Obama "Feels the Terrorists' Pain"

President Clinton was famous for the ability to feel the pain of ordinary Americans -- and to remind them of this facility at every opportunity. President Obama is even more sensitive than President Clinton, with the ability to feel the pain of terrorists and anti-American dictators around the world. When not bowing to dictators, he is laughing at their anti-American jokes and accepting their gifts of anti-American propaganda. And still he has time to leak top-secret memos describing harsh interrogation techniques that reaped plentiful high-value information from proved terrorists. He is making sure America can never obtain such high-value information from terrorists ever again -- at least during his reich. Because he feels the terrorists' pain, so that when the terrorists hurt, Obama hurts.

The release of the memoranda means that we are unlikely ever again to get valuable information from terror suspects, because now our enemies know the precise lengths to which our interrogators are willing to go to coerce information, and that those limits stop well short of actually causing the terror suspect injury. _JWR

The interrogation techniques did not exactly involve "pain", as such. There was plenty of psychological stress involved, with the threat of pain and injury. But clearly the word "torture" may not actually mean what Herr Obama thinks it means.

Take the insect “torture.” Specifically designed for al-Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah, a confidant of Osama bin Laden’s with a fear of spiders, it involved placing Zubaydah in a “cramped confinement box” with an ostensibly stinging insect. Except that the insect would actually be harmless caterpillar. No physical harm whatsoever was meant to come to Zubaydah himself and, in any case, the tactic was never used. As evidence of “torture,” this is far from compelling.

One interrogation technique that was used is sleep deprivation. Importantly, however, the memos reveal that the emphasis was always two-fold: to obtain intelligence and cooperation but only insofar as no lasting physical or mental harm came to the detainee. To that end, they stipulate that if the detainee were to be denied sleep then “personnel with medical training” had to be available to intervene “in the unlikely event of an abnormal reaction.” _FPM

As much like genuine torture as The Sound of Music is like hard core porn. And left-wing zomboids are plenty mad about Obama's actions. Oh, not because they feel he has gone too far in placing American forces and the American people at risk. No, leftists are hopping angry because they feel Obama did not go far enough in tearing down America's defenses against death-dealing muslim and other terrorists.

... there is the sense of anxiety and fragility that stems from the liberals' newly-won power. They control everything in government, and some fear what the responsibility of governing is doing to them.

Their president of hope and change has chosen not to prosecute the authors of the Bush-era "torture memos." He is escalating the war in Afghanistan. He seems determined to bail out the nation's richest bankers. For some on the left, it can be difficult to abide those actions and still maintain the image of one's self atop the moral high ground. So they lash out at the easy target... _WashEx

Any easy target will do as long as it is decidedly American, and dedicated to the safety and prosperity of the American people. Leftists are so predictable!

So we see that Obama feels the terrorists' pain, whether they are actually feeling any pain themselves. And we are learning that "torture" -- like "sexual harassment" -- is anything that makes the complainant "uncomfortable" in any way, at any time. There is much to learn from a US President who is so sensitive -- almost effeminately so. The first truly "metrosexual" president surely has more surprises up his laced, perfumed sleeves. We simply cannot wait to learn what they are.

Banned by YouTube, Coming to a Town Near You

H/T Brussels Journal

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From Sweden to Belgium to Holland to Paris to Germany to London. This is the face of your future.

Obama, Saviour of the Universe! Film Festival

Okay, well perhaps the last video is just a bit over the top. It reminds me of something the Obama juggernaut (ACORN, moveon.org, Rev. Wright, etc) might have cooked up, if the Obama steamroller had been running against Obama. Sauce for the goose and the gander, you might say. It certainly had me laughing uncontrollably most of the way through.

Can Africa Survive the Good Intentions of the World Bank and the Neo-Colonialist NGOs?

Year by year, Sub-Saharan African countries are growing more impoverished -- and more populated. Despite the perpetual drive for increasing aid from the World Bank and the NGOs, the bottom line is that poverty in Africa is on an exponentially increasing rise. Here is what African economist Dambisa Moyo thinks about western aid to Africa:

The countries in the world receiving the most foreign aid, largely in sub-Saharan Africa, happen to be the poorest—and getting poorer by the year. Is it because they aren’t getting enough aid? Or is aid part of the problem?

...While her predecessors in arguing against aid have been Europeans and Americans, Dambisa Moyo is African by origin. She’s traveled from her native Zambia, however, to Harvard, Oxford, the World Bank, and Goldman Sachs. Africa has become a source of talent for the developed world: the South’s lack of opportunities causes a brain drain, part of poverty’s vicious circle. Moyo’s new book, Dead Aid, would not be so compelling if she were only an African woman recycling her predecessors’ mantras. But she brings to the subject a compelling and easy to understand style, along with personal commitment and moral outrage. And she upholds her argument with striking examples.

...“What if,” she asks, “African countries received a phone call telling them that in five years, the aid tap would be shut off permanently?” But such shock therapy will never happen, as Moyo should know better than anyone from her experience working at the World Bank. U.S., European, or Japanese aid bureaucracies and charities will not put themselves out of business. These well-meaning angels, more focused on intentions than results, do not want to lose their financial, and even more important their moral, raison d’être. The West’s deepest motivation in helping Africa is the feel-good impulse: we want to alleviate our bad conscience. Moyo calls it “glamorous aid.”

...Dysfunctional states will remain hostile to development with or without aid; but without aid, epidemics will rage untreated. Opening developed countries’ markets to African agriculture would be useful, but not sufficient to raise Africa out of poverty. _CityJournal

The real problem -- which is something that neither Moyo nor the writer of the above review in the City Journal dare mention -- is the utter lack of significant high - g human capital in Sub-Saharan Africa. The average IQ of S-S African populations hovers near 70. Optimising nutritional levels in those countries could conceivably raise average scores to 75 or marginally better.

Given that a nation's best educators, scientists, physicians, legal minds, architects, engineers, and technologists will come from the upper end of the IQ distribution, what kind of elite can a nation have when its upper end tops out between 100 and 110 IQ? In the west, an IQ of 125 to 130 is considered a minimum for fielding the best scientists, engineers, technologists, and medical specialists. Such levels of IQ are extremely rare in African populations.

The historical cure for that problem has been the "market dominant minority (M-D-M)", or the "smart fraction". In Rhodesia (then Zimbabwe) and South Africa, the M-D-M were white Europeans, who helped make those two countries the most prosperous on the continent. Formerly in a more prosperous Uganda, the M-D-M consisted of Indians and Lebanese -- prior to Idi Amin's purge of the "outsiders" and the subsequent crash in prosperity and quality of life inside Uganda.

The NGOs have tried to become a quasi- M-D-M, but have had very poor results. China is currently moving in to many countries of S-S Africa, playing the role of a new type of M-D-M which is based more upon a callous self-interest than the "altruistic" NGOs or the more integrated economic industry of previous M-D-Ms. Both the NGOs and the new Chinese interests tend to give the corrupt leaders of African nations exactly what they want -- bribes and a cut off the top -- while leaving the masses of the populations in growing misery and poverty.

Moyo thinks Africans can do better on their own. But that will never happen. Africa has too many riches to be left alone by the developed and emerging world.

Eurabia Shaping Up?

What about the 60+ million – soon to be 100 million-- legal 1st and 2nd generation Muslims already in the West? What about the possibility that it’s not Islam but Muslims that are the problem? After all, 1400 years of following an unchanged totalitarian dogma and marrying each other’s cousin, and 500 years of disdaining science and creativity, has at least as much to do with the character of a people as its religion does. _BrusselsJournal

Europeans are vanishing from Europe, just as legal and illegal Muslims are flooding into the continent. Many of Europe's largest and most important cities are already 25% Muslim -- which changes their characters entirely. Gangs of Muslim rapists and hooligans roam too many European streets as it is, but this is only the beginning.

According to statistics quoted by a Finnish blog, Somalis, who constitute 0.2% of Finland’s population, commit 12% of reported robberies. The Somali community in Finland, of course, lives at the taxpayers’ expense just as is does in every Western country where it’s present.

To import Somalis to such a singularly unmixed white and monocultural nation as Finland is a symptom of a galloping psychopathology. Not only that; the Finnish legal establishment actively prosecutes ethnic Finns who publish politically incorrect statements about Islam or Muslims. A blogger named Seppo Lehto was sentenced to long imprisonment and a large fine for “incitement against an ethnic group” and “disturbing religious worship.” To do this, the Finnish Body Snatchers had to dig up a blasphemy law so old that the first attempt to overturn it was made in 1914. And now, a Helsinki councilman and blogger Jussi Halla-aho will be tried for blasphemy, for having written that Muhammad was a pedophile. _BJ

The insanity of tribal Islam transplanted into Europe matches the insanity of the politically correct enablers of uncivilised Muslim behaviours. No wonder nationalist parties are starting to swell across the countries of Europe.

Jihad is not the cause. It’s a symptom. Aggressively separatist Muslim communities in the West are not the cause. They are a symptom.

The symptom, in the West, is as old as the Goths and the Huns. But the disease is as old as the end of the Roman Empire, and before that, the Babylonian one. Flowering followed by decadence, followed by a partial population replacement with imported barbarians, followed by chaos, internal war, and wilting.

Addressing the solipsistic degeneracy of the American Empire and the despairing self-asphyxiation of post-national Europe are a precondition for disposing of the symptom. Fighting the symptom as if it were disembodied cannot bring cure, since the body’s maimed autoimmune system recognizes Islam and Muslims as its own, and its own – the anti-Islamization dissident – as the invading disease. _BJ

The disease is a leftist flight from reality that dominates so many minds within the increasingly decadent western world.

As the Sci-Fi writer Philip Dick quipped, Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. Either we shall learn to deal with Reality, or we will be gone away. Reality will remain. _BrusselsJournal

If Western Civilisation is to Survive, We Need More Leaders Like This

From Brussels Journal:

Just a few days ago, not many Americans knew about Daniel Hannan, a Conservative member of the European Parliament. However, after a three minute speech on March 24 in which he confronted British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Hannan has become an international sensation. His YouTube video “The devalued Prime Minister of a devalued government” is already an internet success. It has become the most viewed political speech faster than any other in internet history, with almost two million views in its first week, and it has been the number one viewed video for several straight days. As a principled politician, Hannan has been widely praised by conservatives in the United States and was recently featured on Fox News, the Drudge Report and various important conservative radio talk shows, including the Rush Limbaugh Show.

Hannan has been writing in Britain's best-selling quality newspapers for 14 years. When first elected to the European Parliament in 1999, Hannan was its youngest member. Then in April 2008, he was pushed to the top of the Conservative candidate list for the 2009 European elections, making it almost certain that he will be re-elected to the European Parliament next June.

American interest in Hannan´s short video and speech rests on a simple premise: what Hannan said in the video to Gordon Brown could have easily been said to Barack Obama by any of the true conservative members of the Republican Party in the U.S. Congress. After all, our new American president is pursuing the same or even larger massive spending policies which will lead the United States down the path to unprecedented debt and financial ruin. In his video, Hannan tells Brown: “I have long accepted that you’re pathologically incapable of accepting responsibility for these things. It’s that you’re carrying on, willfully worsening our situation, wantonly spending what little we have left.” American Conservatives feel exactly the same way about Obama, and Hannan is a reminder of that. Daniel Hannan’s brilliant oration –reminiscent of William F. Buckley´s accent– has produced a new European conservative star. Conservatives should take note of the need to develop a true transatlantic alliance with their European conservative brethren.

Conservative principles are as true today as they were at the founding of our country in 1776; they were laid out by political philosophers and thinkers throughout the nation´s history such as Edmund Burke, Lord Acton, Russell Kirk and upheld by notable politicians such as Barry Goldwater, Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. Just as Mark Levin outlined in his recent conservative manifesto, conservatism is rooted in the ideas of the framers of our founding documents. Both in the United States and in Europe, all that is really needed is a group of politicians willing to articulate those principles. Hannan is an example of how it is indeed possible to do so. He represents a clear example of how bridges between American and European conservatives can be built. It could also create a platform for rising conservative political figures such as Bobby Jindal, Sarah Palin, Mark Sanford, Eric Cantor and others.

Before Hannan´s video shocked the viewers in the United States, he had already made some waves within European politics. Armed with his knowledge of the French and Spanish languages, he has closely followed the political atmosphere in Europe and, particularly, in Spain, a country where several hundreds of thousands of British citizens live and also vote. Hannan specifically asked those British living in Spain to get out and vote conservative in the next European elections this coming June. Hannan´s point was that as Brits in Spain are one of the least represented communities in Western Europe (most of whom are conservative), the importance of voting is particularly relevant. The interesting aspect in Hannan´s position -- as well as in the position taken by the Tories in the Conservative Party in England -- is the clear attempt to form a new conservative bloc of parties within the European Parliament. David Cameron has already given formal notice of his intention to leave the “European People´s Party” grouping to set up a conservative bloc: the “European Conservatives,” a political group in the European Parliament that will attract members from the Czech governing party -- Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek’s Civic Democrats (ODS). Topolanek, who commands particular influence because his country holds the EU presidency, recently asserted that extra spending was “the way to hell”. Others likely to join Cameron´s organization include the Polish Law and Justice party (PiS), Spain´s Alternativa Española (AES), led by Rafael López Diéguez, and several other political parties from Romania, Bulgaria, and other Baltic states that have become uncomfortable with their existing affiliations.

Undoubtedly, this is good news for American conservatives. Further, it is a blow to several European leaders who are part of the “European People´s Party” but who, unfortunately, seem to be more interested in keeping their place in politics rather than implementing true conservative values: Angela Merkel in Germany, Nicolas Sarkozy in France, Silvio Berlusconi in Italy or Mariano Rajoy in Spain. Those who want to stop the creation of the new Conservative bloc in the European Parliament are already carrying out a dishonest campaign of propaganda against these European parties, calling it a “far-right” or a “fascist” coalition of parties: the same old insults that we see in the United States against conservatives.

Cameron, Hannan and most of the British Tories disagree with the European People´s Party views, which include advocating for closer integration in Europe in matters of economy, immigration, defense, big government and foreign policies. As it stands now, the European Parliament lacks official opposition. Cameron will lead this much needed conservative crusade for real reform in Europe. It is within this context that Hannan´s recommendations for British expatriates living in Spain should be considered. His suggestion as a conservative was not to vote for the usual Spanish “Partido Popular” (PP) or the “Partido Socialista Obrero Español” (PSOE), but rather to vote for a new, vibrant and pro-life Spanish conservative party, “Alternativa Española” (AES), which openly defends its Western Christian roots. Hannan defines this Spanish party as a Euro-sceptic anti-corruption party that has broken away finally from both the socialist PSOE and the centrist PP (which has lost the credibility, principles and stature it once had under José María Aznar´s leadership). Hannan argues that without dodgy mayors to defend, AES is keen to address the concerns that Spanish as well as expatriate British residents have about land security and other important issues for conservatives.

Furthermore, as Hannan points out, AES was the only party to campaign for a real “No” vote on the European Constitution and an active party that encouraged Ireland to stand up to the Euro-bullies. Hannan´s pick of AES makes sense if one considers that for Spain it takes only 300,000 votes to return a Member of the European Parliament.

Some conservatives in the United States are already paying close attention to the activities within the conservative movement in Europe and alerting the Republican Party to the need to consider the suggestions made by Hannan and look at parties in Europe with which alliances and partnerships can be created. Hannan arrives into the political scenario at a time when the Republican Party can lay no legitimate claim to being for limited government after eight years of being just the opposite, ending with bailouts of banks and car companies. This is precisely why the Republican Party should take a close look at the vibrant Spanish conservative party “Alternativa Española” as a first step to creating a true Transatlantic Alliance of Conservatives. While the other two major parties in Spain were and continue to be mesmerized by Obama and openly supported his campaign, “Alternativa Española” stands on principles and defends conservative values: individual freedom, limited government, free markets, individual responsibility, an unequivocal pro-life stance, lower taxes and the implementation of a practical flat tax, school vouchers and, very importantly, the defense of the Judeo-Christian roots of the Western civilization.

Cameron and the European conservatives seem to be decided on firm principles (with the exception of some mistakes on Cameron´s part regarding his positions about the dangers of the so-called man-made “global warming”). In the final analysis, the alliance could be a stepping stone to subsequent conservative realignments and alliances at the transatlantic level. British Conservatives have been in opposition to the ruling party since 1997 but, according to opinion polls, they are very well placed to defeat Brown´s Labour Party at the next election in mid-2010. In the middle of the outrageous financial interventions by the governments of Spain, England and the United States, European voters who believe in limited government will have a say. If we consider that in November of 2010 the United States has its midterm elections, we may be witnessing a reemergence of conservatism in Europe and the United States. Cameron and Hannan's strategy may work in Europe and it is even possible that, contrary to what many believe, we may also be making history as part of a new conservative revolution on both sides of the Atlantic.

Alberto Acereda is a Professor at Arizona State University and a Member of the “North American Academy of the Spanish Language.” He is also a columnist for several newspapers in Europe and the United States.

The present leadership of the US, Australia, Norway, Sweden, Spain, and several other western countries is shot through with corruption and an unwillingness to confront the real threats to the survival of the west. If the most enlightened civilisation ever to face the challenges of survival is to survive yet again, it will need better leaders.

Oil Prices Up, Demand for Oil Down . . . . Why?

Recent upward trends in oil prices -- in the middle of a recession's low demand for oil -- can cause questioning persons to squint their eyes and mouth, "WTF?!?" Here is one easy to understand explanation:

Oil prices have been rising steadily over the past few weeks, and are up 20% since the start of the year. Yet US oil inventories have also been rising, and are now at their highest level since July 1993. Stocks have risen in 22 of the last 26 weeks....

....The rationale for the disconnect between weak oil market fundamentals, and higher prices, lies in financial market sentiment. Traders continue to believe, as they have all year, that demand is just about to recover. A clear sign of this is the forward premium in futures markets, where the March 2010 WTI futures contract is $10/bbl above today's high price. _Source

This is the same type of trader - led upsurge in prices that created a lethal shock to the global economy last summer. Oil traders are thrashing about for some way to take a profit -- any profit.

The fact that rising prices in a time of naturally low demand will create an even deeper demand destruction than currently exists, is not relevant to the traders' thought processes.

Understanding how susceptible markets are to trader psychology is important for investors trying to see through the fog to near-term and medium-term economic trends.

The US Congress is responsible for much of the chaos in financial markets -- so don't look to Congress for any quick (or even slow) fixes. Congress is in the business of taking bribes and helping its friends. The interests of the people really do not signify.

Obama Driving Up the Debt Unvelievably Quickly

Image Source
President Obama has no real world expertise or experience. So it is no wonder that he is turning a cyclical downturn into a once in a century financial disaster. Welcome to perpetual trillion dollar deficits. The fallout will be severe, and will probably hit much sooner than either Obama or the CBO believe.

Incompetence such as Obama displays has been mercifully rare at the highest levels of government. Unfortunately, Obama is joined by Pelosi and Reid at the pinnacles of power. A perfect storm of incompetence. What are the odds?

H/T Instapundit

Leftist Journalist? No Such Thing. Propagandist

Leftists are constitutionally incapable of presenting a balanced, objective look at anything with the slightest political overtones. Have you ever wondered how the leftist message stays so tight, and is able to turn on a dime? You wonder about that because you don't know about the ECHO CHAMBER ... Echo Chamber ... echo chamber ...

For the past two years, several hundred left-leaning bloggers, political reporters, magazine writers, policy wonks and academics have talked stories and compared notes in an off-the-record online meeting space called JournoList.

... it’s hard to trace JList’s influence in the media, because so few JListers are willing to talk on the record about it.

POLITICO contacted nearly three dozen current JList members for this story. The majority either declined to comment or didn’t respond to interview requests — and then returned to JList to post items on why they wouldn’t be talking to POLITICO about what goes on there.

...“There is nothing comparable on the right. E-mail conversations among bloggers, journalists and experts on our side tend to be ad hoc,” Goldfarb said. “The JournoList thing always struck me as a little creepy.”

Kaus, too, has seemed put off by the whole idea, once talking on BloggingHeads about how the list “seems contrary to the spirit of the Web.”

“You don’t want to create a whole separate, like, private blog that only the elite bloggers can go into, and then what you present to the public is sort of the propaganda you’ve decided to go public with,” Kaus argued.

But Time’s Joe Klein, who acknowledged being on JList and several other listservs, said in an e-mail that “they’re valuable in the way that candid conversations with colleagues and experts always are.” Defending the off-the-record rule, Klein said that “candor is essential and can only be guaranteed by keeping these conversations private.”

And then Klein — speaking like the JLister he is — said there wasn’t “anything more that I can or want to say about the subject.” _politico

Very, very creepy. The fact that most of the idiots on the list actually get paid for their ideas is a sorry measure of the state of intellectual life in the US.

Another interesting tidbit about leftist fat heads: Jon Stewart of the Daily Show has a brother who's an insider on Wall Street. Guess who prepped the glib poseur on how to confront Jim Cramer on the air? Not the tooth fairy.

And doesn't it seem weird how leftist pundits have jumped on the bandwagon en masse to deny that the Community Reinvestment Act had anything to do with the credit crunch. Very odd, and very untrue. But then, the ECHO CHAMBER has to stay on message, to keep all the right people in power and in control of public policy and disbursals.

You see, the ECHO CHAMBER is on a holy crusade to transform America into a new Europe. They seem to think they are going about it the right way. Seize the government, seize the media, demonize the opposition, and emerge triumphant and beyond reproach or accountability.

Interesting plan indeed. Let's watch it unfold, shall we?

South African Police Look The Other Way When Black Men Rape Babies and Lesbians

In South Africa, men superstitiously believe that raping young virgin girls will cure them if AIDS. They also believe that raping a lesbian will cure her of her "disease."

Lesbians living in South Africa are being raped by men who believe it will 'cure' them of their sexual orientation, a report has revealed.

Women are reporting a rising tide of brutal homophobic attacks and murders and the widespread use of 'corrective' rape as a form of punishment.

...A statement released by South Africa's national prosecuting authority said: 'While hate crimes – especially of a sexual nature – are rife, it is not something that the South African government has prioritised as a specific project.' _DailyMail

This is what happens when the average IQ of a nation is 72, after the market-dominant minority loses political influence and is forced to flee the country.

Whatever happened to the prosperous South Africa that gave hope to Sub-Saharan Africa? All that is left is violence and an inability to run a complex technological infrastructure that was inherited from an alien culture.

Having A Clown for President Would be Better if He Were At Least A Little Bit Funny

A lot of people tried to warn the American voting public that electing an incompetent narcissist would come back to haunt them. And now it is just beginning to come true:

Obama's 12 Step Plan to Destroy An Economy

Obama's Brave New Debt that will never be paid off

Just one way that Obama has set out to destroy employment in the US

Obama's IQ is probably less than 115. And maybe a lot less. After all, the average IQ of attorneys has been going down (and not just because Obama and his wife became attorneys)

No matter what the good intentions Clown President Obama may have, he is most certainly paving a road to hell.

The only ones more ineptly clownish than Clown Obama, are the voters who pulled the lever for the bozo.

Pres. Obama On Verge of Nervous Breakdown

Allies of Mr Obama say his weary appearance in the Oval Office with Mr Brown illustrates the strain he is now under, and the president's surprise at the sheer volume of business that crosses his desk.

"Obama is overwhelmed. There is a .... tension between his ability to attend to the economic issues and his ability to be a proactive sculptor of the national security agenda.

"That was the gamble these guys made at the front end of this presidency and I think they're finding it a hard thing to do everything." Telegraph

The simple fact is that Barak Obama was not prepared to be US President. He was not prepared to be US Senator, for that matter, but in the Senate a member can spend most of his time running for president -- occasionally sparing the time to vote "present" on important issues -- and still be considered a US Senator in good standing. A president is expected to stay on top of things, and to actually ... you know ... make decisions.

Up to this point, Nancy Pelosi and Rahm Emanuel have been making almost all of the decisions for Mr. Obama. Obama makes decisions about vacations, parties, eating out, and setting the thermostat near 80 degrees F. Or perhaps Michelle makes those decision -- who knows?

White House insiders say Obama may not be getting enough sleep. What -- twelve hours a night is not enough? Perhaps a bit of modafinil might help, but I suspect that a nice long vacation is what the president really needs. Say, a forty year vacation in Hawaii? Perhaps he could run for president of the Honolulu Marxist Association? That might suit him to a tee.

Image h/t Rob's No Bull Zone

Previously published at Al Fin

Obama to Lift Clinton Ban on Stem Cell Research

The reason newspapers are dying is because they lie to the public. As the public catches on to newspapers' dishonest agenda, they quite the papers in disgust. Take the example of reporting on Obama's lifting of regulations restricting embryonic stem cell research that date back to the Clinton administration. Most newspapers worldwide are reporting Obama's pending action as a reversal of a "Bush ban on stem cell research." In reality there was no such Bush ban. In fact, Bush opened up embryonic stem cell research that had been banned by the congress during the Clinton administration. Bush maintained the Clinton era ban on destroying embryos to obtain new stem cell lines. But he made vast new funding available for other types of stem cell research.

Obama is touting the reversal of a Clinton era ban that Clinton could not bother himself to deal with. But Obama's action will have a minimal effect on stem cell treatments for human disease, since such treatments will almost invariably utilise a person's own stem cells -- induced stem cells that have no danger of rejection by the immune system. That is the type of research that has been wide open for several years, thanks to Bush.

Here's more on the rest of the story of Clinton's stem cell ban

Here's an interesting pictorial primer on the financial meltdown

Check out this example of "buyer's remorse" from a liberal legal scholar who is suddenly uneasy about Obama's aggressive leftism that is destroying the economy.

Who Is Messing With the President's Brain?

Image SourceBarak Obama's addiction to the teleprompter is becoming a sore point with White House insiders. Not the addiction itself, but rather the fact that people are beginning to notice. In fact, Mr. Obama cannot give a simple four minute announcement without spoon-feeding from a teleprompter.

This unseemly dependency has prompted White House aides to pursue a less conspicuous way of feeding the president his lines. That is how the idea of a brain implant for Mr. Obama came up in conference recently. Caught between a rock (Mr. Obama's inability to speak publicly without prompting) and a hard place (the fact that Mr. Obama's handicap is being noticed beyond deniability), the White House Office of Perpetual Campaigning is considering the technology option. The only question now seems to be, "how to do it?"

A bionic eye implant may seem at first glance a plausible plan. But a few moment's thought should make it obvious that the "camera glasses" Mr. Obama would have to wear to make the bionic eyes work would be an unsightly obstacle to the president's facial expression magic.

When faced with the shortcomings of plan A, one White House counsel suggested a brain implant without the glasses. But there was the problem of how the implant would receive the signal transmitting the president's speech to his brain. Would he wear an antenna on his head? "No," scoffed another aide, "The president's hair is too short to conceal an antenna and power supply for the implant."

"Then what about using an implant that uses photoelectrodes instead of electrical signals? You could covertly beam the speech to an array of fiberoptics cunningly concealed in the president's hair!" yet another aide enthused.

"I've got a better idea," interjected Rahm Emanuel over the intercom. "How about using a focused ultrasonic brain stimulator? You wouldn't need any kind of receiver or antenna then!"

Everyone turned to look at the only scientist in the group, a neuropsychologist on loan from MIT. What did he suggest? "Well, there have been some embarrassing side effects from brain implants in the past. If the president started to ... you know ... in the middle of a State of the Union Address, or in high level talks with the Chinese Premier ... "

For a moment, there was only silence in the room. Then, over the intercom came the voice of WHCOS Emanuel: "we could always include a 'kill switch'." The suggestion was greeted with gasps and moans. "No, no, not that kind of a kill switch. Just a type of 'reset switch' that causes him to lose consciousness temporarily so that a medical team can rush him out, in case he starts to do something too embarassing."

With that explanation, the tension blew out of the room like from an unleashed free flying balloon. They were all in agreement, it would be done. Just how it would be done, and who could be trusted to do it secretly was another matter, for another conference. But that is how government works. That is just how government works.

Previously published at Al Fin

Russian Foundations Rocked by Economy

Putin could have continued propping up his Potemkin power vertical and his Potemkin democracy for many more years if the petrodollars kept pouring in. That money was crucial to keep Putin's "circus lions" -- that is, the various elite surrounding him -- well-fed and docile. But now the money is running out, and it is frightening to consider the consequences. It is well-known that even the best-trained circus lions have been known to turn on their trainers unexpectedly, even when they are well-fed. Just think of what could happen if those lions are hungry -- and angry. We have already heard the first menacing roars from Putin's lions. They are gritting their teeth and salivating at the mouth. I am sure that Putin sees and hears all of this. _MoscowTimes_via_LaRussophobe

Russian autocrats were counting on $95 a barrel oil, at the lowest. They were hoping for $150 to $200 a barrel oil, to perpetuate their lavish lifestyles and greedy acquisitions of power and influence. Who are these "circus lions" of Putin, these inner circle autocrats that Putin was hoping to be able to keep happy?

A former KGB officer, Putin has always been close to the "siloviki," the tight-knit clan of security service veterans he brought to power. It includes First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, National Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, military procurement chief Viktor Cherkesov, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov and Federal Antinarcotics Service head Viktor Ivanov.

But Putin has always balanced the power of the siloviki with the technocrats like Medvedev and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin and the civilian reformers on their staff. In the boom years, there was enough in the state budget to satisfy everybody. But with the economy now shrinking at an annualized rate of 6 percent and the state budget facing a 42 percent revenue shortfall, the budget has become a political battleground. And the political battle is emerging into the open. _Walker'sWorld

Russia is not like the US, where thousands of people routinely scramble over each other for more power, always aware that after the next election they may be sent home to recover for their next battle. In the US, political losers go home to prepare for better luck next time.

In Russia, the inner circle holds power in a death's grip, understanding that a fall from power may very well mean their lives. Putin has succeeded in bringing something like the atmosphere of the Stalin Kremlin back to Russia. Russian citizens have only fond memories of their autocratic past. It is the way they suppose governments should be run, with an iron fist. Like the abused wife who assumes that her husband doesn't love her unless he is beating her.

Russian men die in their 50s of TB, AIDS, alcoholism, suicide, or just complications of living in Russia. Russian women flee the country to marriages in western Europe, North America, or Oceania -- if they are lucky. Otherwise they stay home, have far more abortions than births, and watch the population of their country shrink as its depleting wealth concentrates in the hands of a few powerful Kremlin men.

Always remember that Russia has enough nuclear weapons to destroy most of the world's cities and industrial centers. Russia's economy depends almost exclusively upon oil, gas, and mineral exports, because Russia's government is hardly more sophisticated than the sheikdoms of the middle east and North Africa. Russia has to drive up the price of oil and gas to save its current government. What do you think Russia will do?

Winter of 2008-2009 Sets Millenium Record!

Despite the prediction from the UK Met Office that this winter would be "milder than average", this winter is instead proving to be the coldest of the millenium.

Winter will return with a vengeance today, with a band of heavy rain and snow due to sweep across Britain.

More than a week's rainfall is forecast to deluge parts of England and Wales in just a few hours this afternoon, bringing the risk of flash-floods.

The heavy rain will be followed by hail and sleet over the next few days as temperatures plummet back to a few degrees above freezing.

Scotland will see heavy snow showers, with up to a foot expected to fall on higher ground. _DailyMail_via_GreenieWatch

The UK's climate center is making of habit of predicting the polar opposite weather from what actually occurs. Only NASA GISS is more fanatically attached to the idea of catastrophic anthropogenic global warming (CAGW) than the UK's Met Office. Such foolish predictability is causing official governmental climate offices to lose credibility with the public.

But not with the media. The media is every bit as in love with the phantom climate catastrophe as are the climate modelers whose government paycheck may very well depend upon the ability to maintain a "climate of fear" -- at least among government officials and budgeting offices.

Climate disaster from anthropogenic CO2 is a steamroller losing its steam. Climates are cooling rather than warming, despite ever rising levels of atmospheric CO2. As the oceans themselves show more cooling, the atmospheric rise in CO2 itself may begin to reverse itself. That would be most difficult for James Hansen and Al Gore to explain.

Economic Slapshots From Slapstick Players

It is difficult to mistake the absolutely amateurish nature of today's government interventions in corporate, national, and international economies. How did things get the way they are?

How did a drop of a percent or two in US home prices cause whole countries in Europe to go bankrupt?

Actually, how do we know the bad thing spread from the US to the rest of the world, and not vice versa? I invite you to look at the data. If you do, you will find that Europe's economic decline started before, and is deeper than, the US's.

Look at the 2nd quarter of 2008, for example. In that quarter, the US economy grew 0.7%. Yet the economies of France, Germany, Italy and Japan all shrank by 0.3% to 0.9%. In fact, the average for the Euro area was an economic shrinkage of 0.2%.

Those European economies that shrank in the 2nd quarter also shrank in the 3rd. By that time, so did the US's economy - but by just 0.1%. The Euro area's average shrinkage was twice that. The economies of Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom shrank five to six times as fast. _AmThink

Suggesting that the economic disease may be coming to the US from Europe, rather than the other way around. Not so unreasonable, that, given the full speed rush of the Obama reich to nationalise the economy -- just like in Europe.

Is it really such a good idea for government to get so deeply involved in the running of corporations?

Is Obama's plan to stabilise the mortgage markets a stroke of genius, or the brain stroke of a feeble mind?

Should we look at historical housing booms and busts to get a better feeling of what the home markets are doing?

Everyone in Washington DC appears to be in the handwringing mode to "do anything, even if it's catastrophically wrong!!!" In the case of Obama and his congressional cronies, you can almost bet on his remedies being much worse than the disease they are meant to cure. At least, that seems to be his plan.

Jolly Green Messiah Takes From Producers and Gives to Friends and Supporters

Perhaps it is time for America to tell Obama and his zombies that we get the joke. He won. His zombie-handlers in the Senate and the House won. It's their party and they can re-distribute and make their payoffs to cronies if they want to. But somewhere in all the trillion dollar deficits, you would hope that the zombie-masters would apply some genuine stimulation to the real economy. Not paybacks to big Democratic Party donours and supporters. Not an expansion of welfare back to pre-reform levels. Not an economy-killing energy policy that drives us all even deeper into recession.Image Source We have too much of that from the Jolly Green Messiah already. The real economy is being choked out of existence in the midst of unprecedented government spending -- of other people's money, and of money that does not even exist.

Federal policy is damaging the economy’s prospects. It fails to provide the needed tax incentives for investment in factories and equipment, incentives that were central to efforts to revive the economy during the Kennedy-Johnson era and under Ronald Reagan. But government spending can’t lead the way to sustained recovery, because its stimulating effect will be offset by anticipated higher taxes and the need to finance the deficit.

Heavy-handed federal intervention into the management of companies from banks to auto makers will also delay recovery. And misguided efforts to help distressed homeowners by permitting courts to rewrite the terms of mortgages will cause banks to limit mortgage lending, which will prevent housing from contributing to the recovery. _NYT

The US economy is nothing like it was in the 1930s. In some ways, it is much worse. When confidence in the US dollar finally erodes away, there is nothing to stop the economy's fall but a vast vacuum created by trillion dollar deficits -- courtesy of Dear Leader Obama-Messiah. These are the times for making alternative plans. Hope for the best. Plan for the worst.

Meanwhile, China is sinking billions of dollars into investments in the Caribbean and Latin America, building influence in the backyard of Obama and his zombie horde. Russia is likewise solidifying military alliances with Venezuela and Cuba. Weak presidents -- like Carter was and Obama is -- open the door to their country's enemies. China and Russia would be no kind of enemy at all, were they to turn down this opportunity. And despite significant problems at home, neither Russia nor China would dare pass up a chance to weaken the influence of the mutual bane to their individual dreams of world hegemony.

Previously published at Al Fin

Geert Wilders in New York City Feb 24, 2009

Many Americans and Europeans do not want their countrymen to hear about the sad experience of contemporary Islam in Europe. Nevertheless, Geert Wilders and others of similar courage are willing to speak publicly about the violent primitivism of the Muslim incursion into Europe's cities. It is time for modern westerners -- long dumbed down and lulled to sleep by their educators and decadent culture of appeasement -- to wake up and comprehend the mess they have allowed themselves to stumble into.

Islam is a religion of violence, a religion of supremacist intolerance. It has no place in the modern world. If the governments of the west do not act through legal and procedural channels to reduce the risk, there is no doubt that much blood will be shed unnecessarily.

Norwegian Women Gang-Raped in Oslo?

At least ten women were attacked and molested by a gang of Somali men at Sofienberg park in Oslo on Saturday evening.

Last year a record-high 161 rapes and 35 rape attempts were reported in Oslo. Over 70% of the rapists were non-Norwegian [ed. ethnically, a majority had Norwegian citizenship].[Somali man in Norwegian cafe]: ...when then go out almost completely naked and get completelydrunk in Frogner park or go to a party together with some friend, and then they complain about being raped? It’s their fault, says the 26 year old from Somalia. _Source

We hear the same story from Muslim men now living in Paris, Brussels, Stockholm, Melbourne, Hamburg, London . . . wherever Muslim men have immigrated into the western world. "Western women are simply asking to be raped, it is their own fault . . . ." And so gangs of Muslims rove the streets of western Europe, Australia, and wherever else the women are begging to be raped, in order to answer their desires. Or so they say.

European cities are growing increasingly Muslim through immigration and high Muslim birth rates. All it takes is 10%, or so, hostile newcomers to completely alter the political dynamics of a community. Hitler certainly started out with much less and made great strides in his political career.

Muslim population in European cities

eumap.org background research reports on Muslims in European cities

Some European cities are approaching 25% or more Muslim population, well over the threshold of radical change. Since cities are the heart of a country, the entire country's politics can take a radical turn due to the Muslim influx and rapid reproduction inside its cities. The entire of western Europe may be over 25% Muslim within little more than another decade, according to a UCSD professor. (see label "european decline" below)

It's certainly a good thing that the women of Europe have the feminists of the western world looking out for them. The same goes for the gays and lesbians of Europe, who often suffer from Muslim violence.

Cross posted at Al Fin