A Grievous Blow To The Rovian Reich

Here we are spending years of effort and gazillions of dollars to turn our once Idyllic Cupcakeland™ country into the Rovian Land of Dispair™, and Tim Worstall uncovers stuff like this still going on:

The New York Governor George Pataki ruled that Mr Dicks had not committed a crime while physically in either New York or Louisiana. And, as online gambling was not outlawed in the State of New York, he had no choice but to release him.
The governor’s counsels said in a statement: “While the Governor supports efforts to restrict illegal off-shore gaming, he does not have the legal authority to order the extradition of Mr Dicks.”

That’s the way it works, or ought to. No discretion, rather, the law is the law and if you can’t be convicted when the system follows all of said law, then you should not be convicted.

I mean, he’s a danged furrner, too!
If we can’t make them disappear into the endless morass of the Lileksian Gulag System, well then I fear all is lost, my friends.

No Loss

Rep. Foley has resigned from Congress. Good. It seems he’s a scumbag.
As Gaypatriot correctly points out

First — a 16-year old!?!? I just don’t get that!!!
Second — Think a long, long time before you put stuff in email. It never goes away and travels all around the world.
Third – Foley will be lynched, while Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) was given a pass for having his call-boy boyfriend running a prostitution ring out of Frank’s townhouse and he has won re-election ever since.

(I think on his third point Gaypatriot forgets that in our Parliament of Whores prostitution is most certainly not a sin)
I don’t care if he’s gay or indifferent; the fact is he was at the very least making extremely inappropriate contact with a minor, and perhaps even soliciting sex from the minor. The hubris and arrogance (‘stupidity’ for us little folk) of these politicians continues to amaze.
And what is the deal with the St. Petersburg Times, which seemed to know all this a year ago and has sat on it until…4 weeks before the election? Aren’t they an accessory to any crime by not reporting it to the police?
I don’t care about the political impact of this per se, and how it may help the Dems gain another seat; I want this guy to be making license plates.

I Am SMOKIN’ Mad

(And probably should have waited until the red glaze cleared from my eyes, but I’ve never had that kind of self control.)
Don’t let the headline fool you.

‘It is Time for Muslims to Reciprocate’
This week a Berlin opera house cancelled a performance of Mozart in the latest of many crises over religious sensitivities. A moderate Muslim asks: Have we learned anything?
The voluntary closing of the Deutsche Oper Berlin because of the anticipated sensitivities of Muslims hearing about their Prophet’s severed head assumes great symbolic significance in the age of globalization in which we live. Images, events and words—as we saw in the case of Pope Benedict a few days ago—have the capacity to inflame societies across the world in a matter of hours.

Let’s clarify that point ~ just Islamic societies. There are no riotous Baptists, no one burns cars when Falwell speaks, nor riots in the streets at the words of the Arch Bishop of Canterbury. Get my drift? It’s not ‘societies’…it’s JUST Muslims.

The tragic events of September 11, 2001, in one sense could be viewed as a symptom of this growing crisis between the two civilizations. Five years ago, the world was poised at the crossroads: one road led to a clash of civilizations and another toward dialogue and understanding. Developments after September 11 have confirmed in the minds of millions across the world that there is a global conflict in progress. Nearly 3,000 American lives were lost on that day and another 3,000 have been lost in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is estimated that tens of thousands of Muslims have lost their lives in these wars. As a result, an entire generation of young Muslims is coming of age that sees the world through the lens of an ongoing attack on the foundations of its faith.*

*I interpret that as “you brought that sh*t on yourself and CONTINUE to do so.” Did I get that wrong?

It is time for Muslims to reciprocate these gestures. As a Muslim committed to interfaith dialogue, I would appeal to the president of Iran not to make provocative remarks about the Holocaust nor to threaten the Jewish population with extermination. It is time for all of us to think about the boldness of the theater owners in Germany. They did, after all, stop a production of Mozart, the quintessential iconic Germanic figure, in order to express their belief in the dialogue of and understanding between civilizations.

Nooooo, they did it out of fear of VIOLENT ISLAMIC retribution, not a chance for dialogue. If they wanted to TALK, they wouldn’t have spent a gazillion dollars getting a production together that subsequently had to be cancelled thanks to implied threats of Muslim goonism. They could have simply picked up the phone and dialed the local mullah. What a canard and seeing it in print defies belief.
This is the precise, mealy mouthed BULLSHIT that passes for ‘moderate’ in the Islamic world and that the MSM swallows whole hog.
NOWHERE does Mr. Akmed call the 9/11 MUSLIM hijackers MURDERERS.
NOWHERE does Mr. Akmed mention the tens of thousands of Muslims MURDERED by fellow MUSLIMS in the name of ISLAM.
NOWHERE does Mr. Akmed CONDEMN ANY of the slaughter in ALLAH’s name.
Oh yes, it’s presented to us and we have the presence of mind to call it the bullshit that it is. We can see the prevarications and the skillful blame spin game and note that there is NO acceptance YET AGAIN of ANY responsibility on the part of Islam OR it’s increasingly strident but FEEBLE apologists.
BUT this Newsweek goes to the WHOLE WORLD and Islamic clerics everywhere will be waving Mr. Akmed’s piece as if they now had PROOF positive that Islam has M-O-D-E-R-A-T-E-S ~ that there are lucid and reasonable faces among the mob. What a f*ckin’ shell game.
DE-ASSKISSALATION, people. “It’s Time for Muslims to Reciprocate” my ass. It’s time for them to F*CKING STOP.
Or for US to stop THEM.
Enough already.
Michelle Malkin has transcripts of forbidden op-ed letters. No transcripts of ‘moderate’ voices raised in protest.

Who Brought “Disgrace”?

This is rich:

RENO, Nev. Former President Carter is urging northern Nevadans to elect his son, Jack, to the Senate to help combat a Bush administration he says has brought “international disgrace” to the country.
The former president told a crowd of about 300 on the campus of the University of Nevada, Reno today that the nation is more sharply divided that it has ever been as a result of Bush’s policies.
The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, he says he’s deeply embarrassed that the American government now stands convicted around the world as one of the greatest abusers of civil rights.

What planet is this guy on?

That About Sums It All Up

…for me, anyway.

From comments at MSNBC’s Red Tape Chronicles.

The Senate Wants Federal Employees

…you know, the mostly air-conditioned office type ~ to get a 2.7% pay raise in January. A pittance and fair enough. Until you realize the Senate also thinks the military’s worth only a 2.2% pay raise for what THEY do.

I sent a little note emphasizing that I thought we were worth at least as much as Madge the secretary. (Or her only as much as us.)

The European Union Quietly

…cuts out the middle guy.

EU starts social allowances payments to Palestinians at the start of Ramadan
The European Commission announced Monday that it started the payment of social allowances to 40,000 of the neediest Palestinian families through the Temporary International Mechanism (TIM) .
“We are happy to organize the payment at the start of Ramadan,” Commission spokesperson for external relations, Emma Udwin, told reporters in Brussels.
Families have been identified from those normally supported through the social welfare scheme of the Palestinian Authority and will receive 270 euro each.
The Middle East Quartet (EU, US, UN and Russia) last week supported an extension of the TIM for a three month period and an expansion of its scope.
“The TIM is helping to meet the most urgent needs of the Palestinian people, and following the Quartet decision, we will be able to do even more,” said EU Commissioner for external relations Benita Ferreo-Waldner.
The TIM was established last June by the European Commission at the request of the Quartet and the European Council to facilitate needs-based assistance to the Palestinian people.
The EU and the US stopped all financial payments to the PA Authority after Hamas was elected early this year causing great hardships to the Palestinian population.

Another report here.
“Please don’t burn our Fiats” disguised as welfare payments. I LIKE it!
Besides, it’s been hard to fund an Intifada since the Saddam/Saudi sugar daddy pipelines were broken.

Inspirational Posters

We at the Swilling always seek to uplift and enlighten our gentle readers, which is why I am so glad that Allahpundit (punditry be upon him) at HotAir linked to a site where you can create your own moving and inspirational posters like those that you see in airline magazines and guidance counselor’s offices.
My efforts on your behalf, dear reader, are below the fold.

Read more »

But If I Stood Outside HIS Mosque Yelling the Same Things

…betcha they hook me up for something.

Radical Muslim who made death threats against Pope escapes prosecution
A furious row has erupted after it emerged that a notorious preacher will not be prosecuted for issuing a death threat to Pope Benedict over his remarks about Islam.
…But Scotland Yard has concluded that ‘no substantive offences’ were committed on September 17.

The Ongoing Failure

…of Imagination.

…As we approach the fifth year without a second successful terrorist attack upon U.S. soil, a chorus of skeptics now suggests that 9/11 was a 100-year flood. They conveniently forget the deadly explosions in Bali, Madrid, London, and Mumbai, and dismiss scores of attacks planned against the United States and others that have been disrupted. [1] The idea that terrorists are currently preparing even more deadly assaults seems as far-fetched to them as the possibility of terrorists crashing passenger jets into the World Trade Center did before that fateful Tuesday morning.
As one attempts to assess where we now stand, and what the risks are, the major conclusion of the bipartisan 9/11 Commission deserves repetition: The principal failure to act to prevent the September 11 attack was a “failure of imagination.” [2] A similar failure of imagination leads many today to discount the risk of a nuclear 9/11.
…Lest this seem too hypothetical, recall an actual incident that occurred in New York City one month to the day after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. A CIA agent, code-named Dragonfire, reported that Al Qaeda had acquired a live nuclear weapon produced by the former Soviet Union and had successfully smuggled it into New York City. [3] A top-secret Nuclear Emergency Support Team was dispatched to the city. Under a cloak of secrecy that excluded even Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, these nuclear ninjas searched for the 10-kiloton bomb whose blast could have obliterated a significant portion of Manhattan. Fortunately, Dragonfire’s report turned out to be a false alarm. But the central takeaway from the Dragonfire case is this: The U.S. government had no grounds in science or in logic to dismiss the warning.
A nuclear terrorist attack on the United States would have catastrophic consequences even for other countries. After the nuclear detonation, the immediate reaction would be to block all entry points to prevent another bomb from reaching its target, resulting in the disruption of the global “just-in-time” flow of goods and raw materials. Vital markets for international products would disappear, and closely linked financial markets would crash. Researchers at RAND, a U.S.-government-funded think tank, estimated that a nuclear explosion at the Port of Long Beach in California would cause immediate indirect costs worldwide of more than $3 trillion and that shutting down U.S. ports would cut world trade by 10 percent. [4] The negative economic repercussions would reverberate well beyond the developed world. As U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has warned, “Were a nuclear terrorist attack to occur, it would cause not only widespread death and destruction, but would stagger the world economy and thrust tens of millions of people into dire poverty.” [5] How does one assess the probability of an unprecedented event that could have catastrophic consequences? Since there is no established methodology, the soundest way to proceed is to ask and answer the core questions: who, what, where, when, and how?

Nightfly Gets Caught In LadyBug’s Web

Woo-Hoo!
Congratulations! The cheesesteaks are on me!!!

If THIS Is So True, Then Why Hasn’t Bingley

…cured cancer?

WINE EYED AS BRAIN BOOSTER
Giving mice with Alzheimer’s-like disease the equivalent of a couple of glasses of red wine daily slows memory loss and brain-cell death, a study shows.
Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine found mice with a brain defect who were fed wine learned to escape from a maze faster than nonalcohol-drinking mice with the same defect.

Maybe just making it home from the office is enough.

More Europeasement Yute Hostile Hostel Problems

Looks like the CarBQ season has started early for the Ramadan Roilers United Yutes

It looks as if immigrants youths want to turn nightly rioting during the Islamic holy month of ramadan into an annual tradition. Around 8:30pm last night violence erupted again in Brussels, the capital of Europe. The riots centered on the Brussels Marollen quarter and the area near the Midi Train Station, where the international trains from London and Paris arrive. Youths threw stones at passing people and cars, windows of parked cars were smashed, bus shelters were demolished, cars were set ablaze, a youth club was arsoned and a shop was looted. Two molotov cocktails were thrown into St.Peter’s hospital, one of the main hospitals of central Brussels. The fire brigade was able to extinguish the fires at the hospital, but youths managed to steal the keys of the fire engine.

Luckily they’ve got the newest member of the World Court to defend them:

Vinny Gambini: It is possible that the two yutes…
Judge Chamberlain Haller: …Ah, the two what? Uh… uh, what was that word?
Vinny Gambini: Uh… what word?
Judge Chamberlain Haller: Two what?
Vinny Gambini: What?
Judge Chamberlain Haller: Uh… did you say ‘yutes’?
Vinny Gambini: Yeah, two yutes.
Judge Chamberlain Haller: What is a yute?
[beat] Vinny Gambini: Oh, excuse me, your honor…
[exaggerated] Vinny Gambini: Two YOUTHS.

Why would such nice fellas throw Molotovs at a hospital?
We must examine the root causes!

Well, HUSH My Mouth!!!

I’ll bet he wish he had…

Democratic Senate challenger Jim Webb declined to say definitively Tuesday whether he had ever used a common derogatory term to describe blacks, stepping carefully after watching his campaign rival confront charges of racism.

“I don’t think that there’s anyone who grew up around the South that hasn’t had the word pass through their lips at one time or another in their life,” Webb told reporters.

See “BINGLEY:Chapter 1”

What a Sticky Tar Baby

…this is.

7-Eleven Dropping Venezuela-Backed Citgo
Convenience store operator 7-Eleven Inc. is dropping Venezuela-backed Citgo as its gasoline supplier at more than 2,100 locations and switching to its own brand of fuel.
…7-Eleven spokesman Margaret Chabris said that, “Regardless of politics, we sympathize with many Americans’ concern over derogatory comments about our country and its leadership recently made by Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez.”
Chabris said a boycott of Citgo gasoline would hurt the 4,000 employees of the U.S. subsidiary, who have no connection to Venezuela.

Every drop of gas sold on NAS Pensacola is CITGO. They’re the contracted supplier for all the Naval installations here in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties. I guess the devil’s…in the details.
UPDATE: Seems local military folks are Googling and finding us.

Oh Lord…

Take me now.

Senators Propose Funds for Paper Ballots to Back Up Electronic Ones
Three Senate Democrats proposed emergency legislation today to reimburse states for printing paper ballots that can be ready at polling places in case of problems with electronic voting machines on Nov. 7.
The proposal is a response to grass-roots pressure and growing concern by local and state officials about touch-screen machines. An estimated 40 percent of voters will use those machines in the election.
“If someone asks for a paper ballot they ought to be able to have it,” said Senator Barbara Boxer of California, a co-sponsor of the measure with Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut and Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconson.

They should have left it paper to begin with, duh. But not punchy things that blind-as-a-bat 85 year old transplanted New Yawker ladies in Palm Beach can and do f*ck up routinely. Let’s go uncomplicated and eezy cheezy, like here in Escambia County. It’s called a BIG FAT MARKER and…a straight line.

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I Have Dropped A Big Fat FATWAH on Tim “Aussie Infidel” BLAIR !!

He has impugned the Prophet (pieces be upon him) AND ARTISTS, calling us a “docile species”. Knowing such coward’s talk is Aussie Pig Latin for “P-WORDS”, I have called upon my friends…

-CAIR News Conference Photo Courtesy of “It Comes in Pints?”

…in all the far lands of Islam (pieces be upon them, too) for support in my outrage at this scurrilous, slurious pigdog.

Our shari’a is the most perfect of the orthodox, merciful shari’as, praise be to God. Our religious scholars said, “That which is absolute in its monotheism (perfection in monotheism), is merciful in its shari’a tenets (ease, simplicity, clarity, practicality, and other characteristics of it). Therefore, unless our military actions are servant to our judicious shari’a policy, and unless our short-term goals and successes are servant to our ultimate goal and highest aims, then they will be akin to exhaustion, strain, and illusion. It will be a bit like the happiness of children over something at the beginning of the day, which wears out by the end of the day and its evening! We ask God for security and safety.*

Oh yeah, heretic Blair. I got yer “docile” right here, big boy.
* Authentic medieval phraseology courtesy of al-Qa`ida

If Only We’d Known This About McGreevey Sooner

No, no, not that, you homofoibles you, I’m refering to this crucial information:

When we left the bar he bought Jägermeister at a store and took the bottle home.

This incident happened when he was still Mayor of Woodbridge. It says all we needed to know about his character.
I want any candidate for Governor to be asked “Have you ever bought a bottle of Jägermeister?”
I can answer “No”.

“Anybody Moves, The Nigger Gets It”

Should we not allow Mel Brooks and Richard Pryor to run for public office?
The MSM has been all a-twitter about what George Allen did or did not say whilst at the University of Virginia in the 70s, and the blogs have been following this frankly ridiculous story.
Yes, ridiculous. It disgusts me to no end how all these people are primping and parading around saying “Ooh golly, I never said that word with these sainted lips!”. Oh bullshit. I was born in 1964, and everyone said it at some point. To our society’s great credit as the 60s became the 70s became the 80s people gained awareness of such casual racism and people who used it were mostly quietly shunned, and those who used it and meant it in its full derogatory nature more and more likely to be openly and publically shunned and dressed down. That’s called progress, folks, and it’s a good thing. Social change does not happen overnight, and frankly the change that I’ve seen in my lifetime over how minorities are treated by people in everyday life in our country is one of the things I’m proudest of as an American.
And I include myself in that change, as I certainly used all types of racial epithets growing up, as did everyone of my peers, in everyday normal conversation (to set the record straight, I’ve also jaywalked, smoked pot and run several red lights). But then the strangest thing happened: I grew up, as did my society. What was ok to casually say in 1972 was bound to cause some embarrassed looks by 1982 and would certainly cause problems by 1990 because people had learned that it was false in their hearts, regardless of its status legally; this change in social mores is far more important than any law could ever be.
I attended the University of Virginia in the early 80s, roughly a decade behind the folks embroiled above, and I certainly heard the word used by both blacks and whites, but I have to say that even by then most times the context was more Blazing Saddles than David Duke.

It’s only a word, folks. A hateful word. A word that reminds us of the worst in ourselves and our country’s past. Perhaps it should remind us of how far we’ve come from that shameful past.
Oh, I’m certainly not saying we should just casually toss it about (although any quick listen to the music blasting from many cars these days would lead one to assume that that is indeed the case), but for its useage thirty some-odd years ago to become a major issue in a political campaign without any indication of its relevance to Allen’s current views seems rather assinine, at the very least. And for his attackers to piously claim never to have uttered it is beyond belief.

I Notice There’s Been a Change in the Headline

Where this morning the opera was pulled because it was ‘inflammatory’, this latest headline has a different tenor (snort) all together.

Mozart opera withdrawn on fears of Islamist attack
Indignation erupted across Germany’s political spectrum on Tuesday after a renowned opera house said it had dropped a controversial production of Mozart’s Idomeneo from its programme because it feared becoming a target of Islamist extremists.
Wolfgang Schäuble, interior minister, attacked the decision by Berlin’s Deutsche Oper not to show the 200-year-old work as “crazy”, “ridiculous” and “unacceptable”.
…Bernd Neumann, culture minister, said it showed “the democratic culture of free speech is in danger”.
…Unlikely bedfellows have been united in protest at Deutsche Oper’s decision. Conservative MPs from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU party found themselves agreeing with Dieter Wiefelspütz, a Social Democratic security expert, calling the cancellation “a concession to terrorists” and a “shameful” move, respectively.

Of course, there’s always one apologist included for balance.

…A retired German Muslim leader who asked not to be named said he was concerned.
“This is typically the kind of reaction that shapes this persecution complex among young Muslims when what we need is a policy of de-escalation.”

Thank you, Herr Doktor Freud.
Personally, I would instead counter with a swiftly implemented policy of DE-ASSKISSALATION.
Either way un-Medieval Mozart is schpinning in his potter’s grave.

After a Rough Night Out, Paddington Bear Is Sleeping

…with the FISHES. Literally in the tank.

Killer teddy bear behind deaths of 2,500 fish
Stuffed animal was dropped into trout pool, clogged the flow of oxygen
A teddy bear has been implicated in 2,500 deaths. Of trout, that is. State officials say a teddy bear dropped into a pool at a Fish and Game Department hatchery earlier this month clogged a drain. The clog blocked the flow of oxygen to the pool and suffocated the fish.
Hatcheries supervisor Robert Fawcett said the bear — a Paddington Bear dressed in yellow raincoat and hat — is believed to be the first stuffed bear to cause fatalities at the facility.
…He said it’s not known who dropped the bear, but urged anyone whose bear ends up in a hatchery pool to find a worker to remove it. “They might save your teddy bear, and keep it from becoming a killer,” he said.

Be Careful What You Pay For

You just might get it.

Paris Hilton is close to signing a deal to promote Ecoist.com, an eco-friendly accessories company, but the execs at the company are getting a tad nervous about the prospect of trotting out the heiress as a spokeswoman.
…“Ecoist is hoping that Paris will join them in October on a trip to Port-Au-Prince to plant more than 40,000 trees,” a source says. “But when she was told about the trip, Paris had no idea where Haiti was. When she was told that they speak French there [along with Creole], she said, ‘I wouldn’t mind spending a few days there and the weekend in Paris.”

Duh. But she’s hot!

Why Bingley Doesn’t Let Me

…play with sharp objects.

Baby, It’s HOT Outside

Okay, well, maybe where YOU live. But here in Bangla-cola, it’s a delightful 75 and the house is wide open. (Just like it was into the beginning of summer, which never happens, mind you.) This after last night’s ABC News doom and gloom report (which had lots of chortle inducing computer screens shots with the infamous ‘hockey stick’). In the global warming fracas, I’m gonna take sides with with Dr. Gray, I think.

…Another problem, Essex said, is in the inability to do controlled experiments – one of science’s key tools.
“There’s only one atmosphere, so you can’t hold everything steady and change just one variable to see what happens,” he said.
Essex offered his critique of the models at a Los Alamos National Laboratory climate conference in Santa Fe in July.
At the end of the presentation, CSU’s Gray jumped up and demanded: “Should we base national policy on these models?“
“I’m not touching that,” Essex replied.
And then Essex added: “At every stage of the history of science, there has been some element that was impossible, and we’ve found a way around it. I am sure we will here.”
This did not assuage Bill Gray.
Gray is among the most strident critics, quick to use words like “fraud” or “gang” to describe the modelers.
Instead of model projections, Gray looks at the history and patterns of weather to find trends.
And befitting his 76 years, Gray has a long view. His first report on climate – on the return of the dust bowl – was in the early 1940s when he was in junior high school.
“We’d gone through a warming trend in the ’40s, and everybody was saying we were going to win World War II but face terrible droughts,” Gray said.
Soon after, temperatures went into a cooling trend and by 1975, Gray points out, there was talk of a coming ice age.

Not because I don’t care, or don’t think it could be true, mind you. Just because the guys with thick glasses ~ tweaking and twisting their poor computers over the vagaries of Mother Earth, trying to fit it all into patterns that ALWAYS should work, but somehow never completely do, while discounting observation, history and common sense ~ say so? As one person points out in the article ~ how does that thermometer placed next to the heat holding building affect the REAL temperature reading and all your models? Move it away and recompute.
It’s too iffy to lose our minds just yet. Like I always preach ~ it shouldn’t take global warming to be a good world citizen. major dad and I’ve talked about how $1.25 gal gas would be horrible, because then the country’s back to Ford Excursions instead of driving efficient vehicles for what their NEEDS truly are. From recyling, turning off the lights, the toothbrushing water, etc. on an individual level to power plant emissions, pig poopie run-off, etc. on the industrial side, it ain’t hard and it ain’t rocket scientist. And every little bit makes it better for everyone.
UPDATE: THIS is a great read.

…Finally, a September 15, 2006 Reuters News article claimed that polar bears in the Arctic are threatened with extinction by global warming. The article by correspondent Alister Doyle, quoted a visitor to the Arctic who claims he saw two distressed polar bears. According to the Reuters article, the man noted that “one of [the polar bears] looked to be dead and the other one looked to be exhausted.” The article did not state the bears were actually dead or exhausted, rather that they “looked” that way.
Have we really arrived at the point where major news outlets in the U.S. are reduced to analyzing whether or not polar bears in the Arctic appear restful?

One Needs Sound for the True Experience

Old Blue Eyes croons…

Strangers on My Flight