Sunday, March 30, 2008

AP breakthrough: news and an op-ed in a single article


As the cost of newsprint skyrockets, the AP's Charles J. Hanley is doing his best to save space. By combining news "reporting" and op-ed analysis into a single article, he's helpfully assisting editors' cost-cutting initiatives.

An example: "'Standing Up' Iraq Army Looks Open-Ended":

...The 2004-05 Defense Ministry scandal was just one in an unending series of setbacks in the five-year struggle to "stand up" an Iraqi military...

A straight news reporter would have written a challenging series.

...Responsibility for these ever-unfulfilled goals lies in Washington, contends retired Maj. Gen. Paul D. Eaton, who preceded Petraeus as chief trainer in Iraq...

A straight news reporter would have written these unmet goals.

...A look back by the AP, as the Iraq conflict enters its sixth year, finds the $22 billion training effort has been a story of uncertain steps and policy reversals, corruption, questionable numbers and distrust, ending with an Iraqi military with narrow capabilities and years more "standing up" ahead...

A straight news reporter would have written fraught with difficulty and some sporadic successes.

Congratulations to Hanley and the AP for this breakthrough combination of news and an op-ed into a single, space-saving article!

More info: StrategyPage - Iraqis fight like Americans

China introduces new Olympic sports for '08 Summer Games


The rumors appear to be true.

China has decided to introduce a series of new Olympic events for this year's summer games. The new contests include:

Whack-a-Monk!

50-Yard Tank Dash

Trade-secret speed copying

Falun Gong book burning

Speaking of secrets, it's no secret which country is favored to win the Gold Medals in these new events.

Read more: Democracy Project: Tibetan Counter-Olympics

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Energy use dimmed during Earth Hour: North Korea celebrates


Energy authorities say the impact of last night's Earth Hour event was the equivalent of the entire country of North Korea going without lights. Which they do every night.

Kim Jong-Il was said to be pleased with the demonstration.

Update: Linked by Dr. Sanity's Carnival of the Insanities. Thanks!

Need to download a copy of a video clip?


Need a legal download of a vid? Charles provides two excellent links.

Since the subject of downloading video clips has come up in relation to Fitna, here are a couple of tools that will let you download from just about any video sharing site:

With KeepVid, you paste in the URL of a page containing a video, and it gives you a link for downloading it directly. Simple. Also has a conversion feature, but I haven’t tried it.

Zamzar lets you download and convert to almost any format in one step; you get an email with the download URL of your processed file.


Go get some!

AG: terror threats "way beyond anything... I knew or believed"


Michael Mukasey, quoted in the Wall Street Journal, rivals Dick Cheney as the administration's primary fear-monger. Unfortunately for the Party of Weakness, his fears are well-founded as he is exposed to all of the country's intelligence streams. And -- even worse for liberals progressives -- Mukasey is a man not known for overstatement on either side of the aisle.

...the former judge who once tried terror cases told the Commonwealth Club audience that even he had no idea of the extent of the threat... Speaking of what he hears in his national security briefings, Mr. Mukasey said, "It is way beyond – way beyond anything that I knew or believed. So, if I was picked for the level of my knowledge . . . that was a massive piece of false advertising."

...on the necessity of warrantless antiterror surveillance. Before 9/11, Mr. Mukasey said, "We knew that there had been a call from someplace that was known to be a safe house in Afghanistan and we knew that it came to the United States. We didn't know precisely where it went. We've got" – here the Attorney General paused with emotion – "we've got 3,000 people who went to work that day, and didn't come home, to show for that."

The AG also addressed why immunity from lawsuits is vital for the telecom companies that cooperated with the surveillance after 9/11. "Forget the liability" the phone companies face, Mr. Mukasey said. "We face the prospect of disclosure in open court of what they did, which is to say the means and the methods by which we collect foreign intelligence against foreign targets." Al Qaeda would love that. The cynics will call this "fear-mongering," but most Americans will want to make sure we don't miss the next terror call.

From all appearances, the Democrats would love that too. But don't question their patriotism. They're doing the very best they can to undermine national security because George W. Bush is the real threat.

Print media augurs in


The newspaper industry just suffered the most catastrophic drop in ad revenue since, well -- since anyone started measuring ad revenue.

According to new data released by the Newspaper Association of America, total print advertising revenue in 2007 plunged 9.4% to $42 billion compared to 2006 -- the most severe percent decline since the association started measuring advertising expenditures in 1950.

The drop-off points to an economic slowdown on top of the secular challenges faced by the industry. The second worst decline in advertising revenue occurred in 2001 when it fell 9.0%.

Total advertising revenue in 2007 -- including online revenue -- decreased 7.9% to $45.3 billion compared to the prior year.

The Associated Press did not return my calls requesting comments.

Line o the day: Maybe Fitna isn't controversial after all

 
The Financial Times on the controversial film Fitna (via Spencer):

Omar Bakri, the Libyan-based radical Muslim cleric who is barred from Britain, did not think the film was very offensive. "On the contrary, if we leave out the first images and the sound of the page being torn, it could be a film by the [Islamist] Mujahideen,"

The creature all men feared...


...became one woman's obsession.

Image idea: Reliapundit. Linked by: Denny at GOC and Don Surber. Thanks!

Sgt. Kirk sends along a little Marine Corps motivation









Update: Linked by Dr. Rusty Shackleford's invaluable Jawa Report. Thanks!

Tips for importing old email into Gmail


I've noticed that just about everyone I message is using Gmail for their personal email accounts these days. Did you know that you can migrate your old email into Gmail?

Click on the illustration for quick instructions.

Friday, March 28, 2008

LiveLeak caves into seething, death threats and whining


LiveLeak erased the controversial 15-minute movie Fitna from its website.

Following threats to our staff of a very serious nature, and some ill informed reports from certain corners of the British media that could directly lead to the harm of some of our staff, Liveleak.com has been left with no other choice but to remove Fitna from our servers.

This is a sad day for freedom of speech on the net but we have to place the safety and well being of our staff above all else. We would like to thank the thousands of people, from all backgrounds and religions, who gave us their support. They realised LiveLeak.com is a vehicle for many opinions and not just for the support of one.

Perhaps there is still hope that this situation may produce a discussion that could benefit and educate all of us as to how we can accept one anothers culture.

We stood for what we believe in, the ability to be heard, but in the end the price was too high.

It would be interesting to see the USMC host the movie.

Hope, Change, Unity - Free with every vote for Barack Obama


Of 100 Senators, Barack Obama had the single most liberal voting record.

But I'm sure that would all change if he happened to get elected.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

That's quite a chicken roost


Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama's feverish, anti-American pastor, has consistently railed against materialism and "middleclass-ness." It turns out that his sermons are for the little people and not for himself personally. His new retirement home -- a mere 10,340-square-feet -- probably won't be open for congregants to come visit. After all, it's in a gated community.

Fox News has uncovered documents that indicate Wright is about to move to a 10,340-square-foot, four-bedroom home in suburban Chicago, currently under construction in a gated community... [his] retirement residence is raising some questions.

“Some people think deals like this are hypocritical. Jeremiah Wright himself criticizes people from the pulpit for middle classism, for too much materialism,” said Andrew Walsh, Associate Director of the Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life with Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.

...Siegel characterizes the transaction as unusual, however, because of the way Wright sold the property to Trinity and the way the deal was financed, with the attached $10 million line of credit... Because churches are classified as private businesses, Trinity isn’t required to reveal its intended use for the line of credit. Nor, because it’s a non-profit entity, is it required to provide that information to the IRS...

For the guy whose casual lies include the assertion that the government invented HIV to "kill off the man of color", this is pretty much the level of hypocrisy you'd expect.

MorOn.org goes to war with Hillary


Our favorite Soros-funded posse of latte-sipping Communists -- MorOn.org -- has launched a major public relations strike against the Clinton Machine. Its most recent message to members pleads for an end to the Cattle Future Queen's campaign.

A few weeks ago, Speaker Pelosi told ABC News, "If the votes of the superdelegates overturn what happened in the elections, it would be harmful to the Democratic Party."


She's right, but Clinton's top fundraisers want her to back off. According to the New York Times, their letter "carries an ominous tone, which stops just short of delivering a threat. The donors remind Ms. Pelosi that they are 'strong supporters' of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee." Their language was careful, but their implied threat was universally understood. (Roll Call carried this headline: "Clinton donors threaten Pelosi and DCCC.")

They're the old guard, and this is how the Democratic Party used to function—the big donors called the shots...

Won't you please help? Go to MorOn.org's website and enter snide messages in their contact form.

And pass the popcorn as the civil war unfolds.

Fitna released


Fitna, the controversial film produced by Dutch MP Geert Wilders, has been released online.



This is the same film that Network Solutions, a pathetic domain registrar and hosting provider, censored by shutting down its website.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Finally: science explains Ted Kennedy & Michael Moore


US News & World Report: "Abdominal Fat Boosts Dementia Risk."

Potbellies in midlife may flood brain with toxic substances, researcher says

A potbelly in middle age more than triples the risk of senility decades later, according to a large study that pinpoints a new link between obesity and dementia.

Obama's chickens... are coming home to roost

 
Now imagine my hand flourish to emphasize the point.

An Open Letter to the Democratic Party

 
Writing at the Lincoln Heritage Institute, Lt. Colonel Frances Rice, U.S. Army (Ret.), scorches the Democrat party.

We, African American citizens of the United States, declare and assert...

Whereas the Democratic Party fought to expand slavery and, after the Civil War, established Jim Crow Laws, Black Codes and other repressive legislation that were designed to disenfranchise African Americans,

Whereas the Ku Klux Klan was the terrorist arm of the Democratic Party, and their primary goal was to intimidate and terrorize African American voters, Republicans who moved South to protect African Americans and any other whites who supported them,

...Whereas from 1870 to 1930, in an effort to deny African Americans their civil rights and to keep African Americans from voting Republican, thousands of African Americans were shot, beaten, lynched, mutilated, and burned to death by Ku Klux Klan terrorists from the Democratic Party,

...Whereas the Democratic party has used racist demagoguery to deceive African Americans about the history of the Republican Party that: (a) started as the anti-slavery party in 1854, (b) fought to free African Americans from slavery, (c) designed Reconstruction, a ten-year period of unprecedented political power for African Americans, (d) passed the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the U. S. Constitution granting African Americans freedom, citizenship, and the right to vote, (e) passed the Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1875 granting African Americans protection from the Black Codes and prohibiting racial discrimination in public accommodations, (f) passed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965 granting African Americans protection from the Jim Crow laws, (g) established Affirmative Action programs to help African Americans proper with Republican President Richard Nixon's 1969 Philadelphia Plan that set the first goals and timetables and his 1972 Equal Employment Opportunity Act that made Affirmative Action Programs the law of our nation, and (h) never sponsored or launched a program, passed laws, or engaged in practices that resulted in the death of millions of African Americans,

Whereas Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka (a 1954 decision by Chief Justice Earl Warren who was appointed by Republican President Dwight Eisenhower) was a landmark civil rights case that was designed to overturn the racist practices that were established by the Democratic Party,

...Whereas Democratic President John F. Kennedy voted against the 1957 Civil Rights Law, opposed the 1963 March on Washington by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and was later criticized by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for ignoring civil rights issues.

Whereas Democratic President John F. Kennedy authorized the FBI (supervised by his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy) to investigate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on suspicion of being a communist,

Whereas Democratic Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan, made a 14-hour filibuster speech in the Senate in June 1964 in an unsuccessful effort to block passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and was heralded in April 2004 by Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd as a senator who would have been a great leader during the Civil War,

Whereas when the 1964 Civil Rights Act came up for vote, Senator Al Gore, Sr. and the rest of the Southern Democrats voted against the bill...

...Whereas Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore created harmful racial division when he falsely claimed that the 2000 presidential election was "stolen" from him and that African Americans in Florida were disenfranchised, even though a second recount of Florida votes by the "Miami Herald" and a consortium of major news organizations confirmed that he lost the election, and a ruling by the U.S. Civil Rights Commission declared that African Americans were not denied the right to vote,

Whereas the Democratic Party's soft bigotry of low expectations and social promotions have consigned African Americans to economic bondage and created a culture of dependency on government social programs,

Whereas the Democratic Party's use of deception and fear to block welfare reform, the faith-based initiative and school choice that would help African Americans prosper is consistent with the Democratic Party's heritage of racism that included sanctioning of slavery and kukluxery, a perversion of moral sentiment among leaders of the Democratic Party whose racist legacy bode ill until this generation of African Americans,

Now, therefore, for the above and other documented atrocities and accumulated wrongs inflicted upon African Americans, we demand a formal written apology and other appropriate remuneration from the leadership of the Democratic party.

Read the whole thing at Gateway Pundit.

Hat tip: Larwyn

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Hillary's Mortgage Rescue Plan


Won't you please help bail out real-estate flippers on the government's tab?

Hillary Clinton has a plan to help.

To summarize Hillary Clinton's solution to the mortgage and foreclosure crisis: She first wants a magic group of other people to be assembled out of nowhere to study and fix the problem for us...

Then she thinks we should do some stuff that two other senators came up with.

What's not to like? The taxpayers take all the risk and the real-estate speculators come out smelling like roses!

Sounds like a perfect Democratic plan.

Top eight signs you might be a member of the Taliban


Papa B offers the following counsel.

8. You refine heroin for a living; but you have a moral objection to beer.
7. You own a $500 machine gun and a $5,000 rocket launcher; but can't afford decent shoes.
6. You have more wives than teeth.
5. You think vests come in two styles: bullet-proof and suicide.
4. You can't think of anyone you haven't declared Jihad against.
3. You consider television dangerous; but routinely carry ammunition in your robe.
2. You've never been asked, 'Does this burka make my ass look big?'
1. A common compliment is, 'I love what you've done with your cave.'