artists and journalists have joined the case on the side of a Virginia man who was convicted of selling videos of dogfights. They argue that any new exception to the 1st Amendment, no matter how laudable the goal, poses a danger to free expression.

    “The road to censorship is paved with good intentions,” said Joan Bertin, executive director of the National Coalition Against Censorship.

    But animal rights advocates say no one should be able to profit from the abuse and torture of animals for entertainment.

    “This is not about speech, but about a commercial activity of a sickening type,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States.

    The society said it had seen a resurgence of horrific “crush videos” for sale on the Internet in the last year, ever since a U.S. appeals court struck down on free-speech grounds a federal law that banned the selling of videos of animals being maimed and tortured.

    These underground videos, said to appeal to a bizarre fetish, typically include tiny animals being crushed by a woman’s shoe.

    Investigators for the Humane Society said hundreds of such videos could be purchased online. They showed clips of them to reporters this month. …

    http://www.latimes.com/news/na.....2217.story

    Hmmm…

    This is not about speech, but about a commercial activity of a sickening type …

    and:

    These underground videos, said to appeal to a bizarre fetish …

    Doesn’t that make this the holy of all holies to the left, pornography?

    • caligirl9
      September 23, 2009 at 11:46 pm

      While I’m no fan of porn, I have an intense dislike of animal abuse. No, I’m not a vegetarian, but I do think animals deserve humane treatment from the species in charge, which for now happens to be human beings.

      I hate that government has to get into this, but not all human beings are reasonable or humane … selling videos of animal torture is wrong, period, and personally I’d rather the authorities go after that type of activity as opposed to labeling conservatives and veterans as threats and treating us as if we were breaking laws and even worthy of “keeping an eye on.”

      Does “free expression” mean it’s okay to beat people up? Harm children? Step on kittens on purpose? To me, that’s taking it too far. But again, you want to assume reasonable behavior and that just doesn’t happen nearly enough nowadays. Anything goes.

    • BillK
      September 24, 2009 at 12:04 am

      I understand completely.

      My point is the left will defend to the death the right to show anything else that may horrify or offend, from any sexual act no matter how depraved to the death of our own soldiers on the battlefield, but somehow animal cruelty they say is not covered by the First Amendment?

      It just goes to show how, once again, things like “Freedom of Speech” means “Freedom to say things we agree with” to the left.

      If the First Amendment trumps all, then it needs to be applied equally, using their own arguments.

      If the rule is that “commercial activity of a sickening type” should be banned, then how do they defend demands that say “Anal Assassin 17″ be made available for sale in Utah?

  34. BillK
    September 23, 2009 at 9:02 am

    Strangely little reported, from the Los Angeles Times:

    San Ysidro border entry point closed after gunfight

    By Richard Marosi

    U.S. authorities have closed the San Ysidro Port of Entry on the border with Mexico after a gunfight there early Tuesday.

    San Ysidro is the nation’s busiest border crossing. Roughly 40,000 vehicles cross there daily from Mexico.

    Three vans loaded with suspected illegal immigrants tried to speed through the crossing Tuesday afternoon, drawing gunfire from at least two U.S. agents, authorities said.

    Three people in the vans and a traveler in a nearby car were injured in the failed attempt to cross into San Diego from Tijuana. About 70 people inside the vehicles were taken into custody, according to authorities. …

    http://latimesblogs.latimes.co.....ight-.html

    See, if we didn’t have border guards, we wouldn’t have such horrific shoot-outs.

  35. sheehanjihad
    September 23, 2009 at 9:04 am

    Now here’s something S&L has alluded to for almost a year and a half….and so far, of course, the msm is relatively mute on the subject….and from what I see…it is flat out chilling in its scope:

    —WASHINGTON – The Obama administration warned insurance companies Monday they face possible legal action for allegedly trying to scare seniors with misleading information about the potential for lost benefits under health care legislation in Congress.—

    Mind you, this is an AP article to boot, even tho I am sure the by line “reporter” will be sent to do a story on painting bouys in the Aleutians for his effort…but this is the first outright major assault on the first amendment by the Obama administration….and it wont be the last. Speak out. While you can. Offense is the best defense…always has been.

    http://www.startribune.com/lif.....atkEP7DhUr

  36. sheehanjihad
    September 23, 2009 at 9:19 am

    And just when you thought (unwisely) that the “Plastic Fantastic” Speaker of the House held on to even a modicum of honesty and integrity……here she goes again!!

    http://thehill.com/homenews/ho.....healthcare

    Since I am not bound by the ever changing ethics rules of the House, let me at least weigh in with a head’s up to anyone who is naive enough to think that an agreement with the Speaker will be honored…..SHE LIES!!!! She lies like a rug on the floor! She will do ANYTHING to promote her socialist agenda, and any member of the House who thinks otherwise needs to re think their election prospects.

    See that bus coming around the corner? Guess what “members”? You are going to get to see how it looks from underneath here shortly. Guess who’s driving the bus? You cannot be that ignorant….can you? Oh, yeah…judging by the legislation we are seeing…you are.

  37. Rusty Shackleford
    September 23, 2009 at 10:15 pm

    I just LOVE this—–

    From the gun-hating AP:

    America armed, but guns not necessarily loaded

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....o_shortage

    By MARY FOSTER, Associated Press Writer Mary Foster, Associated Press Writer – Wed Sep 23, 2:51 pm ET

    NEW ORLEANS – Bullet-makers are working around the clock, seven days a week, and still can’t keep up with the nation’s demand for ammunition.

    Shooting ranges, gun dealers and bullet manufacturers say they have never seen such shortages. Bullets, especially for handguns, have been scarce for months because gun enthusiasts are stocking up on ammo, in part because they fear President Barack Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress will pass antigun legislation — even though nothing specific has been proposed and the president last month signed a law allowing people to carry loaded guns in national parks.

    Gun sales spiked when it became clear Obama would be elected a year ago and purchases continued to rise in his first few months of office. The FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System reported that 6.1 million background checks for gun sales were issued from January to May, an increase of 25.6 percent from the same period the year before.

    “That is going to cause an upswing in ammunition sales,” said Larry Keane, senior vice president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association representing about 5,000 members. “Without bullets a gun is just a paper weight.”

    The shortage for sportsmen is different than the scarcity of ammo for some police forces earlier this year, a dearth fueled by an increase in ammo use by the military in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    “We are working overtime and still can’t keep up with the demand,” said Al Russo, spokesman for North Carolina-based Remington Arms Company, which makes bullets for rifles, handguns and shotguns. “We’ve had to add a fourth shift and go 24-7. It’s a phenomenon that I have not seen before in my 30 years in the business.”

    Americans usually buy about 7 billion rounds of ammunition a year, according to the National Rifle Association. In the past year, that figure has jumped to about 9 billion rounds, said NRA spokeswoman Vickie Cieplak.

    Jason Gregory, who manages Gretna Gun Works just outside of New Orleans, has been building his personal supply of ammunition for months. His goal is to have at least 1,000 rounds for each of his 25 weapons.

    “I call it the Obama effect,” said Gregory, 37, of Terrytown, La. “It always happens when the Democrats get in office. It happened with Clinton and Obama is even stronger for gun control. Ammunition will be the first step, so I’m stocking up while I can.”

    So far, the new administration nor Congress has not been markedly antigun. Obama has said he respects Second Amendment rights, but favors “common sense” on gun laws. Still, worries about what could happen persist.

    Demand has been so heavy at some Walmarts, a limit was imposed on the amount of ammo customers can buy. The cutoff varies according to caliber and store location, but sometimes as little as one box — or 50 bullets — is allowed.

    —–I just love it. Unintended consequences…the gun-hating lefties…by their mere presence in the government, has done more to bolster the private sector, in the form of creating a HUGE demand, than any stimulus disbursement ever could.

    I am laughing my a** off.

  38. BillK
    September 24, 2009 at 1:44 am

    From a delighted Associated Press:

    Palin talks US-China relations in speech in Asia

    By Jeremiah Marquez

    Months after abruptly resigning as Alaska’s governor, Sarah Palin resurfaced in Hong Kong more moderate in tone and better versed in international affairs, possibly laying the first brick for a 2012 White House bid.

    In her first overseas speech Wednesday, the former vice presidential candidate touched on a wide range of issues — from financial markets and Afghanistan to China-U.S. relations and health care — before a room packed with more than a thousand investors and bankers at an annual investment conference.

    “I’m going to call it like I see it, and I will share with you candidly a view right from Main Street, Main Street U.S.A.,” Palin said, according to a video of part of the speech obtained by The Associated Press. “And how perhaps my view of Main Street … how that affects you and your business.”

    While she displayed some of her trademark folksy charm, the fireworks from her debut speech at the Republican National Convention last year were apparently missing. So, too, was the sharp partisan edge of the politician who toured the country as Sen. John McCain’s running mate. She appeared more moderate, did not attack President Obama directly and avoided any major gaffes, attendees said.

    “She has learned and grown from the election,” said Melvin Goode, New York-based consultant who said he’d carried out some political polling for President Barack Obama in the past. “She was more level headed. … She didn’t criticize. I was waiting to see if she said anything derogatory about Obama, and she didn’t.”

    She criticized the U.S. Federal Reserve’s massive intervention in the economy over the last year, according to one attendee, who declined to be named because he didn’t want to be seen as speaking on behalf of his company. Praising the conservative economic policies of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, she gave a general defense of capitalist systems.

    “She was careful not to be over-critical … but she said she saw the fiscal situation is going out of control,” said Gregory Lesko, managing director of New York-based Deltec Asset Management. …

    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....032D25.DTL

    She didn’t say anything derogatory about Obama! She’s redeemed!

    Or is she, with respect to all of us who love her, going soft?

    • Diane
      September 24, 2009 at 10:17 am

      I would be astounded if she were going soft. Every Democrat Presidential candidate in my lifetime, starting with the sainted JC, has campaigned by “moving to the center”. I think Sarah is following a similar if less disingenuous plan by moderating what she says. Add to that the fact that she was in a foreign venue. People with class don’t air the family linen around strangers. (Insert obvious Obama joke here.)

  39. BillK
    September 24, 2009 at 9:36 am

    Hey, if raising the cost of health care for everyone while telling the public it will somehow reduce costs is a good idea for health care, why not try the same for auto insurance!

    From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

    Proposal would eliminate ZIP codes as factor in Wisconsin car insurance rates

    By Paul Gores

    All other factors being equal, car insurance would cost the same whether you lived in a high-risk area in Milwaukee or a sparsely populated rural town under a proposal in the state Legislature.

    Some Democratic legislators have revived the plan even though Gov. Jim Doyle vetoed a similar measure that was included in the latest state budget.

    Generally, the cost of insuring a vehicle can be 40% to 60% higher in the state’s most heavily populated areas, unless a credit score – itself a controversial and influential measure – is a mitigating factor, one longtime Wisconsin insurance professional said. The risk of thefts, vandalism and accidents typically is higher in densely populated areas.

    Proponents of the plan to eliminate ZIP codes as a factor in setting rates contend that with mandatory car insurance taking effect next year, insurance should be priced more evenly across the state.

    “We’re just trying to make it affordable. We want people to comply and go out there and get insurance, and this is one of the barriers,” said state Rep. Leon Young (D-Milwaukee).

    The insurance industry is opposing the bill, saying premiums would go up for motorists in less-congested areas if it becomes law. The current system is fair because it lets companies charge more where the risk and cost of auto insurance claims are higher, insurers say.

    “If insurers can’t use ZIP codes, it would just be a redistribution of premium – plain and simple,” said Steve Witmer, a spokesman for Madison-based American Family Insurance, the state’s largest insurer of autos.

    In addition to ZIP codes and credit scores, insurers look at factors such as driving records, the number of miles driven in a year, the customer’s age, the type of car and amount of coverage in setting premiums. According to the Insurance Information Institute, insurers also consider local trends such as the number of accidents and car thefts in areas where customers live.

    State Sen. Tim Carpenter (D-Milwaukee), the author the bill prohibiting what he calls “ZIP code discrimination,” said constituents in his south side district have reported bizarre cases of their auto insurance premiums dramatically increasing after moving nearby where the ZIP code was different.

    “This makes no sense,” Carpenter said in a statement. “I don’t think good drivers should have to pay extra because other parts of their ZIP code – which could be miles away – may have higher crime rates or more irresponsible drivers. My bill will make sure that auto insurance premiums will be based upon the driver’s record, the years of experience a driver has behind the wheel, and the miles driven, not ZIP codes.” …

    http://www.jsonline.com/news/s.....76487.html

    Ah yes, let’s make insurance more affordable for those living in high crime areas by (how else?) raising everyone else’s premiums to pay for them.

    A clearly delineated guideline in the DNC playbook.

    Could people oh, check what moving to a particular area would do to their insurance rates do that before moving?

    Nah, too difficult…

    • caligirl9
      September 24, 2009 at 9:44 am

      Is this a prime example of “new” math? Spread costs to the responsible individuals in a given population so the irresponsible ones can go about their merry way…

    • BillK
      September 24, 2009 at 10:01 am

      This differs from any other example of Democratic legislation how?

      Look at the mortgage bailout where those who bought homes they could actually afford and paid on time also got the shaft.

  40. Rusty Shackleford
    September 24, 2009 at 11:17 am

    From the utopia-minded AP:

    New UN resolution aims at nuclear-free world

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....ear_summit

    By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press Writer – 22 mins ago

    UNITED NATIONS – With U.S. President Barack Obama presiding over an historic session, the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a U.S.-drafted resolution Thursday aimed at ridding the world of nuclear weapons.

    Russia, China and developing nations supported the U.S.-sponsored measure, giving it global clout and strong political backing.

    The resolution calls for stepped up efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, promote disarmament and “reduce the risk of nuclear terrorism.”

    It was only the fifth time the Security Council met at summit level since the U.N. was founded in 1945. And Obama was the first American president to preside over a Security Council summit, gaveling the meeting into session and announcing that “the draft resolution has been adopted unanimously.”

    “The historic resolution we just adopted enshrines our shared commitment to a goal of a world without nuclear weapons,” Obama said immediately after the vote. “And it brings Security Council agreement on a broad framework for action to reduce nuclear dangers as we work toward that goal.”

    Just one nuclear weapon set off in a major city could cause major destruction, Obama said.

    —-Really? You learned this how, exactly?

    He said the global effort would seek to “lock down all vulnerable nuclear materials within four years.”

    —-That’s some plan, bro’. Guess you envision some uber-elite “world police force” to carry that out?

    “This is not about singling out an individual nation,” he said. “International law is not an empty promise, and treaties must be enforced.”

    “We will leave this meeting with renewed determination,” Obama said.

    ——-I don’t mind your dishonesty half as much as I mind your opinion of me; You must think I’m stupid.

    ——-Barry, why don’t you just shut the f— up. I’m afraid I have to agree with Rush on this. Not because I listen to him, as some might think, to formulate my opinions. I don’t. But they are often the mirror of my own. In this case, you speak as if you are “president of the world”. And, as insulted as I am by your flagrant disregard to my wishes, you now do this to the rest of the planet. As with a school-yard bully, when caught in a moment of inadequacy, often the reaction is to be even more brazen. This is one of those moments. You suck at domestic policy and thus, you are even more bold and overreaching in foreign matters. Mainly because you don’t understand any of it.

    ——I guess, though, you actually think the UN carries some weight. Looking at the record, I can see why you would think that.

    • Rusty Shackleford
      September 24, 2009 at 11:46 am

      And another thing: By standing there and carrying on so, in the manner of Achhhh-I need-a-job, and Coiff-Daffy, and Chavez, etc, you have completely discredited the office of the presidency. You have lowered the nation’s credibility so much that I think it runs the risk that NO nation would, as you suggest, look to the US for help. Not because of the notion that they shouldn’t but because they know they couldn’t count on you to put on a raincoat in a shower. Yes, you look THAT incompetent. And thus, you make the NATION, the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA look that incompetent. Remember how they snickered at Carter? Well, take some solace in the fact they haven’t outright laughed in your face….yet.

  41. Rusty Shackleford
    September 24, 2009 at 12:32 pm

    And the AP is caught off-guard yet again:

    Home sales drop 2.7 percent

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....home_sales

    By ALAN ZIBEL, AP Real Estate Writer Alan Zibel, Ap Real Estate Writer – 1 hr 35 mins ago

    WASHINGTON – Home resales dipped unexpectedly last month after a four-month streak of gains, providing evidence that the housing market recovery remains fragile.

    ——-THERE IT IS!!! “UNEXPECTEDLY”. I swear, these wizards at the AP just never get out and see the world.

    The National Association of Realtors said Thursday that sales dropped 2.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.1 million in August, from a pace of 5.24 million in July.

    Sales, which were still up 3.4 percent from a year earlier, had been expected to rise to an annual pace of 5.35 million, according to economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

    “We suspect it is just a temporary blip in the improving trend rather than a sign of renewed weakness,” wrote Paul Dales, U.S. economist at Capital Economics.

    First-time buyers purchased almost one in three homes last month. New homeowners will get an $8,000 tax credit if they complete the transaction by Nov. 30, which the credit expires.

    “There is strength in the market and we will see stronger sales through November,” said Patrick Newport, an economist at IHS Global Insight.

    Lawrence Yun, the Realtor’s chief economist, said the drop may reflect delays in completing sales due to tough lending standards and new rules for appraisals.

    Nationwide sales are up nearly 14 percent from their bottom in January, but are still down nearly 30 percent from their peak nearly four years ago. For the housing market to stabilize, Yun said, sales would need to rise to a pace of around 5.5 million to 6 million per year.

    If buyers see clear evidence of stable prices, the housing market recovery can be self-sustaining, Yun said, adding, “We are not there yet.”

    But…..the recession is OVER. The boy has said so.

    • proreason
      September 24, 2009 at 12:45 pm

      It’s a tough call whether now is a good time to buy a house or not.

      Some powerful inflation is on the near horizon, which ordinarilly would mean that owning a home would be to your advantage (since home values have traditionally risen with inflation. In addition, a fixed rate mortgage doesn’t rise with inflation like rent does.)

      But the problem, like everything else today, is that the Fascists have torn up the rule book. They literally could do anything. They could go after the home builders. They could remove the mortgage deduction. They could put a surtax on home owners because they have “unfairly” acquired private property that “disadvantaged” people could not acquire. Property is probably going to go up, but it is far riskier than it ever has been.

      Plus, even without the crazy things they are likely to do, the bottom of the housing market may not have been reached.

  42. BillK
    September 24, 2009 at 12:34 pm

    Who needs that silly oil anyway.

    This is why oil companies yawned last year; they weren’t about to invest money into possibly drilling when it was obvious the Government would just change their minds anyway.

    From a very excited Associated Press:

    Senate Blocks Bid to Keep Offshore Drilling Policy

    WASHINGTON – The Senate on Wednesday voted against an attempt by Republicans to keep in place a plan by the Bush administration to allow oil and gas drilling along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

    The 56-42 vote killed a proposal by Sen. David Vitter, R-La., that would have blocked the Obama administration from pursuing its own policy on offshore drilling.

    Last year, with gasoline prices soaring, Republicans sought political momentum by advocating new offshore drilling.

    “Remember last summer where almost all of America said, ‘This is ridiculous, drill here, drill now. Let’s use our own resources and not be held captive to foreign interests,’” Vitter said. “Do you remember that?”

    Interior Secretary Ken Salazar disappointed pro-drilling advocates last week when he said that he’s in no hurry to make a decision on whether to allow offshore drilling in federal waters off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

    Salazar said he’s uncertain whether the Interior Department will seek to put a new five-year drilling plan in place before the existing leasing program runs out in 2012. …

    http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....ing-policy

  43. BillK
    September 24, 2009 at 12:43 pm

    This is driving the Denver-area activists who say all the “evidence” was fabricated by the FBI up the wall.

    From Fox News:

    Colorado Airport Driver Indicted on Terrorism Charges in Suspected U.S. Bomb Plot

    WASHINGTON — A Colorado airport shuttle driver was indicted Thursday on federal charges of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction in a possible Al Qaeda-linked bomb plot in the United States.

    Najibullah Zazi, 24, faces charges of conspiring to use explosives against persons or property in the United States, the Justice Department said.

    Authorities believe he and others may have been plotting a copycat mass transit attack in New York City similar to those on subways in London and Madrid.

    “We are investigating a wide range of leads related to this alleged conspiracy, and we will continue to work around the clock to ensure that anyone involved is brought to justice,” said Attorney General Eric Holder in a statement. “We believe any imminent threat arising from this case has been disrupted.”

    Zazi — an Afghanistan native who is a legal permanent resident of Aurora, Colo. — previously was charged with the lesser offense of lying to the government for his suspected involvement in the New York-Denver-based scheme.

    Two others, Zazi’s father and a controversial Queens, N.Y., imam, also are charged with lying to federal agents from the FBI trying to uncover the plot.

    Authorities say they found bomb-making instructions on a hard drive on Zazi’s laptop computer but still were unsure of the specific target or scope of a possible terrorist attack. They say they have linked Zazi to Al Qaeda.

    The Justice Department accused the Denver airport shuttle driver of “knowingly and intentionally” plotting with others “to use one or more weapons of mass destruction, specifically explosive bombs and other similar explosive devices.” The alleged planning happened between Aug. 1, 2008, and Sept. 21, 2009, according to the DOJ.

    The indictment also alleges that Zazi and others traveled within the United States and overseas and used e-mail and the Internet in plotting the bombings. …

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,554807,00.html

    The ACLU should have him out by the end of the day.

  44. BillK
    September 24, 2009 at 12:48 pm

    Ahmadinejad or Michael Moore?

    Is there a difference?

    From a loving Associated Press:

    Iran’s president rails against capitalism

    UNITED NATIONS (AP) – Under increasing attack over Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday that Tehran was ready to meet conciliation with conciliation.

    Ahmadinejad spoke to a half-empty chamber as he sought to cast himself as a beleaguered champion of the developing world, that he portrayed as under attack from rapacious capitalism.

    At the same time, the Iranian leader issue stinging attacks on the United States and its allies without calling them by name, prompting a walkout by the U.S. delegation.

    Ahmadinejad made only passing reference to the nuclear issue, a call for global nuclear disarmament.

    Moments before he spoke, foreign ministers of six global powers told reporters on the sidelines of the General Assembly that they expect Iran to come clean about its nuclear program. Tougher sanctions against Iran are being considered if talks between the powers and Iran on the issue, set for Oct. 1, don’t yield results.

    At times, Ahmadinejad struck a softer tone, declaring that Tehran was “prepared to warmly shake all those hands which are honestly extended to us.” He peppered his speech with religious references, invoking the prophets of Judaism and Christianity, as well as Islam.

    Yet most of the speech focused on his usual themes – scathing verbal attacks on archenemy Israel and the West.

    He assailed Israel for what he said was a “barbaric” attack on the Gaza Strip last winter. He also accused the West of hypocrisy, saying it preached democracy, but violated its fundental principles.

    Turning to domestic affairs, Ahmadinejad insisted he won a “large majority” in June elections. Pro-reform opposition politicians have alleged electoral fraud, and Ahmadinejad has been at the center of political turmoil since then. …

    http://www.9news.com/news/worl.....;catid=347

    Seriously, is there anything he said that Moore would disagree with?

  45. canary
    September 24, 2009 at 3:21 pm

    Obama’s mentor Louis Farrakhan paid Gadhafi a visit.

    TheYahooNewsRoom: Gadhafi’s colorful UN speech rouses and confuses
    09/23/09
    – The UN’s location in New York, which he described as inconvenient for him and other traveling world leaders, causing them all to suffer from jetlag.

    – The Iraq war, which he described as “the mother of all evils.” He added that the perpetrators of the war should be tried in international court, and he also compared the Taliban favorably to the Vatican.

    – A range of conspiracies involving Israel, swine flu and the JFK assassination.
    …Gadhafi tossed the UN Charter away dismissively.

    Perhaps Gadhafi’s odd address is related to a lack of proper rest? He may have planned to stay on Donald Trump’s sprawling property in Bedford, NY, home to Martha Stewart and Ralph Lauren, where a tent was erected earlier in the week complete with electricity, a satellite dish and camel-themed lining on the walls. It’s unclear whether or not the dictator planned to lodge inside the tent or inside of the seven-bedroom, nine-bathroom Trump mansion that sits on the property. Some have speculated that Gadhafi may have been merely planning to entertain guests in the tent. Regardless, local residents and elected officials reacted with indignation when they learned of the tent on Trump’s property, which was shut down by building inspectors for not having the proper permits.

    How Gadhafi, who’s already had plans to stay in Englewood, NJ and Central Park while in the area squashed by public outrage, came to even be on Trump’s property appears to be a bit of a mystery. A state department official told the AP that the Libyan government had rented the property for the week, but a Trump spokesperson told the New York Post that her boss and his company had no contact with Gadhafi or the Libyan government and that “the property was leased on a short-term basis to Middle Eastern” business partners who “may or may not have a relationship to Mr. Gadhafi.” The Post also reported that Gadhafi may have spent last night at the Libyan Mission in midtown Manhattan after being expelled from Trump’s property,

    where he was visited by Louis Farrakhan.

    No official word yet on where Gadhafi plans to stay tonight.

    – Brett Michael Dykes is a contributor to the Yahoo! News Blog.
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/.....news_ts911

    Obama possibly may have arranged the meeting between Farrakhan and Gadhafi. There just might be a messenger in Obama’s web of Farrakhan supporters. I can see where the UN allowed Gadhafi a 90 minute speech.
    Entertainment to some, but surely Obama was able to make sense of it.

  46. canary
    September 24, 2009 at 3:58 pm

    AP: G-20 march turns chaotic on streets of Pittsburgh
    By Daniel Lovering And Michael Rubinkam Sept 24, 2009

    PITTSBURGH – Protesters and police are clashing on the streets of Pittsburgh after police tried to break up a march oppposing the Group of 20 summit.

    Protesters rolled trash bins toward police and a man in a black hooded sweat shirt threw rocks at a police car, breaking the front windshield. Some protesters also are using pallets and corrugated steel to block a road.

    Officers fired gas at the protesters. Some of those exposed to the gas were coughing, complaining of eyes watering and stinging.

    The march began with several hundred protesters. It did not have a city permit and police declared it an unlawful assembly. The group broke into smaller groups after being confronted by police.

    PITTSBURGH (AP) — An unpermitted march at the Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh has turned chaotic, with protesters rolling trash bins toward police and officers firing gas in return.

    Some protesters also are using pallets and corrugated steel to block a road.

    Protesters exposed to the gas were coughing, complaining of eyes watering and stinging.

    The march does not have a city permit and police have declared it an unlawful assembly.

    Several hundred protesters, many advocating against capitalism, had been trying to march toward the site of the summit.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....t_protests

  47. canary
    September 24, 2009 at 5:20 pm

    Ford Gets $5.9 Billion To Build Fuel-Efficient Cars
    Loan expected to help Ford meet mileage standards

    By James Limbach ConsumerAffairs.com September 17, 2009

    Ford Motor Company is getting $5.9 billion in federal loans….
    …steps taken by the Obama Administration earlier this week to require an average fuel economy of 35.5 miles per gallon in the year 2016…

    “This investment is part of our commitment to creating the clean energy jobs of the future while supporting American innovation,” said Energy Secretary Steven Chu…

    On June 23, 2009, DOE issued a conditional loan commitment to Ford to finance up to 80 percent of qualified expenditures to improve the efficiency of light vehicles…

    In June of this year, the Department of Energy announced conditional loan offers to Ford Motor Company, Tesla Motors, and Nissan Motors for a total of $8 billion. The program was appropriated $7.5 billion by Congress to support up to $25 billion in loans to companies making cars…

    Applications for the loan program have included vehicles running on electricity, biofuels, and advanced combustion engines, and were submitted by both car and component makers, US automakers, US manufacturing subsidiaries of non-US-based companies, major US auto parts suppliers, and innovative startups.
    Read more: http://www.consumeraffairs.com.....z0S3oXuYJv

    http://www.consumeraffairs.com.....loans.html

  48. canary
    September 24, 2009 at 6:24 pm

    AP: Russia presses US to destroy Afghan poppy crop
    By Douglas Birch, Associated Press Writer | September 23, 2009

    MOSCOW –Russia is pressing the White House to resurrect the Bush-era policy of large-scale eradication of poppy fields in Afghanistan…opium.

    The Kremlin’s counter-narcotics chief, Viktor P. Ivanov, said in an interview published in the daily Izvestia on Wednesday that the U.S. and Russia should work… prevent extremist organizations from financing attacks with profits from the drug trade…

    …Instead, he told The New York Times this week, the Obama administration should use the kind of aerial spraying of herbicides the U.S. has employed against the illicit coca crop in Colombia…

    The Bush administration had long supported the manual eradication of opium poppy crops in Afghanistan. At one point, it tried to persuade President Hamid Karzai to accept aerial spraying as well and even transferred U.S. Ambassador William Wood from Bogota to Kabul because of his expertise in the issue.

    While the Afghan government continues its own manual crop eradication program, the Obama White House has all but abandoned the Bush administration’s efforts to destroy Afghanistan’s opium harvest.

    Instead of eradication, the U.S. is now helping farmers plant alternate crops, destroying drug labs, trying to arrest major traffickers and interdicting shipments.

    “Large-scale eradication efforts have not worked to reduce the funding to the Taliban,” State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Wednesday.

    A recent U.S. Senate report labeled the Afghan eradication program “an expensive failure,” and special U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke called the practice “a waste of money.”

    At a July conference, Ivanov blamed the failure of the U.S. and NATO counter-narcotics operations on poor tactics…

    “If they used such methods in Afghanistan, all poppy fields there will be completely eradicated in just one year,” Ivanov predicted at the time.

    That month Ivanov told the business daily Kommersant that the U.S. was reluctant to fight poppy cultivation more forcefully because, he claimed, Washington feared a backlash from powerful drug barons allegedly living in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

    Some Western counter-narcotics officials have also urged the continuation of eradication programs,…

    Associated Press writer Desmond Butler in Washington contributed to this report.
    http://www.boston.com/news/wor.....oppy_crop/

    Obama’s new idea has only came with one report bragging of confiscating 60lbs of poppy. The size of a bag of horse feed or dog food.

    So where is the opium?
    What prison are captured (if any) Mid-Easterner drug runners being held?

    And where is the new food that was grown? It is impossible to grow grain and fruits (as the WH claims) as the bitter below winter nights are starting? Just wondering.

  49. proreason
    September 24, 2009 at 6:38 pm

    Another scalp for Glen Beck. NEA Director resigns.

    “Embattled former National Endowment for the Arts communications director Yosi Sergant is out of a job. Late this afternoon, the NEA released a short statement saying, “This afternoon Yosi Sergant submitted his resignation from the National Endowment for the Arts. His resignation has been accepted and is effective immediately.” The agency provided no further details.

    Sergant had been under scrutiny after leading a controversial conference call on August 10, where he encouraged artists to create work to promote the Obama administration’s agenda. Sergant was initially removed from his post as communications director, but continued to work at the NEA….”

    http://blogs.abcnews.com/polit.....signs.html

    Kinda looks like Glen is now the HR Director for the Obamy administration.

    Keep it up buddy!!!!!

  50. canary
    September 24, 2009 at 7:01 pm

    The NY Times: Top General Denies Rift With Obama on Afghan War
    By THOM SHANKER and ERIC SCHMITT Sept 24 2009
    WASHINGTON — The senior American commander in Afghanistan on Wednesday rejected any suggestion that his grim assessment of the war had driven a wedge between the military and the Obama administration, but he warned against taking too long to settle on a final strategy…
    The commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, said in an interview that

    he welcomed the fierce debate that had emerged this week over how to carry out the war.

    “A policy debate is warranted,” General McChrystal said…

    …,” he added. “At the end of the day, we’re putting young people in harm’s way.”
    …
    Aug. 30, General McChrystal warned that he needed more troops within the next year or else the conflict most likely would result in failure…

    The general denied that he had discussed — or even considered — resigning his command, as had been whispered about at the Pentagon,..

    … he had been directed to provide more information and respond to several questions, including on perhaps the thorniest issue: the impact of the flawed Afghan presidential election…

    He would not address various proposals… differ from his, including an approach supported by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to scale back the military operation in Afghanistan to focus instead on terrorists seeking haven in Pakistan.

    The commander…stressed that he did not feel that his analysis had been diminished in the view of senior administration officials because of its blunt tone…

    ..said that he had not spoken directly to Mr. Obama since he submitted his assessment,…

    … Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of American forces in the Middle East, said that both he and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had endorsed General McChrystal’s broad assessment…

    General McChrystal said… American and NATO units now try to build “a full-time partnership” with local forces, expanding the relationship to

    include living side by side, combining their planning efforts…

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09.....neral.html

    Attention General McChrystal, Obama’s reasons for not speaking with you, is the Letterman Show, Men’s Health interview, watching MTV awards. The “election fraud excuse” is just a delay tactic, while the J.A.
    plays dumb about his own acorn nuts election fraud.

    • canary
      September 25, 2009 at 4:01 am

      What’s pathetic about McChrystal, is his plan is how to implement Obama’s new rules of engaging the enemy, in which it will mean more soldiers. Instead of statement to strictly enforce what ever green Obama decides to order, he should tell Obama, that Obama’s unrealistic live and work side by side with the enemy is wrong. I guess McChrystal’s desire for a feather in his cap, out weighs his empathy for innocent American soldiers who are dying. McChrystal as Obama should live and work side by side with our soldiers who lives are endangered, instead of their making decisions safely in offices.

    • Rusty Shackleford
      September 25, 2009 at 9:56 pm

      canary, you have to understand the military chain of command. Unless asked, a general will simply say “yes, sir” to a president, or any elected official when they are told what to do…and even how to do it. It’s part and parcel of what preserves us as a nation. Unfortunately, when politicians want to play “general” like they’ve seen in the moving pitchers…they usually screw it up. President Bush 1 told Schwartzkopf what he wanted…and the general got it done. No interference from the politicos.

      Vietnam? Very prime targets were off-limits. The Viet Cong learned this quickly and staged all their valuable materiel there.

      Now, with it being made public that this administration is dictating new ROE’s….it won’t take long for the Afghans to figure it out and take advantage of it.

      It’s not McChrystal’s responsibility to stop the president and say, “I think that’s a mistake, Mr President”. Even if he goes outside the lines and says something to that effect, do you honestly believe the “knower-of-all-things” the boy king would even listen? Why, the general is JUST a general. His years of experience in the field, countless hours of Professional Military Education (PME) and even more hours of study learning how best to utilize the troops under him mean nothing to a pseudo-intellectual poseur.

      At best, I’m certain the boy is condescending to the general. At worst he’s dismissive of him. He might even ask him his opinion but mid sentence would interrupt and “correct” the general.

      No, I think McChrystal is in the unenviable position of being the boy’s boy.

  51. Rusty Shackleford
    September 24, 2009 at 9:09 pm

    From the AP vomitorium:

    Analysis: Obama presidency at pivotal moment

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_.....DMQ–

    By JENNIFER LOVEN, AP White House Correspondent Jennifer Loven, Ap White House Correspondent – 24 mins ago

    NEW YORK – When President Barack Obama said the United Nations had reached “a pivotal moment,” he could just as well have been referring to his own presidency.

    Both on the world stage and at home, Obama keeps asking for more, politely but firmly. But he’s still had no signature win, not the kind that would set off a chain reaction of other victories.

    For the U.N., Obama is seeking global cooperation to confront the challenges of bloody conflicts, a warming planet, economic deprivation and dangerous weapons proliferation. For his presidency, he’s seeking the kind of high-fiving, powerful victory that a major health care overhaul would represent.

    Power begets power, and success begets success, and no one knows this better than Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. “In politics, power is not static,” he said in an interview Wednesday with PBS’ Charlie Rose. “As you use it, if you’re successful, it accumulates to achieve other goals.”

    Easier said than done, though Thursday’s Security Council approval of a resolution embracing Obama’s goal of a world free of nuclear weapons was a plus. So was the three-way Mideast leaders’ meeting he engineered and led.

    Here in New York this week, Obama also managed to sharpen the focus of his diplomatic doctrine for succcess.

    The nation and world have watched his foreign policy philosophy and style unfold for months, on foreign trips and through major speeches. There were addresses on terrorist interrogations at the National Archives, on a nuclear-free world in Prague, on reaching out to Muslims from Cairo.

    Still, it somehow all clicked more clearly as Obama stood at the podium in the General Assembly’s cavernous, packed hall Wednesday and made the case for urgent cooperation among nations.

    ——This Jennifer Love-in-for-Barry is enough to make me want to cook and eat my socks. I’m pretty sure she has velvet paintings of both Elvis AND Michael Jackson on her living room wall. Not to mention a 3-D cube of the boy-king’s head somewhere where everyone can see it.

    —–Her awareness of political climate and who the bad guys are is only equal to her inability to form a cohesive, constructive and critical-thinking thought in that boxcar of a braincase she calls a head.

    ——My god…what a twit.

    —–One of Blammo’s “key points”:

    • No whining, either. Don’t waste time blaming others, like, say, the United States, or making excuses. And if you want more rights than you feel you have, beware — they come with responsibilities.

    “Don’t waste time blaming others.”

    ——HeeelllllooOOOOOOoooo! Do the words “It was Bush’s fault ring any friggin bells, you hypocritical malevolent pervert?

    ——There are many such “points” and I had to get up and walk around as I read it or I was going to commit violence on my monitor.

    —–Another of his “points”

    • Americans are impatient, and you should be, too. The problems are urgent and everyone must do his part — no shirkers allowed.

    —–How’s about all those ‘czars’ who haven’t paid their damned taxes? Are they ’shirkers’? Or are they “highly valued members of yo’ cab-net”?

  52. Rusty Shackleford
    September 24, 2009 at 9:32 pm

    From a panicked AP:

    Justice Ginsburg hospitalized after feeling faint

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....DMQ–

    By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer Mark Sherman, Associated Press Writer – 15 mins ago

    WASHINGTON – Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was hospitalized Thursday after becoming ill in her office at the court following treatment for an iron deficiency.

    The 76-year-old justice, who underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer in February, was taken to Washington Hospital Center at 7:45 p.m. EDT as a precaution, a statement from the court said.

    Earlier in the day, she had received an iron sucrose infusion to treat an iron deficiency anemia that had been discovered in July.

    About an hour later, she “developed lightheadedness and fatigue,” the statement said. She was found to have a slightly low blood pressure, which the court said can occur after the type of treatment she received.

    Although an examination found her to be in stable health, she was given fluids and taken to the hospital as a precaution, the court said.

    The July evaluation found “that she was in completely normal health with the exception of a low red blood cell count caused by deficiency of iron. Intravenous iron therapy was administered in a standard fashion,” the court statement said.

    —–perhaps to remove the icewater….just sayin’

    Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said late Thursday it had not yet been determined whether the justice would remain in the hospital overnight.

    After her surgery for pancreatic cancer in February, the justice returned to work quickly.

    Two months after her surgery, Ginsburg told law students at a symposium at Ohio State University that serving on the Supreme Court was “the best and the hardest job I’ve ever had.” She said at the time that she wanted to match the tenure of Justice Louis Brandeis, who served for more than two decades and retired at age 82.

    After the retirement in January 2006 of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Ginsburg was the only woman on the nine-member court until Sonia Sotomayor joined the court last August.

    Nominated by President Bill Clinton, Ginsburg took her seat on the Supreme Court on Aug. 10, 1993. She had been a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit since 1980.

    ——Just wanna say, I don’t wish her harm…but….I don’t wish her well, either. Sadly, Hallmark doesn’t make a card that expresses my sentiments.

  53. Rusty Shackleford
    September 24, 2009 at 9:40 pm

    From a mystified AP:

    Area where census worker died has troubled history

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....DMQ–

    By JEFFREY McMURRAY and ALLEN G. BREED, Associated Press Writers Jeffrey Mcmurray And Allen G. Breed, Associated Press Writers – 2 hrs 28 mins ago

    BIG CREEK, Ky. – A census worker found hanged from a tree with the word “fed” scrawled on his chest met his end in a corner of Appalachia with an abundance of meth labs and marijuana fields — and a reputation for mistrusting government that dates back to the days of moonshiners and “revenuers.”

    But the investigation has yet to determine whether the death of the 51-year-old part-time schoolteacher represents real anti-government sentiment. At this point, police cannot say whether Bill Sparkman’s death was a homicide, an accident or even a suicide.

    “We are not downplaying the significance of his position with the U.S. Census bureau,” said Capt. Lisa Rudzinski, commander of the Kentucky State Police post in London. “We can assure the public we are looking at every possible aspect of Mr. Sparkman’s death.”

    But locals are already bracing for suggestions that the killing was the result of anti-government sentiment in the mountains. It does not help that the death occurred in impoverished Clay County, one of the poorest in the country with an unemployment rate of 14.5 percent and an overall poverty rate more than three times the national average.

    Sparkman, a Boy Scout leader and substitute teacher who was supplementing his income as a part-time census field worker, was found Sept. 12 in a remote patch of the Daniel Boone National Forest.

    Police said Thursday that the preliminary cause of death was asphyxiation. Authorities said Sparkman, who a friend said had been treated for cancer, was found with a rope around his neck that was tied to a tree, but that he was “in contact with the ground.”

    ——-Only thing I can say is that I’m saddened that it was an Army vet. Would much rather have preferred an ACORN member.

    ——-However, the AP seems rather mystified that “people hate the government” in this day and age. Could it be there are people out there, even though they be criminals, who absolutely despise the government nosing about in their business? Imagine if ordinary day-to-day citizens felt this way…. What then?

  54. canary
    September 25, 2009 at 2:02 am

    The Guardian.co.uk: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s renewed attack on Israel hastens walkout
    Ewen MacAskill in New York The Guardian, 24 September 2009

    Iranian president’s New York speech attacks Israel and calls for establishment of a ‘new world system

    The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, faced a series of walkouts at the United Nations general assembly last night after launching a renewed attack on Israel,…… delegations from various countries began to rise from their seats and noisily left the chamber. Many other countries had left before he even began,…

    When he finished, he was given a loud round of applause by many of those still in the chamber.

    … “It is unacceptable that a small minority should dominate large parts of the world through a complex network in the US and Europe to retain its racist ambitions,” Ahmadinejad said.

    Outside the UN, hundreds of protesters wearing the green of the Iranian opposition demonstrated against Ahmadinejad…

    Ahmadinejad, on his fifth visit to the general assembly, appeared to revel in his status as the pariah-in-chief for US and European governments.

    As well as his speech to the general assembly, he gave a round of interviews yesterday to CBS television and the Associated Press,…

    see video of a mad man at
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl.....criticised

    soooo….who stayed and applauded him.

  55. canary
    September 25, 2009 at 2:52 am

    “….We have made some progress. Palestinians have strengthened their efforts on security.”

    By sucidal horse missions?

    ” We continue to call on Palestinians to end incitement against Israel, and we continue to emphasize that America does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements.”

    Obama considers’s Palestinians bombings “action” against Israel.
    Obama lies that Americans do not side with Israel, but then says

    “… and a viable, independent Palestinian state with contiguous territory that ends the occupation that began in 1967, and realizes the potential of the Palestinian people.”

    huh?

    “As we pursue this goal, we will also pursue peace between Israel and Lebanon, Israel and Syria, and a broader peace between Israel and its many neighbors. In pursuit of that goal, we will develop regional initiatives with multilateral participation, alongside bilateral negotiations.”
    “All of us must decide whether we are serious about peace, or whether we will only lend it lip service….”

    what does Obama suggest to replace worthless lip service?

    “… That is a lesson embedded in the three great faiths that call one small slice of Earth the Holy Land.”

    Does Obama really think the muslims love the birth place of the Jews and Jesus Christ?

  56. canary
    September 25, 2009 at 3:47 am

    The Senate Finance Committee said NO to putting the Senate bill on line so that YOU can read it.

    September 23, 2009 Greta Fox News
    Transparency? who is hiding and who is not?

    By Megan Whittemore, FOX News

    FOXWIRE: Congressmen Greg Walden (R-OR) and Brian Baird (D-WA) launched a bipartisan effort Wednesday to require all legislation be made available on the Internet at least 72 hours before a vote on the House floor.

    The measure would amend the Rules of the House of Representatives to mandate that all legislation and conference reports be posted in full and online in a format searchble by text, three days before a vote.
    …..
    Waldin and Baird agree this is not about partisan politics. The goal is transparency.

    “People always want to know ‘Have you read these bills?’” Walden said. “Members of Congress, the public, and the press all deserve the time to read these bills before we have to vote on them on the House floor.”…

    Waldin guaranteed House Republican leadership will support the resolution.

    “The American people are angry that Speaker Pelosi didn’t allow the public and their elected representatives to read the trillion-dollar ‘stimulus’ bill or the national energy tax before they were rammed through the House. They have every right to be angry,” House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said in a statement. “Congress can, and must, do better.”

    The legislation was initially introduced by Baird in June. He has introduced it in each of the last three Congresses. Walden has also been a co-sponsor in the past.

    Congressmen John Culberson (R-TX) and Walt Minnick (D-ID) are also helping lead the effort.

    Culberson sees this as a step towards “real-time democracy.” He also plans to use online technology to solicit contributions from his contituents on the health care bill.

    “The Internet is the greatest truth detector ever invented,” Culberson said. “Where you have transparency, you have trust.”

    http://gretawire.blogs.foxnews.....ho-is-not/

    I heard Democrats voted against posting the bill on line, because they think people are too dumb to understand it because of their fancy writing.

    It’s time for all our Republicans leaders, who we the people pay to represent us, need to do the right thing.
    We deserve to see what we are being forced to buy!

  57. proreason
    September 25, 2009 at 10:28 am

    Another clue pointing to Ayers as the author of “Dreams of my Father”

    http://hotair.com/archives/200.....e-day-564/

    • Rusty Shackleford
      September 25, 2009 at 10:43 am

      Pro,

      I just ordered Christopher Anderson’s book. Seems to be the definitive expose’ and I look forward to reading it.

      Link to the article and discussion on AT: http://www.americanthinker.com....._cove.html

      We probably won’t hear about it from Brian Williams or Catie Couric….but there will be a groundswell of dissent…and in my biggest dreams, if Barry screams defamation, then there will be a hearing…and he, himself will have to testify in order to dispute anything.

      That would be worth getting front-row seats to. But it most likely is a pipe-dream. But Anderson’s book soundly pounds the point home that Blammo did NOT write the book, and that it’s all a lie.

    • proreason
      September 25, 2009 at 10:52 am

      The book also makes the point that the Moron and the Terrorist were bosom buddies.

      Shocking, huh?

    • Rusty Shackleford
      September 25, 2009 at 10:59 am

      The more evidence that we can stack up against this guy, the better (and more fun) the impeachment hearings will be.

    • Steve
      September 25, 2009 at 12:13 pm

      Anderson is not a credible source. He is like Jerome Corsi.

      He just compiles information from various sources without vetting — or even doing any research of his own.

      He cites Cashill as a source. All Anderson did was cut and paste his claims.

      This doesn’t prove anything.

    • Rusty Shackleford
      September 25, 2009 at 12:18 pm

      That’s unfortunate because Cashill did the legwork. Still, for my own edification, I’d like to see how it all connects. So, yeah, he’s not credible. Nothing worse than having all the facts lined up, but no source material.

    • proreason
      September 25, 2009 at 12:43 pm

      National Enquirer isn’t a credible source either but they were sure right about John Edwards.

      This ties into the Birther stuff as well.

      It’s obvious the Moron was born in Hawaii. The copy of the certificate is highly likely to be valid. His handlers wouldn’t do anything as stupid as forging a document that could be positively disproven.

      But it is still strange that they won’t release the full birth certificate. Why not? It would put the whole thing to rest and put a thumb in the eye of people who believe he isn’t a citizen.

      Just like not publishing his college transcripts, his medical records, his state senate records, his passport, etc., etc.

      Everywhere you turn, this Con Artist is hiding something.

      His whole life is a lie.

    • canary
      September 25, 2009 at 6:51 pm

      Pro, it was in the National Enquirer I first read an article of Obama’s criminal friends Billy Ayers, Rezko, etc. Low and behold. Then they kind of stepped back from the campaign. Previously, they had done a couple of articles on Al-Qiada, but dropped that pursuit fast too. It was that article and Obama removing his flag pin, that made me realise we were in trouble. Then my son brings home Obombie’s assignments from his dreams, and I knew we had a lying pathological narcissist. Sure am glad I found Sweetness-light. I freaked out because the AP had reworded an article on the internet, because there was something a friend just didn’t quite believe. I found the original link on Sweetness n Light, and found I was not alone. My goal is to keep speaking.
      You can get your car worked on, and bring up Obama. You can go to any store, and bring up Obama. I always work it in, they must vote against him next term, if of course it isn’t too late. Nothin wrong with joking, soon customers will be putting their barcoded foreheads up to the scanners instead of cash. There is a new book out called “Cashless” written by a Mark Hitchcock (sp?) A colonel friend at the pentagon, recommended a book by him, only I could find it, but found a newer book by the author. Not that I agree with some of the speculations, but I believe, the changing pace, makes books pretty outdated as soon as they are written as far as keeping up with current events. lol.

    • proreason
      September 26, 2009 at 12:54 pm

      Canary, I do the same thing.

      There are ways to make the point about how dangerous it is to have the government controlling everything without slamming Obamy directly and getting the robots all stirred up.

      It’s particularly easy with medical professionals. I just ask them if they are planning on getting a new career if Health Care passes. If they ask why I say that, I just say it looks to me that their salary is going to go down about 1/3 while their own medical costs go up. I haven’t had been attacked for saying that yet. It really gets them to thinking about it if they weren’t already.

      When it comes to someone’s PERSONAL income, there are no socialists.

  58. Rusty Shackleford
    September 25, 2009 at 11:25 am

    WaPo describes another Homer moment on the Obama Promise Trail:

    White House Regroups on Guantanamo

    Counsel Craig Replaced as Point Man on Issue as Deadline for Closing Looms

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....id=topnews

    By Anne E. Kornblut and Dafna Linzer
    Washington Post Staff Writer and ProPublica
    Friday, September 25, 2009

    With four months left to meet its self-imposed deadline for closing the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Obama administration is working to recover from missteps that have put officials behind schedule and left them struggling to win the cooperation of Congress.

    Even before the inauguration, President Obama’s top advisers settled on a course of action they were counseled against: announcing that they would close the facility within one year. Today, officials are acknowledging that they will be hard-pressed to meet that goal.

    The White House has faltered in part because of the legal, political and diplomatic complexities involved in determining what to do with more than 200 terrorism suspects at the prison. But senior advisers privately acknowledge not devising a concrete plan for where to move the detainees and mishandling Congress.

    To address these setbacks, the administration has shifted its leadership team on the issue. White House Counsel Gregory B. Craig, who initially guided the effort to close the prison and who was an advocate of setting the deadline, is no longer in charge of the project, two senior administration officials said this week.

    Craig said Thursday that some of his early assumptions were based on miscalculations, in part because Bush administration officials and senior Republicans in Congress had spoken publicly about closing the facility. “I thought there was, in fact, and I may have been wrong, a broad consensus about the importance to our national security objectives to close Guantanamo and how keeping Guantanamo open actually did damage to our national security objectives,” he said.

    ——-So long Greg. Never liked people who’s first and last names rhymed anyhow.

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