A few days ago, a blog called the Doug Ross Journal noted an invitation for Bill Ayers, the unrepentent terrorist of the Weather Underground, to speak publicly - at a Naperville High School student assembly!
I guess that since he’s all about teaching teachers to be socialists, someone in the teaching profession in Chicago would ask him to do this. Someone like Alan Leis, the Superintendent of the Naperville School District.
It’s not going well.
In fact, it got canceled. From Little Green Footballs, an email to Charles Johnson from a reader:
Thank you very much for your e-mail regarding Ayers visit to Naperville North High School. I too have been concerned about this event since learning of it last week, and have been working on it since. I want to advise you that this event has been canceled. A formal announcement will follow later today via Talk 203.
Jackie Romberg
District 203 Board of Education
It just seems so sweet.
I can only hope that Ayers is miffed. Or pissed. Either will do.
March 30th, 2009
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How exactly did this world economic crisis happen? What happened in the US might be explainable.
But why is the whole world getting wretched?
Then I read this and everything made sense.
The global financial crisis was caused by “white people with blue eyes”, says Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Standing next to visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at a news conference in Brasilia, Silva harshly criticised the world’s top economies, blaming them for sparking the crisis.
It was caused by “white people with blue eyes” and the world’s poorest nations should not have to pay for a crisis they did not create, he said.
Now all we have to do is find all the white blue-eyed people and kick their ass.
Makes sense.
Phew! I’m glad I got brown eyes. I’m almost positive that has saved me from more wretchedness.
How far again is Brazil from Chavez in Venezuela?
March 27th, 2009
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Deranged politics, morons |
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We’ve all heard of the desire of “The One” to reallocate money. Not his money, ours. It’s caused quite a stir if you haven’t been paying attention. But today in The Washington Times, an editorial points out that obambi’s reallocation exercises have gone over a cliff. Now he has transferred $2 million from the program that trained pilots to carry firearms on flights. This has effectively stalled out the program.
Where has he transeferred the money to? Why “…to hire more supervisory staff, who will engage in field inspections of pilots.” What? What are we “field inspecting” pilots for? As the Times points out, the trained Airline Pilots (called Federal Flight Deck Officers)… “are reported to have the best behavior of any federal law enforcement agency. There are no cases where any of them has improperly brandished or used a gun.”
But lets kill a program where the end results are:
- No air flights have been hijacked since it started
- No Federal Flight Deck Officer has ever transgressed any rule of this agency.
- Other than the training, there is no cost to the federal government. The pilots are not paid to carry weapons. They do it free of charge.
- About 70% of major airline carrier pilots have a military background (exactly what federal law enforcement agencies look for)
- Armed marshals only cover about 3% of flights out of Washington DC airports. Sky marshals are costly and quit more often than other law-enforcement officers.
And somehow all this is considered unworthy by The One. So he decides to can it.
I remember the last time dumocrats got this involved with US security. It was when Clinton put up all those walls between the CIA/FBI/NSA. He was afraid of “losing our rights” and got 9/11 instead.
This administration is taking a more proactive approach. Clinton was a dumb redneck but now we have an intelligent idiot.
This failure will be much more “classical”.
March 18th, 2009
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Ran across this link from Neptunus Lex. It is a survey that, on the whole, suggests that Iraqi’s are much more upbeat about their situation and the future.
There are a few oddball things in it, but I attribute most of it to the folks responsible for the survey - the BBC and ABC News. I’m nearly positive it was not presented in a biased fashion. ABC and the BBC have both been extremely strong supporters of the Iraq W…..just kidding.
I found it interesting that on the same page of the BBC site of this article, there were two completely divergent articles in sequence on the sidebar. As though the BBC can’t make up their mind whether it’s going good or going bad-
Which is it? Who knows. It’s almost as clear as our hopeychangey Congress trying to showcase their understanding of capitalism.
Here’s a link to the pdf file that has the actual survey results. It’s fun to flip through. There are some interesting numbers in there. Just keep in mind that Iraqi’s (according to this survey) look on the United States about the same as they do Iran.
A few comments -
1) The Messiah is sort of panned in Q29.
2) They think it’s pretty damn positive that the Sunni’s got on board this election cycle - Q35
3) Q45 is a riot - we’re right up there with Iran.
4) Oddly, on Q20, 53% think the US still controls the country but on Q19,
5) 61% of respondents believe that the Iraqi Council of Representatives will not “prevent or reduce official corruption” (unofficial corruption isn’t addressed). On a positive note, the other 29% is still a much higher approval rating than our own Congress has.
Lots of fun reading.
March 17th, 2009
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Joe Biden may go down as the second most arrogant and ill informed vice president in recent history (behind only the Goracle). The current appeasement White House administration is trying to sell the COIN tactics used in Iraq as something they can repeat in Afghanistan - though the military leaders do not think that is feasible with certain elements, especially the Taliban. But dumbass Biden plows on and completely misses the point of the Anbar Awakening’s successful effort in Iraq, trying to show that the same “surge” should be successful in the Taliban areas of Afghanistan. Bill Roggio rightfully takes offense at Biden’s ignorance:
I question Vice President Biden’s percentages of Taliban leaders and fighters who are reconcilable and irreconcilable. I have yet to hear an intelligence agency or the military describe the Taliban as such, and in fact most people I’ve spoken to think just the opposite. And as I’ve noted here several times: please, someone, name one of these mythical moderate Taliban leaders willing to negotiate an end to the insurgency and break away from al Qaeda.
But Vice President Biden made one statement about the Anbar Awakening that is completely incorrect. He claimed that the Awakening is made up of the “most extreme elements of the Sunni resistance.”
“We engaged in Iraq the most extreme elements of the Sunni resistance in Anbar Province. . . . The same principle pertains here. Whether or not it will bear as much fruit remains to be seen. There’s only one way, and that is to engage,” he said.
The Anbar Awakening is anything but the “most extreme elements of the Sunni resistance.” In fact, the Anbar Awakening is made up of the more moderate, mainstream elements of the insurgency as well as the prominent tribes in the province. The 1920s Revolution Brigades, a largely nationalist insurgent group, and elements of the Islamic Army of Iraq, another insurgent group largely made up of former military officers, formed the insurgent backbone of the Awakening. These groups are hardly radical Islamists, and certainly not the most extreme elements of the Sunni Insurgency.
Read the rest - it’s short and to the point. Saying that Biden is “misrepresenting” the Anbar Awakening is a leap of kindness on Roggio’s part.
For those who may not be familiar, Bill Roggio is the founder of the Long War Journal, an information and analysis effort that has wrapped itself into the Islamist movement and exposes many of the weaknesses and movements of the Jihadi effort. The Long War Journal is cited daily in publications all over the world, including such policy centers as the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Council on Foreign Relations.
March 14th, 2009
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A website called “Closing Velocity” has the details of the expected launch and flight path of North Korea’s imminent ballistic missile sandbox toy:
In a letter to ICAO earlier this week, the North said the launch would take place between April 4-8 and between 11:00 a.m. and 4.p.m. (KST), it added.
Of the two potential danger areas identified, one is in waters close to Japan’s northeastern area and the other is in the East Sea, according to a map released by ICAO. The map appears to show that if successful, a multi-stage rocket would fly over Japan after shedding its first booster in the East Sea.
This is where it gets interesting. John McKittrick’s post maps the proposed missile path - and it is on a direct line to Hawaii.
Connecting the dots between the launch site (orange triangle) and the two danger zones where the two stages will splash (red triangles), we can see where the missle could head — again, according to the North Koreans themselves:
- They indeed plan to overfly Japan, shedding the first booster in the Sea of Japan.
- Depending on the range of the missile, the trajectory is making a bee-line for Hawaii.
Could it get there? Who knows. But, according to McKittrick, North Korea recently tested an ICBM engine that could put California in its sight:
Could it actually reach Hawaii? Who knows … but the North Koreans did recently test an ICBM engine that would put California in reach. Whether that engine will power this missile is unknown.
Of course there is now a Fox News report that Japan can shoot down the missile if it is launched.
In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura told North Korea to abandon the launch and said Japan was ready to defend itself.
“Legally speaking, if this object falls toward Japan, we can shoot it down for safety reasons,” he said.
Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said Japan would “deal with anything that is flying toward us. We are preparing for any kind of emergency.”
One commenter noted that “President Training Wheels will use his powers of diplomacy to make everything better. Look at what a wonderful job he has done so far with the UK and Brazil.”
True, but it may be worse than that. The UK and Brazil aren’t even aiming missiles at us. And the Messiah hasn’t been “in the fire” yet on Foreign Policy. I expect him to come out of this one about medium rare.
March 13th, 2009
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Dennis Lormel at The Counterterrorism Blog has an interesting post up that describes a curious vacancy in Bernie Madoff’s plan - an exit strategy.
As a former FBI Agent, with extensive investigative experience in sophisticated fraud and financial crime schemes, I was intrigued by a statement Madoff made to the court during his pleading. He said “… and as the years went by, I realized my arrest and this day would inevitably come.” Someone needs to ask Madoff the question “at what point in time did you realize that your scheme would be detected?” How many years ago did Madoff reach his conclusion? In my experience, at that point in time, Madoff began planning his exit strategy.
Lormel goes on to note that Madoff’s exit strategy was actually missing:
Big time fraudsters usually theorize that their schemes have a certain shelf life, and at some point, their fraud will be detected. Therefore, many of these fraudsters make contingency plans and devise exit strategies. In many cases, that would mean fleeing the U.S. and relocating to a safe haven such as Robert Vesco and Marc Rich did. Interestingly, Madoff did not. So what was his exit strategy?
The scariest note that Lormel makes mention of is the Annual Threat Assessment that was delivered to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence:
On February 12, 2009, Director of National Security (DNI), Dennis C. Blair, testified before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. DNI Blair provided the Committee with the Annual Threat Assessment of the Intelligence Community. The first sentence of the assessment states:
“The primary near-term security concern of the United States (U.S.) is the global economic crisis and its geopolitical implications.”
This was the first time in six years that terrorism was not listed as the primary threat to the country. Fraud and other criminal activity resulting in the laundering of illicit funds have always been considered a threat to our national economy. The current financial crisis was primarily driven by the frightful combination of fraud, greed and arrogance. The magnitude of that fraud, greed and arrogance has clearly shaken not only our national economy but the global economy as well. In so doing, as noted by DNI Blair, the resulting international instability created by the financial crisis has become the most significant threat to our national security.
It was good to see that Lormel considers the actions of Madoff to be “economic terrorism” and should be harshly punished - particularly in seizing his assets. Lormel did not have kind words for the greed of other business executives who have been fraudulent in this economic meltdown - calling them “despicable”.
The general concensus, from people I have had conversations with, is that those business executives who have been grinding the public trust into dust should all be in jail. I agree. And our Congress wants to keep bailing them out. As though the money arrogant and greedy executives lost will ever come back.
And the bank presidents, who are taking most of the blame from the street, get million dollar pay raises. Or coyly tell the stock holders they will forego their “incentive” pay, yet take grandiose stock options for the same amount.
There hasn’t been honor or statesmanship in Washington for years. But to dive into an empty pool as this current Congress has is embarrassing. They seem to think, somehow, that we will change our minds about their behavior and the single digit approval rating they collectively have will climb.
They couldn’t be father from the truth or more disconnected from their constituents.
March 13th, 2009
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And they can arrest “Zionists”.
Tehran’s attorney Saeed Mortazavi delivered the detention verdict of 25 Zionist commanders and criminals to IRI’s international police on Sunday.
Due to Tehran attorney’s request from international police to summon 25 Zionist commanders and criminals, this department started its measures to pursue these persons.
After receiving the verdict, the general office of international police requested the summons (Red Notice) of these persons from the International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO) in official and international procedures. The issue has been put on ICPO’s agenda.
I’m serious - they really think this. They have a general office of international police (Note that this is not a “specific” office). The have summons - and they call it a Red Notice (? - does that mean they have different colors for different days - kind of like drug tests?).
They have an International Criminal Police Organization - with things like “official and international procedures” (I’d like to see that procedural document).
And it sounds like they all just do this at the request of some dumb ass lawyer in Tehran.
I guess they just waltz into Israel and arrest them. That’d be funny.
I’ve been laughing so hard over this one my eyes are watering.
I wonder if Alan Greenspan is a “Zionist”? Think he’s on the list?
How about Streisand?
Or Harry Reid?
There’s just so much a comedian could do with this story.
I wish I was funny. This is a hoot.
March 9th, 2009
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From the Evil Conservative:
Seems that a doctor in New York has offered his patients medical services for $79 a month. You get to see him for anything you need with a $10 copay. It’s less thant $1000 a year - and without all the paperwork that goes with the usual insurance theft carriers.
The New York State Insurance Department turned him down.
Dr. John Muney offers his patients everything from mammograms to mole removal at his AMG Medical Group clinics, which operate in all five boroughs.
“I’m trying to help uninsured people here,” he said.
His patients agree to pay $79 a month for a year in return for unlimited office visits with a $10 co-pay.
But his plan landed him in the crosshairs of the state Insurance Department, which ordered him to drop his fixed-rate plan - which it claims is equivalent to an insurance policy.
Muney insists it is not insurance because it doesn’t cover anything that he can’t do in his offices, like complicated surgery. He points out his offices do not operate 24/7 so they can’t function like emergency rooms.
“I’m not doing an insurance business,” he said. “I’m just providing my services at my place during certain hours.”
He says he can afford to charge such a small amount because he doesn’t have to process mountains of paperwork and spend hours on billing.
“If they leave me alone, I can serve thousands of patients,” he said.
The state believes his plan runs afoul of the law because it promises to cover unplanned procedures - like treating a sudden ear infection - under a fixed rate. That’s something only a licensed insurance company can do.
“The law is strict on how insurance is defined,” said an Insurance Department spokesman.
A possible solution that Muney’s lawyer crafted would force patients to pay more than $10 for unplanned procedures.
They are waiting to see if the state will accept the compromise. Still, Muney is unhappy because, he said, “I really don’t want to charge more. They’re forcing me.”
One of his patients, Matthew Robinson, 52, was furious to learn the state was interfering with the plan.
“The whole point is, he [Muney] found a way of paying his rent, paying his workers, and getting to see patients for the price,” said Robinson.
“How can the state dictate you’ve got to charge more?”
Let’s see now, we have some creative thinking here that provides a service that patients are more than willing to pay for and we kill it because - there’s no definition in the “what you can do” book.
My conspiracy theory? - United Health Care found out about it. And squashed it.
Welcome to hopenchange central.
March 9th, 2009
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Victor Davis Hanson writes of what has happened in California - a state now financially bankrupt and needing a bailout worse than AIG. After discussing what has gone wrong, Hansen notes:
But less discussed is the common culprit: a weird sort of utopian mind-set. Perhaps because have-it-all Californians live in such a rich natural landscape and inherited so much from their ancestors, they have convinced themselves that perpetual bounty is their birthright — not something that can be lost in a generation of complacency.
I can see why they would be like that - the state of mind driving the liberalism in California has a common denominator with past European attitudes - such as “Liberal Fascism”. Kind of like that other “fascism” that a lot of Americans had to die for.
In short, after Californians sue, restrict, mandate, obstruct and lecture, they also get angry that there is suddenly not enough food, fuel, water and money to act like the gods that they think they have become.
If anyone knows about that insane California attitude, it is Victor Davis Hanson. He grew up on a vineyard farm in central California. He speaks from real experience.
One interesting tidbit of the article listing much of California’s problem? Prisons account for 10% of the state budget - almost as much as Higher Education.
Prison costs increased about 50% in less than a decade and now claim almost 10% of state spending — almost as much as higher education.
That information is parsed just before -
More than half a million aliens are caught each year trying to enter California’s southern border illegally. Some estimates put illegal alien state residents at 3 million, a population that might cost the state’s taxpayers $13 billion per year for services.
The link between prison costs and illegal immigration is not lost on Hanson. In his book Mexifornia, he leaves no doubt what the immigrant problems stem from and what the costs are. It is definitely worth a read.
When I was younger, people mostly dreamed about California - they wanted to visit, they wanted to move there, they wanted some part of California to touch them for almost any reason. Now it seems to be irrelevant whether you see it or not.
March 8th, 2009
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