News Round Up 1/25/2012

Article: Vice President Biden Calls Gingrich Food Stamp Charge 'Ridiculous'

"Do they really think that President Barack Obama wants to put everyone on food stamps? …" Of course he does. The more people you have beholden to the government the less people you have that will stand up to it when it's wrong for fear of losing their entitlements.

On another note, is Joe Biden really the right guy; considering his history of flaps, to be calling anyone's statements ridiculous?

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Article: UK urges tougher Syria sanctions, Russia issues warning

And here you see precisely why the UN does not work. How can an organization work for good when it is hindered in that pursuit by the immoral regimes of reprobate countries like Russia and China? Everybody has this illusion that Russia is our pal now... They aren't. They got bested and their ego is still stung over that. I've stood on the free side of the iron curtain and seen the evil that Communism wrought. Such an evil is not so easily beaten. It is a cancer that needs to be forcefully excised from the soul of mankind.

The UN is a huge waste of our tax money. Why do we support this folly? Name one concrete benefit that has been wrought for the investment of the American taxpayer in the last two decades... the last three... how about four?

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Article: What the State of the Union means for your wallet

The state of the union speech means nothing to my wallet. Obama stands a snowflake's chance in Hades of getting anything through the congress after poisoning the well like he has -and- he's not getting a second term either... So the state of the union address is nothing but the ramblings of an inconsequential little man whose only effect on history will be the asterisk by his name that leads to a footnote where the words "worst president in US history" appear (a distinction Jimmy Carter is very happy to have been relieved of).

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Article: Big Brother? Google’s new privacy policy creates one massive database of your most private info

Wow sounds like a boycott is in order.

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Article: Ron Paul action figures! The best, worst and weirdest swag of the 2012 campaign

OMMFG!!! You too can reenact the true events of 9/11 or the lies of the holocaust with your very own Ron Paul action figure! Or just use them to scare your young children to death. "Eat your broccoli or Mr. Paul will come and visit you!"

News Round Up 1/24/2011

Article: Mitt Romney Is the 0.006 Percent?

See I told you that Obama has been precisely tailoring his campaign and setting the stage to attack Romney. Here you see his co-conspirators in the mainstream media setting up that argument... That is precisely why we should throw Obama off his game plan and put forward anyone -but- Romney as his opponent this fall.

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Article: Marine to serve no time in Iraqi killings case

I've always believed it appropriate that SSG Wutterich not serve any time. What he did in that deadly moment was attempt to protect the lives of himself and his fellow marines. His squad had come under attack and suffered casualties and at a time like that you can't be second guessing your instincts. Is it unfortunate that civilians were killed? You bet, but where does the blame lie, with the troops attempting to defend themselves or with the terrorists who decided to place those civilians in the crossfire? I contend it lies with the terrorists.

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Article: U.N. envoys slam Russia for selling weapons to Syria

Seriously who takes the UN serious any more? Why do we even pay into that train wreck? Why pay over four times as much into the coffers of that organization and what tangible good has that investment bought us? In this time of harrowing budget over-runs we should seriously do a cost/benefit analysis.

Moving on along. I do not trust the Russians. I have never trusted the Russians and my experiences along the East German border (when one still existed) only served to reinforce those sentiments!

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Article: Wis. governor fights recall with out-of-state cash

Let's face it, unions serve no practical modern purpose. Sure they had a time and place where they were essential... back in the robber baron era. But any valid cause that they fought for then is now firmly ensconced in federal law and bureaucracies. I mean OSHA, minimum wage laws, etc... The only purpose unions serve now is to ensure their own existence by perverting our political system with money extorted from those they claim to serve. Unions have scorched or governmental budgets at every level from local to federal. They've also driven manufacturing jobs abroad to more reasonable labor markets. If you've met a high school graduate that can not find a job, thank your local union representative. Why should a worker who does not wish to be a member of a union be forced to pay union dues if they want to work in a unionized shop? Why should they be forced to support the political candidacies of candidates they do not agree with? Liberals like to tout "free choice" when it comes to murdering the unborn, but not in the workplace.

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Article: Strongest solar storm since 2005 hitting Earth

Allot of people don't know it, but we are one coronal mass ejection away from returning to the Victorian age! The sun runs on activity cycles that span 11 years. The sun varies during this cycle from mild mannered to tempestuous. It is precisely those tempestuous periods that can quite conceivably cause us harm. In 1859 we were struck directly by a coronal mass ejection... a jet of hot gases, energy and radiation thrown off the surface of the sun. These ejections occur quite regularly, more-so during the high activity periods than during the low activity periods. If one of these ejections occurs in line with the Earth and we are struck by it as it passes by us, our planet absorbs a large bolt of that energy. In 1859 when it happened the world was quite a different place. There were no electronic devices, satellites and power lines. If such an impact occurred today, power lines would serve as a huge antenna soaking up the energy from the passing wave and directing it into the electrical grid and any thing plugged into it. This surge of power would destroy large portions of the power transmission grid and any consumer electronics exposed to it. Satellites would be instantly struck silent. Imagine it, a world with no electricity, no television, no phones or cell phones, no computers and no radios... Imagine that world... Imagine having only days or hours of warning before it struck. How would you fare in such a world?

Does this count as an Oops?

Click the title of this post to see the article that prompted it to be written.

It would appear that NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) has had a small "oops!". This installation, run by Dr. James Hansen is the chief of only four data sets that the UN uses as definitive proof of global warming.

The "oops" occurred when they declared last month the hottest October on record...

To quote the source article:

"This was startling. Across the world there were reports of unseasonal snow and plummeting temperatures last month, from the American Great Plains to China, and from the Alps to New Zealand. China's official news agency reported that Tibet had suffered its "worst snowstorm ever". In the US, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered 63 local snowfall records and 115 lowest-ever temperatures for the month, and ranked it as only the 70th-warmest October in 114 years."

So leave it to bloggers to set things straight. Two of the leading anti-global warming blogs, Watts Up With That and Climate Audit took the claim to task. It was found upon further investigation that there was an anomalous hot spot in Russia... For some reason Russia was 10 degrees hotter. This hot spot, it was found was due to the fact that data for Russia had not been received, so the GISS simply used September's figures. What is the all too often heard Mythbusters' quote? "Well here's your problem right here!" It's no wonder that the world is getting hotter if you are using September's data for October!

Well the GISS quickly released revised but largely unchanged figures (thanks to a newly found anomalous hot spot in the Arctic and this in spite of the fact that there's 30% more sea ice there than there was at this time last year).

The GISS was quick to push blame off with a lame excuse. They claimed that they had received the data "from another source". This is a utterly flabbergasting admission. The principle source of information for the UN's IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has such poor quality control on their data that month-old temperature readings can sneak into the figures unchallenged...

This hardly lends the global warming theory's incontrovertability. Many follow this fad like a religion. A religion that has as heresy the act of questioning its validity.

An interesting thing happens when you begin to penetrate that barrier of incontrovertability with a believer in global warming. It is the same thing that happens when you start penetrating a Christian's religious beliefs. They both will claim, "well it's safer to simply believe than it is to take a chance and be proven wrong in the end". Hallelujah brother and pass the Koolaid.

By Your Leave

Well here's something that's bound to put the liberals in a quandary (click the post title for the article)... The UN says we (the US) are supposed to stay in Iraq until the end of 2008...

So which impulse is the strongest? Your impulse to run like a little girl from a spider or your impulse to fellate the UN?

As far as I'm concerned we don't need permission from the UN to do anything... They have no authority over us at all.

GI Joe

Hollywood is at it again... It would appear that GI Joe is no longer a hard charging American fighting man. GI Joe is now nothing more than a PC acronym... "Globally Integrated, Joint Operating Entity" that's based in Brussels Belgium. Beyond that, it would appear that GI Joe's enemies are no longer the enemies of the USA... The new nemesis is a Scottish gun runner.

Hat tip goes to the Sniper Blog for this one...

Look some things should just not be fucked with. That scared face on the original GI Joe "action figure" was modeled after a real Marine and Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, the late Platoon Sergeant (later Colonel) Mitch Paige. He received the MOH for his incredible actions on the island of Guadalcanal in WWII. The word "heroic" simply does not do justice to what this man did. Here, read the MOH citation and this man's own explanation of his actions and see for yourself.

As a child I wasn't chasing Scottish gun runners as I played at emulating my heroes, dashing through the brackens and mountain laurel... I was after the Japs or the Krauts. I wasn't carrying that pretend gun to serve some effete international co-ed police force based in Belgium... I was pretending to serve my nation. I was pretending to be GI Joe... Mitch Paige.

They say that children learn through play. What are your children learning? Who are they emulating, someone on par with the selflessness of Col. Mitch Paige or someone less deserving of emulation like a musician, movie or sports star... someone motivated to perform in order to serve nothing more than their own avarice? I never held those people in very high esteem at all. Perhaps that's why the very moment I reached the age of majority (OK actually before the age of majority, I was 17 after all) I dashed off and served my nation.

People are motivated to greatness only by powerful ideals. Why is it do you think that a UN force has never been cited for heroism? Where's the tales of any blue hat single handedly holding off a human wave attack? There aren't any. In fact more often than not, your blue hats are known for cowardly, criminal or shameful acts. Their legacy is found in places like Cambodia, Srebenica, Haiti, Sudan or Rwanda.

I'll tell you why that is that way. Your anti-American, global atheistic brain-fart quite simply is not inspiring. If you want to inspire a person to greatness you need to present them with a powerful motivation like hate, love, greed, god or country (or some combination there-of)... As long as you fail to understand that you will be defenseless against someone who is inspired by hate, love, greed, god or country. You will stand there in the midst of your herd, blithely chewing cud while the others are culled until finally it is on your hide that the wolf's fangs find purchase.

Here's a little piece of G-Man's sage wisdom for your cogitation:

"Pacifism is nothing more than indolence or cowardice disguised behind an insubstantial veil of feigned nobility."

A Reminder

The above linked article is a perfect example of how liberals run wars and why they can not be trusted EVER to do so again. Further it is just one indictment of the UN's efficacy.

Sure, our pet liberals will beat their chest and cry "exit strategy". They'll compare our troops to NAZI's and Gitmo to a gulag. They'll rant and rave about Bush being too stupid to run a war... But if you cave in and let them have their way, this is the result you'll get. When it gets right down to it, they simply haven't the mentality to succeed in these sort of endeavors. If you're looking for someone who can wisk through tax payer money like a case of dysentary... Then call on your liberals. If you have some pet project that provides inner city kids with tap dance lessons... These are the champions you seek. If you want someone to fund the fine art of deficating on stage... again, the liberals are the folks you need to talk to.

If however, you wish to succeed at war, they are the LAST people to turn to. They'll insist on talking until positions are over-run and all the killing's been done. They'll send troops into harm's way without proper equipment or back up (think Blackhawk down here). They'll spit on your warriors and call them baby killers and basically make one hell of a mess of things, but they won't win you a war.

I think it is important however to absolve the Dutch troops that were defending Srebenica of the largest portion of the responsibility. These guys were outmanned and outgunned. Their engagement orders were to fire only in self-defense. They'd called for air support on numerous occasions over several day's span only to have the air support nixxed by the French government. Despite the fact that these troops were under sustained bombardment and supposedly protecting a UN declared safe-zone. The French refused to supply them with air support to remove the artillery from the surrounding ridges. When the Serb forces swept into town and began collecting up their vicitims, the Dutch troops would have been convicted if they had fired on them because of their ignorant pacifist rules of engagement.

How can you ask troops to preserve the peace and give them none of the tools they need to do what you ask of them? That's just wrong!

I will admit that in the past I had placed some level of blame on the Dutch soldiers but as I've reconsidered this event over time, I've come to the realization that they too are vicitims here. I find the French refusal of air support appalling and the UN's emplacement of insane rules of engagement telling.

Honestly people... I defy anyone to tell me what of value, the UN has done for us lately!

A few quotes of note regarding the UN

This is a rather interesting article regarding the ongoing problems with the UN. While it is presented from a decidedly pro-Anan standpoint, even these folks are having a hard time pointing out the good parts of the UN. I mean honestly, what has the UN done for you lately? What are we as a folk getting for our investment?

Now Annan, 67, finds himself similarly bruised, allegedly unable or unwilling to control the elephantine bureaucracy he was brought in to reform.

Annan, himself exempt from staff ethics rules, recently allowed the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, Ruud Lubbers, to remain at his post despite a June 2004 internal report substantiating allegations of sexual harassment. Lubbers did not resign until February, when the scandal hit the papers.

Consider that two thirds of U.N. employees surveyed by Deloitte Consulting last year admitted being privy to unethical conduct...

And internal audits reveal how little has happened on Annan's watch when misdeeds are reported.

From 1998 to 2001, a U.N. staff member forced defense lawyers to pay him kickbacks to process their payments at the International Criminal Tribunal for the genocide in Rwanda. In September 2003, frustrated investigators found that the man had not been fired but, instead, had been shifted to other clerical duties.

...a staff member at the U.N.'s Geneva office was allowed to take early retirement after he was found viewing child pornography on his office computer.

U.N. peacekeepers believed to have committed serious crimes, such as rape, face little more than return to their home country as punishment.

A management review conducted in October found that it took, on average, two to three years to fire an employee for whatever reason.

U.N. staff members say there is virtually no training for new employees and no clear career path. Promotions are based on seniority, not performance. And those in charge of complex issues may be chosen for whom they know, not what they know. "They throw people from this mass of incompetence into posts where they have no experience," complains a former U.N. worker...

Now I ask you, if the UN was a company, would you buy its stock? If so, boy are you ever a stupid ass! If not, why then are we the major source of funding for this farce? Wouldn't our tax dollars be better invested elsewhere?

Head of the U.N. oil-for-food program directly implicated

That's right, Benon Sevan is directly implicated in subverting the oil-for-food program. For financial gain, he sold the Iraqi people's hopes for life and forwarded the ambitions of a tyrant. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Just wait and see. I'm telling you folks, the UN is one of the biggest wastes of money that the US is involved in. Sure, at its inception the intent was noble and all, but as with all good things, noble intentions haven't the longevity to withstand the tides of greed and human frailty. We need to get out now! The UN has worked against American interests for far too long. Why should we pay to support an organization from which we garner no benefit? It's sort of like paying a dominatrix to berate you. Shit if you want to be berated, you can get that for free... Just try to talk common sense to a liberal and it won't be long until the insults and derision starts flying...

UN still under fire...

This above linked article details the efforts the UN is making to deflect the criticism that has been levied of late in its direction. As far as I'm concerned, no amount of "oops my bad" is going to cut it. If liberals were half as critical of this body as they are of the Bush administration, they'd have to admit the same, but that would require the suspension of partisanship, which is a course far too reasonable for their incendiary ilk.

The article also mentions threats made by Republican lawmakers to withhold UN funding. Personally, I believe that a sensible thing to do. There is such a thing a throwing good money after bad. If the UN is not serving our interests and delivering on their promises, there are far more fruitful investments that could be made with that money. Why is it our job to be the UN's chief financial provider? Call your congressmen and demand that they support this measure, at least until accountability and impartiality can be returned to the UN. The start of that process is the removal of Kofi Annan from office.

Did you know that the UN is still demanding payments from Iraq to support the weapons inspectors? How long has it been since they declared their search to be over? Why then are the Iraqis still forced to pay for that debacle?

More details emerge regarding oil for food...

The above linked article raises some very interesting points.

Firstly it makes clear that the problems lie not just with Kofi Annan's son's involvement, but also with Boutros-Ghali's son as well. What is this? Was the oil for food program put in place to enrich the UN Secretary's children? Can you spell nepotism? One would think for the mere appearance of propriety that there had to have been a thousand better candidates that these two men could have appointed.

Next... the article details the questionable involvement Banque Nationale de Paris. Do I need to translate that for anyone? That's right, all of these questionable transactions were being run through the Banque Nationale de Paris. Hmm, interesting... Isn't France on the Security Council? ...and wasn't it the Security Council that was tasked with oversight of the oil for food program? Isn't this just another exclamation point added to the accusations of French collusion with Saddam Hussein? the article says:

"But he avoided blaming the Security Council, which had to approve contracts and whose key members were deadlocked in dealing with any improprieties on Iraq."

How can an oversight body be deadlocked about dealing with "improprieties"? Isn't that their job?

A final interesting quote from the article:

Sumaidaie: "The question arises whether the secretariat is subject to its own political culture, which tends to subvert the will of the Security Council, this is serious."

The UN's at it Again

It would appear that the saviours of the world, the UN are intending to save it one 13 year old girl at a time.

Honestly folks, the UN is seriously becoming more of a hassle than it's worth.

Oil For Food Fraud Details

Information released today by the Senate panel investigating oil-for-food program abuses sets the amount that Saddam manged to illegally wring out of the program at over $21 billion. Chief among his co-conspirators were the French and Russian governments and the UN entity charged with monitoring the program.

Benon Sevan, the UN official in charge of the program vigorously denies any wrongdoing, but yet refuses to release documentation demanded by the Senate investigation or appear before the panel for questioning.

Kofi Annan personally called Senator Norm Coleman and Senator Carl Levin with hollow assurances that the UN was not attempting to employ obstructionist tactics, in response to a strongly worded demand from the two for the UN to produce the information.

In other news, this picture from the Ivory Coast was interesting:

It would appear the French are again allying themselves with Muslim fundamentalist revolutionaries... This time it happens to be the ones in the northern portion of the Ivory Coast.

Quality Work

Good to see that the French & UN are doing a good job in the Ivory Coast peacekeeping mission.