Tuesday, January 07, 2014
Monday, January 06, 2014
Crazed Sex Poodle Al Gore Curiously AWOL
I've had this particular car for seven years. I've never seen it remotely this cold before.
I swear to you, if there was an iota of justice in the world, Al "Crazed Sex Poodle" Gore, Michael "Fried Tree Rings" Mann, Lisa "Richard Windsor" Jackson, and that Climategate kook from England whose name escapes me would be forced to walk from the south side of Chicago to Evanston.
Tonight.
And does it strike anyone else as ironic that most of the climate grifters appear to be somewhat, uhm, rotund, having feasted like gluttons on the energy economy while trying to advance their radical Marxist agenda?
Hat tip: Me.
Sunday, January 05, 2014
MAN VS. NATURE: Warmal Colding Edition
Mt Sinabung erupts again: More than 50 eruptions on Saturday in Indonesia (Binsar Bakkara/AP). @MeredithFrost pic.twitter.com/JYNa15amiP
— PzFeed Top News (@PzFeed) January 5, 2014As an aside, now the U.S. Coast Guard will assist the icebreaking ships that have been trapped in Antarctic ice. You know, the same ice that Al Gore and Tree-Ring Boy predicted wouldn't be there. Oh -- and it's summer in Antarctica.
Remember: the global cooling deniers are Marxists. They want to redistribute your wealth using "climate change" as the excuse. It's a scam. Mankind can no more control the weather than Al Gore can control his appetite.
Important Update:
Laugh or….oh, just laugh!! Especially those of you going through the latest cold spell. pic.twitter.com/rMHzUKgyOm
— Ken Gardner (@kesgardner) January 6, 2014Friday, January 03, 2014
Al Gore Makes Himself Scarce
I'd like to hear @algore's reasoning behind this. pic.twitter.com/5hNHoknIle
— Young Repubs (@YoungRepubs) January 3, 2014Maybe someone nearby can visit Al Gore's mansion in California (one of at least three massive residences) and ask him.
Wednesday, January 01, 2014
HILARITY: Global Cooling Deniers Trapped in Arctic Ice That They Said Didn't Exist; Al Gore Hardest Hit
Cold Climate: In an event chock-full of bitterly cold irony, perhaps even Al Gore has noticed that multiple icebreakers couldn't free a boat stuck in Antarctic ice that global warming was supposed to have melted.
Few of the media reports on the plight of the Russian-flagged research vessel MV Akademik Schokalskiy have noted the irony of a ship full of climate scientists getting stuck in an Antarctic ice sheet so thick that early attempts at breaking through the ice to free them were failures."We're stuck in our own experiment," the Australasian Antarctic Expedition said in a statement. "We came to Antarctica to study how one of the biggest icebergs in the world has altered the system by trapping ice. We ... are now ourselves trapped by ice surrounding our ship."
In a statement only climate-change die-hards could make, the group said, "Sea ice is disappearing due to climate change, but here ice is building up."
A Chinese icebreaker was unable to reach the ship, and another vessel, the Australian icebreaker Aurora Australis, got within 10 nautical miles of the stranded ship but couldn't see it through a driving blizzard and had to turn back to open water, Fox News reported.
A makeshift helicopter pad on the ice sheet was being readied for a helicopter rescue.
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
New Jersey Says You Must Have a "Justifiable Need" to Exercise Your Constitutional Rights
Picture a woman going to register to vote in New Jersey only to find the State has passed a law requiring her to undergo a background check, pay a fee, show proficiency in civics and, after meeting all those requirements, having to write a summary justifying her Need to vote.
Now, after attempting to justify her need to exercise her right (let that statement sink in) she is denied by a judge who has arbitrarily determined that she didn’t have an urgent need to vote.That judge’s lover and the local police chief’s sister-in-law however have miraculously passed all the above hurtles and can freely exercise that right with gleeful abandon.
Too farfetched? How about in the aftermath of 911, New Jersey passes a law requiring anyone wishing to practice Islam must apply for an Islam permit and show ‘justifiable need’ to pray to Allah. The State justifies this by claiming a large amount of terrorists are Islamic and therefore the Islam Permits will only be issued to very few people in order to protect the public, after all they can’t have NJ turn into the Gaza Strip.
If you find these examples offensive, you should, as they clearly violate an American’s rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights and no amount of fearful justification merits such infringement. Unfortunately that same, arbitrary, subjective standard applies to most New Jersian’s right to protect themselves and their loved ones in public with a firearm.
New Jersey’s ‘Justifiable Need’ requirement to obtain a carry permit is the self defense equivalent of ‘Separate but Equal’ Jim Crow laws.
Monday, December 30, 2013
Just how real is the story behind the movie "American Hustle"?
Many of the names were changed, but some of the key threads were accurate:
1. A con artist was used by the FBI to entrap politicians:
In 1978 the FBI launched a major investigation into federal corruption. In an effort to weasel out the less than ethical politicians working in Washington, the FBI hired convicted con artist Melvin Weinberg, named Irving Rosenfeld and played by Christian Bale in the film, to come up with the ultimate scam.
2. A fake Arab Sheikh's money was used as bait:
The FBI launched a fake corporation called Abdul Enterprises, Ltd. to serve as a front for the investigation, with a number of agents posing as Karim Abdul Rahman, the fictional sheik who owned the company. The agents then held a series of meetings with prominent Senators and Representatives at a Georgetown townhouse located at the 4400 block of W Street. The FBI rented the home from Lee Lescaze, a Washington Post editor. During the filmed meetings, the agent posing as Rahman would offer the politicians money in exchange for political asylum and help in illegally transferring money.
3. Six House Representatives and one U.S. Senator were convicted of bribery and conspiracy:
Of the 31 members of Congress targeted by ABSCAM, one Senator and six Representatives were convicted of bribery and conspiracy in 1981. Senator Harrison Williams of New Jersey received three years in federal prison for agreeing on tape to take a share of stock in the FBI's fake company and to use his position in the Senate to steer contracts to the company. He was the first U.S. Senator to be imprisoned in over 80 years. Representatives John Jenrette of South Carolina, Richard Kelly of Florida, Raymond Lederer of Pennsylvania, Michael Myers of Pennsylvania, Frank Thompson of New Jersey and John Murphy of New York were also all found guilty and each served less than three years in jail.
4. A popular mayor really was implicated in the plot:
[Jeremy] Renner's Carmine Polito is Hollywood's version of Angelo Errichetti, the longtime New Jersey pol who died this past spring. Like Polito, Errichetti was the well-liked mayor of Camden, N.J., who got taken down by Abscam. In the movie, Bale's character finagles an 18-month sentence for Polito; in real life, Errichetti was slammed with a six-year stint. (He served two and a half years, per an Associated Press look at Errichetti.)
5. As for the women in the con artist's life?
In the movie, everything mostly works out for Irving Rosenfeld. Irving and Sydney marry, while Irving and Rosalyn come to terms, and she moves on with a mobster friend.
In real life, Marie Weinberg was found hanged to death just weeks after she went to the press claiming Mel Weinberg had profited from Abscam. The 1982 incident was ruled a suicide; she was 50.
And while Mel Weinberg and Evelyn Knight did indeed go on to marry, Weinberg told the Telegraph they subsequently divorced, and that while they still live near each other, "she won't talk to me anymore."
Rotten Tomatoes has American Hustle at 94 percent (critics) and 82 percent (audience). I thought it was excellent, FWIW.
Hat tip: BadBlue Entertainment News.
Saturday, December 28, 2013
NSA Data Collection Program Called "Orwellian" by Federal Judge Stopped a Total of... Zero Terror Attacks
I cannot imagine a more ‘indiscriminate’ and ‘arbitrary invasion’ than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for purposes of querying and analyzing it without prior judicial approval. Surely such a program infringes on ‘that degree of privacy’ that the founders enshrined in the Fourth Amendment...
[It uses] almost-Orwellian technology.
The irony is rich. As Roger Aranoff observes, "...had [this] happened on George Bush’s watch, they could have been calling our government fascist, expressing hyper-outrage, and demanding impeachment."
An investigation by Michael Isikoff of NBC News found that the NSA's unconstitutional domestic data collection programs helped to stop the following number of terror attacks: none.
A member of the White House review panel on NSA surveillance said he was “absolutely” surprised when he discovered the agency’s lack of evidence that the bulk collection of telephone call records had thwarted any terrorist attacks.
...Under the NSA program, first revealed by ex-contractor Edward Snowden, the agency collects in bulk the records of the time and duration of phone calls made by persons inside the United States.
...The conclusions of the panel’s reports were at direct odds with public statements by President Barack Obama and U.S. intelligence officials. “Lives have been saved,” Obama told reporters last June, referring to the bulk collection program and another program that intercepts communications overseas. “We know of at least 50 threats that have been averted because of this information.”
...But in one little-noticed footnote in its report, ... Section 215, based on the provision of the U.S. Patriot Act that provided the legal basis for it – had made “only a modest contribution to the nation’s security.” The report said that “there has been no instance in which NSA could say with confidence that the outcome [of a terror investigation] would have been any different” without the program.
The panel’s findings echoed that of U.S. Judge Richard Leon, who in a ruling this week found the bulk collection program to be unconstitutional. Leon said that government officials were unable to cite “a single instance in which analysis of the NSA’s bulk collection metadata collection actually stopped an imminent attack, or otherwise aided the Government in achieving any objective that was time-sensitive in nature.”
...The comparison between [the] 702 overseas interceptions and 215 bulk metadata collection was “night and day,” said Stone. “With 702, the record is very impressive. It’s no doubt the nation is safer and spared potential attacks because of 702. There was nothing like that for 215. We asked the question and they [the NSA] gave us the data. They were very straight about it.”
In other words, the Obama administration (yawn) lied to the American people yet again.
Hat tip: BadBlue News
Insidious backdoor gun control: EPA mandates "green ammo"
Gun Control: Thanks to government regulations, the closing of the last U.S. lead smelter and a push for "green" lead-free ammunition, ammo prices will skyrocket. Does the Second Amendment threaten the environment?
Having been stymied by court defeats such as the Supreme Court's deciding that the Second Amendment does indeed confer a right to keep and bear arms on individuals throughout the United States, advocates of a gun-free America and a disarmed citizenry are taking a different approach: Go after the ammunition through regulations that stifle domestic production and force the use of more expensive and eco-friendly substitutes.Expanded regulations issued by the Environmental Protection Agency have forced the closing as of Dec. 31 of the country's last bullet-producing lead smelter — a facility operated by Doe Run Co. in Herculaneum, Mo., that first opened its doors in 1892. As a result of the closure, a company press release notes, 145 Doe Run employees and some 73 contractors will lose their jobs.
The Herculaneum smelter, according to the National Rifle Association's Institute for Legislative Action, is the only one in the U.S. that can produce lead bullion from raw lead ore and the components for traditional lead ammunition.
The only alternatives, the institute says, will be to import the ammo components or use EPA-approved "green" ammunition.
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
So you've signed up for health care on the ObamaCare exchanges. Think you're covered? Not quite.
So you've signed up for health care on the ObamaCare exchanges. Think you're covered? Not quite.
As with any insurance plan, new enrollees still have to pay their first month's premium to lock in coverage. But the deadlines for that task are different all over the country, adding to the confusion over an already-perplexing sign-up process...
The deadlines in the ObamaCare enrollment process have been a moving target. For those seeking coverage for the start of the new year, the deadline to sign up was originally Dec. 15. Then it was moved to Dec. 23, and then again to Dec. 24. Even after that deadline passed Tuesday night, the administration announced that those who ran into technical problems on HealthCare.gov could still seek an exemption and get covered by Jan. 1.
Then comes the next set of deadlines. After appeals from the Obama administration, major health insurers announced earlier this month that they would give people until Jan. 10 -- as opposed to Dec. 31 -- to pay their first month's premium and have coverage effective Jan. 1.
But many states running their own exchanges have their own deadlines for first payments. Some have more than one... In Idaho, for instance, Blue Cross, Bridgespan and Select Health extended their deadline to Jan. 10. But PacificSource extended its deadline to Jan. 15. The deadlines in Washington, D.C., also depend on the insurer.
Other deadlines are earlier. California's and Rhode Island's is Jan. 6. Vermont's is Jan. 7... The following states all have Jan. 10 deadlines: Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota and New York... The following states have Jan. 15 deadlines: Maryland, Oregon and Washington state...
...After the first set of deadlines, would-be enrollees still have until the end of March to get insurance, after which the federal government will begin to fine those without coverage.
Still, the administration has carved out exemptions for certain people and businesses, including those whose plans were recently canceled. The insurance industry has raised concern about these changes, warning that they could disrupt the market...
...President Obama said at his end-of-year press conference that 1 million people have signed up through the federal and state exchanges, marking a significant uptick since the Oct. 1 launch. Officials, though, were originally projecting a goal of 7 million people by the end of March.
Confused yet?
Not to worry: it's gonna get much, much worse before it gets better.
Hat tip: BadBlue News.
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
BRILLIANT: Bankrupt Illinois Paying People to Drive Electric Vehicles
Among the many virtues of living in Oak Park, here is one that many residents may not be aware of: It's a great place for electric vehicles (EVs).
In addition, Oak Park owners of EVs can take advantage of incentives offered by Illinois and the federal government. Consider this: In the first year of owning my 2013 Chevy Volt, I received $2,500 more in tax credits and rebates than my total car payments. This is possible because of a federal tax credit of $7,500 and a 10% rebate of the MSRP offered by Illinois, one of the most generous state incentives in the country.
...Even greater availability will be coming soon with the new public charging stations on North Boulevard. It amazes me that more Oak Parkers aren't taking advantage of the opportunity to own cars that can be driven without paying for fuel. If an Oak Park service station offered a free gallon of gasoline, no strings attached, can there be any doubt that Oak Parkers would line up for their free fuel?
...With Integrys supplying the village with electricity that is 100% from renewable sources, Oak Park EV owners can drive with zero net emissions. Even better, like the new ones on North Boulevard, the EV charging stations in the Avenue Garage are tied directly to the solar panels on the garage roof. When I charge my car for free there, I have the satisfaction of knowing I'm driving with power from the sun.
The article was written by someone called "Michael Trenary" -- if that is his real name -- who simply adores the fact that taxpayers are funding his Chevy Volt. Sans government intervention, Trenary would be paying his own fare on a $250,000 car. We call that the free market.
When government distends, contorts and otherwise twists the free market system, we end up with the housing bust (courtesy of the Clinton HUD) and the student loan bubble (courtesy of government-subsidized student loans). Suffice it to say that the EV bubble will end just as badly.
Hat tip: BadBlue Car News.
Monday, December 23, 2013
Susan Rice Stars as Pajamaboy on "60 Minutes"
NSA Spying: The diplomat who blamed four American deaths in Benghazi on a video claims the denials by the director of national intelligence of blanket surveillance of Americans were inadvertent false representations.
It might have been slightly more credible had Pajama Boy appeared on CBS' "60 Minutes" broadcast on Sunday instead of Susan Rice. The current national security adviser and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations participated in a puff piece that might have been an episode of, "Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?"For viewers, it was deja vu all over again.
Rice went on five Sunday talk shows on Sept. 16, 2012, five days after an al-Qaida-linked terrorist attack killed four Americans — including the first U.S. ambassador to die on duty in three decades — to parrot the administration lie that it was a spontaneous demonstration provoked by a video. This time, she claimed she had no time to revisit a "false controversy" about talking points, or, as President Obama has described Benghazi, just one of many "phony scandals."
Rice did have time, though, to repeat the line that she subbed for Secretary Hillary Clinton that Sunday because Clinton "had just gone through an incredibly painful and stressful week" and "had to reach out to the families, had to greet the bodies upon their arrival at Andrews Air Force Base."
Part of that stressful week in September 2012 included Clinton repeating the video lie to Charles Woods, father of Tyrone Woods, one of the four killed in Benghazi, in front of his son's casket.
Sunday, December 22, 2013
DEATH PANEL COMIX: The Shocking Obamacare Surprise Awaiting Seniors on New Year's Day
This story needs to go viral. Any help you can provide is appreciated.
Side-question: Biff is wondering whether the comic book format is worthwhile. Any comments or feedback are appreciated.
Saturday, December 21, 2013
DISGUSTING AND OUTRAGEOUS CRIMINALITY: DHS Helping Drug Cartels Engage in Human Trafficking
Border: A federal judge finds that the Department of Homeland Security, instead of arresting cartel members and the clients who pay them to smuggle children into the U.S., helps the drug lords complete the transactions.
Former DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano once proclaimed the U.S. border to be as secure as it has ever been. Yet her department has been found by Judge Andrew S. Hanen of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Texas to have actively undermined that security by enabling drug cartels engaged in the lucrative smuggling of children.
The case before Judge Hanen — United States of America v. Mirtha Veronica Nava-Martinez — underscores the Obama administration's total disregard for the laws that the president swore to faithfully execute.
It also shows that the administration's cooperation with the cartels goes far beyond supplying them with assault weapons in Operation Fast and Furious.
Friday, December 20, 2013
ANOTHER HISTORIC FIRST: Federal Judge Rules Obama Administration "Aids and Abets Human Trafficking"
A federal judge in Texas has issued a searing indictment of the Obama administration’s immigration policy. He accuses the government of “completing the criminal mission” of human traffickers “who are violating the border security of the United States” and assisting a “criminal conspiracy in achieving its illegal goals.” The judge calls the administration’s behavior “dangerous and unconscionable” and says that “DHS should cease telling the citizens of the United States that it is enforcing our border security laws because it is clearly not. Even worse, it is helping those who violate these laws.”
...On December 13, federal district court Judge Andrew S. Hanen of Brownsville, Texas, issued his order in U.S. v. Nava-Martinez. It described in shocking detail the malfeasance of the government. Mirtha Veronica Nava-Martinez, an admitted human trafficker and resident alien, pleaded guilty to attempting to smuggle a ten-year-old El Salvadoran girl into the U.S. This was Nava-Martinez’s second felony offense; she was convicted of food-stamp fraud in 2011...
...DHS delivered the child to the mother and took no enforcement action: “It did not arrest her. It did not prosecute her. It did not even initiate deportation proceedings for her.” As the judge said, “instead of enforcing the laws of the United States, the Government took direct steps to help the individuals who violated it,” conduct for which any “private citizen would, and should, be prosecute.”
What especially angered the judge was that this was the fourth case of this nature that he “had in as many weeks.” All involved “human traffickers who smuggled minor children [and] were apprehended short of delivering the children to their ultimate destination.”
As the judge observed, human trafficking is controlled and helps fund the Mexican drug cartels. Which means President Obama and his lawless DHS is helping funding the Mexican drug cartels, having already armed them during its malevolent Operation Fast and Furious.
Make no mistake: these traffickers are slave traders. During the course of 2013 alone, the judge noted that he had "seen instances where aliens being smuggled were assaulted, raped, kidnapped and/or killed" and subject to “exploitation and trafficking of children” as well as “violence, extortion, forced labor, sexual assault, or prostitution” to which they subject children and adults.
Judge Hansen concludes with an angry retort to the Obama administration's oft-used claims of "prosecutorial discretion":
[The Court] is not aware of any accepted legal principle, including prosecutorial discretion, that not only allows the government to decline prosecutions, but further allows it to actually complete the intended criminal mission... The DHS should enforce the laws of the United States — not break them.
This administration is historic, alright: an historic disgrace.
Related: FEDERAL COURT: Obama’s Partnership With Mexican Drug Cartels Goes Far Beyond Guns.
Thursday, December 19, 2013
PWNT COMIX: The Snowden Effect
The NSA reports that Snowden stole 1.7 million classified documents. Although it's not clear that anyone really knows how much he took at this point.
And, yes, in case you hadn't heard: Target Stores suffered a major security breach that has compromised up to 40 million consumer credit cards.





















