Michelle Obama: America 'Just Downright Mean'

She's bringing us all together.

Obama begins with a broad assessment of life in America in 2008, and life is not good: we’re a divided country, we’re a country that is “just downright mean,” we are “guided by fear,” we’re a nation of cynics, sloths, and complacents. “We have become a nation of struggling folks who are barely making it every day,” she said, as heads bobbed in the pews. “Folks are just jammed up, and it’s gotten worse over my lifetime. And, doggone it, I’m young. Forty-four!”

Yes, and we've come a long way in 44 years.

A shame you're so resentful, you may have enjoyed it.

She hasn't progressed much since college, apparently.

Read the whole piece here.

Update: Some more interesting material.

From these bleak generalities, Obama moves into specific complaints. Used to be, she will say, that you could count on a decent education in the neighborhood. But now there are all these charter schools and magnet schools that you have to “finagle” to get into. (Obama herself attended a magnet school, but never mind.) Health care is out of reach (“Let me tell you, don’t get sick in America”), pensions are disappearing, college is too expensive, and even if you can figure out a way to go to college you won’t be able to recoup the cost of the degree in many of the professions for which you needed it in the first place.

Such optimism, not to mention hypocrisy.

“The life that I’m talking about that most people are living has gotten progressively worse since I was a little girl. . . . So if you want to pretend like there was some point over the last couple of decades when your lives were easy, I want to meet you!”

Nobody said life was easy. You need effort and hard work to achieve, not a bad attitude. I guess if you want it easy, you should be born a Kennedy.

Another sign of darkening oppression facing this poor woman:

The Obamas’ financial standing has risen sharply in the past three years, largely as a result of the money Barack earned from writing “The Audacity of Hope.” In 2005, their income was $1.67 million, which was more than they had earned in the previous seven years combined.

Might have to go on food stamps at this rate.

And how about this?

Just after Barack was elected to the United States Senate, Michelle received a large pay increase—from $121,910 in 2004 to $316,962 in 2005. “Mrs. Obama is extremely overpaid,” one citizen wrote in a letter to the editor of the Tribune, after the paper published a story questioning the timing of the award. “Now, what is the real reason behind such an inflated salary?” Her bosses at the University of Chicago Hospitals vigorously defended the raise, pointing out that it put her salary on a par with that of other vice-presidents at the hospital.

Hoover-ville, here we come.

More troubling to the Obamas’ image of civic rectitude is their entanglement with a campaign contributor named Antoin (Tony) Rezko in a 2005 real-estate deal. (Rezko is now awaiting trial on corruption charges.) That year, as the Tribune reported, the Obamas moved to a $1.65-million Georgian Revival mansion in Hyde Park, which features a thousand-bottle wine cellar and bookcases made of Honduran mahogany. On the day they bought the house, Rita Rezko, Tony’s wife, purchased the adjacent lot, which was wooded and empty, for $625,000.

How will they get by?

Perhaps there's a premature cockiness seeping through. Might want to wait until your husbands clinches the nomination, girlfriend.

Back in the Explorer, I asked Obama if she thought that her husband, as the Democratic nominee, could take John McCain. “Oh, yeah. We got him,” she replied.

We'll see about that.

Thanks to Gateway Pundit and Hot Air here, here and here for the links.

Update II: A magnificent comment from over at Gateway Pundit.

The Elector of Saxony said...

Not our America, Michelle. Our America doesn't live in 1.6 million $ homes, and go to cocktail parties in fancy Northside penthouses. Our America isn't mean, cynical, guided by fear, or slothful. Do you know any actual Americans?

Our America donates money to St. Judes hospital. Our America gives time to their church fundraiser after working hard all week long. Our America doesn't care about skin color, or ethnic background, or religion, when people are in trouble. We simply write checks, send food and water and clothes, and volunteer our homes as shelter.

Our America supports our heros who fight overseas. Our America doesn't believe that wearing a flag pin on our lapel is a cheap, maudlin trick. We wear it near our hearts to remember our friends and family members who are in uniform today, and those who fought and died in the past; our fathers, brothers, uncles, and best friends. In our America, we aren't ashamed of the symbols of patriotism.

Our America believes that no one owes us anything, and is optimistic about the future we are building for our families. Our America is creative, entrepreneurial, gets in early and stays late.

I guess you live in some other America, Michelle. Please keep it away from the one we love.

Amen to that.

Update III: Also linked by Tammy Bruce, Flopping Aces, McClatchy Watch, The Red Pill, No More Spin, The Political Post, Nine-Sixteenths, Again, American Princess, Blogs for John McCain, Pirate's Cove, Ace of Spades HQ, NewsBusters, NRO's Campaign Spot, Riehl World View, Sister Toldjah, Moonbattery, Urban Grounds.

A Rather Interesting Frontman

Nothing like putting a haggard, wrinkled rocker up front as the face of a new product.

For handbags, no less.

Then again, I am a Stones fan and find it rather amusing.

Keith Richards is the new face of Louis Vuitton, the French maker of luxury handbags and luggage.

The 64-year-old Rolling Stone appeared on a London billboard today and advertising placed in British newspapers. The campaign will feature in magazines throughout March, Antoine Arnault, Vuitton's head of communications and the 30-year-old son of Bernard Arnault, founder of brand owner LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, said in a Feb. 28 interview.

The younger Arnault said the ads are designed to promote Vuitton's heritage in luggage and win back older customers that lost interest as the label became more fashion-oriented. Earlier ads in the campaign featured Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and actress Catherine Deneuve. Richards appears with a deeply wrinkled face holding a guitar in a hotel room with a custom- made Vuitton guitar case behind him on the bed.

Remarkably, I don't see a cigarette anywhere.

Stop the Hate! More Violence Between Clinton and Obama Supporters

Last week we noted this item on a Clinton supporter shanking his brother-in-law Obama supporter.

Well, now it appears this was not an isolated incident.

Apparently the desire for change and hope is leading some to violent means. Just imagine how out of control these people will get if we have a brokered convention.

Get the popcorn ready.

The condition of the man struck in the head with a baseball bat during a political argument has improved. The victim was hospitalized after being struck in the head with a baseball bat during an argument in Alexander County, North Carolina. The attack reportedly occurred during a dispute over politics last Tuesday night (February 26) while the Hillary Clinton / Barack Obama debate was on television. This story, broken Monday by WHKY, has gained national attention, numerous news organizations have added it to their websites. According to the Alexander County Sheriff’s Office 40 year old Gregory Lynn Carter of Taylorsville is charged with assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury. The victim was an acquaintance of the suspect. According to the Sheriff’s Offfice, after striking the 25 year old victim, the suspect drove him to Frye Regional Medical Center in Hickory, NC. While at the hospital Carter reportedly told police what happened, at which time he was arrested and charged.

Via Drudge.

We can only hope these two deeply religious and spiritual candidates can reach reach out to their violent supporters and ask them to please stop the hate!

Would He Say the Same Thing About Mohamed?

Bad trip ... or junk research?

Somehow I doubt it.

For all the uproar over cartoons, imagine if the Islamists were told Mohamed was tripping all the time.

The bible is packed with drug-fuelled visions of miracles and according to a leading academic when Moses met God to receive the Ten Commandments he was on a hallucinogen-induced high.

The theory, published this week in international philosophy journal Time and Mind, claims that key events of the Old Testament are actually records of visions by ancient Israelites high on hallucinogenic drugs.

Benny Shannon, a professor at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, where he was head of the psychology department, believes that a popular plant concoction could hold the key to some unexplained "miracles".

"In the southern regions of the Holy Land and in the Sinai Peninsula there grow two plants containing the molecules that together constitute the key ingredients of one of the most powerful psychedelic substances in existence," he wrote.

The substance is a drink called Ayahuasca, and is today still used by Amazonians in Brazil for their religious rituals.

The professor came up with the theory when reading the Bible and deciding the events described were similar to visions he had after trying this drink 15 years ago.

Professor Shannon undertook further "research" and textual analysis.

He claims that five accounts of Moses' life were induced by hallucinogens.

More from Shannon here.

As Aldous Huxley noted in conjunction with mescaline, the psychotropic agent reveals heretofore hidden and un charted territories of the mind. With this, it may indicate that some features normally considered as defining characteristics of the human cognitive system need not necessarily hold.

I suspect Professor Shannon spent a little too much time tripping in the jungle.

Thanks to Hot Air for the link.

Favre Retiring

Looks like it may be a done deal.

The most storied quarterback career in NFL history is coming to a close.

FOXSports.com has learned that legendary quarterback Brett Favre has decided to retire. In fact, it's believed he informed the Packers of his decision within the last few days, although it's unclear when Favre and the team will make his decision known.

So barring an unforeseen last-minute change of heart, Favre will leave the game after 17 years, during which he built himself into a household name and a figure synonymous with grit, toughness and perseverance.

Neither GM Ted Thompson nor head coach Mike McCarthy returned several calls left by FOXSports.com for confirmation.

After flirting with retirement for the last few years, Favre will finally go out on the heels of one of the best seasons of his career.

He led the Packers to the NFC Championship Game after passing for a stunning 4,155 yards, looking very much at times like a younger version of himself. In addition he threw 28 TDs — including an overtime Hail Mary pass to beat Denver in front of a national audience — and had a 95.7 quarterback rating. He was also voted into the Pro Bowl following the 2007 season but declined to go.

A nostalgic look back at his final pass.

Wrinkled and Proud

Those 35 years of change, waking up dressed, perfectly manicured and made up to answer the phone at 3 a.m., hiding billing records, grand jury appearances, cattle futures windfalls, lamp-throwing, and making up fantasies about vast rightwing conspiracies have apparently taken a toll on the old girl.

But hey, she's proud of it.

Senator Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., says she has earned every wrinkle. When speaking to an Austin, Texas crowd Monday about her history with Texas, Clinton said "Granted I am a little older and I have earned every wrinkle on my face and I feel just as energized about what we are doing."

The Senator continued to push her message of experience at her last rally in Texas before the voters go to the polls on Tuesday. Senator Clinton was joined on stage with her daughter Chelsea Clinton and old friends Mary Steenburgen and Ted Danson. Clinton's longtime friend Mary Steenburgen told a crowd earlier today that Hillary Clinton "does girlfriend really, really well."

Ugh.

So I guess if she's proud, nobody should complain about showing this photo again, right?

Europe and the Weak Dollar

European policy makers are unhappy about the weak dollar.

Worried euro zone policymakers pressured on Washington on Tuesday to do more to halt the dollar's decline, a day after the U.S. currency hit a record low against Europe's single currency.

Guy Quaden, Belgium's representative at the European Central Bank, said in an interview on Belgian radio: "Things are becoming exaggerated".

So why do they care?

Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders, attending a second day of meetings with European colleagues on Tuesday, put it less bluntly than Quaden but the basic message was the same, that Europe was counting on active U.S. help to tackle an issue which makes life harder for euro zone exporters in world markets.

It boils down to export/import activity. A weak dollar makes U.S. goods very cheap for foreign buyers and conversely makes European goods very expensive for U.S. buyers. Therefore, it helps the U.S. trade picture and hurts the European trade business.

Actually, there is not a whole lot Washington can do about the weak dollar but try to talk it up. The main cause of the dollar slide is the difference in interest rates between the U.S. and Europe.

The higher interest rates in Europe cause investors to sell dollars and buy other currencies (such as the Euro) to get the higher interest yield in those other country's.

Interest rates are a monetary policy item, which is in the hands of the Federal Reserve Board and not Congress or the White House. When U.S. interest rates rise relative to other rates you will see the dollar appreciate again, but right now, the Feds seem to be headed for another discount rate cut.

Europe and the U.S. both have cooling economies and rising inflation. In monetary policy, you can either deal with a recession or you can deal with inflation, but you cannot deal with both at the same. Europe has chosen to deal with the inflation via raising their interest rates, and, I believe, hoping the U.S. would deal with the coming recession and save Europe the trouble.

The U.S. Fed has chosen instead to deal with the threat of recession by lowering interest rates (and quietly expanding the money supply via Open Market Operations).

The True Evil of Tony Rezko

Shady developer? No problem.

Mysterious connections to Barack Obama? No problem.

Fast food magnate? Now we've got a problem.

Rezko has the blood of innocent livestock, and the elevated insulin levels of a generation of young Americans, on his hands. It's time for Obama to quit stalling, and tell the voters whether or not he's ever knowingly eaten a Rezkoburger.

Obama Wins Presidency ... of the West Wing

Some people have way too much time on their hands.

Via The Australian.

Hot Air links. Thanks!

Buzzwords

We report.
You decide.

Change.

Solutions.

Pat Paulsen still around?

Genius Alert: Palestinians Call Drones Deadly Weapon

Well, duh.

Maybe pretty soon these terrorist scumbags will realize the missiles they fire at Israel on a daily basis are also deadly.

And maybe, just maybe, if they ever stopped, then the dreaded drones won't be raining hellfire down on their sorry asses.

Palestinians say they know when an Israeli drone is in the air: Cell phones stop working, TV reception falters and they can hear a distant buzzing. They also know what's likely to come next — a devastating explosion on the ground.

Good. I like that. A few seconds to ponder what they've wrought.

Palestinians say Israel's pilotless planes have been a major weapon in its latest offensive in Gaza, which has killed nearly 120 people since last week.

Including civilians, don't you know. Still, why should it matter, Hamas has declared victory, right?

"Our experience is that the drone missile is successful in hitting its targets, and it's deadly," said Dr. Mahmoud Assali, a Palestinian physician who works in the emergency room of a northern Gaza Strip hospital that has often treated Palestinian gunmen hit by Israeli drones.

"The drone has a zone of around 15 meters (50 feet) where it decimates everything. It targets people and leaves them in pieces," Assali said.

Israel is at the forefront of the drone technology that is increasingly being used in hotspots around the world. The unmanned craft provide a deadly and cost-effective alternative for armies to target enemies, without risking their own pilots' lives and reducing civilian casualties in heavily populated areas.

How unfair!

Meanwhile, Time has already whipped out the dreaded Q word:

A Gaza Quagmire for Israel?

People, update the style manual already.

Tit-for-tat clashes in Gaza may escalate into the next quagmire in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Before the current fighting started, Israeli officials privately scoffed that they could live with an occasional Hamas or Islamic Jihad rocket fired into their territory by the Palestinian militants in Gaza. But that changed last week when Hamas, angered at the loss of five senior commanders in an Israeli air strike, began targeting Ashkelon again, sending a dozen powerful Grad missiles into the Israeli port roughly five miles from Gaza's northern frontier. In retaliation, the Israelis stormed into northern Gaza.

Of course, this Time boob is too busy calling this latest skirmish a quagmire to note the Grad missiles are coming from Iran. Minor tangential point, I surmise.

The Israeli army on Monday said that all the long-range rockets fired by Gaza militants against southern Israel during the latest round of violence were manufactured in arch-foe Iran.

Speaking to the parliament's powerful foreign affairs and defence committee, a senior military intelligence official said that over 20 Katyusha-type rockets, also known as Grad, were fired against Israel since last Thursday.

"We are talking about regular Iranian-made rockets," an official quoted the intelligence official as saying.

The 122-millimetre rockets have a range of about 20 kilometres (12.5 miles) and carry a large payload which caused heavy damage to buildings in the southern coastal town of Ashkelon, which bore the brunt of the Grad rocket fire.

Gaza militants have in recent years fired thousands of short-range makeshift rockets and mortars against southern Israel, but have only rarely fired the longer-range Grad-type rockets.

Israel believes that over 100 such rockets were smuggled into the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip through its porous border with Egypt in recent months following the Hamas violent takeover of the territory, a security official has told AFP.

Name That Party, New Jersey Edition

Here you have an AP item on former Newark Mayor and New Jersey State Senator Sharpe James going on trial for fraud today.

As usual, the reader is left to guess which party Mr. James belongs to.

Hint: He's not a Republican.

Update: Thanks to Lawhawk for the link.

Update II: Don Surber links. Thanks!

Why Look Who's Funding FARC

To the tune of $300 million, reportedly.

Colombia's police commander said on Monday documents found at the camp of a top rebel commander killed in a raid showed evidence Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had made $300 million payments to FARC guerrillas.

Gen. Oscar Naranjo earlier said computers found in the camp of FARC commander Raul Reyes had revealed documents showing ties between the rebel leader and a representative of the government of Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa.

No wonder this pig is threatening war with Colombia.

He's got a huge investment at stake.

Journalist Sean Penn was unavailable for comment.

Thanks to Gateway Pundit for the link!

Unhinged Moonbat Wth Anger Management Issues Busted for Threatening Bush, Says Cheney Also 'Needs an Ass Kicking'

In a real shocker, this 50-year-old loser also still lives with mommy.

I wonder which handle this moron uses at the Daily Kos and Huffington Post?

Charles Madrid has been struggling with anger management issues for years.

The 50-year-old radio technician from Pacoima has been known to lose his temper over everything from dirty dishes in the kitchen sink to the war in Iraq.

His mother says he's harmless. But after a recent outburst in which he allegedly threatened to kill President Bush, the U.S. Secret Service isn't so sure.

Madrid was arrested last week and is being held in a federal detention center in downtown Los Angeles. At a hearing set for today, a judge is expected to determine whether Madrid is eligible to be released on bail.

Before his arrest Tuesday, authorities, concerned that Madrid's threat may have been prompted by mental illness, took him to Olive View Medical Center in Sylmar for evaluation. The doctor who examined him concluded that Madrid was not mentally ill "but has a severe anger problem," according to an affidavit by Secret Service Special Agent Kelly O'Hara.

O'Hara, who interviewed Madrid at the hospital, wrote in the affidavit that Madrid admitted to threatening to kill the president earlier in the day in front of an LAPD officer.

When O'Hara asked Madrid what he would do if Bush were present right at that moment, he allegedly responded: "I'd deck his ass."

He added that Vice President Dick Cheney also "needs an ass kicking," the affidavit states.

Real tough guy.

Madrid, who has no criminal record and no history of owning firearms, shares a small dilapidated ranch-style home with his mother, Rachel Madrid-Hall, and his adult brother. The family has lived in the house for more than 40 years. Outside, a small faded American flag is stuck in the dirt of an otherwise empty potted plant. Inside, the home is strewed with clutter, much of it related to computers, one of Madrid's passions, according to his mother.

In an interview this week, Madrid-Hall, 71, acknowledged that her son has a temper. But she said he's never acted on it.

"He's not a maniac," she said. "I think he was speaking out of frustration."

Just because you're allegedly frustrated, and it seems to be this guy is angry at being such a pathetic loser, it does not give you the right to threaten the President of the United States.

She said her son blamed President Bush for the war in Iraq and the bad economy, among other things. He would write letters documenting his complaints but only grew angrier when he received form letters in response, she said.

He expects a personal reply? What an idiot.

Madrid-Hall said her son was talking to a former girlfriend late Monday or early Tuesday when he allegedly made the initial threat against Bush. The woman, identified in court papers as Wanda O'Hickey-Way, called 911.

"Committing this murder is not a murder, it's making a difference for the people," O'Hickey-Way quoted Madrid as saying. "I'm going to kill who needs to be killed."

O'Hickey-Way told the dispatcher that Madrid's statements were made in reference to the president, according to the arrest affidavit. LAPD officers arrived at the Madrid home Tuesday morning, and one of them asked Madrid, "Do you want to kill the president?"

"Yes," Madrid replied, according to the affidavit.

Let him spend the rest of his miserable life in jail.

Thanks to Hot Air for the link.

Saudis Round Up AQ Suspects

They always make a nice show of rounding up Al Qaeda suspects.

Too bad they keep exporting these monsters abroad.

Saudi Arabia said on Monday it had arrested 28 people suspected of seeking to regroup al Qaeda's wing in the oil-exporting kingdom to carry out a "terror campaign".

The official Saudi Press Agency said those detained were part of a total of 56 suspects arrested in a drive to round up Qaeda members in recent months, and "belonged to the deviant group (al Qaeda) ... and received directions to rebuild the group and start a terror campaign in the kingdom".

The suspects were using a recording from al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri to help raise money from ordinary Saudis, SPA said, citing a source in the ministry of interior.

"The bearer of this message is one of our trusted brothers, therefore please give him your donations for hundreds of the families of captives and martyrs in Pakistan and Afghanistan," Zawahri said in the audio recording aired by state television.

SPA said the recording was brought into the kingdom via the mobile telephone of a "person who had visited Mecca".

The U.S.-allied Muslim kingdom detained 28 Qaeda militants in Mecca, Madina, Riyadh and an area near the country's northern borders in December.

They'll probably wind up be treated more kindly than rape victims.

UAE Setting Up Sharia Banking

Our good friends in the United Arab Emirates are setting up sharia-based banks.

Investors offered about 48 billion dirhams ($13.07 billion), almost 86 times more than sharia-compliant Ajman Bank was looking to raise in the most heavily subscribed United Arab Emirates IPO in 15 months.

Ajman Bank, whose founders include the ruling family of the emirate of Ajman, will use the 550 million dirhams it raised in the initial public offering to help finance its development as the UAE's seventh lender that complies with Islamic principles.

"There is a lot of liquidity in the market looking for good investments and all banks appreciate in value -- particularly if they are Islamic banks," Ghandour said.

So how do these places work?

UAE bank assets that comply with Islamic law, including a ban on the receipt of interest, account for about 15 percent of total, Ajman Bank Chief Executive Yousif Khalaf said last month.

Okay, so you charge fees instead of interest. I see this as a way of legally discriminating against large groups of people.

This world war will be fought to a large extent in the financial markets.

Police Ambushed in Paris Suburb

Looks like those youths are still at it in the Paris suburbs.

Four police officers were wounded when masked youths fired shotguns at them in a southern suburb of Paris on Sunday, the French interior minister has said.

Michele Alliot-Marie said about 30 people ambushed the officers after they were called to Grigny when a local bakery was vandalised.

Three officers were treated at the scene after being hit by lead shots. A fourth was admitted to hospital.

It sounds like the Police walked into a setup.

In a statement, Ms Alliot-Marie said police were called to an estate in Grigny on Sunday afternoon after several people vandalised a local bakery.

When the officers arrived, they were confronted by "about 30 people whose faces were masked and several of whom were armed," she added.

The armed youths fired cartridges containing lead shot and nails at the police, while others threw stones and Molotov cocktails, setting a car alight.

If they were wearing masks, how do we know they were youths?

So what is French government planning to do about this?

Last month, President Nicolas Sarkozy announced a three-year proposal to deploy 4,000 more police and roll out a half-billion euro aid lifeline to the poor, mainly ethnic-minority suburbs across France wracked by riots in recent years.

He also unveiled plans to help 100,000 people find work and declared "war without mercy" on drug dealers, warning that unless such neighbourhoods were revived, the "very idea of the nation is at stake".

Here's 3 wood's solution:

First, drop the socialist handouts/subsidies and switch to free market practices and capitalism. You can not help 100,000 people find jobs. They have to want to work and as long as the handouts keep coming many won't. People getting up every day and running their own (legal) business don't have time or interest in rioting.

Second, crack down on illegal activity and support your police on the street and in court. Send the ring leaders of this street scum to jail. Take back your city for the law abiding folks.

A Jewish Barack-lash?

At least one Jewish Democrat thinks it will happen if Barack Obama gets the Democrat nomination.

Hikind is always a bit over the top in his rhetoric, but I suspect he may be correct in his suspicions.

BROOKLYN Assemblyman Dov Hikind yesterday predicted that Jewish voters would make "a mass movement toward Sen. McCain" if Barack Obama knocks Hillary Rodham Clinton out of the race in tomorrow's critical Democratic primaries.

Hikind, an Orthodox Jew whose Borough Park district includes the largest Hasidic bloc in the United States, blasted Obama for what he called his half-hearted support of Israel and his ties to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., who has repeatedly praised anti-Semitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who has endorsed Obama.

Hikind, a Democrat who has yet to endorse a candidate for president, said Obama had not satisfactorily distanced himself from Wright, his Chicago-based personal pastor, noting, "This is a man who thinks Farrakhan is a great guy and God's gift to the world."

Hikind went on, "Obama has said that you can be a supporter of Israel even if you're for giving up land to the Arabs, which is true - but for a guy running for president to take a position like this in advance of getting into office, combined with everything else going on in the Middle East, that scares the hell out of me.

"There are a hell of a lot of Jews who are concerned about these issues, and they go way beyond Hasidic and Orthodox Jews, people I describe as conservative Reagan/Giuliani Democrats," said Hikind, who backed Ronald Reagan's presidential campaigns in 1980 and 1984.

Hikind's warning about Jewish concerns over Obama are being widely but privately voiced among top New York Democrats.

Racist NYC Pol Heads to Cuba

What is it with these Democrats sucking up to Fidel Castro and Communist dictators?

Granted, this buffoon Charles Barron is on the outer fringes of the party and has long been an embarrassment to patriotic Democrats, if indeed there are many left.

At least one American politician is sorry to see Fidel Castro go.

City Councilman Charles Barron said yesterday Cubans get some of the best health care in the world and he wants to study their system.

Again with the Cuban healthcare system. Where exactly did this myth begin that this repressive island prison has quality healthcare? These people are driving 1950s automobiles, there's food rationing, nobody except the elite have any money and we're supposed to believe they have quality healthcare?

Please.

Barron leaves today for a nine-day tour of the communist island nation, where last week Castro - after 49 years at the helm - announced he would step down.

The Democratic Brooklyn councilman is going with a group of students from the City University's Center for Worker Education, and will also tour educational facilities.

Barron told The Post he has a special fondness for Castro because of the Cuban leader's efforts to help several African nations, particularly Angola, in their march toward independence decades ago.

"I think we should lift the embargo and normalize relations with Cuba," said Barron, a former Black Panther Party member. He said the economic embargo was hurting Cuban citizens.

Barron's support for Castro isn't the first time the outspoken lawmaker has embraced an international political outcast.

Five years ago, Barron hosted a City Hall reception for Robert Mugabe, the dictatorial president of Zimbabwe, an event most council members boycotted.

Critics said Barron had ignored international outrage over Mugabe's brutal and economically repressive regime.

He hasn't ignored it. Mugabe is a racist Communist thug. He and Barron are soulmates.

Update: Thanks to Monica at Babalu Blog for the link. She helpfully provides this link noting the ruinous state of Cuba's healthcare system.

Remembering The Past; Honoring Its Victims

Overcoming history
Marking the 60th anniversary of the communist coup
On Feb. 25, the Czech Republic commemorated the anniversary of the coup that brought the communists to power.

For many at the time of the 1948 takeover, the event represented a new beginning and a bright future. Throughout the communists’ subsequent rule from 1948 to 1989, the anniversary was revered as a glorious day, when people took justice into their own hands and threw off the shackles of capitalism.

Of course, it can now be said that the communist takeover plunged the country into decades of darkness and terror.

This year’s memorial services over the weekend of Feb. 23 and 24 and into Monday were of a somber tone, reminding participants of the pro-democratic student marches that took place during the 1948 government crisis and the thousands of people persecuted, killed or unjustly sentenced during the following 41 years.

One service Monday morning took place on the spot near Prague Castle where a peaceful student march protesting the communists was stopped and attacked by police Feb. 25, 1948. Those young demonstrators were remembered by today’s politicians as well as surviving witnesses. Some 100 people gathered to listen to the service.

“We should remember those who were capable of thinking for themselves and did not exchange the legacy of president founder Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk for cheap Stalinist propaganda,” Senate Chairman Premysl Sobotka said in an address to the crowd. “The events that took place here should serve as a memento to the fragility of freedom and democracy.”

Zdenek Bohác, chairman of the Prague Academic Club 48, personally took part in the marches, and sadly observed, “There are not very many young people here today. Today’s students are not interested in politics as much as we used to be. That is a great source of personal grief for me. Some traditions should not be forgotten.”

Step by step

The events of February 1948 were just the end of a process that started years earlier. Even before the end of World War II, the Communist Party was preparing a National Front of parties that would participate in elections after the war.

In the 1946 elections, communists secured 40 percent of the seats in the temporary Parliament and started to slowly infiltrate other parties within the National Front as well as the police and army. By the beginning of 1948, their control was almost complete, and communist ministers led by Prime Minister Klement Gottwald decided to move quickly in order to ensure complete control by the upcoming election that May.

However, the final changes in police command sparked a government crisis, precipitating the resignation of 12 noncommunist ministers, who expected President Edvard Beneš to respond by forming a caretaker government that would lead the country to the May elections. But the communists were prepared for such resistance, and their loyal supporters sparked a wave of protest against “reactionary forces trying to undermine the new people’s republic.” The Soviet Union also quickly promised armed help to Czechoslovak communists.

When noncommunist party leaders saw where things were headed, most of them emigrated, leaving Beneš to stand alone against the full might of communist propaganda and military force.

Historic protests

University students organized only a few marches to support the president, one of which took place Monday, Feb. 23. Despite attempts by the police to disperse it, the students were joined by many others, forming a crowd of several thousand people that reached Prague Castle late that evening. A five-member delegation of marchers was allowed to see the president. Among them was young national socialist MP Josef Lesák. Now the last surviving member of that pre-communist Parliament, Lesák shared his memories of that meeting with The Prague Post.

“We were brought in to see Beneš around 10 p.m. He looked very sick and tired,” he said. “We saluted his accomplishments in the fight for an independent Czechoslovakia during both world wars. We also told him that we hoped that he would preserve freedom and democracy even in these difficult times.”

Beneš responded by promising the students he would do everything in his power to ensure the continuation of the state as envisaged by the first president and his close associate, Masaryk. However, his chancellor warned the students not to get their hopes up, as events were simply moving too quickly by then.

The communists were determined not to let another march occur. When, on Wednesday, Feb. 25, the students again attempted to reach the castle, they were brutally stopped by special police forces. Lesák was among them.

“Our only weapon was the national anthem. Whenever the police advanced, we sang it and they had to stop and salute,” he said. “They soon caught on and attacked despite our singing. Blood was flowing everywhere. The boys tried to protect the girls from gun butts and kicks, but to no avail. Most of the police were young kids just like us, and one of them got scared and shot a fellow student, crippling him for the rest of his life. Then the peaceful demonstration broke up, because everyone was too scared.”

Unbeknown to them, Beneš, ever the pacifist, had already given in to communist demands fearing a civil war and armed intervention by the Soviet Union. Even as police were attacking the student protestors, Prime Minister Gottwald was addressing a crowd on Wenceslas Square, announcing that Beneš had accepted all his proposals.

Every step of the government crisis leading to the communist victory was taken in accordance with the Constitution. It just happened that the result meant the end of democratic rule for the next 41 years and the country’s descent into a dark period. Most of the democratic activists of February 1948 who didn’t manage to flee abroad were jailed or sentenced to years of hard labor. Even 60 years later, their fight for democracy is not forgotten.

Today, the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia does not celebrate “Victorious February” as it used to, says party vice chairman Jirí Dolejš. Instead, the party views the takeover as an important and inevitable historical development based fully on democratic elections that happened in accordance with the Constitution.

“After World War II, people wanted a change, and they saw a chance in socialism,” he said. “The fact that Soviet influence became so important was an unfortunate accident that led to serious crimes, but we have already renounced these mistakes.”

Soviet influence was not an unfortunate accident, kretén, and you damn well know it.

Via The Prague Post

Decrepit Feminist Hag: McCain's P.O.W. Cred Is Overrated

Typical bilge one should expect from this relic, so I'm not really surprised she'd have the temerity to say such things.

Just keep it up, folks. But don't whine and moan when John McCain is being sworn in next January.

AUSTIN, Texas—Feminist icon Gloria Steinem took to the stump on Hillary Clinton’s behalf here last night and quickly proved that she has lost none of her taste for provocation.

From the stage, the 73-year-old seemed to denigrate the importance of John McCain’s time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. In an interview with the Observer afterward, she suggested that Barack Obama benefits—and Clinton suffers—because Americans view racism more seriously than sexism.

Steinem also told the crowd that one reason to back Clinton was because “she actually enjoys conflict.”

And she claimed that if Clinton’s experience as First Lady were taken seriously in relation to her White House bid, people might “finally admit that, say, being a secretary is the best way to learn your boss’s job and take it over.”

Steinem raised McCain’s Vietnam imprisonment as she sought to highlight an alleged gender-based media bias against Clinton.

“Suppose John McCain had been Joan McCain and Joan McCain had got captured, shot down and been a POW for eight years. [The media would ask], ‘What did you do wrong to get captured? What terrible things did you do while you were there as a captive for eight years?’” Steinem said, to laughter from the audience.

McCain was, in fact, a prisoner of war for around five-and-a-half years, during which time he was tortured repeatedly. Referring to his time in captivity, Steinem said with bewilderment, “I mean, hello? This is supposed to be a qualification to be president? I don’t think so.”

Just disgusting.

Obviously realizing what a loon Steinem is, Clinton spokesthing Howard Wolfson issued a statement.

The Clinton campaign sends over the following statement from Howard Wolfson: "Senator Clinton has repeatedly praised Senator McCain's courage and service to our country. These comments certainly do not represent her thinking in any way. Senator Clinton intends to have a respectful debate with Senator McCain on the issues."

Doubtful that will be happening.

Don Surber has some thoughts on this vile woman.

Update: Thanks to Don Surber for linking back. Others weighing in include Hot Air, Jules Crittenden, Patterico's Pontifications and Power Line, via Memeorandum.

Israeli Moonbat: 'Child-killing Government Has No Moral Right to Exist'

It appears Israel is plagued by moonbattery of the kind one is accustomed to from the Kos Kidz or HuffPosters.

Just listen to some of the nonsense coming from these pantloads.

Hundreds of left-wing activists demonstrated Sunday evening outside the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv to protest the IDF's operation in Gaza.

The demonstrators called on Israel's leadership and army to end military operations in the Strip and talk to Hamas leaders instead.

Participants in the rally held up signs reading "No despair Gaza, we'll end the occupation" and "Don't worry Ehud, Bush will be meeting you at The Hague." During the demonstration some protestors clashed with police officers who secured the scene of the rally and prevented the leftists from approaching the Defense Ministry's gates.

Yona Bar Gur, who is a member of the Israeli-Palestinian bereaved families' forum and who lost his paratrooper son 11 ago said Israel should be talking to Hamas.

"We don't need to talk to Hamas about recognizing Israel. It would be enough to talk to them about a ceasefire…what I'm most saddened about is that all of us know the solution, and the only question left is how many will die until then, 50,000 or 500,000," he said.

Another demonstrator, Yaniv Shahar from Tel Aviv, said he opposed the "war crimes in Gaza."

"This is a country and government that kills children so it has no moral right to exist," he said. "I wasn't in Sderot, but I have no doubt that the moment Israel stops killing in Gaza, the fire on Sderot and Ashkelon will stop."

Mind-numbing idiocy, to say the least.

Bali Bomber: 'Islam is Peace'

We've got just bit of a disconnect with these mutants.

On one hand they're shocked that they actually murdered as many people as they did, express no remorse for the mass murder, and then one of them reminds us how peaceful Islam is.

Sure.

TWO men who played key roles in the 2002 Bali bombings say they did not mean the death toll to reach as high as 202.

Imam Samudra, 38, and Ali Ghufron Ghufron, better known as Mukhlas, 48, also said that terror organisation al-Qaeda did not fund their deadly attacks, which killed 88 Australians.

Samudra said it was "unacceptable" so many people had died in the bombings on the mainly Hindu resort island.

The second explosion they had set off was much bigger than they had expected, he told London's Sunday Times.

Asked what he would say to families of his victims, Samudra said: "To Muslim people, I would say pardon.

"But Muslims only, while the unbelievers – they must be entering into hell.

"Allah says to all unbelievers that this road will bring you to hell."

What a guy. As far as I'm concerned, they can't execute them soon enough.

Samudra remains extremely dangerous.

Police said that while in jail in Bali, he used a smuggled laptop computer to communicate with militants to organise a second suicide attack in 2005, which killed 20.

"Your country, the United Kingdom, will lose, of course, because Allah says that only Muslims will win," he told the Times.

"I call you to Islam. Islam is peace. Tomorrow belongs to Islam."

I don't think so.

Convenient Timing: Democrat Economists Claim Iraq War Will Cost $3 Trillion

The last time I saw Joseph Stiglitz in the news, Hugo Chavez was ripping off his ideas.

Now he and a co-author are claiming the costs war effort in Iraq will surpass that of of World War II and is hampering the economy.

The Iraq war has contributed to the U.S. economic slowdown and is impeding an economic recovery, Nobel-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz says.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government is severely underestimating the cost of the war, Stiglitz and co-author Linda Bilmes write in their book, "The Three Trillion Dollar War" (W.W. Norton), due to be published on Monday.

The nearly 5-year-old war, once billed as virtually paying for itself through increased Iraqi oil exports, has cost the U.S. Treasury $845 billion directly.

"It used to be thought that wars are good for the economy. No economist really believes that anymore," Stiglitz said in an interview.

Stiglitz and Bilmes argue the true costs are at least $3 trillion under what they call an ultraconservative estimate, and could surpass the cost of World War Two, which they put at $5 trillion after adjusting for inflation.

Of course, the story neglects to mention these two are Democrat contributors and Stiglitz has been approached to be an adviser to Barack Obama.

Stiglitz has been approached by Barack Obama as a possible adviser should he reach the White House, although he says, "I've gone beyond the age where I would want to be in Washington full time. I would be interested in trying to help shape the bigger picture issues, and in particular the issues associated with America positioning itself in the new global world, and re-establishing the bonds with other countries that have been so damaged by the Bush administration."

In fact, Stiglitz last year made the maximum contribution allowed to Obama.

Shouldn't this news story and book plug at least mention that?

For her part, Bilmes played it safe and ponied up the maximum for Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Obama.

She also contributed to John Kerry and Edwards in 2004 as well as Al Gore in 2000.

Not to argue their book may not have its merits, but it's worth noting the agenda of the authors, and it's highly unlikely you'll see this pointed out anywhere, though you can be sure Democrats will use it in their talking points.

'Mainstream' Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan Calls for Suicide Attacks Against Israel

Reuters isn't even trying to hide the agitprop anymore.

Get a whiff of this non-bylined item.

Crying for revenge with suicide attacks, thousands of Jordanians marched in the capital of the pro-U.S. kingdom on Sunday to protest against Israel's Gaza offensive that had killed more than 100 Palestinians.

About 10,000 protesters, mainly from Jordan's mainstream Muslim Brotherhood and smaller opposition groups, took to the streets in one of the country's most vocal and largest anti-Israeli demonstrations in recent years.

"O Hamas, O Hamas, bring the suicide bombers ... Victory to Hamas and defeat to the Jews and Americans," chanted the crowds, who called on the Islamist militant group to resume suicide attacks and intensify rocket strikes against Israel.

Yup, they really sound pro-U.S. there.

And since when is the Muslim Brotherhood considered mainstream? Maybe in the caves where Osama bin Laden is hanging out, but not in the real world.

Speaking of this mainstream group, I see the lowlife grandson of the founder of the group has been invited to speak at a university in Australia.

THE Swiss Islamic activist Tariq Ramadan has been invited by Griffith University to be the keynote speaker at its conference opening in Brisbane today.

The fact that Australia is allowing Ramadan to enter the country at all will raise eyebrows in security circles elsewhere. Ramadan is the grandson of Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood: the spiritual backers of al-Qa'ida and Hamas and whose goal is to Islamise the world.

While it is, of course, unfair to tar someone with his grandfather's views, there is ample reason to think that in the case of Tariq Ramadan the apple has not fallen far from the tree.

Ramadan has been banned from entering the US because of his alleged association with extremists. The Geneva Islamic Centre, with which he is closely associated, has been linked to terrorists of the Algerian FIS (Islamic Salvation Front) and the GIA (Armed Islamic Group). A Spanish police report claimed that Ahmed Brahim, an al-Qa'ida leader jailed in Spain, was "in frequent contact" with Ramadan, a claim he has denied.

So Reuters considers a groups that are"the spiritual backers of al-Qa'ida and Hamas" to be mainstream?

Maybe The British Healthcare System Isn't So Bad After All

Looks like this dude was on to something when he called the nurses in Britain promiscuous.

Thousands of nurses think it is fine to have an affair with one of their patients, according to research.

Almost one in 10 nurses think breaking the age-old taboo of starting a relationship with one of their patients is acceptable while one in six said they knew of a colleague who had a sexual relationship with a patient they were looking after.

The findings, published by the Nursing Times, will add weight to the controversial remarks by Conservative peer Lord Mancroft that nurses are "promiscuous" and "unprofessional".

Mancroft faced a backlash after he claimed he was ignored by nurses and forced to listen while they discussed their drunken antics and sexual encounters while being treated for gastroenteritis at the Royal United hospital in Bath last summer.

The survey's findings suggest many of the UK's 400,000 nurses are prepared to run the risk of being struck off for sleeping with patients and also that relationships between nurses and patients are not uncommon.

In January the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (CHRE) issued strict new rules reminding nurses that they face disciplinary action if they embark on a sexual relationship with a current patient.

The rules also say that relationships with former patients will often be deemed unacceptable. The regulations have proved contentious with nurses who say many such relationships end in marriage.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) says the survey findings, of 3,600 nurses, are "very concerning".

Hells Angels Wanted to Whack Mick Jagger

These clowns sound like they were a bit inept.

Storming his house by sea?

Sir Mick Jagger has long been regarded as one of rock music's greatest troupers, but, until now, he has been unaware of how much of a survivor he really is.

The Rolling Stones singer was the target of an assassination attempt which only failed because the boat the would-be killers were using was swamped in a storm.

Details of the plot have been revealed by an FBI agent as part of a BBC series on the American crime fighting agency.

The attempt to kill Sir Mick was made by a group of Hells Angels after the infamous Altamont Speedway Free Concert in 1969, which the Rolling Stones had organised and for which the motorcycle gang reportedly provided security.

Meredith Hunter, a black 18-year-old member of the audience, was stabbed and kicked to death by a group of Hells Angels, in an attack captured on film cameras. As a result, Sir Mick allegedly refused to use their services again.

According to Mark Young, a former special agent, interviewed in BBC radio series The FBI at 100, which begins tomorrow, a boat of Hells Angels set out to take revenge on the singer at his holiday home in the Hamptons, Long Island, New York.

"The Hells Angels were so angered by Jagger's treatment of them that they decided to kill him," said Tom Mangold, who presents the series. "A group of them took a boat and were all tooled up and planned to attack him from the sea.

"They planned the attack from the sea so they could enter his property from the garden and avoid security at the front. The boat was hit by a storm and all of the men were thrown overboard. All survived and there was not said to have been any further attempt on Jagger's life."

Dopey bikers aren't exactly at home in stormy waters.

Hot Air links. Thanks!

Two Saudi Al Qaeda Vermin Whacked in Iraq

I guess not all the Saudis are our friends.

Here are a couple of maggots we no longer have to worry about.

A U.S. military helicopter fired a guided missile to kill a wanted al-Qaida in Iraq leader from Saudi Arabia who was responsible for the bombing deaths of five American soldiers, a spokesman said Sunday.

U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Gregory Smith said Jar Allah, also known as Abu Yasir al-Saudi, and another Saudi known only as Hamdan, were both killed Wednesday in Mosul.

According to the military, al-Saudi conducted numerous attacks against Iraqi and U.S. forces, including a Jan. 28 bomb attack that killed the five U.S. soldiers.

In that attack, insurgents blasted a U.S. patrol with a roadside bomb and showered survivors with gunfire from a mosque. The soldiers died in the explosion, the deadliest on American forces since six soldiers perished Jan. 9 in a booby-trapped house north of Baghdad.

Intelligence gathered in the Mosul area led the U.S. military to al-Saudi, who was in a car with Hamdan. A precision helicopter strike killed both and destroyed their vehicle. U.S. forces then confirmed the men's identities.

Smith said their deaths brought to 142 the number of al-Qaida insurgents killed or captured in Mosul since the beginning of the year.

Al-Saudi was the man who headed up the al-Qaida network in southeast Mosul, an insurgent hotbed where U.S. forces wage daily battles against the group.

"Mosul is the center of al-Qaida's terrorist activities today. Mosul is a critical crossroads for al-Qaida in Iraq. Baghdad has always been al-Qaida's operational center of gravity, but Mosul remains their strategic center of gravity as it provides access to the flow of foreign fighters," Smith said.

Noted foreign policy expert Barry Obama was unavailable for comment.

According to the military, al-Saudi planned and conducted numerous attacks against Iraqi and U.S. forces, including a reported attempt with a 5,000-lb vehicle bomb that would have killed hundreds of people if it had exploded.

Al-Saudi was a close associate of al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri and arrived in Mosul with a group of foreign fighters last August after spending time fighting in Afghanistan.

"After fighting and training in Afghanistan, he was brought to Iraq by Abu Ayyub al-Masri in November 2007, one of four Saudi Arabians appointed to supervise al-Qaida activities in Mosul. He was quickly moved up to run all of the terror network's operations in southeast Mosul, becoming the most visible and active al-Qaida operative in the area," Smith said.

Bill Roggio has more.

The Saudis, in the meantime, are busy comparing Israel with Nazis.

Meanwhile, there's another bug in Iraq that needs to be squashed.

Would You Like to Try the Blood Sausage?

Blood sausage certainly is an acquired taste.

Apparently, these dimwits thought a variation on the recipe was a good idea.

TWO German army cooks have been suspended for preparing sausages partly using their own blood, the Focus weekly reported.

Identified only as B. and G., the pair were suspended in December after admitting under questioning they had eaten sausages made with their own blood drawn by the girlfriend of one of the cooks, the news magazine reported.

Pictures of the sausages were published on the Internet.

The two were denounced by a colleague solicited to join their operation, added the article.

How Do You Say Moonbat in French?

Le Troofer

Wow.

No only does this idiot think we were behind 9/11. She also questions the moon landings.

She's a perfect fit for Hollywood.

Oscar-winning actress Marion Cotillard is facing criticism after footage of her apparently questioning the 9/11 attacks surfaced on the internet.

In a interview she reportedly gave a year ago, the star is shown commenting on the events of 11 September 2001.

"I think we're lied to about a number of things," the Paris-born 32-year-old is seen saying in French.

Cotillard's best actress Oscar was one of several awards she won for playing singer Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose.

She is due to begin filming gangster movie Public Enemies with actor Johnny Depp shortly.

In the interview, given to French TV show Paris Premiere, Cotillard appears to suggest the attacks on the World Trade Center were staged to avoid the expense of refurbishing them.

"We see other towers of the same kind being hit by planes, are they burned?" she asks. "There was a tower, I believe it was in Spain, which burned for 24 hours.

"It never collapsed. None of these towers collapsed. And there [in New York], in a few minutes, the whole thing collapsed."

The Twin Towers, she claims, were a "money sucker" that would have cost much more to modernise than to destroy.

The actress goes on to cast doubt on the Moon landing of 1969. "Did a man really walk on the moon?" she asks.

You really have to work hard at being this stupid. She's a Two-fer Troofer. Here's another stunner: She a Greenpeace wacko as well.

Despite her low-key image, Cotillard is an environmental activist who once worked as a spokesman for Greenpeace.

She and Charlie Sheen would make a nice couple.

Not sure about you, but this seems awfully real to me.

Memo to Putie: Up Yours

New Europe™

Prague doesn't want return to Russian sway
The Czech Republic will not ask Russia for permission to site a U.S. radar station on its soil and rejects returning to Moscow's sphere of influence, Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said on Tuesday.

On a visit to Washington to discuss details of a plan to host part of a U.S. anti-missile defense system, Topolanek said the Czech Republic would cooperate with Russia on many issues but would decide its internal affairs alone.

Heh. Undoubtedly the Left will view this man as an eeeevil, mean-spirited right-wing extremist who's trying to start a war. Or something.

The U.S. administration wants to deploy 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic as part of a global shield against long-range ballistic missiles from "rogue" nations such as Iran or North Korea.

Kremlin officials, saying they believe the shield would be directed against Russia, have threatened to target any parts of the defense system deployed in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Topolanek said Moscow was trying to sow confusion among NATO allies, especially those like the Czech Republic that once were members of the old Moscow-dominated Warsaw Pact and were occupied by Soviet forces during the Cold War.

"We do not want to belong again to the sphere of Russian influence," he said. "We do not want to belong to a group of countries which have to ask Russia for permission if they want to ensure their own defense."

Being part of NATO, which the Czech Republic joined in 1999, allowed Prague to have "at least an equal position with Russia" in such matters, he said.

[...]

Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski, on a visit to Washington earlier this month, said his country had agreed in principle to host part of the system after getting assurances that Washington would help Poland with other defense needs.

Topolanek, in a speech to the conservative Heritage Foundation on Tuesday, said some opposition to the missile defense project had been stirred in Europe by "very skillful propaganda of the Russian federation."

He warned against complacency he said was too common among Europeans who think they will never have to again defend themselves. "Unfortunately I think we are again seeing another ghost in Europe, the ghost of appeasement," he said.

The Nazi Party building at Arcisstrasse 12 (Munich) was built as an office building for Hitler himself, called the Führerbau. In this view, the Führerbau is decorated with French and British flags, for the signing of the Munich Accords in September 1938. (National Archives, RG 242-HB)

Read it all at Reuters

Photo & description courtesy of Geoff Walden's excellent Third Reich in Ruins

THE LIGHTS ARE GOING ON ACROSS EUROPE!

Americans can look forward to much closer links with the European Union should a Democrat win the White House later this year. So what could lie in store? Well, have a think about this. British motorists will be hit by up to £160 more in fuel costs because of a new European directive forcing them to drive with their lights on all day. Campaigners say the new rules will make the roads more dangerous for motorcyclists and will lead to more deaths. Britain opposed the measure but was unable to block it because a majority of other EU nations were in favour. So, now even though this edict will directly lead to INCREASED fuel consumption, the EU has decreed it and we must obey. The tyranny of the EU grows by the day and yet there is little political will amongst the elite to DO anything about it and so it will that we will all end up driving around all day with headlights on, increasing our fuel consumption, whilst being lectured by the EU about how polluting us motorists are!

Norks Execute 22, NY Philharmonic Unavailable for Comment

Yes, what a wonderful idea to reach out to the North Koreans.

I hope the useful idiots from the New York Philharmonic sleep well tonight.

North Korea executes 22 fishermen who strayed into South Korean waters by mistake

North Korea has executed 22 fishermen who strayed out of the country's waters by mistake, it was claimed yesterday.

The group were apparently gunned down once they returned to the Stalinist state.

Having drifted into South Korean territory, they had the opportunity to seek asylum, but insisted they never had any intention of doing so.

They told South Korean officials they had strayed accidentally while fishing for clams and oysters, so were sent back to North Korea - and to their deaths.

A South Korean newspaper reported yesterday that all the drifters were immediately shot dead in a secret location by agents of North Korea's national security agency.

It was another alleged incident supporting claims that North Korea has a "no tolerance" policy against anyone suspected of trying to leave the country - even in error.

The drama began when two North Korean fishing boats containing 14 women and eight men - among them three teenagers - drifted into waters off South Korea's Yeonpyeong island.

Such lovely people.

U.S. Nabs Female Bomber Mastermind, Iranian-Trained Sniper Instructor

The U.S. miltary announced the capture of a demon who used women as homicide bombers as well as an Iranian-trained sniper instructor.

Meanwhile, the hunt is on around Mosul for the kidnapped Chaldean Catholic archbishop.

The U.S. military announced the capture Saturday of an insurgent leader who was recruiting and training women, including his wife, to wrap themselves in explosives and blow themselves up — the latest sign that Al Qaeda in Iraq plans to keep using women to carry out deadly homicide attacks.

The military also said it had killed six insurgents and detained 13 suspects Friday and Saturday during operations against Al Qaeda in Iraq in central and northern Iraq.

In another development, the military said Saturday it had captured a sniper instructor in Baghdad who had been trained by the Iranians.

In the case of the suicide vests, the military said the man was arrested Thursday in an operation near the town of Kan Bani Sad, north of Baghdad in Diyala province — still an al Qaeda hotbed.

"The ringleader was a man trying to recruit women to carry out SVEST (suicide vest) bombings. The cell leader used his wife and another woman, to act as carriers of his next SVEST attack," the military said in a statement.

Maj. Daniel J. Meyers, a spokesman for American forces operating north of Baghdad, said the operation was carried after out after receiving a "high level of intelligence."

Women have recently been used more frequently by Al Qaeda in Iraq as bombers, with six attacks or attempted attacks this year alone, according to U.S. military statistics. That's out of a total of 19 such attacks since the U.S.-led invasion began in 2003, Rear Adm. Gregory Smith said in a recent briefing.

The latest included two women with a history of psychiatric treatment who killed about 100 people at pet markets in Baghdad on Feb. 1.

It remains unclear if Al Qaeda has begun using women because it has been unable to recruit new insurgents or because they are more difficult to detect.

The Iranian-trained sniper instructor was arrested along with three other men, and the military said he was also an expert in the use of bombs known as explosively formed penetrators that are designed to defeat the armor used in American military vehicles and tanks. Most of those bombs are designed and often built in neighboring Iran.

"He reportedly coordinated and facilitated Special Groups militia training in Iran on the use of explosively formed penetrators. Reports indicate he was an associate of several Special Groups criminal leaders involved in attacks on Iraqi and Coalition forces," the military said.

Ricin, Firearms, Anarchist Textbook, But No Terror Link?

Something very strange going on in Las Vegas.

As police tried to piece together how a rare, deadly poison ended up in a motel for transients, the 57-year-old man who could hold the key lay unconscious in a hospital.

Adding to the mystery, police said firearms and an "anarchist type textbook" were found in the same room where the ricin was discovered two days later.

Capt. Joseph Lombardo said at a news conference late Friday that the book was tabbed at a spot with information about ricin. Police found the firearms and books on Tuesday after a manager at the Extended Stay America motel called police upon discovering weapons, he said, without elaborating.

After authorities seized the book and weapons, tests for ricin were conducted but came back negative, Lombardo said.

Not to impugn the police or FBI, but at what point do you suppose there could be a terror link? And it might be helpful if we knew the identity of the man in question.

Authorities said there was no apparent link to terrorist activity, and no indication of any spread of the deadly substance beyond the vials.

The 57-year-old man was the last to stay in the room, and has been in critical condition since calling an ambulance on Feb. 14 complaining of respiratory distress.

Authorities offered little more about the man's identity: He left pets in the room and was not considered a suspect. A dog was found dead, but the animal had gone at least a week without food or water, Suey said.

"We don't know an awful lot about him," she said. "We don't even know that it was him that was in possession of the ricin." Suey said she could not say how much ricin was in the vials.

Vladimir Paranoid's Democracy Projekt

The American Left can only dream.

Kremlin accused of fixing presidential poll

• State workers ordered to vote for Putin's protege
  
• Ballot boxes 'to be stuffed' after polls close tomorrow

The Kremlin is planning to falsify the results of tomorrow's presidential election by compelling millions of public-sector workers to vote and by fraudulently boosting the official turnout, the Guardian has been told by independent sources.

Governors, regional officials and even headteachers have been instructed to deliver a landslide majority for Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's first deputy prime minister, whom President Vladimir Putin has endorsed as his successor.

Officials have been told they need to secure a 68-70% turnout in this weekend's poll, with about 72% voting for Medvedev. Independent analysts believe the real turnout will be much lower, with 25-50% of the electorate taking part.

The Kremlin is planning to bridge the gap through widespread fraud, diplomats and other independent sources have told the Guardian. Local election officials are preparing to stuff ballot boxes once polls have closed, they believe, with regional officials giving inflated tallies to Russia's central election commission.

Additionally, public-sector workers including teachers, students and doctors have been told to vote tomorrow or risk serious consequences. Parents have even been warned that if they fail to turn up their children might suffer at school.

Marina Dashenkova, of the Golos independent poll monitoring organisation, said complaints to its hotline were following a similar pattern to those made during the parliamentary poll in December. Forced use of absentee ballots, pressure on state workers and the illegal use of state resources to promote Medvedev were the most common complaints, she said.

Renat Suleymanov, secretary of the Communist party in Novosibirsk region, said state workers in schools, libraries, nurseries and doctors' clinics as well as employees of private companies were "coming under intense pressure" to vote in tightly controlled conditions at their place of work using absentee ballots.

In Vladivostok, Vladimir Bespalov, a member of the local parliament, said he had acquired a document showing that bureaucrats were told to ensure a 65% turnout and a vote of more than 65% for Medvedev. The document laid out precise figures for certain districts, he said, with some expected to deliver 88% for the Kremlin candidate. "Clearly, we are talking about instructions to bureaucrats who are expected to deliver a victory for Medvedev that corresponds to pre-planned results," he said. "According to my information, if these figures are not reached then the people responsible can expect punishment right up to being sacked."

In Niznhny Novgorod, there were reports of students being told to vote for Medvedev or face being thrown out of dormitories. Vladimir Primachyok, a campaign official with presidential candidate and Communist veteran Gennady Zyuganov, the chief rival to Medvedev, claimed students in Irkutsk were being forced to vote under the supervision of college officials. "All of this is a blatant violation of electoral laws," he said.

The purpose of the falsification is to boost the legitimacy of Medvedev, 42, who takes over from Putin in May. Analysts concede that Medvedev would have won the election anyway, but on a much smaller turnout.

"In some places they will put in extra ballots. In other places election officials will give data that just doesn't exist," Mikhail Delyagin, an economist and the director of Moscow's Institute of Globalisation Problems, told the Guardian.

"Everybody knows what to do," said the political scientist Stanislav Belkovsky. "The technology has been proved over the past four years. Once the polls close unused ballot papers are taken, filled in for Medvedev of course, and thrown into the box. The boxes are then stamped, and reopened a second later. Then they start to count."

Asked why the Kremlin elite felt the need to fix the election, Belkovsky said: "They can't be Saddam Hussein or the Chinese leadership. The idea is to gain legitimacy in the west."

One western diplomat said that the administration was involved in a complicated "numbers game" designed to ensure that Medvedev won a clear first round victory in Sunday's vote, but didn't exceed the 71.3% won by Putin in 2004. There would be little "systematic overt rigging" during voting, the diplomat said. Instead the figures would be "massaged" during the accounting and tabulation process, he suggested. "In a country of this size how do you monitor that?" he asked.

The Kremlin has shrugged off accusations that it manipulated last December's poll - despite the fact that in several areas, including Chechnya and other parts of the North Caucasus, 99% of the population "voted" for Putin's United Russia party. The turnout in Chechnya was 99.6%. Putin said the result was "perfectly objective".

This week the leading Soviet dissident Sergei Kovalev wrote an open letter to Putin, describing Russia's elections as nothing more than a "tasteless farce being played out by untalented directors on the entire boundless Russian stage". "Not even Stalin could have dreamed of the Chechen record," he added.

Medvedev is competing against Zyuganov, ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, and Andrey Bogdanov, a Kremlin-supporting independent. The Kremlin prevented Mikhail Kasyanov, the only genuinely democratic challenger, from taking part.

The Communists have repeatedly complained of overwhelming media bias in the run-up to the poll. State TV has lavishly covered Medvedev's daily activities and his tour of Russia's far east.

In a televised address yesterday Putin urged Russians to vote. "The voice of each one of you will be important," he said, adding that they needed to turn out so that the next president could be "effective and confident".

'I want to vote the way I want'

Schoolteacher, Novosibirsk

"They got us teachers together in the school a couple of weeks ago and told us to take absentee ballots and vote at work. They told us election day will be a working day. A few young teachers asked, 'What about freedom of expression?' They were told, 'If you want freedom, go and look for work in a different place.'

"I have a colleague who works in a different school in the city and she says the same thing happened to them. She took an absentee ballot and showed it to her boss and they ticked her off the list.

"They want people to vote at work because it will be easier for them to control the process there. Since the meeting in our school they have constantly been coming to us and asking if we have taken our absentee ballots. I refused to take one. I'm going to vote in the place where I live. I want to vote the way I want and not how somebody tells me.

"I've heard that the same thing is going on in kindergartens all across the city. They're being told to take absentee ballots and vote in a particular place, all together.

"If they found out I had been talking to you they would sack me."

The Kooky Kos Kiddyz were unavailable for comment.

Via The Guardian

Galloway: Taliban Not My Enemy

Yes, but if the Taliban caught you wearing this costume they'd probably saw your head off, you idiot.

Respect MP George Galloway questioned Prince Harry's claim to be fighting Britain's enemies in Afghanistan.

And the MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, who was expelled from the Labour Party over comments he made while opposing the war in Iraq, voiced concern over the media blackout which prevented publicity about Harry's deployment for almost three months.

Mr Galloway said he did not like to see the British media, and particularly the BBC, becoming "part of the war effort".

Speaking on BBC1's Question Time last night, Mr Galloway said: "Prince Harry was saying on TV that he was engaging the enemy. I don't know about you, but I have no enemies in Afghanistan."

Challenged by host David Dimbleby over whether the Taliban were the enemy, he replied: "The Taliban are not the enemy for me."

You have to be a special kind of paranoid freak to think the BBC is part of the war effort, considering their special relationship with jihadis.

Jewish basketball team gets an unlikely ally

I thought I had posted this earlier but I see I didn't. There is a high school team from a Jewish school that may be forced to forfeit it's championship game because the Colorado High School Activities Association has already rejected the team's request to move the game to any day but Saturday - a day on which the players are not, by Jewish law, permitted to play sports.

My congratulations to the members of Colorado's Herzl/Rocky Mountain Hebrew Academy basketball team on their successful playoff run. With one more victory, they'll reach the regional championships on Saturday, March 8th.

Well now they have picked up an unlikely ally, CAIR. Yes that organization that is an unindicted co conspirator in the Holy Land Charity case, or at least a local chapter of that organization has issued a statement of support for the lads.

"In a nation as religiously diverse as America, it is important that we all make the extra effort to accommodate the beliefs and practices of others," said Amina Rubin, communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington. "Student athletes should not be forced to choose between their faith and participation in sports."

There is one distinct difference however that needs to be made. While the school is using the proper channel to address the matter they are not seething, rioting, threatening to burn cars or espousing any sort of violent reaction should the athletic board not concede to their request. I don't think the same thing could be said of a certain other religion who apparently are bereft of any sense of humor.