Start the Week Off With a Laugh [Dan from NY]

Dan from NY:

11 Mar 2012

Kofi Annan optimistic over Syria deal

U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan concludes he is "optimistic" after meeting with president Assad.

11 Mar 2012

Syria: Assad rebuffs Kofi Annan peace bid

Syrian government offensive against rebels leaves more than 130 dead.

* * * * * * * * *
Did you know this week is Diplomat Lifetime Employment week?

Peace-seeking misunderstanderers of Islam rocket Israel for third straight day; 200,000 students ordered to stay home

I wonder how residents of, say, Texas would react to days of rocket fire from Mexico?

Residents of southern Israel suffered another day under siege on Sunday as Palestinians in the Gaza Strip fired about 50 more rockets at the Negev.

Two Grad-type Katyusha rockets fell in Be'er Sheva after the Iron Dome battery that had been protecting it suffered a technical malfunction...

...One rocket hit a school, which was empty since schools in the city were closed Sunday, and the other hit a parked car. Fifteen people were treated for shock, though there were no other casualties. The rockets - and the ball bearings that they ejected hundreds of meters - caused heavy damage to buildings and vehicles...

...Since Friday, 104 rockets were fired toward Israel, 43 of which were intercepted by the Iron Dome defense systems. The IAF carried out 23 strikes in the Gaza Strip.

...Some 200,000 pupils will remain at home again on Monday, as schools remain closed in Be'er Sheva, Ofakim, Ashdod, Yavneh, Ashkelon, Kiryat Malakhi and Netivot, and in all the other smaller communities that are between seven and 40 kilometers from the Gaza Strip.

Until these barbaric throwbacks are sufficiently punished, there will be no peace anywhere, least of all in the Middle East. Because it pays.


Hat tip: BadBlue.

The Tinderbox That Is Europe

True, the Middle East is boiling over with the rise of Al Qaeda in Libya, the mass slaughter of Syrian dissidents, and the takeover over of a one-time ally by the Egyptian strain of the Muslim Brotherhood. But Europe too, as Tyler Durden explains, is on the precipice of widespread civil unrest.

The last time we plotted European youth unemployment in what was dubbed "Europe's scariest chart" we were surprised to discover that when it comes to "Arab Spring inspiring" youth unemployment, Spain was actually worse off than even (now officially broke) Greece, whose young adult unemployment at the time was only just better compared to that... of the United States. Luckily, following the latest economic (yes, we laughed too) update from Greece, it is safe to say that things are back to normal, as Greek youth unemployment is officially the second one in Europe after Spain to surpass 50%. In other words, Europe's scariest chart just got even scarier.

And so while the Greek economy is in tatters, following another downward revision to its GDP as reported last week, this time dragging Q4 GDP from -7.0% to -7.5%, that's only the beginning, and it now appears that a terminal collapse of not just the Greek financial sector, but its society as well, has commenced, as the number of people unemployed in the 11 million person country is now 41% greater than its was a year ago...

You would think that the failure of their model -- the European social welfare state -- would cause Democrats to rethink their approach to governance.

But then, that would require substantial measures of reason, logic, and rationality, all of which are woefully lacking in the modern, Marxist-controlled Democrat Party.

Boycott This! [Dan from NY]

Dan from NY:

I know there are many people on my mailing list who would rather die before they’d purchase an Israeli product. Good. Your opportunity is here.

New blood test offers early cancer detection

The simple new check shows a 90 percent detection rate in clinical tests for multiple types of cancers.

Israeli researchers have developed a simple and cheap blood test that was found to provide early detection for many types of cancer in clinical trials.

The promising new blood test, developed by scientists at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and Soroka University Medical Center in Beersheva, can detect minuscule changes in the blood of a person with a cancerous growth somewhere in the body, even before the disease has spread...

Obama on Iran's nukes: dismisses "Holocaust fears", warns Israel against "premature strike"

Dan from NY:

Here’s a preview of the hopelessly naïve and sophomoric rationales Obama is taking into his meeting with Netanyahu on Monday.

From an interview Obama gave The Atlantic that was released today:

###

Though he struck a consistently pro-Israel posture during the interview, Obama went to great lengths to caution Israel that a premature strike might inadvertently help Iran: "At a time when there is not a lot of sympathy for Iran and its only real ally, [Syria,] is on the ropes, do we want a distraction in which suddenly Iran can portray itself as a victim?"

He also said he would try to convince Netanyahu that the only way to bring about a permanent end to a country's nuclear program is to convince the country in question that nuclear weapons are not in its best interest. "Our argument is going to be that it is important for us to see if we can solve this thing permanently, as opposed to temporarily," he said, "and the only way historically that a country has ultimately decided not to get nuclear weapons without constant military intervention has been when they themselves take [nuclear weapons] off the table. That's what happened in Libya, that's what happened in South Africa."

And though broadly sympathetic to Netanyahu's often-stated fear that Iran's nuclear program represents a Holocaust-scale threat to the Jewish state, and the Jewish people, Obama suggested strongly that historical fears cannot be the sole basis for precipitous action: "The prime minister is head of a modern state that is mindful of the profound costs of any military action, and in our consultations with the Israeli government, I think they take those costs, and potential unintended consequences, very seriously."

###

All of this is, of course, entirely consistent with Mark Langfan's (curiously rational) "conspiracy theory".

Crazy conspiracy theory? Or is it so sane that you just blew your mind?

Mark Langfan's detective work leads to some fascinating -- if not outright terrifying -- conclusions.

...in January 2011, before even a dozen demonstrators were killed, a small herd of camel-riding Mubarakists rode into Tahrir Square trampling some protesters underfoot, and Obama immediately flew into an apoplectic rage, gliding close to personally claiming that Mubarak was a war criminal for attacking peaceful "democratic" demonstrators...

...But in February 2012, after Assad has murdered over 10,000 Sunni mostly totally unarmed civilians by lobbing barrages of multiple rounds of artillery into Homs, why is Obama all but numbingly silent in-between his own barrages of multiple rounds of 18-hole golf?

The reason: the US President Obama has artfully and silently pivoted US Middle East Policy from a Pro-Saudi, Anti-Iran paradigm to a Pro-Iran, Anti-Saudi imperative.

Crazy you say? The Dubai Police Chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim, attending at a recent Gulf security conference with US diplomats, “undiplomatically” for over 18 minutes calmly stated...:

1) “US Policy is the Number One threat” to the Gulf States;
2) America “has realized the dreams of Iran in Iraq;”
3) the US has “adopted the path and ideology of Khomeini;” and
4) the US “is no longer an ally” of the Gulf States.

To frame the instant question with a sharper point: Why did President Obama, in his 2009 Cairo Speech, pro-actively incite and reflexively, over Saudi Arabia’s infinite anger, support the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak, who was the US’ stalwart Sunni American ally for over 30 years and who acted as the sole-substantial Sunni Arab counterweight to Iran?

...How come the Nobel Prize-winning Obama unflinchingly allows Assad, a Shiite/Alawite, confirmed state-sponsor of terror, funneler of IEDs in Iraq which murdered thousands of US soldiers, and a stalwart ally of Shiite Iran, to cold-bloodedly massacre what is now over ten thousand unarmed Sunni Muslims?

...And why did President Obama anoint the Shiite Al Maliki, a known-Iranian stooge, as the omnipotent new-Shiite Saddam of Iraq, sideline the Iraqi Sunnis, and compound the decidedly pro-Shiite tilt by tacitly handing the keys of Iraq over to Iran...?

Why does Obama constantly refer to the ragtag, disjointed, barely-existing Sunni al Qaeda as the "greatest threat to the US" when the Shiite Iran and its Hizbullah and Iraqi based proxies have killed many times more US soldiers and US civilians in the past 20 years than al Qaeda has, - and Iran is nearing the acquisition of nuclear bomb and constantly claiming Israel is a "cancerous tumor" that needs to be "cut out" of the Middle East?

...The answer can be found in Obama’ first documented foreign "policy" speech in 2002 dubbed the "Iraq War Speech" where Obama unambiguously declared:

“You want a fight, President Bush? Let’s fight to make sure our so-called allies in the Middle East, the Saudis and the Egyptians, stop oppressing their own people, and suppressing dissent, and tolerating corruption and inequality. . . .” - Barack Obama, Oct. 2, 2002

From Obama’s very first recorded words on US foreign policy, Saudi Arabia, and not Iran, was to Obama, America’s Number one enemy.

President Obama’s inimical abhorrence of the House of Saud was further codified in US President Obama’s May 19, 2011 major Foreign Policy speech where he repeatedly explicitly attacked Bahrain, Saudi’s key ally, as well as again clearly targeting the “elite” Saud Family when he stated:

Prosperity also requires tearing down walls that stand in the way of progress -– the corruption of elites who steal from their people; the red tape that stops an idea from becoming a business; the patronage that distributes wealth based on tribe or sect. –- New York Times, 5/19/11 “Obama’s Mideast Speech”

Obama, from his 2002 speech on a Chicago street to his 2011 speech at the State Department, sees the House of Saud as the very personification of Obama’s “elites who steal from their people,” and of “the patronage that distributes wealth based on tribe or sect.”

But Obama’s one act which symbolically crystallizes the essence of what has been, is, and will be the Obama Doctrine is Obama’s very first act as US President. ...he formally and publically returned the bust of Winston Churchill to Great Britain that had long adorned the Bush Oval Office.

Obama viscerally rejected Churchill’s White House presence because it was Winston Churchill and his “Lawrence of Arabia” generation of British foreign establishment that, in effect, had “divided and conquered” the Muslim Ummah, and empowered the balkanized Sunni “elite” kingdoms at the expense of the Shi’ites and the Ottoman Empire. While empowering the local Sunni Kingdoms, Churchill disempowered a possible unified Muslim Caliphate, and the Shi’ites.

...With the Obama Doctrine, Obama’s entire foreign policy makes sense: It explains why Obama toppled Egypt, Saudi Arabia’s key Sunni ally. In a heartbeat, Obama rendered Egypt permanently paralyzed to assist the Saudis against Iran...

...In accordance with this doctrine, Obama obliterated the Sunni Qaddafi with hundreds of million dollar Tomahawk missiles, deleting the precious cache of Tomahawks (for possible use against Iran) where there was a truly heavily armed Libyan opposition who could fight for themselves and instead left an absolute Islamist maelstrom wrapped in chaos enveloped in bedlam and mayhem. As a result, Obama has mutely watched well over ten thousand Syrian Sunnis be massacred by Iran’s Shi’ite handmaiden, Assad, and hasn’t even shipped in one 5 kilometer range anti-tank weapon that would easily spay Assad’s rampaging tanks and artillery.

...And as a final policy puzzle piece, Obama’s noisy objection to an Israeli attack on Iran is, in reality, a deafeningly silent total rejection of Saudi Arabia’s push for America to militarily attack Iran. The Saudis know Iran is infinitely more of a threat to Saudi Arabia than to Israel.

Obama has publically amped up the five-alarm fire-fight with Israel to make the Iran issue appear to be an “Israel only” issue, thereby preemptively embarrassing the Saudis out of even asking for the US to strike... So for Obama it’s a win-win-win, actively attack Israel, blame Israel for destabilizing the Middle East, attack Israel’s American supporters as dual loyalists, and passively pre-reject the Saudis request for an attack on Iran’s facilities before the Saudis even ask for one.

What all this means is Obama has quietly turned 50 years of US Foreign policy on its head without even a single congressional hearing... Obama’s true foreign policy objective seems to be nothing less than the full nuclear weaponization of Iran. Anything else is a smoke-screen for Obama to look like he’s doing something, but in reality he is doing nothing to stop Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons.

In conclusion, Obama is actively "democratically" toppling all U.S. Middle East allies, and soon a nuclear-armed Iran will control 70% of the World's Oil Reserves, charging $500 a barrel for oil.

...And in the short-term, Obama and the world will watch Assad commit a holocaust against the unarmed Syrian Sunnis, and, of course, Obama’s golf game will see some improvement.

Just after Obama was elected in 2008, Time Magazine published an article entitled "Baghdad Scuttlebutt: Pssst! Obama's a Shi'ite".

For what it's worth.


Hat tip: Dan from NY.

Now Egypt wants a prisoner swap: will legacy media finally report that we have a HOSTAGE FREAKING CRISIS?

Did someone say Jimmy Carter, Part Deux? Dan from NY writes:

Shades of Jimmy Carter. For 30 years. while Mubarak was running things, Egypt considered us an ally. Now, almost overnight, the new Muslim Brotherhood regime sees us as infidels. How can we ever thank you, Mr. Obama?

Egypt Demands Prisoner Swap: Terrorist Detainees for NGO Civilians

Are the bitter fruits of Senator John McCain’s “diligent diplomacy” a humiliating prisoner “exchange”—innocent US NGO workers, for hardened jihadists, including the notorious “Blind Sheikh” Umar ‘Abd-al-Rahman, who orchestrated the murderous 1993 World Trade Center bombing?

My colleague at Translating Jihad has fully translated an Arabic Al-Arabiya story entitled (pathognomonically), “ ‘Umar ‘Abd-al-Rahman at Forefront of Egyptian-American Prisoner Exchange Deal.”

The Egyptian government began taking steps to respond with the American offer to release 50 Egyptians being held in American prisons–including Shaykh ‘Umar ‘Abd-al-Rahman—in exchange for the release of 19 Americans accused in the case of foreign funding of civil society organizations. This is according to what was confirmed by Major General Muhammad Hani Zahir, an expert in military studies and international counterterrorism.

Zahir in comments to the newspaper ‘al-Masriyun’ said it was necessary for Egypt to exploit America’s weak position, especially after condemning its citizens in cases affecting Egyptian sovereignty over its territory. He added that Egypt should not permit this exchange to take place unless the American administration agrees to release more than 500 Egyptians being held in American prisons, of whom the Egyptian foreign ministry knows nothing.

If the crux of this story is accurate, it will represent a modern variant of capitulation to the anti-modern dictates of jihad warfare. Jihad, this ancient, but vibrant Islamic institution grounded upon hatred of the non-Muslim infidel, has long used captured infidels—including, prominently, non-combatants seized as “booty” during endless, unprovoked incursions into the lands of the infidel—to ransom in exchange for captured murderous jihadists.

I wonder how bad business has to get for legacy media to start actually reporting the news?

Or is that now the responsibility of the blogosphere?

Apology accepted: Iran says White House should be burned down, officers hung over Koran-burning incident

This appeasement strategy is working out beautifully, eh?

JPOST.COM, 2/26/2012

'US officers should be hung over Koran incident'

Al Arabiya: Iranian commander says White House should be burned; Afghan ministry worker suspected of killing US officers.

A top Iranian military commander said Saturday that nothing but burning the White House and hanging US commanders could remedy the pain caused to Muslims by the burning of Korans at a US military base in Afghanistan, pan-Arab Al Arabiya news channel reported Sunday.

"The US has committed such an ugly act and burned Korans because of the heavy slap it has been given by Islam," Basij (volunteer forces) Commander Brig.-Gen. Muhammad Reza Naqdi [said] ... “Their apology can be accepted only by hanging their commanders; hanging their commanders means an apology." ...

US President Barack Obama sent a letter to Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday apologizing for the incident, which occurred last week, and saying that it wasn't intentional.

In a continuation of events, two American officers were killed as rage gripped the country for a fifth straight day over the burning of the Muslim holy book, despite Obama's apology.

Afghanistan's interior ministry said on Sunday it suspects one of its employees may have killed the two US officers inside the ministry a day earlier...

Hey, if you liked the Iranians during the Carter hostage crisis, orchestrating the Beirut Marine bombing, and fomenting Iraq's civil war, you'll love 'em when they have nukes!

Thanks, President Obama!

No spin at all: how the AP reports Obama's hostage crisis in Egypt

My, doesn't the Associated Press bring an even hand to this story?

Official: US seeks end to Egypt NGO case in days

By MATTHEW LEE
Associated Press

RABAT, Morocco (AP) -- A senior U.S. official says the Obama administration is in "intense discussions" with Egypt to resolve the legal case against 16 American democracy advocates that has badly damaged ties between the countries "in the coming days"

The official, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity due to the delicacy of the matter, said Saturday that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had raised the matter twice in person with Egypt's foreign minister - once in London and once in Tunis - in the past three days and that other senior U.S. officials are actively involved.

The administration has been calling for the case to be resolved for weeks in a manner that allows seven of the implicated Americans who have been barred from leaving to leave the country.

Please note that the words "hostages", "crisis", "Carter", and "SCOAMF" were carefully omitted from the AP's crack reportage.

Which is why Americans regard the Associated Press with roughly the same level of disdain as they had for Pravda during the Nikita Khrushchev era.


Hat tips: BadBlue.com. Image: via Asian Conservatives.

Congratulations, President Obama and the No-Drill Democrats: Gas Prices Top $5 In L.A.!

Take a guess who the leftists and their idiot cousins in media will blame for skyrocketing gas prices: (a) "speculators", (b) "greedy oil companies", (c) "the rich", or (d) Bush. Not President Obama. Not his EPA. Not his Department of Interior. Not the brutal amount of taxes on each gallon of gas (about a dollar a gallon in total taxes versus two cents a gallon in profit for the "greedy oil companies").

Prices rise above $5 for a gallon of premium gas at a Shell station at Olympic Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles, California...

Let's take a look at the price of gas and crude oil since Barack Obama took office in 2009.

Looks to me like Obama's done exactly what he said he'd do.

He's shut down drilling on public lands, slow-rolled permit approvals, continued his de facto (and illegal) drilling moratorium in the gulf, and wasted billions on crony "green energy programs".

I guess it's "for the children", though, so it's okay, right?


Hat tip: Drudge.

Excellent News: Pennsylvania Judge Uses Sharia Law to Dismiss Assault Charges Against Muslim Who Attacked Atheist

Well, this is certainly disturbing.

A district judge dismissed a harassment charge against a man accused of attacking a man dressed as "Zombie Muhammad" during a Halloween parade last year in Mechanicsburg.

Judge Mark Martin said there wasn't enough evidence to convict 46-year-old Talaag Elbayomy of the summary offense. It was basically one man's word against another's, the judge said.

Elbayomy was accused of attacking Ernest Perce V, of the Parading Atheists of Central PA, during the Oct. 11 parade. Perce claimed Elbayomy tried to take his "Muhammad of Islam" sign and choked him.

Martin received testimony from Elbayomy, Perce and Mechanicsburg Police Sgt. Brian Curtis who received the complaint from Perce. Curtis did not witness the alleged attack, Martin said.

A video of the incident was uploaded to YouTube and it's been viewed over 55,000 times. It clearly demonstrates that the attack was not "one man's word against another's".

Furthermore, as Eugene Volokh notes, a police officer reported that Elbayomy admitted that'd he'd grabbed Perce and attempted to steal his sign.

But the worrying thing is what the judge (Mark Martin) seems to have said at the trial, based on what appears to be a recording of the hearing: The judge — who stated that he (the judge) was himself a Muslim and found the speech to be offensive — spent a good deal of time berating the victim for what the judge saw as the victim’s offensive and blasphemous speech, which seems to raise a serious question about whether the judge’s acquittal of the defendant was actually partly caused by the judge’s disapproval of the victim.

Andrew McCarthy has posted the entire transcript of the judge's statement. Among the more egregious comments:

Well, having had the benefit of having spent over two-and-a-half years in a predominantly Muslim country, I think I know a little bit about the faith of Islam. In fact, I have a copy of the Koran here, and I would challenge you, sir, to show me where it says in the Koran that Mohammed arose and walked among the dead... [Ed: And what does that have to do with an assault?]

...Before you start mocking someone else’s religion you may want to find out a little bit more about it. That makes you look like a doofus... In their society, in fact, it could be punishable by death, and it frequently is, in their society...

...I think our forefathers intended that we use the First Amendment so that we can speak our mind, not to piss off other people and other cultures, which is what you did... what you have done is you’ve completely trashed their essence, their being. They find it very, very, very offensive... there is not, it is not proven to me beyond a reasonable doubt that this defendant is guilty of harassment. Therefore I am going to dismiss the charge.

Really. He said all of this tripe, and more.

McCarthy summarizes the decision with a powerful conclusion.

...a judge who is an adherent of current American government policy toward Islam — who, for example, sees no conflict between sharia and the federal Constitution, or who thinks fear of Muslim reactionary violence is a good reason to curb the First Amendment — should not have sat on this case, regardless of whether he happened to be a Muslim.

Call Judge Martin and voice your dissatisfaction with his blatant dismissal of the First Amendment. Be polite, but firm. Remind him that this is America, not some third-world hell-hole.


Hat tip: Brad M. at 720 The Rock

Is it Too Late For Israel to Save America? [Dan from NY]

Dan from NY:

I know, I know, this is self-serving Israeli hyperbole aimed at stampeding America into a war with Iran. But what if... it isn’t?

Israel: Iran will have U.S.-range missile in 2-3 years

Wed, Feb 22 2012

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel believes that within 2-3 years Iran will have intercontinental missiles able to hit the United States, an Israeli minister said in remarks aimed at raising awareness of the threat it believes a nuclear Iran would pose to the world. Analysts now estimate the longest range of an Iranian missile to be about 2,400 km (1,500 miles), capable of reaching Tehran's arch-enemy Israel as well as Europe.

...Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz's assessment, in an interview with CNBC, was in line with an unclassified U.S. Defense Department report in 2010 that estimated Iran may be able to build a U.S.-range missile by 2015. "They (the Iranians) are working now and investing a lot of billions of dollars in order to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles," said Steinitz, a former chairman of the Israeli parliament's foreign affairs and defense committee.

"And we estimate that in two to three years they will have the first intercontinental ballistic missiles that can reach the east coast of America. So their aim is to put a direct nuclear ballistic threat ... to Europe and to the United States of America," he said in English.

Israeli intelligence services keep a close eye on Iran, whose nuclear program Israelis see as a mortal threat, and are widely believed to have been behind a series of assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists. Israel also has spy satellites.

Steinitz's remarks coincided with stepped up U.S. efforts to persuade Israeli leaders that there is still time for diplomacy to keep Tehran from building a nuclear weapon and growing concerns Israel might opt to strike Iran pre-emptively. Three weeks ago, Israeli Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon said Iran had been working on developing a missile capable of striking the United States at a military base rocked by an explosion that killed 17 Iranian troops in November.

Yaalon, who is also minister of strategic affairs, said the base was a research and development facility where Iran was preparing to produce or develop a missile with a range of 10,000 km (6,000 miles).

In related news, it seems that the Obama administration has denied an entry visa to a member of the Israeli parliament over a supposed link to terrorist group.

[The] Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin ... sent an angry letter to U.S. ambassador Dan Shapiro, saying it was unacceptable for a Knesset member to be banned from the United States and urging him to reconsider...

Ben Ari said he found it strange that a country which has granted visas to both Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (who was involved for decades in PLO terror) should bar him "on the grounds that I'm a terrorist."

Unbelievable.

Deconstructing Barack Obama's Blatant Energy Lies

Gas prices are poised to spike again this weekend, this time by as much as 20 cents a gallon.

And I didn't get to hear President Obama's fundraising energy speech in Miami today, but I do know this much. He deflected blame. He passed the buck. He blamed Bush. He lied. And he demonized Republicans for begging Democrats to unleash America's vast treasure trove of energy.

Obama's main message to struggling motorists was: It's not my fault, so stop whining. The speech only got worse from there, recycling excuses and myths that Obama's peddled for years. But there were some standout whoppers that deserve debunking...:

"We're focused on production."

Fact: While production is up under Obama, this has nothing to do with his policies, but is the result of permits and private industry efforts that began long before Obama occupied the White House... Obama has chosen almost always to limit production. He canceled leases on federal lands in Utah, suspended them in Montana, delayed them in Colorado and Utah, and canceled lease sales off the Virginia coast.

His administration also has been slow-walking permits in the Gulf of Mexico, approving far fewer while stretching out review times, according to the Greater New Orleans Gulf Permit Index. The Energy Dept. says Gulf oil output will be down 17% by the end of 2013, compared with the start of 2011. Swift Energy President Bruce Vincent is right to say Obama has "done nothing but restrict access and delay permitting."

"The U.S. consumes more than a fifth of the world's oil. But we only have 2% of the world's oil reserves."

Fact: Obama constantly refers to this statistic to buttress his claim that "we can't drill our way to lower gas prices." The argument goes that since the U.S. supply is limited, it won't ever make a difference to world prices... It's bogus. New exploration and drilling technologies have uncovered vast amounts of recoverable oil.

In fact, the U.S. has a mind-boggling 1.4 trillion barrels of oil, enough to "fuel the present needs in the U.S. for around 250 years,"...

"There are no short-term silver bullets when it comes to gas prices."

Fact: Obama could drive down oil prices right now simply by announcing a more aggressive effort to boost domestic supplies. When President Bush lifted a moratorium in 2008, oil prices immediately fell $9 a barrel.

As Doc Hastings, Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, observed today, the "Obama administration spins U.S. oil product numbers, tak[ing] credit for predecessors' pro-energy policies."

The Obama Administration’s actions have caused domestic energy production to decrease... the White House does not explain that the vast majority of increased production is occurring on private lands, not public.

The slight increase in onshore production from federal lands is due to lease sales approved by previous Administrations—not the Obama Administration... ...The total onshore acreage leased under the Obama Administration in 2009 and 2010 are the lowest in over two decades, stretching back to at least 1984.

...the Obama Administration is attempting to take credit for actions they had nothing to do with. The strong production in the Gulf was due to leases issued in 1996-2000 under the Deepwater Royalty Relief Act – long before President Obama took office... The Obama Administration’s actions, such as imposing a de facto moratorium, are causing energy production to decline in the Gulf of Mexico. EIA shows a 300,000 barrel per day decline in current Gulf production and a projected Gulf decline of over 150 million barrels of oil in 2012.

Obama went on to tout his "green energy" programs, which have turned out to be a massive criminal operation redistribution of wealth from the private sector to Democrat campaign contributors:

In his speech, Obama proclaimed that Americans aren't stupid.

That much is for certain, which explains why they're so pissed off at his blatant energy lies.


Hat tip: Mark Levin

'Iran's Peaceful Annihilation Program' [Dan from NY]

Dan from NY:

Fars News Agency, Iran, 2/21/2012

Wife of Assassinated Scientist: Annihilation of Israel "Mostafa's Ultimate Goal"

TEHRAN (FNA)- The wife of Martyr Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan Behdast, who was assassinated by Mossad agents in Tehran in January, reiterated on Tuesday that her husband sought the annihilation of the Zionist regime wholeheartedly.

"Mostafa's ultimate goal was the annihilation of Israel," Fatemeh Bolouri Kashani told FNA on Tuesday

Bolouri Kashani also underlined that her spouse loved any resistance figure in his life who was willing to fight the Zionist regime and supported the rights of the oppressed Palestinian nation.

###
Hat tip: Elliott Abrams

How many times do the Mullahs have to pledge to eradicate Israel from the face of the Earth before Neville Obama and the rest of the Leftists take them seriously?

That's also a rhetorical question, drones.


Related: The Atomic Mahdi.

Yippee!!! Greece is saved! Greece is saved! Oh. Wait. Uhm, never mind.

The ludicrous Paul Krugman -- who was just extolling the wonders of the European Social Democrat Welfare State™ little more than two years ago -- hardest hit.

If it seems like it was only 5 days ago that Greek bonds could be had for the blockbuster yield of 638%, it is because it was As of today, the same bond was yielding an even more ridiculous 763% (and remember when the MSM fluffers were telling you to buy these at the bargain basement yield of 100% in September 2011?).

Greece should have been allowed to default two years ago, when it would have been much cheaper and less traumatic to the world banking system.

Instead, the masterminds running the Eurozone keep building floor upon floor of their increasingly complex house of cards. And when it all comes tumbling down, the damage will be felt globally -- for years to come.

Legacy Media: Hostage Crisis? What Hostage Crisis?

19 American hostages are being held by the new Islamist government in Egypt and to read the funny papers, you'd never know it.

Nineteen American citizens working for well-known and well-established nonprofit groups are being held on trumped-up charges that they tried to destabilize Egypt. Their offices were raided in late December, some are holed up in the U.S. embassy and all of them have been barred from flying out of Egypt... December is when Congress passed a number of conditions for aid to the Egyptian military, including proving a “commitment to Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel, progress toward democratic reforms, and the protection of free expression, association and religion.” Not only are the last two of those conditions not being met by Egypt, but Time adds that Cairo’s case against the Americans is “propagated by the military-led regime.”

That’s also an important part of the story. To its credit, the Egyptian military played a key role in persuading Mubarak to cede power, and in preventing Egypt from careening into chaos. The Egyptian military is now trying to serve as something of a referee/power broker/king-maker. Up until this crisis, Washington recognized that while having the Egyptian military in charge is not ideal, it may be necessary to hold the political pieces together in Egypt. But if this is how the “responsible” parties in post-Mubarak Egypt are going to treat Americans, then it’s time to reevaluate everything about this interests-based relationship. Hopefully, Joint Chiefs Chairman Martin Dempsey is conveying that very message in his talks in Cairo...

Performing a Google News search on this topic will provide you with stories from Commentary, FrontPage, AllAfrica, The Foundry (the Heritage Foundation's blog), Tablet (a Jewish news magazine), IOL News (South Africa), and even the New Republic.

There are no recent stories from The New York Times. Nothing from The Washington Post. Nothing from ABC News. Or NBC. Or MSNBC. Or CBS.

And what does David Gregory on Meet the Press want to discuss with House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan?

Not the "Jimmy Carter, Part Deux" hostage crisis.

Not the disastrous spike in gas prices thanks to Obama's policies of shutting off access to America's vast natural treasure trove of energy.

Not the deficit disaster awaiting America.

No, the pencil-necked liberal hack wants to talk about... contraception.

This pathetic legacy media can't vanish into bankruptcy fast enough.

The Islamist Lobby Silently Infiltrates the Beltway [Dan from NY]

Dan from NY:

A sobering thought: The legacy media’s decision to protect Obama at all costs means they are willfully keeping the American public in the dark, suppressing vital information and debate about the steady growth of the Islamists’ influence over Obama’s foreign policy and his administration in general. We should thank Heaven for the work-around made possible by the Internet. If we can keep the regulators’ hands off, it may eventually save us. But if Barack Hussein Obama gets another four years to tinker with our nation, gornischt helfen, nothing will save us.

A note from Investigative Project on Terrorism Executive Director Steven Emerson:

Please take the time to read this very important story written by a courageous Egyptian liberal intellectual about the Islamist and Muslim Brotherhood lobbies in Washington and the Obama Administration's secret collaboration with these pro-terrorist, anti-Western, anti-women, anti-American and anti-Semitic organizations. This is one of the most important articles I have read in years.

It was just revealed two days ago that FBI Director Mueller secretly met on February 8 at FBI headquarters with a coalition of groups including various Islamist and militant Arabic groups who in the past have defended Hamas and Hizballah and have also issued blatantly anti-Semitic statements. At this meeting, the FBI revealed that it had removed more than 1000 presentations and curricula on Islam from FBI offices around the country that was deemed "offensive." The FBI did not reveal what criteria was used to determine why material was considered "offensive" but knowledgeable law enforcement sources have told the IPT that it was these radical groups who made that determination. Moreover, numerous FBI agents have confirmed that from now on, FBI headquarters has banned all FBI offices from inviting any counter-terrorist specialists who are considered "anti-Islam" by Muslim Brotherhood front groups.

The February 8 FBI meeting was the culmination of a series of unpublicized directives issued in the last three months by top FBI officials to all its field offices to immediately recall and withdraw any presentation or curricula on Islam throughout the entire FBI. In fact, according to informed sources and undisclosed documents, the FBI directive was instigated by radical Muslim groups in the US who had repeatedly met with top officials of the Obama Administration to complain, among other things, that the mere usage of the term of "radical Islam" in FBI curricula was "offensive" and 'racist." And thus, directives went out by Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director Mueller to censor all such material. Included in the material destroyed or removed by the FBI and the DOJ were powerpoints and articles that defined jihad as "holy war" or presentations that portrayed the Muslim Brotherhood as an organization bent on taking over the world—a major tenant that the Muslim Brotherhood has publicly stated for decades.

The Arab American Institute confirms the story:

In a continuing effort to address concerns related to inflammatory training material, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently met with community and interfaith organizations to provide an update on steps taken by the agency to rectify the matter. On Wednesday, February 8, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), the Arab American Institute (AAI), Interfaith Alliance, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), Muflehun, the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF), and the Shoulder-to-Shoulder campaign had an opportunity to discuss the matter with the Public Affairs Office of the FBI. Director Robert Mueller joined the meeting to discuss these matters with the representatives from the organizations...

...[Mueller] informed participants that to date, nearly all related FBI training materials ... were reviewed by subject matter experts multiple times. Consequently, more than 700 documents and 300 presentations of material have been deemed unusable by the Bureau and pulled from the training curriculum. Material was pulled from the curriculum if even one component was deemed to 1) include factual errors, 2) be in poor taste, 3) be stereotypical, or 4) lack precision.

According to Essam Abdallah at the Investigative Project on Terrorism, not only is the Islamist lobby stealthily undermining American law enforcement, it is waging war on Arab and Muslim liberals."

Months into the Arab Spring, we realized that the Western powers, and the Obama Administration have put their support behind the new authoritarians, those who are claiming they will be brought to power via the votes of the people. Well, it is not quite so.

The Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic Nahda of Tunisia, the Justice Party of Morocco and the Islamist militias in Libya's Transitional National Council have been systematically supported by Washington at the expense of real liberal and secular forces. We saw day by day how the White House guided carefully the statements and the actions of the US and the State Department followed through to give all the chances to the Islamists and almost no chances to the secular and revolutionary youth. We will come back to detail these diplomatic and financial maneuvers which are giving victory to the fundamentalists while the seculars and progressives are going to be smashed by the forthcoming regimes.

Ted Belman offers the executive summary:

What this means is that the Obama administration has made a strategic decision to join forces with the Islamists rather than fight them. This policy has serious implications for America at home and abroad. It also has serious implications for Israel. It means that America will restrain Israel from besting the Islamists and will favour the Islamists over Israel. It is no accident that the Islamists are now in power in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt or that the The US has fully embraced Islamist Erdogan of Turkey and is supporting the advent of the MB in Syria. Nothing could be more ominous.

Chairman Issa: I think it's time for your committee to subpoena Director Mueller and Attorney General Holder on this topic.

Entertaining Saudi Crime Report o' the Day

You can't make this crap up:

JIZAN – A Hai’a security inspector has been fined SR3,000, six weeks in prison and 120 lashes for marrying more than four women and breaking residency laws. The Hai’a is the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.

He married three Saudi women, who are on his identity card, two non-Saudi women who don’t have Iqamas and a non-Saudi who has an Iqama...

It is against Islamic law for a Muslim man to have more than four wives at one time.

...The Administrative Court at the Jizan Board of Grievances in Uhud Al-Masariha gave him 120 lashes for marrying more than four wives... He was also ordered to memorize certain chapters of the Holy Qur’an and study their interpretation. He was also banned from traveling abroad for five years, delivering a speech in the mosque and leading prayers in the mosque.

System Error: No Snark Available At This Time.

Top Congressional Foreign Policy Experts Beg Obama Not to Cut Israeli Missile Defense Funding

Well, this doesn't appear to be good news for the tiny country of Israel.

Two of the House’s top foreign policy voices have petitioned President Obama to reconsider his proposal to reduce U.S. missile defense funding to Israel.

Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Howard McKeon, respectively the chairs of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Armed Services Committee, jointly write that they are “deeply concerned” over Obama’s “record low support for this vital defense cooperation program,” which was first reported on by the Washington Free Beacon...

For the second straight year, the Obama administration has proposed to reduce the level of funding for Israel’s critical Arrow and David’s Sling defense systems. This despite the president’s repeated declarations that the U.S. has an “iron-clad commitment” to Israel’s security.

In conjunction with Obama's "lead from behind" strategy related to Iran -- which has simply emboldened the Mullahs as they pursue nuclear weapons -- this development is beyond ominous. It's apocalyptic.

So soon? House moves a step closer to finding Holder in contempt of Congress

It's about freaking time.

On Tuesday Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House committee on Oversight and Government Reform, took a major step toward holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for his failure to provide subpoenaed documents and other information about Operation Fast and Furious.

In a Jan. 31 letter, Issa had threatened Holder with such a move if he failed to provide all the subpoenaed documents relating to the Fast and Furious gunwalking scandal by Feb. 9. That deadline has come and gone, and Holder’s Department of Justice still hasn’t provided most of those documents. Issa’s subpoena dates back to Oct. 12, 2011.

...“We cannot wait any longer for the Department’s cooperation,” Issa continued. “As such, please specify a date by which you expect the Department to produce all documents responsive to the subpoena. In addition, please specify a Department representative who will interface with the Committee for production purposes.”

Issa added that whoever Holder designates as the go-to DOJ official for delivering subpoenaed documents “should also serve as the conduit for dealing with the contempt proceedings, should the Department continue to ignore the Committee’s subpoena.”

The California Republican slammed Holder, too, for claiming the congressional investigation into Fast and Furious was a political game for Republicans... “It is ironic that while the Department’s delay tactics have extended this investigation into a presidential election year, you have had the audacity to characterize it as an attempt at ‘headline-grabbing Washington ‘gotcha’ games and cynical political point scoring,’” Issa wrote to Holder on Tuesday.

Issa also attacked Holder for Justice’s failure to comply with Congressional subpoenas. “Had the Department demonstrated willingness to cooperate with this investigation from the outset — instead of attempting to cover up its own internal mismanagement — this investigation likely would have concluded well before the end of 2011. In reality, it is the Department that is playing political gotcha games, instead of allowing a co-equal branch of government to perform its constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the Executive Branch.”

Issa’s letter concluded by warning that Congress will continue to investigate Operation Fast and Furious until responsible parties are held accountable. He pointed to bipartisan support behind efforts to assign responsibility for Border Patrol agent Brian Terry’s murder, for the murders of at least 300 Mexican civilians and, likely, for the murder of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jaime Zapata.

“This is not an ‘election year political ‘gotcha’ game,’ but rather a bipartisan sentiment,” Issa wrote. “As Ranking Member [Democratic Rep. Elijah] Cummings promised the family of slain Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, ‘we will not rest until every single person responsible for all of this, no matter where they are, are brought to justice.’

The House Oversight Committee offers the following summary of their latest request.

The letter outlines lingering unanswered questions about Operation Fast and Furious including:

• Exactly how and when did senior Department officials learn the truth of what happened?

• Did Department officials retaliate against whistleblowers?

• Why did Department officials decide to move forward with prosecuting old cases involving highly objectionable tactics when line prosecutors had refused to do so?

• Why did senior Department officials fail to see the clear connection between Fast and Furious and prior flawed operations they have admitted they knew about?

• When did the Department first learn about Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer's February 2011 suggestion of gunwalking, and why did the Department wait so long before telling Congress about it?

• A year later, will the responsible senior Department officials be held accountable?

I do like the internal title of the House letter (PDF):