[null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, {"document_url": "http://exposingtheleft.blogspot.com/2009/01/", "unformatted_src": "http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_BKgDxiYVbRE/SXsfWqHLALI/AAAAAAAAAzQ/G6NM8Jrkb5U/s400/alfred_e_neuman.jpg", "src": "http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_BKgDxiYVbRE/SXsfWqHLALI/AAAAAAAAAzQ/G6NM8Jrkb5U/s400/alfred_e_neuman.jpg", "formatted_filename": "alfred e neuman"}, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, {"document_url": "http://exposingtheleft.blogspot.com/2009/01/", "unformatted_src": "http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_BKgDxiYVbRE/SWZwe8_Q_OI/AAAAAAAAAx0/WvvNa0Ourao/s400/jimmycarter.jpg", "src": "http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_BKgDxiYVbRE/SWZwe8_Q_OI/AAAAAAAAAx0/WvvNa0Ourao/s400/jimmycarter.jpg", "formatted_filename": "jimmycarter"}, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, {"document_url": "http://exposingtheleft.blogspot.com/2009/01/", "unformatted_src": "http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_BKgDxiYVbRE/SWK5izvnffI/AAAAAAAAAxs/oWmFVx1656I/s400/KT.jpg", "src": "http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_BKgDxiYVbRE/SWK5izvnffI/AAAAAAAAAxs/oWmFVx1656I/s400/KT.jpg", "formatted_filename": "KT"}, null, null, null, null, null, null, {"document_url": "http://exposingtheleft.blogspot.com/2009/01/", "unformatted_src": "http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_BKgDxiYVbRE/SV__Dhxf44I/AAAAAAAAAxk/TeK0hml_HQ4/s400/wesi+virginia.jpg", "src": "http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_BKgDxiYVbRE/SV__Dhxf44I/AAAAAAAAAxk/TeK0hml_HQ4/s400/wesi+virginia.jpg", "formatted_filename": "wesi virginia"}, null, null, {"document_url": "http://exposingtheleft.blogspot.com/2009/01/", "unformatted_src": "http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_BKgDxiYVbRE/SV-0MHp9SZI/AAAAAAAAAxU/fByFvz0__N8/s400/Gaza.jpg", "src": "http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_BKgDxiYVbRE/SV-0MHp9SZI/AAAAAAAAAxU/fByFvz0__N8/s400/Gaza.jpg", "formatted_filename": "Gaza"}, null, null, null, null, null, null, {"document_url": "http://exposingtheleft.blogspot.com/2009/01/", "unformatted_src": "http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_BKgDxiYVbRE/SVzHAmktLYI/AAAAAAAAAxE/v7ZgCO9iu_g/s400/fireworks.jpg", "src": "http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_BKgDxiYVbRE/SVzHAmktLYI/AAAAAAAAAxE/v7ZgCO9iu_g/s400/fireworks.jpg", "formatted_filename": "fireworks"}, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null]


Barack Hussein after deriding Corporations for "excessive" compensation: “Now is not the time for these businesses to make a profit.”

This Prez has gone off the deep end and he hasn't even been in office two weeks. 

RNC Chairman Balloting

1st Ballot Results: 85 votes to win

Mike Duncan - 52
Michael Steele - 46
Katon Dawson - 28
Saul Anuzis - 22
Ken Blackwell - 20

Second Ballot:

Duncan 48
Steele 48
Dawson 29
Anuzis 24
Blackwell 19

Third Ballot:

Steele 51
Duncan 44
Dawson 34
Anunzis 24

Fourth Ballot:

Steele 60
Dawson 62
Anuzis 4?
Blackwell 15

Fifth Ballot:

Steele 79
Dawson 69
Anuzis 20

It's Steele! I'm pleased, he's sharp, pretty dam$ed conservative, a terrific advocate and the fact he is black put's a face on the party that the Media will be reluctant to criticize quite as harshly as a white southerner. 
Why Democrat (Kanjorski) voted against the "stimulus"

A failure by House Democratic leaders to allow bipartisan input into an $819 billion economic stimulus proposal was a key reason U.S. Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski said he voted against it this week.

Efforts to reach Mr. Kan-jorski, D-11, for comment were unsuccessful, but his office provided a copy of a statement he read on the House floor before the vote.

He said Republicans “raise a reasonable objection that they were not fully included” as the bill was drafted. Republicans echoed the complaint.

So Pelosi has been lying, Naaawwww. 

Stimulus has plum for lawmaker's son

The more of this type of crap that comes out (and it will) the better the House Republicans who ALL voted against it will look.

A top House Republican is demanding an investigation into whether the more than $2 billion for national parks in the House stimulus package is proper in light of the fact that the chief lobbyist for the National Parks Conservation Association is the son of House Appropriations Committee Chairman David R. Obey.

NPCA is a major player in advocating for national parks funding, and its senior vice president for government affairs is Craig Obey, son of the Wisconsin Democrat who has long been his party's top Appropriations Committee member.

The money included in the stimulus bill that passed Mr. Obey's committee - $2.25 billion - was about equal to the National Park Service's total yearly budget, and would be a staggering increase and almost three times the $802 million that the Senate Appropriations Committee approved for park spending in its stimulus bill.

The public support for this boondoggle is teetering as it is, as people become educated it will only get worse. 
Report: Barack Obama's Al Qaida initiative began months before his election

Hmmmmm, going to have to keep an eye on this.

WASHINGTON — Barack Obama was working with Arab intermediaries to establish an unofficial dialogue with Al Qaida long before his election as the 44th U.S. president, according to a report in the upcoming weekly edition of Geostrategy-Direct.com.

Al Qaida has offered what has been described as a truce in exchange for a U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan, according to the report.

Obama has deemed the U.S. reconciliation with the Muslim world, including Iran, as his main foreign policy goal, sources quoted in the report said. The president has been aided by several Persian Gulf Arab Muslims with ties to Al Qaida's leadership in Pakistan, they said.
 

Report: Massive Hezbollah attack against Israeli target in Europe thwarted

But but Obama said....

A massive terror attack against an Israeli target in Europe has been thwarted in recent weeks, Channel 2 quoted security officials as saying Wednesday.

The attack, linked to the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, was foiled thanks to intelligence sharing between Israel and an undisclosed European country.

Israeli officials believe that as the one year anniversary of the February 14 assassination of Hezbollah second-in-command Imad Mughniyeh approaches, attempts to attack Israeli targets around the world will intensify.
 

James Hansen’s Former NASA Supervisor Declares Himself a Skeptic

More Blasphemy!

Washington DC: NASA warming scientist James Hansen, one of former Vice-President Al Gore’s closest allies in the promotion of man-made global warming fears, is being publicly rebuked by his former supervisor at NASA.

Retired senior NASA atmospheric scientist, Dr. John S. Theon, the former supervisor of James Hansen, NASA’s vocal man-made global warming fear soothsayer, has now publicly declared himself a skeptic and declared that Hansen “embarrassed NASA” with his alarming climate claims and said Hansen was “was never muzzled.” Theon joins the rapidly growing ranks of international scientists abandoning the promotion of man-made global warming fears.

“I appreciate the opportunity to add my name to those who disagree that global warming is man made,” Theon wrote to the Minority Office at the Environment and Public Works Committee on January 15, 2009. “I was, in effect, Hansen's supervisor because I had to justify his funding, allocate his resources, and evaluate his results,” Theon, the former Chief of the Climate Processes Research Program at NASA Headquarters and former Chief of the Atmospheric Dynamics & Radiation Branch explained.

Posted by traderrob at 5:41 PM 0 comments 
US has a 'lot of damage to repair': Clinton

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States has "a lot of damage to repair" to its standing around the world after eight years of President George W. Bush, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday.

"The (new) approach to the world is one that we know is in the interests of our country going forward, and I have had that reinforced time and again with the all phone calls that I've been making," Clinton told reporters.

"There is a great exhalation of breath going on around the world as people express their appreciation for the new direction that is being set and the team that is being put together by the president...," she said.

You bet Hil, being "liked" certainly helped prevent the first WTC bombing, the USS Cole attack, the 1995 bombing in Saudi Arabia, the 1996 al-Khobar towers bombing, the 1998 Africa embassy bombings etc etc. Well, at least we could feel all warm and fuzzy as we counted our dead. 

Referencing Obama's statement warning Republicans on Capitol Hill Friday that they need to quit listening to Limbaugh if they want to get along with Democrats and the new administration, Limbaugh said: The Republicans haven't been listening to me, anyway, It's a moot point."

Unfortunately too true. 

Republicans criticize university head’s comments about parents

Mr. Rogers: The liberal guys that you undoubtedly elect every year tell us it's their responsibility. One must NEVER EVER forget that the government has vociferously, often intrusively demanded, assumed and insisted on control of the education of our youth. Why not start bitching at them first and foremost. That being said, parents who neither attempt to control their childrens education by actively participating in their school boards as well as significantly supplementing and enhancing their learning at home are not without culpability.

LAS VEGAS — Republicans have sharply criticized university system Chancellor Jim Rogers’ comments about parents in his State of the System address. Rogers, who has been fighting Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons’ proposed drastic budget cuts to higher education, took aim at an apathetic public in Friday’s speech.

“Your only relationship with the education system is to ship your unprepared kids to school, not with the expectation of success, but with the demand that an education system, inadequately funded, develop and/or repair children that you as a parent did not prepare for school or support while your children attended school,” Rogers said.

In a joint statement, Assemblyman Ed Goedhart, R-Amargosa Valley, and Nevada Republican Party Chair Sue Lowden said it’s unfair to blame parents for education failures.

“Jim Rogers owes every caring parent in the state a public apology,” they said. “For Chancellor Rogers to blame the failure of the government-run education system on parents is nothing short of outrageous.”

Update: Shameless Parental crowing alert. Michael (one of the twins) just received his STARZ reading evaluation and , although he is in 4th grade, is presently reading at High School sophomore level. Demanding he and his brother read at least 4 hours a week in addition to their normal load is part of the reason. He just finished his second "Harry Potter" book and last week started "Hunt for Red October". Not easy reading for a 4th grader. 
Blago: I Thought About Oprah For Senate Seat

The party of PC is becoming the party of "damn the qualifications, full speed ahead". Al Franken, Caroline Kennedy and almost Oprah Winfrey. Actually within the Democrat party, her nomination would have made the most sense. A minority women is always unfailingly preferable to any candidate regardless of qualification.

One of Oprah’s most famous moves was giving away a car to every member of the studio audience. With the Obama administration planning to dole out several thousand dollars in largesse for every American family, why not Winfrey for senator from Illinois? Whatever his motivation, Rod Blagojevich let it be known on GMA today that he had indeed considered Oprah for appointment to Barack Obama’s open Senate seat.

Diane Sawyer interviewed the Illinois governor, and to her credit held his feet fairly firmly to the fire. In contrast with Amy Robach’s relatively soft treatment in her NBC interview, Sawyer repeatedly cited some of the seamier excerpts from the infamous wiretape transcripts, e.g., “I’ve got this thing and it’s bleeping golden and, I’m just not giving it up for bleeping nothing.”
 

McCain says it hurts to lose the election

Screw the base you lose elections, it’s that simple.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Of course it hurts to lose.

And John McCain also says that after losing the election to Barack Obama, the easiest thing to do would have been to feel sorry for himself.

But the Arizona Republican is back in the Senate, part of what he calls the loyal opposition to Democrats in power, and ready to work with Obama.

McCain says he doesn't have a lot of regrets about his losing campaign for president. As for his choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, McCain says she energized Republicans and has a bright future in the party.

Bailing on ones running mate doesn't exactly boost your cedibility either Senator. 

AP Watch

BS, HS, Ca-ca, CS, nonsensical, propagandistic, misleading, headline of the week:

Obama breaks from Bush, avoids divisive stands

The articles worse. 
Despite the hot air, the Antarctic is not warming up

Junk science, the brain candy of the new millenium...

So it predictably made headlines across the world last week when a new study, from a team led by Professor Eric Steig, claimed to prove that the Antarctic has been heating up after all. As on similar occasions in the past, all the usual supporters of the cause were called in to whoop up its historic importance. The paper was published in Nature and heavily promoted by the BBC. This, crowed journalists such as Newsweek's Sharon Begley, would really be one in the eye for the "deniers" and "contrarians".

But then a good many experts began to examine just what new evidence had been used to justify this dramatic finding. It turned out that it was produced by a computer model based on combining the satellite evidence since 1979 with temperature readings from surface weather stations.

The problem with Antarctica, though, is that has so few weather stations. So what the computer had been programmed to do, by a formula not yet revealed, was to estimate the data those missing weather stations would have come up with if they had existed. In other words, while confirming that the satellite data have indeed shown the Antarctic as cooling since 1979, the study relied ultimately on pure guesswork, to show that in the past 50 years the continent has warmed – by just one degree Fahrenheit.

One of the first to express astonishment was Dr Kenneth Trenberth, a senior scientist with the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and a convinced believer in global warming, who wryly observed "it is hard to make data where none exists". A disbelieving Ross Hayes, an atmospheric scientist who has often visited the Antarctic for Nasa, sent Professor Steig a caustic email ending: "with statistics you can make numbers go to any conclusion you want. It saddens me to see members of the scientific community do this for media coverage."
 
OK It's Time to Worry One only has to skim Obama's Inaugural address to notice two common themes. Lowered expectations and it's Bushs fault and will be for the next 4 years. It was a speech that will inspire no one but the hopelessly entranced and do little other than cover POTUS butt for failing to meet even the most conservative of accomplishment objectives. Speech transcript is here, see if you don't agree. 

David Paterson to Name Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand as Junior NY Senator

And the left is PI$$ED.

Surprising pretty much everyone, NY Governor David Patterson is expected to announce today that he has selected upstate conservative Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand to fill the seat vacated by new Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, infuriating the Dems who had been aggressively lobbying behind the scenes for the patronage peach.

Gillibrand, an upstate congesswoman has defeated two strong Republican challenges in two election cycles. Unusual for a Dem, she did it with the help of the NRA, voted against the bailouts, and has not been supportive of gay marriage.

Liberal downstate Dems, like Andrew Cuomo, Carolyn McCarthy, and Steve Israel, are reported to be furious with the pick, with several of them threatening to challenge the governor in the state primary next year.

Posted by traderrob at 6:25 AM 2 comments 

Stephanopoulos Cried On Inauguration Day

So did I.... Ali Wentworth (husband of ABC News' George Stephanopoulos) on "Oprah":

We watched everything and George was still doing all the anchoring for ABC and as soon Beyonce said "At Last..." George called me at home and he went, "Honey?" and I said "I know!" and we both started crying.
 
Americans Remain Skeptical on Man-Made Global Warming

The American people DO get hoodwinked as is evidenced by the present occupant of the White House. But, thank goodness we still remain a "Show Me" lot in general and concerning AGW a majority remain unconvinced.

Al Gore’s side may be coming to power in Washington, but they appear to be losing the battle on the idea that humans are to blame for global warming.

Forty-four percent (44%) of U.S. voters now say long-term planetary trends are the cause of global warming, compared to 41% who blame it on human activity.

Seven percent (7%) attribute global warming to some other reason, and nine percent (9%) are unsure in a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
 

Actor Accidentally Uses Loaded Gun In Play

To quote the great Peter Boyle "HOLY CRAP"...

BRADENTON, Fla. -- Tragedy nearly struck a group of actors in Bradenton, Fla., when authorities say a loaded gun was accidentally used during a rehearsal.

Members of the Sarasota Senior Theater were rehearsing a scene from John Steinback's "Of Mice and Men" when one actor picked up a pistol he'd borrowed from another cast member.

He pointed the revolver at another actor's head and pulled the trigger. The shot grazed the man's ear. He was treated at a hospital and another actor took his place in the performance that went on as scheduled a few hours later.
 
Rep. Jim Moran's Confrontation With Capitol Police

Cynthia McKinney syndrome alive and well in DC.

After the inauguration ended, Rep. Jim Moran's wife tried to enter the Capitol building. It's standard operating procedure when the President is in transit, that the area be locked down. This wasn't an acceptable answer for refusing her entrance into the building, and she called her husband demanding that the Capitol police officer immediately talk to him. The officer calmly explained that he's not alllowed to, but rather the congressman could call the Seargent At Arms who could call his boss and then call him.

Soon Moran stormed out of the building and angrily confronted the police officer looking at his wife and shouting, "Is this the one?" He then got in the officer's face and insisted that he did not know the proper procedure. Moran's wife was then allowed in the building under her husband's congressional escort.
 

Al Qaeda hit by Black Death fear as medieval plague kills 40 terrorists at training camp (Updated and Bumped)

Couldn't happen to nicer guys...

Al Qaeda terrorists have been left fearing the Black Death plague after it wiped out at least 40 insurgents at an Algerian training camp, it was reported today.
The horror disease, which killed 25 million people in medieval Europe, is understood to have been found in a militant’s body dumped at a roadside.
Terror group AQLIM (al Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb) was forced to turn its shelter in the Yakouren forests into mass graves and flee, it has been claimed.

Update: Al-Qaeda's plague backfires

THE al-Qaeda cell wiped out by Black Death may have infected ITSELF while developing biological weapons, it emerged last night.

The terrorists planned to wreak havoc on Western targets but fell victims to their own weapon, a leading expert on chemical warfare believes.

The Sun revealed yesterday that Black Death, also called the Plague, killed at least 40 fanatics at a terror training camp in Algeria earlier this month.

It was thought they caught the disease through poor living conditions in their forest hideouts
 
Barack Hussein Obama Inaugurated as 44th President of the United States

Now we find out whether this will be merely a bad dream or an absolute freakin nightmare...

Barack Obama took the oath of office today as the 44th president of the United States and pledged to "begin again the work of remaking America."

Addressing a huge throng estimated at more than 2 million people on the capital's Mall and millions of others watching on television, Obama recognized the multiple crises now afflicting the nation at a time of war abroad and economic turmoil at home. But he sought to rally Americans to a "new era of responsibility" and the promise of a brighter future.

He cited a profound "sapping of confidence across our land -- a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights." The challenges are real, serious and many, and "they will not be met easily or in a short span of time," he said.

"But know this, America -- they will be met," he declared to cheers from the crowd. "On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord. On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics."
 

Bush Commutes Sentences of Two Border Agents Convicted of Shooting Drug Dealer

Way to go GW. In this bloggers mind you now have acheived a Presidential legacy rating of 8 on a scale of 1-10 having lost a full half point do this this gross and inexcusable miscarriage of justice.

WASHINGTON – In his final acts of clemency, President George W. Bush on Monday commuted the prison sentences of two former U.S. Border Patrol agents whose convictions for shooting a Mexican drug dealer ignited fierce debate about illegal immigration.

Bush's decision to commute the sentences of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who tried to cover up the shooting, was welcomed by both Republican and Democratic members of Congress. They had long argued that the agents were merely doing their jobs, defending the American border against criminals. They also maintained that the more than 10-year prison sentences the pair was given were too harsh.

Rancor over their convictions, sentencing and firings has simmered ever since the shooting occurred in 2005.

Ramos and Compean became a rallying point among conservatives and on talk shows where their supporters called them heroes. Nearly the entire bipartisan congressional delegation from Texas and other lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle pleaded with Bush to grant them clemency.

BTW, is Michelle Malkin suffering from BDS? After no less than 6 articles slamming the President for his lack of intervention in the prosecution and incarceration of Ramos and Compean she is all of the sudden "speechless" concerning his recent cummutation of their sentences. What's up Michelle, Crickets got your tongue? 


Referring to the one: "Never in the course of human events have so many vested so much in one who has done so little." csmusaret at FR. 

Add Astronaut Jack Schmitt to the List of Global Warming Skeptics

Ahhhh, lucidity, it is truly a wonderful thing

...American astronaut Dr. Jack Schmitt—the last living man to walk on the moon—is the latest scientist to be added to the roster of more than 70 skeptics who will confront the subject of global warming at the second annual International Conference on Climate Change in New York City March 8-10, 2009.

The conference expects to draw 1,000 attendees including private-sector business people, state and federal legislators and officials, policy analysts, media, and students.

Schmitt, who earned a Ph.D. from Harvard in geology, is the twelfth person to walk on the Moon; as of 2008, of the nine living moonwalkers, he and his crewmate Eugene Cernan were the last two to walk there.

“As a geologist, I love Earth observations,” Schmitt says. “But, it is ridiculous to tie this objective to a ‘consensus’ that humans are causing global warming when human experience, geologic data and history, and current cooling can argue otherwise. ‘Consensus,’ as many have said, merely represents the absence of definitive science. You know as well as I, the ‘global warming scare’ is being used as a political tool to increase government control over American lives, incomes, and decision making ...”

Amen Dr. 

Minimal Posting

You'll have to excuse me for the rather meager postings of late but I'm in mourning. Mourning for our wonderful republic. We are in for 4, possibly 8, depending on circumstance, rough, unprecedented and likely hurtful years of Democrat Executive and Legislative contol.

The wonderful thing about liberalism is, by definition, it's destructiveness in both intention and result. I believe this great country will survive and possibly even benefit from the socialism that will be undoubtedly thrust upon her for the next several years.

I also believe that the pendulum predictably swings and when the natural momentum of the counter swing does occur it will be not only more intense and violent than we have experienced in the last hundred years.

The oft quoted but so very genuine Chinese quotation "interesting times" is particularly appropriate at this point in history.
Posted by traderrob at 5:03 PM 6 comments 
Funding Non-Profits

Elections matter.

Left-of-center nonprofits are getting the bailout they wanted from the U.S. government, the Chronicle of Philanthropy reports. The news comes a month after Independent Sector president Diana Aviv demanded it.

Our lawmakers are intent on pissing away billions of dollars on utterly useless giveaways to their supporters in the liberal nonprofit establishment. The money will have virtually no positive impact on the economy, except perhaps that it might bolster employment at nonprofit groups.

One of the more egregious line items is the $1 billion allocation for community development block grants (CDBG). These are slush funds that liberal groups like La Raza and ACORN use to subsidize their operations.
 


Why I get 100's of hits a day and Powerline 10's of 1000's....

Joe Biden has found his role in the Obama administration. It will be the self-referential one of defending his importance.

Soooo very true. 
(another) Hamas Leader Killed in Israeli Air Strike

DEVELOPING: Hamas interior minister Saeed Seyyam was killed in an Israeli air strike in the Gaza Strip, Hamas and U.S. Intelligence officials confirmed to FOX News Thursday.

Seyyam was in charge of 13,000 Hamas police and security officials, many of whom are involved in the Gaza conflict with Israel, Hamas-run television reported.

5 more days to finish the job. 
Somali Capital Overrun by Islamofascists

Maybe in an interreligioso struggle for power they'll kill each other off.

Islamist militants took almost full control of Mogadishu on Thursday, less than 24 hours after Ethiopian troops withdrew from Somalia's capital, a witness reported.

The Ethiopian forces pulled out their last remaining bases in the city late Wednesday after two years propping up Somalia's transitional government.

Forces from different Islamist groups -- including the hard-line al-Shabab, which the United States has designated a terror organization -- immediately seized every base the Ethiopians abandoned.

"The city is almost under Islamist rule," said a local journalist who did not want his name revealed. "You can hear different names of the Islamist groups taking control in many parts of the city."
 A picture's worth...
Posted by traderrob at 3:20 PM 0 comments 
Proposal Emerges For 10-Day Cease-Fire in Gaza

Can you say UNCLE...

CAIRO, Egypt -- Egypt and Hamas were negotiating a proposal for a 10-day cease-fire in Gaza, officials said Wednesday, as the Palestinian death toll in the war passed 1,000 and smoke from Israeli airstrikes rose over Gaza City's devastated streets.

Egyptian and Palestinian officials said they hoped to seal Hamas' agreement on a temporary halt in fighting, which would be presented to Israel for approval. Key uncertainties remained for a longer-term deal under which Gaza's borders would be open and Israeli troops would withdraw.

Proving that the practice of using the civilian population as protection isn't so very effective after all. 
Lots of Coffee Linked to Hallucinations, Study Finds

Hmmmmm, I better cut back.

Research suggests people who drink more than seven cups of instant coffee a day have an increased tendency to hallucinate.

High caffeine users may even think they sense non-existent people, according to researchers from the University of Durham.

They studied 200 students who were asked about their typical intake of caffeine products.

Those who had a high caffeine intake were three times more likely to have the heard voice of someone non-existent than "low" users who consumed less than one cup of instant coffee or its equivalent.
 

Father & Son Cut In Line At Walmart, Go To Jail

You gotta love it when a bully(s) get they're just deserts.

When 26-year-old Edward Pluhar Jr. decided to walk past the people waiting in line at Walmart's customer service desk over the weekend, he probably didn't expect one of the men he dissed to confront him over it. What he and his father really didn't expect, however, was for the guy to be an off-duty police officer who doesn't appreciate being threatened.

The police officer [Chris Kirby] told Pluhar Jr. he needed to wait his turn, but the Frankfort man purportedly refused.

[His father, 61-year-old Edward R. Pluhar Sr.,] then allegedly approached the off-duty officer, told him to mind his own business and asked whether Kirby wanted to take the dispute outside.

When Kirby asked Pluhar Sr. what his intentions were, the Frankfort man purportedly said he would kick Kirby's posterior and also suggested he might shoot him.

Kirby then informed the father and son that he was a police officer and called emergency dispatchers to send an on-duty officer to the scene.
 
Don't throw away leftovers, warn 'food police'

From across the pond, more previews of coming attractions.

Home cooks will also be told what size portions to prepare, taught to understand "best before" dates and urged to make more use of their freezers.

The door-to-door campaign, which starts tomorrow, will be funded by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), a Government agency charged with reducing household waste.

The officials will be called "food champions". However, they were dismissed last night as "food police" by critics who called the scheme an example of "excessive government nannying".

In an initial seven-week trial, eight officials will call at 24,500 homes, dishing out advice and recipes. The officials, each of whom has received a day's training, will paid up to £8.49 an hour, with a bonus for working on Saturdays.
 

Sen. Hatch to back Holder

Conservatives are well aware to never count their Hatch before he chickens....

The former Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee will support Eric Holder's nomination for attorney general, giving him a major boost toward confirmation.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah), who chaired the panel for a decade beginning in 1995, told The Hill that he will support Holder.
 
Australian troops kill Taliban commander

Way to go Diggers!

(CNN) -- Australian commandos have killed a Taliban chief blamed for numerous attacks on coalition troops in southern Afghanistan, including one that killed an Australian soldier last week, the country's defense ministry announced.

Australian soldiers of NATO-led International Security Assistance Force patrol in Uruzgan province in 2007.

The death of Mullah Abdul Rasheed "is a significant achievement for the Special Operations Task Group," Australian Lt. Gen. Mark Evans said in a statement over the weekend announcing the attack.

Australia's military called Rasheed a "senior commander" in the Taliban, the Islamic fundamentalist militia that once ruled most of Afghanistan. Among the attacks he was blamed for was a January 4 rocket attack that killed Australian Pvt. Gregory Sher, who was buried Sunday in Melbourne.
 

Earth on the Brink of an Ice Age

OK boys, which is it?

The earth is now on the brink of entering another Ice Age, according to a large and compelling body of evidence from within the field of climate science. Many sources of data which provide our knowledge base of long-term climate change indicate that the warm, twelve thousand year-long Holocene period will rather soon be coming to an end, and then the earth will return to Ice Age conditions for the next 100,000 years.

Ice cores, ocean sediment cores, the geologic record, and studies of ancient plant and animal populations all demonstrate a regular cyclic pattern of Ice Age glacial maximums which each last about 100,000 years, separated by intervening warm interglacials, each lasting about 12,000 years.

And this: Massive Greenland meltdown? Not so fast, say scientists 



As others have noted, CNN on-air personnel openly ridiculed the idea of sending Joe the Plumber to Israel as a "reporter." They think he's unqualified for the job. I'm not sure what qualifies a person to be a reporter, but unwillingness to make s*** up would seem to be at the top of the list.
 


Has Mascara Boy lost his freakin mind??!! Shep Smith just perpetuated one the of most over the top, bush league stunts I have ever seen on televison. During the Blagojevitch Press conference he sniped and yammered throughout the entire event.

As a conservative and a citizen who hates bullspeak as much as anyone alive I can still state without reservation this was the most sophomoric, jevenile and embarrassing exhibitions I have seen from any news network ever... INCLUDING MSNBC. Commentary and analysis is absolutely reserved post conference and only his unabashed arrogance could have possibly convinced his erratic and irrational cerebral cortex to do otherwise.

The man should be fired, period.

Vid here. 

John Ziegler vs David Scuster on MSNBC 
Al Qaeda's operations chief in Pakistan killed in New Year's strike

More reason to believe this year may not be so bad after all.

Osama al Kini, also known as Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam.

The US killed al Qaeda's chief of operations in the New Year's Day missile strike in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of South Waziristan, according to a report.

The Jan. 1 attack in the town of Karikot in South Waziristan killed Osama al Kini and his senior aide Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan, intelligence officials told The Washington Post. Two other unnamed operatives were also killed in the airstrike.
 Did he really say "defensive tunnel"? Yes, yes he did. 
Fighting Card Check – And Winning

Democrats and the incoming Obama Administration, however, are gearing up to empower labor unions by passing the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which would end requirements for secret ballots when workers are voting on whether to unionize.

Ending secret ballot elections, which first emerged in the U.S. during Reconstruction to protect recently freed slaves, will provide significant opportunity for voter intimidation and greatly strengthen the labor bloc during a time of historic economic vulnerability. In addition to depriving workers of the right to vote by secret ballot, the EFCA also would mandate binding arbitration if the event management and labor are unable to reach a collective bargaining agreement.

Ain't gonna happen folks. There are too many Deemocrats, especially from the "new" manufacturing belt in the South that know this will destroy their state economies. 

Seventy-year-old woman holds home intruder at gunpoint, talks about ordeal

I know this lady, I'll bet you do to.

It's not uncommon to hear stories of people defending their homes and themselves from intruders-- but when it's a 70-year-old woman, that story is a bit more uncommon.

It's exactly what happened in St. Joseph County on Sunday night, after an intruder broke into an elderly woman's home on Portage Road.

The woman held the man at gunpoint until police arrived. That man is 28-year-old Cyrus Brown. Brown is being held in jail on a number of charges, including burglary and intimidation.

The woman who defended herself is Sandra. She asked us not to use her last name. Newscenter 16 spoke to her by phone Monday night, while she recovered in her hospital room. She’s being treated for heart problems, problems she didn't have until Sunday night's scare.

Atta girl Sandy. 
Coulter Rules on Today

Coulter: Informed and the personification of snarky. 

Rank Self Promotion....Again

Out of the clear blue the former high school coach called me tonight and informed me that the twins (Michael & Nathan) made the travelling team in basketball!

This is a bit of a shocker as they are moderate in their abilities. He said that what they lack expertise, they made up for in heart and tanacity. This is quite a big deal as they have been selected to participate in an elite group of 10 out of the 100s of 4th graders who were eligible. Pardon my gushing but sometimes a Dad just has to.

My boys are limited by their genetics as to talent but their guts and determination are a function of environment. I would like to believe that I and my lovely wife have been at least a small part of that.

Straight A students and athletic overachievers... congratulations boys, you continue to exceed all Dad's expectations and he is prouder than he can ever properly express.
Posted by traderrob at 6:43 PM 0 comments 
70,000 Iranian students 'volunteer to carry out suicide bombings in Israel'

Mr President Obama, welcome to reality...

Five hard-line student groups and a conservative clerical group launched the registration drive for suicide bombers last week and asked the government to allow them to stage the attacks.

In an open letter to Mr Ahmadinejad, the students said "volunteer student suicide groups ... are determined to go to Gaza. You are expected to issue orders to the relevant authorities to pave the way for such action".

The hard-liners started signing up volunteers after Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a religious decree on Dec 28 saying that anyone killed while defending Palestinians in Gaza against Israeli attacks would be considered a martyr.

Ayatollah Khamenei's religious decree was not considered a government decision and did not oblige the government to launch attacks against Israel.

Posted by traderrob at 3:47 PM 0 comments 
IDF Kills Head of Hamas Rocket Program

Surgical but effective nonetheless.

(IsraelNN.com) IDF forces have permanently ended the threat posted to Israel's southern residents by senior Hamas terrorist Ayman Siam, head of the guerrilla group's rocket and artillery unit in Gaza.

Siam was killed in an attack on his house during a joint IDF and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) operation Tuesday morning in the northern Gaza town of Jebaliya. He was known to be present in the house at the time of the attack.
 

Fat...Who cares There's only one segment of the population the press is more brutal to than conservatives and that's formerly skinny beauties in Hollywood that got older and less Barbielike. If they happen to be classified as bitchy, look out, they will crucify them. Whether it be Kathleen Turner, Kirstie Allie or Marie Osmond, stay skinny and beautiful or the uber superficial "entertainment press" will pound you unmercilessly regardless of your temperament.

Respect once earned lasts you a lifetime albeit you stay well formed. Bette Davis(who personally creeped me out) was univerally known as one of the monumental bitches in the history of womenhood yet still maintains an almost Goddesslike reverance. Joan Crawford (who also creeps me out) would have been equally canonized had it not been for the tell all book by her adopted daughter, was by many accounts the female antichrist. But she died 38-25-35 and is therefor still revered by many. It's not how sexy you were nor how great a performer you were or are, but, rather, how good you're maintained at 70.

Hollywood, like all fantasies, are creations of our own fertile imaginations and when that fantasy is assaulted by the realities of human frailty we choose to discard and despise rather than embrace those who actually turn out to be more like you and me, you know... mortal. We chastize, belittle and revel in their physical deterioration rather than celebrate them as sympaticos.

Kathleen Turners portrayal in "Body Heat" still ranks in the top 5 most seductive and arousing performances in cinematic history. Script was part of it but so was that indefinable inate sexuality that only a handful of female actresses have seemed to effortlessly radiate on the big screen. Kathleen Turner was one of the few that truly personified it.

This humble blogger is as superficially enamoured by that perfect female body as any hetero alive but without equivocation I can say, Ms. Turner you remain one of the sexiest women alive. 
Citgo Suspends Free Heating Oil Program for Low-Income Residents

Translation: Self interest and own serious domestic economic woes have trumped propaganda value....

BOSTON — Citgo has suspended its free heating oil program for low-income residents, Citizens Energy Chairman Joseph Kennedy announced Monday.

Kennedy said the Venezuelan government's Texas-based oil subsidiary cited falling oil prices and the world economic crisis for forcing the company to reevaluate all of its social programs.

Kennedy urged those who have been helped by the program to write Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to share their stories.
 
Sea Ice Ends Year at Same Level as 1979

Paging Ms. Dr. Heide Cullen.

Rapid growth spurt leaves amount of ice at levels seen 29 years ago.

Thanks to a rapid rebound in recent months, global sea ice levels now equal those seen 29 years ago, when the year 1979 also drew to a close.

Ice levels had been tracking lower throughout much of 2008, but rapidly recovered in the last quarter. In fact, the rate of increase from September onward is the fastest rate of change on record, either upwards or downwards.

The data is being reported by the University of Illinois's Arctic Climate Research Center, and is derived from satellite observations of the Northern and Southern hemisphere polar regions
 

India inks largest-ever defence deal with US

One of Pres. Bush's very underreported accomplishments and a future cornerstone is his legacy.

NEW DELHI: The UPA government has quietly gone ahead and signed the biggest-ever defence deal with US: a $2.1 billion contract for eight Boeing P-8I long-range maritime reconnaissance (LRMR) aircraft for Navy.

TOI had reported on December 27 that the huge deal was finally on the verge of being inked after protracted negotiations and clearance from the Cabinet Committee on Security.

The actual signing took place on January 1, with defence ministry's joint secretary and acquisitions manager (maritime systems) Preeti Sudan and Boeing integrated defence systems vice-president and country head Vivek Lall signing the contract, sources said.
 
Congress gets hefty raise while economy suffers

If the Republicans were smart they'd turn it down.

As Bay State residents grapple with layoffs and salary cuts, Massachusetts’ 12-member congressional delegation is digging into a whopping $4,700 salary boost that went into effect Thursday.

Six of the 12 delegation members told the Herald they’d accepted the automatic increase, which will hike their pay to $174,000, a roughly 2.8 percent raise, when Congress convenes Tuesday.
 

Loss of confidence results in change of submarine command Granted the Gaza "incursion" is headlining but as far as I'm concerned this is the story of the day. You have a CO of arguably the most powerfully destructive craft in the world an Ohio class FBMS being dismissed on his "first patrol". This has to be unprecedented. I don't know the real reason for his dismissal but one thing for sure, there's a big time story behind this action.

A loss of confidence has resulted in the temporary reassignment of a submarine's commanding officer at Naval Submarine Base, Kings Bay, Navy officials announced in a written statement on Monday.

Although there were no major incidents reported after Capt. Charles Hill's first patrol as the commanding officer of the USS West Virginia, he was temporarily reassigned to the office of Submarine Squadron 20.

According to the written statement by the Submarine Group 10 public affairs office, Hill was relieved from his position as commanding officer due to a loss of confidence relating to the command environment aboard the USS West Virginia.

Hill took command of the USS West Virginia's Gold crew in July and completed his first patrol as the vessel's commanding officer, said Lt. Rebecca Rebarich.

A quart of strawberries? I doubt it. I'm going to pursue this my friends.
Posted by traderrob at 4:02 PM 0 comments 
Israel Enters Gaza JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli ground forces which entered the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Saturday will take control of some of the areas used by Palestinian factions to fire rockets at Israel, the military said.

"The objective is to destroy the Hamas terror infrastructure in the area of operations," said Major Avital Leibovitch, a military spokeswoman, confirming that incursions were under way. "We are going to take some of the launch areas used by Hamas."
 
Missouri Moves to Make Secret Ballot Required by Law

Expect a lot more states to follow a similar path. They know the EFCA would be the economic kiss of death to their growing, but at the moment, struggling economy's. You won't see it from the already heavily unionized northern states (ie. Michigan) but they're already fiscally dead anyway.

The misnamed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) will take away the secret ballot for potential union members and force them to openly declare their preferences for or against a union, causing that worker to be easily open to intimidation by union thugs. This is a law currently in the table in Congress, one that Barack Obama has pledged to push through regardless of how it eliminates one of the oldest democratic rights there is.

But, now Missouri is trying to head off the possible federal enactment of “card check” (the provision that eliminates the secret ballot) by legislating that a secret ballot is protected by state law.
 

Democrat Leaders Promise That Burris Will Be Met With Armed Guards If He Tries To Take His Seat

Oh the wonderfully entertaining exhibition of unrestrained Democrat hubris. Again the left is falling into the same old trap that has doomed them in the past.....overplaying their hand.

The Blagojevich scandal just keeps getting better and better. It’s not just about Blago, Obama and the Chicago political machine any more. By the way Democrats in general are handling this mess, it’s shining a light about liberal attitudes toward the law in general.

Should Roland Burris show up for duty in the Senate on Tuesday, armed police officers stand ready to bar him from the floor.

This cinematic showdown is among an elaborate set of contingencies that Democratic leaders are planning if, as expected, the former Illinois attorney general appointed by Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich shows up with newly elected senators to press his claim that he is the legitimate replacement for President-elect Barack Obama.

Democratic leaders hope to avert such a standoff. And Burris, in an interview Wednesday, said he hoped to claim the Senate seat without added drama. “We’re not going to create a scene in Washington,” Burris said. “We hope it’s negotiated out prior to my going to Washington.”
 

Green Zone Handed Over to Iraqi's

Another Iraqi milestone...

Reporting from Baghdad -- As Iraqi schoolchildren sang their country's praises and a band played, the United States formally handed over military control of the heavily fortified Green Zone to Iraqi troops today, a first major step in the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq.

For Iraqis, the Green Zone, a walled-off 4-square mile community in Baghdad's core, has come to symbolize the U.S. occupation of their country. Home to about 30,000 residents -- including 14,000 U.S. and coalition forces -- it also encompasses Saddam Hussein's opulent Republican Palace, which was captured by American troops in April 2003 and was, until last month, the site of the U.S. Embassy.

Securing the Green Zone has been, until today, the responsibility of Americans. It has been considered the safest place in Baghdad, with every car checked and every person searched and scanned before being granted entry.

Now, Iraqis trained by U.S. troops are in charge of its security.
 
Hamas leader killed in air strike

The first good news of 2009.

A senior Hamas leader has been killed by an Israeli air strike on his home in the Gaza Strip, Hamas officials say.

Nizar Rayyan, the most senior Hamas figure to be killed since 2004, had urged suicide attacks against Israel.

News of the strike came on the sixth day of Israeli strikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.
