The Gulf Oil Spill

Here is an interesting article with much to say about it. It is from an AP article on Breitbart.com

Modern meets primeval in Gulf oil spill response

By CALVIN WOODWARD

It's all so last millennium, that filthy business in the depths of the Gulf of Mexico.

It reeks of yesterday's fuel, yesterday's sweaty labor—a hands-on way of life from another time. Today's Americans don't care to know how the gas comes to the pump, the food to the table, the iPad to the store.

Just make sure they do. ....

......The United States is a seafaring nation whose encounters with the sea now tend to be Red Lobster in the suburbs or Memorial Day at the beach.

It's historically a farming, industrial and exploring nation, most of whose people now are distant from the elemental struggles of living and working in the physical environment, much less understanding it.

Only 14 percent of the modern U.S. work force is engaged in production: manufacturing, mining, logging, construction and the like. The rest are in services.

While it is often considered an alien place, too, Washington is a product of that nation.

The president and many lawmakers are lawyers by training, not engineers, roustabouts or farmers. No wonder members of Congress met to discuss legal liability among their first orders of business in the oil spill response. For many in Washington, the talk is of blame, accountability and political consequences.

No wonder, perhaps, that President Barack Obama assumed that something so terrible would not happen because it had not happened before.

Like most Americans, he lacks the sixth sense of a mariner in foul weather or a miner listening to the earth speak.

He does, though, hail from Hawaii, where, as he noted last week, the ocean is sacred. Not to mention, all around.

A lot more in the article, read it here.

Mexican Pirates finally make the national news!

The Washington Post online this morning:

Mexican pirates attack Texas fishermen on Falcon Lake, which straddles border
By William Booth

ZAPATA, TEX. -- Falcon Lake is famous for its monster bass and for the maniacal obsession of the fishermen who come from all over Texas -- and the world -- to stalk them. Now this remote reservoir that straddles the international boundary is known for something else: pirates.

In the past month, crews of outlaws in a small armada of banged-up skiffs and high-powered bass boats launched from the Mexican shore have ambushed bass anglers from the Texas side innocently casting their plastic worms over favorite spots. The buccaneers have struck in Mexican waters but within sight of the Texas shore. ...

...The pirates claim to be "federales," or police, but instead are brigands -- with the letter "Z" tattooed on their necks and arms -- from the notorious drug cartel Los Zetas. The Zetas are on a rampage of killing and extortion along the Mexican border as they fight gun and grenade battles against the military and the rival Gulf Cartel.

"Within the last month, with all the feuding going on over there, the dope smuggling has dropped off and it is starving them. This water is Zeta central. They controlled the whole lake. They distributed everything. Now they're desperate and diversifying," said Jose E. Gonzalez, the second in command of the Border Patrol's Zapata station, which operates an around-the-clock maritime patrol.

 Be sure you read it all here.

Memorial Day

A day of remembrance, respect, honor and for some beaches, swimming, parks, grilling, hot dogs, hamburgers, cokes, beer, family time.

We observe all of the above in my family and extended family. When I was a girl we called it Decoration Day and the family cemetery plots were cleaned up and decorated, flags for the veterans, flowers for the others.

I always knew we had a patriotic family.  My two uncles, my father's brothers, enlisted after Pearl Harbor, a second cousin who was that age, did too.We honored these men.

When I started doing genealogy I found a great many veterans in my history.  I was thrilled some years ago to visit the old family cemeteries on my mother's side and find flags had been placed on every veterans grave, even back to the Revolutionary War. This was in Indiana and Ohio.

This is a weekend to honor those who have gone before as well as those who are still with us. Both of my brothers served in the United States Navy, my son-in-law served in Viewnam.  My grandson is in the United States Air Force, . What a proud day it was when he graduated his basic training. My grandnephew, a graduate of the Naval Academy, is expected back from Afghanistan on June 2nd, eagerly anticipated by all his extended family.

Thanks to all of those I have mentioned and to those I haven't who have worn the colors of our nations military. We would not be the nation we are without those who have gone before, are serving now and those who will serve in the future.  You all have my honor and respect.

We are All Cynics Now

And Thank God for that.  If you are not cynical you have just not been facing facts.
Even Chris Mathews is calling the oil spill response a Jimmy Carter/embassy type moment.  James Carville is spitting mad and saying so.  Here are some other links you might be interested in reading:
President Barack Obama in Grand Isle after touring beach in Port Fourchon
apparently he finally realized this was a big deal and he better show up down there and look sympathetic.

From Investor's Business Daily: Slick, Real Slick

Accountability: Democrats have finally gotten around to blaming the Bush administration for the Gulf oil disaster. We wonder when this administration will take responsibility for anything.

ABC News: President Obama's Jimmy Carter Moment?

From Mediaite.com:
Chris Matthews Blasts Obama: “The Gulf Of Mexico Is More Important Than A Presidency”

Then of course The Sestak Moment:
From the Washington Examiner: GOP: White House Sestak story not believable
this by Byron York who is an Obama non-believeri n the first place.

From NBC and MSNBC :And here's Sestak's response
Read the comments at this one, the real true believers are ready to tar and feather Chuck Todd for not following the party line as he usually does.

Both the Oil spill and the Sestak story are not going away.  Some people may think it is business as usual but others are coming and and saying there is not only the Sestak story but also the story out of Colorado on the senate race told here by A J Strata in Stratasphere: Sestak Not The Only Incident Of WH Felonious Job Offers.

Sadly for Team Obama they have been so clumsy and crude in their Chicago Way that they have established clear evidence of the felonious act of trading jobs for political return in more than one instance. Take the Colorado Senate race for example, and this time pay was included:

Jim Messina, President Barack Obama’s deputy chief of staff and a storied fixer in the White House political shop, suggested a place for Romanoff might be found in the administration and offered specific suggestions, according to several sources who described the communication to The Denver Post.

Romanoff turned down the overture, which included mention of a job at USAID, the foreign aid agency, sources said.

If I were Joe Sestak I would be very careful today in responding to the WH lame excuse. It Romanoff was offered a paying job at USAID, then there is a very good chance Sestak was also provided an option that paid, as well as provided him other personal value.

Keep you eyes on these stories, don't let them go away.  And continue to not trust and try to verify everything you read about the Obama policies and administration.

Let's Hope the President gets it right this time

From Commentary Magazine Blogs:

Bibi Gets Another Meeting with Obama

by Jennifer Rubin

The White House must be very nervous. There was no way it could excuse Obama’s serial rudeness to Bibi, so it’s trying a do-over:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will hold another White House meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama next Tuesday, Israeli officials said yesterday. … Israeli officials said that Obama wanted to meet with Netanyahu soon, before Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas arrives in Washington for his White House meeting in another few weeks, due to the crisis in relations between Israel and the U.S. and the substantial criticism Obama has taken over it, both from congressmen and from American Jewish leaders.

We’ll see if it is followed by a nice photo-op and press conference.

As a colleague wryly remarks: “Wow—the fundraising must really be in catastrophic condition.” Yes, one suspects that has a role in the “charm offensive.” Here’s the thing, though: for Obama to really repair the damage he has done, he’d have to make dramatic changes in policy (e.g., give a speech saying military force remains an option, give Israel the same pledge of full support he extended to South Korea, cease the demands for unilateral concessions from Israel, loudly condemn continuing instances of Palestinian incitement, block Iran’s participation in UN committees and commissions, walk out of the UN Human Rights Council). Or maybe he figures he can avoid any substantive change in policy and get back in the good graces of American Jewry. It may be a savvy calculation.

We can only hope he is crass enough to act like he cares.

Who Wrote This Headline?

I looked at this story because the headline did not reflect what I had heard on the subject earlier.  As I read the story I thought "this headline doesn't say what this story is telling."  An AP story from the Houston Chronicle.

Gates agrees to proposal to repeal gay ban

By ANNE FLAHERTY ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday gave lukewarm support to a new White House-backed plan for a vote in Congress to immediately repeal the law that bans gays from serving openly in the military.

Even though the plan would let Gates decide when to implement repeal of the “don't ask, don't tell” policy, he has said he would have preferred more time to study the issue before Congress acts.

Gates “continues to believe that ideally the DOD review should be completed before there is any legislation” changing the law, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said. Gates has previously said he didn't want to change the policy until the study is finished in December.

Read it all.

Is this a purposeful insult or just pure arrogance and stupidity?

From the Townhall blog.

Obama Skips Memorial Day Services At Arlington Nat'l Cemetery To Spend Weekend In Chicago

Posted by: Jillian Bandes at 9:28 AM

According to the Chicago Examiner, President Obama will skip traditional services in Arlington National Cemetary, and will instead attend services at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in the suburban Chicago neighborhood of Elwood.

Abraham Lincoln cemetery is hosting a program called "A Nation Remembers," which will be open to the public, as long as they comply with strict security measures.

He and his family will spend the weekend in their Hyde Park home, which they've only returned to a handful of times since he assumed the Presidency. No comment from POTUS yet on why he's making this switch.

This is just sad. It is also despicable.

We are fighting the battles in Congress with our hands tied behind our backs

Until conservatives take some seats in the house and senate we are fighting the battle to change our country from a Democartic Republic to a socialist republic. Some of our Senators and Representatives are doing all they can, but without enough of them they are constrained by the numbers.

From Yahoo/AP:

Senator: No Kagan hearings without Clinton files

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS,

        The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee warned Monday that he would seek to slow Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan's path to confirmation unless senators get full access to her files as a Clinton administration aide.

       Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the Judiciary Committee chairman, last week set hearings to begin on June 28. Sessions said Republicans would ask for a delay unless senators get access to the tens of thousands of pages of Clinton-era records by then.

"We're heading to what could be a train wreck," Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama said. "I don't believe that this committee can go forward with an adequate hearing" without all records from Kagan's tenure as a White House counsel and then domestic policy adviser to President Bill Clinton.

       Sessions doesn't have a veto over the hearing schedule, but his threat set the stage for a potential partisan showdown over the documents and the pace of Kagan's confirmation process.

There is no bi-partisanship in this Congress, not on the Democratic side, and most of the Republicans. The RINOs of course blow with the prevailing winds.

Read it all.

Income Redistribution Soars, so do our tax bills

Private pay shrinks to historic lows

By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY

      Paychecks from private business shrank to their smallest share of personal income in U.S. history during the first quarter of this year, a USA TODAY analysis of government data finds.

      At the same time, government-provided benefits — from Social Security, unemployment insurance, food stamps and other programs — rose to a record high during the first three months of 2010.

     Those records reflect a long-term trend accelerated by the recession and the federal stimulus program to counteract the downturn. The result is a major shift in the source of personal income from private wages to government programs.

     The trend is not sustainable, says University of Michigan economist Donald Grimes. Reason: The federal government depends on private wages to generate income taxes to pay for its ever-more-expensive programs. Government-generated income is taxed at lower rates or not at all, he says. "This is really important," Grimes says.

We were forewarned, we knew that is what he wanted to do.  We MUST get enough people elected to stop this change of our country from free enterpise to socialism, or worse.

Too Good Not to Post, Don't Mess with Texas, truly

From Don Surber in the Daily Mail:

“Don’t mess in Texas”

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality sent a complaint to Limestone County Judge Daniel Burkeen about David Cousins, a resident of Thornton, who rented out a cabin to hunters without a proper latrine facility.

The commission wanted the good judge to investigate.

Oh, he will. But he is busy.

“We have had some delay in our investigation of the incidents alleged in the complaint which you kindly forwarded to us,” Judge Burkeen wrote to the commission. “The problem is, we have recently had a rash of reports of cows, horses, sheep and goats defecating at will in pastures throughout the county. On top of this, we suspect that wild hogs, deer and all sorts of other animals are defecating without even trying to find a proper facility. In addition, I have personal proof on my windshield of a mischievous bird defecating in flight. The culprit flew away, but I did get a description. It was red. The gift it left was white.”

Sounds as if they have quite a problem in Texas.

And at the end of his letter, Judge Burkeen properly identified it: “Lastly, please allow us to handle this at the local level, and do not involve the federal government. When it comes to matters of excessive defecation, Washington bureaucrats would only add to our misery. Don’t Mess in Texas.’”

The problem in Texas is the state has this commission that has too little to do, too much power and too much time on its hands.

Click here to see the actual letter.

The Southeast Texas Record has more.

We are all feeling alienated from our government

There are good reasons why. Here are some links:

The House Divided (Andrew McCarthy in National Review)
How long can a people remain a People when its leaders side with its foes?

Getting Lectured on Human Rights by Mexico (Mona Charen, National Review)

Krauthammer's Take (the Corner from National Review)

The Privileged Call for Limited Dictatorships (The Anchoress, First Things Magazine)
be sure you read this one if you don't read any of the others.

The New International Order (Richard Fernandez from Belmont Club, Pajama media)
another one of the "must reads."

About that Protest at the private home

Read about all the alarming connections:

President Obama Deeply Connected To Organizers Of Recent Angry Street Mob Actions

by Andrew Marcus

President Barack Obama and his administration, is shamefully deeply connected to the people and organizations that recently organized street mob protests, terrifying a teenage child in his own home, and storming bank buildings (violating how many Federal laws?) in a show of uncivil disobedience (intimidation).

Read it all.

Not read for prime time, er, uh, College

This is true in many states, not just Texas. This is from the Houston Chronicle:

Many in college lack basic skills

For Texas, it's a $200 million-a-year problem

By JEANNIE KEVER

It has been the dirty little secret of higher education for decades: Tens of thousands of college students can't do the work.

Developmental education — reteaching basic skills in reading, writing and math — is a $200 million-a-year problem in Texas, funded by taxpayers, colleges and the students themselves. Private groups also spend millions of dollars on the issue.

But relatively few students who need the classes go on to earn a degree, raising questions about whether money spent on developmental education is a wise investment.

“It's all about efficiency,” said Jim Pinkard, a program director at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. “What are we sending all these kids to college for?  Read it all.

This has been one of my soapbox issues for decades.  As the wife of a retired professor I know the statistics show that probably 30% of the students in Louisiana were not ready for college, and they never would be. Remedial courses in reading and math were necessary.  And by that time they were dropping out anyway when they encountered the real college courses. 

I think a good bit of it was that everyone was told they should, and could, go to college whether they really were able to or not. A good bit of it also was the more students they had  enrolled the more money the colleges and universities get from the state. And the tuition money paid in isn't peanuts.  I do not believe Texas and Louisiana are the only states where this is happening. Let's say all 50?  I would like to think it was otherwise, but I don't. This is a huge waste of kid's time, parents money, and our tax dollars.

About that Texas School book Law

I've been waiting for someone to do the research for me and Ann Althouse has, so has Tim Maguire.  Each taking a different MSM to task.  Althouse is  first:

If you're going to criticize the new social studies curriculum adopted by the Texas Board of Education, you'd better quote it.

Or at least link to the text. And if you choose to paraphrase and not even link, and I have to look up the text myself, and your paraphrase is not accurate, it is my job to embarrass you by pointing that out.

Let me embarrass the Washington Post. Below, the material from the WaPo article, written by Michael Birnbaum, is indented. After the indented part, I've located the relevant quote from the Board of Education text, found here. (I'm searching 3 PDF documents: Economics with Emphasis on the Free Enterprise System and Its Benefits Subchapter A. High School; Social Studies Subchapter B. Middle School; Social Studies Subchapter C. High School.)

The Washington Post writes:

The Texas state school board gave final approval Friday to controversial social studies standards....

The new standards say that the McCarthyism of the 1950s was later vindicated -- something most historians deny --...

The students are required to "describe how McCarthyism, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), the arms race, and the space race increased Cold War tensions and how the later release of the Venona Papers confirmed suspicions of communist infiltration in U.S. government..." The word "vindicated" is inflammatory and unfair. What is the Washington Post saying historians deny? One can be informed of the reality of what the Venona Papers revealed about communist infiltration into the U.S. government and still understand and deplore the excesses of "McCarthyism."

...draw an equivalency between Jefferson Davis's and Abraham Lincoln's inaugural addresses...

Students are required to "analyze the ideas contained in Jefferson Davis' inaugural address and Abraham Lincoln's ideas about liberty, equality, union, and government as contained in his first and second inaugural addresses and the Gettysburg Address." The word "equivalency" is uncalled for. The requirement is to analyze, not to be indoctrinated that the ideas are the same.

... say that international institutions such as the United Nations imperil American sovereignty...

What I'm seeing is "explain the significance of the League of Nations and the United Nations" and "analyze the human and physical factors that influence the power to control territory, create conflict/war, and impact international political relations such as the United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU), or the control of resources." Where is the language that can be paraphrased "imperil American sovereignty"?

.... and include a long list of Confederate officials about whom students must learn.

Students are required to "explain the roles played by significant individuals and heroes during the Civil War, including Jefferson Davis, Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, Abraham Lincoln, and congressional Medal of Honor recipients William Carney and Philip Bazaar." Only Davis and Lee were Confederate officials! There is also this: "describe the role of individuals such as governors George Wallace, Orval Faubus, and Lester Maddox and groups, including the Congressional bloc of southern Democrats, that sought to maintain the status quo [in the Civil Rights Era]." That's obviously not from the Civil War, but I can see why it's annoying to Democrats.

They also removed references to capitalism and replaced them with the term "free-enterprise system."

The document on economics does use the term "free enterprise system" throughout, but students are required to "understand that the terms free enterprise, free market, and capitalism are synonymous terms to describe the U.S. economic system," so what is the problem?

Virtually everything cited in the article to make the curriculum seem controversial is misstated! Appalling!

Thank you Ann Althouse!
Now for Tim Maguire in Just One Minute:

Not In Front Of The Kids

First he links to Althouse column which is fisking the Washington Post and then wades into a New York Times article that is just as misleading:

Apparently Texas tilts right and lefties are troubled, so you know we can go barrel-fishing in the NY Times for similarly silly coverage.

And here we go, as the Times braces for the approval of the new standards:

Texas School Board Set to Vote Textbook Revisions

By MICHAEL BRICK

AUSTIN, Tex. — After facing months of protest, conservative members of the Texas Board of Education were expected Thursday night to vote to teach schoolchildren a version of American history that emphasizes the roles of capitalist enterprise, the military, Christianity and modern Republican political figures.

Hmm - emphasizes "modern Republican political figures"? Let's stay with that; it is picked up a bit later (second paragraph):

While many of the changes to the science curriculum used coded language to advance conservative principles, some additions to the history standards were more overtly political. Board members planned to add language requiring high school students of the civil rights movement to “describe the role of individuals such as governors George Wallace, Orval Faubus, and Lester Maddox and groups, including the Congressional bloc of southern Democrats, that sought to maintain the status quo.”

In another passage, the board would require students to explain the roles of “Phyllis Schlafly, the Contract With America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority, and the National Rifle Association.”

Dare we ask - the roles of Phyllis Schlafly et al in what context? From the high school standards linked by Prof. Althouse we see this (p. 5 of 42):

(10) History. The student understands the impact of political, economic, and social factors in the U.S. role in the world from the 1970s through 1990. The student is expected to:

(A) describe Richard M. Nixon's leadership in the normalization of relations with China and the policy of détente;

(B) describe Ronald Reagan's leadership in domestic and international policies, including Reaganomics and Peace Through Strength;

(C) compare the impact of energy on the American way of life over time;

(D) describe U.S. involvement in the Middle East such as support for Israel, the Camp David Accords, the Iran-Contra Affair, Marines in Lebanon, and the Iran Hostage Crisis;

(E) describe the causes and key organizations and individuals of the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schlafly, the Contract with America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority, and the National Rifle Association; and

(F) describe significant societal issues of this time period.

Was there a conservative resurgence from 1970 to 1990? Maybe! I don't know how it could be discussed without noting the significant contributions of George McGovern and Jimmy Carter (who gets a Camp David nod), and I am sure Rush is fuming, but I am not sure how the Times would sustain its objection.

Just for contrast, in earlier standards we see this:

(9) History. The student understands the impact of the American civil rights movement. The student is expected to:

(A) trace the historical development of the civil rights movement in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, including the 13th, 14th, 15th, and 19th amendments;

(B) describe the roles of political organizations that promoted civil rights, including ones from African American, Chicano, American Indian, women's, and other civil rights movements;

(C) identify the roles of significant leaders who supported various rights movements, including Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez, Rosa Parks, and Betty Friedan;

(D) analyze the effectiveness of the approach taken by some civil rights groups such as the Black Panthers versus the philosophically persuasive tone of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech and his "Letter from the Birmingham Jail";

(E) describe presidential actions and congressional votes to address minority rights in the United States, including desegregation of the armed forces, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965;

(F) describe the role of individuals such as governors George Wallace, Orval Faubus, and Lester Maddox and groups, including the Congressional bloc of southern Democrats, that sought to maintain the status quo;

(G) evaluate changes and events in the United States that have resulted from the civil rights movement, including increased participation of minorities in the political process; and

(H) describe how litigation such as the landmark cases of Brown v. Board of Education, Mendez v. Westminster, Hernandez v. Texas, Edgewood I.S.D. v. Kirby, and Sweatt v. Painter played a role in protecting the rights of the minority during the civil rights movement.

No Malcolm X? Well, I would need a helpful lefty to tell me whether this passes muster. Apparently the Times would prefer a section on Civil Rights history in which Faubus, Maddax, and Wallace and other civil rights opponents never existed. That might be a better world but I doubt it would be better history.

And mysteriously unmentioned by the Times is more catnip for progressives:

(5) History. The student understands the effects of reform and third-party movements in the early 20th century. The student is expected to:

(A) evaluate the impact of Progressive Era reforms, including initiative, referendum, recall, and the passage of the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th amendments;

(B) evaluate the impact of muckrakers and reform leaders such as Upton Sinclair, Susan B. Anthony, Ida B. Wells, and W. E. B. DuBois on American society; and

(C) evaluate the impact of third parties, including the Populist and Progressive parties.

I assume the Times wants a special section devoted to the Age of Barack, but maybe we can let Texas wait another year or two.

JEALOUS MUCH? The Times' Big Finish:

One opponent of the changes, Benjamin T. Jealous, president of the N.A.A.C.P., vowed to take the fight to other states.

“The biggest danger is we’ll end up with children who don’t understand history,” Mr. Jealous said in a telephone interview. “The school board members are entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts.”

Uh huh. Texas could end this whole controversy if they simply titled their project "The History of Liberal Virtue and Virtuous Liberals".

ERRATA: Phyllis Schlafly gets a second mention:

(24) Citizenship. The student understands the importance of effective leadership in a constitutional republic. The student is expected to:

(A) describe qualities of effective leadership; and

(B) evaluate the contributions of significant political and social leaders in the United States such as Andrew Carnegie, Hector P. Garcia, Thurgood Marshall, Billy Graham, Barry Goldwater, Phyllis Schlafly, and Hillary Clinton.

OK, who is her publicist?

And I will admit that Texas has me beaten down with one of these names - Hector P. Garcia is "A Texas Legend" and a great American.

Ann Althouse is a little more understandable but it may be better if you read the originals.  And we who live near Rockport know exactly who Dr. Garcia is.

The Amazing history of word meanings

Frank Miele explains what liberal means and used to mean.

What the world needs now is more real liberals

Liberals — God bless them!

No, seriously. Don’t let my conservative credentials sway you into thinking I am being facetious. I am not.

But consider which liberals I am praising, and then stop and ask yourself if the people who use that title today are fit for the honor.

Taking the definition from a good “liberal” source — Wikipedia — to make sure it is not some accident of warped conservative thinking, let’s consider the following:

“Liberals in the 19th century wanted to develop a world free from government intervention, or at least free from too much government intervention. They championed the ideal of negative liberty, which constitutes the absence of coercion and the absence of external constraints. They believed governments were cumbersome burdens and they wanted governments to stay out of the lives of individuals.”

Like I said before, God bless liberals. I just wish we could find one worthy of the name today.

It's an interesting article. Read the rest. 

Civil Rights and Protecting the Public

So Miranda Is Hobbling Police Investigations After All

By Eric Blair

Last week's announcement by Attorney General Eric Holder that he will ask Congress to expand the "public safety" exemption to the Miranda rule as it applies to terror suspects deserves a moment of attention before we move on again to oil spills and immigration.

For four decades, liberals have insisted that Miranda and its proscriptions are "part of the Constitution" and that abridging them would mean the beginnings of a police state. Had George Bush, Jr. made this suggestion, it is fair to anticipate that the New York Times probably would have run an eight-column headline screaming, "Bush Proposes Repealing the Constitution." So what gives?

Read the rest of the discussion here.

Just in case YOU haven't read the bill...

the LA Times wants to help you:
Just click on this link.  Then scroll down to the embedded document. It's an actual copy of the law.

DC Police = Union Thugs? Apparently its true

From Big Journalism:

D.C. Metro Police Escorted SEIU Protesters to Bank Of America Executive’s Home

Posted by Archy Cary

The family of Greg Baer, Bank of America executive, is located in a jurisdiction protected by the Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD), which responded promptly to a disturbance call from his neighborhood last weekend.

According to Corporal Dan Friz, an MCPD spokesperson in Rockville, Maryland, the department received a disturbance call from one of Baer’s neighbors at 4:10 pm last Sunday. Four MCPD units arrived at Baer’s Greenville Rd. address at 4:15 pm. At least two Metropolitan Police Department units from the nearby District of Columbia were already at the scene when they arrived.

Why? Because police cars attached to the Washington MPD’s Civil Disturbance Unit had escorted the SEIU protesters’ buses to Baer’s home. Such cross-jurisdictional escort activity is not uncommon for both departments according to Friz and Metro Police Department spokesperson Officer Eric Frost. Still, the District police did not inform their colleagues of what was about to happen in one of their Maryland neighborhoods.

Nina Easton wrote of this earlier this week.  She is a neighbor of the Baer's  We would not even know of this if they had not targeted a person next to a reporter/commenter.

Fortune columnist and Fox News contributor Nina Easton is calling a recent protest outside her neighbor's home a form of "personal intimidation." Easton writes, "Last Sunday... 500 screaming, placard-waving strangers [were] on a mission to intimidate my neighbor." That neighbor is Greg Baer, a deputy general counsel at Bank of America.

Easton says 14 school buses brought demonstrators from the Service Employees International Union and the National Political Action Group, carrying signs and bullhorns up Baer's front steps to denounce bank foreclosures. She writes Baer's teenage son was alone in the house and locked himself in the bathroom until his dad was able to get home.

The SEIU maintains the protesters did nothing illegal and remained peaceful.

This is happening in and around our Nation's capitol.  Aided by their police. This is shocking and frightening.  And they want to be able to vote on our presidential elections.

What VDH is saying lately:

After seeing the article on the judge who deemed humans as important as fish, and knowing what it has done to the farming communities in the area, I decided to take a little look at what Victor Davis Hanson has been saying while I was out of town.  Here it is, it is a good one as usual.

Reflections on Small Town America

May 20, 2010

Last Saturday…

Kingsburg, California, is a sort of small town that modernism forgot, at least by the measure of the usual landscapes of the Central Valley. Its broad streets, Swedish building façades, good schools, neat homes, and downtown preservation don’t quite reflect the surrounding region’s 18% unemployment, brain drain to the coastal universities, ground-zero illegal immigration, tree-fruit and raisin depression, water cut-offs, general bankruptcy of California, and endemic gangs and their sometimes vicious crime. I was the town’s grand marshal last Saturday at the annual Swedish festival and had time to reflect on Kingsburg’s near century-and-a-half of existence — and its present status as a sort of oasis on the 99 freeway.

....

An admission: I grew up 4 miles away in rural Selma, and in our teens we of the rougher town thought Kingburgers softer folk. But I had mixed sympathies about the rivalry, as my father’s grandparents were members of the original Swedish pioneers who founded Kingsburg Colony in the late 19th century. Their farm is now the site of the city park and a part of it is marked “Hanson Corner.” I faintly remember the late 1950s in downtown Kingsburg, when as a small boy visiting my grandfather and uncle, we could still hear Swedish as often as English. I remember my grandfather’s (gassed in the Meuse-Argonne offensive and chronically short of breath) stories of his father’s generation, centered around Swedes taking the train (or riding?) to San Francisco to measure the width of Market Street to ensure their own Draper Street would be no narrower, or his mother Cecilia fundraising to ensure a wrought iron fence around the cemetery.

I’ve often wondered how a group of mostly poor Swedish immigrants could migrate en masse to an empty wasteland, form a colony, and within thirty years have created a humane community, impressive churches, banks, government buildings, wide streets, and an irrigated tree and vine agriculture.

Tough, they of course were, and without the technological advantages of our own age, much less the social services safety nets. My father told me his grandfather was directed by the local doc to drink a turpentine concoction to expel a large tape worm of several feet from his gut; he himself at 12 fell on a hay-rake, was impaled, and had half his liver removed (but remember the myth of Prometheus). Another uncle pushed the bellows of a stuck hand-sulfurer and burned out his eye. These were common rural experiences; and I have to assume that our modern ailments like allergies (I saw an ad yesterday for a medicine to address sweaty palms) were not quite considered ailments by the old breed. My point is not to suggest that they were Titans and we mere mortals, but simply to suggest the streets, buildings, and culture we enjoy were all inherited from those who created them at a physical cost we often are clueless about.

It's all  good, read the rest.

A Federal Judge Recognized the rights of the people over fish!!!

This is such good news. A judge who says humans are part of the eco system and must be recognized and the impacts to humans must be considered.  What a breath of fresh air. From Investor's Business Daily, via Lucianne

Water Sanity For Central California 

Law: A federal judge has struck a blow for California's water-deprived Central Valley, ruling that draconian federal water cutbacks violate human rights because — surprise! — people also belong in the ecosystem.

Next time a concept like, say "death panels" from the federal government seems far-fetched, consider the ordeal California's Central Valley has endured for the past two years.

Based on a judicial ruling, some of the most prized and productive agricultural land in the country was turned into a wasteland after its water was shut off.

The ruling was derived from an 800-page "biological opinion" put out by regulators enforcing the National Environmental Policy Act, ostensibly to protect a finger-sized fish called the delta smelt and some other wildlife. Regulators complained that smelt were getting ground up in pumping stations that brought river water from California's north to its south, so the water had to stop.

Even the judge was appalled at being forced into the ruling but had no choice, given the law, and tried to cushion the impact.

Tuesday, that same judge, District Judge Oliver Wanger declared to federal regulators that they must consider the impact of their "draconian" actions on human communities, something they've never done up until now.

Read the rest.

Expensive green jobs, news from Spain

Spanish paper: Obama driving off ‘green energy’ cliff
By: David Freddoso
Chris Horner has been all over the story of Spain’s unimpressive experience with green energy. Spanish newspapers have finally called out the U.S. President for choosing a failed model for a “Green Economy.” From the other day:
On eight separate occasions, President Barack Obama has referred to the “green economy” policies enacted by Spain as being the model for what he envisioned for America.
Later came the revelation that Obama administration senior Energy Department official Cathy Zoi — someone with serious publicized conflict of interest issues — demanded an urgent U.S. response to the damaging report from the non-governmental Spanish experts so as to protect the Obama administration’s plans…But today’s leaked document reveals that even the socialist Spanish government now acknowledges the ruinous effects of green economic policy.

Now the Spanish press is on to the story. Buried on page 34 of today’s Gaceta is this headline:

Spain admits that the “green economy” it sold to Obama is a bust
Spanish government leaks a report acknowledging the grave economic consequences of betting on renewable energy

The first few lines:

The president of the United States, Barack Obama, does not appear to have chosen well in basing his “green economy” on Spain’s. After the government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero demonized a study by various experts on the economic downsides of renewable energies, it just leaked an internal document from the Spanish cabinet which is even more negative.

Among the findings, paraphrased from the right sidebar:

* Green energy is 120 percent more expensive, simply due to the extra costs of solar and wind, and the evolution of the market is not going to bring down those costs any time soon.
* The clean energy sector is slated to receive 126 billion euros in the next 25 years, but no one knows where the money is going to come from . In 2009, the subsidies were worth 5 billion euros.
* Photovoltaic solar power accounts for 53 percent of the extra cost of renewables, whereas it produces only 11 percent of Spain’s renewable energy.
* Each “green job” comes at the expense of 2.2 traditional jobs.

If you thought we had a few secrets left, you were wrong

This from The LA TIMES via Lucianne.com

Obama decides to unilaterally announce secret U.S. missile tests, satellite launches

  President Obama has decided to pre-announce to the world once-secret American ballistic missile tests and satellite launches.

The Democratic administration's goal is to show a friendlier face to other countries and to coax Russia to do the same.

It's part of a confidence-boosting initiative launched, so to speak, last fall when Obama suddenly abandoned the U.S. missile-defense system in Eastern Europe that had exercised the Russians, though it was aimed at potential future missiles from Iran.

Obama hoped such a unilateral U.S. forfeiture would encourage Russia to put pressure on Iran to halt its nuclear weapons development. So far no good on that.

Of course, the point of secret tests by any state in an insecure, suspicious world is to deny advance notice to potential enemies, making it more difficult if not impossible for them to gain intelligence by monitoring the tests themselves.

According to George Jahn of the Associated Press, a confidential U.S. note sent to 128 other countries two weeks ago said:

The United States ... will provide pre-launch notification of commercial and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) space launches as well as the majority of intercontinental ballistic and submarine-launched ballistic missile launches.

Security experts note that Obama left himself some wiggle room by using the phrase "majority of intercontinental and submarine-launched ballistic missile launches," many of which depart from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the California coast.

Security experts note that Obama left himself some wiggle room by using the phrase "majority of intercontinental and submarine-launched ballistic missile launches," many of which depart from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the California coast.

Washington's hope is that Russia will resume doing the same.

Don't you just love that hope and change stuff?  

Well, we certainly wouldn't want to upset the Sonoran economy

This is from the American Thinker blog:

Mexican state officials whine about Arizona immigration law

by Greg Halvorson

You can't make this up. On the heels of Eric Holder condemning Arizona's SB 1070, which he HASN'T READ, comes a verbal lambasting by Sonoran officials. A delegation from the border state recently traveled to Tucson where, whining (in Spanish), they explained that the law "will have devastating consequences." Returning countrymen will apparently burden schools, compete for jobs, stress social services, and cease the practice of sending dineroacross the border to benefit their economy.

This from representative Leticia Amarano-Gamez (in Spanish): "How can they pass a law like this? There is not one person living in Sonora who does not have a friend or relative working in Arizona. Mexico is not prepared for the tremendous problems it will have as more and more Mexicans working in Arizona and sending money to their families return to hometowns without jobs. We are one family, socially and economically," she said of the people who reside in Arizona and her state.

This person is as honest as Calderon who very honestly told Wolf Blitzer about Mexico's immigration laws, which are just a LOT like ours. Only they enforce theirs.

Read it all here.

Elitism IS the problem

I just ran across this, it is from December.

The Smart People Crowd

Posted by Sonic Charmer on December 19, 2009

An aspect of our political landscape that goes underreported is the role and influence of the faction I have taken to calling ‘Smart People’.
Even if you don’t know what I mean by that, you probably already instinctively know who I’m talking about. Smart People are the people for whom the most important thing of all is that politicians, leaders, bureaucrats, celebrities, etc. – basically anyone given a prominent public role in society – all be Smart. In addition, Smart People think that all those Smart People must be listened to and obeyed on every aspect of life, big and small, without constraint; in particular, listened to/obeyed by anyone who is not Smart. The driving motive behind how Smart People think and vote is to make sure that Smart People are in power, are respected, are given prominent and honorable roles in society, and have no constraints or limits on putting their Smart ideas into practice.
If Smart were a race, of course, then the ‘Smart People’ faction would just be another run of the mill nationalist-supremacist party. But Smart is not a race, it’s a…well what is it?
The odd thing about Smart People is that they all seem to know who they are. They recognize each other, instinctively. Actually, usually even non-Smart People (like me) can recognize them. The odder thing about the Smart People faction is that objectively they’re not always all that smart (although certainly some of them are), and there are some very smart people who don’t belong to it.
Barack Obama, for example, has obviously been crowned a Smart Person virtually from the moment he entered the national scene. Now, there is zero (0) evidence i can see that Barack Obama is all that smart, at least not any more so than tens of millions of other folks. But he is definitely a Smart Person. Even I can see that. Just look at how he…um…talks in soft tones while wearing a suit, raising his eyebrows in concerned ways, and being skinny (?). Well okay, it’s not clear how or why I or anyone else knows or thinks that he’s Smart, what is clear is that we just do.
Another example came in the 2004 Bush v. Kerry campaign. Everyone, including Kerry, knows that Kerry was the Smart Person candidate and that Bush was a Dummy. So dumb! Not like Kerry. Lanky, graying, concerned-eyebrow, pronouncing-Genghis-like-”Jenjis” John Kerry. So Smart! Obviously, the Smart People all wanted Kerry to win on account of how Smart Kerry was. But again, objectively, there is zero evidence that John Kerry is one whit smarter than George W. Bush. None. In fact if anything there may be evidence to the contrary. But again, it’s clear that Kerry is ‘Smarter’ than Bush, even today, and again, even I can see that.
This leads naturally to discussion of another Smart People obsession, which is that they can’t stand Dumb People. Nothing offends a Smart Person more than a Dumb Person being in any sort of position of power, prominence, happiness, comfort, or respect. The Smart Person nation went on an eight-year hissy fit about how Dumb George W. Bush was. Books were written about it, plays were performed about it, double albums were released about it, benefit concerts were given about it, people launched into deep depressions about it. There are probably at least some Smart People who expended 90% of their waking moments from 2000-08 having little more than variations and permutations of the single thought ‘George W. Bush is Dumb’ in their head. (And isn’t that oh so Smart to be fixated on that single idea for eight years? Sure seems Smart to me.)
And of course, this Dumbness obsession has recently been fully transferred to Sarah Palin. Indeed an accurate test for whether you’re in the presence of a Smart Person is to say the word “Palin”, step back, and see what happens. If that person says something normal like “Huh?”, “You mean Sarah Palin?”, or “What about her?”, that person may be normal or even Dumb. But if the person throws a hissy fit and starts talking about how Dumb Sarah Palin is, you know then and there that you’re talking to a Very Smart Person.
Once again, there is a strange disconnect because actual, genuine smartness and this Smartness thing we now have. Which is not to say they are opposites or even contradictory. Some Smart People are indeed genuinely smart people. There’s no doubt that Paul Krugman is smart, for example. There is overlap between smartness and Smartness, to be sure. But they are not the same.
Actually, a large contingent of Smart People consists of the very dumb people who merely want to latch onto Smart People so that they, too, can be considered Smart. Consider the Dixie Chicks sounding off about Iraq, or Sean Penn writing travelogue pieces from this or that third-world dictatorship. These are not smart people. But they have clearly figured out that by echoing the opinions of Smart People, they too can easily join their ranks – get articles about how ‘politically active’ and ‘outspoken’ they are. Articles that are not written about Dumb People.
This ease with which someone, however dumb, can sign up for being Smart and advertising their Smartness to others may also explain the sort of issue that Smart People are attracted to. Smart People are attracted to Smart issues like Global Warming/Climate Change. It’s very very Smart (even if it’s not that smart) to be concerned to an almost hysterical degree about the prospect of runaway Global Warming and oceans rising by twenty feet. Yes, that is so Smart. This issue has it all: by deciding to believe in it, without even looking at the evidence or reading anything yourself thus with very little in the way of upfront costs/investment, you instantly get to be on the side of Scientists (who are Smart), and Al Gore (who is Smart), and you get to make fun of Dumb people who are Anti-Science. And again, making fun of Dumb people is one of Smart Peoples’ favorite activities. It is extremely Smart.
Climate Change also illustrates the Smart Peoples’ fondness for arguing in favor of the autocratic, near-dictatorial control over everyone elses’ lives (of Smart People). To a Smart Person, the concept that there can or should be limits on the sorts of things that Smart People in power should be able to do, regulate, decide, and dictate, would make no sense. Smart People are annoyed by the Constitution, for example (if they even think about it at all). Mention the Constitution to a Smart Person, suggest that it restricts government power to do this or that, and you’ll get blank stares (if they don’t just start talking about how Dumb you are for saying it). Sure, they’ll agree that the Constitution restricts the power of Dumb people in government, like George W. Bush, but we’ve got a Smart government now – so what’s the Constitution got to do with anything? They’ve got Smart stuff to do, like nationalize health care, bypass Congress to sign climate treaties, and set up international taxation so Americans’ money can be taken from them and sent overseas. All of that is very Smart stuff to do. What’s the Constitution got to do with any of it?
I have only scratched the surface here because I must admit: I don’t really feel like I have a handle on the whole Smart People phenomenon myself. I don’t understand where it came from, I don’t understand why it persists, and I can’t even really define it. The Smart People faction has an ineffable, liquid quality about it; every time I think I begin to understand it, it slips through my fingers. Clearly it shares some of the properties of a high school clique – a continuation of “the In Crowd”. It’s true that sometimes those who are in the In Crowd are there because they are genuinely better-looking and richer and more charismatic; but sometimes, as with Smart People, to a large extent the only thing that objectively separates the In Crowd from those who are ‘uncool’ is that: the In Crowd can recognize each other and knows who they are and knows that they are cool – and they know that the ‘uncool’ aren’t them.
And the one thing that Smart People know for sure is that anyone who doesn’t agree with them is Dumb. In the final analysis this, above all else, may be the defining property of being Smart.

I've been in the boonies camping and am just catching up on emails and reading.  We are in Blanco State Park and will probably be home tomorrow or Friday. Sorry for the light blogging (no blogging) but we sure had fun at a family campout last weekend.

Acorn under any other name

Here is a link to track the new phases of the same liberal workings. It is from Big Journalism, go there to read it.
Tracking ACORN’s Rebranding Process: A Handy Updated Guide
Posted by Matthew Vadum

Terrorism, a new word in the administration

If you watched the news over the weekend or yesterday you already know about this. The administration is again using the word "terrorism." I think this news story tells it well, it is from the New York Post.

Obama wakes up

White House turn on terror

by Ralph Peters

Something big is happening. Big enough to alarm the White House. So big that the administration did an abrupt about-face regarding terrorism.

A week ago, failed Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad wasn't even a Muslim, but a 40-something white male and, as Mayor Bloomberg insisted, probably an opponent of ObamaCare.

Then, after Shahzad's apprehension, we were told that he was just another "one-off" in the tradition of Islamist terrorists who aren't really Islamist terrorists at all, but distraught homeowners unable to meet mortgage payments or victims of our prejudice (such as Maj. Nidal Hassan, the traitor and butcher of Fort Hood).

Vigilant: In one sign of heightened alert, NYPD Emergency Service Unit members patrolled the financial district last week.

Even generals who knew better lined up to deny that Shahzad was part of a terror network.

Then wham! Over the weekend, the Obama administration unleashed a reverse-course media offensive -- deploying Attorney General Eric Holder, terror czar John Brennan, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and plentiful back-channel messages from staffers.

Instead of Shahzad being a one-off, Brennan tied him to the Pakistani Taliban and stressed to TV viewers that there are dangers we're "taking very seriously."

Clinton and others warned Pakistan that it must crack down on militant strongholds in North Waziristan, hinting that Islamabad's failure to do so might lead to direct US intervention in Cambodia (uh, sorry, that's Pakistan).

But the administration's biggest policy reversal to date came from Holder, the longtime advocate of terrorist "rights," who offered one of the most belated acknowledgments in history when he told a TV network, "We're now dealing with international terrorism."

Holder, of all people, now wants Congress to change the rules for Miranda rights, giving the government more time under a "public-safety exception" to permit extended questioning of terrorist suspects before arming them with lawyers.

And there wasn't a single mention of "man-caused disasters" this time around. Every administration point person talked "terrorism." Next thing you know, somebody in the White House will use the term "Islamist terrorist."

And we may even be "alledgedly" back in a War on Terror.  Read the rest.

Wise words from Raquel Welch - yes!

Apparently she wrote this on Cnn's site but I got it from the blog Sister Soljah.

Raquel Welch: Ladies, gentlemen – be more responsible with your bodies

During my [first] pregnancy, I came to realize that this process was not about me. I was just a spectator to the metamorphosis that was happening inside my womb so that another life could be born. It came down to an act of self-sacrifice, especially for me, as a woman. But both of us [first husband Jim Welch] were fully involved, not just for that moment, but for the rest of our lives. And it’s scary. You may think you can skirt around the issue and dodge the decision, but I’ve never known anyone who could. Jim and I had two beautiful children who’ve been an ongoing blessing to both of us.

Read it all, it is truly a word of wisdom on life.

Tell me again, just who is it that "Just doesn't get it?"

Yes, we are definitely the great unwashed and uninformed out here. This is from CNS via Lucianne.com

Congressman Says Climate Science Should Be Simplified to ‘Sixth Grade Level’ Because Americans ‘Don’t Get’ It

By Christopher Neefus

Americans are growing skeptical about the threat of global warming because “they don’t get” the complex information that scientists deliver, according to Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.).

Unless scientists can simplify their arguments to the level of newspapers that “print at the sixth grade level,” Cleaver said, the public is “going to get a headache and bail out.”

Cleaver made his comments to a panel of scientists on Capitol Hill at a hearing last Thursday of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.

I hope someone makes this guy apologize, but even if he did it wouldn't be his true feelings, we know what they are.  He thinks we are stupid, gullible plebians.

How Many? Surely this is not all.

From Canada Free Press via Lucianne.com:

Government Funded Front Groups

By Dr. Robert R. Owens

How many Progressive groups are in reality government supported entities masquerading as public interest lobbies? How many government agencies act as Progressive lobbies? Marx said “The last capitalist we hang shall be the one who sold us the rope.”

Is our hard-earned tax money being used to fulfill the words of the Progressive’s secular messiah? Another old saying goes, “The acorn doesn’t fall too far from the tree.” If the tree is the Progressive clique that’s captured America the acorn is the government money used by various Progressive fronts, both public and private to advocate for more money from the treasury to buy more power. Or is that more rope?

ACORN...(ed. note now out in new and expanded agencies)

Fannie and Freddie...

Planned Parenthood...

The Service Employees International Union...

The National Endowment for the Arts...

I can think of more than this.  How many can you think of?  Read the rest of the article. Then let me know in the comments if you can name some more.

I wonder if the Islamic Senior Centers cannot allow Thanks before Meals

I'm sure they must have some. In Georgia they are concerned over the senior citizens praying to God in thanks for their meals. via Lucianne:

Ga. Seniors Told They Can't Pray Before Meals

from WSBTV.com

PORT WENTWORTH, Ga. -- Preston Blackwelder proudly showed off a painting of his grandmother that had hung next to the front door of his Port Wentworth home.

She was the woman who led him to God, Blackwelder said Friday.

And with that firm religious footing, Blackwelder said it would be preposterous to stop praying before meals at Port Wentworth's Ed Young Senior Citizens Center near Savannah because of a federal guideline.

"She would say pray anyway," Blackwelder said of his grandmother. "She'd say don't listen."

But Senior Citizens Inc. officials said Friday the meals they are contracted by the city to provide to Ed Young visitors are mostly covered with federal money, which ushers in the burden of separating church and state.

On Thursday, the usual open prayer before meals at the center was traded in for a moment of silence.

I suspect this will be overruled but in the meantime there are some confused and hurting elderly in Georgia.  Read more here.

Good new about US/Israeli relations

It is good know that all the news is NOT bad when it comes to the US and Israel.
Thanks to Jim Little for sending this item to me. It is from the DEBKAfile.

US sends Israel smart bombs to match Syrian missiles for Hizballah

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

The United States recently renewed supplies to the Israeli Air Force of GBU-28 Hard Target Penetrators and GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs, as well as Attack Munitions (LDJAM) for more accurate targeting of bombs, debkafile's military sources report. In Moscow, Israeli president Shimon Peres said to Russian president Dmitry Medvedev Sunday, May 9, that Syria has only one object in arming the Lebanese Hizballah with missiles and that is warmongering.

That same day, US defense sources, normally chary of releasing information about US arms supplies to Israel, reported that Washington had released substantial quantities of smart bombs to different types to Israel, most of them suitable for striking Hizballah fortifications in Lebanon and Hamas tunnels in the Gaza Strip.

Read more here.

Wouldn't You Know the Blagojevich name would come up in this?

I know, I know, we shouldn't prejudge. Notice this had to do with Michelle's job also.
This is from the Chicago Sun-Times

One of Obama's closest friends part of federal probe

RECORDS SOUGHT

Programs funded by state Health Dept. under Whitaker are targeted

E-mails and other records of Dr. Eric Whitaker -- one of President Obama's best friends -- have been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

The investigation involves "faith-based initiatives" and health-awareness campaigns funded by the Illinois Department of Public Health when Whitaker ran the agency for former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, according to copies of subpoenas obtained under the state's Freedom of Information Act.

Obama has said he recommended Whitaker for that job, which Whitaker landed in April 2003. The president's friend resigned in October 2007 to join Obama's wife, Michelle, as an executive at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

A Tribute to My Mother

This is part of a tribute I wrote in June 2000 in a "Words to the Wise" newsletter. I wrote and published that newsletter for descendants of Johann Adam Wise who landed in Philidelphia in 1748.  My mother had seven children and treated them all as if they were her favorite. All her grandchildren were loved in the same way. She died March 30, 2000. Here is part of what I wrote.

She kept teaching us to the end with some wonderful glimpses of what was going on and would say things like "God is with me", "God is supplying my thirst" and even when I asked her if she were cold she replied, "why, am I shaking?" and when I said yes, she said "God is giving me creation again". I wish she could have explained that, but she was tired and wanted to rest. All the family was here and we spent every hour with her but when she wanted quiet she would call for it or say "Let's rest now" like she did when she wanted us to take our naps after reading to us when we were young. She was a wonderful person, an exemplary mother, and even though we are in our twilight years we will miss her.”
Mother just kept giving and giving. Even in her dying, blessings were bestowed on all of us who attended her. Daughters, sons, granddaughters and grandsons, all felt privileged to attend to her in the hospital. She was so sweet and loving. Not many people get to experience a death of a loved one in such a manner, she taught us so much in life and ended it by teaching us how to die.

Her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren still love and miss her.

The Real Cost of Wind Power

I had several links guiding me to the Boston Herald and this story but I like the commentary here at Gateway Pundit so it is the one I am using.

No Wonder Barack Obama & Libs Love Wind Power… It’s Twice As Expensive

by Jim Hoft

Why do liberal progressives hate poor people?

Why to liberal progressives hate the working class?

The Cape Wind power project in Massachusetts will cost twice as much as the current cost of electricity.

Who cares?… It’s not their money.

The Boston Herald reported:

The nation’s inaugural offshore wind farm, planned for waters off Cape Cod, has reached its first deal with a utility to purchase its power.

Under the agreement announced by both companies today, the utility National Grid would pay 20.7 cents per kilowatt hour starting in 2013 for half the power produces by the 130-turbine Cape Wind project planned for Nantucket Sound.

The price would go up by 3.5 percent annually to keep pace with inflation.

The deal is considered crucial to attract financing for a project estimated to cost at least $2 billion.

The deal must still be approved by state regulators.

Adjusted to today’s dollars, Cape Wind officials say the cost in the first year of the deal is 18.7 cents per kilowatt hour compared to the current cost of electricity of about 9 cents per kilowatt hour. The utility, which has 3.3 million customers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Rhode Island, said the deal will add about $1.59 to the average customer’s monthly electricity bill in 2013.

National Grid U.S. president Tom King said the country must invest in renewable energy, even when it’s more expensive.

But, at least the Chinese are happy.

80% of the Stimulus cash for wind power went to foreign countries last year.

Obama’s green energy plan where money is spent on projects where costs exceed benefits could kill as many as 900,000 net US jobs.

You know what they say, If Momma ain't Happy........

This is from the Wall Street Journal via Lucianne and for some reason I really like it. (my tongue is firmly planted in my cheek)

Moms to the Barricades

'The tea parties are an extension of our need to protect the future for our children'

By MICHAEL GRAHAM

If Momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. And if you've been to a tea party, you know Momma ain't happy at all.

Forget "angry white men." In the male-dominated world of conservative politics, the tea party stands out as a movement of energized and organized women. In particular, moms.

Moms like Sarah Palin, of course, who's been described as the "Momma Bear" of the tea party movement. But more important are the thousands of women at the state and local level who created this political phenomenon.

Moms like Christen Varley, the suburban mother of four who organized the successful tea party rally on Boston Common last month. Moms like Karen Miner Herd, who calls herself "one of the founding mothers" of the tea party movement in Virginia.

Read the rest, you will like it too.

Victor Davis Hanson on the news

From Pajamas Media via Instapundit:

News beneath the news

From the embarrassing to the pathetic

I don’t want to beat the proverbial dead horse, but these media polarities are getting to the point of absurdity. Bush, the lazy golfer while we were at war; Obama the engaged commander-in-chief playing golf for needed relaxation more in one year than in Bush’s eight. Katrina, the emblem of federal inaction and culpable incompetence; the BP slick, either a result of private greed overwhelming noble federal auditors or proof of the Obamian competent response. Bush’s illegal war clearly alienating Muslims and thus creating terrorists daily; laughable excuses from a terrorist that Obama’s stepped-up targeted Predator assassinations “created” would-be killers such as himself. Right wingers in bed with Wall Street oligarchs greedily crafting federal policy for the exploiting class; Obama for some odd reason, no doubt in the end a noble reason, taking more money from the likes of Goldman Sachs and British Petroleum than any politician in history. The Bush-Cheney nexus shredding the Constitution with the Patriot Act, Guantanamo, Predators, and renditions; Obama the civil libertarian reluctantly forced to maintain or expand such protocols, albeit at last under a watchful liberal eye. Bush’s “lost” war in Iraq miraculously soon to be Obama’s “greatest achievement.”

What is the theory behind all this other than partisanship or cynicism? I think it involves the power of faith and the irrational, in some cases not confined to the left. (e.g., I once got a prominent conservative angry at me when I suggested Reagan embraced large deficits, signed an amnesty bill, wanted nuclear disarmament, and raised payroll taxes). Politics is a religion, never more so than in the case of Obama. And true believers always prefer the saintly explanation rather than the most logical.

You will want to read it all, go here.

Interesting, always good from 4 Block World

Not the brightest moment for the military

From the Washington Examiner:

Medal for 'courageous restraint' plan get mixed review from troops
By: Sara A. Carter
A proposal to grant medals for "courageous restraint" to troops in Afghanistan who avoid deadly force at a risk to themselves has generated concern among U.S. soldiers and experts who worry it could embolden enemy fighters and confuse friendly forces.
Lt. Col. Edward Sholtis, a spokesman for Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who commands NATO forces in Afghanistan, said that no final decision has been made on the award, which is the brainchild of British Maj. Gen. Nick Carter.
"The idea is being reviewed at Headquarters ISAF," Sholtis said. "The idea is consistent with our approach. Our young men and women display remarkable courage every day, including situations where they refrain from using lethal force, even at risk to themselves, in order to prevent possible harm to civilians. ... That restraint is an act of discipline and courage not much different than those seen in combat actions."
However, professor Jeffrey F. Addicott, a former senior legal adviser to the Green Berets and director of the Center for Terrorism Law at St. Mary's University School of Law in San Antonio, said "It's an absolutely outrageous proposal to our fighting men.
"The implication of this award is that we do not engage in war fighting that is appropriate," Addicott said. "They're sending a chilling message to our troops that we are not complying with the law of armed conflict. It's a propaganda victory for our enemies."
Sholtis disputed that the award would limit troops' ability in the battlefield.
"We absolutely support the right of our forces to defend themselves," he said. "Valuing restraint in a potentially dangerous situation is not the same thing as denying troops the right to employ lethal force when they determine that it is necessary."
The medals proposal is consistent with NATO rules of engagement aimed at reducing civilian casualties in Afghanistan as a way to win the support of the populace. But some soldiers say rewarding "restraint" while risking their own lives is a troubling concept.
The directives "are confusing and the mixed messages from command is making it more difficult for us to defend ourselves," said a U.S. Army soldier in Afghanistan.
A U.S. Marine captain who has served in Iraq, said that he understands the intentions of the award but believes "it's just a bad idea." He said, "They teach us not to second-guess our decisions in dangerous situations. When people second-guess themselves they can be putting lives at risk."
Some soldiers shrugged at the proposal. "It's good, but just like with valorous medals, guys are going to do the right thing because it is the right thing," said Army Lt. Joseph Cooper said. "I think our year in Maiwand [Afghanistan] has shown that in frightening and confusing moments the U.S. soldier will consistently make the right choice time after time."
But other soldiers saw the medal proposal as a reinforcement of troubling rules of engagement. "Unfortunately, we are being reduced to a police force," said another U.S. soldier. "There are troops that never leave Bagram or Kandahar airfield. ... Maybe if they left us all on base and never sent us out to confront the enemy, we could all be honored [for] valor ."

They didn't get a  clue from the exoneration of the Navy Seals, apparently.

Is there a state of Florida in Great Britain? New Mexico?

I guess there doesn't have to be, they can have voter problems on there own.
From the Australian:

Voters protest as thousands unable to cast ballots in British election

WIDESPREAD voter anger has marred the British election, with thousands of people being deprived of their right to vote as polling stations were unable to cope with demand.

David Monks, chief returning officer for England, told The Times the widespread failures to deal with high voter turnout may lead to by-elections in the next few weeks as disenfranchised citizens challenge results.

Some protested in the streets at being unable to vote because of queues when polling stations closed at 10pm.

British Electoral Commission head Jenny Watson said it would investigate but that "we’ve been saying for some time that the system we have is at breaking point".

The Conservatives said reports of the queues were "disturbing" and must be "thoroughly investigated".

And Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown was "very concerned" about the reports of people being turned away from polling stations and "would support a thorough investigation into them", according to his spokesman.

The Labour Party also said 600 people were missing from the electoral roll in Chester, despite having registered.

An estimated 500 would-be voters were turned away in Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg’s constituency of Sheffield Hallam and another 200 people in Woodseats, a Sheffield suburb five miles away, were told their votes would not count.

Voters gathered outside Mr Clegg’s home and he apologised for the problems.

Police were called to deal with angry people prevented from voting in several areas including in Brockley and Hackney in London.

Many more details here.