Defense Department Official Pleads Guilty to Spying

For who else, the Chinese.

Gregg William Bergersen, 51, of Alexandria, Va., pleaded guilty to the one count criminal complaint after being arrested Feb. 11, the U.S. Justice Department said in a news release.

According to the court papers most of the information dealt with our weapons sales to Taiwan. For more information on the parties involved in this case go here.

On the surface this doesn't look like a case of wholesale transfer of technology or the secrets that go along with them, still a foreign government can still learn a lot from knowing what sort of weapons and weapons systems any future adversary may possess.

Now when are we going to do something about the real intelligence threats to this country working in the CIA and other intelligence agencies who like to write articles for the NY Times and other newspapers?

Kickin' Ass

The Left will surely call for criminal prosecution . . . .

Bwahahaha!

H/T Mark Levin

Czechs Thumb Their Noses At Putie -- Again

Talks on U.S. radar completed
Czech and U.S. representatives have completed the talks on the planned U.S. radar base on Czech soil that were launched a year ago, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek (Civic Democrats, ODS) said in an interview for today's issue of the daily Hospodarske noviny (HN).

Topolánek said only the venue where the treaty would be signed must yet be agreed on.

"I have information that the major problems might have been solved in the main treaty. Nothing prevents us from potentially declaring at the NATO summit in Bucharest the possibility to sign it," Topolánek told HN.

He added that the last "three words" that were not clear during his February visit to Washington have already been agreed on.

The U.S. radar base is to be located at the Brdy military district, some 90 km southwest of Prague. The radar and a planned base for ten interceptor missiles in Poland are to be elements of the U.S. missile defence shield that is to protect the United States and a large part of Europe against missiles that states like Iran might launch.

Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg (for Greens) told public Czech Television (CT) on Sunday that agreement has not yet been reached on one article concerning the environment in the treaty.

The Czech and U.S. delegations should go to the April NATO summit in Bucharest with agreed conditions on the radar base re-location to the Czech Republic to be able to negotiate NATO's support for the missile defence shield, HN writes.

It says such support is primarily significant for the Czech government to persuade the radar opponents in the country where the left-wing opposition as well as some 70 percent of the public are against the project.

The junior ruling Greens condition their nodding to the radar exactly by NATO's support .

Topolánek said he is sure that NATO would support the project in the summit's final resolutions.

"The discussion is only about the verb - we expect, welcome. Everything else is concealed in the NATO analyses. No one doubts that this system is necessary," Topolanek told HN.

Schwarzenberg said on Sunday the bilateral treaties on the stationing of a U.S. missile defence base in the Czech Republic might be signed in early May.

Topolánek stressed in HN that the second bilateral treaty to create a legal framework for the stay of U.S. soldiers in the Czech Republic must yet be tuned up.

Heh. The diplomacy of Vladimir Paranoid appears to be failing.

Latest Weapon in the War on Terror: Curry Bombs!

The smell of curried dishes alone is often enough to make me nauseous. Just image the unspeakable horror of being subjected to a curry bomb.

Indian army chiefs are set to deploy a "curry bomb" to win the war on terror.

India's weapons development experts have developed an eye-watering spice bomb, packed with a potent mix of red chilli and pepper which will be used to smoke out militants during counter-insurgency operations.

As Britain's legion of Friday night Vindaloo casualties will testify, too much chilli can be debilitating.

But scientists from India's Defence Research and Development Organisation have discovered that the spices which make your curry so hot can also bring an enemy to his knees in seconds.

They have created an 81-mm grenade packed with red hot chilli, pepper and phosphorus to use in Kashmir where Islamic separatists linked with al Qaeda are fighting a long-running insurgency war.

Their enemy is often unseen, and can easily disappear in civilian crowds. India's curry bomb however will help its soldiers to immobilise enemy fighters, and allow them to be captured, without long-term injury.

The mix of spices and phosphorous chokes the enemy's respiratory tract, leaving targets barely able to breathe for a time. Their eyes, throat and skin burn and sting.

Army scientists have also discovered the "curry bomb" can be used to block enemy attacks by creating a smoke screen and preventing snipers from using night-vision devices and thermal imagers.

From being fired by a grenade launcher, it creates an effective smoke screen ninety metres away within five seconds.

The curry bomb will be used both as a hand grenade by police and armed forces, and as a tank-mounted device.

Experts from India's Defence Research and Development Organisation have already tested their new "grenade masala" in a series of 'spice raids' close to the Line of Control which separates Indian and Pakistani forces in the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region.

Not sure if there are any Geneva Convention restrictions again using curry bombs, but I almost feel sorry for the victims.

Dummkopf: Formula One President in Nazi Video Sex Scandal

If guys want to get off with a little role-playing, it's their business. But what kind of sick, twisted freak plays Nazi sex games?

The president of Formula One's governing body FIA is under pressure to resign over sex allegations made by a British tabloid newspaper.

The News of the World reported Sunday that Max Mosley, 67, had taken part in a "sick Nazi orgy" with five prostitutes involving Nazi role-playing. The allegations are based on a five-hour video obtained by the newspaper, which shows a man identified as Max Mosley acting out various sadomasochistic role-plays in a London apartment.

One prostitute inspects the man's genitals and searches his hair for lice in an obscene parody of the treatment of concentration camp inmates during the Third Reich. The man is whipped by one dominatrix before himself whipping two prostitutes wearing concentration camp-style striped uniforms.

The man also addresses the prostitutes in German during the role-plays, although one girl reportedly confesses in the video to not understanding what he is saying. The man also reportedly engages in sex acts with the prostitutes before finishing off the sex session with a cup of tea.

Jewish leaders in the UK have condemned the video. “This is sick and depraved,” Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, told the London Times. “I am absolutely appalled.”

"This is an insult to millions of victims, survivors and their families," Stephen Smith, director of the Holocaust Centre, also told the newspaper. "He should apologize. He should resign from the sport.”

Formula One chief executive Bernie Ecclestone, who is a personal friend of Mosley, defended the reputation of the FIA president. "I find it difficult to believe. It's his business but it sounds to me like a set up," he told the Daily Mail. "Knowing Max it might be all a bit of a joke rather than anything against Jewish people."

Considering his history, we might not need to wonder why.

Max Mosley is the son of Sir Oswald Mosley, the founder of the British Union of Fascists, and the society beauty Diana Mitford. The couple married in 1936 at the family home of Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels in Berlin. Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler was among the guests.

Chavez Stifles the Media

Some in the media are just starting to realize Hugo Chavez is against free speech, just like every other Communist dictator down through history.

Private media companies from across the Americas have accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of stifling press freedom in his country.

Delegates at a meeting of the Inter-American Press Association in Caracas said Mr Chavez was using intimidation to curb criticism of his government.

So how is Chavez stifling the press?

Chavez's government denies media outlets that are not subordinate to his hegemony access to public information", David Natera, publisher of Venezuela's Correo del Caroni newspaper, was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.

Of course, not content with stifling the press, Chavez has his goons out on the street continuing the effort.

Meanwhile, several hundred supporters of Mr Chavez held a protest rally in Caracas against Iapa.

They described the association's delegates as "fascists" and "liars" and also accused the private media in Venezuela of trying to destabilise Mr Chavez's government.

"This march is a protest to tell the world that here there is freedom of expression. It's against the constant threats and aggression from the media who are constantly saying there is no freedom of speech," Rander Pena, one of the protesters, told the BBC.

Translation: There is freedom of speech as long as that speech supports Chavez.

Funny how moonbat actor turned "journalist" Sean Penn has become deaf, dumb and blind when it comes to such shenanigans by his good buddy Chavez. You will never hear Penn have a critical word for a Communist.

Gee, I wonder why?

Columbia Noose Investigation Zeroes in on Plagiarist Professor

Seems like the Warren Commission wrapped up the investigation into the JFK assassination quicker than authorities have resolved the very suspicious noose incident involving plagiarist Madonna Constantine.

Well, it appears there may finally be some movement in the case.

A Manhattan grand jury has subpoenaed the university records of the controversial black Columbia Teachers College professor who found a noose hanging from her office door - signaling that the investigation is broadening to examine possible links between the teacher, her closest friends and the racially charged incident, The Post has learned.

According to sources, the subpoenas obtained recently by the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force and prosecutors demanded the college hand over a laundry list of records pertaining to embattled professor Madonna Constantine, whose colleague found a 4-foot hangman's noose on her office doorknob last October.

The incident happened at the height of the school's probe of plagiarism charges against her.

Last month, Teachers College announced that Constantine was responsible for two dozen incidents of stealing the work of a faculty member and two students under her tutelage, including lifting passages from their dissertations and hijacking their ideas. Constantine has denied the charge.

In addition to the plagiarism report, investigators want to examine all the information gleaned during the university's probe and by a law firm and private investigator hired by the school to investigate the plagiarism allegations.

They also want Constantine's financial contract with the school - which would include her salary, benefits and pension - and any other administrative personnel and academic records.

Sources said the records would provide investigators with a timeline on the tightly guarded 18-month plagiarism probe and what Constantine - one of only two tenured black Teachers College professors - stood to possibly lose if she were found guilty and her job were threatened.

Prediction: Someone close to Constantine or Constantine herself will be found to have placed the noose there, and they'll somehow blame it on racism and a climate of intolerance.

Previously.

Instapundit links. Thanks!

Bosnians Rip Mrs. Clinton

Liar, liar, pantsuit on fire

Getting away with all those fabrications isn't so easy any more. In fact, now that people finally are paying attention to her half-truths, misstatements and fabrications, she may just need to tell the truth about herself.

The Bosnian girl who famously read a poem to Hillary Rodham Clinton during her 1996 visit to the war-torn country is shocked - and her countrymen infuriated - that the former first lady claimed to have dodged sniper fire that day.

Emina Bicakcic, now 20 and studying to become a doctor, told The Post she stood on the tarmac at the air base in Tuzla, greeted Clinton and even had time to share the lines of verse she'd written - all without fear of attack from an unseen enemy.

"I was surprised when I heard this," Bicakcic said, referring to Clinton's assertion that she braved snipers upon landing, ducking and sprinting to military vehicles.

Other Bosnians said they had one of two reactions to Clinton's debunked action-hero account of her visit: laughter or anger.

"It's an exaggeration," said former acting President Ejup Ganic, who was present during Clinton's visit. "No one was firing. There were no shots fired."

Sema Markovic, 22, a student, said she has long respected Hillary as a strong leader but was angered by her remarks.

"It is an ugly thing for a politician to tell lies,' she said. "We had problems for years, and I don't like when someone lies about them. It makes us look bad."

Clinton has since admitted she "misspoke."

Bicakcic, asked if she feared any threat of violence that day, said she felt just the opposite.

"No," she said, speaking at her home in Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital. "I was just excited. I wanted to look [Clinton] in the eye and say, 'Thank you.' "

And Clinton, she said, seemed far more interested in her poem than in dashing for shelter.

"She was really listening," Bicakcic recalled. "She was drinking in every word of my poem."

French 'Youths' Dreaming of Jihad

They need something to do in between carbeques.

Boubakeur el Hakim traded his Paris neighborhood of boulangeries and halal butcher shops for the insurgent camps of Iraq. When he came home, he told his war stories to other young men on the forgotten edges of French society, allegedly persuading some to follow in his footsteps.

His younger brother did, and died fighting U.S. forces

After years of investigation by French authorities, el Hakim, 24, went on trial this month in a case exposing how the Iraq war has sucked radical youths from Europe to a battlefield where they have learned skills that officials fear may one day be used in domestic terror attacks.

Along with four other young Frenchmen, a Moroccan and an Algerian, el Hakim is accused of funneling French Muslim fighters to Iraq. All the Frenchmen except suspected ringleader Farid Benyettou, 26, have acknowledged going to Iraq or planning to go. All deny inciting others to go.

All seven men are accused of criminal association with a terrorist enterprise, a vague charge that carries a maximum 10-year sentence, though the prosecutor only asked for between three and eight years.

The case is a delicate one in France, which strongly opposed the U.S.- led campaign in Iraq but has long struggled against homegrown terrorism. It also highlights a dilemma in many European nations with growing Muslim populations: Cracking down hard risks alienating or radicalizing moderate Muslims and betraying western ideals of tolerance.

These maggots are all in their 20s, but the AP still call them youths.

Investigators say the alleged network funneled about a dozen French fighters to camps linked to al-Qaida in Iraq head Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and sought to send more before he was killed in a U.S. airstrike in 2006. At least seven French insurgents have died, some in suicide bombings, police say.

The classified case file could fill a suitcase. It includes transcripts of taped phone conversations; suspects' family trees; extremist Islamic sermons; excerpts from a Web site explaining how to use Kalashnikov rifles; and grainy images of dozens of people questioned in the case.

Since the group was dismantled in 2005, young French Muslims wanting to fight abroad have largely steered clear of such organized cells, according to a senior French police official not authorized to be named publicly because of agency policy. Instead, youths are heading to war zones individually, to better avoid detection.

The key concern for French police is not where the fighters go but what they do when they come back to France, home to Europe's largest Muslim population, nearly 10 percent of its 62 million people.

They riot and light cars on fire, what else?

Here's a real stunner.

The fighters said they traveled through Syria first, taking Arabic lessons and getting basic weapons training.

'Barring a Miracle, Mugabe Can't Win'

A torn poster of President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since it gained independence in 1980 and is running for a sixth term in office. John Moore/Getty

If early results are any indication, there is hope the vile Robert Mugabe is on his way out in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has lost elections, the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change party said, citing early results posted at polling stations. The official outcome hasn't been announced.

The party, led by Morgan Tsvangirai, garnered 67 percent of the 30 percent of votes so far counted, Secretary General Tendai Biti said in an interview today from Harare, Zimbabwe's capital. The MDC leads in Mashonaland Central province and won a majority in the province of Masvingo, both strongholds of Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front party, he said.

``This is just an example of what we're getting from every province,'' Biti said. ``Barring a miracle, Mugabe can't win.''

Vote counting began last night as Mugabe, 84, seeks to extend his rule of the southern African nation, which he has led since ousting the white-minority government of the country then known as Rhodesia in 1980. A program started in 2000 of seizing white-owned farms, which bolstered Mugabe's rural support, sparking a decade of recession and the world's highest inflation rate of 100,580 percent.

Tsvangirai, 56, and Simba Makoni, a 58-year-old former finance minister, were Mugabe's main challengers. Final results may only be known later this week.

``It would be a massive, massive development for Zimbabwe and the region'' if Mugabe lost, said Anne Fruehauf, an analyst at Control Risks in London. ``The next few days will be very crucial in terms of whether a crisis momentum will build.''

More from Time.

Overview of counting.

Condi Rice calls Mugabe a disgrace.

Delays in results cause concern.

Tase 'Em!

Pay attention around the 1:10 mark.

Rove handles things gracefully. Love his line about the tail and horns being retractable.

Via Hot Air.

National Heroes Tour on BTR

The National Heroes Tour is in Evansville, IN today and they will be on Blog Talk Radio today also. They are participating in an event aboard an LST and the BTR host CyberPastor will be broadcasting it live starting at 3:30 EST. So for those of you not able to make it to the Heroes Tour in person here is a chance to tune in, listen and participate in a chat rooms with these guys.

Update:
This link will direct you to the site with the chatroom and the audio.

Scary McCain

A must read from Judith Apter Klinghoffer over at the American Thinker.

With McCain you get the real thing while with Obama you may get an audacity of rhetoric based on nothing but political expediency and imagined racial grievances. Recent polls reveal that the American people are beginning to get it and that scares not only McCain's Democrat opponents but also European leftists, especially following his successful stops in Britain and France.

These European McCain foes recognize the inherent weakness of the main ammunition their American counter parts have been using, his age. Late night comedians' tasteless jokes aside, in an era where 60 is the new 40 and 70 the new 50, too many Americans can look at the vitality of their own 72 year old parents, aunts and uncles or grandparents, as well as McCain's own performance on the campaign trail, and recognize the absurdity of the feebleness charge.

Read it all.

RIP, Dith Pran

Actor Sam Waterston , Dith Pran and Sydney Schanberg. Waterson portrayed Sydney Schanberg in "The Killing Fields" (via the Star Ledger)

The name may not be familiar to some, but the gruesome legend of The Killing Fields sure is.

The photographer Dith Pran has passed away today.

Dith Pran, a photojournalist for The New York Times whose gruesome ordeal in the killing fields of Cambodia was re-created in a 1984 movie that gave him an eminence he tenaciously used to press for his people’s rights, died in New Brunswick, N.J., on Sunday. He was 65 and lived in Woodbridge, N.J.

The cause was pancreatic cancer, which had spread, said his friend Sydney H. Schanberg.

Mr. Dith saw his country descend into a living hell as he scraped and scrambled to survive the barbarous revolutionary regime of the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979, when as many as two million Cambodians — a third of the population — were killed, experts estimate. Mr. Dith survived through nimbleness, guile and sheer desperation.

He had been a journalistic partner of Mr. Schanberg, a Times correspondent assigned to Southeast Asia. He translated, took notes and pictures, and helped Mr. Schanberg maneuver in a fast-changing milieu. With the fall of Phnom Penh in 1975, Mr. Schanberg was forced from the country, and Mr. Dith became a prisoner of the Khmer Rouge, the Cambodian Communists.

Mr. Schanberg wrote about Mr. Dith in newspaper articles and in The New York Times Magazine, in a 1980 cover article titled “The Death and Life of Dith Pran.” (A book by the same title appeared in 1985.) The story became the basis of the movie “The Killing Fields.”The film, directed by Roland Joffé, portrayed Mr. Schanberg, played by Sam Waterston, arranging for Mr. Dith’s wife and children to be evacuated from Phnom Penh as danger mounted. Mr. Dith, portrayed by Dr. Haing S. Ngor (who won an Academy Award as best supporting actor), insisted on staying in Cambodia with Mr. Schanberg to keep reporting the news.

A dramatic moment, both in reality and cinematically, came when Mr. Dith saved Mr. Schanberg and other Western journalists from certain execution by talking fast and persuasively to the trigger-happy soldiers who had captured them.

Read the rest.

Update: Thanks to Glenn Reynolds for the link. More here and here.

More background at the Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project.

Some interesting correspondence and artifacts there, including a letter from Senator John McCain.

Update II: Thanks also to LGF and Small Dead Animals for links.

Good News: Pantsuit Promises Death Match Until Convention

What, you expected this congenital liar to slink away quietly?

Hell no. If she can't have her way, she'll tear her party apart.

As the saying goes, when your enemy is destroying itself, get out of the way and let it happen.

Clinton Vows To Stay in Race To Convention

In her most definitive comments to date on the subject, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton sought Saturday to put to rest any notion that she will drop out of the presidential race, pledging in an interview to not only compete in all the remaining primaries but also continue until there is a resolution of the disqualified results in Florida and Michigan.

A day after Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean urged the candidates to end the race by July 1, Clinton defied that call by declaring that she will take her campaign all the way to the Aug. 25-28 convention if necessary, potentially setting up the prolonged and divisive contest that party leaders are increasingly anxious to avoid.

"I know there are some people who want to shut this down and I think they are wrong," Clinton said in an interview during a campaign stop here Saturday. "I have no intention of stopping until we finish what we started and until we see what happens in the next 10 contests and until we resolve Florida and Michigan. And if we don't resolve it, we'll resolve it at the convention -- that's what credentials committees are for.

"We cannot go forward until Florida and Michigan are taken care of, otherwise the eventual nominee will not have the legitimacy that I think will haunt us," said the senator from New York. "I can imagine the ads the Republican Party and John McCain will run if we don't figure out how we can count the votes in Michigan and Florida."

Don't forget, it's all about her. She doesn't give a rat's ass about the party, or the country for that matter. It's all about that massive ego and the lust for control of your life.

In the interview, Hillary Clinton brushed aside concerns from party leaders that the campaign will hurt the party's chances against McCain, who launched his first general-election television ad last week and who has spent the month raising money and attacking the Democrats.

"General elections start where there is a nominee or a putative nominee," Clinton said. "They think they have theirs, we don't yet have ours. . . . We have frozen this election."

Asked whether Obama could win in November, Clinton deflected the question. "I'm saying I have a better chance," she said. "You cannot as a Democrat win the White House without a very big women's vote. What I believe is that women will turn out for me."

Good luck with that.

Update: Hmm. Looks like Mrs. Clinton doesn't like to pay her bills. She sure can be a skinflint when it comes to her own money, but will lavishly spend yours. What a hypocrite.

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s cash-strapped presidential campaign has been putting off paying hundreds of bills for months — freeing up cash for critical media buys, but also earning the campaign a reputation as something of a deadbeat in some small business circles.

A pair of Ohio companies owed more than $25,000 by Clinton for staging events for her campaign are warning others in the tight-knit event production community — and anyone else who will listen — to get their cash upfront when doing business with her. Her campaign, say representatives of the two companies, has stopped returning phone calls and e-mails seeking payment of outstanding invoices. One even got no response from a certified letter.

Celebration of Heresy Conference

Yes, that is the name of it. And look who is hosting it.

About 75 activists, educators, students and others gathered this weekend to discuss what they see as a "crisis over the intolerance of difference" in the Muslim faith.

Who are these activists, students and others? They were all Muslims. and they are making some some bold statements.

An-Na'im said that Muslims must figure out how to legitimize and reinforce Democratic values from an Islamic perspective.

Abdullahi An-Na'im, a professor at Emory University's School of Law and co-organizer of the conference, said

"Heresy is creative," An-Na'im said. "It reaffirms the need to create space for disagreement. If our religious values are strong, heresy will not hurt us. If they are weak, heresy will remind us what we need to be doing."

And

"Islam is not the problem," he said. "If Islam is consistent with Democracy, why are most Muslim societies not Democratic? The religion is not opposed to it."

It's a start, but I doubt a bunch of Muslims in America are going to have much pull in the politics and beliefs of the Middle East. At least they are talking abut it.

North Korea Celebrates Earth Hour

Moonbats worldwide proudly plunged themselves into darkness tonight in some weird homage to the environment.

Here's a look at festivities in North Korea.


As you can observe, it's not much difference from this satellite shot of the Communist hellhole.


H/T to pegcity at LGF for the idea.

Pastor Tells His Wife He's Going to Best Buy, Found Days Later at a Strip Joint

He was under a lot of stress, his wife says.

I bet.

Nearly two days after Susan Rhodenizer last heard from her missing husband, she beamed with relief that he’d been found safe by police — even though he was in an Ohio strip club.

“Thank God, thank God,” she told The Buffalo News on Friday afternoon.

The Rev. Craig S. Rhodenizer, pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Lyndonville in Orleans County, was found by police early Friday in the K.C. Lounge, outside Dayton, Ohio.

Rhodenizer, 46, of Lewiston, was not arrested or charged, and was expected to be released to family friends following a mental health evaluation.

His wife said she believes her husband was suffering a “mental health crisis” due to ongoing job stress.

Rev. Rhodenizer just finished handling the Easter season, a busy time of the Christian calendar, and had been “consistently dealing with other people in crisis” for almost a year, said his wife, who spoke to him by phone after he was found.

“I am just thrilled to [have been] able to talk to him and tell him I love him,” she said. “And we’re going to work on whatever it is [that’s wrong].”

Susan Rhodenizer reported her husband missing early Thursday. Just after 4 p.m. Wednesday, the pastor told his wife he was taking the family’s computer to an Amherst Best Buy store for repairs.

He ended up in a strip club in Riverside, Ohio, instead. He told a dancer at the club he had not been in a strip club for more than 20 years “and it was about time he was in one again,” according to a Riverside police incident report.

A dancer inside the club told police Rhodenizer had been inside for about two hours and had three or four beers, according to the report. The dancer also told an officer Rhodenizer had been “acting incredibly strange,” used profanity and offered to pay her to go back to his hotel room.

Rhodenizer also had paid for three or four private dances, afterward arguing about the price, the dancer told police.

He had to go all the way to Ohio for that?

Looks like Rhodenizer may have a bit of a drinking problem.

At 12:40 a.m. Friday, Riverside Officer Rhett Close located a passenger car with an out-of-state license plate, and ran the plate through a police database. The information Close received told him that the car belonged to a missing person.

Close said when he found the reverend, he initially appeared “collected and surprised to be speaking to police.”

After further questioning, Rhodenizer “then began to act disoriented,” the officer reported, and when asked by on-scene medics whether he felt any pain, he told them “he only felt . . . guilty.”

Officers said they found a bottle of Bacardi rum in the back seat and an empty, one-gallon bottle of gin in the trunk of Rhodenizer’s 2002 Toyota Camry, which was parked outside the club.

When Too Much Texting Becomes a Problem

Compared to good old-fashioned American sex scandals like those involving the disgraced Eliot Spitzer and McGreevey family sandwiches, the Finns seem like real pikers.

All this involves is a politician apparently obsessively texting messages to a stripper.

What's the harm in that?

Finnish minister in trouble over text messages to dancer

Finland's foreign minister faced calls for his resignation on Saturday after a tabloid newspaper published a suggestive text message he had sent to an erotic dancer.

Ilkka Kanerva sent about 200 text messages to Johanna Tukiainen, 29, and at first said they were related to her performing at his 60th birthday party.

On Friday he admitted the messages were not totally appropriate.

"I would not present them in Sunday School, but they are not totally out of line either," the daily Helsingin Sanomat quoted him as saying.

The Ilta-Sanomat daily said that in one of the messages Kanerva had asked Tukiainen: "Would you like to do it in an exotic place? Where could it be?"

When Kanerva was asked whether 'it' referred to sex, he only said it was obvious that his message was an answer to an earlier question, Finnish News Agency STT said.

Fellow parliamentarian Tuija Nurmi, also of the conservative party, has said Kanerva should resign, and opposition leader Eero Heinaluoma said the situation cannot continue as it is now.

Conservative Party chairman Jyrki Katainen said he had confidence in Kanerva but his actions had been rash.

Finnish TV station MTV3 said it had heard from unnamed sources that Kanerva's party has been preparing for his resignation. Kanerva insisted he would stay in his job.

Tukiainen, who has posed nude in magazines and is the leader of the Scandinavian Dolls erotic dance troupe, first sold the text messages to Hymy magazine, and then sought a court injunction to stop their publication. A Helsinki court rejected the request.

Kanerva can't quite brush this off as a one-time thing, however.

This is not the first time Kanerva has been in trouble over his mobile phone use. In 2005, when he was the deputy speaker of parliament, he bombarded two models with text messages.

Thanks to the magic of this Internet thingy, we located some images of the lovely Miss Tukiainen here. I might need to get down to South Beach again sometime soon.

'It's Not Looking Good'

Seems Hollywood has an bottomless budget to produced spectacular box-office bombs.

I'm told #7 Stop-Loss opened to only $1.6 million Friday from just 1,291 plays and should eke out $4+M. Although the drama from MTV Films was the best-reviewed movie opening this weekend, Paramount wasn't expecting much because no Iraq war-themed movie has yet to perform at the box office. "It's not looking good," a studio source told me before the weekend. "No one wants to see Iraq war movies. No matter what we put out there in terms of great cast or trailers, people were completely turned off. It's a function of the marketplace not being ready to address this conflict in a dramatic way because the war itself is something that's unresolved yet. It's a shame because it's a good movie that's just ahead of its time."

I guess nobody got the memo after Lions for Lambs and Redacted were such epic failures.

Poof! Another Hillary Lie Goes Up in Smoke

After a lifetime of misstatements (also known as lies), we finally have the media exposing Mrs. Clinton for the fraud she is.

After the Bosnia story blew up in her face, I guess everyone now feels free to chime in and point out other lies.

It's about time.

A senior Democratic lawmaker blew a hole through Hillary Rodham Clinton's claim that she helped pass critical family-leave legislation - just days after the candidate admitted she "misspoke" when she made false claims about landing in Bosnia under sniper fire.

Former Rep. William Lacy Clay, a longtime St. Louis politician, says it was senior lawmakers - not the former first lady - who pushed through the measure, which President Bill Clinton signed into law after only 16 days in office.

"If Hillary played a role in its passage, it was without my knowledge," Clay wrote in an e-mail that he circulated.

He told The Hill newspaper: "All we needed was a president to sign it. The president signed it, and we're grateful for that, but there was no lobbying by him or her."

Clinton, on her campaign Web site, says, "As First Lady, she helped pass the Family and Medical Leave Act."

Her campaign hasn't provided direct evidence of this, but Bill Clinton credits his wife with getting him to emphasize it.

Clay's e-mail was just the latest in a series of disclosures that have undermined several of Clinton's key claims about the 30 years of experience that she touts on the campaign trail.

So you had legislation that had previously passed in the House, was vetoed by George H. W. Bush, and along came Slick and he signed it.

He says his wife got him to emphasize it. Whoop-de-damn-do. So how is it she helped pass legislation when she wasn't a member of the House and Senate?

William Clay noted that the bill, which let employees take up to three months of unpaid leave from their jobs when they have a child, cleared Congress twice only to be vetoed by President George H.W. Bush.

Wanting something to be signed into law and actually helping make it happen are just a wee bit different.

The 1993 Congressional Quarterly Almanac, which contains a detailed history of the bill, makes no mention of the former first lady having any role.

The debunking of her role comes as voters are expressing doubts about Sen. Clinton's trustworthiness.

About twice as many white Democrats, 30 to 16 percent, consider Clinton "phony" than do Barack Obama, according to a Pew Research survey released Thursday. A few weeks ago, 8 percent of voters surveyed called her "untrustworthy."

'It's Largely a Symbolic Event'

Symbolism means everything to the dim bulbs who apparently enjoy sitting in the dark.

The actual impact of turning off lights for one hour is minimal, and some skeptics question the message. But promoters say the idea is to get people talking about further ways they can contribute, and to spur government action through grassroots activity.

"It's largely a symbolic event," acknowledges Leslie Aun, a WWF spokeswoman. "But symbols are powerful things.... It provides people with an opportunity to say something about climate change."

How stupid. Not to mention it has little impact.

Some are skeptical about promoting individual impact. At last year's Sydney Earth Hour, about half of residents turned out lights, but electricity use decreased by only about 2 percent, says David Solomon, a PhD candidate at the University of Chicago. The event showed "that household light use just isn't a large component of total electricity use," he says.

The Google nitwits, who ignored Easter, are all on board.

These people are so full of themselves, thinking they can actually control the climate.

Pathetic.

"This provides an extraordinary symbol and an indication that we can be part of the solution" to global warming, Australian Environment Minister Peter Garrett told Sky News television, standing across the harbor from the dark silhouette of the Opera House.

Garrett said government offices and national monuments around the country participated in Earth Hour.

"We're not only talking the talk, we're walking the walk," he said as the hour ended. "Whatever your view is about the magnitude of the problem ... we can save money by using energy wisely and efficiently, and that gives us the added bonus of reduced greenhouse gas emissions."

Then why not just eschew electricity entirely?

I think when the hour arrives tonight, I'll turn on every light in the house and the outdoor floodlights. Just knowing I'll be pissing off some nitwit will make it all worth it.

Lawhawk is also tired of the preaching.

Meet Spider, Froggy, and Lil Silent

Now what could possibly be wrong with these fine specimens of manhood? Why, they are just normal little boys struggling to find their identity among the din and chaos of life. Yeah right, and have I told you about the beachfront property in Arizona I have?

One of the men, Edy Garcia-Nanarijo, aka "Spider," came straight from the "Playboys" gang in Los Angeles to Gwinnett County to start a new gang, police believe. Garcia, 25, lives in Norcross.

The other suspected gang members were identified as:

Jose Ceasar Salazar-Durin (aka "Froggy"), 19, a known 18th Street gang member that lives in Lawrenceville.

Victor Alfonso Lerma-Neri (aka "Lil Silent"), Age 19, a known 18th Street gang member that lives in Norcross.

These are the people the liberals and the open borders crowd are worried about who are hiding in the shadows because of our oppressive jackbooted law enforcement.
What, I am making acccusations based on [fill in your favorite -ism here]? Umm no.

As a result of the detail, the three gang members were arrested by ICE Agents for immigration status violations.

Hey Mickey!

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez smiles during an interview in Recife, northeastern Brazil, March 27, 2008. Picture taken March 27, 2008. REUTERS/Lula Marques-Folha Imagem (BRAZIL).

Ha!

HT Occasional Reader at LGF.

Update: Thanks to Glenn Reynolds for the link!

Saudis Lobby Chertoff on Behalf of Slave Owner/Rapist

The slave owner/rapist in question is Homaidan Al-Turki. In 2006, he was sentenced to 27 years to life for the rape and illegal imprisonment of his maid whom he brought to this country from Saudi Arabia.

The defense at his trial and the defense this representative of the Saudi government are using is the same. It's all about his religion. One small point. The maid was Muslim also.

Bin-Humaid took up the issue of Al-Turki during a meeting with US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff in Riyadh on Wednesday. The talks, according to the Saudi Press Agency, focused on political, economic and educational issues as well as parliamentary relations.

Chertoff said the US judicial system aims to establish justice for all, adding that it would not do any injustice to foreigners. “Both sides have agreed to strengthening their strategic and historic relations.”

Here is story from the Arab News at the time the trial was ongoing.

Al-Turki said he treated the woman the same way any observant Muslim family would treat a daughter. “Your honor, I am not here to apologize, for I cannot apologize for things I did not do and for crimes I did not commit,” he told the judge. “The state has criminalized these basic Muslim behaviors. Attacking traditional Muslim behaviors was the focal point of the prosecution.”

Grim Milestone: Newspaper Death Spiral Accelerating

They'll blame it on the faltering economy, the Internet, whatever. But an undeniable fact is people are tuning out newspapers in record numbers because they're sick and tired of the product.

Relentless leftwing bias has a price, and now they're paying it.

The newspaper industry has experienced the worst drop in advertising revenue in more than 50 years.

According to new data released by the Newspaper Association of America, total print advertising revenue in 2007 plunged 9.4% to $42 billion compared to 2006 -- the most severe percent decline since the association started measuring advertising expenditures in 1950.

The drop-off points to an economic slowdown on top of the secular challenges faced by the industry. The second worst decline in advertising revenue occurred in 2001 when it fell 9.0%.

Total advertising revenue in 2007 -- including online revenue -- decreased 7.9% to $45.3 billion compared to the prior year.

There are signs that online revenue is beginning to slow as well. Internet ad revenue in 2007 grew 18.8% to $3.2 billion compared to 2006. In 2006, online ad revenue had soared 31.4% to $2.6 billion. In 2005, it jumped 31.4% to $2 billion.

As newspaper Web sites generate more advertising revenue, the growth rate naturally slows.

Apparently it hasn't occurred to anyone that if they weren't so biased they might be able to lure some readers back, hence increasing potential ad revenue.

Massive Borrowing From Fed

There may be some early signs that the market is emerging from the recent financial volatility.

Primary dealers borrow $37 billion from Fed

Investment banks and broker dealers borrowed more than $30 billion a day from the Federal Reserve's discount window this past week, but showed only tepid interest in a separate 28-day lending facility from the Fed that got under way on Thursday.

The 20 primary dealers borrowed $37 billion from the discount window on Wednesday, $8.2 billion more than the previous week. For the entire week, loans to the 20 primary dealers averaged $32.9 billion a day, up $19.5 billion from the previous week.

This liquidity removes a large aspect of risk for the market and investors. Very clearly, the Feds are not going to allow major components of the financial system to fail.

A key item, in my view, comes a little later in the article:

"Dealers did not show any signs of being desperate to liquefy collateral," wrote Tony Crescenzi, chief bond market strategist for Miller Tabak & Co.

"The fact that dealers did not bid aggressively for funds would seem to suggest that funding problems are not widespread," wrote Lou Crandall, chief economist for Wrightson ICAP.

All told, the Fed has offered to lend the banks up to $200 billion for 28-day terms. Crescenzi said the results of the first auction indicate that perhaps not all $200 billion will be needed.

Simply put, the lack of interest in the loans indicates to me that, as of the moment, the corner has been turned on the mortgage-backed security shakeout in the market. If that is true, I would expect to see the economy and market begin to move forward the second half of this year.

Express Train to National Suicide: Early Release for Islamist Terrorist in Britain (Updated)

Really, what can you say about something like this other than wishing the people good luck in their dying days.

The insanity of it all is breathtaking.

A convicted Islamist terrorist who was caught trying to smuggle blueprints into Britain showing how to build a missile has been released from prison early under the Government’s controversial plans to ease prison overcrowding.

Yassin Nassari, a Category A prisoner who was sentenced to three and a half years imprisonment last summer, was released early from Wakefield prison last month, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) confirmed today.

The disclosure is likely to re-ignite the row over the Government’s early release scheme which is designed to allow “non-violent” offenders out of jail early in order to curb overcrowding.

The move is believed to be the first time that a convicted terrorist has been released under the scheme. The MoJ said that Nassari’s release 17 days early was justified because he had not been convicted of an offence involving “serious violence”.

Nassari, 28 and from Ealing, West London, was jailed for three-and-a-half years at the Old Bailey last July for possession of material that would be useful to terrorists. He had been stopped at Luton airport after getting off a flight from Holland.

In their luggage was a letter his wife Bouchra el-Hor had written urging him to fight “jihad” and saying she hoped their five-month-old son would also be martyred.

She was cleared of withholding information after saying that the letter was a piece of “creative writing” brought on by a failing marriage.

The court heard how Nassari had shared extremist videos with a member of another terrorist cell which provided information over the internet on suicide vests, car bombs, booby traps and poisons.

Police found jihadi material on his laptop and removable hard drive, including blueprints for an Al-Qassam rocket which has been used by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

It's not just terror suspects being freed to prey upon the innocent.

More than 18,500 prisoners have been freed under the scheme since it was introduced by Jack Straw, the Justice secretary, last June.

They included more than 3,500 violent offenders, 1,730 burglars, 400 robbers and 790 people jailed for drug offences.

His original sentence was lenieint enough. Now he walks early.

Just wonderful.

Update: Good news, bad news.

A ban on terrorists being released early from jail was announced tonight after Times Online revealed that a convicted terrorist was freed 17 days early under plans to ease overcrowding.

Jack Straw, Justice Secretary, was forced to alter Government policy
after today’s revelation that Yassin Nassari was freed from a maximum security prison just seven months after a three-and-a-half-year sentence was handed down.

The controversial early release scheme, known as end of custody licence (ECL), was introduced last year to create more space in the UK’s overcrowded prisons. The Government insisted that only “non-violent” offenders would be freed early, but Nassari was convicted of trying to smuggle missile blueprints into the country.

The Ministry of Justice announced this evening that a second man
convicted of terrorism offences had also been released early.

So Mrs. Clinton Is Illegally Raising Money: This Is News?

They're shocked, shocked I tell you, to find out this woman is skirting campaign finance laws.

Does the name Norman Hsu rings any bells?

Sir Elton John was at the centre of a new controversy in the American presidential race last night after claims that his $1million fundraising concert for Hillary Clinton may be illegal.

U.S. election laws ban foreigners from donating or raising cash for candidates.

Sir Elton's April 9 concert at New York's Radio City Music Hall is almost sold out, with only tickets costing £500 and £1,150 remaining.

The 1966 legislation was introduced to "minimise foreign intervention" in American elections. Penalties for infringements include fines and prison sentences.

A spokesman for the Federal Elections Committee did not rule out the possibility that the concert could contravene the act if it is ruled that Sir Elton is contributing indirectly to the Clinton campaign.

The Washington Times said the law "prohibits any foreign national from contributing, donating or spending funds in connection with any federal, state, or local election in the United States, either directly or indirectly."

Don't they realize she's above the law?

GlobWarm Now a 'Human Rights' Issue, Poor Hardest Hit

Another useless decree from the UN.

Climate change is now officially a human rights issue, as the UN Human Rights Council on Friday passed a resolution on the subject, recognising that the world's poor are particularly vulnerable.

The council also gave the green light for a study into the impact of climate change on human rights, describing climate change as a "global problem .. that requires a global solution".

The resolution, submitted by the Maldives and passed without a vote, also noted that the poor tend to have limited resources to cope with the impact of global warming.

The country's Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid told AFP that climate change "violates all human rights" -- from the basic to the fundamental.

"In the case of Maldives, the right to life itself," he said.

The island state is among the world's most vulnerable states to global warming, as it risks being submerged by rising sea waters.

Shahid said Maldives appreciated various forums which have already been discussing the climate change issue.

"But the very important aspect of the human dimension is sometimes lost. Scientific and economic issues have all been taken into account," he said, adding that the country wanted to use the resolution to highlight the human dimension of the problem.

When introducing the resolution in Geneva, Maldives' representative told delegates that the debate on the subject had so far tended to focus on physical effects, while the "phenomenon on human beings" had been largely overlooked.

"It is time to highlight the human face of climate change," he said.

And you suckers who pay for this meaningless drivel from the UN are now on the hook for the tab.

Meanwhile, more stupidity to raise awareness.

Cubans Can Now Have Cell Phones; Problem Is, Nobody Can Afford Them

The island prison has lifted restrictions on citizens owning cell phones. Great news, huh? Just one minor problem. People make $20 a month on average, so what's the point?

President Raul Castro's government said Friday it is allowing cell phones for ordinary Cubans, a luxury previously reserved for those who worked for foreign firms or held key posts with the communist-run state.

It was the first official announcement of the lifting of a major restriction under the 76-year-old Castro, and marked the kind of small freedom many on the island have been hoping he would embrace since succeeding his older brother Fidel as president last month.

Some Cubans previously ineligible for cell phones had already gotten them by having foreigners sign contracts in their names, but mobile phones are not nearly as common in Cuba as elsewhere in Latin America or the world.

Telecommunications monopoly Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba S.A., or ETECSA said it would allow the general public to sign prepaid contracts in Cuban Convertible Pesos, which are geared toward tourists and foreigners and worth 24 times the regular pesos Cuban state employees are paid in.

The decree was published in a small black box on page 2 of the Communist Party newspaper Granma.

The government controls well over 90 percent of the economy and while the communist system ensures most Cubans have free housing, education and health care and receive ration cards that cover basic food needs, the average monthly state salary is just 408 Cuban pesos, a little less than $20.

A program in Convertible Pesos likely will ensure that cell phone service will be too expensive for many Cubans, but ETECSA's statement said doing so will allow it to improve telecommunication systems using cable technology and eventually expand the services it offers in regular pesos.

Free housing, education and health care. Woo-hoo! What a joy. Except for the fact it's dilapidated housing and rationed health care.

Wonderful. Such progress. Next thing you know they'll be able to drive cars made after 1959. Except they won't be able to afford them, let alone have money to buy gas.

Man Caught on Tape Having Sex ... With a Table!

What the hell is going on in this world?

Check out this pathetic loser, appropriately enough from a town called Bellevue.

BELLEVUE -- Police say a man in Bellevue was caught on tape having sex with a picnic table.

Bellevue Police Captain Matt Johnson says Art Price, Jr., 40, was seen on four occasions between the hours of 10:30 a.m. and noon having sex with his picnic table. What makes this a felony, Johnson says, is that it took place in close proximity to a school, which made it likely that children could have seen Price.

The neighbor -- who wishes to remain anonymous -- saw Price walk out onto his deck, stand a round metal table on its side and use the hole in the umbrella to have sex.

The most recent instance took place March 14, we're told. A neighbor videotaped Price.

"The first video we had, he was completely nude. He would use the hole from the umbrella and have sex with the table," Johnson says.

Police say Price admitted to the crimes -- four charges of public indecency. Usually these sorts of things are misdemeanors, but in this case, they are felonies.

"What boosts it up to a felony is that the statute says if it's likely to be viewed by a minor," Johnson explains.

The Price family did not want to talk with us, but neighbors did. Some are not happy Price was released on his own recognizance.

"He shouldn't be allowed just for the fact that he could do that again -- and nude that close to a school. That should be zero tolerance," says Brice Jacobs, a neighbor.

Price is married with three school-aged children. Neighbors tell us they're now worried about the kids.

They should be. The poor kids will be humiliated for life over their insane father.

This case has police in this small town shaking their heads. "Once you think you've seen it all, something else comes around," Johnson says.

No kidding.

Is That a Real Diploma From Yale?

It seems South Korea is a little upset at Yale University because the school vouched for a degree that they had supposedly issued to one of its citizens. This person was hired to be a professor at a South Korean university based on the confirmation from Yale.

Dongguk University made Shin Jeong-ah its art history professor in 2005 after Yale confirmed she had graduated there.

Two years later claims emerged that Ms Shin, the lover of a presidential aide, had never studied there. Yale then said it had confirmed her degree by mistake.

But that statement isn't entirely accurate. At first Yale claimed it was a fake.

When suspicions about her credentials arose two years later Dongguk again contacted Yale. This time the US institution said Ms Shin had not graduated there and claimed the 2005 fax was forged.

Yale officials later admitted the fax had been sent by mistake and apologised.

They are suing for $50 million. And yes, to further show the influence of American pop culture in the world, they are referring to this as "Shingate."

Godzilla's Sketchy Nuptials

A rather strange announcement from New York Yankees slugger Hideki Matsui.

"Godzilla" has taken a bride.

Yankee slugger Hideki Matsui stunned his fans and teammates Thursday when he revealed he secretly wed a longtime girlfriend at a New York City chapel.

"I met somebody who felt right. That was it," the 33-year-old outfielder said upon returning to the Bombers' spring training camp in Tampa.

Matsui refused to reveal many details about Wednesday's wedding or his new wife, only saying she is 25 and from Japan, where she formerly worked "in a reputable position at a highly respected company."

He is so secretive about his wife's identity that he held up a drawing of her, rather than a photo, at a press conference where he showed off the silver band on his left hand.

"I have decided to spend my whole life with her," said Matsui, considered the most eligible bachelor in his native Japan.

As teammates congratulated him, Yankee captain Derek Jeter and outfielder Bobby Abreu claimed they were conned into a bet by the newlywed slugger.

Don't expect to see Derek Jeter walking down the aisle any time soon. Do I even need to explain that to anyone?

Meanwhile, this little nugget jumped off the page.

Matsui, also known back home for his large collection of porn films, said he and his wife have been planning their wedding for a year. He began dating her during the 2006-07 off-season. He said the nuptials took place in New York City at an undisclosed chapel.

Large collection of porn films?

Dude!

And boy, do they mean large.

Take porn, for instance. While porn is not publicly displayed, every fakir worth his rod has a vast all-inclusive personal museum of deviance that would make Casanova blush. For comparison’s sake, according to Sports Illustrated, Yankee outfielder Hideki Matsui has 55,000 distinct items in his porn collection.

Hello! 55,000 distinct items? How does this man find the time to play baseball?

Update: Thanks to Hot Air and Ace of Spades HQ for the links.

White Farmer Jailed in Zimbabwe

Looks like Robert Mugabe is embracing hope and change as he strives to unite his country on the eve of elections.

White farmer jailed for growing food

HARARE: A white farmer was to become overnight the first member of his community to be jailed for challenging President Robert Mugabe about the right to continue producing food in a country stricken by shortages.

Deon Theron, 53, has reached the end of an extraordinary trial in which, his lawyers say, he has been denied basic justice by court officials desperate to score political points before the most important elections for Zimbabwe since independence in 1980.

On Tuesday, after what little evidence in the trial had been presented, the Harare magistrate refused to allow Mr Theron's lawyer to deliver a closing submission and answer accusations that her client had occupied his farm illegally after it was declared state property. Instead, he summarily found Mr Theron guilty, stating that he had "blatantly" defied the law.

Guilty white liberals were unavailable for comment.

Meanwhile, security forces are on high alert in the bedraggled nation. A look at possible scenarios in Saturday's election.

Disgraced Legislature of Unknown Party Fleeces Church

Just when when Jammie had commented on how the press may be retreating from its policy of not naming a certain political party when they are involved in scandals, here comes another story about our good friend Ron Sailor, a former GA state legislature and some more of his less then shady dealings involving the church that he was the pastor of.

Hmmmm, scanning, scanning, reading, rereading, nope. I don't guess he belonged to any particular political party. I don't see nothing about it in the story.

Just days before pleading guilty to federal money laundering charges, former legislator Ron Sailor Jr. secretly took out a $250,000 mortgage on the church where he was pastor, church leaders said Thursday.

For previous posts on this guy just click on the label.

The Circus That Is the Clayton County School Board continues

I know this is a local issue, but it points to the bigger picture of what happens when a group of people gain power and then no longer listen to those around them. Clayton county Georgia schools are going to lose their accreditation.

It is mostly because of the school board they have that is so corrupt and self absorbed with their own importance that they continue to do anything they want and the way that they want to. They aren't looking out for kids forced to attend the government schools in Clayton county.

They have narrowed their search for a new superintendent down to two choices. Here are your choices.

Thompson, 63, has served as superintendent in Tulsa and Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh declined to renew his contract in 2005 after complaints about his blunt, authoritative demeanor and questionable spending practices. Newspaper reports show Thompson charged a wardrobe, 24-hour access to a Lincoln Town Car and office renovations to a school credit card.

Wood, 59, worked as a superintendent in several districts in California and served as chairman of two accreditation agencies. He was forced out as head of the Fresno school district in 2004 after the state found falsified construction records. The district had to return $3 million to the state after an audit showed school officials falsified contracts for 24 schools.

The head of the accreditation committee has already informed the school board that neither finalist is acceptable, but what do they care? Nobody is going to come on their turf and tell them what to do.

This county is going to lose its school accreditation; of that there is no doubt. The big question now is what are all of the people who have kids that live there going to do?

If you are planning a move to the Atlanta area, you need to avoid Clayton County.
You have been warned.

... To Tell The Truth, The Whole Truth ....

It's now a race to see which New Democrat can skate on the biggest lie.

Herr Dr. Josef Goebbels would be proud.

Obama Would Have Left if Wright Stayed
White House hopeful Barack Obama suggests he would have left his Chicago church had his longtime pastor, whose fiery anti-American comments about U.S. foreign policy and race relations threatened Obama's campaign, not stepped down.

Yeah, right. And I'm the high rabbi of Mecca, Medina and Riyadh.

"Had the reverend not retired, and had he not acknowledged that what he had said had deeply offended people and were inappropriate and mischaracterized what I believe is the greatness of this country, for all its flaws, then I wouldn't have felt comfortable staying at the church," Obama said Thursday during a taping of the ABC talk show, "The View." The interview will be broadcast Friday.

In his sermons over the years, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright has railed against the United States and accused it of bringing on the Sept. 11 attacks by spreading terrorism. He also has said the government invented AIDS to destroy "people of color" and has shouted "God damn America" for its treatment of minorities.

Videos of his remarks circulated on the Internet and on television.

In an attempt to quiet the controversy, Obama gave a speech last week in which he sharply condemned Wright's remarks but did not repudiate him.

Obama said Wednesday he has spoken with Wright, who retired from Trinity United Church of Christ last month but remains as a senior pastor.

Amazing. Absolutely freakin' amazing. It seems that Obama has no problem with Wright's status of 'retired' but remains as 'senior pastor'. But, as a lieyer (Harvard Law, '91), Obama's well-versed in the art of double-speak.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama's rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, broke her silence on the matter Tuesday, saying she would have parted company with a pastor who spoke about the country the way Wright has.

Via The AP/MyWay.com

If this crock o' shit doesn't blow up in Obama's face, the RINO just might be in trouble come November.



Video posted by bizzarefoods




Also at A Tangled Web

AG Announces Crackdown on Corrupt Politicians, Democratic Party Immediately Disbands

In light of the recent hijinx from corrupt Democrat office holders, this news is most welcome.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey vowed anew Thursday to crack down on crooked politicians and public officials, dismissing critics who accuse the Justice Department of letting partisan loyalties interfere with corruption cases.

Mukasey's comments came hours after prosecutors charged Puerto Rico's Democratic-leaning governor in a campaign finance probe that began more than two years ago.

Additionally, Mukasey said that a multibillion-dollar overseas contracting loophole that was quietly slipped into Justice Department plans to protect taxpayers' money "shouldn't happen."

All were part of the attorney general's rhetorical assault on public corruption, which he called one of his top priorities.

Democrat-leaning? Good grief. Hello! He's a Barack Obama superdelgate, for crying out loud.

Seriously though, to be fair, there are more than enough crooked Republicans littering the trail in recent years, and I have nothing but contempt for them as well.

The Justice Department has brought numerous corruption cases over the last several years targeting Democrats and Republicans alike. In 2006, the latest data available, Justice prosecutors charged nearly 1,200 federal, state and local government employees in public integrity cases — a 20 percent increase from a decade ago.

During his speech, Mukasey pointedly spoke of charges brought against two former Republican congressmen: Randy "Duke" Cunningham of California and Bob Ney of Ohio. He did not mention charges brought hours earlier against Puerto Rico Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila, who faces 19 counts in a campaign finance probe. Twelve others associated with Acevedo's Popular Democratic Party also were indicted Thursday.

Other high-profile lawmakers facing Justice Department charges include Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz., in a land scam case, and Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., for allegedly taking bribes. Also under scrutiny by the FBI or congressional investigators are at least eight current House and Senate lawmakers. Democrat Eliot Spitzer resigned as New York's governor earlier this month after a federal wiretap caught him arranging trysts with a prostitute.

A Global Warming 'Denier' Sounds Off

The Global Warming Bubble
You didn’t have to be a rocket scientist in the 1990s to figure that speculative investment in dot-coms with no revenues would be disastrous. The same goes for lenders giving mortgages to borrowers with no job, no income and no assets. So after surviving the tech bubble and while trying to extricate the economy from the housing bubble, why are we bent on heading into the global warming bubble?

Just this week, the Environmental Protection Agency issued its economic analysis of the Lieberman-Warner global warming bill that is now being considered by the Senate. The EPA projects that, if the bill is enacted, the size of our economy as measured by its gross domestic product (GDP) would shrink by as much as $2.9 trillion by the year 2050. That’s a 6.9 percent smaller economy than we might otherwise have if no action was taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Sen. James Inhofe (eeeeevil Republican-OK) notes that the fiscal impact to consumers will include a 44% increase in the cost of electricity.

For an idea of what that might mean, consider our current economic crisis. During the fourth quarter of 2007, GDP actually increased by 0.6 percent, yet trepidation still spread among businesses, consumers and the financial markets. Though the EPA says that Lieberman-Warner would send our economy in the opposite direction by more than a factor of 10, few in Congress seem concerned. For more perspective, consider that during 1929 and 1930, the first two years of the Great Depression, GDP declined by 8.6 percent and 6.4 percent, respectively.

And what would we get for such a massive self-inflicted wound? It ought to be something that is climatically spectacular, right? You be the judge.

The EPA says that by the year 2095—45 years after GDP has been slashed by 6.9 percent—atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels would be 25 parts per million (ppm) lower than if no greenhouse gas regulation was implemented.

Keeping in mind that the current atmospheric CO2 level is 380 ppm and the projected 2095 CO2 level is about 500 ppm, according to the EPA, what are the potential global temperature implications for such a slight change in atmospheric CO2 concentration? Not much, as average global temperature would only be reduced by a maximum of about 0.10 to 0.20 degrees Celsius, according to existing research.

Oh, c'mon! If there was a shred of truth to this, al-Gore would have told us so in his award-winning documentary propaganda film.

Sacrificing many trillions of dollars of GDP for a trivial, 45-year-delayed and merely hypothetical reduction in average global temperature must be considered as exponentially more asinine than the dot-bombs of the late-1990s and the NINJA subprime loans that we now look upon scornfully.

So who in their right mind would push for this?

I met many of them up-close-and-personal last week at a major Wall Street Journal conference at which I was an invited speaker.

My fellow speakers included many CEOs (from General Electric, Wal-Mart, Duke Energy, and Dow Chemical, to name just a few), California’s Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the heads of several environmental activist groups.

The audience ― a sold-out crowd of hundreds who had to apply to be admitted and pay a $3,500 fee ― consisted of representatives of the myriad businesses that seek to make a financial killing from climate alarmism. There were representatives of the solar, wind, and biofuel industries that profit from taxpayer mandates and subsidies, representatives from financial services companies that want to trade permits to emit CO2, and public relations and strategic consultants to all of the above.

We libertarians would call such an event a rent-seekers ball ― the vast majority of the audience was there to plot how they could lock-in profits from government mandates on taxpayers and consumers.

It was an amazing collection of pseudo-entrepreneurs who were absolutely impervious to the scientific and economic facts that ought to deflate the global warming bubble.

In the interlude between presentations by the CEOs of Dow Chemical and Duke Energy, for example, the audience was shown a slide ― similar to this one ― of the diverging relationship between atmospheric CO2 levels and average global temperature since 1998. That slide should have caused jaws to drop and audience members to ponder why anyone is considering regulating CO2 emissions in hopes of taming global climate.

Instead, it was as if the audience did a collective blink and missed the slide entirely. When I tried to draw attention to the slide during my presentation, it was as if I was speaking in a foreign dialect.

The only conclusion I could come to was that the audience is so steeped in anticipation of climate profiteering that there is no fact that will cause them to reconsider whether or not manmade global warming is a reality.

The callousness of their blind greed was also on display at the conference.

Heh. They were just demonstrating what's been learned from the high priest of the Religion of Environmentalism.

In an instantaneous poll, the Wall Street Journal asked the audience to select the most pressing societal problem from a list of five that included infectious disease (malaria, AIDs, etc.), terrorism, and global warming.

Global warming was the most popular response, receiving 31 percent of the vote, while infectious disease was far behind in last place with only 3 percent of the vote. It’s an amazing result given that billions are sickened, and millions die every year from infectious disease. The consequences of future global warming, on the other hand, are entirely speculative.

Finally, I was astounded by the double-speak practiced by the global warmers.

Nothing to be astounded about. Fluency in double-speak is the cult hallmark.

Virtually every speaker at the conference professed that they were either in favor of free markets or that they supported a free-market solution to global warming. But invariably in their next breath, they would plead for government regulation of greenhouse gases and government subsidies for alternative energy.

And the next POTUS will gladly sign whatever obscenely generous give-away legislation lands on his/her desk.

It’s hard to conceive of any good coming from a public policy in which facts play no substantial role in its development and words have no meaning in its public debate.

Steve Milloy

Via Canada Free Press

I agree with Professor Richard Lindzen from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who said: “future generations will wonder in bemused amazement that the early 21st century’s developed world went into hysterical panic over a globally averaged temperature increase of a few tenths of a degree, and, on the basis of gross exaggerations of highly uncertain computer projections combined into implausible chains of inference, proceeded to contemplate a roll-back of the industrial age”. ― Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic