The G.O.P’s “Pledge to America” is nothing more retread Neo-Conservative, Theocracy nonsense

Posted onSeptember 22, 2010September 22, 20103 Comments

This is pretty rich; The Republican Party is trotting out the same old George W. Bush style of Governence, with some new promises. Promises that the Republican Party actually expect the American people to believe that they will actually keep.

Let us go through this thing, shall we?

This comes Via CBS NEWS:

CBS News has obtained a final draft of House Republicans’ legislative agenda for the next Congress, a 21-page "Pledge to America" that they will formally unveil Thursday morning at a Virginia hardware store.
"The need for urgent action to repair our economy and reclaim our government for the people cannot be overstated," the introduction says.
It continues: "With this document, we pledge to dedicate ourselves to the task of reconnecting our highest aspirations to the permanent truths of our founding by keeping faith with the values our nation was founded on, the principles we stand for, and the priorities of our people. This is our Pledge to America."

Let look at this thing shall we? I mean, I need a good laugh! I will spare you the hum drum, "Patriot" sounding nonsense and puffery, and I will get to the meat and point out the crap.

We pledge to honor families, traditional marriage, life, and the private and faith-based organizations that form the core of our American values.
We pledge to make government more transparent in its actions, careful in its stewardship, and honest in its dealings.
We pledge to uphold the purpose and promise of a better America, knowing that to whom much is given, much is expected and that the blessings of our liberty buoy the hopes of mankind.
We make this pledge bearing true faith and allegiance to the people we represent, and we invite fellow citizens and patriots to join us in forming a new governing agenda for America.

Hmmm, Sounds like they want to turn America into a theocracy.

Continuing:

Permanently Stop All Job-Killing Tax Hikes: We will help the economy by permanently stopping all tax increases, currently scheduled to take effect January 1, 2011. That means protecting middle-class families, seniors worried about their retirement, and the entrepreneurs and family-owned small businesses on which we depend to create jobs in America.
• Give Small Businesses a Tax Deduction: We will allow small business owners to take a tax deduction equal to 20 percent of their business income. This will provide entrepreneurs with a much-needed infusion of capital for investment and new hiring.
• Rein In the Red Tape Factory in Washington, DC: Excessive federal regulation is a de facto tax on employers and consumers that stifles job creation, hampers innovation and postpones investment in the economy. When the game is always changing, small businesses cannot properly plan for the future. To provide stability, we will require congressional approval of any new federal regulation that has an annual cost to our economy of $100 million or more. This is the threshold at which the government deems a regulation “economically significant.” If a regulation is so “significant” and costly that it may harm job creation, Congress should vote on it first.
• Repeal Job-Killing Small Business Mandates: One of the most controversial mandates of the Democrats’ government takeover of health care requires small businesses to report to the Internal Revenue Service any purchases that run more than $600. This 1099 reporting mandate is so overbearing that the IRS ombudsman has determined that the agency is ill-equipped to handle all the resulting paperwork.. We will repeal this job-killing small business mandate.

This was all promised before and never was enacted.

Act Immediately to Reduce Spending: There is no reason to wait to reduce wasteful and unnecessary spending. Congress should move immediately to cancel unspent “stimulus” funds, and block any attempts to extend the timeline for spending “stimulus” funds. Throwing more money at a stimulus plan that is not working only wastes taxpayer money and puts us further in debt.
• Cut Government Spending to Pre-Stimulus, Pre-Bailout Levels: With common-sense exceptions for seniors, veterans, and our troops, we will roll back government spending to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels, saving us at least $100 billion in the first year alone and putting us on a path to begin paying down the debt, balancing the budget, and ending the spending spree in Washington that threatens our children’s future.
• Establish a Hard Cap on New Discretionary Spending: We must put common-sense limits on the growth of government and stop the endless increases. Only in Washington is there an expectation that whatever your budget was last year, it will be more this year and even more the next. We will set strict budget caps to limit federal spending on an annual basis. Budget caps were used in the 1990s, when a Republican Congress was able to bring the budget into balance and eventual surplus. By cutting discretionary spending from current levels and imposing a hard cap on future growth, we will save taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.
• Cut Congress’ Budget: This year, Congress increased its own budget by 5.8 percent at a time when families and small businesses across the country are cutting back. We will make Congress do more with less by significantly reducing its budget.
• Hold Weekly Votes on Spending Cuts: Earlier this year, House Republicans launched the YouCut initiative to combat the permissive culture of runaway spending in Congress. Over the course of nine weeks, YouCut produced proposals to save taxpayers more than $120 billion. We will continue to hold weekly votes on spending cuts.
• End TARP Once And For All: Americans are rightly outraged at the bailouts of businesses and entities that force responsible taxpayers to subsidize irresponsible behavior. We will cancel the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), a move that would save taxpayers roughly $16 billion.
• End Government Control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: Since taking over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage companies that triggered the financial meltdown by giving too many high risk loans to people who couldn’t afford them, taxpayers were billed more than $145 billion to save the two companies. We will reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by ending their government takeover, shrinking their portfolios, and establishing minimum capital standards. This will save taxpayers as much as $30 billion.
• Impose a Net Federal Hiring Freeze of Non-Security Employees: Small businesses and entrepreneurs are the engine of our economy and should not be crowded out by unchecked government growth. We will impose a net hiring freeze on non-security federal employees and ensure that the public sector no longer grows at the expense of the private sector.
• Root Out Government Waste and Duplication: Once created, federal programs almost never go away, even if the problem they were created to address is no longer relevant. More than 20 states have addressed this problem by requiring that programs end – or “sunset” – by a date certain. We will adopt this requirement at the federal level to force Congress to determine if a program is worthy of continued taxpayer support.
• Reform the Budget Process to Focus on Long-Term Challenges: We will make the decisions that are necessary to protect our entitlement programs for today’s seniors and future generations. That means requiring a full accounting of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, setting benchmarks for these programs and reviewing them regularly, and preventing the expansion of unfunded liabilities.

Again, this was all promised before in the past; and was never done. In fact, spending increased under the previous President.

My favorite so far…:

There is literally no aspect of our economy or our society that the federal government doesn’t tax, regulate or subsidize, and often it does all three at the same time. The most recent edition of the Catalogue of Federal Domestic Assistance listed 2,050 different assistance programs available to states, local governments, for-profit and non-profit organizations, groups, and individuals. Taxpayers are literally funding programs from cradle to grave…

Yes, let’s defund programs for the actual needy, and the Handicapped — like my aunt. Let’s allow them starve. What idiots. 🙄

Here’s the REAL knee slapper!

• Read The Bill: We will ensure that bills are debated and discussed in the public square by publishing the text online for at least three days before coming up for a vote in the House of Representatives. No more hiding legislative language from the minority party, opponents, and the public. Legislation should be understood by all interested parties before it is voted on.
• Adhere To The Constitution: For too long, Congress has ignored the proper limits imposed by the Constitution on the federal government. Further, it has too often drafted unclear and muddled laws, leaving to an unelected judiciary the power to interpret what the law means and by what authority the law stands. This lack of respect for the clear Constitutional limits and authorities has allowed Congress to create ineffective and costly programs that add to the massive deficit year after year. We will require each bill moving through Congress to include a clause citing the specific constitutional authority upon which the bill is justified.
• Make It Easier to Cut Spending: By forbidding amendments on spending bills, Democrats have denied lawmakers the opportunity to tighten Washington’s belt and slash wasteful and duplicative programs. Structure dictates behavior, so we will let any lawmaker — Democrat or Republican — offer amendments to reduce spending.
• Advance Legislative Issues One at a Time: We will end the practice of packaging unpopular bills with “must-pass” legislation to circumvent the will of the American people. Instead, we will advance major legislation one issue at a time.

However, they wish to do this too:

* Pass Clean Troop Funding Bills: When asked to provide our troops with the resources they need, we will do so without delay. That means no more troop funding bills held up by unrelated policy changes, or extraneous domestic spending and pork-barrel projects.
• Keep Terrorists Out of America: We will prevent the government from importing terrorists onto American soil. We will hold President Obama and his administration responsible for any Guantanamo Bay detainees they release who return to fight against our troops or who have become involved in any terrorist plots or activities.
• Demand an Overarching Detention Policy: Foreign terrorists do not have the same rights as American citizens, nor do they have more rights than U.S. military personnel. We will work to ensure foreign terrorists, such as the 9/11 conspirators, are tried in military, not civilian, court. We will oppose all efforts to force our military, intelligence, and law enforcement personnel operating overseas to extend “Miranda Rights” to foreign terrorists.
• Fully Fund Missile Defense: There is real concern that while the threat from Iranian intercontinental ballistic missiles could materialize as early as 2015, the government’s missile defense policy is not projected to cover the U.S. homeland until 2020. We will work to ensure critical funding is restored to protect the U.S. homeland and our allies from missile threats from rogue states such as Iran and North Korea.
• Require Tough Enforcement of Sanctions Against Iran: The Iranian regime is a state-sponsor of terrorism, has actively worked to harm our deployed troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and violates the rights and will of its own people. It has declared its determination to acquire a nuclear capability, which threatens its neighbors and the security of the United States. We will work to ensure the government aggressively and effectively implements the sanctions tools Congress has provided.
• Establish Operational Control of the Border: We must take action to secure our borders, and that action starts with enforcing our laws. We will ensure that the Border Patrol has the tools and authorities to establish operational control at the border and prohibit the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture from interfering with Border Patrol enforcement activities on federal lands.
• Work with State and Local Officials to Enforce Our Immigration Laws: The problem of illegal immigration and Mexican drug cartels engaged in an increasingly violent conflict means we need all hands on deck to address this challenge. We will reaffirm the authority of state and local law enforcement to assist in the enforcement of all federal immigration laws.
• Strengthen Visa Security: To stop terrorists like Omar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Christmas Day bomber, we will require the Department of Homeland Security to review all visa applications at high-risk consular posts and prevent aliens from attempting to avoid deportation after having their visas revoked.

As for immigration; how about we try this novel idea? END ALL IMMIGRATION FOR AT LEAST 10 YEARS! Then, using the Government’s already vast resources, we round up, and DEPORT ALL Illegal immigrants in this damn country and BAR THEM from returned to the United States, FOREVER!

Yes, we want to stick to the constitution; but we also want to keep funding the Military industrial complex! This one was really one that makes me ill:

Require Tough Enforcement of Sanctions Against Iran: The Iranian regime is a state-sponsor of terrorism, has actively worked to harm our deployed troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and violates the rights and will of its own people. It has declared its determination to acquire a nuclear capability, which threatens its neighbors and the security of the United States. We will work to ensure the government aggressively and effectively implements the sanctions tools Congress has provided.

Oh yes, let’s antagonize the hell out of Iran, until they strike one of our interests overseas; like Iraq and we end up having to go into that Country or some other one, with our interests in it. Which would lead to more War…….again!

Here is a novel idea. How about ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan now? Because Iraq is done; let them people deal with their own Country. Afghanistan is basically lost. The Russians tried rebuilding that god-forsaken wilderness and failed. Why do we think that we can do it any better? Al-Qaeda is basically in Pakistan and so damned well protected; that we will never get them, unless we keep hitting civilian targets. Which only inspires more terrorists. Why not just use CIA Drones and bring out troops home? That or just admit that the United States purposefully let down it’s guard; and end the lie, in the first damned place! That way, we can usually save some money for defending America from Terrorism here; seeing that we have created this situation of possible blow back from those wanting to hurt America, because of our stupid invasion of Iraq, which had zero to do with 9/11. How is that for a novel idea?

However, no, we would rather continue with the same old Neo-Conservative, Israel-appeasing, polices that caused 9/11 in the first damned place. In the process, we want to bankrupt the Country, by continuing to fund crap like that. Plus, we continue to fund other Countries, like Israel and their healthcare plan, which includes a public option; which America does not even have. Until this stops. America will continue to be in debt for a long time to come.

For what it is worth, I am not the only person that thinks this is crap. Even the folks at RedState hate it.

Memeorandum thread is here.

One of the sad side effects of 9/11 and War, Military Crimes

Posted onSeptember 19, 20103 Comments

This is one of the saddest things that you would ever want to read.

Via the Washington Post:

AT JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, WASH. The U.S. soldiers hatched a plan as simple as it was savage: to randomly target and kill an Afghan civilian, and to get away with it.
For weeks, according to Army charging documents, rogue members of a platoon from the 5th Stryker Combat Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, floated the idea. Then, one day last winter, a solitary Afghan man approached them in the village of La Mohammed Kalay. The “kill team” activated the plan.
One soldier created a ruse that they were under attack, tossing a fragmentary grenade on the ground. Then others opened fire.
According to charging documents, the unprovoked, fatal attack on Jan. 15 was the start of a months-long shooting spree against Afghan civilians that resulted in some of the grisliest allegations against American soldiers since the U.S. invasion in 2001. Members of the platoon have been charged with dismembering and photographing corpses, as well as hoarding a skull and other human bones.
The subsequent investigation has raised accusations about whether the military ignored warnings that the out-of-control soldiers were committing atrocities. The father of one soldier said he repeatedly tried to alert the Army after his son told him about the first killing, only to be rebuffed.
Two more slayings would follow. Military documents allege that five members of the unit staged a total of three murders in Kandahar province between January and May. Seven other soldiers have been charged with crimes related to the case, including hashish use, attempts to impede the investigation and a retaliatory gang assault on a private who blew the whistle.
Army officials have not disclosed a motive for the killings and macabre behavior. Nor have they explained how the attacks could have persisted without attracting scrutiny. They declined to comment on the case beyond the charges that have been filed, citing the ongoing investigation.
But a review of military court documents and interviews with people familiar with the investigation suggest the killings were committed essentially for sport by soldiers who had a fondness for hashish and alcohol.
The accused soldiers, through attorneys and family members, deny wrongdoing. But the case has already been marked by a cycle of accusations and counter-accusations among the defendants as they seek to pin the blame on each other, according to documents and interviews.
The Army has scheduled pre-trial hearings in the case this fall at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, home of the Stryker brigade. (The unit was renamed the 2nd Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, when it returned from Afghanistan in July.) Military officials say privately that they worry the hearings will draw further attention to the case, with photos and other evidence prompting anger among the Afghan civilians whose support is critical to the fight against the Taliban.

This article is a seriously interesting read; so I will ask you, please head on over at read the rest of it.

Now, if I were a committed Neo-Conservative; like many of the Bloggers on the right, I would say something to the effect of, “Oh, this is just liberal, anti-war propaganda!” If I were a committed Paleo-Conservative, I would say something to the effect of, “See? This is what happens when you go to war! See? See? See?”

Fortunately, I am not committed to either of those positions really.

One of the worst assumptions, that a person can make about the Military, is that every person that volunteers for service; is going to be an honest, upstanding person. There are people out there, which are just hell bent on breaking rules. Only difference is, these people were wearing our Military uniforms when doing so. Could this crime cause problems for us down the road? Maybe. There could be blowback later on. I hope that not — but it does happen.

I do not claim to know the motives for this crime; all I can really do is speculate. One could blame the euphoria after 9/11; one could blame the kids for their desire to kill people. All of that really does not matter; all that matters now is, that there are dead afghans, who really had nothing to do with 9/11, and officers from our Military killed them, for sport. That is a real problem, when it comes to trying to get Afghans to trust us, so that we can make gains with Taliban and ultimately kill or capture the members of Al-Qaeda.

War is a game, a game of strategy; like chess. The problem is the pieces of that game are real human lives on the line. The bad part is this, these idiots, in their moronic desire to kill —- just kicked the damn chess game over. Now, the Military leaders have to upright the game, and hopefully no pieces — or lives — get lost in the process. It is a job and a responsibility that can make even the most steel-nerved person into a bumbling, pill-popping wreck. Another thing is this is not 24 hours news cycle, news sound bite, work. It is long, tedious work, and it can wear the strongest of them down quick.

My thoughts and prayers go out to those who are involved in this situation, at all levels. My Prayers go out to the Soldiers who are in the Afghan Theater fighting what the liberals used to call, “The good war.” God be with them.

Stupidity from the Moderation queue

Posted onSeptember 19, 2010September 19, 2010

Yet more stupidity from my moderation cue. This installment is from some jackwad tool, that obviously does not read the rules of the road around here; when it comes to commenting:

Author : RnBram (IP: 74.12.251.179 , bas21-toronto12-1242364851.dsl.bell.ca)
E-mail : rnbramwell@gmail.com
URL :
Whois : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=74.12.251.179
Comment:
Once again, a writer trots out the Leftie, non-think, smear ’em with trivia and avoid the actual issues, tactic, and pretends to be “<em>siding with proper reason</em>”. What flatulence.
How about examining her <strong>campaign</strong> arguments?
Doing so might show you possess a modicum of intelligence over that of some Grade Nine kid who doesn’t like his teacher. Maybe this <a href=”http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=mpg&mpid=174&load=3949″ title=”” rel=”nofollow”>short interview</a>, will help. In it alone she shows more economic understanding than the most elected officials in Washington!
It would be much better if she matched tax reduction with spending reductions, but no federal government got far with that idea. We should hope the TEA Party candidates get enough support to actually try.

Apparently this guy seems to have a reading comprehension problem. As it says on my rules page:

Here is my reason for not allowing you to insult me. This is my place, I paid money to register my domain. I also pay a meager fee for the hosting. This blog is my intellectual property. This is my spot in the political Blogosphere, and you are here as my house guest. You would not walk into my literal house and insult me, act like an idiot or anything like that, would you? So, why should I allow you to act like a moronic idiot in my virtual house?

The rules are plain; don’t come here and insult me like an asshole, and expect me to print your comment. It is just that simple. My Blog, My Rules, don’t like them; start your own damned blog.

Besides, this jack wad is in Canada! CANADA?!?!?! Does this dude have any clue how I feel about Canada?

He went on and on about how I don’t believe in freedom of speech. Last time I checked this is not a public website. It’s privately owned and I can pick and choose what I wish to allow in my comment sections; and I choose not to allow people to insult me. Sorry, way it is around here.

Now, where’s my dog picture at?

Ah, here it is!

Jeff Goldstein is being attacked by some moronic far-leftist, Again

Posted onSeptember 18, 2010September 18, 2010

Not that he does not have experience with this; but some douche nozzle is giving Jeff Goldstein the business…..again.

See here

Here’s the douche-nozzle’s posting here

The real evidence of douche-nozzlery is this:

I pity him, really. But more so, I pity his university and his students. His hard-left hatred for all things “conservative” (which evidently extends to my classical liberalism) has this poor wretch up at nights trolling my blog under multiple names and multiple IP addresses, playing multiple parts in a blog drama of his own creation. It has him feverishly researching Colorado legal statutes, looking for ways to pretend he’ll bring me up on felony libel charges. It has him pretending to be his own girlfriend — or some concerned passerby — who happens (somehow) to know the history of William Yelverton, and his dealings with me over the course of several months (during which time, incidentally, his own blog got maybe 3 comments from people not responding to his douchebaggery on protein wisdom).

You see this stuff that I underlined and colored red? I know all about that, and this is why that I also keep my moderation on around here. Because quite frankly, I just do not need the hassle of some unhinged idiot doing stuff like this. It is just not worth the hassle. I set down the perimeters in which one can operate here; and if you go outside them, I simply delete your tripe. Just that simple, saves me a whole hell of a bunch of trouble.

So, if you spare a dime or two; hit Jeff’s tip jar, and if you feel really froggy, hit Jeff once too for me; right in the nuts. (I kid of course… 😛 ) Because the guy could use it; especially if he has defend himself from this far leftist jack wad.

I do not mean to beat this damned horse to death; but do you now see why I just will NOT vote for the party that represents these idiots anymore?

For what it is worth; I have experience with these jackwads myself. Some tampon wearing shrieking harpy by the name of Mary Scott O’Conner pulled the same shit with me. Except it was not court; it was one or two of my advertisers. All Because I dared to take my disgust of then Senator and President candidate, B. Hussein Obama to another whole level. This during the whole “Hosanna phase” of the 2008 election cycle. It was not pretty, I kind of now, wish I had not went there. However, I was a bit pissed off.

For those that wonder:

I thought you hated Jeff Goldstein?

No, No… I do not hate the man at all. His writing tends to annoy me; this is why I do not read his blog often. The man is a novelist and as a consequence; he blogs like a damned novelist. The problem with Goldstein is that he takes 1200 god-damned words to write something that would take me 400 or less. My thing is, when writing, is get to the god-damned point. Don’t waste my fucking time writing overly prissy sounding nonsense, that nobody gives two shits about; state your damned case, get the point, and cut the overly stupid shit. Not only that, but he writes in that overly educated, Victorian style of writing; which is nice when reading a novel, but when you are trying to read about politics, it tends to get a bit old.

There, now you know my gripe with the Golden Boy Goldstein. Nothing big, just differences in style. His style is educated, affluent sounding stuff, that you would find at Harvard. I’m the type of writer that you would maybe find at the local barber shop, a car service garage, pool hall or even in your local bar. (Think Norm from Cheers..)

Having said all of that; head on over and toss a buck or two in his can and tell him that you are on his side. The guy could use it, I am sure.

That is all…

It is official: Lisa Murkowski just wants to be spanked

Posted onSeptember 18, 2010September 18, 2010

I have laid in bed for the good part of the night, agonizing; do I post this or do I not?

Well, I got one thing to say…..

The bitch just wants to be spanked.

Click here for the story, Click here for the video.

AllahPundit Snarks:

Joe Miller’s unloading on Murkowski to National Review, saying her “lifeblood is power” and that she has a “disconnection from reality.” No doubt Scott McAdams, the Democrat in the race, will jump in tomorrow by calling the three of them wingnut neo-Hitlers. In such a vicious, chaotic melee, there can be but one winner, my friends: Traffic-seeking bloggers. Exit question: Time to start making newly elected senators sign pledges promising to drop out if they lose a primary in the future? That won’t stop them from breaking their promises, of course, but it’ll remind voters of what lying little weasels they are when they do.

The ADN reports:

With the slogan “Let’s Make History,” Lisa Murkowski announced Friday that she’d pursue a write-in bid to keep her seat in the U.S. Senate after losing the Republican primary to Joe Miller.
The decision is a historic gamble for Murkowski, who was joined by hundreds of supporters waving red-and-blue “Lisa for Senate” signs and chanting “Run, Lisa, Run!” in the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center in Anchorage.
No one has run a successful write-in campaign for the U.S. Senate since Strom Thurmond in 1954.
Murkowski said she knows she faces a massive undertaking, not only to convince voters to support her but also to educate them on what they need to do for their vote to count. She acknowledged she made mistakes in her campaign, chief among them her failure to hit back when Miller and the Tea Party Express attacked her.
“Well, ladies and gentlemen, friends and supporters, the gloves are off and I’m fighting for Alaska,” Murkowski said. “Alaskans deserve a fighter in the United States Senate who will always stand up for Alaska, who understands our great potential, who has the experience, respect and seniority to accomplish that. I am that senator.”
It was clear that Murkowski won’t have the support of state and national Republican leaders. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he told her she no longer has his support to serve in the Senate Republican leadership ranks, and accepted her resignation from that role. Alaska Republican Party Chairman Randy Ruedrich said “she will receive no support of any kind from the Alaska Republican Party.”
“Lisa has chosen to run against the Republican Party and its primary voters. We will treat her candidacy as we would anyone who chooses to oppose our party’s nominees, Ruedrich said.
Former Gov. Sarah Palin, whose support for Miller drove hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from the Tea Party Express his way, called Murkowski’s effort futile. Murkowski offered a response to Palin, who resigned as governor last year, and to others she described as “naysayers” in Washington D.C.
“Perhaps it’s one time they met one Republican woman who won’t quit on Alaska,” Murkowski said, receiving a huge standing ovation from her supporters.

Me? I think the old broad just wants to be spanked and I do mean Spanked Hard; and that she will be in polls come the general election.

Good: The city of Gainesville, Florida will bill Pastor for crackpot publicity stunt

Posted onSeptember 17, 2010September 17, 20103 Comments

Never in a million years would I ever believe that I would be writing a headline like that. But it is how I feel.

VIA CNN:

Orlando, Florida (CNN) — The city of Gainesville, Florida, plans to send a bill estimated at more than $180,000 to Pastor Terry Jones for security costs surrounding his controversial threat to burn Qurans on the anniversary of the September, 11, 2001, attacks, a police spokeswoman said Friday.
Police agencies spent more than a month working on security plans to ensure the community surrounding Jones’ Dove World Outreach Center — the planned site of the burning — was safe, according to Gainesville police spokeswoman Cpl. Tscharna Senn.
Jones also told authorities he received numerous death threats because of the planned protest, which he called off amid increasing pressure from world leaders.
The Gainesville Police Department said it spent more than $100,000 while the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office spent an estimated $80,000 during the weekend of the planned demonstration.
“We have 286 sworn officers and almost everyone was working either at the Dove Center or at other soft targets,” Senn said. “Unless you were sick or injured you were working” the day the burning was to take place.
Officers secured malls in the region, the University of Florida’s football stadium and areas around the church in the days leading up to the planned event.

…and you know what this idiotic piece of crap said in response? This:

Jones said Friday that the church was “not aware that we would be billed for security.”
“If we had known this in advance, then we would have refused to have security,” he said.

Oh.My.God —- This moronic tool thinks that it is all about him. No wonder his daughter thinks that he is gone crazy! Memo to Religious nut-job: It is NOT about YOU! It is about protecting the citizens in the town of Gainsville, Florida from a Muslim uprising, because of your stupid little publicity stunt; you ignorant tool! 😡

Unbelievable. I have seen some out of touch, tone-deaf people in my day; but this jack-wad takes the cake. Some people have accused me of being that type of a person. But, I do not even remotely hold a candle to him, at all. 🙄

This is not even mentioning into the fact that this jack-wad was actually stupid enough to pull a stunt like this; that would endanger the lives of our service members overseas. I mean, that is the absolute epitome of tone-deaf.

….and people wonder why Christianity is such a damaged brand in this day and age. It is because ignorant jack-wads like this idiot here; and that other jack-wad Freddie Phelps! Morons. Both of them. 🙄

Video: REALITY REPORT #60 – Obama’s Iraq Bushism

Posted onSeptember 14, 2010September 14, 2010

In this edition of the Reality Report:

Gary Franchi points out Obama’s latest Iraq War Bushism and welcomes We Are Change Founder Luke Rudkowski to the show.

Nina breaks down the headlines including Homeowners Associations restricting Gadsden Flags, the Blogger Shakedown of Righthaven LLC, the recent Emergency Declaration in North Carolina that suspended the 2nd Amendment and how Blackwater Security used shell corporations to acquire tax payer money.

The viewers answer whether or not the World Trade Center was a Controlled demolition in the mailbag and keep watching to see the viewer pick for this week’s Enemy of the State.

Two Sites to check out: http://RealityReport.TV | http://RestoreTheRepublic.com |

…and now the video:

The feckless Far-Right Exhibit WTF for…You know

Posted onSeptember 13, 2010September 13, 20103 Comments

Whoa… Now I am all for Conservative purity and all that. But, this just goes a wee bit over the line. 😯

As much as I hate to have to link to these guys…. Via the Huffington Post:

The chairman of the Delaware Republican Party received a death threat last week over his support for Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del) over Tea Party challenger Christine O’Donnell in the state’s upcoming Senate primary, a party official confirmed to the Huffington Post.
The threat, issued in the form of an email, told chairman Tom Ross that he deserves “a bullet in the head” for backing “political ass-kissing RINO’s” [Republicans in name only].
“It is one thing to have your country screwed over by socialists, it is far worse to be backstabbed by people pretending to be your friends,” the email read. “We will either rid the GOP of pieces of shit like you, or we will start a new ‘Common Sense Conservative’ party and render you all useless.”
The threat was serious enough to compel Ross to leave his home, temporarily, and to spur an investigation from the Department of Justice said the official with the Delaware GOP (a DoJ official did not immediately return a request for comment). It also was sinister enough to alarm state party officials who are unaccustomed to not just threats of violence but even to heated political contests like the one unfolding in the state’s Republican primary.
“It is just scary what is going on right now,” the official said. “Tom is a loyal and dedicated Republican officer in Delaware… the position is unpaid and his job as party chairman is to defend and promote the candidates… It is disgusting, it is amazing and it has no place in our democracy.”

The really, really, really stupid part? THIS:

The identity of the emailer was not immediately known, though the official said that the person “wrote his name and address” on the note — providing obvious information for authorities to use.

WOW. 😯 😮 not only is this a guy right wing extremist…. he ain’t very bright either. 🙄 😆 😀 😛

I mean, I literally sat here and laughed hard about that last quoted bit there. I mean, it’s like, “I’m gonna shoot you in the head, screw your wife and eat your babies —- and I live at this address right here, now please, come and arrest me.” 😆 😀 😉

I guess it is true what they say; criminals are not the brightest bulbs in the box.

Libby Spencer should talk

Posted onSeptember 13, 2010September 13, 2010

I find it amazing the things that I find when I look at liberal blogs.

Libby Spencer writes about the Tea Party Gathering:

Apparently Freedom Works staged another rally in DC this weekend. The crowd appears to be the usual mix of bussed in birthers, other assorted “ers”, gun nuts and old overweight white people. Their numbers are shrinking but they’re making up for it by hollering louder.

Libby Spencer’s picture:

Libby Spencer - Overweight old person

….and you were saying Libby?

Those who live in glasses houses, ought not throw stones.

Oh, and as for me? Yes, I am fat, and I know it. You don’t see me going around mocking people because of their weight and age. However, because Spencer is a part of that enlightened liberal sect. She is given a free pass to mock those, of whom she disagrees with politically. Which is proof of the fact that when liberals have nothing of substance to argue with; you know, like facts? They resort to this sort of school yard childish tripe. Which means, they are losing and they know it. It reeks of classic desperation by the left.

The ironic thing is, I actually tried to help this woman once, after she found herself in a tight spot. I also notice that I mistakenly thought she was from Michigan; that was a very regrettable error. Perhaps next time, I will be a bit more careful when doing such stuff. Maybe she believes she is entitled to such idiocy — because she is a woman. 🙄

You see now, why I will not vote Democrat ever again?

Nativism, Conservatives, Bloggers, and Me

Posted onSeptember 13, 2010September 13, 2010

I feel the need to address something this morning that left me in a bit of foul mood last night. It appears that I have finally found an issue that I just cannot reconcile, that is happening among the “Go along to get along” Conservative crowd. Robert Stacy McCain, who is, as he put it, “A Neo-Con, Paleo-Con hybrid,” attended the 9/12 rally in Washington D.C. I really did not cover it much, because frankly, the whole Tea Party rally idea has grown rather stale with me. This is because the so-called tea party movement was co-opted by the Republican establishment and by those who are the protectors of the warmonger class.

Nativism is a term that the leftist media puts on people like me. I personally like to be called an American. An American who is watching the America I grew up in slip away. I am also an American who resents those of foreign birth dictating to me, as an American, about how bad my Country is or how horrible our Government leadership is.

Once such case of this happening, was yesterday at this so-called 9/12 rally in Washington D.C. A man by name of Tito Muñoz, also known as “Tito the Builder” who is a Colombian immigrant and supposedly a United States citizen; came to this rally as a speaker. Muñoz came to the lectern and proceeded to assail the crowd verbally as to how bad the leadership is in Washington D.C. and how the socialist Government is destroying the foundations of which the Nation was founded upon and so on. Here is my big problem with Mr. Tito Muñoz; I do not believe for one second that he is a United States Citizen, nor do I believe him to be here legally.

You ask why I would make such an accusation. Because at one time, Muñoz and I were friends on facebook and after watching his postings on about how America was under attack; I took him to task on the subject of citizenship and ask him to post proof that he was a United States citizen, or at least to post his immigration papers. Admittedly, I did mistake the man for a Mexican; I mean — it is hard to tell them apart. However, what followed was my confirmation that Mr. Muñoz is nothing more than a petty phony, which is doing nothing more than milking the spotlight for all it is worth. Mr. Tito Muñoz launched into a four-letter tirade against me; calling me a racist bigot, a Klansman, and a few other choice four-letter words that I shall not reprint here. All because I requested that Mr. Muñoz prove that was a legal immigrant and a Citizen of this Country.

Besides all of the above, this is where I separate myself from the “go along to get along” Conservative crowd. I, as a citizen of the United States of America; someone who was actually born in this Country — resent the fact that some man, of foreign born origin, coming to rally of this nature and assailing a crowd verbally by telling it, just how horrible our Country is. Perhaps Mr. Tito Muñoz might want to remember that it was the progressives who came up with the idea, that if America did not open its borders to those who foreign birth, that our Country would somehow eventually cease to exist. Someone might to remind Mr. Tito Muñoz that if it were not for this fact; that Mr. Muñoz would likely be picking coffee beans in his home country of Colombia to make a living; or more than likely in Muñoz’s case — would be picking coca plants. If it were left to Conservatives, like me, Muñoz would be doing that this very day — instead of running a construction company, which was, more than likely funded by taxpayers, like me, through funding grants available to minorities; which were created by the very progressives that Mr. Muñoz rails on as horrifically evil. Funding, by the way, that is not available to native-born Americas (or white Americans) like me.

Hate, you say.

Not Hardly.

It is called reality.

Pat Buchanan said it right. We white Christian Americans are becoming a minority in our own damned Country. Do you honestly believe that 50 years ago a Colombian immigrant would be lecturing white Americans on just how horribly bad our Country is? I hardly think so. This is the result of progressives and these so-called Conservatives just accept it as normal. My question is, since when is that normal? Since when do Conservatives sit and allow a Colombian-born immigrant, of whom immigrant status is questionable at best — sit and lecture them on the condition of their Country? Since when is that normal and acceptable?

Hate you call it — tell that to those in South Africa. Because that is, what the United States is becoming — day by day, little by little. The sick part is, the so-called Conservatives in America are aiding and abetting in that transformation. That is what sickens me to my damn core.

UPDATED: I hate to say it: Nicholas Kristof makes a very good point

Posted onSeptember 12, 2010September 12, 20102 Comments

Rarely do I ever concede a point to a liberal. However, in this case; it is fair to do so.

This morning Nicholas Kristof writes in the New York Times, about the Mosque Controversy:

For a glimpse of how venomous and debased the discourse about Islam has become, consider a blog post in The New Republic this month. Written by Martin Peretz, the magazine’s editor in chief, it asserted: “Frankly, Muslim life is cheap, most notably to Muslims.”
Mr. Peretz added: “I wonder whether I need honor these people and pretend that they are worthy of the privileges of the First Amendment, which I have in my gut the sense that they will abuse.”
Thus a prominent American commentator, in a magazine long associated with tolerance, ponders whether Muslims should be afforded constitutional freedoms. Is it possible to imagine the same kind of casual slur tossed off about blacks or Jews? How do America’s nearly seven million American Muslims feel when their faith is denounced as barbaric?
This is one of those times that test our values, a bit like the shameful interning of Japanese-Americans during World War II, or the disgraceful refusal to accept Jewish refugees from Nazi Europe.
It would have been natural for this test to have come right after 9/11, but it was forestalled because President George W. Bush pushed back at his conservative ranks and repeatedly warned Americans not to confuse Al Qaeda with Islam.

As much as I hate to say it; Mr. Kristof is absolutely right. It should noted that Martin Peretz is, in fact Jewish and is, in fact, a rabid Zionist. In fact, Martin Peretz is known for the following comments:

Frankly, I couldn’t quite imagine any venture like [the Iraq War] in the Arab World turning out especially well. This is, you will say, my prejudice. But some prejudices are built on real facts, and history generally proves me right. Go ahead, prove me wrong. — Source

and:

But, frankly, Muslim life is cheap, most notably to Muslims. And among those Muslims led by the Imam Rauf there is hardly one who has raised a fuss about the routine and random bloodshed that defines their brotherhood. So, yes, I wonder whether I need honor these people and pretend that they are worthy of the privileges [sic] of the First Amendment which I have in my gut the sense that they will abuse. — Source

Like Kristof said; could you imagine if the above were uttered about the Jews or about the black race? There would a media frenzy about it. Believe me, I know; I have been attacked by those who are of the protected class and all for speaking my mind about them and how they attack those of whom they disagree.

The fact is, that this whole Mosque situation boils down to this; Islam versus Christian Nativists and Jews, Arabs versus Americans, whites versus non-whites. Am I calling those who oppose this mosque racists? Well, my question for you is this; do you feel that burning pages of the Koran normal acceptable practice? Would you feel the same way, if some Muslim took a page out of the Christian Bible and began burning it? How about the Tanakh, the Torah, or The ?umash, the Siddur, the Piyutim or even the Zohar?

The point I am trying to make here is this; I realize that radicalized Muslims attacked the World Trade Center, The Pentagon and Flight 93. However, when you punish an entire religion for the actions of a few, you are practicing a forum of collectivism. That is not anything remotely Conservative, nor is it anything remotely American. Being vigilant against terrorism is one thing; but being idiotic is another, this situation with this Mosque is well beyond that — on both sides.

Update: On the Other hand… these are videos from 9/11:

There are two sides to every argument; one would suppose. There is also this here.

Video: Is this is the future of America in 5 or 10 years?

Posted onSeptember 11, 2010September 11, 2010

(H/T to Richard Spencer of Alternative Right)

I think it’s time we got real; before we lose everything.

The Obligatory Obama will not extend Bush Tax Cuts Posting

Posted onSeptember 8, 2010September 8, 2010

Well, duh, he is a liberal and a Democrat. He does believe in class warfare. Remember you Republicans and Libertarians that voted for him. (You know who you are…)

Via the NYT:

WASHINGTON — President Obama on Wednesday will make clear that he opposes any compromise that would extend the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy beyond this year, officials said, adding a populist twist to an election-season economic package that is otherwise designed to entice support from big businesses and their Republican allies.
Mr. Obama’s opposition to allowing the high-end tax cuts to remain in place for even another year or two would be the signal many Congressional Democrats have been awaiting as they prepare for a showdown with Republicans on the issue and ends speculation that the White House might be open to an extension. Democrats say only the president can rally wavering lawmakers who, amid the party’s weakened poll numbers, feel increasingly vulnerable to Republican attacks if they let the top rates lapse at the end of this year as scheduled.
It is not clear that Mr. Obama can prevail given his own diminished popularity, the tepid economic recovery and the divisions within his party. But by proposing to extend the rates for the 98 percent of households with income below $250,000 for couples and $200,000 for individuals — and insisting that federal income tax rates in 2011 go back to their pre-2001 levels for income above those cutoffs — he intends to cast the issue as a choice between supporting the middle class or giving breaks to the wealthy.
In a speech in Cleveland on Wednesday, Mr. Obama will also make a case for the package of roughly $180 billion in expanded business tax cuts and infrastructure spending disclosed by the White House in bits and pieces over the past few days. He would offset the cost by closing other tax breaks for multinational corporations, oil and gas companies and others.
While the speech will be centrist in its policy prescriptions other than the Bush tax cuts, Mr. Obama’s language will be partisan as he seeks to sharpen the contrasts between Republicans’ record and efforts by Democrats to create more jobs, aides said.

As much as I would like to jump up, holler and raise a fuss about this; I cannot. We all knew that this was coming. This should be a lesson to the Republican Party. That is, do not run weak or moderate Conservatives during elections. Because when you do; Conservatives, and I mean hardcore Conservatives will not vote — and this is what you get. I know that I, personally, will not be affected by this; neither will my family.

However, I am sure that there will be some families affected by this — not to mention a myriad of business owners out there. This will, I am sure, cause a downtown in hiring by businesses; which will add to the huge downturn in the economy. It is all a domino effect, starts at the top and goes to the bottom.

Another thing to think about; we do have to eventually pay for these two wars. I believe that those who profited off of both of these wars ought to be targeted for taxing. I believe that a special “War Tax”, ought to be appended to anyone making over $500.000 or more a year. I would target multinational companies, like oil companies and so forth. Especially those in Iraq. Perhaps next time, the warmongering class will not be so eager to start a war next time. This taxing would reinforce the idea that those wanting said war, should they actually have to pay for it. Foreign Policy has a price tag; and those who want follow Woodrow Wilson’s steps, should be required to pay that price tag.

Memorandum Thread.

Want Living Proof that Nation-Building does not work?

Posted onSeptember 8, 2010September 8, 20101 Comment

Here you go, a video of New York Times reporter John Burns, who, by the way, was the best person covering the Iraq War.

The Video: (H/T HotAir.com)

Ed Morrissey makes a very important point:

On Iraq, it’s hard to see how Obama could have improved the situation. He followed the SOFA pact that George W. Bush negotiated with Nouri al-Maliki, and the Iraqi government made it clear they wanted us to stick to that schedule. If the Iraqis want us out entirely by the end of next year, we have little choice but to comply; to do otherwise would be a de facto reoccupation that will not fly well here at home or abroad. However, I’d say it’s entirely likely that Baghdad will rethink that final phase and ask us to remain for logistics, training, and air and sea protection for the next several years, and then the question will be whether Obama will agree to it or insist on a full withdrawal, even if it means the collapse of the nascent democracy in Iraq.
Afghanistan is a different problem, but one with potentially the same result. Obama owns Afghanistan more than he does Iraq, having made the decision himself to add more troops and get more aggressive, which means a failure there can’t be left on the doorstep of his predecessor. If Obama starts withdrawing from both fronts as they deteriorate, he will at least be the man who lost Afghanistan, if not Iraq as well, just as he has to prepare to convince Americans to give him another four years as Commander-in-Chief. For that reason, I doubt we’ll see a significant drawdown in either theater, and Obama will just have to remind the Left that they have nowhere else to go in 2012.

Ever notice how Neo-Conservatives will never say Bush screwed up with Iraq, at all? They will never admit, that there was an intelligence error — never. That is what Party loyalty does to a person.

Anyhow, some good reading about Nation-Building over at The American Conservative:

“Nation-building is the most prominent — and most important — part of the neocon doctrine,” wrote Jed Babbin in the American Spectator. “And the decision to pursue it is the principal reason that we are losing in Afghanistan, Iraq is falling apart, and the real enemy — the terror-sponsoring nations — have grown stronger.”
None of these writers can accurately be described as a budding noninterventionist. But most conservatives who opposed the Iraq War from the beginning and favored no more than a limited mission in Afghanistan can agree with them on the following: neither Islam nor foreign lands can easily be reformed by either bureaucrats or the force or the force of arms; our interventions have produced something closer to sharia states than Switzerland’s; Iran is now more powerful in the region rather than less.
There have l0ng been three main foreign-policy tendencies on the American Right: old-style conservatives who agree with Randolph Bourne that war is the health of the state and therefore favor less military intervention abroad; neoconservatives who want to preserve the United States’ global hegemony and engage in armed proselytizing for democracy; and defense-minded conservatives who believe the U.S. should strike forcefully at its enemies whenever it perceives itself, its interests, or its allies to be threatened.
Roughly speaking, these groups can be described as the Jeffersonians, the Wilsonians, and the Jacksonians. Among rank-and-file conservatives, the Jacksonians are by far the largest group. In the postwar era, the Jacksonians have tended to align with the Wilsonians. But there is no reason why that conjunction is inevitable.
With the exception of Ron Paul and some Ron Paul Republicans, the Jeffersonians have no major political figure to speak for them. Yet the popularity of the Wilsonians was always greatly exaggerated. The invasion of Iraq and the mass conservative acceptance of the Bush Doctrine were made possible by al-Qaeda’s act of mass murder on 9/11.
Throughout the 1990s, Wilsonian neoconservatives called for regime change in Iraq, but they did not succeed in rallying the grassroots Right to the cause. The conservative base tuned out the PNAC crowd. Millions of conservatives voted for Pat Buchanan, who opposed even the first war with Iraq, in the 1992 and 1996 Republican presidential primaries—even as neoconservative commentators were writing essays attempting to purge Buchanan from conservative movement.
Grassroots conservatives were repulsed by American bloodshed during our humanitarian intervention in Somalia. They opposed using our armed forces to deliver groceries to Third World countries and restoring a dubious left-wing character to power in Haiti. They objected to the bombing of Serbia and canceled their subscriptions to the Weekly Standard when that magazine sided with the Clinton administration on military action in the Balkans.
The years after 9/11 were a Jacksonian moment hijacked by neoconservatives. While most American conservatives liked the idea that the we could increase others’ freedom by defending our own against despots overseas, very few of them wanted to go to war to build schools in Iraq or promote democracy. They wanted to pay back the people who murdered their countrymen and make sure that such an attack never happened again.
They trusted that George W. Bush was the man for the job and were patient when he talked about lighting a fire in the minds of men. But ordinary conservatives nevertheless agreed with the following sentiment expressed by John Derbyshire: “What matters most is not the fire in the minds of men, which will burn at some level for as long as there are men, but the fire that results when fissionable material undergoes a fast chain reaction.”

You see the problem is that the very same people that stood behind George W. Bush and cheered him, as he charged off to war in Iraq and Afghanistan; are the same one who stand and in unison blame President Obama for any failures for the war in both Countries. The truth is that President Obama DID inherit BOTH of these wars for President Bush and it is because of utter incompetence of the Pentagon and State Department under President Bush, not to mention the entire intelligence community, is why we are in this mess in the first place!

So, instead of being noble and honest men, and admitting that they actually made mistakes, one being electing a President that was about as Conservative, as I am damned atheist; they would rather navel graze the whole thing and try and deflect the blame onto the Democrats, as much as they possibly can. The problem is with that little idiotic plan is this; thinking Americans, like this writer are just smarter than that, we know what happened and we know who was responsible for the actions of the President. I am fully aware of who goaded the President into declaring war with Iraq. I have no forgotten and neither have the American people. This is, one of a myriad of reasons, why John McCain lost the election. Because the American people did not want someone, who would take marching orders from the Neo-Conservatives.

So far, Obama has been showing his independence of the warmongering class in the Republican Party. Thankfully, under Michael Steele the warmongering class have been pushed aside; which is why people like William Kristol want him to resign so badly, that being because Michael Steele will not march to their orders and is expressing his own views, and not those who wish the United States to fight a perpetual war. I commend Michael Steele for that.

Another thing I think I need to be clear on; as you know, I did post a video, that was a warning to America. Some would look at that and say, “Are you not talking about of both sides of your mouth?” to that I would say no. That is because that video essentially validates what I have believed all along; that the notion of, “We must fight the terrorists there, so we do not have to fight them here” is idiotic at best. That is because there are radical Islamic terrorists that are already here now! That video proves as much. My personal issue with George W. Bush was not with fighting terrorism, which he began in Afghanistan. He however, was goaded by the warmongering class in the Republican Party to go to war with Iraq, which, for what it is worth, is what this class of people wanted to do during the Clinton years, but was rebuffed repeatedly. This caused, I feel, a distraction, as those who planned had this strange idea, that the invasion would be a cakewalk. I believe it would be understood that we all know now that this was a very flawed idea.

Much of what I said above, would be considered, what I like to call, “rearview mirror quarterbacking.” We all know this now, the problem is, where do he go from here? The best thing that can happen is Obama follow through with his promises to follow Bush’s pull out timetable in Iraq. We cannot continue to be the World’s police officer. If Iraq has an upheaval over there, let them. We did our part over there; we rooted the major player in the insurgency. We toppled Saddam. What happens after we have left is not our concern. As for Afghanistan, if we can catch or kill Osama Bin Laden, fine do so. However, if the Afghan Government and the Pakistani Government is that corrupt and does not want to be partner against the war on terror. I say cut our losses and pull out the troops and leave. Then send in specialized CIA assassins in there to hunt Osama Bin Laden down and kill him that way. I just do not see the justification for our Military personnel dying for a Government that is corrupt to its core. It just does not make any sort of sense to me at all.

Bottom Line: President Obama should not be blame for any of the failures of any of these wars. The President who started them should be blamed. President Obama should continue the turnkey plan given him by Bush, and should implement a better strategy in the Afghan theater. If the Governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan will not work with the United States on the capture or killing of Osama Bin Laden, then President should use the CIA to kill him.

Memo to Yahoo.com: Stop allowing your employees to leave stupid comments on my Blog

Posted onSeptember 7, 2010September 7, 2010

You know, I do not normally bring crap like this up. But this is just straight up crap:

Look what landed in my Moderation Que Earlier:

Author : Not Likely (IP: 209.131.62.113 , nat-dip4.cfw-a-gci.corp.yahoo.com)
E-mail : no@thanks.com
URL :
Whois : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=209.131.62.113
Comment:
You ought to be in trouble for butchering the English language in addition to your shallow-minded religious and political views.

I did a trace route of the IP address, and here’s what I got:

Tracing route to nat-dip4.cfw-a-gci.corp.yahoo.com [209.131.62.113]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.2.1
2 6 ms 1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
3 6 ms 10 ms 8 ms [snipped for my safety….]
4 8 ms 9 ms 7 ms ge-2-30-ur02.southgate.mi.michigan.comcast.net [68.85.49.193]
5 9 ms 28 ms 10 ms te-9-2-ur02.woodhaven.mi.michigan.comcast.net [68.87.190.181]
6 8 ms 12 ms 9 ms te-9-2-ur02.rockwood.mi.michigan.comcast.net [68.87.190.177]
7 9 ms 9 ms 9 ms te-9-2-ur02.monroe.mi.michigan.comcast.net [68.87.190.173]
8 13 ms 12 ms 12 ms te-0-4-0-2-ar01.taylor.mi.michigan.comcast.net [68.87.190.169]
9 23 ms 21 ms 15 ms be-10-ar01.pontiac.mi.michigan.comcast.net [68.85.235.206]
10 27 ms 31 ms 31 ms pos-3-3-0-0-cr01.chicago.il.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.90.109]
11 72 ms 28 ms 92 ms xe-9-2-0.edge1.Chicago2.Level3.net [4.71.248.25]
12 56 ms 27 ms 36 ms vlan51.ebr1.Chicago2.Level3.net [4.69.138.158]
13 52 ms 55 ms 54 ms ae-3-3.ebr2.Denver1.Level3.net [4.69.132.61]
14 53 ms 54 ms 69 ms ae-1-100.ebr1.Denver1.Level3.net [4.69.132.37]
15 92 ms 89 ms 89 ms ae-3-3.ebr2.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.69.132.57]
16 94 ms * * ae-92-92.csw4.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.69.134.222]
17 88 ms 89 ms 87 ms ae-41-99.car1.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.68.18.195]
18 94 ms 91 ms 93 ms YAHOO-INC-2.car1.SanJose1.Level3.net [64.152.64.2]
19 * * * Request timed out.
20 * * * Request timed out.
21 * * * Request timed out.
22 * * * Request timed out.
23 * * * Request timed out.
24 * * * Request timed out.
25 * * * Request timed out.
26 * * * Request timed out.
27 * * * Request timed out.
28 * * * Request timed out.
29 * * * Request timed out.
30 * * * Request timed out.
Trace complete.
C:\>

Look up info:

#
# Query terms are ambiguous. The query is assumed to be:
# “n + 209.131.62.0”
#
# Use “?” to get help.
#
#
# The following results may also be obtained via:
# http://whois.arin.net/rest/nets;q=209.131.62.0?showDetails=true&showARIN=false
#
NetRange: 209.131.32.0 – 209.131.63.255
CIDR: 209.131.32.0/19
OriginAS:
NetName: FC-YAHOO1
NetHandle: NET-209-131-32-0-1
Parent: NET-209-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Allocation
NameServer: NS2.YAHOO.COM
NameServer: NS1.YAHOO.COM
NameServer: NS5.YAHOO.COM
NameServer: NS4.YAHOO.COM
NameServer: NS3.YAHOO.COM
RegDate: 1999-07-09
Updated: 2005-08-25
Ref: http://whois.arin.net/rest/net/NET-209-131-32-0-1
OrgName: Yahoo! Inc.
OrgId: YHOO
Address: 701 First Ave
City: Sunnyvale
StateProv: CA
PostalCode: 94089
Country: US
RegDate: 2000-10-23
Updated: 2009-05-18
Ref: http://whois.arin.net/rest/org/YHOO
OrgTechHandle: NA258-ARIN
OrgTechName: Netblock Admin
OrgTechPhone: +1-408-349-3300
OrgTechEmail: abechtel@inktomi.com
OrgTechRef: http://whois.arin.net/rest/poc/NA258-ARIN
OrgAbuseHandle: NETWO857-ARIN
OrgAbuseName: Network Abuse
OrgAbusePhone: +1-408-349-3300
OrgAbuseEmail: network-abuse@cc.yahoo-inc.com
OrgAbuseRef: http://whois.arin.net/rest/poc/NETWO857-ARIN
RAbuseHandle: NETWO857-ARIN
RAbuseName: Network Abuse
RAbusePhone: +1-408-349-3300
RAbuseEmail: network-abuse@cc.yahoo-inc.com
RAbuseRef: http://whois.arin.net/rest/poc/NETWO857-ARIN

I just wonder, if Yahoo.com approves of such behavior by their employees on company time. I will be sending a link of this posting to yahoo corporate and let everyone know if their response. This is just straight up wrong; and I wonder if yahoo does endorse terrorism? It sure seems that way to me. It might also explain why Yahoo is now all but overlooked by the majority of America over Google.com.

He writes another:

Author : Not Likely (IP: 209.131.62.113 , nat-dip4.cfw-a-gci.corp.yahoo.com)
E-mail : no@thanks.com
URL :
Whois : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=209.131.62.113
Comment:
You aren’t even capable of understanding your own commenter’s sarcasm. Find a new hobby. I’d suggest one that doesn’t involve setting down your befuddled musings in text.

That’s fine buddy, you keep leaving those little pud messages and I will keep posting them here and will forward them to yahoo corporate.

Remember this folks come 2010 and 2012, how tolerant liberals are, except when it violates their ideology.

UPDATED: Is Fidel Castro sincere or attempting to win favor with America?

Posted onSeptember 7, 2010September 7, 2010

This is the first thing that went through my mind when I read this article.

I am, of course, referring to the piece by Jeffrey Goldberg in the Atlantic:

A couple of weeks ago, while I was on vacation, my cell phone rang; it was Jorge Bolanos, the head of the Cuban Interest Section (we of course don’t have diplomatic relations with Cuba) in Washington. “I have a message for you from Fidel,” he said. This made me sit up straight. “He has read your Atlantic article about Iran and Israel. He invites you to Havana on Sunday to discuss the article.” I am always eager, of course, to interact with readers of The Atlantic, so I called a friend at the Council on Foreign Relations, Julia Sweig, who is a preeminent expert on Cuba and Latin America: “Road trip,” I said.
I quickly departed the People’s Republic of Martha’s Vineyard for Fidel’s more tropical socialist island paradise. Despite the self-defeating American ban on travel to Cuba, both Julia and I, as journalists and researchers, qualified for a State Department exemption. The charter flight from Miami was bursting with Cuban-Americans carrying flat-screen televisions and computers for their technologically-bereft families. Fifty minutes after take-off, we arrived at the mostly-empty Jose Marti International Airport. Fidel’s people met us on the tarmac (despite giving up his formal role as commandante en jefe after falling ill several years ago, Fidel still has many people). We were soon deposited at a “protocol house” in a government compound whose architecture reminded me of the gated communities of Boca Raton. The only other guest in this vast enclosure was the president of Guinea-Bissau.

Now getting down to the meat of the matter:

He said the Iranian government should understand the consequences of theological anti-Semitism. “This went on for maybe two thousand years,” he said. “I don’t think anyone has been slandered more than the Jews. I would say much more than the Muslims. They have been slandered much more than the Muslims because they are blamed and slandered for everything. No one blames the Muslims for anything.” The Iranian government should understand that the Jews “were expelled from their land, persecuted and mistreated all over the world, as the ones who killed God. In my judgment here’s what happened to them: Reverse selection. What’s reverse selection? Over 2,000 years they were subjected to terrible persecution and then to the pogroms. One might have assumed that they would have disappeared; I think their culture and religion kept them together as a nation.” He continued: “The Jews have lived an existence that is much harder than ours. There is nothing that compares to the Holocaust.” I asked him if he would tell Ahmadinejad what he was telling me. “I am saying this so you can communicate it,” he answered.
[….]

We returned repeatedly in this first conversation to Castro’s fear that a confrontation between the West and Iran could escalate into a nuclear conflict. “The Iranian capacity to inflict damage is not appreciated,” he said. “Men think they can control themselves but Obama could overreact and a gradual escalation could become a nuclear war.” I asked him if this fear was informed by his own experiences during the 1962 missile crisis, when the Soviet Union and the U.S. nearly went to war other over the presence of nuclear-tipped missiles in Cuba (missiles installed at the invitation, of course, of Fidel Castro). I mentioned to Castro the letter he wrote to Khruschev, the Soviet premier, at the height of the crisis, in which he recommended that the Soviets consider launching a nuclear strike against the U.S. if the Americans attack Cuba. “That would be the time to think about liquidating such a danger forever through a legal right of self-defense,” Castro wrote at the time.
I asked him, “At a certain point it seemed logical for you to recommend that the Soviets bomb the U.S. Does what you recommended still seem logical now?” He answered: “After I’ve seen what I’ve seen, and knowing what I know now, it wasn’t worth it all.”
I was surprised to hear Castro express such doubts about his own behavior in the missile crisis – and I was, I admit, also surprised to hear him express such sympathy for Jews, and for Israel’s right to exist (which he endorsed unequivocally).
After this first meeting, I asked Julia to explain the meaning of Castro’s invitation to me, and of his message to Ahmadinejad. “Fidel is at an early stage of reinventing himself as a senior statesman, not as head of state, on the domestic stage, but primarily on the international stage, which has always been a priority for him,” she said. “Matters of war, peace and international security are a central focus: Nuclear proliferation climate change, these are the major issues for him, and he’s really just getting started, using any potential media platform to communicate his views. He has time on his hands now that he didn’t expect to have. And he’s revisiting history, and revisiting his own history.”

Some, including those who fled Cuba for the freedom of America, would say that Castro is trying to REVISE his own history; but I digress. Anyhow, this strikes me as an attempt by Fidel Castro to earn favor within the United States, in a very lame attempt to get relations normalized with the United States. This is to get trade sanctions lifted, so Cuba’s people will not be starving any longer.

Now, do I think that this will work? No. I do not. President Barack Obama might be many things; A Democrat, A Liberal, and some would say a Socialist. However, he is not a fool. It would be political suicide for him to even think about normalizing relations with a communist Government like Cuba. That is especially with his poll numbers as low as they are. This soul searching is just an attempt to re-brand Castro in his older years. I am certainly not foolish enough to buy this little dog and pony show and I am sure no one in Washington will be either.

Others: Pajamas Media

UPDATE: The Shark Tank sends me this via twitter: Is Fidel Castro’s Political Influence Tied to Democrat Joe Garcia?

UPDATED: I know Michael Moore is an idiot, but this is Awesome

Posted onSeptember 7, 2010September 7, 2010

I have to respect the man for going after the Obama Administration like this here:

(WARNING THE ARTICLE I AM ABOUT TO QUOTE HAS SOME SERIOUS LANGUAGE IN IT, IF YOU ARE EASILY OFFENDED, DO NOT PROCEED BEYOND THIS POINT!)

Further more, if you happen to be one of those type of people that believe that Unions are inherently evil, you might want to stop here. Least your head explode…

The obligatory President Barack Obama flings 50 billion out the window to save America posting

Posted onSeptember 7, 2010September 7, 2010

Can you tell that I am tired of writing about this stuff, I’m getting there…:

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (AFP) – US President Barack Obama Monday promised more than 50 billion dollars to create jobs rebuilding roads, railways and airports, targeting huge unemployment and ripping resurgent Republicans.
Obama, under intense pressure due to the sputtering economy ahead of November’s mid-term congressional elections, announced the new funding spree at a Labor Day rally with union workers in Wisconsin where the crisis has hit hard.

“This will not only create jobs immediately, but will make our economy run better over the long haul,” Obama said on a public holiday two months before congressional polls which Democrats fear could bring heavy losses.
“It’s a plan that says even in the aftermath of the worst recession in our lifetimes, America can still shape our own destiny.”
The White House called on Republicans to support quick passage of the measure, which would “front-load” 50 billion dollars of money as the first part of a broader effort to reauthorize transportation funding over six years.
“We’d like to pass this as quickly as possible,” a senior administration official said. The size of the total package, over and above the initial 50 billion dollar infusion of funding, was unclear.
via As Democrats fear rout, Obama launches new jobs push – Yahoo! News.

Of course, the Republicans are the ones being the evil white racists the grown up realists here:

Opposition Republicans, seeking to wrest control of both chambers in Congress from Democrats, immediately condemned Obama’s plan, signaling no let up to obstruction tactics which have slowed his presidency.
“A last-minute, cobbled-together stimulus bill with more than 50 billion dollars in new tax hikes will not reverse the complete lack of confidence Americans have in Washington Democrats’ ability to help this economy,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
John Boehner, the top Republican in the House of Representatives, sought to link the new plan to Obama’s previous stimulus package worth around 800 billion dollars, which critics say has failed to revive the economy.
“If we’ve learned anything from the past 18 months, it’s that we can’t spend our way to prosperity,” said Boehner.

This is why I do like two party politics. Because one party does equalize out the other party. What gets me is the fact that Obama accuses the Republicans of wrecking the car and that Americans should not “Give them back the keys.” The problem with that is this; and Yes, I have written this before, the Republicans seem to have learned the error of their ways. Where, the Democrats have not. They have taken that same car and driven it over a cliff and are not still trying to drive that mangled car. The sick part is, everyone else knows that car is wrecked and no longer drivable. But the Democrats are willfully blind of that fact and keep on trying to drive that same wrecked car. I know, it is a bit of a weird analogy, but it works in this case.

The Bottom Line: Obama and Democrats are in trouble, grave trouble and they are trying every trick in the book. They pushed healthcare, when America needed Economic recovery, and yes, Jobs. Now, they are trying to save face. Will it work? Doubtful. Many are angry and feel that Obama lied to them or told them anything to get elected. This angry will come out in the polls. Personally, I see a shift, but I do not believe it will be a huge sweep as some do. However, it will be interesting to blog about. I cannot wait. 😀

If you have ever wondered why I dislike Sarah Palin and Ron Paul

Posted onSeptember 6, 2010September 6, 2010

Here is something to read to help you understand.

Click here, please.

That is all….

Chris Muir over at Day by Day knocks one out of ballpark!

Posted onSeptember 5, 2010

Via Day by Day Cartoon:

Excellent one, Chris. Keep it up!

Oh really?: “Reverend” Al “Interloper” Sharpton says that Alabama State Senate District is “Heir Property” for African-Americans

Posted onSeptember 5, 2010September 5, 2010

Video:

The Story via Freedom’s Lighthouse, A pretty snazzy looking site, by the way. :

Here is Naked Emperor News video of the Rev. Al Sharpton speaking at a rally in Alabama back in July in which he essentially said African-American candidate Johnny Ford should win his State Senate Primary runoff against a white candidate – Billy Beasley – because the district is “heir property” to African-Americans.
Sharpton, for all his talk of wanting equality, actually uses “race” as a cottage industry for himself. It is impossible to square these comments with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream that people would someday be “judged by the content of their character” and not the “color of their skin.”

Here is the real funny part:

The voters did not agree with Sharpton. Beasley defeated Ford in the Democratic Primary runoff for the District 28 State Senate Seat by getting 62% of the vote.

Heh. So much for that entitlement to the State Senate in Alabama, aye Sharpton?

From the comments section over at Freedom’s Lighthouse:

Your heir property is in Africa.

In-Farking-deed! I always hear Blacks; all liberals of course, trashing America and complaining about how they are always oppressed by the White Man. I have one thing to say to them —- you can always go back where you originated from and live there and see how well you live. However, when someone does that; they are automatically called RAAAAACIST!

I am sure there is a particular Pony-tailed Homosexual that is about go into meltdown, because of this post right about now. Right Bob? Right.

Yes, that is right, I am one of those!

Er, um, I mean, a Son-of-a-bitch, I mean. 😛

UPDATED: Memo to Fareed Zakaria: Overreact this you jackwad twit

Posted onSeptember 4, 2010September 5, 20104 Comments

Speaking of stupidity….

Via this Nimrod:

I do not minimize Al Qaeda’s intentions, which are barbaric. I question its capabilities. In every recent conflict, the United States has been right about the evil intentions of its adversaries but massively exaggerated their strength. In the 1980s, we thought the Soviet Union was expanding its power and influence when it was on the verge of economic and political bankruptcy. In the 1990s, we were certain that Saddam Hussein had a nuclear arsenal. In fact, his factories could barely make soap…
Some 30,000 people are now employed exclusively to listen in on phone conversations and other communications in the United States. And yet no one in Army intelligence noticed that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan had been making a series of strange threats at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he trained. The father of the Nigerian “Christmas bomber” reported his son’s radicalism to the U.S. Embassy. But that message never made its way to the right people in this vast security apparatus. The plot was foiled only by the bomber’s own incompetence and some alert passengers.

Such mistakes might be excusable. But the rise of this national-security state has entailed a vast expansion in the government’s powers that now touches every aspect of American life, even when seemingly unrelated to terrorism.

No, you nimrod, terrorist-supporting, idiot. We did not overreact. We had information that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. We acted on it. Yes, the intelligence was bad. So what? It happens. The truth is, once we weeded out the jack-wads, who did not know shit from shinola about running a fucking war; (Hello Rummy!) we were able to stabilize that Country and put leadership in there, that did not terrorize it’s own people.

So, yes, Iraq WAS worth it; and no we did NOT overreact.

Further more, once we break the back of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, it too will be worth it as well! People will die; that is the price you pay, when you fight a god-damned war. But in the end, when Afghanistan is free and clear of Al-Qaeda and their radical Muslim idiotic nonsense, it will be worth it.

I apologize in advance for the harsh tone of this posting. But I am about god-damned tired of these terrorist-appeasing, asshole, liberal retards telling me, that going to war against terrorists is not worth the god-damned hassle. Anytime, that the United States of America goes on the defensive, and also on the offensive, in the name of liberty and freedom, it is ALWAYS worth it! It was worth it in Germany, It was worth it in Japan, It was worth it in Korea, it was worth it in Grenada AND it was worth it in Iraq too, both god-damned times — and once the job is done in Afghanistan, it will be worth it there too.

So, on the behalf of all the Soldiers —- American and Coalition; both who died and especially those who came back in one piece and even those who did not — to Mr. Fareed Zakaria I say:

SHUT THE HELL UP!

That is all…..

Update: I suppose that I should explain something here. The reason why this article provoked such a strong reaction out of me is this; I watched 9/11 unfold on TV. At the time I was a CNN watcher. All of it played out in front of me. I remember being paralyzed with fear, when the report came out, that there was a plane headed to the White House. Watching those buildings fall and seeing those images over and over and over; drove me into one of the worst depressions, that I have ever experienced. It, honestly, took me about 2 good years to get over that stuff. It took much prayer and some good old fashioned Bible reading to pull me out of that mess. Al-Qaeda caused that; and for that, I want them to pay, and pay dearly. Now you understand why it is, that I feel the way that I do.

Update #2: ….and of course, some terrorist supporting asshole links here; talking out his ass, as always. 🙄

Oops: President Obama gets it wrong on the carpet

Posted onSeptember 4, 2010September 4, 20106 Comments

Doggone. That man cannot do anything right, at all. WOW! 😯

Update: I do believe that the President is worthy of this:

and this:

Via the Washington Post: (…..of all people!!! 😯 )

A mistake has been made in the Oval Office makeover that goes beyond the beige.
President Obama’s new presidential rug seemed beyond reproach, with quotations from Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. woven along its curved edge.
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” According media reports, this quote keeping Obama company on his wheat-colored carpet is from King.
Except it’s not a King quote. The words belong to a long-gone Bostonian champion of social progress. His roots in the republic ran so deep that his grandfather commanded the Minutemen at the Battle of Lexington.
For the record, Theodore Parker is your man, President Obama. Unless you’re fascinated by antebellum American reformers, you may not know of the lyrically gifted Parker, an abolitionist, Unitarian minister and Transcendentalist thinker who foresaw the end of slavery, though he did not live to see emancipation. He died at age 49 in 1860, on the eve of the Civil War.
A century later, during the civil rights movement, King, an admirer of Parker, quoted the Bostonian’s lofty prophecy during marches and speeches. Often he’d ask in a refrain, “How long? Not long.” He would finish in a flourish: “Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
[…]
Parker said in 1853: “I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one. . . . But from what I see I am sure it bends toward justice.”
The president is at minimum well-served by Parker’s presence in the room. Parker embodied the early 19th-century reformer’s passionate zeal for taking on several social causes at once. Many of these reformers were Unitarians or Quakers; some were

"D'oh!"
Transcendentalists. Most courageously, as early as the 1830s, they opposed the laws on slavery and eventually harbored fugitives in the Underground Railroad network of safe houses. Without 30 years of a movement agitating and petitioning for slave emancipation, Lincoln could not have ended slavery with the stroke of a pen in the midst of war. Parker was in the vanguard that laid the social and intellectual groundwork.
The familiar quote from Lincoln woven into Obama’s rug is “government of the people, by the people and for the people,” the well-known utterance from the close of his Gettysburg Address in 1863.
Funny that in 1850, Parker wrote, “A democracy — that is a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people.”
Theodore Parker, Oval Office wordmeister for the ages.

I will not take the harsh slams that the other Bloggers on the right are doing. But, man, that is such a stupid screw up.

However, when you have amateur politicians in the White House; one can only expect so much. Just as well, Sarah Palin, being quite the amateur herself could have made the same mistake.

Others: : JustOneMinute, Gateway Pundit, Freedom’s Lighthouse, American Thinker and Outside the Beltway

It is amazing what terrible economy will do to a Democrat President

Posted onSeptember 3, 2010September 3, 20101 Comment

If there is any truth to this; it can turn the most rabid Democrat into a Republican, real quick:

Administration officials have struggled to develop new economic policies and an effective message to blunt expected Republican gains in Congress and defuse complaints from Democrats that President Obama is fumbling the issue most important to voters. Following Obama’s vacation and focus on foreign policy in recent weeks, White House advisers have arranged a series of economic events for the president next week, including two trips to swing states and a news conference.
“We’ll continue to do everything we can, understanding that recovery will require persistent effort. There are no silver bullets,” senior Obama adviser David Axelrod said in an interview Thursday. “At the same time, we have to make clear our ideas and theirs, and the fact that the Washington Republicans, having helped create this recession, have attempted to block our every effort to deal with it.”
But with the unemployment rate expected to rise again in jobs numbers due out Friday, panic is setting in among many Democratic candidates who fear it is too late for Obama to convince voters that he understands the depth of the nation’s economic woes and can fix them.
[….]
Last November, Obama announced that he would turn his attention to unemployment, calling it “one of the great challenges that remains in our economy.” He declared the same intent two months later, telling House Democrats he would focus relentlessly on job creation “over the next several months.” Senior aides went on television pledging that the mantra would become “jobs, jobs, jobs.”
But other matters – health care, the BP oil spill – continually stole the limelight, creating the impression, some Democrats complain, that the president was barely focused on the economy at all.
His advisers described his attentiveness – noting, for example, that he discussed the economy with New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I) for 15 minutes before golfing – but got little traction.
“Obviously it’s going to be hard to get anything done before the election, but it’s really important for him to try, and to make the case to the American people that he’s trying to do something and the Republicans aren’t letting him,” said Steve Elmendorf, a Democratic strategist. “We are at the final moments here.”
Obama has another incentive to act: Tax cuts enacted during the George W. Bush administration are scheduled to expire in January, and Democrats – accused by Republicans of plotting to let them vanish – feel compelled to do something before the midterms.
Obama campaigned on a pledge to let cuts expire for the richest 2 percent of households, but some Democrats say the economy is too weak to raise anyone’s taxes right now. And they fear a backlash from small-business owners who could be hit with higher taxes.
Pairing targeted business tax breaks with an extension of middle-class tax cuts could help alleviate those problems.

This article alone, ought to be a lesson for any Democrat thinking about running for office. That raising Taxes in a recession, just does not work. Only tax breaks for the wealthy and making the business climate more healthy will help. Also cutting spending is another way to bring down inflation. This article alone, should be a text book example of why Keynesian Economics does not work in a recession, at all. If you tax businesses to death, you spur growth, if you spur growth, jobs disappear — it is a vicious cycle. Democrats have been making these same stupid mistakes for years.

Which is why we need to vote them out, come November of 2010. Especially here in Michigan, where job growth is desperately needed.

Another Gulf Oil Rig blows up and the Blogosphere collectively loses its mind

Posted onSeptember 2, 2010September 2, 2010

It is another one of them moments when the political blogging world goes ape, over something that is not nearly as bad, as everyone thinks.

The AP has the story:

NEW ORLEANS – An oil platform exploded and burned off the Louisiana coast Thursday, the second such disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in less than five months. This time, the Coast Guard said there was no leak, and no one was killed.
The Coast Guard initially reported that an oil sheen a mile long and 100 feet wide had begun to spread from the site of the blast, about 200 miles west of the source of BP’s massive spill. But hours later, Coast Guard Cmdr. Cheri Ben-Iesau said crews were unable to find any spill.
The company that owns the platform, Houston-based Mariner Energy, did not know what caused the fire. Mariner Energy’s Patrick Cassidy said he considered the incident a fire, not an explosion.
“The platform is still intact and it was just a small portion of the platform that appears to be burned,” he said.
Mariner officials said there were seven active production wells on the platform, and they were shut down shortly before the fire broke out.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said the company told him the fire began in 100 barrels of light oil condensate.
The Coast Guard said Mariner Energy reported the oil sheen. In a public statement, the company said an initial flyover did not show any oil.
Photos from the scene showed at least five ships floating near the platform. Three of them were shooting great plumes of water onto the machinery. Light smoke could be seen drifting across the deep blue waters of the gulf.
By late afternoon, the fire on the platform was out.

Of course, the political carnival barkers on both sides, were in full force. You can read that round up here.