Befuddled Media Can't Figure Out Where 533,000 Jobs Went

There are several aspects to the current recession that the mainstream media will not tell you about or connect together.

First, the economy was still growing when the Democrats took control of Congress two years ago. There were growing problems in the macro economy to be sure, but there was also time to deal with them. But all the Democrats were interested in, as well as the MSM (redundant, I know), was demonizing Bush so they could get a Democrat elected President.

Second, in the same month that Obama was elected President, 533.000 jobs were eliminated in. Here is one reason why.

Daschle maintains the efforts to bring about universal health coverage in the first two years of the Clinton presidency took too long. In a book published earlier this year, he urged the next president to act immediately to capitalize on the goodwill that greets any incoming administration. His speech and recent behind-the-scenes meetings with lawmakers and consumer groups address that point.

"We need to be on the offense," Daschle said.

He cited other lessons, too. This time around, lawmakers can't try to address every detail when it comes to legislation.

"Details kill," Daschle said. "If we get too far into the weeds, if we produce a 1,500- or 1,600-page bill, we're going to get hung up on all the details and we're never going to get to the principles."

Once Congress does take up a health plan, it also can't divert attention to other subjects, he said.

"Let's not put it down, let it lie there for months and months and figure out a time when we can get back to it later," Daschle said at a Colorado Health Care Summit organized by Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo.

Nevertheless, any health care overhaul will have an enormous price tag. During the campaign, Obama said he planned to pay for expanding health coverage in part by increasing taxes on the wealthy and requiring larger businesses to provide health coverage or contribute a portion of their payroll to a new public insurance plan. The current recession provides a significant obstacle to both options.

So let's summarize the plan:

1. Take over 17% of the economy by nationalizing health care services.

2. Be offensive and act fast.

3. Don't provide any details, just get some sob stories out there in the media.

4. Raise taxes on "the wealthy" punish businesses, and deficit spend (thus also raising taxes via the back door). See, if you cut your payroll, you stand a good chance of limiting your exposure to Obama's higher taxes.

And then some folks wonder why 533,000 jobs got cut in November.

A large part of the reason is Obama's socialistic plans to punish business and make them pay into some fund per employee. Fewer employees, less health insurance tax you have to pay.

This will create more incentive for business to contract out work, automate, anything but increase employment.

I predict the biggest growth sectors in the next four years will be automated business systems, agencies that contract out labor, and the federal government.

Coolest Year of the Decade 'Not Evidence That Global Warming is Slowing'

We could be encased in a sheet of ice and these pinheads will never admit they've been part of the greatest hoax of all time.

This year is set to be the coolest since 2000, according to a preliminary estimate of global average temperature that is due to be released next week by the Met Office. The global average for 2008 should come in close to 14.3C, which is 0.14C below the average temperature for 2001-07.

The relatively chilly temperatures compared with recent years are not evidence that global warming is slowing however, say climate scientists at the Met Office. "Absolutely not," said Dr Peter Stott, the manager of understanding and attributing climate change at the Met Office's Hadley Centre. "If we are going to understand climate change we need to look at long-term trends."

Prof Myles Allen at Oxford University who runs the climateprediction.net website, said he feared climate sceptics would overinterpret the figure. "You can bet your life there will be a lot of fuss about what a cold year it is. Actually no, its not been that cold a year, but the human memory is not very long, we are used to warm years," he said, "Even in the 80s [this year] would have felt like a warm year."

Sure.

Noted climatologist Algore was unavailable for comment.

'Welcome to My Hanging'

All those lefties who fantasize about Bush being brought to "justice" must be wetting themselves over this line.

Earlier in the day, Bush got a look at how history will remember him — at least in one artist's view — as he presided over the unveiling of his portrait at a private club.

"Welcome to my hanging," Bush said, drawing laughs from the well-dressed audience in The Union League's ornate hall.

The portrait shows Bush staring straight ahead, looking comfortable but not quite smiling, against the backdrop of the White House's Treaty Room. The sitting took place in March, when artist Mark Carder took hundreds of photographs to capture details, such as Bush's skin color.

The president put his hands on his hips and eyed the painting when it was unveiled, as if to judge whether Carder got it right. "He did a really fine job with a challenging subject," Bush said.

Good to see he still has a sense of humor, something his enemies are sorely lacking.

D'oh! Murdering Scum O.J. Would've Gotten Less Time With a Plea Deal

Of course it it weren't for the black racist LA jury back in 1995, he'd have already been in jail for life. But this arrogant prick was too stupid to realize when he had a good deal.

Now, hopefully, he rots in prison.

O.J. Simpson is headed to prison for at least nine years, but a prosecutor says the former football star could have spent less time behind bars if he had accepted a plea deal before he was convicted.

Clark County District Attorney David Roger said Simpson was offered a deal for less prison time than the nine- to 33-year prison terms the graying former football star was sentenced to on Friday for kidnapping and assaulting two sports memorabilia dealers with a deadly weapon.

"Mr. Simpson wanted something just short of a public apology," Roger said. "We didn't think that was appropriate."

Roger did not offer specifics of the deal and Simpson's defense lawyers declined to discuss details.

PC Nitwits Gather to Light 'Holiday Tree'

Oh, brother, here we go again.

It's a Christmas tree, you morons.

City of White Plains Mayor Joseph M. Delfino invites everyone to celebrate the holiday season at and our “City Lights Bright Holiday Nights Community Tree Lighting”.

Good grief. A community tree?

Elsewhere in New York, there will be another holiday tree lighting.

Frank and Marie Riberdy of Waterford plan to be in the crowd on Sunday and will proudly watch when the holiday trees are lighted at the Empire State Plaza and East Capitol Park.

The story doesn't even contain the word Christmas. Heaven forbid.

Meanwhile, the kooks in Seattle are engaging in their usual holiday lunacy.

So nice of the left to bring us all together at holiday time.

New York Times Baffled How a Conservative, Oil-Drilling State Isn't in Recession

A real head-scratcher. Let's see: They drill for oil, are a relatively conservative farming state and actually have jobs they can't fill.

So the Times considers this odd.

And as some states’ unemployment rates stretched perilously close to the double digits in the fall, North Dakota’s was 3.4 percent, among the lowest in the country.

“We feel like we have been living in a bubble,” said Justin Theel, part owner of a dealership that sells Toyotas, Dodges and Scions in Bismarck. “We see the national news every day. We know things are tough. But around here, our people have gone to their jobs every day knowing that they’re going to get a paycheck and that they’ll go back the next day.”

North Dakota’s cheery circumstance — which economic analysts are quick to warn is showing clear signs that it, too, may be in jeopardy — can be explained by an odd collection of factors: a recent surge in oil production that catapulted the state to fifth-largest producer in the nation; a mostly strong year for farmers (agriculture is the state’s biggest business); and a conservative, steady, never-fancy culture that has nurtured fewer sudden booms of wealth like those seen elsewhere (“Our banks don’t do those goofy loans,” Mr. Theel said) and also fewer tumultuous slumps.

As it happens, one of the state’s biggest worries right now is precisely the reverse of most other states: North Dakota has about 13,000 unfilled jobs and is struggling to find people to take them.
...
“Our problem is that everybody thinks that it’s a cold, miserable place to live,” said Bob Stenehjem, a Republican and the State Senate’s majority leader. “They’re wrong, of course. But North Dakota is a pretty well-kept secret.”

They obviously have good leadership. Consider their neighbors to the east in very liberal Minnesota are struggling mightily while North Dakota is showing a surplus. Go figure. Maybe the rest of the nation should listen to what they're doing right.

Just as state officials in Minnesota — due east of here — this week revealed a staggering $5.2 billion deficit, Gov. John Hoeven of North Dakota gathered with lawmakers at the State Capitol to talk, in part, about the $1.2 billion budget surplus — the result, in part, of increased revenues from oil, and a sum that is all the more astonishing given the size of the state’s total budget, $7.7 billion over the next two years.

Mr. Hoeven, a Republican whose party controls both chambers of the state legislature and who was re-elected last month with more than 70 percent of the vote, offered proposals few other states are likely to hear this year: $400 million in property and income tax relief, $130 million more for kindergarten through 12th-grade education, 5 percent raises for state workers, $18 million for expansion of a state heritage center, and so on.

Damn fiscally-responsible Republicans are making everyone look bad. Perhaps their GOP brethren in Washington should take note. Better yet, maybe it's time a guy like John Hoeven came to DC.

A Nice Parting Gift for the Vegan Wackadoo in Your Life: The PETA Coffin

Just for the record, no animals were harmed in the making of this coffin.

THE OLD PINE BOX is pleased to be able to offer a special line of coffins in support of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Designed by the folks at PETA and built exclusively by THE OLD PINE BOX, these coffins allow you to voice your defense of all creatures even after your own voice is silenced. Every coffin purchased from this selection will result in a net contribution of $75.00 to PETA.

Purchasers will also receive discount coupons for psychoanalysis.

Unrepentant Ayers: 'Hey, We Only Blew Up Small Bombs, So Everything's Cool, Right?'

Unrepentant terrorist and full time scumbag William Ayers returns to grace the pages of the New York Times, home of his notorious September 11, 2001 column.

This guy just doesn't get it, never will, and lies through his teeth.

Unable to challenge the content of Barack Obama’s campaign, his opponents invented a narrative about a young politician who emerged from nowhere, a man of charm, intelligence and skill, but with an exotic background and a strange name. The refrain was a question: “What do we really know about this man?”

Secondary characters in the narrative included an African-American preacher with a fiery style, a Palestinian scholar and an “unrepentant domestic terrorist.”

Conveniently omitted from this narrative is "convicted shady financier" Tony Rezko.

I never killed or injured anyone. I did join the civil rights movement in the mid-1960s, and later resisted the draft and was arrested in nonviolent demonstrations. I became a full-time antiwar organizer for Students for a Democratic Society. In 1970, I co-founded the Weather Underground, an organization that was created after an accidental explosion that claimed the lives of three of our comrades in Greenwich Village. The Weather Underground went on to take responsibility for placing several small bombs in empty offices — the ones at the Pentagon and the United States Capitol were the most notorious — as an illegal and unpopular war consumed the nation.

An accidental explosion? What, was it like a gas main happened to go off and these nonviolent comrades just happened to be in the neighborhood? No, the dumb shits detonated prematurely.

We did carry out symbolic acts of extreme vandalism directed at monuments to war and racism, and the attacks on property, never on people, were meant to respect human life and convey outrage and determination to end the Vietnam war.

Bombimgs are now translated as symbolic acts of extreme vandalism.

Ayers goes on to babble about diversity and hardly knowing Barack Obama, as if there's anyone alive who believes that nonsense. But this line about the Weather Underground being some harmless group of protesters just cannot stand. How does Ayers explain his comrades murdering two Nyack, NY police officers years after the illegal and unjust war ended?

Boudin is the son of Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert, members of the militant Weathermen. They're the 1960s group of rich-kid radicals who bombed government buildings and corporate headquarters, aided convicted felons in jail breaks, and participated in a 1981 Brinks' armored car holdup in Nyack, N.Y., that took the lives of three innocent Americans in the name of "peace." Boudin's mother and father were convicted for their participation in the Nyack murders and armed robbery, and remain remorselessly in prison today.

Two of the holdup victims gunned down in the botched Brinks' robbery were police officers. One was a private security guard. All three were veterans from working-class backgrounds. Neither the Times nor any other media outlet that has breathlessly reported on Boudin's Rhodes scholarship win has even seen fit to print the names of the Nyack victims: Waverly Brown, Edward O'Grady, and Peter Paige.

That name Chesa Boudin should sound familiar.

Chesa Boudin's indifference to the victims of his parents' ideological jihad was reinforced by his adoptive parents--unrepentant Weathermen colleagues Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. Ayers celebrated bombing the Pentagon in his recent radical memoir, "Fugitive Days," and now teaches at the University of Illinois in Chicago. Dohrn declared war on "Amerikka," helped stage the "Days of Rage" in Chicago, when Weathermen blew up a memorial statue to police officers and rioted violently, leaving 75 policemen wounded and one permanently injured in a wheelchair, and then spent years as a fugitive from justice before settling into a comfy post as director of the Legal Clinic's Children and Family Justice Center at Northwestern University.

From both his biological and adoptive parents, Chesa Boudin has learned to stew in the indignant self-pity of Marxist leftovers. "When I was younger, I was angry," the 22-year-old told his sympathetic Times interviewer. "Now I'm not angry. I'm sad that my parents have to suffer what they have to suffer on a daily basis, that millions of other people have to suffer as well."

Neither Boudin or Ayers are angry any longer. They're just peaceful activists with a lot of blood on their hands and welcoming arms at the New York Times.

Are You Male, Female or 'Intersex'?

I guess it all depends on your mood when you wake up. I'm sure this won't create any unnecessary confusion.

THE Federal Government's human rights arm plans to invent a new official status called "intersex" adding it to male and female as a legally recognised gender.

The Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission wants people to be able to change their gender on their passports and driving licences even if they do not undergo surgery.

And transgender lobby groups say that even this does not go far enough and are demanding a fourth legal gender called "other" for people who feel like their gender is indefinable or changes from day to day.

Simply put, this is madness.

Milwaukee Community Organizers to Print Their Own Money

Why do I get the feeling this "currency" will look something like this?

They may be talking funny money, but it's not funny business.

Residents from the Milwaukee neighborhoods of Riverwest and East Side are scheduled to meet Wednesday to discuss printing their own money. The idea is that the local cash could be used at neighborhood stores and businesses, thus encouraging local spending. The result, supporters hope, would be a bustling local economy, even as the rest of the nation deals with a recession.

"You have all these people who have local currency, and they're going to spend it at local stores," said Sura Faraj, a community organizer who is helping spearhead the plan. "They can't spend it at the Wal-Mart or the Home Depot, but they can spend it at their local hardware store or their local grocery store."

Yeah, why let them spend their money at an evil Wal-Mart or Home Depot, where they can get the most for their money?

I wonder if the local crack dealers will accept this funny money?

'Please Make Me Look Like an Idiot for Asking These Questions'

Don't worry, you already look like one.

I begged the McCain campaign by private email and in a private meeting to give me something - anything - to kill the story off. I promised to run any evidence that would blow this out of the water. That offer still stands. Please make me look like an idiot for asking these questions. But they didn't offer a thing, asserting that even asking the question was an outrageous reputation-destroying offense. Maybe Michelle Malkin is right that this is truther, tin-foil hat territory.

Uh, yes, Michelle is right.

And you need help.

Stupid Teacher Tricks: Teaching a Lesson on Slavery By Tying Up Black Students

This idiot Eileen Bernstein may want to just change her name and get out of town now. Seriously, is this some kind of twisted joke? She can't be this clueless to think binding black kids by the hands and feet is a useful part of teaching a lesson on slavery. You can bet your last dollar Al Sharpton will be at that school by the end of the day looking for some face time.

Christine Shand was shocked when her daughter came home from Haverstraw Middle School one recent afternoon and burst into tears.

But when she heard why her daughter, Gabrielle, was crying, she became angry. During a Nov. 18 seventh-grade history lesson on slavery, the teacher, Eileen Bernstein, who is white, selected two black students - one of whom was 13-year-old Gabrielle - taped their hands and feet, and had them crawl into the space under a desk to simulate what it must have been like for slaves transported in ships' holds during the voyage to America.

Gabrielle was emotionally hurt and embarrassed and remains uncomfortable in the class, Shand sid.

Shand attended a meeting at the school yesterday with the principal, Avis Shelby, Bernstein and others.

Shelby said she has talked to the teacher about the incident. Bernstein meant to demonstrate the lesson, and models and demonstrations and re-enactments "are used all the time in teaching, and that was her intent," Shelby said yesterday.

In retrospect, the teacher "realizes that that was not a good choice and we've rectified the situation in terms of not using that simulation again," she added.

There have been no complaints other than that of Shand, who came to the meeting with a representative of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, but Shelby said the school was taking the matter seriously.

"Mrs. Bernstein is very regretful about this incident ... that was certainly not her intent for this young lady to be uncomfortable, and she'll be working with myself and the district, too, and also with the Shands, to try to rectify the situation," Shelby said.

Good luck with that.

Just Shut Up! Don't Even Sing

Ain't Karma a beotch!

Natalie Maines, most famous for single-handedly destroying one of the most popular and successful country western acts to come down the road by making disparaging comments about President Bush in England, is now facing more legal problems.

Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines is the target of a defamation lawsuit by the stepfather of one of three 8-year-old boys slain in 1993.

Maines spoke out for three people convicted of the slayings and alleged the stepfather was instead involved in the killings.

The whole story revolves around three 8-year-old kids that were killed and the conviction of three other youths for their murder. Natalie apparently has never met a conspiracy theory she didn't like and is speaking out, pointing fingers at the stepfather of one of the slain kids.

I hope he gets every bit of money she has left.

Shocker: Another New Rangel Ethics Scandal

Let's put it this way. Has he ever done anything ethical? Really, you can't get and shadier or sleazier than this guy.

New ethics problems are looming for beleaguered Rep. Charles Rangel - this time over thousands of dollars of his campaign cash reportedly steered to an Internet company run by his son.

Nearly $80,000 went to Web sites run by 40-year-old Steven Rangel between 2004 and 2007 - a hefty premium for sites described as cheap-looking and shoddy, Politico.com reports.

It's all legal, but the report couldn't come at a worse time. The Ways and Means Committee chairman faces House Ethics Committee probes into his failure to pay taxes on a vacation home, his rent-stabilized apartments, and the use of his office to solicit money for a college center named after him.

Federal Election Commission filings show that Rep. Rangel's leadership PAC and congressional committee shelled out $79,560 to Edisonian Innovative Works LLC for Web sites, according to Politico.

Queen Pelosi was unavailable for comment.

'If You Go To Utah, You're Funding Hate'

John Aravosis, Douchebag of the Day.

ORGANIZERS of the Sundance Film Festival insist 2009 is going to be their biggest year yet - an assertion that gay-rights activists will not be pleased to hear.

While the star-studded event announced the 118 movies in its lineup yesterday, activists remain up in arms over the festival's involvement with supporters of Proposition 8, the amendment that passed in California, banning same-sex marriage.

The festival is held every year in January in Park City, Utah, the state that's a stronghold of the Mormon Church, whose elders "organized its followers to support the amendment banning same-sex marriage . . . and encouraged them to give generously to the cause," according to The Advocate.

Sundance organizers screen many festival films in Cinemark Theaters, owned by Alan Stock, who made a personal donation of $9,900 to support Prop 8.

Political activist and AmericaBlog.com editor John Aravosis, who uncovered Stock's funding of the amendment, told Page Six: "If you go to Utah, you're funding hate."

A Sundance Institute representative said all the movies that screen in Cinemark theaters will also be shown at alternate locations. But Aravosis fumes, "Just moving movies around is not enough. Money from this festival is funneled directly to the Mormon Church and to a supporter of Prop 8. Sundance should simply say they won't screen films in a hate theater."

A hate theater?

Temper tantrums are so unbecoming.

Grow up, John.

Envious of Nonstop Plaxico Burress Coverage, a New York Jet Gets Himself Arrested

It's always been difficult for the Jets playing in the shadow of the Giants. Clearly upset with all the attention paid this week to the boneheaded Plaxico Burress, Jets lineman Shaun Ellis decided he'd seen enough and has made a play to grab the headlines back.

OK, just being facetious there. But Ellis did get busted on a marijuana charge last Saturday, but we're only finding out about it today.

Jets defensive end Shaun Ellis, a team captain, was arrested for possession of marijuana during a traffic stop last Saturday morning near the team's training facility in Florham Park, N.J., the club confirmed Thursday.

Ellis, 31, played the following day against the Broncos, and will be allowed to play Sunday in San Francisco, according to a team spokesman.

"I apologize to my family, the fans and the organization," Ellis said in a statement released through the team. "As a captain, I set a poor example for my teammates as well as all NFL players. Although this is a pending legal matter, I understand that I have to be responsible for my actions."

Ellis' case will be reviewed under the NFL's substance-abuse policy, a league spokesman said. He could be suspended by the commissioner, according to the policy. Any player convicted of, or admitting to a violation of the law, including possession of a substance other than alcohol, is subject to discipline.

But according to an NFL source, it would take several months for any discipline to be handed down, meaning it won't affect Ellis' ability to finish this season. The Jets declined to say whether they would discipline him.

Ellis also was charged with driving without insurance and speeding after he was stopped by a Hanover Township police officer at 8:37 a.m. Ellis was stopped after allegedly speeding past a police car on Route 287 South. He was "uncooperative" and refused to hand over his paperwork, according to a police statement.

Ellis was charged with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia. He also was issued summonses for driving without insurance, speeding, failure to keep right and failure to produce a valid registration card.

No indication whether he was sparking up at 8:37 a.m. Seems just a bit early to be getting stoned.

Danish Warship Sinks Pirate Ship

Strangely enough, they actually rescued these thugs before sinking their ship.

A DANISH anti-piracy warship has rescued seven suspected pirates whose boat had broken down in the Gulf of Aden and then sank their heavily-armed vessel.

Danish soldiers seized several anti-tank rockets and AK-47 assault rifles from the pirate ship, whose engine had failed 90 nautical miles from Yemen, a television reporter aboard the Absalon navy ship said.

The pirates, who said they had been adrift at sea for eight days, were fed by the Danish navy and placed on inflatable boats with Danish navy divers alongside the Absalon.

According to Reuters, they're "suspected" pirates. We can't rush to any hasty conclusion here.

The Naval Operational Command said the Absalon was bound by international law to help the men and that Danish sailors had uncovered a number of weapons onboard the vessel similar to those often used in pirate attacks on merchant ships.

Honestly, would anyone give a shit if their boat was sank with the "suspected" pirates on board?

Obama Plans 'Islamic Address'

If this is as tedious as that vaunted speech on race, looks for stifled yawns from the world's 87.6 billion Muslims.

Showing true resolve and forthright decision making, Obama isn't even sure where he wants to address the enemies of society.

President-elect Barack Obama’s aides say he is considering making a major foreign policy speech from an Islamic capital during his first 100 days in office.

So where should he do it? The list of Islamic world capitals is long, and includes the obvious —Riyadh, Kuwait City, Islamabad — and the not-so-obvious — Male (the Maldives), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), Tashkent (Uzbekistan). Some wise-guys have even suggested Dearborn, Mich., as a possibility.

Clearly it would be cheating for Mr. Obama to fly to Detroit, talk to Dearborn’s 30,000 Arab residents and call it a day. And Male and Ouagadougou, while certainly majority Muslim, can’t really be what Mr. Obama’s aides have in mind when they talk about locales for a high-profile speech that would seek to mend rifts between the United States and the broader Muslim world.

So Burkina Faso and the Maldives are out. But that leaves a whole swath of Islamic capitals, all ready to be spruced up for Mr. Obama to make his speech. I’ve thought hard about this, and asked a few people — diplomats even — which capital Mr. Obama should pick.

The consensus, after an entire day of reporting, is Cairo.

Why Cairo? It’s a matter of elimination. I called Ziad Asali, the president of the American Task Force on Palestine, to gauge his thoughts. “Damascus would be cool, except it would look as if he was rewarding the Syrians and it’s too soon for that,” Mr. Asali said.

I guess he'll have to wait a couple more months before getting in bed with Syria.

Hey, maybe he can give his speech in Londonistan?

Man Assaults Girlfriend With Cheeseburger

What the hell is going on in Florida with these food assaults? Last month a guy hit his girlfriend with a club sandwich while she was driving, and now some knucklehead is smacking his girlfriend with a cheeseburger.

A Vero Beach man is accused of assaulting his girlfriend multiple times with a McDonald's cheeseburger, according to his arrest affidavit.

The woman told the Indian River County Sheriff's Office she was sitting a car in front of the home she shares with Vincent Gonzalez, 22, of the 300 block of 12th Road, Vero Beach. The couple began arguing and Gonzalez would not allow her to leave the car, the affidavit said. The woman threw Gonzalez's drink out of the car, the report said. In response, Gonzalez grabbed the woman's arm and forced the cheeseburger into her face, the report said. Both of them stepped out of the vehicle and Gonzalez smashed the cheeseburger again into the woman's face.

The sad part is she asked for no cheese.

Surprise! 'Long Island's Favorite Magician' a Kiddie Porn Freak

Newsday graciously provides a photo of the guys's home and his address. I would assume by now he's in hiding or remanded to the county lockup until trial, the better to avoid catching a beating from some angry parents.

The Central Islip man charged with secretly filming women and young girls in a changing room during photo shoots at his home faces more charges after an investigation revealed 20 more victims, police said Thursday.

Robert Infantino, a photographer and frequent performer at schools who billed himself as " Long Island's Favorite Magician," was arrested again Wednesday following a three-month probe, Suffolk police said.

Following his arrest in August, Infantino pleaded not guilty to two counts of promoting a sexual performance by a child, 12 counts of unlawful surveillance and 64 counts of possessing child pornography. At the time, there were three known victims, police said.

An indictment unsealed in September in Riverhead revealed three more victims, authorities said.

The Suffolk police Special Victims and Computer Crimes Section and the Child Abuse and Domestic Violence Bureau of the Suffolk County district attorney's office identified more victims, and the case was presented to a grand jury, which handed down a 33-count indictment against Infantino, authorities said.

Infantino, 50, surrendered at the Seventh Precinct Wednesday. He was charged with promoting a sexual performance by a child and 32 counts of unlawful surveillance second degree. He is scheduled for arraignment Thursday in Riverhead.

Following Infantino's initial arrest, prosecutors said investigators also found a substantial cache of child pornography on Infantino's computer.

"One of the reasons we're concerned here is we're dealing with someone who's been a magician for the last 24 years," Assistant District Attorney John Cortes said at the time. "There may be other victims out there."

You think?

'The Sense of Entitlement That This Blowhard Personifies is Truly Stunning'

It's not every day I agree with a HuffPoster. In fact it's very rare. But I must say this item from David Sirota really nails that pompous buffoon Chris Matthews.

Having grown up outside of Philadelphia, I just want to say I really hope Chris Matthews runs for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, and is humiliatingly obliterated in a Democratic primary (preferably by a good progressive like, for instance, former Rep. Joe Hoeffel).* The sense of entitlement that this blowhard personifies is truly stunning. He's spent his entire life as a principle-free political gossip in Washington - a human embodiment of all that is sick and wrong with Beltway culture. And yet, he really thinks he can just parachute into one of the largest states in the country, buy a mansion in Philadelphia and be a senator on sheer celebrity alone. I mean, maybe he can - maybe politics is now so devoid of meaning that this is just the way it is. But I really hope not.

Read the rest. I don't agree with some of his other points, but he's spot on regarding Matthews.

Meanwhile, the employers of his low-rated cable shoutfest are hoping he goes sooner than later.

If Matthews is serious about running, some within the network hope he commits to the Pennsylvania Senate race sooner rather than later. Otherwise, his nightly presence on “Hardball” provides easy fodder to critics fueling the narrative that MSNBC is in the tank for the Democratic party. After NBC News was stung by criticism during the presidential campaign — charged with bias resulting from the antics of more outspoken personalities on MSNBC — staffers worry the situation will be repeated over the next six months.

Quagmire! NBC, CNN Cut Hundreds of Jobs

Maybe this wouldn't have happened if they actually reported the news. Instead they sold their soul to the Democratic Party and in effect became adjuncts to the DNC.

Now look where it got them. Redeployed to the unemployment line.

First up is the far left NBC cutting 500 jobs. They throw millions at the moron they have on MSNBC at 8 pm while staffers get pink slips.

TVNewser has learned NBC Universal will be cutting up to 500 jobs in a round of layoffs which are now underway at all levels of the company — television, film and parks. That amounts to about 3% of the workforce. An insider with knowledge of the situation says the cuts are expected to continue into next week.
...
Last month, TVNewser reported the network was offering buyouts to "virtually everyone." If enough employees did not accept the offer, layoffs were to be the next step.

Meanwhile, CNN is lopping off entire units.

CNN, the Cable News Network, announced yesterday that it will cut its entire science, technology, and environment news staff, including Miles O’Brien, its chief technology and environment correspondent, as well as six executive producers. Mediabistro’s TVNewser broke the story.

“We want to integrate environmental, science and technology reporting into the general editorial structure rather than have a stand alone unit,” said CNN spokesperson Barbara Levin. “Now that the bulk of our environmental coverage is being offered through the Planet in Peril franchise, which is produced by the Anderson Cooper 360 program, there is no need for a separate unit.”

There's a lesson to be learned here if they're paying attention: Less environmental hysteria equals fewer people tuning them out.

They'll never listen, of course, which is why they're sinking into the morass.

“It’s disheartening,” said Christy George, who is president of the Society of Environmental Journalists and has worked closely there with Peter Dykstra, CNN’s outgoing executive producer for science and technology. “For the last year or two, television has, in general, been making a commitment to beefing up its environmental coverage.”

If only they realized there's no such thing as global warming and they've been wasting their time and money.

Lego My Terrorist

What little jihadist wouldn't want one of these?

A range of Lego-style figures including an al-Qaeda terrorist and Nazi officer have been slammed by religious leaders for 'glorifying terrorism.'

One of the children's toys - made from customised Lego men - resembles a masked follower of Osama bin Laden complete with a rocket launcher, assault rifle and grenades.

Another of the warped figures is a gun-wielding German major, whose uniform bears the SS insignia, which can be bought along with a replica Nazi stormtrooper.

Mohammed Shaffiq of Muslim organisation The Ramadhan Foundation told The Sun the figures were 'absolutely disgusting'.

He said: 'It is glorifying terrorism - the makers should be ashamed. We should be coming together to unite against terrorism but how is that possible when children are playing with toys like this?'

Edie Friedman, director of the Jewish Council for Racial Equality, added: 'These distasteful toys are something we could all well do without, especially when there is so much tension around.'

The two-and-a-half inch figures are customised from Lego toys by the American makers BrickArms who claim to have sold tens of thousands of them in 35 countries.

What a lovely array of weaponry BrickArms offers. Nothing like a mini RPG or a frag grenade for the tykes.

'You Can Say What You Like, But He Was a Good Man to Us'

Word has it he really like animals, too. As for those six million people he had slaughtered? Well, he did have some faults, I guess.

History has condemned him as the megalomaniac who brought death and misery to millions.

But for one woman, the name Adolf Hitler evokes a smile not a shudder.

She is Rosa Mitterer, who worked as a maid for the Fuhrer at his mountain retreat in Bavaria in the 1930s.

Rosa is 91 and until now has kept a vow of silence about her experiences. She has chosen to break it after realising she is the last survivor of the circle who served the the tyrant in the years before he launched the Second World War.

And her verdict on her former master: 'He was a charming man, someone who was only ever nice to me, a great boss to work for. You can say what you like, but he was a good man to us.'

Rosa's remembrances of life at the court of the tyrant make gripping reading. She saw leading Nazis come and go. Himmler, the evil party secretary; Bormann, whom she described as a 'dirty pig'; and the club-footed, sexually-obsessed propaganda minister Goebbels.

Rosa went into Hitler's service at the age of 15 in 1932 when she was Rosa Krautenbacher. Her sister Anni had worked as a cook at Hitler's Berchtesgaden retreat since the late 1920s.

'She said he needed a housemaid and I would fit the bill,' Rosa recalled. 'I remember so clearly the first day I spoke to him in the kitchen. I said I was Anni's sister and that made him smile, because Anni was his favourite. I only ever knew Hitler as a kindly man who was good to me.'

Shock Poll: Religious People Oppose Gay Marriage

Anything they can do to avoid blaming Obama voters for abolishing gay marriage.

Voters' economic status and religious convictions played a greater role than race and age in determining whether they supported the Nov. 4 ballot measure outlawing same-sex marriage in California, a new poll shows.

The ban drew its strongest support from both evangelical Christians and voters who didn't attend college, according to results released Wednesday by the Public Policy Institute of California.

Age and race, meanwhile, were not as strong factors as assumed. According to the poll, 56 percent of voters over age 55 and 57 percent of nonwhite voters cast a yes ballot for the gay marriage ban.

'In America, 'Socialism' is a Dirty Word'

Would be nice if it were true.

Sadly, it's not the word of the year.

REFLECTING what's on the minds of Americans, "bailout" and "socialism" beat "maverick" in a US dictionary's word of the year contest.

Bailout - "a rescue from financial distress'' - was declared the winner of Merriam-Webster's word of the year competition on Monday after it was judged the most looked-up word on the dictionary's website, Merriam-Webster editor-at-large Peter Sokolowski said.

'''Bail out' as a phrasal verb refers to parachuting from an aircraft or, in our second sense, to abandoning a harmful or difficult situation, both of which point to distress,'' said Mr Sokolowski.

Second on the list was "vet'', as in to evaluate a candidate's suitability and qualifications for a position.

And in third place, just in front of "maverick'' - a word used during the long presidential campaign to describe Republican candidate John McCain - was the word "socialism''.

"In America, 'socialism' is a dirty word,'' said Mr Sokolowski.

Lookups - itself an accepted word dating back to 1936, according to Merriam-Webster - of "socialism'' began to climb in September, as the economic woes of US companies began to mount and the race for the presidency between McCain and his Democratic rival Barack Obama neared its close.

Not only was there heated discussion of bailouts - economic socialism and the US Government taking control of ailing companies - but the word was also used in a disparaging sense by the Republicans to try to turn voters against Mr Obama.

"It's a funny word to have on the list but it's clear to me that Americans don't know what socialism is,'' said Mr Sokolowski.

No kidding.

'Rescue Me' to Go 9/11 Troofer?

This would definitely turn me off the show I've enjoyed over the last few years. While I doubt Denis Leary would seriously entertain 9/11 Troofer crackpot conspiracy theories, is it possible his Troofer co-star Daniel Sunjata may be holding sway with the FX show. Hopefully any Troofer plot line is met with the appropriate scorn it deserves. I doubt Leary believes any of it.

According to Leary:

Let's get something straight -- Denis Leary is not one for conspiracy theories. However, last night at Book Soup to sign copies of his new book Why We Suck, the actor dropped plot details about the upcoming season of his hit series Rescue Me. Possibly an exclusive, what Leary disclosed is sure to rev up the 9/11 truth seekers who religiously TiVo the New York-based firefighter drama to see what post-traumatic, survivor's guilt head-space Leary's character will tailspin into next.

When asked by a hesitant fan as to whether or not the actor thought there should be a reinvestigation into the events leading up to and surrounding the 9/11 tragedy, Leary's eyes lit up as he revealed that conspiracy and reinvestigation into 9/11 are, in fact, major plot lines in the first 10 episodes of Rescue Me season 5, set to premiere in April 2009 for a 22-episode run on FX.

But when another fan pushed it too far and asked Leary's personal opinion about the conspiracy surrounding Building 7's collapse, the actor and author was quick with his response. "You guys don't want to get into that with me," Leary said, suddenly serious as he explained that he "knew several of the guys who had been there working to hold that building up." Leary then paused, politely changed the subject and returned to meeting fans.

Of course, any mention of 9/11 conspiracies brings the cranks out of the woodwork.

Perhaps Leary also knows some of the people who are on tape on 9/11 saying that the building is “about to blow up” too? Perhaps Leary can help explain how a massive skyscraper which had been structurally reinforced can implode within 7 seconds after suffering limited fires across no more than ten floors and in doing so completely defy the laws of physics?
...
The real hero in all of this is obviously Daniel Sunjata, who co-stars in Rescue Me. Sunjata has been a vocal advocate for the 9/11 truth movement in questioning 9/11 and he likely had a massive influence on the decision of the script writers to dramatize the issue.

The prevalence of 9/11 truth in a plethora of different mediums is exactly what is required to spread the truth and wake up people who would not necessarily come into contact with this information through the usual channels.

Mental illness gone mainstream.

Wonderful.

Better Still, Just Change the Name of the State to Al-Obama

Geez, this is really getting stupid now. Then again, maybe I shouldn't give them any ideas.

A small central Alabama county whose mainly black residents gave Barack Obama more than 70 percent of the vote on Election Day has created an annual holiday in honor of the president-elect.

The Perry County Commission voted 4 to 1 to observe the second Monday in November as "The Barack Obama Day." County offices will close and its roughly 40workers will get a paid holiday.

The sponsoring commissioner, Albert Turner Jr., said the holiday is meant to highlight the Democratic president-elect's victory as a way to give people faith that difficult goals can be achieved.

The majority of the county's 12,000 residents are black.

The county commission's three black members and one of its two white members voted for the resolution.

The other one obviously is racist.

Commissioner Brett Harrison said Wednesday he voted against the resolution because of the holiday costs to the county, which has a $2.2 million annual payroll and is one of the poorest in the state. He said closing the courthouse would also idle some state employees.

"I'm a Democrat, but just in these financial times, it's not using the county's money wisely," Harrison told The Associated Press by phone Wednesday. "The recognition is certainly well-founded."

Bring . . . It . . . On

Now that President Bush rapidly approaches retirement, the Propaganda Ministry of the Religion of Environmentalism™ has a new whipping boy: President Vaclav Klaus of the Czech Republic.

Czech President: EU's Outspoken Global Warming Doubter

Czech President Vaclav Klaus, one of the most prominent climate change doubters, is about to get a new platform: the EU presidency. Others in the bloc worry that he could stall important climate talks next year.

Klaus has called manmade global warming a myth and questioned sanity of Al Gore, the former US vice-president who received the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for turning a spotlight on climate change.

Most recently, Klaus expressed hopes the EU would give up its ambitious plan to spearhead the global struggle against climate change in the face of the global financial crisis.

As if that heresy isn't enough, a prospect looms that clearly scares the shit out of those who would re-order Western civilization more radically than Marx or Lenin could ever have hoped for.

From his vantage point in Prague's Hradcany castle, Klaus could be involved in negotiating a new set of EU climate laws while the Czech Republic chairs the EU in the first half of 2009.

That could happen if EU leaders fail to agree on a plan at their December summit, where a disputed proposal to cut EU greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020 is on the table.

In any case, the Czechs will lead the EU in the run-up to a crucial global climate conference in Denmark late next year.

Climate on the backburner?

Having Klaus at the helm of the 27-member bloc "is clearly going to cause some anxiety," said Simon Tilford, chief economist at the London-based Center for European Reform.

While presidential office in the Czech Republic is largely ceremonial and the center-right government of Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek does not share Klaus' views, western Europe worries that "Czechs would not attach as much priority" to the climate efforts, Tilford said.

"It is unfair to say: If we don't agree this year we won't have it," he said. "But there are some concerns because the Czech government is not as enthusiastic."

The Czech government has tried to alleviate such fears.

James Hunt, the Czech environment minister's climate envoy, recently said that if internal EU squabbling spills into next year, "the Czech presidency will make every effort to achieve adoption" of the climate package in early 2009.

Pro business

But Czech officials also made it clear that they would prefer a softer, pro-business plan.

"We can't fight for the climate at the expense of our competitiveness," Topolanek said last week. "That is especially valid at a time of the global financial crisis."

Across the region, coal-fired power plants are a big reason why countries balked at the EU proposal.

Central European energy firms, including the Czech Republic's state-controlled CEZ that pours billions of koruny in dividends into state coffers, would like to see the package scrapped.

They especially oppose a plan that would force them to buy carbon emission permits at auction from 2013. The rule would add an extra cost amid the financial crisis and certainly hike electricity prices, they say.

"A unilateral cut of emission limits combined with a brutal start of credit auctions will not help the climate because nobody will join the EU and our emission cut of 20 percent ... will be easily offset and surmounted by a rise in emissions in China," Topolanek said.

The bloated oaf, al-Gore, was unavailable for comment.

Via Deutsche Welle

Rendell on Napolitano: 'She Has No Life'

Hey, Ed, tell us how you really feel.

How many times have politicians been warned about the dangers of an open microphone? And yet, on Tuesday, the lectern mic at the National Governors Conference picked up this little nugget from Pennsylvania's Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell.

He's having a conversation near the lectern about President-elect Barack Obama's choice for to lead the Homeland Security Department, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano. Here is what Rendell said about Napolitano:

Rendell: Janet's perfect for that job. Because for that job, you have to have no life. Janet has no family. Perfect. She can devote, literally, 19-20 hours a day to it.

'It's Become Like a Common Thing in the NHL for Guys to Fall in Love With My Sloppy Seconds'

Nothing sloppy here

The photo is added, of course, just so you know who we're talking about. Can't leave any faithful readers guessing. Anyway, her ex-boyfriend apparently likes to talk like a high school punk. No wonder he's the most hated guy in the NHL.

The NHL rarely is amused by anything Sean Avery says or does, and proved it again by suspending the former Ranger pest Tuesday night for what the league termed "inappropriate" comments and conduct "detrimental" to the game of hockey.

Avery, who left the Blueshirts to sign a four-year $15.5 million deal last summer with Dallas, was banned indefinitely pending a hearing with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman for making derogatory comments about his former girlfriend - actress Elisha Cuthbert, who currently is dating Calgary star defenseman Dion Phaneuf - before Tuesday night's game between the Stars and the Flames.

"I am really glad to be back in Calgary, I love Canada," Avery said after requesting the media to gather around him for a statement after the morning skate. "I just want to comment on how it's become like a common thing in the NHL for guys to fall in love with my sloppy seconds. I don't know what that's about. Enjoy the game tonight."

Classy stuff.

Show Your Idiocy for Only $230

I'd never fork over that much for a personalized jersey, but apparently some wiseass Giants fan are having some fun at the expense of Plaxico Burress.

You, too, can be No. 17 - Harris Smith!

Giants bad boy Plaxico Burress checked into New York-Cornell Hospital under that generic fake name, The Post first revealed this week, and fans who want to score an "H. SMITH" No. 17 jersey don't have to go anywhere further than their own computer.

Fans can go to www.Giantsproshop.com, click on "personalized jerseys" and build their own Burress alter-ego uniform in home blue, road white or alternate red.

An authentic fake "H. SMITH" jersey goes for $230.

'She Told Me I Am Her Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee As Long As I Want to Be'

Apparently no amount of shady, unethical behavior will ever be enough for Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the Most Ethical Congress Ever, to jettison the wholly corrupt Charles Rangel from his chairmanship.

You have a guy three necks deep in tax problems helping write our nation's tax code.

What a world.

Rep. Charles Rangel said yesterday that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has promised him he will keep his chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee as long as he wants - even though investigators haven't completed their report on ethical allegations facing the Harlem Democrat.

"She told me I am her chairman of the Ways and Means Committee as long as I want to be," Rangel boasted to reporters at a ribbon-cutting for the new East Harlem School.

The surprising comments came as other members of Congress raised questions about whether Pelosi had improperly communicated with the House Ethics Committee despite strict rules against such contact.

Pelosi said in a press release last week that she "had been assured the report will be completed by the end of this session of Congress," despite rules baring the ethics panel or any staff for the panel from discussing an ongoing investigation.

Rep. John Carter (R-Texas) sent Pelosi a letter yesterday asking her to explain her actions.

"It is imperative that you address immediately the very real questions this incident raises about whether your office has sought to improperly influence the conduct, scope, timing or any other aspect of an ongoing House ethics investigation," Carter wrote.

Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly said, "The speaker is relying on assurance from her staff that the Ethics Committee, as it has in the past, will try to complete its work by the end of" the current session of Congress."

In Manhattan Monday night, Pelosi was asked if Rangel would keep his chairmanship and she said "that's up to [House] Ethics," before adding, "He'll be OK."

Meanwhile, a watchdog group has called for further investigation of the rotund corruptocrat.

Common Cause, a leading government watchdog group, has asked the House ethics committee to expand its investigation of Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.), chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, to include allegations that Rangel helped preserve a tax break for an oil-drilling company after the company's CEO pledged to donate $1 million to the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service.

Rangel has denied the allegation, which was first reported last week by the New York Times. The newspaper said that Rangel allegedly helped retain a lucrative tax break for Nabors Industries after Eugene Isenberg, Nabors' CEO, made the $1 million pledge for the Rangel Center.

You know as a Democrat you've got problems when the Washington Post and New York Times are gunning for you.

He may survive, but he's gift-wrapping a two-year campaign for the GOP, assuming they're wise enough to pound it over Pelosi and Rangel's heads.

Meet Saul Anuzis

Most people are familiar with the name Michael Steele but there is another name seeking the position of chair of the Republican National Committee and that is Saul Anuzis head of the Michigan Republican Committee. The fact that I found a video clip of him being interviewed by Megyn Kelly is just a bonus.
Go check out his web site too.

World's Oldest Weed Dealer, Primo Stash Unearthed in China

Those medieval stoners sure got around. A light-haired Caucasian man with a huge stash of green buds over in China.

Researchers say they have located the world's oldest stash of marijuana, in a tomb in a remote part of China.

The cache of cannabis is about 2,700 years old and was clearly ``cultivated for psychoactive purposes," rather than as fibre for clothing or as food, says a research paper in the Journal of Experimental Botany.

The 789 grams of dried cannabis was buried alongside a light-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian man, likely a shaman of the Gushi culture, near Turpan in northwestern China.

The extremely dry conditions and alkaline soil acted as preservatives, allowing a team of scientists to carefully analyze the stash, which still looked green though it had lost its distinctive odour.

"To our knowledge, these investigations provide the oldest documentation of cannabis as a pharmacologically active agent," says the newly published paper, whose lead author was American neurologist Dr. Ethan B. Russo.

Remnants of cannabis have been found in ancient Egypt and other sites, and the substance has been referred to by authors such as the Greek historian Herodotus. But the tomb stash is the oldest so far that could be thoroughly tested for its properties.

The 18 researchers, most of them based in China, subjected the cannabis to a battery of tests, including carbon dating and genetic analysis [uh, hello, there's one sure way to test it! -- ed.]. Scientists also tried to germinate 100 of the seeds found in the cache, without success.

The marijuana was found to have a relatively high content of THC, the main active ingredient in cannabis, but the sample was too old to determine a precise percentage.

Researchers also could not determine whether the cannabis was smoked or ingested, as there were no pipes or other clues in the tomb of the shaman, who was about 45 years old.

The large cache was contained in a leather basket and in a wooden bowl, and was likely meant to be used by the shaman in the afterlife.

"This materially is unequivocally cannabis, and no material has previously had this degree of analysis possible," Russo said in an interview from Missoula, Mont.

Stupid Human Trick: Man Arrested for Grilling Indoors

Don't try this one at home, kids.

A Ledyard man who lit a small charcoal grill inside his apartment was charged by police Monday after two people in the building became ill, police said.

Abebe D. Jano, 40, of 7G Flintlock Road was charged at 12:54 a.m. with second-degree reckless endangerment by Ledyard police.

Police said the grill created dangerous carbon monoxide levels in the apartment building.

Saxby Chambliss Wins Georgia Runoff

Thus the Democrats are stuck at 58 seats in the Senate, pending the outcome of Al Franken's attempted theft of Norm Coleman's seat in Minnesota.

This was a blowout.

Republican Saxby Chambliss won Georgia’s Senate runoff Tuesday, denying Democrats a chance to reach a filibuster-proof majority next year.

Democratic state Rep. Jim Martin was unable to overcome the fact that he did not have President-elect Obama on the ballot in the runoff. He trailed the incumbent 61-39 with 71 percent of precincts reporting when the race was called.

Chambliss’s victory leaves Minnesota as the lone outstanding Senate contest. A recount is underway in the razor-thin race between GOP Sen. Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken.

Should Franken win, Democrats will get to 59 seats. Either way, they hope to reach the 60-seat threshold in 2010.

Must have been that visit from Sarah Palin that put him over the top.

Giants Banish Burress

The New York Giants wasted little time in placing Plaxico Burress on the non-football injury list today, ending his season and likely his career in New York.

Plaxico Burress returned to Giants Stadium on Tuesday, only to be told that he would be suspended four games and placed on the non-football injury list.

While police were still trying to sort out the events surrounding the Manhattan nightclub shooting that prompted the suspension, Burress' season with the Super Bowl champions, and possibly his career with the team, likely came to an end.

"I'm happy," Burress said, "this allows me more time to drive my son to school," apparently unaware nursery schools are Glock-free school zones.

OK, I added that last part. But it's not a stretch with this dunce, now proud owner of the $27 million shot heard around the world.

Perhaps the only punishment worse than losing all that money and facing prison time might be acquittal followed by a trade to Detroit.

Thanks to Ace for the link.

Terrorists? What Terrorists?

Charles Lipson at the American Thinker does a brilliant dissection of the painfully biased media coverage of the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

Calling these terrorists "suspects" in the midst of the carnage they so obviously perpetrated is worse than the usual banality of mainstream journalism. It is craven. Faced with the visible image of terrorists at work, these newspapers responded with the insipid posture of professional neutrality.

Nor can these photo captions be excused as one person's mistake. They passed through too many hands for that. They ran in prominent locations in several British papers and must have survived multiple editors. They remained posted, captions unchanged, long after the mass slaughter became known.

What do these captions tell us about British news organizations, beyond their misguided sense of professionalism? First, they show that the papers see terrorism primarily as a legal issue. That's why terrorists are called suspects, even when they are caught in the act. With the zany pretentiousness of a Monty Python character, they take the honored Western legal presumption of "innocent until proven guilty in a court of law" and apply it, willy nilly, to acts of war and terror.

In doing so, they recapitulate the fundamental flaw of the Clinton Administration's anti-terror strategy. Under Clinton, the Justice Department and FBI treated potential terrorism the same way they did any other criminal activity. For them, the central goal of law enforcement agencies was not to prevent terror or catch potential terrorists before they could act but to apprehend them after the fact and produce evidence of their crimes that would be admissible in court.

Read the entire piece.

I'm willing to go out on a limb and suggest if these were Israeli gunmen, they wouldn't be identified as "suspected" gunmen.

It's a sad day, indeed, when we can't plainly describe what the entire world sees in front of us.

Related items here and here.

Bin Laden 'Aide' to Be Resentenced, Faces More Time

Why we waste time with our legal system is beyond me. This piece of human debris should have been executed long ago. Instead we go through hoops assuring these animals get "justice," whatever that's supposed to mean any more.

A federal appeals court in Manhattan has ordered a new sentencing for a former top aide to Osama bin Laden, who was convicted of stabbing a guard in the face.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that Mamdouh Mahmud Salim can face more time in prison than the 32-year sentence he has already received.

The court said a judge made an error when she found that his sentence could not be higher.

Salim stabbed a prison guard in 2000. The attack left Louis Pepe brain damaged and barely able to see.

Salim still faces trial and a possible life sentence on conspiracy charges in another terrorism case. That case includes the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.

I have to laugh how he's referred to as a bin Laden aide, as if he's some office assistant who helps keep his calendar and meeting schedule in order. He's a terrorist, damn it.

Good News: New Repellant Device Can Pretty Much Annoy Anyone

This sounds perfect when I find myself around annoying people, such as liberals and certain undesirable relatives. One can imagine boffo sales for this.

THE makers of a controversial device designed to break up groups of teenager trouble-makers have developed a new version capable of annoying everyone.

The original Mosquito device, launched in 2005, disperses young people by emitting an irritating high-pitched pulse which, at 17 kilohertz, most people aged under 20 can hear but almost nobody over 30 can.

Around 9000 of them have been sold around the world by Welsh firm Compound Security Systems as shopkeepers and local authorities seek to ward off loitering youths.

But following demand for a device that would get rid of all undesirables regardless of age, the new Mark 4 version can operate at a lower eight kilohertz frequency that adults can hear too, annoying everyone within earshot.

"It's something we've been asked for by a lot of law enforcement agencies in Britain and abroad," Compound Security Systems commercial director Simon Morris said.

"Lots of people sleep rough who are over the age of 25 and a lot of people gather in subways, they just want to clear these people away."

The new Mosquito Mark 4s went on sale in November at £495 ($1148) each and the first few hundred units have been shipped out to destinations like the United States and the Netherlands.

One police force near London - which wishes to remain anonymous - is using one in a particularly troublesome underpass.

"The older you get, generally the more intimidated you are by meeting a group of hooded youths at night in a confined space. It's not pleasant and the older you get, the worse it is," Mr Morris said.

"It's not really the frequency that's the annoying part."

"It's the type of sound, the tone and how it's pulsed. Because it's not a constant tone, your brain can't ignore it."

Hypocrisy, Thy Name Is Michael Bloomberg

I find it more than a bit disingenuous for New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to be whining about someone making "a sham, a mockery of the law" after he himself just made a sham and a mockery of the law by extending term limits against the express will of the people. Seriously, this is what dictators in banana republics do.

Is a comparison between Michael Bloomberg and Hugo Chavez fair? Well, not really. Bloomberg is slightly more annoying.

Ohio State Advisor Ran Prostitution Ring

Getting a real bang for your academic buck.

Undercover vice officers busted a prostitution ring that was run on the Internet and in the Brewery District, 10TV News reported Saturday.

Police said Christopher Johnson, an academic advisor at The Ohio State University's School of Nursing, used his office computer to run a chat site that catered to women who sell sex and men who buy it, 10TV's Glenn McEntyre reported.

Johnson was charged with managing a brothel.

Police said Johnson used the website craigslist.com to recruit the women and started a lottery to sell sex.

Vanise Dunn was one of the women who was offered as a prize. She worked as a caseworker for the Franklin County Children Services and faces a solicitation charge, McEntyre reported.

Vice officers said realtor Rusty Blades offered to host parties for the service at his house.

"Chris began to run a monthly raffle in which one girl would offer a one-hour session with the winner of the raffle. The raffle tickets were ten dollars a piece," and undercover officer said. "They started inviting specified members of the board to this party. Prostitution was encouraged and conducted at the party."

Finally: AP Gets Around to Pinning Mortgage Meltdown on Bush

I wonder what took so long? It's not as if everything else isn't his fault.

No mention, naturally, of the name Barney Frank.

Time and time again, Frank insisted that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were in good shape. Five years ago, for example, when the Bush administration proposed much tighter regulation of the two companies, Frank was adamant that "these two entities, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are not facing any kind of financial crisis." When the White House warned of "systemic risk for our financial system" unless the mortgage giants were curbed, Frank complained that the administration was more concerned about financial safety than about housing.

Now that the bubble has burst and the "systemic risk" is apparent to all, Frank blithely declares: "The private sector got us into this mess." Well, give the congressman points for gall. Wall Street and private lenders have plenty to answer for, but it was Washington and the political class that derailed this train. If Frank is looking for a culprit to blame, he can find one suspect in the nearest mirror.

According to the AP, however, Bush ignored warnings and now it's his fault.

Obama will no doubt ride in on his shiny unicorn and save the day.

'Unless Somali Pirates Have Stolen Them Its Difficult to Explain Where They Are'

There haven't been this many boobs lost at sea since the heyday of the French Navy. If anyone sees 130,000 fake breasts floating around, give these folks a call.

A spokeswman for Ralph magazine said the container carrying $200,000 worth of plastic breasts left docks in Beijing two weeks ago but turned up empty in Sydney this week.

The magazine has put out an alert to shipping authorities but if the breasts didn't turn up in the next 48 hours it would be too late for the next issue, she said.

Ralph editor Santi Pintado urged anyone with information to contact the magazine.

"Unless Somali pirates have stolen them its difficult to explain where they are," Pintado said.

'No Muslim School, Hell No'

You've got to give the folks in Australia some props. People would be scared to death to do something like this in most places, afraid of being called Islamophobic or racist. Nice to see there are still some people out there with a little spine left.

PROTESTERS have swarmed the Gold Coast City Council headquarters, and with blaring rock anthems vented anger over a planned Muslim school.

Almost 200 residents turned out for the demonstration, draped in Australian flags and shouting pro-Aussie slogans while Australian rock classics such as Down Under and Great Southern Land boomed across the parkland, The Courier-Mail reports.

Australian International Islamic College, planned for Carrara, has raised the ire of residents who fear it will lead to the local Muslim population withdrawing from the rest of the community.

A rally last week attracted about 400 people, while people turned out yesterday carrying placards bearing slogans such as "no Muslim school, hell no" and "integration, not segregation".

Resident's spokesman Tony Doherty said Muslim schools did not encourage multiculturalism.

"It's segregation, not integration," he said.

"They're not trying to integrate into the rest of society.

"Since we have started protesting against this our churches have been covered in hate-filled graffiti."

He denied it was hypocritical to oppose Muslim and not Christian schools.

"Catholics aren't a different culture," he said.

"They are the same as us."

Birmingham Mayor Indicted on 101 Counts

This is at the end of a five-year investigation and you have to read just about that long to figure out which political party he belongs to, which due to the absence of any mention allows us to use the MSM template regarding scandals revolving around politicians.

Over an almost five-year period, Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford "corruptly solicited, accepted and agreed to accept money, cash and checks" totaling nearly $250,000 in return for funneling millions of county taxpayer dollars to two political allies, prosecutors allege in a 101-count federal indictment unsealed today.

The indictment charges Langford, along with friends Bill Blount and Al LaPierre, with conspiracy, bribery, fraud, money laundering and filing false tax returns.

But deep in the story we get our clue.

Blount, 55, and LaPierre, 58, have long been considered among the best politically connected players in the state. Blount is a former chairman of the state's Democratic Party, and LaPierre is the former executive director of the party. Langford is a Democrat.

Earlier stories ignored the political affiliation altogether.

I don't know, maybe he is just trying to get some street cred so he can run for congress in 2010.

Memo to Bush: Don't Even Think of Pardoning This Scumbag

As the term of George W. Bush nears an end, there's much buzz about who he might pardon. If he wants to have any legacy whatsoever, he doesn't even consider pardoning John Walker Lindh.

Some high-profile convicts past and present are among more than 2,000 people asking President George W. Bush to pardon them or commute their prison sentences before he leaves office.

Junk-bond king Michael Milken, media mogul Conrad Black and American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh have applied to the Justice Department seeking official forgiveness.

But with Bush's term ending Jan. 20, some lawyers are lobbying the White House directly to pardon their clients. That raises the possibility that the president could excuse scores of people, including some who have not been charged, to protect them from future accusations, such as former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales or star baseball pitcher Roger Clemens.

As much as I dislike Roger Clemens, all that jerk did was take steroids and lie to Congress. Compared to a lowlife like Lindh, he's a Boy Scout. If Bush is dumb enough to pardon or even consider commuting the sentence of Taliban Johnny, any respect I have left for him will be gone.

The department is considering a pardon application for Milken, who was convicted of securities fraud charges. Two politicians convicted of public corruption _ former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., and four-term Democratic Louisiana Gov. Edwin W. Edwards _ have applied for shorter prison terms. So has Lindh, convicted of assisting the Taliban, and Black, who is serving time for fraud and obstruction of justice.

Additionally, former U.S. Border Patrol agent Ignacio Ramos is applying to have his prison sentences reduced. Ramos and his colleague, former agent Jose Compean, were convicted of shooting a drug smuggler in 2005 and trying to cover it up.

As far as I'm concerned, pardoning Compean and Ramos is a no-brainer.

Already, Democrats and other Bush critics are warning the president against getting overly generous with his power of forgiveness. Of particular concern is whether he will issue pre-emptive pardons to protect allies and some government employees from facing future charges for carrying out his policies.

Some of those people could include officials who authorized or engaged in harsh interrogations of suspected terrorists after Sept. 11, 2001. Critics want incoming President-elect Barack Obama to investigate possible war crimes.

Others to be pre-emptively pardoned might include advisers - Gonzales or other Bush administration lawyers, for example - who sanctioned potentially illegal policies or lied to Congress about them.

In these cases, pardon away. The Democrats have zero standing to criticize Bush if he pardons anyone in his administration or for prosecuting the war on terror. After Marc Rich, he's got plenty of markers.

'He Was Out to Get Me From the Very Beginning'

The only thing worse than a bitter old man is a paranoid bitter old man.

Less loving is Gore Vidal, who can't drop his decades-long feud even now that Buckley is dead. "He was out to get me from the very beginning," Vidal told VF.

"He wanted me to write for his little magazine. I spurned him, and he didn't like that. Bear in mind that this was a very stupid guy who never read any of those books he referred to and that Americans, being such hicks, thought he was a great nobleman and a real gentleman. I never heard such trash as when he cooled it."

Classy.

Rangel's Secret 'Workout' Room

Judging by his immense girth, I doubt Charlie Rangel's secret workout room is getting much use.

Welcome to Charlie Rangel's personal gym.

It may look cramped, but while members of Congress are forced to shoehorn office staff and equipment into windowless closets and other tiny corners of the Capitol complex, Rep. Rangel's taxpayer-funded workout room is just another example of the trappings of his power and seniority in Washington.

The tiny office space holds everything a busy chairman needs to shed a few pounds in comfort - a flat-screen television, an exercise machine, a mirror, a small refrigerator and a telephone.

The room is just steps away from Rangel's well-appointed suite of offices, and staffers have observed the powerful Ways and Means chairman and his staff using the office multiple times over the last two months.

Most recently, the Harlem Democrat was spotted locking up the room at 5 p.m. on Sept. 19, when Congress was in session to address the financial crisis.

The room is officially listed as belonging to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), whose position affords her control of valuable real estate in the Capitol and several office buildings that she can dole out as she sees fit.

A Pelosi spokesman said today that she does not know how the space is being used.

But of course. She never seems to know anything.

Dopey Burress Told Hospital He Was Shot at Applebees; Still Laughing and Joking About Incident

The farcical saga of the idiotic Plaxico Burress continues to unravel and is now reaching comical levels. Unfortunately for many others, they may all be dragged down with him.

Trouble-prone Giants receiver Plaxico Burress desperately tried to sidestep the law after shooting himself in the leg with an illegal handgun he carried into a Midtown nightclub - getting workers at the hot spot and at a top city hospital to lie for him, sources told The Post yesterday.

Details of the hectic hours Burress spent trying to conceal his bone-headed blunder emerged as he said he would surrender to the NYPD today. Detectives last night seized the .40-caliber gun from his New Jersey home.

His web of deceit included:

* Taking his gun from the Midtown club Latin Quarter, where workers never called authorities and even cleaned up afterward.

* Spending about 90 minutes making frantic calls to figure out where his wound could be discreetly treated.

* Getting special treatment at New York-Cornell Hospital, where he gave his name as Harris Smith, saying he'd been shot at an Applebee's restaurant. Nonetheless, hospital workers recognized him as Plaxico Burress, sources said, and the gunshot was not reported, as required by law.

Police found the gun last night at the Super Bowl hero's Totowa home, sources said, after they were told it was in his kitchen. He was not home at the time.

He plans to turn himself in at the 17th Precinct station house, said his lawyer, Benjamin Brafman.

Burress, 31, will be slapped with a felony gun charge and plead not guilty, his lawyer said.

Cops believe that Burress - who took the bullet cleanly through his right thigh at the club late Friday night - was with teammate Antonio Pierce and an unidentified woman as they worked the phones to choose a hospital, sources said.

Detectives were checking whether a Giants team trainer was among those called for advice, the sources said.

The trio was logged in at 2:45 a.m. by a New York-Cornell security guard, according to records reviewed by the police. The facility is connected with The Hospital for Special Surgery - a popular choice among elite athletes, where Burress was once treated himself. He was out about 10 hours later.

Hospital workers recognized Burress and agreed not to report the incident to police, the sources said.

It turns out a third Giant, Ahmad Bradshaw, was also with Burress and Pierce. It's unclear whether Bradshaw, who served time last summer for a Virginia burglary several years ago, will face any charges. Pierce may likely some misdemeanor local charges, but if he had a hand in transporting the gun over to New Jersey, could face some federal charge of transporting a weapon across state lines.

So all because of the incredible stupidity of Burress, we've got two teammates facing possible legal problems, along with an untold number of club and hospital employees.

Good career move, Plaxico.

Meanwhile, short of being shot in the head, he apparently will never get it.

Burress' reaction to all this?

He laughed.

"He called me laughing and grinning," fellow New York Giant Brandon Jacobs told reporters. "He is doing fine. He is feeling good. I called him and made a few jokes about the situation and he laughed - which is what I wanted to hear.

"He shouldn't be down because it is a mistake that happened," said the running back.

It's a mistake that could cost Burress dearly, despite his lawyer's vow that he'll plead not guilty to charges of criminal possession of a weapon. For the first time, his bosses at the Meadowlands hinted that his career as a Giant could be in jeopardy.

Memo to anyone on the Giants: Stay clear of this dud if you know what's good for you.