Crossposted from Flopping Aces

Israel says Iran will be in a position to begin enriching uranium on a military scale this year.

According to The Jerusalem Post, the new assessment moves up Israel’s forecasts on Tehran’s nuclear program by almost a full year - from 2009 to the end of 2008. According to the new timeline, Iran could have a nuclear weapon by the middle of next year.

The Post, in an execlusive, quoted a senior Iranian defense official as saying the Islamic Republic was now on track to master the technology needed to enrich uranium within six months.

SO! Who’s gonna stop Iran from developing a nuclear bomb (or as many as 40 a year), and most importantly how does one stop Iran from giving a nuke to one of their state-sponsored terrorists seeking martrdom (They give these terrorists bullets, rifles, bombs, and short range missiles…why not a nuke)?

Will President Obama take office and bomb Iran?
Will the Israelis bomb Iran before the US election and set off a regional war?
Will the US bomb Iran before the US election, and if so…how will President Obama end the regional war?
Will the US bomb Iran after the US election, and if so…how will President Obama deal with the thousands of suicide bombers already signed up to attack the US?
What happens to oil prices if Iran is bombed by anyone?
Is there a peaceful way to stop Iran from killing Americans in Iraq, from fueling the terrorist wars against Israel, and from pursuing nuclear weapons in the next 6-12 months?

And if 8 months into the Obama Administration a nuclear bomb goes off in an American city…who will President Obama hold responsible, what will he do, and will he get the “it happened on his watch” rantings from the left?”
LINK

also:

Sadr Surrenders

Now how will the MSM spin this?

Followers of rebel cleric Muqtada al Sadr agreed late Friday to allow Iraqi security forces to enter all of Baghdad’s Sadr City and to arrest anyone found with heavy weapons in a surprising capitulation that seemed likely to be hailed as a major victory for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki.

In return, Sadr’s Mahdi Army supporters won the Iraqi government’s agreement not to arrest Mahdi Army members without warrants, unless they were in possession of “medium and heavy weaponry.”

The agreement would end six weeks of fighting in the vast Shiite Muslim area that’s home to more than 2 million residents and would mark the first time that the area would be under government control since Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003. On Friday, 15 people were killed and 112 were injured in fighting, officials at the neighborhoods two major hospitals said.

It also would be a startling turnaround in fortunes for Maliki, who’d been widely criticized for picking a fight with Sadr’s forces, first in the southern port city of Basra and then in Sadr City.

Members of Maliki’s Dawa Party and the powerful Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq met with Sadr officials on Thursday and Friday to come up with a 14-point agreement to end the weeks of fighting, …

What prompted this turnaround? The residents of the city were sick and tired of the fighting:

A government supporter said the Sadrists were brought to the table by the anger of Sadr City residents. On Thursday, the Iraqi military ordered Sadr City residents to evacuate in apparent preparation for a major offensive push.

“It is not the government who pressured the Sadrists into entering this agreement,” said Ali al Adeeb, a leading member of the Dawa party. “It is the pressure from the people inside Sadr City and from their own people that will make them act more responsibly.”

That and this didn’t help I would imagine:

An aide to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr lashed out on Friday at Iraq’s most revered Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, for keeping silent over clashes that have killed hundreds in Baghdad.

“We are surprised by the silence in Najaf where the highest Shiite religious authority is based,” Sheikh Sattar Battat said, referring to Sistani.

“For 50 days Sadr City is being bombed … Children, women and old people are being killed by all kinds of US weapons, and Najaf remains silent,” he told the faithful at the weekly Friday prayers in Sadr City, Sadr’s stronghold.

Battat said the Sadr movement has not seen any “reaction or fatwa (religious decree) from Najaf” criticising the government assault on Shiite fighters in Sadr City.

“For us this means that Najaf accepts the massacre in Sadr City,” a sprawling slum district that has been the site of fierce clashes between US forces and Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia since late March.

Calling out the top cleric in Iraq probably didn’t set well with him I suppose.

The MSM and the left were hoping for another big disaster to lay at the feet of Bushitler. Foiled once again. When will they learn?

UPDATE

Bill Roggio updates with the main points of the agreement:

The major points of the agreement, based on press reports, are as follows:

• The Iraqi government and the Mahdi Army would observe a four-day cease-fire.
• At the end of the cease-fire, Iraqi forces would be allowed to enter Sadr City and conduct arrests if warrants have been issued, or if the Mahdi Army is in possession of medium or heavy weapons (RPGs, rockets, mortars).
• The Mahdi Army and the Sadrist bloc must recognize the Iraqi government has control over the security situation and has the authority to move security forces to impose the law.
• The Mahdi Army would end all attacks, including mortar and rockets strikes against the International Zone.
• The Mahdi Army must clear Sadr City of roadside bombs.
• The Mahdi Army must close all “illegal courthouses.”
• The Iraqi government would reopen the entrances to Sadr City.
• The Iraqi government would provide humanitarian aid to the residents of Sadr City.

The Sadrist said the US military would not be allowed to operate inside Sadr City; however there is no confirmation of this from the Iraqi government or the US military. “The Iraqi forces, not the American forces, can come into Sadr City and search for weapons,” Baha al Araji, a Sadrist legislator said. “We don’t have big weapons, and we want this to stop.”

And:

Obama’s History Lesson

In this earlier thread I commented on the incredible ignorant statement by Obama that FDR and Truman talked to our enemies:

The other side can label and name-call all they want, but I trust the American people to recognize that it’s not surrender to end the war in Iraq so that we can rebuild our military and go after al Qaeda’s leaders. I trust the American people to understand that it’s not weakness, but wisdom to talk not just to our friends, but our enemies – like Roosevelt did, and Kennedy did, and Truman did.

Its a breathtaking quote and one that should not be glossed over. Not only is he completely wrong on his history (maybe the result of 20+ years of lessons from Rev. Wright), he is basically telling us what his policy will be once gaining the White House. To sit down and discuss our differences with our enemies. Let me see. With Iran we’ve talked to them, cajoled them, placed many carrots in front of them, and begged them….results left much to be desired. (more…)

By Blair Lee: The Gazette

What does a Maryland governor do when his approval rating isn’t much better than President Bush’s?

Gov. Martin O’Malley’s solution is lots of good PR: Get on TV wishing the Pope good-bye at the airport; hold lots of ‘‘feel good” media events promising help for watermen, protecting the environment, calling for cheaper electricity and launching a ‘‘Capitol for the Day” program visiting various towns and hamlets declaring them the state capitol for 24 hours.

Also, milk the free media for all it’s worth: This week Governor O’Malley appears on WCBC’s Dave Norman show, WOLB’s Larry Young show, WTOP’s ‘‘Ask the Governor” show and WAMU’s Kojo Nnamdi show. Get this guy a throat lozenge!

But when your approval rating is 37 percent, radio talk shows aren’t enough. So on Tuesday O’Malley rolled out his $400,000 taxpayer-financed ‘‘Look at Me” media blitz disguised as public service announcements alerting homeowners to Maryland’s new anti-foreclosure laws.

Supposedly, homeowners need the governor’s PSAs to alert them to Maryland’s various foreclosure counseling and assistance services. So O’Malley’s face is appearing in ads on 1,290 Metro buses and subways, in newspaper ads, on billboards and on 680,000 direct mail postcards. The Metro ads will run for six months and ‘‘will be seen by 240,000 Maryland transit riders a day,” predicts Transportation Secretary John Porcari.

You’ll also hear O’Malley on 20 to 30 ‘‘Mortgage Late? Don’t Wait” radio spots a week (in both English and Spanish) for three months. ‘‘We are launching a multimedia ad campaign to let our fellow citizens know that help is available,” explains O’Malley. And to let everyone know that our good-guy governor cares about us. Now aren’t you ashamed of giving him such low approval ratings?

I know what you’re thinking. ‘‘Back in 2006 didn’t the legislature ban Gov. Bob Ehrlich from using taxpayer-funded PSAs to promote himself?” Yes, that’s true. But O’Malley’s PSAs are different, says the governor’s press secretary. ‘‘This is an effort to educate the public … there’s a marked difference in tone and substance.” Translation: O’Malley is a Democrat. The ban applies only to Republicans.

Unfortunately for O’Malley, on the same day as his big $400,000 media rollout, the Washington Post ran a front page story, ‘‘O’Malley Office Accused of Pressuring State Police,” negating much of the governor’s positive PR effort. Yes, amazingly, a State House reporter actually found fault with a Democratic governor.
(more…)

Crossposted from Red Maryland

House Minority Leader Tony O’Donnell and House Minority Whip Chris Shank have a message for the people of Maryland, and they have asked to come here to RedMaryland to present it. And here it is:

Recent coverage of the repeal of the computer services tax in Maryland is reminiscent of George Orwell’s book 1984. Some of the same legislators who argued strenuously in favor of the tax during the legislative special session, are now hailed as heroes of the repeal effort. As a few issues have been confused and distorted, we would like to take this opportunity to clarify some facts from our perspective.

The expansion of the Maryland sales tax to include computer services was first enacted during the November 2007 Special Session. It was added to the already historic tax increases in, literally, the dark of night in a Senate committee, with no discussion or input from the public or members of the industry. This game of tax hokey pokey had been going on for several days, as various industries were in, and then out. Ultimately, the tech services industry became the loser in this game. At that time, the Republican Caucus argued on the floor of the House of Delegates how damaging this tax would be to the burgeoning tech industry in Maryland, and to the state’s economy. We also pointed out the singular unfairness of the process that led to this tax’s inclusion in the package being strenuously pushed by Governor O’Malley and the Democrat leadership.

We offered an amendment to strip the tech tax from the package, which failed. The General Assembly went on to pass the largest tax increase in Maryland history. Once again, the Republican members argued and voted against these taxes, proposing as an alternative, specific reductions in the rate of growth in spending to address the looming deficit.

From the beginning of the 2008 legislative session, the Republican caucus made it one of our top priorities to repeal the tax on computer services. When the budget was being considered, we once again proposed very specific reductions in the rate of growth in spending that would have allowed a repeal of the tax without need for additional taxes, and once again the amendment was defeated.

Governor O’Malley and the Democratic leadership chose to ignore all of the alternatives presented by the Republican caucus, and, after finally succumbing to public pressure, replaced the tech tax with another tax, this time the so-called “millionaire’s tax”. This backfilling was entirely unnecessary. As the Republican membership has pointed out multiple times over the past months, Maryland does not have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem.

One final time, Maryland Republicans offered an amendment that would have repealed the computer services tax without backfilling with another tax, by making sensible reductions in the rate of growth in spending, and one final time, that alternative was rejected.
(more…)

Crossposted from Flopping Aces

I find it curious how the Democrats in all of their wisdom can actually think this is a good idea:

Senate Democrats on Wednesday called for a temporary windfall profits tax on oil companies and a rollback of $17 billion in oil industry tax breaks as part of an energy package. The proposal also would impose federal penalties on energy price gouging and calls for stopping oil deliveries into the government’s emergency reserve

When they should know that any reductions in the meager profits Big Oil makes (Their profit margin came to a whopping 8.3%, which underperformed the entire manufacturing sector as a whole. For investors in the oil industry, and 8.3% return on investment doesn’t exactly equate to screamingly fabulous growth, especially when looking at pharmaceuticals, 18.4%, and beverage makers, 19.1%) means only one thing. Upping gas prices.

Thats how capitalsm works folks. Businesses cannot survive without profits and a reduction in those profits forced by the government will only prompt them to pass the burden onto the consumer.

VDH:

Nancy Pelosi chanted “Veto and Drill”, “Veto and Drill” in caricaturing the threatened presidential veto of windfall oil company taxes and desire to drill in ANWR and elsewhere. But all that might sound, in fact, good to most Americans. With the world’s largest reserves of coal, after creating the nuclear power industry ex nihilo, and with billions of oil still under our soil and waters, it makes no sense to produce less energy while blaming and taxing those who produce what we have, rather than drilling, digging, and saving, as we find ways to transition to the alternate energies. The problem is not just oil, but importing oil at $120 a barrel that is bankrupting us as much as it is enriching the wrong people.

Want to fix it? Lets get the oil that is below our own feet and stop being reliant on others oil. It’s just plain old common sense. Something that seems to be lacking on the Democrats part. Hell, the last time this windfall tax crap was pulled in 1980 it did nothing but but reduce the domestic production of our own oil which in turned made us MORE dependent on foreign oil.

What other brilliant plans do the Democrats have up their sleeves?

A provision aimed at cracking down on speculation in the oil futures market — which some experts say may account for 10 to 30 percent of the price of oil — would prevent traders of U.S. crude oil futures from routing transactions to offshore markets in order to increase transparency and accountability of the trades and would increase the margin requirement for oil futures trades.

Brilliant, force traders to foreign markets….just freakin brilliant!

A Senate proposal to combat speculation in energy markets could have damaging unintended effects, a top federal regulator warned Wednesday.

At issue is a Senate proposal to mandate higher cash collateral for energy-futures trading. The proposal is part of a package of measures that Senate Democrats unveiled Wednesday — and will try to bring to the Senate floor for a vote by Memorial Day — in an effort to curb speculative trading that some say is contributing to soaring oil prices.

Trading-exchange officials are lobbying against the measure, saying it could cause a migration to foreign exchanges and rob the market of the liquidity that some participants in the market say they need to hedge their risk. Wednesday, the acting chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission also criticized the measure.

“It has the potential to drive participants [traders] into more opaque markets, which is exactly the opposite of what we want to be doing,” Walt Lukken, the commission’s acting chairman, said in an interview. Mr. Lukken also testified before a Senate panel that his agency hadn’t seen evidence indicating that speculators are “a major factor” in driving up the price of oil.

“All you’re going to do is potentially cripple the U.S. exchanges and move that flow of trading away from the U.S.-regulated markets to non-U.S.-regulated markets,” Jim Newsome, the chief executive of Nymex Holdings Inc.’s New York Mercantile Exchange, said in an interview.

You really can’t make this stuff up.

Gateway Pundit with some great slides which show the brilliance of the Democrat plan to tax more instead of drill more:

Just a crazy world we’re living in….

also:

FBI Director Confirms: Al Queda Cells Are Inside U.S.

They’re heeeeeeeeere…..

In House Judiciary Committee testimony, Mueller was asked about cells of Al Qaida in the country.

“As to your first question as to whether we have found affiliates or, as you would call them, cells of Al Qaida in the United States, yes, we have. Again, I cannot get into it in public session, but I would say yes, we have.”

LINK

Perhaps President Obama will ask his FBI Director who they are so he can invite them to the White House to talk? You know, like FDR did to Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo.

by Regina Sztajer

Rev. Otis Moss III, who served two years as assistant pastor for Rev. Jeremiah Wright and the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, will take over full time for Wright in June. Presidential candidate Sen. Barak Obama having distanced himself from Wright after a 20 year relationship has decided to continue to attend church accepting Moss 37, as his new pastor. In explaining his decision, Obama said, the “new pastor, the young pastor, Reverend Otis Moss, is a wonderful pastor.” He said, “he also still values the Trinity community.” (www.newsmax.com 5′8′08 Ronald Kessler.)

If elected president Obama will attend a church whose pastor says everyone has a bit of “thug” in him and praises Tupac Shakur, as a prophet, a rapper with a criminal record who was fatally shot in a drive -by- shooting in 1996. Judge Daniel P. Fitzgerald of the Supreme Court of Manhattan described Shakur’s 1994, sexual attack on a 21- year-old -woman in New York as “an act of brutal violence against a helpless woman,”

Moss known as the”hip-hop” pastor derides middle -class America for not accepting the “prophetic
brilliance” of thugs. Moss said, “there are times when our prejudice keeps us from hearing ghetto prophets, who preach a brand of thug theology, which keeps us from hearing the truth from their lips because of their course language and ragged subject-verb agreement.” Actually thugs scare me!!!

While most American’s want to worship for moral, inspirational and spiritual guidance the message from Moss is the opposite. Moss does not condemn thugs who break the law but rather he said, our society creates thug. Children are not born thugs. Thugs are made and not born. This is good news for somebody who has a proclivity for ‘ghettoistic’ conduct.”
(www.newsmax.com.)

Moss endorses the message of black leaders who encourage blacks to see themselves as helpless victims of a bigoted society. “The victim mentality limits blacks’ aspirations and torpedoes their chances at success.” .” (www.newsmax.com.)

Obama’s attendance at Trinity United Church of Christ exposes his children to its negative message. The congregation is not uplifted, calling on them to their best values but rather Moss denigrates American society while looking for guidance from thugs. Is this the moral conduct we want our president to be subjected to? What kind of moral leadership can we expect from a man whose children are subjected to sermons denouncing America and whites? This is the very church Obama contributed $26, 270 to last year. A church that spreads the message among blacks that they are victims. This is troubling when we consider he aspires to become president of the United States. (more…)

Crossposted from Red Maryland

O’Malley Watch has been all over the Exum-O’Malley influence peddling in the Hilltop affair.

Some may remember that Exum also personally influenced legislation that affected his employer. Exum is the Safety Director for Joseph Smith & Sons Inc. one of the largest scrap dealers in the state.

A Senate committee that Sen. Nathaniel Exum (D-Prince George’s) serves on voted to exempt a class of scrap metal businesses that includes his employer from legislation that would require extensive new reporting to police.

Exum, the safety officer for Joseph Smith and Sons Inc., took an active role in crafting the bill while serving on a work group. Joseph Smith was one of two companies that participated in the group; the other was a Baltimore dealer regulated by the city.

The bill, which passed the full Senate unanimously last month, is intended to help police crack down on a growing problem of scrap metal theft from construction sites, cars and even highways, where thieves are ripping out guardrails and selling them. The thieves are capitalizing on high commodity prices for copper and other metals.

Police in several counties have urged lawmakers to help by requiring junkyards to send them daily reports of scrap purchases that disclose the price they paid and the identity of the seller. Joseph Smith is one of the biggest scrap dealers in Maryland, with a brisk business processing metal as well as dismantling and recycling cars.

When the reporting bill was introduced by Sen. James E. DeGrange Sr. (D-Anne Arundel), Exum told Finance Committee Chairman Thomas M. Middleton (D-Charles) that he wanted to take the lead in preparing it. Middleton turned him down, saying that leading it would create the appearance of a conflict of interest.

It is not uncommon for lawmakers to vote on issues that involve their jobs outside the General Assembly. Exum disclosed to the state ethics commission that he might have a potential conflict in voting for the bill. However, the commission said state law did not require him to recuse himself from deliberations or voting, because the legislation affects other companies in addition to his.

He declined to comment on his role in preparing the legislation.

Exum and several Joseph Smith executives who participated in the work group resisted attempts by police to require more reporting. Joseph Smith officials said their clients’ privacy could be invaded.

When it was time to vote on the bill, the Senate Finance Committee added an
amendment that exempts auto dismantlers and recyclers from reporting. Lobbyists for those companies said their clients are already covered by a state law that requires limited reporting to police.

The amendment exempted Joseph Smith and other large companies that recycle cars as well as scrap. Exum did not mention that at the voting session, and several senators said later that they did not understand they had voted to exempt most companies the bill was designed to regulate.
(more…)

OK, so Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) is staying in the presidential race despite losing among elected delegates, facing a slimming lead among superdelegates, losing the popular vote and behind by 2-to-1 in the number of states carried. She slogs on, hoping against hope for a sudden turnaround in the race.

Apart from the psychological reasons for her stubbornness, is there a more subtle political calculation going on?

Is she continuing her race so as to have a platform from which to continue to bash Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) in the hopes of so damaging him that he can’t win the general election? Is she doing this to keep her options alive for the 2012 presidential race?

Hillary is obviously entitled to keep running until Obama has secured the votes necessary for the nomination, and it is certainly understandable that she would want to run until the last popular vote is counted. But must she run a negative, slash-and-burn campaign? Must she use her time on the platform and on television to belittle, mock, deride and try to destroy the man who will eventually be the candidate of her own party?

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) felt similarly justified in staying in the race for the Republican nomination until Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) reached the majority threshold required for nomination. He contested the Texas primary vigorously, even though his earlier losses in South Carolina and Florida made it most unlikely that he could win the nomination. But he chose to run a positive campaign. He didn’t knock McCain. He just articulated the case for his own candidacy. (more…)

Crossposted from Flopping Aces

Obama bucked the trends Tuesday night with a solid 14 point win in North Carolina and held Hillary Clinton to a two point squeaker in Indiana.

Most pundits, including yours truly, thought the result last night would be stronger in Hillary’s favor (though Zogby was nearly right on the mark). When the result became clear, the pundits seemed ready to begin writing that it was all over for Hillary with some suggesting that she might get out soon.

Let’s face it: it’s been over for Hillary for quite a while. Obama has the money, has the delegates and has the popular vote (though only barely). Obama has been the likely nominee since Super Tuesday.

But Hillary isn’t going anywhere. She’s recently loaned her campaign $6.4 million from the joint bank account she enjoys as former President Bill Clinton cashes in on his legacy around the world. That’s in addition to the $5 million she loaned her campaign earlier this year. It’s clear she isn’t going anywhere and the primary in West Virginia next Tuesday, the 13th where the Rasmussen Poll shows Hillary with a stronger lead than Obama had in North Carolina.

It’s Not Over Until It’s Over

As pundits labored to fill the air while waiting for the Indiana result, it gave time to reflect on prior lost causes in the Democrat Party. On Fox News, Brit Hume recalled his reporting from the Democrat convention in 1980 where Senator Ted Kennedy challenged incumbent President Jimmy Carter all the way to the convention floor despite being down by 700 delegates. Kennedy must have known that Carter could not win against Reagan just as Hillary insists Obama cannot win against McCain.

The bottom line: Hillary Clinton isn’t going away!

P.S. Obama’s team blames their loss in Indiana on Operation Chaos!

also:

Computer Models On Global Warming Wrong Again

To go along with Mike’s post “Southern Sea Ice at Historic Levels!” comes this news from the northern hemisphere:

Antarctica hasn’t warmed as much over the last century as climate models had originally predicted, a new study finds.

Climate change’s effects on Antarctica are of particular interest because of the substantial amount of water locked up in its ice sheets. Should that water begin to melt, sea levels around the globe could rise and inundate low-lying coastal areas. (more…)

Crossposted from Red Maryland

With the left, you know you hit the target when they respond by refuting an argument you never made. Jim Martin of Baltimore responded to my Examiner op/ed on Bill Ayers and AERA.

Let the 1960s go. Will we forever refight that decade that ended almost four decades ago? Mark Newgent, in his May 3 column, “Unrepentant ’60s bomber now teaches our teachers,” condemns William Ayers for his actions in the 1960s and, by association, Barack Obama, who was on a committee with him. What does Newgent want, a tearful apology like those from a TV preacher? The law has said he’s paid for his actions. Four decades of public service have attested to his behavior. Should Newgent want everyone to atone for what they did 40 years ago? How about the Baltimore Realtors who wouldn’t sell Frank Robinson a home in a neighborhood he could afford before leading the Orioles to the 1966 World Series? How about local bars that wouldn’t sell to returning black Vietnam veterans? Leave us the music of the Beatles, but let the mistakes go. Let it be just another part of history.

First, I never called for an apology from Ayers, which is why I noted–and he has made clear himself–that he is “unrepentant.”

Contrary to what Martin thinks, the law never said Ayers “paid for his actions.” Ayers and his wife, fellow Weather Underground terrorist Bernadine Dohrn were NEVER prosecuted for their crimes. Why? FBI agent W. Mark Felt, better known to the world as Deep Throat authorized illegal black bag operations in the Bureau’s hunt for the Weathermen. When Ayers and Dorhn resurfaced in the 1980s, Ayers proudly proclaimed, “guilty as hell, free as a bird, its a great country.” (more…)

by Haider Ajina

Shites maintain strong nationalistic ties to Iraq .

Baghdad, May 7, (VOI)- Iraqi ambassador in Washington said on Wednesday that the majority of Iraqi Shiites maintain strong nationalistic ties to Iraq, noting that they in fact present a threat to the Iranian state rather than the other way around.

Iraq ’s ambassador to the U.S. said that a high-level committee will investigate Iran ’s role in arms trafficking across his country’s borders, after the discovery of large caches of weapons and explosive devices recently

“It’s a bit disingenuous to believe such quantities of up-to-date weapons manufactured this year, last year, can flow into the country without the knowledge of the Iranian government,” Ambassador Samir Sumaida’ie told editors and reporters at The Washington Times.

“However, I understand that the prime minister ordered the formation of the committee only in the last 48 hours to put facts together, to establish where the connection is between these weapons and evidence of training so that we can basically confront our Iranian neighbors,” he said.

Mr. Sumaida’ie said the Iraqi investigative committee, appointed by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, will include the ministers of interior and defense and will gauge the full facts of the situation.

“ U.S. counterterrorism officials said Iran has increased weapons supplies in recent months, adding that the Iranian government wants to diminish U.S. and Iraqi coalition efforts in the region,” The Washington Times reported. (more…)

By Dick Morris And Eileen McGann

She lost hard in North Carolina, and barely held on to win Indiana. Hillary Clinton just doesn’t have enough straws left to clutch. The best (or worst) she can hope to do the rest of the way is bloody Barack Obama enough to make him lose in the fall, allowing her to come back in 2012.

In fact, Obama basically clinched the nomination with his string of 11 straight primary and caucus wins in February, many by wipe-out margins - giving him a lead in elected delegates that Clinton couldn’t hope to close, especially given the nutty proportional-representation rules that govern the Democratic Party.

Do the math. Last night’s results leave him with a lead among elected delegates of 150 or so, and among all delegates of around 130.

Only a handful of states are left to vote, with a combined total of about 230 delegates. She’ll probably win West Virginia, Kentucky and Puerto Rico - and lose Oregon, North Dakota, and Montana. She most likely could pick up a net 10 delegates, leaving him with a lead of at least 130 (110, counting in superdelegates).

If Hillary manages to get Florida and Michigan seated (which she won’t), she’ll net another 47 delegates. So Obama, worst case, will have a lead of at least 60 delegates. Most likely, it’ll be more than 100.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Chairman Howard Dean have all made it clear that they expect superdelegates to decide who to support within (in Reid’s words) “days, not weeks” after the last ballots are cast on June 3. (more…)

Crossposted from Flopping Aces

Obama won NC as expected with a pretty much 100% backing from blacks while Hillary is winning big with white blue collar workers:

Nearly unanimous support among African-Americans lifted Barack Obama to easy victory in North Carolina, while the Democratic presidential primary in Indiana played out against a more complex matrix of voter groups.

Blacks accounted for a third of North Carolina voters and 91 percent of them supported Obama in preliminary exit poll results. Against that voting bloc Hillary Clinton would have needed 70 percent of non-black voters; she fell well short, with 58 percent.

Turnout by African-Americans was in line with past years – 31 percent in 1992, the last North Carolina primary in which an exit poll was conducted. Obama has won all eight of the primaries this year in which blacks accounted for at least three in 10 Democratic voters.

Another result, mirroring one in Pennsylvania two weeks ago, indicated a potentially negative impact of racially motivated voting. Fourteen percent of white voters in North Carolina called race an important factor in their vote; these Democratic primary voters were much less apt than others to say they’d support Obama against John McCain in November. It’s a small group, but small groups can matter in close contests.

Among those voters, just 48 percent said they’d support Obama against McCain; the rest said they’d take McCain or sit it out. By contrast, among the large majority of whites who said race was not an important factor, 61 percent said they’d support Obama in the general election. It’s an open question whether those white voters – overwhelmingly Clinton supporters now – would in fact come around to Obama were he the nominee.

About those blue collar workers:

Sen. Hillary Clinton, who made a strong pitch to blue-collar workers, was pulling a majority of the votes in rural and suburban Indiana during Tuesday’s Democratic primary.

In early exit polling, Clinton of New York was taking 53 percent of the vote in suburban areas, compared to 47 percent for Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, and 68 percent of the rural vote compared to Obama’s 32 percent.

And with 14% of the vote in from Indiana Hillary has extended her lead by 39,000 votes. But she may well have lost by double digits in NC which is bad. If she had kept it in single digits and did well in Indiana it would be hard to say that she is done.

Still plenty of votes to count so we shall see.

UPDATE

Obama gave his victory speech in NC and began it with his usual divisive talk about the rich and the poor…..and then accuses the right of being divisive THEN to top it all off he stated that Roosevelt talked to Hitler and Tojo.

Poor guy is going to get trounced in the general.

The woman I met in Indiana who just lost her job, and her pension, and her insurance when the plant where she worked at her entire life closed down – she can’t afford four more years of tax breaks for corporations like the one that shipped her job overseas. She needs us to give tax breaks to companies that create good jobs here in America. She can’t afford four more years of tax breaks for CEOs like the one who walked away from her company with a multi-million dollar bonus. She needs middle-class tax relief that will help her pay the skyrocketing price of groceries, and gas, and college tuition. That’s why I’m running for President.

The college student I met in Iowa who works the night shift after a full day of class and still can’t pay the medical bills for a sister who’s ill – she can’t afford four more years of a health care plan that only takes care of the healthy and the wealthy; that allows insurance companies to discriminate and deny coverage to those Americans who need it most. She needs us to stand up to those insurance companies and pass a plan that lowers every family’s premiums and gives every uninsured American the same kind of coverage that Members of Congress give themselves. That’s why I’m running for President.

The mother in Wisconsin who gave me a bracelet inscribed with the name of the son she lost in Iraq; the families who pray for their loved ones to come home; the heroes on their third and fourth and fifth tour of duty – they can’t afford four more years of a war that should’ve never been authorized and never been waged. They can’t afford four more years of our veterans returning to broken-down barracks and substandard care. They need us to end a war that isn’t making us safer. They need us to treat them with the care and respect they deserve. That’s why I’m running for President.

The man I met in Pennsylvania who lost his job but can’t even afford the gas to drive around and look for a new one – he can’t afford four more years of an energy policy written by the oil companies and for the oil companies; a policy that’s not only keeping gas at record prices, but funding both sides of the war on terror and destroying our planet in the process. He doesn’t need four more years of Washington policies that sound good, but don’t solve the problem. He needs us to take a permanent holiday from our oil addiction by making the automakers raise their fuel standards, corporations pay for their pollution, and oil companies invest their record profits in a clean energy future. That’s the change we need. And that’s why I’m running for President.

~~~

Yes, we know what’s coming. We’ve seen it already. The same names and labels they always pin on everyone who doesn’t agree with all their ideas. The same efforts to distract us from the issues that affect our lives by pouncing on every gaffe and association and fake controversy in the hope that the media will play along. The attempts to play on our fears and exploit our differences to turn us against each other for pure political gain – to slice and dice this country into Red States and Blue States; blue-collar and white-collar; white and black, and brown.

This is what they will do.

~~~

The other side can label and name-call all they want, but I trust the American people to recognize that it’s not surrender to end the war in Iraq so that we can rebuild our military and go after al Qaeda’s leaders. I trust the American people to understand that it’s not weakness, but wisdom to talk not just to our friends, but our enemies – like Roosevelt did, and Kennedy did, and Truman did.

How else to interpret this then he wants to talk to al-Qaeda?

also:

Southern Sea Ice at Historic Levels!

Another hole in the Al Gore “sky is falling” scaremongering over globaloney!

Report: Global Sea Ice at ‘Unprecedented’ Levels
By Jeff Poor
Business & Media Institute
5/6/2008

…An Aug. 19, 2007 CBS “60 Minutes” segment warned melting sea ice in the Southern Hemisphere was endangering the penguin, another species often trotted out by global warming alarmists.

“Getting manhandled may ruffle their feathers, but it was key to discovering their fate,” “60 Minutes” contributor Scott Pelley said. “These are grown penguin chicks chasing their mothers for food, which she delivers beak to beak. Soon, the chicks will go to sea to hunt for a shrimp-like crustacean called krill. The krill grow beneath the sea ice, but in the warming ocean, the sea ice is melting away.”
(more…)

Crossposted from Red Maryland

Possibly Ayers’ influence is an aberration in an organization that bills itself as “the most prominent international professional organization, with the primary goal of advancing educational research and its practical application.”

Wrong. Sadly, Ayers’ radical worldview permeates AERA. I know, because I am a former AERA employee. I worked in AERA’s national office in Washington, D.C. from 2002-2004. Among my duties were managing production of AERA publications, including its flagship journal Educational Researcher. Educational Researcher published deep scholarly work like UCLA education professor Peter McLaren’s love song to totalitarianism, Reconsidering Marx in post-Marxist Times: A Requiem for Post Modernism. McLaren’s webpage is a sick testimonial to murderous thug Ché Guevera, and a totalitarian communist ideology responsible for the murder of more than 90 million people.

I had the arduous task of editing manuscripts with titles like “So When It Comes Out, They Aren’t That Surprised That It Is There”: Using Critical Race Theory as a Tool of Analysis of Race and Racism in Education, and Critical Social Theory and Transformative Knowledge: The Functions of Criticism in Quality Education.

Forget for a moment the unwieldy titles, copyediting their manuscripts revealed that the authors showed a disturbingly low grasp of the English language, and its rules of grammar and punctuation. Furthermore, the manuscripts contained so much pseudo academic jargon that after every sentence I had stop and ask myself, “What the hell did that mean?” (more…)

by Haider Ajina

The following is my translations of two articles from Burathata News

On 5-5-08 Saied Yassin Almusawi says there are religious leaders who are destroying the religion (Islam).

Said Yassin Al-Musawi (Shiite religious Teacher) said; there is a group which seeks to destroy the religion and sect, buy wearing scholars robes (similar saying to ‘a man of the cloth’). This came in a Lecture to an ethics class at the Imam Mehdi School of Religion (Shiite Muslim Advanced education in Nejaf Iraq , those who graduate will be religious ministers etc…).

‘A student entering the religious school has one of two goals, he said. The student either has a worldly goal or a ‘hereafter’ goal. The worldly goal is to attract attention to the student to become a center of attention and respect (power). This is the wrong goal and has a negative effect on the school and the religion. Some of these irresponsible students wear the robe of scholars to destroy the religion and sect, as we can whiteness in these times. The second goal however is that of the ‘hereafter’. A student pursues this goal not craving worldly matters or what comes from them. But he studies to serve and be close to God almighty and serve man kind to receive God’s favor at the end of time, instead seeking worldly favors. This goal will lead him to nothing but peaceful and generous deeds. Further in the lecture Almusawi advised the class to strive for God almighty, and to rid them selves from personal agendas. For this is the way to obtain enlightenment and truth.

An article of May 1st.

‘The International Human rights Institute graduates it first class of Iraqi officers’.

The International Human rights Institute graduated it first class of Iraqi officers in Naseriah province. They were taught the Geneva Convention, armed conflict resolution and the four protocols of human rights. This seminar took two weeks. Attendees were a mix of twenty four officers from rank of lieutenant to lieutenant colonel. In addition, a number of military school teachers from the fourth military academy and officers from the Australian and Rumanian forces. (more…)

Crossposted from Conservative Thoughts.

Faith News Network - According to a CNSNews.com article, in her Earth Day news release, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) attributed this quote to the Old Testament: “To minister to the needs of God’s creation is an act of worship. To ignore those needs is to dishonor the God who made us.”

However, many biblical scholars cite a problem with that quotation: it doesn’t exist in the Bible.It was not the first time Pelosi has used this alleged biblical passage. The California Democrat has used it on several different occasions, and has even attributed the passage to the Old Testament Book of Isaiah. Dr. Raymond Bohlin is president of Probe Ministries, a non-profit apologetics ministry. He offers his findings.

“You’re just not going to find that kind of statement anywhere in Isaiah, let alone anywhere directly in scripture at all — Old Testament or New Testament,” says Bohlin. “So, you know, it’s hard to know where something like that gets started. But it’s unfortunate that she’s referring to it as a scripture quotation because it’s not.”

That’s the nice way of saying that Pelosi is lying and I don’t think it’s all that hard to figure out where it gets started, leftists are quite happy to quote the Bible and misrepresent it when they want to use it as a cudgel to bash us Christians about. They’ll use the New Testament when demanding to spare the life of mass murderers, (more…)

Crossposted from Flopping Aces

One word to describe this photo of Bill Ayers, terrorist and Obama friend, stepping on the American flag…….BANG! Your dead! (h/t Marathon Pundit)

They were pictures taken for a Chicago Magazine article on Ayers as he promoted his book Fugitive Days (no Amazon link provided, a terrorists book needs no publicity). In the article itself comes a few nuggets:

One of the Weatherman leaders was Bernardine Dohrn, a smart, magnetic figure who, in part because of her penchant for miniskirts and knee-high boots, was dubbed “La Pasionaria of the Lunatic Left” by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. After a bomb exploded accidentally and killed three of their colleagues, Ayers and Dohrn “hooked up,” in the parlance of the day, and, since 1982, they have been married. This—violence, death, and white-hot rhetoric—is his past and Ayers insists he has no regrets. “I acted appropriately in the context of those times,” he says. But it’s hard to reconcile this quick-witted man with that revolutionary. Today Bill Ayers seems too happy to have ever been so angry.

It goes on to describe his addiction to caffeine. Where does he choose to get his caffeine?

Starbucks.

Can’t make this stuff up.

Certainly there are moments when Ayers has the sound of the sixties down pat, like when he tells me, “Imperialism or globalization—I don’t have to care what it’s called to hate it.” And then there are moments when he sounds light-years away from his radical sensibilities, more like an old grump lamenting today’s uninformed youth: He tells me a story about going into Starbucks and having the young woman behind the counter mistake his photo pin of John Brown for Walt Whitman. “And when I told her, no, it’s John Brown, she said, ‘Who is John Brown?’”

But I am struck by another part of that story. What are you doing in a Starbucks? I ask the man who professes to hate globalization.

“Oh,” he says. “I have an addiction to caffeine.”

Marathon Pundit notes that at the time the photo was taken Obama and Ayers served together on the Woods Foundation board. Which reminds me of another photo that goes along well with these two:

Like two peas in a pod aye?

Lets not forget his wonderful wife either:

At a 1969 “War Council” in Flint, Michigan, Dohrn gave her most memorable and notorious speech to her followers. Holding her fingers in what became the Weatherman “fork salute,” she said of the bloody murders recently committed by the Manson Family in which the pregnant actress Sharon Tate and a Folgers Coffee heiress and several other inhabitants of a Benedict Canyon mansion were brutally stabbed to death: “Dig it! First they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them. They even shoved a fork into the victim’s stomach! Wild!” The “War Council” ended with a formal declaration of war against “AmeriKKKa,” always spelled with three K’s to signify the United States’ allegedly ineradicable white racism.

Lots of reaction on the right side of the blogosphere, none from the left of course:

UPDATE

And his shine has officially dulled:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama’s standing has been significantly damaged by the controversy over his former pastor, according to USA Today/Gallup poll published on Monday.

The poll showed Hillary Clinton leading Obama 51 percent to 44 percent nationally among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independent voters, in contrast to a CBS News/New York Times survey released on Sunday that had Obama leading Clinton by 12 points.

UPDATE



UPDATE

Newsbusters has the video:

Rosie O’Donnell appeared on the May 5 “Today” show in its fourth hour, claiming that many have confused her “passion for rage” much in the same way as they’ve misunderstood Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Indeed, claimed the former “The View” co-host, Obama’s former pastor “made sense to me.”

Of course this shouldn’t shock anyone, Rosie is a ding and always has been. Ayers, Dohrn, Wright, and Rosie…..all backing Obama.

Quite telling.

also:

The Unasked Question in the Wright/Obama Scandal

Rasmussen Reports
Survey of 800 Likely Voters
April 30-May 1, 2008

1* How closely have you followed recent news stories about comments made by Barack Obama’s former Pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright?
47% Very closely
34% Somewhat closely
12% Not very closely
7% Not at all
0% Not sure

2* Pastor Wright recently held a press conference and shared many of his controversial views. Barack Obama then publically denounced Wright and said his relationship with the Pastor has changed. Do you believe that Obama was surprised by the views of his former Pastor?
33% Yes
52% No
15% Not sure

3* Generally speaking, do you agree or disagree with Pastor Wright’s view of the United States and its government?
7% Agree
75% Disagree
19% Not sure

4* How likely is it that Barack Obama shares some of Pastor Wright’s controversial views about the United States?
26% Very likely
30% Somewhat likely
24% Not very likely
11% Not at all
8% Not sure

5* Did Barack Obama denounce Pastor Wright’s comments because he was outraged or because it was politically convenient?
30% Outraged
58% Politically convenient
13% Not sure

So, 75% of the respondents disagree with Wright’s whacko views and 56% say Obama shares those view and 58% said he only denounced them for political expedience.
(more…)

by Brujo Blanco

There was a recent article in the Washington Times, Jackboot Liberalism, Maryland Style May 4, 2008. Come the next election we may see the result of Maryland being a one party state may come full circle. According to the article, which is probably correct, progressives are very worried about Maryland becoming a two party state so the Attorney General, Doug Gansler, have apparently come up with a plan to hasten the progressive agenda.

To push this program forward the office of the Maryland Attorney General came up with “The Attorney General’s Task Force On Voting Irregularities.” The problem is that this is a left wing program for left wingers. They focused on alleged Republican voter fraud and apparently ignored that which has been perpetrated by the progressive groups such as ACORN. (ACORN endorsed O’Malley) When one reviews these efforts to go after voter fraud in both federal and state programs it becomes crystal clear that the participants in the investigations are all democrats and progressives.

On one page of their report there is a “long-winded political sermon” of “false and misleading political speech.” This sounds like a pretext to stifle free speech. If one is making political speech one can make mistakes and even tell a lie or two. Consider Hillary Clinton stating that she was the victim of sniper fire when she was obviously lying. This was false and misleading political speech. Should she be punished in a criminal court. No, she should not. It was noted in this article that Baltimore City Delegate Sandy Rosenberg and Sen. Lisa Gladden have introduced legislation in Annapolis banning false and misleading campaign materials. The observation by the writer is task force members indicated that it would be difficult to regulate false and misleading political speech and they were right. Maryland need understand that Maryland government is also restricted by the 1st Amendment like every other state in the union.

If this becomes law who will make the initial decision to take action on “false” political speech? Who will have the authority to comment as to what false and misleading political speech is?

Keep in mind during an election you have a consitutional right to make any type of stupid or aggravating comment you want to. You have a consitutional right to be stupid. If Maryland jumps for this we will have a problem.

This type of restriction was also being looked at by the feds. The members of the committee the feds put together were: Senator Chuck Schumer; Senator Barack Obama; Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler; Prince George’s County, Maryland County Executive Jack B. Johnson; Hilary Shelton of the NAACP; John Trasvina, President and General Counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Election Fund; and Richard Briffault. Note the lack of bipartisanship in the list.

During their deliberations US Senator Ben Cardin put forth the allegations that during the 2006 elections in Maryland Republicans distributed false and misleading information to black voters and attempted to trick them into voting Republican. I have heard this allegation over and over again but I have never seen the actual evidence that it was done by the Republicans nor have the suspect been identified. I also saw no indication of Democrat misbehavior regarding voting. I would suspect that they did not mention anything about the dead Maryland voters that were identified by Professor Avi Rubin and his crew at Johns Hopkins University. Avi’s little task force embarrassed the Democrats because it appeared as though the dead voters voted in favor of the dems. One of the polling places during the last Maryland gubernatorial election was a school. The students in that school had written essays titled “Why I Want Martin O’Malley to be My Governor.” These were posted in a polling place according to one individual that I spoke to. I have no reason to disbelieve this individual but I was told this. There was also a documented incident in one Baltimore polling place wherein the Republican polling place judges were asked to leave the building while the Democrats had a meeting.

During my time in the military I studied propaganda as practiced by past and present enemies of the US. One was very interesting. When the American forces returned to the Philipines a flier was passed out instructing soldiers that desire to have sexual relations with Filipino women. This flier instructed them to have sex with married women and young girls because they are less likely to have sexually transmitted diseases. The interesting scoop on this was that this flier was crafted by the Japanese military to cause problems between the US forces and the Filipinos. Is this what happened during the 2006 election in Maryland? I do not know but it is an interesting concept.

When any political entity makes allegations of voter irregulaties the proof should be presented to the public. These laws regarding the stifling of speech based on content is inconsistent Constitutional law and American values. As far as I am concerned whoever, Democrat or Republican, screw up our voting processes in this country need to go down the tubes.

Crossposted from Red Maryland

In a continuing postmortem to the recent General Assembly session, I received a tagteam effort from Delegates Anothony O’Donnell and Christopher Shank regarding the “millionaire’s tax” that replaced the dreaded “tech tax.” (And as always thanks to Carrie Simons-Sparrow for passing this along to me.) The pair make some good points, :

Recent coverage of the repeal of the computer services tax in Maryland is reminiscent of George Orwell’s book 1984. Some of the same legislators who argued strenuously in favor of the tax during the legislative special session, are now hailed as heroes of the repeal effort. As a few issues have been confused and distorted, we would like to take this opportunity to clarify some facts from our perspective.

The expansion of the Maryland sales tax to include computer services was first enacted during the November 2007 Special Session. It was added to the already historic tax increases in, literally, the dark of night in a Senate committee, with no discussion or input from the public or members of the industry. This game of tax hokey pokey had been going on for several days, as various industries were in, and then out. Ultimately, the tech services industry became the loser in this game. At that time, the Republican Caucus argued on the floor of the House of Delegates how damaging this tax would be to the burgeoning tech industry in Maryland, and to the state’s economy. We also pointed out the singular unfairness of the process that led to this tax’s inclusion in the package being strenuously pushed by Governor O’Malley and the Democrat leadership.

We offered an amendment to strip the tech tax from the package, which failed. The General Assembly went on to pass the largest tax increase in Maryland history. Once again, the Republican members argued and voted against these taxes, proposing as an alternative, specific reductions in the rate of growth in spending to address the looming deficit.

(snip)

Governor O’Malley and the Democratic leadership chose to ignore all of the alternatives presented by the Republican caucus, and, after finally succumbing to public pressure, replaced the tech tax with another tax, this time the so-called “millionaire’s tax”. This backfilling was entirely unnecessary. As the Republican membership has pointed out multiple times over the past months, Maryland does not have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem.

(snip)

The increased income tax is likely to have an equally damaging effect on Maryland’s economy. Many of the individuals who qualify for this increased tax are actually small businesses who file as a Subchapter S corporations, so once again a tax has been imposed which will damage small business.
(more…)

Editorial: The Washington Times

Maryland is very much a bastion of one-party liberalism, with Democrats controlling every elected statewide office and holding commanding majorities in both Houses of the legislature. But “progressives” are very worried that Maryland could become a two-party state. So, with Attorney General Doug Gansler taking the lead, they came up with a plan to make it as easy as possible to get likely Democratic voters to the polls — and, disgracefully, they raised the specter of using the power of the state to threaten to silence anyone who gets in their way.

Mr. Gansler put together something called “The Attorney General’s Task Force On Voting Irregularities,” packed it with liberals like veteran Annapolis activist Carl Snowden, liberal attorneys and law professors, a newly enfranchised ex-felon and Deborah Jeon, legal director of the ACLU of Maryland; the task force was asked to come up with a plan to fix everything that’s wrong with the way elections are conducted in the state. Parts of the report consist of generalized complaints that can’t really be confirmed or refuted. For example, “Individuals reported to the Task Force that police squad cars and officers nevertheless were deployed and remained at polling places for considerable periods of time. These actions can have the effect of depressing voter turnout and intimidating voters attempting to exercise their right to participate in the voting process.” But modern-day Maryland isn’t 1964 Mississippi, and the report provides no evidence (only innuendo) that it is. Nor does it provide any evidence that police in modern-day Maryland are “intimidating” anyone out of voting.

But buried deep inside the report, task force members make clear why they and Mr. Gansler are making this flimsy argument: They need a pretext to silence people who oppose them. On page 14, the report contains a long-winded political sermon about the evils of “false and misleading political speech,” and recommend that all polling places include a hotline number in Mr. Gansler’s office and the State Board of Elections so that voters can report when “deceptive materials” are distributed on Election Day. There’