Sunday - July 12, 2009

Too early to write off Sarah Palin. She will be back, says Leonard Doyle of The Telegraph.

Never did care for Letterman and never thought he was funny.  But apparently many think boring is funny so I’m in a minority or he wouldn’t have that job.

This was a long piece and so I didn’t post all of it. The rest is at the link below.

Sarah Palin may have quit as governor of Alaska, but after gauging the mood in Washington, Leonard Doyle says it’s too early to write her off

By Leonard Doyle
Published: 9:30PM BST 11 Jul 2009

Last Tuesday, Alaska’s Governor Sarah Palin showed up on a beach in a fisherman’s bib and waders, hoping to clear the air about her decision to quit her job by the end of the month. But instead of providing the answer to whether she intends to launch a “Palin for President” bid for the White House in 2012, she became fodder for David Letterman, the late-night comedian.

“Is it just me, or is anybody else here having naughty thoughts about Sarah Palin in those waders?” he asked, pointing to endlessly looped footage of the telegenic governor clothed in rubber.

A few weeks ago he was advising her to update her “slutty flight-attendant look” and made an outrageous on-air sexual jibe about her daughter, which he later only half-apologised for.

When the jeering died down, it was not immediately clear whether Palin still had her eyes on the White House. Some of the governor’s friends believe her real aim is to develop a lucrative career on the lecture circuit, perhaps with her own TV talk show – indeed Levi Johnston, the estranged father of Palin’s grandchild, claimed last week that he had heard her talk several times of how nice it would be to take advantage
of the lucrative deals currently on offer. But her currency is based on the likelihood that she will declare herself as a presidential candidate some time next year.

And if anyone from small-town America can grow up to become president, surely it is Sarah Palin. She remains by far the most attractive woman in US politics. Even in her grungy, blood-streaked overalls, she cut a compelling figure for the cameras. But why she quit the top job with 18 months still left to serve remains a mystery.

Speaking to the journalist Andrea Mitchell, she said it was because she “loves Alaska”. She then complained bitterly of multiple and frivolous ethics investigations which had effectively paralysed her administration. The governor was also incensed at the growing mockery of her infant, Trig, who has Down’s syndrome.

America’s liberal elite chortled at the explanations. When someone pointed out that she shot her first rabbit on her back porch aged just 10, the media deemed that, at 45, she had shot herself in both feet.

More jeers were to follow every time the governor updated her thoughts on Twitter. In one early morning burst, she wrote: “Couple of thoughts for the day on beautiful bright AK morn: ‘You have to sacrifice to win. That’s my philosophy in six words.’ “

The governor’s BlackBerry produces half a dozen such haikus on any given day.

“Caribou Barbie is one nutty puppy,” was how The New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd summed up the situation. Vanity Fair magazine, the bible of America’s chattering classes, dissected what it called Governor Palin’s “narcissistic personality disorder”. On the cable news channel MSNBC, someone described Governor Palin as “incompetent”.

But it was Maureen Dowd’s spoof column, headlined “Sarah’s Secret Diary”, that captured the condescension in which so many sophisticates view her. “No one understands me. It’s like I’m speaking some Eskimo dialect or something,” Ms Dowd wrote, channelling Governor Palin’s style. “Andrea Mitchell follows me all the way to Kanakanak Beach and I get a French manicure and set up this huge photo op for her, even though she spooked the salmon.”

The liberal caricature of Governor Palin has previously been that she is a hopelessly erratic leader. Now she was being redefined as a “quitter” who could not stand the heat of political battle, and is therefore unfit for the Presidency.

The media is often a poor predictor of events in the US. It was slow to identify Barack Obama’s chances of winning the Democratic nomination and the Presidency. It completely missed the story of the global economic collapse. And thus predictions about the end of Sarah Palin’s political life seem premature.

Even though the Democrats believe they are unassailable in the face of a leaderless Republican Party, the country’s mood is fickle. There are signs that the tide is already turning against President Obama in some areas as he struggles to end the worst recession since the 1930s. In Iowa, a key bellwether state, his polling numbers are declining sharply.

THE REST OF THIS EDITORIAL HERE

Posted by peiper     on 07/12/2009 at 01:29 PM   
Filed Under: • Editorials • Sarah Palin •  
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The Alaska governor’s resignation shows how shallow Republicans have become.  Oh Boy.

Yeah I know.  This is supposed to be a conservative site. But wait. 

Three major papers here have stories on her, all somewhat different slants with this being the harshest by far. I’m betting you haven’t read this article in the states, and I thought BMEWS should post it.  I thought you should see it and then have at it using I hope some logic instead of anger alone.
Truth to tell, I do not want to believe this. Any of it. But Andrew Sullivan seems to have done a bit of research. As a political writer he must scan speeches and attend his fair share of them as well.

I have read this fellow often, and this is the first time I’ve read anything like this by him. 

Is there food for thought here?  Look, I was one of many years ago who really did think Ross Perot was the answer.  I believed in him. I wasn’t alone. And look what happened. 

One thing is true and some of you have pointed it out as well.  The party seems to have a leadership problem these days.  It almost seems to be tossed by waves in the ocean going this way and that with no firm direction. Drew said it better, but you get the drift.

Question for you folks. Ya think there’s any truth to this? Even a little? Cause if there is, where does that leave us?

From The Sunday Times
July 12, 2009
Palin leads the right into a reality TV vortex

Andrew Sullivan

Writing about Sarah Palin always presents a quandary. Does one operate under the usual assumption that this is a rational figure, a serious politician, a rising Republican star . . . or do you acknowledge the copious evidence that she cannot tell the truth, has delusions of grandeur, has no policy record to speak of and quit her job as Alaska governor halfway through her first term because she is, in her own explanation, “not a quitter”? I think that you have to proceed under the assumption that this is a joke of a candidate and a symptom of a political party in the middle of a mental breakdown.

Mind you, I love the idea of Sarah Palin: a brassy, no-nonsense enemy of bloated government and corruption. That was probably John McCain’s rough idea of who she was in the five minutes his staff vetted her, and on the one occasion he’d met her, before offering her a chance to be leader of the free world. The idea of Sarah Palin, though, is sadly not the reality of Sarah Palin.

The reality of Sarah Palin is that politics is a means to her higher goal: celebrity. Every action she takes is designed to make sense . . . if you believe that government is really a version of a reality show. The remote, David Lynch-style location, the family often in trouble with the law, the pregnant teenage daughter and her impossibly handsome redneck boyfriend, the boyfriend’s angry sister, an ornery Alaskan trooper, a few moose and mysterious pregnancies . . . and, well, the mini-series never ends. The best guess I’ve heard of the real reason for her abrupt departure is: “I’m a celebrity . . . get me out of here!”

No one yet understands the real reason for a first-term governor just quitting on Friday, July 3, with no advance notice. If it were planned, why did her husband have to travel 300 miles to be there? Why do it all on a federal holiday before the Fourth of July? As Bubble from Absolutely Fabulous might note: “Who can say?”

A blog reader scanned every single governor of all the states for the past century to find precedents. There are plenty of examples of governors being arrested, being impeached or dying. But only two others in American history have just up and quit: Eliot Spitzer, New York governor, involved in a professional escort service after he had vowed to clean up the state; and Jim McGreevey, whose gay lover blackmailed him. Palin has quit for no apparent reason.

If it were to spend time with her family, it would be understandable, but she insists that’s not the case — and if you’re prepared to run for national office months after giving birth to an infant with Down’s syndrome, it’s a little odd to quit the governorship of a state when you have only a year and a half to go. It doesn’t make sense politically since it implies she could do the same thing at any moment in any future office. Why should anyone vote for someone who could quit for no good reason at any time?

But trying to makes sense of Sarah Palin is a fool’s errand. I spent a lot of time last year trying to figure out how her bizarre pregnancy story could make any sense at all — it doesn’t — and came up with nothing but a suspicion that large parts of it were made up. If you present the facts to Palin spokespeople, they seem offended and regard you as some liberal hater. But the facts reveal she lies all the time about almost everything and so is probably improvising about her reasons for resigning.

I’ve now compiled 32 incontrovertibly untrue statements of fact that she has uttered in the public record and never retracted. They are not the usual political lies — spinning or shading the truth; they are demonstrably, empirically untrue in the public record. Some are trivial: Palin said on television that she asked her daughters to vote on whether she should accept the vice-presidency offer; but that story contradicts details given by Palin herself, who said she accepted the offer on the spot.

Others are more serious: Palin lied when she said the dismissal of Walt Monegan, her public safety commissioner, had nothing to do with his refusal to fire Mike Wooten (her former brother-in-law, who was at war with her family) from his job as a state trooper; in fact, the Branchflower report concluded she repeatedly abused her power when dealing with both men.

Palin lied when she repeatedly claimed to have said, “Thanks, but no thanks,” to the famous “bridge to nowhere”, an expensive, pork-barrel government project; in fact, she openly campaigned for the federal project when running for governor. I could go on. But the truth is, she’s a reality-show star vaulted to national prominence by a Republican party now so devoid of talent and desperate for some kind of support that it gambled on the political equivalent of Susan Boyle. One who couldn’t even sing.

My own bet is that there is another scandal out there that would have forced her resignation if she hadn’t pre-empted it. Yet as plausible is the simple notion uttered by the only person in the melodrama who seems halfway sane: Levi Johnston, the teenage father of Palin’s grandson: “I think the big deal was the book. That was millions of dollars.” With a multi-million-dollar book deal, Palin can now become the darling of the right-wing media in America without the tedious duties of actually, you know, governing something. If the book contains scandals we have not yet learnt about, it could be explosively big in the mainstream; if it’s a hagiography, it could sell well with an adoring religious base.

And this helps explain the broader problem with American conservatism right now. It is less a movement than an industry. From Fox News to talk radio to conservative publishing houses, it has created an alternate and lucrative media reality that is worth a fortune to those able to exploit it. Alas, these alternative media thrive on paranoia, hatred of liberal elites and growing extremist rhetoric made worse by a hermetically sealed echo chamber of true believers. Anyone criticised by the left or even by the establishment right is a martyr in this world. In America, martyrdom sells. And Palin is a product worth lots of money.

She wants some of it; and she has no actual interest in governing America (even though she’d love the title of president). She referred to giving up her “title” as governor, not her “office”. In this, she is the ultimate Republican of this degenerate moment: all culture war, no policy; all identity politics, no engagement with practical answers to difficult public problems; and all hysterical opposition to Barack Obama, no actual alternatives offered.

Since even epic scandals heighten celebrity rather than diminish it, Palin’s future is secure. Her party’s? Getting bleaker by the day.

http://www.andrewsullivan.com

SOURCE

Posted by peiper     on 07/12/2009 at 01:00 PM   
Filed Under: • Sarah Palin •  
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Muslim who justified killing British troops back at Treasury. Naturally. It’s one of his many rights

While on my way to post another story I found this at the Telegraph and HAD to post it.
I can’t make up my mind if this is a moonbat thing which in a sense of course it is.  Or maybe there’s something not being reported and more to come.
Hmm. kay. I’ll give it one for now but it isn’t funny.

btw ... If anyone understand this, please explain it to me. Or maybe not as the answer might make me crazy.

A personal side note > Turtler.  See why I’m swimming off the deep end?  Look at this.  Aaaagggggggg!

Azad Ali, a Muslim civil servant suspended after comments appeared on his personal website justifying the killing of British troops in Iraq, has returned to work at the Treasury.

By Duncan Gardham, Security Correspondent
Published: 4:32PM BST 12 Jul 2009

Ali, an IT worker and president of the Civil Service Islamic Society, was suspended on full pay for six months following comments on his blog.

In one post Mr Ali said he found ‘much truth’ in an interview with an Islamic militant who said: “If I saw an American or British man wearing a soldier’s uniform inside Iraq I would kill him because that is my obligation.

“If I found the same soldier in Jordan I wouldn’t touch him. In Iraq he is a fighter and an occupier, here he is not. I respect this as the main instruction in my religion for jihad.”

He also criticised the British Government for failing to condemn the “Zionist terrorist state of Israel” during the Gaza crisis and David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, for condemning Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar after he said Jewish children were “legitimate targets”.

Mr Ali also mocked the official representatives of moderate British “Muslims” who support the Government, calling them “self-serving vultures, feeding on the dead flesh of the Palestinians”.

The Civil Service Islamic Society’s official website declares that it is bound by strict rules which say Whitehall special interest groups must be “non-partisan and non-political” and act with “honesty, impartiality and integrity”.

But the comments came on his personal blog, which highlighted his civil service role and provided a link to the Whitehall website.

Sir Gus O’Donnell, Britain’s most senior civil servant and patron of the Civil Service Islamic Society, ordered that Mr Ali be suspended while an investigation was carried out amid concerns that Mr Ali may have breached the Whitehall code of practice that restricts civil servants from political activities.

The investigation has now finished and Mr Ali has returned to his job.

A Treasury spokesman said: “Azad Ali is back at work. The Treasury has dealt with the matter in accordance with our disciplinary procedures. We will not comment on individual cases.”

Mr Ali refused to comment.

SOURCE

Doesn’t take a genius IQ to read between his lines.  And the Brits trust this guy?

Posted by peiper     on 07/12/2009 at 12:25 PM   
Filed Under: • RoPMA • Terrorists • UK •  
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   Saturday - July 11, 2009

Oh Shut Up

I was going to put up a little post mentioning how it’s raining again here, but with lots of thunder and lightning. A real ‘Hudson Valley Rumbler’. I grew up in the lower Hudson River Valley, and the area is pretty notorious for big thunder. Always has been - remember Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle and the sound of the old Dutchmen bowling for ninepins? Same locale. And that’s the kind of storm we’re having here tonight. What the heck, we had 4 days without rain I think.

But just to check on the world, I pulled up FoxNews, and saw this story ... and realized I haven’t put an actual moonbat post up in quite a while. I think this one qualifies. She’s just a little moonbat, still in training.

Texting Teen Falls Down Open NYC Manhole

A New York City teenager says she was text messaging while walking down the street — and the next second she was down a manhole.

Alexa Longueira was walking down a Staten Island block and was getting ready to text message when she fell into an open sewer manhole, MyFOX NY reports.

Longueira suffered mild cuts and bruises and is expected to recover.

The teen’s mother says workers told her they left the manhole open and unattended for just seconds while they went to fetch some cones from their truck.

The Department of Environmental Protection says it is investigating.

“DEP is conducting a full investigation of what happened during a manhole incident on Victory Boulevard where workers were flushing a high-pressure sewer on Wednesday evening,” said Mercedes Padilla, of the DEP. “We regret that this happened and wish the young woman a speedy recovery.”

Alexa’s mom says it doesn’t matter that her daughter was text-messaging, the manhole should not have been left open.

The Longueira family says they plan on filing a lawsuit.

Yup, you walk down the street - not on the sidewalk, but out in the street - totally focused on your cellphone, not looking where you’re going, and fall in a hole. And it’s somebody else’s fault, so sue.

Personal responsibility? Situational awareness? A quarter microgram of common sense? These things are unknown in moonbat land. Big government’s job is to protect you 24 - 7, every day of your life. And you get loads of free money from the Infinite Money Tree when they don’t.

Please, please, please let me be on the jury. I really need the laughs.

Posted by Drew458     on 07/11/2009 at 09:28 PM   
Filed Under: • Stoopid-People •  
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YOU CAN FIND THE WEIRDEST STUFF ON THE NET. DID YOU KNOW THAT PEPSI IS A ZIONIST PLOT?

Yeah well, neither did I.  I can’t believe anyone can possibly really,really believe this stuff. But then why not?  There are so many really,really stupid ppl about, the mind boggles.

Perhaps some of you already knew about this. ?  I just caught the link to this Israeli news site almost by accident.
It’s either good for a laff or two, or tears.  A good head shake anyway.

Muslim Cleric: Pepsi is “Zionist Plot”

by Hillel Fendel

(IsraelNN.com) Extremist Moslems have not dropped their allegations that Pepsi Cola is essentially the code name for a Zionist plot.

MEMRI has released an English transcript of an address given by a Muslim religious leader in Egypt this past February, in which he explains that PEPSI is actually an acronym for “Pay Every Penny to Save Israel.”

In addition, a member of the Hamas terrorist organization’s parliament in Gaza made similar accusations against Pepsi last year. Speaking with official Hamas TV station Al-Aqsa TV on April 23, 2008, Hamas MP Salem Salamah said, “There are companies established by the colonialists and occupiers - large companies with branches all over the world, like Pepsi, Pepsi Cola. This is a well-known company. Pepsi is an acronym. P-E-P-S-I - Pay Every Pence to Save Israel. Pay every pence - pence is one-hundredth of a dollar – to save Israel. Pay every pence to save Israel…”

Al-Aqsa TV promotes terrorist activity and incites hatred of Jews and Israelis, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

More recently, this past February, Egyptian cleric Hazem Abu Ismail made a similar accusation. Speaking on Al Nas TV – a Muslim religious channel in Egypt that provides Islamic programming for Muslim Muftis – Abu Ismail all but called for a Muslim boycott of Pepsi because it stands for ‘Pay Every Penny Saving Israel.’ Abu Ismail said a penny is “one-thousandth of a dollar.”

Specifically, Hazem Abu Ismail said as follows (transcript provided by MEMRI, the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute, at http://www.memri.org):

Do you know what the word “Pepsi” means? Pepsi as in P-E-P-S-I. The first P stands for “Pay.” E stands for “Every.” The third letter stands for “Penny.” A penny means any small coin you receive and don’t know what to do with. Pay it to “Saving” I - “Israel.” In other words, pay every small coin you receive in order to save Israel. They don’t want money from you - they want your small change, your pennies. If I’m not mistaken, in American economics, a penny is one-thousandth of the dollar. It’s not even worth a piaster. It’s only a millime. At least I think it’s worth a millime, not even a piaster.

They say: “Donate the small change you don’t need, but give it to the right cause. If you collect small change, you can buy this drink.” They took the first letter of each word - “Pay Every Penny Saving Israel” - and they formed the word “Pepsi.” When you pay [to buy Pepsi], you are saving Israel. I am not talking about Pepsi, but about Coca Cola and all of them. I don’t want to specify the products. See for yourselves. You are Muslims. You can tell me. I don’t know. My little son knows more about the boycott than me. When we go shopping, he says to me: “Buy this, don’t buy that.” He knows them by heart. He has become an expert in this.

ISRAEL NATIONAL NEWS

THE JEWS ARE PLOTTING DEATH BY FIZZ? 

ROTFLMAO!

Posted by peiper     on 07/11/2009 at 10:13 AM   
Filed Under: • Israel • RoPMA • Stoopid-People •  
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   Friday - July 10, 2009

Huh?

Illinois Democrat Jan Shakowsky, the chairwoman of the House Intelligence Committee’s subcommittee on oversight, is pressing for an immediate committee investigation of the classified program, which has not been described publicly.


Well, um, no kidding? Isn’t that why it’s called “secret” and “classified”?

CIA Director Leon Panetta has terminated a “very serious” covert program the spy agency kept secret from Congress for eight years, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, a House Intelligence subcommittee chairwoman, said Friday.

Schakowsky is pressing for an immediate committee investigation of the classified program, which has not been described publicly. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has said he is considering an investigation.

“The program is a very, very serious program and certainly deserved a serious debate at the time and through the years,” Schakowsky told The Associated Press in an interview. “But now it’s over.”

Democrats revealed late Tuesday that CIA Director Leon Panetta had informed members of the House Intelligence Committee on June 24 that the spy agency had been withholding important information about a secret intelligence program begun after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Schakowsky described Panetta as “stunned” that he had not been informed of the program until nearly five months into his tenure as director.

Oh, I get it. Eight years. Uh huh, right. This is going to be another “BLAME BUSH” distraction, so we won’t notice what crap Obama is up to for the next couple weeks. Like making a treaty with Russia, all by himself, without Congressional approval. Which is, of course, utterly unconstitutional.


Isn’t this getting tiring? Yes, the CIA has some black ops. Stuff they don’t print on the front page of The New York Times tell Congress about. Gee, I wonder why? Is it because the CIA is tricksy and evil, or is it because they’ve learned not to trust the braying jackasses in power not to leak and interfere? Now, there’s food for thought - if the Legislature doesn’t trust the CIA, and the CIA doesn’t trust the Legislature, then why should We The People trust either of them?

Posted by Drew458     on 07/10/2009 at 02:43 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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Ollie speaks out on Honduras!

· Friday, 3 July 2009

WASHINGTON—It took the Obama administration eight days to figure out whether Iranians being gunned down for protesting a fraudulent election and demanding basic civil liberties deserved to be acknowledged by the president of the United States . It took the O-Team less than eight hours to side with Cuba’s Fidel Castro, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega over the ouster of Manuel Zelaya in Honduras.

As we now have come to expect, Mr. Obama got it wrong again, but this time, nobody noticed. The U.S. news media, preoccupied with the sudden demise of Michael Jackson, ignored the event in Central America . For those who care about things more important than the passing of a “pop music legend,” here’s the rest of the story:

Manuel Zelaya, a wealthy rancher and agribusiness executive and a self-described “poor farmer,” won a four-year term as Honduran president in November 2005, with 49.8 percent of the vote. Article 374 of the Honduran Constitution bars the nation’s chief executive from serving consecutive terms. Apparently, one term wasn’t enough for Zelaya, a protégé of Venezuela ‘s strongman, Hugo Chavez, and Nicaragua ‘s phobic anti-American leader, Daniel Ortega.

Late last year, as the Honduran economy tanked and unemployment grew to nearly 28 percent, Zelaya forced Elvin Santos, the country’s elected vice president, to resign and began holding conversations with Chavez and Ortega on how to hold on to power. In lengthy Chavez-like populist speeches, he denounced the U.S. and wealthy landowners and linked himself with leftists in the Honduran labor movement. On March 23, he issued an executive decree directing a national referendum on a Venezuela-style constituent assembly to rewrite the country’s constitution in time for presidential and legislative elections in November. The Obama-Clinton State Department was mute about all of this.

Unfortunately for Zelaya’s aspirations, the Honduran Constitution requires that amendments be passed by a two-thirds vote of the country’s unicameral Congress during two consecutive sessions. By late May, the Honduran Congress, the Honduran Supreme Court, the commissioner for human rights, and the Honduran electoral tribunal all had overwhelmingly declared the referendum unconstitutional. Zelaya ignored the people’s representatives, had ballots printed in Venezuela , and announced that the vote would take place June 28. Again, the O-Team was silent.

In keeping with the rule of law, Honduran Attorney General Luis Alberto Rubi took the case to court. The Honduran Supreme Court ruled the referendum to be illegal and ordered the ballots to be confiscated. Late on June 23, Zelaya countermanded the court order and directed the army to distribute the ballots. Gen. Romeo Vasquez, the chief of staff of the Honduran military, sought legal opinions and decided not to distribute them. The following day, Zelaya accepted the resignation of the minister of defense, Edmundo Orellana, and fired Vasquez.

The Honduran Supreme Court unanimously ruled the Vasquez firing illegal and reinstated him June 25. That prompted Zelaya and a group of supporters to seize the ballots and issue another executive decree, which directed government officials to set up 15,000 polling stations at schools and community buildings across the country. In response to a request from Attorney General Rubi, the Honduran Congress—controlled by Zelaya’s own Liberal Party—opened an investigation into the president’s mental stability and fitness to govern. Zelaya replied with a two-hour broadcast harangue, in which he claimed: “Congress cannot investigate me, much less remove me or stage a technical coup against me, because I am honest. I’m a free president, and nobody scares me.”

On Sunday, just hours before the referendum was to begin, the Honduran army, acting on a warrant issued by the Honduran Supreme Court, arrested Zelaya and sent him, in his pajamas, into exile in Costa Rica . The Honduran Congress affirmed Zelaya’s departure and, in accord with the constitution, named Roberto Micheletti, who had been president of the Congress, as interim president of the country.

It has been downhill from there. Chavez, Ortega, Castro and Bolivia ‘s Evo Morales immediately condemned the “coup” and demanded that Zelaya be restored to power. Chavez went so far as to threaten military action. When asked about these events Sunday, the O-Team punted the issue to the Organization of American States, calling for “all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms, the rule of law and the tenets of the Inter-American Democratic Charter.” Now there’s a powerful statement of support for a constitutional process and the institutions of democracy. Meanwhile, the Clinton State Department is said to be looking at cutting off aid to the impoverished country.

The O-Team doesn’t seem to grasp that simply holding an election does not guarantee a democracy. Adolf Hitler was elected. Hugo Chavez was elected. The Castro brothers were “elected.” When potentates decide that the rule of law does not matter, that constitutional restrictions on power can be overcome by executive fiat, the people inevitably suffer. It’s a point to remember as we celebrate our own nation’s 233rd Independence Day.

sent in by Carol. Thank you! I was slow getting through the email this week, so it’s going up a tad late. But the situation there is still ongoing, even though you’re not hearing much about it in the news.

Hey, you want some irony with that? Here’s a link to the WaPo, who is complaining that the story is only being given one sided coverage and that there is media bias afoot!

And Obama is still backing Zelaya, now with the added support of Brazil’s da Silva.

Also ... Oh my heavens! Honduran diplomat in hot water for referring to Teh One as a lawn jockey. Almost. “el negrito”; the little black guy. Cracks me up, but yo, esse, respect the office.

I pray that Honduras can solve their situation peaceably. But I know several thugs and commies down thataway are helping to stir the pot as hard as they can. Several from up thisaway too.

Posted by Drew458     on 07/10/2009 at 02:01 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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Chinese authorities ban Uighurs from mosques .

They don’t claim to be a democracy and sometimes their way works best for them. So who are we to insist they change?
In this case, the only fault I can find with Chinese reaction is that the police did give in to 1,000 muzzies who “refused to disperse.” Now see that was a mistake.
A thousand. How hard would it have been to eliminate ALL of em? Now that this group sees a slight weakness (if that’s what it was) what’s their next demand going to be?  Reparations? 

Finish the job China, while you can.

Chinese authorities banned Muslims from gathering at mosques for Friday prayers in Urumqi in a bid to prevent any further ethnic violence in the Xinjiang region.

By David Eimer in Urumqi and Malcolm Moore in Shanghai
Published: 11:53AM BST 10 Jul 2009

However, Chinese police eventually agreed to open up at least two major downtown mosques after crowds of up to a thousand Uighurs refused to disperse without being allowed to pray.

The 200 or so mosques in the far Western city had been ordered to close their door to worshippers in the wake of race riots between local Uighur Muslims and the majority Han Chinese that have claimed at least 156 lives.

Friday prayers are a focal point of the week for Urumqi’s Uighur Muslims and the Chinese authorities imposed the ban in an attempt to deter any large emotional gatherings after a week of tension and violence.

Security teams circulated through the city’s Muslim quarters and told worshippers to stay away from mosques this week and to worship next week instead.

“For the sake of public safety all of the mosques have told people that there will be no Friday prayers and that people should stay at home today and pray,” said a government official at the Yang Hang mosque, the biggest mosque in the city with a capacity of around 3,000. A notice was pasted outside cancelling the prayers.

However, as midday approached, a small crowd of around 100 worshippers gathered outside the mosque and a further 50 to 100 people made their way into the inner courtyard. “It’s not necessary to close it because everyone who enters the mosque is a Muslim. It will be safe,” said one female worshipper.

The crowd ignored demands from the Chinese police to disperse and demanded the right to prayer. As tensions rose, the news of a dispute outside the mosque drew a crowd of around 1,000. Eventually, the authorities relented and an abbreviated prayer ceremony, with no sermon, was permitted.

Riot police and security forces stood ready nearby, but after the prayers, the crowds dispersed without any incident. Uighurs generally practice a moderate form of Sunni Islam that was prevalent in Central Asia under Soviet rule, although more militant and austere forms of Islam have made inroads in recent decades.

A similar scene played out in front of the White mosque, one of the most popular places to worship in the mainly Uighur neighborhood of Er Dao Qiao. A Uighur policeman guarding the mosque said the authorities had backed down from a ban and “decided to open the mosque because so many people had gathered. We did not want an incident”.

However, the majority of the city’s mosques remained shut. One Uighur man, who declined to give his name out of fear for his safety, was sitting outside the Kungui mosque. “If I have to pray at home, then I will. But don’t ask me my mood right now.”

The last time that Friday prayers were banned in China was in 2003, during an outbreak of SARS, the respiratory disease. However, Uighurs in Xinjiang are subject to a number of restrictions on worship, including a ban on anyone under 18 attending a mosque. The government also controls the appointment of imams.

Meanwhile, thousands of fearful people poured into bus and train stations yesterday (fri) in a mass exodus from the city. Officials said they had put on extra bus services out of the capital, but demand far outstripped seats and scalpers were charging up to five times the normal face price for tickets.

“It is just too risky to stay here. We are scared of the violence,” said Xu Qiugen, 23, a construction worker from central China who had been living in Urumqi for five years and was trying to buy a bus ticket out with his wife.

It came as the state media reported that families of “innocent” people killed in the unrest will each receive 200,000 yuan (£18,000) in compensation. Urumqi’s government will also provide 10,000 yuan (£902) towards each funeral.

The situation in Urumqi is now significantly calmer and the security forces which had flooded the city, some of whom had been sent to reinforce Urumqi from cities as far away as Shanghai, took pains to keep a low profile. In Kashgar, the second-largest Uighur city, foreigners have been asked to leave for their own safety.

The violence began on Sunday when Uighurs clashed with police while protesting deaths of Uighur factory workers in a brawl in another part of the country. The crowd then scattered throughout Urumqi, attacking Han Chinese, burning cars and smashing windows. Riot police tried to restore order, and officials said 156 people were killed and more than 1,100 were injured.

SOURCE

Posted by peiper     on 07/10/2009 at 10:10 AM   
Filed Under: • CHINA in the news •  
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NO STORY BUT 23 PHOTOS AT THE LINK.  DO NOT PLAY SILLY GAMES WITH CHINESE!

Chinese soldiers sent to rioting city to quell mudslimes acting up.
Notice please these guys are carrying CROSSBOWS!

In other photos soldiers have fixed bayonets.
Now that’s what I call mob control.

PHOTO GALLERY

Oh yeah ... unrelated and on another topic altogether. The planet and carbon footprint yadda,yadda.

Both China and India have said they are not going to worry about carbon emissions at the risk of their economies.
Hey Al Bore .... Stick that where the sun don’t shine! 

Posted by peiper     on 07/10/2009 at 09:47 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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PAST HEROS ….. WARRIORS BOTH.  ONE BRIT … ONE AUSSIE … RIP

I don’t do these every day or even every week.  I suppose I could do one every day as those old soldiers fade away.
I think they belong in the blog world and as far as I am aware, nobody else is doing it.  They belong to a past generation who have made today possible.
And so I honor them as I can.

This was not a ‘politically correct’ generation.  They can not have been happy to see the mess following generations have made of the world they helped to save.

RIP

Major Roy Vallance, who has died aged 86, commanded a tank in every battle from Normandy to the Baltic and won a Distinguished Conduct Medal.

Published: 6:50PM BST 09 Jul 2009

In the last days of the campaign in Germany, Vallance, then a sergeant serving with the 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, Royal Armoured Corps (2 F&FY), was patrolling the banks of the River Elbe, north of Winsen, when his troop was attacked by a bazooka patrol of 20 SS.

It was first light and in wooded country. Vallance, as point tank, allowed the SS to infiltrate past him before moving his guns under fire and at close range into a position where they covered all the enemy’s lines of withdrawal. None of the SS got back with any information.

On another occasion, his tank and another were guarding an important road junction on the main line of advance. They were without infantry support and, as darkness fell, a car full of the enemy – armed with bazookas and supported by infantry – approached his position.

Unwilling to reveal his precarious situation, Vallance dismounted from the tank and went forward with a Bren gun.

He set the car ablaze from a range of 10 yards, killing all the occupants and, using the light from the flames, swept the wood with bullets, dispersing the infantry and accounting for three of them.

The citation for his DCM stated that he had been subject to anti-tank and bazooka fire on many occasions but that he had deployed his small force with such cunning that he had never been knocked out and his troop had suffered the fewest casualties in the squadron.

Royston Ivor Vallance, always known as Roy, was born near Aldeburgh, Suffolk, on June 8 1922 and educated locally. By the time he was seven, both his parents had died and he had a lonely childhood. Aged 15, he left his foster parents and went to London, where he did any job that he could and attended night school to learn bookbinding.

During the Blitz he worked in a printing factory and served as fire warden. After being called up in March 1942 he was posted to the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry, but could not, at first, understand a word that they spoke. In June 1944, while waiting for its invasion orders, 2 F&FY was at Aldershot.

The hours dragged by and nerves were taut. When, for the umpteenth time, Vallance was told to clean his tank, he refused.

He was put on a charge and was under close arrest when he landed on the Normandy beaches with an advance party on D+3. The charge was subsequently dropped.

On July 18 Operation Goodwood, launched to the east of Caen, ran into fierce German resistance. By mid-afternoon, Vallance’s troop was out of ammunition and the barrels of their machine guns were worn out. Hulks of tanks were raided for replenishments. The Yeomanry lost 54 of its 60 tanks. Vallance, with a resourcefulness which became a byword, put out smoke, ran his tanks into the shelter of a railway cutting and so saved most of his.

In the battle of the Falaise Gap, he picked up an enemy uniform and cap. His crew, for a prank, marched him to their squadron leader kitted out as a German officer – but the joke nearly turned sour when Vallance narrowly avoided being shot by a sentry.

2 F&FY fought a series of fierce engagements – including the battle for the liberation of Asten, near Eindhoven – before finishing the war near the Danish border. After the German surrender, Vallance and his fellow survivors celebrated by setting fire to a petrol tanker and galloping around it on horseback, bottles in hand.

After the war he saw active service in Korea with the 8th King’s Royal Irish Hussars and, in 1951, fought at the battle of the Imjin river.

Following its amalgamation with the 4th Queen’s Own Hussars to form the Queen’s Royal Irish Hussars, he became the first RSM and was promoted to quartermaster in 1959.

Vallance served subsequently in BAOR, Aden and Malaya. He was appointed MBE in 1970 and was medically discharged from the Army the next year. He then moved to Nostell Priory, near Wakefield, West Yorkshire, the family seat of Lord St Oswald, as estate factor.

In 1982, after the death of his first wife, he settled in Norfolk, where he enjoyed watching cricket and reading military history.

Roy Vallance died on June 5. He married first, in 1947, Peggy Paling, who predeceased him. He married secondly, in 1990, Audrey Spellar. She too predeceased him, and he is survived by a daughter of his first marriage.

end

VC ... That’s THE VICTORIA CROSS my fellow Americans.  They are not given lightly or in any great numbers.

The last surviving Australian VC recipient of the Second World War.

Ted Kenna, who died on July 8 aged 90, won the Victoria Cross on May 15 1945 while serving with the 2nd/4th Australian Infantry Battalion in the South West Pacific. He was

Published: 6:06PM BST 08 Jul 2009

Japanese troops had established a defensive line in rugged terrain south of Wewak, New Guinea, and were shelling the Australians from the missionary station at Wirui. After a sharp battle on May 14, the 2nd/4th had captured all but the north-western spur. The only position from which supporting fire could be obtained was continuously swept by heavy machine-gun fire, making it impossible to bring artillery or mortars into action.

On May 15, Private Kenna’s platoon was ordered forward to deal with three enemy machine-gun posts. Kenna moved his support section as close as possible to the bunkers in order to provide covering fire for a flank attack by the rest of the platoon.

Two sections of the platoon attacked, but as soon as the enemy spotted them they were pinned down with heavy automatic fire from a position which had not previously revealed itself. With several of the men already wounded, Kenna endeavoured to bring his gunner to bear on one of the bunkers but was unable to bring down effective fire because of the difficult ground.

On his own initiative and without orders, Kenna stood up in full view of the enemy less than 50 yards away and engaged the bunker, firing his Bren gun from the hip. Fire was returned at once, bullets passing between his arms and his body but somehow missing him. Undeterred, Kenna continued to fire at the enemy until his ammunition was exhausted. He then discarded his Bren gun, called for a rifle and despite intense machine-gun fire killed the enemy gunner with his first round.

When a machine gun opened up on him from a second position, Kenna, who had remained standing, killed the gunner with his next round. The bunker was captured without further loss, the company attack went forward and the enemy position was carried.

The citation declared: “There is no doubt that the success of the company attack would have been seriously endangered and many casualties sustained but for Private Kenna’s magnificent courage and complete disregard for his own safety.” Kenna was invested with the Victoria Cross by the Governor-General of Australia, the Duke of Gloucester, at Government House, Melbourne, on January 6 1947.

Edward Kenna, always known as Ted, was born on July 6 1919 at Hamilton, Victoria, the fourth child of a family of seven. He went to St Mary’s Convent, Hamilton, but left at 14 and worked as a plumber to look after his mother when his father fell ill. He was an accomplished sportsman and a keen cyclist and sportsman.

Kenna served in the Citizen Military Forces before enlisting in the Australian Imperial Forces in 1940. He served initially in the 23rd/21st Battalion but was posted to the 2nd/4th in 1943. In October 1944 he embarked from Cairns with his unit bound for New Guinea.

In June 1945, three weeks after the attack on the Wirui Mission feature, Kenna was taking part in a similar operation when he was hit in the mouth by an explosive bullet and evacuated. When told he was likely to die he simply exclaimed: “Pigs”. But he recovered and in December 1946 he was discharged.

Kenna returned to work in Hamilton at the Borough hall and then as curator of the Melville Oval. He was presented to the Queen when she visited the newly-restored Hall of Memory at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra in March 2000; he appeared on a postage stamp in the same year. A portrait of Kenna by Sir William Dargie hangs in the Borough hall.

Ted Kenna married, in 1947, Marje Rushberry, who had nursed him in hospital. They had two sons and two daughters, one of whom predeceased him.

end

Posted by peiper     on 07/10/2009 at 08:41 AM   
Filed Under: • Heroes • UK • War-Stories •  
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ONE MAN’S ART ……. MODEL CRAFTED ENTIRELY FROM PAPER

Anything nice to look at is and pleasing to the eye is Eye Candy.

An origami artist from Japan, Wataru Ito, has spent four years crafting an incredible model city from paper - but now plans to burn it down.

Published: 10:47AM BST 10 Jul 2009
The Telegraph

Mr Ito, 25, started building his ‘Castle on the Ocean’ when he became bored during his university entrance exams.

Using just a knife and glue, the art student built up an entire cityscape over four years by cutting and folding hundreds of pages of craft paper.

The finished piece is now being displayed for the first time at an exhibition on the artificial island of Umihotaru, near Tokyo.

But incredibly, Wataru, a second year student at Tokyo University of the Arts, plans to set his work on fire when the show is over.

He said: “I’m very happy to display my work at a place where people who don’t have an interest in arts can come and see it.

“Looking back now I sometimes ask myself ‘did I really manage to create this?’

“I am devoted while I am working on my projects but I quickly lose interest when I complete them.

“When the exhibition is over I will burn the castle. I thought I could see it rising up from the ashes if I took a video and played it backwards.”

Wataru, who lives in Tokyo but is originally from Saitama, Japan, started working on the castle while he was studying to become an art student.

After failing a university entrance exam three times he focused on this project, which became so large he had to sleep under a table in his tiny flat.

The city’s centrepiece is a castle which is loosely based upon El Temple de la Sagrada Familia, in Barcelona, Spain, .

The central tower is surrounded by a cathedral, school, theme park, factory and airport and comes complete with electrical lights and a moving train.

Incredibly, the entire piece - which measures 2.4m by 1.8m and is 1m high - has been crafted using only paper, which Wataru stuck together using craft glue, an art knife and holepuncher.

SOURCE

I guess we will have to look forward to the video burning. Shame really. Seems these folks really excel at this sort of thing. Japanese,Chinese etc.

Posted by peiper     on 07/10/2009 at 08:18 AM   
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy •  
• Comments (4) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Thursday - July 09, 2009

Blog Stats

A big thank you to our loyal readers

Quite some time ago I put in some number crunching widgets, and every once in a great while I look at them. Every so often we have a big spike in visitors, but usually BMEWS chugs along at a little under 1000 hits per day. And that is very steady, day in, day out, year after year.

Maybe if I followed the rules I’d get more hits. Meh. I follow some of them, some of the time. And I really suck at linkwhoring. And the trackback thingy - which I use all the time, thank you - doesn’t work. It probably expired 3 years ago or something. I can’t be bothered to fix it. I do get some great emails, and sometimes they have some great graphics, links, or story ideas. Except for the ones in Chinese or Italian. How I get those, I’ll never know.

So here’s to you! Thank you! Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!



Do we have enough visitors to make any money from the ads? Hell no. Not a dime. [um, cuz you don’t have any ads, brainfart] Ok, we’ve earned about 47¢ over the course of 4 years. Really. And BMEWS Gear? I’m pretty sure I own the one and only “Batty" coffee mug ever printed up by Cafe Press. Which holds several hundred rounds of .22 at the ready! And they come in Regular Bat too, plus hats! But that’s Ok. This isn’t a for-profit blog. It’s more of an anchor bloody albatross around my neck labor of love! We don’t make ends meet, ever. So what? This is my forum, shared with a few good digital friends. Our own electronic soap box where we can scream, rant, rage, and post awful puns. And silly stuff. And prime eye candy. What else are blogs for? What, you want math lessons? Fah!

Posted by Drew458     on 07/09/2009 at 10:36 PM   
Filed Under: • Blog Stuff •  
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World’s Shortest Horror Movie

Outstanding.

It really is a short film.

How short is it?

It’s so short that the blond never needs to run away, then trip and fall and get chainsawed.
It’s so short that the black guy never even gets a chance to go down to the dark basement alone.

If the movie doesn’t play, just right click and ‘save as’ instead.

Sent to me by my brother in law the cop. Ok, officer with the county Sheriff’s Department assigned to ... never mind. He’s a cop.




Open discussion! Yeah, it was done by a Brit, obviously. One with no idea what an American address looks like. [OK, my error. This is what an address in Salt Lake City Utah can actually look like. Nearly every road in the city has a number instead of a name, and everything west or east of Main Street is “W -” or “E -”, and everything north or south of the temple is “- N” or “- S”. But I don’t think there is actually a 4517 street, whether N, W, E, or W.] But I applaud him for his “cowboy” idea about what we have under the bed here - her toy is a major federal offense in at least 4 ways, plus being beyond illegal in New Jersey.

Posted by Drew458     on 07/09/2009 at 09:56 PM   
Filed Under: • Fun-Stuff • Guns and Gun Control •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Sarah the Covergirl

Read all about it here. I like the part where she laughs at McStain, who’s favorite athletic activity is wading.


A little quote from the interview there. Is this a freudian slip of some kind that we can read loads into?

Q Have you run with other famous people or politicians?
A I have not because I usually sneak out to go running, or if someone offers I usually shoot straight with them and say, ”I gotta go run by myself, I’m sorry.”

Posted by Drew458     on 07/09/2009 at 07:45 PM   
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy • Humor • Politics •  
• Comments (1) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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