U.S. Flag Stays On Top - Or Not At All

I applaud this Veteran for doing this. The bar owner had already been told that the American Flag goes on top. He chose to leave it flying under the Mexican Flag.

Why doesn't the owner of the bar take a step back for a moment and consider if he was back in Mexico. Would he want to drive around Mexico and see the American flag flying on top of the Mexican flag? Hell no he wouldn't. If you can't show the proper respect for the American flag, then you shouldn't fly it.

f the bar owner believes the American flag should be on the bottom, then he should move his butt back to Mexico and pronto. Rees

Absolute Must Read: Romney Says Obama Has Been A Timid Advocate of Freedom

President Obama has failed his early foreign-policy tests.
By Mitt Romney
from The National Review
April 21, 2009

At last week’s Summit of the Americas, President Obama acquiesced to a 50-minute attack on America as terroristic, expansionist, and interventionist from Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega. His response to Ortega’s denunciation of our effort to free Cuba from Castro’s dictatorship was that he shouldn’t be blamed “for things that happened when I was three months old.” Blamed? Hundreds of men, including Americans, bravely fought and died for Cuba’s freedom, heeding the call from newly elected president John F. Kennedy. But last week, even as American soldiers sacrificed blood in Afghanistan and Iraq to defend liberty, President Obama shrank from defending liberty here in the Americas.

In his first press interview as president, he confessed to Arabic television that America had “dictated” to other nations. No, Mr. President, America has fought to free other nations from dictators. And in Strasbourg, the president further claimed that America has “showed arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive.” London’s Daily Telegraph observed that President Obama “went further than any United States president in history in criticizing his own country’s action while standing on foreign soil.” Of course, it was not just the Daily Telegraph that was listening: People around the world who yearn for freedom, who count on America’s resolve and support, heard him as well. He was heard in China, in Tibet, in Sudan, in Burma, and, yes, in Cuba.

The words spoken by the leader of the free world can expand the frontiers of freedom or shrink them. When Ronald Reagan called on Gorbachev to “tear down this wall,” a surge of confidence rose that would ultimately breach the bounds of the evil empire. It was the same confidence that had been ignited decades earlier when John F. Kennedy declared to a people surrounded by Communism that they were not alone. “We are all Berliners,” he said, because “freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free.” Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s confident commitment, spoken as he led us into the war that would free millions in Europe, inspired not only Americans but freedom fighters around the globe: “The American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.” Such words of solidarity, of confidence, and of unwavering conviction that America is indeed “the last best hope on earth” are what freedom’s friends would have expected to hear from our president when our nation was slandered. Instead he offered silence, smiles, and a handshake.

Even more troubling than what he has or has not said is what he has not done. Kim Jong Il launched a long-range missile on the very day President Obama addressed the world about the peril of nuclear proliferation. As one of the world’s most oppressive and tyrannical regimes is on the brink of securing the “game changing” capability to reach American shores with a nuclear weapon, the president shrinks from action: no seizure of North Korean funds, no severance of banking access, no blockade.

Not to be outdone by Kim Jong Il, President Ahmadinejad announced that his nation has successfully mastered every step necessary to enrich uranium, violating the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty it has signed. So, like North Korea, Iran will have changed the world’s equation for peace and security: It will be capable of devastating Europe and America, and of annihilating Israel. And as with North Korea, the Obama administration chooses inaction — no new severe sanctions, no hint of military options. Ahmadinejad can act with confidence that the forceful options once on our proverbial table have been shelved.

Vice President Biden was right that the new president would be tested early in his administration. What the world learned was not good news for freedom and democracy. The leader of the free world has been a timid advocate of freedom at best. And bold action to blunt the advances of tyrants has been wholly lacking. We are still very early in the Obama years — the president will have ample opportunity to defend America and freedom, and to deter nuclear brinkmanship. I am hoping for change.
Click to read the article

Iranians Charge U.S. Journalist Roxana Saberi with Espionage

Hey Obama, When are you going to do something? We now have 1 female journalist being held in Iran and 2 female journalists being held in North Korea. Gee, I think they just might be testing you. So far, you're getting an "F".

Roxana Saberi is a 31 year old journalist from Fargo, North Dakota.

Rees

from Hot Air.com

April 8, 2009
by Ed Morrissey

Apparently, all that talk about friendship and Nowruz greetings hasn’t helped. Early last month, I wrote about the suspicious disappearance of American journalist Roxana Saberi in Iran after running afoul of the police for “illegal reporting”. Today, Fox and AP both report that the Iranians have charged Saberi with espionage for her efforts to write a book about the Iranian people:

The lawyer for an Iranian-American journalist detained in Iran says she has been charged with espionage.

The lawyer, Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, says Roxana Saberi has been informed of the charges against her.

Saberi has apparently been held since late January on charges of purchasing alcohol, but the real crime is journalism without a license. Iran revoked Saberi’s permission to work as a journalist, but she chose to remain behind anyway to work on her book. Iranians often revoke permits for journalists while ignoring their work, but they obviously came to a different decision about Saberi — at the same time Barack Obama took the oath of office.

Joe Biden warned in October that nations would find ways to test a new, inexperienced President, and this looks like that kind of effort. The Iranians have gone out of their way to reject Obama’s overtures since he took office, including his call for greater dialogue. They have cemented their position on nuclear research, and have done their best to look as intransigent as possible. Thus far, they have not gotten Obama to push back against their rhetoric.

The trial of Roxana Saberi looks like another boundary test. Will Obama demand Saberi’s release publicly? Will Iran use it as a bargaining chip for further concessions? We will soon see how Obama responds to this test. In the meantime, keep Saberi and her family in your prayers.

Click to read the article and comments

Taliban call Obama offer a "Lunatic Idea"

This might be a news flash for Obama and his foreign policy staff, but it's not for the rest of us. His talk-talk-talk approach is laughable, and the entire world is seeing it as such. I guess he'll have to continue his search for those elusive "moderate Taliban " that he naively believes are out there somewhere.

Rees

U.S. reconciliation offer "lunatic": Taliban spokesman

KABUL (Reuters) – Taliban insurgents reject a U.S. offer of "honorable reconciliation," a top spokesman said on Wednesday, calling it a "lunatic idea" and saying the only way to end the war was to withdraw foreign troops.

With the Afghan conflict now in its eighth year, NATO-led forces and the Taliban are locked in a bloody stalemate with violence set to rise further this year as more U.S. troops arrive and seek to contain the insurgency ahead of August elections.

President Barack Obama is redoubling U.S. efforts with more troops, more diplomatic effort and more economic assistance, but he has also already spoken of the need for an "exit strategy."
If the U.S. plan fails to show results, analysts say, time is on the Taliban side.

Click to read the rest of the article

Tax Paying Peons Need To Shut-Up!

It appears that Democrats, whether at the Federal or State level, want to raise taxes at the worst possible time. In addition, as the grand parents used to say, "They're getting a little too big for their britches"

What arrogance these politicians have. How dare the unwashed voters question their ability to lead. Do these voters understand who they are speaking too? Figuratively speaking of course, some of these self-anointed politicians need a good old ass-kicking to bring them down from off of their royal perch. Honestly, isn't this the same taxing situation that led to The Declaration of Independence?
Rees

Video: Iowa politicians don’t like citizen involvement
from Hot Air
April 1, 2009
by Ed Morrissey

Our neighbors to the south in Iowa don’t exactly have a reputation for stoicism, thanks to the quadrennial presidential caucuses, but they’re not exactly known as radicals, either. Fellow Midwesterners like myself will be surprised to see Iowans this agitated over something other than a populist politician making a bungee visit during primary season. In fact, they got so angry over the state legislature’s consideration of a new tax on tax that the legislature cleared the chambers rather than listen to more protests:

More than 500 people who are upset with a plan to change Iowa’s tax laws were cleared from a hearing tonight at the Iowa House after they interrupted multiple times.

House Speaker Pat Murphy, D-Dubuque, cleared the crowd at about 8:30 p.m. The decision brought about loud protests as the crowd was escorted from the chambers by Iowa State Patrol officers.

“This is the most atrocious thing I’ve seen in the history of the 15 years I’ve been a lobbyist. Pat Murphy has acted like a jack-booted Nazi,” said Ed Failor Jr., president of Iowans for Tax Relief, a conservative taxpayers’ rights group from Muscatine with 50,000 members.

Iowa wants to end their rather unique tax policy of federal deductability. Iowans pay state taxes on income after deducting what they pay Uncle Sam in income tax. I’m not aware of other states that allow this; I know for certain that neither California, Arizona, nor Minnesota have this policy from first-hand experience. Iowa Democrats want to raise almost $600 million in new revenues from this policy, although now they say they want to provide balancing tax cuts for most income brackets.

Needless to say, Iowans are not impressed with this logic, especially in a recession that has hit their state hard already. With seasonal flooding affecting businesses on top of the economic turndown, protestors demanded an end to tax increases, especially on taxes on money Iowans don’t keep anyway. The bigger issue now though isn’t the tax per se, but the fact that their political elite just booted them out of the hearing for expressing their anger.

The “jack-booted Nazi” remark is complete hyperbole, but one does have to wonder why Iowa legislators seemed more interested in hearing themselves talk than their constituents. It may be a while before they have to face the voting public for re-election, but don’t expect Iowans to forget this insult.
Click to go to the article and read the comments

Change You Could Never Have Imagined...

Netanyahu to Obama: Stop Iran—Or I Will

The message from Israel's new prime minister is stark: if the Obama administration doesn't prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons, Israel may be forced to attack.

“The problem is not military capability, the problem is whether you have the stomach, the political will, to take action,”- adviser to Netanyahu

from The Atlantic
by Jeffrey Goldberg
April 1, 2009

In an interview conducted shortly before he was sworn in today as prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu laid down a challenge for Barack Obama. The American president, he said, must stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons—and quickly—or an imperiled Israel may be forced to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities itself.

“The Obama presidency has two great missions: fixing the economy, and preventing Iran from gaining nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu told me. He said the Iranian nuclear challenge represents a “hinge of history” and added that “Western civilization” will have failed if Iran is allowed to develop nuclear weapons.

In unusually blunt language, Netanyahu said of the Iranian leadership, “You don’t want a messianic apocalyptic cult controlling atomic bombs. When the wide-eyed believer gets hold of the reins of power and the weapons of mass death, then the entire world should start worrying, and that is what is happening in Iran.”

History teaches Jews that threats against their collective existence should be taken seriously, and, if possible, preempted, he suggested. In recent years, the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has regularly called for Israel to be “wiped off the map,” and the supreme Iranian leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, this month called Israel a “cancerous tumor.”

But Netanyahu also said that Iran threatens many other countries apart from Israel, and so his mission over the next several months is to convince the world of the broad danger posed by Iran. One of his chief security advisers, Moshe Ya’alon, told me that a nuclear Iran could mean the end of American influence in the Middle East. “This is an existential threat for Israel, but it will be a blow for American interests, especially on the energy front. Who will dominate the oil in the region—Washington or Tehran?”

Netanyahu said he would support President Obama’s decision to engage Iran, so long as negotiations brought about a quick end to Iran’s nuclear ambitions. “How you achieve this goal is less important than achieving it,” he said, but he added that he was skeptical that Iran would respond positively to Obama’s appeals. In an hour-long conversation, held in the Knesset, Netanyahu tempered his aggressive rhetoric with an acknowledgement that nonmilitary pressure could yet work. “I think the Iranian economy is very weak, which makes Iran susceptible to sanctions that can be ratcheted up by a variety of means.” When I suggested that this statement contradicted his assertion that Iran, by its fanatic nature, is immune to pressure, Netanyahu smiled thinly and said, “Iran is a composite leadership, but in that composite leadership there are elements of wide-eyed fanaticism that do not exist right now in any other would-be nuclear power in the world. That’s what makes them so dangerous.”

He went on, “Since the dawn of the nuclear age, we have not had a fanatic regime that might put its zealotry above its self-interest. People say that they’ll behave like any other nuclear power. Can you take the risk? Can you assume that?”

Netanyahu offered Iran’s behavior during its eight-year war with Iraq as proof of Tehran’s penchant for irrational behavior. Iran “wasted over a million lives without batting an eyelash … It didn’t sear a terrible wound into the Iranian consciousness. It wasn’t Britain after World War I, lapsing into pacifism because of the great tragedy of a loss of a generation. You see nothing of the kind.”

He continued: “You see a country that glorifies blood and death, including its own self-immolation.” I asked Netanyahu if he believed Iran would risk its own nuclear annihilation at the hands of Israel or America. “I’m not going to get into that,” he said.

Neither Netanyahu nor his principal military advisers would suggest a deadline for American progress on the Iran nuclear program, though one aide said pointedly that Israeli time lines are now drawn in months, “not years.” These same military advisers told me that they believe Iran’s defenses remain penetrable, and that Israel would not necessarily need American approval to launch an attack. “The problem is not military capability, the problem is whether you have the stomach, the political will, to take action,” one of his advisers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told me.

Both Israeli and American intelligence officials agree that Iran is moving forward in developing a nuclear-weapons capability. The chief of Israeli military intelligence, Major General Amos Yadlin, said earlier this month that Iran has already “crossed the technological threshold,” and that nuclear military capability could soon be a fact: “Iran is continuing to amass hundreds of kilograms of low-enriched uranium, and it hopes to exploit the dialogue with the West and Washington to advance toward the production of an atomic bomb.”

American officials argue that Iran has not crossed the “technological threshold”; the director of national intelligence, Admiral Dennis Blair, said recently that Israel and the U.S. are working with the same set of facts, but are interpreting it differently. “The Israelis are far more concerned about it, and they take more of a worst-case approach to these things from their point of view,” he said. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Michael Mullen, recently warned that an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities would undermine stability in the Middle East and endanger the lives of Americans in the Persian Gulf.

The Obama administration agrees with Israel that Iran’s nuclear program is a threat to Middle East stability, but it also wants Israel to focus on the Palestinian question. Netanyahu, for his part, promises to move forward on negotiations with the Palestinians, but he made it clear in our conversation that he believes a comprehensive peace will be difficult to achieve if Iran continues to threaten Israel, and he cited Iran’s sponsorship of such Islamist groups as Hezbollah and Hamas as a stumbling block.
Click to read the rest of the article

Brown and Obama deny G20 splits as protesters scuffle with police

Anti-capitalist protesters scuffled with police outside the Bank of England today as Gordon Brown received a series of world leaders in Downing Street to prepare for tomorrow's G20 summit.

First up was Barack Obama, making his first trip outside North America since his inauguration, The US President and his wife, Michelle, received a rare round of applause from staff at No 10 as they arrived for a breakfast meeting this morning.

Mr Obama's outsized motorcade was just the first in a series of armoured convoys due to pass through the Downing Street gates. The Prime Minister was also holding talks with President Medvedev of Russia, President Hu of China, the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh and Taro Aso, Prime Minister of Japan.

But the two leaders who most threaten to upset Mr Brown's plans for the G20 are not due at No 10 until this evening when all the G20 heads of state and government meet for a pre-summit dinner.

Mr Sarkozy and Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, have already scuppered UK attempts to have the meeting endorse a massive and coordinated fiscal stimulus. They are now pushing for the summit to make clear progress on tighter regulation of financial markets to replace the "light-touch" Anglo-Saxon model blamed for the current crisis.

Asked on Europe 1 this morning about a Times report that he would be prepared to walk out of the summit if he does not agree with its conclusions, Mr Sarkozy replied: "I will not associate myself with a summit that would end with a communiqué made of false compromises that would not tackle the issues that concern us."

He went on: "As of today, there is no firm agreement in place. The conversation is going forward, there are projects on the table. As things stand at the moment, these projects do not suit France or Germany."

At a joint press conference with Mr Brown, Mr Obama denied that there was any real disagreement on the need for governments to boost their economies, just normal discussions as to how best to do it.

"The truth is that that's just arguing at the margins," he said. "The core notion that government has to take some steps to deal with a contracting market place and to restore growth is not in dispute."

Mr Brown also did his best to laugh off Mr Sarkozy's walk-out threat. "I'm confident that President Sarkozy will be here not just for the first course of our dinner but will still be here when we complete our dinner this evening," he said.

The Metropolitan Police said that around 4,000 protesters had gathered in the City for a protest outside the Bank of England and a "Meltdown Carnival" headlined by the left-wing rock singer Billy Bragg.

Mixing in with them were City workers who had deliberately "dressed down" – on police advice – to avoid being the targets of protesters.

In clear spring sunshine, the protests were initially good-natured, but isolated scuffles soon saw police retreat behind their barriers. By 1pm, the violence was worsening, with police using their batons to push back the crowds.

Even before the protest began, 11 people were arrested as they drove an armoured personnel carrier - painted blue with the words "riot police" in capital letters – towards Bishopsgate. All 11 were arrested for being in possession of police uniforms.

More than 30 forces have provided specialist officers for the days around the summit when there will be unprecedented levels of protests and 40 diplomatic delegations requiring security.

While hopes of a new co-ordinated international stimulus of the world economy have faded, negotiations are proceeding on rules to curb excessive bonuses, control tax havens, extend regulation to hedge funds, introduce greater co-operation between national regulators and draw up fresh mechanisms to stop protectionism.

The summit at the ExCeL centre in Docklands comes as the World Bank said that the global economy would shrink by 1.7 per cent this year and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development predicted a 2.7 per cent contraction, the worst since the Second World War.

But while Mr Brown pointed out that G20 governments had already agreed fiscal stimulus packages totalling more than $2 trillion, Mr Obama warned that the rest of the world could not simply rely on "voracious" American consumers to drive the global recovery.

"If there is to be new growth, it cannot just be the United States as the engine," he said. "Everyone is going to have to pick up the pace."

Click to go to the article

G20 Protests turn violent

Protesters break into RBS building

from the Times Online

April 1, 2009

Anti-capitalist protesters are believed to have broken into a branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland in the centre of London today after smashing windows with a volley of missiles.

With police on horseback unable to maintain control and being forced back, a series of windows at the building were broken, graffiti was daubed on the walls and there were reports that some protesters had broken into the branch.

Hundreds of protesters were seen to converge on the bank, on the corner of Threadneedle Street and Bartholomew Lane, as a total of 4,000 demonstrated outside the Bank of England nearby.

As police on horseback and in riot gear proved unable to protect the building, which was thought to be empty, officers with dogs charged at the crowd in an attempt to force them back. The crowd were heard to chant: "Shame on you" as officers drove them away from the door.

With the demonstrations - carried out by a combination of anarchists, anti-war protesters, environmentalists and others - rapidly heating up, Scotland Yard said cordons had been put up all around the surrounding area in response to "increasing levels of violence". The marchers had made their way to the bank using four different routes - from Moorgate, Cannon Street, Liverpool Street and London Bridge.

A Met Police spokesman said: "There have been a number of missiles thrown at officers and a number of surges at the police cordons, and increasing levels of violence towards police. Cordons have been put in place to maintain safety and control the crowd."

Police confirmed earlier that 11 people had been arrested for impersonating police officers as they travelled towards Bishopsgate in uniform in a fake armoured personnel carrier.

Their vehicle was escorted to Wapping, in east London, where it was taken off the road and later driven away by a police officer.

Speaking to The Times as the van was being driven away, a protester calling himself Greenman said he organised the stunt along with other members of a group calling itself Spacehijackers.

He said it was designed to highlight how Britain was increasingly becoming a police state.

"Terrorism laws are always encroaching on our freedoms and discouraging dissent," he said.

At the Bank of England, marchers confronted police standing on the building's steps. Several police helmets were grabbed and thrown in the air as dozens of protesters surged forward and forced officers to retreat on to higher plinths at the base of the building.

A red smoke canister was set off, leaving at least one officer covered in bright red powder.

One senior officer was overheard telling colleagues to watch out for people with paint spray cans attempting to write on their backs. Many protesters were dressed colourfully, and claimed that they represented a host of causes.

Among them were campaigners from War on Want, who carried a giant toy canary on a stretcher after setting off from Moorgate station for the Bank of England. Attached to the makeshift stretcher was a placard which read "RIP Canary Wharf 1990-2009". It also listed banks including RBS, HSBC, NatWest, Abbey and LloydsTSB.

Many of the protesters chanted as they walked towards the Bank of England. Chants included "Revolution" and "Palestine will be free".

Other demonstrators, carrying placards such as "Bring on decent decision making" and "0% interest in others", then began to make their way to the Bank of England.

Several individuals, some wearing masks and hoods to cover their faces, were involved in minor scuffles with officers as they were shepherded onwards.

Among those spotted among the crowd was the comedian Russell Brand, who said he was accompanying the marchers because he was interested to see why the protest was taking place.

As the demonstrations kicked into gear, many City workers reported for duty dressed down or in jeans, attempting to avoid any trouble

Jeremy Batstone-Carr, head of research at stockbrokers Charles Stanley, based in the heart of the City, said they were "preparing for the worst, but hoping for the best".

His firm has extra security on the door, while workers were "aggressively" dressed down.

"It’s a strange atmosphere around the City and everyone seems somewhat apprehensive - everyone that should be in the office is in, but we’re not taking any chances," he said.

Click to read the rest of the article

Owning the expert...

This latest video from How the World Works is in direct response to a "so called expert that challenged him on several issues from his previous ones. It covers climate change, socialism, federalism, capitalism, the depression and a few more. It's 21 minutes long, but worth every minute of your time.
Rees

5 arrested in G20 'bomb plot'

Well, it appears the G20 rioters are well organized. They've got fancy posters and even a web site. Do these professional rioters have their own union to protect them from unsafe rioting conditions? Just curious.

I'll bet our rioters from back in the 60's are sitting in their rocking chairs right now, and shaking their heads about how things could have been, if only...

Rees

Five activists arrested in G20 'bomb plot' as London goes into lockdown for world leaders

By Stephen Wright and Luke Salkeld

from the MailOnline.com

31st March 2009

Five people were arrested under anti-terror laws yesterday after an imitation Kalashnikov rifle and other weapons were seized by police investigating a possible plot to cause havoc at the G20 summit.

Three men aged 25, 19 and 16 and two women of 20, were held after the eldest man was seen allegedly spraying graffiti in Plymouth. [maybe he ran out of printer paper for his riot posters]

In searches of several homes, officers found a range of imitation and deactivated firearms from handguns to hunting rifles and a Kalashnikov-style assault rifle.

They also found 'improvised explosives made of fireworks'.

Detectives are investigating the possibility that the group were planning to mount protests in London against the G20 summit.

Assistant Chief Constable Paul Netherton said 'politically sensitive material' had been found.

Sources said the suspects were not linked to any religious group. All five were being held under the Terrorism Act.

The arrests were made after the 25-year-old man was held in Plymouth on Friday evening, for allegedly spraying graffiti on a wall, and his home was searched.

Mr Netherton said the operation had no connection to Nicky Reilly, 22, the Muslim convert from Plymouth who was jailed for 18 years earlier this year for an attempted nail bomb attack on an Exeter restaurant.

In London, Scotland Yard said the Metropolitan Police was liaising with the Devon and Cornwall force but the investigation was at a very early stage.

The spokesman added that police were seeing 'an unprecedented level of activity amongst protest groups not seen since the late 1990s, involving some individuals we have not seen on the protest circuit for some time'.

Organisers of a planned protest in the City of London tomorrow are to meet Scotland Yard officers today to discuss their concerns over how it will be policed.

Activists from the Climate Camp said they had been trying to open communication following 'increasingly sensational police predictions' of violence. The group said it was concerned it was the victim of a 'smear campaign' ahead of the demonstration.

More than 3,000 police officers will be on duty during the summit period, with up to 100,000 protesters expected to stage rallies and marches. Police estimate the cost of the security operation at £8 million - the largest in UK history. A huge cordon will be thrown around the Excel centre in London's Docklands, the headquarters of the summit. A ring of steel will also be constructed to keep protesters away from the U.S. embassy in central London.

Senior officers fear a repeat of the violent anti-capitalist and MayDay protests of 1999 and 2000. Shops and other businesses were damaged and dozens of arrests made.

Click to read the article and comments

Obama Just Displayed His Middle Finger...Again! This time it was to the American People!

Did you see that? Obama just gave America the middle finger!

His choice of Harold Koh exhibits a level of arrogance that's pathologically extreme in its nature. He's chosen someone that's so anti-constitution and anti-American, there may be even some Obamabots that might oppose him. I can't imagine anyone would want this man serving in the Obama Administration.

Obama has basically said "screw you" to the American people. He doesn't care what we think. He is going forward with his plan and daring the the republicans to try and stop him. It only take one Republican vote for this guy to be approved. Anyone who does approve him should be asked to resign immediately.
Rees (now I feel much better)

OBAMA'S MOST PERILOUS LEGAL PICK
Koh: Wants US courts to apply "world law."

from The New York Post

By MEGHAN CLYNE
March 30, 2009

- 'JUDGES should interpret the Constitution according to other nations' legal "norms."
- Sharia law could apply to disputes in US courts.
- The United States constitutes an "axis of disobedience" along with North Korea and Saddam-era Iraq.

JUDGES should interpret the Constitution according to other nations' legal "norms." Sharia law could apply to disputes in US courts. The United States constitutes an "axis of disobedience" along with North Korea and Saddam-era Iraq. Those are the views of the man on track to become one of the US government's top lawyers: Harold Koh.

President Obama has nominated Koh -- until last week the dean of Yale Law School -- to be the State Department's legal adviser. In that job, Koh would forge a wide range of international agreements on issues from trade to arms control, and help represent our country in such places as the United Nations and the International Court of Justice.

It's a job where you want a strong defender of America's sovereignty. But that's not Koh. He's a fan of "transnational legal process," arguing that the distinctions between US and international law should vanish.

What would this look like in a practical sense? Well, California voters have overruled their courts, which had imposed same-sex marriage on the state. Koh would like to see such matters go up the chain through federal courts -- which, in turn, should look to the rest of the world. If Canada, the European Human Rights Commission and the United Nations all say gay marriage should be legal -- well, then, it should be legal in California too, regardless of what the state's voters and elected representatives might say.

He even believes judges should use this "logic" to strike down the death penalty, which is clearly permitted in the US Constitution.

The primacy of international legal "norms" applies even to treaties we reject. For example, Koh believes that the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child -- a problematic document that we haven't ratified -- should dictate the age at which individual US states can execute criminals. Got that? On issues ranging from affirmative action to the interrogation of terrorists, what the rest of the world says, goes.

Including, apparently, the world of radical imams. A New York lawyer, Steven Stein, says that, in addressing the Yale Club of Greenwich in 2007, Koh claimed that "in an appropriate case, he didn't see any reason why sharia law would not be applied to govern a case in the United States."
A spokeswoman for Koh said she couldn't confirm the incident, responding: "I had heard that some guy . . . had asked a question about sharia law, and that Dean Koh had said something about that while there are obvious differences among the many different legal systems, they also share some common legal concepts."

Score one for America's enemies and hostile international bureaucrats, zero for American democracy.

Koh has called America's focus on the War on Terror "obsessive." In 2004, he listed countries that flagrantly disregard international law -- "most prominently, North Korea, Iraq, and our own country, the United States of America," which he branded "the axis of disobedience."

He has also accused President George Bush of abusing international law to justify the invasion of Iraq, comparing his "advocacy of unfettered presidential power" to President Richard Nixon's. And that was the first Bush -- Koh was attacking the 1991 operation to liberate Kuwait, four days after fighting began in Operation Desert Storm.

Koh has also praised the Nicaraguan Sandinistas' use in the 1980s of the International Court of Justice to get Congress to stop funding the Contras. Imagine such international lawyering by rogue nations like Iran, Syria, North Korea and Venezuela today, and you can see the danger in Koh's theories.

Koh, a self-described "activist," would plainly promote his views aggressively once at State. He's not likely to feel limited by the letter of the law -- in 1994, he told The New Republic: "I'd rather have [former Supreme Court Justice Harry] Blackmun, who uses the wrong reasoning in Roe [v. Wade] to get the right results, and let other people figure out the right reasoning."

Worse, the State job might be a launching pad for a Supreme Court nomination. (He's on many liberals' short lists for the high court.) Since this job requires Senate confirmation, it's certainly a useful trial run.

What happens to Koh in the Senate will send an important signal. If he sails through to State, he's a far better bet to make it onto the Supreme Court. So Senate Republicans have a duty to expose and confront his radical views.

Even though he's up for a State Department job, Koh is a key test case in the "judicial wars." If he makes it through (which he will if he gets even a single GOP vote) the message to the Obama team will be: You can pick 'em as radical as you like.
Click to go to the article
Meghan Clyne is a DC-based writer

Breaking: Defense Sec. Gates announces new missle defense strategy

This administration is beyond incompetent. Obama's foreign policy, if one actually exists, wreaks of weakness, appeasement and outright recklessness. The lack of coordination between the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense and our Military is frightening.
Rees

Monday, March 30, 2009
from Joshua Pundit

Secretary of Defense Gates Sends A Message To North Korea, Iran And Israel

In an interview with Chris Wallace on FOX last Sunday, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was asked about North Korea's impending missile test and simply said "I would say we're not prepared to do anything about it."

This, after Gates admitted, "I don't know anyone at a senior level in the American government who does not believe this technology is intended to mask the development of an intercontinental ballistic missile."

In the same interview, Gates also danced around direct questions from Wallace about the Obama Administration's desire to severely cut funds allocated for missile defense.

There's a message here to a number of interested parties. The Mullahs of Iran now know that if the US is unwilling or unable to interfere with the North Koreans' ICBM test or take any effective action against their illegal nuclear program, the current occupant of the White House is certainly not going to interfere with Iran doing the same thing.

And the Israelis, if they're paying attention, should realize that the US either couldn't or wouldn't do anything to stop North Korea, they're not going to stop an Iranian missile strike on Israel either. And that any guarantees the Israelis get on that score are pretty much worthless.

Last but not least, of course is the message to the American people, who mostly aren't paying attention. Allowing rogue states to obtain and perfect nuclear weapons will eventually affect us severely, and the people supposedly in charge of dealing with this sort of thing apparently have more pressing concerns.
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When you wish upon a car...

image by rees

And Now.....Car Salesman of the Universe!!!!!!

Hey Barry! Before you offer the incentive to the customer, don't you first need to ask them:

What's it going to take to get you into this car today?
or
What kind of payment are you looking for?
and
When Barry tells you the deal he's offering you is so incredible, that he needs to go get it approved by the "secret manager in the bowels of the auto complex", is he really just telling you that he need's to go talk to Tim Geithner?

Obama offers incentives to spur auto sales

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama says the federal government is preparing to offer several incentives to get Americans to buy more U.S.-made cars.

In a White House speech, Obama said the IRS will start notifying consumers who purchased cars after Feb. 16 that they can deduct the cost of any sales and excise taxes. The program would remain in effect till year's end.

Obama says he wants to work with Congress to use parts of the economic stimulus package to fund a program that would allow consumers to get a "generous credit" when they replace an older, less fuel-efficient car and buy a new, cleaner car.
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Gates: U.S. Not Prepared to Respond to North Korea Missile Launch

Photo of U.S. THAAD Missile Defense System

Why would the Secretary of Defense even say something like that?

Is it that 'we're not prepared to respond' or that 'Obama lacks the will to do so?' Which is it?

GATES SHOULD SUMBIT HIS RESIGNATION IMMEDIATELY

The defense secretary told "FOX News Sunday" that the United States can do nothing to stop North Korea from thumbing its nose at the international community by test-firing a long-range missile.

The United States can do nothing to stop North Korea from breaking international law in the next 10 days by firing a missile that is unlikely to be shot down by the U.S. or its allies, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday.

Appearing on "FOX News Sunday," Gates said North Korea "probably will" fire the missile, prompting host Chris Wallace to ask: "And there's nothing we can do about it?"

"No," Gates answered, adding, "I would say we're not prepared to do anything about it."

Last week, Admiral Timothy Keating, commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, said the U.S. is "fully prepared" to shoot down the missile. But Gates said such a response is unlikely.

The Obama administration has signaled it wants to scale back the deployment of a missile defense system that was initiated by former President George W. Bush. The White House is also talking about dropping plans for missile defense facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Gates lamented the futility of diplomatic efforts toward North Korea and Iran, another nation with nuclear ambitions. Despite the Obama administration's talk of ramping up diplomatic overtures toward Tehran, Gates was pessimistic about that strategy.

"Frankly, from my perspective, the opportunity for success is probably more in economic sanctions in both places than it is in diplomacy," Gates said. "What gets them to the table is economic sanctions."

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Mr. Obama: Shoot That Missile Down!

North Korea launch threatens to undo disarmament talks (as if they weren't already dead in the water)


from Yahoo News
By JEAN H. LEE, Associated Press Writer

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea's plans to launch a rocket as early as this week in defiance of warnings threatens to undo years of fitful negotiations toward dismantling the regime's nuclear program.

The U.S., South Korea and Japan have told the North that any rocket launch — whether it's a satellite or a long-range missile — would violate a 2006 U.N. Security Council Resolution prohibiting Pyongyang from any ballistic activity, and could draw sanctions.

North Korea said sanctions would violate the spirit of disarmament agreements, and said it would treat the pacts as null and void if punished for exercising its sovereign right to send a satellite into space.

"Even a single word critical of the launch" from the Security Council will be regarded as a "blatant hostile act," a spokesman with North Korea's foreign ministry said Thursday, according the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency. "All the processes for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, which have been pushed forward so far, will be brought back to what used to be before their start and necessary strong measures will be taken."

That would be a sharp reversal from June 2008 when the North made a promising move toward disarmament, dramatically blowing up a cooling reactor at its main Yongbyon nuclear complex.
But the regime routinely backtracks on agreements, refuses to abide by international rules and wields its nuclear program like a weapon when it needs to win concessions from Washington or Seoul, analysts say.

"History has shown them that the more provocative they are, the more attention they get. The more attention they get, the more they're offered," Peter M. Beck, a Korean affairs expert who teaches at American University in Washington and Yonsei University in Seoul, said Sunday.

Despite years of negotiations and impoverished North Korea's growing need for outside help, it's clear the talks have done little to curb the regime's drive to build — and sell — its atomic arsenal, experts say.

"If this is Kim Jong Il's welcoming present to a new president, launching a missile like this and threatening to have a nuclear test, I think it says a lot about the imperviousness of this regime in North Korea to any kind of diplomatic overtures," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in an interview broadcast on "Fox News Sunday."

North Korea, a notoriously secretive country, has been challenging the international community with its atomic ambitions since 1993, when the regime briefly quit the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty amid suspicions it was secretly developing atomic weapons.

In 1994, North Korea and the U.S. worked out an agreement that promised Pyongyang oil and two light water nuclear reactors if the country would give up its nuclear ambitions. The power-generating reactors cannot be easily used to make bombs.

Four years later, North Korea fired a multistage Taepodong-1 missile over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean. The North pledged in 1999 to freeze long-range missile tests, but later threatened to restart its nuclear program and resume testing missiles amid delays in construction of the reactors.

In 2002, Pyongyang admitted to a secret nuclear weapons program in violation of the 1994 agreement, prompting the U.S., Japan and South Korea to halt oil supplies promised as part of the pact. The North withdrew again from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 2003, and announced it had reactivated its nuclear power facilities.

That August, six nations — the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the U.S. — began negotiations on disarmament now known as the "six-party talks," eventually resulting in a landmark accord on Sept. 19, 2005. The agreement called for North Korea to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for economic aid, diplomatic recognition and a security guarantee from Washington.

As the talks continued in fits and starts, the North in 2006 carried out a surprise 5 a.m. test-fire of six missiles, including its Taepodong-2 long-range missile, which U.S. and South Korean officials believe has the potential to strike Alaska.

The rocket fizzled just 42 seconds after takeoff but the launch, denounced as "provocative" by Washington, angered even North Korea's longtime ally and main donor, China, which agreed to a U.S.-sponsored U.N. Resolution 1695 condemning the move.

Later that year, an underground nuclear test prompted U.N. Resolution 1718, which bans the North from any ballistic activity. The U.S., South Korea and Japan say that sending satellites into space since the technology for launching a satellite and a missile are virtually the same.
By February, Pyongyang agreed to concrete steps toward disarmament: disabling its main nuclear facilities in exchange for the equivalent of 1 million tons of energy aid and other concessions. Disablement began that November.

But the North halted the process in 2008 amid a dispute with Washington over how to verify its 18,000-page account of past atomic activities. The last round of talks — in December 2008, weeks before President Barack Obama moved into the White House — made little apparent progress.

Analysts speculated that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il was holding out for talks with Obama. But in forming its North Korea policy, the fledgling Obama administration has made it clear it will work through the six-party process.

The rocket launch scheduled for April 4-8, at a time when Pyongyang has custody of two American reporters detained March 17 at North Korea's border with China, could provide the opening North Korea needs to force direct talks with Washington, analysts said.

"The timing couldn't be better for North Korea. It strengthens the North's bargaining position with the U.S. in dealing with the nuclear issue. They can try to link these two issues in some way," said Daniel Pinkston of the International Crisis Group.

Associated Press writers Hyung-jin Kim and Kwang-tae Kim contributed to this report.
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EPA Fines Alaska over Mount Redoubt Volcanic Emissions

Volcanic eruption also violates conditions of Obama's new Cap and Trade Law

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – I'm obviously being facetious, but I'm trying to point out not only how absurd the government has become, but how extreme some of their agencies are. The Cap and Trade Law will increase the cost on all sources of energy, which will ultimately increase the cost of everything consumers buy. Obama pledged that he wouldn't raise taxes on 95% percent of Americans. Well, that was a lie. Cap and Trade is a Tax, and it will affect 100% of the American people. The sad thing is it will hurt poor people and fixed income people like senior citizens the most.

Obama is on a spending and taxing spree. He is taxing everything in sight but trying to disguise it as something we all need and convince everyone that it is in their best interest.

For an example of this government stupidity, the EPA will be issuing fines to farmers for dust pollution. Yes, they must control their dust! That's what the government and the EPA is worried about now. Yet, the four or five eruptions this past week from this Alaskan Volcano probably added more particulates, including toxic gases, into the air than a combined 10 years of farming in the U.S..

You'll never see the Global Warming Whores like Al Gore ever include the data from Volcanic evruptions when they are convincing you that man is having such a devastating effect on pollution and Global Warming. Volcanic gases consist of water vapor, carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide. Man-made carbon dioxide emissions are dwarfed by the amount that volcanic eruptions across this planet create.

Hey, maybe we can get our government to pass laws regulating volcanic eruptions. Why not? They regulate everything else.
Rees

Now, back to being serious.

Yahoo News
from Associated Press
March 27, 2009

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Another volcanic explosion at Alaska's Mount Redoubt has sent an ash cloud 50,000 feet above sea level.

The National Weather Service says ash from a Friday morning eruption and smaller ones overnight were expected to miss Anchorage but could fall on more sparsely populated areas north of the state's largest city.

The other eruptions occurred less than an hour apart late Thursday and early Friday.
Since the series of eruptions began Sunday night, the volcano has had several bursts. One on Thursday sent ash 65,000 feet high. The last round of activity at the volcano was during a four-month period in 1989-90.
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G 20 Riots - You Must See This Info!

You Must Go To Michelle Malkin.com to look at all the posters and then read the rest of the article. It's really eye opening material.
Rees

The coming G20 riots & the spread of mob rule
By Michelle Malkin

March 27, 2009

My syndicated column today continues the theme I blogged about two days ago in the “Rule of the Mob” post. Keep an eye on next week’s G20 summit in London. Thousands of anti-capitalism zealots will be amassing there to intimidate and harass bankers. The vandalizing of the Scottish ex-banking executive’s home in Edinburgh is just a prelude. The protests are slated to start tomorrow and last all week; President Obama leaves for the summit on Tuesday. The images above are graphics and posters being disseminated online by protest organizers.

The anarchists are reportedly using Google Streetview and Twitter to organize riots, hang businessmen in effigy at the behest of a university professor known as “Mr. Mayhem,” call for guillotining bank execs, and — get this — target London firms that fail to turn off their lights to commemorate that moronic “Earth Hour” event I wrote about earlier this week. If shops don’t worship at the altar of environmentalism, they will be broken into:

Sir Paul Stephenson said ‘old faces’ from British protest groups - thought to be behind earlier anti-globalisation riots - were also expected in London. Activists have dubbed April 1 Financial Fools Day and are planning to march on the Bank of England, the European Climate Exchange in Bishopsgate and the U.S. embassy. At least 2,000 demonstrators are expected. The first demonstration in London will come tomorrow with ‘Earth Hour’ - targeting City firms that fail to turn off their lights by 8.30pm. Organisers say every office block in London with lights on will be fair game and have warned that they are prepared to break in and put the lights out themselves. The protest group Climate Camp has already released a map of potential targets in the City for its demonstration on April 1, including the Royal Bank of Scotland, carbon offset and trading companies and ‘green-washing’ PR firms.

Think this madness couldn’t happen here? Think again.

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Mr. Popularity is well...

It appears that his rigged Town Hall Meeting, his hour long Jay Leno interview and his boring press conference were all a wast of time and more. Something we will never get back.

Rees

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll

Friday, March 27, 2009
from Rasmussen Reports.com

President Obama has not received a bounce in his approval ratings following Tuesday night’s prime-time televised press conference. Following his first prime-time press conference and his nationally televised address to Congress, the President’s numbers bounced significantly before returning to earlier levels.

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