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Selected News For Apr 25 – May 1

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

If you do post an article, please follow these guidelines as much as possible:

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

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This article was posted by Steve Gilbert on Saturday, April 25th, 2009 at 12:00 am. You can leave a response.

98 Responses to “Selected News For Apr 25 – May 1”

  1. crosspatch
    April 25, 2009 at 2:26 am

    H1N1 Swine Flu Map

  2. Confucius
    April 25, 2009 at 10:37 am

    Today’s Turd Sponsored By Politico:

    Sam Fulwood III
    Fri Apr 24, 5:06 am ET

    During his first 100 days as president of the United States, Barack Obama revealed how different he is from all the white men who preceded him in the Oval Office, and the differences run deeper — in substance and style — than the color of his skin.

    Barack Hussein Obama is the nation’s first hip president.

    This, of course, is subject to debate. But watch him walk. Listen to him talk. See the body language, the expressions, the clothes. He’s got attitude, rhythm, a sense of humor, contemporary tastes.

    This much is clear: Whether dealing with the Wall Street mess, shifting troops from Iraq to Afghanistan or fumbling to fill his Cabinet, Obama leans heavily on personal panache to push political policies. Truth be told, his style is rooted in something elusive and hard to define. Pure and simple, it’s hip.

    “Being hip is being able to navigate your environment and others’ environments,” like the way Obama traverses racial boundaries, said John Leland, author of the definitive book “Hip: The History.”

    “Obama has this awareness that other presidents haven’t had. He’s white, and he’s black. He’s an elitist, and he’s regular folk. He’s not pinned down to a perspective.”

    Young is to hip as old is to fogey — an essential characteristic. Obama has modern instincts and attitudes that appeal to younger people, and more than any other president in recent memory, that makes him a role model. He is green, open, athletic, tech-savvy, healthy. And his hip image certainly isn’t hurt by his wife, who is so obviously cool — setting trends (Sleeveless! Tending her own garden!), confidently mingling with superstars, gracing magazine covers coast to coast.

    Consider how, during the campaign, Obama used his personality — the smile, the jaunty stride and the hip-hop verbiage — to disarm critics, charm supporters and persuade fence sitters to elect him president. In an against-the-odds campaign, Obama never lost his poise as he forged a rapport with a new generation of voters while keeping old heads on his team. He could go professorial on the need for health care reform or describe the minutiae of Middle East politics. Still, he begged to bring his BlackBerry into the Oval Office, a signal that he intends to remain in touch with the 21st century. Very hip! . . .

    It’s so hip that school kids in Albany, N.Y., coined a term for it: “Baracking.” And it doesn’t stop there. Those in the know at Albany High greet each other by saying: “What’s up, my Obama?” and they respond to a sneeze with “Barack you.” Misbehavior is peer-corrected with the admonition, “Barack’s in the White House,” which translates, “Show some respect.”

    Deborah Tannen, professor of linguistics at Georgetown University, said it was “just really stunning” that kids were co-opting the president’s name as a term of endearment and identification. . . .

    “For Obama, his hipness exudes power. He just keeps on moving, no matter what comes his way, and he doesn’t lose it. That’s being hip — and I don’t see any contemporary public figures whom I would think of as hip.”

    True, Obama uses his hipster personality as a weapon. His enormous popularity is a bludgeon that demands political respect, if not support. . . .

    The implication was that if you were not on board, you were not hip — you were square. And who wants to be so uncool as to be on the wrong side of the hip president, other than a few vocal anti-cools, such as radio yakker Rush Limbaugh, House Minority Leader John A. Boehner and former Vice President Dick Cheney?

    There have been a few other nationally recognized hip politicians: the late Rep. Adam Clayton Powell of New York; former California Gov. Jerry Brown, who is currently the state’s attorney general; and former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown come to mind. For a brief period in the 1970s and 1980s, one might argue that Washington’s eternal pol Marion Barry was hip; that was before drugs, booze and women brought him low.

    To be sure, the track record for hip politicians isn’t promising. History suggests that the power of personality has limitations in politics. It sours under public scrutiny. . . .

    “Hipness is what it is! And sometimes hipness is what it ain’t,” goes the famous song by Tower of Power. “There’s one thing you should know. What’s hip today might become passé.”

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/21522

    To summarize, hip = substance + style. It’s no wonder why Chris Matthews is all so tingly.

    And speaking of tingly, perhaps Mr. Fulwood isn’t aware that public acts of fornication aren’t allowed.

    That’s So Not Baracking.

    • JohnMG
      April 25, 2009 at 4:11 pm

      …..”There have been a few other nationally recognized hip politicians: the late Rep. Adam Clayton Powell of New York; former California Gov. Jerry Brown, who is currently the state’s attorney general; and former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown come to mind. For a brief period in the 1970s and 1980s, one might argue that Washington’s eternal pol Marion Barry was hip;…..”

      If this ass-kisser was hoping to score a point concerning Obama, he probably did. I mean, look at this list of pathetic bed-wetting losers that Fulwood uses as examples of “hip”. Would any sane person wish to be compared to such a noxious bunch?

      Unquestionably, however, Obama is already qualified for membership in this rogues gallery of morons. And these folks are stupid-proud of the fact.

    • Liberals Make Great Speedbumps
      April 26, 2009 at 3:20 am

      “Those in the know at Albany High greet each other by saying: “What’s up, my Obama?” and they respond to a sneeze with “Barack you.” Misbehavior is peer-corrected with the admonition, “Barack’s in the White House,” which translates, “Show some respect.”

      They forgot the ever so popular “I’m gon pop a cap in yo Barack beyatch!”

    • imnewatthis
      April 27, 2009 at 3:43 am

      Barack is so hip, birds are nesting at the white house…and the country’s going down the toilet, but who cares? Pass the Kool-Aid, please.
      Excuse me while I go barf.

  3. Colonel1961
    April 25, 2009 at 1:11 pm

    Just when I thought I couldn’t be more sickened by the left, the article linked below appeared in our local paper this morning. Several days ago an illegal immigrant who had just sideswiped another vehicle, fled the scene of that accident, chased by the police, and then slammed into the back of a car. The car then exploded in flames and killed the two teenage passengers – boyfriend and girlfriend. Having two teenage daughters, I was unable to finish reading the original article because I began to cry.

    Today, the story is about the mother of the girl who was killed. In true irony, the mother is narrating a film on immigrant rights and the illegal that killed her daughter had actually done translations for the film. But that is not the issue of this post. The mother (and the article in general) blames America and its immigration policy and the fact that we are impoverishing Central and South America. And, she says she can’t wait to get back to working on her film, that is, of course, narrated by the ever sickening Martin Sheen. That’s right, a week after her daughter is killed in a flaming wreck, she can’t wait to get back to her activist, anti-American duties. I have prayed for her departed daughter. I’m not sure the same will happen for the idiotic, leftist twit, also known as her mother.

    I no longer care to live in the same country as these morons. Either they go, or I do.

    http://www.al.com/news/huntsvi.....amp;coll=1

  4. proreason
    April 25, 2009 at 1:18 pm

    It’s good to know that when ol Proreason states opinions with little hard data behind them, he isn’t alone. From one of my true heroes, Charles Krauthammr:

    Obama: The Grand Strategy

    …Social Security used to be the third rail of American politics. Not anymore. Health care rationing is taking its place — which is why Obama, the consummate politician, knows to offer the candy (universality) today before serving the spinach (rationing) tomorrow.

    Taken as a whole, Obama’s social democratic agenda is breathtaking. And the rollout has thus far been brilliant. It follows Kaus’ advice to “give pandering a chance” and adheres to the Democratic tradition of being the party that gives things away, while leaving the green-eyeshade stinginess to those heartless Republicans.

    It will work for a while, but there is no escaping rationing. In the end, the spinach must be served.
    …

    http://townhall.com/columnists.....d_strategy

    He’s probably right about rationing being on its way.

    But since I don’t make a living dependent on big media to buy my musings, I will take Charle’s astute observations a step further.

    Anybody who today makes more than $50,000 p.a. who thinks they will have a similar or better lifestyle in the United States of Obama is a damned fool. In every aspect of our lives, work, leisure, health care, transportation, energy, education, shelter, nourishment……..the trend is down, dramatically down for EVERYBODY except the tiny sliver of oligarchists who fund the most dangerous man since Josef Stalin.

  5. Howard Roark
    April 25, 2009 at 4:39 pm

    Remember Henrietta Hughes from a couple of months ago? Our astute readers here at S&L (Retire05, especially) did some great research to reveal the real story about her, but the MSM still treats her as a tragic victim, of course.

    Well, here’s the latest update (sans S&L research, ‘natch) from our local WINK tv News:

    FORT MYERS, Fla. – Henrietta Hughes is still struggling to make ends meet.

    Unemployed and homeless, she caught national attention during President Obama’s visit to Fort Myers when she asked for his help. After her plea, Hughes was given a free place to stay, but she still can’t find a job and may soon find herself homeless again.

    From CNN to Fox to WINK News, her story was everywhere. Today though you’ll find her at the Career Service Center in Fort Myers.

    "It’s almost our second home," Henrietta said of her time at the center.

    She and her son Corey are taking computer classes. She hopes it gives them the edge to get a job. "We can start fresh," she said.

    (source: http://www.winknews.com/news/local/43385017.html)

    Her story in this article never sees the full truth, of course.

    I put pictures of my attempt to bring this story out at last week’s Tea Party in Ft Myers here: http://girdingmyloins.blogspot.....about.html

    • proreason
      April 25, 2009 at 4:52 pm

      Thanks for the update HR.

      Sadly, it looks like Henrietta is still a handout or two away from a total transformation of her life.

      But wait till the killer stimulus kicks in. That will change everything, if not in 2010 then certainly by 2013.

  6. Howard Roark
    April 25, 2009 at 5:17 pm

    Sadly, it looks like Henrietta is still a handout or two away from a total transformation of her life.

    FUNNY!

    Yeah, her chance may have to wait until the “stimulus” package saves her, indeed. By the time it “trickles” down to her level, she’ll be elligible for Social Security, of course, which will be bankrupt beyond repair, necessitating yet another “bailout” plan to wrap us all up in a straightjacket of socialism.

    As a side note, I went to a “Gov’t Job Fair” down here in Ft Myers on Thursday. I was hoping to see at least a dozen or more different agencies represented, from local courthouses, water treatment facilities, etc. I walked in with 20 copies of my resume and references. I was greeted with only 7 booths set up: all four branches of the Armed Services, plus the Coast Guard, a correctional facility looking for prison guards, and the Fla State Police looking for patrol officers.

    I have two college degrees, and just finished investing in my network engineering AS in “07, so I went to the correctional facility booth and the state police booth, asking for the possibilities for IT employment. They both looked at me like I was lost. Not only did they not know anything about their possible need for network security, they simply referred me to the state websites for further information.

    I then went to the Army booth, despite being a good 40 pounds over their height/weight cut-offs. The pleasant sgt there was kind, and she quickly started going over the age limits (at 41, I’m one year away from their ceiling of enlistment), as soon as I engaged her in conversation, lol. I looked too old and fat right away, I’m sure.

    When I told her that I was an honorable 4-year veteran and Gulf War vet, she stopped immediately talking about possible ways to come in. “Oh, I’m sorry, sir. The Army has already reached quota due to the bad economy I guess. We actually stopped taking prior service recently.”

    • proreason
      April 25, 2009 at 5:24 pm

      Sorry to hear the job fair story, Howard, but I have to believe that with the network engineering background you will find something soon. There probabaly isn’t a better training to have. Keep pounding at it and be open to all possibilities.

    • Howard Roark
      April 25, 2009 at 5:44 pm

      Thanks, PR. I agree completely. Frankly, I hesitate to even reveal that I have this degree yet am still looking for work. It is embarrassing, to say the least. I continue to send out email after email, and show up to any face-to-face I can get.

      I’m dealing with it for now, but am very prepared for a night-stocker possibility at my local grocery store or pizza delivery, here, soon. I am a survivor, and I know that better times will emerge, eventually.

    • jrmcdonald
      April 25, 2009 at 5:51 pm

      Don’t give up too quick. There is a always a need in the DOD for IT people. Remember Military recruiters are like Ford dealers- If Ft. Myers is full, go talk to the guy where business is slow.. The FBI and NSA are real good to work for. ( When asked if you will relocate, say “yes” with enthusiasm! Only take the Corrections job as a LAST resort.

    • Howard Roark
      April 25, 2009 at 5:57 pm

      Good advice, JM. DHS, NSA, and FBI are definitely getting closer and closer on my radar. I am all too aware that if accepted, it will mean relocating, for sure.

      I am VERY ok with that, yet I have a girlfriend to consider, who was raised here in Ft Myers. She and I have been together for a year, now. I have hesitated to suggest that she uproot and go with me, up until very recently. Luckily, she says that she will follow me and go wherever I go. It gives me a new breath of fresh air, and I am going to go ahead and get serious about some of these “relocation opportunities.”

    • heykev
      April 26, 2009 at 3:35 pm

      Howard,
      Here’s hoping you get a job soon. I know many good people are out of work, myself included. There are 4 others within my immediate family who are looking for work. I went to a job fair earlier year with a friend who was also laid off. Because this was not for gov’t jobs, there were literally 1000’s for less than a handful of jobs. There were less than 12 companies (including the Army booth) there and only IT jobs available and for those were. The companies that were there were only hiring people with real esoteric programming experience. I went away frustrated because it was not advertised as an IT job fair, so I thought I might able to get a Project Manager position, just not one in IT. . .but no, only esoteric programming positions. My buddy knows a half a dozen programming languages, didn’t know any of the ones they were looking for.

      I know what you’re going through, it’s a very tough job market now. Here are my suggestions, for what it’s worth:
      1. Register with all computer job sites – Dice, Corp-Corp, solo gig, etc.
      2. Place an ad in Craig’s List saying you’ll do networking for companies and people. Many small business and families need networking help. If you go this route get the “free” business cards and build yourself a “free” web site (Google has them) and pay for your name a domain so you can hand the cards out like candy and point people towards the site. Much easier to say go visit howardroark.com when calling or whatever.
      3. Network, network, network – this is the part that I personally dislike. It’s kinda like pushing Amway or their ilk on your friends and acquaintances. But they need to know you’re out of work and you need their help in securing a new position someplace. Don’t forget places social networking sites like Linkedin, Facebook, to help in your networking.
      4. Enjoy the time off. Have fun. Seriously, you may not get another chance to have this much time with your family until you retire. So while treating getting a job as your job, enjoy this time and relax, you’ll get a job. They just never come soon enough.

      Good Luck, hope you find something soon!

    • Howard Roark
      April 27, 2009 at 2:26 pm

      Thanks for your kind words, heykev, I really appreciate it. I know I’m not alone, but I don’t have a lot of friends down here where I’m at, and your words are the only words of commaraderie I have received in many months. I really appreciate your encouragement.

      I have definitely been on Dice, Monster, and Careerbuilder since this whole thing started for me. Craigslist provided a little help, also, but has also been a vehicle for sham artists, too, from what I’ve experienced. I’m a little leery of them.

      Your other points are very good advice, and I am working on them as we speak: website, cards, etc.

      You are so right about the few employers of IT folks looking for esoteric skills. I’m not a programmer, and the lower-level IT stuff I’m trying for is being filled by folks who have tons more certs than I do, plus over-qualified experience. I tried for a helpdesk job that got filled by an out-of-work network administrator in his 50’s. It seems like the employers out there know that they can dictate low salaries and over-the-top requirements for all of us computer folks, because there’s a lot of us looking for work right now.

      Much of my time is spent trying to start my own business, right now. It is tough without any start-up resources. Clients of the business type are hunkering down here in Ft Myers, as this is our “down season”, with the seasonal exodus of thousands of snowbirds. Many businesses are closing shops for good (big name franchises, some of them) due to a bad season. What little pc work I’m getting is coming from residential folks needing small stuff done to their systems. I am gearing towards marketing mainly to them for now.

      But, again, thanks for your kind words, man. It really helps to hear stories such as yours. Sometimes I think that I reveal more of my life to my community here at S&L than to anyone beyond family in my real life. It really helps, for sure.

      And good luck to you in your search, too, man. As I used to say in the Army, This too, shall pass.

    • BillK
      April 29, 2009 at 1:57 am

      I know people who work for various DoD agencies and though they are accepting resumes they currently have a hiring freeze as the new Administration wants to do a top-to-bottom analysis of who does what.

      They can’t even replace retirees, of which there are an ever increasing number as those who came in to fight the Cold War hit mandatory retirement age.

  7. canary
    April 26, 2009 at 2:41 am

    Spain, fed up with increased terrorists shows new way of capturing them. This was reported by CBS News.com.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRuf2IzdLJ8

    • Howard Roark
      April 26, 2009 at 3:10 am

      Love it!

      Looks like those Spaniards are finally growing a pair.

    • take_no_prisoners
      April 26, 2009 at 9:51 am

      The sad thing is that if the police tried that here, in the U.S., the police would probably be charged with attempted murder, the perp would sue and probably win millions of dollars in damages. :-(

  8. proreason
    April 26, 2009 at 11:06 am

    Porter Goss describes the successful strategy to destroy the capabilities of the CIA by the current administration.

    From [the Washington Post]:

    Security Before Politics

    Since leaving my post as CIA director almost three years ago, I have remained largely silent on the public stage. I am speaking out now because I feel our government has crossed the red line between properly protecting our national security and trying to gain partisan political advantage. We can’t have a secret intelligence service if we keep giving away all the secrets. Americans have to decide now.

    A disturbing epidemic of amnesia seems to be plaguing my former colleagues on Capitol Hill. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, members of the committees charged with overseeing our nation’s intelligence services had no higher priority than stopping al-Qaeda. In the fall of 2002, while I was chairman of the House intelligence committee, senior members of Congress were briefed on the CIA’s “High Value Terrorist Program,” including the development of “enhanced interrogation techniques” and what those techniques were. This was not a one-time briefing but an ongoing subject with lots of back and forth between those members and the briefers.

    Today, I am slack-jawed to read that members claim to have not understood that the techniques on which they were briefed were to actually be employed; or that specific techniques such as “waterboarding” were never mentioned. It must be hard for most Americans of common sense to imagine how a member of Congress can forget being told about the interrogations of Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed. In that case, though, perhaps it is not amnesia but political expedience.

    Let me be clear. It is my recollection that:

    – The chairs and the ranking minority members of the House and Senate intelligence committees, known as the Gang of Four, were briefed that the CIA was holding and interrogating high-value terrorists.

    – We understood what the CIA was doing.

    – We gave the CIA our bipartisan support.

    – We gave the CIA funding to carry out its activities.

    – On a bipartisan basis, we asked if the CIA needed more support from Congress to carry out its mission against al-Qaeda.

    I do not recall a single objection from my colleagues. They did not vote to stop authorizing CIA funding. And for those who now reveal filed “memorandums for the record” suggesting concern, real concern should have been expressed immediately — to the committee chairs, the briefers, the House speaker or minority leader, the CIA director or the president’s national security adviser — and not quietly filed away in case the day came when the political winds shifted. And shifted they have…

    Unfortunately, much of the damage to our capabilities has already been done. It is certainly not trust that is fostered when intelligence officers are told one day “I have your back” only to learn a day later that a knife is being held to it. After the events of this week, morale at the CIA has been shaken to its foundation…

    Instead of taking risks, our intelligence officers will soon resort to wordsmithing cables to headquarters while opportunities to neutralize brutal radicals are lost.

    The days of fortress America are gone; We are the world’s superpower. We can sit on our hands or we can become engaged to improve global human conditions. The bottom line is that we cannot succeed unless we have good intelligence. Trading security for partisan political popularity will ensure that our secrets are not secret and that our intelligence is destined to fail us.

    The writer, a Republican, was director of the CIA from September 2004 to May 2006 and was chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence from 1997 to 2004.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....on/columns

    The Barack Obama cabal has done this with two purposes:
    1. to deliberately gut our National Security.
    2. to distract attention from the looming global cataclysm in Pakistan when the Taliban siezes nuclear weapons. (if the Taliban succeeds in that quest, we will know Barack Obama’s true mission, god forbid it.)

    I doubt that Nancy Pelosi is a traitor, but she is obviously a dangerous fool and a corrupt and evil liar matched only rarely in US history. Her every word brings shame on herself, shame on her family, and joy to her supporters who are so filled with hatred towards you and I that they would gladly see the world destroyed to satisfy their lust for revenge against people who simply want the deviants to perform their dispicable acts in private and leave our children alone.

    • heykev
      April 26, 2009 at 3:53 pm

      Pro – while I would agree that Pelosi is a traitor, so are the majority of the Democratic leadership of Congress. I also see BHO as a dangerous man out to destroy America as we know it. I continue to pray that both the Taliban never get then and Iran will never use or share their Nukes with anyone. But I have been studying my eschatology more lately. . .

      It will be interesting ( yet very very sad for our country) when the show trials start for those in the Bush Administration who approved waterboarding, etc.begin. I just hope the lawyers have the “testicular fortitude” to subpoena Berry’s school records, his Hawaiian birth certificate, Soros’ machine – so we get a better idea how George is running this country and what his next moves are.

    • MinnesotaRush
      April 26, 2009 at 9:07 pm

      Great catch here, PR. Thanks for posting it.

      This article – coming from a very qualified and involved source – truly depicts just how canniving and DANGEROUS o-blah-blah and gang (et al) are. The accumulation of ALL their hairbrained and foolhearty antics while being very, very serious and detrimental to us – the Country .. pale in comparison to this issue and its’ tennents.

      This man, o-blah-blah, is either so entirely disconnected from the realities of life and the world .. or .. he is a dangerous, dangerous ‘Trojan Horse’! Or maybe both.

      If we ‘fast forward this tape’, where does it lead? What’s the ending look like? o-blah-blah has no intention of slowing or changing. This insanity will continue and worsen ’till Lord knows what?

      I fear for our Country and its’ citizenry. God bless us!

  9. gipper
    April 27, 2009 at 11:11 am

    From the Army-Panning AP, probably tipped off by DHS:

    Soldier subdued by stun gun shoots 2 Fla. deputies

    Two deputies from a troubled sheriff’s office in Florida had no warning a confrontation with a National Guard soldier accused of beating his wife would turn deadly, the sheriff said.

    Deputies Burt Lopez and Warren “Skip” York used a stun gun to subdue Joshua Cartwright, but he was able to start shooting at them from the ground. Both Lopez and York died…

    …Cartwright was killed in a shootout at a roadblock after a car chase into a neighboring county…

    …In the chase that followed, Cartwright’s truck flipped on its side after spikes at a roadblock punctured the tires. The soldier came out shooting, Spooner said…

    …Investigators said Cartwright was not a war veteran, but Spooner said the Florida National Guard soldier was interested in militia movements and weapons training…

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

    Notice how the AP tries to identify Mr. Cartwright as a soldier every chance it gets. And in this link from the Northwest Florida Daily News…
    http://www.nwfdailynews.com/ne.....uties.html

    …Mr. Cartwright is identified as an Army Reserve soldier with no mention of him being interested in militia movements. The article also states he had a past domestic battery offense in 2008. If this is true, he would be almost useless as an Army Reserve soldier because Mr. Cartwright would be subject to the Lautenberg Amendment. The Lautenberg Amendment makes it a felony for those convicted of misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence to ship, transport, possess, or receive firearms or ammunition. Soldiers are not exempt. Soldiers affected by the amendment are not allowed to re-enlist. So, Mr. Cartwright would not have been a soldier for much longer.

    • JohnMG
      April 27, 2009 at 11:27 am

      But why would the AP waste all that time reporting the facts? We’ve got the DHS report for which to build a case.

      In my opinion, the two deputys were forced into a course of action which neither would have chosen of their own volition–using a stun gun instead of a riot gun–and Cartwright still had to be killed.

      Maybe this will help Obama usher in more gun control, ya’ think? That’s what this is all about.

    • Odie44
      April 27, 2009 at 11:37 am

      This happened a few miles form the new residence – and has the community shocked.

      Not as shocking as the AP portrayal of this POS who killed 2 sheriff’s – and was also a known wife/woman beater. It should surprise noone that this cretin had “anger management courses” as a slap on the hand 5 months ago, instead of sitting in a cell.

      Another disgusting story from the AP, backed by DHS for sure. It will not go over well in this area – but as a solid military, conservative community – I can assure you no one gives a rats ass about the AP or pandering, fraud’s in the WH. They did care about 2 honest family men gunned down as sheriff’s, attempting to intervene and make an arrest with non lethal force.

    • canary
      April 29, 2009 at 3:08 am

      I noticed the pun too, and their failure in telling that he never served active duty.

    • canary
      April 29, 2009 at 3:29 am

      “The soldier came out shooting, Spooner said…”. The press really spinned this. He was not a soldier on duty. He was not a regular on active duty. He was a civilian at the time. And it appears the police department, knowing the state of mind they were informed he was in, at a gun range. Police will need some training sessions on this one.

  10. proreason
    April 27, 2009 at 11:43 am

    This is an opinioin piece, but for the left, it would be repoorted as news. From Sally Rios:

    The American Left Attempts a Bloodless Coup

    Totalitarian movements have always destroyed their enemies. Peter the Great of Russia murdered members of the Streltsy military corps by taking the ax of the executioner to cut off their heads one by one himself. The Bolsheviks murdered the last Russian Czar—along with his wife and family—by telling them they were going to have their picture made. As they smiled into the camera, they were shot, buried and had acid poured over their remains.

    Stalin continued the blood bath of the Russian Revolution by murdering thousands of his own who didn’t agree with Marxism. The Nazis had their gas chambers, not just for Jews, but also for dissenters. Fidel Castro turned his popularity into tyranny and brave Cubans gave their lives trying to free their beloved island. The Khmer Rouge in Cambodia tortured and murdered the intelligentsia in the S21, the regular folk in the Killing Fields. The slightest lack of support for Pol Pot and the new regime earned one a place in a mass grave.
    …
    But times have changed and so have strategies. Saul Alinsky, radical of the ’60s, author of “Rules for Radicals” who was all about taking power, suggested that you target your opposition, make it personal and destroy him. Recent decades have seen this play out in the demonization and ruination of a host of people. They weren’t killed, but they were in essence destroyed so that no one in the mainstream culture would ever again listen to or heed their advice. Richard Nixon … Oliver North … Clarence Thomas … Dick Cheney … Tom DeLay … George W. Bush … Sarah Palin.>/b> Have Americans stopped to think that these destroyed people are all on the political right? Have they noticed that Bill Clinton and Ted Kennedy and Barney Frank still walk among us, exercising influence, with whatever reputations they have in tact?

    Yes, times have changed. Under the careful guidance of Fidel Castro, the driving force behind the Sao Paulo Forum, a new method of gaining power has emerged: 1) Get elected through the system, 2) change the constitution, 3) corrupt the elections 4) nationalize banks and industry and 5) punish your opposition. A leader needs to make just a few bold moves in each category so that all will get the message.
    …
    “It would seem that the changes that started in Venezuela in the last decade of the 20th century have begun to reach North America,” Hugo Chavez said just last week even as he was jailing opposition mayors in at least three cities.

    Now the president, however coyly, and the Democratic leadership, boldly, are seeking to prosecute the last administration for political disagreements by calling them crimes. …They have released top secret documents, jeopardizing American safety further by making the people who protect and defend us worried sick both for fear of retribution and the very real potential harm that could be done to the nation as a result.

    Former President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary of State Rice, Karl Rove and attorneys at Justice and the CIA won’t be lined up and shot, but they will, if this insidious method of taking power has its way, be destroyed financially and personally—with their reputation in shreds.

    And then who will stand up to speak against the dominant left? No one. And that’s the point.

    http://townhall.com/columnists.....dless_coup

    I couldn’t agree more.

  11. BillK
    April 27, 2009 at 5:17 pm

    Surely he’s just a GOP “troublemaker.”

    From the Denver Post:

    GOP “tracker” calls 911 on union members

    Union members deny intimidating the man at a Democratic event.

    By Jessica Fender

    It was either a frightening confrontation or a misunderstanding, depending on who’s talking.

    State GOP aide Matt Milner dialed 911 because he said union organizers blocked his exit and demanded he erase a video recording of Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet on Saturday afternoon following a townhall meeting sponsored by the AFL-CIO.

    Mike Cerbo, executive director of Colorado AFL-CIO, said Milner came looking for trouble, but he wasn’t forced to erase the tape or barred from leaving. It’s now a matter for the Adams County Sheriff’s Office, where authorities Sunday confirmed that they received a complaint from Milner. Police also confirmed his Saturday emergency call.

    “I feared for my safety. Period,” the 25-year-old Milner said Sunday.

    Neither Bennet nor his staff was present at the altercation, said both Milner and a representative for the senator.

    Milner has been a familiar face at about a dozen official Bennet events. The state Republican Party confirmed that it pays him to shadow and videotape the freshman senator in a practice known as “tracking.”

    There was no reason to think Saturday’s gathering at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers’ Local 68 union hall — billed as an “everyone’s welcome” affair on the invitation — would vary from the typically uneventful routine. And for several hours it didn’t, Milner said.

    But Milner, with his tripod and video camera, garnered the attention of event organizers just as Bennet bid his adieu to hundreds of audience members, some of whom had grown passionate over politically tricky labor issues, such as the Employee Free Choice Act.

    The Employee Free Choice Act would make it easier for unions to organize by effectively eliminating secret-ballot elections and allowing workers to show union support by signing a form, a process known as card-check.

    It’s poised to be one of the most contentious votes of Bennet’s first year, potentially affecting his 2010 campaign.

    The 5-foot-6-inch Milner found himself surrounded as the event wound down, he said.

    “This hulking guy comes flying at me, and he’s yelling ‘Who are you with?’ There’s a flurry of F-words,” Milner said. “They circled around me. I’d try to move, and they’d move to block my path.”

    Cerbo, one of the five men who spoke to Milner after Bennet’s speech, disputed that version of events Sunday. He said the young interloper was aggressive and tried to provoke a confrontation, though he declined to say how.

    “He came in uninvited. . . . I’d call him a trespasser,” Cerbo said. “He didn’t get the incident he wanted, so he’s clearly lying about what happened.” …

    http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_12234277

    He was “uninvited, I’d call him a trespasser” says the Union.

    billed as an “everyone’s welcome” affair on the invitation

    Once again proving the usual liberal groupthink, that “everyone” means “everyone who thinks like us.”

    The same way that say, “freedom of speech” means “freedom to agree with our speech.”

  12. canary
    April 27, 2009 at 9:11 pm

    Many are aware that Obama had written on an application before slipping into becoming Illinoise Senator, that he was against even the manufacturing of guns and ammunition. The present attack of a law, requiring all ammunition being marked and traceable, (making it easier for the present Administration to convert to a communist country) on a lesser scale, the cost of a bullet going from pennies to dollars, but to bankrupt the manufacturers. The new law force it to be illegal to have any ammunition not traceable to be illegal to own within a time period of the law passing. Recently, you may have heard of what happened in Georgia, when the Dept. of Defense wrote a manufacturer, they would no longer being selling spent (used) brass casings, that the DOD would be selling it as scrap metal to China. Thanks to Politicians and the NRA stepping in, this has been halted. But, is a reminder we have an administration that is doing what it wants faster than a speeding bullet.

    http://www.nraila.org/News/Rea.....x?ID=12244

    STATEMENT FROM NRA CHIEF LOBBYIST CHRIS W. COX
    Military Surplus Cartridge Case Issue Resolved

    Wednesday, March 18, 2009

    Yesterday morning, the Department of Defense informed NRA-ILA that fired military small arms cartridge cases are once again eligible for sale, following a temporary suspension in such sales instituted last week. NRA-ILA began discussions with DoD shortly after the suspension took effect, and we were assured from the beginning that efforts were underway to resolve the issue favorably.

    Yesterday afternoon, DoD additionally confirmed the lifting of the suspension to pro-Second Amendment United States Senators Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.), who sent the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) a joint letter vigorously opposing the suspension, on the grounds that it had “an impact on small businesses who sell reloaded ammunition utilizing these fired casings, and upon individual gun owners who purchase spent military brass at considerable cost savings for their personal use.”

    Everyone who would have been impacted by the suspension, had it become permanent, owes thanks to Senator Baucus for his leadership on this issue, as well as to Sen. Tester and U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.), who also weighed in strongly on behalf of gun owners and the suppliers from whom they obtain ammunition reloaded with surplus military brass.

    In announcing that the suspension has been lifted, DoD also made clear that no cartridge cases that, in the absence of the suspension, would have been sold for reloading purposes were destroyed while the suspension was in effect. Such cases were instead protected by DoD during the suspension, and are again eligible for sale. With ammunition currently in short supply, that was welcome news, to be sure.

    DLA also put to rest various theories and rumors that were circulated on the internet, concerning the reason for the suspension. As DLA explained to Senators Baucus and Tester, and to NRA-ILA, DoD officials responsible for the demilitarization of military property temporarily halted the release of the cartridge cases last week, pending review of a policy change issued last year by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, which, in the interest of national security, halted the sale of items within a broad category of government property including, but not limited to, surplus small arms cartridge cases.

    To make cartridge cases eligible for sale once again, DoD demilitarization officials verified that the cases could be appropriately placed in a category of government property allowing for their release for use within the United States, and then executed the recategorization. Whereas during the brief suspension, fired cartridge cases would have been releaseable only if the purchaser crushed or smelted them, now the cases may be sold as before, intact and reloadable.

    DoD also assured NRA-ILA that companies previously authorized to purchase cartridge cases under Trade Security Controls need no further vetting at this time, and are eligible to resume purchasing cases under the policy adopted yesterday.

    In sum, a problem that could have had serious repercussions for the remanufactured ammunition industry and the countless gun owners who support it, appears to have been resolved quickly.

    For more information:

    http://www.nraila.org/media/PD.....yBrass.pdf

    http://www.nraila.org/media/PD.....sponse.pdf

    http://www.nraila.org/media/PD.....ngsres.pdf

    • JohnMG
      April 27, 2009 at 9:50 pm

      All well and good, Canary, but I can tell you this. Being a part-time gunsmith I’m required to have an FFL dealer license. I also sell reloading supplies and equipment. I cannot get certain pistol ammunition and my suppliers will not accept back-orders. I have been trying for months to get case-quantities of .38 Special +P, 9mm Parabellum, .45ACP, and .40 S&W ammunition to no avail. I have managed to place a couple of on-line orders which are then filled on a first-in, first-out basis, but have so far been too far down the list and have had the orders cancelled because the suppliers ran out before getting to mine. Same thing with certain powder and primers. It seems any cartridge that is or ever has been used in a military-issued chambering is in short supply–both rifle and pistol. Likewise, the fixin’s to roll your own ammo. Even case-quantities of .22 RF is spotty.

      I would hope this is just coincidence, but I’m a realist. I’m also a Benefactor Life Member of the NRA (it sure would be nice to have all that money I’ve given over the years right now), a Golden Eagles contributor, and an ILA Sustaining Member, so I stay involved.

      Yes, we caught this one in time, but there are a lot of sinister goings-on right now, and not all of them are above the radar.

    • canary
      April 28, 2009 at 1:13 am

      JohnMG, well, basically the only thing easy to find here is .40 and .22 short.
      Well, the NRA is America’s watchdog. I was thinking about Hillary just over there in China, and Obama ticking off China, threatening to change the value of a dollar. Probably told China we’ll be sending you tons after tons of unmarked ammo we’ll be confiscating once we make it illegal. Plus, Obama’s going to make every handgun with a clip, or semi-automatic illegal, and they’ll be right behind. Then China will be #1 in selling guns and ammo all over the world.

  13. proreason
    April 27, 2009 at 10:04 pm

    Here are 4 charts that clearly reveal how the Moron’s administration will bankrupt this country if his foreign policity doesn’t destroy it first.

    http://www.gop.gov/accountability

    Click on the graphs on the right.

    Sadly, the people who voted for the conman in the white house don’t have the intelligence to know that the charts spell disaster for them as much as they spell disaster for us.

  14. Steve
    April 28, 2009 at 1:43 pm

    Please note: as I have warned numerous times that I will begin deleting posts that are not excerpted.

    And I am now going to have to start enforcing that rule.

    Thank you, everyone who posts news articles. But please remember to post less than a third of the original piece.

  15. pdsand
    April 28, 2009 at 7:22 pm

    Sorry to post positively ancient news, but this little nugget from 3 April 2009 gives a local snapshot of how the “investment” is going to work…absurdly.

    “Stimulus bill funds Academy solar array
    By John Van Winkle
    Academy Public Affairs

    …the energy efficiency investment portion of that legislation which will bring $18.3 million to the academy to fund a new energy contract between the Academy and Colorado Springs Utilities.
    “USAFA stimulus money will pay for solar power generated by Colorado Springs Utilities,” said Russell Hume, 10th Civil Engineer Squadron. That money will allow Colorado Springs Utilities to build, own, operate and maintain the solar array on the Academy…

    It will be a fixed solar array on between 10 and 24 acres of Academy property…

    Once complete, the solar array is expected to produce 7,500 megawatt hours per year. For the Academy, that equals about 7 percent of the Academy’s total annual electrical energy needs. The Academy spent $5,184,768 on electricity in 2008, said Mr. Hume. So the addition of the stimulus bill-funded solar array will provide the Air Force a cost savings of more than $500,000 per year…”

    http://csmng.com/wp-files/acad.....-04-03.pdf

    Wow, so we’re going to spend 18 million dollars (hopefully) to build a truly massive solar array, that will save the Air Force Academy 7 percent (hopefully) on electricity costs. At $500,000 a year (hopefully), the solar energy will pay for itself in 36 years. That’s blindly hoping that any gains aren’t offset by growth at the Academy and increasing demands for energy. And it ignores the time value of money, the interest on the debt that will be incurred, making the real cost of this $18 million probably 3 or 4 times that much. What a GREAT investment!

    • JohnMG
      April 28, 2009 at 8:09 pm

      This is a microcosm study of how all sorts of “green energy” programs will play out. If left unchecked, this rush to alternative energy will quadruple the cost of energy in four years and still not make a dent in energy demand or consumption.

      Look at this month’s electric bill and record the amount. Then check with me four years from now. It has already begun.

    • proreason
      April 28, 2009 at 8:36 pm

      “the solar energy will pay for itself in 36 years”

      If it comes in on-budget, lol.

      And you didn’t even mention the 24 acres of land that not only will be useless for anything else, the environment on the acreage will die. No plants, no animals, no bugs. Nada. Might be a critical part of a larger ecosystem as well.

      And if there is greenery or trees on the land today, the school will have to buy carbon offsets to compensate for the lost CO2 neutralizing capability of the foilage..

      And btw, wouldn’t 24 acres on a campus of a prestigous university be worth upwards of $10 million if it were put to a USEFUL purpose.

      The true ROI, if the truth could ever be told would be over 100 years.

      But I’ve heard that the entire energy supply of Texas can be replaced if we pave over New Mexico with solar farms, except that Texas would need redundant systems since the sun doesn’t always shine, even in NM. Who needs that desert anyway. They can put the good parts of Santa Fe and Taos in a Vegas casino somewhere.

    • Gila Monster
      April 28, 2009 at 9:08 pm

      $5,184,768 x .07 = $362,934 savings per year.

      Egads, what has happened to our schools!! Is simple math that far beyond the capabilities of the editors at the USAFA paper?

      FWIW, solar electrical generation at this level is extremely inefficient and not very cost effective. Less than 25% of the energy received is converted into electricity and as the above numbers indicate, it will take 51 years to recoup the cost of installation which is likely far beyond the expected useful life of the PV cells.

    • JohnMG
      April 28, 2009 at 9:22 pm

      What is the cost of the storage batteries, what is the life-expectancy of the batteries, and what of the cost of disposing and/or recycling them? The batteries’ life cycle is far less than the photo-voltaic cells themselves. What is the cost to the environment in terms of toxic waste management? What are the maintenance costs of the sites. Does the fact that taxpayer funds underwrite the cost of construction, and the fact that a private utility will assume operation and ownership of the facility mean that we (taxpayers) are shareholders in that company? If so, then I now own stock in AIG, Chrysler, GM, and who-knows-what-else.

      So when will I begin seeing dividend checks? I could use the money.

    • BillK
      April 29, 2009 at 2:00 am

      Unfortunately, Colorado Springs, along with most of Colorado’s Front Range, is the large hail capital of the world.

      Solar cells only survive hail up to approximately 1.5″ in diameter, yet 2″ and larger hail is common in the area – most areas of the city get hit every three to five years.

      That means it’s virtually guaranteed that before the “payoff” period, multiple cells in the array will have been replaced at least 10 times or so.

      No big deal, I’m sure they’re “insured.”

    • pdsand
      April 29, 2009 at 11:02 am

      I thought about all this, and said to myself, wow, this is really going to be a stupid boondoggle. Plus, the eastern parts of the Academy, where this will be situated, are all along Interstate 25. So a 10 to 24 acre solar array will be visible from the interstate. EYESORE! Plus, how many accidents from the sun reflecting off this stuff? I think green energy might actually kill people. Which is more than we can ever say for global warming. It’s all wrong, wrong, wrong.

    • texaspsue
      April 29, 2009 at 11:16 am

      Great points JMG and pdsand.

      The battery bank that will be needed to store the energy is enormous, not to mention the cost. There is a new generation of battery technology but, the shelf life isn’t very long and then there is the problem of disposal of the spent batteries.

      I wonder how long it will be before the environmentalists start to complain?

    • canary
      April 30, 2009 at 3:57 am

      new things cost more. Obama claimed medical health costs would lower with computerized records and all, but it’s acutally costing more.

  16. BigOil
    April 28, 2009 at 9:19 pm

    My company will rarely touch a project that does not pay out in less than 5 years. Of course, we can neither confiscate nor print money.

  17. proreason
    April 28, 2009 at 10:03 pm

    This is the most devasting set of accusations against a President that I’ve ever heard by a credible commentator.

    Michael Scheur, telling the truth in the Washington Post:

    Say It’s Osama. What If He Won’t Talk?

    … Americans should be clear on what Obama has done. In a breathtaking display of self-righteousness and intellectual arrogance, the president told Americans that his personal beliefs are more important than protecting their country, their homes and their families…

    Mulling Obama’s claim, one can wonder what could be more moral for a president than doing all that is needed to defend America and its citizens? Or, asked another way, is it moral for the president of the United States to abandon intelligence tools that have saved the lives and property of Americans and their allies in favor of his own ideological beliefs?

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....03459.html

    Devastating, but Mr. Scheur makes the same mistake virtually every commentator has made in the last 100 days. His comments are based on the premise that Obama wants to protect the citizens and defend the country.

    • Steve
      April 29, 2009 at 9:28 am

      PR, please remember to spell out the original source: Washington Post instead of WaPo, for instance.

      Also, please just use ellipses at the start or end of the excerpted paragraph, rather than making them a separate paragraph.

      Thanks!

  18. BillK
    April 29, 2009 at 2:05 am

    Who needs that silly electricity stuff? You know, for plug-in cars and the like?

    Thank the EPA, and of course Him, as you may recall He said if you try to build a coal plant in his administration, you would go bankrupt.

    From a delighted Reuters:

    EPA withdraws permit for Navajo coal plant

    NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. environmental regulators said they have withdrawn a permit for a massive coal-fired power plant that had been scheduled to be built on the Navajo Nation to send electricity to populated areas to the West.

    The Environmental Protection Agency late on Monday withdrew the air permit that was issued last summer for the proposed 1,500 megawatt Desert Rock power plant. Sithe Global Power, LLC had planned to build the plant in northwestern New Mexico and send its power to rapidly-growing cities in Arizona and Nevada.

    The regulators found the permit was issued before complete analysis of its emissions and impact on endangered species.

    The move was another example of President Barack Obama’s administration cracking down on coal. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Monday his agency will try to overturn a Bush administration rule that made it easier for coal mining companies to dump debris from mountain-top coal mining into valley streams.

    Some Navajos supported building the plant for jobs it would provide and revenue. The $3 billion to $4 billion project had been expected to bring the Navajo Nation about $50 million a year.

    “Every day this project is delayed, we are losing our Navajo children to poverty and alcoholism because of lack of opportunity,” Navajo President Joe Shirley said in a release. …

    http://www.reuters.com/article.....FL20090429

    Hmmm:

    The regulators found the permit was issued before complete analysis of its emissions and impact on endangered species.

    If you don’t recall, this was the same rationale used to shut down all new off-shore drilling in Alaska:

    A federal appeals court ruled Friday that the Bush administration did not properly study the environmental impact of expanding oil and gas drilling off Alaska and canceled a program to find new reserves.

    Notice a common thread here?

  19. BillK
    April 29, 2009 at 2:09 am

    More “you don’t need energy” news from a delighted Reuters:

    U.S. Interior revokes Bush endangered species rule

    By Yereth Rosen

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – The Obama administration said on Tuesday it rolled back a Bush-era rule excusing oil and gas companies in polar bear habitat from special reviews designed to ensure they are not harming the animals.

    The Alaska energy industry said the move could slow exploration and production activity in the state. Environmental groups applauded the decision as an important step protecting threatened species.

    Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said they rescinded the Endangered Species Act regulation issued in December by the Bush administration, which eliminated the long-standing “Section 7 consultation” requirement for special scrutiny of any proposed activities that might harm a listed species.

    “By rolling back this 11th hour regulation, we are ensuring that threatened and endangered species continue to receive the full protection of the law.” Salazar said.

    “Because science must serve as the foundation for decisions we make, federal agencies proposing to take actions that might affect threatened and endangered species will once again have to consult with biologists at the two departments,” he said. …

    http://news.stv.tv/environment.....cies-rule/

    Now December is “11th hour.”

    Not that there’s any limit to any Bush administration ruling Obama’s minions will overturn, especially if it harms America.

    • pdsand
      April 29, 2009 at 10:54 am

      I coughed up a few cheerios when I learned that animals have protection under the law. It’s just strange to hear it put that way.

  20. BillK
    April 29, 2009 at 2:14 am

    But remember, it’s the right thing to do.

    From Reuters:

    Obama emissions plan to cost $1,400 a family: study

    By Tom Doggett

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration’s plan to impose a cap-and-trade system to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions would result in 1.9 million job losses and cost the average household $1,400 a year by 2020, according to a new study released on Tuesday.

    The analysis comes as Congress debates the cost on the U.S. economy of passing legislation that would implement a emissions-reduction plan similar to what the White House wants.

    “All consumers and businesses would face steep increases in energy costs, leading to a spike in the cost of goods and services throughout the U.S. economy,” said Bruce Josten, executive vice president of government affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

    The Chamber is one of almost 200 associations that are members of the Coalition for Affordable American Energy, which commissioned the study. … http://news.stv.tv/environment.....mily-study

    But that’s OK, only those evil polluters will pay, right? Maybe not:

    The administration wants to raise $646 billion between 2012 and 2019 from auctioning off the permits. The money would be returned to certain households and businesses to help them pay for the higher energy costs that would result.

    If a cap-and-trade plan is implemented, by 2020 gasoline prices would rise by 13 percent, or 48 cents a gallon, and electricity costs would jump by 27 percent and natural gas expenses would increase by 39 percent, the study said.

    “As those fixed costs rise, disposable income will be displaced by higher energy costs, resulting in falling consumption in other areas,” said Jade West with the National Association of Wholesaler Distributors, another coalition member. …

    But quit your obstructionist whining, conservatives – it will all be OK:

    Supporters of reducing greenhouse emissions say such legislation could create millions of “clean energy” jobs from building solar, wind and other renewable energy facilities that generate electricity. They also claim that thanks to government incentives, households will undertake energy-savings measures like installing insulation and double-windows, to save on their energy bills.

    How people will pay for “installing insulation and double-windows” no one knows; I’m sure with money from the Government! That will solve everything! Of course the fact that the “savings” will still not bring their costs down to what they were before the Government “took action” is a moot point. It’s all good!

    Even the EPA knows costs will go up:

    A report from the Environmental Protection Agency last week concluded that cap-and-trade legislation being debated by the House Energy and Commerce Committee would cost the average household $98 to $140 a year through 2050.

    Just an extra $140/year.

    No big deal.

  21. BillK
    April 29, 2009 at 2:29 am

    What to do in an economic downturn?

    Raise taxes, of course.

    This is just one of innumerable such plans across the country.

    From the (Madison) Wisconsin State Journal:

    Proposed county Regional Transit Authority tax: $172 for average household

    By Matthew DeFour

    A half-cent sales tax to fund rail and bus transit in Madison and its suburbs would cost the average household $172 a year, according to a report by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

    Local officials countered that the sales tax could offset property taxes that are spent on Madison Metro Transit or county roads, resulting in a lower household net impact.

    “There will be savings realized,” said Josh Wescott, spokesman for Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk. It’s unknown, however, how much property taxes would be affected.

    The Legislature’s budget committee Thursday will consider the proposed Dane County Regional Transit Authority (RTA) in Gov. Jim Doyle’s budget. …

    http://www.madison.com/wsj/topstories/449072

    So the tax increase is OK, because it could offset property taxes (but of course won’t as Governments always somehow find a way to spend whatever tax revenues are available and of course enough more that they always “need” a tax increase.)

  22. BillK
    April 29, 2009 at 2:39 am

    You’ll love this – higher education revealed.

    Alas, it’s not at all surprising.

    From the (Madison) Wisconsin State Journal:

    University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty oppose using professor retention fund for student aid

    By Deborah Ziff

    In this fight, it’s a group of UW-Madison professors versus a faction of faculty from other UW System schools.

    At issue is $15 million that Gov. Jim Doyle has designated for recruitment and retention of high-demand faculty.

    A statewide union of faculty and academic staff at UW System schools (which does not include UW-Madison) said Monday that the money could better be spent on student financial aid.

    But some UW-Madison faculty disagree, according to a news release put out by PROFS, Inc., a group that represents over 900 UW-Madison faculty members.

    “We certainly care about the affordability of higher education in Wisconsin,” said Louise S. Robbins, president of PROFS. “However, our students and alumni have told us they value the quality of the education they receive here. That quality is predicated on our being able to recruit and retain excellent faculty members.” …

    http://www.madison.com/wsj/mad/latest/449041

    What is it the pundits say about why bonuses need not be paid in the banking industry?

    Oh yeah – “where else would they go?”

    So if you’re a “high demand professor” you’re so unique that no one else could be found that would guarantee you a cushy six figure job from which you cannot be fired, say even for academic fraud.

    It’s becoming clearer than anyone still working in the private sector must be mentally deficient…

  23. BillK
    April 29, 2009 at 2:46 am

    You thought you had rights to use research you fund? Au contraire!

    From the (Madison) Wisconsin State Journal:

    Judge dismisses computer chip lawsuit against University of Wisconsin-Madison

    By Ed Treleven

    A lawsuit against UW-Madison by computer chip giant Intel has been dismissed by a federal judge on procedural grounds.

    U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb ruled on Friday that Intel failed to properly state a claim for an alleged violation of its Constitutional due process rights by UW-Madison. Intel sued UW-Madison in December, claiming that it was denied use of research that it had funded.

    At issue is technology used in Intel’s popular Core 2 Duo computer chip. In February 2008, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, the university’s patent and licensing arm, sued Intel for allegedly infringing upon its patent in the manufacture of that chip. That lawsuit is still pending.

    Intel’s lawsuit was filed in response to WARF’s lawsuit. But Crabb dismissed all of Intel’s claims without addressing the dispute at the heart of the issue, writing that Intel’s allegations did not support any claim that UW-Madison had deprived it of any fundamental right.

    http://www.madison.com/wsj/mad/latest/449059

    That’ll teach industry to fund research.

    That’s properly the government’s job.

  24. canary
    April 29, 2009 at 4:28 am

    Red Cross nurse says there was no waterboarding done 183 times, not even close.

    Sister Toldjah cites a Fox News report (which in turn cites a Red Cross report) that states we didn’t waterboard Khalid Buddy Hackett 183 times, not even close. I know some of you may be disappointed to learn that, but have you no shame? Anything above 150—175 tops—is egregious, superfluous.

    The New York Times reported last week that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, was waterboarded 183 times in one month by CIA interrogators. The “183 times” was widely circulated by news outlets throughout the world.

    It was shocking. And it was highly misleading. The number is a vast inflation, according to information from a U.S. official and the testimony of the terrorists themselves.

    A U.S. official with knowledge of the interrogation program told FOX News that the much-cited figure represents the number of times water was poured onto Mohammed’s face — not the number of times the CIA applied the simulated-drowning technique on the terror suspect. According to a 2007 Red Cross report, he was subjected a total of “five sessions of ill-treatment.”

    “The water was poured 183 times — there were 183 pours,” the official explained, adding that “each pour was a matter of seconds.”

    The Times and dozens of other outlets wrote that the CIA also waterboarded senior Al Qaeda member Abu Zubaydah 83 times, but Zubayda himself, a close associate of Usama bin Laden, told the Red Cross he was waterboarded no more than 10 times.

    Did Fox do an in-depth investigative report? Did they send undercover reporters to pose as Taliban terrorists? Nonsense. They merely went to the record, something the paper of record—ha!—couldn’t be bothered to do. Maybe you don’t like waterboarding at all. But it was used rarely, and it was effective. But there’s no doubt which number will stick in the public’s imagination, thanks to ceaseless repetition in the media.

    If it chokes, it provokes.

  25. texaspsue
    April 29, 2009 at 9:37 am

    From Houston Chronicle:

    CDC says Texas swine flu death is first in U.S.
    Child died in a Houston hospital after being transported from Brownsville
    By DALE LEZON

    The first reported death in the United States from the swine flu outbreak was that of a 23-month-old Mexican toddler who fell ill in Brownsville and was transported for treatment in Houston, where the child died Monday, city officials said.

    Kathy Barton, spokeswoman for the Houston Department of Health and Human Services, did not say which hospital treated the child or give any other details about the toddler.

    There still have been no reported Houston-area cases of the disease, which is thought to have begun in Mexico but is being detected around the world. However, Barton said Houston should expect to see cases originate here.

    She added that hospitals that handle any flu cases, swine or otherwise, take precautions to prevent its spread, such as masks, frequent handwashing and other sanitation measures.

    “Even though we’ve been expecting this, it is very, very sad,” said Dr. Richard Besser, acting chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who made the initial announcement of a Texas death on several nationally televised morning shows today. “As a pediatrician and a parent, my heart goes out to the family.”

    http://www.chron.com/disp/stor.....98202.html

    According to the local news, this child was from Mexico being treated in the USA. ( My heart goes out to the family also.)

    This family traveled from Brownsville to Houston, that’s quite a distance. How many people from Mexico are going to flee to America for treatment and spread the infection of this flu? Shouldn’t this swine flu be quarantined? This is why we need to close the border.

    Is anyone in Washington really taking this seriously? This could be Obama’s “Katrina”.

    • BillK
      April 29, 2009 at 10:48 am

      This could be Obama’s “Katrina”.

      Nonsense.

      The media is already spinning this as being the result of Bush’s “anti-Science” policies.

      Amazing how being pro-life and thinking the use of aborted baby bits for “research” somehow makes you anti-Science.

      Oh, that’s right, not believing in their religion makes you anti-Science; demanding facts about their “science” makes you ignorant. Silly me.

    • pdsand
      April 29, 2009 at 10:50 am

      They are in the position poor C. Everett Koop was in, caught between telling the truth, that the illegals are bringing a dastardly third world disease into this country, and hurting the feelings of the illegals. In twenty years, I hope Obama is an old relic selling life-alert bracelets on TV, if our country makes it that long.

    • proreason
      April 29, 2009 at 4:21 pm

      Katrina?

      to the contrary, the heroic response to the Obama-flu will be heralded to the world as the poster-child example of how the caring Obama administration handled a crisis that could have been 10 times worse than Karina, but for the quick action of the god man.

      Puke.

    • caligirl9
      April 29, 2009 at 5:01 pm

      To be honest, do we want the federal government deeply involved? I receive daily e-mail briefings from my county EMS’ medical volunteer corps… and we do have confirmed cases of H1-N1 here. A high school within two miles of my apartment has been closed down due to a diagnosed case in a student.

      If TOTUS has testes, he’d have shut down the borders and all incoming flights from Mexico days ago. I know it’s extreme, but you quarantine sick animals. Cuba has the right idea much as I hate giving Castro any props … the horse may already be out of the barn, but shutting down travel should have been an early consideration.

      I hope it doesn’t make it to Oakland and Richmond in the East Bay. The gangstas and their baby mamas will be lining up for their checks and cheese ’cause after all it is the gubment’s fault.

    • canary
      April 30, 2009 at 3:49 am

      What I heard in one of the earlier accounts is the news told is the parents drove a sick 18 month old child the far distance beginning “from Mexico” clear to Brownsville. And you have to wonder why the parents would drive there from Mexico to begin with. Prehaps by boat, Then they drove the sick child a long distance to Houstan Tx. Aside the heat, this is enormous driving and unsafe environment for a sick baby to undertake. But, the Mexican people, can very superstitious, their religion having alot to do with plagues coming as punishment, not unlikely with the terrorist and criminals destroying their country. The mask wearing, might worry Americans. But, this an older flu, that the vacines used before often made it worse. Thousands of people die every year from viruses, etc. And the problem being worse in Mexico probably has alot to their bad water, compared to medical treatment in the U.S. Everyyear, they mention a flu or virus going around that flu shots’ were not given for, or resisitant to the flu shots. So, I don’t think people in the U.S. should panic at this time. oops I already posted on this subject. My eyesight has been terrible today.

  26. wardmama4
    April 29, 2009 at 10:00 am

    Ah an now it begins – even though not mentioned (typical msm) does anyone here doubt that traveled translates into illegal aliens?

    Officials confront first US death from swine flu
    By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer

    WASHINGTON – A 23-month-old Texas toddler became the first confirmed swine flu death outside of Mexico as authorities around the world struggled to contain a growing global health menace that has also swept Germany onto the roster of afflicted nations. Officials say the death was in Houston.

    Kathy Barton, a spokeswoman for the Houston Health and Human Services Department, said Wednesday that the child had traveled with family from Mexico to Brownsville in South Texas. The child became ill in Brownsville and was taken to a Houston hospital and died Monday night, she said.

    http://tinyurl.com/dngbcg

    • canary
      April 29, 2009 at 10:46 am

      The water in Mexico can’t be helping their situation. The travel from Mexico to Brownsville, then on to Houston, for a baby, all took it’s toll.

    • canary
      May 2, 2009 at 4:08 am

      Since we know they were illegals, maybe they did all that bizarre excessive driving around with such a sick baby, trying to sell, drugs they might have brought over.

  27. BillK
    April 29, 2009 at 10:45 am

    Hooray, the anti-American network can now reach their core audience of America-haters – D.C.

    From a happy as a child on Christmas Day Washington Post:

    Al Jazeera Channel Cracks the U.S. Dial

    By Paul Farhi

    Ever since it launched 30 months ago, the Al Jazeera English news channel has been embraced widely, picking up viewers in more than 100 countries. The notable exception: the United States, where AJE — an offshoot of the pioneering, pan-Arabic al-Jazeera network — has been all but ignored by cable and satellite companies, some apparently concerned about al-Jazeera’s alleged anti-American bias.

    As a result, Al Jazeera English became the global news channel you couldn’t see in the United States, outside of two tiny cable systems in Vermont and Ohio, and a few buildings in downtown Washington served by a private cable hookup.

    But that’s about to change. Under an agreement with MHz Networks, a Falls Church-based educational broadcaster, AJE will become available today to households throughout the Washington area, and to cable and broadcast viewers in 20 other cities in a few months.

    AJE, funded by and based in the oil-rich Persian Gulf state of Qatar, is a news and news-talk network that broadcasts from four hubs around the world: Doha (Qatar’s capital), London, Washington and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It’s the first worldwide TV news operation based outside the United States or Britain.

    Many Americans might know the older pan-Arabic network al-Jazeera, whose reporting from Iraq and Afghanistan angered conservatives and some officials in the Bush administration. At one point in early 2004, Donald Rumsfeld, the Bush administration’s first defense secretary, publicly accused al-Jazeera of “vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable” reporting about U.S. actions in the two wars. The network has also drawn criticism in the United States for airing video communiques from Osama bin Laden.

    AJE has never been the target of such criticism, but its close association with al-Jazeera (the name means “the peninsula” in Arabic, a reference to Qatar’s land mass) seems to have made it unwelcome in America. In fact, AJE’s promotional material goes on at some length to rebut many of the rumors and allegations thrown at it (”A lot of people, particularly in this region, think of Al Jazeera as Osama Bin Laden’s channel. Isn’t there some truth to that?” reads one such heading).

    Thus, the deal with MHz represents not just expanded distribution to American viewers, but possibly something of a cultural shift, said Will Stebbins, AJE’s Washington bureau chief. “There was clearly an attempt to delegitimize al-Jazeera . . . that came during a period of a lot of national hysteria and paranoia about the Arabic world” after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, he said. With time and a new administration, “I think a lot of those ideas and positions are being rigorously questioned and reevaluated. This is a positive development.” …

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....03918.html

    See, their promotional materials say they’re not biased at all! What’s the problem?

    Of course the WaPo doesn’t even believe MSNBC is biased…

    • proreason
      April 29, 2009 at 4:13 pm

      Isn’t this just Al Frankenstein’s old network?

    • JohnMG
      April 29, 2009 at 4:18 pm

      This one doesn’t pass the smell test. Does anyone else find it curious that Al Jazeera English finally cracked the U S market so soon after the ‘Chosen One’ became president?

    • proreason
      April 29, 2009 at 4:27 pm

      “doesn’t pass the smell test”

      If The Moron didn’t already have dozens of fawning propaganda outlets, I’d say he brought this one on to be his mouthpiece.

      But since he has so many US news sniffers around his private parts anyway, I’d have to say he brought this one in to beat his future-intergalactic-dictator drum in the Middle East.

  28. caligirl9
    April 29, 2009 at 3:53 pm

    Puke. Coming soon to an issue of People magazine. A “Barack’s Beauties” section? I’m going to go hack up my lunch now!

    Michelle Obama joins People “most beautiful” list

    LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Breast cancer survivor Christina Applegate made the cover of People magazine’s 100 most beautiful people issue on Wednesday in a list that welcomed newcomers U.S. first lady Michelle Obama and “Twilight” heart-throb Robert Pattinson…

    Michelle Obama, who has achieved celebrity status and has wowed the world as a fashion icon, made the list for the first time.
    “I had a father and a brother who thought I was beautiful, and they made me feel that way every single day,” Obama told the magazine.

    “I grew up with very strong male role models who thought I was smart and fast and funny, so I heard that a lot. I know that there are many young girls who don’t hear it. But I was fortunate,” she added.

    Also included in a “Barack’s Beauties” section were White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and others…

    The 100 list also included old favorites George Clooney, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and Halle Berry. Some of the celebrities, including actress Eva Mendes and supermodel Cindy Crawford appeared in a “Stars Without Makeup” section in which they were photographed wearing no make-up for their close-ups.

    http://uk.reuters.com/article/.....IJ20090429

    • Liberals Demise
      May 2, 2009 at 8:41 am

      Here….allow me to edit that up fer ya!

      “Baracks Rogues and Barnyard Cuties”
      Now trot those heifers’ out without their curry combs and make-up!

      SSSsssssoooooooooiiiiiiiii – PIG!!!

  29. BillK
    April 29, 2009 at 3:56 pm

    Yet another “the death of noble journalism” article, this time from the ultra far-left Madison, WI Capital TImes, which themselves was forced to change into a free paper because they couldn’t stay in business as a paid rag:

    Students flock to journalism school despite tanking news industry

    By Todd Finkelmeyer

    When Abby Sears was accepted into the journalism school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she had hopes of one day working for a public relations firm.

    Then she did some work at the Daily Cardinal news desk and “fell in love with writing and reporting.”

    A Madison native, Sears covered last year’s downtown homicide of UW student Brittany Zimmermann. Her reporting led to several appearances on Greta Van Susteren’s “On the Record” and a summer internship at Fox News in New York. And she is committed to the craft.

    “I definitely think journalism is an incredibly important profession,” she said. “It’s our job to seek the truth and it’s our job to report the truth. There are so many people pushing so many different agendas, and journalists are the people who are supposed to sift through all of that and get down to the meat and potatoes of it, and give that back to the people. I see it as my duty to figure out what’s going on out there and make people aware of that — and do it in an engaging and informative way.”

    Despite her passion and impressive resume, however, Sears likely will graduate next month without a job. And she won’t be the only one. …

    http://www.madison.com/tct/news/449060

    Fox News?

    Perhaps there is hope for future journalists after all.

    But of course the Daily Cardinal mentioned above is UW’s far-left campus paper.

    Hmmm…

    • proreason
      April 29, 2009 at 4:23 pm

      I hope millions of liberal obamabots “flock” to journalism school.

      More unemployment for them.

      More real jobs for us.

    • caligirl9
      April 29, 2009 at 4:25 pm

      She’ll end up in public relations. They all do. Employers generally aren’t smart enough to understand there is a difference between PR tactics and journalism …

      Problem with journalists “seeking the truth” is that they are not necessarily seeking a truly neutral truth—it’s “truth” with an agenda. Usually an agenda leaning strongly toward the left …

      Signed, underemployed PR practitioner currently working as an editor

  30. canary
    April 29, 2009 at 6:58 pm

    Is the AF ACKNOWLEDGING THE PRESIDENT WAS on BOARD?
    Recent Newsweek said the President hates being cooped up in the White House and has a passion for flying AF1, running security ragged with unsafe demands. The fact for HOURS, White House claimed not to know about it.

    http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_.....panic.html

    Feds knew Air Force One photo-op flyover might spark panic in the city – but didn’t give a hoot
    BY Kenneth Bazinet, Alison Gendar and Christina Boyle
    DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
    Wednesday, April 29th 2009, 3:37 AM

    Federal officials knew a flyover in lower Manhattan could spark chaos and panic in the streets below – but they did it anyway.

    A memo clearly marked “FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY,” shows the Federal Aviation Administration was aware that sending a Boeing 747 and F-16 fighter jet over New York City at a low altitude raised “the possibility of public concern.”

    Yet, the agency demanded the information be shared on a “need to know” basis and the public and media be kept in the dark.

    The Air Force said the flight was a routine three-hour training mission that could have taken place anywhere.

    The feds made the decision to head to New York to obtain “historical documentation” of flying against the backdrop of the Statue of Liberty.

    It was a move branded “sheer stupidity” by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) yesterday.

    “To say that it should not be made public knowing that it might scare people, it’s just confounding,” he said.

    Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told WCBS-TV it showed “insensitivity to the psychic wounds” the city has suffered since 9/11.

    The FAA memo, signed by James Johnson from Air Traffic, lays out details of the stunt that caused office workers to evacuate buildings, run for cover and stare in disbelief at the sight of a jumbo jet buzzing as low as 1,000 to 1,500 feet above the skyline, with a fighter jet on its tail.

    … spent 30 minutes taking photos of the Boeing 747 over the city skyline.
    Adding further insult to injury, tapped-out taxpayers were told they paid $328,835 for the “aerial photo mission,” designed to create souvenir snaps of Air Force One against the backdrop of the Statue of Liberty.

    That’s how much it cost to operate the two F-16 fighter jets and the customized Boeing 747, which serves as Air Force One when the President is aboard, the Air Force said.

    kbazinet@nydailynews.com
    With Thomas M. DeFrank and Kathleen Lucadamo

  31. canary
    April 29, 2009 at 7:35 pm

    http://www.newsweek.com/id/195086

    Barack Obama wanted to escape… all afternoon the president had been cooped up with foreign leaders inside a stuffy ballroom at Winfield House, … Its lawn, .. is the length of several football fields,..for security and privacy, the Secret Service had covered the windows facing the lawn. … Obama walked to the back door and peered out. “Come on,” he called to two of his closest aides, senior adviser David Axelrod and Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. “Let’s go take a walk.”

    The Secret Service agents on duty “freaked,” in the words of one senior Obama aide who recounted the story (and who, like others quoted in this story, asked for anonymity for the usual reasons). They raced ahead of the president, fanning out to make sure Obama was safe. His regular team of agents—as they often remind Obama, much to his chagrin—do not enjoy moments of spontaneity like this. On the roof, snipers stood at the ready as the president and his aides slowly circled the lawn again and again. “We did that for about 45 minutes,” Gibbs recalled. “Just looping around.” …

    Just two days later, at a town-hall meeting in France, Obama talked about the drawbacks of being president: “You know, it’s very frustrating now. It used to be when I came to Europe that I could just wander down to a café, and sit and have some wine….
    .Now I’m in hotel rooms all the time and I have security around me all the time. And so just, you know, losing that ability to just take a walk, that is something that is frustrating.”

    ….about life in the White House bubble…
    .. Obama’s temperament has also made the adjustment difficult…

    One escape for Obama has been Camp David….The Obamas have hosted friends from Chicago at Camp David, including the president’s best friends,…

    Obama has been frustrated by the enormous amount of planning and security that precedes his every step. During a flight to California in March, an aide says, he was told he would have a 30-second car ride from Air Force One to his first event, a town-hall meeting in Orange County. “Can I walk it?” Obama asked his lead Secret Service agent. “No, sir,” the agent replied, explaining it was 750 yards away. Obama did the math. “That’s, like, a five-minute walk?” the president said. The agent gave no ground: too unsafe, he said. Exiting the plane, Obama did as he was told and got into the limo. Thirty seconds later, as he prepared to take the stage, he turned to his staff. “We’re walking on the way back,” Obama said firmly. With the presidential limo driving slowly alongside him, Obama walked to his plane alone—or as alone as he can ever be. About 100 people, including Secret Service agents, his top aides and a White House doctor carrying a medical bag, scurried behind him. Settling back into his seat on Air Force One, Obama grinned like a kid. “OK,” he declared. “That was great!”

    … he reluctantly agreed to take on Secret Service …including frequent dates with Michelle. As president, date nights and casual outings are now the subject of intense White House planning sessions, requiring blueprints for travel, logistics and security. “Spontaneity is over,” Jarrett says.

  32. BillK
    April 30, 2009 at 1:25 am

    From Fox News:

    Right-Wing College Group Riles Students on Campuses Nationwide

    By Joshua Rhett Miller

    A student group that bills itself as “America’s right wing youth movement” focused on countering radical multiculturism, socialism and mass immigration is causing a stir on a growing number of college campuses across the country.

    The conservative political group Youth for Western Civilization is currently organized on at least seven university campuses. According to its Web site, the group hopes to inspire Western youth on the “basis of pride in their American and Western heritage,” counter and ultimately defeat “leftism on campus” and create a social movement in which a right-wing subculture is an alternative to what it calls a “poisonous and bigoted” campus climate.

    “A great part of college is definitely meeting people of different backgrounds, but a multicultural ideology teaches that we should appreciate things just because they’re different from our culture with no regards to the quality of the culture and that all cultures are inherently equal,” said Trevor Williams, president of YWC’s Vanderbilt chapter. “I absolutely disagree.”

    But students who lean left are not welcoming their new neighbor. Those opposed to YWC say its message teeters on hate speech and has no place at institutions of higher learning.

    “‘Western’ is a veiled term that means ‘white,‘” University of North Carolina graduate student Tyler Oakley wrote in an e-mail to FOXNews.com. “I believe that our democracy is strong enough to allow extreme forms of speech, but YWC’s message is essentially a negative one, an assault on not being white or non-Western, and is therefore hateful, if not blatant hate speech.” …

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,518378,00.html

    Because, remember anything that runs counter to the left’s groupthink, it’s hate speech.

    Note that the group is not claiming Western society is superior, merely that they disagree that all cultures are equal.

    This notion is repeated by the fine folks at the reactionary SLPC:

    Officials at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which identifies and tracks hate groups in the U.S., told FOXNews.com that the YWC is not currently on its list, but some of the group’s views are “suspect,” including the notion that Western civilization is somehow superior.

    Watch the left spin this:

    Jesse Jones, a freshman at Vanderbilt, where YWC hosted former U.S. Treasurer Bay Buchanan last month, acknowledged the group’s right to organize and share its views.

    “But their fascist-like logo, their name echoing ‘Hitler Youth,’ and Tom Tancredo’s call of ‘this is your country — take it back’ all quite frankly scare me,” Jones wrote in an e-mail to FOXNews.com.

    Jones said he’s also disturbed by the group’s call to restore a “curriculum that focuses on Western history, not political correctness,” according to its Web site.

    “They want to change the curriculum to emphasize ‘classical learning’ and get rid of ‘trendy multiculturalism,’” Jones continued. “In practice this means firing professors with the wrong views and hiring those with the ‘right’ views.

    “Even assuming there is a ‘right’ view on a given issue, the point is to get students to come to this opinion on their own, given the facts. In this way, YWC’s views on education are inherently anti-intellectual.“

    But firing professors who might feel Western civilization is not the root of all evil?

    They must be terminated, of course.

    I must also admit I never knew a logo itself could be “fascist.”

    • pdsand
      April 30, 2009 at 10:45 am

      God bless them. From back in my “Give War a Chance” days in college, being a conservative on campus has always made you a suspect.

      “Officials at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which identifies and tracks hate groups in the U.S”

      As they are a charity, they aren’t really “officials”. This sentence, as well as any other news report that relies on the SPLC, gives them way too much credibility.

    • gipper
      April 30, 2009 at 11:29 am

      “Even assuming there is a ‘right’ view on a given issue, the point is to get students to come to this opinion on their own, given the facts. In this way, YWC’s views on education are inherently anti-intellectual.“

      So says the college freshman. The above is, in theory, what should take place on college campuses. Unfortunately, most college students are spoon-fed liberal ideas by their liberal professors. Students willingly gobble up these ideas because they sound good and they come from a supposed authority.

    • pdsand
      April 30, 2009 at 11:38 am

      Now that the baseline of ideology on college campuses is solidly left of center, any attempts to move curriculum back to an either neutral or even – heaven forbid – pro-American point of view is “radical” or hateful.

  33. BillK
    April 30, 2009 at 1:31 am

    No shock whatsoever, but the brashness is surprising.

    From Fox News:

    Obama Describes Big-Government Solutions as Unwanted, but Necessary

    President Obama denied Wednesday during his prime-time press conference that he wanted to grow government, but rather described the meltdowns in the auto and financial industries as unwanted distractions that his administration had to address with federal intervention.

    Obama said he’d “love a nice lean portfolio” but conceded his administration has been handed a “big set of challenges.” Obama defended his heavy-handed approach to those challenges.

    Offering a summary of his first 100 days in office, Obama also looked back even further, complimenting President Bush’s preparations to fight a possible flu pandemic while accusing the his predecessor’s administration of sanctioning torture.

    Obama addressed questions on everything from the economy to swine flu to Sen. Arlen Specter’s switch to the Democratic Party at his third prime-time news conference since taking office.

    After taking questions for an hour, the president concluded by attempting to dispel charges that he’s a big-government president by design.

    “I don’t want to run auto companies. I don’t want to run banks. I’ve got two wars I’ve got to run already — I’ve got more than enough to do,” he said. “So the sooner we can get out of that business, the better off we’re going to be. We are in unique circumstances.”

    He said he’s “amused” by charges that he wants to grow government.

    “I want to disabuse people of this notion that somehow we enjoy meddling in the private sector,” Obama said.

    “If you could tell me right now that when I walked into this office, that the banks were humming, the autos were selling and that all you had to worry about was Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea, getting health care passed, figuring out how to deal with energy independence, deal with Iran and a pandemic flu — I would take that deal.” …

    http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....arks-days/

    Amazing that not one journalist will actually rise and ask how this man continues to say the sky is orange and that dark is light and go unquestioned on it by the media.

    Seriously – I can only hope someday people look back and look upon this man’s policies with the same disbelief that they have when wondering how other leaders manage to completely mislead to their constituents and go unquestioned.

    Each and every one of the things he wishes was true is not true because of the action of his big-government meddling minions in Congress.

    Banks humming? They would be were it not for loans they were forced to make by the Community Reinvestment Act.

    Autos selling? Perhaps if auto makers were not forced into making autos people don’t want by CAFE and other regulations.

    I suggest a new bumper sticker – “Obama lied, America died.”

    But of course the big headline the MSM is running with is from this bit:

    Obama pledged to do whatever is required to protect the homeland but urged the country not to use “short cuts” to fight extremists. Asked whether the Bush administration had tortured detainees despite it being against U.S. law, Obama responded, “I believe that waterboarding is torture.”

    He also said that the information gained from waterboarding was useful but could have been gained from “other means” but it would have been “more difficult.”

    Like, you know, them admitting their role after LA’s Library Tower lied in a smoking heap.

  34. BillK
    April 30, 2009 at 5:27 am

    Next on the agenda – water down the drug laws.

    From the Tribune News Bureau:

    Drug laws scrutinized

    Sentencing for crack, powdered cocaine unfair, official says

    By Josh Meyer

    WASHINGTON – The Obama administration signaled a sharp departure Wednesday from 20 years of federal policy and called on Congress to close the huge disparity in prison sentences for those dealing crack versus powdered cocaine, agreeing with critics who say it is unfair to African-Americans.

    Newly confirmed Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer said the administration believes the so-called mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines are so inherently unfair that they have undermined trust in the country’s judicial institutions, particularly among minorities who bear the brunt of the law.

    Breuer and other witnesses testifying before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee said the policies, launched when authorities feared crack was becoming an epidemic in the mid-1980s, are based on faulty assumptions that have long since been discredited, including that crack users were far more violent and dangerous to the community than powder cocaine users.

    Since they were enacted in 1986, the Justice Department and Congress under three administrations, Democrat and Republican, supported the sentencing guidelines. Currently, it takes 100 times more powdered cocaine than crack cocaine to trigger the same harsh mandatory minimum sentence. …

    http://www.baltimoresun.com/ne.....3656.story

    Of course, if African-Americans stopped selling crack the sentencing guidelines wouldn’t be an issue, would they?

    Therefore, the only reason the guidelines are “racist” and unfair to African-Americans is because more African-Americans are selling crack.

    But nah, that’s far too logical a conclusion to reach.

    The article also conveniently ignores that crack is orders of magnitude more addictive than cocaine.

    But that’s another one of those pesky facts.

    • pdsand
      April 30, 2009 at 10:35 am

      They also have to ignore the fact that these sentences were adopted at the behest of blacks, because crack kills, and it was destroying black communities. Trying to deter crack distribution by make getting caught selling crack a scary prospect was an attempt to protect the lives of young black people who would be lost to it.

      “are based on faulty assumptions that have long since been discredited, including that crack users were far more violent and dangerous to the community than powder cocaine users.”

      I’ve seen COPS, don’t try and sell me that nonsense. You don’t catch a powder cocaine user naked on top of somebody else’s roof at 4 in the morning talking about the conspiracy.

      I guess that was discredited by the same people who officially discredited the Bell Curve. And who were unable to discredit Silent Spring.

    • Colonel1961
      May 1, 2009 at 11:32 am

      BillK: have you used crack and cocaine hydrochloride (powder). Do you have actual knowledge of the ‘orders of magnitude’ range of the addictiveness of this single drug (they are one in the same – one is a salt, the other a base – but I don’t want to bore you with eighth grade chemistry) or did you read about it in an article?

      The issue, like everything else, is economics – because crack is sold in single doses (being mixed or ‘cut’, if you will, with sodium bicarbonate), it is, ceteris paribus, ‘cheaper’ and more readily available to the poorer (read: black) community. The sentencing laws are purely and simply wrong – remember the equal protection clause? The sentences should be the same, at worst, or crack should be somewhat less, at fairest, as more ‘cut’, i.e., non-cocaine, is contained in crack by volume than in ‘nominal’ cocaine hydrochloride.

      Quite frankly, you diatribe is racist. I thought you were more intelligent than the above post reveals…

    • Liberals Make Great Speedbumps
      May 2, 2009 at 1:24 am

      Okay, so make the penalty for selling powdered cocaine comparable to the penalty for selling crack, problem solved. Why lessen the severity of the harsher penalty?

  35. BillK
    April 30, 2009 at 5:30 am

    More gnashing of teeth in the newspaper industry.

    From the Baltimore Sun:

    Sun cuts third of newsroom

    By Lorraine Mirabella

    The Baltimore Sun has cut its newsroom staff by nearly a third in a reorganization the company said would help it not just survive but succeed in one of the worst economic downturns in decades.

    The news company, whose parent Tribune Co. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December, laid off 61 newsroom staffers, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.

    The reductions hit nearly every type of job in the 205-person newsroom, including top editors, news photographers, critics, columnists, sports reporters, copy editors, page designers and graphic artists, according to The Newspaper Guild, which was notified of the union-represented layoffs. One news reporter was laid off as well, after leaving voluntarily. Most employees were notified Wednesday, with others laid off late Tuesday.

    The moves were made as the company is restructuring The Baltimore Sun’s newsroom, said Renee Mutchnik, a spokeswoman for the Baltimore Sun Media Group. …

    http://www.baltimoresun.com/bu.....8376.story

    How long until that newspaper bailout?

    I mean, His friends just can’t be allowed to continue losing their jobs like this…

  36. BillK
    April 30, 2009 at 5:34 am

    There are lies and just plain fictions.

    Here’s the annual propagation of the latter, from the (Madison) Wisconsin State Journal:

    Gender wage gap widens

    Tuesday was National Pay Equity Day, which means the average woman would have to work all through 2008 and until April 28, 2009, to make the same amount of money as the average man earned during 12 months last year, according to the Wisconsin Women’s Council’s 2008 wage gap report.

    The report says women in Wisconsin earn about 77 cents for every dollar that men make, on average, based on an analysis by the UW-Madison’s Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS) of median hourly wages for all workers in 2007, the most recent data available. That’s below the national gender wage gap of 79.9 cents for women for every dollar earned by men.

    http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/biz/449272

    The dirty little secret is these studies never take into account differences in background or years of experience, just “you’re a manager, you make this, but this other person is a manager and makes that.”

    Also, isn’t it just so cute that this Wisconsin policy institute gave themselves the acronym COWS?

    • JohnMG
      April 30, 2009 at 10:50 am

      …..”isn’t it just so cute that this Wisconsin policy institute gave themselves the acronym COWS?…..”

      Maybe it’s because they knew they’d be reporting on the old heifers’ progress?

  37. BillK
    April 30, 2009 at 5:49 am

    No shock, but wow:

    From Fox News:

    Group Defends Coloring Book With Smoldering Twin Towers

    By Joshua Rhett Miller

    The coordinator behind a children’s coloring book that was pulled from FEMA’s Web site last week is standing by her work — despite its controversial cover, which shows a child’s drawing of New York’s Twin Towers on fire with a plane flying toward them.

    “A Scary Thing Happened,” a downloadable coloring book designed to help children cope with disaster, was developed by Minnesota’s Freeborn County Crisis Response Team following a local tornado in 2003. It was posted on The Smoking Gun Web site after FEMA took it down last week.

    Coordinator Rose Olmsted said the coloring book has been distributed to “thousands” of children as a way to help them deal with disasters. Even children in Australia colored its pages following that nation’s recent wildfires, she said.

    “I stand firm that it was a very well thought-out and useful resource for kids,” Olmsted told FOXNews.com. “But it’s obviously being misinterpreted by a lot of people.”

    Olmsted, who acknowledged that no 9/11 victim groups were contacted prior to the release of the 25-page coloring book, said the Federal Emergency Management Agency sent a letter to her organization six year ago to recognize a job well done.

    “It’s not distributed to just any child — it’s intended to be used in a number of ways, with parents reading it, pastors, Boy Scout leaders,” Olmsted said. “Kids of coloring age have a difficult time speaking about their experiences. When they’re drawing, it’s much easier for them to speak about their experiences, and it’s very useful in that context.”

    Olmsted suggested that the controversy over the book was linked to Monday’s flyover of Lower Manhattan by a presidential plane and an F-16 jet.

    “Is someone trying to link it to that bad press?” Olmsted asked. “We’re going to continue using this as a resource. People can disagree, I’m fine with that. There’s always going to be differences of opinion.”

    FEMA officials said the book was removed as part of a review of its Web site.

    “The coloring book, which was put online in 2003, was removed last week and FEMA is currently reviewing all web content designed and posted by the previous administration,” Clark Stevens, FEMA’s press secretary, told FOXNews.com in a statement. …

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,518422,00.html

    See? It’s all Bush’s fault.

    They even beat the bushes to find someone who lost a loved one on 9/11 who has no problem with it:

    Valerie Lucznikowska, who lost her 37-year-old nephew in the 9/11 attacks, said she didn’t understand all the fuss.

    “Quite frankly, I don’t see anything wrong with it,” Lucznikowska said. “It’s the adults who are screaming that the children are going to be damaged by this, but we move on from disasters and one of the ways to move on is to understand it and put it into context.”

    Imagine a coloring book teaching children to “deal with the loss of a parent in Iraq” featuring a drawing of a dying soldier with a name tag on his uniform reading “Sheehan.”

    Would they then be saying “it’s just adults” getting upset?

  38. BillK
    May 1, 2009 at 11:21 am

    From a giddy AP:

    Credit card legislation faces Senate test

    By Marcy Gordon

    WASHINGTON – Propelled through the House by antibusiness sentiment in tough economic times, legislation putting new reins on the credit card industry now goes to the Senate, where the bill’s prospects appear promising.

    The legislation, which has President Barack Obama’s backing, would eliminate abrupt increases in interest rates and other practices decried by consumer advocates. It could be taken up in the Senate as early as next week.

    Supporters want to get a final congressional package to Obama’s desk by the Memorial Day holiday. They acknowledged, though, that House passage of the measure on Thursday was just an opening salvo and that industry interests could succeed in getting restrictions weakened during the legislative slog ahead.

    Signaling an aggressive campaign, Edward Yingling, president and CEO of the American Bankers Association, said the group “strongly believes that any additional legislative efforts should strive to achieve the right balance between enhancing consumer protection and ensuring that credit remains available to consumers and small businesses at a reasonable cost.”

    “We continue to believe that more work needs to be done to achieve that balance,” he said in a statement.

    The House measure, called the Credit Card Holders’ Bill of Rights, passed on a bipartisan vote of 357-70 following lobbying by Obama and members of his administration.

    The bill would prohibit so-called double-cycle billing and retroactive rate hikes and would prevent companies from giving credit cards to anyone under 18.

    If they become law, the new House provisions won’t take effect for a year, except for a requirement that customers get 45 days’ notice before their interest rates are increased. That would take effect in 90 days.

    Consumer advocates and some Democrats have sought for years to bring new rules to the industry.

    “This is a unique opportunity to end abusive practices that afflict millions of families across the nation, to contribute to our economic recovery and to take a stand for American consumers,” Sen. Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and the bill’s primary sponsor, said after the House vote. “Now it is the Senate’s turn to act.”

    The bill’s boosters are tapping into public anger over corporate excesses and the conduct of banks and other companies receiving billions of dollars in taxpayer money.

    Obama’s engagement in the issue diverged sharply from his handling of a plan to spare hundreds of thousands of homeowners from foreclosure through bankruptcy, which met defeat in the Democratic-controlled Senate Thursday on a 51-45 vote. Obama had embraced the plan, but facing stiff opposition from the banking industry he did little to pressure lawmakers who worried it would encourage bankruptcy filings and catapult interest rates higher.

    Obama met at the White House last week with executives of the credit card industry and made clear he wants to sign a bill into law. And a day before the House vote, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner convened a meeting with Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., the bill’s chief sponsor, and representatives of consumer and civil rights groups. …

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

    It’s truly amazing; people beg the banks to be approved for credit cards, then demand a “bill of rights.”

    We already know what next year’s headlines will read:

    “Millions find credit cards cancelled, Obama demands banks loosen issuing guidlines.”

    and

    “Consumer anger growing at credit card cancellations among banks having received federal funds.”

  39. BillK
    May 1, 2009 at 2:15 pm

    Al Qaeda’s recruiting in America.

    From Fox News:

    Glossy Internet Magazine Targets Americans for Jihad Training

    By Eric Shawn

    It’s been likened to Al Qaeda’s “Vanity Fair,” a new English-language Internet magazine called “Jihad Recollections” that focuses on the terrorist group, its founder, Usama Bin Laden, and how to commit jihad. It also predicts the demise of the United States.

    “This is designed for Americans,” says noted terrorism expert Steven Emerson, founder of the Investigative Project on Terrorism in Washington, D.C., and author of the book “American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us.”

    “It’s not for Brits, not for Germans, not for jihadists in the Middle East. It’s designed for Americans and it’s designed to get them to convert to Islam or to carry out jihad acts of terror,” he said.

    “What started off as some angry kids in their basement has transformed over the past several years into a robust Al Qaeda propaganda outlet right here in our backyard,” says Jarret Brachman, an Al Qaeda specialist and author of the new book, “Global Jihadism.”

    Brachman says “it raises the bar for pro-Al Qaeda propaganda in English. Its presentation is flashier than any English language Al Qaeda propaganda that we’ve seen to date.” He also says “the publication shows how deeply embedded in the global Al Qaeda movement its editors are.”

    It is not clear what connection, if any, the magazine has to Al Qaeda or its followers. It is published by the “Al Fursan Media Foundation,” but FOX News could not find such an organization or a way to contact them for comment.

    Yet “Jihad Recollections” certainly highlights the terrorist group and the goals of Islamic jihad in a sophisticated and graphically slick presentation similar to any high quality Web site.

    The magazine includes the speeches and writings of Bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Articles range from “Four Practical Steps to Expand the Global Jihad,” to “The Science Behind Night Vision Technology” and “Principles of Guerrilla Warfare.”

    “The magazine is quite startling,” said Emerson. It is “a veritable manual on how to carry out terrorism. It’s quite shocking, and the question is whether it violates the law or not.”

    The first issue says of the 9/11 attacks, that “the strategy was genius.” It calls America “one of the most atrocious and egotistical regimes to date,” and it accuses the United States of spreading corruption in Islamic countries through its embassies. “How can we expect from America any good?” it asks. “We only expect from it every evil and corruption.” …

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,518611,00.html

    I wouldn’t be surprised to find it is being published by Vanity Fair – if not the publishers of the New York Times…

  40. texaspsue
    May 1, 2009 at 4:52 pm

    Funny video of the day… “Under My Bus: Zobama’s 100 Days & Throwing People Under the Bus”…

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfL-Oj1rQ-c

  41. BillK
    May 1, 2009 at 9:42 pm

    Why make plastic bags illegal – let’s make it illegal to throw them out!

    From the (Madison) Wisconsin State Journal:

    Proposed ban would prohibit throwing out clean plastic bags in Madison

    By Dean Mosiman

    In Madison, it soon may be OK to be holding the bag — but not OK to throw it out.

    Ald. Judy Compton, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and others on Tuesday will propose banning the disposal of clean, recyclable plastic bags that litter roads and lakes.

    It still would be OK to use plastic bags from grocery or retail stores, or bags that hold products such as bread, newspapers, dry cleaning, toilet paper or paper towels.

    Soiled bags still could be thrown out. But throwing out clean bags would carry a $100 fine for a first offense, $200 for a second offense and $400 for third and later offenses in a year.

    The city is likely to set up drop-off sites that would cost about $24,000 annually to operate and need an initial capital investment of $20,000 to $250,000, depending on the number of sites and type of containers.

    “It’s a matter of putting our money where our mouth is on environmental issues,” Compton said. “It’s really a simple thing.”

    The city would rely on cooperation rather than enforcement, recycling coordinator George Dreckmann said.

    “We don’t send out people looking in Dumpsters,” he said.

    Based on national averages, city residents use an estimated 74.8 million plastic bags annually but recycle less than 1 percent of them, Dreckmann said.

    “They’re a big problem at the landfill and other places as well,” Dreckmann said.

    Some cities, such as San Francisco, ban plastic bags, and others have laws making retailers take them back, but Madison is considering a unique approach in banning their disposal, Dreckmann said.

    “It’s much less politically divisive,” he said. …

    http://www.madison.com/wsj/mad/top/449576

    Who, I wonder, will determine what consitutes “soiled?”

    If you picked up dried dog poo that falls out of the bag so it now appears clean, is that a “clean” bag?

    If you have a bag that has some crumbs from a sandwich, is that “soiled”?

    It seems the wisest move is to just grab ketchup packets from the local fast food place and squirt a bit in each bag before throwing it out – problem solved!

  42. JohnMG
    May 1, 2009 at 9:54 pm

    These folks aren’t the least bit embarassed by their own stupidity.

    I cringe for the idiots!

  43. BillK
    May 1, 2009 at 10:19 pm

    Just an example of how the liberal mindset has permeated society.

    From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

    Brady Street Café, studio close; 23 laid off

    By Tom Daykin

    Brady Street Café, a longstanding business on Milwaukee’s east side, has closed, shuttering a neighborhood hangout as well as a small performing arts and exhibition space for theater, dance and film.

    The café, convenience store and eclectic arts venue, at the southeast corner of E. Brady and N. Astor streets, had its power cut off Friday, ending a long financial struggle for the business, owner James Searles said.

    Searles had hoped to get 10 more days from We Energies to try to pay an overdue bill of about $27,000, which dates back four months. Instead, he was forced to close and lay off 23 employees.

    “They have no sense of community,” Searles said about the utility.

    We Energies spokesman Barry McNulty said the company doesn’t publicly discuss individual customer accounts. A state-imposed moratorium on cutting power to overdue accounts, which takes effect every winter, ended April 15.

    Searles owes money to others, including two food suppliers that are pursuing collection lawsuits in Milwaukee County Circuit Court, according to online court records. His business also owes property taxes from 2007 and 2008 totaling $42,295, according to city records. …

    http://www.jsonline.com/business/44201122.html

    So the man owes nearly $43,000 in back taxes and almost $27,000 to the local power company, and when the power company finally cuts off the power he’s upset because “they have no sense of community.”

    Got it.

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