Sunday, April 19, 2009

Yes, those really are giant mechanical spiders walking down the street


On April 17th, Issei Kato of Reuters snapped this photo of a giant mechanical spider slowly walking along the waterfront in Yokohama, Japan.


It was created by a French company called La Machine. The 37-ton spider is one of a pair, each of which stands 12 meters tall.

The spiders are taking part in the upcoming Expo Y150, a 5-month festival commemorating the 150th anniversary of the opening of the city’s port. La Machine’s giant spiders will be on public display at Expo Y150 from April 28 to September 27 -- in case you were planning on visiting.


Related: More photos at Pink Tentacle. Photo: Issei Kato (Reuters), via: The Washington Post.

Drowning in reassurances


This is the only analogy I could come up with for the disastrous spending plans of the Obama Democrats.

Our descendants will be paying off these unforgivable mistakes for generations.

Finally: a practical plan for terrorists released from Gitmo


This Obama guy wasn't kidding about change!


Obama 'dismayed' by jailing of American journalist


BBC:

Obama dismayed by Iran sentence

The US has expressed dismay after a court in Iran jailed an Iranian-American journalist, Roxana Saberi, for eight years on spying charges.

###

"Dismay," indeed. So what diplomatic descriptor will Obama use after he sees a big freakin' mushroom cloud rising over Iran's Dasht-e Lut desert?

"Holy crap, I can't believe Ahmadinejad lied to me! He seemed like such a nice guy!"

Related: Provocateur: The Tragic Case of Roxana Saberi: The Obama Test II

Sent in by Dan from NYC

Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: Ignorance -- or Indifference?

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

Ignorance -- or indifference?: Fausta
The most busted name in news: Hewitt
Obama: lying about Mexico's guns: FactCheck.org

Al Gore's employees imprisoned in NK: Times (UK)
Four former CIA chiefs told Obama not to release memos: TAB
The People Janet Napolitano Won't Target : JWF

A World Turned Upside Down: Bolton
Change: Funds for Hamas: Riehl
Administration draws up contingency plans?: JihadWatch

Return of the Regulatory State: TigerHawk
Court cancels offshore drilling program: Times
Waxman: economy must be destroyed: Bloomberg

China's unrestricted warfare against U.S.: CJ
Baptist Pastor beaten, tazed by Border Patrol: Salt & Light
Minnesota's Missing Votes: WSJ

Sullivan still silent on Obama-Chavez lovefest: LegalIns
Idea for Ambassador to Venezuela: Corner
Tea Party Animals Not Boiling Over: Steyn

Lou Dobbs Unloads on Olbermann, Garofalo and MSNBC: FreeLight
I'm Seething Over The NY Times Calling Me Seething: LegalIns
Mortar Fire in Sh*tholia: Parkway Rest Stop

The Mary Hamsher Moore Show: IowaHawk
The city where every arrest gets Twittered: CNet
Are you a right wing radical or a left wing patriot?: AT

Quote o' the day:

"Is paving the road to hell with good intentions considered a 'shovel-ready project'?" -- Charlie Foxtrot (via Larwyn).

Saturday, April 18, 2009

NSA: Congressman must be Surveilled for Terrorism Ties


The execrable New York Times attacked the United States military and intelligence communities for the umpteenth time on Wednesday. Its "exposé", authored by Eric Lichtblau and James Risen, asserts that the NSA violated the rights of American citizens by over-collecting electronic communications.

Put simply, some Americans may have inadvertently been tapped due to technical problems, which appear to be caused solely by the complexity and scale of the information collection problem with which the NSA is tasked.

But what no one seems to have caught is a throw-away reference at the end of the article.

...in one previously undisclosed episode, the N.S.A. tried to wiretap a member of Congress without a warrant, an intelligence official with direct knowledge of the matter said.

The agency believed that the congressman, whose identity could not be determined, was in contact — as part of a Congressional delegation to the Middle East in 2005 or 2006 — with an extremist who had possible terrorist ties and was already under surveillance, the official said. The agency then sought to eavesdrop on the congressman’s conversations, the official said.

The official said the plan was ultimately blocked because of concerns from some intelligence officials about using the N.S.A., without court oversight, to spy on a member of Congress.

In other words, a member of Congress was conversing with a known extremist linked to terror groups.

But that's not enough of a story for the Gray Lady, apparently.

A handful of Congressional delegations visited the Middle East during the years in question.

March 2005: Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Rep. Darrel Issa (R-CA), Rep. George Miller (D-CA), Edward Markey (D-MA), Henry Waxman (D-CA), Anna Eshoo (D-CA), James McGovern (D-MA), and Linda Sanchez (D-CA).

March 2005: Rep. David Dreier (R-CA), Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL), Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA), Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA), Rep. Ander Crenshaw (R-FL) and Rep. E. Clay Shaw (R-FL).

January 2006: Rep. Jon Porter (R-NV), Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Rep. Madeleine Bordallo (D-Guam), Rep. Dave Weldon (R-FL), Rep. Melissa Hart (R-PA), Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN), Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) and Rep. Kenny Hulshof (R-MO).

January 9, 2006: Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)

March 24, 2006: Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI)

October 1, 2006: Senator Carl Levin (D-MI), Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Senator Mark Pryor (D-Arkansas) and Senator John Warner (R-VA).

December 2006: Senator John Kerry (D-MA), Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL and Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT)

December 2006: Sen. John Thune (R-SD), Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME).

I also included this trip for obvious reasons.

April 2007: Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV), Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA), Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), and Rep. David Hobson (R-OH).

Given the fact that (a) the Times' referred to a "Congressman" (male); and (b) the odds are at least 500-to-1 that the Congressman is a Democrat because of the Times' incurious stance, we have a short list.

1) Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT)
2) Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN)
3) Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI)
4) Rep. David Hobson (R-OH)
5) Sen. John Kerry (D-MA)
6) Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA)
7) Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI)
8) Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA)
9) Rep. James McGovern (D-MA)
10) Rep. George Miller (D-CA)
11) Sen. Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL)
12) Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN)
13) Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV)
14) Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) **

** Rep. Waxman was the only person who visited twice.

Perhaps one of our beloved professional journalists could investigate this little affair. After all, it's only a Congressman with ties to terrorists.


Hat tips: Mark Levin, Joan Swirsky and Washington Independent ("To the Googling Stations!"). Linked by: What Bubba Knows. Thanks!


His Majesty's Secret Report: Current Economic & Political Climate Causing Resurgence in Rebellion











Linked by: Legal Insurrection. Thanks!

Quick Takes


• I check referrals every once in a while (this means I review how people found this site). A recent visitor got here from Google by searching for: what to include in obama emergency kit.

• President Andrew Jackson once said, "If you have a job in your department that can't be done by a Democrat, then abolish the job."

• Speaking of Google, the "average visitor to YouTube is costing Google between one and two dollars, according to new research that shows Google losing up to $1.65 million per day" on the video site.

• And speaking of YouTube, a new contest "challenges users to make a 'good' video".

• Oh, and Quentin Tarantino's Welcome Back, Kotter. That just cost someone a buck.

Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: The so-called 'Torture Memos'

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

How PO prevented SEALs from the rescue: Aces
Hope, Change, Excuses: Surber
The so-called 'Torture Memos': Ace

Hillary: Our Cuba policy has failed: Gateway
All the trappings of a duel: The Age
Everyone gets a pass: JOM

The President and Hugo Chavez: LGF
Tea Party Turnout: NRO
Dubai Ports Deal--Redux: LBP

Obama: FARC Marxist terrorists are 'insurgents': AT (Mora y Leon)
Your moment of Zen: Smallest Minority
CNN's Fox-bashing reporter applied for a job with FNC... twice: Ace

Tea Party Protester Who Faced Hostile CNN Reporter Afraid For His Family's Safety: Gateway
English on its way to becoming a dead language in California: Holy Coast
Bonehead of the day: Black & Right

Free speech in the age of Obama: InstaPundit
New Dem Health Care Pitch: "We'll Deny Treatments!": Kaus
Scottish singer Susan Boyle, the anti-Obama: AT (Lifson)

The Appraisal Bubble: PubInt

[We] found many appraisers who say they bowed to lender pressure to “hit the numbers” in order to remain in business. These appraisers, along with the lenders who pressured them, helped pump air into the housing bubble that led to widespread economic devastation, according to dozens of appraisers, lenders, and others with intimate knowledge of home loan practices...

...there’s evidence that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two largest purchasers of home loans, bought mortgages without ensuring they were made with accurate appraisals, according to an investigation by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo...

Friday, April 17, 2009

Friend of Dictators, Associate of Evil


Hugo Chavez embraces the genocidal dictator of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:




Here, Hugo Chavez embraces Barack Obama.




Chavez in Iran, 2006: "The United States empire is on its way down and it will be finished in the near future, inshallah (Arabic: God willing)..."

What kind of person would embrace Hugo Chavez?

What does this say about Barack Obama?

And what does this tell freedom-lovers around the world?



Photos: Associated Press via Google News.

Dr. Janeane Mengele: conservative brains malformed


Don't you get it, cracker? Dissent is racist.

That's what Janeane Garofalo insists. Here's a transcript of her interview with Keith Obamann on PMSNBC.

"...let's be very honest about what this is about. It's not about bashing Democrats. I'ts not about taxes, they have no idea what the Boston Tea Party was, they don't know about, they don't know history at all, this is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism, straight up!

That is nothing... but a bunch... of... tea-bagging... rednecks!

And th... th... th... there is no way around that. And, you know, you can tell these types of rightwingers. Anything they'll believe except the truth. You tell 'em the truth and they become, it's like showing Frankenstein's monster fire, they, they become confused, and angry, and highly volatile.

That guy [Obama] causing them feelings they don't know... [hands waving]... limbic brain... we've talked about this before.

The limbic brain inside a rightwinger, a Republican, or conservative, or your average "white power" activist...

The limbic brain is much larger in their head space than in a reasonable person and it's pushing against their frontal lobe. So their synapses are misfiring.

Is Bernie Goldberg listening?

Because Bernie might not have heard this the first time I said this. Because, Bernie, this is for you. It is a neurological problem that we're dealing with.

Keith Olberman: Heh heh heh heh heh.

...It's almost pathological, this is a philosophy or lifestyle. And again, this... is... about racism! It could be any issue, any port in the storm. They just hate that a black guy is in the White House.

...They immigrant-bash, taxes and teabags, and... most of them could tell you thing one [sic] about taxation without representation, the Boston Tea Party, imperialism, whatever the history lesson has to be.

But these people... all white, unless there's some people with Stockholm Syndrome.

Put simply, anyone who opposes any policy promoted by President Barack Obama is a racist.

Inhale deeply from the unicorn farts. Resistance is futile.

And I wonder: does Janeane realize how much she sounds like Dr. Mengele? She's identifying "physical characteristics" of dissenters. That won't end well.


Hat tip: Flopping Aces.

James Wolcott, Chick Magnet


Women want to be with him. Men want to be like him.

Sean Connery in his hey-day, that is. And not this startling creature.

Apologies, my friends, for the shock. This is James Wolcott, chieftan of C-list lib pundits, appearing (appropriately) on C-Span yesterday. His mission: to position Tea Parties as ineffectual gatherings of millionaires bent on hamstringing President Obama's populist destiny.

American Digest's Vanderleun, obviously driving by a can't-look-away, horrifying rollover television accident, observes:

Mark well the face itself, emerging as Al Gore's once did and will again, from a sheet of flab animated only, like a clone of Clutch Cargo, by a sybarites' lips from which comes two, count'em, two voices. It's a shocking effect -- as if a frog and an alley cat were trapped in his lungs and struggling for supremacy.

The two voices give it all away and make one shudder. One seems a studied and controlled baritone quaver. A voice possibly formed and mellowed by many meetings with a media trainer. It soothes you and takes down your guard until your ear is shredded by the eruption of his authentic neuter's squeak at random intervals. It is as if Wolcott is doing all he can to keep sounding vaguely manly, but just can't quite keep his inner sissy in check. Little wonder since he obviously spends so much time riding his inner hobby horse everywhere except down the King's highway.

Michelle Malkin slices Wolcott to the core with commentary as elegant as it is accurate; she plunges a rhetorical steak-knife into the throbbing chest of the mainstream media.

Keep this in your memory banks. The face of the Tea Party-bashing movement:


That, dear readers, is a face made for blogging.



Cross-posted at: Hot Air's Greenroom.

Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: Enemy of the State?

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

What CNN didn't show: Newsbusters
Shock: another official has ethics problems: Say Anything
Free speech for me, not thee: Surber

I am an extremist: Oliver North
President of the World: Hanson
One of the people: AJacksonian

How cablers covered the Tea Parties: TVNewser
Enemy of the State?: AT
Michelle Obama paid for a no-show job in '08: Gateway

Sarko goes at it again: Fausta
'We Have Laid It All Out For Our Enemies': JWF
Obama: Arrive Now, Get Legalized Later: Kaus

Finally: GE warns MSNBC about bias: Ace
Tragedy: Times and Post downsizing again: Breitbart
Obama's recipe for change not my cup of tea: Coulter

The Vet 'Threat': Peters
Tea Party protesters respond to "puppet master" allegations: Ushanka
Dem Leaders Say Tea Party Protesters Are "Neo-Nazis, Militias, Secessionists and Racists": Gateway

Barney and Maxine's Bank made few local loans and splurged on the perks: AT (Lasky)
When Bush Was President, Secession Talk Was Cool: LegalIns
Republicans and the Tea Parties: Rove

Barack Obama is tired of your m****f***ing s**t: April Winchell (language warning, duh)
Pirates of DC: Mr. Punky Kitten
Pee Wee Administration: Jawa

Image: I own the world.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

The Left Confuses Me


Help me understand. If I'm a liberal -- or progressive, whatever -- I believe that:

For the first time in history, a terrorist captured on the battlefield has all the rights of an American citizen including the right to a trial in federal courts.


Elian Gonzales, however, had to be expelled from the country by Democrat Attorney General Janet Reno despite a pending court-ordered asylum hearing.


I'm confused. Why do I feel like a ship passing Somalia?


The Pee Wee Administration


Click to view.



Hat tip: Jawa Report.

Top Ten Insurance Claim Photos


Cathy sent this one in.










Data entry error at Google News


The odious Online Journal somehow made it into the Google News index. Its denizens include the likes of Jerry Mazza, Bev Conover and Ben Tanosborn.

Mazza is a staunch supporter of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and openly endorses the destruction of the state of Israel.*

Conover is an "editor", the author of such immortal paragraphs as "George W Bush is a fascist. Dick Cheney is a fascist. This administration is made up of nothing except more fascist's [sic], who think and act just like these two. Fascists respect nothing except money and power."

And Tanosborn, a self-described "poet and business consultant", was one of the most vicious of the Murthites who attacked the U.S. Marines in Haditha without a whit of evidence. The Marines, by the way, were all exonerated.

So how did a pathetic collection of anti-semites, leftists and other miscellaneous nutjobs warrant inclusion in Google News?

My guess is someone at Google fat-fingered a database entry. There is no other rational explanation.


* Remove the "zzz" letters from the URL if you would like to visit.


Plutonium sale foiled in the Ukraine?


Radio Netherlands reports on a sale of weapons-grade nuclear material that was foiled by Ukraine's intelligence service.

Ukrainian authorities announced on Tuesday that their security services arrested three men last month who were attempting to sell nearly four kilograms of radioactive material.

The radioactive material was produced in Russia before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and probably smuggled into Ukraine through a third country. Ukraine does not have nuclear weapons itself, but it does have nuclear power plants. Only Russia of all the former Soviet republics still has nuclear devices from the old weapons arsenal of the Soviet Union.

...The three men say the material they were trying to sell for 10 million US dollars was plutonium 239, which can be used to create a nuclear explosion. However, further investigation by the Ukrainian authorities has shown that the material is probably americium, an element which cannot cause a nuclear explosion as such, but can be used to manufacture a conventional bomb which would produce radioactive fallout. A bomb of this type is relatively simple to make and would be an ideal weapon for terrorists...

Goodness, I hope no one is waterboarded as a result of this mischievous behavior.


Leader of the pack: R.I.P.


From Dave...

My introduction to Adam, a scrappy little puppy, white, fluffy-coated, pug-nosed Shih Tzu, was sudden, thrust upon me be my then wife. We had agreed not to get pets without consulting each other. “But, he was sooooo cute, and Sarah (our not quite one-year old) just loves him,” she said. “And he only cost $600!”

“What!?!” I exclaimed. She quickly retorted that it was an investment. We could breed him because he was pure and had papers.

A week later, she had poor Adam fixed. So much for my Shih Tzu Ranch Empire.

Maybe that’s when I started to feel empathy for the little guy…and him toward me. We bonded, as only dog and man can. The roles completely reversed. I became his hero and my wife turned on him, a foreboding sign in our marriage.

When my wife and I split, the only thing she left me without litigation was my new fast friend, Adam.

And fast he was.

Living on a golf course, Adam and I would venture out on the cart, me driving and him riding shotgun. The pup would dive off at first sight of squirrel, bird, rabbit, or other dogs.

He especially liked chasing a huge Irish setter.

One time, the red dog decided he’d had enough. Adam and Red got into a fur-flying, teeth-gnashing brawl. I threatened the red dog with my wedge. He backed off. It was a good thing because I was under clubbed.

The lead dog must face the cold wind first…

Turns out, Adam was an adventurous lad, determined to find out what the world was like.

He disappeared for a month. I missed my old friend and was worried he had been eaten by a pesky poodle or a small hawk. The ad I put in the paper proved fruitful. Farmers about five miles away called and said they had a scruffy white dog outside their back door barking up a storm.

As I pulled up their driveway, I marveled at how far my little puppy had traveled. Adam was marched out, emaciated and dirty, a torn bandana around his neck. I told his saviors that he looked like a pirate. Then they revealed that he was seen by them and others leading a pack of wild dogs. I asked, “Are you sure he wasn’t being chased for his snack appeal?”

They replied, “Nope.” He’d been spotted by many leading the same pack of dogs for a couple of weeks. One day it appeared he’d had sowed enough of the wild tribe and began barking at their door leaving his vassals rudderless.

When Adam saw me, his head sank and he slowly walked back to my car as if to say, “BUSTED!”

Just when the world is in the palms of your hands, your nose begins to itch

Several years passed. They were happier years. Adam seemed content with his routine of chasing critters both on and off the golf course and snuggling with me at night.

Then he disappeared again.

I was co-hosting a local morning TV show and flashed Adam’s picture on camera. That day I got a call from people who lived in a subdivision about a half mile away.

This time Adam played it smart. He cased the ‘hood and found just the situation he was looking for. He barked his way into the hearts and home of three little girls. Adam spent the next two weeks getting spa treatment, baths at least once a day, hair trimmed, brushed and curled, doggie pedicures, and curls buffeted by ribbons all over his petite, once manly, torn pirate-scarfed little body. The biggest cut of all was the girls renamed him…“Popcorn.” They had given him a doggie makeover or as I referred to it later: they pimped my dog.

I was a little jealous.

Adam, AKA Popcorn, seemed so happy that I offered him to the girls’ dad and mom. They said they were moving and couldn’t take him. Relieved, I lead Adam to the car. He looked back at the spa in remorse. I opened the door and said, “Nice to have you back... Popcorn.”

Now that I’m happily married, Adam is still my best friend. My wife Joni brought a white Westie named Bennie, to the marriage. About nine months ago she purchased a black maltese/shitzu combo named Ralphie.

As Adam aged, he no longer chased critters when riding in the cart. But he maintained his stature in our house like a calm old leader, almost Churchillian in his presence. The other dogs showed their respect with reverent head nips and sniffs.

Adam, at almost 90 in human years, lived an adventurous and at times risky existence.

Hearing the inevitable, my one prayer upon his unlikely reincarnation is this:

Don’t come back as a pesky poodle.



Adam Weinbaum died Wednesday, April 15th, at 2:45 PM CDT. He was loved. He loved us back. He was my best friend. He will be missed. May G-d embrace Adam and hold him until I come for him.

"I will see you again... just not yet." From The Gladiator.


Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: Into the maelstrom

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

Tax Day Becomes Protest Day: WSJ (Reynolds)
Into the maelstrom: crises converging: STACLU
Darkness descends on the West: PJM (Solway)

Protest stops Tancredo's speech at UNC: N&O
Surprise: Somali Pirates Are Jihadis: STACLU
NK Radar Request: Denied: Closing Velocity

Tea time in Georgia: Charlie Foxtrot
Obama's messianic jargon hits 'rock' bottom: Eden
Fiscal responsibility: the new counterculture: Hot Air

The Unbearable Lightness of Krugman’s Mind: PJM (Steinberg)
When Fascism Comes, It Will Look Like Tea Party Crashers: LegalIns
A 9th birthday, with character: Kesler

Ospreys returning: Prairie
Which Of These Things Would You Have To Be Paid the Least To Do?: Flip
Gravity Field Model: Potsdam

Each grain of sand a tiny work of art: Discover
What were they thinking?: Mitchieville
Song of the Olga-groped man: Steyn