Monday, February 16, 2009

A "straight from the heart" letter to General Motors

Papa B sent this one in. Snopes gave it the thumbs up.

Abridged letter from Troy Clarke, President of General Motors - followed by a response from our son, Gregory Knox:




Dear Employee,

Next week, Congress and the current Administration will determine whether to provide immediate support to the domestic auto industry to help it through one of the most difficult economic times in our nation's history. Your elected officials must hear from all of us now on why this support is critical to our continuing the progress we began prior to the global financial crisis. As an employee, you have a lot at stake and continue to be one of our most effective and passionate voices. I know GM can count on you to have your voice heard.

Thank you for your urgent action and ongoing support.

Troy Clarke
President
General Motors North America




From Gregory Knox,

In response to your request to call legislators and ask for a bailout for the United States automakers please consider the following, and please also pass this onto Troy Clark, the president of General Motors North America for me.

You are both infected with the same entitlement mentality that has bred like cancerous germs in UAW halls for the last countless decades, and whose plague is now sweeping the nation, awaiting our new "messiah" to wave his magical wand and make all our problems go away, while at the same time allowing our once great nation to keep "living the dream".

The dream is over!

The dream that we can ignore the consumer for years while management myopically focuses on its personal rewards packages at the same time that our factories have been filled with the worlds most overpaid, arrogant, ignorant and laziest entitlement minded "laborers" without paying the price for these atrocities, and that still the masses will line up to buy our products

Don't tell me I'm wrong. Don't accuse me of not knowing of what I speak. I have called on Ford, GM, Chrysler, TRW, Delphi, Kelsey Hayes, American Axle and countless other automotive OEM's and Tier ones for 3 decades now throughout the Midwest and what I've seen over the years in these union shops can only be described as disgusting.

Mr Clark, the president of General Motors, states:

"There is widespread sentiment in this country, our government and especially in the media that the current crisis is completely the result of bad management. It is not."

You're right, it's not JUST management, ¦how about the electricians who walk around the plants like lords in feudal times, making people wait on them for countless hours while they drag ass ¦so they can come in on the weekend and make double and triple time for a job they easily could have done within their normal 40 hour week.

How about the line workers who threaten newbies with all kinds of scare tactics for putting out too many parts on a shift and for being too productive (mustn't expose the lazy bums who have been getting overpaid for decades for their horrific underproduction, must we?!?) Do you really not know about this stuff?!?

How about this great sentiment abridged from Mr. Clarke's sad plea:

"over the last few years we have closed the quality and efficiency gaps with our competitors."

What the hell has Detroit been doing for the last 40 years?!?

Did we really JUST wake up to the gaps in quality and efficiency between us and them?

The K car vs. the Accord?

The Pinto vs. the Civic?!?

Do I need to go on?

We are living through the inevitable outcome of the actions of the United States auto industry for decades.

Time to pay for your sins, Detroit.

I attended an economic summit last week where a brilliant economist, Alan Beaulieu surprised the crowd when he said he would not have given the banks a penny of "bailout money". Yes, he said, this would cause short term problems, but despite what people like George Bush and Troy Clark would have us believe, the sun would in fact rise the next day and something else would happen where there had been greedy and sloppy banks, new efficient ones would pop up. That is how a free market system works.

It does work if we would let it work.

But for some reason we are now deciding that the rest of the world is right and that capitalism doesn't work that we need the government to step in and "save us". Save us, hell! We're nationalizing and unfortunately too many of this once fine nations citizens don't even have a clue that this is what's really happening but they sure can tell you the stats on their favorite sports teams. Yeah, THAT'S important!

Does it occur to ANYONE that the "competition" has been producing vehicles, EXTREMELY PROFITABLY, for decades now in this country?...

How can that be???

Let's see:

Fuel efficient...

Listening to customers...

Investing in the proper tooling and automation for the long haul...

Not being too complacent or arrogant to listen to Dr W Edwards Deming 4 decades ago...

Ever increased productivity through quality, lean and six sigma plans...

Treating vendors like strategic partners, rather than like "the enemy"...

Efficient front and back offices....

Non union environment!

Again, I could go on and on, but I really wouldn't be telling anyone anything they really don't already know in their hearts.

I have six children, so I am not unfamiliar with the concept of wanting someone to bail you out of a mess that you have gotten yourself into. My children do this on a weekly, if not daily basis, as I did at their age. I do for them what my parents did for me (one of their greatest gifts, by the way), I make them stand on their own two feet and accept the consequences of their actions and work them through.

Radical concept, huh?

Am I there for them in the wings? Of course, but only until such time as they need to be fully on their own as adults.

I don't want to oversimplify a complex situation, but there certainly are unmistakable parallels here between the proper role of parenting and
government.

Detroit and the United States need to pay for their sins.

Bad news people, it's coming whether we like it or not.

The newly elected Messiah really doesn't have a magic wand big enough to "make it all go away" I laughed as I heard Obama "reeling it back in" almost immediately after the vote count was tallied. We might not do it in a year or in four. Where was that kind of talk when he was RUNNING for the office?

Stop trying to put off the inevitable.

That house in Florida really isn't worth $750,000.

People who jump across a border really don't deserve free health care benefits.

That job driving that forklift for the big 3 really isn't worth $85,000 a year.

We really shouldn't allow Wal-Mart to stock their shelves with products acquired from a country that unfairly manipulates their currency and has the most atrocious human rights infractions on the face of the globe.

That couple whose combined income is less than $50,000 really shouldn't be living in that $485,000 home!

Let the market correct itself people. It will. Yes it will be painful, but it's gonna be painful either way, and the bright side of my proposal is that on the other side of it is a nation that appreciates what is has and doesn't live beyond its means. Gets back to basics, and redevelops the work ethic that made it the greatest nation in the history of the world and probably turns back to God.

Sorry don't cut my head off, I'm just the messenger sharing with you the "bad news".

Gregory J Knox
President
Knox Machinery, Inc.
Franklin, Ohio 45005

Well done, Mr. Knox.

NOAA: US below average temperature for last 12 months


Here's the original NOAA analysis.

Al Gore and the UN's IPCC global warming grifters could not be reached for comment.

Although I'm sure they'd simply say that the recent spate of global cooling is due, in fact, to global warming.

Beyond any definition of “left” or “right.”


ALL ISRAELI -- AND NO PALESTINIAN -- LEADERS WANT AN END TO THE CONFLICT


By Barry Rubin

What is the most important theme of Israeli politics, policy, and thinking today? It is pretty simple but you will rarely see it explained in much of the world:

Most Israelis believe that the Palestinians don't want to make a comprehensive peace with Israel in exchange for a Palestinian state. Hamas doesn’t want it; the Palestinian Authority (PA) is both unwilling and unable to do it. Israel faces a hostile Iran, Syria, Hamas, and Hizballah, and various Islamist movements which all want to destroy it. In addition, it cannot depend on strong Western or international support in defending itself.

Therefore, it is not a moment for Israel to make big concessions or take big risks. Peace is not at hand. The priority—even while continuing negotiations and trying to help the PA to survive—is defense.

That’s what the people who voted for Labor or Likud or Lieberman, Kadima or Shas or National Union or Jewish Home or United Torah Judaism believed. More than 85 percent of Israelis voted for parties that hold that basic conception, while that concept itself is the product of a very serious assessment of very real experience. And that—whatever differences they have—is beyond any definition of “left” or “right.”

In contrast, what is the main theme internationally in evaluating the elections? The right in Israel is against peace, Israelis moved to the right in this election hence Israelis are against peace.

To make such a leap, it is necessary to avoid talking about the herd of elephants in the room: Palestinian politics. If anyone looked beyond the most superficial level of English-language interviews by PA leaders trying to make propaganda points, the conclusion is unavoidable that there is no possibility of an Israel-Palestinian peace agreement for years to come. This is regardless of who is Israel’s leader or anything within reason, or even somewhat beyond reason, which could be offered.

Here are some tips toward proving that point:

--Analyze the Fatah Central Committee's membership and the viewpoints expressed by the group’s top leaders. The number who can be called moderates ready to accept and implement a two-state solution stands at about 10 percent of them.

--Mahmoud Abbas is weak. He has neither charisma nor organized base. While relatively moderate he will not give up the demand for all Palestinian refugees to be able to live in Israel, something that is acceptable to no potential governing party in Israel. He is sick and will probably not last in office much longer. He has made no attempt to transform Palestinian political thinking or to provide an alternative vision of peace for his people.

--There is no moderate alternative Palestinian leader in Fatah or elsewhere. Are there those who voice a moderate two-state solution position and who advocate coexistence? Yes, there are some but they have no organization or power whatsoever. Moreover, they say so almost exclusively in English to Westerners and not to their own people. To express anything equivalent to Labor or Kadima, even Likud, positions is to risk your life.

--Schools, mosques, media and other institutions controlled fully or partly by the PA daily preach that all Israel is Palestine, Israel is evil, and violence against it is good. Hardly the most minimal steps have been taken to prepare the Palestinian masses for peace. For example, no one dare suggest that a Palestinian nationalist movement might want to resettle Palestinian refugees in Palestine, not Israel; or that Israel and President Bill Clinton made a good offer in 2000 and it was a mistake to reject it. Or a dozen other points necessary as a basis for real peace.

--Palestinian public opinion polls consistently show overwhelming support for hardline positions and for terrorism against Israeli civilians.

--An unyielding historical narrative still predominates that the whole land between the Jordan River and the sea is and should be Arab Palestine.

--Of course, Hamas governs about 40 percent of West Bank/Gaza Palestinians and opposes Israel’s existence explicitly. The PA and Fatah do not vigorously combat the Hamas world view, except perhaps for its idea of an Islamist state.

--On the contrary, Fatah and the PA put a higher priority on conciliation with Hamas rather than peace with Israel.

--This conflict is not continuing because there is a dispute about the precise boundary line between Israel and a Palestinian state. It is going on because the Palestinian leaders—all of them—are either unwilling or unable to accept Israel’s permanent existence, the end of the conflict, the abandonment of terrorism, and the settlement of Palestinian refugees in a Palestinian state.

--What should have been happening recently is that the PA sent delegations around the world to announce it was the sole legitimate government of the Gaza Strip, that Hamas seized power in a coup and murdered Fatah people in cold blood, that Hamas is an extremist terrorist group, and that the PA demands the international community restore its own rule to the area. Instead, it sent delegations around the world to blame Israel for every problem and tried to negotiate a deal with Hamas without requiring any change in that organization’s policy or goals.

None of the above arguments can be refuted. Literally none of these points—except for the barrier posed by Hamas’s rule over Gaza—is really understood by most governments, academics, or journalists.

Nevertheless, if you add all these factors together it’s clear that whoever governs Israel the PA is incapable of making comprehensive peace. There is no peace process but rather a long-term peace recess.

There’s nothing left or right wing about the above analysis. Tsipi Livni and Ehud Barak know these things. Equally, this analysis doesn’t mean Israel cannot work with the PA on such matters as stability, economic well-being for Palestinians, blocking terrorism, or keeping Hamas out of power on the West Bank.

There is a Palestinian partner for the above four issues, but not for a comprehensive solution ending the conflict forever in exchange for a Palestinian state living in peace alongside Israel. As we learned in the 1990s with the peace process and more recently with disengagement, Israel’s actions—no matter how conciliatory and concessionary—cannot make peace when the other side is unwilling and unable to do so. It’s time for the rest of the world to learn this fact.


Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), with Walter Laqueur (Viking-Penguin); the paperback edition of The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan); A Chronological History of Terrorism, with Judy Colp Rubin, (Sharpe); and The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley).

Related: IDF Report on Operation Cast Lead Casualties

Was Candidate Obama's "Civilian National Security Force" just established by Directive 1404.10?


A little-publicized Department of Defense Directive (Number 1404.10) establishes a "DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce" and rescinds a prior directive dealing with the emergency use of civilian personnel.


The new 1404.10 cancels the prior directive of the same designation ("Emergency-Essential (E-E) DoD U.S. Citizen Civilian Employees"), which was issued in 1992 under President Clinton. The 1992 directive specifically deals with overseas deployments of civilian personnel. It does not mention terms like "restoration of order" or "stability operations", prominently featured in the new directive.

In fact, those functions are central to the mission of President Obama's new DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce:

Members of the DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce shall be organized, trained, cleared, equipped, and ready to deploy in support of combat operations by the military; contingencies; emergency operations; humanitarian missions; disaster relief; restoration of order; drug interdiction; and stability operations of the Department of Defense in accordance with DoDD 3000.05...

The 1992 directive mentions the term "overseas" no fewer than 33 times.

The 2009 directive does not mention the term "overseas" in the body of the directive even once.

Consider the nebulous terms used: "...contingencies, emergency operations... restoration of order... and stability operations."

Who will define "Contingencies"? "Restoration of order"? "Stability operations"?
* * *

Regular readers of this blog will know that I'm not exactly a fan of wingnut conspiracy theories.

But could anyone tell me why the 1992 directive needed an update?

This new directive is odd, coming as it does after campaign promises by Obama to establish a paramilitary "civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded” as our military. His words, not mine.

The Democrats' renewed push for the ill-named "Fairness Doctrine" is another harbinger of enhanced government control, far beyond what the Constitution authorized. And this directive appears to be of the same genre.

I'll leave the ramifications as an exercise for the reader.

Hat tip: Dr. Bob. Linked by: American Digest. Thanks!


Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: Hardly the best and the brightest

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email!

Bedtime stories: American Digest
Obama doesn't fulfill MLK's dream: PJM (Hawkins)
Calvin Coolidge 2012: Charlie Foxtrot

Burris bombshell: Blago's family solicited him: Marathon
Cali Democrat's Get-Rich-Quick Scheme: Morrissey
Lawmakers call for Burris perjury investigation: Sun-Times

With stimulus like this, who needs malaise?: Flip
Cosmic rays, not CO2, responsible for warming: Haaretz
Specter's vote hurting him in PA: RasRep

Obama warned over welfare: Times (UK)
Open letter to a craven reporter in Iraq: Kesler
Obama: "Public Will Have 5 Days To Look At Every Bill That Lands On My Desk" (Video): Gateway

Obama delays signing 'urgent' stimulus for Chicago fun: AT (Lifson)
Stimulus bill broke 7 Obama campaign promises: S&L
Hardly the best and the brightest: Times (Hanson)

"The long": killing Taliban from a mile away: Daily Mail (UK)
President decides nice holiday weekend more important than saving world from certain financial meltdown: Ace
Obama's broken promises were entirely predictable: PJM (Guariglia)

Hamas hunts down suspected collaborators in Gaza (Graphic Violence Warning): LiveLeak
African Hizbullah: MESI
Losing our heads: on 'honor killings': Atlas

"Hard to find a hooker on Valentine's Day": Say Anything
Obama chose the wrong Geithner!: TAB
The No-Stats All-Star: Gray Lady

"They've totally betrayed the soul of the party to even mention this.": Paglia on "Fairless Doctrine"

Sunday, February 15, 2009

May I be the first to predict...


...that Microsoft's attempt to build its own retail distribution channel will be an utter and complete failure?

Apple has that slacker cool thing going on. Microsoft? Not so much.

Business software? Sure.

Gen-X and Gen-Y cool? Eh, I don't think so.

Photo: sea levels actually lower than 1841!


Global warming alarmists promote several hysterical themes including "rising sea levels". The supposedly rising oceans are "evidence" of the catastrophic effect of humans on global temperatures. Problem is, like most anthropogenic global warming (AGW) marketing, it's an utter fabrication.

Check out this photograph:

This photograph comes from Still waiting for Greenhouse, a site dedicated to the late researcher John Daley (1943-2003):

Originally from Britain, I came to live in Tasmania in 1980, settling near Launceston, and for the last 9 years have been one of the numerous `skeptics' speaking out publicly against the Global Warming scare, which makes exaggerated claims that the earth will warm by +1.5 to +6 deg. C. due to an enhanced Greenhouse Effect.

Climate and climate change has been a lifelong study of mine since my early days as a ship's officer in the British Merchant Navy. I have lived through and traced the progress of the `ice age' scare of the 1970's, the `nuclear winter' scare of the 1980s, and now the `global warming' scare of the present. All these scares have advanced the interests of what was a small academic discipline 30 years ago to become a mammoth global industry today. It is my view that this industry has, through the `politics of fear' which it has promoted, acted against the interests of the public.

Unlike the vast majority of global warming alarmists, Daly actually performed a seldom-rewarded task called "climate research". Visit his site for more details and photos.

Update: For those who asked, note the term "mean sea level".

Update II: High Plains Blogger:

It's an Obamiracle!

"This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal!"

Update II: Freepers weigh in:

The land at particular points can go up or down in elevation. So changes in sea level at a given location are essentially meaningless.

A classic (no pun intended) example is the "Temple of Serapis" at Pozzuoli at the north end of the Bay of Naples.

The dark marks in the columns are holes drilled by marine rock-boring mollusks and represent the highest water level around the columns as bradyseismic activity lowered and raised the columns over the centuries.




Which states did best in the Porkulus spending extravaganza?


Courtesy of Papa B, here's the list rank-ordered by number of boondoggles projects.

I guess Robert Byrd dozed off during the proceedings: West Virginia got only a single project.

California (1971 projects)
Texas (1240 projects)
Illinois (1031 projects)
Arizona (743 projects)
Florida (1752 projects)
Ohio (847 projects)
Michigan (782 projects)
Indiana (713 projects)
Mississippi (552 projects)
Kentucky (524 projects)
Connecticut (449 projects)
Louisiana (433 projects)
Missouri (403 projects)
Virginia (400 projects)
Washington (368 projects)
Wisconsin (358 projects)
Pennsylvania (352 projects)
Idaho (348 projects)
Puerto Rico (340 projects)
Minnesota (335 projects)
North Carolina (319 projects)
Alabama (318 projects)
Hawaii (316 projects)
Utah (298 projects)
New York (289 projects)
South Carolina (271 projects)
Georgia (266 projects)
Massachusetts (266 projects)
New Jersey (261 projects)
Oklahoma (223 projects)
New Mexico (215 projects)
Colorado (201 projects)
Arkansas (199 projects)
Nevada (163 projects)
Oregon (159 projects)
Nebraska (154 projects)
Kansas (139 projects)
Rhode Island (116 projects)
Tennessee (103 projects)
Wyoming (85 projects)
Maine (72 projects)
North Dakota (61 projects)
Vermont (61 projects)
Montana (57 projects)
Maryland (54 projects)
Iowa (51 projects)
Alaska (46 projects)
South Dakota (30 projects)
Washington, D.C. (8 projects)
Delaware (7 projects)
West Virginia (1 projects)
New Hampshire (0 projects)

Data courtesy of StimulusWatch.org.

Update: Commenter Dave asks "Where's New Hampshire? Punished for Judd Gregg?" The answer is zero. The table was updated accordingly.

Turncoat Susan Collins (r-ME) responds to my complaint


Dear Mr. Ross,

Thank you for contacting me with your views regarding the economic stimulus package. I appreciate your taking the time to do so.

You're welcome, Senator Turncoat.

Our nation is in the midst of an unprecedented economic crisis. We have witnessed the collapse of the housing market, the unraveling of our nation's financial institutions, and the evaporation of trillions of dollars that have been invested in the stock market and other retirement and investment funds. I have heard from far too many Mainers who have had to delay their retirement plans because they no longer have the nest egg for which they worked so hard.

Ma'am, did government appendages like Fannie Mae have anything to do with the collapse? Just wondering. I'm not real edumacated, what 'cuz I listen to Twisted Sister albums and play Gears of War and all, but even I've heard of this Fannie Mae. Would that tell us something about government intervention in free markets?

Every day, we hear more reports of massive job losses in communities all across America, and Maine is no exception. Our state's unemployment rate has risen to seven percent, the highest level in 16 years.

Seven percent? Sounds like a recession. So, Sue, how come we have to spend the equivalent of the entire annual discretionary budget of the federal government on a grab-bag of pork? We didn't do that in prior recessions, did we?

I agree with many economists that it is critical that Congress pass an economic stimulus bill to boost the economy and create jobs. Earlier versions of the House and Senate economic stimulus bills were, however, far too expensive and bloated. These versions also included too many provisions that may well be worthwhile, but are more appropriately funded in a regular appropriations bill. That is why I joined with Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) and a group of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, including Senator Olympia Snowe, to craft a compromise bill. As a result of our hard work and weeks of negotiations, a group of Democrats and Republicans working together were able to reach a compromise on a more fiscally responsible economic stimulus plan that will cost $100 billion less than previous versions considered by the House and Senate.

Congratulations, you trimmed an $880 billion pork package down to $780 billion... but the true cost is 3.27 trillion. What a bargain!

While this bill is by no means perfect, it will go a long way toward creating jobs and addressing the dire economic challenges faced by our nation.

Just one question: could you name one time in history that printing money and redistributing wealth on an enormous scale led to an economic resurgence?

It is estimated that this bill will create or save 3.5 million jobs in Maine and nationwide over the next two years. Much of this bill will fund transportation, energy and other infrastructure projects that will result in job creation. It includes a temporary increase in federal Medicaid dollars, which will bring $470 million for Maine over the next 27 months. And it provides a significant funding increase for the Pell Grant program, special education funding, and a State Stabilization fund to help states deal with their serious budget shortfalls.

In other words, the rubes (oops, I mean the taxpayers) in states that are managed well have to bail out states that are managed poorly -- like California and Michigan, Democratic utopias that have driven business out of state with oppressive regulations and incredible tax burdens. Sounds fair to me!

The bill also includes crucial tax relief for low and middle-income families, tax incentives for small businesses, and an increase in safety net programs, as well as funding for energy efficiency and alternative energy development programs.

You can say it: welfare and pork. Welfare, which increases single-parent families and violent crime... and pork projects like the $2 billion FutureGen scam (a Rod Blagojevich special). Sounds stimulating.

Given the substantial investment the federal government is making in this stimulus, it is critical that the taxpayers' money be spent properly. It is for this reason I have pushed throughout the negotiations for measures to ensure the money is wisely spent, including additional funding for agency Inspectors General, the Government Accountability Office, and the creation of a "Recovery Act Transparency Board." As Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, I, along with the Committee's Chairman will soon hold the first Committee hearing on safeguards to protect against waste, fraud, and mismanagement and to ensure accountability and transparency.

May I volunteer the services of Stimmy, the official mascot of the Stimulus package?

Again, thank you for contacting me. This bill will go a long way toward creating jobs and addressing the dire economic crisis faced by our nation.

We're gonna primary your butt in the next election, Collins. Got that? We're going to knock you right out of office and into a job more fitting for a person of your intellectual accomplishments: lobster boat gunwale cleaner.

Sincerely,


Susan M. Collins
United States Senator and Principal Turncoat, GOP

SMC: dsc

Collins is either a dunce or a hack who worked her own pork into the bill. We'll soon find out which is the case.

Update: TheBad from Rants & Refinements observes:

"Given the substantial investment the federal government is making in this stimulus, it is critical that the taxpayers' money be spent properly. It is for this reason I have pushed throughout the negotiations for measures to ensure the money is wisely spent, including additional funding for agency Inspectors General, the Government Accountability Office, and the creation of a 'Recovery Act Transparency Board.'"

In order to spend your money properly, we will need to spend more of your money. Got that?

Linked by: Dear Prez Obama. Thanks!

OSINT flash: Obama dropped military sanctions against Iran


That's what OSINT (open-source intelligence) subscription site Geostrategy Direct is reporting. It's believable, especially given reports that the Commerce Department already dropped sanctions against Syria.

'Change' the mullahs can believe in: Obama to drop sanctions on Iran

...The United States has abandoned its policy of sanctioning companies that aid Iran's nuclear and missile program, [insiders] said.

The officials said the new Obama administration of has decided to end sanctions against Iranian government agencies or companies that aid Teheran's missile and nuclear program. The officials said Israel has been informed of the new U.S. policy... "We were told that sanctions do not help the new U.S. policy of dialogue with Iran," an official said.


[Ehud] Barak confirmed the new U.S. policy. In an address to the Herzliya Conference on Feb. 3, Barak said Washington did not say whether it would resume sanctions against Iran... Obama decided to end sanctions against Iran after determining that the U.S. measures had failed to block Teheran's missile or nuclear weapons program, officials said. Under the administration of former President George Bush, the United States accelerated sanctions on Iran in 2008.

...A U.S. defense source said the White House would no longer enforce sanctions imposed by the Bush administration. The source said the decision has already been relayed to Iran... "The administration has abandoned sanctions entirely," the U.S. source said. "It is a completely new ballgame."

Similarly, Obama has decided on a new U.S. ambassador to Syria and is expected to lift sanctions against a nation charged with aiding Al Qaida in Iraq and secretly building a nuclear reactor with North Korean assistance... The sources said the Obama administration was expected to suspend U.S. sanctions on Syria's military and energy programs...

If true, this represents a complete capitulation to Iran's "suicidal mystics with nukes."

The Iranian government is certainly hopeful.

President Barack Obama... has risen from the maelstrom of crises. He seems to have the vision of a leader who wants to undo the many wrongs done by his predecessors... his declared intention to engage in a dialogue with Iran over the nuclear issue is a gesture of goodwill. It is expected that sanity will prevail and volleys of vitriol let loose from the mind set of professional lobbyists will not result in the derailment of the present trend, that peace will prevail and many converts will be won to the common brotherhood of humanity. For peace many sacrifices have to be made, but first it has to be kept in mind that civilized countries that share a common heritage should consider mutual respect a common denominator for canceling out bitterness of the past.

...a dialogue with Iran over its nuclear program which Iran has always called its continuation its inalienable right in view of its peaceful nature... an indication of a possible dialogue does not seem a far-fetched idea of naïve thinking.

Moreover, both countries have the honor of being champions of human rights on the two opposite poles of history. Understanding and faith in goodness can unclog the clogged skepticism of the past. How happy the whole world would be when the fists get unclenched and peace prevails.

If sanctions truly have been dropped, the odds of a Middle East set afire just increased exponentially.


Update: "Hope and change in Damascus."

Linked by: Theo Spark. Thanks!

Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: A drooling blob of toxic pustules

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email!

True Cost of Stimulus: $3.27 Trillion: Red State
Headless body, gutless press: Steyn
Carter on speed: Anchoress

So far, it's been Obamateur hour: Steyn
Why Obama won, and why he's doomed: TAB
Pariah Specter: Penn Live

Windmills of your mindlessness: Steyn
Lowest temp ever recorded in Maine: -50: WU
Obamaland: where dreams go to die: JWF

Restraints on sympathy: Margo's Maid
A night in Chicago: Politico
The bailout mascot: Ms. Underestimated

Phoenix enjoys open border policy: LAT
The 111th Congress Shall Live in Infamy: RS McCain
Bridges TV aims to combat negative images: News (AU)

Blago: the gift that keeps on giving: Clark County Politics
Unreal: Democrats include $1.6 billion for unspecified 'science': Gateway
In Gingrich Mold, a New Voice for Solid Resistance in GOP: Gray Lady

A canine hero: YouTube
Brush-cutting copter cuts it close: Mad Skies
Fool me once, fool me twice: Real Revo

The final stimulus package is the final insult to taxpayers: Reason

$176 million for renovating Agricultural Research Service buildings
$290 million for flood prevention
$50 million for watershed rehabilitation
$1.4 billion for wastewater disposal programs
$295 million for administrative expenses associated with food stamp programs
$1 billion for the 2010 Census
$200 million for public computer centers at community colleges and libraries
$650 million for the digital TV converter box coupon program
$2 billion for Byrne Justice Assistance Grant program
$10 million to combat Mexican gunrunners
$125 million for rural communities to combat drug crimes
$1 billion for the Community Oriented Policing Services program
$300 million to purchase scientific instruments for colleges and museums
$400 million for equipment and facilities at the National Science Foundation
$3.7 billion to conduct "green" renovations on military bases
$375 million for Mississippi River projects
$10 million for urban canals
$5 billion for weatherizing buildings
$2 billion to develop advanced batteries for hybrid cars
$3.4 billion for fossil energy research
$5.1 billion for environmental cleanup around military bases
$5.5 billion for "green" federal buildings
$300 million for "green" cars for federal employees
$20 million for IT upgrades at the Small Business Administration
$200 million to design and furnish Department of Homeland Security headquarters
$98 million earmarked for a polar icebreaker...

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Astonishing: Crapulus bill will be signed on Tuesday!


Didn't we have to have it now, now, now? No time for review... rush it through? Larwyn reports:

Just on FNC:

Tuesday!
Tuesday in Denver!

...tell me again why we couldn't have had the weekend for Congress to read the bill???

Oh, Tuesday will be the four week anniversary of his taking over our Democracy! He wants to make it easy for the slobbering mainstream media types to send him love notes... and for historians to remember!

Obamateur.

I created a new sidebar illustration for Gateway Pundit


His last one seemed (to me, at least) to be getting a bit long in tooth.

Too harsh?

If anyone wants their own Photoshopped blog illustration, just let me know. My rates are cheap and my politics are centrist.

Obama administration rolls out official mascot of stimulus package




Idea: Ms. Underestimated. Linked by: Jawa Report. Thanks!

Wife's Night Out


Dave W. sent this one in.

Your wife decides to go out with her

friends drinking and dancing....

You're okay with it, because you get to watch sports and play on the
Internet all night...

You hear her stumble into bed around 4 and laugh knowing she's going to
have a monster hangover....

You wake up the next morning and go outside to the family Volvo, which she used
last night....

You sigh in relief because it's all in one

piece....

You circle the car looking for dents and find none....

But .... Wait...

Wait just a damn minute...


Happy Valentine's Day!

Nazi fugitive found a kindred spirit in Zbigniew Brzezinski


Writing in Egypt's Ahram, Sophie Ibrahim reports on a Nazi war criminal who converted to Islam and lived in Cairo for decades.

In Cairo's most populous district, a tall athletic man who speaks Arabic with an accent moved from one place to another. For 30 years, neighbours and their children would call him the "German man" or "Uncle Tarek" who played table tennis and carried a camera all the time but never allowed himself to be photographed.

No one seemed to know his real identity -- a Nazi war criminal, concentration camp doctor Aribert Heim. During the 1930s, Heim earned the nickname Dr Death. The most wanted Nazi war criminal was still believed by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, a Jewish human rights organisation aimed at hunting down Nazis and bringing them to justice, to be at large... Heim, a member of Hitler's elite Waffen-SS and a medical doctor at the Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen and Mauthausen concentration camps, left a son who constantly denied knowledge of his father's whereabouts. Only last week, Ruediger, the son, told the press that his father had died in Egypt in 1992...

...Heim is accused of committing atrocities against Jewish prisoners in Mauthausen, in his native Austria. He allegedly performed operations on prisoners without anaesthesia; removing organs from inmates, then leaving them to die on the operating table; injecting poison, including gasoline, into the hearts of others; and taking the skull of at least one victim as a souvenir.

After living off the radar of Nazi hunters for more than a decade after World War II -- much of it in the German spa town of Baden-Baden where he had a wife, two sons and a medical practice as a gynaecologist -- he escaped capture just as investigators closed in on him in 1962. Investigators suspected that he took shelter in Latin America where his illegitimate daughter lives in Chile. They also received tips that he might be in Saudi Arabia, Argentina or Vietnam.

A travel document found inside his briefcase showed that he entered Egypt in 1963 after driving through France, Spain and Morocco, under his real second name. In the space marked "profession", he was described as a "doctor/ economist" but then crossed it out. Other applications for extension of residency showed that he lived in Egypt under his real name until the late 1970s when bank receipts showed the transfer of money to a Tarek Hussein Farid...

...In the dusty briefcase, there were also research papers he wrote in English that show his attempt to prove that Jews are not Semitic. He planned to send the documents to several figures including former United Nations secretary-general Kurt Waldheim, former US national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, and ex-Yugoslav leader Marshal Tito.

So a Nazi war criminal and Muslim convert found a kindred spirit in former Carter official and current Obama adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski?

I'm shocked. I really, really am.


Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: "Freedom must prevail"

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email!

"I think (doing) nothing would have been better": McClatchy
Too little in return: LA Times
The equivalent of leeches and bleeding: NYT (Brooks)

GOP threatens legal action over Census oversight: GovExec
Madness, thy name is 'stimulus': AT (Candace)
Bum's rush: Surber

Sully's "Total Political War": Fausta
What I learned from the 20th century: TransPhoenix
Henrietta Hughes and the entitlement culture: Riehl

Friday the 13th: Crittenden
Reagan & Obama debate: Anchoress
The Census: Ace o' Spades

Feinstein blows OPSEC (I suggest 20 years in Leavenworth): ChiTrib
The looting of America: Daily Gut
You Don't Say: Pelosi Worried About Murtha Corruption Probe: LawHawk

CBO: Obama Stimulus harmful over long haul: Times
No way to make public policy: IBD
Boulder CO students say no to Marxism: Slapstick

H-1B visa fraud spurs arrests nationwide: BW
Here's what they're spending your money on: Corner
Are you still a moderate if you behead your wife?: Gateway

$3T more in debt: don't count on foreigners to pay: Yahoo!
Attention Florida voters: did you vote for Gary Ackerman?: JTA
Now they tell us: Iran's getting a bomb!: TigerHawk

Wilders: the speech he didn't give -- "Freedom must prevail": Atlas

The Houses of Parliament is where Winston Churchill stood firm, and warned – all throughout the 1930’s – for the dangers looming. Most of the time he stood alone.

In 1982 President Reagan came to the House of Commons, where he did a speech very few people liked. Reagan called upon the West to reject communism and defend freedom. He introduced a phrase: ‘evil empire’. Reagan’s speech stands out as a clarion call to preserve our liberties. I quote: If history teaches anything, it teaches self-delusion in the face of unpleasant facts is folly.

What Reagan meant is that you cannot run away from history, you cannot escape the dangers of ideologies that are out to destroy you. Denial is no option.
Communism was indeed left on the ash heap of history, just as Reagan predicted in his speech in the House of Commons. He lived to see the Berlin Wall coming down, just as Churchill witnessed the implosion of national-socialism...

Two years ago the House of Commons welcomed Mahmoud Suliman Ahmed Abu Rideh, linked to Al Qaeda. He was invited to Westminster by Lord Ahmed, who met him at Regent’s Park mosque three weeks before. Mr. Rideh, suspected of being a money man for terror groups, was given a SECURITY sticker for his Parliamentary visit.

Well, if you let in this man, than an elected politician from a fellow EU country surely is welcome here too.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Is Conservatism dead?


FOXNEWS O'REILLY 3,494,000
FOXNEWS HANNITY 2,658,000
FOXNEWS BECK 2,370,000
FOXNEWS BAIER 2,305,000
FOXNEWS SHEP 2,190,000
FOXNEWS GRETA 1,847,000
CNN KING 1,761,000
MSNBC OLBERMANN 1,485,000
CNN COOPER 1,286,000
CNN BLITZER 1,246,000
MSNBC MADDOW 1,240,000

I guess not.

Pic o' the day: Religion


Via Ed Driscoll.

Texas Rainmaker

Has anyone seen the Speaker? She left this under the desk.


Buddy sent this one in.



Main Entry: ox·y·mo·ron

Function: noun

Inflected Form(s):

plural ox·y·mo·rons also ox·y·mo·ra \-mȯr-ə\

Late Greek oxymōron, from neuter of oxymōros pointedly foolish,

from Greek oxys sharp, keen + mōros foolish

: a combination of contradictory or incongruous words (e.g., Democratic stimulus);

: something (as a concept) that is made up of contradictory or incongruous elements


— ox·y·mo·ron·ic \-mə-ˈrä-nik, -mȯ-\ adjective Etymology:

: One who continuously touts contradictory or incongruous words or actions.


The”tiny” trillion-dollar Turbaconducken you don’t care about