Saturday, May 03, 2008

Iran's "Navy" suffering from intestinal distress


The US Navy just launched the USS Independence -- a Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) capable of 50 knot speeds combined with stealth characteristics. Instapinch has all of the photos (click on any of the pics, below, to visit).



The Navy Times adds:

The ship first saw the sun April 26 when workers at Austal USA moved the striking, aluminum-hulled trimaran out of its building shed and onto a floating drydock. The 417-foot-long ship was balanced on its center section while stanchions steadied the outriggers covering the craft’s 100-foot beam...

...Meanwhile, Lockheed Martin, [General Dynamics'] competitor in the LCS program, marked an engineering milestone in late April when the USS Freedom’s two Fairbanks Morse diesel engines were run for the first time... The Freedom, launched in September 2006, is being built at Marinette Marine in Marinette, Wis. Lockheed Martin hopes to move the ship under its own power during engineering trials in May, and is expected to deliver the ship to the Navy in late summer.

The Navy plans to test each design against the other and in 2010 select a winner. A total of 55 LCS ships are planned.

Hat tip: Michelle Malkin

Cubans line up to buy their first PCs


Speaking of Raul Castro: isn't Communism grand? Engadget has the scoop:

Although Cubans have been able to get underground PCs for a while now, the Cuban government only recently lifted the official ban on them, and the first publicly-available machines just went on sale Friday...

The state-approved QTECH PCs are only available at one store, where crowds formed to gawk at some pretty clunky tech -- the $780 towers feature Celeron processors, 512MB of RAM, Windows XP, and come with a CRT display. Not only that, but most Cubans won't even be allowed to have Internet access as only "trusted officials" and state journalists are allowed home net access. That's a pretty weak state of affairs, but it's not necessarily as dire as it seems: now that computers are legally available, some Cubans expect black market prices on up-to-date gear to come down. The managed economy in action -- anyone know if Cubans have unofficial ways of getting online as well?

That whizzing sound you hear is Che Guevera spinning in his grave.

You don't need a weatherman to tell it's raining on Obama


A must-read roundup at Fausta's blog concerning Barack Obama's acquaintances (who just happen to be unrepentant terrorists).

Protein Wisdom would be a good place to start:

Larry Johnson notes that Obama has been less than honest about his relationship with unrepentant domestic terrorist William Ayers.


We already knew that Ayers held the first fundraiser at his home to help launch Obama's state senate campaign in 1995, and that they served together on the board of the Woods Fund for years, giving grants to people like former PLO flack Rashid Khalidi. What we did not know is that Obama was the director of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a school reform organization co-founded by Ayers. He also links to a piece by Steve Diamond, law professor on the faculty of Santa Clara University School of Law, providing further background as to why this suggests Obama and Ayers may go back as far as the late 1980s. Granted, Johnson is famous for downplaying the threat of Islamic terrorism in the summer of 2001, but he has backup material this time.

Flopping Aces:

So we should all just forget about Obama's very bad judgement in befriending the likes of Rezko and Auchi, Odinga, Ayers, The New Black Panther Party, La Raza, Farrakhan, Mr. Wright, and the homophobe Rev. James T. Meeks.

Obama's ties to Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn go beyond mere happenstance.


It's no coincidence that his first campaign began at their home and that he served on the board of the problematic Woods Fund with them. When all of the facts are exposed, Obama will be as viable a candidate for president as Raul Castro.

Hat tip: Larwyn

Gore, Schumer and Pelosi: Let them eat dirt


It all started out as a simple, money-making scam. In the late 1990's, members of the UN's International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were tasked with assessing the scientific validity of the Kyoto Protocol. They subsequently produced the Special Report on Land Use, Land Use Change, and Forestry. The report found that "carbon offsets" and "carbon trading" were viable ways to barter the right to pollute for new forestry initiatives.


But members of the panel, such as Pedro Moura-Costa (above) and Gareth Philips, had major conflicts-of-interest. They owned or worked for businesses -- such as Ecosecurities and SGS Forestry -- that would benefit from the report's conclusions. But the mainstream media did not report these conflicts and instead piled on the "global warming" and "carbon offset" bandwagons.


The carbon offset market quickly exploded. In fact, $92 billion worth of offsets are expected to change hands in 2008. But wanton profiteering alone appears to be at the very heart of "carbon offsets." Put simply, a wide range of respected scientists, environmentalists, researchers, agriculturalists, and activists believe that carbon offsets are a "scam", "fantasy", "fiction", "nonsense", "fraudulent" and worse. And they've been saying so since 2000, though to read the newspaper you wouldn't know it.


To demonstrate the fraudulence of the carbon offset market, one need only request quotes from various carbon offset sellers.


The price for offseting a flight from London to Toronto and back?
  • $85: from Climate Care (UK), which says 6 tons of CO2 must be offset.
  • $60: Carbon Neutral (UK), which says 4.3 tons of CO2 must be offset.
  • $195: Climate Friendly (Australia) asserts that 11.63 tons of CO2 must be offset.
  • $180: Green Seat (Netherlands) says 8.68 tons of CO2 must be offset.

In other words, they're all basically making it up as they go along.


The result of these frauds, with which the mainstream media has been stunningly complicit, goes well beyond what most of the scammers would ever have anticipated.


For one, food prices haves skyrocketed as biofuel production has eroded the world's ability to produce basic foodstuffs.

"Why are we putting food in our gas tanks instead of our stomachs?" asked Richard Reinwald, owner of Reinwald's Bakery in Huntington, N.Y., and an active member of the Retail Bakers Association...

...Joseph Glauber, the chief economist at the Department of Agriculture, said ethanol production has led to higher prices for corn and soybeans... [and]...George Braley, the vice president of America's Second Harvest, said food banks nationwide are having trouble stocking their shelves...

But biofuel production isn't the only culprit.


The rise in food prices is also due, in part, to high oil prices. Earlier this week, Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) described his reluctance to pump oil from the United States' Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

What does the president do? He takes out the old saw of ANWR. ANWR wouldn't produce a drop of oil in ten years...

Unfortunately, that's exactly what Democrat Bill Clinton said fourteen years ago, when he vetoed legislation that would have permitted drilling in ANWR's coastal plain. Had Clinton signed off then, we'd have started producing oil four years ago. And billions of barrels of oil lie untouched, available to U.S. consumers, in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) areas.


The oil lies, patiently waiting for us, in areas around the US. But Democrats have "repeatedly blocked environmentally safe exploration in ANWR... We could produce plenty of oil," said Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska). "We could meet our own needs right now if we wanted to."


The red areas in the accompanying maps depict "The No Zone." These are the regions surrounding the United States in which Democrats have forbidden any oil exploration. From the tiny spit of land within the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge to the OCS, Democrats have uniformly opposed every form of exploration that would allow us to stop sending our funds overseas and given us the time to transition to clean energy technologies.



In the mean time, Cuba has leased drilling rights to foreign countries, which will permit them to drain the Gulf of Mexico of its oil. For example, Cuba recently granted China drilling rights in the Gulf. And, in fact, China will be drilling within 50 miles of Florida.


Instead of thinking strategically, Democrats have proposed various short-term fixes to address high oil prices.

"We believe there ought to be a gas-tax holiday, but Big Oil ought to pay for it," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

In other words, jack up prices to consumers even more because the oil companies will be forced to raise costs in order to continue their exploration and R&D functions (and pay shareholders like you and I).


Put simply, Democrats want more expensive energy.

All that said, the real problem — and the reason Pelosi really does deserve blame — is that Democrats’ political goal of reducing carbon emissions continues to trump their populist rhetoric on gasoline prices. The two stances are impossible to reconcile. Try as they might to blame oil companies for the pain Americans feel at the pump, the Democrats want higher prices for gasoline — and for all forms of energy that emit carbon. Economic barriers against CO2 emissions are a requirement for environmental progress in the Democrats’ view, and this is the entire purpose of the carbon cap-and-trade system they will put before the House this summer — to create economic disincentives for emitting CO2.

There's that phrase again: carbon trading.

It all comes back to carbon offsets, the "global warming" scam promoted by the UN's IPCC. And now, a group of scientists has formally petitioned the IPCC, asking that they cease and desist marketing the message that CO2 emissions relate to warming temperatures. The scientists go on to renounce the unintended consequences of the UN's position: that the policy of burning food (to produce biofuel) has driven food prices sharply higher and is causing hunger and deforestation in countries around the world (especially the poorer countries).

The net result? In Haiti, for example, citizens have been forced to eat mud patties consisting of dirt, oil and sugar.

Furthermore, scientists are now coming to the conclusion that "green" fuels can't replace oil anytime soon.

* * *

The hunger and high oil prices are certain to continue until we come to grips with reality. That is, fossil fuels are required for the world to survive the next several decades. The transition to green technologies will take significant time.

Unless we wish to see mass starvation and economic ruin, Democrats must allow America to take advantage of its immense storehouse of energy.

Vote accordingly in 2008.

Linked by: Junk Science and Parkway Rest Stop. Thanks!

Friday, May 02, 2008

Is it just me, or is it warm in here?


• South Dakota was slammed with 48 inches of global warming and 60 mile-an-hour winds.

• The diversion of food to biofuel production has resulted in soaring food prices throughout the world. Among the hardest hit: Haitians have been forced to eat mud patties, which consist of dirt, oil and sugar.

• Perhaps this explains why one UN official called the biofuel frenzy a "crime against humanity." The biofuel boondoggle -- a humanitarian disaster -- needs to be rectified, and fast.

Let's hope Al Gore wins another Nobel Prize for this lunacy. It'll keep him from tinkering with more stuff that can go horribly, fatally wrong.

Update: Tom Nelson has an excellent digest of climate-change folderol.

Update II: Noel Sheppard links Rex Murphy's blistering commentary on biofuels (hat tip: Larwyn).

For shizzle, my esteemed colleagues


Via: CI

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Doug's discount motivational posters




Now you can see why we're givin' them away.

Jeremiah Wright: Back to the Future


Of Pastor Jeremiah Wright, the New York Times wrote:

Mr. Wright, who has long prided himself on criticizing the establishment, said he knew that he may not play well in Mr. Obama's audition for the ultimate establishment job.

"If Barack gets past the primary, he might have to publicly distance himself from me," Mr. Wright said with a shrug. "I said it to Barack personally, and he said yeah, that might have to happen."

That was exactly one year ago yesterday. That's why some folks call him "Nostradumas" Wright.

Hat tip: Larwyn

On the way to the Democratic National Convention


You say a massive rift between Clinton and Obama threatens the entire Democratic Party?

Hmmm. Pass the Twizzlers.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

The many faces of Hillary Clinton


Pictures via an LGF open thread.

I don't know why people complain that Hillary looks "programmed" or "calculating."

She looks as natural and inviting as an Autumn breeze to me.

There will be no questions allowed during the Planetary Emergency


Remember - the science is settled and there is no dispute that anthropogenic global warming is real.

That's why it's standard practice for Al Gore to ban the press during his (very expensive) appearances.

Gore, who reportedly receives $100,000 for personal appearances, apparently has a standard contract that bans the fourth estate from all of his speeches. No one seems to know why, and we can’t ask — on account of we’re out here, and he’s in there.

The Smoking Gun has Gore's standard contract. Terms include:

* No press, no questions, no statements, no interviews
* No photographs (perhaps they make Gore's ass look fat)
* No recording (audio or video) of Gore
* An Apple MacBook Pro must be provided for his presentation.

Brother, can you spare a carbon offset?

Hat tip: Vanderleun.

Ahmadinejad prefers Obama


Iran's terrorist-in-chief Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appears to have endorsed Barack Obama.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the Spanish El Pais newspaper that the real circles of power in America would not allow Senator Barack Obama to enter the White House, adding that he would have no problems if the junior senator from Illinois were to be elected.

No problem indeed.

Credit for this exclusive photo goes to Junior Cub Reporter Biff Spackle, who continues to do a masterful job locating one-of-a-kind snapshots.

Hat tip: Marina

Bill Moyers' hard-hitting Hitler Interview


This is the full transcript of Moyers' Q&A with the Reichsführer. If I'm not mistaken, Moyers earned a Pulitzer in the 40's for this interview.

BILL MOYERS: In 1933, Adolph Hitler was elected chancellor of Germany with only 44% of the vote. He inherited a struggling country with high inflation and staggering unemployment. How did you unite the country behind you?

ADOLF HITLER: Through the pursuit of peace. Europe will not have peace until the Jewish question has been disposed of.

MOYERS: But by the 1940s, you'd repaired the German economy and unemployment was nearly eradicated.

HITLER: The world has sufficient capacity for settlement, but we must finally break away from the notion that a certain percentage of the Jewish people are intended, by our dear God, to be the parasitic beneficiary of the body, and of the productive work, of other peoples.

MOYERS: Let's start with first things. When did you hear the call to leadership? How did it come?

HITLER: From millions of men . . . one man must step forward who with apodictic force will form granite principles from the wavering idea-world of the broad masses and take up the struggle for their sole correctness, until from the shifting waves of a fre thought-world there will arise a brazen cliff of solid unity in faith and will.

MOYERS: Contrary to some of the rumors that have been circulated about Germany, what are the realities of your Jewish community?

HITLER: Jewry must adapt itself to respectable constructive work, as other peoples do, or it will sooner or later succumb to a crisis of unimaginable proportions.

MOYERS: Are you saying that for the citizens of Germany leave the world of unemployment, leave the world of discrimination, leave the world of that daily struggle and come to...

HITLER: If the international finance -- Jewry inside and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations into a world war yet again, then the outcome will not be the victory of Jewry, but rather the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe!

MOYERS: Lots of controversy about "Nazism". As I understand it, Nazism attempts to achieve a peaceful world through the establishment of a people's state.

HITLER: A folkish state must therefore begin by raising marriage from the level of a continuous defilement of the race, and give it the consecration of an institution which is called upon to produce images of the Lord and not monstrosities halfway between man and ape.

MOYERS: Adolf Hitler, thank you very much for this opportunity.

HITLER: Well, thank you for having me Bill. Thank you sir.

MOYERS: That's it for the JOURNAL. We'll see you next week and on line.

I'm Bill Moyers.
* * *

Linked by: Don Surber. Thanks!

Hungry Africans thank Al Gore


Thanks, Al Gore.

The world just had one of the coldest winters on record.

And the price of food has skyrocketed...

...thanks to your "global warming" -- oops, I meant "climate change" -- initiatives.

Problem is, researchers, environmentalists and scientists of all political persuasions say that your "carbon offset" businesses are money-making scams and do absolutely nothing for the environment.

And the current lack of sunspots likely indicates a solar cooling cycle beyond human control.

We're hungry, Al Gore. Thanks for all of your help.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

New Obama campaign logo


No need to thank me.

I'll gladly forego any royalties in return for a Best of Jeremiah Wright DVD.

The idiocy of Charles Schumer reduced to a single sentence


Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) describes his reluctance to pump oil from the United States' Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

What does the president do? He takes out the old saw of ANWR. ANWR wouldn't produce a drop of oil in ten years...

That's exactly what Democrat Bill Clinton said fourteen years ago, when he vetoed legislation that would have permitted drilling in ANWR's coastal plain. Had Clinton signed off then, we'd have started producing oil four years ago.

EIB adds:

The New York Times laments that [high prices haven't reduced demand]. Let me see if I can help the New York Times. "As oil prices soared to record levels in recent years, basic economics suggested that consumption would fall and supplies would rise as producers drilled for more oil. But as prices flirt with $120 a barrel, many energy experts are becoming worried that neither seems to be happening..."

"...But for a variety of reasons including sharply higher drilling costs and a rise of nationalistic policies that restrict foreign investment, these countries are failing to increase their output...." What do you think the key here is? Nationalistic policies? "A rise of nationalistic policies that restrict foreign investment..."

Can I translate that for you? Communist/socialist countries nationalizing their oil businesses kicking out the experts, the oil companies in drilling, producing, and refining. Could I mention Hugo Chavez? Hugo Chavez just nationalized all the oil in Venezuela... Whenever you want to find an interruption and something that doesn't make sense in economics and the laws of supply and demand, I guarantee that somewhere at the root level of it; you're going to find a liberal or a socialist or a communist attempting to manage the market or steal all the profits for him or herself... It's no wonder that Norway and Mexico and Russia -- Russia's got its own political upheavals going on right now; they've got their own political problems, too.

Remember to thank your Democratic representative for $4 gas.

I never had sexual relations with that pastor.




I am outraged by the comments that Wright made.


The person that I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago.


He was not the person I heard every Sunday for the last 20 years.


His comments yesterday were not only divisive and destructive...


...but they give comfort to those who prey on hate.


I never heard any of these inflammatory statements before.


I discovered yesterday that I really didn't know my spiritual advisor of the last two decades.


In other words...


...I never inhaled his wisdom.


What??!? Hell, it worked for Bubba!!

* * *

Gateway Pundit: Obama: "I Seek Daily to Imitate His Faith" ...Until Today
Campaign Spot: Obama's Philadelphia Speech Looks Ridiculous Now
Volokh: "Obama on Wright: He really means it this time"
Linked by: Instapundit, Pajamas Media and American Digest. Thanks!