January 31, 2012

12/20/2011 Update by SH: Thank you all very much for your continued prayers. I will be back.

Merry Christmas and Chag Chanuka Sameach to all.

Oh, and Xariif, I have a special holiday message to you and your followers. It's below the fold:

01/06/2012 Update by SH: Happy New Year everyone and again thanks for your prayers and well wishes.

Yes, Xariif, I will be back.

I can wipe up the floor with you and your kind Xariff.

Again, thank you everyone for your prayers and well wishes, they mean a lot and have "done a lot". You have given me strength with your prayers and well wishes to the detriment of Xariiif and other assho*les. Stupid sh*ts don't realize I also gain strength from their bs!

BTW, I would "really" like really awesome dudes in their best and stuff. I know some of you posted stuff, but really I need "stuff" like biceps and stuff ... not naked but "awesome bods"!! I especially like IDF soldiers. Not that I don't like our (US) military soldiers cuz I do but I like IDF, their eyes put me in a trance and stuff.

Again, thank you all .... I am humbled and hope to be back again with really snarky sh*t and stuff.

Oh and Xariif...fuck you!

« Hide "Prayers for Stable Hand **Sticky**"

January 27, 2012

Evidently, the school has a zero-tolerance policy for students using cell phones, but no policy against teachers sleeping during class hours. And I'm sure the OK teachers' union will make certain the teacher receives no punishment.

Your tax dollars hard at work.

Story at KOCO.com

March in Norway? Naturally, it will be cold, quite nippy.

Congratulations to our own Xariif, who made it past this week's round on "Fear Factor"!

BTW, what they ultimately decided not to show was Xariif attempting to drink the other contestant's "punch" as well. Xariif did have one comment: "It's not quite as good as camel."

Today he starts his new fitness program.

I don't see how its much different from his old fitness program but I'm not the one always demanding to be addressed as Professor around here.

Hat Tip: Danny.

Goes to Josh White of WAPO:

Yonathan Melaku was sneaking through Fort Myer and Arlington National Cemetery, his backpack filled with plastic bags of ammonium nitrate, a notebook containing jihadist messages, and a can of black spray paint. The 23-year-old former Marine was heading to the graves of the nation’s most recent heroes, aiming to desecrate the stones with Arabic statements and leave handfuls of explosive material nearby as a message.

no one knows for sure what led Melaku — a naturalized U.S. citizen from Ethi­o­pia, local high school graduate and former Marine Corps Reservist — down that path or what message he was trying to send.

How about Allahu Ackbar! dumbasses.

Ya reckon we'll clear that bridge?

Two spans of a southwest Kentucky bridge collapsed after being struck by a cargo ship that carried aviation parts. No injuries were immediately reported, state transportation officials said.

The Delta Mariner struck the main span of the Eggner Ferry Bridge on Thursday evening at U.S. Highway 68 and Kentucky Highway 80, said Keith Todd, spokesman for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. State inspectors are on their way to determine how much of the bridge, which opened to traffic in 1932, was damaged.

January 26, 2012

Another example of political correctness being the death of us all.

Expulsion? For a BB gun?

I have nothing else to say, except that my headline would have been more relevant back in December.

Oh, and our daughter brought home something called an energy detective. She's supposed to go around the house for the next week trying to find where we are wasting energy (i.e. being mean to Gaia). Seriously, one of the questions she's asked is "how many incandescent light bulbs" do we have. Outside of the outright indoctrination they're attempting, what a freaking invasion of our privacy. It's none of their business how many light bulbs we have, or how much energy we "waste." We're paying for the energy and if we waste it we pay more for it. DUH!

Good news? She knows it's crap too.

Daily Mail via Jihad Watch:

A Muslim man who raped women to 'teach them a lesson' for being on the streets at night was jailed indefinitely today because of the danger he poses to women.

Sunny Islam, 23, who comes from a strict Muslim family, dragged his terrified victims - including a 15-year-old - from the street at knifepoint, bound and assaulted them during a two-month reign of terror.

If Sunny is a "strict" or "practising" Muslim as he claims, then it should be noted that Muhammad is his perfect example of conduct. Muhammad made the rape of non-Muslim women a legitimate form of jihad by his own words and examples.

Now! blog via Jihad Watch:

A Salafi sheikh in Egypt has reportedly issued a fatwa that buying [or driving] a Chevrolet vehicle is haram because the American brand’s logo looks like the Christian cross.

Video, although in Arabic, can be viewed HERE.

Here you go.

There's a Doonesbury cartoon in there that you may want to skip. Personally, I didn't get it.

So, let me see if I have the score straight. This is just for today, mind you.

1) Antonio Martinez, aka Muhammad Hussain, aka Abu Pippi Longstocking pleads guilty to planning to bomb military recruiting stations near Boston.

2) Yonathan Melaku, of Alexandria, Virgina:

pleaded guilty today to damaging property and firearms violations involving five separate shootings at military installations in northern Virginia between October and November 2010 and attempting to injure veterans’ memorials at Arlington National Cemetery....

Melaku admitted today that during the second shooting at the National Museum of the Marine Corps, he set up a video camera within the interior of his vehicle to record the shooting incident. The video shows Melaku repeatedly firing a handgun out the passenger-side window, and he narrates the incident on the video and states, among other things: “That’s my target. That’s the military building. It’s going to be attacked,” and at the conclusion of multiple shots exclaiming, “Allahu Akbar,” repeatedly....

During the pursuit, he dropped a backpack that contained numerous spent 9mm shell casings; four bags containing ammonium nitrate, and a spiral notebook with numerous Arabic statements referencing the Taliban, al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, “The Path to Jihad,” as well as a list of several other individuals associated with foreign terrorist organizations.

Melaku admitted that, at the time of his apprehension, he was attempting to enter the area of Arlington National Cemetery containing graves of deceased Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, intending to desecrate and injure the grave markers by spray-painting the markers with Arabic statements and by leaving the ammonium nitrate he was carrying at the sites of the grave markers.

And, need I mention yesterday?

Coloradan Jamshid Muhtorov indicted for attempting to join terror organization in Pakistan.

And the day before?

In Maryland Shkumbin Sherifi & Nevine Aly Elshiekh charged with plotting to murder a witness who testified against a convicted terrorist -- who, BTW, many who attended their mosque claimed was just an innocent victim of the overactive imaginations of the Islamophobes at the FBI.

Innocent, right. That's why he was plotting with his friends on the outside to murder a witness at his trial.

If my math is right, that's five arrests, indictments, or convictions of homegrown terrorists in three days.

And, to be honest, those headlines were gleaned from a rather cursory glance at my twitter feed. The actual numbers might even be higher.

So, the next time some Leftist claims that there is no "homegrown terror" problem please point these inconvenient facts out to them.

Dude, the hair. I mean, really?

You're never going to get any street cred with the akhis in prison with that hair.

Boston.com:

Antonio Martinez entered the plea to the charge of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction against federal property. The plot to bomb the Armed Forces Recruiting Center in Catonsville in December 2010 was foiled by an FBI sting....

Martinez wore a burgundy jumpsuit and his hair in two braids in court, and he smiled and hugged his defense attorney. The U.S. citizen born who was born abroad preferred to be called Muhammad Hussain after his conversion to Islam and signed the plea using both names....

In the plea agreement, Martinez acknowledges that he wanted to pursue jihad to the United States "to send a message that all American soldiers would be killed so long as the country continued its `war' against Islam."

An FBI informant first communicated with Martinez on Facebook after seeing public posts "espousing his extremist views" and recognizing him from a mosque he attended, according to court documents.

A Colorado man arrested last week as he was leaving the country to join the Islamic Jihad Union in Pakistan has been indicted:

Jamshid Muhtorov is charged with providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization....

The government in Central Asia accused Muhtorov of supporting the Islamic Jihad Union, a militant group fighting the regime in Uzbekistan.

Pakistan: our "ally" in the war on terror.

Remember I told you that the interview with one of Newt's ex-wives on ABC had pushed me out of the Gingrich camp? That I thought that the truth might not be that Newt had asked for an "open marriage", but that it was plausible for an egotistic and ambitious politician to ask his wife not to divorce him because it would hurt his political career. And that how asking to stay married, to keep up appearances, but yet saying that no, he will not stop sleeping with his mistress, could reasonably be interpreted by a hurt spouse as something akin to asking for an "open marriage".

Ummm, I'm thinking that I was pretty close with that:

“Tonight, after persistent questioning by our staff, the Gingrich campaign concedes now Speaker Gingrich was wrong — both in his debate answer, and in our interview yesterday,” King said on tonight’s edition of John King USA. “Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond says the only people the Gingrich campaign offered to ABC were his two daughters from his first marriage.”

And Gingrich's answer, that he had witnesses who could vouch that he didn't want an "open marriage", um, how exactly does that work?

If I understand the accusation, there were two people involved in the conversation. How can a witness back up either side of the story? At best this is a he said/she said kind of deal. There's no way of proving either version of it.

And, yes, it was a stupid question to ask at the debates. And I love Gingrich's response to John King's stupid question.

But let's face it: this is the treatment Republicans are going to get.

There's no way to change that. No amount of complaining about the media will make them more even handed in their treatment of candidates.

Which is why Gingrich's personal life is such a disaster. Did you know the guy's first wife was his .... get this ... high school math teacher?

Sure, Mr. E. Blogger, Vinnie, Ronin, Howie, and me are much more likely to vote for a guy who we know was porking one of his teachers. We don't get tens of thousands of hits each month for people searching for "hot teachers student sex scandal" because we don't get it.

But we're not you're typical independent voter. For most people, bangin' your high school math teacher and then leaving her for a younger and more attractive spouse, only to leave her for yet another younger and more attractive spouse isn't considered a bonus on your resume.

I know Gingrich doesn't want to talk about this. I don't want to talk about it.

But you know what? It's going to be talked about.

In fact, as un-newsworthy as this is it's still more newsworthy than the near hour by hour polling updates that we are constantly bombarded with.

People, the personal lives of the candidates do tell us something about their character. I know in the post-Clinton era we have been led to believe that it doesn't, but consider this: the "popular" and "likable" Bill Clinton never managed to muster enough support to get a majority of the vote.

I'm not saying that personal attributes are the most important variable in determining the outcome of an election. But they are a variable which could, in a very close race, mean the difference between winning and losing.

Personally I'm not all excited about another four years of Barrack Obama, crusader for "fairness".

If Newt is our nominee, of course I'll support him. But at this point, I'd really like voters in the next few primaries to reconsider the "winnibility" factor and to remember that on most major issues all three of the real candidates (sorry Paultards, the guy isn't really running for President) basically agree.

I know you're wondering why all the sudden angst over Newt, Rusty? It's because I fear that America as we know it cannot stand another four years and another 7 trillion dollars in debt that the first four years of Obama gave us.

Remember when the national debt was a measly $9.3 trillion, way back three years ago at the end of the George W. Bush administration rather than the $15.3 trillion in debt we are now in three quarters of the way through one term of Obama?

Yeah, good times. Good times.

“Muslims don’t come close or you will be killed.”

This was reportedly what the gunman shouted during his killing rampage.

The Afghan soldier who gunned down nine Americans in a shooting rampage at a military compound in Kabul last April targeted and killed his U.S. mentors after they took away his wings and cut his salary nearly in half because he was unable to learn English, a longtime colleague of the killer has told FoxNews.com. [...]

A U.S. Air Force Special Investigation report on the attack that was released last week concluded that Gul, 46, acted alone, and it found no evidence that the attack was connected to the Taliban or insurgents. It noted reports of Gul’s mental and financial problems, but it did not mention Gul’s failure to learn English as a possible motive.

The report also failed to mention any ideological motivation.

Just another lone, mentally ill, frustrated victim.

Lol, Vice President Biden was speaking in New Hampshire and, during the speech, he starts to mimic an Indian accent. He abruptly stops in mid sentence, apparently realizing it was not the proper forum.

Yeah, there are lots of over-seas call center operators named "Nancy." Nice save, Joe. ;)

Update: Tjexcite in comments reminds me of this Discover commercial. Joe probably meant "Peggy," not "Nancy."

Hollywood star Liam Neeson is considering giving up his Roman Catholic beliefs and becoming a Muslim. [...]

He told The Sun, "The call to prayer happens five times a day, and for the first week, it drives you crazy, and then it just gets into your spirit, and it's the most beautiful, beautiful thing." (Source)

Another idiot actor I used to enjoy.

This isn't the first time Liam has made such comments. He also compared Narnia's Aslan the Lion to Muhammad. I guess he didn't quite understand the role of Calormenes in the series.

Related: 25 things you need to know about repetitious brainwashing

The Blaze via IHateTheMedia:

“For more than two years, the Michigan Education Association [MEA] has had a manual that urges its members to use students as propaganda in contract negotiations and also lays out how to organize strikes,” writes Tome Gantert of Michigan Capitol Confidential. [...]

While much of the rhetoric in this “crisis planning” handbook is unsettling (”The worst time to plan for a crisis is when you are in the middle of one, so crisis planning should commence at the same time that planning for actual bargaining begins”), perhaps the most disturbing moment occurs when one section appears to quote almost verbatim Saul Alinksy’s “Rules For Radicals.”

Alinsky instructs his followers to “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Likewise, the MEA manual instructs teachers to “Pick a target—personalize—and polarize the opposition [pg. 17].” And those are just the verbatim quotes; the entire manual is a handbook for creating, managing, and profiting from crises.

It's for the children, you know.

JPost: Muslim Brotherhood repeats: No talks with Israel --Spokesman says dialogue with Jewish state ‘not up for discussion.’

Reuters: Obama set to speed up aid to Egypt-official -- Obama considers redirecting aid to Egypt

Thanks to Dan Friedman

Including our own, Jane Novak:

Testifying to the global reach of the cyber activists, Jane Novak, a New Jersey housewife, has established herself as a highly-regarded source on all things Yemen, even, at one point, consulting with the U.S. State Department. Her Twitter feed and blog, armiesofliberation.com, are consulted by activists and journalists. She is well-known among policy makers, activists and reporters in the country's besieged capital, Sana'a. And she has never been to Yemen.

"She doesn't speak a word of Arabic, she hasn't set foot in the Middle East, but she still became an authority," Weddady says. He claims her influence helped secure the 2008 release of Yemeni journalist Abdulkarim al-Khawaini, who had been convicted of defaming President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The internet: just enough anonymity for world movers like Jane to be fooled into hanging out with a pathetic geek like me.

Thanks internet!

A 65-year-old man shot one teenager dead and wounded another after they pushed him off his bicycle and tried to rob him in Pennsylvania, police said. [...]

Cops arrested a third boy at the scene and took him in for questioning. The 15 year old was later taken to a county youth center in nearby Bern Township where he was held on unspecified charges. (Source)

Next time, aim more carefully. With better gun control, it could have been three thugs dead instead of one.

Doesn't the court understand that He is above the court, above the law? He's the ruler, not the rulee. How dare they treat Him like a common peon.

President Obama will ignore an order by an Atlanta judge to appear in court Thursday for a hearing in a case challenging his qualifications under the Constitution to be president. (Source)

Three words: Contempt of Court.

Danny Dietz, who would have turned 32 today, was a member of the SEAL team that participated in Operation Red Wings. Only team member Marcus Luttrell survived. His teammates Danny, Matt Axelson, and Michael Murphy perished after they were attacked by Taliban fighters who were alerted by a goatherd and his son. 13 more were lost when a rescue helicopter that was sent was downed by a Taliban RPG. The details of this fight can be found in Marcus Luttrell's book "Lone Survivor." There's also a book about Lt. Michael Murphy titled "Seal of Honor." If you haven't read them, I highly recommend that you do.

Happy birthday Petty Officer Dietz, I look forward to meeting you someday.

January 25, 2012

Here's Newt on President Bush's adoption of Gen. Patraeus's surge strategy in Iraq:

Bush was opposed by many of the top generals, by some Republican leaders who feared the surge would hurt in the 2008 elections, and of course by a slew of Democrats and media commentators. Here again Gingrich provided no support for his party’s embattled president, testifying as a private citizen in 2007 that the strategy was “inadequate,” contained “breathtaking” gaps, lacked “synergism” (whatever that means), and was “very disappointing.” What did Gingrich propose? Among other things, a 50 percent increase in the budget of the State Department.

Abrams point in this article -- in which he also points out that Newt opposed many of Reagan's Cold War policies -- is that Newt is not the visionary that he seems to think himself.

To give Newt his due, I also had serious reservations about the surge. The strategy was brilliant and should be remembered as one of the bravest political acts in US history. I, like Newt, was wrong.

The difference between the two of us? I'm not running for President.

I don't think being wrong disqualifies him from being President, but his misremembering of history -- in which in his own mind he seems to think he was not only front and center in all of the major battles of the last quarter of a century but also on the right side of those battles -- causes me more than a bit of trepidation over his candidacy.

Hump day edition.

He's so awesome, his speechwriters write his speeches at an 8th grade level.

The University of Minnesota's Smart Politics conducted an analysis on the last 70 State of the Union addresses and found that President Obama's three addresses have the lowest grade average of any modern president. "Obama's average grade-level score of 8.4 is more than two grades lower than the 10.7 grade average for the other 67 addresses written by his 12 predecessors," they conclude.

Now, I'll grant that the 10th grade average isn't exactly the greatest either, but it's clear that, as Rush says, Obama is the least qualified guy in any room that he walks into. And as far as the 10th grade average goes, it just shows that the inside the beltway types figure us for stupid. Yeah, I get that they want to get their message out to the broadest amount of people as possible, but the majority of Americans don't read at a 10th grade level. Except maybe Rusty's students. Personally, I find it insulting.

More fun with POTUS' SOTU. If this clown (God forbid) gets reelected, his last SOTU is simply going to be an amalgam of all the previous speeches by that time.

NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg is a fucking retard deluxe.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has severely criticized the New York Police Department (NYPD) for using a controversial movie The Third Jihad, to portray American Muslims as terrorists in their training of police officers.

Here's one

Daily Mail reports the video showed the White House with a black flag flying over it, and the message "Islam will dominate."

No, one of the featured Muslims in that section of the film is Younes Abdullah Muhammad who is currently being held on terrorism charges.

Here's the next complaints

The movie which was played to police recruits in counter-terrorism training seminars, also showed Christians being shot in the head by Muslim extremists and car bombs set off by Islamic militants. According to Huffington Post, it included footage of the Beslan school massacre in Russia, and the Al Qaeda leader Abu Yahya al-Libi, saying that he believes the entire world must be ruled by Islam. The video shows other scenes of Muslim violence and a narrator saying: "This is the true agenda of much of Islam in America. A strategy to infiltrate and dominate America...This is the war you don’t know about."

Was there a massacre of Children in Beslan? Of course there was. Has Abu Yaha al-Liby actually said that? Well hell yes.

WTF were they thinking? Its madness! Why We can't have the people tasked with protecting us and fighting terrorism actually study the truth about Islamic radicals. That's totally outside of CAIR approved public discourse!

Here is an abridged version of the film. See for yourself.

Part II
Part III
Part IV.

You can purchase the full version here.

Prepare for riots in 3, 2, 1... wait. This was a disrespectful act against Christians, so there will be no retaliations, outrage, riots, or "hate crime" accusations.

As you were.

Okay, I added the "bi-atch," but you know that's what Newt was thinking.

"There is something I know. The Republicans, if they choose to nominate him that's their prerogative," said Congresswoman Pelosi. "I don't even think that's going to happen." [...]

"I have a simple challenge for Speaker Pelosi...you know, put up or shut up. I mean, I have no idea what she's talking about. I don't think she has any idea what she's talking about, but bring it on," [Gingrich] said.

The Democrats are terrified of Newt for some reason. Maybe it's because they think he'll be harder to beat in the next election. Maybe they know their Dear Leader, the Great Orator, won't last two minutes in a debate with Gingrich. They want Romney to win the GOP nomination. Their attempts to get Gingrich out of his way reeks of desperation.

They are terrified of Newt, and that alone is reason enough for me to vote for him.

Update: This is why I don't like Romney. Instead of condemning Pelosi's threats, he is exploiting the situation to further attack Gingrich. His ultimate agenda is to benefit himself, not to oppose the failed Obama Administration, not to help restore America to its former Glory, but his own selfish end.

I know most every politician is self-serving, but I believe there are still a few who sincerely want a stronger America before all else. When it comes to Newt and Mitt, it is my opinion that Newt cares more for this country than Mitt. Gingrich may not be the perfect candidate, but I think he's the best choice among those running.

The GOP candidates need to stop thrashing each other and focus on Obama's ethics, qualifications, and records. Then let the American people decide who will be the best leader for this great nation. Some may disagree, but that's how I see it.

Update 2: BigGovernment has more on Romney's curious insistence that Gingrich releases records already made public.

FOXNEWS:

A North Carolina man sentenced to prison recently as part of a homegrown terrorist ring has been accused in a federal court document of plotting to kill witnesses who testified against him at trial.

An affidavit unsealed in federal court Monday accuses Hysen Sherifi of plotting against the witnesses from his jail cell. Authorities say an FBI informant posing as a hit man met with Sherifi's brother and a female friend and accepted $5,000 and a photo of an intended victim.

FBI agents have arrested the brother, Shkumbin Sherifi, and Nevine Aly Elshiekh, a school teacher. Now in federal custody at the New Hanover County Jail, each is charged with a felony count of use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire.

In a 10-page affidavit filed under seal Friday, FBI Special Agent James Langtry writes that he developed a source as a confidential informant inside the New Hanover County Jail near Wilmington, where Hysen Sherifi was sent after a jury convicted him in October.

The informant soon befriended Sherifi, who requested help in hiring someone to kill three people who had testified against him at his trial, according to the affidavit. Sherifi specified that he wanted the witnesses beheaded and that he would be provided photos of the severed heads as confirmation of the deaths, according to the document.

Related:

No Homegrown Radicals Alert: 3 Convicted in Virginia of Plot to Attack Quantico Marine Corps Base
7 Traitors Arrested in N.C. for Jihad Plans
Banality of Evil: An Indicted Terrorist's Facebook Account
Jihadi's Facebook Account: I will kill you
Daniel Patrick Boyd Pleads Guilty
American Jude Kenan Muhammad Linked to 9/11 Anniv. Plot
Eighth Traitor on the Lam in Pakistan

You don't get to see gems like this every day.

Yes, Barack Obama wants to return to the American value of "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs."

Neal Boortz noticed this in Barack Obama's 'Blueprint for America' preview speech. Neal writes (emphasis mine):

Obama is smart enough to know, however, that he can’t use the actual rhetoric of Marx to promote his agenda. Words have to be tweaked to meet the demands of our present political culture. So … at Tuesday night’s State of the Union address (it will be a campaign speech, not a State of the Union speech) Obama will use this phraseology … we’ve already seen it In a campaign video sent to supporters. In that video Obama says: "I'm going to lay out a blueprint for an American economy that's built to last. And most importantly, a return to American values of fairness for all, and responsibility from all."

You can view the whole preview speech at Nealz Nuze or watch the short, edited clip below the fold.

Kim Dotcom

(Wellington, New Zealand) Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom, huge at 6' 7" and 300lbs, is in jail in New Zealand awaiting extradition to the U.S. A German national, Dotcom and three accomplices were arrested last Friday after an FBI investigation.

The four face charges of copyright infringement as well as conspiracy to commit copyright infringement, conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to commit racketeering.

Dotcom (aka Kim Schmitz) allegedly stole hundreds of millions of dollars from copyright holders and collected more than $175 million for himself which he lavished on fast cars, sleek yachts, hot women and wild parties. Dotcom's capture reads like a James Bond movie segment. (More….)

Great news!

MSNBC

WASHINGTON -- In a daring nighttime raid Tuesday, U.S. Navy SEALs rescued two hostages, including one American, who were being held by kidnappers in Somalia, U.S. officials tell NBC News.

American Jessica Buchanan, 32, and a 60-year-old Dane, Poul Thisted, were working for a Danish relief organization in northern Somalia when they were kidnapped last October. U.S. officials described their kidnappers as heavily armed common criminals with no known ties to any organized militant group.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
According to the U.S. officials, two teams of Navy SEALs landed by helicopter near the compound where the two hostages were being held. As the SEALS approached the compound on foot gunfire broke out, the U.S. officials said, and several of the militants were reportedly killed. There is no word that any of the Americans were wounded.

The SEALs gathered up Buchanan and Thisted, loaded them onto the helicopters and flew them to safety at an undisclosed location. The two hostages were not injured during the rescue operation and are reported to be in relatively good condition.

Update by DMartyr: FoxNews is reporting that no Americans were injured during the raid and that there were no known survivors among the terrorists. Good job, Seals!

In the lead, duh. His BoobieVision is second to none.

January 24, 2012

Given Ron Paul's steadfast support of Israel*, I find this shocking.

An unemployed teenager charged Tuesday with firebombing two synagogues is an anti-Semite whose hatred of Jews guided his actions, authorities said.

I find this rather ironic. While the AP (painfully) admits that this douche hates Jews, they throw in the words "unemployed teenager" in what is obviously an attempt to milk sympathy for the douchebag.

Really? 19 is a teenager? And being unemployed is an excuse to firebomb synagogues? I was unemployed at 19, and the only thing I firebombed was a flaming shot of Bacardi 151 (thank God I didn't have the nose hair then that I do now).

Oh, and did I mention *he's a Ron Paul supporter? Now that's just crazy, given Ron Paul's staunch support of Israel.

Thanks to LindaSOG.

Wait, what? Is that a misleading headline? Are you saying that he actually pleaded guilty to dereliction of duty? I do believe that you, Mr. Voice Inmyhead, are correct.

Now let's spin the globe over to the other side of the world to see what Hillary Clinton's version of "real news" has to say....

Now, as misleading as that headline is, it's not as ridiculously stupid as it was yesterday. Because, you see, I found that story because I follow Al Jazeera's English Twitter feed. And this is what the headline was yesterday:

If Hillary Clinton thinks that this is "real news," I'd hate to see what real news is in a second Obama term.

America as the capsized cruise liner seems to be a popular theme.

But she doesn't stop at praising the terrorist, she also decries the pro-Western Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

But, it's pretty much what we've come to expect from the Leftists in the academy. They hate anything that smack of "us" while heaping praise on "them". Even when "they" are trying to kill "us".

Liberalism defined.

~Headline courtesy of some anonymous moron.

An arrest was made in the fire-bombing of two different Synagogues around New Jersey.

The AP article (via FNC) was short and sweet:

Authorities have made an arrest in the firebombings of two northern New Jersey synagogues.

The Bergen County prosecutor has charged 19-year-old Anthony Graziano of Lodi with the Jan. 11 attack on a Rutherford synagogue and the Jan. 3 firebombing of a synagogue in Paramus.

The charges include nine counts of attempted murder.

That's the entire article. No details, no interviews with worshipers or family members, no statements from any "civil rights" organizations, no journalist commentary about past crimes against Synagogues, no condemnation or 'hate crime' labels.

Just another day of city crime.

I'm not surprised. But it might be surprising how many will accept it as truth.

First, Obama's 2012 Campaign ad. Watch it if you can stomach it:

Every point is misleading or an outright lie. FactCheck.org challenges every claim:

• The spot uses outdated quotes from groups that said his record on ethics is “unprecedented” and that he “kept a promise to toughen ethics rules.” One of those same groups said later that he “has let down millions of Americans who accepted his word,” and another rated his promise as “broken.”

• The 30-second TV spot also trumpets a claim of “2.7 million jobs” in “America’s clean-energy industry.” That mostly counts jobs put in place long before Obama took office.

• Finally, it boasts that U.S. dependence on foreign oil has declined to below 50 percent, as a net share of total demand, for the first time in more than a decade. That’s true, and increasing U.S. oil production is a factor (despite Republican criticisms that Obama is anti-drilling). But economists say the chief factor is reduced oil consumption, brought on by the recent economic recession.
  

Click HERE for detailed analysis.

RedState has more.

Below the fold, The National Republican Trust also challenges the Obama ad. (H/T: Gateway Pundit)

I like Rush Limbaugh. He's a great entertainer.

What he's not good at is political science.

I keep hearing from Rush an argument that goes something like this: The Republican establishment keeps shoving moderates down our throats, but whenever we run a moderate they lose.

His examples seem to be confined to Bob Dole and John McCain.

Since McCain is our most recent example, let me speak to that one.

John McCain did not lose because he was a moderate. John McCain lost because he was a Republican.

Whoever the Republicans nominated in 2008 was doomed to fail. It had little to do with them personally. It have everything to do with the collapse of the housing market, the collapse of the financial markets, and the beginning of the-worst-recession-since-the-great-depression (©DNC, all rights reserved).

Also, because the-worst-president-who-ever-lived-and-who-also-ate-children-for-breakfast (© DNC, all rights reserved) had just been term limited out. You know his name, it always ended with a hyphen then a Hitler.

I'm sorry, McCain's losing to Obama had little to do with McCain or Obama.

Little is not all. But macro forces outside of the individual personality or policy preferences was 90% of the story.

So, when Rush or other conservative activists blame the 2008 loss on the fact that McCain was a moderate, they're just plain wrong.

The importance of this is because the analogy is then applied by Rush to say that if we nominate an alleged moderate like Romney then we doomed to repeat 2008 and the Republicans will lose again.

That is complete and utter hogwash. Whoever we nominate in the coming months is very likely to beat Obama. And in 2012 it will have little to do with the candidates themselves, and everything to do with macro forces such as the economy.

We're left in this race with three possible alternatives. None of these men are perfectly conservative, but none of them can be because there is no such a thing as a perfect conservative. The perfect conservative doesn't exist. Ronald Reagan was not a perfect conservative. Not even close. It's the problem of memory: it's selective. We tend to remember what we want, and forget what we don't.

None of these guys is perfect, but no one is. It's why I've always hated the idea of voting for the guy I disliked the least. The underlying assumption being that there is someone so perfect out there, if only he wold step forward.

That's not what politics is. Hell, that's not even what human nature is. We're imperfect. If we weren't, we'd be God.

Which brings us the the Mitt vs. Newt vs. Santorum conundrum.

Who is the most electable? Rush, and a lot of activists on the right seem convinced that whoever is the most conservative is the most electable. So, it's Santorum ... or maybe Newt, depending on your definition of "conservative".

The establishment, and many in the middle in the party think that whoever is the most moderate sounding is the most electable. Clearly, they prefer Romney.

Another faction think that whoever takes it to Obama & the Left in the most direct manner will win. They prefer Newt because he is the most articulate at attacking Obama and the Left. Also, he's clearly the best debater.

Unfortunately, all of them are wrong. Decades of public opinion research tell us that candidate's positions on public policy rarely has anything to do with the outcome of an election.

Conservatives will end up voting for the Republican candidate, whoever he is. Liberals will end up voting for the Democratic candidate, whoever he is. And the so-called moderates will end up voting based on a number of factors, none of which are related to the issues at all.

They will vote on the economy, first and foremost. Not based on their personal checkbooks, but based on what we call a "sociotropic" analysis of the economy. That is, based upon their perception of where the economy is or where it is heading.

And given that economies are cyclical, much of what passes for electoral politics is simply luck.

Another big factor in how the squishy moderates and independents vote are "personal attributes". Things like is the candidate "trustworthy" or is he a good "leader".

Neither of these things have anything to do with their positions on the policies.

In 1980 we were told that Reagan couldn't be elected because he was too conservative. But he won anyway. But he didn't win, as Rush and some think, because he was conservative.

He won because the economy was in the tank. Whoever we nominated in 1980 was likely to beat Carter.

He didn't beat Carter because he was articulate in the debates, either. If you believe this, you didn't see the debates. Reagan was not the best debater.

But, this didn't mean that the debates were meaningless. They had an affect, but it had nothing to do with Reagan's debating skills -- which were mediocre, at best.

What people learned in the debates was the Reagan wasn't the crazy person that Carter and the Democrats painted him to be.

What they learned was that he was a viable alternative to Jimmy Carter.

Reagan didn't win in 1980 because he was a conservative, Reagan won because he wasn't Jimmy Carter.

The 2012 elections will be most analogous to the elections of 1980. Whoever we nominate is likely to beat Obama, not because what they believe in or what policies they prefer, but because they are a viable alternative to him.

When thinking of the electability question then, it is simply wrong to think of the candidate's positions on policy questions.

What's more important are the personal attributes of the candidate.

Can an independent who voted for Obama in 2008 see himself voting for a viable alternative in 2012?

Let's face it, no matter how much I disdain Romney's moderate stance on a number of issues or Gingrich's ego I'm not the average voter. The average voter hasn't read Barber's The Presidential Character and no longer seems to worry about things like executive vs. legislative leadership abilities.

The average voter worries more about hair style. And about a candidates voice.

No, seriously. My wife, who I consider more of a typical voter than myself, tells me that she can't vote for Sarah Palin because of ... her accent.

And, to be honest, it's why I didn't support Rick Perry. He sounded too much like George W. Bush, and I think the nation still isn't ready for another Texas governor who sounds like, well, a Texan.

Yeah, it's superficial. But what you don't get is that the people who matter in an election -- the independents -- vote on some very superficial things.

That is, when they're not voting on macro issues that are beyond a candidates control.

Look, I think that if Newt gets the nomination that he has a better than even chance of winning. The economy is not likely to improve much in the next eight months, and that's the number one issue that independents will base their votes on.

I'd call it 55-45 in Newt's favor.

Those aren't terrible odds.

The problem with Newt is that he doesn't strike me as Reaganesque in the debates. He strikes me as stylistically the opposite of Reagan. He's not reassuring to moderates.

Maybe he'll get that he has to change that in the general elections, but how many debates will we have between the Republican candidate and Obama? Two? Three, tops?

His debating skills aren't going to matter much for an eventual path to victory. Far more important will be his ability to convince people that he has an even temper, that he is a "leader", and that his personal story is one worth embracing.

And that might be difficult.

The dirty little secret about the American people is that they don't want a fighter in office. No, they want Congress and the President and the Media elites to all just get along.

It's one of the biggest complaints from moderates: why is there so much fighting in Washington?

Yeah, I know it's a stupid question. But it's the kind of question independents ask all the time.

Which is why yet another reason I'm less sure about supporting Gingrich now than I was a few months ago.

I originally supported him because he was a fighter. I, like many of you, wanted a fighter.

But I forgot that I'm not emblematic of the American people. The American people don't want a fighter.

At least, they don't want one who seems like a fighter. They want a passive aggressive fighter. One who won't raise his voice too loudly, and when he attacks he will do so obliquely. Not raise too much of a ruckus, if you know what I mean.

Which is why I think that Romney has a better chance of beating Obama than Newt.

It has nothing to do with his moderation. It has everything to do with stupid things like his hair. And his temperament.

If Romney is our guy, then I call it more like 60-40.

He seems Presidential. And that's enough for most independents. They just want an alternative to Obama. Someone who doesn't seem too weird, to be an extremist, and who will return our country to normalcy.

It has nothing to do with his alleged moderation. It has everything to do with personality.

Yeah, that's stupid. Welcome to America.