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Don’t expect this to make any headlines. Don’t expect the radical antiwar left to hold any protests.
The United States has now lost more military men and women in Afghanistan under President Obama than during 8 years of the Bush Administration.

(I-casualties)

-By Warner Todd Huston

Fox News Radio’s Todd Sterns reported that a Missouri elementary school tried to ban the singing of “Happy Birthday To You” in order to be “sensitive” about those students that might find singing in public to be “offensive.”

In a letter sent home to parents, school Principal Jodi Davidson (pictured) explained that the ban on the venerable song was because, “singing is not permitted due to the sensitivity of all student beliefs.”

As soon as outraged parents began to complain, our supersensitive principal reversed course and on August 23 sent a letter rescinding the ban.

Catch this lie being told by Principal Davidson to cover for her original politically correct decision:

“We have lots of students who celebrate birthdays on the same day and we just didn’t want to have the loud chaos that happens in the cafeteria,” Davidson told KSDK television. “That should be a calming environment so that it’s safe for all students and they can celebrate their birthdays with their classmates and friends.”

Quite a tap dance, wasn’t it? First Davidson was trying to be “sensitive” to “all student beliefs,” and then she massaged that into claiming that she was really just trying to keep the “loud chaos” of celebrating birthdays from messing up that “calming environment” of school! This woman is simply lying. She meant her PC efforts to assuage a single religion quite despite what the great majority of kids think.

Now, from what I can tell, this whole idea was the principal’s own born of her marriage to a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, a faction that eschews birthday celebrations.

But regardless it shows the idiotic ends that schools are constantly going to in order to assuage the feelings, real or perceived, of every last tiny minority. This is called a tyranny of the minority and makes a mockery of our society and our traditions. A country cannot have a coherent society if everything that could possibly “offend” someone’s sensibilities is outlawed.

But that is what liberals like this halfwit principal want; the utter elimination of American society. No cultural expressions are allowed in this sanitized, government-controlled world concocted by our “educators.” No wonder our schools are the laughing stock of the world.

Bobby Ghosh of Time asks if America has a problem with Muslims. Is it fair to ask if Time Magazine has a problem with Filipinos? But before we get to that, here’s what Time says about America and Muslims. “You don’t have to be prejudiced against Islam to believe, as many Americans do, that the area around Ground Zero is a sacred place. But sadly,”  — and there is the fatal ‘but’  — ” in an election season, such sentiments have been stoked into a political issue.” And that issues turns out to be, not the Ground Zero mosque or 9/11 but America’s problem with Islam.

Ghosh goes on to assert and then assume as fact that an American version of Islamophobia exists, one that is based on an unreasoning fear of Islam. Thus, if anything good has come of the Mosque controversy it’s that its brought this ugly facet of America out into the open.

The controversy has also brought new scrutiny to other examples of anti-Islam and anti-Muslim protests, raising much larger questions: Does America have a problem with Islam? Have the terrorist attacks of 9/11 — and other attempts since — permanently excluded Muslims from full assimilation into American life?

Although the American strain of Islamophobia lacks some of the traditional elements of religious persecution … a new TIME–Abt SRBI poll found that 46% of Americans believe Islam is more likely than other faiths to encourage violence against nonbelievers.

Now in the nature of things some of the poll’s respondents may have Filipinos. How would they regard Time’s invitation to examine the rotteness in their breasts. For one thing there’s a lot of rotteness to examine, but not a lot of it in their breasts.  Wikipedia says there are nearly 2 million Filipinos in Saudi Arabia, about 7% of the population in the Kingdom. So Filipinos as a group have a lot of experience with how nonbelievers are treated under Islam. Let’s begin by noting that religious freedom is virtually nonexistent in Saudi Arabia.

The Government does not provide legal recognition or protection for freedom of religion, and it is severely restricted in practice. … Moreover, the preaching and public practice of non-Muslim religions is prohibited … Under Saudi law conversion by a Muslim to another religion is considered apostasy, a crime punishable by death … Saudi Arabia prohibits public non-Muslim religious activities. Non-Muslim worshipers risk arrest, imprisonment, lashing, deportation, and sometimes torture for engaging in overt religious activity that attracts official attention.

So when Bobby Ghosh of Time magisterially proclaims that the only reason why Americans feel uneasy about a Ground Zero Mosque believed by some to be heavily funded by Saudi Arabia is because they are Islamophobic,  that’s bound to go over like a lead balloon in certain circles. Does Time realize how that sounds to people who have relatives like Norma Caldera?

Norma Caldera worked in Saudi Arabia for seven months as a domestic worker and was never allowed to leave her employer’s house during that time. She was mocked on a daily basis for her faith by her employers. When they found out that she’s a catholic they unilaterally cut her pay from $1,000 to $700 per month. On Ramadan Caldera was forced to fast with the family, while continuing to do her work. On top of that, she was not given a room or a bed and forced to sleep on the kitchen floor or in a tent in the backyard.

You’re a bigot Caldera. Ha ha ha. You’re bigot. Go back to sleeping in that effin’ tent, like an effin’ dog.

Maybe Howard Dean has some inkling of how badly this is going over because the former chairman of the DNC broke ranks with liberals and argued that the Cordoba mosque should be built elsewhere even though “the Muslims planning the Cordoba House in New York City are well-meaning; unlike others in Iran and Afghanistan where they’re ‘really back in the 12th century’ and ’stoning people to death.’” Howard Dean understands that voters are incensed and he’s throwing them a bone, taking care to explain that in this case he’s only supporting the good guys — not the ones from Iran or Afghanistan — but just from Saudi Arabia.

Of course Dean has just committed one of the cardinal sins denounced by Time: he’s politicized the Mosque issue by backing down not for any reason of apparent principle or logic, but simply because he knows it is costing his party in the polls.  He’ll say anything to save his candidates. He has to. The Atlantic Wire says “Liberals Fume at Howard Dean for Opposing Cordoba”. What’s the difference between a party which uses the mosque issue to gain votes and another party which retreats on the mosque issue to save votes? The answer is November, 2010.

As the Internet expands to reach audiences in the Long Tail, stock memes the MSM used to pitch to urban, white readers will begin to fail, and fail dismally in niche media markets. A microtargeting campaign which reached out to Filipinos might generate votes on this issue simply because it taps into a common tribal memory. In that part of the Long Tail there are family stories of aunts or cousins chained to sinks, workers forced to live in shipping containers or stories about underground priests who slip into the Kingdom disguised as workers.

The standard narrative is failing is because it is based on a market model which assumes that the reader has no access to information which may denigrate or contradict the conventional wisdom peddled by the magazine. That may have been true of Time once, but it is no longer true, except for people who work in dentist’s offices. What the information revolution has done is enable readers to do a “ground truth” check on the memetic maps they are handed. Codespeak doesn’t work like it used to. That’s why the Cordoba mosque project is losing ground and why people like Howard Dean are backpedaling.

That’s weird.
His ‘official father’ was a 10 year old Kenyan at the end of WWII.
Who’s he talking about?
Via Lucianne:

This speech was in 2008. Of course, the state-run media never followed up on it.
Hat Tip MRT

Barack Obama takes his shoes off at a mosque in Istanbul, Turkey. (White House)

Barack Obama stepped back from his endorsement of the Ground Zero Victory Mosque today.
After the uproar following his comments last night at the White House Iftar Dinner. Today, the president stepped back from his endorsement of the victory mosque. Only 20% of American voters support the Ground Zero mosque.
FOX News reported:

President Obama on Saturday sought to clarify his comments supporting the building of a mosque near ground zero that have ignited a political firestorm ahead of a difficult election season for Democrats.

During a trip to Florida for a family vacation, Obama said his comments on Friday night were only directed at the constitutional right of the mosque to be there.

“I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there,” he said in response to a reporter’s question after he spoke about efforts to aid the Gulf Coast region. “I was commenting very specifically on the right people have that dates back to our founding. That’s what our country is about.”

Obama came under instant fire after jumping into the middle of a cultural clash Friday night with comments that have elevated the contentious issue to the presidential level.

Barack Obama takes his shoes off at a mosque in Istanbul, Turkey. (White House)

Barack Obama stepped back from his endorsement of the Ground Zero Victory Mosque today.
After the uproar following his comments last night at the White House Iftar Dinner. Today, the president stepped back from his endorsement of the victory mosque. Only 20% of American voters support the Ground Zero mosque.
FOX News reported:

President Obama on Saturday sought to clarify his comments supporting the building of a mosque near ground zero that have ignited a political firestorm ahead of a difficult election season for Democrats.

During a trip to Florida for a family vacation, Obama said his comments on Friday night were only directed at the constitutional right of the mosque to be there.

“I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there,” he said in response to a reporter’s question after he spoke about efforts to aid the Gulf Coast region. “I was commenting very specifically on the right people have that dates back to our founding. That’s what our country is about.”

Obama came under instant fire after jumping into the middle of a cultural clash Friday night with comments that have elevated the contentious issue to the presidential level.

In 2008 The LA Times withheld a video that contained footage of Barack Obama celebrating with a group of Palestinians who were openly hostile towards Israel. Barack Obama even gave a toast to a former PLO operative at this celebration. This was something the LA Times hid from the American public before the election. The media refused to release the video.

Terrorist Bill Ayers— Barack Obama— Jew-hater Rashid Khalidi
There were also reports that terrorists Bill Ayers and his wife Bernadine Dohrn were at the same Jew-bash.

Khalidi was thought to be connected to the PLO.

Now the anti-Israel radical is raising cash for a ship named “The Audacity of Hope” to smash through the Gaza Blockade.
Israel Matsav brings us this news:

Columbia University Professor Rashid Khalidi, a close friend of President Obama, is trying to raise money for a ship to run the Gaza blockade (Hat Tip: Will).

Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University, has signed an appeal for funds to outfit a ship–to be named The Audacity of Hope after Barack Obama’s second book–that will challenge the Israeli blockade of Gaza in September or October, according to a report by Robert Mackey at The Lede, a blog of the New York Times. His wife Mona is also a signatory.

Popular Governor Jan Brewer blasted liberal politicians and protesters today in Boston. The Arizona Governor spoke out against the liberal’s boycott against Arizona, “They’re hurting the people they PRETEND they want to help.”

Click on Photo for Video–

The popular Arizona politician was in Boston for a governor’s meeting.

(Illegal) immigrant advocates and their allies are protesting Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer as she attends the National Governors Association meeting in Boston.

A coalition of immigrant groups bused in advocates from around the East Coast for a rally Saturday to protest Arizona’s controversial immigration law, recently signed by Brewer.

Protesters in Copley Square said Brewer was a bigot and called for the end of what they said was “racist deportation.” They later marched to a hotel where Brewer was attending the annual governors meeting.

The president’s recent disappointing oval office speech elicited a chorus of criticism from across the political spectrum.  For some reason the speech seems to have put a spotlight on the president as a leader, whereas other misjudgments in which he was directly involved in making policy had not.  The oil spill, which was certainly no fault of Mr. Obama, seems to have finally caused the public and many of his cheerleaders among the pundits to focus on the president’s substance and not his style.  That has been the unspoken, elephant-in- the-room, concern throughout his presidency, his aptitude for leadership.  We are reminded of the lead-in lyrics to the signature song Ethel Merman belts out in Gypsy… “Curtain up…light the lights…you either got it…or you ain’t.”

President Obama seems to have the curtain up, light the lights part down pat.  The dramatic campaign and convention stage sets, his world photo-op tours, his big oval-office backdrop to his little oval-office speech, and his ever-masterful use of the teleprompter have all produced a “strike-up-the-band” expectation whenever and wherever he appears. It’s the “you either got it, or you ain’t” part that seems finally to have focused the public on the president’s aptitude for leadership.

The befouling glob that threatens hundreds of miles of coast or, as Peggy Noonan put it recently so aptly in the Wall Street Journal, “the monster from under the sea,” seems to be a metaphor for the president’s inability to shape the world as he wants it to be.  Speeches are not a substitute for coherent policy.  The president, with the entire world watching his prime time speech, essentially punted.  He pulled from the presidential duck-and-cover arsenal the time-tested, yawn producer of presidents bereft of solutions to all manner of problems…the formation of a new blue-ribbon commission.  This was the cornerstone of his “battle plan” to face down the “siege” of big oil’s attack on our Gulf coast.

There is nothing more to be said about the quality of Mr. Obama’s oval-office speech debut.  It seems as if all the commentators from Chris Mathews, Keith Olberman and Jon Stewart on the left, to Mark Steyn, Charles Krauthammer and Karl Rove on the right have already done that.  Besides, there is something much more revealing that is apparent here.  It isn’t about the delivery by the man who gave the speech; it is, rather, about the man who delivered the speech.  The disappointing oval-office moment was more than just a lack of writing skill by some wordsmith presidential speechwriter; it focused the attention of the American people on the man himself and on what they hoped just wasn’t so; an apparent lack of the leadership aptitude which a president must possess if he or she is to succeed.

The evidence of weak leadership skills was there before but it became shrouded in the president’s rock star image. The fact is that there was very little about Barack Obama’s pre-presidential career that suggested any real aptitude for leadership.  There was always plenty of “curtain up, light the lights” but the demonstration of leadership part was always a bit like a clock striking thirteen. That is to say, not quite reassuring.

His career as a legislator in Illinois, while always well hyped, was less than impressive.  His biggest legislative achievement in Illinois seems to be the nearly 130 times he chose to vote “present” rather than “yea” or “nay” on major bills.  And yes, we’ve heard or read the standard excuse for this apparent ambivalence.  “It’s the way things are often done in the Illinois Senate,” we’re told.  But since when has doing things the way they are done in Illinois met the definition of leadership anywhere outside of that state.

Besides, some of the “present” votes then state-Senator Obama chose to cast while in the Illinois legislature are quite revealing, if not troubling.  For example, in 1999 he was faced with a difficult vote, to support a bill that would let some juveniles be tried as adults. Understandably, many African-Americans were opposed to the bill.  On the other hand, Mr. Obama was trying to hone an image of a tough-on crime candidate. It was a difficult political call for him; so, he voted “present.”

According to the New York Times, on at least 36 occasions state-Senator Obama was either the only state senator to vote “present” or was part of a group of six or fewer to vote that way.  Politically, the option to vote “present” provides a certain amount of cover. It is a way for the faint of heart, in effect, to say, “I don’t particularly like this bill, but I don’t want to take the political risk of taking a stand.”

The juvenile crime bill was to allow offenders as young as 15 to be prosecuted as adults if charged with committing a crime with a firearm on, or near, schools. Both houses passed the measure handily. State-Senator Obama justified his “present” vote by opining there was no proof that increasing penalties for young offenders reduced crime. Mr. Obama’s aides said he was more concerned about whether the bill would be effective rather than with its political consequences.  They did not explain, however, why he did not just vote “no”.

There were other “present” votes, in which part-time law-lecturer Obama, according to the New York Times, said he had concerns about the constitutionality or effectiveness of some provisions. Among those, Mr. Obama did not vote “yea” or “nay” on a bill that would allow certain victims of sex crimes to petition judges to seal court records relating to their cases. He also voted “present” on a bill to impose stricter standards for evidence a judge is permitted to consider in imposing a criminal sentence.

On the sex crime bill, Mr. Obama cast the lone “present” vote in a 58-to-0 vote.  When it appeared that this vote might become an issue in the presidential race Mr. Obama’s campaign said he believed that the bill violated the First Amendment. The bill had passed 112-0-0 in the Illinois House and 58-0-1 in the state Senate.  Again, why didn’t he just vote, “no”?

In 2000, Mr. Obama was one of two senators who voted present on a bill on whether facts not presented to a jury could later be the basis for increasing an offender’s sentence beyond the ordinary maximum. The bill sailed through both chambers. Out of 174 votes cast in the House and Senate, two were against and two were “present”, including Mr. Obama’s.  Mr. Obama’s campaign said he voted present to register his dissatisfaction with how the bill was put together. He believed (hold on to your hat) the bill was rushed to the floor and that lawmakers were deprived of time to consider it.  Oddly, this hasn’t been a problem for the president with bills passed in the House and Senate of the United States.

The Times also reported that Mr. Obama was the sole “present” vote on a bill that easily passed the Illinois Senate that would require teaching respect for others in schools. He also voted “present” on a measure to prohibit sex-related shops from opening near schools or places of worship, which ultimately did not pass the Illinois Senate.  In both of those cases, his campaign said (hold on to your hat again) he was trying to avoid mandates on local authorities.  This from, now, President Obama, who has gone on, arguably, to impose the greatest funded and unfunded mandates on local authorities in the nation’s history.

But enough of ancient history.  Fast forward to the centerpiece of his first year in office, health-care reform.  Many on the left, and even some on the right, suggest that this massive legislative “achievement” is proof that President Obama is a formidable leader. We beg to differ.  It may, indeed, prove that Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority leader Harry Reid can effectively lead their party’s foot soldiers over any cliff they choose, but it really doesn’t say much about President Obama’s leadership aptitude.  Quite the opposite.   Apparently misreading the lessons of President Clinton’s terribly misdirected attempt at health-care reform, President Obama delegated the entire effort to Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid.  He sat by as they cobbled together (in his name) the horrific 2700-page health-care reform legislation that a substantial majority of the people consistently said they did not want and consistently continue to say they now want repealed and which a third of the states are now fighting to stop in federal court. Real leadership of the type he promised, but apparently cannot deliver, would have brought both sides together instead of putting the nation through some of the worst acrimony we can ever remember.

The curtains up…light the lights first-day-in-office announcement that the prison housing terrorists at Guantanamo Bay would be closed within a year, was an early lesson that Ruffles and Flourishes without leadership aptitude is, well, just music.  The world apology tour for American foreign policy under the Bush Administration, the Cairo speech, the presidential outstretched hand to our adversaries and the long-lapsed ultimatum for a reciprocal handshake in return, the puzzling back of the hand treatment to Britain, our closest friend since the end of World War II, the insulting treatment of our friends such as South Korea, Columbia, Honduras, and Israel, and the skyrocketing spending and the attendant ever-mounting deficits all call into question the aptitude for leadership that prevails (or is absent) at the White House.

Les Gelb wrote of Obama, “He is so self-confident that he believes he can make decisions on the most complicated of issues after only hours of discussion.  Strategic decisions go well beyond being smart, which Obama certainly is.  They must be based on experience that discerns what works, what doesn’t — and why.  This requires experienced staffing, which Obama and his top appointees simply do not seem to have.”  Mr. Obama is beginning to look to more and more of the people who were dazzled by his meteoric rise and who were looking for the political equivalent of a messiah, as a growing disappointment.  It turns out that Mr. Obama cannot by his charm, his gift-of-gab, his oratorical skills and his considerable intelligence will into reality policies that the people won’t accept and that many across the political spectrum here and abroad seriously question.  

Which brings us full circle back to where we began… the growing fiasco that continues to assault the gulf coast.  “What could the President have done to avoid the blowout at the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform?” the Administration’s defenders indignantly ask.  Nothing.  But that is the wrong question.  The more telling question would be “what could the President have done to mitigate the damage?”  And the answer to that seems to be, “plenty.”

He had the authority to waive the ridiculous and long-outdated, protectionist Jones Act that would have allowed significant expertise and siphoning capacity to be on location in the Gulf weeks ago mitigating the damage that now seems unstoppable.  But, so as not to offend labor unions or domestic shipping interests, he turned down the offers.  He could have immediately authorized Governor Bobby Jindal to begin deploying barriers parallel to the gulf coast as the governor was begging for permission to do (and for which he was still begging last week).  He could, and should, have immediately designated the most operationally competent person he could find to take charge of containment operations and to report progress to him on a daily basis.

Instead, seven weeks into this debacle, when discussing why safety precautions were not in place, Mr. Obama assured the American people “that he wants to know why.”  Of course, the answer he will soon provide is quite predictable since we have heard it many times before.  The problem, we will be told, rests with the previous Administration.  Blaming Bush, or industry or political opposition seems to be his answer for every problem.  “I inherited this mess,” he often tells us. In short, the President is not providing the leadership one would expect from a chief executive running the country.  Instead, he has responded as one would expect from a chief executive running a think tank.

Enough curtain up…light the lights.  The curtain has been up and the lights have been lighted since January 20^th, 2009.  Show us you got it, Mr. President. Not that you ain’t.

By Hal Gershowitz and Stephen Porter

It took Barack Obama 1 day to fly General McChrystal halfway around the world to the White House to fire him for insulting remarks his staff made about the president and Bite-me Joe Biden in a teen magazine.

But, it’s now been 70 days since the BP oil gusher started spewing hundreds of thousands of crude from the Gulf floor and there still is no plan in place to prevent the crude oil from destroying the southern coast.

Onlookers stare at a huge mass of oil that came ashore on Pensacola Beach on June 23. The water is closed to the public. (Tampa Bay.com)
Hat Tip Brian B.

It didn’t have to be this way. The Dutch have equipment that would have prevented any oil from reaching shore but the federal government wouldn’t allow them into the Gulf.

There’s more:

** The feds only accepted assistance from 5 of 28 countries a month after the disaster.
** It took the Obama Administration 53 days to accept help from the Dutch and British.
** It took them 58 days to mobilize the US military to the Gulf.
** The feds shut down crude-sucking barges due to fire extinguisher concerns.
** The Obama Administration ignored oil boom manufacturers that have miles of product stockpiled in their warehouses.
** They only have moved 31 of 2,000 oil skimmers to the disaster area off of Florida.
** Florida hired an additional 5 skimmer boats to operate off its coast due to federal inaction.
** There are no skimmer boats off the coast of Mississippi.
** The massive A-Boat skimmer won’t be allowed to join the cleanup effort until the Coast Guard and the EPA figure out whether it meets their standards.
** The feds shut down sand berm dredging off the Louisiana coast.
** The president continues to hit the golf course, ball games, hold BBQ’s and party while the crude oil washes up on shore.

That’s what you get when you elect a community organizer as president.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called General Petraeus a liar back in 2007.

Reid told reporters that General Petraeus was not telling the truth about the Iraq War and the successful Bush Surge of troops. Of course, Harry “This war is lost” Reid was the one lying. The Bush Surge was one of the most successful military campaigns in US history.

With today’s confirmation hearing of General Petraeus, Americans will once again be reminded of the Democrat’s disgusting attempts to discredit General Petraeus and to surrender Iraq to the Al-Qaeda terrorists.
The Hill reported:

President Barack Obama’s nomination of Gen. David Petraeus has put some Democrats in a politically awkward position.

While Senate Democrats are expected to rally behind Petraeus to replace Gen. Stanley McChrystal as the top commander in Afghanistan, they must also ask tough questions about when the U.S. will withdraw troops from the war-torn country.

Many on the left are impatient with the Afghanistan war, and some Democrats are nervous much of their base may not show up to vote in this year’s midterm elections.

Meanwhile, Republicans who are looking to drive a wedge between Democratic leaders and the liberal base have pointed to critical statements Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and other leaders made about Petraeus a couple of years ago.

During the 2007 surge in Iraq, anti-war Democrats — most notably MoveOn.org — strongly criticized Petraeus.

Liberal advocacy groups and senators at the time accused Petraeus of misrepresenting the success of the surge of nearly 40,000 troops.

Two years later, the four-star general is widely credited for turning around the war in Iraq and holds strong respect among Republicans. And Obama’s decision to replace McChrystal was made easier by his selection of Petraeus, who is expected to be confirmed swiftly.

The balancing act for Democrats begins Tuesday when the Senate Armed Services Committee is scheduled to hold its confirmation hearing on Petraeus.

No wonder Hollywood and the American left love him!
The Chavistas (Hugo Chavez lackeys) held a protest outside the Chamber of Commerce Building in the state of Lara, Venezuela this month.
But, this protest was different.

The Real Cuba reported:

June 18 – Earlier this week, a group of ‘chavistas’ staged a protest in front of the Chamber of Commerce of the state of Lara, Venezuela.

The protesters were mobilized using government vehicles.

The pro-Chávez thugs defaced the front of the building with graffiti, writing signs on the walls calling the members of the Chamber of Commerce “fascists”, “murderers” and “terrorists” and asking for the regime to confiscate their businesses without compensation.

And this time the chavistas were not carrying posters with the photo of Simon Bolívar, like they used to do when their leader was portraying himself as democratic and nationalistic.

Now, the pro-Chávez thugs were carrying signs with the photos of Stalin, one of the world’s worst mass murderers, Lenin, Marx and Engels.

Here’s a close-up of the Chavez protesters with their Stalin signs:

Meanwhile… In the US, Obama’s SEIU lackeys regularly threaten the US Chamber of Commerce.

Al Gore’s second chakra was bursting full of green energy.

After a long day’s work, the junk scientist needed some hot second chakra action.
Byron York at The Washington Examiner reported, via Ace:

The police report of the masseuse’s complaint is 73 pages long and extremely detailed. According to the document, she got a call from the front desk of the trendy Hotel Lucia on the night of Oct. 24, 2006. The hotel had a special guest. Could she come at 10:30 p.m.?

She went to Gore’s room carrying a folding massage table and other equipment. Gore, whom she had never met, greeted her with a warm embrace. “The hug went on a bit long, and I was taken just a bit aback by it,” the masseuse told police. But she went along because Gore “was a VIP and a powerful individual and the Hotel Lucia had made it clear to me by inference that they were giving him ‘the royal treatment.’”

Gore said he was tired from travel and described in detail the massage he wanted. It included work on the adductor muscles, which are on the inside of the thighs. “I mentally noted that a request for adductor work is a bit unusual,” the masseuse told police, because it can be “a precursor to inappropriate behavior by a male client.”

Gore also requested work on his abdomen. When that began, “He became somewhat vocal with muffled moans, etc.,” the masseuse recounted. Gore then “demand[ed] that I go lower.” When she remained focused on a “safe, nonsexual” area, Gore grew “angry, becoming verbally sharp and loud.”

The masseuse asked Gore what he wanted. “He grabbed my right hand, shoved it down under the sheet to his pubic hair area, my fingers brushing against his penis,” she recalled, “and said to me, ‘There!’ in a very sharp, loud, angry-sounding tone.” When she pulled back, Gore “angrily raged” and “bellowed” at her.

Then, abruptly, the former vice president changed tone. It was “as though he had very suddenly switched personalities,” she recalled, “and began in a pleading tone, pleading for release of his second chakra there.”

Let’s be honest… We’ve all yearned for a little second Chakra release action at one time or another?

The Justice Department complaint against the sleepers can be found here, one devoted to Anna Chapman and Mikhail Semenko and the other to their associates. The first describes their overall mission, how they communicated via a mobile wi-fi router built into a laptop rigged to connected only to certain MACs and how they were stung by agents Undercover 1 and Undercover 2. The second PDF describes what the agents of influence did. I’ve copied excerpts below.

Mission

You were sent to USA for long-term service trip. Your education, bank accounts, car, house etc — all these serve one goal: fulfill your main mission, i.e. to search and develop ties in policymaking circles in US and send intels [intelligence reports' to C[enter].

Boston cell

[April 2006] gathering information regarding, among other things, United States policy with regard to the use of the Internet by terrorists, United States policies in Central Asia, problems with United States military policy, and “western estimation of [Russian] foreign policy. … [May 2006] focused on turnover at the head of the CIA and the 2008 U.S. Presidential election. This information was described as having been “received in private conversation with [name omitted', former legislative counsel for US Congress, specialist in [information omitted], member of faculty in economics of [information omitted],. Has contacts within Congress and policymakers of Washington.”

[Sept 2005] ‘Dv.’ has “established contact” with a particular person. That person is a former high-ranking United States Government national security official, whose name is provided in the September 23 message … [Dec 3, 2003] “During the seminar at [location omitted] Dv made contacts w. [name and title omitted] working for [a United States Government research facility, name omitted] in [geographical location of facility, name omitted'. He works on issues of strategic planning related to nuclear weapons. Dv. had conversations with him about research programs on small yield high penetration nuclear warheads recently authorized by US Congress (nuclear 'bunker-buster' warheads)." ...

[2007]“Got your note and signal … agree with your proposal to use ‘Farmer’ to start building network of students in DC. Your relationship with ‘Parrot’ looks very promising as a valid source of info from US power circles. To start working on him professionally,we need all available details on his background, current position, habits, contacts opportunities, etc … Plus you should observe our security rules and recommendations in working with contacts … Agree with you [sic] proposal to keep relations with ‘Cat’ [the same person mentioned in the September 23 message above] but watch him.”

New Jersey cell

[Spring 2009] “[i]nfo task” from the spring of 2009, in advance of “Obama’s visit to [Russia], ” … information on the U.S. position with respect to a new Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty, Afghanistan and Iran’s nuclear programs. Moscow Center indicated that it “needs intels (related to this [sic] topics) which should reflect approaches and ideas of ‘[Russia] policy team member’: [four names of sub-cabinet United States foreign policy officials, omitted]. Try to outline their views and most import Obama’s goals which he expects to achieve during summit in July and how does his team plan to do it (arguments, provisions, means of persuasion to ‘lure’ [Russia] into cooperation in US interest).”
…

[Feb 3, 09] “had work-related personal meetings with [a prominent New York-based financier, name omitted] and was assigned his account” … “financier prominent in plitics,” “an active fundraiser for [a major political party, name omitted],” and “a personal friend of a [a current Cabinet official, name omitted]. A response from Moscow Center indicated that the financier “is checked in C’s database – he is clean. Of course he is a very interesting ‘target’. Try to build up little by little relations with him … maybe he can provide … with remarks are US foreign policy … White House internal ‘kitchen’ …

[Oct 18] “vital for R, highlighting US approach and providing comments made by local expert (political, economic) scientist’s community. Try to single out tidbits unknown but revealed in private by sources close to State department, Government, major think tanks.”

[October of 2009] “Info: on gold” …

[December 2009] “strengthen … ties w. classmates on daily basis incl. professor who can help in job search … collect information on certain university associations … students who apply (or are hired already) for a job at CIA …

[Jan 19, 2010] “a job with a private sector entity that would involve ‘lobbying’ … concerned “might require an extended background check.”

The NYT questions the value of sleeper cell and answers the question of why the FBI, having identified its members, did not simply play back the cell on their Russian controllers. Apparently something suggested to  the Feds that the sleepers would get away.

The alleged agents were directed to gather information on nuclear weapons, American policy toward Iran, C.I.A. leadership, Congressional politics and many other topics, prosecutors say. The Russian spies made contact with a former high-ranking American national security official and a nuclear weapons researcher, among others. But the charges did not include espionage, and it was unclear what secrets the suspected spy ring — which included five couples — actually managed to collect.

After years of F.B.I. surveillance, investigators decided to make the arrests last weekend, just after an upbeat visit to President Obama by the Russian president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, said one administration official. Mr. Obama was not happy about the timing, but investigators feared some of their targets might flee, the official said.

The NYT maybe mistaken in thinking the only useful kinds of subversives are those who take pictures of blueprints with Minox miniature cameras. Agents who can influence policy at the direction of foreign intelligence important too. The pattern is clear. These sleepers were to do mostly what policy wonks, journalists, lobbyists and activists routinely did. The Russians worked to use the sleepers as spotters, semi-open source intel gatherers and influence peddlers. One of the interesting aspects of the modus operandi is that the distinction between their tasks at the behest of a foreign power and what activists might ordinarily do is pretty small. They met people and influenced options — that’s what people in policy circles do! This espionage case raises the question: if the behavior of Russian agents is outwardly no different from people who are practicing the “highest form of patriotism” what is the difference between the two? When the question: ‘whose side are you on?’ ceases to be a legitimate test of patriotism, how is treachery defined? Outwardly the sleepers did for love of the Rodina what many would do out of resentment toward their own country. Maybe the Russians will eventually return home to a medal. They knew at all events, whose side they were on.

Some people have no doubts.

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Scott Brown could help kill the democrat’s $19 billion bank tax.

Scott Brown says he won’t support the democrat’s $19 billion bank tax on consumers.
The Washington Times reported:

UPDATE:Roll Call is reporting that Senator Russ Feingold, Wisconsin Democrat, is planning to vote ‘no’ on the Wall Street bill.

The financial regulatory reform bill seemed like a sure thing just almost a week ago. However, after Democrats in both chambers looked to hike $19 billion in taxes on banks, things changed.

Senator Scott Brown, Massachusetts Republican, voted for the original Senate bill along with Senators Olympia Snowe, Maine Republican, and Susan Collins, Maine Republican.

However, the new taxes could be a problem for Democrats looking for Republicans to join their ranks again to support the financial regulatory bill when the newly merged House-Senate version rolls around to the Senate again. In order for the bill to pass the Senate, Democrats need 60 votes.

“I said right from the beginning, I’ll let my statements speak for themselves,” said Senator Brown. “I was disappointed and surprised that at the last minute, they put in assessment fees, taxes…really without letting us know, and I’ve always made it clear that I can’t support adding another $19 billion passed through taxes to individual consumers, especially in the middle of a two year recession.”

The recent death of Senator Robert Byrd does not make things any easier for Democrats, who were expecting to pass the banking regulation bill without too many problems.

UPDATE: And, from his website, Scott Brown also will oppose the democrat’s cap and trade energy tax:

Washington has no shortage of bad ideas.  Even well-intentioned programs usually come wrapped up with higher taxes and fees that I refuse to support.   The special interests are pushing for a national energy tax, otherwise known as cap and trade. They also want to increase red tape and regulation.  For some reason, the Washington elites believe that if one opposes a national energy tax and more regulation, they must also support the Gulf oil spill.  This is ludicrous.

The fact is, cap and trade will hurt the poor and working class the most and America can’t afford another tax.

While I continue to fight for lower taxes, less regulation and reduced spending in Washington, some groups are beginning to fight me here in Massachusetts by running negative TV ads. This is nothing new. The political machine has been running ugly attack ads against me since the campaign.

You would think that if my political opponents were really concerned about the Gulf oil spill, that they would invest the hundreds of thousands of dollars they are spending to attack me on efforts to protect the environment in the affected area.  Instead, they cynically attack me for defending the working families of Massachusetts.

I’d like to fight back so I’m writing you this email to ask for your help.  Will you donate $100 right now to my campaign to fight back?  If that amount is not possible, would you consider donating another amount to help fend off these negative attacks?

Scott Brown nailed it.
Cap-and-tax will hurt the poor and middle class the most.

Wisconsin custard shop owner Scott Borkin told Greta Van Susteren that VP Joe Biden “went off” on him after he told the Vice President to “lower our taxes.”
Borkin added, “I was shocked.”

Scott Borkin should have known better. How dare he request a top Obama Administration official to cut taxes!
Who does he think he is?

Barack Obama just enlisted his radical leftist groups, the SEIU and labor unions to push for amnesty this year.
The AP reported:

President Barack Obama is enlisting activists and labor leaders in a push for comprehensive immigration legislation that will showcase Republican opposition and include a speech by the president.

The strategy was discussed during a meeting Monday by a range of prominent labor leaders and activist groups. Participants said Obama reiterated his support for immigration legislation but noted the political realities that have stalled it in Congress.

Latino leaders say they will work in coming months to pressure Republicans to give way and support an immigration bill — and make opponents pay at the ballot box if they don’t.

“We’re going to make absolutely crystal clear who’s at fault here,” said Eliseo Medina, a leader of the Service Employees International Union.

Prospects for passage of comprehensive immigration legislation look bleak this election year, and even many Democrats are wary of wading into the hot-button issue. But Obama, who pledged as a candidate to make immigration reform a top priority during his first year in office, faces pressure from the Hispanic community to act — or at least to try.

The good news: 7 of 8 world leaders at the G8 Conference figured out that Keynesian economics is a bust.
The bad news: Barack Obama wasn’t one of them.

Bill O’Reilly said this about Obama’s disastrous G20 summit:
Merkel’s Looking at Obama Like “Do You Know Anything?”

Bill O’Reilly:
“Merkel’s looking at Obama… Did you see Merkel look at Obama?… She’s looking at him like, “Do you know anything?”"

“Meno Tasse, Piu Liberta!”
Lower Taxes, More Freedom!

Leslie from Temple of Mut was an special guest speaker at the first Florence Tea Party on June 19, 2010 in Italy.

SoCal-TRC co-founder Leslie Eastman with Tea Party Italia Coordinator David Mazzerelli.

Leslie added this:

After experiencing an Italian Tea Party, it is going to be hard to go back and do an American one. They serve excellent wine at these events! And the appetizers are outstanding! But, I digress!

Please pass on to the good Italian patriots that I am available for speaking engagements in Florence, Pisa, Venice and Roma.

Reuters says that a Russian spy ring operating in the US has been broken up. “Authorities charged 11 individuals with the plot, 10 of whom were arrested on Sunday in Boston, New York, New Jersey and Virginia on charges including conspiracy to act as unlawful agents of the Russian Federation and money laundering.” Their job was to pass as Americans but spy for Russia.

The arrests are the culmination of a multi-year investigation that used extensive surveillance of communications and wiretaps, including putting listening devices into the homes of the accused individuals. … The individuals were accused of collecting information ranging from research programs on small yield, high penetration nuclear warheads and the global gold market to trying to obtain background information about people who applied for jobs at the Central Intelligence Agency, according to court papers.

CBS reports the agents were working for the SVR (Служба Внешней Разведки Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki ) which is described by Wikipedia as “Russia’s primary external intelligence agency. The SVR is the successor of First Chief Directorate (FCD) of the KGB”.  Robert Hansen of the FBI, Aldrich Ames of the CIA and John Walker of the Navy are prominent examples of actual Americans who have been recruited by the Soviets/Russians.

North America has long been an espionage target. CBC reports the Canadian government has “known for years that foreign countries have been trying to win influence over Canadian politicians and public servants. This follows on reports that some of the Russian spies recently arrested by the US posed as Canadians during their operations. Earlier reports of foreign influence into Canada identified China as the controlling hand.

That information comes a day after CSIS director Richard Fadden said he had never warned officials close to Prime Minister Stephen Harper that some provincial cabinet ministers may be under the sway of countries like China — even though he told the CBC earlier this week the agency was discussing the issue with the Privy Council Office.

According to the Boston Globe two of the persons arrested were based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “A Cambridge couple were among 10 alleged Russian spies arrested Sunday on charges that they plotted to act as unlawful agents of the Russian Federation inside the United States. … A couple who went by the names Donald Howard Heathfield and Tracey Lee Ann Foley were arrested on Trowbridge Street in busy Harvard Square around 7:30 pm Sunday by a team of FBI agents.” One of them was reported by Wicked Local Cambridge to have donated $50 to State Representative Mary Walz (D) House Chair of the Joint Committee on Education.

I don’t know who she is,” said Foley. “She must be a friend of a friend.” According to state records, Foley had a real estate license.

Yahoo News reports that one of the suspects, Donald Howard Heathfield attended the Harvard Kennedy School in 1999 and ran a consulting company called Future Map. Its mission was to “help governments, enterprises and international organizations better prepare for the future and make better strategic decisions. We create methodologies and software tools that constitute the framework for organizations’ future management systems.”

Future Map’s website claims that the technology for the software was “born as an initiative involving a group of graduates from Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and private-sector specialists in the USA, the UK and France working to support forward-looking decision processes.”

The LinkedIn profile also lists Heathfield as a past partner at Global Partners Inc., a management consulting firm that lists Abbott Labs, Boston Scientific, and GE as clients. Global Partners’ website also lists a Donald Heathfield. When Yahoo! News told Carolyn Quintin, one of Heathfield’s partners at the firm, of his arrest, she replied, “that doesn’t make much sense.”

“I’m in total shock,” she said. “He’s got such good training skills.” Quintin said she believed that Heathfield is a Canadian with U.S. citizenship. She first met him, she recalled, “around 2001,” before she had joined the firm herself. She hired Global Partners Inc. to do training for the American division of Essilor, a French lens manufacturer.

“He was a great facilitator,” she said. “He was great at looking at international cultures and communications.”

The complaint filed by the FBI alleges that “have been operating in the United States since the mid-1990s, and have been under FBI surveillance since at least 2002.” Their job was to get inside the the circle that generated policy ideas. … ‘You were sent to USA for long-term service trip. Your education, bank accounts, car, house etc. — all these serve one goal: fulfill your main mission, i.e., to search and develop ties in policymaking circles in US and send intels [intelligence reports] to C[enter].’”

The alleged spies communicated with their handlers by special wireless computer networks set up through their laptops. Through that network, they were able to exchange data without meeting. FBI surveillance of Chapman showed her going to coffee shops and bookstores in New York at the same time that a representative from the Russian consulate was in the immediate vicinity; both would allegedly open their laptops and exchange data without speaking or being in the same room.

But, like all computer programs, the spy software was bug-ridden, and complaints about it helped two undercover FBI agents convince Chapman and Semenko, a D.C. operative, that they were working with the Russians. One undercover agent posing as a Russian met with Chapman and asked how everything was going: “Everything is cool apart from the connection,” she replied. “I am not the technical guy… I don’t know how to fix it,” the agent said. “But if you tell me, I can pass it up.”

The complaint also details the use of steganography, or the practice of embedding encrypted data in innocuous-seeming photos, and radiograms — rapid bursts of encrypted radio information that sound like static — to transmit information to handlers.

Some of the evidence contained in the complaint comes from listening devices stored in the moles’ homes going back as far as 2002, suggesting that once the FBI discovered the network, it decided to spy on it for nearly a decade rather than wrap it up immediately.

From reports in the press it seems that unlike agents recruited to access specific information inside the military or security services, the sleeper’s job was to enter a broader social network. They would have spied from the vantage of the private party, the Little League baseball game, the seminar and the cocktail party.The spies did not necessarily need access to classified data and probably would have avoided it in order not to bring suspicion on themselves. But that doesn’t mean they weren’t dangerous. Their role was to “make friends and influence” people and if they succeeded, their opinions would have carried weight and would have been placed to detect broad, long term trends in United States policy. They would been situated to spot individuals within US intelligence which the FSB recruiters could target; known who was weak; who needed money; who was disgruntled.

Why did the FBI wrap it up now rather than continue poison the cell’s sources with disinformation? Now was the time to ‘play it back’ and make the Russians dance to their tune. Normally a cell left to run this long would be rolled up for two reasons:

1. There was no remaining value to be extracted, which is doubtful;
2. The FBI suspected that the cell might be alerted in the near future and escape their grasp so they grabbed it now.

Reason number two seems far more probable, though that is only speculation.  The FBI had invested a great deal in of time and effort into letting the cell ripen and the payoff was now within their reach. US intel could turn the tables on the Russian by following the recruiters and scooping up the spies sent by the sleepers to exploit targets.  And maybe some of the harvesting had already occurred and some playback had already happened; maybe the Bureau decided to tie things up while they were ahead.  Or maybe not. Interesting to see who jumps.  The sleepers knew a lot of people.

Spoken like a true leftist radical…
Elena Kagan in 2009:
“Its Fine if The Law Bans Books Because Government Won’t Really Enforce It.”
Via Naked Emperor News:

When President Obama “signed a memorandum to nearly double the amount of federal and commercial spectrum available for smartphones and wireless Internet devices,” as reported by the Wall Street Journal it was part of the FCC national broadband plan which aims to make an addition 500 MhZ of spectrum available to broadband over the next 10 years.  The President’s action highlights the start of an the effort to reshape the new town square.

The FCC’s strategic goals are broader than a mere expansion of wireless broadband spectrum. They are intended to reshape the Internet access terrain. Among the FCC goals according to its plan are “competition policies”, efforts to efficiently assign spectrum, promoting broadband access in “high cost” areas and among low-income Americans and to assist in the functioning of public education, health care and government operation. The Atlantic Wire has a summary of the things it plans to change.

An official tells Politico’s Mike Allen the plan is meant to “foster investment, economic growth and help create hundreds of thousands of jobs by meeting the burgeoning demand for mobile and fixed broadband, other high-value uses and benefits for other industries …

Engadget’s Chris Ziegler writes, “It’s looking more and more like at least some privately-held spectrum is going to need to be reallocated involuntarily …

The New York Times’ Edward Wyatt notes, “some aspects could be opposed by television broadcast companies, which will be asked if they want to give up some of their spectrum for auction. Cable companies that have invested heavily in wired telecommunications networks could also lose from the new direction.” …

The New York Times’ Edward Wyatt notes, “some aspects could be opposed by television broadcast companies, which will be asked if they want to give up some of their spectrum for auction. Cable companies that have invested heavily in wired telecommunications networks could also lose from the new direction.” …

Politics Daily’s Alex Wagner writes, “The White House is seeking further seeking Congressional approval to use proceeds from the auction of federal spectrum to upgrade federal agencies’ communications systems and establish a new, ‘interoperable wireless broadband network for public safety.’ The aim of this network would be to ensure better coordination between emergency services across different jurisdictions, a problem identified in the wake of 9/11.”

The public policy which defines network access will probably be one of the most important subjects of the coming years.

The Supreme Court has only agreed with Elena Kagan, Barack Obama’s latest radical pick to the court, in 3 out of 5 decisions. Today she lost another one.
The Caucus reported:

Elena Kagan’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings haven’t even begun, and the score is already 1-0 against her.

The Supreme Court on Monday morning ruled against Ms. Kagan in a case she had argued as solicitor general when it decided that a quasi government agency that audits public companies is unconstitutional. The board’s members are appointed and removed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, and not the president – a violation of Article II of the Constitution, which vests executive power in the president, the court ruled…

The White House notes that Ms. Kagan’s overall Supreme Court record is 3-2. That is, three wins and two losses in the five cases she has argued.

At least this is better than Obama’s first radical pick to the court Sonia Sotomayor who had been reversed, vacated, or criticized nine out of ten times by the U.S. Supreme Court. 9 of 10 times.

Of course, the media always called Bush’s mainstream picks “conservative” but call Obama’s radical far left picks “centrist.”

More… Sen. Sessions slammed Elena Kagen’s qualifications during the Supreme Court Nomination Hearings today.

The Supreme Court has only agreed with Elena Kagan, Barack Obama’s latest radical pick to the court, in 3 out of 5 decisions. Today she lost another one.
The Caucus reported:

Elena Kagan’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings haven’t even begun, and the score is already 1-0 against her.

The Supreme Court on Monday morning ruled against Ms. Kagan in a case she had argued as solicitor general when it decided that a quasi government agency that audits public companies is unconstitutional. The board’s members are appointed and removed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, and not the president – a violation of Article II of the Constitution, which vests executive power in the president, the court ruled…

The White House notes that Ms. Kagan’s overall Supreme Court record is 3-2. That is, three wins and two losses in the five cases she has argued.

At least this is better than Obama’s first radical pick to the court Sonia Sotomayor who had been reversed, vacated, or criticized nine out of ten times by the U.S. Supreme Court. 9 of 10 times.

With the passing of West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd, the defining narrative among politicos will — after a few hours’ decorum — emerge as does Byrd = Kennedy? That is to say that, while so many West Virginians would never vote against Byrd, now that he’s gone there are plenty of the same Blue State voters who would vote against a non-Byrd Democrat in this Age of Obama.

I don’t follow West Virginia politics closely but assume their version of Scott Brown would be Rep. Shelley Moore Capito. His or her identity, as well as whether the same phenomenon would play out, likely depend on if the election is held this fall, vs. 2012: there are some murky legal issues to sort through involving how long a placeholder would hold the seat. Still I’m pretty sure it will be someone staunchly anti-cap-and-trade (in both parties, in fact; the last West Virginia politician to show insufficient zeal against the scheme, Rep. Alan Mollohan (D), recently lost in a primary).

Cap-and-trade of course is the vehicle by which the president vowed to cause your electricity prices to “necessarily skyrocket” as part of his effort to “bankrupt” the coal industry and anyone who sought to continue burning coal for that one-half of our electricity that it provides. Incidentally, today’s Wall Street Journal also notes how Obama’s anti-coal jihad just cost about 1,000 jobs in Wisconsin; West Virginia needs no such reminders yet as they pile up they also cannot help but be relevant.

How strongly West Virginia can inveigh, through its congressional representation, against this cruel ideological push is of increasing importance right now. Democrat staff are increasingly bold in their discussion of suckering Republicans into helping them pass it in a lame duck session, without having to vote on it in the Senate until after the elections.

The vehicle for said suckering is a “must-pass” Gulf spill bill — not that what is being proposed would have done anything to prevent the latest disaster of a company, BP, that like Enron lost the plot and fell apart as a result, any more than the financial services “reform” would have prevented the Fannie- and Freddie-precipitated meltdown.

From today’s E&E Daily story (subscription required):

What Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) puts in the Senate climate and energy bill, and what gets added on the floor, may not matter as much as simply whether some bill passes.

In the end, a joint House-Senate conference committee will likely hammer out the final version of the bill. That might not take place until a “lame duck” session after the November election, when much of the political pressure on lawmakers has dissipated.

Which means that despite the oft-repeated assertion by Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) that “cap and trade is dead,” the House’s bill based on cap and trade could be back in play — someday, given the right conditions. Even if they do not enact cap and trade, Democratic leaders could use a conference to ratchet up the climate regultions [sic] past what the Senate agreed to and beyond what Democratic House centrists want.

“We have a lot of wiggle room in conference,” said a House Democratic aide.

And it could be hard for centrists in either party or either chamber to walk away from the bill if they have taken the risk of voting for it on initial passage.

“Once you get to conference, it’s an up-or-down vote,” said Norm Ornstein, a veteran congressional expert at the American Enterprise Institute. “People who vote against it have to explain why they voted for it before they voted against it.”

That lame duck strategy is little more brazen than the Democrats’ efforts to cram-down the health care takeover. Indeed, not only will embittered losers have nothing else left to lose given the elections will be behind them. Worse, given that many Dems will be out of jobs by that point, they actually will be in a bidding war for ambassadorships or other sinecures by doing Obama a solid and seizing the ever-closing Obama Window to “fundamentally transform America”.

So the Dems think the Senate will pass a “Gulf spill” bill, the prospect of any vote against which they Dems are already styling as a vote for BP and Big Oil (they don’t say how). Then this will be merged with the House “energy” bill which was the 1,400 page monstrosity bearing cap-and-trade, among other odious delights of the Left.

It seems unlikely that Sen. Byrd would smile on this abuse of the rules of our representative democracy, but there you have it. His party will be against BP before they are for it…BP having invented carbon cap-and-trade with Enron, aggressively lobbying until this very day for the payoff it is designed to provide them.

The only issue is whether the Republicans are absorbing the message: the Dems are digging a political pit and layering its top with rhetorical palm fronds, certain that the Republicans will stumble into the “must do ’something’!” trap and pass a “Gulf spill bill”, with every sentient being knowing full well this is the Senate Dems’ ticket to a cap-and-trade, lame duck conference. And enactment of their last remaining high profile Power Grab.

Sadly, neither history nor the utterances of one Senate Republican to date provide any succor that they are on to the game.

Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi is commander of Iran’s Basij Forces. (Fars)

The killer Iranian regime accused the United States and the “Zionist Regime” of Israel of using drugs as a biological weapon against “freedom-seeking nations” like Iran.
Nuts.
Iranian Fars News reported:

A senior Iranian commander took the US and the Zionist regime of Israel responsible for the spread of drug addiction in the world, stressing that they use drugs as a biological weapon against the freedom-seeking nations.

“The US and the Zionist regime are pioneers of drug distribution in the world and the world arrogant powers use drugs as a biological weapon against the freedom-seeking nations,” Commander of Iran’s Basij Forces Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi said on Monday.

The arrogant powers want to pocket the money earned through the production and trafficking of the drugs, which is the second profitable source of capital after weapons smuggling, and spread addiction among target populations, he added, reminding that most of the American addicts are from the Blacks.

The drug problem will not be uprooted in the world until arrogant powers are not annihilated, the commander underlined.

He described Afghanistan as the main source of drug production in the world, and underlined that NATO forces in Afghanistan are currently in control of 8,000 tons of drugs which they aim to smuggle into other countries to captivate their nations through addiction.

Far Left Senator Claire McCaskill was forced to apologize after an aide compared tea party protesters to Nazi “brownshirts.”
St. Louis Today reported:

Elected officials and legislative aides take note: If you’re planning on using the Third Reich as an analogy for the fight over health care or another contentious political issue, sit down and write the apology first.

The comparison seldom translates — and is usually followed by regret.

The latest example is from U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill’s office, where a conservative blog caught an aide suggesting that the tactics of healthcare opponents are similiar to those used by the Nazis to gain power.

The comments, caught on video supplied by the site 24th State, were made by McCaskill field representative Bob Burns.

Though the date of the video is unclear, Burns is apparently talking to a room full of health care supporters about Tea Party, or Tea Party-like, activists.

“Someone said ‘brownshirts’…People got offended with that,” Burns said. “But if you look at history, when Hitler took over Germany, he did it just that way: disrupting meetings, screaming — and then it got violent. But they were always a minority.”

On Friday, a day after the video was posted on 24th State, McCaskill’s office e-mailed an apology to the blog author, which was also posted.

Congrats to 24th State for catching the offensive remarks on video.

Rick Santelli, the CNBC contributor and catalyst for the 2009 Tea Party movement, screamed that government needs to, “Stop spending! Stop spending! Stop spending!”
Via Freedom’s Lighthouse:

Unfortunately, this will land on deaf ears.
The community organizer in the White House still believes you can spend your way to wealth.

It’s Day 69 of the Gulf Oil Spill Disaster–
There is now clear evidence that the negligence by the Obama Administration caused the destruction of the Gulf coastline.

** The feds only accepted assistance from 5 of 28 countries.
** It took the Obama Administration 53 days to accept help from the Dutch and British.
** It took them 58 days to mobilize the US military to the Gulf.
** The feds shut down crude-sucking barges due to fire extinguisher concerns.
** The Obama Administration ignore oil boom manufacturers that have miles of product stockpiled in their warehouses.
** They only have moved 31 of 2,000 oil skimmers to the disaster area off of Florida.
** Florida hired an additional 5 skimmer boats to operate off its coast due to federal inaction.
** There are no skimmer boats off the coast of Mississippi.
** The massive A-Boat skimmer won’t be allowed to join the cleanup effort until the Coast Guard and the EPA figure out whether it meets their standards.
** The feds shut down sand berm dredging off the Louisiana coast.
** The president continues to hit the golf course, ball games, hold BBQ’s and party while the crude oil washes up on shore.

Here’s a time-lapse look at the oil spill disaster from space:

But, it didn’t have to be this way…
The Dutch offered to help two days after the disaster back in April and they have the technology and equipment that would have prevented any oil from reaching shore. But the Obama Administration turned them down due to EPA regulations.
The Financial Post reported, via Instapundit:

Some are attuned to the possibility of looming catastrophe and know how to head it off. Others are unprepared for risk and even unable to get their priorities straight when risk turns to reality.

The Dutch fall into the first group. Three days after the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico began on April 20, the Netherlands offered the U.S. government ships equipped to handle a major spill, one much larger than the BP spill that then appeared to be underway. “Our system can handle 400 cubic metres per hour,” Weird Koops, the chairman of Spill Response Group Holland, told Radio Netherlands Worldwide, giving each Dutch ship more cleanup capacity than all the ships that the U.S. was then employing in the Gulf to combat the spill.

To protect against the possibility that its equipment wouldn’t capture all the oil gushing from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, the Dutch also offered to prepare for the U.S. a contingency plan to protect Louisiana’s marshlands with sand barriers. One Dutch research institute specializing in deltas, coastal areas and rivers, in fact, developed a strategy to begin building 60-mile-long sand dikes within three weeks. . . .

Why does neither the U.S. government nor U.S. energy companies have on hand the cleanup technology available in Europe? Ironically, the superior European technology runs afoul of U.S. environmental rules. The voracious Dutch vessels, for example, continuously suck up vast quantities of oily water, extract most of the oil and then spit overboard vast quantities of nearly oil-free water. Nearly oil-free isn’t good enough for the U.S. regulators, who have a standard of 15 parts per million — if water isn’t at least 99.9985% pure, it may not be returned to the Gulf of Mexico. . . .

The Americans, overwhelmed by the catastrophic consequences of the BP spill, finally relented and took the Dutch up on their offer — but only partly. Because the U.S. didn’t want Dutch ships working the Gulf, the U.S. airlifted the Dutch equipment to the Gulf and then retrofitted it to U.S. vessels. And rather than have experienced Dutch crews immediately operate the oil-skimming equipment, to appease labour unions the U.S. postponed the clean-up operation to allow U.S. crews to be trained.

A catastrophe that could have been averted is now playing out.

This is criminal negligence.
And clearly the fault lies with the Obama Administration.
It’s a good thing the state-run media ignores these facts.

It’s Day 69 of the Gulf Oil Spill Disaster–
There is now clear evidence that the negligence by the Obama Administration caused the destruction of the Gulf coastline.

** The feds only accepted assistance from 5 of 28 countries.
** It took the Obama Administration 53 days to accept help from the Dutch and British.
** It took them 58 days to mobilize the US military to the Gulf.
** The feds shut down crude-sucking barges due to fire extinguisher concerns.
** The Obama Administration ignore oil boom manufacturers that have miles of product stockpiled in their warehouses.
** They only have moved 31 of 2,000 oil skimmers to the disaster area off of Florida.
** Florida hired an additional 5 skimmer boats to operate off its coast due to federal inaction.
** There are no skimmer boats off the coast of Mississippi.
** The feds shut down sand berm dredging off the Louisiana coast.
** The president continues to hit the golf course, ball games, hold BBQ’s and party while the crude oil washes up on shore.

Here’s a time-lapse look at the oil spill disaster from space:

But, it didn’t have to be this way…
The Dutch offered to help two days after the disaster back in April and they have the technology and equipment that would have prevented any oil from reaching shore. But the Obama Administration turned them down due to EPA regulations.
The Financial Post reported, via Instapundit:

Some are attuned to the possibility of looming catastrophe and know how to head it off. Others are unprepared for risk and even unable to get their priorities straight when risk turns to reality.

The Dutch fall into the first group. Three days after the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico began on April 20, the Netherlands offered the U.S. government ships equipped to handle a major spill, one much larger than the BP spill that then appeared to be underway. “Our system can handle 400 cubic metres per hour,” Weird Koops, the chairman of Spill Response Group Holland, told Radio Netherlands Worldwide, giving each Dutch ship more cleanup capacity than all the ships that the U.S. was then employing in the Gulf to combat the spill.

To protect against the possibility that its equipment wouldn’t capture all the oil gushing from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, the Dutch also offered to prepare for the U.S. a contingency plan to protect Louisiana’s marshlands with sand barriers. One Dutch research institute specializing in deltas, coastal areas and rivers, in fact, developed a strategy to begin building 60-mile-long sand dikes within three weeks. . . .

Why does neither the U.S. government nor U.S. energy companies have on hand the cleanup technology available in Europe? Ironically, the superior European technology runs afoul of U.S. environmental rules. The voracious Dutch vessels, for example, continuously suck up vast quantities of oily water, extract most of the oil and then spit overboard vast quantities of nearly oil-free water. Nearly oil-free isn’t good enough for the U.S. regulators, who have a standard of 15 parts per million — if water isn’t at least 99.9985% pure, it may not be returned to the Gulf of Mexico. . . .

The Americans, overwhelmed by the catastrophic consequences of the BP spill, finally relented and took the Dutch up on their offer — but only partly. Because the U.S. didn’t want Dutch ships working the Gulf, the U.S. airlifted the Dutch equipment to the Gulf and then retrofitted it to U.S. vessels. And rather than have experienced Dutch crews immediately operate the oil-skimming equipment, to appease labour unions the U.S. postponed the clean-up operation to allow U.S. crews to be trained.

A catastrophe that could have been averted is now playing out.

This is criminal negligence.
And clearly the fault lies with the Obama Administration.
It’s a good thing the state-run media ignores these facts.

Change!
Whoever thought just six months ago that a Republican would out-poll both Senator John Kerry and Barack Obama… in MASSACHUSETTS?

Republican Scott Brown is now the most popular politica figure in Massachusetts. (Daily Mail photo)

The Boston Globe reported:

US Senator Scott Brown, who only months ago was a little-known figure even within the tiny band of Republicans in the state Senate, not only catapulted to national stature with his upset US Senate victory, but is today the most popular officeholder in Massachusetts, according to a Boston Globe poll.

After less than five months in Washington, Brown outpolls such Democratic stalwarts as President Obama and US Senator John F. Kerry in popularity, the poll indicates. He gets high marks not only from Republicans, but even a plurality of Democrats views him favorably.

The support for Brown, whose victory became a symbol of voter anger, is consistent with widespread sentiment that incumbents in Massachusetts and Washington “need to be replaced with a new crop of leaders.’’ That statement was supported by 50 percent of those polled, while 28 percent said they trust the incumbents.

Yet there’s one surprising consolation for Bay State Democrats who hope to defuse the voter backlash. When asked whether they will vote for a Democrat or Republican in their own congressional district in November, 42 percent of likely voters say they will vote for the Democrat and 27 percent will vote Republican.

Our radical president told reporters at the G20 meetings in Canada yesterday that,
“Global recovery requires a level playing field.”

The leftists probably thought this was brilliant. The rest of us understand that it is a meaningless statement except for the fact that it confirms his socialist bent.

Obama believes an equal playing field will lift the world from the global recession.
How?
Reuters reported:

President Barack Obama said on Sunday it was important for global growth that there be a level playing field, and that involves market-driven currency policies.

Obama also mentioned China’s move toward more currency flexibility at a news conference at the close of the Group of 20 summit in Canada.

“A strong and durable recovery also requires countries not having an undue advantage. So we also discussed the need for currencies that are market-driven,” Obama said. “As I told President Hu yesterday, the United States welcomes China’s decision to allow its currency to appreciate in response to market forces.”

Real Clear Politics has the video.

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez (R) speaks as Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad listens during a ceremony where the two countries signed an economic agreement at Miraflores Palace in Caracas June 26, 2010. Assad is on a rare visit to Latin America aimed at extending Syria’s diplomatic reach after emerging from Western isolation, and attracting investment for his country’s ageing infrastructure. (Reuters)

Leftist hero and Marxist Hugo Chavez lashed out at “genocidal” government of Israel and the United States this weekend.
The AP reported:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez denounced Israel as a “genocidal” government on Sunday as he hosted Syrian President Bashar Assad on his first visit to Latin America.

Chavez has drawn close to Syria and Iran, and cut ties with Israel last year to protest its military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

“We have common enemies,” Chavez said, describing them as “the Yankee empire, the genocidal state of Israel.”

Chavez had particularly strong words for Israel throughout Assad’s visit. He reiterated his view Saturday that the Golan Heights – captured from Syria by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war – should one day be returned to Syria.

“Someday the genocidal state of Israel will be put in its place, in the proper place and hopefully a real democratic state will be born,” Chavez said Saturday. “But it has become the murderous arm of the Yankee empire – who can doubt it? – which threatens all of us.”

Assad on Sunday called Israel a state “based on crime, slaughter.”

“It’s a state without limits,” he said through an interpreter.

Democratic Leader – Filibustered Civil Rights Act
Senator Robert Byrd, former Democratic majority leader and kleagle, dies at 92. For some reason the AP forgot to mention that he was a recruiter for the Ku Klux Klan.
The AP reported:

Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, a fiery orator versed in the classics and a hard-charging power broker who steered billions of federal dollars to the state of his Depression-era upbringing, died Monday. He was 92.

A spokesman for the family, Jesse Jacobs, said Byrd died peacefully at about 3 a.m. at Inova Hospital in Fairfax, Va. He had been in the hospital since late last week.

At first Byrd was believed to be suffering from heat exhaustion and severe dehydration, but other medical conditions developed. He had been in frail health for several years.

Byrd, a Democrat, was the longest-serving senator in history, holding his seat for more than 50 years. He was the Senate’s majority leader for six of those years and was third in the line of succession to the presidency, behind House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a fellow West Virginian in the Senate, said it was his “greatest privilege” to serve with Byrd.

“I looked up to him, I fought next to him, and I am deeply saddened that he is gone,” Rockefeller said.

In comportment and style, Byrd often seemed a Senate throwback to a courtlier 19th century. He could recite poetry, quote the Bible, discuss the Constitutional Convention and detail the Peloponnesian Wars — and frequently did in Senate debates…

Byrd’s accomplishments followed a childhood of poverty in West Virginia, and his success on the national stage came despite a complicated history on racial matters. As a young man, he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan for a brief period, and he joined Southern Democrats in an unsuccessful filibuster against the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act.

He will be missed.
Our prayers are with his family and friends today.

UPDATE: As expected, the state-run media is jumping through hoops trying to ignore the former senator’s KKK past.

Longest Serving Member of Senate – Ku Klux Klan Recruiter
Senator Robert Byrd, former Democratic majority leader and kleagle, dies at 92. For some reason the AP forgot to mention that he was a recruiter for the Ku Klux Klan.
The AP reported:

Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, a fiery orator versed in the classics and a hard-charging power broker who steered billions of federal dollars to the state of his Depression-era upbringing, died Monday. He was 92.

A spokesman for the family, Jesse Jacobs, said Byrd died peacefully at about 3 a.m. at Inova Hospital in Fairfax, Va. He had been in the hospital since late last week.

At first Byrd was believed to be suffering from heat exhaustion and severe dehydration, but other medical conditions developed. He had been in frail health for several years.

Byrd, a Democrat, was the longest-serving senator in history, holding his seat for more than 50 years. He was the Senate’s majority leader for six of those years and was third in the line of succession to the presidency, behind House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a fellow West Virginian in the Senate, said it was his “greatest privilege” to serve with Byrd.

“I looked up to him, I fought next to him, and I am deeply saddened that he is gone,” Rockefeller said.

In comportment and style, Byrd often seemed a Senate throwback to a courtlier 19th century. He could recite poetry, quote the Bible, discuss the Constitutional Convention and detail the Peloponnesian Wars — and frequently did in Senate debates…

Byrd’s accomplishments followed a childhood of poverty in West Virginia, and his success on the national stage came despite a complicated history on racial matters. As a young man, he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan for a brief period, and he joined Southern Democrats in an unsuccessful filibuster against the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act.

He will be missed.
Our prayers are with his family and friends today.

Today, in 1778 , the Continental Army fought to a draw at the Battle of Monmouth. It was its own kind of victory.

Whether the 1959 movie, Invasion of the Bodysnatchers, really referred to the Communist infiltration of America is a subject of debate. But the fear of “Pod People”, aliens who take over earth by masquerading as humans, appeals to a primal fear of secret beings among us. And it is this atavism which is partly behind the reaction to the existence of the JournoList posting group, to which Dave Wiegel, the Washington Post reporter covering “conservatives” belonged. Weigel had one persona in public and another persona in the Journolist posting group. The question is: what’s wrong with that?  Politico described Journolist as a facility where “for the past two years, several hundred left-leaning bloggers, political reporters, magazine writers, policy wonks and academics have talked stories and compared notes in an off-the-record online meeting space.” Was it:

Proof of a vast liberal media conspiracy?

Not at all, says Ezra Klein, the 24-year-old American Prospect blogging wunderkind who formed JournoList in February 2007. “Basically,” he says, “it’s just a list where journalists and policy wonks can discuss issues freely.”

Walter Shapiro makes the case for a private place where people can ‘let their hair down’ and dare to be offensive. Without this freedom, people would be funneled too early into the consensus view. They would weigh their words prematurely at a time when every idea must remain on the table. Without this secret space there would be no forum for draft concepts, where arguments could be advanced without fear, taken to extremes and examined for absurdities.  Once upon a time, Shaprio says,  people understood that what counted was the formal utterance, not the confidential thought. “In another era,” he wrote, “Secretary of State Henry Stimson closed the State Department’s code-breaking office in 1929 because, as he quaintly explained, ‘Gentlemen do not read each other’s mail.’” Alas, some blackguard has read Wiegel’s mail and told the world what was in it. Shapiro pined for a more genteel age.

How laudable, how naive, how early 20th century. The zone of privacy these days stops at the edge of your thoughts. It is impossible for any group (and this means liberals, conservatives and middle-of-the-road vegans) to share off-the-record ideas online without running the risk that someone will breach the bonds of trust to score cheap political points. Every time someone like Weigel is humiliated because of quickly typed off-the-cuff comments, it moves us closer to a world where we all communicate in predictable homogenized phrases because who knows where they might end up.

The weakness of Shapiro’s argument is that it lacks context. Not all privacies are equal.  In important public matters very little is excusable as personal.  Stimston’s bureaucratic heirs want to know the secrets of Julian Assange, the Founder of Wikileaks, not out of idle curiosity about Assange, but  to find out who gave him the trove of secret State Department cables which he has threatened to publish. Because  the Climate Research Unit’s secret emails cooking up data to support Global Warming are bound up with public funding they are different in character from a private exchange between scientists trying out novel theories on each other. We should not be interested in people’s private opinions about public policy, but we have a vital interest in discovering private efforts to manipulate public facts.

The distinction turns on the subject of the secret communications and the nature of the parties involved. When secret forums can materially effect vital public interests or when they involve persons in positions of power they should be judged by a different standard than a debate between two friends over drinks. What makes the JournoList group different from any other Internet forum is precisely the claim that journalists are different. They assert a special role and enhanced First Amendment rights just as news organizations argue they have a unique role in society distinct from corporations or unions engaging in political speech.  These claims bring with them a corresponding burden of power.  The corresponding price of claiming public trust as a qualification is an obligation to live up to that claim. Whoever asserts an objective’ and ‘truthful’ viewpoint would be unwise to engage in conspiratorial behavior — at least not without embarassment. Spiderman understood the tradeoff perfectly:  “with great power comes great responsibility”.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

But the more practical problem with crafting the narrative from a secret place is that the public begins wonder if places like the JournoList aren’t the forges of the sudden changes in contemporary stories that might called the ‘Turn’;  an alternation in narrative so sudden it provokes astonishment. There have been enough Turns of late to make the new audience start to look under the shells for the pea. Recently Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was ousted by his own party after they ‘discovered’ that he was a thoroughly unpleasant man. According to press reports the Labor party collectively realized in the space of 24 hours that ‘this was not the Kevin Rudd they used to know’ and decided to replace him with Julia Gillard who was conveniently available. How a politician in his 50s, long known to Party leaders and for so long in journalism’s gaze could remain an unknown quantity for so long beggars explanation.  But it is no more astounding than Peggy Noonan’s confession of her realization that the President, far from being a genius, might actually be incompetent. It is one among many reversals of story line. When Global Warming fades amid the worst winters in memory; when one discovers after many years that the uber-tolerant Helen Thomas actually wants the Jews to go back to Germany and given the repeated failure of the press to discover political scandals before the National Inquirer or the Drudge Report then it is natural for people to wonder whether things are all they are cracked up to be. The real problem with places like JournoList is that it very conveniently confirms the worst suspicions. And that bodes ill for the press.

The real challenge before the 21st century press is not to create private spaces in which to craft public facts but to create ways through which public facts may be privately confirmed.   The world needs fewer secret clubs and more ways for ordinary people to verify things for themselves. The Internet has accustomed millions to the possibility of unintermediated knowledge, raised the expectation that it shouldn’t require a privileged point of view for a fact to be believed. People are beginning to demand this. The power of open source knowledge (and of the scientific method for that matter) is that anybody can confirm the essentials of the claim for himself.

We believe in Google Maps because when we go to the direction indicated, we find the address there. We believe in Amazon.com because when we order a book from it it usually arrives in the mail after some days. We can do business on EBay because the trading cards we buy eventually show up at our doorstep. Whether it is code that claims to add two numbers or a formula which describes the acceleration of objects falling under gravity we could in principle reproduce it ourselves.  Stories whose truth relies upon the acceptance of a privileged point of view will be increasingly harder to sell as time goes by. People tended to stop believing in Robert Fisk — no matter how eminent he was — after his descriptions failed to square with the observed facts. Facts which come from a Black Box — whether the dictation of a supernatural being, or a birth certificate only the elect can see, or files of no known provenance dropped off wherever Julian Assange is– must overcome the modern requirement for direct inspection.  News from a Black Box will be increasingly regarded as doubtful even if it is true.  This doesn’t necessarily mean that news can’t start from a Black Box, but like a preached faith, the news requires eventual revalidation before it gains final acceptance.

For this reason the utility of closing secret Left Wing forums only to reopen them under other names may be of doubtful utility. Shapiro says that JournoList is closing because its archives have “become a weapon” against its members, though it will rise again in some presumably secret place, “with a different name and a renewed sense of collective trust.”

Friday afternoon Ezra Klein announced on JournoList and his Washington Post blog that he would be shutting down the online conversation pit because of the security breach. As he put it, “Insofar as the current version of JournoList has seen its archives become a weapon, and insofar as people’s careers are now at stake, it has to die.” The last few hours of JournoList were devoted to its members (including me) expressing the hope that someone would reorganize the bulletin board with a different name and a renewed sense of collective trust. It is that final ingredient that will be hardest to replicate.”

But what is the point of that? It is still a secret fountain from which the unwashed will be barred. Once upon a time it might have been useful as authority when trust was founded on secret knowledge. In the future trust will be built on expressing a set of verifiable facts that anyone can take the trouble to check. Edward Guest  expressed it perfectly a long time ago.

To have no secret place wherein
I stoop unseen to shame or sin;
To be the same when I’m alone
And when my every deed is known;
To live undaunted, unafraid
Of any step that I have made;
To be without pretense or shame
Exactly what men think I am.

To leave some simple mark behind
To keep my having lived in mind;
If enmity to aught I show.
To be an honest, generous foe,
To play my little part, nor whine
That greater honors are not mine.
This, I believe, is all I need
For my philosophy and creed.

That’s a better way to gain credibility  than calling people ratf***kers in private.

In 2008 Barack Obama admitted during an interview with The San Francisco Chronicle that his cap and trade legislation would cause electricity prices to skyrocket and would kill the coal industry:

Now it begins…
The Obama Administration just killed 1,000 American jobs in the coal industry.
JS Online reported:

Up to 1,000 jobs at Bucyrus International Inc. and its suppliers could be in jeopardy as the result of a decision by the U.S. Export-Import Bank, funded by Congress, to deny several hundred million dollars in loan guarantees to a coal-fired power plant and mine in India.

About 300 of those jobs are at the Bucyrus plant in South Milwaukee, where the company has 1,410 employees and its headquarters. The remaining jobs are spread across 13 states, including Illinois, Minnesota and Indiana.

On Thursday, the Export-Import Bank denied financing for Reliance Power Ltd., an Indian power plant company, effectively wiping out about $600 million in coal mining equipment sales for Bucyrus, chief executive Tim Sullivan said.

The fossil fuel project was the first to come before the government-run bank since it adopted a climate-change policy to settle a lawsuit and to meet Obama administration directives.

“President Obama has made clear his administration’s commitment to transition away from high-carbon investments and toward a cleaner-energy future,” Export-Import Bank Chairman Fred Hochberg said in a statement. “After careful deliberation, the Export-Import Bank board voted not to proceed with this project because of the projected adverse environmental impact.”

November can’t come soon enough.

Illinois Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias was subpoenaed to testify in the Rod Blagojevich trial.
CBS2 Chicago reported:

First it was President Barack Obama, then White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, now U.S. Senate Candidate Alexi Giannoulias is joining the Rod Blagojevich corruption trial subpoena list.

Giannoulias is in the middle of a hard fought campaign against Congressman Mark Kirk for the right to fill the U.S. Senate seat once held by President Obama.

So there’s no doubt that being dragged into the Blagojevich trial is not welcome news for the Democratic candidate’s campaign.

The first term state treasurer was walking in Sunday’s Gay Pride Parade when CBS 2 caught up with him.

When asked what he’ll be testifying about, Giannoulias said he probably won’t be testifying. Why not?

It was a difficult weekend for America’s far left president. The G8 nations snubbed Obama on his attempt to push for more irresponsible government spending. The Europeans rejected Obama’s spend your way to prosperity Keynesian economic recovery plan.

However, today at a press conference Obama insisted that he was serious about reducing the deficit:

Barack Obama tripled the US deficit his first year in office.

He will likely match that deficit this year.

A top-ranking official in Hamas said Friday that the terror group is holding talks with the Obama Administration. They want to keep the meetings secret for fear it would rouse the Jewish lobby in the United States.
YNet News reported:

A senior Hamas figure said Friday that official and unofficial US sources have asked the Islamist group to refrain from making any statements regarding contacts with Washington, this following reports that a senior American official is due to arrive in an Arab country in the coming days to relay a telegram from the Obama Administration.

The Hamas figure told the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper that the Americans fear discussing the talks publicly would “rouse the Jewish lobby and other pressure groups in the US and cause them to pressure the administration to suspend all talks with Hamas.”

The Hamas figure, who is close to Ismail Haniyeh, the prime minister of the government in Gaza, added, “This is a sensitive subject. The Americans don’t want anyone to comment on it because this would catch the attention of pressure groups (in the US) and cause problems.”

He said Hamas’ exiled leadership in Damascus is overseeing the contacts behind closed doors.

Related… A senior Israeli diplomat has warned that the Jewish state’s relationship with the United States has suffered a “tectonic rift”.

It’s Day 68 of the Gulf Oil Spill Disaster–
The oil continues to leak- The Obama Administration and federal government continue to fail.

** The feds have only accepted assistance from 5 of 28 countries.
** It took the Obama Administration 53 days to accept help from the Dutch and British.
** It took them 58 days to mobilize the US military to the Gulf.
** The feds shut down crude-sucking barges due to fire extinguisher concerns.
** The Obama Administration ignore oil boom manufacturers that have miles of product stockpiled in their warehouses.
** They only have moved 31 of 2,000 oil skimmers to the disaster area off of Florida.
** Florida hired an additional 5 skimmer boats to operate off its coast due to federal inaction.
** The feds shut down sand berm dredging off the Louisiana coast.
** The president continues to hit the golf course, ball games, hold BBQ’s and party while the crude oil washes up on shore.

Now, we find out that there are no oils skimmers off the coast of Mississippi either.
McClatchy reported:

A morning flight over the Mississippi Sound showed long, wide ribbons of orange-colored oil for as far as the eye could see and acres of both heavy and light sheen moving into the Sound between the barrier islands. What was missing was any sign of skimming operations from Horn Island to Pass Christian.

U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor got off the flight angry.

“It’s criminal what’s going on out there,” Taylor said minutes later. “This doesn’t have to happen.”

A scientist onboard, Mike Carron with the Northern Gulf Institute, said with this scenario, there will be oil on the beaches of the mainland.

“There’s oil in the Sound and there was no skimming,” Carron said. “No coordinated effort.”

Taylor said it was a good thing he didn’t have a mic in the helicopter, because he might have said some things he didn’t want his children to hear.

Remember: Obama told us the Oil Spill Disaster was like 9-11.

In case you were wondering…
Here is the face of a conservative writer for the democratic-media complex:
Dave Weigel holds a “Teabag Them Before They Teabag You” doll.

Hat Tip Tim L.

It’s even on his Wikipedia page:

Maybe that’s why the WaPo was so impressed with him?

Truth Czar Liz Cheney explained to the panel on FOX News Sunday that Barack Obama’s disastrous economic policies and “binge spending” have become a national security threat.

Liz Cheney:

“I think you’re getting very close to a situation where the president’s economic policies are becoming a national security threat to the country.

And, I think you will see that clearly play out in the elections in November, people focus, not just from a political standpoint of getting more Republican seats, but electing people who are willing to stand up and stop what seems to be an illogical, unjustifiable spending binge.”

On Friday it was discovered that Dave Weigel, The Washington Post’s contributor on conservative issues, was also a member of “Journolist”, an exclusive leftist email list-serv.  Weigel resigned from The Washington Post after his association with this far left group that frames the talking points and steers the message of the democratic-media complex was revealed.

Sung Chun Kim wrote in about this controversy at Instapundit Blog:

Why is no one calling for the outing of the 400 JournoList members and an investigation of whether there were any other attempts to collude and to coordinate the media narrative? Is no else as disturbed by this as I am? We’re constantly told that the media are special, that they’re the Fourth Estate, and that their proper functioning is vital to the health of the Republic. Well, is no one else profoundly disturbed that no one is watching the watchers? Or that the watchers are actually colluding in a virtual smoke-filled back room to massage and frame the narrative?

Imagine if a conservative listserv were discovered, and that it included Rupert Murdoch and 400 conservative pundits and journalists. Imagine if it were disclosed that the participants actively discussed coordination in framing stories so as to benefit the Republican Party. Do you think there would be a ho hum “Oh, it was just a private list” response? Of course not, the liberals would be howling to the rafters about the existential threat to the Republic.

So why all the frivolity here? Even now, the Weigel story is breaking down into stupid distractions like whether Weigel actually wished death on Drudge, or whether people on a listserv have an expectation of privacy. Seriously, why is that even remotely important compared to the fact that 400 of this nation’s most prominent journalists and pundits were having discusions about killing or promoting stories based on whether they hurt the Democratic Party agenda? If there is any justice or sanity in this world, this should be bigger than ClimateGate. I want to see an archive of the JournoList postings and then compare them to any contemporaneous stories written by participants. Once that is done, we can tar and feather the bastards for betraying their profession and the people of this country.

More… Dale B. M. sent this:

The fourth estate has now become the fifth column. Fellow travelers. Marxist-socialists in word and deed. I would encourage everyone to watch an old TV series that is being re-broadcast on the Military Channel. It’s called the World at War. No re-enactment, just real-time footage of WWII and examination of events surrounding it. One segment entitled Occupation details the process of invasion and corruption of a free nation, Holland. Another segment, A New Germany, is also of great value. They are frightening and for that reason alone beneficial to all of us today.

Barack Obama’s father figure and mentor Rev. Jeremiah Wright has a history of bashing Jews and whitey.

It’s not just his sermons that are offensive. Wright also told reporters last year, “Them Jews aren’t going to let him talk to me.”

Last week in a class he teaches at the University of Chicago, Wright was out bashing whitey and Jews some more…
And, the students even earned college credits for attending his racist rant!
The New York Post reported:

He’s been keeping such a low profile since nearly derailing Barack Obama’s campaign for president in 2008 — is it possible that the controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright has mellowed?

Hardly.

During a five-day seminar Wright taught last week at the University of Chicago, he was back at it, claiming that whites and Jews are controlling the flow of worldwide information and oppressing blacks in Israel and America.

“White folk done took this country,” Wright said. “You’re in their home, and they’re gonna let you know it.”

The course, advertised as focusing on politics and public policy in South Africa and America, was taught in a small, ground-floor room at the Chicago Theological Seminary on the university campus, where Wright’s voice echoed out an open window. The class was composed of about 15 to 20 students, mainly older African-American women who would arrive early and giddily linger during lunch breaks and after class, looking for the reverend’s attention. (The course cost a little over $1,000 if taken for college credit and $300 if taken without.)

“Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect,” Obama said.

Yet during this course — which was described as asking, “What is the response and public witness of persons of faith to ongoing developments in both countries?” — Wright made many statements about what he believes are the true aims of whites and Jews.

“You are not now, nor have you ever been, nor will you ever be a brother to white folk,” he said. “And if you do not realize that, you are in serious trouble.”

He cited the writings of Bill Jones — author of the book “Is God a White Racist?” — as proof that white people cannot be trusted. “Bill said, ‘They just killed four of their own at Kent State. They’ll step on you like a cockroach and keep on movin’, cause you not a brother to them.’ ”

Wright referred to Italians as “Mamma Luigi” and “pizzeria.” He said the educational system in America is designed by whites to miseducate blacks “not by benign neglect but by malignant intent.”

Today is Sunday, so it is likely that President Obama is golfing somewhere. We are in the best of hands.

Prince Harry is visiting the United States and training at West Point.
Today the popular and patriotic Prince Harry threw out the first pitch at the Pond Scum New York Mets game:

The Obama White House should call him in for lessons.

Harry recently told reporters he wants to return to fight in Afghanistan.

Barack Obama is the worst president in history on job creation–
According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. shed 2.3 million jobs since February 2009, Obama’s first full month in office. Since Obama’s election in 2008, the US economy has shed 4.4 million jobs. That’s worse than Herbert Hoover.

(Misery Index data)

Joe Biden announced on Friday that the Obama Administration will not be able to replace the jobs that were lost during the recent recession.
CBS News reported:

Vice President Joe Biden gave a stark assessment of the economy today, telling an audience of supporters, “there’s no possibility to restore 8 million jobs lost in the Great Recession.”

Appearing at a fundraiser with Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) in Milwaukee, the vice president remarked that by the time he and President Obama took office in 2008, the gross domestic product had shrunk and hundreds of thousands of jobs had been lost.

“We inherited a godawful mess,” he said, adding there was “no way to regenerate $3 trillion that was lost. Not misplaced, lost.”

Claims for jobless benefits fell by the largest number in two months last week, but were still high enough to signal weak job growth. Meanwhile, the Senate on Thursday failed to pass an extension of unemployment benefits.

Biden said today the economy is improving and noted that in the past four quarters, there has been 4 percent growth in the economy. Over the last five months, more than 500,000 private sector jobs were created.

For the record… Not only were more jobs lost after the 9-11 attacks in 2001 than in the 2008 market crash, but more jobs were created by President Bush’s pro-business policies and tax cuts than by the Obama-Pelosi “spend your way to hell” Keynesian failure.

UPDATE: Power Line added this on the Obama disaster:

Graph courtesy of Veronique de Rugy at The Corner.
— Since the beginning of the recession (roughly January 2008), some 7.9 million jobs were lost in the private sector while 590,000 jobs were gained in the public one. And since the passage of the stimulus bill (February 2009), over 2.6 million private jobs were lost, but the government workforce grew by 400,000.
That’s what you call a disaster.

After several backroom deals and bribes, Nancy Pelosi was able to ram the democrat’s campaign finance bill through the US House this week. It excludes unions.
Mark Levin weighed in on the dem’s latest controversial piece of legislation.
Via FOX Nation:

Of course, this is not surprising. We’re getting used to these slimy tactics by the Pelosi-Reid democrats.
The Politico reported:

Overcoming opposition from within their own ranks, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic House leaders pushed through a controversial campaign finance reform bill Thursday on a 219-206 vote.

The DISCLOSE — Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Election — Act will require corporations, labor unions, trade associations and advocacy groups to publicly declare their role in TV ads or mass mailings during the closing months of a political campaign, including where the money is coming from to pay for such activities. Foreign-controlled corporations and big government contractors would also be barred from paying for such political activities.

But the House bill exempts the National Rifle Association, unions and other special interests from all or part of the legislation, which Republicans charged was the product of “backroom deals” and Democrats said was necessary to get the bill passed. Floor debate over the bill was heated, with each side accusing the other of acting in bad faith and using the fight to advance its own partisan agenda.

GOP leaders said the legislation would be declared unconstitutional by the federal courts if it is enacted. But the bill faces an uncertain future in the Senate before that could happen.

Republican star Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) gave the GOP Weekly Address today:

From the video:

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) says Washington Democrats’ unprecedented decision to cancel this year’s budget will wreak havoc on our economy and make it even harder to put people back to work.

The House Budget Committee’s top Republican, Ryan says Democrats’ plan to continue their out-of-control ’stimulus’ spending spree and raise taxes on middle-class families is a “recipe for disaster.”

He also challenges President Obama and Washington Democrats to stop running out the clock and “make the tough choices they promised they would, put moral obligation before political expedience, and focus on what’s in the best interests of the next generation, not the next election.”

With economists saying immediate fiscal discipline is needed to create jobs, Ryan notes that Republicans have already identified $1.3 trillion in specific spending cuts that could be implemented right now.

Rep. Ryan is in his sixth term representing the people of Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District.

What a shock…
Local reporters from FOX 40 in California bash Sarah Palin after her speech at St. Stanislaus in California:
Via Breitbart TV:

Following a live feed of Sarah Palin’s speech at Cal State Stanislaus, reporters are caught openly trashing the former Vice Presidential candidate. The audio went out on the live feed supplied by Fox 40.

Union violence is often talked about anecdotally but seldom addressed.  Even though one 25-year study found nearly 9,000 reported incidents of union violence, union-controlled Democrats often try to sweep it under the rug and, when they can’t, they’ll feign shock while seeming to relish it when it happens.

On Wednesday, in Upper Merion, PA (outside of Philadelphia) another act of union brutality took place when several (presumably) union thugs used baseball bats to beat some construction workers who, in the union’s eyes, were guilty of being non-union.

Police say the incident began Wednesday morning when non-union construction workers attempted to gain access to the new Toys R Us site, but were blocked by protesting union workers.

When the victims were unable to gain access to the construction site, they drove to the area of the Transportation Center in the King of Prussia Plaza lot to wait for police assistance.

Authorities say while waiting for police to arrive, a black sedan pulled up and several white males exited with baseball bats and shattered both rear windows of the two work trucks. As the victims exited the trucks in fear, police say at least two were physically assaulted with the baseball bats. One of the victims was taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania for treatment.

According to Upper Merion Twp. Police Lt. James Early, even though there had been other incidents at the site, this is the first time it has gotten violent.

So, here we have workers who were were doing nothing more than going to work to earn a paycheck to feed their families.  Their “crime?”  They didn’t belong to the gang union.   As they were confronted by the union thugs, they left and called police.  While they were awaiting the police, they were followed and beaten.

As stated above, this latest incident of union violence is hardly isolated.  During the Teamster strike against Overnite Transportation (1999-2002), there were hundreds of reports of violence (including a reported 55 shootings),  In fact, the Teamsters, in order to settle the charges filed with the National Labor Relations Board were required to post this four-page notice at their union halls stating that they would not engage in the violent acts described, which included:

WE WILL NOT brandish or carry any weapon of any kind, including, but not limited to, guns, knives, slingshots, rocks, ball bearings, liquid-filled balloons or other projectiles, sledge hammers, bricks, sticks, or two by fours….

WE WILL NOT use or threaten to use a weapon of any kind, including but not limited to guns, knives, slingshots, rocks, ball bearings, liquid-filled balloons or other projectiles, picket signs, sticks, sledge hammers, bricks, hot coffee, bottles, two by fours, lit cigarettes, eggs, or bags or balloons filled with excrement ….

WE WILL NOT damage, threaten to damage or attempt to damage any vehicle or equipment owned or operated by Overnite, its employees or security guards, by any means or manner, including but not limited by slingshots, rocks, ball bearings, liquid-filled balloons or other projectiles, knives, picket signs, sticks, sledge hammers, bricks, bottles, two by fours, eggs, or paint, or by tearing off mirrors, windshield wipers or antennas, or breaking windows.

WE WILL NOT disable or attempt to disable vehicles owned or operated by Ovemite, by any means or manner, including but not limited to disconnecting or otherwise severing air brake lines, padlocking doors, spraying substances in or otherwise jamming locks, stealing keys, puncturing radiators, cutting hoses or door cables, flattening tires or throwing, placing or otherwise spreading any nails, screws, star nails, jack rocks or similar devices capable of puncturing tires on any road surface.

In another example (explained on this video), union thugs smashed a windshield, stabbed a man in the neck and threw hot cups of coffee in faces—all because the victims were working non-union.

With Democrats doing all they can to boost union power in America, is this a sign that there’s more union violence ahead?

The American men take on Ghana today at 2:30 PM EST.

Here’s the starting lineups.

USA- USA – USA!
The World Cup viewership is up 68% this year in the US.

UPDATE: Bummer. The US lost in OT.
There’s always 2014 right?

Joe “Bite-Me” Biden traveled to Wisconsin yesterday to campaign with far left Progressive Russ Feingold (D-WI). Smokin Joe ordered a custard at a popular custard stand in Glendale during one of their stops. When Biden asked Kopp’s Frozen Custard stand owner how much he owed him, the owner responded,

“Nothing, just lower our taxes.”

Fat chance.
An embarrassed Joe Biden ignored him and walked away.
WISN 12 News reported:

A spokesman for the GOP responded to the VP’s visit:

“Vice President Biden probably decided not to take questions today because he didn’t want to fess up as to why Wisconsin has lost over 73,000 jobs since the stimulus was enacted.”

Ouch.
Hat Tip Jim S.

UPDATE: Biden told the small business owner, “Say something nice instead of being a smarta$$ all the time.”

A Pakistani terror suspect was arrested in Zimbabwe after he tried to cross into World Cup host state South Africa. Imran Muhammad is a suspect in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks where 173 innocents were killed in coordinated attacks.
The Age reported:

A Pakistani suspect in the 2008 Mumbai attacks has been arrested in Zimbabwe as he tried to cross into World Cup host South Africa, police and state media say.

Imran Muhammad, 33, was arrested at the Beitbridge border post along with another Pakistani national, the state-run Herald newspaper reported on Saturday, saying Muhammad was wanted for the Mumbai attacks.

“Indications were that… Muhammad (is) wanted in Pakistan (as he) was allegedly involved in the terror attacks that rocked Mumbai, India in November 2008,” the daily said.

Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said the two were arrested on June 20 after they were found using fake Kenyan passports.

“Investigations are still being carried out through Interpol to see who these people are,” he told AFP.

“We will have to get information from the Pakistani authorities to see what they have on these two.”

Hat Tip K. Solomon

Republican Brian Sandoval leads Democrat Rory Reid (who is afraid to use his last name in political ads) by 18 percentage points in the Nevada Governor’s race.
Rasmussen reported:

Republican Brian Sandoval continues to hold a lead of more than 20 points over Democrat Rory Reid in Nevada’s race for governor.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in the state shows Sandoval with 55% support, while Reid earns 33% of the vote. Eight percent (8%) favor some other candidate in the race, and four percent (4%) are undecided.

The numbers in this race have scarcely moved since February. Two weeks ago, just after Sandoval’s GOP Primary win, he held a 54% to 31% lead over Reid, currently chairman of the Clark County Board of Commissioners.

Click to Play

Afghanistan and McChrystal top the conversation this week as Rob Long and Peter Robinson are joined this week by columnist James Lileks, John Yoo, and Victor Davis Hanson. Well, not all the time. Peter does manange to wedge in some discussion of soccer too. Questions? Comments? Join the conversation at Ricochet.com or write us at podcast@ricochet.com.
Run Down:

5:04 — James Lileks
25:55 — John Yoo
30:15 — Victor Davis Hanson
1:07:15 — Close

Barack Obama’s first words at G8 Summit- “You’ve got a lot of golf courses here, don’t you?”
The National Post reported:

When US President Barack Obama stepped off his helicopter in Huntsville on Friday, the first thing he said was, “You’ve got a lot of golf courses here, don’t you?” Industry Minister Tony Clement told the National Post in an exclusive interview.

“I told him, ‘We would really recommend and love it if you could come back here with Michelle and the kids at some point — we think you’d really love it here,’” Minister Clement said on the sidewalk of Huntsville’s Main Street, in his home riding. “I think I’ve planted a seed in the President’s mind.”

Minister Clement said he personally welcomed each of the G8 leaders — with the exception of French President Nicolas Sarkozy — all of whom commented on the natural beauty of the region, which they observed during their airborne travels over cottage country.

The Mexican teen shot and killed by border patrol agents in El Paso was a most wanted juvenile immigrant smuggler list. Sergio Adrian Hernandez Huereca had been arrested at least four times since 2008.

The Mexican government has requested a quick and public investigation into the fatal shooting at the border between El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Sergio Adrian Hernandez Huereca was shot during a rock-throwing incident, Mexican and U.S. officials said.

FOX News reported:

A 15-year-old Mexican boy shot and killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent was among El Paso’s most wanted juvenile immigrant smugglers, according to federal arrest records reviewed by The Associated Press.

The records show Sergio Adrian Hernandez Huereca had been arrested at least four times since 2008 and twice in the same week in February 2009 on suspicion of smuggling illegal immigrants across the U.S.-Mexico border. Hernandez was repeatedly arrested along the U.S. side of the border near downtown El Paso, not far from where he was killed, but was never charged with a crime by federal prosecutors.

A Border Patrol agent shot and killed Hernandez June 7 while trying to arrest illegal immigrants crossing the muddy bed of the Rio Grande. Some witnesses said a group of people on the Mexican side were throwing rocks at the agents. Agents are generally permitted to use lethal force against rock throwers.

The records show that in at least one case Hernandez was to be paid $50 a person for smuggling four people into the U.S.

The records also show that in one case, federal prosecutors declined to charge Hernandez because there were no “extenuating circumstances or endangerment.”

This weekend (starting today) looks like it is shaping up to be the next chapter in the ongoing Progressive-Marxist revolution now underway across the globe. Previous chapters of the revolution include, but are not limited to, the 1999 WTO meeting in Seattle, the “anti-war”* protests during the Bush presidency, the 2004 and 2008 protests against the Republican conventions, the Bank of America protests, the Gaza Flotilla movement, etc…  *The asterisk marks the discredit earned by the “anti-war” movement through their silence since President Obama took office, despite the continuation of the wars allegedly being protested against.

Here is their description of the event they are holding Saturday night:

GET OFF THE FENCE
Confrontational Anti-Colonial, Anti-Capitalist
Convergence in solidarity with the
People’s First Demonstration
26 June 2010, 1pm, Queen’s Park
And then onwards to the Fence

If you want to understand the art of confrontational anti-capitalism, look no further than this Organizing Manual produced by one of the leading organizers of confrontational street (and flotilla) demonstrations. Pay special attention to the sections entitled, “198 Methods of Nonviolent Action” and “Tools for White Guys who are Working for Social Change and Other People Socialized in a Society Based on Domination”. Below is an excerpt from their section about the intentional tactic of getting arrested.

Stay in jail or not:

In-jail solidarity uses our strength of numbers to raise the political and economic costs of the system. It cost the authorities both economically and politically to keep large numbers of people locked up after an action, especially if we can mobilize outside pressure. Large numbers of people in jail can give us lots of leverage with the system.

But stay-in-jail strategies are very costly to us, as well. In situations where jail conditions are extremely hazardous to the very life and safety of protestors, we want to get people out of jail as quickly as possible and mobilize pressure in other ways. In an extended action, or when the authorities use preemptive arrests to undercut our numbers, we may want to get people back on the street quickly. When legal consequences of an action are likely to be minor, an in-jail strategy may not be worth the cost. And people may also have individual reasons for getting out of jail as fast as they can: family responsibilities, medical conditions that put them at risk in a jail situation, work responsibilities, etc.

Stay-in-jail strategies work best with larger numbers, but they do not require unanimity to work. We want to encourage people to do actions whether or not they can stay in jail afterwards. Solidarity is no longer effective movement building if the costs of an action become so high that only the extremely heroic or the chronically unemployed can do actions. When people feel judged or coerced into solidarity stands, they often react against the whole idea and may be reluctant to do future actions. When people feel supported in their choices, they will often make great personal sacrifices to support the group.

If we’re trying to keep people out on the street for an extended action, or if projected legal consequences are slight, we might want to take opportunities to get quickly released from custody. If we have people to protect: individuals who might be singled out, internationals who face immigration issues, etc., we might employ a strategy that involves staying in jail until everyone is released. Or if we are asked to make unacceptable compromises in order to be released, for example, posting high bail or accepting conditions that might prevent us from doing future actions, we may need to use in-jail solidarity.

A stay-in-jail solidarity strategy needs some coordination before the action, so that people are prepared and know what choices to make under the stressful conditions of arrest.

How to Stay in Jail:

Refuse to sign out:

In mass actions, authorities are often willing to release most people if they sign a promise to appear for a court date, or if they post a reasonable bail.

The authorities may also ask people to sign statements saying they will not return to a certain action or area.

To stay in jail, refuse to sign or to post bail.

Bail is one of the ways the poor are kept incarcerated and people with money get released. Some activists refuse to post bail as part of their moral or political stand. For others, the choice may depend upon the situation.

Refuse to give names:

Authorities are generally reluctant to free prisoners without knowing who we are. For this tactic to be effective, protestors should not carry identification to the action. For this reason, it needs to be coordinated ahead of time. This tactic also greatly interferes with the smooth running of the jail system, and is a tactic generally hated by the authorities. It can be a powerful bargaining point in solidarity negotiations.

However, it’s a bargaining point we most often concede in the end. Protestors should not hold the illusion that they will be able to go through the entire system and be released without giving names. Occasionally this happens, but generally not.

Below is a video clip of the organizers of this weekend’s G8/G20 protests holding a press conference.

Will any of skeptical press that covered this conference dig into who these groups are and who is organizing them?

Here is link to the video that preceded the one embedded above. In it, they state their goal to destroy the G8/G20.

No confirmation if this report is connected to the planned protests, but given the tactics of “direct action” it hardly seems implausible:

June 24 (Reuters) – Canadian police said on Thursday they had pulled over a car containing “dangerous materials” near the site where an international summit will be held in Toronto this weekend.

Toronto police chief Bill Blair told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. that there had been sticks — possibly ax handles — and gasoline in the car. The driver was arrested.

Today, USA begins its next stage of the World Cup with a match against Ghana. For those of you who like to trot out the canard “how can a game end in a tie,” rest assured; at this stage there are no ties. Either the USA wins, or they go home.