11/11/11

It is Veteran's Day.

Not just here, but in Europe as well. Originally called Armistice day, it is now called Remembrance day in Europe and Veteran's Day here in the US.

World War One, called then The Great War because they did not know that they would have to number such wars, came to a close on the 11th hour, of the 11the day, of the 11th month of 1918.

There are no surviving Veterans of that awful war. The ages have passed them by and made them a part of our history.

Veteran's Day is now a day of remembrance for all US Veterans of all the Wars that the US has fought.

Every nation that wills to survive must be willing to fight for its survival against hostile nations and forces that would weaken or destroy it. The harsh truth of it is that a nation state must be willing to send its young soldiers into harms way to protect its interest in a hostile world shared with other nations that also have the same obligation to protect themselves.

We must honor those that have been called to preserve our nation. We owe them much.

Darryl Worley - Have You Forgotten?

Is it Email or Parasitic Public Sector Labor Unions that are killing the US Postal Service?

See: Postal Service Is Nearing Default as Losses Mount

The post office’s problems stem from one hard reality: it is being squeezed on both revenue and costs.

As any computer user knows, the Internet revolution has led to people and businesses sending far less conventional mail.

At the same time, decades of contractual promises made to unionized workers, including no-layoff clauses, are increasing the post office’s costs. Labor represents 80 percent of the agency’s expenses, compared with 53 percent at United Parcel Service and 32 percent at FedEx, its two biggest private competitors. Postal workers also receive more generous health benefits than most other federal employees.

The suggestion that the postal service is losing money to Email is difficult to accept, especially looking at the great heaping gobs of junk mail that are stuffed into my mailbox every day. There is so much crap (Snail-Mail Spam) that is sent to me in the mail that I have at times tossed out mail that was important to keep because it was lost in the great wads of ads and "dear occupant" mail. Is there really anyone out there that is getting "less" mail sent to them they have received in years past?

The US Postal Service is being bled to death by the parasitic Public Sector Unions that have put the service on the brink of bankruptcy. The parasitic Public Sector Unions are negotiating with elected politicians and or government bureaucrats that are beholding to elected politicians for a piece of the the public treasury. These elected politicians are also beholden to the parasitic Public Sector Unions for campaign contributions and for votes. It is base political corruption pure and simple.

The end result is inevitable. The public treasury runs out of money and the parasitic Public Sector Unions scream for more and more and . . . But there is no more money left for them to loot.

The US Postal Service can only be saved by reducing it's Labor cost to something in the range of what its main competitors, UPS and FedEx, have to work with. The only way that will happen is to eliminate the parasitic Public Sector Unions entirely. They must be done away with. They are incompatible with Democracy.

No Blank Checks For Obama

See: Speaker Boehner's Debt Ceiling Speech

Speaker Boehner tells President Obama to get stuffed.

The sad truth is that the president wanted a blank check six months ago, and he wants a blank check today. That is just not going to happen.

You see, there is no stalemate in Congress. The House has passed a bill to raise the debt limit with bipartisan support. And this week, while the Senate is struggling to pass a bill filled with phony accounting and Washington gimmicks, we will pass another bill - one that was developed with the support of the bipartisan leadership of the U.S. Senate.

Obviously, I expect that bill can and will pass the Senate, and be sent to the President for his signature. If the President signs it, the 'crisis' atmosphere he has created will simply disappear. The debt limit will be raised. Spending will be cut by more than one trillion dollars, and a serious, bipartisan committee of the Congress will begin the hard but necessary work of dealing with the tough challenges our nation faces.

The problem is not on the revenue side. It is on the spending side.

Raising taxes only robs the productive of the means and the reason to produce.

Raising spending only feeds the addiction of the looter's to other people's money.

Raising the Debt Limit only increases the already unmanageable levels of debt that are being passed on to future generations.

We might be better off to just shut it all down.

An Important Explanation Of The Thinking Behind 9-11

We are approaching the ten year anniversary of 9-11.

Ten years is a long time.

As memories fade, it is important for those of us that cannot forget that awful day to remind those that have of what happened - and even more importantly, "why" it happened.

The "Why" of it all has been the subject of much debate and argument over the last ten years. Lee Harris' Al Qaeda's Fantasy Ideology, written in the summer of 2002, offers an explanation that is worth thinking about.

See: Al Qaeda's Fantasy Ideology

"KNOW YOUR ENEMY” is a well-known maxim, but one that is difficult to observe in practice. Nor is the reason for this hard to fathom: If you are my enemy, it is unlikely that I will go very much out of my way to learn to see things from your point of view. And if this is true even in those cases where the conflict is between groups that share a common culture, how much more true will it be when there is a profound cultural and psychological chasm between the antagonists?

That is just the first paragraph.

Read the whole thing.

Obama’s Tax Obsession

See: Explaining Obama’s tax-hike obsession

But Obama’s tax obsession becomes understandable when you realize the long game he’s playing: Big Taxes to fund Big Government. Decade after decade. See, it’s an almost universal belief among left-of-center journalists, economists, policymakers and politicians that Americans must pay higher taxes in coming years to cover the medical expenses of its aging population – not to mention all sorts of brand new social spending and green “investment.” Dramatically higher taxes. On everybody. And if we have a debt crisis, maybe those tax increases come sooner rather than later.

And why not? Look at how high taxes and high spending have made Greece such an economic giant.

See Also: Why The Democratic Party Is Doomed

This week’s fight over raising the federal debt limit exposes a key weakness in the warfare-welfare state that has bestowed power onto the Democratic Party: Without an ever-growing share of the economy, it dies. Every vital element of the Democrats’ coalition — unions, government workers, government contractors, “entitlement” consumers — requires constant increases in payments, grants and consulting contracts. Without those payments, they don’t sign checks to re-elect Democrats.

Are we having fun yet?

Eat The Rich!

See: Get Ready for a 70% Marginal Tax Rate

But wait, things get worse. As Milton Friedman taught decades ago, the true burden on taxpayers today is government spending; government borrowing requires future interest payments out of future taxes. To cover the Congressional Budget Office projection of Mr. Obama's $841 billion deficit in 2016 requires a 31.7% increase in all income tax rates (and that's assuming the Social Security income cap is removed). This raises the top rate to 52.2% and brings the total combined marginal tax rate to 68.8%. Government, in short, would take over two-thirds of any incremental earnings.

How hard would you work if you were only able to keep 30 cents of every dollar that you earned?

Bill Clinton and The Politics of Waivers

In a Newsweek article titled “It’s Still the Economy, Stupid” former President Bill Clinton offers 14 suggestions on how to improve the US's struggling economy.

The first of his fourteen suggestions is not wholly wrong, even if it is terribly flawed.

1. SPEED THE APPROVALS
Harry Hopkins had nowhere near the rules and regulations we have now. (In 1933, Hopkins’s Civil Works Administration put 4 million to work in a month.) I don’t blame the people in the White House for problems in getting shovel-ready projects off the ground; sometimes it takes three years or more for the approval process. We should try to change this: keep the full review process when there are real environmental concerns, but when there aren’t, the federal government should be able to give a waiver to the states to speed up start times on construction projects. We gave states waivers to do welfare reform, so by the time I signed the bill, 43 of the 50 states had already implemented their own approaches. We need to look at that.

President Clinton is almost on the right track with this one. He at least recognizes that there is a regulatory impediment to economic activity that slows - if not terminally stalls projects and enterprises that could be putting to people work. His solution is to offer “waivers” to temporarily bypass the existing burdensome rules and regulations that are slowing if not outright killing “shovel-ready” projects.

Waivers are however, are not a long term fix. They are by definition, short term fixes dependent on the politics of the moment.

The “waiver” suggesting is interesting in that it also offers a window into the mindset that would suggest it in an economic emergency. It is a mindset that seeks to maintain and to exert power over others.

A “Waiver” is an instrument of power. It is granted solely on the political pull of the principles and interest groups involved. The power to grant or deny a waiver is staggering. It could mean millions, or billions, or even trillions of dollars in earnings to the ones seeking the “waiver” and those that are in their economic downstream, and/or millions, or billions or even trillions to their competitors in losses along with all of those enterprises in their economic downstream. Should politicians and bureaucrats have this kind of life over other peoples economic lives? Why would we want such things decided on political considerations and not on economic results?

Someone that is proposing “waivers” as a solution to the strangling effect of government rules and regulations seeks to maintain the authority of the government to impose the waived rules and regulations, while benefiting politically, if not also personally, by the power inherent in the authority and power to “waive” such rules and regulations.

What really needs to happen is a drastic reduction in the number and scope of federal regulations governing economic activity. Too many people in the political class want too much control over what people do to earn an honest living. That kind of power fetish needs to be curtailed.

Waivers was just one of the fourteen suggestions that President Bill Clinton offered in the Newsweek article. He even suggests cutting corporate tax rates. He also suggest a bunch of other statist solutions that just make politicians and bureaucrats more powerful.

See: It’s Still the Economy, Stupid

See also: Bill Clinton's Newsweek Cover Story Shows the Clinton-Obama Rivalry Is Not Dead

Should Doctors Be Allowed To Refuse Obama-Care Patients?

That is a question that will become a hot topic in our political culture very shortly.

See: U.S. Plans Stealth Survey on Access to Doctors

The administration says the survey will address a “critical public policy problem”: the increasing shortage of primary care doctors, including specialists in internal medicine and family practice. It will also try to discover whether doctors are accepting patients with private insurance while turning away those in government health programs that pay lower reimbursement rates.

Can the government force Doctors to accept Obama-Care patients? (What would or could stop them?)

Should the government force Doctors to accept Obama-Care patients? (Only thugs and thieves would say "Yes.")

The only alternative that the government has in getting Obama-Care patients to be readily accepted by Doctors is to have a payment schedule that is competitive with private insurers. That "jus' ain't a gonnah happen." The costs would be astronomical, just like all of the Obama-Care critics have been saying from day one. Forcing Doctors to accept Obama-Care patients would allow the leftist political class to pretend that their medical care scheme will work, at “cheaper” costs. (But only for a short time.) Of course, finding any doctor after that point will be a whole different problem.

Then the question that will be debated in the political sphere is whether or not government can prevent Doctors from quiting or retiring.

UPDATE [June 28, 2011 - 22:49]

See: Surprise: HHS drops plan to snoop on doctors

See: Program to Use Mystery Shoppers to Probe Doctors Scrapped

See: Kirk asks Obama administration to reconsider 'stealth' doctor survey

The Congressman has some interesting questions for Kathleen Sebelius. Among them:

2) Please provide records of how the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) of Chicago, Illinois, won a federally competitive bid to carry out this work.

It is an interesting question.

Hat Tip to Hot Air for the Update links.

A Beautiful Day For Freedom Of Speech

Geert Wilders has been acquitted of hate-speech charges.

See: In Defense of 'Hurtful' Speech

Yesterday was a beautiful day for freedom of speech in the Netherlands. An Amsterdam court acquitted me of all charges of hate speech after a legal ordeal that lasted almost two years. Yesterday, the Dutch people learned that political debate has not been stifled in their country. They learned that they are still allowed to speak critically about Islam and that resistance against Islamization is not a crime.

The fight is not yet over. The plaintiffs are planning on taking their case to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.

See: Dutch Court Acquits Anti-Islam Politician

Ties Prakken, a lawyer who represented immigrant and antiracist complainants, agreed that “there is no appeal possible in the Netherlands,” and said she would instead bring the case to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, accusing the Dutch government of failing to protect people from incitement to discrimination or violence.

“We have a reasonable case,” Ms. Prakken said, adding, “there is some case law in our favor there.”

The circus will go on.

Recession or Depression?

See: Why the Jobs Situation Is Worse Than It Looks

The Great Recession has now earned the dubious right of being compared to the Great Depression. In the face of the most stimulative fiscal and monetary policies in our history, we have experienced the loss of over 7 million jobs, wiping out every job gained since the year 2000. From the moment the Obama administration came into office, there have been no net increases in full-time jobs, only in part-time jobs. This is contrary to all previous recessions. Employers are not recalling the workers they laid off from full-time employment.

Keep a copy of Zuckerman's article tabbed in your files.

"When regulators strongly suggest . . . "

See: Obama's Food Police in Staggering Crackdown on Market to Kids

How much of our private lives should politicians and bureaucrats be involved in? At what point do we stop being free citizens and become mere wards of the state?

“The most disturbing aspect of this interagency working group is, after it imposes multibillions of dollars in restrictions on the food industry, there is no evidence of any impact on the scourge of childhood obesity,” said Dan Jaffe, executive vice president of the Association of National Advertisers.

The “Interagency Working Group on Food Marketed to Children, Preliminary Proposed Nutrition Principles to Guide Industry Self-Regulation Efforts” says it is voluntary, but industry officials say the intent is clear: Do it, or else.

“When regulators strongly suggest a course of action, it’s treated as a rule, not a suggestion,” said Scott Faber, vice president of federal affairs for the Grocery Manufacturers Association. “Industry tends to heed these suggestions from our regulators, and this administration has made it clear they are willing to regulate if we don’t implement their proposal.”

It is important to keep in mind that the people pushing these “suggestions,” rules and regulations are motivated by “good intentions.” They really do believe that they are working to drive us all down the road to a healthier life.

A road paved with good intentions.

The CDC asks if you are prepared for a possible 'Zombie Apocalypse'

See: CDC Warns Public to Prepare for 'Zombie Apocalypse'

"There are all kinds of emergencies out there that we can prepare for," the posting reads. "Take a zombie apocalypse for example. That's right, I said z-o-m-b-i-e a-p-o-c-a-l-y-p-s-e. You may laugh now, but when it happens you'll be happy you read this, and hey, maybe you'll even learn a thing or two about how to prepare for a real emergency."

The post, written by Assistant Surgeon General Ali Khan, instructs readers how to prepare for "flesh-eating zombies" much like how they appeared in Hollywood hits like "Night of the Living Dead" and video games like Resident Evil. Perhaps surprisingly, the same steps you'd take in preparation for an onslaught of ravenous monsters are similar to those suggested in advance of a hurricane or pandemic.

The Direct link to the CDC post was behaving a bit zombie like. It took a long while to open.

See : http://blogs.cdc.gov/publichealthmatters/2011/05/preparedness-101-zombie-apocalypse/

I would suggest adding a shotgun to your 'Zombie Apocalypse' Emergency Preparedness Kit. Everyone knows that the only way to take out a Zombie is with a solid headshot with a shotgun, at close range. (Point blank really.)

Trump Bails, Gingrich Fails.

See: Trump Not Running for President: 'Decision Does Not Come Easily Or Without Regret'

"I maintain the strong conviction that if I were to run, I would be able to win the primary and ultimately, the general election," Trump said in a statement on Monday. "I have spent the past several months unofficially campaigning and recognize that running for public office cannot be done half heartedly. Ultimately, however, business is my greatest passion and I am not ready to leave the private sector."

No regrets from me. I was having too much trouble taking Trump seriously as a candidate to begin with.

And in another corner this Sunday, we had the former Republican House Speaker, Newt Gingrich, proving that he is now completely unfit to lead the Republican Party in any capacity.

See: Gingrich Blasts House GOP's Medicare Plan

White House hopeful Newt Gingrich called the House Republican plan for Medicare "right-wing social engineering," injecting a discordant GOP voice into the party's efforts to reshape both entitlements and the broader budget debate.

I have a middle finger here for you Newt.

In the same interview Sunday, on NBC's "Meet the Press," Mr. Gingrich backed a requirement that all Americans buy health insurance, complicating a Republican line of attack on President Barack Obama's health law.

And here is the other middle finger for you Newt.

Newt, you're fired!

If you would like to read a transcript of the interview, you can find it here : Meet the Press transcript for May 15, 2011 (The msnbc website is a real POS. It is a huge pain in the ass to navigate but if you would like to go to the original source, help yourself.)

[Additional] See: Gingrich Shifts to Damage Control

Its Time To Give Up Your TV

See: Michael Moore joins new Olbermann venture

See Also: Michael Moore to join Keith Olbermann's Current TV program

Along with Michael Moore, Olbermann's new show will feature a number of other luminaries from the lunatic fringe of the hard left. Ken Burns, Markos Moulitsas and Nicole D. Lamoureux.

At least Ken Burns won't strike people as a far-left kook right off the bat. Ken Burn's popularity is largely due to his non-political films about the Civil War and Baseball. That reputation will end with this show.

Why the sudden downturn in the Oil Markets?

Shortly after the Seals capped Osama's ass, the Oil Markets crashed.

Was there a connection?

Maybe not.

From: SPECIAL REPORT - What really triggered oil's greatest rout

A range of factors, both economic and political, were also at play. The recent rise in raw goods has been fueled in part by the U.S. Fed pumping cash into the markets by purchasing $600 billion in bonds. This program has pushed interest rates extraordinarily low, making borrowing essentially free once adjusted for inflation. Investors have been using the super-cheap money to buy into commodity markets. But the Fed's program is slated to end on June 30.

"Funds were likely to take profits before June when the direct (Fed) bond purchases stop. All were eyeballing each other to see who would take profits first," said a London-based oil trader.

It was a government made Oil bubble.

"Spike the Ball" Mr. President. It is important.

From: Obama: I won't release bin Laden death photos

In explaining his choice not to release the photo, Mr. Obama said that "we don't need to spike the football." He said that "given the graphic nature of these photos it would create a national security risk."

Uhm. . . yes you do Mr. President.

You need to show "the enemy" that you have contempt for him.

You need to show the world that we are not afraid of "the enemy."

You don't have to let "Islam" be the issue in this case. Osama was "the face" of Al Qaeda. Showing "the face" of Al Qaeda blasted half away with American bullets is a message that needs to be shown to the enemy and to the world.

Spike the damn ball!

Obama's Unbounce in the Polls

I think it is a problem of the messenger. Obama is just not credible as a hard-nosed warrior. We are now able to see in the Rasmussen polling data that Obama is not getting much if any kind of a boost from the news about the killing of Bin Laden.

From the Daily Presidential Tracking Poll done by Rasmussen.

Overall, 48% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the president's performance. Fifty-one percent (51%) disapprove. Data collected following the news concerning bin Laden shows no significant change in the president’s overall approval rating. The president’s job approval ratings have been remarkably stable over the past year-and-a-half when viewed on a month-by-month basis.

I think that this post explains pretty well the weak (possibly non-existent) bump in the polls.

See: OBL's Death a Victory for the Adults

Because when you drill down, the death of bin Laden has nothing to do with the core beliefs of this President or the entire liberal movement.

Then there was the devastating revelation that it took Obama 16 hours to green-light the operation to kill Osama.

See: Obama took SIXTEEN HOURS to make up his mind about Bin Laden mission

The headline alone is enough. (The rest of the article should still be read.)
Sixteen hours? Obama had to have known that there was a very high probability that one day, the CIA was going to come to him with "Sir, We have Bin Laden in our gun-sights. What are your orders?"

That moment came. He was unprepared - as if he did not know what the right thing to do was.

That is not good. It reinforces the suspicion expressed in the post from the American Thinker.

Obama has come out of this looking like he was unprepared to give the go order but once having been brought around to do that, decided to turn the affair into a campaign event.

Osama Gives No Bump To Obama

See: Bin Laden Death Will Not Boost Obama: Expert

“The immediate reaction in the US notwithstanding, 'normal business' will soon be resumed in US politics. There will be no change on the fiscal/debt polarization and contrary to some commentators' reaction, definitely no election boost for Obama,” said Newton in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday.

Barbara Walters and many others in the media may think that the killing of Osama will boost Obama's re-election chances. There hopes are only a reflection of their fears. Obama is in so much trouble that they are desperate to grasp at anything.

There will be no lasting boost for Obama*. By election day, Osama will be all but forgotten.

The Democrats own the economy. The voters will be thinking about the lack of work and the rising price of gas and food when they think about Obama from now till election day. Osama will be an afterthought at most.

Obama, it's the economy, stupid.

~~~

* You can watch the Rasmussen Daily Presidential Tracking Poll as the numbers begin to show peoples opinion of the president in the days after the Osama killing. I expect a small bump, but one that is so small and temporary that it could easily be confused with noise. A week from now, Obama's numbers will be as bad as they are today, if not worse.

From the May 3rd Report

Daily updates are based upon nightly telephone interviews and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. As a result, two-thirds of the interviews for today’s update were conducted before news was released about the death of Osama bin Laden. Thursday will be the first update based entirely upon interviews conducted after that event. Results from the single night of data collected on Monday shows a modest improvement in the president’s Approval Index rating. However, there was no improvement in the president’s overall approval rating. Caution should always be used when interpreting a single night sample from a tracking poll.

Barbara Walters hopes for an Obama reelection effort boost

See: Barbara Walters: I'd "Hate To Be A Republican" Running Against Obama

Babs, you are confusing how much you would hate to be a Republican with how much Osama's execution won't help Obama's reelection effort.

Osama is Dead

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT ON OSAMA BIN LADEN

East Room

11:35 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Good evening. Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda, and a terrorist who’s responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children.

It was nearly 10 years ago that a bright September day was darkened by the worst attack on the American people in our history. The images of 9/11 are seared into our national memory -- hijacked planes cutting through a cloudless September sky; the Twin Towers collapsing to the ground; black smoke billowing up from the Pentagon; the wreckage of Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where the actions of heroic citizens saved even more heartbreak and destruction.

And yet we know that the worst images are those that were unseen to the world. The empty seat at the dinner table. Children who were forced to grow up without their mother or their father. Parents who would never know the feeling of their child’s embrace. Nearly 3,000 citizens taken from us, leaving a gaping hole in our hearts.

On September 11, 2001, in our time of grief, the American people came together. We offered our neighbors a hand, and we offered the wounded our blood. We reaffirmed our ties to each other, and our love of community and country. On that day, no matter where we came from, what God we prayed to, or what race or ethnicity we were, we were united as one American family.

We were also united in our resolve to protect our nation and to bring those who committed this vicious attack to justice. We quickly learned that the 9/11 attacks were carried out by al Qaeda -- an organization headed by Osama bin Laden, which had openly declared war on the United States and was committed to killing innocents in our country and around the globe. And so we went to war against al Qaeda to protect our citizens, our friends, and our allies.

Over the last 10 years, thanks to the tireless and heroic work of our military and our counterterrorism professionals, we’ve made great strides in that effort. We’ve disrupted terrorist attacks and strengthened our homeland defense. In Afghanistan, we removed the Taliban government, which had given bin Laden and al Qaeda safe haven and support. And around the globe, we worked with our friends and allies to capture or kill scores of al Qaeda terrorists, including several who were a part of the 9/11 plot.

Yet Osama bin Laden avoided capture and escaped across the Afghan border into Pakistan. Meanwhile, al Qaeda continued to operate from along that border and operate through its affiliates across the world.

And so shortly after taking office, I directed Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, to make the killing or capture of bin Laden the top priority of our war against al Qaeda, even as we continued our broader efforts to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat his network.

Then, last August, after years of painstaking work by our intelligence community, I was briefed on a possible lead to bin Laden. It was far from certain, and it took many months to run this thread to ground. I met repeatedly with my national security team as we developed more information about the possibility that we had located bin Laden hiding within a compound deep inside of Pakistan. And finally, last week, I determined that we had enough intelligence to take action, and authorized an operation to get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice.

Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties. After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body.

For over two decades, bin Laden has been al Qaeda’s leader and symbol, and has continued to plot attacks against our country and our friends and allies. The death of bin Laden marks the most significant achievement to date in our nation’s effort to defeat al Qaeda.

Yet his death does not mark the end of our effort. There’s no doubt that al Qaeda will continue to pursue attacks against us. We must –- and we will -- remain vigilant at home and abroad.

As we do, we must also reaffirm that the United States is not –- and never will be -– at war with Islam. I’ve made clear, just as President Bush did shortly after 9/11, that our war is not against Islam. Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader; he was a mass murderer of Muslims. Indeed, al Qaeda has slaughtered scores of Muslims in many countries, including our own. So his demise should be welcomed by all who believe in peace and human dignity.

Over the years, I’ve repeatedly made clear that we would take action within Pakistan if we knew where bin Laden was. That is what we’ve done. But it’s important to note that our counterterrorism cooperation with Pakistan helped lead us to bin Laden and the compound where he was hiding. Indeed, bin Laden had declared war against Pakistan as well, and ordered attacks against the Pakistani people.

Tonight, I called President Zardari, and my team has also spoken with their Pakistani counterparts. They agree that this is a good and historic day for both of our nations. And going forward, it is essential that Pakistan continue to join us in the fight against al Qaeda and its affiliates.

The American people did not choose this fight. It came to our shores, and started with the senseless slaughter of our citizens. After nearly 10 years of service, struggle, and sacrifice, we know well the costs of war. These efforts weigh on me every time I, as Commander-in-Chief, have to sign a letter to a family that has lost a loved one, or look into the eyes of a service member who’s been gravely wounded.

So Americans understand the costs of war. Yet as a country, we will never tolerate our security being threatened, nor stand idly by when our people have been killed. We will be relentless in defense of our citizens and our friends and allies. We will be true to the values that make us who we are. And on nights like this one, we can say to those families who have lost loved ones to al Qaeda’s terror: Justice has been done.

Tonight, we give thanks to the countless intelligence and counterterrorism professionals who’ve worked tirelessly to achieve this outcome. The American people do not see their work, nor know their names. But tonight, they feel the satisfaction of their work and the result of their pursuit of justice.

We give thanks for the men who carried out this operation, for they exemplify the professionalism, patriotism, and unparalleled courage of those who serve our country. And they are part of a generation that has borne the heaviest share of the burden since that September day.

Finally, let me say to the families who lost loved ones on 9/11 that we have never forgotten your loss, nor wavered in our commitment to see that we do whatever it takes to prevent another attack on our shores.

And tonight, let us think back to the sense of unity that prevailed on 9/11. I know that it has, at times, frayed. Yet today’s achievement is a testament to the greatness of our country and the determination of the American people.

The cause of securing our country is not complete. But tonight, we are once again reminded that America can do whatever we set our mind to. That is the story of our history, whether it’s the pursuit of prosperity for our people, or the struggle for equality for all our citizens; our commitment to stand up for our values abroad, and our sacrifices to make the world a safer place.

Let us remember that we can do these things not just because of wealth or power, but because of who we are: one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. May God bless you. And may God bless the United States of America.

~~~

STATEMENT BY PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
by George W. Bush on Sunday, May 1, 2011 at 8:55pm
May 1, 2011

Earlier this evening, President Obama called to inform me that American forces killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of the al Qaeda network that attacked America on September 11, 2001. I congratulated him and the men and women of our military and intelligence communities who devoted their lives to this mission. They have our everlasting gratitude. This momentous achievement marks a victory for America, for people who seek peace around the world, and for all those who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001. The fight against terror goes on, but tonight America has sent an unmistakable message: No matter how long it takes, justice will be done.

See Also: Press Briefing by Senior Administration Officials on the Killing of Osama bin Laden

"It’s almost like they treat raw milk as crack"

Cracking down on an Amish contraband cartel.

See: Feds sting Amish farmer selling raw milk locally

According to the complaint the FDA filed in court, the agency began to look into Mr. Allgyer’s farm in late 2009, when an investigator in their Baltimore office used aliases to sign up for a Yahoo user group for Rainbow Acres’ customers, and began to place orders under the assumed names for unpasteurized milk.

Your minders know what is best for you.

Obey.

Why Now? About the Timing – The Birth Certificate Circus

The screaming above-the-fold headline story of the Seattle Times today was about Obama's Birth certificate: Why now? Obama decided enough was enough

Why Now? Indeed. It is a good question.

If Obama was a Republican, the Seattle Times reporters and the whole of the MSM might have actually done a little investigating into the why of it all, but since Obama is a Democrat (like them), they merely parroted the President’s lame rationalizations without lifting nary a finger at seriously looking into what changed this month and on that day in particular.

Obama’s “We don't have time for this kind of silliness” explanation fails - save that something has been changing in the legal landscape for candidates for Presidency. The time left that he could continue playing games with his Birth Certificate ran out.

Several states have had bills progressing through their legislatures that would have required Presidential candidates to present their birth certificates as proof of eligibility. On the very same day that Obama released his certificate, the Oklahoma House of Representatives had passed a measure that would have required Presidential candidates to show the Birth Certificate in order to appear on their Primary Election ballot.

Arizona passed a similar law last month, but the Governor of that State vetoed the bill.

Louisiana has a bill of this type working its way through their legislative process.

It was just a mater of time before one or more states passed and signed into law a measure that would require the Presidential Candidates to present their Birth Certificate. The “I don’t have to show you my Birth Certificate – you have to take my word for it” game that Obama has been playing since the first day that the Hillary Campaign brought the issue up, had drawn to an ignoble close.

Obama would have had to present his Birth Certificate, or if he chose to continue with the charade, skip having his name on the ballot in one or more states. That would have been too explosive. The game had thus ceased to serve its purpose of being a side-show distraction to keep people from looking at just how awful a President Obama really is.

The Birth Certificate Circus and con-game is now done and over with.

The next left-Dem game will be to call Trump and everyone that is critical of Obama and his policies a racist.

Trump Wins, Obama Loses - The Obama Birth Certificate Circus

I will Give Trump a win on this. He has managed to get Obama to release his birth-certificate after having made a game of it for the entire length of his short Presidential career.

“We do not have time for this kind of silliness,” he said to reporters after the White House released a long-form copy of his birth certificate. Potential Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump stirred up the controversy in recent weeks by demanding Obama prove he was born in Hawaii, not Kenya.

Obama, me-thinks though dost protest too much.

The whole of the birther circus was Obama's creation. He stoked and fuelled it from day one. He has no one to blame for it but himself. All that he had to do was release the damnable thing early on. Instead, he kept the controversy alive. Obama was in control of this issue the whole time. Everyone knows it.

Trump, calls Obama on this while taking credit for getting Obama to release the document.

"I'm taking great credit and you have to ask the president, 'why didn't he do this a long time ago? Why didn't he do it a long time ago?' When Hillary Clinton was asking, when everybody was asking, why didn't he do it? It's shocking. It's shocking," Donald Trump said at a press conference this morning on President Obama's birth certificate.

And like the proven and expert negotiator that Trump has proven himself to be in his business life, he has upped the stakes on Obama, demanding that Obama now release his college transcripts.

"I'd like to know how does he get into Harvard, how does he get into Colombia if he isn't a very good student," Donald Trump told the press this morning in New Hampshire.

"If he wants to release it that's fine, if he doesn't want to release it that's fine too. But the word is he wasn't a very good student," Trump added.

I don't think that Trump understands foreign policy very well. But it is pretty clear that he knows how to "steal the oxygen" in a political campaign. Trump is driving the campaign, Obama is reacting, and reacting badly.

Trump wins today. Obama loses.

If the vote ends up being between Obama the Community Organizer incumbent and Trump the Side-Show Pop-Icon challenger, I will hold my nose and vote for Trump.

Ron Paul, Donald Trump - Losers

Ron Paul is expected to announce his umpteenth Presidential Campaign today. I expect him to do as well as his last campaign for President, which he lost big.

Ron Paul - doing the same thing and expecting a different result.

Donald Trump will be stumping in Nevada at an event billed as “A Return to the Reagan Revolution, from Ronald to Donald.”

Trump has the cajones to go for the jugular in politics, unfortunately, he does not have the judgement necessary to make a good national level candidate for President, much less an actual world leader.

His Birther nonsense is a distraction from how awful Obama is as a President and Donald's remarks about threatening the Saudis and thinking that we should seize Iraqi and Libyan oil fields pretty much proved that he would be as much of a foreign policy disaster as is Obama.

Ron and Don will get a lot of media attention. What they won't get is the GOP nomination.

Wheelbarrows of Dollars against Barrels of Oil

If you pull a dollar out of your pocket, you can almost see it shrink before your very eyes.

See:Don't Like a Weak Dollar? Might as Well Get Used to It

Weakness in the US dollar, which is causing everything to go up—including gas prices, food and stocks—is unlikely to go away soon as a selling frenzy hits the currency market.

Oil is a commodity. Oil is fungible. The value of the dollar will affect the dollar price of a barrel of oil.

Democrat Proposes Toilet Paper Tax.

See: Suttle unrolls toilet paper tax

Raising taxes is how Democrats think that their spending problem can be solved.

Suttle has proposed a 10 cent federal tax on every roll of toilet paper.

Mayor Jim Suttle is a Democrat. His Party affiliation is not mentioned in the article about his toilet-paper tax. Funny how that works.

Barack Obama, Molotov cocktails and rubber bullets

in Rio . . .

See: Rubber Bullets Fly at Anti-Obama Protest In Rio

A molotov cocktail was launched in front of the US consulate in Rio de Janeiro late Friday in protest of the arrival of President Barack Obama, the O Globo newspaper in Rio reported. Military police reacted by firing rubber bullets into the gathering of 200 at around 18:30 local time. A CBN news reporter suffered a minor injury from the shots and traffic was blocked.

It was supposed to be a grand tour of Latin America. Brazil, Chile and El Salvador were to be backdrops for showcasing Obama's popularity, allowing him to be pictured with adoring crowds and given positive press.

Obama should at least be glad that the Rio protesters were not allowed within spitting range.

See Also:
Obama takes in Rio with Libya on his mind

Obama cancels public speech in Rio square: embassy

Obama's Brazil presser scrubbed

Chile protesters want Obama to apologize for CIA encouragement of Pinochet dictatorship

Remember Kosovo?

See: Arid Uka’s Gratitude

Remember Kosovo? Me neither. But it was big at the time, launched by Bill Clinton in the wake of his Monica difficulties: Make war, not love, as the boomers advise. So Clinton did — and without any pesky U.N. resolutions, or even the pretense of seeking them. Instead, he and Tony Blair and even Jacques Chirac just cried “Bombs away!” and got on with it. And the Left didn’t mind at all — because, for a modern Western nation, war is only legitimate if you have no conceivable national interest in whatever war you’re waging. Unlike Iraq and all its supposed “blood for oil,” in Kosovo no one remembers why we went in, what the hell the point of it was, or which side were the good guys. (Answer: Neither.) The principal rationale advanced by Clinton and Blair was that there was no rationale. This was what they called “liberal interventionism,” which boils down to: The fact that we have no reason to get into it justifies our getting into it.

Mark Steyn on Arid Uka, the Muslim terrorist that murdered two US Airmen in Germany this week.

It is worth a read.

[Update 11:49]

Correspondence Committee linked to the Mark Steyn Article today as well. The comments at C2 are often top notch. Take a look.

Facebook Jihad

It appears that Arid Uka, the Jihadi that shot US Military personal in a German Airport had a facebook page.

See: The Radical Islamist Roots of the Frankfurt Attack

A fair number of his 125 Facebook friends would also seem to be sympathetic to radical Islamism. Anti-Semitic, anti-American and anti-Shiite comments are plentiful on both Arid U.'s Facebook page and those of his friends.

Some of the connections, however, are of particular interest to investigators, especially those with well-known figures in the Islamist scene. "He seems to have belonged to an unstructured militant-Salafist environment," said a source familiar with the investigation

.

Social media like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter add a new dimension to media reports about modern terrorist, especially if they have access to the Internet. Raw data about the perpetrator(s) will be available to many people almost instantly without it being filtered by big media journalist and editors.

It will be more difficult for the big media and various governments to hide details about terror suspect. It won't take days or months to find information on the background and worldview of a terrorist. People will be able to just go to the suspect's facebook page and read it direct from there.

They can even see the suspect and event discussed by people who knew him on twitter, much as we saw with Jared Loughner.

Interesting times.

Sudden Jihad Syndrome in Germany?

See: Gunman Shouting 'Allah Akbar' Kills 2 US Airmen in Germany

When he opened fire, the gunman shouted "Allah Akbar," according to sources. He fired nine times, killling two and critically wounding two others before the gun jammed and he was subdued by other passengers. While being wrestled into submission, the suspect shouted either "Jihad Jihad" or "Allah Akbar," sources said.

See also: Shooting at Germany Airport Kills 2 U.S. Airmen

A man whose office is near the site of the shooting said it was an area where buses load arriving passengers. Speaking on condition of anonymity to protect his business, he said witnesses told him that the gunman first talked to the military personnel to find out who they were and then opened fire, shouting “God is great” in Arabic.

The gunman, Arif Uka, is a Kosavar from the town of Mitrovica

Were the Americans on this bus specifically targeted, or were they just targets of opportunity? Arif Uka had a gun at an airport. That suggest that something was planed, even if the particulars and details were not. An airport is a likely place to find Americans. His plan, if he had much of a plan at all, may have been to go to an airport, listen and watch for a large group of Americans - and then shoot them.

Terror does not have to be well planed or planed in much detail. It just requires the will to carry it out.

Will Environmentalist Precipitate A Nuclear War?

It sounds like a crazy question – until you read this:

Small Nuclear War Could Reverse Global Warming for Years (February 22, 2011 – National Geographic News)

That is all that we need.

The world is on the freaking brink as it is without a bunch of eco-wackos thinking that a nice little nuclear war will turn the planet into a garden of eden.

Uhm . . .

Try and get this through your heads eco-wacko-dudes. Nuclear war is bad. Even small nuclear wars are bad. Really bad. You don't want one. not even an itty-bitty tiny-weensy one.

Nuclear war is bad even if some idiot scientists think it will help the environment, which it won't.

“Nah” you say? “Nobody would be so crazy as to think that something so extreme would be a good idea.”

See: Environmental Militant Killed by Police at Discovery Channel Headquarters

From James Lee's Manifesto

“Saving the Planet means saving what's left of the non-human Wildlife by decreasing the Human population. That means stopping the human race from breeding anymore disgusting human babies!

Now imagine a James Lee out there, sitting down to a cup of caffe mocha in his favorite little coffee bar in some ordinary part of the world, reading an article in the National Geographic about how to reverse Global Warming. Think about more than one James Lee. Think about maybe one or two hundred such like minds. It doesn't have to be millions, or thousands, or really even hundreds of James Lees. It only requires a few determined minds with a goal and a mission from Gaia to save the planet.

A crazy lunatic Army of the Twelve Monkeys and a determined Dr. Peters could do some real harm.

Kill The Pirates - Kill Them All

See: 4 Americans on hijacked yacht dead off Somalia

Piracy is not a difficult problem to solve.

You kill the pirates. You hunt them down and you kill them.

If you capture some of them alive, you give them a short trial at sea, and you then kill them right there. There deaths should be quick and ignoble.

"The terrorist threat facing our country has evolved significantly"

See: Terror Threat 'Most Heightened' Since 9/11, Napolitano Says

"The terrorist threat facing our country has evolved significantly in the last ten years -- and continues to evolve -- so that, in some ways, the threat facing us is at its most heightened state since those attacks," she said before the House Homeland Security Committee.

See also: A Measure Of Fear

A Measure Of Fear

See: Refusal of bus ads came on fear of attacks

Law-enforcement officials warned King County Executive Dow Constantine that a bus ad alleging Israeli war crimes — and two ads in response accusing Palestinians of the same — could lead to attacks on buses and passengers, according to documents filed Monday in federal court.

After being advised that news about the ad controversy had been posted on a website associated with the Palestinian Hamas movement, Constantine said, he was concerned the ad would increase the risk of a terrorist attack.

Attacks from whom?

Who do they worry would attack buses in Seattle with rocks and bricks or worse?

Bitching about the casual and indifferent usage of the word "Bitch."

A young woman sitting next to me on the ferry is talking to someone on her cell phone.

She uses the word "Bitch" as often as most people use the word "the" in a conversation. It is a bit shocking to hear. Everyone and everything is a bitch. Even the person that she is talking to is "bitch" as in friend. The word has little more meaning then "girl" or "hey." It is for her, a near meaningless filler word.

Other than that, her dialect, if that is the right word for it, is basic west coast ebonic.

I wonder if she can turn it off?

I also wonder how much that language usage colors her world?

Judge Vinson: "The entire act must be declared void."

See: Judge rules healthcare reform unconstitutional

"Because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire act must be declared void. This has been a difficult decision to reach, and I am aware that it will have indeterminable implications," Vinson wrote.

Fireworks in the courts today.

Mohamed ElBaradei Says He Has A Mandate To Lead

On today's “CNN’s FAREED ZAKARIA GPS” Mohamed ElBaradei all but declares himself the new leader of Egypt.

"What I have been authorized, mandated by the people who organized these demonstrations and by many other parts of the Egyptians, (inaudible) if you like, to agree on a national unity government. And I hope that I would - I should be in touch too with the army, and we need to work together. The army is part of Egypt, and we have the highest respect for them as civilians, and we need to work together to get Egypt (inaudible)."

A video clip and a full transcript of the interview can be found at this link.

Mubarak's remaining time is now measurable in days or hours.

It won't be long now.

Revolution in Egypt

Mubarak is done.

He just has not quit yet. He will either quit on his own very soon, or he will receive some assistance from the Egyptian military. If Mubarak is very unlucky, the Military will let the mob have him.

The Police and the Military are essentially standing down.

See: Egyptians Defiant as Military Does Little to Quash Protests

CAIRO — President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt struggled to maintain a tenuous hold on power on Saturday as the police withdrew from the major cities and the military did nothing to hold back tens of thousands of demonstrators defying a curfew to call for an end to his nearly 30 years of authoritarian rule.

The Muslim Brotherhood will likely be a dominant force in the next Egyptian Government.

See: Egypt's Mubarak faces crisis, protest defies curfew

A senior figure in the Muslim Brotherhood, the banned Islamist group that has long seemed the strongest single force against Mubarak, said it backed ElBaradei as negotiator.

The Brotherhood has stayed in the background although several of its senior officials have been rounded up. The government has accused it of planning to exploit the protests.

Some of its leaders walked free from jails on Sunday.

The crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood is over. The Muslim Brotherhood will back ElBaradei.

Will ElBaradei be Egypt's next leader? Who and what will lead ElBaradei? What will become of Egypt? What is Qutbism and why is it important, particularly now?

Mubarak was not a good guy.

In politics on the world stage, you rarely have the opportunity, much less the luxury of choosing saints to make alliances with. All too often you have to choose between bad and worse.

Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak were not good guys. What has made them valuable to the West is that they both have kept Egypt a comparatively moderate and mostly secular nation in an area of the world that has been dominated by lunatics and theocrats.

Now that is about to change.

We live in interesting times.

Egypt on the brink

See: Egypt president's son, family flee to Britain

If this is true, if Hosni Mubarak's son, the man that was being groomed to be the next leader of Egypt has fled the country, then revolution is at hand.

This could end up being another Iran or another Lebanon. Either way, it is bad for Egypt, bad for the West and bad for Israel.

The world is getting more dangerous.

Much more dangerous.

[Additional - 02:46]

See: REPORT: Egypt President Mubarak's Family Flees for UK

Fenway_Nation has a very good post on this topic. Take a look.

"Left-Wing Pothead" shoots Congresswoman in Arizona

See: Jared Loughner, Alleged Shooter in Gabrielle Giffords Attack, Described by Classmate as "Left-Wing Pothead"

The American Left tried to blame this tragedy on the American Right from the very first minutes that the reports of the shooting hit the newswires.

There was a small problem. Their meme clashed with reality.

The American Right can accept that this shooting had little if anything to do with politics. Can the American Left accept that as well? I have my doubts.

Jared's YouTube videos reveal a mind that is deeply troubled.

As of the time of this posting, his YouTube page is still up. You can see for yourself where the shooter's head was at. Take a look at the three videos that he posted and the one, the only one, that he listed as one of his favorites.

There is nothing even remotely right-wing about his videos or of the one he listed as a favorite. His "favorite" is a video celebrating burning the American flag. That is something that places this guy about as far away from the American Right as it is possible to get and still be in the same country.

As for Starhitshnaz, the person that posted the America: Your Last Memory In A Terrorist Country! video, I suspect that it is Jared as well. Note the first popup baloon "You didn't know that B.C.E isn't starting?" in the "favorite" video and the line in Jared's Introduction: Jared Loughner saying "B.C.E. years are unable to start."

I think that Jared Loughner is Starhitshnaz.

As for what Jared wrote on the YouTube page that he puts his name to, he wrote his self descriptions on that page in the "past" tense.

Interests: "My favorite interest was reading, and I studied grammar. . .

- and

Books: "I had favorite books: . . ."

Jared's YouTube page suggests that he had suicide on his mind. Probably "suicide by cop" as suggested by his later actions.

From what his friends tell of him, he was a leftist and pothead. I don't think Jared's politics is relevant to this event.

Giffords was a high profile target that would guarantee an aggressive response by law enforcement.

The Giffords shooting was not political. It was tragic, but it was not political.

Those that are trying to lay the blame for this tragedy on the American Right are being shockingly mean spirited, ugly and shameful. You people need to get a grip.

$15.00 Movie Tickets And Declining Movie Theater Attendance

See: Warner Bros Wins 2010 Film Market Share; Year's Box Office Grosses Not A Record; Overall Movie Attendance Down Sharply; Should Studios Slash Number Of 3D Pics?

I like going to the movies. There is something magic about seeing a movie on the large screen. I like to sit near the front where the image on the screen fills your whole field of vision. With the sound up loud and surrounding you, you can shut out everything and put yourself in the movie.

Last weekend, I bought a ticket to see Tron: Legacy. I enjoyed it. Jeff Bridges overacts a bit. I don't know if that is Jeff's fault in this picture of it is the director's fault. The story was interesting. (It had elements of the "constrained" weltanschauung to it which was unexpected.)

What I did not like was the $15.00 price for a single ticket. What the (****) is Hollywood thinking? At that price, I will be spending fewer of my dollars at the movie theater. It is a hell of a lot cheaper to wait a few months and buy a DVD in the bargain bin somewhere then it is to shell out that kind of money for the "theater" experience.

At half the price of the ticket, I would have recommended that my friends go see Tron: Legacy in the theater. At $15.00? Screw that. I will tell them it is worth digging out of the bargain bin when they find it, but I won't recommend that anyone spend $15.00 to see it in the theater.

I make a hell of lot more money now then I did back when I was a teenager. I used to be able to afford to go to the movies on my weekends. Not anymore.