Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Unbelievable: Houston TV uncovers federal indictment that indicates 'hundreds of terrorists' may have recently infiltrated the U.S. from Mexico

Austin's KVUE-TV recently received word that the Department of Homeland Security had issued a bulletin to local police and sheriff's deputies concerning a terrorist who could be entering the U.S. through Mexico.

In the process of investigating the story, KVUE discovered 'a smuggling corridor' that specializes in the transportation of terrorists and other dangerous individuals into the U.S. A federal indictment filed two weeks ago indicates that hundreds of individuals affiliated with terror groups have likely infiltrated the U.S. from points south.

The alert focuses on Mohamed Ali, a suspected member of the terrorist group Al Shabaab. It indicates he may be traveling to the U.S. through Mexico. Al Shabaab is a terrorist group based in Somalia with links to the Somali attacks dramatized in the movie “Blackhawk Down.” A few months ago, the group announced its allegiance to Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden.

"[Al Shabaab operatives] are certainly a real threat to U.S. security and an increasing threat to U.S. security," said Rice University Baker Institute Fellow Joan Neuhaus Schaan. Schaan is an expert on Homeland Security and terrorism, and her research is reviewed by the U.S. government, military and civil authorities... She said Al-Shabaab trains extremists and wants to turn Somalia into the next Afghanistan.

"Similar to the set up in Afghanistan in 2001 when Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden had a strong relationship with the Taliban that allowed them free reign in Afghanistan,” Neuhas Schaan said.

The route from Somalia to Texas is shorter than Americans would like to think. It goes through Mexico. Two weeks ago, a federal indictment was filed in San Antonio against a Somali citizen. It alleges Ahmed Muhammed Dhakane led a "large-scale smuggling enterprise," moving east Africans into the U.S., including members of a terrorist group called AIAI.

"It was hundreds of individuals," Neuhaus Schaan said, in reference to the indictment...

So let's not do anything hasty like sealing the border.

But, remember folks, even in the event that you get shot or blown up in a terrorist attack, you can take comfort in the fact that we didn't profile or ask anyone for their papers.


Hat tip: M7P

Hillary's 'Sanctions With Bite' Already Having the Desired Effect...

...if you're a Mullah.

Iran rejects UN sanctions threat


AP

Official: Draft resolution "has no legitimacy at all".

The more foreign policy we get to see from this administration, the more I believe that their term "Smart Power Diplomacy"™ was intended to be sarcastic. And always would be followed closely by a rim-shot.


Hat tip: Dan from New York..

The Economy In a Microcosm

Papa B sent this photo in with the following caption:

"Isn't this an apt metaphor for the economy? The car in front of me is a $200,000 vehicle capable of 200 miles-per-hour.

It's stuck in a massive traffic jam while signaling to turn into the strip mall with the "We Buy Gold" and "Cash for Your Auto Title" retail establishments."


Larwyn's Linx: PA-12: Democrat Wins -- Tim Burns Concedes

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. You can also install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget.

Election 2010

PA-12: Democrat Wins -- Tim Burns Concedes: RSM
Rand Paul the winner of KY primary: LCR
Specter Defeated: Weasel Zippers

Lincoln faces a runoff: AnBlackCon
Democrats and Vote Fraud: On the Road to Rigged Elections: AT
No Politician is Safe: Podhoretz

Nation

Rising Star Stutzman to Replace Souder?: RWN
Dems Can Kiss Connecticut Senate Seat Goodbye: Strata-Sphere
Major speech on shrinking U.S. seapower gets ignored: PJM

DOJ Attorney Resigns Over Black Panther Debacle: WashExam
Van Helsing Government-Applied Medical Informatics: RWN
Ohio Dem Senate nominee avoiding Obama?: Marathon

Economy

The Dog ate Obama's Plan for GSE Reform: WashExam
AZ Utilities Rep to L.A.: Enjoy Your Boycott in the Dark: GWP
Obama Madoff with Our Tax Dollars: AT

Climate & Energy

Leak Proves Spain's 'Green' Policies — a model for Obama — are Disastrous: PJM
The EPA's Creative New Ways to Spend Your Money: BlogProf
And The Front-Runner For AGW Counter ICCC Hysteria Is…: CBullitt

Media

The U.S. Department of Blame America First: Malkin
WTF? Obama says beheading of Daniel Pearl by Jihadists 'captured the world's imagination': BlogProf
Waking Up to Urbane Anti-Semitism: AT

Strap-On and Strap-On Junior Go After Beck and Goldline: Mediaite
The Left, bogus war stories, and the NYTimes: Malkin
BBC Middle East Editor: Watching Obama Slap Around Israel Is 'Enjoyable New Experience': MereRhet

World

'Kill these all KAFIR': Malkin
Women Come to Blows Over the Burqa in France: Chesler
Pope Benedict in Portugal: Christians, Answer to Secularism is to Re-Evangelise World: LifeSiteNews

All Hell Breaking Loose in Thailand: Stock Exchange Set Afire: Insider
That's Right, China, America Does Have a Discrimination Problem: Feed Your ADHD
State Dept. Kook Defends Kook Who Apologized to China for AZ Immigration Law : GWP

SciTech

Suppress Free Speech? There's an App For That!: GWP
Apple Denies GOP Candidate's Bid for iPhone App -- 'Defamatory' of Powerful Dem Henry Waxman: PJM

Cornucopia

Rima Fakih is Gorgeous; That is All :Anchoress
Miss USA courts controversy with Muslim faith: Maktoob
Who Burned the Second Temple?: TAB

Original Image: AP.
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: The Astute Bloggers.


Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Did Dick Blumenthal 'Apologize' While Accompanied by Another Phony?

Senate candidate Dick Blumenthal (D-CT) apologized today for 'misstatements' concerning his (non-existent) Vietnam military service. The staged press conference featured a handful of Marine vets ostensibly lending their support.

An eagle-eyed observer just sent us this photo with the caption:

"Look carefully at the face of the man on the right. Now compare that face to this man."

This is William Joseph Trumpower (AKA Eliot Storm), a man listed on POW Network's Phony Vets Database.

Trumpower, like Blumenthal, is a Connecticut resident and has made quite a name for himself hawking books on the Vietnam experience. The 'POW Networks Phony' database lists Trumpower's bogus credentials as follows:

CLAIMING BRONZE STAR w/VALOR device... Claims 2nd Lt, Claims... Wears 3 Purple Hearts, 2 Bronze Stars w/V. The jacket in EARLIER pictures boasted 8 ribbons. This NEW pic has more and includes V device on Bronze Star and 2nd Lt bars...

It's entirely fitting if the staged Blumenthal apology was, as our anonymous contributor asserts, accompanied by another puffed-up bloviator.


Update: William Jacobson writes, "Well, the Storm guy was there, confirmed, so if he is a poser, then you have it."

The unparalleled brilliance of Eric Holder: Al Qaeda bomber who killed 166 and planned World Cup attack had been released from U.S. custody in 2009

Next month's soccer World Cup in South Africa was the target of an Al Qaeda attack according to Iraqi security personnel. The mastermind was reportedly a man who had already killed 166 Iraqis in various bombings -- after his release by the Obama administration last year.

The 30-year-old Saudi national [Qahtani], who was arrested two weeks ago, had been in contact with Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri... Qahtani, who adopted the nom de guerre "Sinan al-Saudi," held a degree in business administration and also graduated from King Fahd Security College with the rank of lieutenant.

He entered Iraq in 2004, shortly after the US-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein, and was involved in operations in the towns of Al-Qaim and Husayba near Iraq's border with Syria.

According to Atta, Qahtani was apprehended by the US military in 2007 under the false name Muzawar al-Shammari, and was released last year.

More recently, he participated in the planning of a series of co-ordinated attacks against Baghdad hotels in January which killed 36 people, and in the organisation of five vehicle-borne bombs that killed 127 people in the capital in December.

...[Also captured was] Algerian national Tareq Hassel Abdul Qader was the network's military chief for Karkh, Baghdad's western district... Qader also helped plan several attacks in Iraq, but did not say whether he was involved in the organisation of the potential World Cup attack.

The World Cup is anticipated to draw nearly 400,000 foreign fans, so it makes an Olympic-sized target for terrorists.

Curiously, the few American sources reporting this story, including AOL News, the Associated Press and MSNBC, somehow failed to note that the terrorist had been released from U.S. custody in 2009.

Thanks to the outstanding leadership of President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, the line distinguishing warfare from law enforcement has been thoroughly eradicated.   The inevitable outcome -- demonstrated by this, the latest in a series of close calls -- is guaranteed to be toxic to the civil society.


Image: AOL News.

Perfect timing for Democrats' health care cramdown as 'Medicare begins to implode'

The Houston Chronicle reports that the Medicare system in the state of Texas has flatlined. That's the same system Democrats ignored, presumably because they were too busy ramming an unconstitutional socialized medicine bill down the throats of taxpayers.

What do you call a Midas Touch with a slight twist -- anything that the person touches turns to diarrhea? Yes, it's an unpleasant image, but perfectly apt for the modern, Obama-Pelosi Democrats.

Texas doctors are opting out of Medicare at alarming rates, frustrated by reimbursement cuts they say make participation in government-funded care of seniors unaffordable.

Two years after a survey found nearly half of Texas doctors weren't taking some new Medicare patients, new data shows 100 to 200 a year are now ending all involvement with the program.

This new data shows the Medicare system is beginning to implode,” said Dr. Susan Bailey, president of the Texas Medical Association. “If Congress doesn't fix Medicare soon, there'll be more and more doctors dropping out and Congress' promise to provide medical care to seniors will be broken.”

...The largest number of doctors opting out comes from primary care, a field already short of practitioners nationally and especially in Texas. Psychiatrists also make up a large share of the pie, causing one Texas leader to say, “God forbid that a senior has dementia.”

The opt-outs follow years of declining Medicare reimbursement that culminated in a looming 21 percent cut in 2010.

These deadly changes represent only the tip of the administration's central planning iceberg, the real goal of which is to implement a single-payer system.

The health-reform law caps how much insurers can spend on expenses and take for profits. Starting next year, health plans will have a regulated "floor" on their medical-loss ratios, which is the amount of revenue they spend on medical claims. Insurers can only spend 20% of their premiums on running their plans if they offer policies directly to consumers or to small employers. The spending cap is 15% for policies sold to large employers...

...Restrictions on how insurers can spend money are compounded by simultaneous constraints on how they can manage their costs. Beginning in 2014, a new federal agency will standardize insurance benefits, placing minimum actuarial values on medical policies. There are also mandates forcing insurers to cover a lot of expensive primary-care services in full. At the same time, insurers are being blocked from raising premiums...

...The Obama health plan puts expensive new mandates on doctors, such as a requirement to purchase IT systems and keep more records. Overhead costs already consume more than 60% of the revenue generated by an average medical practice, according to a 2007 survey by the Medical Group Management Association. At the same time, reimbursement under Medicare is falling. Some specialists, such as radiologists and cardiologists, will see their Medicare payments fall by more than 10% next year. Then there's the fact that medical malpractice premiums have risen by 10%-20% annually for specialists like surgeons, particularly in states that haven't passed liability reform.

Unintended consequences like these are the inevitable result of central planning. Which masterminds among us could possibly predict the impact of these dictates upon hundreds of millions of affected individuals? Nancy Pelosi? Bart Frickin' Stupak? Harry Flipping Reid? Barack Milhaus Obama?

Not only is the free market the only system that has ever worked to improve the human condition, it is also the only system codified in our Constitution and Declaration. Indeed, it is the only system consistent with American values.

Everyone knows that ObamaCare is doomed to failure. The only open question is how much damage it does before patriots can put the brakes on.


Hat tip: Memeorandum. Linked by Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

Larwyn's Linx: Anti-establishment Tuesday? Races to watch today

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. You can also install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget.

Nation

Anti-establishment Tuesday? Races to watch today: DC
The end of American Exceptionalism?: Protein Wisdom
Bombshell: Dem Senate Candidate's bogus resume: Hot Air

Arizona Ends Divisive Chicano Studies in Schools: NAS
Attacking Arizona blows up in San Diego's face: RWN
Kagan's Speech Rationing: Times

Economy

Huge Victory in Texas for Liberty Against Unions: RWN
America's Public Debt Explained: AT
Ohio's income projections nowhere near reality: Virtuous

Fannie Mae's involvement in warming caper: RWN
Citizens or Subjects: Keynesian Economics: AT
Genius: GM wants more subprime buyers: BlogProf

Climate & Energy

Climategate 2010: Inconvenient Facts About Global Warming: PJM
‘Son of Alar’: The New Pesticide Scare Campaign: BigGovt
Less Than One-Third of US Meteorologists Believe In AGW: GWP

Media

Must-Read of the Day: The New Yorker Profiles Andrew Breitbart: BigGovt
Dear Krugman, Yes, We Are Greece. P.S., You Suck.: Insider
Laura Bush: Obama & Wife Benefit From Double-Standard: Ace

Broadway Babies Sucker Punch Their Fellow Bobos: Driscoll
Krugman resorts to platitudes when the truth hurts: Ranger's Arrows
Spitting in the Face of Everyone Murdered on 9/11: Blitz

World

Hot Tips on UN Waste, Fraud and Abuse: Rosett
The shape of things to come with Iran: NowLebanon
Everyone Loses In Britain’s Election. Could be A Good Thing.: VDARE

SciTech

What a difference a day makes: American Digest
Neat: Israeli Company Makes Tanks Invisible to Night Vision: SnappedShot
30 Years Ago Today: Grand Rants

Cornucopia

Hmmm...: Muslim Woman Wins Miss USA Crown: Ace
CPUSA to Sue Dems?: Moonbattery
Stop the Mosque: iOTW

Image: iOwnTheWorld.
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: American Digest


Monday, May 17, 2010

No Questions Allowed at the Signing of the 'Freedom of the Press Act'

Earlier today President Obama signed the Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act, which grants the federal government (wait for it) more power (how'd you guess?) to track which countries adhere to international press freedom standards.

The White House press pool was present in the Oval Office and...

...Obama was asked if he would entertain some questions -- specifically about BP.

"Speaking of press freedoms," ventured Chip Reid of CBS News.

"You're certainly free to ask the question," Obama said. "I won't be answering, I'm not doing a press conference today, but we'll be seeing you in the course of the week."

Outstanding! President Obama celebrates press freedom by refusing to hear questions from the press! Somehow, with this administration, that offhanded act of disdain just seems, well, fitting.

Unrelated aside: here's a closeup of the President's watch. Anyone know what make and model this is?


Images: Getty Images.

Illegals by the truckload: BIP documents the flow of illegal aliens that somehow escapes the watchful gaze of Janet 'The Falcon' Napolitano

The invaluable BorderInvasionPics website just posted new pictures and videos that help illustrate the unchecked flow of illegal aliens into the U.S.

Are these trucks transporting drugs? Weapons? Criminals? The poor who need medical care and know they won't be refused at hospitals in the U.S. no matter how expensive the procedure?

Who knows -- the utterly clueless Janet Napolitano and the willfully inept Democrats in Washington are ignoring the border. In doing so, they hope they can convert some of the swarms of welfare recipients into Democrat voters.

And everyone knows that's the Democrat agenda. Everyone. The Democrats aren't even trying to hide the approach. And not only is it anti-American, it's flat out dangerous. Literally anything could be transported over the border and, one day, some serious weapons -- RPG's, dynamite, bio-weapons, even radiological material -- will make the journey from the south into our cities.

To illustrate just how despicable the Social Democrat approach has become, consider the brochure circulated a few years ago in Texas (left). At various rallies for illegal immigration, Democrat "community organizers" handed out these brochures which were written in Spanish (on the reverse side) and English.

They provide directions for non-citizens to game the system and vote the Democrat ticket. Consider the hubris: Democrats offering clear instructions to illegal aliens so that they could corrupt the process and override the votes of American taxpayers.

That's how despicable and power-hungry the Democrats have become.

And every day, some hidden cameras set up by a few brave patriots at BIP and other sites capture the flow of hundreds of illegals making the trek into Arizona as easily as you or I would drive to Palm Springs from Los Angeles.

This outrageous administration and its pathetic sycophants in Congress spent trillions on "shovel-ready" projects that only harmed the economic health of the country. They borrowed hundreds of billions of dollars from China, which our children must repay with interest when they grow up.

And the border remains open, even though the one construction project that makes sense -- a freaking border fence -- is supported by upwards of 80% of Americans. American citizens, that is.

No country with generous welfare benefits and guaranteed medical benefits can survive unlimited illegal immigration. And that's why Democrats that support this mess can truly be said to be anti-American: they seek the collapse of the system.

And despite the capabilities of our brilliant men and women who serve in the military, in the intelligence community, in law enforcement and as first responders, they are utterly hamstrung by disastrous leaders like Janet Napolitano, Eric Holder and Barack Obama.

It's November or never.


Linked by: Protein Wisdom. Thanks!