"It Ain't [America] No More, OK?"

(Hat tip to Gateway Pundit)

If the following video, taken at the August 25, 2009 town hall with U.S. House Representative James Moran and Howard Dean at South Lakes High School in Northern Virginia, doesn't make your blood boil, what does? Please note that Wesley Cheeks, Jr., is not a Fairfax County Police officer; his paycheck is funded by the local taxpayers, however.



The unedited text from the YouTube posting (emphases mine):

This video was taken on Tuesday, August 25th, 2009, at Rep. Jim Moran's (D-VA) Town Hall meeting on Obama Deathcare (Howie Dean was there too) held at South Lakes High School in Reston, VA.

Many people were left outside when the school filled to capacity. School security officer Wesley Cheeks, Jr. did not like my anti-Obamacare poster which used one of the gone-viral "Joker" graphics.

When I said to Officer Cheeks, "This used to be America!" his response was: "It ain't no more, OK?"

I feel sorry for Officer Cheeks. He, like many African-Americans are being played by the racist Obama administration. Wake up people. They used to want you only for your votes, but now with the huge hispanic illegals pouring in they won't even need you for that. Watch those inner city abortion clinics get stimulated though. Democrat and church leaders sure seem to have time and money to build those.

Google "margaret sangar black children eugenics" (no quotes) and find out what's REALLY behind those Democrat abortuariums run by Planned Parenthood. Democrat eugenicists like Rahm Emanuel and his brother Zeke "Dr. Mengele" Emanuel and John Holdren and George Soros and Mr. Abortion himself, Barack Obama can't kill enough black babies. The ovens are fired up. Wake up people.

Satan is in da house.

Comments to the posting already number well over 1000.

Over at Gateway Pundit's posting, I noted the following comment:

I don't think we're Republicans and Democrats any longer. Now we can be divided up between people who believe in free speech and those who don't.
leftlogic 08.29.09 - 12:07 am

Yes, this choice is the point to which BHO and this Democratic Congress have brought us.

More information about the Northern Virginia town hall at Radio Free Dar Al Harb.

At the suggestion of Pastorius:



Pastorius cutting in: 

I like that, but actually, AOW misunderstood me.

This is the video I had suggested accompany this story:

Eiffel Tower to be Illuminated in the Turkish Colours

The Eiffel tower will be illuminated in the colours of the Turkish flag complete with crescent and star from 8-29 October 2009.

Protesters click HERE.

Cross-posted at Roncesvalles.

Malaysia: Taliban In The Making (Video)

From this posting at Ekawaaz:


Ekawaaz commented in his posting:

Malaysia which is considered one of the most “tolerant” Islamic Nations appears to be changing and changing for the worst. See the new face of this nation so called tolerant peaceful Muslims Nation and that’s also in the so-called holy month of Ramadan.

Fundamentalist Islam inexorably marches on.

Midnight Special

Robin Trower
Bridge of Sighs

A Followup On An Uncorroborated Report From the Area of Camp Pendleton

A few days ago I post the following story:

Because I live in Orange County, CA, I am hearing that something is up at Camp Pendleton which is, seemingly, unprecedented.

A woman I am friends with told me that she has lived in Coto De Caza, CA (it's a country club area) perhaps 8-12 miles (as the crow flies) from Pendleton, and she has never heard "anything like it."

For the past "two weeks" there has been "non-stop night time bombing" exercises going on.

She said that in the past 12 years she has never heard bombing for more than one night, and even then, it's only been a few bombs.

I asked her if some of the bombs were bigger than any she had ever heard before, and she said, "Yes."

Are these the 30 thousand pound bunker busters we've been hearing about?

Is Camp Pendleton conducting practice night time raids against Iran?

Related stories?

Jets to Bomb Pendleton

Midnight Bomb Run Set For Pendleton

Camp Pendleton Bombing For Two Weeks Now ... (June 18, 2009)

I admit that, because I am not well-versed in military matters, I was cowed by the following comments:

Total said...
The MOP has only been tested at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico; the same place where they tested the MOAB and the original Trinity atomic bomb. As Matrix said, Camp Pendleton is too close to a population center and it has never really had a history as an experimental weapons test site.

Total said...
In regard to El Centro and the Salton Sea: it is currently used as a training site for U.S. and British helicopter crews as the terrain and temperature there resembles the environment in Afghanistan closely.

Anonymous said...
More than likely it's Marine F/A-18s doing some runs. Obama WILL not fight Iran. I find it amusing people thinks he will.

Secondly, the Marines don't have any aircraft that can carry those big ass bunker busters. The Air Force does and they have their own ranges and more secluded.

And then, today, in a telephone conversation explaining the post to my friend Midnight Rider, I realized that I could have been right in my assessment of the situation all along, and the story could be bigger than I realized in the first place.

First, when I was in this lady's home (once again, just a few miles from Camp Pendleton) I heard the distinctive sound of F-16's flying overhead several times. In fact, that is what brought up the conversation about the bombing. (For the record, living in the Los Angeles/Orange County Area, I am used to the sound of F-16's, which are called out whenever there is danger suspected at John Wayne Airport/LAX/Disneyland. And, the Marines, to my knowledge, do not have F-16's. Am I wrong about that?)

I asked her, "What the hell was that?"

And she responded by telling me the story of the night-bombing exercises she has been hearing for the past two weeks.

In fact, what we could be witnessing here is a joint Air Force and Marine exercise. If that is the case, then the Pentagon has a larger plan in the works than the one upon which I initially speculated.

Could it be that the Air Force intends to bomb Iran, and drop Marine Special Forces into Tehran to take control during the course of the bombing?

Note, I do not believe that Obama is in control of the whole nation. If you look at history, you will see that there are always larger plans at work (constructed by the Pentagon, CIA, State Dept., and the FBI) which each succeeding Administration is called to conform to.

Even the Carter Administration followed through on the Containment Policy, conceived by George Kennan in 1946 (to the extent that he was not capable of rejecting the over-arching plan).

From Wikipedia:

(Containment was a United States policy using military, economic, and diplomatic strategies to temper the spread of Communism, enhance America’s security and influence abroad, and prevent a "domino effect". A component of the Cold War, the policy was a response to a series of moves by theSoviet Union to expand Communist influence in Eastern Europe, China, and Korea. It represented a middle-ground position between appeasement androllback. The basis of the doctrine was articulated in a 1946 cable by U.S. diplomat George F. Kennan. As a description of U.S. foreign policy, the word originated in a report Kennan submitted to Defense Secretary James Forrestal in January 1947, a report that was later published as a magazine article. It is a translation of the French cordon sanitaire, used to describe Western policy toward the Soviet Union in the 1920s.)

Even Jimmy Carter, in all his Pacifist Glory, was incapable of putting an end to this policy.

And so, I believe, even Obama, in all his anti-American-hegemony Glory is powerless to put a stop to the larger plans, already in the works, by the Pentagon.

What do you say? Do you really believe Obama has the absolute authority to tell the Pentagon, "No", without severe repercussions?

Remember, we live in a system of checks and balances.

Or, am I wrong?

Follow on from Midnight Rider:

As I said to Pastorius. Obama may be an Alinskyite (may be???) but at the same time I don't think he wants to see America attacked. He may want to see it socialist or communist but he still wants to be the one running the show.

If he percceives a threat to the country he may act to disrupt it.

Now, whether he disrupts it to protect America as it is or as he hopes to change it to/in his own self interest is open to discussion.

He does not want to surrender his "rule", his power. So, if he sees a threat, he may attack first, if only to preserve his own position.

Beyond everything else, he's a narcissist. He gets off on being in charge. Of the world knowing HE is the President (he has no problem reminding people of that).

Do you really think he'd want to let that go?

Apparently, We're Now Using The UAE To Do Our Dirty Work

I can't figure out if it is pathetic of the Obama Administration to abandon such purposes to the UAE, or if, on the other, perhaps, it is a work of genius.

Maybe, Obama thinks it is forcing the Muslim world to take responsibility for the chaos they create. If that is the way he is thinking, the I toast him. A glass of Wild Turkey and a cigar (in the name of Midnight Rider) to Obama.

From Bloomberg:

Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) -- The United Arab Emirates has seized a ship carrying North Korean-manufactured munitions, detonators, explosives and rocket-propelled grenades bound for Iran in violation of United Nations sanctions, diplomats said.

The UAE two weeks ago notified the UN Security Council of the seizure, according to the diplomats, who spoke on condition they aren’t named because the communication hasn’t been made public. They said the ship, owned by an Australian subsidiary of a French company and sailing under a Bahamian flag, was carrying 10 containers of arms disguised as oil equipment.

The council committee that monitors enforcement of UN sanctions against North Korea wrote letters to Iran and the government in Pyongyang asking for explanations of the violation, and one to the UAE expressing appreciation for the cooperation, the envoys said. No response has been received and the UAE has unloaded the cargo, they said.

The UAE and Iranian missions to the UN didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. The Financial Times reported the weapons seizure earlier today.

The Security Council voted on June 12 to adopt a resolution that punishes North Korea for its recent nuclear-bomb test and missile launches through cargo inspections and enforcement of restrictions on financial transactions. The measure calls for the interdiction at seaports, airports or in international waters of any cargo suspected of containing arms or nuclear or missile-related materials going to or from North Korea.

UN Sanctions

Iran is under three sets of UN sanctions for its refusal to halt uranium enrichment, a process to isolate a uranium isotope needed to generate fuel for a nuclear power reactor or, in higher concentrations, to make a weapon.

Iran denies allegations by the U.S. and some of its major allies that it seeks an atomic weapon or the means to build one, insisting the nuclear work is intended to generate electricity.

U.S. President Barack Obama has said the Iranian government must respond by late September to his request for new talks on curbing its nuclear program. Iran last month said work is under way on proposals that may provide the basis for renewed talks.

"The Religion of Peace" Video Cartoons

Russia: Jihadists Kill Four Policeman and Seven Women In a Sauna

Just another chapter in the Religion of Peace:

Russian police are hunting gunmen who killed seven women at a sauna and four policemen at a checkpoint in the troubled southern region of Dagestan.

The attack happened on Thursday in the town of Buynaksk, 41km (25 miles) from the regional capital Makhachkala.

Police say they know the identities of some of the gunmen, who fled into a forest after the attack.

Separately, four policemen and two militants were killed in a clash near Grozny, in neighbouring Chechnya.

Moscow has been keen to portray Chechnya and the region as an area returning to normal after years of unrest.

But these latest attacks form part of a wider pattern: a growing anti-Kremlin, Islamist insurgency that appears to be spreading across the North Caucasus, the BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse reports.

The Doobie Brothers

Sweet Maxine

"She was born with it in her soul. . ."

back at you, Carlos :)

Steven Crowder's Goes Liberal

Talks like a duck

ObamaCare Opponents Want to Destroy 'First President Who Looks Like Me' ...oh, apparently this congresswoman is black

WHO CARES?

Hey Midnight Rider...Early Bird Happy Hour

My favorite Rolling Stones song...then and now!!!





Sorry I have been away my fellow Infidels but I return with a special dedication of videos for our beloved musical guru, Midnight Rider. (sponsored by Canadian Mist Whiskey and yes it is before noon in the Magic City of Miami!!!!)

STUCK ON STUPID: Mullen-Military chief seeks new plan to woo Muslims

Mullen says actions, not words, needed to erase 'arrogant Americans' label

By Thom Shanker

updated 2 hours, 9 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has written a searing critique of government efforts at "strategic communication" with the Muslim world, saying that no amount of public relations will establish credibility if American behavior overseas is perceived as arrogant, uncaring or insulting.

The critique by the chairman, Adm. Mike Mullen, comes as the United States is widely believed to be losing ground in the war of ideas against extremist Islamist ideology. The issue is particularly relevant as the Obama administration orders fresh efforts to counter militant propaganda, part of its broader strategy to defeat the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"To put it simply, we need to worry a lot less about how to communicate our actions and much more about what our actions communicate"

I reccommend about one hour with Walid Phares, you moron.

This guy is the perfect CJCS for Obama. Gates is the perfect SecDef for him, and Obama is the penultimate sensitive 90's guy to lead the new style oblast of life by niceness, OR ELSE

FAILURE, CALUMNY, FRUSTRATION, DISASTER

Walks like a duck

Bill would give president emergency control of Internet

Internet companies and civil liberties groups were alarmed this spring when a U.S. Senate bill proposed handing the White House the power to disconnect private-sector computers from the Internet.

They're not much happier about a revised version that aides to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, have spent months drafting behind closed doors. CNET News has obtained a copy of the 55-page draft (excerpt), which still appears to permit the president to seize temporary control of private-sector networks during a so-called cybersecurity emergency.

The new version would allow the president to "declare a cybersecurity emergency" relating to "non-governmental" computer networks and do what's necessary to respond to the threat. Other sections of the proposal include a federal certification program for "cybersecurity professionals," and a requirement that certain computer systems and networks in the private sector be managed by people who have been awarded that license

Duh! Or: Three Cheers to Stalinism

I came across the following while I was doing some modest research on the man-with-migration-background-on-German-female rape statistics. The figures concerning the rape of European women by Muslim immigrants, specifically in the Scandinavian countries, are, thanks to Fjordman, well known. However, figures about Germany are conspiciously missing. I have two explanations for that, which may both apply or be both wrong. The first one is that Muslim immigrant-on-indigene rapes are yet not as ubiquitous in Germany as they are in Scandinavia or the U.K., the other one is that Germany is not on the international map, as in so many other respects. However, searching (without result) for such figures, I came across a study by the Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit of the London Metropolitan University "Rape: Still a forgotten issue". As soon I see a feminist issue called "forgotten", all my inner alarm bells start ringing, and I was, not too amazingly, right. The Search for "Germany" led me to the following information dating back to 2001:

Country	Reported Rapes	Population in Mio
England/Wales	9743	52
Germany	7891	82
Greece	170	10
Sweden	1752	9

The interpretation is rather endearing:

If reporting were constant with respect to population, the Greek and Swedish figures should be relatively similar, but the country with a smaller population has a reporting rate ten times higher. Similarly, the German figure should be considerably higher than that for England and Wales, but is actually a fifth lower.

"Should"! You don't say!

At this point, a look at the methodology of the study may be in order:

The base data comprises short questionnaires sent to Justice Ministries in all European Union member states, aspirant states, Switzerland and Norway. Information was sought on:
• Numbers of rape cases reported, prosecuted and resulting in convictions in 1998-2001.
• For countries that failed to respond to the first survey, or provided incomplete data, an opportunity to provide the same information for 1977-1997.
• Any recent research containing either national prevalence data, including unreported rapes, or analysis of the attrition process.
• Details of any major reforms during the 1980s and 1990s with respect to: criminal law on rape; courtroom procedures; guidelines for prosecutors; guidelines for police investigations.
• National provision for forensic medical examinations.
Views were also sought about barriers to successfully prosecuting rape cases and whether rape was currently on the national political agenda. Ministries were, therefore, sent variations of the questionnaire depending on what data had, and had not, been provided previously.

Of 35 Justice Ministries, 21 returned questionnaires, some promptly, others only after multiple reminders by both the research team, and project partners in country. The non-cooperation of some states, and the absence of complete data from others, raises issues about the possibilities of tracking the most fundamental indicators of responses to violence against women, which has not only been recommended by the European Women’s Lobby (2001), but also been matters of policy development during the last four presidencies of the EU.

In other words, this was not a study about rape, but on the willingness of European authorities to comply with mindless, pseudo-academic, feminist projects. No attention was given to the perpetrators, and the authors of the study made no effort whatsoever to ask why some figures were not as they "should" have been.

What about this:

Country	Muslims	Percent
U.K.	1,640,958-2,000,000	2.7-3.3
Germany	4,413,639	4.9
Greece	139,182	1.3
Sweden	270,933	3

I took the figures from the Wikipedia entry about worldwide Islam. Notabene that they are from 2007, not 2001, and that they apply to the entire U.K. and not just to England and Wales. However, as this is a blog entry, not a post-doc project, they will have to do.

Can there be conclusions be drawn from this? Maybe. Here they are mine in no particular order. It shows (and I am sure that further figures for different countries will substantiate that) 3% of Muslim population seems to be a critical limit. It shows further, that the Brits are unable to control their Muslim population and to keep track of their population generally. But most of all, it shows that a modicum of knowledge about the countries one attempts to "analyze" is indispensable.

The number of reported rapes in Germany fell from 1984 to 1990, but increases from this year, although with year on year variation. This trend accelerates sharply with a 16 per cent increase between 1997 and 1998 although this decreases slightly in 1999 and 2000 before rising again in 2001. That said, however, the large increase one would expect following reunification, which almost doubled the population, is not evident in these figures.

Yes girls! That is, because there were very few Muslims living in the former GDR and those who were knew quite well that any antics about "religious freedom" and "freedom of speech" wouldn't have taken them all that far in Stalinist Germany, also, rape was rather frowned upon.

Duh!

First posted at Roncesvalles.

Is it clear yet, that if we don't make up our minds to kill everyone, we need a special nation building force?

The cacophony has begun in the last 60 days as deaths in Afghanistan outstrip those in Iraq, and in proportion to the amount Cindy Sheehan has been ignored by the media now that GWB is back in happily in Texas.

But the polls show it. A declining number of Americans support the 'real' war ooops .... effort (according to Obama) ...except for republicans. You know, angry white male killers, rapers of wimmin, and despoilers of mankind and gaia.

The army, marines, air force and navy is for just one aligned purpose, to kill people and break things. A lot, in a hurry, before our democratic will slides and our social and racial carping overwhelms our best interests.

Therefore the USA needs, short of a determination to slaughter all enemies by the most economic means available, a new force, dedicated to taking places like Afghanistan ..tribal, culturally alien, religiously filled with animosity, suspicious, almost hateful, which have been conquered, but for their self destructive historically dominant way of doing things, and creating in situ, an ACCEPTABLE sovereignty of some sort.

They need to be a group which can go in, take look, and make a determination of how to play it out, and NOT REMAIN wedded to that plan which will be wrong .. it HAS TO BE.. and then adjust in place. It's like driving into a new foreign city after having a road map at home. You are GOING to get lost. There will be an unmarked one way street, or some incomprehensible set of characters will mean 'pedestrian only area'. So get lost, remain calm and find your way thru.

They don't have to create Franklin, Adams, Jefferson and Washington with thinkers like Hamilton. This force has to be ready to spend the best part of a generation unsung in both the national and human interest helping some nation and therefore humanity avoid a bunch of nihilistic fools, religious or not (who knows what's coming) sending the human train off the rails and into nuclear or biological or chemical showdown.

Does that sound unselfish and emotional enough to appeal to LIBERALS AND PROGRESSIVES?

The US armed forces will, sooner or later obliterate a wedding, wipe out an elders council meeting, or MOAB a mosque or shrine thinking it is doing something else. THEY MAKE WAR, and they are human. It's just not the right force.

Let's have nation builders go in and risk their lives from the moment they sign up TO RISK THEIR LIVES in such a pursuit. Kumbaya and Che all wrapped up in one, and for spice you try to build free nations. TRY.

That's the gig.

Maybe Barack can send his internal security force and/or Organizing for America out there and do some good.

It's clear it's a job which needs doing, and one for which no apologies will be necessary.

Pirates Fire On American Military Aircraft, Fire Not Returned

AP story

Psyching Up The Hopey Changers For Failure

But failure is success!



From "If Obama Fails, It's Not His Fault" at Right Klik:

It looks like the Demokrat MSM are preparing for what might be the inevitable failure of their Messiah's health care plan. Some amazing damage control memes are beginning to emerge:

1. Failure is good!

[...]

2. Obama's failure is really a failure of the national press corps, the left wing and the Demokratic party.

[...]

3. Obama is bogged down because he has been working so hard to accommodate Republicans.

[...]

4. Obama is failing because he's too nice.

To support those four points, Right Klik cites various sources....Read the rest at Always On Watch.

The Narrative History of Political Correctness

From PJTV and Vlad Tepes:

Link:

Emerson, Lake and Palmer

From the Beginning

Sleepless

Oh well it is ramadam, and it is a drag listening to towel heads blabbering all night long, anyway here is another video I have mashed up.

Lockerbie Bomber not Sick?

The people who released him certainly are.

JUSTICE secretary Kenny MacAskill was last night under pressure to
reveal more details of the medical evidence that led to the release of the
Lockerbie bomber, after it emerged that only one doctor was willing to say
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi had less than three months to live.
Labour
and Conservative politicians have demanded the Scottish Government publish
details of the doctor's expertise and qualifications, amid suggestions he or she
may not have been a prostate cancer expert.The parties have also raised
questions over whether the doctor was employed by the Libyan government or
Megrahi's legal team, which could have influenced the judgment.

The
evidence provided by the doctor is crucial as compassionate release under Scots
law requires that a prisoner has less than three months to live.Doubts about
Megrahi's life expectancy have already been raised by American relatives of the
270 victims of the bomb that blew up Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie on 21
December, 1988. But last night the Scottish Government said it would not publish
details of the individual who gave the crucial advice.

Compassion for the families of the 270 innocent people who were mudered is still pending.

(...)

Last night a spokesman for the Conservatives said that the Scottish Government
must now identify the doctor.He said: "This is no ordinary case of patient
confidentiality. This is the background to a very important decision so the
normal rules do not apply here. "At the very least, we must know the
qualifications of this doctor, whose opinion was clearly crucial, the only one
to say that Megrahi had a life expectancy of less than three
months

"It appears from the report that he was not a specialist. We
also need to know if he works for the NHS or was employed by the Libyans or
Megrahi." Read the whole article.

What makes this story even more gruesome is it seems to confirm reports that al-Megrahi's release may be tied to an oil deal with the Libyan government.

Key Democratic Chairman from CA: Moderate DEMS are brain dead on health care ...end of life counseling schedualed

A key House liberal suggested Thursday that party moderates who've pushed for changes in health care legislation are "brain dead" and out for insurance company campaign donations.

Moderate Blue Dog Democrats "just want to cause trouble," said Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., who heads the health subcommittee on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.

"They're for the most part, I hate to say, brain dead, but they're just looking to raise money from insurance companies and promote a right-wing agenda that is not really very useful in this whole process," Stark told reporters on a conference call.

A spokeswoman for the Blue Dog caucus did not immediately respond to an e-mail request for comment.

Thursday's call was being hosted by the liberal group Campaign for America's Future to release a report making the case for a strong new public health insurance plan to compete with private insurers as part of any health overhaul legislation.

Health care legislation introduced in the House included a public plan with payment rates to providers modeled on Medicare rates. Doctors and hospitals say those rates are too low, but Stark and other liberals support the model, saying it would result in lower costs to the public.

Stark's Ways and Means Committee passed a version of the bill with Medicare-style rates. But in the Energy and Commerce Committee, Blue Dogs pushed successfully for changes that would have a public plan with payment rates negotiated by the Health and Human Services secretary.

The Blue Dogs said this would mean fairer rates to providers but Stark and others say it would be more expensive to the government and costlier to patients.

PLEASE, keep going you schmendricks. Yes, your opponents are stupid and evil. Please remember to parrot this at every opportunity

More CIA torture, I just can't believe it ... but they really did it...

Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri, according to the 9-11 commission report, was the mastermind of the Oct. 12, 2000, attack on the U.S.S. Cole that killed 17 U.S. sailors.

Nashiri was also the target of an "unauthorized" CIA interrogation technique (that had not been legally vetted by the Justice Department) that is described in a May 7, 2004, CIA inspector general's report that was partially declassified by the Obama administration this week.

CIA officers blew smoke in Nashiri's face, according to the report, and they used cigars.

The IG's office described this smoke-blowing as one of several "unauthorized or undocumented techniques" it discovered had been used in isolated incidents by CIA employees interrogating high-level al-Qaida terrorists.

"An Agency (redacted phrase) interrogator admitted that, in December 2002, he and another (redacted phrase) smoked cigars and blew cigar smoke in al-Nashiri's face during the interrogation," said the IG report.

EngSoc: "Cruel and Neglectful Care"

The London Telegraph documents the nightmare that the Democrats want to bring to America:

"'Cruel and neglectful' care of one million NHS patients exposed

One million NHS patients have been the victims of appalling care in hospitals across Britain, according to a major report released today.

In the last six years, the Patients Association claims hundreds of thousands have suffered from poor standards of nursing, often with 'neglectful, demeaning, painful and sometimes downright cruel' treatment.

The charity has disclosed a horrifying catalogue of elderly people left in pain, in soiled bed clothes, denied adequate food and drink, and suffering from repeatedly cancelled operations, missed diagnoses and dismissive staff."

In other words, the inevitable always happens. The "enlightened" British state run National Health Service is turning into a mirror image of what the "little people" receive in Cuban hospitals.

Someday the world will learn (although I harbor no hopes for leftists on this score) that allegedly noble ends cannot be achieved by evil means. As Yaron Brook has forcefully argued, there is not such thing as a "right" to enslave others:

The solution to this ongoing crisis is to recognize that the very idea of a "right" to health care is a perversion. There can be no such thing as a "right" to products or services created by the effort of others, and this most definitely includes medical products and services. Rights, as the founders conceived them, are not claims to economic goods, but to freedoms of action.

You are free to see a doctor and pay him for his services — no one may forcibly prevent you from doing so. But you do not have a "right" to force the doctor to treat you without charge or to force others to pay for your treatment. The rights of some cannot require the coercion and sacrifice of others.

Crossposted at The Dougout

How many thousands of federal employees will have access to your records?

CBS NEWS:

Section 431(a) of the bill says that the IRS must divulge taxpayer identity information, including the filing status, the modified adjusted gross income, the number of dependents, and "other information as is prescribed by" regulation. That information will be provided to the new Health Choices Commissioner and state health programs and used to determine who qualifies for "affordability credits."

Section 245(b)(2)(A) says the IRS must divulge tax return details -- there's no specified limit on what's available or unavailable -- to the Health Choices Commissioner. The purpose, again, is to verify "affordability credits."

Section 1801(a) says that the Social Security Administration can obtain tax return data on anyone who may be eligible for a "low-income prescription drug subsidy" but has not applied for it.

Over at the Institute for Policy Innovation (a free-market think tank and presumably no fan of Obamacare), Tom Giovanetti argues that: "How many thousands of federal employees will have access to your records? The privacy of your health records will be only as good as the most nosy, most dishonest and most malcontented federal employee.... So say good-bye to privacy from the federal government. It was fun while it lasted for 233 years."

Have you ever wanted to just go off the grid and tell them all to go to hell?

Some non entity with the right active directory role and rights will be able to just copy everything I've done and share it with, whoever?

Just look at what they tried to do with Joe the Plumber in a week.

Can't you just hear the the nauseating shushing and 'don't worry, security will be in place' smarmy gag me with a spoon reassurances which reassure absolutely no one?

This is just ALL WRONG.

Kennedy's Culturist Legacy

As he is mourned we must also remember that Ted Kennedy was behind the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act. This revoked the 1924 Immigration Act. The 1924 Act largely excluded Jews and Italians. This was not racist. There was a lot of unrest at this time. Terrorism and strikes were widespread. There was truth in the perception that immigrants were behind many of these upsets. Quotas after the 1924 Act were keyed to the demographics of 1890. That is, if the nation was 70 % British in 1890, 70 % of the immigration slots went to British nationals. The 1924 Act recognized and targeted cultural differences. It was culturist.

Arguing for the 1965 Immigration Act, Ted Kennedy assured America, "First our cities will not be flooded with a million immigrants annually. Under the proposed bill, the present level of immigration remains substantially the same. . . Secondly, the ethic mix of this country will not be upset." Kennedy was wrong on both counts. His law ended up completely remaking the cultural and ethnic make-up of our nation. Changing America's demographics was Kennedy's largest legacy by far.

In 1965 California led the nation in education. Now it lies near the bottom. Much of the school system focuses on remedial education. We also have a concern in that Saudi Arabia is cultivating radical Islamic populations on our soil. If a large terrorist attack comes from one of these centers, Kennedy will be to blame. Just as with Chappaquiddick, Kennedy never admitted he was wrong about his prized 1965 Act. Our ever increasing, diverse population boom is Kennedy's largest legacy by far.

Kennedy would have been the first to call this article racist. He, after all, took us from a regime that recognized the importance of culture to one forbidden to mention it. If you now say we do not like certain groups because they tend towards racism or polygamy or terrorism you are called racist. People should note that the 1924 Immigration Act only restricted white people, it was culturist, not racist. It recognized that cultural diversity was real.

Only when we recognize the importance of culture by adopting the word 'culturism' can we address the damage done by Ted Kennedy. Only then can we again ask for some level of assimilation and choose people based on our nation's needs and safety. Until then we must ignore truths, and smear those who mention them as racist. Until then we will not be able to address the damage done by Kennedy's legacy.

This theory drives the fed

Epaminondas asked a question. Here is the answer. Stay with it, skip the first minute and get to the heart of the matter. It's a layman's guide. Every dollar deposited in a bank is expanded into a house of cards by a factor of nine. yes, the banks turn a dollar into nine dollars of 'make believe' money.

What theory drives the fed?

"The US Government has a technology, called a printing press, that allows it to produce as many US dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost"

Ben Bernanke 2002

I heard there was this thing called supply and demand. But maybe that doesn't count.

The Terrorist Sympathizing Kennedy

Obama is apparantly 'heartbroken' at the death of Edward Kennedy. Gordon Brown said 'Kennedy would be mourned in 'every continent'. Tony Blair, who worked closely with Senator Kennedy during the Northern Ireland peace talks, said he was 'a figure who inspired admiration, respect and devotion not just in America, but around the world'.

And so the schmaltzy tributes roll in like a syrup tsunami. There are some who will not have any shred of regret at the passing of this 'supposedly' great man; the relatives of those killed by the IRA in Northern Ireland during his days of supporting the nationalist cause for instance.

Now before any terrorist sympathising Americans get hot under the collar about this just remember this: Northern Ireland was not part of a British Empire and British troops were not an occupying army. Northern Ireland was and is just as much part of the United Kingdom as England, Wales and Scotland. Yes, the originally Scottish protestants occupied Northen Ireland - or the six provinces - some hundreds of years ago, land they presumably took from the native Irish just as the American settlers took land from the Native Americans.

As I said, the majority population were protestants, who under 'normal' democratic circumstances would have the right to retain their way of life and not become a minority in an alien Catholic Ireland. If you still don't get it think of Kosovo or say a US state with a minority Muslim population starting a terror Jihad against the majority in order join the worldwide calipate. Got it now?

They say you shouldn't speak ill of the dead but the Daily Mail thinks otherwise:

Sometimes it is right to speak ill of the dead. The truth matters, even when it is deeply unsavoury. The truth about Ted Kennedy is certainly unsavoury.

Not that you'd know it from yesterday's tributes, dominated by sycophantic humbug.

Gordon Brown was 'proud to have counted him as a friend and proud that the United Kingdom recognised his service earlier this year with the award of an honorary knighthood'.

Proud? He should be ashamed. Kennedy was a formidable and Machiavellian political operator in the U.S., but he was no friend of Britain. In fact, he was one of our most committed and unrelenting enemies on Capitol Hill.

In his anti-British sentiments, he took after his father, Joseph P. Kennedy, who was unable to hide his bigoted views during a shameful spell as U.S. ambassador to Great Britain.

Ted did his father proud. As a politician dependent on Irish-American votes, this master of empty rhetoric had no scruples about spreading the bitter message of Irish republicanism, especially if there was an election at stake.

Gordon Brown would not be ashamed he would be proud because he and his Marxist cronies are busy dismantling our society in preparation for the Islamic takeover and so an enemy of Britain is a friend of Gordon's seemingly. Why else would he make sleazy Edward Kennedy an honourary knight? Must be another reason for abolishing the honours system.

Talking about sleazy the Daily Mail really put the boot in:

He reeked of drink by nine in the morning and could be relied on to be bawling drunk at four in the afternoon. In Washington's top La Brasserie restaurant, he once threw a waitress over a table in a private room and tried to have sex with her. Read more.

So as I said, not a shred of regret from Yours Truly, the Daily Mail, and many more people. Oh, and just in case someone wants to remind me; yes, he did have 'some' involvement in the peace talks but that does not counterbalance his unbridled support for the republican cause earlier.

Wow! Roger Simon Lays It On The Line About Kennedy

No mincing words here.

From Roger Simon:

Thinking about Teddy Kennedy from Europe

Having spent about two years of my life living in Europe, I am not a complete stranger to observing events back home from afar. As a very young guy I watched the Chicago Convention on the BBC from a tiny London flat and felt jealous and out of it. Now I am amused. I was informed of RFK’s death by a security guard at the Brussels City Hall who had just heard the news and wanted to make sure the American nosing about knew about the latest tragedy in his country. I remember being shaken.

That was a different day and a different Kennedy. Nobody can be surprised about the death of Teddy, who has been sick for some time. I met the man once, back in the eighties, when on a movie assignment in Washington, and he was quite friendly and affable – almost oddly so. Of course, even then I was aware of (and disturbed by) his dark past, more than most because I was at six degrees of separation form the event. A literary agent of mine – a well known woman at the time – had been one of the women at the party with Teddy and Mary Jo Kopechne (1940-1969). I would try to probe her about what happened, whether Kennedy had been drinking, etc., but she would never speak about it, as if sworn to some kind of secrecy.

I put in Kopechne’s birth and death dates because, from the perspective of these many years, they surprise me. She was within days of her twenty-ninth birthday, older than I expected. Teddy himself was thirty-seven. These were not teenagers out on some drunken spree, who can be (somewhat) excused for their actions, but adults. Kennedy left the scene of a fatal accident for which he was at least partly responsible. Then he used his extraordinary power to get off, spending the rest of his career in pseudo-remorse, playing the most liberal of Senators. It was always an act to me, even when I agreed with him politically. This was not a life well lived.

Hitchens Obliterates a Chomskyite

Thanks to Vlad Tepes for making me aware of this:

Zappa Zaps The Zapatistas

Dude, I had to use the title. I don't care if you're groaning.

;-)

If you don't get the reference, click here.

August 25: Town Hall Meeting In Northern Virginia

Radio Free Dar Al Harb has more. One brief excerpt from the text of the posting:

...[W]e had sign with Obama as Joker, thank you DissentFromDayOne. We were told by a black Fairfax County School Security officer that we would have to keep the sign face down on the lawn or be thrown off for trespassing. So we took it directly to the a FXPD Captain and asked about the legality of this. Shame on us for not knowing the law, but now we know to do some research. The FXPD Captain didn't want to get in the middle of it, said there were different rules for schools. So, look for more events to take place at schools where the crowd can be more restricted in their free speech. Since no one could give us a straight answer, we applied the constitution and continued to hold the sign high for all the crowd to see....

Read and watch the rest at Radio Free Dar Al Harb.

Child bride turned over to 80-year-old husband

From Arab News:

AL-LAITH: A 10-year-old bride was returned last Sunday to her 80-year-old husband by her father who discovered her at the home of her aunt with whom she has been hiding for around 10 days. A local newspaper said the husband, who denies he is 80 in spite of claims by the girl’s family, accused the aunt of meddling in his affairs. “My marriage is not against Shariah. It included the elements of acceptance and response by the father of the bride,” he said. He added that he had been engaged to his wife’s elder sister and that this broke off as she wanted to continue with her education. “In light of this, her father offered his younger daughter. I was allowed to have a look at her according to Shariah and found her acceptable,” he said. Maatouq Al-Abdullah, a member of the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR), said there is no system in place regulating the marriage of young girls, something that he said results in adverse psychological, health and social effects. “Such marriages are considered a gross violation of charters on the rights of children, which the Kingdom has signed and which set the age of adulthood at 18,” he added.

Saudi Arabia may have signed the Charter, but they did not change their law. That's why this continues to go on. That's why there is no system in place to regulate the marriage of young girls.

Sharia Law is the law of the land in Saudi Arabia. That's it. There is no other law.

Humpday Blues

R.L. Burnside

Rollin' and Tumblin'

Newsflash: Democrats Lie, a Lot

Paul Krugman: Public Plan Will Kill Private Insurance Plans

Clip of Paul Krugman interviewed on Democracy Now! in October 2007. He is commenting on the health reform plans proposed by the Democratic candidates for President (Obama, Clinton, Edwards)



"I've taking to calling it the Demo Plan."
"It is a route to universal health care."
"We can get the principle of universal health care established."
"We are now looking at the real possiblilty of universal health care by 2010."
"These plans ... can evolve into single player."
"The public plans ... would in the end kill the private plans."
"It is a route that can lead to single payer."

Crossposted at The Dougout

An interesting comparison....Roshomon in the ME

WSJ Opinion
West Bank Success Story
The Palestinians are flourishing economically. Unless they live in Gaza.
By MICHAEL B. OREN
Imagine an annual economic growth rate of 7%, declining unemployment, a thriving tourism industry, and a 24% hike in the average daily wage. Where in today's gloomy global market could one find such gleaming forecasts? Singapore? Brazil? Guess again. The West Bank.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the West Bank economy is flourishing. Devastated by the violence and corruption fomented by its former leadership, the West Bank has rebounded and today represents a most promising success story. Among the improvements of the last year cited by the IMF and other financial observers are an 18% increase in the local stock exchange, a 94% growth of tourism to Bethlehem--generating 6,000 new jobs--and an 82% rise in trade with Israel.

Since 2008, more than 2,000 new companies have been registered with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. Where heavy fighting once raged, there are now state-of-the-art shopping malls.

Much of this revival is due to Palestinian initiative and to the responsible fiscal policies of West Bank leaders--such as Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad--many of whom are American-educated. But few of these improvements could have happened without a vastly improved security environment.

More than 2,100 members of the Palestinian security forces, graduates of an innovative program led by U.S. Gen. Keith Dayton, are patrolling seven major West Bank cities. Another 500-man battalion will soon be deployed. Encouraged by the restoration of law and order, the local population is streaming to the new malls and movie theaters. Shipments of designer furniture are arriving from China and Indonesia, and car imports are up more than 40% since 2008.

Israel, too, has contributed to the West Bank's financial boom. Tony Blair recently stated that Israel had not been given sufficient credit for efforts such as removing dozens of checkpoints and road blocks, withdrawing Israeli troops from population centers, and facilitating transportation into both Israel and Jordan. Long prohibited by terrorist threats from entering the West Bank, Israeli Arabs are now allowed to shop in most Palestinian cities.

Further, several Israeli-Palestinian committees have achieved fruitful cooperation in the areas of construction and agriculture. Such measures have stimulated the Palestinian economy since 2008 resulting, for example, in a 200% increase in agricultural exports and a nearly 1,000% increase in the number of trucks importing produce into the West Bank from Israel.

The West Bank's economic improvements contrast with the lack of diplomatic progress on the creation of a Palestinian state. Negotiators focus on the "top down" issues, grappling with legal and territorial problems. But the West Bank's population is building sovereignty from the bottom-up, forging the law-enforcement, civil, and financial institutions that form the underpinnings of any modern polity. The seeds of what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called "economic peace" are, in fact, already blossoming in the commercial skyline of Ramallah.

The vitality of the West Bank also accentuates the backwardness and despair prevailing in Gaza. In place of economic initiatives that might relieve the nearly 40% unemployment in the Gaza Strip, the radical Hamas government has imposed draconian controls subject to Shariah law. Instead of investing in new shopping centers and restaurants, Hamas has spent millions of dollars restocking its supply of rockets and mortar shells. Rather than forge a framework for peace, Hamas has wrought war and brought economic hardship to civilians on both sides of the borders.

The people of Gaza will have to take notice of their West Bank counterparts and wonder why they, too, cannot enjoy the same economic benefits and opportunities. At the same time, Arab states that have pledged to assist the Palestinian economy in the past, but which have yet to fulfill those promises, may be persuaded of the prudence of investing in the West Bank. Israel, for its part, will continue to remove obstacles to Palestinian development. If the West Bank can serve as a model of prosperity, it may also become a prototype of peace.

Mr. Oren is Israel's ambassador to the United States. (and a first class historian)



counterpoint....

Wall Street Journal
OPINION
Israel Still Strangles the Palestinian Economy
To thrive we need unfettered access to global markets.
By SAM BAHOUR

Palestinians are as eager as anyone to see positive economic development for their tormented country. But they know full well that real economic progress awaits their release from Israeli military occupation (West Bank, East Jerusalem) and siege (Gaza Strip).

Consider the recent media promotion of the Netanyahu government's view that the occupied West Bank is witnessing rapid economic growth. Thomas Friedman picked up on that theme in his New York Times column, as did Michael Oren, Israel's ambassador to the United States, in this newspaper. The selective economic data they provide ignore the reality: Occupied Palestinian territory is not a sovereign country where traditional economic measures apply.

I was the manager who oversaw the establishment of the first modern mall in the West Bank--the Plaza Shopping Center in El Bireh. I can attest that the success of a West Bank mall rests on a thin layer of elite consumer privilege poised precariously over a chasm of widespread disempowerment. Until West Bank Palestinians gain free and open access to the world economy, beyond the markets of the occupying power, major enterprises in Palestinian towns will suffer.

Objective analyses by the World Bank suggest that Israel's repressive practices will not permit the Palestinian economy to develop meaningfully.

On water, a bank report from April 2009 notes that the "availability of water resources is highly disparate, with fresh water per capita in Israel approximately four times that of WBG [West Bank and Gaza]."

On mobility: "In the West Bank, restrictions on movement of people and access to natural resources has stifled economic growth."

On security: "Recurrent destruction of trees, private homes and public infrastructure, as well as [Israeli] settlers' encroachments on private land create a permanent state of insecurity."

On trade: "[Palestinians] exporting through Israel is becoming more difficult and . . . the current alternative through Jordan is severely limited. For Palestinian exporters to effectively compete on the international market they must be allowed to use modern door-to-door logistical systems."

David Craig, World Bank country director for the West Bank and Gaza, gave a realistic assessment in summing up a December bank report: "The Palestinian economy has the potential for dramatic growth, even in the midst of the current global recession. This can only be achieved by the private sector through export oriented growth. The new [Israeli] restrictions described in this report undermine this goal."

Israel's stranglehold over Palestinian economic resources is ongoing. Israel occupies or controls Palestinian land, airspace and electromagnetic spectrum used for telecommunications. By refusing to permit an already-licensed second Palestinian cellular operator to launch, Israel is putting hundreds of new jobs on hold and blocking the first step to liberalizing the Palestinian telecommunications market. I was personally involved in establishing the first Palestinian telecommunications operator in 1996 and can attest to the ongoing hinderance of Israeli practices.

Peace talk is cheap; actions by Israel that would make real peace--even economic peace--a reality are still the exception rather than the rule. I do not disparage any progress that has been made but, viewed in context, it is no more than window dressing. Meanwhile, the continued brutal subjugation of Gaza and coerced Judaization of Arab East Jerusalem call into serious question Israel's true intentions. Absent a political framework to secure Palestinian freedom and independence, "economic peace" initiatives only facilitate the crime of occupation.

Mr. Bahour is a Palestinian-American businessman from Youngstown, Ohio, who lives in the West Bank.

I won't comment on Mr. Bahour's characterization of some analyses as 'objective' given what the UN and some other organizations have demonstrated, but I will ask why there is a stranglehold as he puts it?

Might it be the result of both the failed wars of annihilation and the refusal of ANY Palestinian entity to give up the right of return at the penultimate moment?

Might it be the refusal of the ANY west bank govt to guarantee the death and/or arrest of those who refuse to recgonize any peace deal and carry on armed struggle? I think that's something called national sovereignty. Google Altalena

Might it be the support of a large % of Palestinian people for the religious claims of HAMAS and what the Quran requires of muslims to defend and retake the waqf which is Israel?

And might it be that this stranglehold as he puts it is the direct result of the religious war that HAMAS insists on, which means no political settlement can ever be reached?

If this was a political situation and not the result of Haj Amin Al Husseini and the Muslims Brotherhood's success, and the Quran's invective against jews, this would have been settled long ago.

Instead, I am afraid, there is no political solution to a religious war.

In this HAMAS, and the majority of palestinian voters and I seem to agree.

Washington Post Lead Editorial: Time to dump ObamaCare

The other day, the lead editorial at the Washington Post took Yale to task for publishing a book on the Mohammed Cartoon controversy which redacted the actual cartoons themselves.

Today, for the second time in just a matter of days, I find the lead editorial of the Washington Post once again recognizes (my version of) sanity.

One has got to wonder what has gotten into the Washington Post. I'll bet you some of those crazy Tea Party protesters have taken over the building and are now using WaPo presses to spew out their ever-growing anger in a mass of hate literature like this.

What is the world coming to?

From Hot Air:

The impact of the admission of the $9 trillion deficit can be measured by the editorial page in the Washington Post.  The lead editorial today urges Congress to scrap ObamaCare, in the face of what it calls a “bad-news budget.”  Until Congress can control the deficits, WaPo’s editors explain, they should refrain from launching any new programs that will spend massive amounts of cash:

NO ONE LIKES to be the bearer of bad news — especially when it could threaten your multibillion-dollar health-care reform bill. And so the Obama administration did not exactly rush to publish yesterday’s required mid-session update to its federal budget estimates of last February. Still, once the numbers finally emerged in the dog days of August, they retained the power to stun: Instead of a cumulative $7.1 trillion deficit over the next decade, the White House now projects a $9 trillion deficit. These figures imply average annual budget deficits greater than 4 percent of gross domestic product through fiscal 2019, a rate of debt accumulation faster than projected GDP growth. This is not a sustainable fiscal path.

The extra $1.9 trillion in red ink mainly reflects the Office of Management and Budget’s adoption of more realistic — that is, more pessimistic — estimates of economic growth and unemployment. White House officials protest that their original, rosier numbers made sense at the time; actually, plenty of forecasters, including those at the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, made more accurate calls. This situation was foreseeable and should have been acknowledged earlier. …

The new deficit numbers make it even more urgent that any health-care reform not only be fully paid for and certifiably budget-neutral in the eyes of independent analysts such as the CBO but also promise meaningful reductions in the cost growth of health care. So far, none of the plans under discussion measure up. The time is fast approaching for the president and Congress to face that reality, too.

Go read the whole thing.