ConFURvatives!

Question

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 05:32:21 GMT

Why is it that the news often talked of how no WMD's were being found in Iraq, but now that material to make WMD's has been found, that it was found hasn't been all over the news? No wonder that many accuse the media of having a liberal, anti-Bush bias :-P

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gUzCIe4JyTofL4u4RnaUn-75BV2QD91NRH480

More Barack gaffe

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 06:47:04 GMT

Obama repeated his pledge to boost the size of the active military. But he said the nation's future and safety depends on more than just additional service members.
http://wap.chicagotribune.mlogic3g.com/news.jsp?key=166447&rc=na_wo&p=1#top

"It also depends on the teacher in East L.A., or the nurse in Appalachia, the after-school worker in New Orleans, the Peace Corps volunteer in Africa, the Foreign Service officer in Indonesia," he said.

Obama had outlined many of the proposals offered Wednesday during appearances in Iowa last December.

Goals set for students"We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set," he said Wednesday. "We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."

He said he would make federal assistance conditional on school districts establishing service programs and set the goal of 50 hours of service a year for middle school and high school students.

For college students, Obama would set the goal at 100 hours of service a year and create a $4,000 annual tax credit for college students tied to that level of service.

In Chicago, meanwhile, billionaire investor Warren Buffett headlined two fundraisers to benefit Obama and the Democratic National Committee.

I'm not sure how the tribune compares to Infowars, but it was easier to grab a piece to quote. I got the Infowars links from a forum:
http://www.infowars.com/?p=3419
http://www.infowars.com/?p=3417

The tribune article was on Larry's blog a couple of weeks ago, I'm surprised at how little traction it's got.
http://larrycorreia.wordpress.com/2008/07/07/baracks-brown-shirts/

I'll definitely post this around.

An interesting poll

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:15:26 GMT

If you had to vote today, who would you vote for:

A. Obama
B. McCain
C. Bush

The results from GlennBeck.com are quite interesting. And honestly, I have to agree with the results. Let's be honest, does anyone really really feel gung-ho about Obama or McCain, and if you do... do you really know what they stand for? The choice between a disappointing known figure and two mostly unknown (but scary with what you do know about them) figures says a lot about this election.

Tony Snow dies at age 53

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 15:36:02 GMT

This morning at 2 am, one of the best of conservative commentators lost his battle with cancer. There are... just no words to describe how sad I feel for the loss of such a bright and wonderful person. He was always a joy to listen to, he always brought intelligence and a straightforward common sense to the discussion.

Tony, we will all miss you.

Another reason I hate political correctness

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 05:06:20 GMT

"Commissioner who claimed "black hole" was a racist term, now says "angel food cake" and "devil's food cake" are also racist terms. On next week's show: Names of gardening tools that are racist"
Fark.com

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=6953163&version=4&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=3.2.1

This is as stupid as when the mayor of Boston got fussed at for referring to the Big Dig as a "tar baby" even though his context and intended meaning was a clearly non-racist figure of speech

How much you wanna bet that if he and Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield were black they wouldn't have got the response they got to what they said?

Like blaireau_bougon said, "You don't see conservatives going nuts whenever they announce in the weather report of "white-out" conditions."

Likewise, you also don't see blacks and liberals going nuts every time some black rapper or other black person says nigger or ho'.

What's next? Is it gonna be racist for someone to order their coffie black? Or to refer to nazis and klansmen as niggers or faggots? (we all know that both groups are extremely and unrepentingly racist and homophobic)

Introductory Speculation

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 06:42:26 GMT

Cutting through the smoke and mirrors.

Speculation 101:

A noted economist outlines it.

Speculation 102:

Poking holes in congressional testimony.

"Don't you know you're gonna Shock the Monkey..."

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 21:27:44 GMT

I've seen this report about the DHS supposedly considering issuing ID-tracking-and-tazering bracelets to airline passengers popping up on several sites recently, not to mention in some of the LJs I follow... and they all seem to ultimately track back to a blog post by someone named Jeffrey Denning at the Washington Times. In the comments section below this item, someone signing in as "S&Tspokesman" posted the following:

Shocking, but False Sometimes it just amazes me how these stories evolve. Let me start off by saying that the Department of Homeland Security’s Science & Technology Directorate nor TSA have been pursuing shock bracelets for airline passengers as alleged by the Washington Times Blog. This allegation stemmed from a misleading video posted on the Lamberd Website which depicts an ID bracelet that would contain identifying information as well as the ability to stun the wearer. The company claims to connect use of such a device to DHS and TSA, but no discussions between these agencies has ever taken place. This all originated from a meeting held two years ago with a private company representative (not Lamberd) who proposed bracelet technology in response to the TSA's desire to find less-than-lethal means to detain an apprehended suspect. The bracelet was never intended to replace boarding passes, contain ID information or be worn by all passengers as asserted in the Lamberd video and discussed in the Washington Times Blog. The hypothetical use of the bracelet would have been for transporting already apprehended prisoners and detainees at prisons and border patrol facilities, and DHS was looking to see if there were potential air travel applications for apprehended suspects. This concept was never funded or supported by the DHS or TSA and hasn’t even been discussed for two years. The letter circulating throughout the blogosphere from Paul Ruwaldt was not addressed to Lamberd and merely states the DHS was interested in learning more about the technology. Neither side followed up. DHS/TSA does NOT support the asserted use and has not pursued the development of such technology.

Now, granted, this doesn't make for an ironclad 100% unimpeachable denial, since anyone can create an account on the Washington Times site, claim to be anyone they want, and post anything they like... but then again, it looks like just about anyone can also create an account at the Washington Times site and post articles into various sections via their "You Report" feature, so this Jeffrey Denning person isn't exactly an ironclad 100% unimpeachable source, either.

To date, this story has not appeared on any major news service, nor has there been any independent confirmation of it from any source that doesn't track directly back to the Washington Times blog posting. (The closest it's gotten to a "mainstream" news service is a post on Information Week, which is an IT-centric trade publication. Note, however, that even that report tracks directly back to the Washington Times posting, and the above denial from "DHS-S&Tspokesman" appeared there as well.)

It has also been pointed out that the alleged letter from DHS to the vendor is undated, unsigned, and addressed to "Mr." -- no name, just "Dear Mr." -- and that the version of this letter which appears on the Washington Post site has a second page which is not included in the version on Lamperd's site; this second page is in a different font size from the first page, has different margin settings, and...

...well, in general, the whole thing reeks of being another case of reporting based on "fake but accurate" evidence. Anyone armed with a copy of Microsoft Word, CutePDF writer, and the skill to copy and paste the DHS seal from their website could have created the letter out of whole cloth.

Yes, I know, some of y'all are convinced that Chimpy McBushHitler the Submoronic Super-Duper-Conspiracy-Genius Antichrist is capable of anything and that, like Professor Ratigan in The Great Mouse Detective, "there's no evil scheme he wouldn't concoct, no depravity he wouldn't commit"... but personally, I think I'll wait to see confirmation of this from a more concrete source than a bunch of blogosphere hystrionics based on a single source of decidedly dubious credentials before I start looking for my torch and pitchfork. :D

1.2 Million Pounds Of Non-Existing Stuff

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 06:14:33 GMT

Spin those lies, Wilson!

US removes uranium from Iraq

By BRIAN MURPHY

The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program - a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium - reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.

The removal of 550 metric tons of "yellowcake" - the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment - was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam's nuclear legacy. It also brought relief to U.S. and Iraqi authorities who had worried the cache would reach insurgents or smugglers crossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions.

What's now left is the final and complicated push to clean up the remaining radioactive debris at the former Tuwaitha nuclear complex about 12 miles south of Baghdad - using teams that include Iraqi experts recently trained in the Chernobyl fallout zone in Ukraine.

"Everyone is very happy to have this safely out of Iraq," said a senior U.S. official who outlined the nearly three-month operation to The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

While yellowcake alone is not considered potent enough for a so-called "dirty bomb" - a conventional explosive that disperses radioactive material - it could stir widespread panic if incorporated in a blast. Yellowcake also can be enriched for use in reactors and, at higher levels, nuclear weapons using sophisticated equipment.

The Iraqi government sold the yellowcake to a Canadian uranium producer, Cameco Corp. (CCJ), in a transaction the official described as worth "tens of millions of dollars." A Cameco spokesman, Lyle Krahn, declined to discuss the price, but said the yellowcake will be processed at facilities in Ontario for use in energy-producing reactors.

"We are pleased ... that we have taken (the yellowcake) from a volatile region into a stable area to produce clean electricity," he said.

The deal culminated more than a year of intense diplomatic and military initiatives - kept hushed in fear of ambushes or attacks once the convoys were under way: first carrying 3,500 barrels by road to Baghdad, then on 37 military flights to the Indian Ocean atoll of Diego Garcia and finally aboard a U.S.-flagged ship for a 8,500-mile trip to Montreal.

And, in a symbolic way, the mission linked the current attempts to stabilize Iraq with some of the high-profile claims about Saddam's weapons capabilities in the buildup to the 2003 invasion.

Accusations that Saddam had tried to purchase more yellowcake from the African nation of Niger - and an article by a former U.S. ambassador refuting the claims - led to a wide-ranging probe into Washington leaks that reached high into the Bush administration.

Tuwaitha and an adjacent research facility were well known for decades as the centerpiece of Saddam's nuclear efforts.

Israeli warplanes bombed a reactor project at the site in 1981. Later, U.N. inspectors documented and safeguarded the yellowcake, which had been stored in aging drums and containers since before the 1991 Gulf War. There was no evidence of any yellowcake dating from after 1991, the official said.

U.S. and Iraqi forces have guarded the 23,000-acre site - surrounded by huge sand berms - following a wave of looting after Saddam's fall that included villagers toting away yellowcake storage barrels for use as drinking water cisterns.

Yellowcake is obtained by using various solutions to leach out uranium from raw ore and can have a corn meal-like color and consistency. It poses no severe risk if stored and sealed properly. But exposure carries well-documented health concerns associated with heavy metals such as damage to internal organs, experts say.

"The big problem comes with any inhalation of any of the yellowcake dust," said Doug Brugge, a professor of public health issues at the Tufts University School of Medicine.

Moving the yellowcake faced numerous hurdles.

Diplomats and military leaders first weighed the idea of shipping the yellowcake overland to Kuwait's port on the Persian Gulf. Such a route, however, would pass through Iraq's Shiite heartland and within easy range of extremist factions, including some that Washington claims are aided by Iran. The ship also would need to clear the narrow Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf, where U.S. and Iranian ships often come in close contact.

Kuwaiti authorities, too, were reluctant to open their borders to the shipment despite top-level lobbying from Washington.

An alternative plan took shape: shipping out the yellowcake on cargo planes.

But the yellowcake still needed a final destination. Iraqi government officials sought buyers on the commercial market, where uranium prices spiked at about $120 per pound last year. It's currently selling for about half that. The Cameco deal was reached earlier this year, the official said.

At that point, U.S.-led crews began removing the yellowcake from the Saddam-era containers - some leaking or weakened by corrosion - and reloading the material into about 3,500 secure barrels.

In April, truck convoys started moving the yellowcake from Tuwaitha to Baghdad's international airport, the official said. Then, for two weeks in May, it was ferried in 37 flights to Diego Garcia, a speck of British territory in the Indian Ocean where the U.S. military maintains a base.

On June 3, an American ship left the island for Montreal, said the official, who declined to give further details about the operation.

The yellowcake wasn't the only dangerous item removed from Tuwaitha.

Earlier this year, the military withdrew four devices for controlled radiation exposure from the former nuclear complex. The lead-enclosed irradiation units, used to decontaminate food and other items, contain elements of high radioactivity that could potentially be used in a weapon, according to the official. Their Ottawa-based manufacturer, MDS Nordion, took them back for free, the official said.

The yellowcake was the last major stockpile from Saddam's nuclear efforts, but years of final cleanup is ahead for Tuwaitha and other smaller sites.

The U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency plans to offer technical expertise.

Last month, a team of Iraqi nuclear experts completed training in the Ukrainian ghost town of Pripyat, which once housed the Chernobyl workers before the deadly meltdown in 1986, said an IAEA official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decontamination plan has not yet been publicly announced.

But the job ahead is enormous, complicated by digging out radioactive "hot zones" entombed in concrete during Saddam's rule, said the IAEA official. Last year, an IAEA safety expert, Dennis Reisenweaver, predicted the cleanup could take "many years."

The yellowcake issue also is one of the many troubling footnotes of the war for Washington.

A CIA officer, Valerie Plame, claimed her identity was leaked to journalists to retaliate against her husband, former Ambassador Joe Wilson, who wrote that he had found no evidence to support assertions that Iraq tried to buy additional yellowcake from Niger.

A federal investigation led to the conviction of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080706/D91O8E100.html

WHAT WMDS???

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 04:49:47 GMT

Yes, let's talk about the distressing lack of WMDs found in Iraq. Such as the stockpile of FARMING CHEMICALS that the press glossed over due to their innocuous normal uses. Or about the MiGS that were found partially dis-assembled and buried in the sand. Or the warheads that were found to have traces of chemical weapons left in them. Or the weapons moved into Syria. Or (continues muttering to self)

Apparently, the media, which is known for having a liberal, anti-war/Bush slant, ain't tellin' us the whole story, just like they did back during Vietnam when they would say that we bombed civillians and leave out that said civillians were among enemy soldiers

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107ap_iraq_yellowcake_mission.html

AP Exclusive: US removes uranium from Iraq

By BRIAN MURPHY
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program - a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium - reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.

The removal of 550 metric tons of "yellowcake" - the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment - was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam's nuclear legacy. It also brought relief to U.S. and Iraqi authorities who had worried the cache would reach insurgents or smugglers crossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions.

What's now left is the final and complicated push to clean up the remaining radioactive debris at the former Tuwaitha nuclear complex about 12 miles south of Baghdad - using teams that include Iraqi experts recently trained in the Chernobyl fallout zone in Ukraine.

"Everyone is very happy to have this safely out of Iraq," said a senior U.S. official who outlined the nearly three-month operation to The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

While yellowcake alone is not considered potent enough for a so-called "dirty bomb" - a conventional explosive that disperses radioactive material - it could stir widespread panic if incorporated in a blast. Yellowcake also can be enriched for use in reactors and, at higher levels, nuclear weapons using sophisticated equipment.

The Iraqi government sold the yellowcake to a Canadian uranium producer, Cameco Corp., in a transaction the official described as worth "tens of millions of dollars." A Cameco spokesman, Lyle Krahn, declined to discuss the price, but said the yellowcake will be processed at facilities in Ontario for use in energy-producing reactors.

"We are pleased ... that we have taken (the yellowcake) from a volatile region into a stable area to produce clean electricity," he said.

The deal culminated more than a year of intense diplomatic and military initiatives - kept hushed in fear of ambushes or attacks once the convoys were under way: first carrying 3,500 barrels by road to Baghdad, then on 37 military flights to the Indian Ocean atoll of Diego Garcia and finally aboard a U.S.-flagged ship for a 8,500-mile trip to Montreal.

And, in a symbolic way, the mission linked the current attempts to stabilize Iraq with some of the high-profile claims about Saddam's weapons capabilities in the buildup to the 2003 invasion.

Accusations that Saddam had tried to purchase more yellowcake from the African nation of Niger - and an article by a former U.S. ambassador refuting the claims - led to a wide-ranging probe into Washington leaks that reached high into the Bush administration.

Tuwaitha and an adjacent research facility were well known for decades as the centerpiece of Saddam's nuclear efforts.

Israeli warplanes bombed a reactor project at the site in 1981. Later, U.N. inspectors documented and safeguarded the yellowcake, which had been stored in aging drums and containers since before the 1991 Gulf War. There was no evidence of any yellowcake dating from after 1991, the official said.

U.S. and Iraqi forces have guarded the 23,000-acre site - surrounded by huge sand berms - following a wave of looting after Saddam's fall that included villagers toting away yellowcake storage barrels for use as drinking water cisterns.

Yellowcake is obtained by using various solutions to leach out uranium from raw ore and can have a corn meal-like color and consistency. It poses no severe risk if stored and sealed properly. But exposure carries well-documented health concerns associated with heavy metals such as damage to internal organs, experts say.

"The big problem comes with any inhalation of any of the yellowcake dust," said Doug Brugge, a professor of public health issues at the Tufts University School of Medicine.

Moving the yellowcake faced numerous hurdles.

Diplomats and military leaders first weighed the idea of shipping the yellowcake overland to Kuwait's port on the Persian Gulf. Such a route, however, would pass through Iraq's Shiite heartland and within easy range of extremist factions, including some that Washington claims are aided by Iran. The ship also would need to clear the narrow Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf, where U.S. and Iranian ships often come in close contact.

Kuwaiti authorities, too, were reluctant to open their borders to the shipment despite top-level lobbying from Washington.

An alternative plan took shape: shipping out the yellowcake on cargo planes.

But the yellowcake still needed a final destination. Iraqi government officials sought buyers on the commercial market, where uranium prices spiked at about $120 per pound last year. It's currently selling for about half that. The Cameco deal was reached earlier this year, the official said.

At that point, U.S.-led crews began removing the yellowcake from the Saddam-era containers - some leaking or weakened by corrosion - and reloading the material into about 3,500 secure barrels.

In April, truck convoys started moving the yellowcake from Tuwaitha to Baghdad's international airport, the official said. Then, for two weeks in May, it was ferried in 37 flights to Diego Garcia, a speck of British territory in the Indian Ocean where the U.S. military maintains a base.

On June 3, an American ship left the island for Montreal, said the official, who declined to give further details about the operation.

The yellowcake wasn't the only dangerous item removed from Tuwaitha.

Earlier this year, the military withdrew four devices for controlled radiation exposure from the former nuclear complex. The lead-enclosed irradiation units, used to decontaminate food and other items, contain elements of high radioactivity that could potentially be used in a weapon, according to the official. Their Ottawa-based manufacturer, MDS Nordion, took them back for free, the official said.

The yellowcake was the last major stockpile from Saddam's nuclear efforts, but years of final cleanup is ahead for Tuwaitha and other smaller sites.

The U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency plans to offer technical expertise.

Last month, a team of Iraqi nuclear experts completed training in the Ukrainian ghost town of Pripyat, which once housed the Chernobyl workers before the deadly meltdown in 1986, said an IAEA official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decontamination plan has not yet been publicly announced.

But the job ahead is enormous, complicated by digging out radioactive "hot zones" entombed in concrete during Saddam's rule, said the IAEA official. Last year, an IAEA safety expert, Dennis Reisenweaver, predicted the cleanup could take "many years."

The yellowcake issue also is one of the many troubling footnotes of the war for Washington.

A CIA officer, Valerie Plame, claimed her identity was leaked to journalists to retaliate against her husband, former Ambassador Joe Wilson, who wrote that he had found no evidence to support assertions that Iraq tried to buy additional yellowcake from Niger.

A federal investigation led to the conviction of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.

Happy 4th of July and God Bless the USA.

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:57:30 GMT

"I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival," he supposedly said. "It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.

"It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward for evermore,"
attributed to John Addams after the adoption of the Decoration of Independence in July 1776.

Sadly today one will get sued for separation of Church and state and in many districts fined for setting off "illegal" fireworks and discharging a gun.

The 2nd Amendment

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 10:41:26 GMT

Some funny political cartoons on a recent Supreme Court ruling

King Kennedy

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:01:49 GMT

The one man who thinks he is god

The High Court's Supreme Clown

By Rich Lowry

New York Post

WHY did the Founders bother toiling in the summer heat of Philadelphia in 1787 writing a Constitution when they could have relied on the consciences of Supreme Court justices like Anthony Kennedy instead?

Kennedy is the court's most important swing vote and its worst justice. Whatever else you think of them, a Justice Antonin Scalia or Ruth Bader Ginsburg has a consistent judicial philosophy - while Kennedy expects the nation to bend to his moral whimsy. With apologies to Louis XIV, Kennedy might as well declare la constitution, c'est moi!

In a 2005 interview, Kennedy said of the court, "You know, in any given year, we may make more important decisions than the legislative branch does - precluding foreign affairs, perhaps." (He was wise to include the "perhaps," in light of the recent Guantanamo Bay decision.) He went on to note how judges need "an understanding that you have an opportunity to shape the destiny of the country."

So much for the country's destiny being shaped by a free people acting through their representative institutions, within certain constraints it enshrines in the Constitution. That wouldn't allow nearly enough room for what Jeffrey Rosen, in a devastating profile of the justice in The New Republic, calls Kennedy's "self-dramatizing moralism."

On any politically charged case, we are supposed to wait with bated breath while the famously agonizing Kennedy decides which side he is going to bless with his coveted fifth vote. In so doing, Kennedy believes he is, in Rosen's description, creating "a national consensus about American values that will usher in what he calls 'the golden age of peace.' "

Observers less besotted with Kennedy than Kennedy might put it differently: making it up as he goes along.

Two years ago, Kennedy joined the majority in the Hamdan v. Rumsfeld case that urged the president to obtain congressional approval for the system of military tribunals at Gitmo. President Bush did - but Kennedy wrote the 5-4 majority decision in this year's Boumediene v. Bush striking down the system anyway.

Kennedy quoted the World War II-era Eisentrager decision (upholding the military trial of German detainees) to show that there were greater practical difficulties back then with judicial interference in military detentions. Yet he left unremarked that the Eisentrager decision unmistakably says - a mere paragraph after his citation - that the Constitution does not apply extraterritorially: "No decision of this court supports such a view. None of the learned commentators on our Constitution has ever hinted at it."

Indeed, Kennedy blew through some 200 years of precedent with nary a backward glance. Just another day at the Kennedy Court.

It should be no surprise how Kennedy construes the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of "cruel and unusual punishments": It is warrant for the court to exercise its "independent judgment" of "the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society," as Kennedy put it in this term's 5-4 Kennedy v. Louisiana decision forbidding capital punishment in cases of child rape.

The signature of a Kennedy opinion is vaporous moralizing, whatever side he comes down on. In the 1992 Casey decision upholding Roe v. Wade, he waxed poetic about "the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of life."

In a 2007 decision upholding the partial-birth abortion ban, he waxed again, this time about "respect for human life find[ing] an ultimate expression in the bond of love the mother has for her child."

Evidently, Kennedy goes about his job unburdened by the fact that his views on existence or on the mother-child bond have nothing whatsoever to do with the Constitution. But so it goes, as long as the Supreme Court is divided between four liberals, four conservatives and one self-important man who can't differentiate between his inner compass and the nation's fundamental law.

Kennedy fashions himself an instructor to the nation. And he is - in the arbitrary ways of judicial lawlessness.

Heartwarming Iraq picture moment

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:27:18 GMT

Betcha won't see this on CNN or CNBC

http://www.thehotjoints.com/2008/07/01/heartwarming-iraq-picture-moment

Prickly City

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 06:10:12 GMT

I like how these two recent Prickly City (new window) comix spoofs how the media puts a negative and or half truth spin on politicians they don't like (Bush, Bob Dole and Newt Gingrich, for example, no politicians or political party is named in this series)

President George W. Bush sewage plant

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 04:11:25 GMT

I'm not sure if I should laugh or be pissed off!

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/25/america/bush.php

SAN FRANCISCO: Reagan has his highways. Lincoln has his memorial. Washington has the capital, and a state, too. But President George W. Bush may soon be the sole president to have a memorial named after him that you can contribute to from the bathroom.

From the Department of Damned-With-Faint-Praise, a group going by the regal-sounding name of the Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco is planning to ask voters here to change the name of a prize-winning water-treatment plant on the shoreline to the George W. Bush Sewage Plant.

The plan - hatched, naturally, in a bar - would place a vote on the November ballot to provide "an appropriate honor for a truly unique president."

Supporters say that they have plenty of signatures to qualify the initiative and that the renaming would fit in a long and proud American tradition of poking political figures in the eye.

"Most politicians tend to be narcissistic and egomaniacs," said Brian McConnell, an organizer who regularly suits up as Uncle Sam to solicit signatures. "So it is important for satirists to help define their history rather than letting them define their own history."

Not surprisingly, those Republicans in a city that voted 83 percent Democratic in 2004 are not thrilled with the idea. Howard Epstein, chairman of the ever-outnumbered San Francisco Republican Party, called the initiative "an abuse of process."

"You got a bunch of guys drunk who came up with an idea," Epstein said, "and want to put on the ballot as a big joke without regard to the city's governance or cost."

The renaming would take effect on Jan. 20, when a new president is sworn in. And regardless of the measure's outcome, supporters plan to commemorate the inaugural with a "synchronized flush" of hundreds of thousands of toilets that would send a flood of water toward the plant, now named the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant.

"It's a way of doing something physical that's mentally freeing," said Stacey Reineccius, 45, a supporter of the plan. "It's a weird thing, but it's true."

You get what you pay for

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 06:27:36 GMT

If The USA Goes National Health Where Will People Turn?

Obama's health care plan could kill you

by Roger Hedgecock

Barack Obama promises that when he's president, health care will be available and affordable for all.

Similar promises made years ago in Britain and Canada led to mandated government health care programs that are killing people in those countries today.

The British ministry of health, for example, in a heralded "reform" move, has decreed that British patients should get emergency room care within four hours. Without disclosing how many emergency patients die within the four-hour waiting period, the ministry has admitted that, at some hospitals, seriously ill patients are kept in ambulances for hours waiting for ER admittance so the hospital does not violate the "reform."

The London Telegraph reports that the government plans to save billions of pounds from the National Health Service budget by making "doctors" out of patients. Instead of consulting a doctor or going to a hospital, patients will be encouraged to carry out "self-care" to curb spending. This proposal actually makes some sense. When health care is "free," frivolous visits to the doctor and/or hospital carry no consequence to the patient. But the Telegraph reports that the NHS is looking to cut down on more than just frivolous visits. It's looking for patients with "arthritis, asthma and even heart failure" to treat themselves.

Debbie Hirst's breast cancer had metastasized, but the NHS would not provide her with Avastin, a drug widely used in the U.S. to control such cancers. According to a report in the New York Times, Debbie opted to pay for the drug herself while getting the rest of her publicly funded treatment. NHS bureaucrats found out about Debbie's plan and informed her doctor that Debbie would have to accept the "free" care as is or, if she wanted the Avastin, she would have to pay for it and all the rest of her treatment too.

NHS officials told the British press that to allow Debbie to pay for extra drugs to supplement government care would violate the philosophy of the NHS by giving richer patients an unfair advantage over poorer ones. British Health Secretary Alan Johnson told Parliament patients "cannot, in one episode of treatment, be treated on the NHS and then allowed, as part of the same episode and the same treatment, to pay money for more drugs. That way lies the end of the founding principles of the National Health Service."

In the land of Harry Potter, there is no magic wand that will make up for the failure of central planning of health care. The universal outcome of mandated universal health care is government rationing of health care, and, worse yet, "fairness" that could kill you.

Canadians used to tout their "single payer" government health care as the best in the world. It still is, to those Canadians who have never been seriously sick.

The Canadian Health Care System nearly killed Sylvia De Vries. The Ontario woman was afflicted with a 13 inch, 40 pound fluid-filled tumor. She was told to wait in line for treatment. Worried, she crossed into the U.S. In a Pontiac, Mich., hospital, a surgeon removed the tumor telling De Vries she could not have lived with it longer than a few weeks.

In the last two years, the government of Ontario has sent at least 164 patients to New York and Michigan for neurosurgery emergencies – defined by the Globe and Mail newspaper as "broken necks, burst aneurysms, and other types of bleeding in and around the brain."

The province of British Columbia recently experience a baby boom overwhelming its birth quota. In 2007, at least 40 mothers were airlifted from British Columbia to the U.S., particularly those with preemies needing intensive neonatal care.

The Cato Institute reports that one in seven Canadian doctors refers a patient every year to the U.S. for treatment. The Canadian government mandated and funded health care system is successful, if at all, because it uses the private health care system of the U.S. as a safety net.

Claude Castonguay chaired the 1960s government committee which fathered the Canadian single-payer government-mandated health care system. He now proposes a radical reform.

Castonguay was recently quoted as saying, "We thought we could resolve the system's problems by rationing services or injecting massive amounts of new money into it. We are proposing now to give a greater role to the private sector so that people can exercise freedom of choice." Wow – Claude, please phone Barack.

While Obama does not advocate a complete government-mandated health care program this year as he notoriously flip-flops to the center to win the election, his personal commitment is clear. "I happen to be a proponent of a single payer health care program," Obama said back in the '90s. Last year, Obama told the New Yorker, "If you're starting from scratch, then a single payer system probably makes sense"

That's right – Obama really wants the single-payer government system that is failing in Canada and Britain, the system that is killing patients in Britain in the name of "fairness" and driving seriously ill patients out of Canada to save their lives.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=68363

What you are told and what you are NOT told

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 09:26:46 GMT

If you haven't heard about the arctic ice melting you may not have had the news on. It's everywhere. Augh! We're roasting! We must stop civilization NOW!

But you did not hear the related tidbit, did you?

It seems that the crust of the Earth is cracking at both poles. Not surprising when you think about it. We already know the plates are crunching on each other from Alaska down to Mexico and all along the Pacific. Stands to reason they would crack where they meet at the top and bottom.

So lava boils up through vents. Well-known for years. Common in the Atlantic trenches, where the continents are parting. And known for years that there is an active volcano under Antarctica - one reason for the "ozone hole" (found by Byrd we now hear) as it quietly vents chlorines. Also explains the "new" Northern "hole."

What happens when you put a pot of ice - or a double boiler - on a stove? If you can guess that you have part of the story behind what the media is pushing AND know why it is partly BS.

I can't beleive this

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 04:20:15 GMT

There actually are people who're pissed that "Angry politicians vowed to keep writing laws that condemn child rapists to death, despite a Supreme Court decision saying such punishment is unconstitutional"

They say things like "I'm getting seriously tired of these people in government who think they can run roughshod over the Constitution just because something offends their sense of morality"

To the person I just quoted, this is not in any way aimed at you

Anyway, this isn't some little thing like the right to smoke or drink or have sex outside of marriage or with someone of the same gender if one wants to, things for which the "their sense of mrality" argument would be valid, this is about rapists, particularly ones who rape little kids!

Personally, I'm tired of criminals using the Constitution as an excuse to avoid the consequences of their actions. The writers of the same Constitution that is now said to make executing child molesters illegal themselves beleived that it was OK to execute people who've raped other adults

Victory for the 2nd Amendment

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 01:28:05 GMT

Video story
http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-scotus27-ap,0,1369101.worldnowvideo

Text story
http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-scotus27-2008jun27,0,3423814.story

Weird Al - Trigger Happy video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-j3rnfWt50

WASHINGTON -- Americans have a right to keep a gun at home for self-defense, the Supreme Court ruled today in striking down part of a handgun ban in the District of Columbia.

By a 5-4 vote, the court concluded that the 2nd Amendment and its famous right "to keep and bear arms" protects the gun rights of individuals, rather than just a state's right to maintain a militia.

Justice Antonin Scalia, speaking for the court, said the history of the 2nd Amendment shows its authors intended to protect the "right of the people" as individuals to have weapons, both to defend themselves and their community.

The ruling is the first in the high court's long history to strike down a gun law based on the 2nd Amendment.

But the court's ruling appeared to be narrow. Scalia stressed that nothing in today's decision casts doubts on laws that forbid felons or the mentally ill from having guns.

He also said the government can strictly regulate when and where people have guns. For example, he said guns may be prohibited near schools and in or near government buildings.

"Like most rights, the right secured by the 2nd Amendment is not unlimited," Scalia said.

But the four dissenters faulted the majority for opening the door to legal challenges to various gun-control measures. Justice John Paul Stevens, speaking for the dissenters, said the 2nd Amendment "was adopted to protect the right of the people of each of the several states to maintain a well-regulated militia."

"The court is making new law today" to extend this right to individuals acting on their own, Stevens said.

The White House issued a statement calling the case historic. "The president strongly agrees with the Supreme Court's historic decision today that the 2nd Amendment protects the individual right of Americans to keep and bear arms," it said. "This has been the administration's long-held view. The president is also pleased that the court concluded that the D.C. firearm laws violate that right.

From the campaign trail, Republican John McCain hailed the decision as "a landmark victory for 2nd Amendment freedom" and chided Democrat Barack Obama for not joining him in a friend-of-the-court brief. For his part, Obama issued a statement saying that the court had in effect endorsed his view that while "the 2nd Amendment protects the right of individuals to bear arms" it does not preclude "the need for crime-ravaged communities to save their children from the violence that plagues our streets through common-sense, effective safety measures."

The exact language of the 2nd Amendment is: "A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

As a practical matter, today's decision is likely to have a limited effect, at least initially.

The District of Columbia has the nation's strictest gun laws. These include a ban on the private possession of handguns, even at home. Dick Heller, a security guard, challenged this provision as unconstitutional under the 2nd Amendment.

His lawsuit was sponsored by Robert Levy of the libertarian Cato Institute, and the goal was to obtain a Supreme Court ruling that endorsed the individual rights view of the 2nd Amendment.

California and most other states have laws that regulate guns, and in some instances, require the registration of certain weapons.

None of these laws looks to be in danger simply from what the high court said today. The dissenters, however, said that today's ruling will promote many lawsuits challenging gun restrictions.

Scalia's opinion in District of Columbia vs. Heller was joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr.

Joining Stevens in dissent were Justices David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer.

The justices handed down the final decisions of the term today, and the court formally announced it will be in recess until the first Monday in October.

david.savage@latimes.com

We say so

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:03:15 GMT

Nicely states the whole system of judges deciding how this country goes rather than the will of the people :P

Seattle Mayor Brazenly Attacks Our Right-to-Carry

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:34:50 GMT

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, a member of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's anti-gun gang, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, is taking a misguided approach to curbing crime in his city.

In a knee-jerk reaction to a recent shooting, Mayor Nickels signed an executive order on Monday, June 9 prohibiting firearms at Seattle Center, parks, community centers, and city-owned buildings. This ban, which includes Right-to-Carry permit holders, does not require review by the City Council and directs that a plan be drawn-up in 30 days to establish the prohibition.

Mayor Nickels' ban is a clear violation of Washington State's preemption statutes that dictate that only the State Legislature can enact laws pertaining to firearms. Because of preemption, the city has no arrest power or authority to fine people under Mayor Nickel's outlandish order. The city can, however, charge any violators with trespassing.

It is important that NRA members, Right-to-Carry permit holders, firearm owners, and anyone interested in the rule of law to respectfully make their voice heard against this Draconian attack on our Second Amendment freedoms. Please contact Mayor Nickels, write a letter to your local newspaper(s), call in to radio talk shows, and urge your legislators to speak out against this unwarranted attack on law-abiding gun owners.

The Mayor can be reached by phone at (206) 684-4000 or via email by clicking here. His mailing address is, P.O. Box 94749, Seattle, WA 98124-4749. For information on how to contact your legislators, please click here.

I think that someone ought to close the bar at the Capital Building.

- Decker

Note: All comments are being screened.

Obama plans to disarm America

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 09:30:25 GMT

Here Obama reveals his true intentions to make the US a third rate nation - vulnerable to attack by every rogue nation on the earth.

This is an uninterrupted 51-second video of Obama speaking; he's telling us exactly what he will do to the military...watch it before this too is removed off the web site

http://www.macsmind.com/wordpress/2008/02/27/obama-plans-to-disarm-america/

Energy Self Sufficiency Hits me in The Pocket Book

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 05:38:59 GMT

Apparently nobody conservative or liberal had done any cost benefit analysis before beating the anti Saudi hysterics drum to suggest that bio fuels are the way to energy self sufficiently. I begin to feel the cost is not worth the benefit. Today it has hit home. I went out to do some grocery shop and choke at the oil isle. Vegetable, corn and canola oil are selling at 4.39 up form 2.39. I believe in part due to turning food stock to bio fuels. Perhaps it time we face the music and realize the using food stock for fuel is a colossal world wide failure. Next time somebody need to run the numbers before suggesting a quack cure all for our energy woes.

Ready For YOUR Free Health Care?

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 21:57:23 GMT

I think I have posted before about National Health in Canada and the UK doing this stuff. Well, now we have our own example:

State denies cancer treatment, offers suicide instead

State officials have offered a lung cancer patient the option of having the Oregon Health Plan, set up in 1994 to ration health care, pay for an assisted suicide but not for the chemotherapy prescribed by her physician.

The story appears to be a happy ending for Barbara Wagner, who has been notified by a drug manufacturer that it will provide the expensive medication, estimated to cost $4,000 a month, for the first year and then allow her to apply for further treatment, according to a report in the Eugene Register-Guard.

But the word from the state was coverage for palliative care, which would include the state's assisted suicide program, would be allowed but not coverage for the cancer treatment drugs.

"To say to someone, we'll pay for you to die, but not pay for you to live, it's cruel," Wagner told the newspaper. "I get angry. Who do they think they are?"

She said she was devastated when the state health program refused coverage for Tarceva, the drug her doctor ordered for treatment of her lung cancer.

The refusal came in an unsigned letter from LIPA, the company that runs the state program in that part of Oregon.

"We had no intent to upset her, but we do need to point out the options available to her under the Oregon Health Plan," Dr. John Sattenspiel, senior medical director for LIPA, told the newspaper.

"I understand the way it was interpreted. I'm not sure how we can lift that. The reality is, at some level (doctor-assisted suicide) could be considered as a palliative or comfort care measure."

The 64-year-old Wagner lives in a low-income apartment in Springfield with her dog, the newspaper said.

State officials say the Oregon Health Plan prioritizes treatments, with diagnoses and ailments deemed the most important, such as pregnancy, childbirth and preventive care for children at the top of the list. Other treatments rank below, officials said.

"We can't cover everything for everyone," Dr. Walter Shaffer, a spokesman for the state Division of Medical Assistance Programs, told the paper. "Taxpayer dollars are limited for publicly funded programs. We try to come up with policies that provide the most good for the most people."

He said many cancer treatments are a high priority, but others reflect the "desire on the part of the framers of this list to not cover treatments that are futile."

Wagner, however, is ending up with the treatment needed when her lung cancer, in remission for two years, returned.

She reported a representative for the pharmaceutical company called and notified her the drug would be provided for at least the first year.

"We have been warning for years that this was a possibility in Oregon," said the "Bioethics Pundit" on the Bioethics blog. "Medicaid is rationed, meaning that some treatments are not covered. But assisted suicide is always covered."

"This isn't the first time this has happened either," the blogger wrote. "A few years ago a patient who needed a double organ transplant was denied the treatment but would have been eligible for state-financed assisted suicide. But not to worry. Just keep repeating the mantra: There are no abuses with Oregon's assisted suicide law. There are no abuses. There are no abuses!

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=67565

Call For Drilling Spurs Something Else

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 06:58:24 GMT

Dems want control over U.S. oil flow

Hinchey joins Waters, says 'We should own refineries'

The itch to control the U.S. oil industry is spreading among Democrats in Washington, with Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., joining in the chorus to nationalize the energy company assets.

"We (the government) should own the refineries," Hinchey said today, according to a Fox News alert. "Then we can control how much gets out into the market.

WND earlier reported when U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., during a grilling of oil executives by a panel of U.S. House members, threatened to nationalize the industry if executives were unsuccessful in bringing pump prices for gasoline down.

A report by Fox News, captured in a clip posted on YouTube.com, showed Waters challenging the president of Shell Oil, John Hofmeister, to guarantee the prices consumers pay will go down if the oil companies are allowed to drill wherever they want off of U.S. shores.

(Video showing exchange has been removed fro YouTube.)

Hofmeister replied: "I can guarantee to the American people, because of the inaction of the United States Congress, ever-increasing prices unless the demand comes down."

The Shell exec said paying $5 at the pump "will look like a very low price in the years to come if we are prohibited from finding new reserves, new opportunities to increase supplies."

Waters responded, in part, "And guess what this liberal would be all about. This liberal will be about socializing … uh, um. …"

The congresswoman paused to collect her thoughts.

"Would be about, basically, taking over, and the government running all of your companies. …"

The oil executives responded, according to Fox News, by saying they've seen this before, in Hugo Chavez's Venezuela.

Fox reported today the latest statements from Hinchey came as Democrats responded to President Bush's call for Congress to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling.

Democrats also said the reason the Appropriations Committee markup, where the vote on an amendment to lift a ban on offshore drilling was to be, was cancelled so that representatives could focus on a supplemental Iraq spending bill.

Hinchey, one of the more ardent opponents of off-shore drilling, simply said Congress will do what is "in the best interest of the American people. Not major corporations."

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=67490

Isn't that nice of them?