Friday, September 07, 2007

Attorneys argue whether Hillary should be in court

 
News giant KESQ (Palm Springs, CA) reports:

An attorney for a former Hillary Clinton supporter says the Democratic presidential contender should be reinstated as a defendant in a lawsuit because she allegedly violated campaign finance laws during her bid for a Senate seat in 2000.

Businessman Peter Paul is challenging a lower court's decision to remove the New York senator from his lawsuit in which he claims that Clinton, her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and others fraudulently induced him to finance a lavish Hollywood fundraising gala in August 2000... Paul claims he spent nearly two million dollars to underwrite the star-studded event that attracted celebrities such as Brad Pitt, Cher and Diana Ross.

Superior Court Judge Aurelio Munoz dismissed Hillary Clinton from Paul's lawsuit in April 2006, citing [a California] statute designed to reduce frivolous lawsuits...

Today in Los Angeles, Paul's attorney Colette Wilson argued Hillary Clinton broke federal campaign finance laws by helping plan the Hollywood fundraiser. Wilson entered into evidence a videotape of a July 2000 phone call in which the future senator talks with organizers about the event...

The "frivolous lawsuit" statute would not be applicable if the court rules Hillary broke any law during the events in question. In the "smoking gun" videotape, it's pretty clear that Hillary -- and White House assistant Kelly Craighead -- were deeply involved in the planning of the event. In that case, Ms. Clinton would be deemed a defendant in the civil suit.

That should make for some interesting press coverage in the midst of her campaign.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

The FCC's outrageous coverup

 
Telecom analyst Bruce Kushnick's new article brings the incestuous relationship between the telcos and the FCC into sharp relief.

In what Kushnick terms a "covert operation", the FCC released a major order on the Friday before Labor Day, perhaps to escape notice. The order deals with rewriting the rules governing the phone companies' offerings: allowing them to intermingle local- and long-distance, data services, etc. Shockingly, the order is heavily redacted, its key details hidden from prying consumers who are trying to determine what the FCC has wrought.

As Kushnick observes, the order directly harms VOIP providers, which offer competition for a variety of the telcos' services. The VOIP market, based upon the experience of companies like SunRocket and Vonage, is already wobbling. The FCC's new order may put a stake into the heart of the VOIP market altogether.

Here's the FCC ORDER: 8/31/07, FCC Replaces Outmoded Long-Distance Rules With New Protections For Consumers. News Release: FCC 07-159 (Order) http://www.fcc.gov:

...Let us summarize the worst problem [with this order]: The FCC's phone charges data is so bad it has no basis for making any decision. Worse, the only new data the FCC is dispersing is being redacted [i.e.,] covered-up. Here's a sample... [our] Favorite:

"[1] Id. AT&T's market share ranges from [REDACTED] with an accompanying HHI of [REDACTED] to [REDACTED] with an accompanying HHI of [REDACTED]. See Appendix C, Table 3 for individual state results for Frame Relay services
within AT&T's franchise areas with more than 30 observations.
[1] Appendix C, Table 4. Bell Atlantic's market share ranges from [REDACTED] with an accompanying HHI of [REDACTED] to [REDACTED] with an accompanying HHI of [REDACTED].
[1] Id. GTE's market share ranges from [REDACTED] with an accompanying HHI of [REDACTED] to [REDACTED] with an accompanying HHI of [REDACTED].
[1] Id. Bell Atlantic's market share ranges from [REDACTED] with an accompanying HHI of [REDACTED] to [REDACTED] with an accompanying HHI of [REDACTED]."

The FCC also claims it is too complicated to get accurate data... Worse, because the numbers look like an anti-trust case waiting to happen, the FCC claims that the numbers submitted 'overstates' the market share Verizon and AT&T have, thus no anti-competitive problem.

...[in the past] we pointed out that the FCC had no clue about phone bundling statistical accuracy. The FCC stated in one report: "For some households taking bundled local and long distance service, it was impossible to separate the bill into its component parts. In those cases, the entire bill was allocated to the local exchange service provider."

Now the FCC claims it can redact any information to make a case, and not have to show it to anybody.

...In fact, Teletruth guarantees that the [new] bills will still be unreadable, deceptive and inaccurate.

This sweetheart cover-up now gives the local phone monopoly more control over your phone services and less choice. We also believe the data may also prove very damaging in that it can be used to demonstrate that the Bell mergers were all a mistake, increasing their market power in the their primary markets...

In other words, the FCC's brain-damaged policies have likely killed competition in many of the telcos' markets and, because they figure they can get away with it, they have simply censored the data that proves it.

Put simply, allowing ridiculously flawed mergers like the corporate absorption of BellSouth, SBC, Cingular and AT&T into a single entity has eradicated competition and suppressed innovation. Odds are the FCC knows it and they're covering it up.

The title of the press release should be changed from FCC Replaces Outmoded Long-Distance Rules With New Protections For Consumers to FCC replaces anti-competitive rules with even more anti-competitive rules because Consumers are Stupid.

Real conservatives want competition and innovation: witness the value creation associated with the Internet. Allowing a telecom monopoly -- reminiscent of the Soviet Union -- to rise again is anti-competitive and stifles innovation.

ASK THE FCC COMMISSIONERS: Visit http://www.fcc.gov and ask the FCC Commissioners these questions: How many low volume customers are there in America? How many stand-alone long distance customers are there? Has the market-share of AT&T and Verizon increased? Can consumers understand their phone bills? Did the mergers harm customers?

* * *

Is the FCC on the level? Who knows? Given the level of corruption in government, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the commissioners' family members are pulling down a little "extra" income. Or scheduled to collect pensions upon their retirement from "public service". I couldn't prove it, to be sure, but from their actions on this and many other matters, something smells like the fish market on a hot, sunny day.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

"How and who talking to Hsu"?

 
Democratic donor and part-time fugitive Norman Hsu was a no-show at his bail hearing, which isn't a great strategy for getting one's bail reduced.

Federal Election Commission records show Hsu donated $260,000 to various Democratic groups and candidates since '04. Hsu's also been a major backer of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Hsu's attorney, Jim Brosnahan, is mystified as to his client's whereabouts.

"Mr. Hsu is not here and we do not know where Mr. Hsu is," Brosnahan said outside court. Brosnahan said that "there was some contact" with Hsu a few hours before the scheduled 9 a.m. court appearance, but he declined to say how and who talked to Hsu.

Hsu adds to the Clintons' burgeoning record book (hat tip: Gateway Pundit):

* Number close to the Clinton machine who have been convicted of or pleaded guilty to crimes: 44
* Number of convictions during his administration: 33
* Number of indictments/misdemeanor charges: 61
* Number of imprisonments: 14
* Number of presidential impeachments: 1
* Number of independent counsel investigations: 7
* Number of congressional witnesses pleading the 5th Amendment: 72
* Number of witnesses fleeing the country to avoid testifying: 17
* Number of foreign witnesses who have declined interviews by investigative bodies: 19

The Clinton machine now holds the record for the administration with:

* The most number of convictions and guilty pleas
* The most number of cabinet members to come under criminal investigation
* The most number of witnesses to flee the country or refuse to testify
* The most number of key witnesses to die suddenly
* The greatest amount of illegal campaign contributions
* The greatest amount of illegal campaign contributions from abroad.

Hey, check it out! That item in red looks like it's about to change! That crazy, whacky Hsu!

The Clintons must be so proud... they've established some records that will never be broken. Kind of like Dimaggio's hitting streak, only involving criminals and not baseballs.

Photo credit: Steve Schwartz

Extremist Education in Minnesota

 
At the Counterterrorism Blog, Douglas Farah describes a Minnesota website that teaches Jihad (Holy War). The Middle East Media Research Institute has details on the site, which tells people how to join al Qaeda, how to attack high value targets and how to form a functioning cell.

"What is the difference between you and the hero of the New York attack, Muhammad Atta, who planned an action which even today shakes the world every time it is mentioned? Assassinating the ambassador takes no more than a gun and a bullet. One could disguise oneself as a peddler in order to tail [the target], which shouldn't cost a lot of money...

If you know any young people - whether one, two, or more - in your area, mosque, or university who are as dedicated and enthusiastic about jihad as you are, come to an understanding with them, and together form a cell whose objective is to help Islam and only Islam...

...You feel that you want to carry a weapon, fight, and kill the occupiers, and that it is our duty to call for jihad as much as to call for prayer... All that is required is a firm personal decision to fulfill this obligation, and participation in jihad and the resistance...

These guys sound almost as bad as the militant Buddhists.

Line o' the Day: GOP Debate

 
Chris Wallace to Ron Paul: "You're saying we should take our marching orders from al-Qaeda?" (insert laughter and hooting noises here)

Larry Craig: what a difference the letter after the name makes!

 
Commenting on the Larry Craig incident, EIB knocks it out of park:

The left in this country, folks, has made it a point to go after the hypocrisy of conservatives and Republicans, not... the behavior. If they go after the behavior, they have to condemn the behavior on their side of the aisle. The whole point of the left is to have no standards, because if you have no standards, you can't be held to any standards...

...if Larry Craig had been a Democrat and liberal, there would be no supposed hypocrisy because Democrats and liberals have no moral standards. If he would have changed parties, why, he'd be in great shape today... This is the logic of the left, and it's studied and it is purposeful. They need this position to defend the reprobates amongst themselves. I don't need to name the reprobates. Why do they defend felons? Why are they trying to get felons the right to vote again?

...If you support the left's agenda then you get away with anything and they will not condemn you. We saw this in the Clinton administration, folks. You had Bill Clinton accused of rape. He was accused of sexual abuse in the oval orifice, all these other things, and the left-wing so-called women's groups are either silent or found ways to defend him...

...You've got Barney Frank; you've got Gerry Studds; you've got Harry Reid; you've got Dianne Feinstein in an area that wasn't even looked into about steering money from her committee in the Senate to businesses that her husband benefits from. Not to mention Leahy, who leaked when he was on the intelligence committee and was forced to resign. If anyone ever convicted of any crime should resign from the Senate, why is Ted Kennedy still there?

Valid questions.

Heck, if Ted Kennedy had just driven a Hydra Spyder, he'd probably have been elected president by now.

Craig illustration credit: EIB

Hillary Clinton in her own words

 
Hillary 1992: "Part of what I believe with all my heart is that the voters are tired of people who lie to them. They're tired of people who act like something they're not. They're tired of people who deny problems. They're tired of people who neglect problems."

Hilllary 2007 (on the Hsu fundraising debacle): "We do the very best job we can based on the information available to us to make appropriate vetting decisions, and this one, uhh, was a big surprise to everybody."

Hillary 2000 (on her brother selling presidential pardons): "You know, it came as a surprise, uhh, to me, and it was very disturbing, and I'm just, uh, very disappointed about it. I did, uh, not, uh, have any involvement, you know, and, uh, I'm just very, uh, disappointed about my brother's involvement. If I had known about, uh, this, we wouldn't be standing here today. Uhhh, I didn't know about it, and I'm very...regretful that, uh, it occurred, that I didn't know about it. Uh, I might have been able to prevent this from happening. And I'm just very disappointed about the whole matter. I did not know. I was heartbroken and -- and shocked by it."

Hillary 1994 (on the Rose Law firm billing records): "The young attorney, the young bank officer did all the work, and the letter was sent, but because I was what you call 'the billing attorney' -- in other words, I had to send the bill to get the payment made -- my name was put on the bottom of the letter. It was not an area that I practiced in. It was not an area that I really know anything, to speak of, about."

Hillary 1994 (on the records removed from Vince Foster's office): "I -- I can tell you what I know which is that I did not know that Vince had any of the documents related to our personal business in his office until after his death."

Hillary 1998 (on the Lewinsky affair): "Answer my husband. I mean, you know, he woke me up Wednesday morning and said, 'You're not going to believe this, but...' and I said, 'What is this?' And so, yeah, it came as a very big surprise... 'But...I want to tell you what's in the newspapers.'"

In short, Hillary's dumbfounded regarding Hsu, the Rose Law firm records, Travelgate, Whitewater, the cattle futures contracts, the Peter Paul fundraising concert starring Cher, her brother selling pardons, etc.

She claims to be clueless regarding a string of major incidents in her life and she's shocked -- shocked -- to find out about them. And that qualifies her to be president... how?

Quotes courtesy of EIB.

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Shades of the Sudetenland, 1938

 
Gateway Pundit reports on a story I haven't seen from any mainstream media source. Iran's mullahs appear to be mulling an annexation of Bahrain. For those unfamiliar with the landscape of the Middle East, Bahrain is a sovereign country. They have also threatened the United Arab Emirates with -- in short -- a hostile takeover.

Furthermore, they have provided arms, training, and personnel to terrorists in Iraq and have sworn to do even more "to fill the gap" should the United States leave. Iran's track record isn't a good one, considering we've been at war since 1979 when they invaded our sovereign territory, the U.S. embassy in Tehran. The mullahs' record includes:

* Promising the destruction of "Anglo-Saxon" civilization (i.e., the United States and the U.K.)
* Committing to the destruction of the state of Israel ("disgraceful blot" that should be "wiped off the face of the earth")
* Funding Hezbollah and a multitude of other terrorist organizations, while acting as the world's leading clearinghouse of terrorism
* Building nuclear weapons in direct violation of UN resolutions
* Abusing women, homosexuals, minorities, and other groups using torture, hangings, floggings, beheadings, and similar crimes against humanity.

But to the nutroots and other victims of Bush Derangement Syndrome, George W. Bush is the only enemy worth discussing. One can only pray it doesn't take another conflagration on American soil to bring the left wing of the Democratic party back to reality.

The One Minute Tyrant

 
Fausta alerts us to Hugo Chavez' proposal for a new Venezuelan constitution that effectively makes him "president for life."

The results thus far ain't promising:

...Venezuela's currency plummets and the public faces food shortages.
The official inflation rate 1.1 percent in August from the previous month.
The currency will be "relaunched" (hugospeak for "devalued") next year.
If anyone doesn't like the revamped constitution after Hugo's done revamping it, he's calling for the population to carry out a national mobilization to support his Constitutional Reform Project (and let's not forget those import 5,000 Russian sniper rifles to arm guerrillas in the event of an American invasion).
Hugo's got plans to build a set of artificial island-cities, intended to demarcate Venezuela's sovereignty in the Caribbean.

And Ahmadinejad's going to visit next month.

Small wonder people are turning their cars into personal armored vehicles...

Using my patented Doug-o-matic image enhancement software, I've discovered what Chavez is really reading:

Well, at least he's learned how to read.

Hat tip: Larwyn

The New York Times knows how to write good

 
James Taranto throws a fifteen-yard flag for metaphor abuse on the New York Times' op-ed hacks.

The Republican Party is in quite a rush to keelhaul Senator Larry Craig for his run-in with the vice squad in an airport men's room. . . . No similar leadership chorus for judgment has been heard about any number of other scandalous revelations on the party's plate. . . . Being stupid as a member of Congress is hardly a reason to be ridden on a rail from Washington. But Republican presidential campaigners are urging Mr. Craig to resign fast as a swift boat.

. . . Underlying the hurry to disown the senator, of course, is the party's brutal agenda of trumpeting the gay-marriage issue. To the extent Senator Craig, a stalwart in the family values caucus, might morph into a blatant hypocrite before the voters' eyes, he reflects on the party's record in demonizing homosexuality. The rush to cast him out betrays the party's intolerance, which is on display for the public in all of its ugliness.

I hate to admit it, but I'm stumped. I can't even add any snark to that egregious mess. It's horizontally integrated satire.

Monday, September 03, 2007

Megahed's Dad plays the race card

 
The AP reports:

...The father of a University of South Florida student accused of transporting explosives across state lines along with another student facing a terrorism-related charge says his son is not a terrorist.

"It's killing me," Samir Megahed said Saturday. "We have no charge like this in my family for 400 years. It's killing all my family in Egypt."

Engineering students Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed, 24, and Youssef Samir Megahed, 21, were indicted Friday on federal charges of carrying explosive materials across state lines. Mohammed also faces terrorism-related charges of teaching and demonstrating how to use the explosives.

The students, both born in Egypt, have been held since Aug. 4, when they were stopped with what authorities described as pipe bombs in their car in Goose Creek, S.C. They were near a Navy base where enemy combatants have been held.

Megahed, 60, of Tampa, said Saturday... "If he was a white man and not from the Middle East, I'm sorry, he would not be here today..."

Remember kids: never violate the traffic laws while driving near a sensitive military installation with a trunk full of "fireworks" that resemble pipe bombs and a laptop that contains explosives training videos, because you could get profiled.

Exclusive: the Coming Hsurricane for Hillary

 
The Peter Paul versus the Clintons civil suit continues to heat up. Doug from Upland writes to provide the contents of a fax that was sent to Senator Clinton's office earlier today. Two words. Wow! Okay, that was one word, but it's more polite than "holy s***"!

Click to Zoom

Doug has posted additional information on this Free Republic thread. Check it out and forward it on.

There is a gathering storm -- perhaps we should call it a "Hsurricane" -- and Gateway Pundit has more of the critical details.

Hillary's Menu of Presidential Services

 
In a CNS article ("New Clinton Scandal Mirrors 'Chinagate,' Say Analysts"), Fred Lucas provides an interesting recap of the Clinton administration's questionable behavior.

The 1996 Clinton fundraising scandal, often called "Chinagate" involved numerous anecdotes but never produced a smoking gun. Reported events included the following:

- Clinton friend Yah Lin "Charlie" Trie pleaded guilty to charges of violating campaign finance rules in exchange for having pending indictments dropped against him in Washington and Arkansas.

- According to news reports in 1997, Democratic donor Johnny Chung received a $150,000 transfer from the Bank of China three days before he handed then-First Lady Hillary Clinton's chief of staff a $50,000 check.

- Then-Vice President Al Gore received political donations from Buddhist nuns who had taken a vow of poverty.

- President Clinton admitted in 1997 that he invited major campaign donors to spend the night in the White House. The Clintons hosted 404 overnight guests.

- During the investigation by the Department of Justice, about 120 people connected to "Chinagate" either fled the country or pleaded the Fifth Amendment to prevent testifying... but [it] was not the only Clinton fundraising scandal.

After fugitive Marc Rich's ex-wife and a Rich friend donated a combined $1.45 million to the Clinton Presidential Library, he was granted a presidential pardon just before Clinton left office in January 2001. Rich fled the United States after he was convicted of tax evasion.

Also, Hillary Clinton's 2000 Senate campaign was involved in an illegal in-kind contribution from Hollywood mogul Peter Paul. That incident resulted in a $35,000 fine by the Federal Elections Committee and the indictment and later acquittal of her finance director, David Rosen...

Anticipating her election and to simplify matters for Hillary's backers, her staff has prepared a menu of suggested donations. Asked why prices had increased since her husband's days in office, staffers responded "you can chalk it up to inflation." Suggested donation levels include:

$100K - a membership in HillRaisers™ and two tickets to the 2008 Central Inauguration Party

$150K - comprehensive IRS audit of any person you designate

$200K - a picture of you and a partner in the Oval Office with the President and the First Dude

$250K - a night in the Lincoln Bedroom with Maureen Dowd

$275K - a night in the Lincoln Bedroom alone

$300K - a night in the Lincoln Bedroom with one hour "happy ending" pass to the Lewinsky Massage Room

$500K - one (1) presidential pardon

$950K - two (2) presidential pardons (a $50K discount when ordering two!)

$2.5M - your choice of either missile guidance or nuclear triggering techology

The ACLU, open borders, and el Presidente

 
Larwyn relays Jay's request that blogs link to the Top Ten Reasons To Stop The ACLU.

#6 may be reason enough for many folks:

6. The ACLU advocate open borders. Not only have the ACLU opposed the Minute Men, a group who are simply exercising their freedom of speech, protesting and stepping up where the government is failing, but they have helped illegals cross the border.

Larwyn continues by neatly tying #6 together with a disturbing post from Gaius at Blue Crab Boulevard:

...Mexican President Felipe Calderon's first State of the Nation speech delivered today:

President Felipe Calderon blasted U.S. immigration policies on Sunday and promised to fight harder to protect the rights of Mexicans in the U.S., saying "Mexico does not end at its borders." The criticism earned Calderon a standing ovation during his first state-of-the nation address.

There's more:

"We strongly protest the unilateral measures taken by the U.S. Congress and government that have only persecuted and exacerbated the mistreatment of Mexican undocumented workers... The insensitivity toward those who support the U.S. economy and society has only served as an impetus to reinforce the battle … for their rights."

He also reached out to the millions of Mexicans living in the United States, many illegally, saying: "Where there is a Mexican, there is Mexico..."

During the speech, Calderon began to shout, spittle flying as the intensity of his rhetoric increased. He went on to state that, because Mexican nationals can be found in nearly every country throughout the world, "all the world is Mexico! All the world, I say! There are no borders for Mexicans! We may cross into any territory, unannounced, and without documentation! Even the moon and the stars will be ours! Will be --"


Calderon's New Map of the World

At that point, the screaming Calderon was escorted off the podium and calmed with heavy doses of sedatives.

Sunday, September 02, 2007

A letter from Hillary

 


Dear Doug,

I want to personally thank you for getting
involved in my campaign. It is critical that we
stay in touch as fast-moving events shape this
important election.

The stakes couldn't be higher, as you well know.

Rest assured that I am prepared to do anything --
and I mean anything -- to win this
election. Whether it means accepting money
from down home folks named Hsu, Riady, Huang,
or countless others with possible ties to the
Chinese military... or just blaming a vast right-wing conspiracy every time something goes wrong, you can count on me.

Because no matter what depths I stoop to in order to win, you can be sure it will be worth it. Yes, we can return to the heady days of the 90's, when there was no terrorist threat, we'd engineered a booming economy, and we'd eradicated corruption from Washington.

I'm kidding. Yes, we pretended there was no terrorist threat, but wasn't that easier to manage? And, sure, Tim Berners-Lee invented the web and spawned a gold rush on the Internet - no thanks to Bill. And I'll admit we had the most corrupt administration in recent memory (thank heavens for Tammany Hall!).

But wasn't it cool to have Steven Spielberg and Cher spending a night together in the Lincoln Bedroom? And global celebrities like Yassar Arafat visiting Camp David? Or the adrenaline-laced excitement of non-stop terrorist attacks? Let's face it - that was a more exciting America.

We can return to those pre-9/11 days - and that's what this campaign is all about! So let's show everyone what we can accomplish together. Here's one thing you can do: display my special gift to you, a Hillary for President bumper sticker! Or just click here to visit my exclusive catalog of Hillary-branded patchouli, bongs, and salad spinners.

If you're a well-compensated Hollywood executive, government-funded academic, or just a guilty liberal progressive with an extra $100K burning a hole in your pocket, please visit our high-roller website where you can join noteworthy alums like Norman Hsu and Marc Rich (hopefully you won't have to become a fugitive like them ;-).

Once again, thanks so much for standing with me and proudly displaying your Hillary-branded bumper stickers, incense, moccasins, Colonel Mustard's Lonely Hearts Club jackets, energy drinks, hemp bracelets, fraternity paddles, joybuzzers, and kneepads (all proudly bearing "made in China" stickers!).

Yours in victory, Sincerely,








Hillary Rodham Clinton

Unsolicited product endorsement o' the week

 
True confession time. I have always enjoyed working out. Playing basketball, lifting weights, aerobic training and sparring have been staples for over twenty years. With age, of course, comes many compromises. Injuries may limit physical capability, but the desire to push myself has thankfully never dissipated.

The most important part of staying fit, though, is diet. You can work out like Lance Armstrong, but if you eat fifteen Big Macs a day, you'll look and feel like Michael Moore. For over a decade, I've been very careful with my diet (okay, my wife says I'm "nuckin' futs" and that I "have an eating disorder"). Basic rules: no dairy (cheese or otherwise) and no red meat; plenty of salmon, egg whites, veggies and fruit. Okay, maybe I am a little off-kilter. But I feel good, still work out hard, and have a lot of energy for work and hobbies.

Truth be told, it's often difficult to find healthy food while on the go. If a lunch meeting includes pizza or a catered dinner only offers roast beef, I'm out of luck. That's why I've usually kept a stash of power bars (or their equivalents) around - a quick meal that's relatively healthy and won't bust the nutritional balance.

I was at the grocery store a few weeks ago and spotted a new brand of bar. Called Organic Food Bars, they claim to be:

...the only line of organic food bars rich in phyto-nutrient dense sprouts and superfoods in a base of easy digestible, alkaline-forming vegetable protein for muscle and organ building, essential fats to promote a healthy cardiovascular and hormonal system, and complex carbohydrates for long lasting energy - without the 'crash' of most bars high in refined sugars...

All of our ingredients are certified organic, kosher and purchased as fresh as possible since we receive fresh ingredients every month. Unlike most companies we make our own Organic Food Bars "with lots of love" in house. Fresh product made on a weekly basis gives our customers fresh highest quality finished product possible. Our ingredients are mixed, blended, packaged and stored at room temperature to preserve the natural qualities and enzyme activity of the ingredients...

Our Organic Food Bars are sweetened only with whole-food sweeteners, including organic dates, organic raisins, organic honey, and low Glyecemic Index organic agave nectar to keep your blood sugar levels stable... The Organic Food Bars follow the high Austrian Organic Certification Standards. They are the only USDA Certified Organic, non-dairy Certified Kosher, and Certified Vegan bars in the world... [all suppliers] are independently certified organic by both USDA and EU standards in their country of origin...

No soy and no peanuts, for those with allergies; and lots of choices, including a vegan bar. Even a high protein (22g) bar.

So I bought a bunch of different Organic bars and began real-world testing. Review:

Five Almonds: Incredibly f---ing good (substitute the work "freaking" if you're easily offended). Not covered with refined sugar and other unhealthy crap like typical protein bars. Not coated with saturated fat nor slathered with caramel.

If you're looking for a healthy snack or quick meal replacement, I'd highly recommend Organics. Now that they've hit upon a successful formula, my recommendation to Organic is not to f--- it up. Don't slap the label on Snickers-clones like other food makers out there. Don't try to make every food on the planet. Concentrate on real organic food, and you'll have at least one customer for life.

Remember, try Organic. They're f---ing good! Hmmm - I wonder if they're going to steal that phrase as their tag line?

Al Gore's global warming "consensus" spontaneously combusts

 
The U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works has published some fascinating articles on climate change, though to read the daily newspaper you'd never know it.

A July 2007 review of 539 abstracts in peer-reviewed scientific journals over the last three years reveals a "shift toward the views of global warming skeptics."

For the journal Energy and Environment, author Michael Asher submitted additional detail that blows the lid off Al Gore's "consensus view" on anthropogenic (human causation of) global warming.

...In 2004, history professor Naomi Oreskes performed a survey of research papers on climate change. Examining peer-reviewed papers published on the ISI Web of Science database from 1993 to 2003, she found a majority supported the "consensus view," defined as humans were having at least some effect on global climate change. Oreskes' work has been repeatedly cited, but as some of its data is now nearly 15 years old, its conclusions are becoming somewhat dated...

Researcher Dr. Klaus-Martin Schulte used the same database and search terms and examined papers from 2004 through February 2007. The results are stunning:

* Of 528 papers on climate change, only 38 (7%) gave an explicit endorsement of anthropogenic global warming (AGW)
* 32 papers (6%) reject AGW outright
* 48% refuse to accept or reject AGW, i.e., take no position for or against
* Only one paper speculates that AGW could lead to catastrophic results

The figures are even more surprising when we consider how AGW is defined for the purpose of this reporting. In this context, supporting AGW requires that:

* Humans need not be the primary cause of warming (i.e., they can have "any" impact whatsoever)
* No belief or support for "catastrophic" warming is necessary

Why then would Schulte's survey contradict the UN's IPCC 2007 Report, which gave a "90% likely" figure for AGW?

Simple. Despite the media's breathless exhortations that "thousands of scientists" are involved in the IPCC report, the reality is that the text is actually written by a small number of "lead authors." Furthermore, the executive summary -- the portion most frequently quoted in the mainstream media -- is written by politicians and approved by political operatives from member nations.

By IPCC policy, the individual report chapters -- the only text actually written by scientists -- are edited to "ensure compliance" with the summary, which is typically published months before the actual report itself... By contrast, the ISI Web of Science database covers 8,700 journals and publications, including every leading scientific journal in the world.

In short, scientists are offering a very different consensus than that which is marketed by Al Gore and the United Nations.

Is that because Al Gore and the UN stand to make billions from 'carbon trading markets', which have spun up from the IPCC to take financial advantage of various hysterical AGW pronouncements?

The World Rainforest Movement -- a very left-leaning organization -- investigated these bizarre financial ties and came to a shocking conclusion.

[they] concluded that the IPCC report "must now be shelved due to their clear conflict of interest and a new report instigated which will be free of the taint of intellectual corruption."

And solar energy portal Ecotopia reports that members of the IPCC "...had vested interests in reaching unrealistically and unjustifiably optimistic conclusions about the possibility of compensating for emissions with trees... [and] should have been automatically disqualified from serving on an intergovernmental panel charged with investigating impartially the feasibility and benefits of such... projects."

In short, the IPCC had an inherent conflict of interest.

As for Al Gore's vaunted "consensus view"? It seems to have spontaneously combusted, perhaps due to all of the desert-hot wind emanating from greedy politicians.

Saturday, September 01, 2007

A North American city screeches to a halt

 
Imagine one of North America's largest cities brought to its knees as two of its central roadways are shut down. A perimeter is established around a suspect site where a rental car is examined.

Bomb squad technicians guide a robot to the car's trunk. When the trunk is opened, three live explosive devices -- each nearly two feet long -- are found.

The explosives are loaded into a armored vehicle. Bridges over a normally busy highway are sealed off. A massive convoy of police and bomb-squad vehicles transports the three live bombs

The bombs are gingerly driven to a deserted area and detonated in a controlled explosion that can be heard more than a mile away.

A man -- a Lebanese immigrant named Adel Mohamed Arnaout -- is arrested for a series of letter bombings and attempted murder.

Police search the Ashdale Avenue basement apartment of suspect Adel Arnaout. He is accused of three counts of attempted murder and sending three letter bombs. A neighbor claims that as many as 20 or 30 people were living in the apartment at a time. Neighbors are shocked and stunned.

* * *

Do you think all of this might make a newsworthy story? One that our beloved mainstream media could cover?

Well, apparently not. All of this occurred in Toronto on Friday.

Maybe someone will alert the media so their crack reporters can get on the case. They'll fire up their typewriters and print an extra afternoon edition. Get their fingers dirty with typewriter ribbons and cigarette stains while working the phones. Yell questions at police spokesmen. Demand answers and break stories, scooping their competition.

Or not.

Hat tips: Atlas and Larwyn. Photos: Brent Foster, National Post. Police sketch: Alex Tavshunsky for the Toronto Star.

The corn is as high as the Upper East Side...

 
The National Review:

Have a look at the map of Manhattan below (used recently by Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns in a speech). The red dots indicate people who live in Manhattan (and so clearly are neither hurting for money nor tilling the soil on the family farm) but receive agricultural subsidies from the federal government... The larger red blobs mark people receiving more than a quarter of a million dollars in farm subsidies annually.

The farm bill passed by House Democrats in July would continue giving millionaires farm subsidies (setting the income threshold for payments at $1 million a year, and keeping loopholes in place that allow some making much more to qualify). The Bush administration has proposed sharply reducing the income threshold to $200,000 a year and ending many of those loopholes. That would reduce the number of subsidy recipients by less than 40,000 (of the current million or so recipients)—though I suppose it might put some rooftop gardens on Park Avenue out of commission...

What a relief that the Democrats have "drained the swamp" and eradicated the "culture of corruption." Anyone know where I can get a hoe? I have me a hankerin' to start growin' some corn on the roof of my townhouse! (hat tip: Leibowitz's Canticle)

Dems rally against victory!

 
The Democratic Party is organizing counter-rallies against a Victory in Iraq gathering in Carson City, NV.

But remember not to question their patriotism. Even though, by my math, if you protest against victory, you're for defeat.

If you're upset with this wanton, anti-American stupidity, visit Move America Forward for the details. Then sign the Victory Caucus' petition to Stand by the Mission (hat tip: Gateway Pundit).