July 30, 2008

Liberal traditions

"I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions."

Object oriented justice

A few moments' glance at this interview shows Gary McKinnon as a likeable nut, but he's about to be smashed by a sledgehammer wielded by thugs:
This London hacker will now be extradited to the US to be prosecuted for hacking into NASA/Pentagon systems. He faces 70 years in jail. The details of damage claimed in the extradition seem blatantly trumped up and the critical impetus seems to be embarrassment at the criminal incompetence of the US in safeguarding its own systems. (The UK is no better as numerous instances show of briefcases of secrets left in trains ). The atmospherics are that the US-UK extradition treaty is resented in the UK given that Congress failed for years to ratify it apparently to shield IRA terrorists in the US whose murders used to be seen as political acts and given the indifference to justice which is rampant in high profile US persecutions.

McKinnon committed this "biggest military computer hack of all time" using a dial-up modem and blank passwords.
...he did admit that he hacked into dozens of US government computer systems. In fact, he calmly detailed just how easy it was to access extremely sensitive information in those systems.
"I found out that the US military use Windows," said Mr McKinnon in that BBC interview. "And having realised this, I assumed it would probably be an easy hack if they hadn't secured it properly."
Using commercially available software, Mr McKinnon probed dozens of US military and government networks. He found many machines without adequate password or firewall protection. So, he simply hacked into them.
The recent shenanigans of US prosecutors in rebus Conrad Black, Lt.Col. Chessani, Hank Greenberg and many other cases have brought US justice into disrepute among Yankophiles like me. The rot of course starts at the top with the grotesque social engineering agenda of the US Supreme Court.

July 29, 2008

From the war against the West

Lt. Colonel Jeffrey Chessani appears to be the subject a political prosecution on charges of covering up the deaths of civilians at Haditha in Iraq.
....The government is doing everything it can to convict LtCol Chessani. He is the political scapegoat they must convict to satisfy Murtha and the press.

The vast resources of the military are at its disposal. The number of military investigators is virtually limitless. Government prosecutors can go anywhere, talk to anyone, and get anything, all at government expense. The Marine command structure is mandated to cooperate.

So far, the government has spent millions of our taxpayer dollars, employed over 65 Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) agents ─ the largest investigation in that agency’s history ─ and granted immunity to scores of witnesses, all in their attempt to make Jeffrey and the “Haditha Marines” political scapegoats.
If you want to defend a brave man who has defended us click here.

July 27, 2008

Richard Dawkins in a nutshell

The most famous atheist isn't actually an atheist, but he is intellectually honest about it. On a scale of 1-7 of atheism he's only a 6, he says, after all he's a scientist. I have a friend whose self-description as 'local atheist, universal agnostic' fits Dawkins. Tho unimpressed myself by secular humanism, I am impressed by Dawkins when he's not propounding his jejune views on Bush and Iraq. Here's a routine knockout punch by a master:

Bananaman

Polls say 'Obama'

July 25, 2008

You can judge a man by his friends

The sound of air escaping

My instinct tells me that Obama's balloon is overinflated, but at least he has the internet sewn up, right? Wrong:

"When I'm 65"

Happy Birthday tomorrow to one likeable old age pensioner. He and I were both born in Dartford, Kent. Many more, Mick. Here's an attractive Charlie Rose interview:

Obama bombs in Berlin


Says who? Says me. Germans see an anti-Bush, apologizing for America's crimes against the world. I see an image forming, even among journalists, of a callow yet grandiose candidate. The contrast of Obama's sermon to his fellow 'citizens of the world' with his non-show at a US military hospital because he couldn't make it a campaign stop is pretty vile. I still forecast a McCain landslide on the basis that Americans aren't stupid. Next polls will show McCain gaining or I'm a banana and America has mush for brains.

July 24, 2008

Bravo McCain!

Give him credit, he knows how to fix Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are compromising America's credit-worthiness:
If elected, I'll continue my crusade for the right reform of the institutions: making them go away.


See also Paul Gigot for the lowdown on this gargantuan slice of crony capitalism:
The abiding lesson here is what happens when you combine private profit with government power. You create political monsters that are protected both by journalists on the left and pseudo-capitalists on Wall Street, by liberal Democrats and country-club Republicans.

July 23, 2008

Does bullshit float?

Obama has good teeth, a pleasant baritone and is good-looking but not a pretty boy. That's it. If this piece of fluff becomes President, America may gain affection among the infantile of all ages, but will lose the respect of adults.

VDH
:
Obama appeals to the gullible and puerile......the press who claims they know better and are more sophisticated are, in fact, far more infantile than most Americans
Maestro Mick:
Almost everyday I find myself incredulous at his vapid statements. Of course what's really remarkable isn't Obama himself, but the moronic media elite who should be euthanized as genetic failures for whom continued life would be cruel.

I find myself losing respect for the American people and democracy itself...
Powerline:
Even a Senator as inattentive to his duties as Obama certainly knows what committees he serves on. For him to fabricate the claim, out of whole cloth, that the Senate Banking Committee is "[his] committee," strikes me as another sign of Obama's megalomania. That, plus more evidence that he is totally at sea without a teleprompter.
Moi:
America, I'm going to clap my hands and you will wake up. Clintons,Wright,Obama,Moore, these people are grotesques, bright, shining, strutting grotesques. It's not politics as normal, it's fart in your face farce. What do you need? Stick-on noses, clown shoes, Krusty the Clown as running mate?

The long Dark Knight

The Joker is somewhat scintillating, another Loki character to haunt our time, but the rest of the film is leaden, lacking wit or originality. The good-guy trio of Bale, Caine and Freeman is just cringemakingly scripted. I like comic-strip art, especially Gotham gothic, but it needs flair and conviction. This is just actors acting and a director directing. Another view.

July 17, 2008

A trillion here, a trillion there...

...and pretty soon you're talking real money. The USA's triple-A credit rating is coming into question. Outfits like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, GM, AIG, Citigroup, which once were beyond question, may now get sunk by terrible risk management.

When you consider that Obama. Reid, Pelosi and McCain have all beclowned themselves on oil prices plus the tax and spend dna of both parties in America plus the depressed currency, you do have to wonder whether it's time for a downgrade. It happened to Japan.

What's the nice way to kill a child?

The words Samir Kuntar became famous yesterday. They sound as a curse when you read what eyewitnesses saw him do to a father and his child.

What do you call someone who denies help to babies who survive abortion?



h/t Jill Stanek
It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he be cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.
h/t Jesus Christ.

July 15, 2008

Bada bing

At a fundraiser in New Mexico last night, McCain cracked this joke at Romney’s expense: “I’m appreciative every time I see Mitt on television on my behalf. He does a better job for me than he did for himself as a matter of fact.” Bada bing. If McCain can start joking about someone, you know they've made it into his mental inner circle. Romney may very well be higher on the short list than anyone realizes. The biggest roadblock for many in picturing a McCain-Romney ticket is McCain getting over his personal reservations about him. But joking about him is a start.

h/t The Corner

..and Romney would do a better job for McCain than McCain does for himself.

July 14, 2008

Drilling thru stupidity

If offshore drilling would provide short-term relief at the pump or a long-term strategy for energy independence, it would be worthy of our consideration, regardless of the risks. But most experts, even within the Bush administration, concede it would do neither,'' Obama's campaign said in a statement today.

What follows is so obvious that it makes my eyes bleed to say it: present oil prices are high because people project expectations back into the present. The expectation is that Asian demand and the stupidity of American government will expand faster than the supply of oil. Should present actions overturn the future stupidity piece of expectations, then present prices would drop.

An analogy for a would-be Commander In Chief is: imagine you are fighting a terror campaign against America and getting terribly beaten and expect to get terribly beaten in future, then you'd stop now. But suppose America told you that in 6 months it may retreat from the battlefield, then rather than stop, you'd murder as hard as you can now to encourage America to decide to retreat. Altogether now, children and Nominees for the Presidency: " Long-term expectations dictate present choices and present prices".

Update: Aaaargh!
Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today on President Bush's announcement lifting the executive ban on drilling in protected coastal areas:

"Once again, the oilman in the White House is echoing the demands of Big Oil.

"The Bush plan is a hoax. It will neither reduce gas prices nor increase energy independence. It just gives millions more acres to the same companies that are sitting on nearly 68 million acres of public lands and coastal areas.

"If the President wants to bring down prices in the next two weeks, not the next two decades, he should free our oil by releasing a small portion of the more than 700 million barrels of oil we have put in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Present supply of crude oil is not tight (eg prompt prices are lower than forward prices), so to release SPR crude oil onto the market will merely increase the expectation of government stupidity and probably raise prices. The bs about big oil sitting on government land (she means the right to explore which has been bought in competitive auction and which expires) is refuted here.

July 13, 2008

That explains a lot

McCain can't use the internet, so he can't do the type of rapid survey of facts and reactions which is second nature to most people interested in politics. That may explain his tone deafness and msm-reliance on issues like ANWR, global warming, immigration and other 'maverick' (ie anti-conservative) stances. I can see how it might be a good thing to to have an internet illiterate President, but the implication that he's merely doddery and intellectually incurious won't win votes.

He needs Romney badly.

July 12, 2008

Rest in peace, Tony Snow

What a great Press Secretary! His critique of Bush was pretty good tho. Eg:
On the policy side, he has become a classical dime-store Democrat. He gladly will shovel money into programs that enjoy undeserved prestige, such as Head Start. He seems to consider it mean-spirited to shut down programs that rip-off taxpayers and mislead supposed beneficiaries

July 04, 2008

Ultra-light blogging

I'm on vacation in a lakehouse in Maine...swimming at the bottom of the garden,boating,no sand,no sharks,cheaper than the Jersey shore,less sunburn.