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SUNDAY,  JUNE 6,  2010

TERROR ARREST UPDATE – AT 9:51 P.M. ET:  Those two rollicking fun guys from New Jersey who were arrested trying to make it to Somalia to sharpen their terror skills, apparently have quite a history.  From Fox:

Federal authorities on Sunday unsealed charges against two New Jersey men arrested the night before as they allegedly tried to join an Al Qaeda-linked group in war-torn Somalia and kill Americans there.

The men were inspired at least in part by Omar Hammami, the Alabama-born face of the Somalia-based terrorist group, and Anwar al-Awlaki, the New Mexico-born cleric now hiding in Yemen who has been linked to the Fort Hood shootings, the Christmas Day bombing attempt and the failed Times Square car bomb plot, according to federal prosecutors.

20-year-old Mohamed Mahmood Alessa of North Bergen, N.J., and 24-year-old Carlos Eduardo Almonte of Elmwood Park, N.J., have been charged with conspiring to kill or injure persons outside the United States. Both are U.S. citizens.

And...

In late November 2009, Alessa was recorded saying that if he and Almonte can’t kill targets overseas, then they’ll "start doing killing here" in the United States, according to court documents. He later said he would return to the "crap hole" of the United States if "the leader ordered me to come back here and do something," court documents allege.

Alessa also allegedly spoke of U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, who allegedly killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Tex., last year after corresponding with al-Awlaki. Alessa threatened to do "twice what he did," according to court documents.

More recently, on April 25, Almonte allegedly said he was happy to hear rumors that Americans would soon be arriving in Somalia to help fight al-Shabaab. Almonte said killing more than Africans would be particularly gratifying, according to prosecutors.

COMMENT:  Of course, we all understand how wrong it is to pre-judge these gentlemen.  In fact, we're waiting for the first series of excuses and explanations to come out. 

Maybe they could get some PR advice from Helen Thomas.  She's available.

June 6, 2010     Permalink

THANKS, BARACK – AT 9:31 P.M. ET:  You will notice how frightened the Iranian mullahs are of Barack Obama.  Why, just look at the latest shakin'-in-our-boots move by those guys from Tehran:

Iran has warned that it could send Revolutionary Guard naval units to escort humanitarian aid convoys seeking to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza – a move that would certainly be challenged by Israel.

Any such Iranian involvement, raised today by an aide to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, would constitute a serious escalation of already high tensions with Israel, which accuses Tehran of seeking to build a nuclear weapon and of backing Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls Gaza.

"Iran's Revolutionary Guard naval forces are prepared to escort the peace and freedom convoys that carry humanitarian assistance for the defenceless and oppressed people of Gaza with all their strength," pledged Hojjatoleslam Ali Shirazi, Khamenei's personal representative to the guards corps.

COMMENT:  It is inconceivable that such a threat, essentially an invitation to war, would have been made with George W. Bush in the White House.  But the mullahs have Obama's number.  I suspect they've figured out by now that he isn't just a paper tiger, he's a paper mouse.  And recycled paper at that. 

Earlier this week, the increasingly Islamist Turkish delights from Istanbul threatened to send their Navy to Gaza, and, as could be expected, Washington said nothing.  Maybe they're waiting for the translation from Berlitz. 

Obama was the president who would bring peace on a cooled Earth and good will toward all men, women and those in between.  All we have is increasing chaos, and enemies growing bolder by the day.

June 6, 2010    Permalink 

CRAZY, JUST CRAZY – AT 12:01 P.M. ET:  One thing about Obama – he never learns.  Great presidents grow in office.  Obama shrinks.  In a story about the nomination of Undersecretary of Defense James Clapper to be the new director of national intelligence, The Politico reports:

According to intelligence sources, the White House sounded out other more prominent individuals, such as former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) about the job, but none was interested. Some former officials said that the Obama administration’s decision to side with the Central Intelligence Agency over Blair in personnel and briefing disputes made power players reluctant to take the DNI post.

COMMENT:  Huh?  Chuck Hagel?  If this doesn't tell you the mentality of the White House, nothing will.  Hagel, as a U.S. Senator, and ostensibly a Republican, was so bad that he had to retire.  He probably couldn't have gotten his party's nomination for another term.  He was anti-Bush, cool to the war on terror, and, without any evidence, considered himself a strategic genius.

The fact that Hagel could be asked to take such a high position demonstrates that this whole administration is simply the anti-Bush.  These are small-time politicians trying to make it in the big leagues, and failing every day.  Petty people with petty thoughts.  And at the top is Mr. Smalltime himself. 

At least Dick Cheney's Secret Service codename was "bigtime," and he was. 

June 6, 2010      Permalink  

DISGRACEFUL – AT 10:50 A.M. ET:  Do some "journalists" actually think about what they write before putting it in print?  There is this guy, Greg Sargent, at WaPo, and this is what he wrote yesterday:

Hearst Newspapers is refusing to say whether it will stand by White House veteran reporter Helen Thomas in the wake of conservative outrage over her remarks about Jews leaving Palestine and going back to Europe.

Conservative Web sites have been banging away at Thomas ever since video surfaced of her urging Jews to "get the hell out of Palestine" and go back to Germany and Poland. Beyond these comments, Thomas has aggressively questioned the Obama administration's support for Israel in the wake of the flotilla raid, angering the right, and some Republicans are now seizing on her latest comments to call for her firing.

COMMENT:  What?  Is this serious reporting?  Is Mr. Sargent suggesting that only conservatives are outraged by Helen Thomas's vulgar, anti-Semitic remarks?  Are only those on "the right" angry about the way Helen Thomas has abused her senior position in the White House press corps?

This is the liberal mindset, or what it's degenerated into over the years.  Liberals, at one time, would have been first out of the gate to denounce bigotry.  Today, they calculate who's engaged in the bigotry, whether we care about that group, and how many party invitations will be lost by denouncing the outrage. 

They also calculate the effect of the bigotry on their favorite causes.  Right now that's the "legitimate rights of the Palestinian people."  Next week it'll be something else.

Sometimes people reveal themselves.  Mr. Sargent has revealed himself.  I have no doubt that many, many decent liberals are sickened by Helen Thomas, and would like to see her sink into retirement.  Apparently, Mr. Sargent doesn't know any. 

June 6, 2010     Permalink

THE DATE – AT 10:36 A.M. ET:  This date, June 6th, is permanently etched in the memory of those of us of a certain age.  On June 6, 1944, Allied troops, under the command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, invaded northern Europe, at Normandy.

We know the date.  But, as Victor Davis Hanson said in a television talk last night, young people don't.  It isn't, as Hanson said, that they've never heard of Normandy, or Iwo Jima, or Okinawa.  It's that they aren't even familiar with World War II.  Repulsive changes in our educational system, often forced by "educators" who aren't, have resulted in a dumbing down of the curriculum, and the replacement of real history by pseudo-history.

Hanson explained that there have always been controversies about individual wars and individual battles.  But, beginning with Vietnam, there's been a rejection in self-proclaimed "intellectual" circles, of war itself, despite the fact that war, ugly as it is, has saved us from a multitude of horrors. 

The memories are fading.  The number of World War II veterans declines by the thousands each day.  Who will tell their story?  Who will tell it accurately?

Some years ago, as many of you will remember, an act of corruption occurred at the Smithsonian.  Fashionable "curators" put up an exhibit containing the Enola Gay, the plane whose crew dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.  The text of the exhibit was a gratuitous insult to veterans of World War II, suggesting that Japan was merely defending its "sacred empire," a vast distortion of the Japan of the 1930s and 1940s.  Veterans objected vehemently, and the exhibit was ultimately changed.  The upshot?  The veterans, who'd actually been there, were accused of "hijacking history" by The New York Times, whereas the curators were presented as intellectual heroes.

That is the problem.  The problem is not going away.  We, on our side, have been far too reluctant to criticize corruption in education, but we'd better start.  The future of this country may depend on it, and our politeness is out of order.

June 6, 2010      Permalink

AGAIN – AT 10:18 A.M. ET:  Once again the imperialist American authorities, reflecting the evil legacy of BUSH (!!) have put upon some sweet innocents merely trying to explore their culture:

NEWARK — Two New Jersey men intent on killing American troops were arrested Saturday as they boarded flights to link up with a virulent jihadist group in Somalia, authorities said.

The men, both North Jersey residents, were charged with conspiring to commit an act of international terrorism through a group tied to Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network, according to officials familiar with the details of the arrests.

Mohamed Hamoud Alessa, 20, of North Bergen, and Carlos Eduardo "Omar" Almonte, 24, of Elmwood Park were apprehended at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens before they could board separate flights to Egypt, where they were to start journeys to Somalia. The men were arrested by teams of state and federal law-enforcement agents who have been investigating the pair since October 2006, according to the officials, who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the operation publicly.

Late Saturday night, the state homeland security agency confirmed a police action at the airport but gave few details.

And...

...investigators believe Alessa and Almonte were recruited by others, who are also now coming under scrutiny. "We hope this will lead to a spider web of arrests," said one official briefed on the case.

COMMENT:   An excellent, superbly reported piece from NJ.com, which actually did some historical research.  I can barely find the story in the more "established" news organs. 

How many incidents can we now count since Barack Hussein Obama Jr. took office?  I can't recall, but there seems to be one a month.  But at least, as the philosopher and deep thinker Paul McCartney says, Obama knows what a library is.

We have been lucky so far, at least in most terrorist cases.  Our luck will run out.

June 6, 2010    Permalink

SATURDAY,  JUNE 5,  2010

ROTTEN, MISERABLE, FASCISTIC, HITLERITE, ISRAEL-LOVING SWINE!! – AT 7:34 P.M. The Associated Press, in an orgy of biased journalism, reports on a new, grave threat to civilization, a party in Sweden that believes its country has the right to a culture.  Stop them!  Stop them now before they jack-boot all over Europe.  I'm exhausted. 

STOCKHOLM - From his party's office in the basement of a Stockholm parking garage, Jimmie Akesson is running for Parliament, preaching sharp cuts in immigration and calling Islam the greatest threat to Swedish society.

That message until now has gained little traction in Sweden, but polls are predicting gains for Akesson's far-right Sweden Democrats that could give them a king-maker role in national elections this year if neither mainstream bloc wins an outright majority.

Note the term "far-right."  How often have you seen the term "far-left" used in mainstream journalism?  These are the journalists who refer to terrorists as activists and Islamic extremists as militants. 

It's an unnerving scenario for Swedes and their self-image of being more tolerant of outsiders than the rest of Europe.

Tolerant?  What's tolerant about allowing into a tiny country hundreds of thousands of people who have no intention of becoming Swedes?  That's not tolerance, that's madness...exception to the fashion plates of the Swedish left.

"In Sweden, if you voice criticism against the immigration policy, you are viewed as a racist or xenophobe," Akesson said. "It's difficult to get people to stand up and say 'Here's what I think.'"

Swedes have allowed themselves to be intimidated by the left, which hurls the charge of racism against anyone who dissents.  Ditto leftists in the United States.  Note how the Arizona illegal-immigration law is being chalked up to "racism."  It's the only game they know.

In some cities immigrants are nearly 40 percent of the population, and in certain neighborhoods nearly 90 percent.

What worries many Swedes is the clustering of immigrants in neighborhoods with nicknames such as "Little Baghdad." Few native Swedes ever set foot in these districts, viewing them as dangerous slums infested with criminal gangs and Islamic fundamentalists.

In Malmo, Sweden's third largest city, firemen must have police escorts to answer fire calls because local Islamists pelt them with stones.  If anyone objects to this behavior, they're called intolerant or fascist.

Akesson also points to attacks against artist Lars Vilks, who drew the prophet Muhammad with a dog's body. Last month furious protesters chanting "God is Great" in Arabic disrupted Vilks' guest lecture at Uppsala University and vandals tossed firebombs at his home.

The party's views have provoked fierce reactions. Some high schools have prohibited party members from handing out flyers on school grounds. In 2007 the party struggled to find a venue for its annual meeting when several conference centers turned it down, citing security concerns.

COMMENT:  It may seem incredible that a man who stands up for his own culture, and against violence, can't find a place to speak.  But it's happening in American colleges and universities.  Yes, it can happen here, and under Barack Obama and Eric Holder, it probably will.

June 5, 2010      Permalink

WATCH THE OIL AND THE HYPOCRISY FLOW – AT 7:17 P.M. ET:  Brazil, now run by a kind of Marxist style government, has made a major oil find...offshore.  From AP:

SAO PAULO -- Brazil's state-run oil company says it has found a new offshore oil reserve that could hold nearly 400 million barrels of oil equivalent.

Petroleo Brasileiro SA ( PBR - news - people ) says in a statement that the pre-salt reservoir was discovered 14,633 feet (4,460 meters) below the ocean floor off the coast of Rio de Janeiro.

The statement Friday said the reserve could produce as much as 380 million barrels of oil equivalent, a measurement indicating the amount of energy in a barrel of crude that also includes potential natural gas production.

COMMENT:  Oh, oh, what's an environmentalist to do?  Criticize a Marxist workers' government?  Criticize a state-owned oil company?  Why, that's heresy, punishable by being disinvited from parties from Cape Cod to Malibu. 

Now, you watch the silence of the world's "deeply concerned" environmentalists over this.  Oil spills are only an issue if the drilling occurs off America's shores.

Maybe Fox News will stick a microphone in some wavy-haired environmentalist's face and ask whether he's flying down to Rio to protest.  Don't be silly.

June 5,  2010     Permalink

SORRY STATE – AT 11:58 A.M. ET:  President Obama continues to demonstrate how a ship sinks.  His standing in the Rasmussen poll is delightfully abysmal:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows that 25% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -17.

That 25% "strongly approve" number is pretty close to the bottom for this president.  He's really down to his base on that one.

Overall, 45% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the president's performance. Fifty-four percent (54%) disapprove.

Political reports indicate that many Democrats are distancing themselves from the president, whereas a year ago they would have welcomed his presence.  My own sense, and I stress that this is speculation, is that the president's numbers will get worse, not better, for there appear to be no victories for him on the horizon.

June 5, 2010     Permalink

GREAT LEADERSHIP AT WORK (CHOKE) – AT 10:17 A.M. ET:  The president of the United States, the man sent by the Chicago political machine to save us from our sins, is upset.  He is angry.  He is outraged.  He is morally offended.  From The Politico:

An angry President Barack Obama slammed BP Friday for spending $50 million on a TV ad campaign, saying he didn’t want the company “nickel and diming” residents and businesses in the Gulf so that it could burnish its own image.

Obama — who has been criticized for not showing enough emotion — channeled his inner Hulk during his visit to the oil-fouled Louisiana coast, his third foray to the region since an explosion on a BP oil rig killed 11 workers and touched off what has become one of the nation’s most devastating environmental disasters.

"My understanding is, is that BP has contracted for $50 million worth of TV advertising to manage their image during the course of this disaster. In addition, there are reports that BP will be paying $10.5 billion — that's billion with a B — in dividend payments this quarter," said Obama.

COMMENT:  The cynicism of Obama's behavior is magnificent.  He pretends to be angry and distraught, but was able to overcome his agony to attend a Paul McCartney concert a few nights ago.

As for BP, Obama's comments reflect the true demagogue in him.  No matter what one may think of the company, or its actions, the last time I looked we had a Constitution, under which BP has the same freedom of expression as anyone else.  The company has a perfect right to present its point of view.  We then have a perfect right to denounce it, if we wish.  Will someone explain this concept to the "Constitutional law professor" in the White House. 

On BP's paying a dividend:  While explaining the First Amendment to Mr. Obama, please throw in an explanation of dividends.  Companies pay dividends as an economic incentive to investors.  Investors invest their private money in the company.  That money, and the company's earnings in the marketplace, make possible the massive amounts being spent by BP on the Gulf disaster...negating the need for more public funds.

Now, maybe Mr. Obama doesn't understand that much is possible without government funding, but most of us do understand it.  It is absolutely right for BP to pay its dividend, to help retain investors. 

Obama, the leftist that he is, will use the Gulf oil spill to try to enact a radical environmental agenda that, in the end, will do more harm than good.  He is Jimmy Carter on steroids.  At least BP is trying to do something to cap the leak.  I don't see what Obama is actually doing, except posing.

June 5, 2010     Permalink

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK – AT 9:54 A.M. ET:  Reader Joseph J. Gallick alerts us to the latest sparkling example of good, efficient government.  Naturally, it originates right here in New York, a state, like its golden counterpart on the West Coast, which is on the verge of bankruptcy:

Another shocking report by SeeThroughNY reveals that 8,074 Metropolitan Transportation Authority employees earned $100,000 last year. Fifty MTA employees earned more than $200,000 last year. And salaries are rising.

This is at a time when the New York City and State are struggling with a gaping budget deficit and billions in debt. Meanwhile, the MTA is cutting costs by reducing service and may remove cars to save electricity.

Past reports by the non-profit group include a list of 899 state employees who earn more than Governor David Patterson.

COMMENT:  There are now reports of outrages like this all over the country, like the report of a fire commissioner in California who will retire with a pension of a quarter of a million dollars a year. 

Next time I see a conductor, I'll ask for a loan.

One of the things that makes this profligacy possible is the power of public-employee unions, which are plugged into the Democratic Party. 

We want public employees to do their jobs and be adequately paid, but examples like this are going to create a voter backlash and demands for budget cuts.  Maybe we needed a shock like this to realize where some of our money is going. 

June 5, 2010     Permalink

THIS JUST IN – AT 9:40 A.M. ET:  White House reporter Helen Thomas has issued an apology for demanding that Jews get out of Palestine and go back to Poland and Germany.  She now says she wishes for mutual respect in the Middle East.  Boy, am I glad that misunderstanding is over.

I'm always amused when public figures say something ugly and then "apologize."  Does the apology mean that hellish Helen actually hadn't meant what she'd originally said?  Of course not.  She meant it.  It's just that she got caught at it.  Hence, the "apology."

Given the standards in journalism, the incident will quickly be shoved under the rug by other news people, the better to prop up their beloved Helen.  President Obama will no doubt call on her at his next press conference, in 2014. 

But we know what she believes, and I suspect that her belief is far more widespread in the media, especially the European media, than we'd like to think.

June 5, 2010   Permalink