Saturday, July 31, 2010

Louisiana is 'Cajun Sheikdom' of poverty and corruption- Washington Post

A Washington Post "energy reporter" gives ammunition should Obama need it to fuel his disdain for the entire state of Louisiana and its oil industry. Such as the term 'cajun sheikdom,' and the quote, "We've always been a plantation state."
"Instead of blessing Louisiana with prosperity, the oil industry fostered dependency, corruption and an indifference to environmental damage. Our
Cajun sheikdom's oil and gas riches -- like those of the Niger Delta, the Orinoco belt in Venezuela and the Iraqi marshes -- also stunted its development, leaving it far behind states with fewer natural resources.

According to the Census Bureau and Harvard University health data,

  • Louisiana ranks 49th among the states in life expectancy,
  • has the second-highest rate of infant mortality,
  • comes in fourth in violent crime,
  • ranks 46th in percentage of people older than 25 with college degrees,
  • and ties for second in percentage of people living below the poverty line.

Oil riches didn't create these problems, of course, but it is striking that they didn't ameliorate them.

  • "We've always been a plantation state," said Oliver Houck, an environmental law professor at Tulane University.

"What oil and gas did is replace the agricultural plantation culture with an oil and gas

Even though Louisiana's oil and gas production peaked in 1970 and many companies moved their offices to Houston, refineries, oil import facilities on the coast and a web of thousands of miles of pipelines continue to make the industry a powerful force in the state. It is embedded in Louisiana's mental and economic infrastructure, and remains one of its leading employers.

All this explains why, even as the oil spill threatens Louisiana's tourism, fisheries and shoreline, local politicians have continued to speak up on behalf of continued offshore drilling. They and their state, are addicted to oil."...

  • Not that it will matter, but a democrat from Virginia (Webb) says poverty and lack of advantage in the south can be traced to devastation incurred in the Civil War. The south was hurt badly and never recovered. (All governments have corruption so that isn't unique to the south. As many are aware, Senator Webb's actions do not agree with his words, but it was an interesting article. ed).
6/3/10, "Obama hopes oil spill boosts support for climate bill," Washington Post, Mufson, Shear

Mexican flag carried across field at Mets baseball game, security tries to catch up

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The US has no respect for its borders, why should anyone else? Mets security personnel attempts to catch up with man carrying Mexican flag across the field during Mets game v Arizona Diamondbacks in NYC, 7/30/10, ap. Arizona won 9-6.

Friday, July 30, 2010

Obama moratorium is further embedded, news bypassed by Reuters headline

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The bigger news about the so-called 'oil spill reform bill', is that it keeps Obama's unrelated drilling moratorium going for at least several months. No mention of the legal process that initially overturned his order. Now that the 'spill' has apparently 'disappeared,' time was short. There are reports saying the whole thing might have been a lack of correct fire procedures, possibly by federal employees."Passing the bill as the House leaves for its six-week recess gives lawmakers the opportunity to return home boasting they reined in Big Oil and held BP responsible for the worst offshore oil disaster in U.S. history.
  • The vote was 209-193 on the bill supported by President Barack Obama.

But first, Gulf Coast Democrats won an amendment ending the federal moratorium on deepwater drilling for oil

  • companies that met new safety requirements.

The Obama administration's moratorium would end

  • in November.

By the time the full Congress completes action on this offshore drilling bill --

  • and it is uncertain that it will --

it could be November or later.

  • A similar offshore drilling bill is pending in the Senate, without the House's new provision to end the drilling moratorium. But it was

unlikely that measure would pass before that chamber begins its summer recess on August 6."...


Arizona Governor Jan Brewer proves herself to be another out of touch member of the Ruling Class

Governor Brewer fails, as expected.

The worst possible thing Governor Brewer could have done for America was to appear with John McCain today. And that's exactly what she did.
"But Brewer said Friday she'd consider changes to "tweak" the law to respond to the parts Bolton faulted.

"Basically we believe (the law) is constitutional but she obviously pointed out

She said she's talking to legislative leaders about the possibility of a special session, but said no specific changes had been identified."

  • (Luckily I didn't get my hopes up about her. I read a comment from an Arizona resident awhile ago that she's "Charlie Crist in drag," so I was prepared). ed.

Obama press aide shines light on Rush Limbaugh

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7/20, "Gibbs takes on Rush Limbaugh," WSJ.com, E. Williamson

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Obama bows to NJ Governor Chris Christie 7/28

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NJ Governor Chris Christie greets Obama yesterday (7/28) getting off the plane. Governor Christie seriously didn't want the hand-shake to end, which I guess means he's a politician. Obama did give him a little bow, which perhaps he does because he really wishes he were someplace else.

via MoreMonmouthMusings and SaveJersey blog. photo from Michelle Malkin via Save Jersey blog

Many doctors will opt out of being Obama's slave

"Grace-Marie Turner wrote a good summary of doctor’s reaction to the onslaught of ObamaCare for The Orange County Register. Here is a summary of her summary:
  • 28% of seniors had trouble finding a primary care doctor in 2008 compared to 24% in 2007.
  • Only 38% of primary care doctors in Texas will take a new Medicare patient.
  • The Mayo Clinic has stopped taking Medicare patients at several locations.
  • The postponed 21% cut in doctor payments, will now have to be 30% in January.
  • The American Osteopathic Association says only 40% of doctors will be able to continue seeing Medicare patients after the cut occurs because they will lose money on each patient.
  • ObamaCare requires a big investment in information technology.
  • ObamaCare requires more paperwork and cookbook medicine, eliminating individual tailoring.
  • A simple error can result in a $10,000 fine.
  • 70 million Baby Boomers are about to go on Medicare.
  • The American Association of Medical Colleges projects a 150,000 shortfall of doctors by 2025.
  • Longer waits for treatment and more emergency room visits will result.
  • There is no increase in the number of residencies to train more physicians.
  • 13% of internists will not treat Medicare patients at all.
  • A financial planner with many doctor clients says half of them want to retire in 2013, just before the worst of ObamaCare takes effect in 2014.
Posted by Charles R. Anderson, Ph.D. at Tuesday, July 27, 2010"
For the above reasons alone, Obama's plan could not possibly work. Doctors are not slaves. We may vote in new people who may or may not feel motivated to repeal the plan. ed....
"We are ruled by a political class that lacks ethics, integrity, and ability. We are lied to daily. We are not in an economic recovery. The financial crisis is not over. The reality is that the economy and financial system are in worse trouble today than they were two years ago. We have not seen anything yet compared to what lies ahead!
The economy has been pushed into a grave as a result of elitists spending money they didn't have, making promises they couldn't keep, and expanding government into areas where it does not belong. After fifty-plus years of abuse, the golden goose is on its deathbed.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Obama cancels oil leases in Gulf and Atlantic-cites handy catastrophic event

"The Center for Biological Diversity praised the Obama administration's announcement today that it is cancelling two offshore oil and gas lease sales..."

Obama bank bill says SEC free to view porn 24/7, Soros to complete takeover of SEC as global warming enforcer-taxpayer no longer allowed FOI dox

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7/28/10, "SEC says new financial regulation law exempts it from public disclosure," Fox Business News, by Dunstan Prial
  • "So much for transparency.

Under a little-noticed provision of the recently passed financial-reform legislation, the Securities and Exchange Commission

no longer has to comply with virtually all requests for information releases from the public, including those filed under the Freedom of Information Act.

  • The law, signed last week by President Obama, exempts the SEC from disclosing records or information derived from "surveillance, risk assessments, or other regulatory and oversight activities." Given that the SEC is a regulatory body,
  • the provision covers almost every action by the agency, lawyers say. Congress and federal agencies can request information, but the public cannot.

That argument comes despite the President saying that one of the cornerstones of the sweeping new legislation was more transparent financial markets. Indeed, in touting the new law, Obama specifically said it would “increase transparency in financial dealings."

  • The SEC cited the new law Tuesday in a FOIA action brought by FOX Business Network. Steven Mintz, founding partner of law firm Mintz & Gold LLC in New York, lamented what he described as
  • the backroom deal that was cut between Congress and the SEC to keep the SEC’s failures secret. The only losers here are the American public.”

If the SEC’s interpretation stands, Mintz, who represents FOX Business Network, predicted the next time there

referring to the shamed broker whose Ponzi scheme cost investors billions."...

Washington Times: "The (SEC) attorney had looked up sex websites nearly

  • 300 times, also over a two-month period. But his job appeared safe, too,
  • after SEC management proposed a one-day suspension, records show.

Details about the sanctions are contained in reports to Congress and records obtained by The Washington Times through the Freedom of Information Act. They are among several cases raising fresh questions

  • about the SEC's recent pledge to fire employees caught looking at pornography on the job."...
2/10/10, George Soros Global Warming pressure group Ceres (Soros 'Equity Shareholder") praises new SEC rules regulating existence of and regulations based on so-called man made climate change (a giant fraud that automatically criminalizes Americans and requires them to pay billions to the climate mob, ed):
"On January 27, 2010 the SEC voted to issue interpretive guidance on disclosure requirements of climate risks in SEC filings. The SEC stressed that the interpretive releases do not create new legal requirements but are intended to provide clarity and enhance consistency on existing requirements. Nonetheless, the issuance of guidance indicates the

Till now the SEC had not called for any specific disclosures regarding climate change nor provided interpretative guidance regarding the application of existing disclosure requirements for “material risks” to climate change-related matters.

As the SEC explains in its release, existing regulations require a company to disclose information related to risk factors and call for management discussion and analysis. The new guidance on those rules emphasizes that when assessing potential risks, companies should consider the impact of existing climate change legislation and regulation,

  • international accords or treaties on climate change, indirect consequences of regulation or business trends, for example new risks for the company created by legal, technical, political and scientific developments, and the physical impacts of climate change.

This appears to be an impressively comprehensive assessment of

  • investor risk associated with climate change.

The guidance follows a petition sent to the SEC in 2007 by a group of investors, state agencies and environmental advocates, led by Ceres, urging the SEC to issue guidance on climate-related impacts. Ceres has long pursued a strategy

  • of exerting leverage on companies by institutionalizing information disclosure of value to investors. Ceres initiated the Global Reporting Initiative and, more recently,

the (Ceres group) Investor Network on Climate Risk. The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) mechanism has become the most prominent mechanism for corporate carbon disclosure, though the value of the information to investors is unclear.

  • Moreover, CDP-style data has not been integrated into formal SEC reports. According to two major studies released last year by Ceres, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and the Center for Energy and Environmental Security (CEES)

climate-related disclosure “continues to be weak or altogether nonexistent in SEC filings of global companies with the most at stake in preparing for a low-carbon global economy.” The SEC initiative responds to repeated investor requests for formal guidance on the

Global warming does not exist, but the SEC can now freely advance it without fear the US taxpayer will know anything about it. Thanks again to phony hack Scott Brown. ed.
  • Fox Business story via Hot Air

Rhode Island allowed to defend itself against terrorist invasion, Arizona not. Media rejoice anticipated decapitations

Decapitated heads in Mexico, a common experience. photo via Giovanni.
  • "You say you want a revolution
  • Well you know"... John Lennon
  • Trash on Arizona border, Rape Tree in background,
  • photo 3/16/09, Now Public

GE agrees to pay $23 million for bribes in UN Iraq oil for food program, 4 charges from healthcare unit

"General Electric has agreed to pay $23.5m to settle allegations from US regulators that its subsidiaries bribed Iraqi officials to win contracts under the United Nations Oil for Food Programme between 2000 and 2003.

In the four contracts secured by GE Healthcare, company officials declined to make cash payments to Iraqi officials but allowed their agent to offer equipment and services instead.


Jon Stewart says Andrew Breitbart only honest person in Shirley Sherrod episode

Oops, the left hates it when that happens, when something good slips out about a right of center person. They say the video was removed for copyright reasons which is fine.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Obama issues Executive Order declassifying many documents fulfilling campaign promise-Politico, 12/09

"President Barack Obama has apparently issued a long-awaited executive order on classification that fulfills one of his campaign promises by setting up a National Declassification Center to oversee the release of historical documents. But the announcement, ironically, is shrouded in secrecy and confusion.
  • "While the Government must be able to prevent the public disclosure of information that would compromise the national security, a democratic government accountable to the people must be as transparent as possible and must
  • not withhold information for self-serving reasons
  • or simply to avoid embarrassment," National Security Council official William Leary wrote in a blog post announcing the order.

Oddly, that blog post was dated and time stamped at 4:44 p.m. Monday but does not appear to have shown up on the White House website until a little before noon Tuesday. Adding to the mystery, the link to the executive order was dead at that time. Then, shortly after this reporter inquired about that dead link, the entire blog post disappeared.

  • The order reportedly sets deadlines for declassification of information exempted from automatic 25-year declassification requirements and eliminates a veto the intelligence community held over declassification orders from an interagency panel that hears appeals of such cases.

Full text of the post that went down the memory hole is after the jump.

UPDATE: Leary's blog post and the order are now out of the memory hole and back on the record with a time stamp of 2:38 p.m. Tuesday, though the URL still harkens back to Monday. Apparently someone's trigger finger got a little itchy. A side note: If Obama indeed signed the order today, he must have done so in Hawaii, where he's on vacation.

Full text of the post that went down the memory hole is after the jump.

UPDATE 2: A presidential memorandum on the issue has also been released.

Promoting Openness and Accountability by Making Classification a Two-Way Street

by William H. Leary

President Obama has issued a new executive order on “Classified National Security Information” that addresses the problem of over-classification in numerous ways and will allow researchers to gain timelier access to formerly classified records. Among the major changes are the following:
  • • It establishes a National Declassification Center at the National Archives to enable agency reviewers to perform collaborative declassification in accordance with priorities developed by the Archivist with input from the general public.
  • • For the first time, it requires agencies to conduct fundamental classification guidance reviews to ensure that classification guides are up-to-date and that they do not require unnecessary classification.
It eliminates an Intelligence Community veto of certain decisions by the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel that was introduced in the Bush order."...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac not even mentioned in Obama new "financial" overhaul. Bank bailouts still in place

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7/26, "Obama signs a bill that lets banks have US over a barrel once more," Telegraph UK, by Liam Halligan
  • "The so-called "Volcker Rule" is the centrepiece of Dodd-Frank and as such, is indicative of the entire package. It's designed to restrict the ability of universal banks to speculate with taxpayer-backed money,

Volcker places limits on so-called "prop" trading without defining what it is, so allowing banks to exploit what they claim is

  • "the grey area between market-making and speculation".

Wall Street firms will also still be able to lever up punters' money and deal in credit-default swaps – the main culprits in the AIG bankruptcy, which cost US taxpayers $182bn and counting – while also destroying Bear Stearns and Lehman. The only stipulation is that ratings agencies should classify such derivates as "investment grade".

  • Such agencies are unreformed and were at the heart of the last debacle
  • – so that's hardly reassuring.

Last-minute changes mean that banks can, anyway, use 3pc of their tier-one capital for out-and-out speculation, circumventing Volcker.

  • That doesn't sound much, but once levered up 50-times – and such a figure isn't unusual – this huge loophole in Volcker is more than enough to allow investment banks to keep destroying themselves

Adding insult to injury, Wall Street then secured delays to the introduction of Volcker – or what's left of it – that in some cases will last for more than 10 years.

The closer you look at Dodd-Frank, the more apparent becomes Wall Street's influence.

  • Limits on leverage – rejected.
  • Limits on bank size – rejected.

Restrictions on derivatives – well, some trading will go through a central exchange, allowing more scrutiny, but it's entirely unclear how much.

  • At every turn, this bill avoids decisions,

who will turn generalities into actual rules. If the banks were able to skew Dodd-Frank their way , think of the influence they'll have when the details are hammered out behind closed doors.

  • Obama put the spotlight on the creation of a consumer protection bureau – an attempt, before November's mid-term elections, to make arcane legislation meaningful to the public. Are there limits on credit card interest, ensnaring adjustable rate mortgages or predatory pay-day loans? Nope.

Some other omissions in the bill are breath-taking. There is no mention of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac – the government-sponsored mortgage-providers that have already cost $145bn in bail-out cash, rising to almost $400bn by 2019.

  • No mention, either, of capital requirements – which means the global banking system must rely, once again, on the ridiculous Basel process for resolving this crucial issue.

Once again, Obama missed a chance to give a lead when it comes to financial reform.

  • Based on sound-thinking courageous judgment, the Glass-Steagall legislation was only 17 pages long.

Packed with wheezes and loop-holes, Dodd-Frank runs to 2,319 pages. Enough said."

  • via Free Republic

Crazy 'half-breed hicks' won't shut up, now find Obama has placed Interpol between us and our former country

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A person who says he was falsely accused of being on Journolist describes persons opposing his world view as "half-breeds, hicks, neanderthals," etc. Undaunted, our side continues. An American Thinker author recalls Obama signed an Executive order on 12/16/09 enabling Interpol to enjoy special rights and privileges:
"Lost among the vast array of dangerous new legislation, regulations and sweeping changes which have been forced upon the American people under the current regime, is a little known Executive Order which was signed by Barack Obama on December 16, 2009. The little known order was quietly released and posted on the White House web site the following day, the brief Executive Order is entitled "AMENDING EXECUTIVE ORDER 12425 DESIGNATING INTERPOL AS A PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION ENTITLED TO ENJOY CERTAIN PRIVILAGES, EXEMPTIONS, AND IMMUNITIES."
  • The Washington Examiner said that Obama's directive could possibly be "the most destructive blow ever struck against American constitutional civil liberties."
In dissecting Obama's Executive Order 12425 the Examiner editorial board revealed that.

First, Obama has granted Interpol the ability to operate within the territorial limits of the United States without being subject to the same constitutional restraints that apply to all domestic law enforcement agencies such as the FBI. Second, Obama has

exempted Interpol's domestic facilities-including its office within the U.S. Department of Justice-from search and seizure by U.S. authorities

and from disclosure of archived documents in response to Freedom of Information Act requests files by U.S. citizens.


With the stroke of a pen Mr. Obama handed sweeping police powers within American territory to an international organization which will be free to conduct police operations

Monday, July 26, 2010

Andrew Breitbart interview on Michael Savage show, 7/26/10

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(Link is inactive now).
Andrew Breitbart interview on Michael Savage show, Monday, July 26, 2010.

Fox News and Gingrich are among my mortal enemies because they pretend to be on the right

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There is no mystery about Gingrich. He is a media creation, a failure in reality who should long ago have retired from public life in shame. What is a mystery is why people outside major media pay attention to him, accept advertising from him, allow him to speak at their events.
  • Now Howard Dean praises a Gingrich presidential run--which makes complete sense.
Fox would have you believe that Gingrich cares about right of center voters. Nothing could be further from the truth.


  • If Sean Hannity were half the 'American' he portrays himself to be, he would not allow hack Gingrich on his show again. Gingrich has already lost our country for us.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Touted Obama mandate to kick in this year finds health insurers backing out

"Some major health insurance companies will no longer issue certain types of policies for children, an unintended consequence of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law, state officials said Friday....

  • Starting later this year, the health care overhaul law requires insurers to accept children regardless of medical problems --
  • a major early benefit of the complex legislation.

Insurers are worried that parents will wait until kids get sick to sign them up, saddling the companies with unpredictable costs....

  • Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty said several big insurers in his state will stop issuing new policies that cover children individually. Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland said a couple of local insurers in her state are doing likewise.
In Florida, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Aetna, and Golden Rule -- a subsidiary of UnitedHealthcare -- notified the insurance commissioner that they will stop issuing individual policies for children....
  • Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida...vice president Randy Kammer said the company's experts calculated that guaranteeing coverage for children could
  • raise premiums for other individual policy holders by as much as 20 percent.

"We believe that the majority of people who would buy this policy were going to use it immediately, probably for high cost claims," said Kammer. "Guaranteed issue means you could technically buy it on the way to the hospital.""

Preventing a mosque at Ground Zero has nothing to do with 'religious liberty' though useful idiots like Bloomberg spin it that way

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7/24, "Rauf's Dawa from the World Trade Center rubble," Andrew McCarthy, NRO
Imam Rauf's mosque advocacy group 'Cordoba Initiative' includes sponsorship by the United Nations. US taxpayers of course provide 20 to 25% of the UN's budget.
  • Andrew McCarthy: "Now it emerges that a “special, non-commercial edition” of this book was later produced, with Feisal’s cooperation,
by two American tentacles of the Muslim Brotherhood: the Islamic Society of North America and the International Institute of Islamic Thought. The book’s copyright page tells the tale:


Both ISNA and IIIT have been up to their necks in the promotion of Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood’s ruthless Palestinian branch, which is pledged by charter to the destruction of Israel. In fact, both ISNA and IIIT were cited by the Justice Department as unindicted co-conspirators in a crucial terrorism-financing case involving the channeling of tens of millions of dollars to Hamas through an outfit called the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development.
  • For the last 15 years, Hamas has been a designated terrorist organization under U.S. law.
Dawa, whether done from the rubble of the World Trade Center or elsewhere, is the missionary work by which Islam is spread. As explained in my recent book, The Grand Jihad, dawa is proselytism, but not involving only spiritual elements — for Islam is not merely a religion, and spiritual elements are just a small part of its doctrine. In truth,
  • Islam is a comprehensive political, social, and economic system with its own authoritarian legal framework,
  • sharia, which aspires to govern all aspects of life.
This framework rejects core tenets of American constitutional republicanism: for example, individual liberty, freedom of conscience, freedom to govern ourselves irrespective of any theocratic code, equality of men and women, equality of Muslims and non-Muslims, and economic liberty, including the uses of private property (in Islam, owners hold property only as a custodians for the umma, the universal Muslim nation, and are beholden to the Islamic state regarding its use).
  • Sharia prohibits the preaching of creeds other than Islam, the renunciation of Islam, any actions that divide the umma, and homosexuality. Its penalties are draconian, including savagely executed death sentences for apostates, homosexuals, and adulterers.
The purpose of dawa, like the purpose of jihad, is to implement, spread, and defend sharia. Scholar Robert Spencer incisively refers to dawa practices as “stealth jihad,” the advancement of the sharia agenda through means other than violence and agents other than terrorists.
This is why Yusuf Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and the world’s most influential Islamic cleric, boldly promises that Islam will “conquer America” and “conquer Europe” through dawa.

In considering Imam Rauf and his Ground Zero project, Qaradawi and the Muslim Brotherhood are extremely important. Like most Muslims, Rauf regards Qaradawi as a guide, and referred to him in 2001 as “the most well-known legal authority in the whole Muslim world today.” And indeed he is: a prominent, Qatar-based scholar whose weekly Al Jazeera program on the subject of sharia is viewed by millions and whose cyber-venture, Islam Online, is accessed by millions more, including Muslims in the United States. Not surprisingly, his rabble-rousing was a prime cause of the deadly global rioting by Muslims when an obscure Danish newspaper published cartoon depictions of Mohammed.
  • Qaradawi regards the United States as the enemy of Islam. He has urged that Muslims “fight the American military if we can, and if we cannot, we should
  • fight the U.S. economically and politically.” ...
Qaradawi’s support for Hamas is only natural. Since that organization’s 1987 founding, it has been the top Muslim Brotherhood priority to underwrite Hamas’s jihadist onslaught against the Jewish state. Toward that end, the Muslim Brotherhood mobilized the Islamist infrastructure in the United States.
  • The original building block of that infrastructure was the Muslim Students Association (MSA), established in the early Sixties to groom young Muslims in the Brotherhood’s ideology — promoting sharia, Islamic supremacism, and a worldwide caliphate. As Andrew Bostom elaborated in a New York Post op-ed on Friday, Imam Rauf, too, is steeped in this ideology.
In 1981, after two decades of churning out activists from its North American chapters (which now number over 600), the Brotherhood merged the MSA into ISNA. In its own words, ISNA was conceived as an umbrella organization “to advance the cause of Islam and service Muslims in North America so as to enable them to adopt Islam as a complete way of life.” That same year, the
  • Brotherhood created IIIT as a Washington-area Islamic think tank dedicated to what it describes as “the Islamicization of knowledge.”
After Hamas was created, the top Brotherhood operative in the United States, Mousa Abu Marzook — who actually ran Hamas from his Virginia home for several years in the early Nineties — founded the Islamic Association for Palestine to boost Hamas’s support. One of his co-founders was Sami al-Arian, then a student and Muslim Brotherhood member, later a top U.S. operative of the terrorist organization Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which he helped guide from his perch as a professor at the University of South Florida. In 2006, al-Arian was convicted on terrorism charges.
  • Marzook and other Brotherhood figures established the Occupied Land Fund, eventually
  • renamed the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), to be Hamas’s American fundraising arm.
  • The HLF was headquartered in ISNA’s Indiana office....
Ultimately, the HLF raised over $36 million for Hamas. At the height of the intifada, this was not about the social-welfare activities Hamas touts to camouflage its barbarism. As the journalist Stephen Schwartz of the Center for Islamic Pluralism has observed, “Ordinary Americans should be shocked and outraged to learn that Hamas was running its terror campaign from a sanctuary in the U.S.” ...

In 1991, the Muslim Brotherhood’s American leadership prepared an internal memorandum for the organization’s global leadership in Egypt. It was written principally by Mohamed Akram, a close associate of Sheikh Qaradawi. As Akram put it, the Brotherhood

must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and “sabotaging” its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.


The Ground Zero project to erect a monument to sharia overlooking the crater where the World Trade Center once stood, and where thousands were slaughtered, is not a test of America’s commitment to religious liberty. America already has thousands of mosques and Islamic centers, including scores in the New York area — though Islam does not allow non-Muslims even to enter its crown-jewel cities of Mecca and Medina, much less to build churches or synagogues.

  • The Ground Zero project is a test of America’s resolve to face down a civilizational jihad that aims, in the words of its leaders,

to destroy us from within."


  • cover of book above from 911families.org.














Today's Republican Party cannot survive, 'The productive class vs the American Aristocracy,' Karnick

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"What is needed, then, is not conserving but reform."

7/25/10, "The productive class and the American Aristocracy," by S.T. Karnick, American Thinker

The author references the great Codevilla piece, citing Codevilla's terms ruling class vs country class. Karnick focuses on the aristocracy vs the productive class, believes the Republican Party will not survive.

Karnick: "The real motive for progressive politics is by no means any sense of altruism, as the aristocracy would have us believe. It is all of the usual selfish stuff: money, power, and ego. (Rush) Limbaugh observes:
  • "When you get down to it, folks, it's all about money. Always follow the money. The left and the ruling class love to say that they do things out of altruism, out of compassion, big hearts, and these people are a bunch of lazy SOBs who have no business in the private sector 'cause they can't succeed there. The only way they can succeed is to be a bunch of brownnosers in the ruling class and try to move their way up that ladder and get whatever they can out of the public trough. The ruling class has gotten rich off of government."
As Dr. Ray Stantz (Dan Ackroyd) noted in Ghostbusters, "You don't know what it's like out there. I've worked in the private sector. They expect results!"
blatantly throwing their weight around in silencing those who try to tell the truth about the science of climate change.
  • Al Gore is a multimillionaire who knows nothing about science, whereas S. Fred Singer is a brilliant scientist who continually endures a firestorm of slanders and harassment for trying to uphold scientific standards. These two men encapsulate the opposing forces of the aristocracy and the productive class....
Naturally, the forcible disconnection of actions from consequences has led to a series of catastrophes and misadventures --
  • bumbled intrusions in Iraq and Afghanistan while failing to bring Osama bin Laden to justice, a ghastly housing bubble and crash of financial markets followed by a nagging recession, horrifyingly irresponsible expansion of government debt,
a grotesque comedy of errors as the federal government and a multinational megabusiness fail to plug an oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, children's academic achievement at a disastrously low level, entertainment and arts given over in great part to proselytizing for the aristocracy's pet political causes and
  • character assassination of all who dare to question that agenda, and so on and on.
This spectacular litany of misrule has elicited a mass public distrust of the nation's leaders. An April 2010 study found that
  • "Americans are more dissatisfied with the country's direction than at any time since the New York Times/CBS News poll began asking about the subject in the early 1990s." Other polls show similar results.
This is not a sustainable situation, and increasing conflict appears to be inevitable. With the productive class pressing for self-governance -- which its members see as both their inherent right and as necessary to their productivity -- and the progressive aristocracy threatened with the loss of everything,
It's too late, moreover, for conservatism to provide a remedy. Codevilla writes:
  • "In this clash, the ruling class holds most of the cards: because it has established itself as the fount of authority, its primacy is based on habits of deference. Breaking them, establishing other founts of authority, other ways of doing things, would involve far more than electoral politics."
Traditional conservatism is a woefully inadequate response to the rule of the progressive aristocracy because conserving the changes of the past few decades would be disastrous: the vast increase in the welfare state, the Sexual Revolution and its antinomian devaluation of all values, the nation's catastrophically bad education system,
  • a culture promoting license and irresponsibility, and other such atrocities are necessary to the maintenance of a corrupt aristocracy which relies on the output of a productive class
  • forced into peasant-like docility so that its goods can be extracted for the benefit of its self-proclaimed betters.
In fact, the baneful state of contemporary American society might seem to be no accident at all, as it keeps the productive class in line through threats from above (impoverishment, prison, and family breakups, all of which governments have shown themselves quite willing to inflict) and below (by crime and social disorder) and bought off with cheap pleasures. It's a regime that combines the worst elements of the dystopias in 1984, Brave New World, and A Clockwork Orange.
  • The progressive aristocracy is every bit as morally reprehensible as the worst of those of the past, for it relies on the existence of an underclass that will provide sufficient votes to keep it in power and motivate the productive class to work hard lest they fall into this unfortunate group. That helps explain why the
  • progressive aristocracy has stood idly by while the schools in the nation's inner cities have deteriorated so badly and thus doomed a large swath of the population to poverty and dependence on the government. This inculcation of ignorance appears to be a matter of truly stupendous cynicism.
Thus what there is to conserve in the nation's institutions is largely unappealing to the productive class.
  • The modern aristocrats are the ones who want to conserve the political, social, and cultural institutions of today, for they rely on these forces for their comfortable existence.
What is needed, then, is not conserving but reform.
  • The problem is that the aristocracy has so strong a grasp of the levers of power that the means of reform scarcely exist.
Nonetheless, Codevilla argues that the aristocracy can be toppled through political means. His expectation is that the Republican Party will be transformed into one that represents the interests of the productive class or will be replaced by such a party, in order to get their votes:
  • "Because, in the long run, the country class will not support a party as conflicted as today's Republicans,
  • those Republican politicians who really want to represent it will either reform the party in an unmistakable manner, or start a new one as Whigs like Abraham Lincoln started the Republican Party in the 1850s."
...If the contemporary American aristocracy can be forced out without such a terrible confrontation, it will be impressive proof of the Founders' wisdom and the success of the American experiment. If not, the nation may well be headed for a struggle that will make the tumult of the 1960s look like a mild tiff in comparison."

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(I consider Karl Rove a prime example of the ruling class disaster who must go. Limbaugh, mentioned in this article, is a good friend of Rove and publicly supports him. Limbaugh's words to his listeners about the GOP ruling class are 100% right, but it's possible he doesn't really believe them. Those in power, many who have overseen the loss of our country, to this day show complete disdain for those they are supposed to represent. ed.)



Saturday, July 24, 2010

Fiat 'rescued' Chrysler, now its workers object to working as hard as Americans do, say it will 'kill' them


"Now fresh from rescuing Chrysler in the United States, Sergio Marchionne of Fiat is pushing these workers to be more devoted to their jobs, mirroring a larger effort by the government to improve Italy’s competitiveness and reduce its debt through austerity measures.

Even some workers here in Pomigliano, Fiat’s lowest-producing plant, complain of ingrained bad habits, citing peers who call in sick to earn money while working another job or skip work with a fake doctor’s note — especially when the local soccer team is playing....

  • He wants to impose American-style standards,” Nello Niglio, a factory worker, said of Mr. Marchionne’s requirements to work longer hours and cut back on absences.
  • But too much work is going to kill our workers.”...

The factory, which produces Alfa Romeos, is in many ways an extreme example of Italy’s woes. The 5,200 employees have been operating the plant at 32 percent capacity for the last two years, since demand collapsed during the economic crisis.

  • Keeping the plant open would seem to make little economic sense. But Fiat, which generates nearly half the region’s economic activity, faced political pressure to safeguard the livelihood of about 15,000 families

in a poor area gripped by organized crime. Unemployment and growth rates here are among the worst in the country, while productivity has been about 20 percent lower."...

  • photo above Fiat worker arguing prior to vote, from NY Times, IHT

Friday, July 23, 2010

UN refused to hire American who uncovered widespread UN fraud, dozens of oversight positions remain unfilled, Ban Ki-Moon weakness cited

United Nations: "The outgoing chief of a U.N. office charged with combating corruption at the United Nations has issued a stinging rebuke of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, accusing him of
  • undermining her efforts and leading the global institution into an era of decline, according to a confidential end-of-assignment report.
The memo by Inga-Britt Ahlenius, a Swedish auditor who stepped down Friday as undersecretary general of
  • the Office of Internal Oversight Services, represents an extraordinary personal attack on Ban from a senior U.N. official.
The memo also marks a challenge to Ban's studiously cultivated image

Shortly after taking office in 2007, Ban committed himself to restoring the United Nations' reputation, which had been sullied by

  • revelations of corruption in the agency's oil-for-food program in Iraq.

But Ahlenius says that, rather than being an advocate for accountability, Ban, along with his top advisers, has systematically sought to undercut the independence of her office, initially by

  • trying to set up a competing investigations unit under his control and then by thwarting her efforts to hire her own staff.

"Your actions are not only deplorable, but seriously reprehensible. . . . Your action is without precedent and in my opinion seriously embarrassing for yourself," Ahlenius wrote in the 50-page memo to Ban, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post. "I regret to say that the secretariat now is in a process of decay."...

During the past two years, the world body has shed some of its top investigators.

  • It has also failed to fill dozens of vacancies, including that of the chief of the investigations division in the Office of Internal Oversight Services.

That post has been vacant since 2006, leaving a void in the United Nations' ability to police itself, diplomats say."...

  • ****
On the man the UN didn't want to hire, from CNS News, 7/21:
  • "A specific criticism related to Ban’s alleged blocking of the appointment of an American, former assistant U.S. attorney in Connecticut Robert Appleton, as head of the OIOS’s crucial Investigations Division (ID).
Appleton served as special counsel to a major inquiry into corruption in the U.N.’s Iraq oil-for-food program led by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker. Finalized in 2005, the inquiry led to the setting up of a procurement task force, which under Appleton’s leadership carried out more than 300 investigations,
When the task force’s mandate lapsed at the end of 2008, Ahlenius wanted Appleton appointed as head of the ID, a post that had been vacant since 2006. But top U.N. officials opposed the move because the short
  • list of candidates contained no women, and only Americans – a violation of
  • U.N. rules on geographic and gender diversity.
The U.S. provides 22 percent of the U.N.’s regular operating budget, and 25 percent of the peacekeeping budget. Member states’ contributions are calculated from assessments based on their relative “capacity to pay.”
  • (Appleton’s application was also reportedly opposed by Russia, whose nationals were implicated in the task force’s investigations.
  • Russia furthermore played a key role in ensuring that the task force’s mandate was not extended.)
The vacancy at the helm of the ID was cited in OIOS annual reports in 2009 and again this year as an “impediment” to its work, with the reports calling it “critical that this post be filled expeditiously.”
  • It remains empty today, and now with Ahlenius’ departure, the top OIOS position is also vacant. The U.N. General Assembly seven months ago passed a resolution urging Ban to ensure Ahlenius’ successor was chosen by the time her tenure ended...
Ahlenius’ parting shot at Ban comes less than a year after a Norwegian newspaper published a leaked internal memo by that country’s deputy ambassador to the U.N., Mona Juul, who described
  • the secretary-general as weak and lacking in authority and charisma, and characterized his handling of crises in Sri Lanka and Burma as a failure."...
"Ban Ki-Moon in the firing line over leadership, reforms," CNS News