Thursday, December 31, 2009

WH More Interested in Finding Way to Blame Bush than National Security?

If this is true, then it has to win the prize as the most dangerous and mindboggling thing this Administration has done so far. CYA vs fixing the problems. It is beyond the pale. It reads almost like a parody. It is just so unbelievable. We are so screwed. A political problem instead of a national security problem? I just can’t get my mind around this incompetent childish mindset.

• The Politics of Incompetence

On December 26, two days after Nigerian Omar Abdulmutallab allegedly attempted to use underwear packed with plastic explosives to blow up the Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight he was on, and as it became clear internally that the Administration had suffered perhaps its most embarrassing failure in the area of national security, senior Obama White House aides, including chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod and new White House counsel Robert Bauer, ordered staff to begin researching similar breakdowns—if any—from the Bush Administration.

“The idea was that we’d show that the Bush Administration had had far worse missteps than we ever could,” says a staffer in the counsel’s office. “We were told that classified material involving anything related to al Qaeda operating in Yemen or Nigeria was fair game and that we’d declassify it if necessary.”

The White House, according to the source, is in full defensive spin mode.

Read more

Rasmussen: 58% Favor Waterboarding of Plane Terrorist To Get Information

Considering the bad rap waterboarding has gotten from the media and the left, this poll result surprised me. I happen to agree with the majority in the poll and I strongly agree with the 71% who think the Christmas Crotch Bomber should be interrogated and prosecuted by the military and not in a civilian criminal court.

• 58% Favor Waterboarding of Plane Terrorist To Get Information

Fifty-eight percent (58%) of U.S. voters say waterboarding and other aggressive interrogation techniques should be used to gain information from the terrorist who attempted to bomb an airliner on Christmas Day.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 30% oppose the use of such techniques, and another 12% are not sure.

Men and younger voters are more strongly supportive of the aggressive interrogation techniques than women and those who are older. Republicans and voters not affiliated with either major party favor their use more than Democrats.

Seventy-one percent (71%) of all voters think the attempt by the Nigerian Muslim to blow up the airliner as it landed in Detroit should be investigated by military authorities as a terrorist act. Only 22% say it should be handled by civilian authorities as a criminal act, as is currently the case.

Judicial Watch Announces List of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians” for 2009

The list, in alphabetical order, includes:

Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT)
Senator John Ensign (R-NV)
Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)
Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner
Attorney General Eric Holder
Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)/ Senator Roland Burris (D-IL)
President Barack Obama
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) and the rest of the PMA Seven
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY)

For the full details of what got each of these people on the list see:

• Judicial Watch Announces List of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians” for 2009

Once in a New Years Eve Blue Moon… (AudioVideo)

A Blue Moon really isn’t blue. When there are two full moons in a single month, the second one is called a Blue Moon. So when you look up into the sky tonight at the big full moon, it will be the last New Year’s Eve Blue Moon you’ll see for the next 19 years. The last one was in 1990. Note: We regularly see Blue Moons about once ever 2 1/2 years.

There are many fine recordings of this song. I chose this video because it had the most beautiful moon pics of any I looked at.

Happy New Year!

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Sometimes You Read Something So Stupid ....

It boggles the mind and you think it cannot get more so. Liberals say and write a lot of really dumb and clueless things, but this has to take the grand prize:

The Hill reported:

Democratic strategists Wednesday asserted President Barack Obama “has been far more aggressive in fighting al Qaeda” than the previous administration .

In an e-mail this afternoon to supporters — which incidentally excoriated Republicans for politicizing the attempted bombing of Flight 253 — the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) stressed it was President George W. Bush, not his successor, who relegated the fight against the terrorist network to the back burner by turning “its focus from al Qaeda to Iraq.”

I shake my head, roll my eyes and think, “what America do these people live in, what alternate reality.”

Leftist moonbats must be too dumb to understand Iraq’s strategic location. But even more so, they do not understand that fighting al-Qaeda in Iraq was a much better deal than trying to chase them out of the mountains and caves of Afghanistan or the Pakistani border area. A good general, a great leader picks his battlefields to suit his advantage, not the enemy’s.

And were we successful in fighting AQI, I would say we were:

Via Gateway Pundit:

For the record: In Operation Iraqi Freedom more than 19,429 Al-Qaeda and Islamic militants have been killed. Over 18,900 insurgents have been captured.

George Bush and his generals kept AQ so busy in Iraq, they didn’t have time to plan, nor the manpower to send to attack us here. Since Obama took office, more Americans have died at the hands of Muslem Extremists on our soil than any time since 2001. And it is only going to get worse. Just think of the circus the NYC trials are going to be and now, it would appear Obama’s “alledged” terrorists will have the full benefits of American citizens and be tried in the criminal courts, when in reality they are enemy combatants representing those who have decalered war on the United States and its citizens and should be dealt with accordingly.  AQ is laughing at us.

Everyone knew that 9/11 was “Paper Tiger” Bubba Clinton’s fault, but I don’t recall George Bush out whining about Bubba every day for years, like Bambi and his ostriches do every single day. Grow up little boys or get out of the way.

Neil Diamond: If You Know What I Mean (Audio Video)

To me, Neil Diamond is the very best lyricist of my generation. He lost a little luster for me when he joined the Obama worship crowd, but I have forgiven him his lapse into insanity. I can’t stay away from his music. His use of words. This is one of my top three all time favorite Diamond songs:

I had a little chuckle to myself this morning when reading a repeat post over at American Digest, where Gerard is waxing poetic about Van Morrison. I didn’t even know I knew American Digest existed back when the post first appeared, but low and behold, there I was in the comments posting the lyrics to this song. 

Never a Year Like ‘09 - A Musical Review (Video)

Happy New Year Everybody! 

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Govenor Jim Gibbons of Nevada Unloads on Harry Reid (Video)

Whew!

Krauthammer Unloads (Video)

I may have to forgive Charles Krauthammer for his earlier negative remarks about Sarah Palin. Between yesterday’s controlled rant and today’s, he is fast becoming one of my favorites again.

(H/T: MsUnderestimated)

Fraud Warning on Google AdSense Work From Home

Okay, tell me how stupid I was, I deserve it. I decided to check out the offers I get by the dozens on the Google AdSense work from home offers. I went to the link from Twitter. Like an idiot, I paid the one dollar they asked for to look at the material explaining their offer. The charge ended up being $1.95, the name on the charge was not the name I was told to expect when they sent the receipt, which should have been a warning. I glanced quickly at the info and decided it was not something I was interested in and closed it out and forgot about it. Then the next day, today, my bank card was charged $129.95. When I called my bank to report this charge as bogus, they opened a fraud investigation and they are sending me a form to sign that will allow a police report. After I got off the phone with the bank, I decided to check the new web link that accompanied the $129.95 charge and was shocked to find that it was actually the same intro material that was part of the original one dollar offer. I called them. I was called all kinds of names including stupid, then they hung up on me. I called back, got the same rep and she got real mouthy and said that I was the one who hung up on her. So, I asked to speak to a supervisor. She was alittle (not much) more polite and it turns out that they are yet another company name, but low and behold, she could reverse the charge.

So be very wary of these ads. They prey on those of us who are out of work and broke.

Some of the links are:

DirectMoneyPower.com
THATITPROFT
Creative Synergy Training

I’m sure there are many more, but these are the three that ended up on my bank statement.

So now my account is overdrawn and I have had to cancel my bankcard and wait up to two weeks for a new one, a big inconvenience for someone like myself who is disabled and depends on doing most of my business electronically.

I will be so happy when 2009 is over, this has been one of the worst years of my life. 

Monday, December 28, 2009

Gov’t Induced Drought to Save Some Dumb Delta Smelt (Video)

This is a story I’ve mentioned before and have been following for awhile now. It is a story that makes me ballistic. I have both called and written Senator Diane Feinstein about her attitude. She apparently hates her constituents and loves the smelt, as does the Congress. Tonight, Tucker Carlson, filling in for Sean Hannity covered the story again. For those of you still unaware of this disaster going on in the Central Valley, California farmers have had their water supply cut off to their farms, because some whackos value the 2″ “delta smelt” fish over CA farmers. Farmers and their partners are out of work and can’t feed their own families or the rest of America who has benefited from the produce normally abundant from this land.

(H/T: MsUnderestimated)

TURN THE WATER BACK ON!

This is not just a California problem, this is a national problem. 

Daniel Huisinga Reports 2nd Muslim Arrested (VIDEO) Plus Bomb Photos

On Greta’s show tonight, Daniel Huisinga corroborated Kurt Haskell’s account of a 2nd Muslim man being arrested. I thought I had watched pretty much all the coverage of this terrorism attempt, but this is the first I’ve heard of a 2nd arrest and another bag being alerted upon by the bomb sniffing dog. He says a Muslim/Middle Eastern man, so it doesn’t sound like the well-dressed Indian man, apparently trying to help Mutallab get on the plane without a Visa/passport

(H/T: MsUnderestimated)

Here is the earlier interview with Kurt Haskell:

I don’t blame Haskell for being alarmed. What do you think the FBI meant when they said the room you’re in now isn’t safe? Bomb? That’s Haskell’s suspicion.

RELATED:

Would any man risk this type of bomb, if he thought there was a chance of living through it? I know a woman who smuggled an ounce of pot in by secreting it in her vagina, but strapping an explosive to your penis takes a real whacko.

The underwear with the explosive worn by alleged Northwest 253 bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is shown in this undated photo.
(ABC News)

• EXCLUSIVE: Photos of the Northwest Airlines Bomb
  Accused Bomber Abdulmutallab’s Underwear, Explosive Packet and Detonator

A singed pair of underwear with a packet of powder sewn into the crotch, seen in government photos obtained exclusively by ABC News, is all that remains of al Qaeda’s attempt to down an American passenger plane over Detroit.

[...]

It is a six-inch long packet of the high explosive chemical called PETN, less than a half cup in volume, weighing about 80 grams.

A government test with 50 grams of PETN blew a hole in the side of an airliner. That was the amount in the bomb carried by the so-called shoe bomber Richard Reid over Christmas 2001.

Read more

Would this type of screening have identified the explosives in the underwear?

Krauthammer: Flacid, Meaningless Words (Videos) - Updated

After practically ignoring the uprisings by the people against the Iranian regime for months, Obama spoke out today after the violence against the protesters of the past few days. Krauthammer isn’t buying it and thinks this is a moment in history and Obama is missing it.

• Day 188 Iran Revolution: “Listen, beat and tear them apart, break their legs, god would like that” “There are 8 to 10 old ladies there, beat them up and clean them up”
  UPDATED: Video Basij Shoot Protester Dead. GRAPHIC

Sunday December 27 , 2009 at noon
Place : College bridge , Enghelab St. , Tehran , Iran
This film could be very similar to Neda video which impressed the world .

Story : 13 Security special forces of Sepah which called Yegan vijje are surrounded by people when one of them shoots !

See how an elderly man is dying .

I could not send this video earlier because of internet disconnection by the government in Iran .

Please let the world know how brave Iranian people are fighting for free IRAN .

Lots more at the link.

UPDATE:

A good summary of the situation and things to look for as you watch the videos:

• What’s Happening in Iran Right Now—By: Michael Ledeen

There is now a state of emergency throughout the country (although some cities are still in open revolt), and many angry calls for the arrest of Mousavi and Karroubi, which would surely provoke more massive demonstrations and perhaps even the use of weapons by the people (even today, Molotov cocktails were thrown at security forces in central Tehran). If this were a normal regime, I’d expect a cooling-down period; but it isn’t a normal regime, so it’s unpredictable.

Meanwhile, the Western world clicks its collective tongue and criticizes “the violence” and the lack of respect for rights of free speech and assembly, as if that were the point. Not a single Western “leader” has found the nerve and the common sense to denounce the regime and call for regime change. Indeed, President Obama couldn’t drag himself away from the beach and the basketball court on Oahu to say anything at all. Nor could our secretary of state. Or Robert Gates, for that matter, whose men and women are being blown up in Iraq and Afghanistan, courtesy of the mullahs.

War of Words: Obama vs al-Qaeda vs Crotch Bomber

It appears we have a failure to communicate going on here, or is it really a case of tin ear or blind eye?

President Barack Obama, 28 December 2009:

Here’s what we know so far: On Christmas Day, Northwest Airlines Flight 253 was en route from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Detroit. As the plane made its final approach to Detroit Metropolitan Airport, a passenger allegedly tried to ignite an explosive device on his body, setting off a fire.

Thanks to the quick and heroic actions of passengers and crew, the suspect was immediately subdued, the fire was put out, and the plane landed safely. The suspect is now in custody and has been charged with attempting to destroy an aircraft.

[…]

This incident, like several that have preceded it, demonstrates that an alert and courageous citizenry are far more resilient than an isolated extremist.

Statement by al-Qaeda, 28 December 2009:

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula on Monday claimed responsibility for the attack on a U.S. airliner bound for Detroit on Christmas Day, saying it was retaliation for a U.S. operation against the group in Yemen.

[...]

In a statement posted on the Internet, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula said 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab coordinated with members of the group, an alliance of militants based in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

The group said Abdulmutallab used explosives manufactured by al Qaeda members. “He managed to penetrate all devices and modern advanced technology and security checkpoints in international airports bravely without fear of death,” the group said in the statement, “relying on God and defying the large myth of American and international intelligence, and exposing how fragile they are, bringing their nose to the ground, and making them regret all what they spent on security technology.”

The group also released what it said was a photo of Abdulmutallab, smiling in a white shirt and white Islamic skullcap, overlaid on a graphic showing a plane taking off. In a second version of the same photo, he is shown with the Al Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula banner in the background.

The claim of responsibility was dated Saturday but posted on Monday on a Web site frequently used by militants to disseminate their messages.

Statement by the Crotch Bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab:

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, charged with the attempted Christmas Day bombing of Northwest Airlines flight 253, told FBI agents there were more just like him in Yemen who would strike soon.

And in a tape released four days before the attempted destruction of the Detroit-bound Northwest plane, the leader of al Qaeda in Yemen boasted of what was planned for Americans, saying, “We are carrying a bomb to hit the enemies of God.”

I know whose words I give more credence to, how ‘bout you?

RELATED:

This is comforting. Gag! If this is true....

• Two al Qaeda Leaders Behind Northwest Flight 253 Terror Plot Were Released by U.S.
  Former Guantanamo Prisoners Believed Behind Northwest Airlines Bomb Plot; Sent to Saudi Arabia in 2007

Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the al Qaeda plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet over Detroit were released by the U.S. from the Guantanamo prison in November, 2007, according to American officials and Department of Defense documents. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the Northwest bombing in a Monday statement that vowed more attacks on Americans.

Hey, Obama has a solution:

• Obama Administration Transfers 12 Detainees to Yemen, Afghanistan, Somaliland

The number of detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay sank to under 200 this weekend with the transfer of a dozen former prisoners in the last day to Yemen, Afghanistan, and Somaliland.

[...]

Over the weekend six Yemeni detainees, Jamal Muhammad Alawi Mari, Farouq Ali Ahmed,Ayman Saeed Abdullah Batarfi, Muhammaed Yasir Ahmed Taher, Fayad Yahya Ahmed al Rami and Riyad Atiq Ali Abdu al Haf, were transferred to the government of Yemen.

Detainees Abdul Hafiz, Sharifullah, Mohamed Rahim and Mohammed Hashim, were transferred into the custody of the government of Afghanistan.

Two Somali detainees, Mohammed Soliman Barre and Ismael Arale, were transferred to regional authorities in Somaliland.

The 198 detainees remaining at Guantanamo include 10 scheduled for trial. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid bin Attash, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali , Ramzi bin al-Shibh, and Mustafa al-Hawsawi will be tried in a US criminal court. 

Five others—Ibrahim al Qosi, Omar Khadr, Ahmed al Darbi, Noor Uthman Mohammed and Abd al Rahim al Nashiri—will be tried in revamped military commissions, to take place at Thomson Correctional Center in Illinois.

Via Jim Geraghty, these are Obama’s words from his speech today reacting to the Northwest Airlines bomber: (H/T: Say Anything)

We will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable.

And now, from Politico:

TEEING OFF: A half-hour after President Obama vowed to catch the terrorists behind a plot to blow up a plane on Christmas, he arrived at 10:40 a.m. at the Luana Hills Country Club, where a golf course winds through a rain forest, the pool reports.

Jonah Goldberg wonders why the use of the word:

• Allegedly?

Here’s a small example of the difference between treating terrorism like a crime and like an act of war.  In his press conference today:

Here’s what we know so far: On Christmas Day, Northwest Airlines Flight 253 was en route from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Detroit. As the plane made its final approach to Detroit Metropolitan Airport, a passenger allegedly tried to ignite an explosive device on his body, setting off a fire.

If we know it, how “allegedly” can it be?

[...]

If an army of enemy soldiers attacked American troops in a combat theater, we wouldn’t say “We know that the Germans allegedy attacked our forces in Holland.” But when a terrorist aligned with an avowed US enemy attacks on a civilian plane, the criminal law-enforcement paradigm requires we give this guy the benefit of the doubt.

[...]

Update: From a reader:

About the president’s use of “allegedly.” like the president is some US Attorney talking about some chicago politician being indicted for corruption.  And how many times in his address did the president call the guy a “suspect” - like they just arrested him for breaking into someone’s house - rather than calling him a “terrorist”.  The whole tone of his remarks today was shocking in its clinical legalism.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Those Worthless Seniors - Shame We Can Still Vote - Updated

So, you have worked hard and paid your taxes for forty or fifty years and you are still young in body and mind, but according to the Obama administration you are unproductive, of less value than others in society. I wonder if these younguns ever stop to contemplate that the largest group of Americans in history are the Baby Boomers, who are reaching their senior years in record numbers, but still, at least for now, have the right to vote.

This American Thinker piece is a must read.

• Seniors Are America’s New Jews

Seniors are the new go-to group for this radical president and Democratic congress as they pursue power, wealth, and the cultural transformation of the United States. Every version of the Democrat health care bill—with all senate Republicans opposing this war against seniors—relies on drastically reduced access to the services for which seniors have paid through taxes over a lifetime, or upon which they may choose to spend personal resources.

The party and government of Barack Obama is astonishingly brutal about the value of that lifetime. A “senior moment” should be just that, they say: a brief period rarely extending beyond the 60s (for us, of course, not them).

[...]

The president’s health care czar views the optimal age for societal worth as somewhere south of sixty years. The Democrat approach is philosophically founded upon the work of Ivy League academic Dr. Daniel Callahan, who mentored Obama health policymaker Ezekiel Emanuel and who advocates medical resource rationing as a simple and powerful solution to the “dilemma”— lack of usefulness in the community—posed by market-enabled longer lives.

Simply put, the utility of a citizen’s life to an Obama government is defined by the amount of one’s work that can be taxed versus the resources consumed, and the government-defined value of the group to which the individual belongs. Seniors are just not useful, says Tom Daschle, the prominent Obama Democrat who continues to play a key role in shaping Obamacare, and it is time for them to accept the “pain” of less access to health care.

[...]

What Sarah Palin termed “dealth panels” are only a small part of a new bureaucracy that will stand between seniors and life. Small wonder The Wall Street Journal characterized Obamacare as an “assault” on seniors, while a British newspaper, surveying events across the pond, starkly stated that “the elderly might as well have a bull’s eye painted on their backs. ... Creepy, right? It’s totalitarian, it’s ugly, and it’s not the American way.”

But it is the American way in a nation governed by Obama, who has a vision that requires some to have less so that others may be given more. And the vast middle class of seniors—almost forty million strong with a lifetime of work and paid taxes behind them—are the ideal scapegoats to fund a radical Democrat vision.

[...]

Seniors now find themselves the official go-to group for a president intent on taking both life and property and giving to those who are younger, to people who are more diverse, to illegal immigrants, and to Democratic Party allies. Consequently, the Obama-led Democrats, with the help of intellectual and media elites, have declared open season on grandma and grandpa, with Newsweek going so far as to feature a cover detailing “The Case for Killing Granny.”

Newsweek president and editor Evan Thomas, who called Obama “sort of God,” takes issue with the view of seniors dictated by the “Author of nature,” that rock of Judeo-Christian culture who demands in His Word (in Deuteronomy) that humanity “Honor your father and your mother as the Lord your God has commanded you, that your days may be long...”

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob views long life and respect for seniors as a blessing. But the Democratic Party health care bill is no Deuteronomy. Long life is viewed as a market-driven curse, and for Barack Obama—the god of Harry, Nancy, and Evan—seniors are expendable.

Seasoned Citizens, unite, your vote is powerful, especially as a group. And those who believe in the Commandment to Honor Your Father and Mother, unite and do what is right.

And you know what is particularly irritating about the Obama administration attitude about seniors? Yep, the fact that I and nearly every Grandma and Grandpa I know are helping the younger generation survive. Every month we contribute to rent and all kinds of other expenses for our younger family members. Forty-somethings who refuse to leave home, grandchildren who need help with a first apartment or college tuition, and on and on. Not to mention that with some of the bonehead moves this administration has made, they could have used some advice from those who have been there, done that, and have institutional memory about some of the most pressing issues of the day. We are being governed by know it alls suffering from arrested development somewhere in their teens.

UPDATE:

As the day has gone on, I’ve gotten angrier and angrier about this attitude that seniors are unproductive and “not useful.” Seniors get no free rides. We have to pay taxes on any income, retirement or otherwise, just like everyone else. Medicare certainly isn’t free to us. In addition to all the money we had to pay into the system during our working years, we get close to $100 mo. deducted from Social Security plus whatever extra any Medicare Advantage plan we chose costs. The way this administration acts, you would think seniors are all on the dole. How ‘bout going after the welfare queens and the lazy union workers who drain our system dry before going after those who have paid their fair share for decades and continue to pay their fair share until the day they die.

Whoa! Breaking: Second Nigerian on Detroit-bound Flight Arrested

See Michelle Malkin for more.

• Breaking: Second Nigerian on Detroit-bound flight arrested

The Associated Press has learned that a second Nigerian man has been taken into custody aboard a jetliner in Detroit after locking himself in the airliner’s bathroom.

A law enforcement official tells the AP that the incident took place aboard the same Northwest flight that was attacked on Christmas Day. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the incident was ongoing.

Yep, the “system is working,” but the big question, Janet Napolitano, is: Who is it working for? Looks like Nigeria and the terrorists from where I sit.

And Now It Is Time for the Real Sunday Funnies

We gave you the Christmas Eve funnies earlier, now here are the real Sunday Funnies. Pretty much the same themes with alittle stink added. For all the Sunday Funnies see:

• Sunday Funnies

Was Senator Max Baucus Drunk on the Senate Floor? (Video)

Not only is he talking nonsense, but he is slurring his words while he does it. A bipartisan effort, puhleeze! Baucus proves he is an idiot. It was NOT the Republican side of the aisle locking doors and not letting anyone except their chosen few have entry. It wasn’t Republicans who refused to negotiate. Drunk and a liar, oops that’s kind of redundant.

(H/T: Atlas Shrugs)

RELATED:

Others asking the same question:

• Newsbusters

• Susan Flowers, Examiner.com

• Brendan Calling

And Glenn Reynolds, who writes:

WHERE IS THE COURAGE? I think we’ve found the liquid courage, anyway.

Is Janet Napolitano Really Stupid or Just Clueless?

I vote yes.

It is incredible that she would actually say that “everything worked like clockwork,” and say so publicly, violating my 5th grade teachers rule that you may seem stupid to others, but only running your mouth confirms the fact.

Hey Janet, if everything worked so perfectly, then how the hell did the terrorist get on the plane? Huh? Huh? Inquiring minds want to know. And why did it take a passenger to foil the attacker? Certainly your Homeland Security people were no help, the State Dept. was an enabler, and your boss and his wuss policies toward Muslim extremists just makes us a laughing stock in the terror world.

Via Gateway Pundit:

This year, domestic terror plots peaked. There have been 32 terror-related “events” on US shores since 9/11, and 12 of those occurred in 2009.

RELATED:

Jonah Goldberg at NRO is spot on:

• Fire Napolitano

I watched her on three shows and each time she was more annoying, maddening and absurd than the pevious appearance. It is her basic position that the “system worked” because the bureaucrats responded properly after the attack. That the attack was “foiled” by a bad detonator and some civilian passengers is proof, she claims, that her agency is doing everything right. That is just about the dumbest thing she could say, on the merits and politically. I would wager that not one percent of Americans think the system is “working” when terrorists successfully get bombs onto planes (and succeed in activating them).

[...]

Napolitano has a habit of arguing that DHS is a first responder outfit. Its mission is to deal with “man-caused-disasters” afer they occur. It appears she really believes it. If the White House wants to assure people that it takes the war on terror seriously (a term Robert Gibbs used this morning by the way), they could start by firing this patenly unqualified hack.

Andy McCarthy is also spot on:

Here, no thanks to the government, the plane was not destoyed, and we won’t get to the bottom of the larger conspiracy (enabling the likes of Napolitano to say there’s no indication of a larger plot—much less one launched by an international jihadist enterprise) because the guy got to lawyer up rather than be treated like a combatant and subjected to lengthy interrogation.  But the terrorist will be convicted at trial (this “case” tees up like a slam-dunk), so the administration will put it in the books as a success ... just like the Clinton folks did after the ‘93 WTC bombers and the embassy bombers were convicted. In their minds, litigation success equals national security success.

It is a dangerously absurd viewpoint, but it was clear during the campaign that it was Obama’s viewpoint. The American people—only seven years after 9/11—elected him anyway. As we learn more painfully everyday, elections matter.

If It’s Sunday, It Must Be Time for…Christmas Eve Funnies

The topics for this special edition of the Funnies are healthcare, Tiger, Santa and, of course, Christmas. See all the Funnies:

• Thursday Christmas (Eve) Funnies

Saturday, December 26, 2009

60 Stunning Satellite Pictures of the Earth

This one looks to me like a prehistoric monster or dragon.

West Fjords – The West Fjords are a series of peninsulas in northwestern Iceland. They represent less than one-eighth the country’s land area, but their jagged perimeter accounts for more than half of Iceland’s total coastline.

I’ve never thought of myself as someone who would like New Age paintings, but I would hang this one on my wall in a heartbeat. Just beautiful.

Ocean Sand, Bahamas – Though the above image may resemble a new age painting straight out of an art gallery in Venice Beach, California, it is in fact a satellite image of the sands and seaweed in the Bahamas. The image was taken by the Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+) instrument aboard the Landsat 7 satellite. Tides and ocean currents in the Bahamas sculpted the sand and seaweed beds into these multicolored, fluted patterns in much the same way that winds sculpted the vast sand dunes in the Sahara Desert.

I see a giant hot air balloon in this one.

Alluvial Fan, China - A vast alluvial fan blossoms across the desolate landscape between the Kunlun and Altun mountain ranges that form the southern border of the Taklimakan Desert in China’s XinJiang Province.

Some of the pictures I find really disturbing. They bring over me the feeling of something produced by a horribly sick mind descended into the depths of hell.

Dasht-e Kevir – The Dasht-e Kevir, or valley of desert, is the largest desert in Iran. It is a primarily uninhabited wasteland, composed of mud and salt marshes covered with crusts of salt that protect the meager moisture from completely evaporating.

Von Karman Vortices - As air flows over and around objects in its path, spiraling eddies, known as Von Karman vortices, may form. The vortices in this image were created when prevailing winds sweeping east across the northern Pacific Ocean encountered Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.

Check out all 60:

• 60 Stunning Satellite Photos of Earth

Thursday, December 24, 2009

“Glory to God in the highest   and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” -

1In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3And everyone went to his own town to register.

4So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

The Shepherds and the Angels

8And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ[a] the Lord. 12This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

13Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14"Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” - Luke 2:1-14

Christmas Greetings from Lunar Orbit

If you are old enough to remember, as I am, then you remember how we were all so touched by this reading.

• Dec. 24, 1968: Christmas Eve Greetings From Lunar Orbit

And please, take a moment to celebrate with the finest choir in the world.

Merry Christmas and May God Bless Us, Each and Every One.

Tracking Santa on Christmas Eve

You too can track Santa as he makes his way around the world. Just click:

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

The Known Universe (Video)

The Known Universe takes viewers from the Himalayas through our atmosphere and the inky black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang. Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world’s most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History. The new film, created by the Museum, is part of an exhibition, Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, at the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan through May 2010.

For more information visit http://www.amnh.org.

Sarah Palin: I Told You So!

She had it right all along.

Sarah Palin writes on Facebook:

No one is certain of what’s in the bill, but Senator Jim DeMint spotted one shocking revelation regarding the section in the bill describing the Independent Medicare Advisory Board (now called the Independent Payment Advisory Board), which is a panel of bureaucrats charged with cutting health care costs on the backs of patients – also known as rationing. Apparently Reid and friends have changed the rules of the Senate so that thesection of the bill dealing with this board can’t be repealed or amended without a 2/3 supermajority vote. Senator DeMint said:

“This is a rule change. It’s a pretty big deal. We will be passing a new law and at the same time creating a senate rule that makes it out of order to amend or even repeal the law. I’m not even sure that it’s constitutional, but if it is, it most certainly is a senate rule. I don’t see why the majority party wouldn’t put this in every bill. If you like your law, you most certainly would want it to have force for future senates. I mean, we want to bind future congresses. This goes to the fundamental purpose of senate rules: to prevent a tyrannical majority from trampling the rights of the minority or of future congresses.”

In other words, Democrats are protecting this rationing “death panel” from future change with a procedural hurdle. You have to ask why they’re so concerned about protecting this particular provision. Could it be because bureaucratic rationing is one important way Democrats want to “bend the cost curve” and keep health care spending down?

The Congressional Budget Office seems to think that such rationing has something to do with cost. In a letter to Harry Reid last week, CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf noted (with a number of caveats) that the bill’s calculations call for a reduction in Medicare’s spending rate by about 2 percent in the next two decades, but then he writes the kicker:

“It is unclear whether such a reduction in the growth rate could be achieved, and if so, whether it would be accomplished through greater efficiencies in the delivery of health care or would reduce access to care or diminish the quality of care.”

Though Nancy Pelosi and friends have tried to call “death panels” the “lie of the year,” this type of rationing – what the CBO calls “reduc[ed] access to care” and “diminish[ed] quality of care” – is precisely what I meant when I used that metaphor.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Gag of the Day: Chairman Mao Ornament on WH Christmas Tree

This is disturbing on so many levels. Really really disturbing. Gut-wrenching disturbing.

• An Obama Christmas tree… ornaments of Mao, transvestite Hedda Lettuce, and Obama

2009 Mao ornament

Obama on Mt. Rushmore

Cool Tool: Clicker

Pre-2004, I would have said that I was as up-to-date on what was online as anybody. I kept track. I was always one of the first to be a beta tester, I read everything and kept up with what was new, better, best on the Net. I’m not sure what happened, but somewhere along the way of recovering from my broken back, I lost interest and now I’m hopelessly dumb about the greatest and latest. Some of this apathy is a result of having been online for well over twenty years and pretty much having selected the tools I want to use or I’ve found useful and sticking with those tools. So, you may all be familiar with Clicker, but it is brand new to me.

Clicker is the complete guide to Internet television. Clicker catalogs all broadcast programming online, along with TV-quality Web originals, from these silos and delivers them in one seamless, organized experience so you can easily discover what’s available to watch online, where to watch it, and what’s worth watching.

Clicker is one part directory, one part search engine, one part wiki, one part entertainment guide, and one part DVR. At the heart of it all is a massive database that contains more than 450,000 episodes, from over 6,000 shows, from over 1,200 networks, tens of thousands of movies, and 50,000 music videos from 20,000 artists.

You can enjoy all of Clicker’s content and features without a Clicker account, but creating an account will allow you to create and manage a personal playlist, subscribe to show seasons and edit and submit show and episode metadata for review by the Clicker editors.

Unrepealable? DeMint has Questions

• Unrepealable?

Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.) has thumbed through Harry Reid’s manager’s amendment and discovered some “particularly troubling” rule-change provisions, especially with regards to the proposed Independent Medicare Advisory Board, which he finds could be unrepealable. (transcript)

RELATED:

• Entrenchment Provisions in the Health Care Bill

Jonathan notes that the health care bill includes certain “entrenchment” provisions, and asks, “can the current Senate bind future Senates in this way?”  If I understand the bill correctly, it creates an independent board that recommends ways to limit Medicare payments.  These recommendations go to the president, who in turn is supposed to submit them to Congress.  Congressional procedures are likewise constrained.  The Senate, for example, cannot debate the proposal for more than 30 hours; there are limits on House procedures as well.  The idea seems to be to constrain filibustering and other parliamentary maneuvers that would defeat cost-saving legislation in the future.  As Jonathan notes, the bill further provides that these constraints cannot be overturned by majority rule but require a 2/3 supermajority.

Can Congress bind itself in this way?  As it happens, I have written a paper on this topic (with Adrian Vermeule).  The short answer is “no,” or at least, no one thinks that Congress can bind itself in this way.  (For some Supreme Court dicta, see U.S. v. Winstar, 518 U.S. 839, 872 (1996)).  A Congress at time 1 can pass all the entrenchment provisions it wants, but Congress at time 2 can repeal them by majority rule, rendering the entrenchment provision nugatory ex ante.

Read more

Lookin’ Bad! Daily Tracking Down Down Down at -21

Rasmussen reported:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows that 25% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-six percent (46%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -21 That’s the lowest Approval Index rating yet recorded for this President (see trends).

Fifty-three percent (53%) of men Strongly Disapprove along with 39% of women. Most African-American voters (58%) Strongly Approve while most white voters (53%) Strongly Disapprove.

Seventy-four percent (74%) of Republicans Strongly Disapprove as do 52% of unaffiliated voters. Forty-seven percent (47%) of Democrats Strongly Approve.

For the second straight day, the update shows the highest level of Strong Disapproval yet recorded for this President. That negative rating had never topped 42% before yesterday. However, it has risen dramatically since the Senate found 60 votes to move forward with the proposed health care reform legislation. Most voters (55%) oppose the health care legislation and senior citizens are even more likely than younger voters to dislike the plan.

I can’t think of anything to say except, “YIKES!”