Monday, December 07, 2009

Larwyn's Linx: No Difference Between Democrats & Republicans?!

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Nation

No Differences Between Democrats and Republicans???: PJM
Why Democrats are obsessed with health 'reform': Fund
1988: ACORN's fingerprints on mortgage meltdown: BigGov

Democrats' formulas to calculate your life's value: PJM
The Frank Discussion No One Wants to Have: Second City Cop
Ronald Reagan Speaks Against ObamaCare: BigGov

Death Panel in Cali: Under-50 Mammograms End: GWP
Who Will Be On KSM's 'Jury of Peers'?: Nice Deb
America's First Islamic College?: AT

Economy

Credit Suisse sees difficult 2010: PragCap
Billions To Dubai Secured by Barren Land: BizInsider
The Next Shoes to Drop in CRE: Zero Hedge

Media

Obama Redeclares War: Noonan
A Small Serving of Crow from the Times to Obama: JOM
Sarah Palin meets the death panel: Prairie

56 Newspapers to Sing As One in Copenhagen: LegalIns
The different between East Anglia and a real school: Surber

Climate & Energy

Donald Kennedy and the corruption of Science Magazine: AT (Lewis)
Why they fell for the global warming hoax: Surber
The Logic of Enlightenment: Fernandez

Australian Professor/Pol Calls For "Suspension of Democratic Processes" As Solution To "Deniers": TAB
The Russians Did It?: JWF
It's Time To Sue the EPA: CBullitt

The Larch: the most important tree in the world: Protein Wisdom
Something Rotten in Denmark: GM's Place
Global Warming Fraud an Attack on Humanity: AmPower

'The Big Cutoff': Another Climate Email Expose: Ace
Green Jobs: 1200 limos, 54 private jets converge on Copenhagen: AT (Moran)

World

Inside Operation Cobra's Anger: Prairie
Dar al-Harb vs. Dar al-Gutless P***ies: Cold Fury
30,000: Crittenden

Hammer and Anvil in Now Zad: Captain's Journal
Binghamton Professor slain by Saudi grad student: AT (Alter)
Arab writer finds Obama scary for moderates; soothing for radicals: RubRep

The Ironies of History: From Pearl Harbor to Iran: PJM (Ledeen)
Honduran Democracy Overcomes Obama Imperialism: GWP
Don't they read their own memos?: Fausta

Sci-Tech

Barnes & Noble Nook a Worthy Challenger to Kindle: CNet
2009's most awesome Android apps: NetWorld
Cyberwar Policy: Schneier

Cornucopia

Health Care Update: University Research Proves Tim Tebow’s Tears Cure Cancer: RSM
Text messages from White House State Dinner Leaked: Parkway Rest Stop
Frustrated hockey player breaks stick on own goalie's head: BlogProf

Sunday, December 06, 2009

The Illicit Love-Child of the Toyota Avalon and the Mercedes C-Class


That would be the 2011 Hyundai Sonata which should go into production early in 2010.

...At launch, the new Sonata will only be available with one engine, a 2.4-liter direct injected four-cylinder...

With over 90 percent of current Sonata sales coming with I4 engines and a firm commitment by Hyundai to meet future CAFE standards early, the company has opted to take a pass on a V6. In single exhaust form (read: GLS and Limited), the four banger yields 198 horsepower and 184 pound-feet. The dual exhaust system on the SE adds two units to each of those numbers...

All transmissions in the new Sonata will receive six forward gears and the base GLS will be available with a manual transmission...

Additional powerplants in V-6 and hybrid formulations appear to be on the horizon.

The Obama Recovery In Full Effect: Deficits Running 25% Higher Than Highest Estimates


Red ink: the government is drowning in it. The first two months of fiscal 2010 set a new record. Curiously, this report was issued late Friday -- the slowest news day -- and it has been completely ignored by state-run media.

In October and November,the government spent $292 billion more than it took in, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said.

That was even worse than the same period last year, when the government was on its way to posting a record $1.4 trillion deficit for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.

The same period last year represented the eye of the financial storm. And yet 2010 is turning out even worse!

The annualized deficit for 2010 totals up to $1.752 trillion -- a disastrous and unpredicted shortfall -- but one as certain as loaded dice given the Democrats' catastrophic health and energy policies.

Remember this graph?

Updated for recent developments, it now looks like this.

If the deficits continue to overshoot prior estimates, which they almost certainly will, the country is headed for total, hyper-inflationary meltdown: China and Japan will simply cease buying debt that can't be repaid.

Oh, and recall that these totals don't even include state and local governments -- like the Blue State Utopias of California, Michigan, New York and New Jersey -- that are hemorrhaging revenues and residents as fast as they can pack their belongings, stuff them in U-Hauls and clear out for greener pastures.

That deficit represents a 25% overshoot.

Congratulations, Mr. President: your strategy is working.


Hat tip: Denninger. Linked by: InstaPundit, Protein Wisdom and Linkiest. Thanks!

'Recognize That Our Most Vital Institutions Are Under Attack'


A note from someone who wishes to remain anonymous:

'You Must Recognize That Our Most Vital Institutions Are Under Attack'


I think that there is a pattern emerging regarding events associated with our President which if true should be a serious concern. Let me first say that the allegation that I'm about to make may not be news to you and your colleagues in the conservative media, but it appears to me that this point -- if made at all -- is not getting through to the broader conservative community. Please consider my thoughts because I may have stumbled upon something of significance to you and the cause of liberty.

With each new and peculiar news story involving the President, my husband makes the same comment to me: another example of demoralizing and discrediting. When you look at his (or the White House/administration) handling of and comments about certain events, the consequences can be said to be destructive to the trust we have in our institutions, important organizations, and critical government roles. What goes unremarked upon is the potential for the demoralizing effect on individuals within our national security and intelligence communities.

Some examples:

CIA: Eric Holder investigates the CIA interrogations of terrorists;

Armed Forces: The prosecution of Navy SEALs who bloodied a prisoner's nose;

Secret Service: The gatecrashers and the subsequent (and perhaps unfair) accusations that the Secret Service failed to do its job;

Armed Forces: Dithering, lack of interest, change of rules of engagement...;

Our Allies: Honduras, Poland, Columbia, Tibet, Taiwan, Britain (treatment of the Queen, brusque handling of Gordon Brown, the return of Churchill's bust, the DVD collection 'gift'), lack of support for Iranian protesters...;

Taxpayers: Average U.S. citizens, especially seniors, are demonized when they protest outrageous deficits, government-run "one-size-fits-all" health care, an all-powerful 'Health Choices Commissioner', and a politicization of medical treatment itself; protesters are characterized as crazy and dangerous with a DHS report issued warning of right-wing threats;

The Rule of Law - no DOJ or White House response to SEIU intimidation and beatings (see Kenneth Gladney); a complete dismissal of Black Panther voter intimidation; failure to investigate rampant corruption associated with ACORN;

Personal Security: NYC residents suffer when a White House jet 'photo op' buzzes the city; the KSM trial blocks away from the hallowed Ground Zero; the Cambridge/Henry L. Gates episode;

Media: Fox News is directly attacked, boycotted and attempts are made to remove it from the Press Pool by the White House after unfavorable press treatment; other media outlets are muted in their criticisms of White House policy for fear of similar treatment by the administration;

Currency: With profligate spending and ever-increasing deficits, the very underpinnings of our financial stability (the U.S. dollar) are at risk;

I think it's important to try to blunt this attack on American institutions by frequently explaining the tactic - making comprehension of it cross into the mainstream so that the targets -- all of us -- can automatically defend against it.

Additionally, I fear that this continuous (discrediting and demoralizing) assault may, in time, eat away at the will of those we rely on to secure the country.

It is now common for some to assume that that those in the White House are intentionally damaging or hampering our economic system and will use any means possible for their progressive aims. I think the discussion stops short of making clear what the intended psychological effects are of not trusting your government to deal effectively with issues (i.e. economy, foreign policy) and distrusting their motivations.

Some commentators come close when they they say that there will come a time when you will not know what to believe, but I do not think this is explicit enough.

This particular observation appears to evading the attention of conservatives, the center-right media and the blogosphere itself.

And yet our most vital institutions are, in many respects, crumbling before our very eyes.

Update: The Anchoress -- 'It's the painless coup we've been predicting for years'.


A Government-Media Complex Without Conscience


By Victor the Contractor

Its time to realize a sobering fact. I am speaking about the mainstream media, academia, opinion writers and spokespersons for many organizations who claim to represent public opinion, deliver news or administer governance across this great nation: they have an agenda.

Now, to most readers the obvious reaction to that simple idea is: duh! But there are tens of millions of 'average Joes' who turn on the news in the morning and believe what they see or hear. They actually buy, albeit with the requisite tablespoon of salt, that a raft of spending programs will shrink the deficit and that only the Government can create jobs. Or maybe the new insight that putting off a breast exam will lessen health care costs in the long run. Whatever. My point is this: When a communications system is overwhelmingly controlled by those who advocate for a decidedly liberal doctrine there is little room for contradiction, alternate opinions or outright rebuttal.

That is not to say that there are not so-called 'voices in the wilderness' who can seem more powerful for their uniqueness, but the masses will receive a daily indoctrination of a slanted agenda unless they opt for a different voice. And people, like all sentient beings on God's ever warming planet (heh), are creatures of habit. That's why a radio talk show host can dis' an entire race and have a new show in six months: because his listeners will follow him to the new broadcast. Both sides of the political spectrum count on this inertia during an election to bring out the faithful. Indeed, it is their life's blood. How many people vote for on particular party because their father and grandfather voted for that ticket? It happens more than you think, even with self-identified independents.

The real battle is for the moderates of both parties. That middle ground where presentation and policy platforms can sway public opinion. And don't forget the scandal! Ah, scandal. Just the sound of the word makes one take note. I'll never forget a certain silver-haired defender of all things far left who breathlessly told us all of now former President Bush's National Guard AWOL charge from 'reliable sources' and broke the sobering news that this scandal would effectively end his bid for the Presidency.

Can you imagine the chagrin in the Democrat party when the news didn't put Bush's polling in the basement? It is a strange aside that the story virtually ended the career of a broadcaster thought by so many to be 'balanced'. But when outed as a true Liberal, his party, the public and more importantly, his employer threw him under the proverbial bus. One occasionally still hears him on talk shows, churning among the wheels, suing for the truth of the story, a victim of somebody's conspiracy, after all!

That sordid tale bring me to a grim reality: conservatives can not expect a balanced hearing from a press that, for the most part, was born after the sixties and desperately wants to rekindle that spirit of camaraderie that comes from burning draft cards and protesting adulthood and the responsibilities it brings. They abhor a sober and considered life and advocate for a sociopathic existence of 'I, Me, My', all while preaching the need to feel guilt for any achievement and goal attained.

Most of us consider a college degree, a wedding, or the building of a career to be talismans of a life in process; not reason for guilt, self-loathing, or pity for the less fortunate. But the press has a tendency to drape their hateful concepts in a language that sounds reasonable and pious, if I may used that forgotten word.

They make empathetic arguments for extending health care to those in this country illegally on the grounds of compassion and the reasoning that we are so wealthy and somehow owe the lawbreakers something. Or they take the offensive and claim that recognizing gay marriage is akin to the civil rights struggles of the sixties and that our collective hate and fear is bound up in the denial of such a 'basic' human right. Its always like killing a mosquito with a shotgun with these fellows. 'Republicans want to kill your babies' anyway, so why don't we just get on with life and ignore the very liberal press.

Here in lies the rub: A populace who wants considered representation is being fed a steady diet of, might I say, lies. These 'untruths' or 'misstatements', as the press is so fond of minimizing, are designed to frame the argument and change the subject. An effective tactic to achieve stalemate when losing an argument is to change the subject, introduce an emotional plea or simply go on the attack about a myriad of other issues that strike a chord in those witnessing the debate. The result is, at best, a draw. Some can and do take from the spectacle that neither side has argued effectively and no one is right. This process is never more exposed and patently evident than during an election.

We just had an election where a very liberal-leaning press helped pick an extremely weak Republican candidate to run against an 'ABB' (Anybody but Bush) Democrat. And with the economy hemorrhaging jobs and banks failing, nobody would fault a change of party mentality. And yes, the New York Times advocated for John McCain, a great patriot who is more moderate than Republican. Some would say RINO, but not me. Such a reasonable and accommodating statesman did not fare well because of an economic perfect storm the press played like a Stradivarius. While Senator McCain was painted as part of the problem, Candidate Obama showed us why the old shell game is still the best in town for suspense and surprise endings. When his teleprompter is on he is the most articulate man I've ever heard. When its off he pauses a lot. He looks like he's 'considering,' but he's really grasping for words.

Conversely, Sarah Palin is the most dangerous politician on the planet, bar none. She is articulate, clean and well spoken (to quote a certain politician who is known for his gaffes and who was actually describing his impression of the current President). Sometimes politics is like poetry: it really is. There is something infinitely more striking about her that sends shivers up and down the spines of the soothsayers on the left (but no tingles up their legs) and has the mainstream press attacking her relentlessly even as she is now a private citizen on a book tour: She is plain spoken and has common sense. Oh, horrors!

A potential candidate who channels the same kind of no nonsense friendly frankness that made Ronald Reagan so dangerous in debate and so effective on the campaign trail. Whatever you do, don't play her talking, unless to berate and mock her mercilessly on the cable network. This is all great for ratings on cable as the liberals seem to dominate fifteen networks that are all fighting for their lives -- and only a limited pool of viewers who can actually afford the products they hawk. The Republicans have one network and have embarrassingly high ratings for a 'right-wing splinter group.'

There is a case for undoing 'Change'


When Sarah Palin speaks the twenty percent swing-vote -- who have values and are not afraid to vote on them -- take notice. The media is chomping at the bit to tell us how unqualified she is to be CINC and that her heartfelt religious values are a dangerous departure from mainstream tolerance and probity. Really? I think the current President has proven you can wreck the economy with the help of, say, 535 other people and still be qualified to lead.

Or maybe one could not do worse than to travel the globe apologizing for being American and showing weakness and fecklessness at every public gathering. And, oh yes, how about the style and grace associated with giving a shout out to 'whomever' and in the next few breaths comment on the largest terrorist attack directed at this country since 9/11 at Fort Hood, Texas? Nice. And, though the President could not give voice to the words, it was indeed a terrorist act by a Muslim extremist.

Men and women, I am as qualified to be President as this man. Judging from his behavior this first eleven months, one would think President Obama hates this country and everything it stands for. I think, no, I'm certain that Sarah Palin could do a better job in the White house.

Political commentators are desperately trying to frame the argument against her. They're using the same hackneyed approach that worked with Newt Gingrich: beat the candidate with 'hate-speech' and 'no compassion' arguments until he or she apologizes for some comment and you've won the whole war in one battle. Then the press can bludgeon them with proof they were wrong for the balance of the campaign and force apologies from every Republican who appears in public while polls sag. Newt Gingrich got two million for a book and was pummeled for years. His big mistake? Not ignoring the attacks and forgetting to stay on message.

Palin has to stay on message and know that with rising polls, the attacks will only grow as the Democrat power-base in Washington grows frenzied at the threat she represents. We have a golden opportunity to elect a candidate who, at least, seems more concerned with us than world opinion. What's the alternative? Re-electing a proven lightweight who wants to curry favor with dictators and murderers? Jimmy Carter is still seen by most as the weakest modern President for the same reasons. We have a repeat of the Carter White House right now, except the Liberals are more emboldened and transparently craven about wanting to dismantle the American way of life.

So let us start supporting the only real option for the 2012 White House now, not later. Sarah Palin may be many things, but she's not a far left radical. And that's far better than who we have now.

There is a storm brewing. An election that will foreshadow the next presidential election is less than a year away. And this time Democrats have much to fear. They ran on a populist platform with anti-business overtones and now they are reaping the whirlwind: nobody can or will hire while they are afraid of Government dictates on health taxes and energy fees. They have stalled the economy through draconian policies and are crafting legislation that will sap drive and kill initiative. And we have nothing in America if we don't have a work ethic. Wealth can all disappear if you don't work to protect and strengthen it. "A little sitting, a little folding of hands and poverty will come upon you like a thief," (Paraphrased from Proverbs 20).

In November of 2010 we have an opportunity to show just who the American people really are. I'm talking about a change of leadership in both Houses, not just a mere trimming here and there. Democrats have had the unmitigated gall to presume to dictate how we should live, work, and what doctor we may visit. I say no! We will not go quietly into that dark night of scarcity and rationing the press trumpets as compassion but is truly socialism. We will not surrender more and more of our paychecks to feed the growing beast of entrenched bureaucracy while our children are indoctrinated to accept mediocrity and dependency.

We must, simply put, throw out all of the bad actors who vote for bailouts, porkulus packages, health care 'reform' and bills that legalize previously illegal behavior. And I know we can do it! The Democrats are making this so easy for me I should feel a bit guilty, but I don't. They are sowing the seeds of their own election losses every time they appear to condescend and belittle the concerns of the taxed. They work for us and they need outplacement services. So I'm voting them out and working to get Sarah Palin in.

America is a place where you can make millions or live in the gutter. But I get to chose my lot, not some bureaucrat who has a savior complex. Live free or die, baby!

Victor The Contractor



Warning: A Very Clever Scam Targeting Older Men


The Masked Avenger sent this important warning in.

Clever Scam - taking advantage of older men, or any other men, as well

Women often receive warnings about protecting themselves at the mall and in dark parking lots, etc. This is the first warning I have seen for men. I wanted to pass it on in case you haven't heard about it. This will only become more commonplace as the weather warms.

A 'heads up' for those men who may be regular Lowe's, Home Depot, or Costco customers. This one caught me by surprise.

Over the last month I became a victim of a clever scam while out shopping. Simply going out to get supplies has turned out to be quite traumatic. Don't be naive enough to think it couldn't happen to you or your friends.

Here's how the scam works:

Two seriously good-looking 20-something girls come over to your car as you are packing your shopping into the trunk. They both start wiping your windshield with a rag and Windex, with very suggestive, skimpy T-shirts. It is impossible not to look. When you thank them and offer them a tip, they say 'No' and instead ask you for a ride to McDonalds.

You agree and they get into the back seat. On the way, they start playfully undressing. Then one of them climbs over into the front seat and starts crawling all over you, while the other one steals your wallet. I had my wallet stolen October 4th, 9th, 10th, twice on the 15th, 17th, 20th and 29th. Also November 1st and 2nd, twice on the 3rd, three times last Monday and very likely again this upcoming weekend.

So tell your friends to be careful. What a horrible way to take advantage of older men.

Please Warn your friends to be vigilant.

Wal-Mart has wallets on sale for $2.99 each. I found cheaper ones for $1.99 at K- Mart and bought them out. Also, you never will get to eat at McDonalds. I'm looking into bulk orders at CostCo and will let you know what I find.



Larwyn's Linx: Obama Safe Schools Czar Counsels Kids

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Nation

Obama Safe Schools Czar to Kids: 'Spit vs. Swallow'?: GWP
Remove Kevin Jennings! An Open Letter to Pres. Obama: Catholic
Safe Schools Czar's Child Sex Books and NAMBLA support: GWP

9/11 Families Blast Show Trial Travesty: LatL
The Firmest Pillar of Good Government: Commentary
DOJ Employees Subpoenaed: Will Holder Interfere?: Commentary

Palin Speaks in D.C.: Surber
A Black Pastor Speaks Out on Obama's Past: PJM
Letterman and Baucus: Bend Over, Staffers: CCP

In Defense of Sarah Palin and Conservative Women: AT (Marcus)
Beauty Queen Republicans: Surber
Visiting Washington: IotW

Economy

Obama: Let's Just Spend the TARP Money: Patterico
Dubai is just misunderstood, that's all: Zero Hedge
Drop In The Bucket: Corner

Media

NYT: No Buts for Obama: Verum Serum
WaPo: From Messiah to False Prophet: Riehl
Saturday Night Card Game (Behar): LegalIns

CodePink Is Not Happy: Ace
ClimateGate Prof Cusses Out Marc Morano Live on BBC: BlogProf
Climategate? What Climategate?: WSJ

Climate & Energy

Fast Facts About ClimateGate: PJM
Graphing Global Warming Using the Real Numbers: Virtuous
Obama's Science Adviser inadvertently confirms the scandal: PJM

UK Met Office Declares Halt to Warming Alarmism?: Ace
Understanding Climategate's Hidden Decline: AT (Sheppard)
The Fudge Factor: Aces

World

Take our playbook, please: AT
Sudan despot embraces 'climate justice' in Copenhagen: AT
Camel Carcasses Poison Aussie Water Supply; Plans to Shoot Invading Camels: Maktoob

Genius: Former Gitmo Detainee Now Al Qaeda Religious Leader: GWP
You don't know what you've got until it's gone: AT

Sci-Tech

Report: Iran turns off Internet access ahead of student protests: CNet
CEO: Google unfairly targeted as newspaper 'scapegoat': SMH

Cornucopia

How to make a crevasse: BabelGum
"The Guys Get Shirts!": Noisetank
Gator Demotivators: No Sheeples

Daily Scoreboard: Surber
The Old Prospector's Lesson: Pupista

Saturday, December 05, 2009

Genius: Totaling a $250,000 Lamborghini Police Car


This is one of two $250,000 Lamborghini Gallardo police interceptors.

This is the other Gallardo after its driver lost control.

The 560bhp car was one of a pair donated by Lamborghini to help police combat speeding supercar drivers.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi had intended to add Ferraris and Porsches -- previously seized from the Mafia -- but pricey maintenance precluded the move.

You know how your heart beats faster when you glance in the rear-view and a sheriff's deputy is filling the mirror? I think my pulse would be considerably higher if the deputy was driving a Gallardo LP-560-4 Polizia.


Hat tip: Ace o' Spades.

It's who you know: a touching, romantic photo essay spotlighting the pristine ethical and moral standards of Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT)


Max Baucus, a Democrat Senator from Montana, has publicly beclowned himself yet again. While serving as a leading lubricant for the incessant thrusts towards government-run health care -- and inventing new Constitutional rights out of whole cloth along the way -- Baucus nominated his girlfriend for the position of United States Attorney for Montana. But he's a Democrat -- and Baucus stands firm, ready to swing into action, pulsing with energy and tumescent with desire to serve the people.

In honor of this moving, romantic story, I've created a photo essay to serve as a permanent testament to the simple love of a Senator from Montana.

This is Max and his ex-wife Wanda Baucus in 1999, when they had been married for 15 years.

This is a recent picture of Melodee Hanes, the woman in question.

A former county prosecutor, Hanes joined the Baucus campaign in March, 2002.

This is Mrs. Baucus in 2004, when she was charged with assault in Washington, D.C. Eyewitnesses interviewed by NBC-4 reported that Mrs. Baucus became enraged after another customer was helped with mulch ahead of her. In apparent retaliation, Mrs. Baucus placed a bag of mulch under the woman's car, then "struck the woman in the body and face a number of times."

This is a recent picture of Baucus with a swollen eye, which appears to be unrelated to the staffer-wife-girlfriend ethics debacle. In April 2009 The Billings Gazette reported that Baucus had divorced his wife after 25 years of marriage.

We would accuse this Democrat of hypocrisy, as the legacy media and left-leaning politicos so often do of GOP figures caught in similar situations. But there's no hypocrisy here, apparently, because while Republicans stand for family values, the Democrats are proud to represent no values.

That's why President Obama's 'Safe Schools Czar' is free to promote pedophilia in schools.

Max Baucus stands firm for something. That something isn't his constituents or the Constitution, however.


Hat tips: InstaPundit and Larwyn.

Administration reacts to the next inevitable terrorist attack



Fortunately, any prosecutions will take place in civilian courts -- so we can hold our heads high in the court of world opinion.

In related news, the Iranian News Agency (IRNA) reports that the Mullahs threatened Switzerland over its ban of minarets. Earlier today, Iran warned the Swiss of "consequences" after a public referendum voted to ban further minaret development.

These are precisely the kind of delightful blokes we'd want possessing nukes.


Get Ready for the 'Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians of 2009' Awards


As 2009 draws to a close, let's recall that Nancy Pelosi (she of the "most ethical Congress ever" and D-CA), Charlie Rangel (D-NY) and Chris Dodd (D-CT) all occupied places of dishonor in Judicial Watch's Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians of 2008.

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY): Rep. Charles Rangel, Chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee [is being investigated by the] House Ethics Committee... The initial transgressions that led to the ethics panel probe involve: Rangel's failure to pay taxes on $75,000 in rental income he earned from his off-shore rental property; his efforts to use his influence to keep hold of highly coveted rent-controlled apartments in Harlem; and misusing his congressional office to fundraise for his private Rangel Center. Now Congress is looking into whether or not Rangel preserved a tax loophole for an oil drilling company in exchange for funding for the Rangel Center as well...

Last year House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made the "most corrupt" list for sneaking a $25 million earmark for her husband into a $15 billion Water Resources Development Act passed by Congress. This year, Pelosi ran afoul of federal election law by participating in an illegal advertising campaign funded by Al Gore's non-profit Alliance for Climate protection. The advertisement featuring Pelosi ran at least 300 times nationally, including in the House speaker's district, during campaign season, representing an illegal in-kind contribution to her campaign. Perhaps more disturbing than this incident, however, is the fact that Speaker Pelosi has allowed corruption to run rampant in Congress and has ignored serious incidents of crooked behavior within her own party...

Question: Which member of the U.S. Senate took the most campaign money from corrupt institutions Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Answer: Chris Dodd, Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. Given this fact there is little reason to wonder why Senator Dodd blocked reform proposals for Fannie and Freddie, calling them "ill advised." Dodd's willingness to protect Fannie and Freddie would alone merit a spot on the "ten most corrupt list," but there is much more. Dodd was also nabbed for accepting preferential treatment and loan terms from Countrywide Financial. The Connecticut Senator admitted earlier this year that he was told in 2003 when he refinanced two properties that he was being placed in Countrywide's "VIP Program," but said he believed this was simply a courtesy that had nothing to do with his position in the U.S. Senate. This is either a blatant lie or horribly naïve for a man who has served in the Senate for more than 25 years and currently chairs the Senate Banking Committee that regulates the mortgage industry...

Methinks that all three will be making prominent return appearances in the sequel.

This Democrat-controlled Congress is a disgrace.


Pork-Promoter Pelosi Protested


Writing at American Power, Donald Douglas describes the greeting that Nancy Pelosi received at the Irvine Hilton.

As usual, freedom-loving Americans outnumbered the paid SEIU hacks who advocate Communism and Oligarchy.

Larwyn's Linx: The Further Dismantling of Health Insurance

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Nation

Words & Deeds: Crittenden
Weirdness quotient dialed up to 11: Ace
Obama's Recurring Gesture: Patterico

Powerful ad: 'Support the persecuted SEALs': GWP
The Further Dismantling of Health Insurance: JWF
Hundreds of Protesters Greet Pelosi: TotalBuzz

Interesting Trend: Dinocrat
Polling news: nothing short of 'cataclysmic': Ace
Congressional Black Caucus Goes to War: Morris

Three Navy Seals Deserve Their Day In Court: Tapscott
Another Health Care Earmark for Trial Lawyers: Exam

Economy

Jobs summit features rent-seeking CEOs: Exam
The problem with debt is that it's expensive: Corner
Jobs Summit Saves Christmas: MichMirr

Michigan population loss -- budget mismatch: BlogProf
Their agenda is destroying jobs: GOPleader
An Actual 'Green Shoot': Denninger

An alternative read on today's bullish jobs report: Zero Hedge

Media

The Washington Post and the Mother of All Hack Jobs: Wolf Howling
AP: New jobless claims fall because last week had only 3 working days, but let's de-emphasize that part: BlogProf
Frosty the Inappropriate Snowman: Morrissey

The 'Safe Schools' Czar Reading List: Patterico
Under attack after reporting on 'Safe Schools' Czar's Child Porn Books: GWP
Is the MSM rising from the dead?: MoneyRunner

A Democrat wonders what the heck is going on: Dinocrat

Climate & Energy

AGW not stopped yet: AT (Lifson)
Obama delays Copenhagen trip: Patterico
Hansen urges Copenhagen collapse: AT (Moran)

It's time to start over, beginning with the science: NRO

World

The Iranian Time Bombs in Latin America: Ledeen
Hillary's Smart Diplomacy On Display: JWF
Obama Changes Copenhagen Plans, Invites Huge Failure, Again: Riehl

A Leader of the Free World Not To Be Feared: Steyn
Yes, he pressed the reset button on our diplomacy: Hanson

Sci-Tech

Google launches public DNS; all your queries belong to us: InternetNews

Cornucopia

Angry Wife Golf Club Guide: Denny
Diva is a big important job: MichMirr
Diplomacy Is The Art Of Saying "Nice Sheeple": No Sheeples Here

Tiger Woods' Release Video: YouTube

Friday, December 04, 2009

Zippy Geithner


Calmed, yes, all except for the rampant insider training.


What is 'Islamofascism'?


President Obama appears unwilling to use the word "terror", let alone "Islamic terrorism", when it comes to describing the unceasing series of attacks launched at the behest of a fanatical ideology.

In October 2005 President George W. Bush used the term “Islamic fascist” for the first time to describe the Muslim barbarians at war with the West. He denounced them as movements that have a “violent and political vision”, and call for “the establishment... of a totalitarian empire that denies all political and religious freedom.”

The Muslim groups which today seek to bring about a global totalitarian empire are not only fascists, but can trace their origins to Nazism and its genocidal ambitions.

The ideology of the Islamists whose ranks today include not only al-Qaeda but also Hamas and Hezbollah -- originated with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. And the Muslim Brotherhood finds not just its roots, but much of its symbolism, terminology, and common cause deep within the origins of Nazism.

Hassan al-Banna (1906 - 1949) was born into the family of a poor watchmaker in southern Egypt. As a child, he was attracted to the extremist aspects of Islam, which were hostile to Western secularism and to its system of rights, particularly women's rights.

While still in his teens, the young al-Banna and friends (they referred to each other as ‘brethren’) met frequently to discuss the situation in the Middle East, to argue about the ills of Arab society, and to lament the decline of Islam. Their angst was in large part a reaction to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the end of the Muslim Caliphate, the British occupation of Egypt, and the resulting exposure of Arab society to Western values.

In order to strike back against these evils, al-Banna founded the Muslim Brotherhood in 1928. Among the perspectives he drew on to address these issues were the anti-capitalist doctrines of European Marxism and especially fascism.

The group expanded during the 1930’s as Al-Banna would describe, in inflammatory speeches, the horrors of hell expected for heretics, and consequently, the need for Muslims to return to their purest religious roots, re-establish the Caliphate, and resume the great and final holy war, or jihad, against the non-Muslim world.

The first big step on the path to the international jihad came during “The Great Arab Revolt” of 1936-9, when one of the most famous of the Muslim Brotherhood’s leaders, the Hajj Amin al-Husseini, Grand Mufti (Supreme Muslim religious leader) of Jerusalem, incited his followers to a three-year war against the Jews in Palestine and the British who administered the Mandate. By the end of the 1930’s there were more than a half million active members registered, in more than two thousand branches across the Arab world.

It was during this time that the Muslim Brotherhood found a soul mate in Nazi Germany. The Reich offered great power connections to the movement, but the relationship brokered by the Brotherhood was more than a marriage of convenience. Long before the war, al-Banna had developed an Islamic religious ideology which previewed Hitler’s Nazism. Both movements sought world conquest and domination.

Both were explicitly anti-nationalist in the sense that they believed in the liquidation of the nation-state in favor of a trans-national unifying community: in Islam the umma (community of all believers); and in Nazism the herrenvolk (master race). Both worshipped the unifying totalitarian figure of the Caliph or Führer.

And both rabidly hated the Jews and sought their destruction.

As the Brotherhood’s political and military alliance with Nazi Germany developed, these parallels facilitated practical interactions created a full-blown alliance, with formal state visits, de facto ambassadors, and overt as well as sub rosa joint ventures.

Al-Banna’s followers easily transplanted into the Arab world a newly Nazified form of traditional Muslim Jew-hatred, with Arab translations of Mein Kampf (translated into Arabic as “My Jihad”) and other Nazi anti-Semitic works, including Der Sturmer hate-cartoons, adapted to portray the Jew as the demonic enemy of Allah.

The single best known and most active Nazi sympathizer in the Muslim Brotherhood was not al-Banna himself, but the Hajj Amin al-Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, and one-time President of the Supreme Muslim Council of Palestine. As one commentator has noted, to understand the Hajj’s influence on the Middle East in the 1930s and 40s is to understand the ongoing genocidal program of the Arab terrorist organizations warring against the Jews of Israel today.

Al-Husseini used his office as a powerful bully pulpit from which to preach anti-Jewish, anti-Zionist, and (turning on his patrons) anti-British vitriol. He was directly involved in the organization of the 1929 riots which destroyed the 3000-year-old Jewish community of Hebron. And he was quick to see that he had a natural ally in Hitler and in the rising star of Nazi Germany.

As early as the spring of 1933, he assured the German consul in Jerusalem that “the Muslims inside and outside Palestine welcome the new regime of Germany and hope for the extension of the fascist, anti-democratic governmental system to other countries.”

The youth organization established by the Mufti used Nazi emblems, names and uniforms.

During the “Great Arab Revolt” of 1936-9, which al-Husseini helped organize and which Germany funded, the swastika was used as a mark of identity on Arabic leaflets and graffiti. Arab children welcomed each other with the Hitler salute, and a sea of German flags and pictures of Hitler were displayed at celebrations. The Grand Mufti declared certain zones in Palestine to be “liberated” from the Jews and British; and he mandated Shari’a - Islamic religious law. Christian as well as Muslim women were forced to veil themselves. Opponents were liquidated.

The British sent massive reinforcements to put down the revolt. Al-Husseini fled to Lebanon, where he worked tirelessly on behalf of Germany and Nazism. He played a pivotal behind-the-scenes role in instigating a pro-Nazi coup in Iraq in 1941, in urging Nazis and pro-Nazi governments in Europe to transport Jews to death camps, in training pro-Nazi Bosnian brigades, and, after Hitler’s cause was lost, in funneling Nazi loot into post-war Arab countries.

His Muslim “Hanjar” division was credited with the murder of roughly 90% of Bosnian Jewry.

He succeeded, almost single-handedly, in engraving on the Arab consciousness the image of the Jew as the demonic apotheosis of all things evil. Not only was everything Jewish evil; but under al-Husseini’s deft diatribe, everything evil was Jewish.

After meeting with Hitler on November 21, 1941, Husseini praised the Germans because they “know how to get rid of the Jews, and that brings us close to the Germans and sets us in their camp.”

On March 1, 1944, the Mufti called out in a broadcast from Zeesen: “Arabs! Rise as one and fight for your sacred rights. Kill the Jews wherever you find them. Kill them with your teeth if need be. This pleases God, history, and religion. This saves your honor.” His goal, with the help of the Nazis, was “to solve the question of the Jewish elements in Palestine and in other Arab countries as required by national interests, and in the same way as the Jewish question in the Axis lands is being solved.”

His own memoirs, and the testimony of German defendants at the Nuremberg trials later on, showed that he planned a death camp modeled on Auschwitz to be constructed near Nablus for the genocide of Palestine’s Jews.

It was the Mufti who urged Hitler, Himmler, and General Ribbentrop to concentrate Germany’s considerable industrial and military resources on the extermination of European Jewry. The foremost Muslim spiritual leader of his time helped in his own way by lobbying to prevent Jews from leaving Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria, even though those governments were initially willing to let them go.

As Eichmann himself recounted: “We have promised him [the Mufti] that no European Jew would enter Palestine any more.”

But Germany’s defeat in North Africa meant that the Einsatsgruppen, which had murdered more than one million of the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust, never took its ghastly show to Palestine. The Mufti suddenly found himself a prisoner of war in France, and condemned as a war criminal by the Nuremberg prosecutors.

But with the Cold War looming, the British and the Americans sought to curry favor with the Arab world (and prevent the USS R from making political headway there) by allowing him to escape. He fled first to Egypt, and later to Syria. From Damascus, Hajj Amin al-Husseini reestablished himself as the foremost spokesman for the Arabs of Palestine.

A few years later, when the question of Palestine came before the United Nations, he and Hassan al-Banna urged the Arab world to unite in opposition to it. The two men saw in the UN resolution for the partition of Palestine an example of the “Jewish world conspiracy,” even though the plan provided for an Arab state in Palestine alongside of the Jewish one. But in their view a state for the Arabs of Palestine took a back seat to the eradication of Zionism and the annihilation of Palestine’s Jews.

As the armies of Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Arabia and Morocco invaded Israel in 1948, the general-secretary of the Arab League, Abd al-Rahman Azzam (aka Azzam Pasha), who had previously stated privately that he considered the partition of Palestine to be the only rational solution, now stood shoulder to shoulder with the Mufti. “This war,” he declared on the day of the Arab attack, “will be a war of destruction.” It was: but it was the armies assembled by Arab generals, many of whom had fought with Rommel in behalf of the Third Reich that were destroyed.

Al-Husseini’s Nazi ambitions, even though they were now seen as part of the Holocaust that he had helped in his small way to engineer, continued to be a source of pride for his Arab supporters after his death in 1948.

And he found admirers elsewhere in the decades ahead as well. Professor Edward Said -- an associate of Barack Obama -- praised al-Husseini, former partner with the Nazis in their crimes against humanity, as “the voice of the Palestinian people.”

Yasser Arafat, a cousin of al-Husseini, referred to him as “our hero.”

In short, Islamofascism is simply an offshoot of Nazism, a twisted ideology with genocide as its mission. And, contrary to President Obama's wishes, there is no 'ending' such a war -- there is only victory.


Source: The Terrorism Awareness Project's The Nazi Roots of Palestinian Nationalism and Islamic Jihad (PDF)
Related: Pajamas Media's Comparing Hamas to Hitler is an insult to the Nazis