Sunday, May 15, 2011
Bank Failures By Year
2000: 002
2001: 004
2002: 011
2003: 003
2004: 004
2007: 003
2008: 025
2009: 140
2010: 157
Year to Date 2011: 40
Saturday, May 14, 2011
The Line of the Day from Real Clear Politics
"I heard the line was too long so Osama gave up."
-- kegan05, comment in response to:
George Bush: The Smug Head Speaks
Just recently, here:
Bush said US foreign policy needs to continue to promote the ideas of democracy and freedom as a way to combat global terrorism.
"The long-term solution is to promote a better ideology, which is freedom. Freedom is universal," Bush said.
The problem is that 1.57 billion people around the world, who value submission as a way of life over freedom, would not agree.
Fighting ideology with ideology is not the solution.
Friday, May 13, 2011
Manufacturing Jobs Have Tanked to Levels Last Seen in the 1940s
The declines under W and under Obama have been precipitous, after three decades of relative continuity.
The jobs all went to China. I love my fancy stainless steel All-Clad cookware made there. Unfortunately I can't afford the steak I'd like to cook in it.
"And they shall beat their cookware into swords, and their patio furniture into spears, and nation shall lift up the sword against nation, and they shall learn to make warfare evermore."
Allegations Planned Parenthood Complicit in Covering Up Child Rape in Kansas
As reported here:
During 18 months in 2002 and 2003, Planned Parenthood and Tiller performed 166 abortions on girls aged 14 or younger, yet state agencies had only one report of statutory child rape from each. Why weren't they reporting clear cases of child rape, as required by law?
Pompous Senators Rake in 18.4 Cents For Every Gallon of Gas Sold . . .
. . . while states take in 20.6 cents!
And they begrudge Exxon 7 cents a gallon in profits?
Jerks! Government is the biggest gasoline profiteer!
If Healthcare is a Right, a Doctor Becomes a Slave
A point we have made in the past:
"With regard to the idea of whether you have a right to health care, you have realize what that implies. It's not an abstraction. I’m a physician. That means you have a right to come to my house and conscript me. It means you believe in slavery."
-- Senator Rand Paul, quoted here
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Obama Sent Planes to Mexico to Fight Fires, But Wouldn't Help Texas
Military C-130s were sent to stop Mexico's fires in April, as reported here, but Texans didn't get a federal declaration of disaster for their recent fires, as reported here.
Obviously, Mexico provides Obama with more votes than Texas.
Showing no favor to worthy people: one of the marks of a tyranny. And another is like it, from Aristotle: "The guards of a tyrant are foreigners."
Showing no favor to worthy people: one of the marks of a tyranny. And another is like it, from Aristotle: "The guards of a tyrant are foreigners."
Leftist FDL Slams Obama for Kicking Housing Can Down the Road
And rightly so:
The design of HAMP simply kicked the can down the road. It was never designed to be a durable solution for the housing market. And we’re seeing the results: four years after the housing crash, prices keep dropping, distressed properties keep popping up on the market, and people keep losing their homes.
It also shows how the homebuyer’s tax credit was a useless giveaway to people wealthy enough to buy homes, which did nothing to alter the fundamentals of the housing market.
The rest is worth reading, too, here.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Five Radiation Monitoring Posts in Fukushima Prefecture Still Above 10 MicroSv/hr
Post #32: 20.1 microsieverts/hour
Post #33: 15.3
Post #79: 10.2/10.7
Post #81: 18.4
Post #83: 43.8/43.4
(source)
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Radiation Conditions at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant Still 154-3700 Times Normal
On May 7th, 2100 hours, Japan time:
408 microSv/h at the south side of the office building;
45 microSv/h at the Main gate;
17 microSv/h at the West gate.
Saturday, May 7, 2011
How We Punish Determines Who We Are
A concept I have not found discussed anywhere in the wake of the "bin Laden" execution, except here at Salon by Glenn Greenwald.
The reason? Only about 14 percent of you give a damn.
If the US Navy Seals were sent to take no prisoners, how are we any different than bin Laden?
If the US Navy Seals were sent to take no prisoners, how are we any different than bin Laden?
"Narrow is the gate and difficult the way that leads to life, and few there be that find it."
Friday, May 6, 2011
Is SITE Monitoring Service Credible in Report of Al Qaeda Confirming Death of Osama?
There's at least one person who doesn't think so:
SITE is a US military-industrial complex front and has been caught red-handed releasing fake Al-Qaeda tapes on numerous occasions.
The SITE organization is nothing more than a contractor for the US government, receiving some $500,000 a year annually from Uncle Sam, the majority of which is paid for by US taxpayers. The group was founded by Rita Katz, the daughter of an executed Israeli spy. Katz has worked closely with the Department of Justice, Department of the Treasury, and the Department of Homeland Security.
Bin Laden Waited Until The Very Last Moment To Lunge For a Weapon?
That's what you have to believe if you accept your government's explanation, which seems even more incredible now that we have this from a morally challenged US Senator:
US commandos missed with their first shot a[s] the world’s most wanted man poked his head out of a third-floor room in his fortress, according to US Sen. Saxby Chambliss, the ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Bin Laden ducked back in, and the Navy SEALS quickly followed and finished the job, Chambliss said in a telephone interview this afternoon.
The job? Try execution.
Much more here.
"A murder committed by uninvited American troops on foreign soil, illegally"
Bob Ellis rips us a new one:
"And Osama Bin Laden was buried at sea. Full fathom five thy father lies. Of his bones are coral made. Those are pearls that were his eyes. Imagine Hitler, buried at sea. Or Trotsky. How stupid can they be?"
"Al Qaeda Confirms bin Laden Death." Unless, of course, That's an NSA Operation.
One lie is as good as the next one.
"Al Qaeda confirmed the death of Osama bin Laden Friday in an Internet message that vowed revenge on the United States and its allies, including Pakistan, according to the SITE monitoring service."
As reported here via Reuters.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
My Favorite Made Up Story About the Abbottabad Assault
As soon as they realised what was happening, Bin Laden’s guards opened fire from the rooftop with rocket-propelled grenades and apparently managed to shoot down one of the Black Hawks.
Univ. of Michigan Ph.D. Doesn't Know His Principles From The Principal
Honestly, I don't go looking for these mistakes, I just happen to find them somehow! That I find them so broadly distributed and at the supposedly highest levels is a bad sign of an accelerating cultural decline.
". . . Bell’s principle concern in the chapter is to correct some popular misconceptions . . .."
It is a popular misconception that there is mastery of knowledge apart from mastery of the language with which one expresses it.
Go to the principal's office at once!
(source)
A Lovely Grammatical Error, By a So-Called Associate Professor
". . . including one recently convened by my colleagues and I from Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion . . .."
Seen here, by I.
Savage Asks: Why Now? Why Get "bin Laden" on Sunday?
To wipe the royal wedding off the news cycle, because Obama wasn't invited. The I-Me-My-Narcissist excuse.
Sorry, nice dig, but too short-sighted, and it underestimates the size of that narcissistic ego, whose fortunes all hinge on race. If Obama suddenly appeared white, it would all be over in an instant.
Re-election is the goal. Ending the war in Afghanistan is the one obstacle he can still affect. The end of "bin Laden," who may well have died long ago, leads easily to closure of that debacle. Alexander the Great might have concluded as much, who got bogged down and fought until he was tired, and needed to move on.
So find a victory, declare it, and get the hell out.
The original plan had called for the first withdrawals, after the ramp-up, "the surge," to begin this summer. The "bin Laden" victory in May provides the necessary praeparatio to start them. Ending America's longest war "successfully" will make Obama popular with the troops and with the people, who all are weary.
"Bin Laden" Had Plenty of Time to Arm Himself as Others Were "Eliminated"
The "lunge" for a weapon when faced with a US Navy Seal in the doorway is pure fantasy. He had plenty of time to prepare with a weapon as the systematic assault unfolded.
How about a lunge for cover instead, and a bullet in the back of the head as he went?
And in a revelation which appears to lend weight to the claims in Pakistan, a senior US defence official told reporters that only one of the five people killed in the raid that took down Osama Bin Laden was armed and ever fired a shot.
And the official said the shooter was killed in the early minutes of the commando assault, in an account that differs greatly from the original reports which portrayed a chaotic, prolonged firefight amid stiff resistance.
The new details emerged after officials debriefed the Navy Seals who pulled off the raid in Pakistan.
He said the operation was a precision, floor-by-floor mission through Bin Laden's compound where all of the others encountered were not carrying weapons and were quickly eliminated.
. . . Especially if the US Navy Seal Shot "bin Laden" in the Back of the Head
"It is important for us to make sure that very graphic photos of somebody who was shot in the head are not floating around as an incitement to additional violence or as a propaganda tool."
-- Obama, quoted here
A caller to Rush Limbaugh today suggested, on the analogy of the headshot to JFK, that the exit wound is the problem here, not the entry wound.
News Organizations Tip-Toe Up to Fact of White House Incompetence and Lies
Even the gullible UK Daily Mail has noticed:
The raid on Bin Laden's lair has been the focus of a constantly changing stream of information from the White House.
So has the normally compliant Reuters:
US accounts of what happened have changed throughout the week, and initial characterizations of a 40-minute gun battle have given way to officials being quoted as saying only one of the five people who were killed had been armed.
AP Report Shows Obama Intended to Kill, Not Capture: Only One Was Armed
This was a state sanctioned murder of unarmed combatants, which Obama and his attorney general have insisted in the past be treated as civilian criminals. So not only were his actions illegal and contrary to the American values he has claimed to defend, his actions were contrary to his own definition of those values:
Only one of the five people killed in the raid that got Osama bin Laden was armed and fired a shot . . ..
As the Navy SEALs moved into bin Laden's compound, they were fired on by bin Laden's courier, who was in the guesthouse, the official said. The SEALs returned fire, and the courier was killed, along with a woman with him. ...
The Americans were never fired on again as they encountered and killed a man on the first floor and then bin Laden's son on a staircase, before arriving at bin Laden's room. Officials have said bin Laden was killed after he appeared to be lunging for a weapon.
The complete story is here.
Obama Would Tax You By The Mile If He Could
Obama is trying to figure out yet another way to tax Americans:
The Obama administration has floated a transportation authorization bill that would require the study and implementation of a plan to tax automobile drivers based on how many miles they drive.
Read the rest here.
"It is necessary [in a tyranny] also to multiply taxes, as at Syracuse; where Dionysius in the space of five years collected all the private property of his subjects into his own coffers."
-- Aristotle, Politics
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Leon Panetta to the Rescue: Implicates Live Feed Breakdown for Ignorant Statements
See the video here:
"[T]here was a time period of almost 20 or 25 minutes where we - you know, we really didn't know just exactly what was going on . . .."
Live Feed From Abbottabad Assault Was Cut Off For 25 Minutes
The White House was blind during that whole time:
Leon Panetta, director of the CIA, revealed there was a 25 minute blackout during which the live feed from cameras mounted on the helmets of the US special forces was cut off.
Full story here.
The President Lied to the World on Sunday Night
“After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body.”
There was no firefight. There were no weapons in the compound. The only fire came from US Navy Seals, ordered (unlawfully) to execute "Osama."
Waterboarding, no.
Execution of an unarmed combatant, yes.
Impeachable offenses, yes.
The Petty Tyrant Stiffs The Free Republic of Texas, Twice
No space shuttle, no fire disaster aid.
Story here.
"A tyrant also should show no favour to a man of worth or a freeman; for he should think, that no one deserved to be thought these but himself; for he who supports his dignity, and is a friend to freedom, encroaches upon the superiority and the despotism of the tyrant: such men, therefore, they naturally hate, as destructive to their government."
-- Aristotle, Politics
"A tyrant also should show no favour to a man of worth or a freeman; for he should think, that no one deserved to be thought these but himself; for he who supports his dignity, and is a friend to freedom, encroaches upon the superiority and the despotism of the tyrant: such men, therefore, they naturally hate, as destructive to their government."
-- Aristotle, Politics
The UK Daily Mail Totally Falls For Obama's Lies
Story here:
My favorite whopper is point 5: Commandos dodge bullets as Osama fires AK47 from bedroom window.
That's rich.
White House Admits "bin Laden" was Unarmed
This was a lawless, assassination, mission, pure and simple, committed by a tyrant and the agents of a tyrant:
MR. CARNEY: And I want to make clear that is, again, information that is fresh, and we will continue to gather and provide to you details as we get them and we’re able to release them.
The resistance was throughout. As I said, when the assaulter entered the room where Osama bin Laden was, he was rushed by one individual in the room, and the resistance was consistent from the moment they landed until the end of the operation.
Yes.
Q Jay, just to follow up, how did Obama -- excuse me, Osama bin Laden resist if he didn’t -- if he didn’t have his hand on a gun, how was he resisting?
MR. CARNEY: Yes, the information I have to you -- first of all, I think resistance does not require a firearm. But the information I gave you is what I can tell you about it. I’m sure more details will be provided as they come available and we are able to release them.
Q Did he have any weapon?
MR. CARNEY: He was not armed, is what I understand to be true.
Bin Laden and Company Had No Weapons
So says Al Arabiyah News here:
Similarly, according to information Pakistani officials collected from detained persons, Osama was neither armed nor did inmates at the compound fire at the US choppers or commandos.
“Not a single bullet was fired from the compound at the US forces and their choppers. Their chopper developed some technical fault and crashed and the wreckage was left on the spot,” a well-informed official explained.
Koran Burning Endangers Soldiers, But Assassinating bin Laden Won't?
Let's see, how many US officials pressured Rev. Jones about the meaningless, symbolic insult?
Jones had been under pressure from the U.S. government to cancel the protest. President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Gen. David Petraeus and others had warned that the protest could bring attacks against U.S. troops in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Earlier Thursday, Obama implored Jones to call off his Quran-burning "stunt," telling ABC's "Good Morning America" in an interview aired Thursday that he hopes Jones listens to "those better angels."
"And as a very practical matter, I just want him to understand that this stunt that he is talking about pulling could greatly endanger our young men and women who are in uniform," Obama said.
Oh, but that was then. This is now.
"Waterboarding is Evil, But Shooting an Unarmed Man in the Head is OK"
Heard on "Don Wade and Roma" this morning.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)