February 15, 2010
Appalachian Bigotry
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Susie Lee done fell in love,
she planned to marry Joe.
She was so happy 'bout it all,
she told her Pappy so.
Pappy told her, Susie gal,
You'll have to find another.
I'd just as soon yo' Ma don't know,
But Joe is yo' half brother.
So Susie put aside her Joe
and planned to marry Will.
But after telling Pappy this,
he said, 'There's trouble still.'
You can't marry Will, my gal,
And please don't tell yo' mother.
But Will and Joe, and several mo'
I know is yo' half brother.
But Mama knew and said, 'My child,
just do what makes yo' happy.
Marry Will or marry Joe;
you ain't no kin to Pappy.'
Thanks to the PrivateCaller clan for this one.
And since I was at Wall Mart today, don't ask why, I felt it was proper to post this.
It's President Day, let your imagination run wild.....
This one needs no introduction:
As for other presidents, use your imagination....!
P.S. comments are back on
As for other presidents, use your imagination....!
P.S. comments are back on
February 11, 2010
The Administration, Rebutted
Senator Jeff Sessions takes John Brennan to task for his op-ed claiming that giving a terrorist a lawyer and telling him he can remain silent doesn't impair our ability to gather intelligence
In what must seem a bitter irony to many who voted for Obama, the administration is now at great pains to justify its anti-terrorism policies by claiming that they are the same as those of the once-dreaded Bush administration. Most recently, press secretary Robert Gibbs, speaking on MSNBC this morning, invoked the fact that the Bush administration ultimately prosecuted Jose Padilla in a civilian court. Not only that, Gibbs said, "Jose Padilla was made an enemy combatant so that we could get him to talk. And guess what happened when we made him an enemy combatant, he didn't talk. He did talk when he was transferred back into a civilian court."
This was a lie, plain and simple, as Tom Joscelyn explains:
In fact, Jose Padilla only started cooperating once he was transferred into the military's custody and interrogated.
Jose Padilla was arrested at the Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on May 8, 2002. At the time, U.S. authorities had multiple reasons to be suspicious of him. Most importantly, senior al Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah had been taken into custody in late March 2002 and provided information to authorities that led to the identification of both Padilla and his would-be accomplice, Binyam Mohamed. The two were identified as al Qaeda recruits who had been tasked with a mission inside the U.S.--namely, an attack on a high-rise apartment building.
Thus, when Padilla was initially detained by the FBI in May 2002 authorities knew he was up to no good. The FBI questioned Padilla for several hours but got nowhere. A copy of the FBI's 302 memo written after the initial questioning of Padilla shows that al Qaeda's man gave the bureau nothing. Padilla talked about his personal history but said nothing about his real intentions or his nefarious friends.
The FBI even offered to put Padilla up in a hotel so they could continue their conversation. But when the agents tried to turn the conversation towards Padilla's al Qaeda ties, he shut down the interview. "He stood up and told me the interview was over and it was time for him to go," Fincher recalled during testimony.
Padilla was then read a Miranda warning, arrested on a material witness warrant and transferred to the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in New York.
There he stayed for one month without giving up anything of importance to the FBI. During that time...the Bush administration weighed its options, ultimately deciding to designate Padilla an enemy combatant. After Padilla was transferred to the brig on June 9, 2002, the leading newspapers noted the chief reason for the move: Padilla wasn't cooperating with authorities.
"Officials said Padilla has refused to cooperate since his arrest," the Los Angeles Times reported. The New York Times elaborated: "Officials have justified his detention [in military custody] by saying he is considered to be an enemy combatant. He has refused to cooperate with the authorities who have questioned him." ...
Padilla would ultimately talk. But, contrary to Gibbs and Brennan, it wasn't until he was placed in the military's custody--not when he was returned to the civilian court system.
On June 1, 2004, the Defense Department released a memo summarizing what was known about Padilla both before and after he was transferred into the military's custody. The second page of the memo contains two paragraphs concerning what authorities had learned about Padilla up until June 9, 2002, the day he was transferred into the military's custody. As the aforementioned press accounts make clear, authorities had garnered no information from Padilla himself. The DoD cited "intelligence information" and "our information" but no admissions by Padilla. Nearly all of the information on Padilla up until that point came from other al Qaeda detainees and sources.
The memo then reads: "Since that time [June 9, 2002], additional and more detailed intelligence information about Jose Padilla has been developed and made available in unclassified form."
That additional information includes several pages of unclassified intelligence, including a number of admissions by Padilla, which were corroborated by other detainees.
Joscelyn goes on to chronicle the significant admissions that Padilla made after he was transferred to military custody.
Dishonesty has become the hallmark of the Obama administration. Obama and his cohorts know that most people have neither the time nor the inclination to research the truth of their public statements. Knowing, too, that the press is compliant, Obama believes that he and his subordinates can get away with just about any whopper they choose to tell. Perhaps so. Yet, in just one year the American public has lost confidence in the administration's credibility. The sort of wanton fabrication that Obama, Gibbs, Brennan and others in the administration are engaged in can only accelerate that process.
UPDATE: Andy McCarthy explains further why the Padilla case illustrates the opposite of what the administration claims, i.e., "the limitations and inadequacies of the civilian justice system as applied to enemy combatants."
In what must seem a bitter irony to many who voted for Obama, the administration is now at great pains to justify its anti-terrorism policies by claiming that they are the same as those of the once-dreaded Bush administration. Most recently, press secretary Robert Gibbs, speaking on MSNBC this morning, invoked the fact that the Bush administration ultimately prosecuted Jose Padilla in a civilian court. Not only that, Gibbs said, "Jose Padilla was made an enemy combatant so that we could get him to talk. And guess what happened when we made him an enemy combatant, he didn't talk. He did talk when he was transferred back into a civilian court."
This was a lie, plain and simple, as Tom Joscelyn explains:
In fact, Jose Padilla only started cooperating once he was transferred into the military's custody and interrogated.
Jose Padilla was arrested at the Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on May 8, 2002. At the time, U.S. authorities had multiple reasons to be suspicious of him. Most importantly, senior al Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah had been taken into custody in late March 2002 and provided information to authorities that led to the identification of both Padilla and his would-be accomplice, Binyam Mohamed. The two were identified as al Qaeda recruits who had been tasked with a mission inside the U.S.--namely, an attack on a high-rise apartment building.
Thus, when Padilla was initially detained by the FBI in May 2002 authorities knew he was up to no good. The FBI questioned Padilla for several hours but got nowhere. A copy of the FBI's 302 memo written after the initial questioning of Padilla shows that al Qaeda's man gave the bureau nothing. Padilla talked about his personal history but said nothing about his real intentions or his nefarious friends.
The FBI even offered to put Padilla up in a hotel so they could continue their conversation. But when the agents tried to turn the conversation towards Padilla's al Qaeda ties, he shut down the interview. "He stood up and told me the interview was over and it was time for him to go," Fincher recalled during testimony.
Padilla was then read a Miranda warning, arrested on a material witness warrant and transferred to the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in New York.
There he stayed for one month without giving up anything of importance to the FBI. During that time...the Bush administration weighed its options, ultimately deciding to designate Padilla an enemy combatant. After Padilla was transferred to the brig on June 9, 2002, the leading newspapers noted the chief reason for the move: Padilla wasn't cooperating with authorities.
"Officials said Padilla has refused to cooperate since his arrest," the Los Angeles Times reported. The New York Times elaborated: "Officials have justified his detention [in military custody] by saying he is considered to be an enemy combatant. He has refused to cooperate with the authorities who have questioned him." ...
Padilla would ultimately talk. But, contrary to Gibbs and Brennan, it wasn't until he was placed in the military's custody--not when he was returned to the civilian court system.
On June 1, 2004, the Defense Department released a memo summarizing what was known about Padilla both before and after he was transferred into the military's custody. The second page of the memo contains two paragraphs concerning what authorities had learned about Padilla up until June 9, 2002, the day he was transferred into the military's custody. As the aforementioned press accounts make clear, authorities had garnered no information from Padilla himself. The DoD cited "intelligence information" and "our information" but no admissions by Padilla. Nearly all of the information on Padilla up until that point came from other al Qaeda detainees and sources.
The memo then reads: "Since that time [June 9, 2002], additional and more detailed intelligence information about Jose Padilla has been developed and made available in unclassified form."
That additional information includes several pages of unclassified intelligence, including a number of admissions by Padilla, which were corroborated by other detainees.
Joscelyn goes on to chronicle the significant admissions that Padilla made after he was transferred to military custody.
Dishonesty has become the hallmark of the Obama administration. Obama and his cohorts know that most people have neither the time nor the inclination to research the truth of their public statements. Knowing, too, that the press is compliant, Obama believes that he and his subordinates can get away with just about any whopper they choose to tell. Perhaps so. Yet, in just one year the American public has lost confidence in the administration's credibility. The sort of wanton fabrication that Obama, Gibbs, Brennan and others in the administration are engaged in can only accelerate that process.
UPDATE: Andy McCarthy explains further why the Padilla case illustrates the opposite of what the administration claims, i.e., "the limitations and inadequacies of the civilian justice system as applied to enemy combatants."
February 10, 2010
February 9, 2010
BREAKING NEWS! "CADILLAC" HEALTH CARE FAILS TO CURE CORRUPT, ENTITLED KLEPTOCRAT!
Lavish Congressional Health Plan cannot keep John Murtha alive: White House calls it a clear sign that bureaucratic, inefficient Obamacare is needed for the rest of us.
"What the hell was I not paying you people for?"
According to WH Spokesman Robert Gibbs: "The President feels very strongly that under Obamacare we could have killed Congressman Murtha for a lot less money and resources and made a significant contribution to reducing both the VA budget crisis and the deficit with the balance, as well as creating a job in the late Congressman's district."
Gibbs went on to say an Obama t-shirt had been sent to the Murtha family for the viewing.
"What the hell was I not paying you people for?"
According to WH Spokesman Robert Gibbs: "The President feels very strongly that under Obamacare we could have killed Congressman Murtha for a lot less money and resources and made a significant contribution to reducing both the VA budget crisis and the deficit with the balance, as well as creating a job in the late Congressman's district."
Gibbs went on to say an Obama t-shirt had been sent to the Murtha family for the viewing.
February 8, 2010
Magazine Circulation Craters, Experts Baffled
I can't quite put my finger on a possible reason why except maybe their product is no longer worth the paper it's printed on. In the case of Time and Newsweek, they may want to serious consider pulling the plug considering their anemic numbers.
February 5, 2010
Breaking: Unemployment at 9.7% – New Counting Method Saved or Created 541,000 Jobs
Fuzzy Math?
US Loses Another 20,000 Jobs But Unemployment Rate Drops to 9.7%
It’s an Obama world. Up is down. Square is round. Trucks are jokes. And, losing 20,000 jobs actually brings down the unemployment rate.
The US lost another 20,000 jobs in January but the unemployment rate dropped to 9.7% The new counting methods saved or created 541,000 jobs.
The AP reported:
The unemployment rate dropped unexpectedly in January to 9.7 percent from 10 percent while employers shed 20,000 jobs, the government said Friday.
The rate dropped because a survey of households found the number of employed Americans rose by 541,000, the Labor Department said. The job losses are calculated from a separate survey of employers.
The report also included an annual revision to the estimates of total payrolls, which showed there were 930,000 fewer jobs last March than previously estimated. The department also revised down its estimates for April through October of last year, adding another 433,000 job losses.
The November figure was revised higher, however, to show a gain of 64,000 jobs.
All told, the Great Recession has eliminated 8.4 million jobs, the department said. That’s the most of any recession since World War II as a proportion of total payrolls.
Ok, so here is my feeble attempt to figure out how more jobs lost = a drop in the unemployment rate, or something like that:
US Loses Another 20,000 Jobs But Unemployment Rate Drops to 9.7%
It’s an Obama world. Up is down. Square is round. Trucks are jokes. And, losing 20,000 jobs actually brings down the unemployment rate.
The US lost another 20,000 jobs in January but the unemployment rate dropped to 9.7% The new counting methods saved or created 541,000 jobs.
The AP reported:
The unemployment rate dropped unexpectedly in January to 9.7 percent from 10 percent while employers shed 20,000 jobs, the government said Friday.
The rate dropped because a survey of households found the number of employed Americans rose by 541,000, the Labor Department said. The job losses are calculated from a separate survey of employers.
The report also included an annual revision to the estimates of total payrolls, which showed there were 930,000 fewer jobs last March than previously estimated. The department also revised down its estimates for April through October of last year, adding another 433,000 job losses.
The November figure was revised higher, however, to show a gain of 64,000 jobs.
All told, the Great Recession has eliminated 8.4 million jobs, the department said. That’s the most of any recession since World War II as a proportion of total payrolls.
Ok, so here is my feeble attempt to figure out how more jobs lost = a drop in the unemployment rate, or something like that:
February 2, 2010
Barack Obama: "George Bush has been sneaking back into Washington...
...and adding stuff to the laws'n'stuff while the decent folk were sleeping." Take for example this passage from his "discussion" with the GOP congressmembers that somehow didn't get a lot of press...
"If you look at the package that we've presented -- and there's some stray cats and dogs that got in there that we were eliminating, we were in the process of eliminating. For example, we said from the start that it was going to be important for us to be consistent in saying to people if you can have your -- if you want to keep the health insurance you got, you can keep it, that you're not going to have anybody getting in between you and your doctor in your decision making. And I think that some of the provisions that got snuck in might have violated that pledge."
Now on earth could that have happened if EEEEEVILE GEORGE BUSH hadn't been sneaking back into the Congressmen's offices by night and adding stuff when nobody was looking? Surely the Democrats of the most open and transparent Administration EVER would NEVER have been going behind the back of Barack Obama to undercut his agenda! Why, he's the President!
"Look harder, everyone! George Bush could be anywhere!"
And don't tell me George Bush wouldn't pull a stunt like that. Look at all the other things he's done when Barack Obama wasn't looking:
George Bush pimped Barney Frank to the head of Fannie Mae and forced that poor misunderstood gay man to hawk his garbage, unrecoverable mortgages to the banks.
He threatened to kill Chris Dodd's kitten unless he took that Countrywide mortgage.
George Bush hacked the .doc file to the Stimulus Bill and changed the words 'DON'T spend' to 'spend'...every time.
He broke into the Nancy Pelosi's office on Christmas Eve and stole the real vote tallies on the Health Care Bill. The truth is, NO Democrat voted for it ('C'mon, guys, we haven't even read this turkey!'), but George Bush is just that evil.
When Barack Obama was pondering the future of a peaceful Afghanistan, George Bush locked him out in the Rose Garden and used his bootleg Presidential seal to send 35,000 more troops to Afghanistan. (He would have sent the whole 40,000 but Dick Cheney convinced him fiddling with the number would piss off the left AND the right).
"Dammit, Bush, you put those Marines down right this minute!"
When Obama visited Japan, Bush told him to bend over and pretend to barf on the Emperor's shoes.
"They really love that kind of down-home humoratin'!"
The man's like a freaking Texas Ninja! There's just no keeping him out! Plainly, George Bush should never be allowed anywhere near Washington DC or the Obama White House again. Those folks are just too damned naive and impressionable...
"If you look at the package that we've presented -- and there's some stray cats and dogs that got in there that we were eliminating, we were in the process of eliminating. For example, we said from the start that it was going to be important for us to be consistent in saying to people if you can have your -- if you want to keep the health insurance you got, you can keep it, that you're not going to have anybody getting in between you and your doctor in your decision making. And I think that some of the provisions that got snuck in might have violated that pledge."
Now on earth could that have happened if EEEEEVILE GEORGE BUSH hadn't been sneaking back into the Congressmen's offices by night and adding stuff when nobody was looking? Surely the Democrats of the most open and transparent Administration EVER would NEVER have been going behind the back of Barack Obama to undercut his agenda! Why, he's the President!
"Look harder, everyone! George Bush could be anywhere!"
And don't tell me George Bush wouldn't pull a stunt like that. Look at all the other things he's done when Barack Obama wasn't looking:
George Bush pimped Barney Frank to the head of Fannie Mae and forced that poor misunderstood gay man to hawk his garbage, unrecoverable mortgages to the banks.
He threatened to kill Chris Dodd's kitten unless he took that Countrywide mortgage.
George Bush hacked the .doc file to the Stimulus Bill and changed the words 'DON'T spend' to 'spend'...every time.
He broke into the Nancy Pelosi's office on Christmas Eve and stole the real vote tallies on the Health Care Bill. The truth is, NO Democrat voted for it ('C'mon, guys, we haven't even read this turkey!'), but George Bush is just that evil.
When Barack Obama was pondering the future of a peaceful Afghanistan, George Bush locked him out in the Rose Garden and used his bootleg Presidential seal to send 35,000 more troops to Afghanistan. (He would have sent the whole 40,000 but Dick Cheney convinced him fiddling with the number would piss off the left AND the right).
"Dammit, Bush, you put those Marines down right this minute!"
When Obama visited Japan, Bush told him to bend over and pretend to barf on the Emperor's shoes.
"They really love that kind of down-home humoratin'!"
The man's like a freaking Texas Ninja! There's just no keeping him out! Plainly, George Bush should never be allowed anywhere near Washington DC or the Obama White House again. Those folks are just too damned naive and impressionable...
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