Wednesday, September 10, 2008

What do the ten cities with the highest poverty rate have in common?


Sean sent in this one (as usual, the "progressives" won't like it).

What do the top ten cities with the highest poverty rate all have in common?

Democrat leadership.

Detroit, MI (1st on the poverty rate list) hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1961;

Buffalo, NY (2nd) hasn't elected one since 1954;

Cincinnati, OH (3rd)... since 1984;

Cleveland, OH (4th)... since 1989;

Miami, FL (5th) has never had a Republican mayor;

St. Louis, MO (6th)... since 1949;

El Paso, TX (7th) has never had a Republican mayor;

Milwaukee, WI (8th)... since 1908;

Philadelphia, PA (9th)... since 1952;

Newark, NJ (10th)... since 1907.

Einstein once said, 'The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.'

It is the disadvantaged who habitually elect Democrats --- yet are still disadvantaged.

Snopes doesn't list it yet, so it's gotta be true!

Linked by: Wolf Howling. Thanks!

Obama leaves the No Spin Zone dizzy and battered


Gateway Pundit summarizes the Anointed One's interview with Bill O'Reilly.

Holy False Prophet!... This was awful!
Barack Obama went into the No Spin Zone and came out battered and bloody tonight.
This interview with Bill O'Reilly was a DISASTER!

Obama had nothing -- He could not defend or explain his associations with terrorists, racists, and Leftist nutjobs.

He couldn't defend his decision to appease the Daily Kooks.

He compared Sean Hannity and FOX News to the vile nutroots radicals.

He excused Bill Ayers' terrorist attacks.

He could not name one example where FOX News smeared him.

He could not name one conservative friend.

Obama was so bad that O'Reilly started laughing.

It was horrible.

Maybe it would help if the Obama campaign questioned John McCain's honor. Oops. I guess they already did that.

The Obama campaign took its most personal shot ever at Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Tuesday evening, questioning his honor over a claim in a new TV ad that the Democrat calls "perverse." ...The issue was a new McCain advertisement belittling Obama's record on education, and accusing him of supporting sex education for kindergartners.

...Bill Burton, Obama's press secretary, responded in a statement: “It is shameful and downright perverse for the McCain campaign to use a bill that was written to protect young children from sexual predators as a recycled and discredited political attack against a father of two young girls – a position that his friend Mitt Romney also holds. Last week, John McCain told Time magazine he couldn't define what honor was. Now we know why."

In a talk at Planned Parenthood Obama confirmed his support for sex education for kindergarteners. Kindergarteners?

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Liberals want to put governors on cars to limits speeds to 75


I'm not kidding. Mark Hemingway at the Corner reports ("Liberals Want to Neuter Your Cars"):

I don't know what Matt Yglesias has against cars, but they seem to be a major impediment to creating his nanny state utopia:

As you've probably noticed, there's just about nowhere in the United States where you're allowed to drive faster than 80 miles per hour. And yet cars can drive much faster than this.

And of course the reason you're not allowed to go super-fast is that it isn't safe. A large proportion of car accidents are related to people driving too quickly. Thus, via Ezra Klein comes Kent Sepkowitz's suggestion that we design cars so as to make it impossible for them to drive over, say, 75 miles per hour. This seems reasonably sensible to me.

This seems reasonably sensible to no one, once you've thought about it for more than a few seconds. If you're going to allow cars to drive at 60-70 miles an hour, you probably need to allow for the fact that there are innumerable situations where safety dictates you depend on reserve power to drive faster than the prevailing speed...

Matt Yglesias (no relation to Julio, I presume) is full of crap. I drive a fast car. Car and Driver says it tops out at about 155 MPH. However, I never drive it over 95 90 85 80. But I constantly find myself behind a Prius (bad), Subaru (worse), Cadillac (worser), or Lexus 400h hybrid SUV (worstest).

These holier-than-thou asshats inevitably drive in the left lane of the expressway, intentionally limiting speeds to ensure their little section of the highway ain't excessively polluting. What magic dipstick slapped them in the forehead and turned them into Vice President Gore?

The biggest portion of car accidents are caused by the numbskulls who don't know the rule Left Lane Is For Passing Only.

If I were in state government, I'd require anyone convicted of this offense to have the phrase branded into their dashboard. And on a second offense, branded into their hood. Third offense? Don't go there.

Hat tip: Larwyn

Olbermann to Obama: "Have you thought of getting angrier?"


The Washington Post ("MSNBC Bombs in Blogosphere") reports that the official network of the Democratic Party is now getting lousy reviews from the left side of the blogosphere. The reason? Its demotion of Keith "Barack" Olbermann and Chris "Tingle Bells" Matthews.

Larry Grossman, a former president of NBC News, said that MSNBC has "been doing very well as the liberal antithesis to Fox, everyone knows that," he said. "But at some point standards and journalistic integrity have to take over."

Grossman questioned whether Gregory's new assignment is a good fit: "If he's presiding over what is an avowedly liberal network, will it in effect tarnish his reputation for being a perfectly straight shooter?"

Olbermann's show is the most popular on MSNBC. In a strikingly friendly interview with Obama that aired last night, Olbermann asked the Democratic nominee whether he should use "more exclamation points," adding: "Have you thought of getting angrier?"

If that isn't a window into the lunacy that is Keith Olbermann, I'm not sure what is.

First I thought Air America's ridicule of Olbermann would have been the last straw for the demented faux newscaster but, lo, I was wrong.

Now even lefty blog MyDD says that Christy and Olbermann deserved their sackings.

I can't help but think that we'll soon see a homeless, mumbling Olbermann wandering the streets pushing a shopping cart filled with garbage bags.

And what a tragedy that would be.

Swype: breakthrough keyboard entry method for touchscreens


Ever tried to use the iPhone keyboard for serious data entry? I have. It's a non-starter. My hands are somewhat large and I have a hard enough time keying on my BlackBerry 8320, which has a revolutionary technology called "buttons."

Anyhow, I was checking out CNet's coverage of the TechCrunch and DemoFall new technology conferences. There were several stories describing Swype, a new "keyboard entry method for touchscreen devices."

After checking out the accompanying video, I've come to the conclusion that Swype really is revolutionary.

Rather than trying to tap individual keys, the user simply moves the pointing device over the desired keys in the proper order. The software determines the word which best fits the path traced by the pointer.

Swype's inventor, Cliff Kushler, also dreamed up the popular T9 mobile keyboard technology that's represents our current generation of phones. With the new Swype approach, Kushler claims he might get 50 words-per-minute on a touchscreen.

That's impressive.

Graphics: CNet News.com.

Shocker: Newsweek helps to debunk the Palin sleazemongers


To it credit, Newsweek has republished Factcheck.org's analysis of the many Palin rumors transiting the series of tubes that make up the Internets.

We've been flooded for the past few days with queries about dubious Internet postings and mass e-mail messages making claims about McCain's running mate, Gov. Palin. We find that many are completely false, or misleading.

Palin did not cut funding for special needs education in Alaska by 62 percent. She didn't cut it at all. In fact, she tripled per-pupil funding over just three years.

She did not demand that books be banned from the Wasilla library. Some of the books on a widely circulated list were not even in print at the time. The librarian has said Palin asked a "What if?" question, but the librarian continued in her job through most of Palin's first term.

She was never a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, a group that wants Alaskans to vote on whether they wish to secede from the United States. She's been registered as a Republican since May 1982.

Palin never endorsed or supported Pat Buchanan for president. She once wore a Buchanan button as a "courtesy" when he visited Wasilla, but shortly afterward she was appointed to co-chair of the campaign of Steve Forbes in the state.

Palin has not pushed for teaching creationism in Alaska's schools. She has said that students should be allowed to "debate both sides" of the evolution question, but she also said creationism "doesn't have to be part of the curriculum."

Gee, I wonder who could've spread all of this bogus filth? I wonder if their campaign rhymes with Nobama?

Google News Archive includes scanned newspapers from yore!


Understatement must be the Official Google Blog's forte. Its announcement that the Google News Archive now includes some scanned newspapers -- reaching back decades -- is, for a researcher, earth-shattering.


Here's an example. I searched the archive for early 20th century references to two different terms: Hitler and Atom:

Time Magazine - Dec. 21 1931:

Adolf Hitler sat in Berlin giving press interviews as though he were already Chief of State. In Leipzig a congress of pharmacists and physicians turned into a typical Fascist rally. Hitlerite orators, drunk with the sound of their own voices, shouted their program to maintain the superiority of "the Nordic race, the finest flower on the tree of humanity." They mentioned the hanging of Marxists, abolition of trade unions, compulsory sterilization of Jews.

But don't worry, little progressives. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's probably just joking about nuking Israel.

Time Magazine May. 27, 1940:

Atomic Power in Ten Years? Early last year news came from Germany, Denmark and France that hit physicists like a punch in the solar plexus. The massive atom of uranium, heaviest of the 92 elements, had been cracked by neutrons (electrically neutral subatomic particles), yielding some 200,000,000 electron-volts of energy per cracked atom (TIME, Feb. 6, 1939). These uranium explosions or "fissions" were most effectively touched off by slow moving neutrons of only one-thirtieth of one electron-volt energy, so that the energy profit was 6,000,000,000 to 1. Prospect of using atomic power-the old dream of sending a ship around the world on the energy in a pint of atoms-seemed much closer than before. Question: how close?

I'm telling you, this is a freaking treasure trove of information.

We're lucky to be alive in this day and age.

Mitch Wagner's feeble apologia for the New York Times


Mitch Wagner, writing at InformationWeek's PoliticalTech blog, has an interesting job. Last week, he wrote about the odd interplay between blogs and the mainstream media.

In this case, an Internet site reported that the child Sarah Palin claimed was her own was actually her teen-aged daughter's, and the elder Palin was lying to cover up her daughter's pregnancy. Journalists started digging into the report to find out whether it was true, which led to the McCain campaign issuing a statement: The child is, indeed, the elder Palin's.

Bob Evans, a senior vice president at TechWeb (and Wagner's "boss's boss's boss") complimented the coverage but added:

...it was okay for the drive-by media to savage a 17-year-old because...well...why was that okay again? And then, several paragraphs later, you mention that the very same drive-by media ignored reports--for eight months!--that a Presidential candidate had impregnated a staffer while having an affair with her. I would think, Mitch, that your analysis of this complex situation would have touched on the stunningly different approaches taken by the drive-by media in these two cases. Why did they immediately and brutally and relentlessly tear into the life and behavior of a 17-year-old who had only a marginal connection to the presidential campaign, yet totally ignore for eight months---eight months!---the lies and deceit and *relevant* story involving John Edwards? ... Why did the NY Times run three --- THREE!! --- cover stories on Tuesday about Bristol Palin, but has said next to nothing about Barack Obama and Bill Ayers, or Barack Obama and Tony Rezko, or Barack Obama and how he’ll make the oceans fall and the sick heal?

Markos Moulitsas, publisher of the blog Daily Kos, which drove the Bristol Palin story into the national spotlight, "addresses that point pretty well" (at least according to Wagner):

Her daughter's pregnancy *is* relevant in the context of her mother's opposition to sex education and her vetoing of funding for a shelter for pregnant teens. And, Republicans can't complain about families being drug into the national debate when they've been virtually pimping their Iraq-bound son. Either family is all in, or all out.

Put in polite terms: horses***. Furthermore, Kos actually erased diaries and banned authors from its site when they mentioned the Edwards affair. Free speech, eh?

As for "her mother's opposition to sex education"? An utter and complete fabrication as reported by the Los Angeles Times: "The Republican vice presidential candidate says students should be taught about condoms."

Wagner goes on to offer a feeble apology for the Times', eh, selective coverage.

...The Times screwed up by failing to report the Edwards story. They admit it. And now, faced with another story of how a candidate in the Presidential election handles a family-values issue, should the Times have backed off of that story? ...Bob also wants to know why mainstream journalists have given Obama a free ride on his links to Ayers and Rezko.

Here, Mitch puts words in Evans' mouth. Bob didn't ask why mainstream journalists had ignored Ayers and Rezko; he asked why The New York Times had suppressed the story. After all, the Times represents the sine qua non of the print media.

The Times gave up the ghost years ago. That's why it's stock chart looks like a ski jump ramp.

Monday, September 08, 2008

New York Times Career Path


January 2004


October 2004


January 2005


February 2005


April 2005


June 2005


August 2005


December 2005


January 2006


January 2007


April 2007


January 2008


February 2008


August 2008


September 2008

Future Combat Systems: Here and Now


CNet has an excellent slide-show depicting various components of FCS.

Butch


Papa B sent in this one.

John was in the fertilized egg business.

He had several hundred young layers
(hens), called 'pullets,'
and ten roosters to fertilize the eggs.

He kept records,
and any rooster not performing
went into the soup pot
and was replaced.

This took a lot of time,
so he bought some tiny bells
and attached them to his roosters.

Each bell had a different tone,
so he could tell from a distance,
which rooster was performing.

Now, he could sit on the porch
And fill out an efficiency report
by just listening to the bells.

John's favorite rooster, old Butch,
was a very fine specimen,
but this morning he noticed
old Butch's bell hadn't rung at all!

When he went to investigate,
he saw the other roosters were busy chasing pullets,
bells-a-ringing, but the pullets,
hearing the roosters coming,
could run for cover.

To John's amazement,
old Butch had his bell in his beak,
so it couldn't ring.

He'd sneak up on a pullet,
do his job and walk on to the next one.

John was so proud of old Butch,
he entered him in the Renfrew County Fair
and he became an overnight sensation
among the judges.

The result was the judges
not only awarded old Butch the No Bell Piece Prize
but they also awarded him the Pulletsurprise as well.

Clearly old Butch was a politician in the making.

Who else but a politician could figure out
how to win two of the most highly coveted awards
on our planet by being the best
at sneaking up on the populace
and screwing them
when they weren't paying attention?

Vote carefully this year,
the bells are not always audible.

Slideshow: What is a nanosecond?


Sent in by Papa B.












Related: The Ultimate List of Obama Flip-Flops.

MSNBC punts on Olbermann, Matthews for election coverage


In an apparent, last-ditch effort to salvage some shred of credibility, cable "news" station MSNBC announced that unhinged leftist Keith Olbermann and moronic tingle-boy Chris Matthews will no longer be covering the election.

Word has it that the Assclowns Union is up in arms. Charles Johnson provides the details:

The most openly hostile, openly crazed partisan hack on television (and his leg-tingling friend) will no longer be anchoring MSNBC’s election coverage: MSNBC Takes Incendiary Hosts From Anchor Seat.

After months of accusations of political bias and simmering animosity between MSNBC and its parent network NBC, the channel decided over the weekend that the NBC News correspondent and MSNBC host David Gregory would anchor news coverage of the coming debates and election night. Mr. Olbermann and Mr. Matthews will remain as analysts during the coverage.

The change — which comes in the home stretch of the long election cycle — is a direct result of tensions associated with the channel’s perceived shift to the political left.

“The most disappointing shift is to see the partisan attitude move from prime time into what’s supposed to be straight news programming,” said Davidson Goldin, formerly the editorial director of MSNBC and a co-founder of the reputation management firm DolceGoldin.

Olbermann has no business being associated with “news” at all. He’s a disgrace. Hopefully, this is the first step toward tossing him out on his ear.

Dare to dream.

Smoking Obama image credit: Mrs. Satan.

Sunday, September 07, 2008

Line o' the day: Hatred that moves heart and soul


Nick Cohen, writing at The Guardian:

Hatred is the most powerful emotion in politics. At present, American liberals are not fighting for an Obama presidency. I suspect that most have only the haziest idea of what it would mean for their country. The slogans that move their hearts and stir their souls are directed against their enemies: Bush, the neo-cons, the religious right.

Roster of Hate: Guide to Barack Obama's Extremist Ties


These are the documented connections -- using attribution from mainstream media sources -- that should have people thinking twice before they consider voting for Barack Obama.

The Los Angeles Times ("Allies of Palestinians see a friend in Barack Obama") reports that in 2003 controversial academic Rashid Khalidi was toasted at a going away party by Obama. Speaking to the crowd, Obama reminisced "about meals prepared by Khalidi's wife... and conversations that were 'consistent reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases." Who is Khalidi, now an academic at Columbia? MSNBC reported that Khalidi is a virulent opponent of the Jews and "Zionists", stating that "Israel is a 'racist' state with an 'apartheid system' and that America has been 'brainwashed' by Israel." Khalidi also served as a spokesman for the PLO. In 2000, the Khalidis held a fundraiser for Obama's unsuccessful congressional bid. The next year, a group headed by Mona Khalidi received a $40,000 grant from the Woods Fund of Chicago, when Obama served on its board of directors.

The Jewish Press ("Obama Served On Board That Funded Pro-Palestinian Group") reports that Mona Khalidi's group -- a pro-Palestinian organization called the "Arab-American Action Network" (AAAN) received a total of $75,000 from the Woods Fund during the time Obama served on its board.

The AAAN "considers the fact that Israel exists a 'catastrophe' and supports initiatives for illegal aliens to obtain driver’s licenses and education benefits." It promotes open borders immigration policies and favors giving illegal aliens who attend Illinois high schools (dubbed “undocumented students” by AAAN) "the opportunity to pursue higher education".

The Wall Street Journal ("Obama's Muslim-Outreach Adviser Resigns") wrote in August that Barack Obama's choice for Muslim outreach resigned after his affiliations to radical extremists were revealed. Mazen Asbahi is a frequent speaker before several groups in the U.S. that scholars have associated with the Muslim Brotherhood, a radical Egyptian group whose credo reads Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope. Mr. Asbahi also briefly served on a board with Jamal Said, the imam at a fundamentalist-controlled mosque in Illinois, who the Justice Department named an unindicted co-conspirator in a 2007 racketeering trial of several alleged Hamas fund-raisers.

The Los Angeles Times ("Allies of Palestinians see a friend in Barack Obama") reports that the Anti-Defamation League is concerned about Obama's 20-year relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose racist and anti-Israel rhetoric recently came to light.

Wright's church bulletin reprinted a Times op-ed written by a leader of Hamas that advocated violence against Jews. "In the context of spending 20 years in a church where now it is clear the anti-Israel rhetoric was there, was repeated, . . . that's what makes his presence at an Arab American event... a greater concern."

The Los Angeles Times ("Allies of Palestinians see a friend in Barack Obama") reports that in 1998 Obama attended a speech by Edward Said, a leading Palestinian advocate, who called for a "campaign against settlements, against Israeli apartheid."

Said wrote numerous position papers that pilloried America and Israel for its maltreatment of the Palestinian people: "For the American Zionist, therefore, Arabs are not real beings... To submit supinely to a Zionist-controlled Middle East policy... will neither bring stability at home nor equality and justice in the US."

The Atlantic ("Obama on Zionism and Hamas") stated that Hamas leader Ahmed Yousef did not aid Barack Obama's cause in May when he endorsed the senator.

“We like Mr. Obama and we hope that he will win the election.”

Why? "He has a vision to change America." Of course, Hamas' preference for American presidents may not sit well with some. Yousef described Jimmy Carter as a "noble man" who "did an excellent job as President."

Israel National News ("Arab-American Activist Says Obama Hiding Anti-Israel Stance") states that Ali Abunimah -- a Palestinian activist who runs the website Electronic Intifada -- says he knows Obama well and met him during many pro-Palestinian meetings. Abunimah said he knew his state senator for many years and that Obama "used to attend events in the Palestinian community in Chicago all the time." At a 2004 dinner gathering, Abunimah said, Obama greeted him warmly and said privately that he needed to speak cautiously about the Middle East: "that he was sorry he wasn't talking more about the Palestinian cause, but that his primary campaign had constrained what he could say."

Investor's Business Daily ("Barack Obama — Magna Cum Saudi?"): New York's Inside City Hall recently featured an interview with Percy Sutton, a one-time candidate for mayor of New York. Sutton stated that an associate, Dr. Khalid al-Mansour, asked him to write a letter of reference for Barack Obama who was applying for admittance to Harvard Law School. Sutton said al-Mansour "is the principal adviser to one of the world's richest men. He told me about Obama." al-Mansour reportedly represented Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a nephew of Saudi King Abdullah.

The question that comes to mind is: why?

ABC News reports that Minister Louis Farrakhan recently endorsed Barack Obama as president. "I like him very much. I like him, he has a fresh approach," the Nation of Islam's leader said. "And I'm fearful, because there's a structure in our government that no matter who sits in the seat of power, there are forces that one has to contend with if one is able to attract the masses of their votes... If avoiding me would help him to become president, I'd be glad to stay in the background, because of the taint that's on the minister." Said taint includes accusing whites of being devils created by an evil scientist, describing Judaism as a gutter religion and referring to the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler as "wickedly great."

The Chicago Reader ("What Makes Obama Run?") notes that Obama was a key figure in Farrakhan's Million Man March. Biography states that Obama and Al Sharpton were among the prominent leaders who participated. Jeremiah Wright, who CBS said was "for over two decades a sort of intellectual father figure" to Obama, also "helped organize the 1995 Million Man March on Washington" with Farrakhan.

Wright, of course, was the controversial and divisive preacher of Trinity United Church during Obama's long association with the man and the church.

The New Republic ("The Agitator - Barack Obama's unlikely political education") noted that Wright's background is unique for a preacher. Wright is, in fact, a former Muslim and current black nationalist who instilled in Trinity a guiding principle called the "Black Value System" -- included a "Disavowal of the Pursuit of 'Middleclassness.'" Among Wright's bizarre actions: reprinting an op-ed by Mousa Abu Marzook, a leader in the terrorist group Hamas. Hamas' charter is straightforward: it calls "for the death of all Jews." Marzook was deported in 1997 when Federal Judge Kevin Duffy wrote "Abu Marzook engaged in and intended to further the aims of [a terrorist] conspiracy by his membership in and support of the Hamas organization... [and] probable cause exists that Abu Marzook knew of Hamas's plan to carry out violent, murderous attacks, that he selected the leadership and supplied the money to enable the attacks to take place, and that such attacks were, therefore, a foreseeable consequence of the conspiracy."

* * *

MSNBC ("Obama under fire for comment on Palestinians") states that Iowa Democrats were troubled after a 2007 campaign stop in which Obama stated that "nobody's suffering more than the Palestinian people." His campaign later recanted, saying the statement had been misinterpreted.

The Washington Post ("Obama Backs Away From Comment on Divided Jerusalem") reported that Obama acknowledged that the status of Jerusalem would need to be negotiated, reversing a statement made days earlier to AIPAC that the city "must remain undivided." After Palestinian leaders complained, Obama "quickly backtracked yesterday in an interview with CNN."

* * *

Jim Hoft offers the best summary I've read.

Anyone who believes that Barack Obama, who spent 20 years in a Jew-hating church, with a Jew-hating pastor, and hung around Jew haters, is going to be a friend of Israel is a fool.


Dedicated to: Moonbat friends Sandy and Linda. Linked by: Pat Dollard. Thanks!

The Secret War with Iran


By turns Intriguing and terrifying excerpts from a new book by Ronen Bergman (hat tip: Charles Johnson).

In August 2007, because certain intelligence agencies were not convinced of Israeli claims that President Bashar Assad was engaged in the construction of a nuclear weapons facility, Israel sent sent 12 members of the Sayeret Matkal commando unit into Syria in two helicopters to collect soil samples outside the site in question.

Needless to say, this was a highly dangerous operation. And it very nearly went wrong. The commandos were almost exposed when a Syrian patrol drove past the landing site where the helicopters were parked.

But it was well worth it. The results provided "clear-cut proof" of the nuclear project," ... A month later, Israel bombed the site, and in so doing reemphasized the Begin Doctrine - Israel's insistence that, for the sake of its own survival, it will not allow the deployment by hostile neighbors of weapons that might be used to destroy it...

[The] Syria's nuclear facility - whose purpose he states unambiguously was "the production of plutonium for the manufacture of atomic bombs" and whose construction, he reports, was a tripartite endeavor: "At a series of secret meetings between representatives of the three sides, held mainly in Teheran, it was decided that Syria would supply the territory, Iran the money [$1 billion-$2b.], and North Korea the expertise..."

...The raid on Syria marked an important reassertion of Israeli military capability. The killing of Hizbullah terror chief Mughniyeh in the heart of the Syrian capital in February - for which no party has claimed responsibility - should also have sent a certain deterrent message. The defection to the CIA of top Iranian intelligence adviser Gen. Ali Reza Askari last year was another success.

...Bergman also lists a series of sabotage operations that have prevented Iran from being even closer still to the bomb: A leading expert on electromagnetics who worked at Iran's Isfahan enrichment facility found dead at his home last year, and reports of an explosion at his laboratory; three or four planes crashing inside Iran in 2006 and 2007 with personnel connected to the security of the nuclear project on board; insulation units for the centrifuge enrichment process discovered to be unusable; various explosions caused by faulty equipment at the main Natanz facility and at Isfahan, including the wrecking of 50 centrifuges when two transformers blew up at Natanz in 2006. In language presumably negotiated painstakingly with the censor, the last of these incidents is attributed to "efforts implemented jointly with the United States."

...The latest information... is that some 3,000 centrifuges, in 18 cascades, are now enriching uranium, "under great technical difficulties," at Natanz. Nearby, the Iranians are building a plant to hold another 30,000 to 50,000 centrifuges - and building it underground to ensure no repeat of Israel's successful raid on Saddam Hussein's nuclear reactor at Osirak. Already, Natanz is protected by no fewer than 26 anti-aircraft missile batteries, and this and other of its nuclear facilities, he writes (despite others' claims to the contrary), already have the advanced Russian-made S-300 missiles among their defenses.

Meanwhile, at the Parchin military complex, notwithstanding the complacent conclusion of the NIE last year, the Iranians are hard at work on the final phase of the journey to the bomb - having made "considerable progress" in mastering the process of emplacing enriched uranium into the device that starts the devastating chain reaction. They are also making headway, Bergman writes, "in acquiring the expertise required to manufacture nuclear warheads that can be fitted to their missiles..."

...[The book] makes for a horrifying read. Essentially, his book demonstrates an ongoing incapacity - by Israel, the US and the rest of the free world, but, critically, featuring Israel as the first potential casualty - to internalize the extent of the Iranian threat and act effectively to thwart it. The powers that are faced off against expansionist Islam have consistently underestimated the cunning, viciousness and determination of the chief state sponsor of that ideology, Iran, and its various offshoots, proxies and allies, notably including Hizbullah and Hamas.

Time and again, Western weakness, capitulation and inaction has emboldened Islamic extremism. Between 1980 and 1997, for instance, Iran assassinated close to 200 "dissidents" in attack after attack across Europe, and European nations, on the whole, barely lifted a finger to stop them. Why would Iran not be emboldened?

..."Iran and Hizbullah are more sophisticated, effective and determined adversaries than Israel and the United States have previously encountered in the Middle East. These new enemies, the Shi'ites of Iran and Lebanon, have repeatedly outwitted Israel and the West, beating them across the board in politics, in intelligence gathering and in war."

Now Iran is on the brink of attaining the ultimate tool for expanding the Islamic Revolution, the nuclear bomb, and still the international community hesitates and bickers and even undermines its own ineffectual trade sanctions.

Ten years ago, Dr. Iftikhar Khan Chaudry, a former research officer in Pakistan's nuclear project, sought political asylum in the United States, claiming he would be killed if he returned home. In his affidavit, which was found to be credible and led to his being granted the refuge he sought, he detailed how A.Q. Khan had marketed Pakistan's nuclear expertise and materials to clients including Libya, Iraq and North Korea, exposing the clandestine network for the first time... [Chaudry was] present when five Iranian scientists visited Pakistan at the start of the partnership. The Iranians were "introduced to the method in which uranium is processed for the purpose of creating a nuclear bomb... It is also apparent that Iran intends to utilize a nuclear weapon - in the future, when a nuclear weapon would be operational - against the State of Israel..."

The world must act before the Middle East is set afire.

And if anyone thinks Barack Obama would proactively use military force to stop Iran before it launches an apocalypse, they are living in a fantasy world. Nothing Obama has ever said or done would indicate he understands the stakes: how to handle a nation bent on nuclear martyrdom.

A simple example may be found in Obama's fumbled, three-days-in-the-making response to the Georgian Crisis, which some in the press called "Carter-esque" and "Watery".

Obama... threatened [Russia] with a UN resolution (which Russia can stop with its veto), and-even worse--pointed out how impolite it was to invade another country now, in violation of the Olympic spirit...

How could Obama defend an Israeli action against Hizbullah, Hamas, or Syrian rockets-or an Iranian Holocaust-bomb? Anyway, how often has the UN lifted a finger to protect the sovereignty of its members-especially Israel? The UN won't even condemn the 8,000 cross-border rocket attacks on Israeli territory from Gaza, or enforce disarmament of an increasingly lethal Hizbullah, as required by the UN's own Resolution 1701.

Obama's staff was even worse. Instead of chastising Russia for invading and bombing civilians, his team criticized... McCain. Susan Rice, Obama's top foreign policy advisor (in line to become his National Security Advisor), went on Hardball to suggest McCain himself was responsible for some of the escalation of violence, accusing McCain of "shooting from the hip" and claiming McCain's "very aggressive, very belligerent statement" may have "complicated the situation."

[Obama's] lack of moral clarity, discomfort with America's role as leader and defender of the free world, and weak grasp of right and wrong in foreign hotspots is disturbing. It is Carter-esque, which invites aggression from troublemaking countries who act against our allies when they do not fear American repercussions.

It is no time to have an amateur in the White House.

Linked by: Curmudgeonly & Skeptical. Thanks!