Clinton, Pallin and Kennedy meet - UPDATE

I have taken this down.

After thinking about it I find it too close to the edge.

And while only a nut case would be inspired by what is clearly political humor, there are too many nut cases.

Snow, ARod and NW

I have been coming to Los Angeles for over 42 years. It is one of my favorite cities, even if it is, at the same time, one of the most f'd up places in the history of the world.

This morning I jumped on the 105 going east at Sepulveda. It was a beautiful day and there was a fantastic view of the mountains that back LA to the east. And they are covered in snow. More snow than I have ever seen on them. More than in December. More than in January. And certainly more than any previous week after Valentine's day.

Now I know that this is meaningless. I know it anecdotal. But the snow is there. (Don't tell Pope Algore.)

But I digress...

Had a few adult beverages last night at the hotel bar. A gentleman from Norway was two seats down. At some point I asked him about the Muslim problem in Norway. He nodded wisely and said:

"We don't talk about that. It is better that way."

Now I know that's anecdotal, but that is an expression of surrender.

But I digress...

I watched part of the press conference regarding ARod in which a guy making millions a year explained that he had no knowledge that what he was doing was wrong and hid only because... well because he had no knowledge that it was wrong.

Works for me.

I mean I watch the pros only because I admire watching them perform. And if they want to take a drug that makes their balls smaller and their weenie limper so they can put on a better show... I say let them do it.. Gene pool improvement works.

But I digress.

I flew out here on a Northwest flight in a A319. Since First Class is only for politicians and sports stars... certainly not for us ROF's... In case you don't know, that's the last row in coach. My theory is that if you can't be first, be last. Cuts down on the standing around... I had my headphones and Mpeg but figured that I'd listen to some music courtesy of NW.

Wrong. The aircraft had NO audio outlets.

So I boogied from Memphis to LAX on "Speedo," "My Prayer," and other such. Nice flight and the two ladies who were caring for 150 or so people really tried. But there isn't much anyone can do for you when you're in coach. My aim is to survive.

Being always the big spender I purchased a $7.00 snack that had crackers and cheese and something in a tin that if you bought it for a camping outing you would take back to the store. Plus two VO's on the rock's. $15.00 and a bargain at $6.00... I had nothing to eat since about 2:00PM and I knocked back the booze in record time, yet remained sober as could be... In my past two of these would have eased me into slumber land.... I wonder if they have down sized the amount. Yes, I think they have.

And NW can't figure out why they went out of business and Delta bought'em. As someone named George said about another merger years and years ago...

"When you breed two losers what do you get?"

Damn... everything looks so bad

it's really hard (no pun intended) to find something to laugh about.

Click on the picture to make it larger. (Again, no pun intended.)

Hat tip to Jimmy M.

NOW on beheading at Bridges TV

While is its almost unbelievable, we have had NOW actually say something about Muslim men treating women poorly, as in cutting of their heads. To wit:

ALBANY, NY — On February 12, 2009, in Orchard Park, Buffalo, NY, forty-four year-old Muzzamil Hassan, a prominent Muslim businessman, was arrested for having allegedly beheaded his wife, thirty-seven year-old Aasiya Z. Hassan. What was Aasiya's crime? Why, Aasiya was having Muzzamil served with divorce papers. And apparently, on February 6, Aasiya obtained an order of protection which had forced her violent husband out of their home.

NOW New York State is horrified that Erie County DA, Frank A. SeditaII, has referred to this ghastly crime as "the worst form of domestic violence possible." The ridiculous juxtaposition of "domestic" and "beheading" in the same journalistic breath points up the inherent weakness of the whole "domestic violence" lexicon.

True. If you buy the premise, as they say in Gollywood, you buy the bit. Only in this case NOW is saying, "No sale!" NOW continues.

What is "domestic" about this violence? NOW NYS President Marcia Pappas says "it is high time we stop regarding assaults and murders as a lover's quarrels gone bad. We further demand of lawmakers that punishments fit crimes. We of NOW decry the selective enforcement of assault laws and call for judicial enforcement of our mandatory arrest policy, even when the axe-wielder is known by his victim."

And why is this horrendous story not all over the news? Is a Muslim woman's life not worth a five-minute report? This was, apparently, a terroristic version of "honor killing," a murder rooted in cultural notions about women's subordination to men. Are we now so respectful of the Muslim's religion that we soft-peddle atrocities committed in it's name? Millions of women in this country are maimed and killed by their husbands or partners. Had this awful murder been perpetrated by a African American, a Latino, a Jew, or a Catholic, the story would be flooding the airwaves. What is this deafening silence?

Where indeed? Well, Ms Pappas might want to start with the just completed election cycle in which is was politically unacceptable to refer to Hussein as Hussein because that was somehow racist and Muslim and our attempt to link him with Islam was evil and bad because Islam had no known flaws.

Ms Pappas, if you yell at the children to not talk about something, don't be surprised when they don't talk about something.

And exactly what do orders of protection do? Was Aasiya desperately waving the order of protection in Muzzamil's face when he slashed at her throat? Was it still clutched in her hand as her head hit the floor?

You of the press, please shine a light on this most dreadful of murders. In a bizarre twist of fate it comes out that Muzzamil Hassan is founder of a television network called Bridges TV, whose purpose it was to portray Muslims in a positive light. This a huge story. Please tell it!

Link to NOW.

What is even more interesting is some of the comments.

I don't think that it was simply a cultural/religious reaction to divorce that caused this crime to occur. I think there were a lot of factors that lead to his mental instability.......

Dude, people kill each other all the time. someone is killed every single day. probably every hour. possibly every minute.

The murderers aren't all Muslim. they are EVERY race, ethnicity, religion, sex, country, height, weight, hair color...

Of course this is horrendous, but so is the US Family Court System which is run by feminists....

After reading your post, which is overflowing with your unresolved personal anger,....

So, "Millions of women in this country are maimed and killed by their husbands or partners." says Marcia A. Pappas, President, National Organization for Women-NYS.

Really? That's at what rate? 2700 a day if just one million. Including Sundays and holidays. 5400 if two million. Of course it goes up on Superbowl day. No wonder a beheading doesn't make it into the media much.....

And finally this.

This was not an honor killing. I wish that people would stop perpetuating that erroneous speculation. MO Hassan was married before to a non-Muslim woman, and had two children with her as well. He divorced the first wife without killing her. He was not a religious Muslim. Bridges TV was nothing more to him than an oppertunity to make money. He did not fast or pray as is required in the religion. HE often said that he did not miss Pakistan, or wish to visit. He was very Americanized. What this was is an example of is his rage, and domestic abuse... not an "honor killing." I know all this becuase I used to work there. Most of the staff there was NOT Muslim. Leave the religion of Islam out of it.

I have no idea if the comment is true, but it really doesn't matter. You would have to be knuckle headed beyond belief to not understand that beheading is a particularly Muslim act. And what this act shows that when really stressed, he went towards some social norms that were still floating around in his mind.

And the comments show that the selling of diversity and political correctness has eaten way much of our commonsense.

Ms Pappas, you have a hard task in front of you. Good luck, but you have been your own worst enemy.

But her remarks are welcome. Who know? She may actually discover women being stoned and gays and rape victims being hung.

Hat tip to UrgentAgenda.

A Nation of Cowards?

Earth to Eric! Earth to Eric!

Would somebody please tell this guy that his boss is a self identified black?

Would somebody please tell this guy that his boss got the nomination because around 95% of the black voters picled him over Hillary?

Would somebody tell this guy to pay his taxes and be quiet for a while?

What Bush did

The Left continues with its attempts to rewrite history. The always popular subject is that Bush did nothing to prevent 9/11. Of course that is pure BS, and deserves to be scorned. In addition I note that that doesn’t track with what Richard Clarke, Clinton’s NSA who was retained by Bush, has said. From an interview:

RICHARD CLARKE: Actually, I've got about seven points, let me just go through them quickly. Um, the first point, I think the overall point is, there was no plan on Al Qaeda that was passed from the Clinton administration to the Bush administration.
Second point is that the Clinton administration had a strategy in place, effectively dating from 1998. And there were a number of issues on the table since 1998. And they remained on the table when that administration went out of office — issues like aiding the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, changing our Pakistan policy -- uh, changing our policy toward Uzbekistan. And in January 2001, the incoming Bush administration was briefed on the existing strategy. They were also briefed on these series of issues that had not been decided on in a couple of years.

Clarke rambles a bit here, but there are two key points. There was no PLAN but their was a STRATEGY. But since they could not solve the Northern Alliance, Pakistan, etc., and had not for over two years, they couldn’t produce a PLAN.

And the third point is the Bush administration decided then, you know, in late January, to do two things. One, vigorously pursue the existing policy, including all of the lethal covert action findings, which we've now made public to some extent.
And the point is, while this big review was going on, there were still in effect, the lethal findings were still in effect. The second thing the administration decided to do is to initiate a process to look at those issues which had been on the table for a couple of years and get them decided.
So, point five, that process which was initiated in the first week in February, uh, decided in principle, uh in the spring to add to the existing Clinton strategy and to increase CIA resources, for example, for covert action, five-fold, to go after Al Qaeda.

Clarke rambles again, but the two key points is that within days of the start of the start of the Bush administration it was decided to increase resources in going after al-Qaeda, “five fold.”

The second point is that nothing Clinton had started was stopped. “…the lethal findings were still in effect.”

So Bush kept Clinton’s CIA going and decided to increase the resources 500%.
Now you can argue that this wasn’t enough, but the facts are that this was 7 months before 9/11 and demonstrates Bush’s belief that there was a problem and pledged to increase the resources.

Plus, the problems with the Northern Alliance and Pakistan that Clinton could not solve for over two years still remained.

ANGLE: So, just to finish up if we could then, so what you're saying is that there was no — one, there was no plan; two, there was no delay; and that actually the first changes since October of '98 were made in the spring months just after the administration came into office?
CLARKE: You got it. That's right.

Link

Now the Left likes to make much over the Presidential Daily Briefing that Bush received on 8/6/01 that said that al-Qaeda was going to attack. Bush’s response was less than nice, dismissing the briefer with an “Okay, now you’ve done your job” type comment.

Why was he grumpy? Most likely because there was nothing new in the report and he regarded it as a CYA by staff. Why do I say this? Because he already knew it.

"At the special meeting on July 5 were the FBI, Secret Service, FAA, Customs, Coast Guard, and Immigration. We told them that we thought a spectacular al Qaeda terrorist attack was coming in the near future." That had been had been George Tenet's language. "We asked that they take special measures to increase security and surveillance. Thus, the White House did ensure that domestic law enforcement including the FAA knew that the CSG believed that a major al Qaeda attack was coming, and it could be in the U.S., and did ask that special measures be taken."

Link

The above is from an interview with NSA Rice and shows that 32 days before the meeting Bush knew about it and had his NSA warn all the agencies. And there was little more he could have done outside declaring martial law and taking control of all entrances into the US and all movements within the US.

So there you have the facts. Clinton dithered and Bush took action. It may not have been enough but it was all he could have done, and should have done based on the information he had.

To my friends on the Left, no charge for the education.

Marxism announcement

Hussein is busy announcing that people who bought houses they couldn’t afford are to be bailed out by people who bought houses they could afford.

This varies from place to place.

In San Francisco that is up to $700,000. In short, Farmer Auntie Jane living in a $60,000 house in Kansas is helping Street Artist Howard in San Francisco pay for his home. Howard will, at some point, sell the house for a cool $1,500,000, move to the burbs of Kansas City buy a home for $200,000 and spend his retirement comfortably playing poker at the local casino while complaining about the backwardness of Auntie Jane and her Kansas City living cousins.

Joe the Plumber was more correct than even he knew.

I am a social liberal. This is not liberalism. This is Marxism.