I suspected this all along!! I think I've seen them in action

They must be the ones who run us down with road rage, or cut in line at the grocery store.  I knew they were Neanderthals!

Neanderthal genes appear in Europeans, Asians

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID

We have met Neanderthal, and he is us – at least a little.

The most detailed look at the Neanderthal genome helps answer one of the most debated questions in anthropology: Did Neanderthals and modern humans mate?

The answer is yes, there is at least some cave man biology in most of us.

One percent to 4 percent of genes in people from Europe and Asia trace back to Neanderthals.

“They live on, a little bit,” said Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.

I watched the Naked Archaeologist several days ago and this was his explanation for the Biblical Giants.  He said the word giant was a mistranslation of a word that meant essentially human without a soul.  He then went to a cave site in Israel where Neanderthals and humans lived together at the same time.  The site is also the same as described as the land of the giants in the Bible.  Very interesting.  If you get the History International channel you might want to tune in at 4 PM to that interesting show. Actually, watch your cable or satellite provider for other times, too.

Are We All Socialists Now?

I don't think so. But apparently Al Sharpton does. This from Gateway Pundit:
Democratic Leader Al Sharpton: “The Dream Is to Make Everything Equal in Everybody’s House”

Last month Al Sharpton claimed, “Americans overwhelmingly voted for socialism when they elected Barack Obama.”

On Sunday the Democratic Leader stuck to his socialist theme. Sharpton told a congregation in Connecticut, “The dream was to make everything equal in everybody’s house”

Go here for the video.

This is seriously Not Funny: Discrimination against the American Flag

Students Kicked Off Campus for Wearing American Flag Tees

Freedom of expression or cultural disrespect on Cinco de Mayo?

By GEORGE KIRIYAMA

On any other day at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, Daniel Galli and his four friends would not even be noticed for wearing T-shirts with the American flag. But Cinco de Mayo is not any typical day especially on a campus with a large Mexican American student population.

Galli says he and his friends were sitting at a table during brunch break when the vice principal asked two of the boys to remove American flag bandannas that they wearing on their heads and for the others to turn their American flag T-shirts inside out. When they refused, the boys were ordered to go to the principal's office.

We have such an anti-American bent in so many of our schools and this is in a very strongly PC, liberal area I guess it should not be surprising. At the end of the article we do find this, it gives me a little hope.

The five boys and their families met with a Morgan Hill Unified School District official Wednesday night. The district released a statement saying it does not agree with how Live Oak High School administrators handled this incident

The boys will not be suspended and they were told they can go back to school Thursday. They may even wear their red, white, and blue colors again, but this time, the day after Cinco de Mayo, there will be no controversy.

These are only the opening and closing paragraphs, read it all here.

A little humor to begin the day, the administration is watching Fox News

And someone at the LA Times noticed:

Oh, my! Look what cable news channel Obama's own Justice Dept. chooses to watch when Big News breaks

Here is President Obama's Attorney Gen. Eric Holder offering more details about the capture and interrogation of Faisal Shahzad, the accused Times Square bomber, from the secure confines of the briefing room of Holder's own Justice Department in Washington.

The briefing room's main TV's are tuned to the top-rated cable news channel. Trouble is, that's the dreaded Fox News Channel that Obama aides including David Axelrod so weirdly picked a fight with last fall, castigating it as an alleged broadcast arm of the party of Abraham Lincoln, who never even owned a TV.

You have to go to the link to see the big picture.

Joe the Plumber is working as a Republican for sure

As much a put down as a news item this is from Mediaite.com.

Joe The Plumber Elected As Republican Committeman In Ohio

"The Associated Press reported that Joe, whose real name is Samuel Wurzelbacher, won a spot as a Republican committeeman in Lucas County, Ohio. Wurzelbacher won a hotly contested 38-23 vote (though this account says 38-24 – scandal!) to become “one of nearly 400 committee members who set the agenda and pick a chairman for the local party.”

They managed to make a fairly long blurb (for a short article) about it. Read it all here.

Census spending we almost do NOT want to know about

Multiply this story from Denver by, oh, just say 10 for starters, and you can find a whole lot of wasted money.

Thousands spent on unused census swag

by Jace Larson

DENVER - The U.S. Census Bureau spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on promotional items used to convince more people to mail back their census forms, but a 9Wants to Know investigation found thousands of the items were dropped off, unused, at a local high school.

- Colorado's Census participation below average

The leftover items, such as backpacks, cloth grocery bags, hats, pins, magnets and business card holders, were dropped off at Lakewood High School last month.

"We probably had, between the backpack style [bags] and the shopping bag style [bags], over 1,000 dropped off," Lakewood High School Principal Ron Castagna told 9Wants to Know.

He estimates more than 1,000 posters printed in different languages were also dropped off at the school.

An unknown Census worker walked into the school in mid-April and asked the principal if she could leave the items. She did not ask the school to distribute them.

"[She] said, 'We have extra stuff. We're wrapping up the Census and we just want to distribute the materials,'" Castagna said.

It did not sit well with him.

"Wait a minute, times are tough and I'm sitting in a position where we've got a school district that's done everything the right way and yet we're still going to face budget cuts," he said.

Among the many boxes of posters the Census worker left at the school, were more than 300 promotional posters printed in Farsi. Farsi is the language spoken in Iran, Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan.

9Wants to Know reviewed the U.S. Census Bureau's numbers from 2000 and found 360 people spoke Farsi in all of Jefferson County at that time.

Castagna says he hopes to let students use the backs of the posters in art classes.

There is more here.

Oops! Busted! Obama took money from BP, Senator Landrieu has done well, too

From Politco:

Obama biggest recipient of BP cash

While the BP oil geyser pumps millions of gallons of petroleum into the Gulf of Mexico, President Barack Obama and members of Congress may have to answer for the millions in campaign contributions they’ve taken from the oil and gas giant over the years.

BP and its employees have given more than $3.5 million to federal candidates over the past 20 years, with the largest chunk of their money going to Obama, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Donations come from a mix of employees and the company’s political action committees — $2.89 million flowed to campaigns from BP-related PACs and about $638,000 came from individuals.

On top of that, the oil giant has spent millions each year on lobbying — including $15.9 million last year alone — as it has tried to influence energy policy.

During his time in the Senate and while running for president, Obama received a total of $77,051 from the oil giant and is the top recipient of BP PAC and individual money over the past 20 years, according to financial disclosure records.

An Obama spokesman rejected the notion that the president took big oil money.

“President Obama didn’t accept a dime from corporate PACs or federal lobbyists during his presidential campaign,” spokesman Ben LaBolt said. “He raised $750 million from nearly four million Americans. And since he became president, he rolled back tax breaks and giveaways for the oil and gas industry, spearheaded a G20 agreement to phase out fossil fuel subsidies, and made the largest investment in American history in clean energy incentives.”

In Congress, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), who last week cautioned that the incident should “not be used inappropriately” to halt Obama’s push for expansion of offshore drilling, has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of BP’s largesse. Her comments created some blowback, with critics complaining that she is too blasé about the impact of the disaster, even though she was among the first lawmakers to call for a federal investigation into the spill.

As the top congressional recipient in the last cycle and one of the top BP cash recipients of the past two decades, Landrieu banked almost $17,000 from the oil giant in 2008 alone and has lined her war chest with more than $28,000 in BP cash overall.

“Campaign contributions, from energy companies or from environmental groups, have absolutely no impact on Sen. Landrieu’s policy agenda or her response to this unprecedented disaster in the Gulf,” said Landrieu spokesman Aaron Saunders. “The senator is proud of the broad coalition she’s built since her first day in the Senate to address the energy and environmental challenges in Louisiana and in the nation. This disaster only makes the effort to promote and save Louisiana’s coast all that more important.”

Several BP executives have given directly to Landrieu’s campaign, including current and previous U.S. operation Presidents Lamar McKay and Robert Malone. Other donors include Margaret Hudson, BP’s America vice president, and Benjamin Cannon, federal affairs director for the U.S. branch. Donations ranged from $1,000 to $2,300 during the past campaign cycle.

Read more its a long article.

Even more secrets on how we caught him

This is from WCBSTV in New York City but since I started this yesterday afternoon many people have it.  Michael Yon has a facebook post that it is not that big a secret, but he is in Afghanistan and privy to quite a few secrets.  I just think news media should be a little more careful.  Loose lips still sink ships just like they did in WWII.

In the end, it was secret Army intelligence planes that did him in. Armed with his cell phone number, they circled the skies over the New York area, intercepting a call to Emirates Airlines reservations, before scrambling to catch him at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

This is what Michael Yon says:
Cell phone tracking is widely recognized by the enemy here. Taliban have often attacked cell towers and cell employees.

Is Obama an outsider?

I know many of you, as have I, have commented to each other that our President doesn't really know us. He didn't really grow up in middle class American as we did or our children  did.  My children and their cousins say it this way, "He didn't watch Scooby Doo."  Well, I don't know, maybe he did, but he sure doesn't seem to understand us or even like us.  An American Thinker article puts it this way:

A Stranger in Our Midst

By Robert Weissberg

As the Obama administration enters its second year, I -- and undoubtedly millions of others -- have struggled to develop a shorthand term that captures our emotional unease. Defining this discomfort is tricky. I reject nearly the entire Obama agenda, but the term "being opposed" lacks an emotional punch. Nor do terms like "worried" or "anxious" apply. I was more worried about America's future during the Johnson or Carter years, so it's not that dictionary, either. Nor, for that matter, is this about backroom odious deal-making and pork, which are endemic in American politics.

After auditioning countless political terms, I finally realized that the Obama administration and its congressional collaborators almost resemble a foreign occupying force, a coterie of politically and culturally non-indigenous leaders whose rule contravenes local values rooted in our national tradition. It is as if the United States has been occupied by a foreign power, and this transcends policy objections. It is not about Obama's birthplace. It is not about race, either; millions of white Americans have had black mayors and black governors, and this unease about out-of-synch values never surfaced.

Read the rest, it makes a lot of sense.

Afghanistan is becoming a political/military problem

U.S. military growing concerned with Obama's Afghan policy

By: Sara A. Carter

The Obama administration's plan to begin an Afghanistan withdrawal in 2011 is creating growing friction inside the U.S. military, from the halls of the Pentagon to front-line soldiers who see it as a losing strategy.

Critics of the plan fear that if they speak out, they will be labeled "pariahs" unwilling to back the commander in chief, said one officer who didn't want to be named. But in private discussions, soldiers who are fighting in Afghanistan, or recently returned from there, questioned whether it is worth the sacrifice and risk for a war without a clear-cut strategy to win.

Read more at the Washington Examiner.

This could Effect some of our Area Hospitals

Obamacare has a poison pill for doctor-owned hospitals

By: Rob Bluey

Physicians at McBride Orthopedic Hospital had ambitious plans for their Oklahoma City hospital before Obamacare. Two new operating rooms and a four-bed intensive-care unit were part of a multimillion-dollar expansion project that promised to bring competition and more health care choices to the community.

But once President Obama's signature was dry on the 2,409-page Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, so, too, was the McBride project. The recently enacted law imposed a series of new federal regulations on physician-owned hospitals, including an immediate ban on expansion.

Read more at the Washington Examiner:

Are your 401K's safe?

Not very, according to this article in Human Events.

Republicans Sound Alarm on Administration Plan to Seize 401 K's

by Connie Hair

In February, the White House released its “Annual Report on the Middle Class” containing new regulations favored by Big Labor including a bailout of critically underfunded union pension plans through “retirement security” options.

The radical solution most favored by Big Labor is the seizure of private 401(k) plans for government disbursement -- which lets them off the hook for their collapsing retirement scheme. And, of course, the Obama administration is eager to accommodate their buddies.

Vice President Joe Biden floated the idea, called “Guaranteed Retirement Accounts” (GRAs), in the February “Middle Class” report.

In conjunction with the report’s release, the Obama administration jointly issued through the Departments of Labor and Treasury a “Request for Information” regarding the “annuitization” of 401(k) plans through “Lifetime Income Options” in the form of a notice to the public of proposed issuance of rules and regulations. (pdf)

Read the rest and be on the alert to act on this.

I wonder why we alway tell them how we did it?

It seems to me if we could keep this a secret they wouldn't know how to do it better the next time. This is from Politico but they are not the only ones telling how we caught him.

Cellphone led FBI to Times Square car bomb suspect arrest

by Mike Allen

The number from a disposable cellphone led FBI agents to the suspect arrested Monday night for allegedly driving a car bomb into Times Square on Saturday evening, according to a senior official.

“They were able to basically get one phone number and by running it through a number of databases, figure out who they thought the guy was,” the official said.

Thanks, Mike and the rest of you newsers, I know they needed that information.
Read more:

The AP is doubting the Administrations take on the Oil Spill

Again From AP and Yahoo:

SPIN METER: There since Day One? Maybe not

By ERICA WERNER

WASHINGTON – To hear Obama administration officials tell it, they've been fully engaged on the Gulf Coast oil spill since Day One, bringing every resource to bear and able to ensure without question that taxpayers will be protected.

Not quite.

Take President Barack Obama's repeated claims that BP will be responsible for all the costs associated with the devastating spill that began after an oil rig operated by the company exploded April 20, killing 11 workers and later sinking.

"Let me be clear: BP is responsible for this leak; BP will be paying the bill," Obama said while touring the area Sunday.

While it's true that the federal Oil Pollution Act, enacted in 1990 in response to the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska, makes BP responsible for cleanup costs, the law caps the company's liability for economic damages — such as lost wages, shortened fishing seasons or lagging tourism — at $75 million, a pittance compared to potential losses.

Administration officials insist BP will be held responsible anyway, noting that if the company is found negligent or criminally liable, the cap disappears. Claims also can potentially be made under other state or federal laws, officials said.

Read it all for a better explanation of the details.

Politico has this to say on the Oil Spill
White House in P.R. 'panic' over spill
By GLENN THRUSH & MIKE ALLEN
The ferocious oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is threatening President Barack Obama’s reputation for competence, just as surely as it endangers the Gulf ecosystem.
So White House aides are escalating their efforts to reassure Congress and the public in the face of a slow-motion catastrophe, even though it’s not clear they can bring it under control anytime soon.

“There is no good answer to this,” one senior administration official said. “There is no readily apparent solution besides one that could take three months. ... If it doesn’t show the impotence of the government, it shows the limits of the government.”
Hope and change was Obama’s headline message in 2008, but those atop his campaign have always said that it was Obama’s cool competence — exemplified by his level-headed handling of the financial meltdown during the campaign’s waning days — that sealed the deal with independents and skeptical Democrats. The promise of rational, responsive and efficient government is Obama’s brand, his justification for bigger and bolder federal interventions and, ultimately, his rationale for a second term.

So there was a “little bit of panic,” according to one administration official, when White House aides sensed the oil spill narrative getting away from them last week. The White House was particularly alarmed by the rash of stories comparing the Obama administration’s initial response with President George W. Bush’s sluggish response in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Read more:

A Dubai Flight was turned around

And three passengers were removed.  Hmm.... didn't hear that on CNN last night. This is from Yahoo News, via Lucianne.

Three passengers taken off New York-Dubai flight

DUBAI (AFP) – Emirates Airlines said on Tuesday that three passengers were removed from a New York-Dubai flight, after US officials said a suspect in an attempted New York bombing was arrested trying to fly to Dubai.

"Emirates can confirm that its flight EK 202 (from New York to Dubai on May 3)... was called back by the local authorities prior to departure. Three passengers were removed from the flight," the airline said in a statement.

"Full security procedures were activated, including the deplaning of all passengers and a thorough screening of the aircraft, passengers, and baggage. Emirates is cooperating with the local authorities," it said.

US officials said earlier that a Pakistani-American suspect in an attempted car bombing on Saturday in New York's Times Square was arrested while trying to flee on flight from New York to Dubai.

New York police chief Raymond Kelly has said more than one person may have been involved in the attempted bombing, but offered no specifics.

Perry Reveals Himself on Immigration

Governor Rick Perry of Texas has proven himself a Republican, not a conservative in his statements against Arizona's new immigration law. For those of you who have suspected he's purely a political animal -- and not about representing the people of Texas -- here's more proof.

His statements sound like the usual rhetoric the Democrats (and big Republicans) spew when looking for reasons to not enforce our immigration policy and laws. They say it should be left to the Federal Government, they say it will cause racial profiling, they say it will lead to not trusting the police. They say this stuff and it all adds up to BS. And no enforcement.

Why are these things BS? Because the Feds aren't trying to enforce the laws. Racial profiling is not really an issue in modern law enforcement anymore, but the left still uses it as the new "race card" to attack anything they don't like that involves minorities. And if you are against local law enforcement telling the Border Patrol about suspected illegal immigrants, you are against enforcing immigration laws.

We hear it at the federal, state and local level from Dems and Reps alike. It's all the same B.S. But it comes down to no enforcement of immigration laws.

Various pundits have speculated (and I believe them) that Republicans like Perry (and George Bush) are against enforcing immigration laws because it is bad for business. Enforcing immigration laws will drive up the cost of wages. It will. When you use legal labor, you have to pay more. This will cost businesses more. But I'm okay with that because I think America is crowded enough. And I think enough Americans are unemployed.

It is currently estimated that somewhere between 7 and 8 million illegal immigrats are employed right now.

Businesses don't want to pay more for labor. And these businesses are what prop up the campaign coffers of Republicans (and Dems). So Perry and other big-time politicians would be shooting their major contributors in the foot if they actually enforce immigration laws. So they don't. And they haven't ever since the big "Immigration Reform Bill" of 1986 when mass amnesty was granted with a promise of enforcement.

Remember that? Amnesty happened. Enforcement never happened. And it basically still does not. There are some token raids. And the fence got started, and then defunded... Token actions. If the government wanted to, they could verify the social security card of every single worker in America -- citizens and non -- in a few weeks. But they don't.

I can track a package the second it leaves my hands until it is signed for by my Aunt Gwyne in Frankfurt three days later -- and see every transfer, stop and route it takes. But the most powerful government in the world cannot maintain the simplest database function we've got -- verifing an 8-digit number? Give me a break.

Protecting their big business friends is why Democrats and Republicans have not enforced immigration law much at all in the last 30 years. This is why most of the growth in this country's population has come from immigration. There has been more legal and illegal immigration in the last 30 years than the previous 100 years before that. The numbers are astounding. (Yep, it's true. See it here. Please watch Part 2 of this video to see the logic of why we need immigration control.)

Historic Immigration Levels (Legal)
1925-1965 Avg. 178,000 per year
1965-1989 Avg. 500,000 per year
1990s.....Avg. 800,000 per year
2000s.....Avg. 1,000,000 per year.

Why is unfettered immigration a problem? Overpopulation. Plain and simple. We're well on the way to overpopulation in the United States. And it is driven by uncontrolled immigration. We cannot give the American dream to every single person in the world who wants it. Sorry. We must help other nations to build their own dream in their country, before the American dream is drowned in overpopulation.

Think about it -- who is going to build the Meixcan Dream? The Chinese Dream? The Cuban Dream? The African Dream? We cannot take all comers.

Immigration basically has not been controlled. That means our nation's borders really haven't mattered. That is not good for many reasons.

Perry has shown himself a Republican, not a conservative on immigration. You don't even have to look closely to see that most "big" Democrats and Republicans are aligned on immigration -- for the same reason (as I just mentioned) cheap labor funds their campaigns. And makes their friends' companies more profitable.

Perry is also pro-toll road. And he is not conservative on eminent domain. Why not? Because toll roads are for his big business friends. And eminent domain allows big business friends to take your land from you and build their private hotels and malls.

Perry talks conservative, but look at this actions. Please look at his actions. He is all talk. You'll see there is no conservative in the next race for Texas governor.

Meanwhile, the country continues to fill with people. We've gone from 200 million to 300 million in 30 years. That's too much growth.

We all know where this play on words came from

We can count on the Powerline boys to have a great take on news of the day. This one is a good one.

At some point you have grabbed enough power

posted by Scott at Powerline

Given that poorer citizens always outnumber the rich, the classic political philosophers held that government based on majority rule was untenable. They were of the view that it would lead to organized theft from the wealthy by the democratic masses. Thus Aristotle warned in The Politics, for example: "If the majority distributes among itself the things of a minority, it is evident that it will destroy the city."

The Founders of the United States were deep students of politics and history, and they shared Aristotle's concern. Up through their time, history had shown all known democracies to be "incompatible with personal security or the rights of property." James Madison and others held that the "first object of government" was to protect the rights of property. Numerous provisions of the Constitution and Bill of Rights were incorporated to protect the property rights of citizens from the power of the government.

Whatever else might be said about him, President Obama operates on a different philosophy of government from that of the Founders. As Michelle Malkin observes, he spoke the most revealing and clarifying 10 words of his administration this week: "I think at some point you have made enough money."

Be sure to read it all. More here:

I'm beginning to feel sorry for those working for the IRS

Tigerhawk has a link to this article in Cato@ Liberty, a blog from the Cato Institute:

Costly IRS Mandate Slipped into Health Bill

Posted by Chris Edwards

Most people know about the individual mandate in the new health care bill, but the bill contained another mandate that could be far more costly.

A few wording changes to the tax code’s section 6041 regarding 1099 reporting were slipped into the 2000-page health legislation. The changes will force millions of businesses to issue hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, of additional IRS Form 1099s every year. It appears to be a costly, anti-business nightmare.

Under current law, businesses are required to issue 1099s in a limited set of situations, such as when paying outside consultants. The health care bill includes a vast expansion in this information reporting requirement in an attempt to raise revenue for an increasingly rapacious Congress.

In a recent summary, tax information firm RIA notes the types of transactions covered by the new 1099 rules:

The 2010 Health Care Act adds “amounts in consideration for property” (Code Sec. 6041(a) as amended by 2010 Health Care Act §9006(b)(1)) and “gross proceeds” (Code Sec. 6041(a) as amended by 2010 Health Care Act §9006(b)(2)) to the pre-2010 Health Care Act categories of payments for which an information return to IRS will be required if the $600 aggregate payment threshold is met in a tax year for any one payee. Thus, Congress says that for payments made after 2011, the term “payments” includes gross proceeds paid in consideration for property or services.

I would say "What were they thinking?" but obviously they were not thinking, just acting.  I would really like to know who all actually wrote this bill and how many years it took.  Read it all.

Tony Woodlief's headlines says it all: There’s no program for fixing rotten

One of the blog's I check every single day is Tony Woodlief's Sand in the Gears. He is just great when it comes to conveying essential wisdom on life and parenting.  Today he just nails it when he says There’s no program for fixing rotten. You just know what he is going to be saying and you know he is going to say it well.  Go read it, bookmark it and read it every day like I do.  It will give you a lift.

Insurance required? or just a tax?

WSJ via the Stratasphere blog.

The Insurance Mandate in Peril

First Congress said it was a regulation of commerce. Now it's supposed to be a tax. Neither claim will survive Supreme Court scrutiny.

by Randy Barnett

A"tell" in poker is a subtle but detectable change in a player's behavior or demeanor that reveals clues about the player's assessment of his hand. Something similar has happened with regard to the insurance mandate at the core of last month's health reform legislation. Congress justified its authority to enact the mandate on the grounds that it is a regulation of commerce. But as this justification came under heavy constitutional fire, the mandate's defenders changed the argument—now claiming constitutional authority under Congress's power to tax.

This switch in constitutional theories is a tell: Defenders of the bill lack confidence in their commerce power theory. The switch also comes too late. When the mandate's constitutionality comes up for review as part of the state attorneys general lawsuit, the Supreme Court will not consider the penalty enforcing the mandate to be a tax because, in the provision that actually defines and imposes the mandate and penalty, Congress did not call it a tax and did not treat it as a tax.

Read the rest.