Radio legend Paul Harvey has passed away at age 90.
Paul Harvey, a fixture of radio for more than a half-century who came to tell "the rest of the story'' behind the news with a global reach, has passed away, WGN-AM radio and Paul Harvey's own home-page on the Internet is reporting.
Harvey, raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, started his radio career in 1933 at KVOO-AM in Tulsa while still in high school. He moved from Oklahoma to Kansas and on to St. Louis before going to Hawaii to cover the activities of the Navy fleet in the Pacific. "He was returning to the United States from that assignment when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor,'' his homepage tells us, and spent the next three years in the Army Air Corps.
In June 1944, he started broadcasting in Chicago with the ABC affiliate WENR-AM. "He quickly became the most listened-to newscaster in Chicago,'' his homepage tells us.
Harvey was a master story teller and his folksy charm allowed the casual listener relate to his style. He never retired and until very recently still broadcast his 15-minute spots.
Who said it was a slow news day? We've finally solved one of the great mysteries of life: How on earth does navel lint gather? Or, as it's called here, belly button fluff.
FOR years Dr Georg Steinhauser, of the Vienna University of Technology, has toiled at the coalface of science and now he can tell the world about a body hair that traps stray pieces of lint and pulls them into the navel.
Dr Steinhauser has studied 503 pieces of fluff from his own belly button.
This guy actually collects his own. Now there's dedication.
Under laboratory conditions, the chemist learnt that the fluff was not made up of only cotton from clothing. Wrapped up in the belly fluff – the bluff - were shards of dead skin, fat, dust and sweat.
Dr Steinhauser writes in the journal Medical Hypotheses that “small pieces of fluff first form in the hair and then end up in the navel at the end of the day”.
The scaly structure of the hair enhances the “abrasion of minuscule fibres from the shirt” and funnel the bluff into the navel. Says he:
“The hair’s scales act like a kind of barbed hooks. Abdominal hair often seems to grow in concentric circles around the navel.”
Dr Steinhauser concludes that shaving the belly will result in a bluff-free navel - but only until the hairs grow back.
Failing that, a body piercing – rings or stud - sweeps away fibres before they lodge.
These boobs never met an enemy of America that they won't embrace. The only surprise here is Spicoli didn't join them.
A top-level team from the Hollywood movie industry traveled to Iran on a non-government mission, for a weekend of cultural and creative exchange meetings, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Friday.
"I can confirm that a group of Academy members ... are currently in Iran" on a "completely private initiative for educational and creative exchange and with no political agenda," AMPAS director of communications Leslie Unger told AFP.
She confirmed Iranian media reports saying the delegation included AMPAS president Sid Ganis, former president Frank Pierson, actress Annette Bening and producer William Horberg.
"The Academy group did receive visas and is currently in Tehran," Unger said.
Iranian media said the AMPAS group would hold a series of meetings Saturday and Sunday in Tehran.
US-Iranian diplomatic relations were severed 30 years ago after Iran's Islamic revolution, and the rift has been further aggravated since Tehran controversially revived its nuclear program.
Ironically, last Sunday at the Oscars it was a virtual three-hour infomercial for gay marriage. I wonder if these patriots will ask their gracious hosts about the abuse gays suffer under Islam?
In many Islamic countries, homosexuality is considered an executable offense. In Iran, homosexuals are sometimes crucified. The absurdity of Iran’s treatment of homosexuals was on display when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited New York in 2007. He told an audience at Columbia University, “In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals like in your country. In Iran, we do not have this phenomenon. I don’t know who has told you we have that.”
The gaffetastic vice president of the United Socialist States of America has started his middle class task force road show. Not sure what the purpose of this little task force is, other then allowing a Democrat to find a real middle class person they like. We know they have no problem finding those at the low end of economic scale, they use them for photo ops all the time. They certainly know where some of the wealthiest citizens are, also known as the entertainment industry or what they call their base, but they seem to have trouble finding the middle class.
They bumped into one of them in Ohio once, some guy named Joe and that meeting didn't go too good.
So Joe begins his search for the middle class at the University of Pennsylvania, an institution near and dear to his heart since his kids either attended there or are attending there. He has a daughter getting a masters degree in social work attending right now. I thought all you had to do was go to a couple of ACORN workshops to get that degree.
Anyway while Joe was there he decided to give credit where credit was due for cramming this porkulus generational theft act down our throats, Arlen "Skeletor" Specter.
I've been a senator for 36 years, and I think I can count on one hand when I've watched people cast a vote from the side of the aisle, Democrat or Republican, that they happen to sit on, that no one doubts cost them -- cost them politically, but cast the vote because they truly believed it was in the best interest in the country. And so, Arlen, we would not -- this legislation -- it may not even help you my saying it, but this legislation would not exist were it not for you. I can tell you that personally, because two of your other Republican colleagues said -- one in particular -- if Senator Specter doesn't vote for it, I don't vote it; there were not enough votes. You're responsible for this, and I thank you. (Applause.)
There was a reason I rooted against the Pittsburgh Steelers in this year's Super Bowl.
This administration is going to use anything and everything in their power to use the force of environmentalism to ruin our economy. In this speech he talked about 'green jobs" and the smart grid. The Smart Grid is a collaborative effort between Google and GE to build a energy monitoring system that right now is being marketed simply as a way for consumers to monitor their energy usage and adjust their behavior. The real goal of the Smart Grid is to allow the government to control your energy usage. Don't believe me.
We should have -- we will have -- they exist now -- washing machines and/or dishwashers, that you will put your dishes in your washer after -- the dishwasher after you've had your dinner at 6:00 p.m., and it speaks back to you and says, "don't start until 11:00 p.m." Automatically it will start washing dishes at 11:00 p.m. at night, not at a peak time, saving you money.
That is all fine and dandy mister smarty pants, except when it is the holidays and I really need those dishes and pots and pans cleaned now so that I can continue preparing my meal for the family get together.
Uncle Joe talked about a UNION led program in CA for electrical training that in only 5 short years you can get your certification.
In L.A. there is electrical training (inaudible) southern California, a labor management partnership, jointly sponsored by a union in the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and a business coalition of private contractors. The training required is like -- is required under an apprenticeship model, requiring over 1,000 hours of classroom work and 8,000 hours of on-the-job training -- very rigorous program.
Nobody checks anything these idiots say. It sounds good, plays well with the masses so who cares. 8,000 hours, based on a 40 hour work week, which only union employees get to enjoy, works out to 4 years of on the job training. No wonder we didn't use these guys in Iraq to restore the electrical grid.
Can't say the name Derry Noyes ever crossed my radar before. Until tonight. Turns out Ms. Noyes just so happens to be married to Barack Obama's chief counsel, the odious Greg Craig.
White House general counsel Gregory Craig has seized control of Obama's vetting process after a series of nominees with unpaid taxes. But his wife's business may also have avoided taxes. Who vets the vetter?
Derry Noyes, Craig's wife, runs Noyes Graphics, a design business, out of the couple's home in northwest Washington. Between Craig's work and hers, they've been on Washington's A-list for a decade.
PBS's American Stamps aired a profile of her two days ago. She designs specialty postage for the U.S. Postal Service, including a number of notable stamps. One recent series celebrating the work of famous architect Charles Eames was featured in Metropolis. Noyes herself is the daughter of architect Eliot Noyes, a friend of Eames.
Operating a business out of one's home in D.C. requires a home occupation permit and registration with the city's division of corporations. Additionally, the government has instituted a new requirement for business license permits.
A spokesman at the Washington D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs told Gawker that no one has ever sought any kind of permit or registration for a business under the name of Noyes Graphics or at the Craigs' home address. By not registering Craig may have avoided local business taxes.
But wait. They're the beautiful people. Never mind.
Of course the media must be PC, so the headline reads Chicago Man Arrested for Allegedly Targeting Obama With HIV-Infected Blood, but just read to the end and you find out what sort of nutcase we're dealing with. Clearly the left and racist mouthpieces like Al Sharpton will be less offended than perceived slights in editorial cartoons.
A man from President Obama's hometown of Chicago has been arrested for allegedly sending Obama and his staff envelopes containing HIV-infected blood, in the hopes of killing or harming them.
It's only the second time ever that HIV-infected blood has been sent with malicious intent through the U.S. mail system, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service said.
In the weeks leading up to Obama's inauguration, Saad Hussein, an Ethiopian refugee in his late 20's, sent an envelope addressed to "Barack Obama" to offices of the Illinois government in Springfield, Ill., according to court documents. The envelope contained a series of unusual items, including a letter with reddish stains and an admission ticket for Obama's election-night celebration in Chicago's Grant Park. Court documents said Hussein, who takes drugs to treat a mental illness, later told FBI agents he is "very sick with HIV" and cut his fingers with a razor so he could bleed on the letter.
Hazmat teams were called in after the envelope was opened, and offices of the Illinois Department on Aging and the Department of Revenue were locked down for nearly two hours, locking 300 staffers in their offices, court documents said.
Hussein, with his brother acting as an interpreter, told FBI agents he was actually "an admirer" of Obama and was "seeking help from the government," according to court documents. He also told them he was hoping to obtain tickets to the inaugural ceremonies in Washington, the documents said.
A guy named Hussein liking Obama? What are the odds?
This is not the first time law enforcement officials have had to take Hussein into custody. He was arrested by police in 2006 after starting a fire in the middle of a crowded Chicago intersection. When officers arrived on the scene, he was waiving the Koran in the air and yelling "Allah Akbar," or "God is Great" in Arabic. Court documents said he was transported to a hospital, where he called President Bush a terrorist and criticized American foreign policy. He was not formally charged, but he did spend time in the mental health unit of the hospital.
Of course he wasn't charged. It was hip and trendy to call Bush a terrorist. Now, though, a cartoon is enough for people to call for prosecutions and investigations.
This rag may as well just close up shop now. They've been unable to compete in the New York city market and now they want to charge people to read their biased crap?
Good luck with that.
Cablevision Systems Corp plans to charge online readers of its Newsday newspaper, a move that would make it one of the first large U.S. papers to reverse a trend toward free Web readership.
Newsday, which covers the New York suburb of Long Island, was bought by Cablevision in a $650 million deal last May that was widely criticized on Wall Street as a puzzling move into a troubled newspaper market.
Cablevision had to write down Newsday's value by $402 million on Thursday, pushing its fourth-quarter results to a loss, as U.S. print advertising sales and circulation have dropped with more readers seeking free news on the Web.
But Cablevision Chief Operating officer Tom Rutledge said the cable TV company was aware of the difficulties faced by the traditional newspaper business.
"Our goal was and is to use our electronic network assets and subscriber relationships to transform the way news is distributed," he said on a conference call with analysts.
"We plan to end the distribution of free Web content," he added.
Several large U.S. newspaper groups have had to lay off staff, slash dividends and scramble for debt refinancing. Others have filed for bankruptcy protection, including Newsday's former parent Tribune Co, Journal Register Co. and Philadelphia Newspapers LLC.
In the past, several major newspapers including The New York Times charged readers for full or partial access to stories on their websites.
But in recent years, news content has become widely available for free, forcing many papers to give up small subscription revenue in the hope of gaining better ad sales by attracting more readers.
Frankly I'd be surprised if they got a hundred people to pay for their drivel.
Oh so harsh, one can only wonder if they'll survive the brutal punishment meted out. Maybe they should bring the ACLU in to help negotiate down these conditions.
The now infamous 18 Take Back NYU protesters who were the final holdouts during last week’s occupation — since called the “Kimmel 18” (maybe with too great a hint of heroics) — have been offered a deal from the university which they must decide to accept or reject today. For those who do not accept, suspensions will be retained until they are tried in a judicial hearing where punishments traditionally tend to be more severe.
Let’s consider the damage done: an estimated financial impact of over $80,000, including the costs of heightened security, minor repairs to the Kimmel Center and disruption to dining services; an NYU security guard physically harmed; and many students inconvenienced. Next, the consequences for a few of those who caused the disruption: a week of suspension from school and a year of ineligibility for student leadership positions.
If $80,000 is a fair estimate of the financial impact of the occupation, there seems to be a large discrepancy between the damage caused and the consequences doled out. NYU cannot and should not punish these students for putting on a poorly planned protest, but the students’ disregard for the well-being of the security guards and their purposeful destruction of private property deserve more than this symbolic slap on the wrist.
This just invites another silver-spoon revolution over some perceived grievance. Booting these punks from school is the proper course of action, but instead they get a wrist slap and a laugh at the school's expense.
That obscene amount of money lost by this government boondoggle seems almost quaint compared to the outright hardcore pornographic amount of debt Obama plans to saddle us with. And hey, why not throw them another $15 billion? That's about a day's worth of spending by Obama.
Troubled US mortgage finance giant Fannie Mae said Thursday it lost almost 60 billion dollars last year and expected to suffer more losses in 2009, and asked for a further 15.2 billion dollars in government aid.
The US government-controlled Fannie Mae reported a loss of 25.2 billion dollars in the fourth quarter driven mainly by the effects of a prolonged housing slump and a global financial crisis. It had a third-quarter loss of 29.0 billion dollars.
For the full year of 2008, the company posted a loss of 58.7 billion dollars, almost 27 times higher than the 2007 loss of 2.1 billion dollars.
Fannie Mae said it submitted a request Wednesday for 15.2 billion dollars from the Treasury "in order to eliminate our net worth deficit as of December 31, 2008."
"We expect the market conditions that contributed to our net loss for each quarter of 2008 to continue and possibly worsen in 2009, which is likely to cause further reductions in our net worth," the company said in a statement.
The fourth-quarter loss was driven mainly by 12.3 billion dollars in credit losses due to declining housing market conditions, 12.3 billion dollars in losses on derivatives and 4.6 billion dollars in writedowns of the value of its mortgage-backed securities, the statement said.
Don't worry though, spending trillions will help fix things.
More likely an economic collapse is forthcoming. This madness just cannot be sustained.
He'll probably be received warmly in the Home Office of Hopenchange. Maybe he can break bread with Bill Ayers while he's there.
An accused al-Qaida sleeper agent held for 5-1/2 years at a Navy brig in South Carolina will soon be sent to Illinois for trial in civilian court, a move the government has fought for years saying terror suspects caught in the U.S. could be held indefinitely without charges.
Two people familiar with the case of Qatar native Ali al-Marri said Thursday the government plans to transfer him to the civilian court system. One of them said he would be charged with providing support to terrorists. The two people spoke on condition of anonymity because it's a pending criminal case.
The transfer could avert a Supreme Court hearing in April and a subsequent ruling that would govern other cases against accused terrorists. Al-Marri's transfer is the first signal of how the Obama administration is likely to handle accused terrorists, a significant shift from the strategy of the Bush administration.
Since shortly after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, government lawyers argued that the president has the wartime authority to send the military into any U.S. neighborhood, capture a citizen—or legal resident like al-Marri—and hold him in prison without charge, indefinitely.
Putting al-Marri into the federal court system follows a similar move made by the Bush administration with another enemy combatant, Jose Padilla. Padilla, once held at the same brig as al-Marri, was eventually convicted of terror-related charges in federal court in Florida.
The decision on al-Marri was reported separately Thursday by the Web sites of The Washington Post and The New Yorker magazine.
Al-Marri was the subject of one of President Barack Obama's first official acts, signing an executive order for "a prompt and thorough" review of al-Marri's continued detention.
A law enforcement official says a Black September terrorist convicted of planting three car bombs in New York City has been deported.
It's unclear which country has agreed to accept the 63-year-old Khalid Al-Jawary who was convicted in Brooklyn federal court of placing the bombs in 1973 that would have killed and injured hundreds. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the deportation.
Al-Jawary was captured in 1991 and sentenced in 1993 to 30 years but served only half his sentence. He was released a week ago from federal prison.
A refresher from the first link:
Government documents link Al-Jawary to Black September's murderous letter-bombing campaign targeting world leaders in the 1970s and a botched terrorist attack in 1979. Former intelligence officials suspect he had a role in the bombing of a TWA flight in 1974 that killed 88 people.
"He's a very dangerous man," said Mike Finnegan, the former FBI counterterrorism agent who captured Al-Jawary. "A very bad guy."
The events linked to Al-Jawary happened long ago, when the conflagration in the Middle East spread around the world; he is being released into another century, one in which the scale of terrorism has grown exponentially, even bringing down two of New York's skyscrapers.
Al-Jawary has long insisted that he was framed and that the government has the wrong guy. Al-Jawary declined an interview through prison officials and has since failed to answer letters mailed to him in the last year and a half, but his former lawyer, Ron Kuby, insists he "wasn't a threat in 1991 and he's not a threat now."
Federal prosecutors didn't see it that way. They point to his trip to the United States in the 1970s as proof.
A slender, nattily dressed man with a thin mustache, Al-Jawary walked into the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in November 1972 and applied for a visa using a phony Iraqi passport. He answered some routine questions, had his picture taken and was granted a visa.
On Jan. 12, 1973, Al-Jawary flew to Boston via Montreal and then to New York City.
Five days later, after the bureau's office in Tel Aviv received a tip in connection to another investigation, agents tried to locate a man who later turned out to be Al-Jawary.
They found him in New York City and conducted a perfunctory interview. Where do you live? Baghdad. Why did you come here? Flight training at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey.
I suspect we'll be hearing more from this monster.
Fed up with out of control spending by our government? Worried about the debt we are passing on to our children and their children? Tired of irresponsible behavior being rewarded? Then you need to try and attend one of these events if possible in your area. I know for a lot of people it is hard since we, you know have real jobs and unless we are an Obama administration employee, pay our taxes. Most of these are scheduled during the lunch hour so maybe you can do a quick drive by to show support.
Wilbert "Bill" Tatum, publisher emeritus of The Amsterdam News, one of the nation's oldest continuously-running black newspapers, and formery [sic] deputy borough president of Manhattan, has died.
The Rev. Al Sharpton released a statement confirming Tatum's passing, saying he had been informed of the news by Tatum's daughter, Elinor, who succeeded him as publisher in December 1997 and (most recently) has been a prominent figure in the ongoing battle over the Post's dead chimp cartoon.
Word of Tatum's death has rocked veteran Harlem Democrats, with whom he had a close relationship. When Tatum purchased his weekly paper in the 1970s, he did so with a group of prominent investors that included Percy Sutton, H. Carl McCall, David Dinkins and John Edmonds, who later successfully sued Tatum and accused him of abusing his power.
Sharpton called Tatum, who had a role in the Tawana Brawley case that catapulted Sharpton into the national spotlight, (he defended her against official findings that the sexual assault she said she had suffered was a hoax), "an iconic and vitally important figure in both journalism and civil rights."
Some icon. A racist fraud is what he was. No surprise to have another racist fraud praising this lowlife.
He wasn't only a racist, but also an anti-Semitic creep.
Tatum was also a controversial figure.
For example, in 1996, a jury sided with Edmonds and found he had wrongfully diverted $1.05 million worth of corporate money. In 2001, the Anti-Defamation League accused him of "once again" using anti-Semitic language and conspiracy theories to influence the 2001 mayor's race.
Siding with an angry shareholder in a long-running battle for control of the city's largest weekly newspaper aimed at black readers, a jury in Manhattan has ruled against the longtime publisher of The Amsterdam News, Wilbert A. Tatum.
The verdict, reached last week by a jury in State Supreme Court, found that Mr. Tatum had "wrongfully diverted" $1.05 million in corporate money. The decision signaled the beginning of a new phase in Mr. Tatum's 13-year feud with the shareholder, John L. Edmonds; now the court must decide how much money the publisher should return to the company.
In reaching its decision on Friday, the jury found that Mr. Tatum had abused his power in order to favor his investments, like a second office in a building he owns in the East Village and a messenger service that Mr. Edmonds argued has only one purpose: to distribute copies of the paper on orders from Mr. Tatum.
"Wilbert Tatum has used The Amsterdam News since 1982 as his own personal piggy bank," said a lawyer for Mr. Edmonds, Saul B. Shapiro.
ATTORNEY General Eric Holder toured Guantanamo Bay this week, a "fact finding" visit prompted by President Obama's "close Gitmo" order.
One wonders if his eyes were open to the facts on the ground - given Holder's evident conflict of interest.
Holder's previous job, after all, was as a senior partner with Covington and Burling - a white-shoe DC law firm that devotes considerable pro bono time to defending the Gitmo detainees. The job paid $2 million a year, and he expects to collect a like amount this year as part of his separation package.
As a senior partner, he undoubtedly had significant input on what kind of charity cases his firm picked up. He surely knew that dozens of lawyers from from his firm were among the 500-plus civilian lawyers representing the 244 or so remaining detainees (on top of military-court-appointed defenders).
Even now, his Covington colleagues continue to allege rampant torture at Gitmo. They're fighting hard to have detainees tried through the US court system - essentially given the same rights as US citizens. And their arguments and plans hinge largely on having Holder issue a bad report card.
Recent polls indicate that at least half of Americans disagree with affording the detainees legal rights on US soil. Will they have the same access to Holder's ears as his former colleagues do?
Will the people that Holder recently called a "nation of cowards" on racial issues be prepared to handle the truth from Gitmo - that, aside from three isolated cases of abuse in fall 2002, treatment at Gitmo has been transparent and exemplary?
If he tells the truth, Holder will report back that detainees are treated far more humanely and safely than in most US prisons - and are accorded religious respect in the form of individual Korans, prayer beads and orange cones in hallways during prayer time to remind US guards to speak softly.
He'll tell the president that the amount of actionable intelligence information flowing from Guantanamo is significant, has thwarted attacks on America and broken up sleeper cells here and in Europe. And that such intelligence gives us the tools to intercept al Qaeda money-laundering and cash transfers, defeat improvised explosive devices and disrupt terrorist recruiting and organizing.
Eric Holder, racial coward, doesn't care about any of that. It's all about living in the fantasy world of having people love us.
All while they plot our destruction, aided and abetted by those in our own government.
It has become an article of faith among the MoveOn.org crowd and the Democratic Party's liberal base to denounce Guantanamo as a symbol of inhumane treatment and torture. (Indeed, in his address to Congress on Tuesday, the president announced the closing of Guantanamo in the same paragraph in which he said "that is why I can stand here tonight and say . . . the United States of America does not torture.")
Yet that symbolism doesn't square with the real Gitmo.
Detainees at Guantanamo are treated far better than most American prisoners in the US jails and prisons I've inspected over the years. The unfounded accusations that are so regularly and cavalierly made about Guantanamo are a slander against the brave men and women of our armed forces, who perform their duties at that facility so professionally and under such duress.
If there's any scandal at Guantanamo, it is that the detainees are treated too well. ... We are at war with Islamic terrorism. Gitmo is a major front in that war. Closing Guantanamo could well mean releasing deadly Islamic terrorists overseas or bringing them to American soil. It would be craven surrender to left-wing groups and uninformed, self-righteous world opinion. We must do all we can to convince President Obama to reverse his decision.
it would serve Obama and Holder well to remember a certain annoversary. Do they want to allow our enemies to roam free again?
A shame little if anything was done to fight back.
If you want an idea how clueless people were about what were were up against, check out this report. We had an inept, neophyte president at the time (sound familiar) who never even visited the site afterward.
Let's see if anyone in the media or government even acknowledge this today.
In a move that is sure to further strain relations between Mexico and the US, jack booted federal agents acting under authorization of the federal government once again targeted the immigrant community in predominately Democratic states, forcefully ripping apart families of immigrants, many just seeking a better life for themselves in this country. These raids many carried out in the pre dawn hours or in the middle of the night were no doubt designed to terrorize the Hispanic community while raising several civil rights issues.
What? Alright guys, real funny. Who gave me last years style book? Come on Bush ain't in office anymore and now you are going to make me rewrite the damn article.
Okay here is the real deal. The headlines trumpeted the fact that over 750 arrests were made involving illegal immigrants from drug cartels operating in this country. What got lost in the headlines is the details. In reality overnight only 52 additional arrests were made bringing the total to 750.
Investigators made 52 arrests in overnight raids in California, Minnesota and Maryland, increasing to more than 750 the number of suspects detained in the coast-to-coast operation to disrupt the Sinaloa cartel, Holder said.
So I wonder who made the other 700 arrests? Well this is the end of a 21 month long operation. So let me see Eric Holder, Attorney General for less then 2 weeks and the Obama administration has been in office barely a month so that must mean all of the other arrests and the bulk of this operation was carried out under the BUSH administration.
We all know that the way I started off this article would no doubt be the way it would have been reported if we hadn't had a change in the White House. Instead we have stories which points to an administration who appears to be getting serious about the war on drugs, but not Islamic terrorists.
If Bush was in office there is no doubt human rights groups and community organizing groups like La Raza would be consulting with their ACLU lawyers to figure out how many civil rights had been violated while the media would be parading tearful women with their broods before the cameras. With Obama in office they have to remain silent since they are about to be rewarded with all kinds of taxpayer dollars disguised as stimulus money into their coffers.
By the way you may have noticed how quickly this story is disappearing from the various news sites, mostly because it was realized that the heavy lifting on this done was done under the Bush years. Admit it. When you first heard this story today, if you heard, didn't you think that there was 750 arrests all carried out at one time?
Perhaps not surprisingly, Wurzelbacher, who campaigned alongside Sen. John McCain during the 2008 campaign, did not have many nice things to say about Obama's speech and stimulus proposal.
"I believe he's taking America down the wrong path," Wurzelbacher told POLITICO. "So far every step he's taken I pretty much disagree with." Wurzelbacher has been pondering a run for Congress and said, "If I became a congressman I would literally bang people's heads together and probably get in a lot of trouble."
Guess it depends whose heads are getting banged together.
Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday the Guantanamo detention center is a well-run, professional facility that will be difficult to close — but he's still going to do it. Holder visited the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Monday and spoke to reporters about his trip during a news conference Wednesday.
Closing Guantanamo, he said, "will not be an easy process. It's one we will do in a way that ensures that people are treated fairly and that the American people are kept safe."
President Barack Obama selected Holder to lead the new administration's effort to close the detention facility within a year.
Much of the year will be spent reviewing the individual case histories of the roughly 245 inmates, the attorney general said.
"It's going to take us a good portion of that time to look at all of the files that we have to examine, until we get our hands around what Guantanamo is, and also what Guantanamo was," he said.
He doesn't know what it is? This cat is in way over his head. It was one thing when you were doing Janet Reno's dirty work, but in case you haven't noticed you're now the Attorney General. Try and get up to speed, OK? The facility has been open for business for seven years and, well, it's been in the news quite a bit in case you hadn't noticed.
Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., who is trying to keep Guantanamo open, said he was encouraged by Holder's remarks.
"I believe as more time goes by there is a chance the administration will grow to realize that we need Gitmo and must keep it open. More time will allow facts to replace political rhetoric," said Inhofe, who is pushing legislation seeking to bar any Guantanamo detainees from coming to the U.S.
Holder said his visit to the site was instructive. He met with military officials and toured the facilities, including the court setting where military commissions were to be held until Obama suspended them.
He said he did not witness any rough treatment of detainees, and in fact found the military staff and leadership performing admirably.
"I did not witness any mistreatment of prisoners. I think, to the contrary, what I saw was a very conscious attempt by these guards to conduct themselves in an appropriate way," he said.
Perhaps some day Holder and his ilk might stop believing the enemy propaganda and start putting some faith in our military.
Yesterday it was the San Francisco Chronicle announcing they're clinging to life. Over the weekend the Journal Register Co. filed for bankruptcy followed Monday by Philadelphia's largest newspapers.
The Washington Post Co.'s reeling newspaper and magazine divisions stumbled again in the fourth quarter, extending an earnings slump that would have been even more disconcerting if not for the stability of the company's education and cable TV businesses.
The publisher of The Washington Post and Newsweek magazine said Wednesday that it made $18.8 million, or $2.01 per share, during the final three months of last year. That represented a 77 percent drop from net income of $82.9 million, or $8.71 per share, in the same quarter a year earlier.
The results for the last quarter included after-tax charges of more than $82 million to account for the eroding value of the company's newspaper holdings, the upcoming closure of a Maryland printing plant and restructuring costs.
It marked the Washington-based company's ninth consecutive quarter of declining profit.
Revenue rose 3 percent to $1.16 billion.
Washington Post Co. shares fell $7.42, or nearly 2 percent, to $377.57 in Wednesday's afternoon trading.
Like most publishers across the United States, the company's publications have been losing advertising revenue to the Internet for several years. The pain has been exacerbated during the past six months by a devastating recession that has waylaid retailers, banks, auto dealers and builders—traditionally all big buyers of newspaper ads.
Not to mention a relentlessly leftwing slant in their reporting, but let's ignore that 10 ton elephant in the room. The current recession doesn't explain why their profit has declined for nine straight quarters.
Is there anything in New Jersey that isn't fake? Too bad she didn't put her counterfeiting skills to good use, like you know bribing the pageant judges.
A Former New Jersey beauty pageant contestant and her mother were two of three suspects arrested in a counterfeit money-making plot, MyFOXPhilly.com reported.
Ashley Fuhrmeister, who was Miss North Wildwood in 2007, was arrested Friday and accused of using fake $50 bills at two stores, according to MyFOXPhilly.com.
At least they stuck to the other New Jersey value, that being keeping it all in the family.
Fuhrmeister, 21, was released on her own recognizance.
So all you sharp eyed America's Most Wanted types might want to make sure she is abiding by the terms of her release.
And no sooner do I write about a New Jersey beauty contestant throwing around phony money then I find a story about a teen Miss Connecticut Outstanding Teen winner dispensing booze at a party.
Wolcott police say two dozen arrests for underage drinking have been made at the home of Miss Connecticut's Outstanding Teen.
How long before the outrage sweeps this country and beauty contest are condemned as a sort of gateway drug to a life of crime.
Apparently none of his admirers on television bothered to correct this gaffe last night, all giddy and tingly that they were.
President Obama's speech to Congress last night might have emphasized urgency over historical accuracy when he stated, "And I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it."
Many inventors contributed to the rise of the car in modern-day life. But the U.S. Library of Congress credits German inventor Karl Benz with creating the first true automobile that ran on an internal combustion engine.
Benz came out with his patented car around 1885, or about the same time when fellow Germans Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach produced a four-wheeled automobile with a four-stroke engine. The names of these inventors live on in modern car companies such as Daimler AG and its Mercedes-Benz division.
By contrast, U.S. automotive pioneer Henry Ford did not start rolling out his mass-produced Model T cars until 1908.
Of course George W. Bush would be widely mocked for being such a dunce.
Speaking of dunces, Clueless Joe Biden doesn't even know the "number" of his own propaganda site.
Maybe it was Obama's strategy to have a human gaffe machine as his VP so he would come off looking intelligent. Frankly, neither of them seem very bright.
I think I'm going to be ill. Sure, it's probably just a cheesy attempt at getting in on the Suleman news bandwagon, but considering the industry, I'm sure they're serious.
Major porn distributor Vivid Entertainment has just fired off a letter to Nadya Suleman, offering her 1 million bucks to star in a skin flick of her own. Vivid is willing to go one step further, by telling us they'll give her family full medical and dental insurance if she becomes a "contract girl"... meaning she'll have to do multiple videos.
That million dollars will really go far. Probably will cover a month's worth of hospital bills.
Update: Is this even too much for the Ace of Spades lifestyle?
Oh wait, am I allowed to use the word black in a headline when discussing a black man? Or is that racist? Just don't need man of peace Al Sharpton and the NAACP boycotting this blog. Anyway, more bad news for the Accidental Governor.
A second poll yesterday showed Gov. Paterson - under attack for proposed budget cuts and a botched Senate selection process - with record-low approval ratings, and losing badly in a matchup against Rudy Giuliani.
The Siena College poll painted an even gloomier picture for the governor than did a Quinnipiac University survey last week.
The latest poll found Paterson, a Democrat, losing to Giuliani, 51 percent to 36 percent. It was a sharp turnaround from a Jan. 26 poll that found the governor narrowly ahead of the Republican ex-mayor, 44-42 percent, and a December survey that had Paterson leading, 51-38 percent.
Paterson also fared poorly in a hypothetical Democratic primary matchup against state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, losing 53-27 percent.
Cuomo would beat Giuliani, 51-38 percent, in a general-election matchup, the poll found.
A month ago, Paterson led Cuomo, 35-33 percent, and in December, 49-26 percent.
The new poll found that Paterson's personal approval rating has plummeted badly, with 47 percent of voters holding an unfavorable view of the governor. Forty percent gave a favorable rating.
A month ago, Paterson was viewed favorably by 54 percent, compared to just 30 percent who rated him unfavorably.
Frankly, New York is a lost cause if they prefer Cuomo over Rudy Giuliani, a man with much more favorable experience.
The celebrity mag yesterday described the couple's breakup last week as "completely amicable."
Reps for the "Transformers" starlet, 22, and the B-list actor, 35, best known for his role on "Beverly Hills 90210," did not return several calls seeking comment. Each star has a tattoo of the other's name. "Brian" is on Fox's lower abdomen.
She'll have to do something about that tattoo before I consider any longterm relationship.
Keep an eye out for this when Barack Obama releases his budget blueprint later this week. What these Democrats can't accomplish in the open they'll always try to slip through the back door.
"A potential legislative gun rights battle looms today in Washington, D.C.," says Washington senior rights activist John M. Snyder.
"When President Obama submits his budget blueprint this week, reports indicate the proposal may include language designed specifically to repeal the Tiahrt Amendment," says Snyder, named the senior rights activist in Washington by Shotgun News.
"This repeal is an objective long sought by gun-grabbing politicians, the anti-gun Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and other extremist groups," he added.
The Tiahrt Amendment, named for Rep. Todd Tiahrt of Kansas, is included in the annual appropriations for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives of the U.S. Justice Department. It prohibits gun-grabbing mayors and other repressive officials from obtaining federal gun trace data intended for use only for law enforcement purposes and using the data instead in harassing and costly third-party civil lawsuits against the firearms industry.
Snyder says, "Anti-right to self-defense extremists such as New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and others seek to undermine law-abiding Americans' gun rights by making it more and more difficult for them to obtain the firearms they want. Repeal of the Tiahrt Amendment would further their purposes. On Friday, The New York Times editorialized for repeal.
"America's 90 million law-abiding firearm owners oppose attempts to undermine their individual Second Amendment civil right to keep and bear arms. If Obama proposes repeal of Tiahrt, tens of millions of gun-owning voters can be expected to oppose it and make their opposition reverberate in the halls of Congress. There well may be a major congressional battle soon over the issue."
The Democrats have repeatedly lost on gun issues over the years, but they'll never give up trying to disarm the law-abiding public.
Some folks remember what happened the last time Democrats went all out against gun rights and the NRA. It wasn't pretty. Do they Democrats want to revisit that disaster?
They won't be missed. My only wonder is if there are enough Democrats around to hire all these unemployed water-carriers.
The San Francisco Chronicle joined the lengthening list of imperiled newspapers Tuesday as its owner set out to purge the payroll and slash other expenses in a last-ditch effort to reverse years of heavy losses.
If it can't reduce expenses dramatically within the next few weeks, the Hearst Corp. said it will close or sell the Chronicle, northern California's largest newspaper with a paid weekday circulation of 339,430.
Hearst didn't specify a savings target nor a deadline for wringing out the expenses. A Hearst spokesman didn't immediately respond to messages Tuesday.
But management made it clear that the cost-cutting will require a significant number of layoffs.
"Our current situation dictates that we accomplish these cost savings quickly," Chronicle Publisher Frank Vega wrote in a memo to the staff. "Business as usual is no longer an option."
The Chronicle has given Hearst financial headaches since the New York-based company bought the newspaper in a complex deal valued at $660 million. The late 2000 acquisition proved to be ill-timed. Shortly after Hearst took control, the San Francisco Chronicle was hard hit by a high-tech bust that caused its advertising revenue to shrivel.
Also Tuesday, the chief executive of Philadelphia's largest two daily newspapers pledged Tuesday to roll back a $232,000 raise while his company tries to reorganize in bankruptcy court.
Philadelphia Newspapers LLC, which publishes The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sunday, 2 1/2 years after a group of local investors bought the company for more than $500 million.
Chief Executive Brian Tierney and other executives have insisted the company, while strangled by debt payments, remains profitable despite falling circulation and revenues. But some lenders balked at that analysis at Tuesday's initial hearing on the bankruptcy petition and questioned decisions being made by Tierney, a former public relations executive.
Meanwhile in New York, Journal Register Co., publisher of the New Haven (Connecticut) Register and other newspapers, won approval to continue paying basic operating costs, including employee salaries and benefits and newspaper delivery contracts. Lawyers representing lenders made no objections.
Well, we already have public funding to teach these media relics the ways of the Internet. Maybe those with a semblance of talent can take up blogging.
This looks like it promises to be the first of many lawsuits against this dubious outfit.
A New York lawyer has filed a lawsuit saying a group that arranged for thousands of young people to attend President Barack Obama's inauguration ruined the trip for the attorney's 12-year-old daughter.
Fabio Bertoni says he paid the Vienna, Va.-based Congressional Youth Leadership Council more than $2,500 so his daughter could witness the event in Washington.
Bertoni says the for-profit group made false promises that students would attend the inauguration and related events and meet high-profile public figures.
He says his daughter watched the festivities on TV and met no officials.
As I'd never heard of this group, a search turns up thousands of results related to the word scam. Sure sounds like a lot of people were ripped off.
Other shortcomings of the UPIC include the Inauguration Ceremony itself. The tickets for the event were bogus, with one delegate attributing them to "fireplace mantle or coffee table placeholders." No transportation or reserved seating was provided to the delegates, forcing many to wake up at 1 A.M. to either walk from their hotels to the mall area or take the already-overcrowded Metro Rail at 4 A.M. Transportation in the form of private charter buses was provided for some events, but not the inauguration. For the Inauguration Ceremony Concert, buses were provided to transport the delegates to the event, but not back to their hotels. Some delegates, specifically those who were non-D.C. residents from outside the city, and outside the country, found themselves lost within an unfamiliar place already flushed with thousands, if not millions of people. There were also complaints of a lack of leadership and lack of organization. Paid volunteering personnel working for the UPIC had little information on upcoming activities and were not connected to each other via radios. The private emergency number provided to delegates was also unreliable in its listing of event information, and failed to recontact delegates seeking information on such things as transportation and emergency services.
While the UPIC granted the opportunity to hear keynote speakers such as former Secretary of State Colin Powell and former Vice President Al Gore, some delegates have speculated that the CYLC deliberately overcharged them to make a profit. Considering that 15,300 delegates attended the conference for an average of $3,000 each, the CYLC then made a profit of almost $47,000,000 on this conference alone. Legal action has been threatened against the UPIC and CYLC, parents and delegates are demanding refunds and answers from the company, and delegates have gone as far as to sign petitions, contact local and national media stations, and even write letters to President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden (who has been listed as a contributor to the UPIC).
Because of the questionable actions, misrepresentation, and conduct of the UPIC, Senators Frank Lautenberg and Representative Bill Pascrell, D-Paterson of New Jersey asked that they be removed from the list of honorary members of the CYLC. According to his spokesman, Congressman Pascrell resigned his positioned on the CYLC's advisory board, and Senator Lautenberg asked his name to be removed from membership of the advisory board was well, with Lautenberg's spokesman commenting that "The group at some point converted itself to a for-profit organization, and the senator is seriously concerned about complaints from New Jersey families regarding this group’s inauguration program."
Shocking that the oily Frank Lautenberg and Joe Biden would have links to this group, isn't it?
Meanwhile, they still promote themselves as non-profit.
Oh, boy. What the hell is wrong with these women? This goes back to the NY Post editorial cartoon with a dead chimp (you know, like the one who went wild and nearly killed that woman in CT), lying on the sidewalk with two shots to the chest - obviously dead. The two cops standing over the chimp say "Looks like we're going to have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bil," alluding to the crazy loons in Congress who DID write it.
Well, The View, along with a lot of other bed-wetting liberals got their panties in a bunch over this, saying the cartoonist was OBVIOUSLY portraying President Obama as the crazed chimp. Stupid idiots. The View first had a segment on this already, but today it came up again because Rupert Murdoch made an apology today for the cartoon.
(Rupert, why the hell did you do that?)
So Barbara starts the conversation and reads Rupert's apology, which apparently Sherri isn't buying. Elisabeth tries to explain what he's trying to convey, and Sherri said that it sounded like a lot of rhetoric. Well, Sherri, I guess you wouldn't be satisfied either way, would you; apology or not? In fact, this dumb broad goes so far as to suggest Mr. Murdoch should go further and fire the cartoonist. WTF?
Well, the WTF-age continues, and Joy "the sea cow" Behar piped in that the FBI could get involved as the cartoon CLEARLY indicates an assassination, and could be investigated as an assassination threat against PresBO.
Are you kidding me, Joy? I mean, seriously... ARE YOU FREAKIN' KIDDING ME? Do any of you hens know the meaning of the word hypocrisy?
Rupert, look what you've done. You've just fed into the race-card machine, and they're dealing out the deck now. No apology was necessary (although I will say that Rupert apologized "if anyone was offended," so maybe he was smart that way...???).
This guy hardly gets any positive press and the poor, bedraggled media has such a difficult time scaring up any positive quotes about the man, so finally real, genuine Obama-loving Americans now have found a home to call their own.
Yes, there's a press release to announce this groundbreaking news.
WhatObamaMeansToMe.com officially launched on Presidents Day. WhatObamaMeansToMe.com allows the citizens of the United States and the people of the world to share what Barack Obama means to them. Whether they want to post on the remarkable story of the election of Barack Obama, or just discuss a current event, WhatObamaMeansToMe.com is the place for everyone to share their thoughts.
All inspiring and relevant posts will be included in a book to be presented to Barack Obama on Presidents Day for each year of his presidency.
Someone named Dean Heller is the contact, and I'll assume that's not the same Dean Heller who's a Republican Congressman from Nevada. God help us if Republicans are now launching Obama love sites.
Anyway, this site looks conspicuously like most any other Obama site. In other words, it's a shrine to The One.
Still, it doesn't appear much thought went into administering the site since anyone can pop in and leave messages. Let's see if this gem will appear in the book presented to Obama.
What Obama means to Tahisa Brown Michigan, USA - 24 Feb 2009 I thought having a black president would be good for everyone. Alan Keyes is a very smart man, so is Colman Powell and Condelesa Rice. Mr. Obama came out of nowhere. He came from Chicago and brought the corrupt politicians with him. Most of the people he picked to serve with him have stepped down because of their corruption. He is NOT doing what he promised. He is giving money to the rich and ignoring the poor blacks and mexicans, indians, and whites who elected him. I am very disappointed. He said he would end the war, but started one in Afganistan. I think the Constitution is dead because the Supreme Court will not decide on his elgibility and inspect his birth certificate. I think America will fall under his leadership or lack of leadership. Too bad he doesn't have any experience.
Where do you even start with that one?
Scroll further and it appears the site is being spammed by Free Republic readers.
This video from Right.org kind of drives home the impact of all of this spending from our congress critters. You can almost see the lightbulbs going on over some folks heads. Of course I think the shock on some peoples faces is because they realize they aren't the winner of life's little lottery, but sometimes the truth hurts.
How cool would it be on April 15 if on your Income Tax Form there was a little line showing you how much you were paying to fund the stimulus package along with the expected length of the loan?
This is probably just the beginning. Now I can see every failing newspaper lining up at the public trough, and you know they will. Just imagine, about $700,000 to get this bunch of incompetents into the Internet age, something the rest of us managed to accomplish without a government grant.
Two Minnesota newspapers will receive a share of state grants normally given to retrain workers in manufacturing and other industries in transition.
The Duluth News Tribune and the St. Paul Pioneer Press will work with the University of Minnesota's School of Journalism and Mass Communication to help staff adapt to an increasingly Internet-based industry.
Minnesota Job Skills Partnership is awarding $238,000 in state funds, while the newspapers and the university will contribute about $469,000 combined, mostly by devoting staff time to training.
Paul Moe, the state program's director, said newspapers around the country are looking closely at the project as a potential model.
Kathleen Hansen, director of the university's Minnesota Journalism Center, said the grant idea came from the Pioneer Press. She said the application was unusual for a state agency more accustomed to businesses that deal in plastics or crop machinery.
"This is a very different kind of workforce group," she said.
Hansen said training will be tailored to the skills of the newsroom and advertising sales staffs at the newspapers. She said a primary goal for both departments will be getting them away from print-based thinking.
Some journalists "don't know how to start thinking about stories without thinking about what's going to be in the print newspaper," she said.
Journalists will likely study new ways of telling stories and new ways of delivering content, and perhaps get some training in using software.
Telling stories? That's what got them in this mess. How about reporting news and leave the story-telling to kindergarten teachers?
"President Obama has accomplished more in 30 days than any president in modern history," a senior White House official said this morning in a background briefing for TV reporters.
Pointing to legislation on children's health insurance and the "Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act," and most especially the stimulus bill, the official compared President Obama favorably to Presidents Reagan, Clinton and Bush, pointing out that the previous presidents' major economic bills were all months away from becoming enacted into law at this point in their presidencies.
"He has a set of wins under his belt" as he comes to address a joint session of Congress this evening, the senior White House official said, contrasting the president with Bill Clinton, who at this point in his presidency had been dealing with the gays in the military controversy, with passage of Family Medical Leave as a legislative win.
The entire world is kicking sand in our faces and our economy has gone off the cliff since he's been elected, but let's all pretend how wonderful things are.
He basically tells this smug twit she should be fired for incompetence and she doesn't even veer off script. Absolutely shreds her repeatedly. This may rank as one of the most embarrassing interviews in recorded history. The sad thing is she's clearly too stupid to realize it.
I blame the Massachusetts culture of liberalism. I'm surprised this one has to resort to screwing teenage boys. She looks like such a catch.
Police found a missing 15-year-old Holyoke boy late last night in hotel room in Morgantown, W. Va., with his eighth-grade teacher.
The boy, a student at Maurice Donahue Elementary School, "was found to be OK," said Holyoke Police Chief Anthony R. Scott. The teacher Lisa Lavoie, 24, was taken into custody by local police and will be charged with enticement of a child, which is a felony, Scott said.
The boy's mother contacted the school on Feb. 13, saying she was concerned about the relationship her son had with Lavoie, a first-year teacher. Authorities were unable to question the first-year teacher because she had left for the day as the school went on a one-week break. The boy's parents reported him missing Feb. 16.
The boy seems a little old to be in elementary school, but that must be a Massachusetts thing.
This week, the City Insider spotted an almost empty case of bottled water in the back of Mayor Gavin Newsom's hybrid sport utility vehicle as it was parked in front of City Hall. At least one full bottle of Crystal Geyser Alpine Spring Water remained under the plastic covering.
This from the mayor who in June 2007 issued an executive order directing city government to no longer purchase bottled water, saying the containers clog landfills while the city owns a pristine reservoir in the Sierra Nevada that produces some of the country's best-rated tap water.
Newsom, a former restaurateur, last year called on the restaurant industry to stop selling bottled water to customers and start serving local tap water instead.
Because of that, the mayor generally declines bottled water at any event or meeting, lest he be photographed with an offending bottle.
This is water we're talking about here folks. Water.
These PC clowns are so out of control they make it as if taking a sip of water is some sort of crime. Which before long I'm sure it will be.
"The mayor will be the first to admit that he occassionally [sic] indulges in bottled water," Ballard said. "It's not something he's proud of."
The folks in San Francisco should be more concerned whether he's still sleeping with the wife of an aide and drinking too much instead of worrying about whether he's drinking bottled water. Then again, he's the hypocrite for not practicing what he preaches.
Of course that $410 billion will quickly turn into another trillion, give or take a few hundred billion.
Correct me if I'm mistaken, but didn't they just ram through a $787 billion spending orgy last week?
House Democrats unveiled a $410 billion spending bill on Monday to keep the government running through the end of the fiscal year, setting up the second political struggle over federal funds in less than a month with Republicans.
The measure includes thousands of earmarks, the pet projects favored by lawmakers but often criticized by the public in opinion polls. There was no official total of the bill's earmarks, which accounted for at least $3.8 billion.
The legislation, which includes an increase of roughly 8 percent over spending in the last fiscal year, is expected to clear the House later in the week.
Democrats defended the spending increases, saying they were needed to make up for cuts enacted in recent years or proposed a year ago by then-President George W. Bush in health, education, energy and other programs.
Republicans countered that the spending in the bill far outpaced inflation, and amounted to much higher increases when combined with spending in the stimulus legislation that President Barack Obama signed last week. In a letter to top Democratic leaders, the GOP leadership called for a spending freeze, a step they said would point toward a "new standard of fiscal discipline."
I'm sure they're just quaking in their boots over warnings from Hillary Clinton.
Analysts have claimed North Korea is secretly preparing to test-fire a long-range missile designed to strike U.S. territory.
The fears came after Pyongyang announced today that it is set to launch a satellite on one of its rockets. Analysts claim the rocket launch is a cover for the missile test.
If the long-range rocket flies successfully, Pyongyang would have a missile with a maximum range of 6,700 km (4,200 miles), designed to eventually carry a nuclear warhead that could hit U.S. territory - though not the continental 48 states, analysts said.
This would, for the first time, pose a direct security threat to the United States. The announcement follows weeks of angry rhetoric from Pyongyang aimed at the conservative government in South Korea and warnings that the Korean peninsula was on the verge of war.
Analysts said Pyongyang was using brinkmanship to put pressure on the new U.S. government and its main allies in the region, South Korea and Japan, to reverse tough policies against the North.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on a trip to Asia last week, warned North Korea against any provocative moves.
'The preparations for launching an experimental communications satellite ... are now making brisk headway,' North Korea's KCNA news agency said.
'When this satellite launch proves successful, the nation's space science and technology will make another giant stride forward in building an economic power.'
Of course the idea of them becoming an economic power is sheer fantasy, just like the fantasy embraced by the left that the world will love us again.
Considering many of these monsters at Club Gitmo claimed they were just hapless bystanders on vacation in Afghanistan, you suppose they would be enjoying the creature comforts at a Club Med-like facility. Of course such comments will likely send delicate flowers like Glenn Greenwald into fits of apoplexy.
They should call it Camp Gitmo.
Congress yesterday conducted its first inspection of the Guantanamo Bay military prison since President Obama ordered it closed.
Long Island Rep. Peter King said it looked more like Club Med for terrorists than the torture chamber depicted by its critics.
"The prisoners are being treated better than American citizens in any prison I've been to in the United States," said King, the ranking Republican on the Homeland Security Committee.
"They're allowed out of their cells for hours at a time - even the worst of the worst," he told The Post
Meanwhile, racial coward Eric Holder also visited Club Gitmo Monday, and in a nod to openness and transparency, no reporters were allowed to accompany him.
Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday visited the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as the Obama administration weighs what is needed to shut the facility.
The role of the prison in the war against terrorism and the treatment of suspects held there was a continuing international controversy during the Bush administration. During the campaign, Barack Obama repeatedly pledged to close it if elected president.
Now, Obama has set a goal of shuttering the facility within a year. And a large part of Holder's visit involves talks with officials about detention and interrogation practices.
No news reporters accompanied Holder on the flight.
Holder and about a half-dozen key aides arrived at Guantanamo around midmorning Monday and they are scheduled to return to Washington Monday night.
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., who led a congressional delegation to Guantanamo that left shortly before Holder arrived, said he think Holder's visit is a good thing if Holder keeps an open mind.
"If he has an open mind, he would see that the detainees are treated humanely, that these are dangerous people, and I don't believe Guantanamo should be closed," said King, the senior Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee.
"I think he's going to realize the problems, as to where these people are going to go," King said. "Who's going to accept them? What we do with them?"
Who knew comedy could pose such danger? Well, considering this is nothing to laugh about...
Police are to guard tonight's Vienna premiere of a controversial stage comedy inspired by the saga of Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man who imprisoned and abused his daughter, after protests and appeals for it to be banned.
Hubsi Kramar, the production's director and star, has been forced to change its title from Pension Fritzl – a Cellar Soap to Pension F because of the outcry. Tickets for tonight's opening have sold out.
The play centres on the story of the 74-year-old Fritzl, who goes on trial next month for imprisoning and sexually abusing his daughter Elisabeth, by whom he fathered seven children, over a period of 24 years.
Kramar, 60, has received death threats during weeks of protests in the run-up to the premiere. The 3raum-anatomietheater, which is staging the play, has been vandalised, with promotional posters ripped from walls and the stage door sealed with superglue.
"The media hunt is beginning to have an effect," Kramar said. "It will be dangerous for all involved."
Kramar might want to put this one on hold for a bit.
On a day when the markets hit a 12-year low, it's probably not a good idea to suggest we're going to pour nearly another billion dollars into Gaza. Of course we'll be told the UN will have oversight (ha ha) and our money won't be going directly to Hamas, but really, is there anyone who believes that?
The United States plans to offer more than $900 million to help rebuild Gaza after Israel's invasion and to strengthen the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, U.S. officials said on Monday.
The money, which needs U.S. congressional approval, will be distributed through U.N. and other bodies and not via the militant group Hamas, which rules Gaza, said one official.
"This money is for Gaza and to help strengthen the Palestinian Authority. It is not going to go to Hamas," said the official, who asked not to be named as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton planned to announce the funding at a donors' conference in Egypt next week.
Neither the United States nor Israel have direct contact with the Islamist Hamas movement which runs Gaza and remains formally committed to the destruction of the Jewish state.
The official said the pledge was a mix of money already earmarked for the Palestinians and some new funding.
"The package is still shaping up," he said, when asked for specifics over how the money would be spent and a breakdown of old and new funding.
In December, the former Bush administration said it would give $85 million to the U.N. agency that provides aid to Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
So we make the leap from $85 to over $900 million in two months?
Wonderful.
So what about that $613 million that was already allegedly pledged?
Of course, since Obama's media handlers tell us he enjoys broad support, I guess nobody will object to handing our money over to terrorists.
Change!
Some might argue the Obama administration doesn't have Israel's best interests in mind.
Feel free to caption the photo. This comes from Der Spiegel. I can't locate the English language version of the story and frankly I'd rather avoid it anyway.
Some freelance reporter and political activist name Ken Krayeske decided he wants to make a name for himself so he ambushed UConn men's basketball coach Jim Calhoun at a press conference Saturday.
Frankly, having covered basketball in years gone by, this isn't the time to be bringing up a coach's salary. I can only imagine Calhoun's reaction had the Huskies lost that day.
Considering how much money the basketball programs at UConn bring in to the university and the state, Krayeske is way out of bounds here.
Maybe he ought to go ask Senator Christopher Dodd whether he's overpaid.
Krayeske is a political activist and self-described freelance journalist who landed in the headlines after other high-profile incidents in the past.
They included his January 2007 arrest at Gov. M. Jodi Rell's inaugural parade, where Hartford police charged Krayeske with breach of peace and interfering with an officer.
Police said Krayeske dropped his bike and stepped into the parade route, a security breach they considered a potential attempt to disrupt the event. He later said he was attempting to photograph the governor for his Web site.
I followed journalism to Syracuse University, majoring in magazine journalism. I minored in History and Spanish. I concentrated on dropping LSD and smoking copious amounts of marijuana.
I owe my political awakening to my older sister Rubi, who practiced her speech class presentation about legalization of marijuana in front of me. I was mesmerized. I had never heard of the injustices perpetrated by the U.S. government during the past century regarding the war on marijuana, and I began to research the history thoroughly.
After graduation, I landed a job at a start-up newspaper in Nevis, a tiny West Indian island nation of 9,000 people. I lasted two months because a) the publisher was broke and didn't pay me, the phone company, or the landlord on time, and b) there was serious political upheaval that made me think I was an expendable 22-year-old white guy.
The deputy prime minister's three sons were involved in a cocaine ring. One was found dead in the trunk of a burned-out car in a sugar cane field with his girlfriend. Their skeletons, their legs were sawed off mid-femur. The departure of the other two sons from Her Majesty's prison in Basseterre, St. Kitts, led to a riot. Young men dressed in fatigues, waving assault rifles, strutting down the streets, gave me the spooks.
They had a law there, too, that could have locked the newspaper doors and deported me for printing something the government didn't like. If only I had been that lucky. After 10 weeks at about 120 hours a week, I gave up.
After a brief stint working on some boats in St. Thomas, I returned home to Northwest Connecticut to make good on my student loan payments. It was there I met Ralph Nader in 1996 while working in Winsted. In 2004, I worked for his reviled presidential campaign. In between, I wrote for a bunch of newspapers, like the Hartford Advocate and I freelanced for High Times magazine, too.
Radio legend Paul Harvey has passed away at age 90.
