When a teenager attempts to build a breeder reactor

By Ken Silverstein

There is hardly a boy or a girl alive who is not keenly interested in finding out about things. And that’s exactly what chemistry is: Finding out about things–finding out what things are made of and what changes they undergo. What things? Any thing! Every thing!
–The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments

Golf Manor is the kind of place where nothing unusual is supposed to happen, the kind of place where people live precisely because it is more than 25 miles outside of Detroit and all the complications attendant on that city. The kind of place where money buys a bit more land, perhaps a second bathroom, and so reassures residents that they’re safely in the bosom of the middle class. Every element of Golf Manor invokes one form of security or another, beginning with the name of the subdivision itself–taken from the 18 hole course at its entrance–and the community in which it is nestled, Commerce Township. The houses and trees are both old and varied enough to make Golf Manor feel more like a neighborhood than a subdivision, and the few features that do convey subdivision–a sign at the entrance saying “We have many children but none to spare. Please drive carefully”–have a certain Back to the Future charm. Most Golf Manor residents remain there until they die, and then they are replaced by young couples with kids. In short, it is the kind of place where, on a typical day, the only thing lurking around the corner is a Mister Softee ice-cream truck.

But June 26, 1995, was not a typical day. Ask Dottie Pease. As she turned down Pinto Drive, Pease saw eleven men swarming across her carefully manicured lawn. Their attention seemed to be focused on the back yard of the house next door, specifically on a large wooden potting shed that abutted the chain-link fence dividing her property from her neighbor’s. Three of the men had donned ventilated moon suits and were proceeding to dismantle the potting shed with electric saws, stuffing the pieces of wood into large steel drums emblazoned with radioactive warning signs. Pease had never noticed anything out of the ordinary at the house next door.

A middle-aged couple, Michael Polasek and Patty Hahn, lived there. On some weekends, they were joined by Patty’s teenage son, David. As she huddled with a group of nervous neighbors, though, Pease heard one resident claim to have awoken late one night to see the potting shed emitting an eerie glow. “I was pretty disturbed,” Pease recalls. “I went inside and called my husband. I said, `Da-a-ve, there are men in funny suits walking around out here. You’ve got to do something.’”
(more…)

from Flopping Aces

She released her supporters but did not endorse Hoffman, the Conservative candidate!

SCOZZAFAVA SUSPENDS 23RD CAMPAIGN
SIENA POLL SUGGESTS REPUBLICAN CAN’T WIN
By JUDE SEYMOUR
Watertown Daily TimesSATURDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2009

Dede Scozzafava, the Republican and Independence parties candidate, announced Saturday that she is suspending her campaign for the 23rd Congressional District and releasing all her supporters.

The state Assemblywoman has not thrown her support to either Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate, or Bill Owens, the Democratic candidate.

“Today, I again seek to act for the good of our community,” Ms. Scozzafava wrote in a letter to friends and supporters. “It is increasingly clear that pressure is mounting on many of my supporters to shift their support. Consequently, I hereby release those individuals who have endorsed and supported my campaign to transfer their support as they see fit to do so. I am and have always been a proud Republican. It is my hope that with my actions today, my party will emerge stronger and our district and our nation can take an important step towards restoring the enduring strength and economic prosperity that has defined us for generations.”

Ms. Scozzafava told the Watertown Daily Times that Siena Research Institute poll numbers show her too far behind to catch up – and she lacks enough money to spend on advertising in the last three days to make a difference. Mr. Owens has support from 36 percent of likely voters in the poll, with Mr. Hoffman garnering 35 percent support. Ms. Scozzafava has support from 20 percent of those polled.

The Gouverneur resident said she thinks she will receive more than 20 percent of the vote, based on several factors, including her performance during a Thursday debate.

See the Watertown Daily Times’ “All Politics is Local” blog to read Ms. Scozzafava’s complete statement or for more information on today’s Siena poll.

Scozzafava didn’t have to make this statement today. It was an act of sacrifice more than it was an acknowledgement of reality. She should be commended for doing so.

also:

Pelosi’s Health Bill: 1990 Pages. Abortions, Death Panels and Trial Lawyer Protection All Included

House Committee sessions where these issues were voted on were nothing but a sham! The real work went on behind closed doors in direct contradiction to Obama’s promise for an open process!

Nancy Pelosi finally put her cards on the table this week. Meeting in secret She produced a bill which weighs in at a record 1990 pages (PDF). It’s a monster by every measure. The Congressional Budget Office puts the full cost of the bill at $1.28 trillion dollars:

According to a preliminary CBO estimate of the bill released Thursday, the cost of expanding coverage to an additional 36 million Americans under the House plan would total $1.055 trillion over the next decade, counting tax breaks for small businesses, subsidies for low- and moderate-income families and the largest expansion of Medicaid since its inception 40 years ago. Add a variety of other costs outside the coverage package — including the creation of a new innovations center to reform Medicaid and Medicare — and the total cost of the bill rises to nearly $1.28 trillion, according to calculations by other Democratic aides.

Pelosi and House Democrat leaders are trying to push the fiction that this won’t be a budget busting bill but members of her own party are not buying it. The famous Blue Dogs are rebelling again and demanding answers from the CBO on how much the bill will actually cost after all the smoke and mirrors are gone. As we all know, government programs typically cost far more than they are projected to.

The Crown Jewel of Socialism

Rep. Michelle Bachman (R-MN) calls Pelosi’s bill the “crown jewel of socialism” and warns that even this 1990 page monstrosity isn’t the final bill. Democrats are known for slipping in hundreds of pages of amendments at the last minute before a bill is voted on as they did with Cap and Tax legislation earlier this year. This Obamination is bad enough. Columnist David Harsanyi points out the word “shall” as in “must” or “required to” – appears over 3,000 times. Say good bye to your freedom.

What “shall” we be required to do? Pay for abortion funding, and be subjected to death panels. And if that weren’t repellent enough Pelsoi inserted a provision which would punish state governments who attempt any kind of law suit abuse reform that would impact lawyers fees. I’m sure trial lawyers, major contributors to the Dem Party are pleased.

So much for the promises that Obama made to a joint session of Congress on September 9, where he declared that abortion and death panels were a lie. I wouldn’t be surprised if we find that there is still no provision to enforce a ban on illegal aliens receiving benefits under this bill. Joe Wilson was RIGHT!

But then, after promising so much, Obama is prepared to sign a bill that does just the opposite!

Finally:

White House Visitor List Reveals Ayers, Other Terrorists and Radicals Not just Idle Acquaintances

You are unlikely to find a sorrier rogues gallery than Obama’s guest list!

Did you ever wonder who were the folks who got all those special invites to the White House since the Obama’s turned it into party central? The White House released the list. Here are some highlights…

• Two visits by William Ayers, the Weatherman terrorist whose group bombed the Pentagon and who said he wished he had done more. Remember Obama told us all that Ayers was “just some guy in the neighborhood” back in Chicago. What a liar! (more…)

What if Bush had done that?

A four-hour stop in New Orleans, on his way to a $3 million fundraiser.

Snubbing the Dalai Lama.

Signing off on a secret deal with drug makers.

Freezing out a TV network.

Doing more fundraisers than the last president. More golf, too.

President Barack Obama has done all of those things — and more.

What’s remarkable is what hasn’t happened. These episodes haven’t become metaphors for Obama’s personal and political character — or consuming controversies that sidetracked the rest of his agenda.

It’s a sign that the media’s echo chamber can be a funny thing, prone to the vagaries of news judgment, and an illustration that, in politics, context is everything.

Conservatives look on with a mix of indignation and amazement and ask: Imagine the fuss if George W. Bush had done these things?

And quickly add, with a hint of jealousy: How does Obama get away with it?

“We have a joke about it. We’re going to start a website: IfBushHadDoneThat.com,” former Bush counselor Ed Gillespie said. “The watchdogs are curled up around his feet, sleeping soundly. … There are countless examples: some silly, some serious.”

Indeed, Bush got grief for secret meetings with the oil industry, politicizing the White House and spending too much time on his beloved bike. But it’s not just Republicans who notice. Media observers note that the president often gets kid-glove treatment from the press, fellow Democrats and, particularly, interest groups on the left — Bush’s loudest critics, Obama’s biggest backers.
(more…)

The Bloop

During 1997, US undersea monitoring equipment heard a series of sounds far louder than any whale song. They were never heard again.

I figured I would post start on occasion posing on subjects other then politics to lighten the mood a bit. I have always been fascinated with mysteries, and here is a really neat one. The taos hum

The ‘Taos Hum’ is a low-pitched sound heard in numerous places worldwide, especially in the USA, UK, and northern europe. It is usually heard only in quiet environments, and is often described as sounding like a distant diesel engine. Since it has proven indetectable by microphones or VLF antennae, its source and nature is still a mystery.

In 1997 Congress directed scientists and observers from some of the most prestigious research institutes in the nation to look into a strange low frequency noise heard by residents in and around the small town of Taos, New Mexico. For years those who had heard the noise, often described by them as a “hum”, had been looking for answers.
(more…)

By Dick Morris

Published in the New York Post on July 31, 2009

The health-reform debate on Capitol Hill is skipping over the key issue: “Universal insurance” means less care for people who have coverage now — especially the elderly.

And the “compromises” now under way only make the problem worse.

Here’s a point that’s no surprise except to the “reformers”: People with insurance use more health care.

President Obama seeks to cover 50 million new people. Where are the extra doctors, nurses and so on going to come from? Neither the administration nor anyone on the Hill has proposed anything to add to the supply of medical services even as they plan vastly to increase the demand.

The politicians are playing a Washington game — compromising on false or tangential issues while failing to address the central one.

It doesn’t matter if you reduce or eliminate the mandate for employers to provide coverage, if you’re still insuring more people without adding medical personnel and other resources. Same story for whether you replace the “public option” government-run plan with government-run “co-ops.”

More, all the bills come up with cash to cover their huge costs by ordering cuts in Medicare — cuts that Congress could reverse only by affirmative majority votes. Basically, the government will be paying doctors and providers even less to treat the elderly — at a time when countless doctors are starting to refuse new Medicare patients. (more…)

By Dick Morris
The stimulus package used up all the wiggle room he had to increase the budget deficit. He probably could have passed the healthcare program without a tax increase had he not already sent the deficit soaring with his massive spending. (Hillary and Bill pretended that there was no need to raise taxes to pay for their 1993 reform package and few questioned their presumption.) But now that the deficit has soared to 12 percent of the gross domestic product, everyone realizes that taxes must go up to pass healthcare “reform,” making its adoption even less likely. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) has passed $550 billion of tax increases, but everyone knows that at least $1 trillion is required. And, in the current environment, Congress will not vote to add the balance to the deficit, even if Charlie wants to “charge it.”

Finally, Obama has laid a trap for himself. Just as the economy is coming out of its recession — in 2010 and 2011 — and he begins to run for reelection, he is going to face massive inflation. The money supply has more than tripled since October of 2008 and is going up each week as the Fed buys Treasury bills and other securities to “monetize the debt” (i.e., give other people money so they can lend it back to the government and charge it interest for doing so). With each new infusion of cash, the problem of avoiding inflation becomes particularly severe. Obama could well lose the elections of 2012 because of the inflation his deficit has created.

Of course, we all know that the only way to put the inflation virus back in the test tube is to trigger a new recession, this time caused by massive increases in interest rates, as Fed Chairman Paul Volcker did in 1979. If the recession doesn’t doom Obama to a single term, the inflation will. And if the inflation doesn’t get him, the subsequent recession will.

The deeper he gets into his term, the more it is apparent that he threw it all away when he first took office and demanded over $1 trillion in stimulus and supplemental appropriation spending. (more…)

Crossposted from Flopping Aces

Photo from the International Space Station!

Full size image here.

One giant belch likely emitting more CO2 into the atmosphere than all the cars on earth do in one year!

More photos and full story here.

Also:

Western media abandons Iranian revolt news as widespread violence decreases, and regime steps up oppression

The fickle and tunnel-visioned western media apparently has had it’s fill. For days the nation watched mesmerized as Iranian demonstrators, under physical and police assault, smuggled out news via the New Age Internet media even professional journalists couldn’t match.

Yesterday and today… sans any shocking bloody videos to show… US news has turned it’s eye away from Iran and the citizens fight for fair elections and the right of free speech.

Just because the media’s eye isn’t focused, doesn’t mean Iran is quiet and banking on the Ayatollah’s five day election review extension. In fact, since they certified Ahmadinejad as the winner and vowed no retreat only the day before. They are set to swear him into office early August… which means, of course, that the five day complaint review of the election is merely for show.

Yet despite the media’s distracted eye elsewhere, Iran was not without it’s clashes in the yesterday, or today.

Hundreds of protesters clashed with waves of riot police and paramilitary militia in Tehran on Wednesday, witnesses said, as Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, insisted that the authorities would not yield to pressure from opponents demanding a new election following allegations of electoral fraud.

It was impossible to confirm the extent of the new violence in the capital because of draconian new press restrictions on coverage of the post-election mayhem. But the witnesses reached by telephone said the confrontation, in the streets near the national Parliament building, was bloody, with police using live ammunition.

Defying government warnings, hundreds, if not thousands of protesters, had attempted to gather in front of the parliament on Baharestan Square, witnesses said. They were met with riot police and paramilitary militia, who struck at them with truncheons, tear gas and guns. One witness said he saw a 19-year-old woman shot in the neck. Others said the police had shot in the air, not directly at demonstrators.

WaPo also has more in street clashes today, along with more on a defiant Ayatollah.

Iran’s supreme leader told a group of lawmakers Wednesday that “neither the system nor the people will submit to bullying” over the results of the disputed presidential election, and riot police backed by militiamen later forcibly broke up a demonstration at the parliament building in support of opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi.

“Everyone should respect the law. Once lawlessness becomes a norm, things will be complicated and the interests of people will be undermined,” said Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has ultimate authority over political and religious life in Iran. “We will not step an inch beyond the law: our law, our country’s law, the Islamic Republic’s law.”

Hours later, witnesses said, large numbers of security forces, some riding motorcycles, used baton charges, beatings, tear gas and arrests to disperse several thousand demonstrators protesting the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The demonstrators were trying to gather in front of the parliament building to show support for Mousavi, who says that massive fraud in the June 12 election cheated him of victory.

Security forces — including regular police from all over Tehran, helmeted riot police officers and members of a force known as “Robocops” for their full body armor and special equipment — converged on Baharestan Square to prevent a demonstration from taking shape. They were supported by members of the pro-government Basij militia and plainclothes agents who infiltrated the protesters, witnesses said.

“Robocops” riding motorcycles fired large handguns into the air as they charged up and down Republic Street and other nearby avenues, one witness said. A helicopter circled overhead. Some of the police carried paintball guns, which have been used in recent demonstrations to mark protesters for arrest.

“When people started to gather, the [security forces] chased them into alleys and arrested anybody they could,” he said. In one alley, police caught up with three men and started beating them, then attacked bystanders who tried to intervene, he said.

In one confrontation between protesters and Basij members, a middle-aged woman wearing a light-blue headscarf and a black coat angrily refused orders to leave. “I’m going to stay here and see how many people you kill today,” she told the Basij. A plainclothes agent emerged from the crowd, swore at the woman and took out a pair of handcuffs to arrest her. Other people tried to stop the agent, but Basij members rushed them and beat them with clubs, the witness said.

~~~

In Twitter feeds, people who said they witnessed the crackdown described protesters with broken limbs and cracked heads, saying there was “blood everywhere” from the beatings. One said many people had been arrested. Another said people were being beaten “like animals.”

As the numbers in the streets, up for facing another day or mortality with the regimes policy bullies, declined, the oppressive crackdown, randoms searches and raids, arrests increased. NY’s International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has names of at least 240 detainees, but say that number may be as high as 2000 via some human rights activists in Iran. The Iraninian state media reports 645 arrests.

Among them are people arrested in a Monday night raid of a campaign office for Mr. Moussavi in Tehran, Press TV, state television’s English-language satellite broadcaster, reported Wednesday. The government said the office was being used as “a headquarters for psychological war against the country’s security,” and claimed that evidence had been found of “the role of foreign elements in planning post-election unrest.”

Also detained are 102 political figures, 23 journalists, 79 university students and 7 university faculty, the human rights organization said. By official reckonings, at least 17 demonstrators have been killed.

Wapo’s article yesterday outlines how the Ayatollah plans to make an example of the demonstrators, including setting up a separate court just “make an example” of the protestors, while making more arrests and launching a campaign to publicly vilify those calling for a new election.

On a day of relative calm after security forces broke up protests Monday, the government vowed to make an example of detained “rioters” and teach them a lesson. Hundreds of Iranians have been arrested in the past 10 days since the Interior Ministry declared that Ahmadinejad outpolled his nearest rival, former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, by nearly 2 to 1. Mousavi has vowed to continue protesting despite a government ban on demonstrations and a public warning from Khamenei.

~~~

A senior official of Iran’s judiciary, which is controlled by the ruling Shiite Muslim clerics, said Tuesday that a special court would try detained protesters, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported.

“Those arrested in recent events will be dealt with in a way that will teach them a lesson,” the official, Ibrahim Raisi, was quoted as saying. “The rioters should be dealt with in an exemplary way, and the judiciary will do that.” Raisi did not elaborate.

Iran Updates at the Tehran Bureau does continue to publish comments of the opposition, documenting ways to continue their dissent via strikes, and noting the government’s assault on communication, and arrests of those carrying laptops, cell phones and cameras.

From Tehran, 24 June 2009

Just to let you all know, R. was arrested last night in Tehran; I’m not sure where and why. I got a call from his phone by the police who wanted me to confirm details. I had to tell them how long we’d lived in [here], how we met, what he and I do for work, where I work, my nationality, about his family and also where I live. He was carrying his laptop, external HD and camera so I’m guessing he’s having that looked though. They told me he’d be released any minute now last night. I doubt that.

Tehran resident, 23 June 2009

[Translated] I access Facebook through Yahoo! Mexico. But everyone says that’s a trap set by authorities to identify us!!!!!

[X] quarrels with me all the time. He keeps imploring me not to go on the internet. They even say the phones are monitored!!!

I’m so frightened I changed my [online] name today.

I don’t know why. Other than vote for Mousavi I’ve never engaged in a political activity in my entire life. But this is no comfort because [X]’s poor colleague was shot in the eye with a rubber bullet while driving through Vanak Square. After two operations, he’s blind in one eye!!!!!!!!

They picked up someone else too. Two days after his disappearance they released him near Shahreh Rey with his eyes blindfolded and his mouth gagged.

Neither guy attended demonstrations! Plus, they say those who come to these protests are MKO members [terrorists]!!!!! Not to mention 100 other insults!

What had this poor woman Neda done that they wouldn’t allow any mosque to hold ceremonies for her — come on, wasn’t she Muslim?

Anyway, things here are REALLY bad here. We’re all scared to death.

Something has to change. We can’t go living like this.

The most recent comment update on the site addresses their confusion of Obama’s press conference. This relates specifically to Huffpo’s proxy question by Nico Pitney that I posted on yesterday. That question was:

Under which conditions would you accept the election of Ahmadinejad? And if you do accept it without any significant changes in the conditions there, isn’t that a betrayal of what the demonstrators there are working towards.

I caught Pitney on Charlie Rose last night. While he, like other liberals, believe Obama is handling this “just right”, he also stated that Obama “dodged” the question.

The commenter’s post, as translated from Farsi, reiterated the same confusion at his tepid support for the demonstrators, and their adamance that any recognition of Ahmadinejad was indeed, a betrayal.

From Tehran, 24 June 2009 [10 am Eastern US]

[Translated from Farsi] What kind of speech was that from Obama? Why did he talk like that?

“What should he do?” I ask.

The only thing Obama can do is refuse to recognize this man as the president of Iran. The big issue for the hard-liners here, the thing they keep telling everyone here is that they are the ones who can solve our issues with the United States. They want to be in complete power — at any cost — when negotiations take place. So Ahmadinejad likes to maintain that he is the man who can get the job done [he can deliver Washington].

Right from the beginning of this, Ahmadinejad said that he was going to the UN to speak. He said in his speech that he was going to go to the United Nations to defend the rights of the Iranian people — you know along the lines of all the inane things he says. The United States cannot aid him in this respect by recognizing this man, by putting a seal of approval on this charade by giving him a visa to come to New York.

There’s supposed to be another gathering today in Baharestaan in from of the Majlis (parliament building). I didn’t go because they murder people at these gatherings.

Obama is an intelligent politician. He keeps harping on the fact that this is a domestic issue. OK, that’s fine. I understand. I accept this from him as long as he then doesn’t turn around and recognize Ahmadinejad as the president of Iran. He’s calling himself president after an election drenched in blood. He wants to say he’s president by staging a coup d’etat. It’s like the United States recognizing the Pinochet government.

They [Iranian officials] played with people here. That’s why we’re so upset. It’s true: leading up to the election they opened things up. A positive environment was created. People were in the streets joyously chanting until 5 in the morning. All that is good and true. I even personally know people who had never voted in their lives who decided to participate for the first time. They of course voted for Mir Hossein Mousavi. Why, because there seemed to be some openness in the air for the first time in Iran. It’s true, whatever the figure is in terms of turnout — 39 million or 42 million people did turn out to vote. But what happened next? This is what got people angry. It’s not because Mousavi lost, but because they believe they were tricked. Sure they’re upset about the fact that Mousavi didn’t win, but that’s not the issue. That’s not why they’re protesting. They’re protesting because the government thought it could make fools of them. All this was a play, it was a movie. It wasn’t real. It was a charade. People are hopeless and depressed because they were played with, not because Mousavi lost.

I also read in one of the various and voluminous updates today that the Ayatollah had decided to bolt town for a personal retreat, but not before issuing orders that the crackdown be intensified, and focus on Americans, Britains. But since I can’t find that paragraph to cite the exact language… take it with some caveats.

Melanie Phillips has an interesting column in The Spectator today with various links as to what is going on behind the scenes in the regime.

The Iran expert Michael Ledeen says he has no idea what’s going to happen. But there are signs that the regime is preparing for an all-out assault; and that they are panicking and the ayatollahs are at odds amongst themselves; and that, most interestingly of all, this:

…that there are cracks in the regime’s edifice, ranging from declarations of small groups of Revolutionary Guards calling on their brothers to defect to “the people,” to a phenomenon that is just beginning to be discussed here and there, mostly on the Net but originally in an Arab newspaper. Steve Schippert posted on it and did a first-class analysis. Steve starts with a report from al Arabiya that says senior ayatollahs have been meeting secretly in Qom to discuss significant changes in the structure of the Iranian state. In addition to the Iranian clerics, there was a foreigner: Jawad al-Shahristani, the supreme representative of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the foremost Shiite leader in Iraq.

If this is true, it is, as Steve says, huge. Because it means that senior religious leaders in Iran are talking to the representative of an Iraqi Imam who believes, as most Shi’ites did before Khomeini’s heresy, that the proper role of religious leaders is to guide their people from the mosque, not from the political capital. In other words, they are talking about the most serious form of regime change.

What may be interesting to see is if this rift between the religious leaders develops into substantive reform, or if they too can be beaten down by the Ayatollah and Ahmadinejad’s military might.

Phillips’ also follow my line of thinking that Obama’s so called leadership is “disgraceful”, and that the demonstrators are well aware he is leaving them on their own.

As Ledeen also says, however, the protesters know they are on their own facing the thugs of the basiji. Despite Obama’s belated condemnation today of the brutality being meted out, his remarks were far too little, far too late and still far too inadequate. As Mladen Andrijasevic notes, his strategy of engaging the regime remains, regardless of how many protesters have been killed, tortured or jailed — and will remain, it would appear, even if worse happens in the days to come. And as Joseph Ashby devastatingly notes :

Obama believes, on some significant level, the propaganda promoted by America’s enemies that the United States is the main instigator and perpetrator of international unrest. So shockingly, amazingly, unbelievably, Obama is saying that Iran may very well use America as a propaganda tool, but at least this time they won’t be right.

What a disgrace that this man is leader of the free world; and at such a point in history. If he had put America stoutly behind the protesters and championed them against the regime, by now they might have toppled it. There are signs today that even the fawning American media is appalled.

That additional “fawning media” to which Phillips refers is Joshua Muravchik at Commentary magazine, who states that Obama has totally abandoned the long-time American tradition of supporting democracy and human rights… the same thing I’ve been saying since I’ve managed to find time to reappear in the blog world since the Iranian revolt.

The most surprising thing about the first half-year of Barack Obama’s presidency, at least in the realm of foreign policy, has been its indifference to the issues of human rights and democracy. No administration has ever made these its primary, much less its exclusive, goals overseas. But ever since Jimmy Carter spoke about human rights in his 1977 inaugural address and created a new infrastructure to give bureaucratic meaning to his words, the advancement of human rights has been one of the consistent objectives of America’s diplomats and an occasional one of its soldiers.

This tradition has been ruptured by the Obama administration. The new president signaled his intent on the eve of his inauguration, when he told editors of the Washington Post that democracy was less important than “freedom from want and freedom from fear. If people aren’t secure, if people are starving, then elections may or may not address those issues, but they are not a perfect overlay.”

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton followed suit, in opening testimony at her Senate confirmation hearings. As summed up by the Post’s Fred Hiatt, Clinton “invoked just about every conceivable goal but democracy promotion. Building alliances, fighting terror, stopping disease, promoting women’s rights, nurturing prosperity—but hardly a peep about elections, human rights, freedom, liberty or self-rule.”

A few days after being sworn in, President Obama pointedly gave his first foreign press interview to the Saudi-owned Arabic-language satellite network, Al-Arabiya. The interview was devoted entirely to U.S. relations with the Middle East and the broader Muslim world, and through it all Obama never mentioned democracy or human rights.

A month later, announcing his plan and timetable for the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq, the president said he sought the “achievable goal” of “an Iraq that is sovereign, stable, and self-reliant,” and he spoke of “a more peaceful and prosperous Iraq.” On democracy, one of the prime goals of America’s invasion of Iraq, and one toward which impressive progress had been demonstrated, he was again silent.

While drawing down in Iraq, Obama ordered more troops sent to Afghanistan, where America was fighting a war he had long characterized as more necessary and justifiable than the one in Iraq. But at the same time, he spoke of the need to “refocus on Al Qaeda” in Afghanistan, at least implying that this meant washing our hands of the project of democratization there. The Washington Post reported that “suggestions by senior administration officials . . . that the United States should set aside the goal of democracy in Afghanistan” had prompted that country’s foreign minister to make “an impassioned appeal for continued U.S. support for an elected government.”

Obama’s adamance to be the antithesis to Bush… a stalwart supporter of the quest for freedom… does not require his obvious disdain for democracy and insistance that human rights abuses are, in his notion, “meddling” or “interfering”. Muravchik has a fascinating set of speeches, quotes and circumstances that document Obama’s step away from standing up for American values, while he simultaneously delivers lip service that belie his actions.

Obama seems to believe that democracy is overrated, or at least overvalued. When asked about the subject in his pre-inaugural interview with the Washington Post, Obama said that he is more concerned with “actually delivering a better life for people on the ground and less obsessed with form, more concerned with substance.” He elaborated on this thought during his April visit to Strasbourg, France:

We spend so much time talking about democracy—and obviously we should be promoting democracy everywhere we can. But democracy, a well-functioning society that promotes liberty and equality and fraternity, does not just depend on going to the ballot box. It also means that you’re not going to be shaken down by police because the police aren’t getting properly paid. It also means that if you want to start a business, you don’t have to pay a bribe. I mean, there are a whole host of other factors that people need . . . to recognize in building a civil society that allows a country to be successful.

Whether or not the President was aware of it, he was echoing a theme first propounded long ago by Soviet propagandists and later sung in many variations by all manner of Third World dictators, Left to Right. It has long since been discredited by a welter of research showing that democracies perform better in fostering economic and social well being, keeping the peace, and averting catastrophes. Never mind that it is untoward for a President of the United States to speak of democracy as a mere “form,” less important than substance.

Needless to say, the Commentary piece is a “must read”.

So the battle for Iranian government reform continues by those brave enough to risk all by hitting the streets. And, in the glaring void of notable support by either the UN, or the US, they wonder… who in the free world will do commit more than lip service to help them? And will they doom them with the ultimate slap by accepting Ahmadinejad as the legitimate President, despite the blood on the regime’s hands?

Finally:

Obama’s Waffling Continues

The demonstrations continue on in Iran but the crowds are getting smaller as the Basij thugs are becoming more and more brutal:

Security forces wielding clubs and firing weapons beat back demonstrators who flocked to a Tehran square Wednesday to continue protests, two witnesses said.

One witness said security forces beat people like “animals.”

~~~

At least two sources described wild and violent conditions at a part of Tehran where protesters had planned to demonstrate.

“They were waiting for us,” the source said. “They all have guns and riot uniforms. It was like a mouse trap.

“I see many people with broken arms, legs, heads — blood everywhere — pepper gas like war,” the source said.

Around “500 thugs” with clubs came out of a mosque and attacked people in the square, another source said. (more…)

By Dick Morris

Does President Obama truly believe that he can castigate and condemn Wall Street on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and then secure its cooperation on the other days of the week?

Does he not understand that when he ignites a public furor over AIG bonuses and then incites Congress to pass a punitive tax, he sends shivers down the spines of every other corporate executive who makes a lot of money?

Does he seriously believe that Wall Street investors will not worry that their winnings, should they join the Treasury as partners in risky investments, would be subject to public abuse, publicity and confiscatory taxation?

Of course he realizes that his rhetoric makes it unlikely that his program will succeed. He obviously gets it that the entire concept of a public-private partnership is impossible amid a climate of waging class warfare, taxing the rich and heaping contempt on anyone who makes money. The president is quite bright and certainly understands that you cannot shake hands with your right while you launch a roundhouse with your left.

So why does Obama persist in his aggressive rhetoric? Why does he continue to treat Wall Street as something out of Dante’s Inferno?

Because he’s just not that into you! He doesn’t really care if the public-private partnerships work out.

He sends Geithner out to announce the program because he doesn’t want to make it his own. When he announces a stimulus plan or a new spending bill, it’s Obama’s moment before the teleprompter. But the public-private partnerships he leaves to his Treasury secretary to announce.

The most rational explanation for Obama’s puzzling conduct — sabotaging his own program by way of his own rhetoric — is that he truly wants to be forced to nationalize the banks in pursuit of his ultimate goal of a socialist economy.

Obama has to oppose nationalization today in order to achieve it tomorrow. He has to show the country and the world that he is doing all he can to help the private sector to sort things out with government help. He must ostentatiously invite the hated demons of Wall Street to join him in rescuing the banks in order, later, to say that he did his best to avoid having to take over the banks. Only then will nationalization be an acceptable alternative — when he has run out of other options. (more…)

From Red Maryland

Wow, President Obama must be doing a historically bad job if the New York Times editorial page is writing about how bad of a President he is:

The leading liberal voices of the New York Times editorial pages all criticized—and, in some cases, clobbered—President Obama on Sunday for his handling of the economy and national security.

It’s not unusual for Barack Obama to take a little friendly fire from the Times. But it’s perhaps unprecedented for him to get hit on the same day by columnists Frank Rich, Thomas Friedman and Maureen Dowd—and in the paper’s lead editorial. Their critique punctuated a weekend that started with a widely circulated blog post by Paul Krugman that said the president’s yet to be announced bank rescue plan would almost certainly fail.

The sentiment, coming just two months after the president was sworn in, reflects elite opinion in the Washington-New York corridor that Obama is increasingly overwhelmed, and not fully appreciative of the building tsunami of populist outrage.

And with the last sentence, Politico’s Johnathan Martin may be making the understatement of the year. Read the lead editorial, and the editorials by Friedman, Rich, and Dowd for yourself to see how far reaching their criticisms are.
(more…)

Crossposted from Flopping Aces

Now this is what I call speaking the truth. Here is Ann Coulter from her new book, Guilty: Liberal “Victims” and Their Assault on America, describing how the MSM went bananas over Obama, fawned over him, drooled over him….and failed at their job:

When the Obama family materialized, the media was seized by a mass psychosis that hadn’t been witnessed since Beatlemania. OK! magazine raved that the Obamas “are such an all-American family that they almost make the Brady Bunch look dysfunctional.” Yes, who can forget the madcap episode when the Bradys’ wacky preacher tells them the government created AIDS to kill blacks!

Still gushing, OK! magazine’s crack journalists reported: “Mom goes to bake sales, dad balances the checkbook, and the girls love Harry Potter” — and then the whole family goes to a racist huckster who shouts, “God damn America!”

Months before network anchors were interrogating vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin on the intricacies of foreign policy, here is how NBC’s Brian Williams mercilessly grilled presidential candidate Barack Obama: “What was it like for you last night, the part we couldn’t see, the flight to St. Paul with your wife, knowing what was awaiting?”

Twisting the knife he had just plunged into Obama, Williams followed up with what has come to be known as a “gotcha” question: “And you had to be thinking of your mother and your father.” Sarah Palin was memorizing the last six kings of Swaziland for her media interviews, but Obama only needed to say something nice about his parents to be considered presidential material.

The media’s fawning over Obama knew no bounds, and yet, in the midst of the most incredible media conspiracy to turn this jug-eared clodhopper into some combination of Winston Churchill and a young Elvis, you were being a bore if you mentioned the liberal media. Oh surely we’ve exploded that old chestnut. … Look! Look, Obama just lit up another Marlboro! Geez, does smoking make you look cool, or what! Yeah, Obama!.

Dead on target, as usual. Obama is the product of many things. Racist priests, socialist friends and Chicago politics but you have to add to that list the press. The MSM has plugged their ears and put a blindfold over their eyes.

Also:

Quick Takes For Friday

Four mini posts on news of note and interest:

• The Obama legacy: “trillion dollar deficits for years to come.”
• Bush family cat dies.
• Obama politicizing intelligence with Panetta pick?
• Israel interrupts Gaza broadcasts with psyche war messages.

Obama Predicts “trillion-dollar deficits for years to come.”

Just one problem: What happens when China stops loaning us money? The credit crunch of all time? Who will bail out the U.S. government?

There used to be a time when deficit spending was a huge campaign issue. That time may come again as the Obama deficits dwarf any that have come before. Soon, Republicans in Congress will get their first opportunity to show they stand for the principles of lower spending less government. We can’t win by running on the “me too” or Obama lite platform.

Bush Family Cat Dies in White House

The Bush families cat, a female black American Shorthair, named India, but often called “Willie” or “Kitty” died at home at the White House on January 4, 2009 after 18 years of love and devotion to the First Family.

India often let Barney and Miss Beazley, the Bush’s two Scottish Terriers steal the show as she preferred more aesthetic pursuits such as music (shown here listening to a piano serenade). But she was obviously a good sport about it all as you see in the photo below of her being licked by Miss Beazley while Barney looks on.

Obama Intelligence Picks Short on Experience but Long on Politics

Conservatives may have been somewhat comforted with Obama’s decision to leave Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense and choose a solid National Security Advisor, but as we all know intelligence gathering has been the weakest link in the national security chain.

And after years of lefties claiming that intelligence was somehow politicized during the Bush years doesn’t it strike anyone as odd that Obama chooses the very political Leon Panetta, Bill Clinton’s former Chief of Staff, a man who has very little intelligence experience, to head the CIA?

Even the liberal editorial board of the Houston Chronicle sees the problem:
(more…)

Crossposted from Flopping Aces

Reports continue to roll in of Russian tanks surrounding the Georgian city of Gori, far outside the disputed area of South Ossetia, while looting in Gori, destruction of Georgian naval vessels in Poti and violence continues across the troubled country.

Russia Rejects Georgian Sovereignty

In the clearest sign that Russia sees Georgia as property at it’s disposal, Russia rejected the demands of Europeans and the U.S. for Russia to recognize the sovereignty of Georgia or make any reference to it in the already tattered peace plan negotiated by the French between Moscow and Tiblisi.

Advancing the war on words one notch further, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called U.S. and Georgian friendship a “special project” and suggested that the U.S. must “choose between the prestige of this relatively virtual project and partnership [with Russia] on questions that require collective action.”

President Bush has directed Secretary of State Rice to travel first to France to discuss the matter with French President Sarkozy then on to Georgia. No plans are announced to travel to Moscow.

Before leaving on her trip Secretary Rice turned the Russian challenge on it’s ear and reminded the Russians what THEY have at stake here and what might be the costs of their aggression.

The following is a series of excerpts from Secretary Rice’s press conference:

Secretary Condoleezza Rice
U.S. Department of State
Washington, DC
August 13, 2008

SECRETARY RICE:…Russia engaged in activities that could not possibly be associated simply with the crisis in South Ossetia. Bombing civilian targets – bombing targets outside of the zone of conflict, some of which have civilian uses, the activities in Gori, the activities at Poti, destruction of Georgian infrastructure – these are hardly moves that are related to South Ossetia.
…
When you start bombing ports and threatening to bomb airfields and bombing a city like Gori and bringing troops in a flanking maneuver on the western flank of Georgia and tying up the main roads between Georgia – between Tbilisi and Gori, that’s well beyond anything that is needed to protect Russian peacekeepers. And that is why Russia is starting to face international condemnation for what it is doing.

This is not 1968 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia, where Russia can threaten its neighbors, occupy a capital, overthrow a government, and get away with it. Things have changed.

I really do believe that the Russians understand that they’re — that pushing the envelope here would have significant consequences for Russia’s standing in the international system, which I think it already has had consequences for that, and for any future hopes that Russia might have to be fully integrated into the international system.

Russia has perhaps not accepted that it is time to move on from the Cold War and it is time to move to a new era in which relations between states are on the basis of equality and sovereignty and economic integration.

Now, Russia has said that that is the future that it wishes, that that is the future it wishes with the EU, that is the future it wishes with the United States and with any number of international organizations. So the message, unfortunately, that is being sent is that it is important to think again about whether, in fact, Russia will be committed to the kind of behavior that would make its involvement in those institutions appropriate.

It’s the Russians who need to make a choice: either work with us for stability, peace, economic development and prosperity or return to your Cold War stance where isolation and economic stagnation will be the consequences of YOUR actions!

also:

Bigfoot Hunters Find a Bigfoot Body????

TWO US professional Bigfoot hunters claim to have found a body of the legendary creature and will present evidence of the astounding discovery to the world’s press and scientists tomorrow.
(more…)

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For most Marylanders who live, work or visit the city of Baltimore, landmarks such as the Inner Harbor, Camden Yards and Fort McHenry are synonymous with the city in the same fashion as crab cakes or oysters. Recently, I stumbled upon a hidden treasure up above the floors of Sports Legends Museum at Camden Yards while at an event this weekend.

Geppi’s Entertainment Museum, atop the Sports Legends Museum at Camden Yards is unlike most museums you’ll ever see.

Let’s say, I was a kid again for the first time in a long time. With eyes wide open, and armed with just my memories and vivid imagination, I took a look at American history and a definition of Americana, not in words and pictures, but in advertisements, posters, comic books and toys. Unlike most museums that require you take an academic approach to what you see, Geppi’s Entertainment Museum is a place for anybody to relive their childhood, reminiscence on their past, and enjoy a lighter, brighter side of life. The museum is covered wall to wall with two floors of artifacts that compromise an impressive display that defines America’s history and the culture from the birth of the country to the present day.

Interactive video displays are also scattered through the museum, thus you’re engrossed in an experience that will leave you impressed and with a smile on your face once you leave.

With displays to please anyone from the ages of eight to eighty, the museum is a labor of love and the brainchild of Steve Geppi, a Baltimore native, owner of Diamond Comics Distribution and Gemstone Publishing and minority owner of the Baltimore Orioles.

The inspiration for Steve Geppi in his creation of the museum comes from his love of collecting and pop culture itself. As a Marylander who’s been able to become a prominent member of the local Baltimore community, he decided to make his incredible vast collection of posters, art and artifacts available that he has collected throughout the last four decades for the public to celebrate and enjoy.

As you walk in the museum, you look at posters from “Gone in the Wind”, “The Ten Commandments”, “Superman”, “Batman”, “Howdy Doody”, and a thousand other things and wonder how one man can be lucky enough to collect all these artifacts. Tempered with great pride, enjoyment of his collection and his ability to share it with the world, Steve Geppi described his museum as an “educational journey”, and added, “in a time of war, uncertainty, and just with the stresses of the everyday world, my museum provides a way of people to escape their problems, re-live their childhood and perhaps learn something new.”

The museum recently opened in the fall of 2006 to rave reviews in the community; therefore, Mr. Geppi assures the public that the museum will continue to evolve through the rotation of some items, as well as the acquisition of more artifacts to keep the museum vibrant.

Although Geppi’s Entertainment Museum is in its infancy, with the assortment of items and artifacts that will captivate anyone, it will one day take on the iconography of various landmarks in Baltimore and will be a premier destination for not only pop culture, but for American history.

Museum Website: http://www.geppismuseum.com/

Read More Here…

Website: The Oriole Post

What makes us human….

By Robert Farrow

ROME – Call it the eternal embrace.

Archaeologists in Italy have discovered a couple buried 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, hugging each other.

“It’s an extraordinary case,” said Elena Menotti, who led the team on their dig near the northern city of Mantova.

“There has not been a double burial found in the Neolithic period, much less two people hugging — and they really are hugging.”

Menotti said she believed the two, almost certainly a man and a woman although that needs to be confirmed, died young because their teeth were mostly intact and not worn down.
The link is here.

The Eastern world has long held a philosophy called Taoism. The goal of this philosophy is union with the Tao, which is accomplished through nonaction and detachment from the world. The final goal is to overcome worldly desires and attachments. Thus fear, hatred and jealousy are vanquished forever.

Yes emotions and wordly attachments give us our wars, our murders, our hate, envy, greed, and lust. The darkest side of humanity, the blackest part of our soul, is fed by our emotions and attachments.

But our emotions and attachments also give us our love, our music, our art, and our poetry. Without our emotions we would have no Beethoven, no Taj Mahal, and no Shakespeare. Our love for our attachments drives us forward, and makes us seek to be better then we are. Without this drive we would have never reached the moon and risen above all other creatures in the world. Our emotions and attachments bring out both the worst and best of humanity. If we follow Taoism the world will be safer, but a much less interesting place. And worst of all, there would be no love, one of the few things that makes life on this small blue world somewhat bearable.

Love, more then anything else, is what makes us human.

by Curt at Flopping Aces

And another non-surprise. We have known for years about the ongoing attempts in our MSM and on the left side of the aisle to leak anything damaging to this President and to the Republicans. Security clearences be damned. Now comes news yesterday that Hoekstra suspended an aide to Rep. Jane Harman until a investigation can be completed:

A Democratic staff member on the House Intelligence Committee has been suspended by the Republican chairman of that committee over concerns about the leak of a secret intelligence estimate, and political mudslinging has become a central part of the investigation into the security breach.

The unidentified staff member is Larry Hanauer, FOX News learned Friday. Chairman Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., suspended Hanauer earlier this week and won’t allow him access to classified information until a review can be completed, said Jamal Ware, Hoekstra’s spokesman.

The suspension drew heated response from the committee’s top Democrat, Jane Harman, who said she was “appalled” by the suspension and called for his immediate reinstatement.

[…]According to letters released Friday, Hoekstra said he began looking into the leak of the National Intelligence Estimate after a story based on the secret document on global terror trends appeared Sept. 23 in The New York Times.

The leak caused a political uproar last month. In the assessment, completed in April, analysts from the government’s 16 spy agencies concluded that the Iraq war has become a “cause celebre” for Islamic extremists, breeding deep resentment of the U.S. that probably will get worse before it gets better.

President Bush, who suggested the document was leaked for “political purposes” weeks before the midterm elections, later made public four pages of the estimate’s key findings.

In a letter to Hoekstra dated Sept. 29, committee member Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill., said a committee staff member — identified by FOX sources as Hanauer — requested the document from National Intelligence Director John Negroponte three days before the Times story appeared.

“I have no credible information to say any classified information was leaked from the committee’s minority staff, but the implications of such would be dramatic,” LaHood said in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press. “This may, in fact, be only coincidence, and simply ‘look bad.’ But coincidence, in this town, is rare.”

Here is some audio of Hoekstra on the Michael Medved show yesterday.

Meanwhile Rep. Jane Harman is under investigation for some shananigans herself:

Did a Democratic member of Congress improperly enlist the support of a major pro-Israel lobbying group to try to win a top committee assignment? That’s the question at the heart of an ongoing investigation by the FBI and Justice Department prosecutors, who are examining whether Rep. Jane Harman of California and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) may have violated the law in a scheme to get Harman reappointed as the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, according to knowledgeable sources in and out of the U.S. government.

The sources tell TIME that the investigation by Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which has simmered out of sight since about the middle of last year, is examining whether Harman and AIPAC arranged for wealthy supporters to lobby House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi on Harman’s behalf. Harman said Thursday in a voicemail message that any investigation of — or allegation of improper conduct by — her would be “irresponsible, laughable and scurrilous.”

[…]A spokesman for AIPAC, a powerful Washington-based organization with more than 100,000 members across the U.S., denied any wrongdoing by the group and stressed that it is not taking sides in regards to the committee assignment. Spokespersons for Justice and the FBI declined to comment. The case is a spin-off of a probe that has already led to charges under the Espionage Act against two AIPAC lobbyists, whose case is still pending, and to a 12-and-a-half-year prison sentence for former Defense Intelligence Agency official Lawrence A. Franklin. Franklin pleaded guilty a year ago to three felony counts involving improper disclosure and handling of classified information about the Middle East and terrorism to the two lobbyists, who in turn are accused of passing it on to a journalist and a foreign government, widely believed to be Israel.

[…]The sources say the probe also involves whether, in exchange for the help from AIPAC, Harman agreed to help try to persuade the Administration to go lighter on the AIPAC officials caught up in the ongoing investigation. If that happened, it might be construed as an illegal quid pro quo, depending on the context of the situation. But the sources caution that there has been no decision to charge anyone and that it is unclear whether Harman and AIPAC acted on the idea.

[…]But congressional sources say Pelosi has been infuriated by pressure from some major donors lobbying on behalf of Harman. In a story touching on tensions between Pelosi and Harman, an alternative California publication, LA Weekly, reported in May that Harman “had some major contributors call Pelosi to impress upon her the importance of keeping Jane in place. According to these members, this tactic, too, hasn’t endeared Harman to Pelosi.”

A congressional source tells TIME that the lobbbying for Harman has included a phone call several months ago from entertainment industry billionaire and major Democratic party contributor Haim Saban.

Ok, now tie this Harman investigation with what we know about the leaker:

“LARRY HANAUER, wrapped up a year of working on U.S. policy toward Iraq and is now managing U.S. defense relations with Israel from his teeny little Pentagon office in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Larry was recently elected as a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, asked to join the board of the American Jewish Committee’s Washington Young Leadership Forum, and appointed to the Board of Advisors of Fletcher’s Program on Southwest Asia and Islamic Civilization.”

And then we have these connections which Squiggler found. Hanauer was mentioned by Karen Kwiatkowski in this report she wrote about her uneasiness while working for neo-cons:

Another civilian replacement about which I was told was that of the long-time Israel/Syria/Lebanon desk, Larry Hanauer. Word was that he was even-handed with Israel, there had been complaints from one of his countries, and as a gesture of good will, David Schenker, fresh from the Washington Institute, was serving as the new Israel/Syria/Lebanon desk.

Who is Karen Kwiatkowski? Why just one of the signers to a document from the schizophrenic VIPer titled: “A Call to Patriotic Whistleblowing”…..

Hmmmm

It is time for unauthorized truth-telling.

Citizens cannot make informed choices if they do not have the facts – for example, the facts that have been wrongly concealed about the ongoing war in Iraq: the real reasons behind it, the prospective costs in blood and treasure, and the setback it has dealt to efforts to stem terrorism. Administration deception and cover-up on these vital matters has so far been all too successful in misleading the public.

[…]Some of you have documentation of wrongly concealed facts and analyses that – if brought to light – would impact heavily on public debate regarding crucial matters of national security, both foreign and domestic. We urge you to provide that information now, both to Congress and, through the media, to the public.

[…]Needless to say, any unauthorized disclosure that exposes your superiors to embarrassment entails personal risk. Should you be identified as the source, the price could be considerable, including loss of career and possibly even prosecution. Some of us know from experience how difficult it is to countenance such costs. But continued silence brings an even more terrible cost, as our leaders persist in a disastrous course and young Americans come home in coffins or with missing limbs.

[…]Signatories

Edward Costello, former special agent (Counterintelligence), Federal Bureau of Investigation

Sibel Edmonds, former language specialist, Federal Bureau of Investigation

Daniel Ellsberg, former official, U.S. Departments of Defense and State

John D. Heinberg, former economist, Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Department of Labor

Larry C. Johnson, former deputy director for anti-terrorism assistance, Transportation Security, and Special Operations, Department of State, Office of the Coordinator for Counter-Terrorism

John Brady Kiesling, former political counselor, U.S. Embassy, Athens, Department of State

David MacMichael, former senior estimates officer, National Intelligence Council, Central Intelligence Agency

Ray McGovern, former analyst, Central Intelligence Agency

Philip G. Vargas, Ph.D., J.D., director, Privacy & Confidentiality Study, Commission on Federal Paperwork (author/director: “The Vargas Report on Government Secrecy” – censored)

Ann Wright, retired U.S. Army Reserve colonel and U.S. Foreign Service officer

Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, recently retired from service in the Pentagon’s Office of Near East planning

Did Larry Hanauer heed the call?

Now, granted, the connections are not rock solid. But as many have found through the years in Washington DC….coincidences don’t happen in that town. He is a man who was booted out of his intelligence job, was obviously a bit upset about that, went on to work for Jane Harman, asked for classified report about Iraq and then a few days later that same report was written about in the Times….

Come on…..

Coincidence my ass. If the accusations are true may he suffer what any other traitor has to suffer.

and some more….

The Ties That Bind – Kennedy & The KGB

The antipathy that congressional Democrats have today toward President George W. Bush is reminiscent of their distrust of President Ronald Reagan during the Cold War, a political science professor says.

“We see some of the same sentiments today, in that some Democrats see the Republican president as being a threat and the true obstacle to peace, instead of seeing our enemies as the true danger,” said Paul Kengor, a political science professor at Grove City College and the author of new book, The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism.

In his book, which came out this week, Kengor focuses on a KGB letter written at the height of the Cold War that shows that Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) offered to assist Soviet leaders in formulating a public relations strategy to counter President Reagan’s foreign policy and to complicate his re-election efforts.

The letter, dated May 14, 1983, was sent from the head of the KGB to Yuri Andropov, who was then General Secretary of the Soviet Union’s Communist Party.

In his letter, KGB head Viktor Chebrikov offered Andropov his interpretation of Kennedy’s offer. Former U.S. Sen. John Tunney (D-Calif.) had traveled to Moscow on behalf of Kennedy to seek out a partnership with Andropov and other Soviet officials, Kengor claims in his book.

At one point after President Reagan left office, Tunney acknowledged that he had played the role of intermediary, not only for Kennedy but for other U.S. senators, Kengor said. Moreover, Tunney told the London Times that he had made 15 separate trips to Moscow.

“There’s a lot more to be found here,” Kengor told Cybercast News Service. “This was a shocking revelation.”

Bryan at Hot Air has taken a look at the book and gives his impression:

There’s a new book on Ronald Reagan making the rounds, The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism. Its author, Paul Kengor, unearthed a sensational document from the Soviet archives. That document is a memo regarding an offer made by Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts via former Senator John Tunney, both Democrats, to the General Secretary of the Communist Party, USSR, Yuri Andropov, in 1983. The offer was to help the Soviet leadership, military and civilian, conduct a PR campaign in the United States as President Ronald Reagan sought re-election. The goal of the PR campaign would be to cast President Reagan as a warmonger, the Soviets as willing to peacefully co-exist, and thereby turn the electorate away from Reagan. It was a plan to enlist Soviet help, and use the American press, in unseating an American president.

Think about that.

I received a review copy of The Crusader on Wednesday. The book first references the Kennedy plan on page 206, and includes the complete Soviet memo, dated May 14, 1983, in the Appendix. It’s an eye opener.

And this was 23 years ago. Do you think things have changed? Not one iota. They want nothing more then power, this is all they know and want, and they will do anything….even deal with our enemies, to get it.

Disgusting. Will a Kerry/Osama letter be forthcoming?

Kennedy needs to resign NOW! This is treason folks.

Article III, Section 3, Paragraph 1, of the Constitution of the United States:
“Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them,
or, in adhering to their Enemies, giving them aid and comfort.”
The “aid and comfort” prong of treason has been interpreted by SCOTUS as requiring proof of four elements:
1. an intent to betray the United States (which can be inferred from);
2. an overt act;
3. witnessed by two people; and
4. that provides aid and comfort to an enemy of the United States.

But of course we forget one thing. He got away with murder once, whats a little treason?

More proof of Kennedy’s treasonous behavior here.

And this article, published in 2004, provides a bit more background on this traitors actions:

Romerstein, a former House intelligence committee staffer and a researcher of Soviet archives, uncovered numerous documents suggesting that Ted Kennedy was a “collaborationist” with the Soviets during our Cold War. Romerstein also co-authored, along with Eric Breindel, the highly praised “Verona Secrets, Exposing Soviet Espionage and America’s Traitors.”

According to Romerstein, a review of Soviet Communist Party archives offers an unflattering view of Kennedy. Some of the documents that have come to light since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 include claims that:

Sometime in 1978, Kennedy requested the KGB’s assistance to set up a relationship between the Soviets and a firm owned by former Sen. John Tunney, D-Calif. Again, on March 5, 1980, Tunney, acting as Kennedy’s liaison, met with KGB agents in Moscow. During that meeting, Tunney articulated Kennedy’s position that “nonsense about ‘the Soviet military threat’ and Soviet ambitions for military expansion in the Persian Gulf … was being fueled by [President Jimmy] Carter, [National Security Advisor Zbigniew] Brzezinski, the Pentagon and the military industrial complex.” Kennedy, according to the documents, offered to speak out against President Carter on Afghanistan.

Romerstein notes that soon after the meeting, several public speeches subsequently were made by Kennedy criticizing Carter on his handling of Afghanistan.

This particular document was found in KGB archives by a KGB officer named Vasiliy Mitrokhin, who copied the records and defected to the West.

Other reports regarding Kennedy’s affiliation with the Communists also were divulged.

According to information provided by the KGB, Kennedy told Tunney to carry a message to the general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, Yuri Andropov.

Kennedy conveyed his concern over the anti-Soviet activities of then-President Ronald Reagan.

The KGB report said: “in Kennedy’s opinion the opposition to Reagan remains weak. Speeches of the President’s opponents are not well-coordinated and not effective enough, and Reagan has the chance to use successful counterpropaganda.”

To appease the Soviets, Kennedy requested a meeting with Andropov for the purpose of “arming himself with the Soviet leader’s explanations of arms control policy so he can use them later for more convincing speeches in the U.S.”

Kennedy suggested that he could provide a venue to bring Soviet views to the major networks and into American living rooms by inviting ABC television network chairman of the board Elton Rule, Walter Cronkite or Barbara Walters to Moscow.

Kennedy’s tune has never changed has it:

Then – Reagan is the single biggest threat to world peace.

Now – Bush is the single biggest threat to world peace.

I wanted to take a break from politics for a minute. Here is INCREDIBLE Photos of Ice Sculptures at Chinese Ice Festival that was emailed to me. The temperature at the festival in Harbin reaches forty below zero, both Fahrenheit and centigrade, and stays below freezing nearly half the year. The city is actually further north than notoriously cold Vladivostok, Russia, just 300 miles away. I just thought it was a neat pic to post since we have had little ice and snow. Hopefully I did not jinx us!