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Selected News Items For Jan 30 – Feb 5

This thread is for the busy bees of S&L to post news we might have missed, especially articles that demonstrate the distortions and biases of our media watchdogs.

Posting Guidelines

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

And:

  • Only post ‘hard news’ from establishment media outlets.
  • Avoid editorials and ‘thought pieces’ unless they are truly newsworthy.
  • Eschew major news items that most people will likely have seen elsewhere.
  • Articles that fit under the topic of a recent thread should be posted as a comment there.
  • Always spell out the name of the source and post a link to it.
  • Never post more than one third of the original article.

Posts of articles that do not follow these guidelines may be edited or deleted.

Thanks!

Related Articles:

 

This article was posted by Steve Gilbert on Saturday, January 30th, 2010 at 12:00 am. You can leave a response.

60 Responses to “Selected News Items For Jan 30 – Feb 5”

  1. canary
    January 30, 2010 at 4:43 am

    AP: Man accused in Colorado train threat denies charges
    By P. Solomon Banda Jan 29 2010

    DENVER — A man pulled off an Amtrak train after passengers reported hearing him talk about al-Qaida and make threatening statements…

    Ojore Nuru Lutalo, 64, of Elizabeth, N.J., was arrested Tuesday at the La Junta train station in southeastern Colorado….

    Lutalo, …was returning to New Jersey after speaking at a Los Angeles book fair sponsored by the Anarchist Black Cross Federation…

    Lutalo was released from a New Jersey prison in August after serving 28 years for armed robbery and weapons convictions…served more than 20 years of that sentence confined in a cell alone for 23 hours a day…

    “We have to work in small groups. They can hold you for 18 months. Do they have security on these trains? Are you with me or not?” passengers reported hearing Lutalo say.

    One passenger said he heard Lutalo mention al-Qaida, saying, “Seventeenth-century tactics won’t work; we have 21st-century tactics.”

    … He was carrying what police described as propaganda for an anarchist group called Afrikan Liberation Army….

    Afran, who filed a lawsuit challenging Lutalo’s treatment in prison, said…

    “…Whatever comments he was making on the phone may have been just a case of him not being sensitive to the world we live in now…”

    Bonnie Kerness, with the Newark, N.J.-based American Friends Service Committee Prison Watch Program, said Lutalo’s treatment in prison made him a political prisoner, and groups like the Anarchist Black Cross Federation raise money to help those prisoners…..

    Lutalo said he took a train instead of flying because he was worried that his criminal record and known anarchist political views would subject him to extra screening.

    http://www.deseretnews.com/art.....rges.html?

  2. Rusty Shackleford
    January 30, 2010 at 11:30 am

    Ellie Light identity revealed:

    http://www.cleveland.com/open/.....a_man.html

    ‘I’m Ellie Light,’ California man says: Obama letter writer talks
    By Stephen Koff, The Plain Dealer
    January 26, 2010, 8:57PM

    WASHINGTON — Ellie Light, the ubiquitous letter writer whose name appeared in newspapers nationwide praising President Barack Obama, appears to really be a male health care worker from California.

    A man who identified himself as Winston Steward, 51, of Frazier Park, Calif., says he made up the name “Ellie Light” to protect himself from criticism and possible physical attacks, and used fake addresses across the country to get local newspapers to publish his letters.

    “I am Winston Steward and have been sending the letters from Ellie Light,” he told The Plain Dealer in an e-mail late Tuesday, following a phone interview in which he said the same. “I hope this ends any confusion and sets the record straight.”

    His e-mail address matched the address of the Ellie Light missives that were sent to newspapers to praise Obama and urged second-guessers to be patient as the president advances the Democratic agenda. The person identified as Ellie Light had been corresponding from that e-mail address to The Plain Dealer since last week, when the newspaper’s Web site, cleveland.com, disclosed that someone using the name Ellie Light was duping newspapers nationwide.

    Many newspapers will not publish letters to the editor unless they are from local residents, so the correspondence from “Light” used addresses from newspapers’ own circulation areas. But news of Light’s tactics left multiple newspapers embarrassed, with some apologizing to their readers. The Plain Dealer did not publish any letters from “Light.”

    News of the escapade also triggered suspicions in the blogosphere that Ellie Light was not a real name, and that the letter-writing campaign was directed from White House or the Democratic Party.

    The man identifying himself as Steward scoffed at that, saying the letters were merely his way of speaking up for Obama when sensing that support for the Democratic president was waning. While a liberal, he said that too many people on the “ultra-left” are demanding ideological loyalty rather than seeking results.

    The story took several twists this week, as The Plain Dealer and “Ellie Light” spoke first through e-mail and later via phone. At one point Tuesday, the person who had been using the name acknowledged it was fake — but then said her real name was Barbara Brooks. The person spoke in a husky voice that could pass for either gender.

    But public records, including those of marriages, property and professional licenses in California and Texas, and phone interviews eventually led to the identity of Steward. Those interviews included several with a woman in Texas who said she is the real Barbara Brooks — records appear to confirm this — and that she is married to Steward, who for now lives in their other home in California but plans to join her in their home near San Antonio.

    The woman said her husband was using her name because he was afraid he might be attacked by “right-wing crazies up in Bakersfield,” about 40 miles from their home in a mountain community.

    Late Tuesday, after several denials, the person who had been e-mailing under the name “Ellie Light” said he’d finally set the record straight. He said he was, in fact, Winston Steward. He repeated that in an e-mail, using the same account as he had when using the name “Ellie Light.”

    He said, however, that he and Brooks are no longer married, a point Brooks disputed.

    “He’s making up all kinds of garbage,” she said. “We’re not divorced. We’re not separated. He just doesn’t want anybody to trace him because he’s afraid of the right-wing crazies up in Bakersfield.”

    She said she does not condone his use of a fake name.

    The name “Ellie Light” appeared with letters that ran in newspapers in multiple states, including California — where state law makes it a misdemeanor to sign and send “any letter addressed to a newspaper with the name of a person other than himself.”

    Prosecutions under that law, however, are unheard of, said John Emig, a journalism professor at California State University at Bakersfield. Emig said that in his experience as a community newspaper editor, just citing the law “was quite effective in dealing with people sending letters in other people’s names.”

  3. Petronius
    January 30, 2010 at 11:35 am

    The Tocqueville Trust Mutual Funds

    2009 Annual Report, 31 Oct 2009 (issued 26 Jan 2010)

    The Tocqueville Fund, Robert W. Kleinschmidt, Portfolio Manager

    Our view of the future is that the markets will remain difficult once this rebound rally has run its course. Too many negative variables, like rising interest rates, higher inflation, more obstructive regulation, a weaker dollar, greater unionization, higher taxes (on everything), are likely to confront equities (and bonds) over the near term to expect broad market rallies.

    * * *

    The Tocqueville Gold Fund, John C. Hathaway, Portfolio Manager

    The post World War II economic model of economic growth based on secular credit expansion is broken. We believe the applicable model is a 1930’s style credit deflation. * * * There is little government policy can do about this other than to devalue currency to lessen debt burdens. The Fed understands this and is acting accordingly. Keynesian stimulus packages at best mean that government spending replaces lost private sector activity to stabilize the economy. This is pretty much where things stand at the moment. It remains to be seen whether massive stimulus can offset the headwinds of a negative credit cycle. Since there is no way to know how these wild experiments in monetary and fiscal stimulus will turn out, investors are gravitating to gold, knowing that the integrity of the currency is the last thing on the minds of policy makers.

    Gold is a wager that these measures will not restore economic health over the longer term and that further currency debasement will be deemed necessary. Zero interest rates are designed to encourage a new carry trade. Free money is intended to inflate asset values in hopes of restarting the credit cycle. In other words, our “leaders” in Washington will solve the problem of too much debt with more debt. Decades of Keynesian policies have brought us to the brink of a credit collapse. Unfortunately, there is little to suggest introspection. Most expect and assume that government intervention will continue to work miracles.

    The middle ground between deflation and inflation exists only in the imagination of policy makers and analysts who still believe that government is capable of creating wealth. Things should really get interesting for gold if government actions are seen to be impotent. Gold is a hedge against a world monetary order on its death bed. The drama may take a few more years to play out, but we believe it is almost certainly in its terminal stages. Gold and gold mining shares still seem likely to provide a superior refuge against this backdrop.

    http://www.tocquevillefunds.co......31.09.pdf

    Pretty strong stuff.

  4. Petronius
    January 30, 2010 at 12:14 pm

    The Guardian

    UK Economy Lies “on Bed of Nitroglycerine” –– Top Financier

    Jill Treanor and Patrick Wintour, 27 Jan 2010

    The government’s hopes of claiming credit for reviving the British economy suffered a severe blow today when the world’s biggest buyers of bonds warned that the UK was a “must to avoid” for his investors as its debt was “resting on a bed of nitroglycerine.”

    The intervention by Bill Gross, co-founder of California-based fund managers PIMCO, came on the day official figures confirmed that Britain had emerged from the deepest recession since the 1930s –– but only by the narrowest of margins.

    The economy grew by 0.1% in the final three months of last year, much weaker than even the most cautious expectations in Westminster and the City. The unexpectedly sluggish performance prompted [Labour Party Chancellor of the Exchequer] Alistair Darling to warn that Britain could yet fall back into recession . . . .

    But the remarks by Gross, whose pronouncements on bond markets are regarded as highly influential, added to the sense that the economy remained in a dangerously parlous state. “The UK is a must to avoid. Its gilts are resting on a bed of nitroglycerine,” he said. “High debt with the potential to devalue its currency present high risks for bond investors.”

    [Gross] warned that the UK was in PIMCO’s “ring of fire” where a country’s public debt could exceed 90% of GDP in a few years’ time. Darling’s current projections are for the debt to GDP ratio to peak at 77% in 2014.

    * * *

    PIMCO has been . . . sounding the alarm about the UK for some time, most recently earlier this month when it unsettled markets by saying it was cutting back on its bond investments in the UK and the US.

    * * *

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/busi.....-bob-gross

    Another signpost on the road to monetary crisis.

    • proreason
      January 30, 2010 at 12:45 pm

      The biggest financial bubbles in history, and there have been hundreds of them, are government-induced bubbles. What happened to Germany in the 1920’s is just one example. Practically the entire history of South America is a series of government induced financial catastrophe.

      Our next one could set the country back 100 years, and make it vulnerable to attack by Russia and / or China.

      But hey, no worries. It can’t happen here.

      There’s no limit to what we can spend and redistribute. Capitalism is evil anyway.

      Trips to Copenhagen for everybody who voted for the Moron.

  5. Rusty Shackleford
    January 30, 2010 at 4:55 pm

    From the UK Telegraph

    Tea Party moves from margins to mainstream in US politics

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....itics.html

    By Philip Sherwell in Tampa, Florida
    Published: 5:00PM GMT 30 Jan 2010

    With banners, flags and T-shirts denouncing Barack Obama’s fiscal stimulus and health reforms, Tea Party movement protestors are turning out against him everywhere he goes.

    Last week he was in Florida to sell the “jobs, jobs, jobs” message of his State of the Union address and unveil plans for a new high-speed bullet train from Tampa to Orlando to help kick-start the economy.

    In a packed college sports hall, the Mr Obama received a tumultuous welcome, reminiscent of the heady days of the 2008 campaign when he electrified the country with his White House run.

    But for many Americans, the anti-establishment sentiment is now represented by those who gathered for the rival rally outside the University of Tampa. The immediate ire of protestors such as Tom Gaitens, a Florida commodities trader, was what they saw as another example of wasteful government spending.

    Less than a year after the tea party movement was born out of conservative discontent at soaring spending and budget deficits, it is migrating from the margins to the mainstream of US politics.

    As the country enters the 2010 election cycle, that spells bleak news for Mr Obama and his Democratic allies who currently run Congress.

    This is good news for conservatives, to be sure. ‘Course not a word of this from the US MSM.

    But if the US MSM gets ahold of it, they will do their best to try to discredit any and all who attend, while simultaneously planting fake tea-party members, etc.

    However, the enormous numbers that protested last year will hopefully double this year, or more.

  6. canary
    January 30, 2010 at 5:32 pm

    Gulf Times: Interpreter kills two US soldiers in Afghanistan

    An interpreter in Afghanistan shot dead two US soldiers, a US military official said yesterday, adding that the attacker appeared to be a disgruntled employee rather than a militant.

    … An Afghan provincial official, who also asked not to be named, said the interpreter had quarrelled with the soldiers over pay and treatment, before opening fire.

    http://www.gulf-times.com/site.....rent_id=23

    Meanwhile little media attention has been given on the U.S. soldiers troops deaths in Afganistan, do to Obama’s rules of working, aiding, hiring & training the Taliban who turn around and shoot our soldiers. Rehabilitating
    the enemy & road side bombs both lead in the number of American hero’s deaths….

    Just seen two commercials in last hour, to stations (one FOX)
    Obama spokesman for “Take time to be a Daddy Today” organization & “Feeding America”. He’s everywhere.

    jeers to FOX’s weak reporting of lately, guess they have to reward Gibbs interview and advertisers.

  7. canary
    January 30, 2010 at 6:49 pm

    News China puts all arms engagement with U.S. on hold. Obama administration blaming private companies for selling to Taiwan. There has been major world-wide internet scrubbing, articles disappearing, so left with Reuters monopoly on the subject, blames Bush pact.

    Reuter U.S. regrets China’s riposte to arms sales
    By Jim Wolf and Ben Blanchard Jan 30 2010

    WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) – The United States said on Saturday it regretted China’s announced cuts in bilateral contacts and its plans to punish U.S. companies involved in arms sales to Taiwan.

    Washington defended arms sales,…

    “We regret that the Chinese government has announced that it plans to curtail military-to-military and other security-related exchanges and take action against U.S. firms that supply defensive articles to Taiwan,” said P.J. Crowley, …

    ….Black Hawk utility helicopters built by Sikorsky Aircraft, a unit of United Technologies Corp.; Lockheed Martin Corp-built and Raytheon Co.-integrated Patriot missile defenses; and Harpoon land- and sea-attack missiles built by Boeing Co..

    Representatives of Sikorsky, Raytheon and Boeing either had no immediate comment or did not respond to questions left for them. A Lockheed spokesman referred a caller to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which formally announced the sales plans. An agency representative could not immediately be reached.

    Boeing, the No. 1 U.S. exporter, has big commercial interests in China, the world’s most populous market, including commercial aircraft sales. United Technologies also has significant sales in China, where it sells Carrier brand heating and air-conditioning, Otis elevators and escalators and other products.

    ….China’s Defense Ministry said military exchanges would be put on hold and Beijing postponed vice ministerial-level talks on security, arms control and non-proliferation….

    The two countries traded angry words about Internet policy after the search engine giant Google Inc. this month threatened to shut its Chinese google.cn portal and pull out of China because of censorship and hacking attacks.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/201.....ina_taiwan

  8. canary
    January 30, 2010 at 7:51 pm

    Mayor Valentine petitioning on-line & hitting media trail for Newburgh NY
    to hold terrorist trials in state-of-art prison, sorely indebt, as prison cost nearly double amount requested. See memorandum to Valentine over not paying this debt, below

    NBC: Upstate Mayor Wants Terror Trial
    By Lynda Baquero & Katie Honan Jan 29, 2010

    City of Newburgh The Mayor of Newburgh — a small city 60 miles north of Manhattan — is pushing to have the Sept. 11 terrorist trials moved upstate as a way to bring attention to his city.

    “I am dismayed that anyone would suggest that Orange County bear the burden for this trial,” said Orange county Executive
    Edward A. Diana, in a statement released Friday. “Fourty-four Orange County residents lost their lives on that most horrific day and to bring these monsters to Orange County is an insult to our residents.”

    Diana also said that the city’s location close to West Point and the 105th National Guard would make the area more of a target for terrorist attacks,..

    Mayor Valentine, though, says Newburgh is an ideal location, noting the city’s new courthouse, which went under a $22-million dollar renovation a year ago…

    He is hoping that in exchange for hosting the trials, his city would receive some sort of “stimulus package” that could improve the city’s Police Department and fund more youth programs…”

    A worker at Jimmy’s Pizzeria, which is on the same street as the courthouse, liked the idea of putting Newburgh “on the map”. He did recognize that, since it’s a terrorist trial, it “wouldn’t be good publicity.”

    Regina Dickerson thought it would be “an excellent idea” to host the trials in her hometown…

    http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news.....50442.html
    ———————————-
    Memorandum
    To: Mayor Valentine and City Council
    From: Richard F. Herbek
    Date: January 7, 2010
    Re: Status Report
    ….
    . • Courthouse Construction Cost Overruns –I was told that the original bond was in the amount of $12,400,000 and that theoverages would be in the vicinity of $5,000,000. As it turned out the cost of theCourthouse Project will be in the $20,000,000 to $21,000,000 range.

    Page 2 broke and could not continue to meet its financial obligations including payroll payments to the City employees….
    to receive advanced AIM funding payments from New York State…

    We stopped paying most bills which eventually amounted to more than$5,000,000 by December and focused on making payroll payments,

    and plans to use $2.1 million in fund balance which did not exist.

    http://74.125.95.132/search?q=.....&gl=us

  9. BillK
    January 30, 2010 at 9:20 pm

    Propaganda or just a good liberal trying to get into “paradise?”

    From the Associated Press:

    Report: Detained American seeks asylum in NKorea

    SEOUL, South Korea — An American man detained by North Korea after allegedly entering the communist country illegally has sought asylum and wants to join its military, a news report said Saturday.

    South Korea’s Dong-a Ilbo newspaper said the man crossed into North Korea from China on Monday.

    It said an unidentified source in North Korea told the newspaper the 28-year-old man said he came to the country because he did not “want to become a cannon fodder in the capitalist military,” and “wants to serve in the North Korean military” instead.

    The National Intelligence Service, South Korea’s top spy agency, said it could not immediately confirm the report. The U.S. Embassy in Seoul said it had no such information.

    On Thursday, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency reported an American was arrested Monday for trespassing and his case was under investigation.

    It was the second case of a detained American in North Korea in the past month, further complicating a relationship that has been badly strained for years over North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and periodic testing of missiles in defiance of repeated U.N. Security Council warnings.

    In Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the North Koreans, in a bare-bones message through their representative at U.N. headquarters in New York, provided no identifying information about the detainee.

    Crowley said the U.S. has asked Swedish government intermediaries to gain access to the detainee. The Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang represents U.S. interests there as Washington has no diplomatic relations with the North. …

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....00084.html

    Likely made-up, but it’s always possible it’s a Kos reader…

  10. BillK
    January 31, 2010 at 4:34 am

    Tax revenues are down because people are unemployed and businesses are hemorrhaging money.

    Time to raise taxes on people and businesses!

    From the Denver Post:

    Bills to eliminate some state tax breaks advance

    By Tim Hoover

    A standoff in the House over eliminating tax breaks for a slew of items ranging from software to soft drinks lasted late into the night Friday.

    After eight hours of debate, the House had given initial approval to eight bills eliminating sales-tax exemptions. The House must approve the bills once more before they can move to the Senate.

    Gov. Bill Ritter, a Democrat, wants to eliminate or suspend 13 tax exemptions and credits to generate somewhere between $125 million and $140 million for the 2010-11 fiscal year that begins in July. He also wants to speed up the expiration date for seven of the tax exemptions to March 1 in order to generate $18 million to help balance the budget in the current fiscal year.

    Republicans argued that removing the tax exemptions and credits is no different than a tax increase and that the burden will fall mostly on businesses at a time when companies can ill afford higher taxes.

    Democrats said there have been cuts to schools, colleges, health care and programs for the mentally ill, senior citizens and developmentally disabled. They said businesses should pitch in as well and that the tax breaks targeted for elimination represent a tiny fraction of the $2 billion in exemptions and credits that exist.

    The state faces a shortfall of at least $1.3 billion in the 2010-11 budget year and will have bridged a $2.2 billion budget gap in the current year.

    “After we pass these important bills to remove special-interest tax breaks, today will be known as ‘Black Friday’ — the day House Democrats brought Colorado a little closer to being in the black,” said House Majority Leader Paul Weissmann, D-Louisville. …

    http://www.denverpost.com/commented/ci_14298635

    Proving once again that no matter how many times they are presented with the facts, Democrats continue to believe that raising taxes somehow raises revenue but does not change behavior, and in particular that raising taxes does not act as an incentive for businesses to relocate in more business-friendly states.

    It’s nice to see that Colorado Democrats continue on their path to make Colorado the next California.

  11. BillK
    January 31, 2010 at 4:51 am

    Tort reform? Nah, that will never work.

    From the Denver Post:

    Canceled insurance leads to $37 million verdict for woman

    A Boulder County jury has ruled that a health insurance company must pay $37 million to a Lafayette woman whose health insurance policy was canceled after she was seriously injured in a car accident, the Daily Camera reports.

    The insurance company had said she failed to disclose previous medical treatments, namely an emergency room visit for shortness of breath and treatment for uterine prolapse. The company refused to cover roughly $185,000 in medical bills from the accident and canceled the woman’s policy.

    The plaintiff’s attorney, Marc Levy, of Greenwood Village-based Levy, Morse & Wheeler, had asked the jury to consider a verdict of $7 million or $8 million based on the evidence. He told the Camera he was “shocked, but obviously very gratified” when the six-person jury returned on Friday with one of the largest jury verdicts in Colorado history. …

    http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_14303310

    Let’s hope the amount is quickly reduced upon appeal, as you know who will pay as a result.

    That’s right, policyholders.

    But let’s not let logic enter into the discussion…

  12. BillK
    January 31, 2010 at 5:04 am

    Obama admits – Whoops! – the Government will meddle in your current health care plan.

    From Real Clear Politics:

    Obama’s Stunning Admission

    By Tom Bevan

    There’s been a remarkable amount of coverage of President Obama’s appearance at the House Republican retreat today, but I haven’t seen anyone focus on the President’s rather stunning admission about the Democrats’ health care legislation:

    The last thing I will say, though — let me say this about health care and the health care debate, because I think it also bears on a whole lot of other issues. If you look at the package that we’ve presented — and there’s some stray cats and dogs that got in there that we were eliminating, we were in the process of eliminating. For example, we said from the start that it was going to be important for us to be consistent in saying to people if you can have your — if you want to keep the health insurance you got, you can keep it, that you’re not going to have anybody getting in between you and your doctor in your decision making. And I think that some of the provisions that got snuck in might have violated that pledge.

    If we take this statement at face value, President Obama is admitting the the health care bills passed by either the House or Senate (or both) contained provisions which were “snuck in” – presumably by Democratic members and perhaps on behalf of certain lobbyists – that would have in fact prevented people from keeping their current insurance and/or choosing the doctor they want.

    This was one of the core debates on health care throughout last year: Would President Obama and the Democrats’ legislation allow government to come between citizens and their choice of doctors and insurers? Obama promised it wouldn’t. Republicans said it would, and this was one of the aspects of the legislation that led them to characterize it as a government takeover of health care – the same characterization that Obama chastized the GOP for today. …

    http://realclearpolitics.blogs.....admission/

    No, really?!?!

    The video of the President can be seen here:

    http://www.realclearpolitics.c.....urers.html

  13. BillK
    January 31, 2010 at 5:09 am

    Time for Wisconsin to get into the “Hey, let’s screw the people when they’re down” act as well.

    From the (Madison) Wisconsin State Journal:

    Group proposes sales tax increase to fund schools

    By Gayle Worland

    Tom Beebe has an idea for raising $850 million a year for Wisconsin schools, easing property taxes for homeowners and buying some time to devise a long-term solution to the state’s Byzantine school funding system — raise the state’s 5 percent sales tax by 1 percentage point.

    It might not be politically viable. But supporters say at least it’s an idea.

    “The conversation has to start somewhere,” said Dan Nerad, Madison School District superintendent. “There needs to be a public policy discussion about important questions around the school funding formula.”

    The executive director of the Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools, Beebe is the driving force — literally — behind the “A Penny for Kids” campaign. Since summer, he has logged nearly a thousand miles a month, he said, in a low-key, grass-roots campaign focused mainly in rural areas of the state. An online petition has garnered about 1,760 signatures.

    Earlier this month, A Penny for Kids won a symbolic endorsement from the Madison School Board and Madison Teachers Inc., the first school district and teachers union to formally support the idea.

    Still, no legislator has stepped forward to author a Penny for Kids bill. …

    http://host.madison.com/wsj/ne.....002fb.html

    Imagine a school district and teacher’s union supporting a tax increase for schools!

  14. BillK
    January 31, 2010 at 5:14 am

    Barney Frank raises a big middle finger to banks, again.

    From the Associated Press:

    In Davos, regulators tell bankers new rules coming

    By Bradley S. Klapper and Angela Charlton with Matt Moore

    Government regulators from the United States and Europe laid out their financial reform plans Saturday before a skeptical banking industry, asking financiers for input but adamant that change was coming with or without their support.

    Emerging from the two-hour meeting as its unofficial spokesman, U.S. Representative Barney Frank made it clear that governments were now calling the shots after spending billions to bail out the industry.

    Top bankers, by contrast, who came into this week’s World Economic Forum buoyed by signs of economic recovery, left somewhat subdued even as they called the closed-door meeting constructive.

    “No one got up and said, ‘Don’t regulate us,’” said Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat who heads the U.S. House Financial Services Committee. “It would have been a waste of their time if they did.”

    The meeting comes after days of tension at this Swiss Alpine resort over government plans for stricter controls on the financial industry to limit speculation and avoid a repeat of the 2008 meltdown that plunged the world into recession. Bankers have protested the new proposals, saying the U.S. and other countries risk choking off a gradual economic recovery with regulation they see as heavy-handed. …

    http://host.madison.com/busine.....8d4db.html

    I mean, who cares what bankers have to say, obviously regulators and Government know best, just like when they forced banks to give loans to people who never had a prayer of paying it back.

    I’m sure that and bank failures were just a coincidence – that and Barney’s famous “Fannie is OK” statement.

  15. canary
    January 31, 2010 at 4:03 pm

    English; People’s Daily: An al-Qaida militant group in Iraq claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s suicide minibus bombing against the government forensics compound in central Baghdad, the group said in a statement posted on the internet on Saturday…

    “Baghdad Knights (Qaida suicide bombers) targeted the fortified building of what-so-called the forensics department and its related offices in the Taharriyat Square,” the self-styled Islamic State in Iraq (ISI) said….

    The ISI latest claim is its second in the past few days…

    On Tuesday, a suicide bomber drove an explosive-laden minibus into the building of the Interior Ministry’s forensic department close to the Taharriyat Square in Karrada district, killing…

    …to paralyze the government ahead of the country’s parliamentary elections slated for March 7.

    Source: Xinhua Jan 31 2010
    http://english.people.com.cn/9.....83433.html

  16. canary
    February 1, 2010 at 2:24 am

    Inspite of Talibans reiterating they will not lay down arms for evil money in the eyes of allah, Hillary, Brown, & others of 70 countries at London meet with Afgan president considering.

    Reuters: Britain announces international fund to woo Taliban
    Nine O’Clock 01.02.10 worldnews
    LONDON- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced a new international fund that will be aimed at winning over Taliban fighters…

    Brown made the announcement to a host of delegates from around 70 nations. “We are today… to finance this Afghan-led peace and reintegration program…” …, will give jobs to Taliban fighters who denounce extremism…..

    Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai…“We must reach out to all our countrymen, especially our disenchanted brothers who are not part of al-Qaida or other terrorist networks,” …called for Saudi Arabia to help mediate. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States would support the program as long as the insurgents pledge to renounce violence and al-Qaida, and embrace democracy….

    entire article
    http://www.nineoclock.ro/index.....0201-21765
    ——————————————————————————–

    Tronto Sun: Cdn. envoy warns wooing Taliban could backfire
    By Steve Rennie, THE CANADIAN PRESS Jan 31 2010

    KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Canada’s top envoy in Afghanistan warns wooing the Taliban could backfire on coalition forces if peaceful Afghans feel put out.

    William Crosbie, Canada’s ambassador to Afghanistan, told reporters Sunday the gesture is pointless if others perceive the Taliban as being favoured….

    The plan involves paying out hundreds of millions of dollars to low-and mid-level Talibs in the hopes they’ll defect…

    Jobs and vocational training to militants who lay down their arms would also be offered under the scheme.

    “There’s no point developing some kind of a fund to which former insurgents are eligible if we’re not equally providing support to Afghans who are not part of the insurgency now,” he said. ..

    Other efforts to entice the Taliban to stop fighting generally haven’t worked. Past incentives have tended to attract low-level fighters, many of whom eventually return to the ranks of the insurgency.

    Canada is taking a wait-and-see approach before deciding whether to contribute to the fund.

    Crosbie said “…Some Afghans, including Afghan women, have expressed concerns that reconciliation should not be at the expense of their rights,…”

    “We’ve also pointed out that the reconciliation process needs to set down clear lines for who would be eligible, and who would not.”

    The Taliban have so far rebuffed the overture.

    A statement posted on a Taliban website last week said their fighters wouldn’t be swayed by financial incentives….

    Canadian Brig.-Gen. Daniel Menard, who heads coalition forces in Kandahar, had another take on reconciliation with the insurgents….

    “I’m not trying to convince these guys at all,” Menard said.

    “But it’s their decision. They can join (non-militants), and live happily. Or they can run. Because you know what? That’s the only way they will live.”

    http://www.torontosun.com/news.....86471.html
    ———————————————————————————————

    The Earth Times: Wellington – New Zealand will not join allied governments in contributing to an international fund to pay Taliban fighters to give up their guns in Afghanistan, Foreign Minister Murray McCully told a newspaper Monday.

    Australia, Britain, Japan and South Korea have announced contributions to the fundproposed by Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai last week at an international conference in London.

    The fund would pay Taliban fighters to give up their arms, renounce al-Qaeda and abide by the laws of Afghanistan…. —Jan 31 2010

    entire article
    http://www.earthtimes.org/arti.....-give.html

    • JohnMG
      February 1, 2010 at 8:28 am

      I’ll be good. Honest, I will. Now where’s my money? I need to buy a new AK 47.

      I get it now. Sort of like a “cash for clunkers” program for poor terrorist insurgents.

      Aren’t we carrying this ‘re-distribution’ thing a bit too far? Are the world’s governments peopled with idiots? (Rhetorical question, larded with heavy sarcasm)

    • jobeth
      February 1, 2010 at 10:40 am

      This is just wonderful…and typical of the leaders of these first world countries, including the US, who are sitting on some of the most powerful, and precise weapons ever known and the most highly trained military forces who have ever walked this earth.

      We could make glass out of their country, yet…just so I have this clear in my understanding…we are going to ignore all the above and resort to “tributes”? And this to a group who wage war with a rusty Toyota pickup to ride and a few older shoulder held weapons? (albeit they do pretty well with what they have-and yes I know it’s not quite that simple)

      I thought tribute went out of fashion sometime around the middle ages. And I somehow thought only the weakest would be offering that tribute.

      The taliban just HAS to be laughing themselves silly in some cave somewhere.

      The world really IS upside down.

    • Petronius
      February 1, 2010 at 5:02 pm

      JohnMG: “Sort of like a “cash for clunkers” program for poor terrorist insurgents.” : )

      I remember in the 1980s, during the Soviet-Afghan War, seeing a photo in USN&WR of a smiling mujahideen carrying a vintage Martini-Henry rifle. And I remember wondering where he got cartridges for it? And thinking that it would have made a nice addition for my collection.

      Memo to Karzai: I’m still in the market for a clean Lee-Enfield SMLE Mk III, blued, in good shooting condition. Pass the word. All reasonable offers will be considered.

    • JohnMG
      February 1, 2010 at 7:12 pm

      Petronius

      ……”I remember wondering where he got cartridges for it?…..”

      A little off topic, but ammunition for the Martini-Henry is still available from India. Still a lot of British influence there. As a matter of fact, India manufactures a neat knock-off of the old Royal Enfield Motorcycle which can be purchased in the US. Unlike places in Africa (and elsewhere) India hasn’t cast off that from which they benefited due to Brittish colonial rule.

  17. canary
    February 1, 2010 at 3:01 am

    From an extremely liberal media who failed to show the tape and interview as FOX O’Rielly did so repeatedly, showing a man who had only seconds to act, and when hearing a woman & girl screaming thought the robber he shot was trying to shoot the trying to protect two women in his pharmacy which had been robbed before. Ersland also served in combat battle to defend the USA. 1st degree murder has if he planned it?

    The Daily Oklahoman: Pharmacist charged with murder says ‘crazed’ DA is seeking black voters’ support

    BY NOLAN CLAY The Oklahoman
    Published: January 31, 2010

    …”He is going for the Black vote but he forgot about the other races,” Jerome Ersland wrote a relative in Texas in a Jan. 10 letter.

    Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater…”It was based on the facts alleged in the charge, period,” said Prater, who is running for re-election.

    Ersland, 58, was charged with first-degree murder after a masked robber was shot six times May 19 inside the Reliable Discount Pharmacy in south Oklahoma City.

    Ersland contends he acted in self-defense, fighting back against two masked robbers. In statements, he has said he thought both had guns and had fired at him. He has said he shot Parker five more times because he thought Parker was getting up. His defense attorney has said the incident lasted only 46 seconds.

    The other robber, who did have a gun, fled the store when the pharmacist started shooting, the surveillance recording shows. Prosecutors said the armed robber, Jevontai Ingram, now 15, did not fire any shots. Ingram has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for his role in the robbery.

    said Hiebert, who described Ersland as a distant cousin. “It sounds like he’s being railroaded.”

    In the letter, Ersland wrote that the district attorney initially said the shooting was in self-defense, then “changed his ruling on me” and filed the murder charge after talking with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

    “The District Attorney Mr. Prater and the media appear to have surrendered to the will of the NAACP and the political correctness of the day,” the site states.

    Local NAACP leaders praised Prater for filing the charge two days later.

    In the letter to his relative, Ersland also wrote, “Funny thing is, this is not a racial issue.”

    He explained in the letter that he did not know the robbers were black because both wore masks. He wrote he had no idea until he finished talking with police … “and there were black people outside the pharmacy yelling ‘Racist!’”

    Ersland’s flier states he has an adopted black niece and has friends of all races.

    In an interview via telephone, Ersland told The Oklahoman, “I’m not racist. … …they’re shooting at you, and you just duck and you don’t know what they are, so you return fire. And that’s all you do when they’re shooting at you.”

    Read more: http://newsok.com/political-mo.....z0eGg6Dfkq
    http://newsok.com/political-mo.....nes_widget

  18. canary
    February 1, 2010 at 3:51 pm

    Obama needs this balm on his lips & finger. Spiteful AP not getting what they want, tries to tarnish small business from headline to how it’s run.

    AP: Sticky, smelly Bag Balm: Problem-salving for all
    By John Curran Jan 31, 2010

    LYNDONVILLE, Vt. – …Everyone wants a new tub of the gooey, yellow-green ointment. And all have a story about its problem-salving — they use it on squeaky bed springs, psoriasis, dry facial skin, cracked fingers, burns, zits, diaper rash, saddle sores, sunburn, pruned trees, rifles, shell casings, bed sores and radiation burns.

    “Some, you don’t really even want to hear, but they’re gonna tell you anyway,” said accounts manager Krystina McMorrow, who is half the office staff.

    “I’ve been here 14 years,” said accounts-receivable clerk Shawna Wilkerson, the other half. “The oddest one I’ve heard was somebody who reloads his ammunition….”

    Developed in 1899 to soothe the irritated udders of milking cows, the substance with the mild medicinal odor…

    Bag Balm went to the North Pole with Admiral Byrd, to Allied troops in World War II, who used it to keep weapons from corroding, to Ground Zero for the paws of cadaver-sniffing dogs searching the World Trade Center rubble, and to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    Sold off pet care shelves and at farm stores for $8.99 per 10-oz. green tub (with cow’s head on the lid),…

    It is made in a one-room “plant” by the family owned Dairy Association Co., Inc. — six employees, two officers and no sales force — …

    The plant is inspected annually by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, though the product is marketed for use by animals, not humans.

    The Dairy Association won’t divulge sales figures.
    [[[ won't divulge to the media]]]

    …, company President Barbara Norris Allen, won’t say how today’s shipments compare.
    [[[ won't divulge to media]]]]

    …, which is open for tours but not photographers.
    [[[ won't let media photo]]]

    To call the operation old-fashioned is an understatement.
    [[[media jealous]]]

    The plant operates with one shift, Monday through Friday. The Dairy Association doesn’t take credit cards (“Send us a good ol’ check,” says Allen). And the names of individual stores that buy directly are kept on index cards in file cabinets.

    Long-distance bicyclist Andy Claflin says he started using Bag Balm on a cross-country race last June, when a teammate turned him on to it…
    So he slathered some on, down below. …he said. “It was nasty and filthy and it felt weird …, ‘Oh, this stuff is great.’”
    [[[ not nasty or filthy]]]

    …”hands… to keep them free of dirt, and you need something to soothe them,” she said.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/201.....s_bag_balm

  19. proreason
    February 1, 2010 at 10:42 pm

    Here’s a very good writer who doesn’t have a national following sharing some excellent insights about our little boy king. The writer is E. Thomas McClanahan

    http://www.kansascity.com/275/story/1717714.html

    “…The media portrait of Obama during the campaign made much of his cool, unflappable temperament. But that ignored his most telling qualities. Stubborn and weak is not what you want in a president. No wonder he’s already talking about the prospect of a single term.”

  20. canary
    February 2, 2010 at 6:28 am

    Al-Qaida arming & training Africa kill Christians. AP plays neutral & and ignorant to the facts

    The Boston Herald: AP: Al-Qaida offers to arm and train Nigerian Muslims
    Feb 1 2010

    CAIRO — The leader of North Africa’s al-Qaida branch offered training and weapons to Nigeria’s Muslims to fight the Christians there following an outbreak of sectarian violence….

    Droukdel promised…”"We are ready to train your sons on using weapons, support them with men, weapons, ammunition and equipment to enable them defend themselves,” he said, exhorting Nigerians to “push your sons into the fields of jihad to become the fighting vanguard in defense of the Muslims’ blood and honor.”…

    … Droukdel, also known as Abu Musab Abdul-Wadud,… criticized Western and Arab media for portraying the events in Nigeria as sectarian, tribal or economic but “it is a clear massacre against Muslims only.”

    Droukdel told Nigerian Muslims that “the only way to get end these continued massacres and to restore your rights …

    is to prepare yourselves for the holy war and the best example for you is

    your brothers in Somalia who confront the Ethiopian Crusaders.”

    ….According to a state police commissioner, skirmishes began after Muslim youths set a Christian church ablaze, but Muslim leaders denied that…

    Al-Qaida in North Africa, which holds French hostage Pierre Camatte for more than two months, demanded the release of four of its members arrested by Mali several months ago, in exchange for his release…

    http://www.bostonherald.com/ne.....p;srvc=rss

    AP seems to ignore the growing of children in Africa & Indonesia slaughtering innocent people. When the radical’s have no problem making suicide bombers from their own children, why would it bother them to kill other’s children. They teach them how to chop off heads too.
    —————————————–

    AP’s headline defends terrorist who shot U.S. soldiers

    AP : AP:Defense: No evidence Pakistani scientist fired gun 02 01 2010

    NEW YORK (AP) – Is she an al-Qaida sympathizer who hates Americans, or a fearful scientist framed by the government?

    The prosecution says Siddiqui grabbed an assault rifle and shot at American personnel…

    … Defense attorney Linda Moreno says there is no physical evidence that the weapon was “touched by” Siddqui, “let alone fired by her.”

    prosecutors say…Siddiqui was carrying instructions for a dirty bomb and a list of New York City landmarks,…

    However, she is not facing terrorism charges.

    http://www.wcax.com/global/story.asp?s=11913332

  21. canary
    February 2, 2010 at 7:11 am

    A very young Frorbes policy analysis communications consultant, says America will look like cowards if they move trials.

    Forbes: Keep The 9/11 Trials In New York; Playing propaganda against al-Qaida. Daniel Freedman, 02.01.10

    …America’s leaders need to be careful not to hand al-Qaida a victory that it failed to achieve on 9/11.

    The terrorist group’s aim… to show that “America the superpower” was really a vulnerable, superficial and scared nation.

    Al-Qaida’s propaganda portrayed America as a stack of cards that would collapse after it was attacked. And after 9/11, America’s enemies gleefully predicted a likely decline. The pro-Syrian Lebanese daily Assafir wrote that:

    “No one can yet predict whether the cataclysm in New York will lead to the fall of the American empire,…All signs are that the day of reckoning is near.”

    ….Fast-forward to the present….., alternative venues to New York City…. This rethinking…officials concerned that the trial could go on for a long time and cost the city close to $1 billion in security and associated costs. …

    Does our steely reserve have to include paying hundreds of millions in police overtime, constructing otherwise unneeded security, and making swathes of downtown Manhattan impossible to traverse?…. may hand al-Qaida a propaganda victory.

    The message that al-Qaida may try to sell is that New York is still intimidated by the terrorist group nine years after the attacks….

    . Nine years after firefighters rushed into the collapsing towers as people ran out–vividly demonstrating the heroism that defined America on that day–al-Qaida can try to claim that America is projecting cowardice.

    …. the administration won’t unwittingly give Osama Bin Laden any new footage for al-Qaida’s next propaganda video.

    Daniel Freedman is director of policy analysis and communications at the Soufan Group, a strategic consultancy.

    http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/.....d=rss_home

    • canary
      February 2, 2010 at 7:19 am

      How about try them in Gitmo, and bring them to NYC for their execution, toss them over the empire state buiding and let them hang & swing a few days.

  22. BillK
    February 2, 2010 at 7:36 am

    From the “your tax dollars at work” file at Fox News:

    Neo-Pagans Get Worship Circle at Air Force Academy

    By Joseph Abrams

    Witches, Druids and pagans rejoice! The Air Force Academy in Colorado is about to recognize its first Wiccan prayer circle, a Stonehenge on the Rockies that will serve as an outdoor place of worship for the academy’s neo-pagans.

    Wiccan cadets and officers on the Colorado Springs base have been convening for over a decade, but the school will officially dedicate a newly built circle of stones on about March 10, putting the outdoor sanctuary on an equal footing with the Protestant, Catholic, Jewish and Buddhist chapels on the base.

    “When I first arrived here, Earth-centered cadets didn’t have anywhere to call home,” said Sgt. Robert Longcrier, the lay leader of the neo-pagan groups on base.

    “Now, they meet every Monday night, they get to go on retreats, and they have a stone circle.”

    Academy officials had no tally of the number of Wiccan cadets at the school of 4,500, but said they had been angling to set up a proper space since the academic year began.

    “That’s one of the newer groups,” said John Van Winkle, a spokesman for the academy. “They’ve had a worship circle on base for some time and we’re looking to get them an official one.”

    The Air Force recognizes several distinct forms of neo-paganism, including Dianic Wicca, Seax Wicca, Gardnerian Wicca, shamanism and Druidism, according to Pagan groups that track the information.

    Since a 2004 survey of cadets on the base revealed dozens of instances of harassment and intolerance, superintendent Michael Gould has made religious tolerance a priority. …

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,584500,00.html

  23. BillK
    February 2, 2010 at 7:40 am

    More tax dollars at work, from the Washington Times:

    SEC workers investigated for porn-surfing

    By Jim McElhatton

    The work computer of one regional supervisor for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission showed more than 1,800 attempts to look up pornography in a 17-day span: “It was kind of distraction per se,” he later told investigators.

    But he wasn’t alone. More than two dozen SEC employees and contractors over roughly the past two years have faced internal investigations after they were caught viewing pornography on their government computers, according to records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and other public documents.

    The activities of porn-surfing SEC workers, a small fraction of the overall work force, have been serious enough to warrant a mention in each of the past four semiannual reports sent to Congress by the SEC’s office of inspector general.

    In response to the open records request by The Washington Times, the inspector general’s office provided more than 150 pages of records and transcripts on the investigations, but declined to identify the employees involved. The office noted that disclosure of the employees’ names “could conceivably subject them to harassment and annoyance in the conduct of their official duties and private lives.”

    Allan Bachman, education manager for the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, said such problems are hardly unique to the SEC. He also said the findings are troubling aside from “the egregious nature of what they’re doing.”

    “They’re simply just stealing time,” he said. “They’re getting paid to do something that they’re not supposed to be doing.” …

    http://washingtontimes.com/new.....n-at-work/

    I’m sure it was just “research” somehow…

  24. BillK
    February 2, 2010 at 7:46 am

    Teachers’ unions are running scared, so of course they need to question the findings.

    From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

    Voucher schools’ graduation rates top MPS in study

    By Erin Richards

    New data in a study that compares the high school graduation rates since 2003 of students in Milwaukee Public Schools with those of students in the city’s publicly financed voucher program has concluded that students in voucher schools are about 18% more likely to graduate than their peers in MPS.

    The report’s updated findings, to be released Tuesday, refer to low-income students in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program.

    MPS officials, however, question the accuracy of the study’s methodology and point out that because the names of the schools analyzed are withheld, it’s difficult to tell if similar schools are being compared in both groups.

    The study was funded by the voucher-advocacy group School Choice Wisconsin but conducted by John Robert Warren, a sociology professor at the University of Minnesota who has been researching high school graduation rates for about 10 years. More than 21,000 students in Milwaukee are using vouchers to attend about 110 private schools in the city.

    For 2007-’08, Warren estimated the graduation rate in voucher schools to be 77%, and the graduation rate in MPS to be 65%, a difference of 12 percentage points. The information includes comparisons between seven choice schools and 23 public high schools that could provide complete data for all six years studied, and adjusted to account for an expected 5% ninth-grade retention rate in choice schools and an expected 25% ninth-grade retention rate in MPS.

    Warren said the new data shows a continuation of a pattern in which voucher students graduated at a higher rate than MPS students in every year except 2003-’04. Warren’s previous report on the issue included data up to the 2006-’07 school year.

    Warren said the study did not prove that voucher schools caused those students to graduate.

    “We still don’t know whether it’s going to the voucher school that causes you to be more likely to graduate, or if it’s something about the kinds of families that send their kids to voucher schools would make them more likely to graduate,” he said.

    According to the most recent data available, MPS reported a 68.3% graduation rate in 2007-’08.

    MPS spokeswoman Roseann St. Aubin said the district knows it has “work to do” when it comes to increasing graduation rates at the high schools.

    But she questioned the validity of the study because of Warren’s method for calculating the graduation rates – by comparing the number of high school graduates in the spring of one calendar year to the number of enrolled ninth-graders four years prior, then estimating a likely percentage that had been retained in ninth grade in both MPS and choice schools.

    “You have to take into account things like mortality, and the number of students who move to another school,” St. Aubin said. …

    http://www.jsonline.com/news/e.....14577.html

    Of course given many of the neighborhoods MPS’ students live in, mortality rates could be a concern…

  25. BillK
    February 2, 2010 at 8:40 am

    More and more interesting.

    From Fox News:

    U.S. Attorney Steps Down From O’Keefe Case

    The top federal prosecutor for New Orleans has removed himself from the case of four conservative activists arrested last week while allegedly trying to capture hidden camera footage in a senator’s office, the Department of Justice said Monday.

    A Justice Department news release said Jim Letten, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana, recused himself from the case a day after the Jan. 25 arrests in Democrat Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office in New Orleans. Letten’s top lieutenant, assistant U.S. Attorney Jan Mann, has taken over.

    The news release didn’t say why Letten removed himself, and his spokeswoman Anna Christman said she couldn’t comment.

    One of the suspects is the son of Letten’s Shreveport-based counterpart.

    Earlier Monday, the man who first published James O’Keefe’s explosive videos exposing wrongdoing at community organizer ACORN came to the filmmaker’s defense, claiming he “sat in jail for 28 hours without access to an attorney” while the prosecutor made his case to the media.

    O’Keefe was “framed” by the media and the U.S. attorney’s office, Andrew Breitbart, publisher of BigGovernment.com, told Fox News.

    “James O’Keefe sat in jail for 28 hours without access to an attorney, while the U.S. attorney leaked the information about his arrest, helping the media frame it as ‘Watergate Junior,’” Breitbart said.

    O’Keefe declined to talk about Breitbart’s allegations to Fox News’ Sean Hannity Monday night, adding he was cooperating with the U.S. attorney’s office and was pleased with the way the U.S. attorney was handling the case.

    He said details of his arrest may be brought up at another time, but not now because it is an ongoing investigation.

    “The panty bomber on Christmas was given — you know, this guy’s from Al Qaeda, and he’s not even an American citizen, and he’s given access to an attorney right away,” Breitbart said. “I believe that this was a concerted effort, this is just my opinion, to allow for the media to frame the issue to put James O’Keefe in a very bad position.”

    Breitbart said he though the U.S. attorney’s effort was part of a payback scheme against O’Keefe, who posed as a pimp and prostitute with another citizen journalist to enter ACORN offices around the country and ask advice on how to apply for federal housing grants for a brothel.

    “It’s tied to the Justice Department. And we’ve been very aggressive in asking (Attorney General) Eric Holder to investigate what’s seen on these ACORN tapes and he’s ignored it,” Breitbart said. …

    http://www.foxnews.com/politic.....ds-okeefe/

    Not a shock – after all, it’s Chicago politics at its best, just being practiced in Louisiana, arguably a state more corrupt than Chicago has ever been.

    • canary
      February 2, 2010 at 4:16 pm

      Since O’Keefe didn’t have an invitation or green card, to be on public serving federal property, why haven’t they given him free health care, free living, free food, & immunity yet.

  26. wardmama4
    February 2, 2010 at 5:30 pm

    I am trying real hard not to be un-Christian about this news story – but it is very hard not to say something snarky – so here is the story:

    Murtha hospitalized after gallbladder surgery complications
    From Deirdre Walsh, CNN Congressional Producer
    February 2, 2010 3:55 p.m. EST

    Washington (CNN) — Complications arose after Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania underwent gallbladder surgery, and he remains in a hospital, his spokesman confirmed Tuesday.

    A source close to Murtha told CNN he is in the intensive care unit of the hospital. The source asked not to be identified, saying the matter is sensitive in nature.

    http://tinyurl.com/yfxddx7

    *****************************************
    So instead I will ponder exactly what Obama and the DNC will do, if another one of their long-held seats – goes down to a Republican! It should be fun to watch.
    And in good Christian spirit – I will pray Murtha recovers from his condition.

  27. canary
    February 3, 2010 at 3:02 am

    Reuters tells Iran & globe US missile test to stop Iran strike fails. Is this the same Reuters Obama worked for, pretending to be an executive, fibbed he was only black, and felt like he was an undercover spy.

    Reuters: US missile test mimicking Iran strike fails
    By Jim Wolf Mon Feb 1, 2010

    WASHINGTON, Feb 1 (Reuters) – A U.S. attempt to shoot down a ballistic missile mimicking an attack from Iran failed after a malfunction in a radar built by Raytheon Co (RTN.N), the Defense Department said.

    The abortive test over the Pacific Ocean coincided with a Pentagon report that Iran had expanded its ballistic missile capabilities and posed a “significant” threat to U.S. and allied forces in the Middle East region.

    …”However, the Sea-Based X-band radar did not perform as expected,” the agency said on its web site. Officials will investigate the cause of the failure to intercept, it said.

    The SBX radar is a major component of the ground-based midcourse defense, the sole U.S. bulwark against long-range missiles that could be tipped with chemical, biological or nuclear warheads….

    The Iranian program has received support in the past from Russia, China and North Korea, and Tehran still depends on outside sources for many missile components and parts, according to the Defense Intelligence Agency….

    The Pentagon’s Ballistic Missile report also singled out Syria’s short-range missiles as a “regional threat”. It said Damascus may have chemical warheads available for some of its missiles.

    After Sunday’s failed Pacific test, Raytheon and Boeing, which manages the overall system, had no immediate comment. Harris Corp (HRS.N), which provides systems engineering for the SBX radar, said their technology was not involved.

    Speaking at the Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit in Washington in December, Army Lieutenant General Patrick O’Reilly, head of the Missile Defense Agency, said the test, costing about $150 million, would break new ground…

    Experts have compared the simulation to a bullet hitting another bullet in space….

    The SBX radar is mounted on a mobile, ocean-going oil-drilling platform designed to provide the layered U.S. missile defense system with a powerful sensor that can be positioned to cover any spot on the globe. (Additional reporting by Adam Entous) (Editing by Alan Elsner and David Storey)

    http://www.reuters.com/article.....6120100201

  28. canary
    February 3, 2010 at 3:37 am

    Palestinian attempts to blow up Israel & ships with sea-mines that floated ashore, downplayed in headline as ‘potential threat to the ocean’

    YNetNews: Security sources: Threat to ocean facilities growing
    By Hanan Greenberg 02 02 10

    Defense establishment sources doubt Palestinian groups’ claims of ability to target strategic facilities at sea, but say potential threat being taken seriously

    Security source said Monday night that the explosives which drifted onto Israel’s southern shoreline, and were later claimed by Palestinian groups,…

    Early Monday evening, an explosive device was discovered floating just off Hofit beach in Ashkelon. Several hours later, a second device was found on Kshatot beach in Ashdod. According to the police, both explosive devices – weighing several dozen pounds each – were found hidden in barrels. They were similar in makeup and originated from Gaza Strip.

    The failed attack, said a defense establishment source, followed the scheme of sending out several sea-mines, which are designed to float until a collision with a vessel triggers them. “Gaza’s terror groups don’t really have any actual (sea-mine) capability, but given arms smuggling through the Gaza tunnels, they can upgrade the threat,” he added.

    Earlier, a senior member in one of the Palestinian organizations confirmed that the two explosive devices found on beaches in southern Israel were meant to be used in a future terror attack on an oil rig in the south…

    A senior Palestinian source told Ynet earlier that the attacks were planned as a joint operation of Islamic Jihad’s al-Quds Brigades, the Popular Resistance Committees’ Salah a-Din Brigades and the Nabil Masud group, which is affiliated with Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. ..

    According to the source, a special unit made up of operatives of all three groups, was able to launch four explosive devices to Ashkelon by sea overnight Saturday. Each device, said the source, was supposed to be detonated by remote control. One of the devices had been detonated, he added. ..

    Ali Waked contributed to this report
    http://www.ynetnews.com/articl.....36,00.html
    —————————————————————————————
    Shmulik Hadad 02.01.10, 20:18

    The first device was discovered by a local fisherman who related, “We went out fishing in the morning hours and noticed a battery attached to an oxygen tank with wires and a cellular phone on it. It looked very suspicious. We did what any citizen should do and called the police.” …

    Sappers were working to dismantle the device instead of detonating it, apparently in order to avoid unnecessary alarm…. an additional device was detected…

    http://www.ynetnews.com/articl.....83,00.html

  29. canary
    February 3, 2010 at 4:10 am

    IrishCentral: US policy on Afghanistan helps Al Qaida, says Irish Afghan war hero
    By Patrick Roberts Jan 31 2010

    A highly decorated senior British Army officer from Northern Ireland who won the Military Cross in Afghanistan has said that training local police there is a waste of time and that the war on drugs is merely creating allies for Al Qaida. Captain Doug Beattie of the Royal Irish Regiment gained the Military Cross after a 14-day battle against the Taliban in 2006. After that battle his patrol became the most highly decorated British army unit since the first Gulf War in 1991.

    Now, Beattie says that training Afghan police who then serve in their own tribal neighborhoods is a complete waste of time.

    Speaking in Belfast prior to a private lecture about the war against the Taliban in remarks reported by the Observer newspaper the officer said , ….”It’s more than likely that officer is going to let that particular Taliban through the checkpoint with their guns and their explosive devices. That officer will be more loyal to his tribe in his own tribal area than his police force or indeed the government.”

    Beattie worked as a mentor with the police in 2006. “I am really disappointed with the plan for policing in Afghanistan….”

    http://www.irishcentral.com/ne.....94517.html

    All I know is our troops train & give them a gun, and they shoot our troops if their tea is too cold. What do they expect when our troops are living in a 200 square foot mud cave.

  30. canary
    February 3, 2010 at 5:27 am

    Obama originally blamed for not getting HVIG active, now to blame for not
    pursuing reported growing cyber-security attack.

    AP: Intel chief: Al-Qaida likely to attempt attack
    By Pamela Hess Feb. 3, 2010

    WASHINGTON — ….Mueller was asked by Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., whether the interrogation of Abdulmutullab continues …. Mueller replied: “Yes.”….

    Mueller also said that a new FBI-CIA interrogation team created in August to replace controversial CIA interrogations had been used several times already.

    That seemed to contradict what Blair told Congress in January. He said at a hearing on Abdulmutallab that he thought the interrogation team should have been used to question the suspect but later clarified his remarks to say that the teams were not used because they were not yet fully operational.

    Intelligence officials confirmed Tuesday the High-Value Interrogation Group is not yet fully formed but said joint interrogation teams are available for use.

    Panetta confirmed that the agency participates on the team, though not in a lead role.

    “They’re backup, but they are doing some of the interviewing,” he said.

    But Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., offered a bill Tuesday that would prohibit the government from using Justice Department funds to prosecute suspects charged………,…. By Tuesday evening, the bill had support from 18 senators, mostly Republicans.

    During the terror assessment hearing, Blair also warned of the growing cyberthreat,…

    Obama has promised to make cybersecurity a priority in his administration, but the president’s new budget asks for a decrease in funds for the Homeland Security Department’s cybersecurity division.

    The government’s first quadrennial homeland security review states that high consequence and large-scale cyberattacks could massively disable or hurt international financial, commercial and physical infrastructure.

    The report, obtained by The Associated Press, said these types of cyberattacks could cripple the movement of people and goods around the world and bring vital social and economic programs to a halt.

    http://www.chron.com/disp/stor.....48347.html

  31. canary
    February 3, 2010 at 6:06 am

    AP headlines to lenient on al-Qaida-trained terrorist attempted bomb plot on millennium conviction, one long mess.

    AP: Court: Sentence for millennium plotter too lenient
    By Paul Elias 02-03-2010

    SAN FRANCISCO – The long legal battle of an al-Qaida-trained terrorist convicted in an attempted bombing on the millennium has taken another turn after an appeals court threw out his sentence and removed the trial judge from the case.

    The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Tuesday said Ahmed Ressam’s 22-year prison sentence is too lenient. Border agents in Washington state arrested the Algerian national in 1999 after he entered the United States from Canada on a ferry with a car packed with explosives. He was convicted of plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport…

    “This factor is particularly relevant in a terrorist case such as this, where Ressam, who has demonstrated strongly held beliefs about the need to attack American interests in the United States and abroad,…

    … U.S. prosecutors said Ressam’s change-of-heart after two years of cooperation compromised at least two terrorist cases in the U.S., resulting in charges being dropped.

    and on Dec. 14, 1999 drove it on to the American ferry M/V COHO at Victoria, B.C. He also was carrying a bogus Canadian passport.

    A U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service agent didn’t discover the explosives during a search of the car….

    When Ressam arrived at the U.S. port, suspicious U.S. Customs inspector Diane Dean ordered the rental car searched. This time the explosives, complete with four timing devices, were found and Ressam was arrested.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/201.....NlbnRlbmM-

  32. canary
    February 3, 2010 at 9:59 am

    First Obama jokes about Special Olympics poor at sports on Letterman, now Rahm Emanuel calls Americans ” f…….. retarded “..

    YahooNews: Obama chief of staff’s ‘retarded’ insult brings fallout, Palin criticism Feb 2 2010

    Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Emanuel, exasperated upon learning that liberal special-interest groups were planning to run ads against conservative Democrats not supportive of health care reform, blasted the plan as “f—— retarded”.

    Palin, … was informed of Emanuel’s comment by a fellow parent of a special-needs child and pleaded with the president to “show decency” to the political process by “eliminating” the Chicago native from his inner circle.

    In a post titled “Are You Capable of Decency, Rahm Emanuel?,” Palin wrote, “Just as we’d be appalled if any public figure of Rahm’s stature ever used the ‘N-word’ or other such inappropriate language, Rahm’s slur on all God’s children with cognitive and developmental disabilities — and the people who love them — is unacceptable,” adding, “it’s heartbreaking.”

    ….It should be noted that Emanuel, who is rumored to have once mailed a dead fish to a former coworker he disliked, has not offered any apology to the liberals his slur was aimed at, and it’s highly doubtful that he ever will.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/.....ews_pl1101

    and of course challenged Obama never honored his invitation to Special Olympian Bowling Champion. He’s too busy having Micheal Jorden, Tony Hawk, & Kobie Bryant around him.

  33. Laree
    February 3, 2010 at 11:38 am

    Imus and Matt Taibbi just discovered they don’t much care for David Brooks. David Brooks is reviled in another corner of the Internet, Matt Taibbi’s True Slant. It was just a matter of time.

    Imus and Matt Taibbi Really Don’t Like David Brooks Join The Club.

    Democrats and Republicans – Dogs and Cats living together mass hysteria LOL!

    How to turn yourself into Pinhead from Hellraiser. That’s an easy one, write articles, like your David Brooks

    http://youhavetobethistalltogo.....david.html

  34. Confucius
    February 3, 2010 at 3:58 pm

    From CNNMoney.com:

    Mortgage lenders pursue homeowners even after foreclosure

    By Les Christie
    February 3, 2010

    As terrible as it is to lose your house to foreclosure, at least it’s a relief to put your biggest financial headache behind you, right?

    Wrong.

    Former homeowners may still be on the hook if there’s a difference between what they owed on their mortgage and what the bank could sell it for at auction. And these “deficiency judgments” are ticking time bombs that can explode years after borrowers lose their homes. …

    “Once they have a judgment, they can pursue you anywhere,” said Richard Zaretsky, a board-certified real estate attorney in West Palm Beach, Fla. “They can ask for financial records, have your wages garnished and, if you fail to respond, a judge can put you in jail.” …

    He expects many will be filed over the next few years, based on the fact that banks have sold many of these accounts to collection agencies and other third parties, at discount.

    “The parties who bought those notes wouldn’t have paid money for them unless they had the intention of acting,” Zaretsky said. …

    Lenders or collection agencies may wait until debtors have recovered financially before they swoop in. In Florida, the bank can wait up to five years to file. Once the court grants a judgment, the lender has 20 years there to collect, with interest. …

    Sometimes lenders go after borrowers walking away from their homes if they have other assets, according to Florida real estate attorney Larry Tolchinsky.

    “Banks are pulling credit reports to see if it’s a strategic default,” he said. …

    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/.....8.html?x=0

    So much for Henry Blodget, and the others like him, who think walking away from a mortgage is smart.

  35. proreason
    February 3, 2010 at 4:04 pm

    Oops. 824,000 fewer jobs than previously reported. From Bloomberg:

    “Feb. 3 (Bloomberg Multimedia) — The U.S. may lose 824,000 jobs when the government releases its annual revision to employment data on Feb. 5, showing the labor market was in worse shape during the recession than known at the time.”

    http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/.....amp;pos=10

    A job here, a job there. It all adds up.

    The real story, however, is that it appears Obamy “saved or created” 2,824,000 jobs, rather than 2,000,000. Ain’t life grand under the wing of a transformational genius?

  36. BillK
    February 3, 2010 at 7:08 pm

    One wonders just where pressure is being applied, or if this is simply a matter of kowtowing to the Commander in Chief.

    From the Washington Post:

    Pentagon says it backs repealing ‘don’t ask’ law

    By Craig Whitlock and Greg Jaffe

    WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s top leaders declared Tuesday for the first time that — after decades of opposition and equivocation from the armed forces — they support an end to the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military.

    “It is my personal and professional belief that allowing homosexuals to serve openly would be the right thing to do,” Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. He was echoed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who said the Pentagon is preparing for a repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law.

    That law has stood for 17 years, but the debate over allowing gays to serve openly stretches back much further. For the tradition-bound military, the issue has proved to be an intractable one, with some officers arguing that the integration of openly-serving gays would demoralize their fellow troops, even as critics of “don’t ask, don’t tell” insisted that military service should be a civil right.

    Despite the remarkable shift in position by the military, there remained serious questions about whether Congress and the White House are ready to keep pace.

    In contrast to Mullen, Gates was more cautious, even as he acknowledged that the question was not whether the law would be repealed but how the Pentagon might best prepare for the change. Early in his testimony Gates made clear that he was acting at the behest of President Barack Obama, who reaffirmed his opposition to the existing law in his State of the Union address last week. Gates then threw the final decision back to the legislative branch.

    “We have received our orders from the commander in chief and we are moving out accordingly,” Gates told the committee. “However, we can also take this process only so far, as the ultimate decision rests with you, the Congress.”

    A House bill that would overturn “don’t ask, don’t tell” has 187 co-sponsors, but Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., a powerful committee chairman, opposes it and has not let it come up for a vote.

    The Senate, which invited Gates and Mullen to testify on the subject Tuesday, is moving cautiously. Worried that they lack the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster, Senate leaders said they might try to add a temporary moratorium on discharges of gay service members to a defense-spending bill, whose passage would require only majority approval.

    Richard Socarides, a Clinton White House official who served as an adviser on gay issues, predicted that Congress would take its cues from the military and eventually vote to allow gays to serve in the open. Mullen’s public statement, in particular, he said, will influence lawmakers.

    “It was highly significant, coming in a very historic setting and from the highest-ranking military man in our government, in uniform,” Socarides said. “I found it quite compelling and an eloquent statement.”

    Mullen, 63, told senators that he had knowingly served with gays since 1968, when he graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., and that he thought it was wrong that they were forced to hide their sexual orientation.

    “No matter how I look at the issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens,” he testified.

    “For me, it comes down to integrity — theirs as individuals and ours as an institution,” he added. …

    http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_14320645

    Anyone know much about Mullen’s background?

    Obviously what Barry wants he’ll get here, but Mullen’s comments still seem rather surprising, especially when you consider how few homosexuals of any kind were “out” as early as 1968.

    • tranquil.night
      February 3, 2010 at 7:42 pm

      In the thick of things, soldiers need to trust eachother to be 100% attentive to the mission. I’m sorry, it may sound discriminative, but simply the knowledge that someone on your team may be harboring publicly uncomfortable sexual impulses can cause a distraction.

      War is a man’s business. The women are men, the children are men, and the men are of course – men. Sex in any manner just has no role in the matter, and that’s where the activists and Democrats don’t understand the harm they’re doing.

      What 18 year old child goes into the military truly knowing who they are? Many take that path specifically to challenge themselves TO find out who they really are. So are all those youngsters ‘lying’ to serve? No, they just understand that the purpose is to serve their country, not themselves by means of this narcissitic need to make a statement.

    • canary
      February 4, 2010 at 4:32 am

      Obama must have heard Fox Huckabee say the president could remove the gay ban whenever he felt , so why was he making the gays in the military wait.

      Personally, I believe Obama may have prolonged the ruling, to side step gay rumors.

      I don’t believe there’s all these gays saying they were kicked out. they claimed to be gay to get out, or committed inappropriate behavior.
      I’ve seen where men take gay photos of themselves in action, trying to get a medical discharge, under the universal belief at time, it was abnormal behavior.

      There are even laws between men & women having affairs, which is dishonorable non-commissioned officers dating commissioned officers. (can lead to favoritism which demoralizes other soldiers.

      Plus, I’ve seen gays give preferential treatment to gay, but it’s not much different than a male leader giving special treatment to woman under him.

      Again, the most zealous flamboyant speech I’ve heard Obama give was to the gays. All his don’t give up on me, just a little longer and I’ll come through for you. (applaud)

  37. JohnMG
    February 3, 2010 at 9:11 pm

    I felt that when Mullen was elevated to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs it was a mistake of epic proportions. We went from Peter Pace, a man of high moral integrity and principle, (the first Marine to occupy the post) who retired rather than become fodder for the Bush-haters in congress’ vendetta to deny him a second term, to Mullen who appears nothing more than an ass-puppet for Obama.

    This is nothing more than social engineering with the military as a test-bed. What better way for the Moron to destroy the security of the nation than to destroy first, the cohesion of the military that provides that security.

    Obama–Gates–Mullen…….a modern iteration of the Three Stooges!!

  38. canary
    February 4, 2010 at 12:15 am

    Obama’s new Frontier Corps mission get’s U.S. Soldiers killed on Grand Opening of new school U.S. Soldiers Slaved to build for Obama on the deadliest border in Pakistan. Will the school be rebuilt again for the wolves?

    The Wall Street Journal: Roadside Bomb Kills Three U.S. Soldiers in Pakistan
    By Matthew Rosenberg & Rehmat Mehsud Feb 4 2010

    Wednesday’s bombing hit a convoy from Pakistan’s paramilitary Frontier Corps in which the U.S. soldiers were traveling, the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad said in statement. The Americans, two of whom were also wounded, were part of a mission training the Frontier Corps. The embassy said it is still learning precisely what happened.

    A bomb blast, claimed by the Taliban, kills U.S. soldiers, a Pakistani soldier and children at the opening of a rebuilt school. Video courtesy of AFP.
    The deaths were believed to be the first fatalities in the American effort to train Pakistani forces to fight the Taliban and al Qaeda. The mission has been openly acknowledged by U.S. officials but little publicized in an effort to avoid stirring up rampant anti-American sentiment in Pakistan. None of the trainers are supposed to be involved in combat operations.

    The target appeared to be the Frontier Corps convoy, which was carrying the Americans to the re-opening of a girls’ school…. also “damaged the school building considerably,” said Mumtaz Zareen, the district’s top police officer. “It was a powerful remote-controlled bomb blast,”

    … reflect Pakistani sensitivities about the presence of foreign troops—particularly American ones—on their soil.

    Unlike in neighboring Afghanistan, there are no American troops permanently based in Pakistan…

    U.S. officials privately say some soldiers are in Pakistan to do intelligence work along with operatives from Central Intelligence Agency, which has history of collaboration with Pakistan’s spy agency.

    Still, the presence of uniformed American soldiers is a deeply contentious issue in Pakistan…..

    http://online.wsj.com/article/.....reel_world

  39. canary
    February 4, 2010 at 1:35 am

    Bloomberg: Pakistani Scientist Guilty of Attack on Soldiers, update 2
    By Patricia Hurtado Feb 4 2010

    Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) — …“This is a verdict coming from Israel and not America,” Siddiqui shouted in the courtroom, her arms raised, after jurors were excused yesterday. “Your anger should be directed where it belongs. I can testify to this, and I have proof.”

    Siddiqui’s lawyer, Linda Moreno, told jurors in closing arguments that there was no forensic evidence linking her client to the rifle….

    She also carried a computer thumb drive and had about two pounds of sodium cyanide, a poisonous substance, officials said.

    The judge ruled the jury shouldn’t hear about the chemicals or the thumb drive.

    Siddiqui testified she didn’t touch the rifle, and denied knowing how to fire a weapon. She said she was beaten by Afghans before the U.S. officials arrived and claimed not to know about chemistry or understand what was written in the notes in her purse.

    Siddiqui was educated at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has a doctorate in neuroscience from Brandeis University near Boston.

    Asked if Siddiqui’s legal team would appeal, he said, “…”…

    “I believe there are legal and constitutional issues.”

    “The government has cast Aafia Siddiqui as some kind of Rambo type,” Moreno said.

    “You’ve seen it by her outbursts in court,”… “Aafia Siddiqui is no shrinking violet.”

    The case is U.S. v. Siddiqui, 08-cr-00826, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
    http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/.....ZbjDKNmO8#

  40. canary
    February 4, 2010 at 5:00 am

    Obama switching back to his original agenda going after soldiers and elderly.

    AP: House faces tough vote on $1.9 trillion more debt
    By Andrew Feb 4 2010

    WASHINGTON – Facing a politically excruciating vote, House Democratic leaders are counting on new budget deficit curbs to help smooth the way for a bill allowing the government to go $1.9 trillion deeper into debt over the next year — ….
    The debt measure set for a House vote Thursday would raise the cap on federal borrowing to $14.3 trillion. That’s enough to keep Congress from having to vote again before the November elections…

    Already, the accumulated debt amounts to $40,000 per person. And the debt is increasingly held by foreign nations such as China.

    Passage of the bill would send it to President Barack Obama, who will sign it to avoid a first-ever, market-rattling default on U.S. obligations. Democrats barely passed it through the Senate last week over a unanimous “no” vote from GOP members present.

    If the rules are broken, the White House budget office would force
    automatic cuts to programs like Medicare,
    farm subsidies
    and veterans’ pensions….

    …extend jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed.
    new White House initiatives, such as doubling the child care tax credit for families earning less than $85,000,
    as would continuing subsidies for laid-off workers to buy health insurance .

    The so-called pay-as-you-go rules have been a mantra with conservative “Blue Dog” Democrats in the House, who insisted they wouldn’t vote to raise the debt ceiling without them.

    “We don’t have a choice,” said Rep. John Tanner, D-Tenn. “We are on an unsustainable march toward a fiscal Armageddon.”

    Obama’s budget projects the government’s debt doubling to $26 trillion over the next decade. It offers few solutions….

    The bill is H.J. Res. 45.
    Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/201.....ZhY2VzdG8-

  41. canary
    February 4, 2010 at 5:19 am

    AFP: Obama aunt to fight deportation for second time: report
    4 Feb 2010

    NEW YORK (AFP) – President Barack Obama’s aunt, an illegal immigrant who has cared for his siblings,….

    Zeituni Onyango, 57, was expected in Boston federal immigration court to make her second attempt to be allowed to remain in the United States after she ignored a 2004 deportation order to be sent back to her native Kenya.

    “She’s the aunt of the president of the United States — the most famous man in the world,” Mike Rogers, spokesman for the Ohio law firm defending Onyango, told the Herald.

    Rogers said Onyango was not trying to “capitalize” on favoritism as a member of the president’s family. She is the half-sister of Obama’s late Kenyan father.

    “Everyone knows she’s related to him,” Rogers said. ….

    Reports about her life as an illegal immigrant in the United States emerged just days before Obama was elected in November 2008. The White House has said the president was unaware of her illegal status and that the appropriate laws should be followed.

    Onyango, who currently lives in a South Boston housing development, first applied for political asylum in 2002 citing violence in Kenya…..

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20.....0204092545

  42. JohnMG
    February 4, 2010 at 9:27 am

    …..“She’s the aunt of the president of the United States — the most famous man in the world,” Mike Rogers, spokesman for the Ohio law firm defending Onyango, told the Herald.

    Rogers said Onyango was not trying to “capitalize” on favoritism as a member of the president’s family. She is the half-sister of Obama’s late Kenyan father……”

    This guy actually uttered this nonsense with a straight face. More to the point, Onyango is fighting deportation because she’s scamming a good gig here, and she doesn’t want to go back to living in a mud hut amid the squallor to which the rest of her relatives (sans the One) are consigned.

    Don’t expect the Moron to intercede one way or the other. He won’t give of himself financially on her behalf, nor will he risk further arousing the ire of conservatives by advocating for her. What he WILL do is manipulate the system behind the scenes so that the US taxpayer picks up the tab for her continued welfare fraud.

  43. Laree
    February 4, 2010 at 11:10 am

    The Toyota boondoggle and consequences to the US Market – Auto and Otherwise?

    Toyota Silver Lining.

    Dear Taliban we have the repair fix for your Toyota – shim this.

    http://youhavetobethistalltogo.....ining.html

  44. proreason
    February 4, 2010 at 1:49 pm

    Michael Barone, an extremely credible pundit, declares Climate Science is a fraud.

    http://townhall.com/columnists.....ed_science

    “…the cadre of climate scientists who have dominated public discussion and have controlled the IPCC have been demonstrated to be far, far less than trustworthy. Like the theorists who invented epicycles to explain away the failure of Ptolemaic theory to account for astronomical observations, they have distorted science in the interest of something that resembles religious dogma. ”

    Of course, everybody at S&L knew this years ago.

    But it seems significant that someone as well respected and mainstream (for a conservative) as Mr Barone is now willing to state this openly.

  45. canary
    February 5, 2010 at 2:50 am

    Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK) on the Penn State Climategate Investigation. Just the beginning of Investigation and more to come.

    http://www.youtube.com/jiminho.....EH2lHIUiqQ

  46. canary
    February 5, 2010 at 4:24 am

    CAIR posts literal revenge against U.S. for profiling muslims on flights on CAIR (Council of American Islam Republic)’s website….CAIR posted &
    declared a major victory for terrorists on their website as to update special report by the World Tribune; Al-Qaida recruited blue-eyed, blond people; Americans & westerners w/passports possibly posing as Christains.

    The World Tribune: FOR YOUR EYES ONLY
    Feb 3 2010
    U.S. report: Blond-haired, blue-eyed Americans may be joining Al Qaida
    WASHINGTON— …
    A report by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee asserted that nearly 40 Americans who converted to Islam have moved to Yemen and might have joined Al Qaida. They said some of these Americans could pass for Western Christians and could penetrate U.S. homeland security.

    “U.S. officials said they are on heightened alert because of the potential threat from extremists carrying American passports
    and the related challenges involved in detecting and stopping homegrown operatives,” the report, released on Jan. 20, said…

    The White House has acknowledged the failure of the U.S. intelligence community to track and alert authorities of a Nigerian national who failed to blow up an American airliner in December 2010….

    “We are reviewing all the individuals, and I think the president is reviewing my performance as well,” National Counter-Terrorism Center Michael Leiter said….

    The report, however, warned that any U.S. intelligence effort required cooperation by Yemen. But officials said Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has sought to coopt rather than confront Al Qaida….

    http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/.....4ZbjDKNmO8

    NOTE: other updates are more barrel bombs being found on shores of Israel, (word is 8; 2 exploded in sea via remote control “cell phone”.)
    Hamas taking credit, & now shooting rockets into Israel.

    & shooting at Red Cross vehicles on the GAZA strip to provide aid. Perhaps this is why Jimmy Carter apologized, showing any peace treaty is impossible. WH very quiet about this.

    U.S. Speical Service soldiers (Green Berets) & children killed & wounded, considered an inside job in Pakistan.

  47. canary
    February 5, 2010 at 10:05 pm

    Someone wrote a beautiful, patriotic “…to win this ware war…the dark web of terrorists..” over the web of evil” speech for Obama for memorial of fallen CIA agents, injured, & families.
    [[ ]]’s were my redacted full names of agent, wife & new baby, for safety reasons…..entire speech at link below.

    The McClatchy Newspaper: Obama’s remarks at CIA memorial service
    Feb 05 2010

    The following transcript of President Barack Obama’s remarks at a memorial service for seven CIA workers killed in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan was released by the White House on Friday.

    THE PRESIDENT:… I speak as a grateful Commander-in-Chief who relies on you. There are members of Congress here who support you…grieve with you….
    … the security of our nation has demanded that the work of this agency remain largely unknown. But today, our gratitude as citizens demands that we speak of seven American patriots who loved their country and gave their lives to defend it:
    [Names redacted.]

    … — men and women — and each walked their own path to that rugged base in the mountains…

    Some had devoted years, decades, even, to unraveling the dark web of terrorists that threatened us;….

    But there, at the remote outpost, they were bound by a common spirit….
    They were doing their job and they loved it….They knew that the price of freedom is high and, in an awful instant, they paid that price.

    …There are no words that can ease the ache in your hearts. But to their colleagues and all who served with them — those here today, those still recovering,

    those watching around the world —
    I say: Let their sacrifice be a summons. To carry on their work. To complete this mission. To win this war, and to keep our country safe.

    To their parents — ….
    To the spouses — …
    And to the beautiful children –

    They served in secrecy, but today every American can see their legacy….

    It’s written in the extremists who no longer threaten our country — because you eliminated them. It’s written in the attacks that never occurred — because you thwarted them. And it’s written in the Americans, across this country and around the world, who are alive today — because you saved them.

    As a nation, we pledge to be there for you and your families. We need you more than ever. In an ever-changing world where new dangers emerge suddenly, we need you to be one step ahead of nimble adversaries…. we still need men and women like these seven — professionals of skill and talent and courage who are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to protect our nation.

    Because of them, because of you, a child born in America today is welcomed into a country that is proud and confident, strong and hopeful — just as [[first & last name of mother & new baby]] … [[father/agent]] .., both of whom join us today. [[baby name]] will never know her dad, [[name left out to protect Obama's possible endangering his family]]. But thanks to [[wife name again ]], she will know what her father stood for — a man who served his country, who did his duty, and who gave his life to keep her safe.

    And on some distant day, years from now, when she is grown, if [[baby's name repeated]] — or any of these children — seeks to understand for themselves, they’ll need only come here — to Langley, through these doors, and stand before that proud Memorial Wall that honors the fallen.
    ……
    May God bless these seven patriots, may he watch over their families. And may God bless the United States of America.

    http://www.mcclatchydc.com/world/story/83845.html

    amen.

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