Super interesting what's going on, and what the end result will be. Egypt will not do well if the Muslim Brotherhood takes over.
YouTube - Egyptian Revolution Jan 25th 2011 - Take what's Yours!
Friday, January 28, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Art? ::: Mysterious grand piano found on Biscayne Bay sandbar
It just randomly appeared.
Looks like a leftover from an 80s rock video.
Here's a mystery that gives a whole new meaning to the phrase ``piano bar.''
A grand piano recently appeared on a sandbar in Biscayne Bay, about 200 yards from the Quayside condominiums off Northeast 107th Street. Whoever put it there placed it at the highest point of the sandbar so that it's not underwater during high tide.
How and why the piano got there is a mystery. A grand piano weighs at least 650 pounds and is unwieldly to move, said Bob Shapiro, a salesman at Piano Music Center in Pembroke Park. ``You don't take it out there in a rowboat,'' Shapiro said.
This much is clear, however: The piano isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Unless it becomes a danger to wildlife or boaters, authorities have no plans to haul it away.
``We are not responsible for removing such items,'' said Jorge Pino, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. ``Even a car can become a habitat for wildlife. Unless the item becomes a navigational hazard, the Coast Guard would not get involved.''
Friday, January 21, 2011
Shudder ::: Abortionist brutally murdered ‘hundreds’ of living newborns (with 281-page report)
The money quotes:
- In the report, the Grand Jury notes that several agencies and groups became aware of what has become known as Gosnell’s “shop of horrors,” but did nothing. They also provide extremely explicit descriptions of botched abortions, late-term abortions and infanticides rarely seen in court documents.
- Even though an NAF staff person spent several days in Gosnell’s abortion mill noting numerous violations, they failed to report him to the proper authorities, notes the document.
- While saying that “bureaucratic inertia is not exactly news,” the jurors said, “We think the reason no one acted is because the women in question were poor and of color, because the victims were infants without identities, and because the subject was the political football of abortion.”
The story:
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, January 20, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A massive, photograph-laden Grand Jury Report released Wednesday has detailed the bone-chilling practices of a Philadelphia abortionist, who clinic workers testified had delivered “hundreds” of living, breathing newborn children before severing their spinal cords or slitting their necks to complete the abortions.
Abortionist Kermit Gosnell was arrested Wednesday for eight counts of murder. One of the charges was for the botched-abortion death of 41-year-old Karnamaya Mongar, a Nepalese refugee. The other seven were for children who police had discovered, by examining their remains, had been born alive and then killed.
District Attorney R. Seth Williams released the 281-page report that was the basis for the murder charges against Gosnell and nine of his associates. Included in that report were photos of some of Gosnell’s victims.
In the report, the Grand Jury notes that several agencies and groups became aware of what has become known as Gosnell’s “shop of horrors,” but did nothing. They also provide extremely explicit descriptions of botched abortions, late-term abortions and infanticides rarely seen in court documents.
“Pennsylvania law requires physicians to provide customary care for living babies outside the womb. Gosnell chose instead to slit their necks and store their bodies in various household containers, as if they were trash,” stated the report.
The report provided detailed testimony from clinic staff who said that “killing large, late-term babies who had been observed breathing and moving was a regular occurrence” at the filthy clinic: one staffer said such events happened “hundreds” of times.
Another clinic worker, Tina Baldwin, told the jurors that Gosnell once joked about a baby that was writhing as he cut its neck: “that’s what you call a chicken with its head cut off.”
According to clinic worker Kareema Cross, Gosnell resorted to regularly killing babies after birth because he was not skilled enough to kill the baby in utero with a digoxin injection, a usual means of late-term abortion.
The report noted that one unlicensed worker at the clinic attempted to justify Gosnell’s practice of cutting of the newborns’ spinal cords as a “partial-birth abortion.” The Grand Jury concluded that the two procedures were different, however, because sucking the brains out of the baby’s head in a partial-birth abortion occurred while the head was still inside the mother, and thus served to make delivery of the evacuated head easier, whereas Gosnell’s victims were killed “when there was clearly no need or medical reason to collapse the skull.”
The day after the death of Karnamaya Mongar, Gosnell had applied for membership to the National Abortion Federations, but failed to meet its requirements. Even though an NAF staff person spent several days in Gosnell’s abortion mill noting numerous violations, they failed to report him to the proper authorities, notes the document.
“Despite his various efforts to fool her, the evaluator from NAF readily noted that records were not properly kept, that risks were not explained, that patients were not monitored, that equipment was not available, that anesthesia was misused,” states the report. “Of course, she rejected Gosnell’s application. She just never told anyone in authority about all the horrible, dangerous things she had seen.”
While saying that “bureaucratic inertia is not exactly news,” the jurors said, “We think the reason no one acted is because the women in question were poor and of color, because the victims were infants without identities, and because the subject was the political football of abortion.”
Here's Kermit:
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Obama Breaks Bread With A Tacit Assassin? ::: Korea: Hunting Has Been Good This Year
I know our border with Mexico is no prize, but somehow I doubt we would allow incursions of policia sent to take out border crossers.
This story just makes me sick.
Korea: Hunting Has Been Good This Year
This story just makes me sick.
January 11, 2011: In the north, food has increasingly become the main obsession. That's because there's so little of it. Despite that, there are other problems. Among the upper class (Communist Party officials and military and police commanders), another big issue is growing drug use by their well-off children. Since the late 1990s, pharmacists and other medical personnel have been manufacturing methamphetamines, and selling the stuff to Chinese dealers across the border. This was a vital source of income at a time when starvation was an ever present danger. But in the last few years, more and more of the methamphetamines have been sold inside North Korea, to the children of the ruling class. Angry, and very influential, parents ordered a crackdown earlier this year, which has only been partially successful. Most of the methamphetamines are produced in towns near the Chinese border, but distributors have been found in the capital, and some other major cities. Many of those caught are executed, others are given the fate-worse-than-death and sent to prison. These "labor camps" (which kill a large number of inmates via malnutrition, violence or disease) are overcrowded. Normally built to hold about 150,000 enemies of the people, there are now closer to 200,000 inmates. That is controlled with less food and more violence, but this takes time (less time during the cold seasons). About ten percent of North Koreans are much better off than everyone else up there. But even these people, working for the bureaucracy, military or security agencies, and their families, are getting less food, or, more noticeably, food of much lower quality. Chinese traders are seeing a lot more household appliances being sold by these "middleclass North Koreans" in the markets, in order to buy more food or fuel.
The anti-government graffiti and jokes are out of control in the north. The problem is that it's no longer cool to tell the secret police about who is doing this stuff. This is a fundamental shift in the north.
The sanctions on North Korea are hurting. It's estimated that total trade up there is about $3 billion a year, and that it's been declining at least ten percent a year for the last three years. This is despite efforts to come up with new ways to smuggle weapons and military tech out. About 80 percent of the legal trade is with China, which has been enforcing more and more of the international sanctions.
China has been more cooperative in some ways. For example, North Korean border guards are under more pressure to halt people from fleeing North Korea. If you shoot escapees, there are rewards (like more food). China does not want more North Korean refugees, who often resort to illegal or semi-legal activities to survive once they arrive. So in remote areas of the border (now easily crossed over frozen rivers), North Korean border guards are allowed to pursue escapees into China, kill them, and drag the bodies back to North Korea (and collect the food bonus). Hunting has been good this year.
Korea: Hunting Has Been Good This Year
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Paragraph Of The Week ::: The Political Assassination of Sarah Palin
This just sizzles.
Read the whole piece here: The Shining City On a Hill, Political Blog, Conservative Bloggers, Republican Blogspot, Political Blogs
Posted by Patrick S. Adams on Thursday, January 13, 2011 1:11:47 PM
It’s obvious that we are watching a centralized smear campaign with millions of tentacles which uses selective outrage to manufacture talking points where there is no real basis in fact in order to try to destroy Sarah Palin. Watching the liberal media perform intellectually dishonest mental gymnastics (which are probably better described as sleight of mind tricks) is akin to watching a little kid who knows he’s about to lose move the ball on the pool table when the other kid isn’t looking in a last ditch effort to turn the game. These political air benders defecate on the face of journalism and the American people when they trade in their journalistic credentials in order to distort the analytical process so brutally just for the sake of destroying those with whom they disagree. The evidence of a deliberate effort to destroy Sarah Palin is now self evident.
Read the whole piece here: The Shining City On a Hill, Political Blog, Conservative Bloggers, Republican Blogspot, Political Blogs
Friday, January 14, 2011
Wow... That Was Quick ::: Prime minister takes over as Ben Ali flees Tunisian turmoil
Tunisian President Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali left office on Friday amid continuing anti-government unrest in the North African country.
His departure was confirmed in a televised address by Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi, who said he was taking over as interim president until new elections are organised. Ghannouchi also promised to adhere to the constitution and ease the spreading chaos.
According to al Jazeera TV, Ben Ali, who came to the presidency in 1987, has left the country. But his whereabouts remain unknown.
Earlier in the day, the authorities had declared a state of emergency in a violent face-off between protesters and police that has been spiralling out of control since mid-December, resulting in dozens of deaths.
Just Keepin' Austin Weird ::: Drunk Cowboys Arrested for Riding Horse and Donkey Down 6th Street
If you actually need more than the title... lol...
Austin, TX - Two men charged with driving while intoxicated had their charges reduced to public intoxication after police arrested them for riding a horse and donkey down 6th Street.
Jose Rios, 33, and Samuel Olivo Jr., 48, were caught riding a horse and donkey in the 300 block of E. 6th Street while intoxicated. The two were coaxing people on the street to come, take pictures and pet their horse and donkey. Officers say the two were impeding traffic and could have caused an accident.
Officers conducted a field sobriety test on the two and then charged with DWI. According to Texas Penal Code, Chapter 49 (Driving While Intoxicated), the definition of a motor vehicle is given in Chapter 32.34 (a)(2) of the Texas Penal Code. The definition of a motor vehilce given in Ch. 32.34 (a)(2) is: a device in, on, or by which a person or property is or may be transported or drawn on a highway, except a device used exclusively on stationary rails or tracks.
DWI charges were dropped for both Rios and Olvio, but Rios was charged with public intoxication.
As for the animals, officers had to transfer to the horse and donkey to the Town Lake Animal Center until they could get better accomodations at Elgin animal hospital.
Video too! lol!
Wikileaks Revolution ::: Deadly Riots Escalating in Tunisia | The Blaze
My heart goes out to these people. I wish we had a more pro-freedom advocate of a president. They need some support.
TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisian police fired rounds of tear gas at thousands of protesters in the capital Friday after some climbed atop the roof of the Interior Ministry, a symbol of the iron-fisted government they want to oust....Ben Ali, 74, has maintained an iron grip on Tunisia since grabbing power 23 years ago in a bloodless coup, repressing any challenges. He has locked up many opposition figures, clamped down on dissent and kept tight control over the media but has not been able to resolve the country’s rising unemployment, officially at nearly 14 percent, but higher for educated youths.The riots began after an educated but jobless 26-year-old committed suicide when police confiscated the fruits and vegetables he was selling without a permit....U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks have described the corruption in Tunisia, and social networks like Facebook have helped spread the comments. Many ordinary Tunisians who have complained of corruption for years felt vindicated to see the U.S. cables.
Mark Twain Controversy on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Some good moments here:
Mark Twain Controversy - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - 01/11/11 - Video Clip | Comedy Central
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Mark Twain Controversy | ||||
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Mark Twain Controversy - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - 01/11/11 - Video Clip | Comedy Central
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Tears for Australia ::: Australia floods: 25 dead and dozens missing as water swallows up Brisbane
What a terrible terrible disaster.
Lots of pix at the link, but I'll leave you with the one that smashed my heart...
Life-saver: A Blackhawk army helicopter crew member carries a baby to dry land in Gatton, west of Brisbane, after she was rescued and airlifted from floodwaters. It appears as if the child's name has been written on her arm by the rescuers for later identification purposes
Monday, January 10, 2011
Simple Math For Simpletons ::: [Loughner] Fixated on Giffords (Starting in 2007 BPE... that's Before Palin Era, fools.)
I was really really sad thinking about the amped up rhetoric in the face of this terrible crime last night. Frankly, when the news of the shooting first came out, my thoughts were that it was either a narco-trafficking offshoot, or sudden jihad syndrome.
Sorry if my first thoughts following "enemy action" do not include my fellow Americans.
TUCSON, Ariz.—Accused gunman Jared Lee Loughner appeared to have been long obsessed with U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
A safe at Mr. Loughner's home contained a form letter from Ms. Giffords' office thanking him for attending a 2007 "Congress on your Corner'' event in Tucson. The safe also held an envelope with handwritten notes, including the name of Ms. Giffords, as well as "I planned ahead," "My assassination," and what appeared to be Mr. Loughner's signature, according to an FBI affidavit.
Federal authorities charged Mr. Loughner on Sunday with two counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder and a count of attempting to kill a member of Congress, during a scheduled public appearance by Ms. Giffords here Saturday. More charges are expected, officials said, and Mr. Loughner, age 22, remains in federal custody. He will appear in federal court in Phoenix on Monday afternoon.
Mr. Loughner had complained to a friend about how he was treated by the Arizona lawmaker during an event several years ago, which aggravated Mr. Loughner, according to the friend.
...
"All he did was play video games and play music," said Tommy Marriotti, a high school friend. Mr. Marriotti said much of Mr. Loughner's free time was devoted to the school band. He wasn't especially political, Mr. Marriotti said, though he expressed frustration with the Bush Administration.
[snip]
Read the rest here: Suspect Fixated on Giffords - WSJ.com
And, in case you don't realize that the Palin/Right-Wing/Tea Party nexus of blame is an actual Democrat planned canard, here... from Politico:
The references to the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995 echoed in other ways. That horror, which killed 168 people including many children, helped then-President Bill Clinton stigmatize extreme anti-government rhetoric and re-energize his presidency at a time when Newt Gingrich and conservative Republicans were riding high in Congress.
One veteran Democratic operative, who blames overheated rhetoric for the shooting, said President Barack Obama should carefully but forcefully do what his predecessor did.
“They need to deftly pin this on the tea partiers,” said the Democrat. “Just like the Clinton White House deftly pinned the Oklahoma City bombing on the militia and anti-government people.”
Another Democratic strategist said the similarity is that Tucson and Oklahoma City both “take place in a climate of bitter and virulent rhetoric against the government and Democrats.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/47294.html#ixzz1AdwdHLuM
Friday, January 07, 2011
Somebody Had To Say It ::: Sarkozy: Mideast Christians victims of 'cleansing'
PARIS - French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday that Christian minorities in the Middle East are victims of "religious cleansing", following deadly attacks on churches in the region.
"We cannot accept and thereby facilitate what looks more and more like a particularly wicked programme of cleansing in the Middle East, religious cleansing," he said in an annual New Year's address to religious leaders.
An attack on a Coptic church in the Egyptian city of Alexandria on January 1 killed 21 people.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for that attack, which came after threats published online against Egypt's Copts from an Al-Qaeda-linked group in Iraq which had said it was behind a deadly assault on a church in Baghdad in October.
Forty-four worshippers and two priests died in the attack on a Syriac Catholic church in Baghdad in October, the worst of a series of attacks against Christians in Iraq.
French security sources said this week they had launched an investigation on terrorism-related charges after a priest filed a complaint over threats made online against a Coptic church in France.
Police in France and several other European countries have boosted security at Coptic churches which were due to celebrate Christmas on Friday, according to the eastern Orthodox church calendar.
The comments at the source are a fun read: Sarkozy: Mideast Christians victims of 'cleansing'
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
I'd Hit It... With A Gavel
Two great pix on Drudge today.
The one that the above title references:
And this one. Pure joy.
Media Ignores Bush Success With Decision Points | The Weekly Standard
"For reasons one can't imagine." lol.
The American media, for reasons one can’t imagine, seem reluctant to report on the remarkable success of Decision Points, George W. Bush’s new book about his presidency. Indeed, other than the predictable grumbling reviews, the book hasn’t been discussed much at all by the usual suspects. Perhaps that is because they were rooting for Bush to fail. Thus, when DP opened at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list, the Book Review’s feature “Inside the List” wrongly predicted that it would not have as much “staying power” as Laura Bush’s Spoken From the Heart, and besides, was already being “eclipsed by rumors that Bill Clinton will make a cameo appearance in [an upcoming movie] “The Hangover 2.”
Not quite. Nearly two months later, Bush’s book is still leaping out of book stores. It remains #1 on the NYT Best Seller List and tops the book sales at Amazon. Moreover, according to the UK’s Daily Mail, Decision Points has lapped Bill Clinton’s My Life , selling 2 million copies in just over a month—a remarkable accomplishment that took My Life 6 years to achieve. Much to the chagrin of the American Left, George W. Bush’s rehabilitation is clearly well underway. Perhaps that is why his unquestionable triumph with Decision Points is receiving such low key reportage from the mainstream American media. It just isn’t the story they hoped to tell.
The WikiLeaks Vindication of George W. Bush - Larry Elder - Townhall Conservative
Worth the read. Speaking of vindicating Bush, his book has sold over 2 million copies so far. Good for him.
The WikiLeaks de facto declassification of privileged material makes it case closed: Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction -- and intended to restart his program once the heat was off.
President George W. Bush, in the 2003 State of the Union address, uttered the infamous "16 words": "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."
Former Ambassador Joe Wilson sprang into action and, in an op-ed piece, in effect wrote, "No, the Cheney administration sent me to investigate the allegation -- and I found it without merit."
Put aside that Wilson's CIA-employed wife, not the evil Vice President Dick Cheney -- as Wilson implied -- sent him on the African errand. Put aside that the British still stand by the intelligence on which Bush made the claim. And put aside that the anti-Bush Washington Post, in an editorial, concluded that Wilson had lied about not finding evidence to support the Iraq-in-Africa-for-uranium claim, since he told the CIA the opposite when he reported back from Africa.
Bush claimed that Iraq sought uranium, specifically "yellowcake." What is yellowcake, and why would its presence or attempted acquisition corroborate the nearly unanimous assumption that Saddam possessed WMD?
The Associated Press called yellowcake "the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment" and said that it "also can be enriched for use in reactors and, at higher levels, nuclear weapons using sophisticated equipment."
"Bush and Iraq: Follow the Yellow Cake Road" headlined a euphoric Time magazine July 2003 piece -- written when the Bush administration began backtracking from the Iraq-sought-uranium-from-Africa claim. Time said no yellowcake equals no WMD equals bogus basis for war.
The article led with this ripper: "Is a fib really a fib if the teller is unaware that he is uttering an untruth? That question appears to be the basis of the White House defense, having now admitted a falsehood in President Bush's claim, in his State of the Union address, that Iraq had tried to buy uranium in Africa."
Time hoisted (the now discredited) Joe Wilson on its shoulders as The Man Who Told the Truth to Power: "Just last weekend, the man sent by the CIA to check out the Niger story broke cover and revealed that he had thoroughly debunked the allegation many months before President Bush repeated it." Never mind that the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee concluded that Wilson's report "lent more credibility to the original Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reports on the uranium deal" sought by Iraq in Niger.
Let's recap.
Bush, in building the case for war against Iraq, lied to the nation. He falsely claimed that Iraq was attempting to purchase yellowcake from Africa. Time magazine specifically referred to the yellowcake "lie" in accusing Bush of fabricating the case for war. Therefore, were Iraq to have had yellowcake -- an assertion called a "lie" -- it would have confirmed the presence of WMD, giving credence to Bush's declaration of Iraq as a "grave and gathering threat."
But ... there ... was ... yellowcake. This brings us back to WikiLeaks.
Wired magazine's contributing editor Noah Shachtman -- a nonresident fellow at the liberal Brookings Institution -- researched the 400,000 WikiLeaked documents released in October. Here's what he found: "By late 2003, even the Bush White House's staunchest defenders were starting to give up on the idea that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. But WikiLeaks' newly-released Iraq war documents reveal that for years afterward, U.S. troops continued to find chemical weapons labs, encounter insurgent specialists in toxins and uncover weapons of mass destruction (emphasis added). ... Chemical weapons, especially, did not vanish from the Iraqi battlefield. Remnants of Saddam's toxic arsenal, largely destroyed after the Gulf War, remained. Jihadists, insurgents and foreign (possibly Iranian) agitators turned to these stockpiles during the Iraq conflict -- and may have brewed up their own deadly agents."
In 2008, our military shipped out of Iraq -- on 37 flights in 3,500 barrels -- what even The Associated Press called "the last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program": 550 metric tons of the supposedly nonexistent yellowcake. The New York Sun editorialized: "The uranium issue is not a trivial one, because Iraq, sitting on vast oil reserves, has no peaceful need for nuclear power. ... To leave this nuclear material sitting around the Middle East in the hands of Saddam ... would have been too big a risk."
Now the mainscream media no longer deem yellowcake -- the WMD Bush supposedly lied about -- a WMD. It was, well, old. It was degraded. It was not what we think of when we think of WMD. Really? Square that with what former Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean said in April 2004: "There were no weapons of mass destruction." MSNBC's Rachel Maddow goes even further, insisting, against the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that "Saddam Hussein was not pursuing weapons of mass destruction"!
Bush, hammered by the insidious "Bush Lied, People Died" mantra, endured one of the most vicious smears against any president in history. He is owed an apology.
The WikiLeaks Vindication of George W. Bush - Larry Elder - Townhall Conservative
Venezuela Now A Narco-State? :::A Gangster With Oil - Investors.com
Years ago, Americans worried about Venezuela's leftist Hugo Chavez becoming a new Castro — with oil. It happened. Now he's filling his cabinet with drug lords, and the threat morphs into something creepier.
Last week, Chavez promoted Major General Henry Rangel Silva to general-in-chief, the top position in the Venezuelan military command.
It was a rogue act because, in 2008, the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control named Rangel and two other Chavez loyalists as "Tier II Kingpins" for material support of drug trafficking.
The U.S. designation came of an administrative process so strict and thorough the U.S. government could indict someone if it's right — and be sued if it's wrong. There have been no lawsuits.
Rangel is said to provide material support for Colombia's FARC communist terrorists, who control 60% of Colombia's cocaine production, pushing it into Mexico and other destinations.
With Mexico endangered by local cartels' trade with Venezuela's government-linked suppliers, the link to Mexico's drug war is very real. And it's a national security problem for the U.S. — a big one.
The promotion shows Chavez is surrounding himself with drug lords. Most leaders would expel someone with those credentials. Not Chavez. He almost seems to be flaunting Rangel and others like him. One can only conclude that Venezuela is now a narcostate.
With seven other Chavez loyalists also on the Treasury's list (but not yet announced) the rot is far deeper than the U.S. wants to admit. The only real question left is what will we do about it?
More here: A Gangster With Oil - Investors.com
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