pdate: Campaign Finance Report Reveals Obama Organizer as Dem Candidate's Campaign Manager

Democratic candidate Nathan Granger is running for LA senate seat in district 26. And information obtained by THE DEAD PELICAN shows that Granger's campaign manager has ties to Obama! A campaign finance report obtained by THE DEAD PELICAN lists Pat Devney as Democrat Candidate Nathan Granger's campaign manager. An entry dated 01/27/2011 shows $2,250 paid to Devney, who is listed as "campaign manager" on the form. Click here to see the document. Documents filed with the Louisiana Board of Ethics reveal that Democrat candidate Nathan Granger's campaign committee was created with Devney's help. Pat Devney...

Daniel Hannan: How to shrink the state? Copy Reagan

I’ve blogged before about why I admire Ronald Reagan; why, indeed, I see him as the greatest of all 44 US presidents. Here, in his centenary year, is a reminder of his greatest domestic achievement: he managed to bring spending down as a percentage of GDP. He did so in the only way possible in a modern democracy, not by slashing expenditure in absolute terms, but by allowing the private sector to grow faster than the public sector. Never forget the central message of Reagan’s inauguration speech: “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government...

I STAND WITH SCOTT WALKER RALLY (organized by American Majority)

NOW Featuring Andrew Breitbart of Breitbart.com and Jim Hoff of Gateway Pundit. More Speakers TBA. As the week has progressed, Wisconsin and the Nation have watched schools across Wisconsin close due to teachers participating in a “sick out”, the unions bussing people in from other states to inflate their rally numbers in Madison and legislators fleeing the state to avoid the vote on the budget repair bill. It’s time the voices of the Wisconsin people are heard. We've had thousands of people show up for tea party events to rally to take our state back - but our work isn't...

A lost cause: The high-speed rail race (WaPo whacks Obama again!)

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S fiscal 2012 budget includes $8 billion for high-speed rail next year and $53 billion over six years. In the president's view, the United States needs to spend big on high-speed rail so that we can catch up with Europe, Japan - and you-know-who. "China is building faster trains and newer airports," the president warned in his State of the Union address. But of all the reasons to build high-speed rail in the United States, keeping up with the international Joneses may be one of the worst. In fact, experience abroad has repeatedly raised questions about the cost-effectiveness of...

Socialists Rooting for Revolution in Wisconsin

The socialists from UW Madison are at the forefront of leading the protests in Madison.

MILITARY: Marine says return to brig 'devastating' (Hutchins)

Marine Sgt. Larry Hutchins, free for nearly a year while he appealed his conviction for the 2006 slaying of an unarmed Iraqi, says this week's order returning him to the Camp Pendleton brig was "devastating." "I never thought that this day would come, but in the end it did," Hutchins wrote in a statement issued by his military attorney, Maj. Babu Kaza. "I can't really put into words how difficult these last few days have been in knowing that this was a possibility, but I fail completely in describing ... just how devastating today has been for my family." On...

Will Lara Logan's Attack Provide Another Chance To Miss A Real Teachable Moment?

It's amazing how "unplugged" from the world you can become when you bring a new life into the world, suddenly the other 6 billion people in it completely fade into the background. My phone, which is perpetually trained on The Drudge Report and Memeorandum have been neglected like the black ink cabinet at the CBO. I care, and I've been anxious to get back to heckling the liberals of the world, but its amazing how disinterested a brand new baby that you just made, in your arms, can make you. So, I just found out about Lara Logan's sexual...

Florida Lawmakers Encouraging Reckless Spending

Members of Florida's Congressional Delegation and the Florida Legislature are plotting to circumvent Governor Scott's decision to reject $2.4 billion in federal funds to build a high speed rail from Orlando to Tampa.  Unlikely bedfellows were made today when a group of 26 State Senators, including ten democrats and led by high speed rail supporter Paula Dockery, sent a letter to Obama’s Transportation Secretary asking him to circumvent Gov. Scott and send the dollars directly to a state commission created in 2009. They noted that politics should have no place in the future of Florida’s transportation, but they are doing...

Senior Iranian officers vow not to shoot at protesters

Members of Islamic Republic's Revolutionary Guard write letter to commanding officer saying firing on their own people is against the laws of Shi'ite Islam, 'Telegraph' reports. Senior officers in Iran's Revolutionary Guard have written a letter to their superior officer asking for guarantees that they will not be required to open fire on anti-government protesters, the Daily Telegraph reported on Friday. In the letter, addressed to Maj.-Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, the Guards' commander, the officers contend that using violence against their own people breaks the tenets of Shi'te Islamic law. "We promise our people that we will not shoot nor...

African migrants brutalized en route to Israel (by Muslim Bedouins)

Testimonies given to Hotline for Migrant Workers describe horrific ordeals, systematic rape, torture at hands of Beduin smugglers. “I was a virgin when I arrived in the desert. During the first few times that I was raped, I cried and resisted, but that didn’t help. They wouldn’t leave me alone. After that, I stopped resisting.” The testimony of A.I.S, a 21-year-old Eritrean woman, is part of a report released by the Hotline for Migrant Workers on Wednesday detailing horrifying ordeals reportedly suffered by African migrants to Israel at the hands of their Beduin smugglers in the Sinai Peninsula. The report,...

America's readiness for woman president focus of Vanderbilt panel [Palin & the 2012 Election]

Washington Post political reporter Anne Kornblut will be at Vanderbilt University’s First Amendment Center on Feb. 24 for a panel discussion of her book examining America’s readiness for a woman president. The forum “Is America Ready to Elect a Woman President? Sarah Palin and the 2012 Presidential Election” will be moderated by John Seigenthaler, founder of the First Amendment Center. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be at 5 p.m. with a reception and book signing at 6 p.m. Joining Kornblut will be Jon Cohen, director of polling at the Washington Post; John Geer, Distinguished...

Obama WANTS Wisconsin Mess

Over at NRO, Jay Nordlinger makes an incredibly good point: Barack Obama should be urging calm in Wisconsin, no matter WHAT side of the underlying issue he is on. It is not just unpresidential of him, but despicable, for him in effect to be urging on the mass demonstrations. But as J. Christian Adams, Justice Department whistle-blower extraordinaire, reminded me in an email accompanying this post of his, these are not only the tactics always favored by the left in general, but specifically the sorts of tactics Obama himself was trained in -- AND exactly what I myself warned about...

Raytheon reveals first glimpse of next-generation missile

Raytheon reveals first glimpse of next-generation missile By Stephen Trimble Raytheon has offered the first peek into the company's approach to designing a next generation missile to replace both the AIM-120 AMRAAM and AGM-88 HARM. For the first time, the company has displayed a full-scale mock-up of one of several candidates being considered for the emerging US Air Force requirement for a dual role air dominance missile (DRADM). The design shown at the Air Warfare Sympsoium on 16-17 February features an AMRAAM-like missile body integrated with what appears to be a variable flow ducted rocket (VFDR), or ramjet. In 2004,...

PORTUGAL: Finance minister’s “cry for help”

The sovereign debt alarm bells sounded yesterday in Lisbon, worries Portuguese daily i. With interest on national debt above 7% for the eighth consecutive day, finance minister Teixeira dos Santos was summoned to an emergency meeting with President Aníbal Cavaco Silva to outline government strategy to cope with staggering rates and the imminent switching off of ECB aid. Cavaco Silva is concerned that Portugal may shortly be forced to accept an EU/IMF bailout of the European fund/IMF, a scenario all the more likely after Brussels announced that the 500 billion euros supposed to buttress the European Financial Stability Fund will...

Decline Is in the Mind

It’s over? Really? In the last two years, we have a heard a constant litany of “decline,” as in America is over as it once was. Fifth-century AD Rome is often evoked, as are the contemporary economic miracles in China and India to “prove” inevitable American waning. A few of the more imaginative declinists see us as Justinian’s Byzantium, a crumbling power vainly trying to hold on to a world long lost, with a Detroit no different from a half-populated failing Byzantine city in the Levant. This time around — remember our past serial crushing by the supposedly superior Soviet...

Shaking The Nations

The good news is that 117 countries have increased their economic freedom in the past year. The bad news is that none of those countries is called United States of America. These are two of the many messages of the annual Wall Street Journal/Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom. A high freedom score correlates with higher levels of per-capita income, higher levels of growth and lower levels of poverty and privation. We know that the U.S. has been trending away from freedom for the past few years, that Canada is now the freest nation in the North American region, and...

German defense minister accused of plagiarism

Germany's opposition and press had a field day Thursday after the suave and popular defence minister was accused of ripping off others' work, even from the US embassy website, for his doctoral thesis. Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg "did not credit me as the author of excerpts that came from an article I once wrote," Barbara Zehnpfennig, a professor at Passau University, told rolling news channel N24. "This breaks all academic rules." She is allegedly not the only source not properly cited in the thesis on constitutional law, which earned him top marks in 2007, with several law professors accusing him of...

Scott Walker vs. Public Sector Unions

When Wisconsin governor Scott Walker looked out the window of his office at the Capitol in Madison Wednesday he saw more than 10,000 people gathered to protest his decision to require public employees to contribute more to their pensions and health care. Walker says he’s not surprised that the proposed changes have generated such a ferocious response. “You’re messing with the way people make their living,” he said Wednesday in a phone interview with THE WEEKLY STANDARD. “It’s understandable they’ll be upset.” But Walker is unapologetic. These are difficult times. Wisconsin is facing a budget crisis. And there have to...

History of compulsory education. 200 years in 6:25

HERE is a link to an amazing little video, 6 minutes 25 seconds long, that covers 200 years of compulsory education. Memorable quotes, worth sharing widely.

When the Right Is Wrong

The Patriot Post "Human nature itself is evermore an advocate for Liberty. ... If the people are capable of understanding, seeing and feeling the differences between true and false, right and wrong, virtue and vice, to what better principle can the friends of mankind apply than to the sense of this difference?" --John Adams Not a month goes by without some "pop-media conservative" falling victim to a non compos mentis moment. This lapse in judgment almost universally befalls urbanites or Beltway types, and at one time I speculated it might be associated with a moon-and-tide cycle. However, our crack team...

Why Bahrain blew up: An ill omen for the Saudis

Bourguiba Square in Tunis, Tahrir Square in Cairo, Azadi Square in Tehran -- and now Pearl Square in Manama, capital of Bahrain. For the last four days, thousands of protesters, encouraged by other popular uprisings in the Middle East, have been demonstrating against what they call "the despotic rule of minority over majority." On Monday, police killed two protesters and injured 11 others. At least 50 were arrested. The sudden explosion has surprised many observers. Bahrain, the smallest of the 21 Arab states, is often deemed a success story -- the only Persian Gulf Arab state to have made its...

Sarah Palin's wink at the homosexual lobby

I think American voters would do better to think about the influence political leaders exert by their words and actions, instead of treating their speeches (not to mention their sound bites and 60-second spots) as evidence of anything but what they think we want to hear. This came to mind last week as I read the report about Sarah Palin's non-appearance at this year's biggest conservative non-event (or should that be biggest non-conservative, pretending-to-be-conservative event?). She released a statement intended to keep her distance from the individuals and organizations whose non-appearance was meant to convey disapproval of CPAC's trendy surrender...

Greece Slams EU/IMF Asset Sales Call

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has accused EU and IMF officials of "unacceptable behaviour" over demands for a 50 billion euro ($A67.74 billion) asset sale to ease Greece's crushing debts. Papandreou's office said on Saturday he has personally complained to International Monetary Fund director Dominique Strauss-Kahn over the "unacceptable behaviour" of European Union, IMF and European Central Bank experts monitoring Greece's economic reforms. Papandreou also called EU economic affairs commissioner Olli Rehn, the prime minister's office said, and is also reportedly planning similar protests to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet. After a quarterly audit...

BP knew of problems, but left them unattended before Gulf oil well blowout, new report says

New evidence unearthed by investigators shows that in some key moments before the Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, BP leaders were disengaged from critical tests and recognized major problems, but they failed to communicate their concerns or take corrective action.

I Stand With Scott Walker Rally (Call to action alert)

This Saturday, noon till three. Meet at the South steps of the Capitol Building. This wave of democrat momentum needs to be stopped. We cannot do that by sitting on the sidelines and waiting. This is exactly what we have been protesting against...we want smaller, more sane government. Unions, especially public unions are little more than democrat party organizations. The democrat politicians provide the unions with special rights, privileges, and rewards that others do not have a right to. In exchange the unions provide money, ads, "volunteers" and coercion to support the democrat party. It is open corruption that has...

Wisconsin Democrats Reach Legend Status

When the Wisconsin Democrats left the floor of the Capitol on a short yellow bus and ended up in Illinois, they reached legend status. And not in a good way. From now on, whenever anyone runs away politically or a pundit tries to evade the issue at hand, they are going to be referred to as a Wisconsin Democrat. On a serious note, a friend of mine, CJ, got a note from a fellow who was in Madison, and it kind of proves to me that what happened in Wisconsin was no small, spontaneous sequence of events. "I was there...

Va. State Sen. Ticer Calling It Quits

A longtime northern Virginia political figure has decided to calls it quits. In an emotional speech on the Virginia Senate floor, Alexandria Democrat Patsy Ticer told her colleagues, "I have finally come to the end of the line." Ticer's 30th senate district covers Alexandria and parts of Arlington and Fairfax counties. She's been a fixture in local politics since 1982 when she was first elected to Alexandria's City Council. She became the city's first female mayor in 1991 and held that position until she was elected to the state Senate in 1995. As Alexandria mayor, Ticer helped lead the high...

Grassley to Holder: ATF refused to answer specific questions in briefing(gunwalker)

Senator Charles Grassley has released a letter written today to Attorney General Eric Holder. Referencing a Feb. 10 briefing given to him and his staff by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Fireams and Explosives (ATF), Grassley made a troubling observation that points to Bureau stonewalling of his request for complete information. "[T]he briefers focused on general issues related to challenges in successfully prosecuting gun trafficking cases. They refused to answer specific questions about the facts and circumstances that led me to request the briefing," Grassley complained. This is the briefing referred to in today's earlier Gun Rights Examiner post for...

Anti-gun IL lawmakers seeking power to effectively halt ALL (legal) gun buying?

Gun rights blogger Thirdpower notes today the Catch-22 that some legislators in Illinois (and elsewhere) would like to impose on firearms commerce: When I've countered that while the same time the push is for all sales to go through FFL dealers, there is a simultaneous drive to reduce and eliminate as many firearm dealers as possible, I'm called paranoid. He refers to the nexus of bills like HB 1296/SB 2026, to require all gun sales (the bills say they refer only to handgun sales, and not long guns--more on that in a bit) to go through licensed dealers, and bills...

Egyptian Hitler Al-Qaradawi encourages Muslim revolution during Friday prayers

Egyptian Hitler Al-Qaradawi encourages Muslim revolution during Friday prayers. A Muslim radical who has already been banned from entering both the United States and Great Britain has entered Egypt to lead Friday prayers for the thousands who are grateful for Hosni Mubarak’s relinquishment of power. Al-Qaradawi left Egypt way back in 1961 after being imprisoned by President Nasser on three separate instances. With Mubarak now gone and a so-called “democracy movement” growing in Egypt, Al-Qaradawi, who is seen as the patriarch of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, has reentered the country to lead Friday sermons. While called a “Muslim scholar”...

First Navy Pilot Flies Carrier Variant Of Lockheed Martin F-35

Lt. Cmdr. Eric "Magic" Buus on Friday became the first United States Navy pilot to fly the Lockheed Martin F-35C Lightning II.The F-35C will operate from the U.S. Navy's large aircraft carriers by way of catapult launch and arrested landing. The United Kingdom's Royal Navy and Royal Air Force also will employ the F-35C.

The Doomed President

Pundits muse how Obama can save his presidency. He cannot. Obama, politically, is doomed. Republicans do not have a Reagan waiting in the wings, but that will not matter in 2012. All Republicans are attempting to don the mantle of Reagan, who has thoroughly captured in death what he could not in life, the heart of the Republican Party. This grand and overriding figure, like FDR and Lincoln, will dominate the rhetoric and policies of the Republican Party. Republicans will not commit hara-kiri in 2012. So why is Obama certain to lose, even against very ordinary Republican nominees? Food, fuel...

One More Thing About Wisconsin

Apocalypse Now: Wisconsin vs. Big Labor

Welcome to the reckoning. We have met the fiscal apocalypse, and it is smack dab in the middle of the heartland. As Wisconsin goes, so goes the nation. Let us pray it does not go the way of the decrepit welfare states of the European Union. The lowdown: State government workers in the Badger State pay piddling amounts for generous taxpayer-subsidized health benefits. Faced with a $3.6 billion budget hole and a state constitutional ban on running a deficit, new GOP Gov. Scott Walker wants public unions to pony up a little more. He has proposed raising the public employee...

China court rejects appeal by US geologist

BEIJING - A Beijing appeals court on Friday upheld an eight-year prison sentence given to an American geologist for obtaining oil industry data, dimming hopes for his release in a case that has been an irritant in U.S.-China relations. [...] Detained while on a business trip to China, Xue (pronounced shweh) was convicted of obtaining detailed information on the oil industry while working for the U.S.-based energy information consultancy now known as IHS Inc. Among his haul was a database listing locations and other geological information for more than 32,000 oil and gas wells belonging to China National Petroleum Corp...

Gov. Chris Christie in Washington, DC: He Came, He Saw, He Conquered; What's Next?

...The last time Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey came to Washington, DC to give a speech, it was also a barnburner. However, it did not generate the same kind of Press response as did his address at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) on February 16, 2011... ...when this plain spoken, refreshingly candid man from New Jersey spoke at AEI and took on the lack of courage among politicians in both parties in facing the pending economic collapse in this country, I was not a bit surprised. He offered the kind of "one liners" which the Press loves in an...

Are The Wild Teacher Protests A Prelude To The Economic Riots That Are Coming To America?

Are The Wild Teacher Protests In Wisconsin A Prelude To The Economic Riots That Are Coming To America?Feburary 18, 2011 Have you seen video of the teacher protests that are going on in Wisconsin? We haven't seen anything like this in America in quite some time. If you haven't seen video of the protests yet, some very good raw footage is posted below. On the one hand it is good to see Americans coming together and standing up for what they believe in, but on the other hand what these teachers are freaking out about shows just how much America...

Gun lobby stands firm in opposing Obama's ATF nominee

WASHINGTON — Andrew Traver, nominated to lead the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, faces a powerful foe on the road to Senate approval: the National Rifle Association. Traver, 47, who has been praised for his work against Chicago area's street gangs, has led the ATF in Illinois since 2004. Both Illinois senators have applauded President Barack Obama's choice; so have law enforcement officials. Obama nominated Traver in November, triggering strong opposition from the NRA,

Obama's Louis XV Budget

Five days before his inauguration, President-elect Obama told The Post that entitlement reform could no longer be kicked down the road. He then spent the next two years kicking - racking up $3 trillion in new debt along the way - on the grounds that massive temporary deficit spending was necessary to prevent another Great Depression. To prove his bona fides, he later appointed a deficit reduction commission. It made its report last December, when the economy was well past recession, solemnly declaring that "the era of debt denial is over." That lasted all of two months. The president's first...

Would u like to c legislation similar 2 what's being debated in Wisconsin here in New York?

Would you like to see legislation similar to what's being debated in Wisconsin here in New York State? Yes 292 Votes ( 82% ) No 64 Votes ( 18% ) Total Votes: 356

Jeweler has blast with thugs(NY)

The wild scene unfolded shortly before 2 p.m. when the owner of Spinelli & Sons on Arthur Avenue buzzed in a man and a woman. One of the would-be robbers whipped out a gun and ordered the owner, Anthony Spinelli, 49, to take money out of the safe, police sources said. Instead, Spinelli grabbed his licensed handgun and began firing at the suspects, according to the sources. The couple fled, but Spinelli continued firing after them -- hitting a third suspect who was standing by the getaway vehicle, a Cadillac Escalade, the sources said. That man was struck in the...

East Libya city "in hands of people"-exile groups

GENEVA Feb 18 (Reuters) - Anti-government protesters have seized control of the eastern Libyan city of al Bayda after they were joined by some local police, two separate Libyan exile groups said on Friday

Word for the Day, FRiday, February 18, 2011 - Triumvirate

In order that we might all raise the level of discourse and expand our language abilities, here is the daily post of “Word for the Day”. TriumvirateNoun 1. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) (in ancient Rome) a. a board of three officials jointly responsible for some task b. the political alliance of Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey, formed in 60 bc (First Triumvirate) c. the coalition and joint rule of the Roman Empire by Antony, Lepidus, and Octavian, begun in 43 bc (Second Triumvirate) 2. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) any joint rule by three men 3. any group of three men...

Family of victim outraged over lack of charges in W. Columbia shooting(SC)

WEST COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - Officials with the Lexington County Solicitor's Office are talking about the decision not to charge a homeowner who shot and killed a man outside his West Columbia house. Prosecutors say what happened at the house early Monday morning adds up to a multi-faceted case of self-defense. Homeowner Richard Williams confronting a man he'd seen breaking into his truck shortly after 3:00am. Williams told police the man temporarily blinded him with a flashlight. Williams had a gun and fired twice, hitting the intruder at least once. Police say 44-year-old Mark Edward Howard tried to flee on...

The Jimmy Carter Chronicles

For those of you not entirely certain about where to stand on a complex, dynamic situation in Egypt, fear no more: Jimmy Carter has waded in to add both clarity and certainty. "I think that the Muslim Brotherhood is not anything to be afraid of," Carter told a wide-eyed, admiring university audience in Austin, Texas. The man who presided over the replacement of the Shah with the world's worst theocratic-terror state confidently predicted that the Muslim Brotherhood "will be subsumed in the overwhelming demonstration of desire for freedom and democracy." If you weren't entirely sure about whether to fear the...

Video: Ann Coulter Debates Lawrence O'Donnell On "The Last Word"

A fun exchange.

Liberty, 21st Century-Style

Finally, the national conversation about democracy is relatively mature and serious. Save for some TV news anchors, just about everyone seems to understand that democracy is a tricky thing. That skepticism was hard earned. The last decade provided painful lessons for everyone, on both sides of the ideological aisle. Liberals, who were once naively optimistic about democracy promotion, turned dour when President Bush became naively optimistic about it. And then supporters of Bush's freedom agenda learned a tough lesson from, among other things, the disastrous-but-democratic elections that put a terrorist junta in charge of the Gaza Strip. Hence the irony...

Demonstrators protest Ohio labor law changes

But for the first time, an organized effort to support the bill led by Tea Party members also weighed in with a rally outside the Statehouse. “We’re here today because of common sense,’’ said Mike Wilson, president of the Cincinnati Tea Party. “Somehow over the last few years, things got out of line. … Unfortunately, we’ve got to make some hard choices. … All we’re asking is for the public sector to accept a little bit of the pain.’’

NOAA eyes $1M to fight lawsuits

Environmental Defense has been promoting catch shares as market solution to fishery issues, while EDF Vice President David Festa urged as early as 2009 investors to begin buying catch shares, which he predicted at a Milkin Institute conference that spring could produce profits of 400 percent of better.

housands call for execution of Iranian opposition leaders

Supporters of Ahmadinejad's regime answer anti-government protests with demonstrations of their own against Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi, opposition leaders who are under house arrest. TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Thousands of government supporters called for the execution of opposition leaders at Friday prayers in the Iranian capital Tehran, following last week's anti-government demonstrations. Hardline cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said during the Friday prayers that the opposition leaders have lost their reputation among people and are practically "dead and executed," while worshippers chanted for their actual executions. Janati proposed more restrictions on Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi, opposition leaders...

Islam’s “Uncovered-Meat” Excuse for Sexual Assault

The news that 60 Minutes journalist Lara Logan had been brutally sexually assaulted and beaten in Egypt among chants of “Jew” really hit home. As a teenager and young woman in Egypt, I remember having to endure the humiliation of being pinched and groped in crowded buses and streets of Cairo. Onlookers are usually indifferent, some even laugh, leaving women in Muslim society even more ashamed of their bodies. Women who do not wear Islamic clothes, such as Christians and foreigners, are even more vulnerable. In Cairo, hearing a passing car yelling the “f” word or “whore” to a woman...

Union Fascism on Full Display

The hypocrisy of the American left is on full display in the heart of America, as the teachers’ union in Wisconsin continues to show how it will use any tactic, no matter how reprehensible, to try and get its way. Threats, intimidation, violent imagery and inflammatory rhetoric – all of the sorts of tactics that the left and the mainstream media routinely accuse conservatives of using – are on full display in Madison. But, rather than condemning such behavior, left wing champions from Barack Obama to Michael Moore are falling over themselves to show solidarity with the teachers’ union. Protesters...

A Middle East Without America?

The fever sweeping the Middle East is now coursing through Libya, Yemen, Iran and Bahrain, where the U.S. Fifth Fleet is based. In all four nations, state violence is being used to crush the rebels, and regime survival hangs on whether security forces and the army stand behind the government or stand aside. A new Middle East is dawning. What will it look like? Perhaps the nation to study is Turkey, which has already gone through a democratic and dramatic transformation. In 2000, Turkey was a reliable U.S. ally, a friend to Israel, an aspiring candidate for membership in the...

Republicans Continue to Oppose Cost Cutting Amendments

Yesterday, we showed a list of cost cutting amendments that several dozen GOP members opposed and helped Democrats defeat. Here are some more: Amendment No. 410—Rep. Price (R-GA): The amendment would eliminate funding for the “National Labor Relations Board, Salaries and Expenses,” and would transfer $233,400,000 to the Spending Reduction Account. Funds transferred into the spending reduction account are designated as savings and lower the 302(b) allocation for a given subcommittee. Funds transferred into the spending reduction account cannot be allocated elsewhere in the bill. The amendment failed 176-250 with the help of 60 Republicans. This would have been an...

Bipartisan 'Gang of Six' in Senate developing framework for deficit reduction

With President Obama calling for bipartisan talks to tackle the nation's budget problems, a group of influential senators from both parties is developing a framework that calls for higher taxes and limits on all categories of government spending. The plan is still in the works, but people with knowledge of the talks said the senators hope to present it soon after the week-long Presidents' Day recess so they can begin assessing its political support. The group, known informally as the "Gang of Six," began meeting last year soon after Obama's fiscal commission recommended an ambitious plan to reduce the deficit....

President Obama's Pathetic Scalpel

Well, now we have the answer to the question posed Nov. 2: Will President Obama, faced with an electorate infuriated by big government overreach, pivot as Bill Clinton did in 1995 and become a centrist? By offering a budget that adds a gob-smacking $8 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years, the president has answered that question in the negative. At his press conference, the president displayed all the classic symptoms of what could be called Liberal Obduracy Syndrome (or LOS). For Obama, every single appropriation in the monster we call a federal budget is precious --...

EU blows staggering £230m sending MEPs and bureaucrats to Seychelles and other paradise destinations

"The EU blew £230million last year on junkets to exotic locations including the Seychelles, it emerged last night. MEPs and bureaucrats enjoyed dozens of taxpayer-funded trips and fact-finding missions in 2010, research reveals. A visit for seven MEPs to the Seychelles cost £50,000 in hotel and travel expenses, while £77,000 was spent on a trip for 45 to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo."....

bama speaks: Why lumberjacks, schoolteachers and bankers need unions.

A Ramblin' Gamblin' Willie story"It's important to remember. That public service. Is a great sacrifice." "Good... Good..." Manny Kant said that. "Most of the government employees I know. Are at their desks. As early as ten every morning. And few of them ever make it home. Before three in the afternoon." "Yeah... That's not so good." "I myself. Have given my whole life. To public service. So I know just how much. Sacrifice is required." Manny Kant could swear profusely with his eyes, but what he actually said out loud was nothing. "On any given day. The typical public employee...

Disgusted Helen Thomas: I Automatically Assumed Obama Was Black, Therefore He's Liberal

Disgusted Helen Thomas: I Automatically Assumed Obama Was Black, Therefore He's Liberal By Tim Graham Created 02/18/2011 - 8:27am By Tim Graham | February 18, 2011 | 08:27 Tim Graham's picture Jeff Poor at the Daily Caller isolated the latest rant from former UPI White House correspondent Helen Thomas. On Wednesday night's Joy Behar show on CNN Headline News, Thomas said Obama is a coward, not a liberal, which was disappointing, since she thought "because he was black, I thought he would automatically be" liberal, or in other words, have an "empathy for all the blacks." BEHAR: Things have changed....

Iron Dome Missile Defense System To Become Operational Within Weeks

The Iron Dome missile intercept system will be declared operational within a number of weeks, after the Israel Air Force – who will be responsible for operating the system – conducted successful test-runs for the first time on Tuesday and Wednesday. The interception of target missiles in the test-runs proved successful, and this marked the final stage of tests of the new Israel Air Force unit. The operation was conducted at a test site in southern Israel, practicing five different scenarios in which the system launched rockets at various ranges. The missiles launched by the Iron Dome successfully intercepted and...

Katherine Cathey and 2nd Lt. James J. Cathey. (A moving photo essay on the true cost of freedom)

Todd Heisler’s Pulitzer Prize Winning Photographic Series At the first sight of her husband’s flag-draped casket, Katherine Cathey broke into uncontrollable sobs, finding support in the arms of Major Steve Beck. When Beck first knocked on her door in Brighton, Colorado, to notify her of her husband’s death, she glared at him, cursed him, and refused to speak to him for more than an hour. Over the next several days, he helped guide her through the grief. By the time they reached the tarmac, she wouldn’t let go. Minutes after her husband’s casket arrived at the Reno airport, Katherine Cathey...

Guns and Freedom: A Different Argument

A recent post by former BBC North American editor Justin Webb expresses puzzlement at the pattern of gun ownership in the U.S., reporting that the zip code he used to live in, an area safe enough so that people routinely left their doors unlocked, had a surge of gun purchases after the Supreme Court found unconstitutional the D.C. ban on handgun ownership. He thinks it is obvious that his one-time neighbors have no need for guns to protect themselves, and attributes the pattern to a peculiarly American belief in a link between private ownership of firearms and political freedom. I...

Democrat Play Book 101 On Display In Wisconsin, Unions Take Control

Lots of news stories and blog posts about the teachers unions taking over the Wisconsin State Legislature yesterday and how the Democrats went into hiding to avoid what I suppose is their sworn duty. In reality they did not just hide, they fled the state. This is right out of the Democrat’s playbook. If they win an election … they WON. Don’t you remember what President Obama said two years ago? When the legislative and executive branches were held by Democrats, the mantra was “we won, deal with it.” After the elections last November, the tide turned. Republicans took control...

ustin Bieber's abortion comments in Rolling Stone slammed on 'The View'

When Justin Bieber opened up to Rolling Stone about his views on premarital sex and abortion, he probably didn't expect the co-hosts of "The View" to vilify him for it. But some of the talk show's stars did just that Thursday morning, when they debated whether 16-year-old Bieber had any business discussing such adult matters. The teen heartthrob is quoted in the magazine's March issue as saying "you should just wait" until you're in love to have sex, and "I really don't believe in abortion … It's like killing a baby."

FREE Conservative Book Giveaway and Review: “The Dollar Meltdown” by Charles Goyette

Charles Goyette has made an important contribution to the conservative and investment literature by distilling complicated economic and financial matters into an easily digestible volume. This is a must-read for conservatives and personal investors in search of a better understanding of a host of economic and financial topics including: the federal bailouts, the national debt, monetary policy and the Federal Reserve, inflation, and the role of gold in currency valuation throughout history.

The AP as Union Mouthpiece

This Associated Press report on events in Wisconsin is interesting. For example, we read, “As Republicans tried to begin Senate business Thursday, observers in the gallery screamed ‘Freedom! Democracy! Unions!’” That’s what you want in the gallery, right? Screaming. How democratic and civilized. We also read, “Protesters clogged the hallway outside the Senate chamber, beating on drums, holding signs deriding Walker and pleading for lawmakers to kill the bill.” “Beating on drums”? Beating on drums? These were public-school teachers, right? In any case, they were public employees. Beating on things is what little kids do when they’re not getting their...

Wis. governor: GOP won't be 'bullied' by union bill protesters

Wis. governor: GOP won't be 'bullied' by union bill protesters By Jordan Fabian - 02/18/11 07:55 AM ET Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) says his party has been emboldened by massive protests against his controversial budget plan. Walker said demonstrators who filled the state capitol building in Madison and the boycott by state Senate Democrats — some of whom fled the state in protest — have steeled the resolve of members of his party. "If anything, I think it's made the Republicans in the Assembly and the Senate stronger," he told Fox News's Greta Van Susteren in an interview Thursday...

The New Wisconsin Idea

The old so-called Wisconsin Idea was that government would collaborate with experts drawn from the state’s university system to craft progressive legislation. The new Wisconsin Idea is that the state is broke. Gov. Scott Walker is bringing austerity to the intellectual breadbasket of American progressivism, and seeks to break the grip of the public-sector unions in a state that had a large hand in empowering them. His effort could become a national model for recalibrating the relationship of state governments to the unions that are bankrupting them. To attempt this anywhere brings yelps of outrage. To do it in Wisconsin,...

Big Trouble for Obama's Re-election Bid -- State Eligibility Resolutions Gain Momentum

If anyone has a right to be frustrated and demoralized about the eligibility issue, it is me.

For nearly three years, I have stuck my neck out on it, devoting massive news-gathering resources to unwrapping Barack Obama's real-life narrative, endured abuse as a "conspiracytheorist" and "wacko" only to see my news organization still standing virtually alone.

Ironically, I'm not discouraged at all about getting resolution to this controversy. In fact, I believe it is right around the corner.

Gov't Has Borrowed an Additional $29,660 Per Household Since Obama Signed Stimulus

That brings the total national debt to $125,475.18 per household.

Wisconsin protesters ARE two year olds

Ann Althouse’s husband took these photos after the professional “educators” finished swarming the Wisconsin state capitol building today. Evidently they were so exhausted from a day of hanging from the rafters, they just didn’t have the strength to either properly dispose of their signs or carry them home. Pigs. And this is what passes for Wisconsin’s teachers? Pigs. Pigs. Pigs.

Jihadist attorney takes aim at the Jawa Report, the Jawas go to federal court seeking protective order

Back in September we reported that blogger Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs and attorney John Stemberger had been sued by Ohio jihadist attorney Omar Tarazi over public comments they made during the Rifqa Bary saga (Stemberger was Rifqa's Florida attorney). We have been following this lawsuit very closely, but several months ago our attention to the case became more personal.      (MORE)

Some 10,000 Belgians celebrate world record of no government

Belgium has been without a government for 249 days as the politicians from the country's Dutch- and French-speaking regions have so far failed to come to a consensus since elections on June 13, 2010.

Dopey Democrat: GOP Could Threaten 2011 NFL Season

Good grief, are there any more straws left to grasp at?

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Police Refuse to Give Gun Possession License Because of “Association” with Criminals, New Jersey Courts Reverse.

By letter dated April 7, 2009, the Hillside Township Chief of Police (Chief) denied Starr Barrett’s application for a firearms purchaser identification card (FPIC) and handgun purchase permit (permit). After a hearing on November 20, 2009, the trial court reversed the Chief’s decision and granted Barrett’s application. Hillside Township (Hillside) appeals the trial court’s decision, claiming that the issuance of the FPIC and permit to Barrett is not “in the interest of the public health, safety or welfare” because of her association with the father of her seven-year-old child and the father’s cousin.... [W]e affirm. ...

MADISON SCHOOLS WILL CLOSE AGAIN, so that teachers can protest

leaving poor children deprived of their free school lunches yet again. Will no one think of the children?

Is This A Threat To Murder Wisconsin Governor Walker?

This is disgusting!

Human Rights Watch Hires Senior PFLP Terrorist to Serve on its Middle East Advisory Board…

The left has a soft-spot for Joooo-killers.

Rape-monger Nir Rosen Posted Pic of His Son Wearing Hezbollah Logo on Facebook

He has since scrubbed it but at last we see his true colors: Like father like son.

Lead Lawyer Challenging Obamacare Under Cyber Attack

While politicians are still talking about restoring civility, liberal thugs are waging an all out attack on the website of David Rivkin, lead counsel in the multi-state lawsuit against Obamacare, rather than engage in a civilized debate that they can’t win. And what do the ACLU and other left-leaning civil rights groups have to say about these attempts to silence a leading voice for freedom and liberty? Not a thing.

Civility Police: Liberal Threats And Violence Surge

There's a reason they call union thugs, union thugs, and people are seeing it on display getting a taste of it in Wisconsin

FCC’s Michael Copps Demands His Critics Be Silenced

Most of the insidious bureauweenies eating away America from within remain as faceless as they are unaccountable. But a few distinguish themselves for their open belligerence toward our fundamental liberties

Trumka storms Madison tomorrow:

AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka — refresh your memories of his violent rise to power here — announced that he’ll be storming Madison, Wisconsin tomorrow to join all the Hitler/Mubarak-sign toters and teachers ditching their jobs.

The showdown is scheduled for high noon.

Rubio on the anniversary of stimulus: “The only thing it stimulated was the national debt”

Two years later, we’re trillions of dollars in debt, and we still have double-digit unemployment.

The Battle is in Front of You: What are YOU going to do about it?

Get Connected. Get Engaged. Get Activated...Or Get Crushed.

At this very moment, the battle for America’s future is happening in states all around the country as newly-elected governors try to wrest control from tax-eating unions. Today’s battle is just the beginning of what America will be facing through 2012 and beyond. It is a battle that, if lost, will likely have catastrophic consequences on the fiscal well being of many of the states and, as a result, the nation as a whole.

Nowhere is the fight the loudest than in Wisconsin, where over 10,000 union supporters protested Madison’s Capitol Square on Tuesday and about 1,000 protesters demonstrated outside Governor Scott Walker’s private home Tuesday night. Hundreds of union protesters also packed Ohio’s statehouse on Tuesday to condemn Governor Kasich’s efforts to stem the union bosses’ power and reign in out of control spending. In Indiana, hundreds of Steelworkers descended on the Hoosier’ statehouse to protest unemployment reform as well. Even in New York, with a Democrat governor, unions are spending millions on fighting reform.

Democrat Legislators Go On Strike in Wisconsin, Phone in Demands to CNN

Somewhere during all this mayhem, the funniest event of the day transpired, when one of the fugitive lawmakers called into CNN with a list of demands.

Senate Democrats Will Not Accept Spending Cuts; Shutdown Coming?

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday ruled out a short-term government-funding bill that maintains current levels of federal spending, escalating a standoff with Democrats and President Obama that could result in a government shutdown.

“I am not going to move any kind of short-term [funding bill] at current levels,” he told reporters at his weekly press conference.

The Lorena Bobbit Of Saudi Arabia

A Saudi woman cut her husband’s penis off after he decided to have a second wife under Islamic law which allows a man to have four wives at a time, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

An ambulance rushed the unnamed man to the nearest medical centre in the capital Riyadh before he was flown by helicopter to a specialized hospital for treatment, ‘Sharq’ Arabic language daily said.

“His wife begged him not to marry again but he did not listen to her….she then severed his penis with a big knife,” it said.

“He was taken to hospital in a serious condition because of heavy bleeding,” it added without making clear if the man’s penis was restored.

Maybe polygamy will become a thing of the past in Saudi Arabia? What man would want to risk it?

Are The Democrats Turning Wisconsin Into Egypt In Hopes To Spread The Chaos?

How quickly the national news has turned from the protests in Egypt to the protests in Wisconsin. Just recently Liberal and Anarchist thinkers were pondering, even hoping for such protests and or riots (depending on one’s definition) in America. It does not really matter what we call them: Liberal, Progressive or Marxist, they are all (MORE)

Study: Want to escape blame? Be a victim!

 Great works and praiseworthy behavior may bring respect and admiration, but these won't help us to escape blame when we do something wrong, says a new study by researchers at the University of Maryland and Harvard University. To do that, the researchers say, one needs to be a victim not a hero!

Finally: Mexico unveils world’s first “gay beer”

The beer, which has a slight honey flavour, will initially be marketed to homosexual consumers in Mexico, Colombia and Japan.

Kentucky lawmakers debate drug testing for welfare recipients

FRANKFORT, Ky.  Ruth Chamblin says her 12-month-old great-niece would still be alive if Kentucky tested those who receive public assistance for drugs.

Chamblin, a Maysville native, told the House Health and Welfare Committee Thursday that her great-niece was allegedly beaten by her niece's former boyfriend, who was using drugs. The mother did not take the child to the hospital for four days after the alleged attack because she did not want the police to investigate, Chamblin said. (The boyfriend was later acquitted of charges, but the girl's mother pleaded guilty to manslaughter.)

The family was on public assistance at the time of her great-niece's death, Chamblin said.

Technology piercing North Korea’s news veil

SEOUL — North Korea‘s vicelike grip on the flow of information into and out of its secretive society is weakening, thanks to technology, the porous border with China and the North’s crumbling economy, defectors and activists say.

Renewable energy (biomass) plants fined for Clean Air Act violations

Two Central Valley biomass plants have agreed to pay more than $830,000 in fines for violating the Clean Air Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced yesterday. “Today’s enforcement actions are a victory for human health,” Jared Blumenfeld, EPA’s regional administrator for the Pacific Southwest, said in a statement. The plants in Chowchilla and El Nido, both owned by Global Ampersand, LLC, of Boston, were fined $343,000 and $492,000, respectively. Company representatives did not respond to requests for comment. David Kim, assistant regional counsel for the EPA, said that the fines showed that even the renewable energy industry could run...

Action needed to assure new technology can be wiretapped, FBI says

Washington (CNN) -- Rapid advances in communications are eroding police departments' abilities to conduct wiretaps, and Congress needs to take steps to ensure that new telephone, computer and wireless systems are designed to allow lawful police access, FBI and police officials told Congress Thursday. But other witnesses cautioned that any such move could stifle innovation, place U.S. technology companies at a competitive disadvantage and unintentionally create systems vulnerable to hackers, criminals and terrorists. At issue is the diminished capability of law enforcement agencies to conduct quick wiretaps in an age of Twitter accounts, Facebook and MySpace pages, BlackBerrys, Androids, iPhones...

Video: Rockford Tea Party Activist Confronts Fleeing Wisconsin State Senators in Illinois

Description by Kristinn: A one minute video of a solo tea party activist doing an ambush interview in the parking lot of the Best Western in Rockford, Illinois of two Wisconsin state senators as they get into a car to leave the hotel.The senators are both middle-aged white men. Everyone is polite and respectful. No cussin' or shovin'. The senators say they were doing their jobs by fleeing the state to give more time for the union bill to be debated. They claimed they were on their way back to Wisconsin.

It's unlawful say members of African American Students after WHITE freshman gets director job

Members of an African American Student Union were left open-mouthed and outraged after a white, freshman was hired for a top job within the group. Torey McCleskey, a first year student at University of North Florida, was handed the coveted assistant director role, after a unanimous decision from the institution's Senate. However AASU members argue that Mr McCleskey, an athletic training and sports medicine student, has never actually set foot in the AASU's office.

Bill to streamline weapons permits heard in Senate

CARSON CITY, Nev. — A bill to streamline concealed weapon permit requirements in Nevada received strong support Wednesday in a Senate committee. Backers said allowing permit holders to qualify for a type of weapon, as opposed to specific makes and models, would save time and money. SB126 is sponsored by Sens. James Settelmeyer, R-Minden, and John Lee, D-North Las Vegas. Under current law, a permit holder must qualify on each individual weapon they want to carry concealed, even if they are similar. The bill would allow qualification for a type of weapon — such as a revolver or semi-automatic. But...

Kerry urges feds to OK loans for Cape Wind project

BOSTON (AP) -- U.S. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts is urging federal officials to approve a key portion of Cape Wind's financing plan. Kerry and all 10 Massachusetts members of the U.S. House sent a letter Thursday to Energy Secretary Steven Chu asking that he speed Cape Wind's loan guarantee application so work can begin on the 130-turbine wind farm in Nantucket Sound.

NY City to fire (4,666) teachers, cut capital spending

NY City to fire teachers, cut capital spendingBy Joan Gralla NEW YORK | Thu Feb 17, 2011 7:18pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Thursday unveiled a $65.6 billion budget plan for fiscal year 2012 that calls for firing 4,666 teachers and reducing capital spending 10 percent over the next decade. Bloomberg blamed an approximately $4.4 billion reduction in aid from the state and the U.S. government for painful cuts that have already provoked a clash with school teachers and are certain to draw opposition from other public sector unions. "The future does have...