Wow, Charles Jaco is a REAL dirtbag journalist

The old video shows him in a sand turtle and talking about the Iraq war made the rounds from Youtube; I pointed it out back in April; Bill has made mention of it as well; Jamie Allman made a joke about it (it was him who found it), and even Pat Buchanan wrote about it:

Charles Jaco was the CNN reporter famous for covering the 1990 Persian Gulf War. The first part of this video shows the stage set he was on, and he was clowning around with fellow CNN staff. The Saudi Arabian “hotel” in the background were fake palm trees and a blue wall in a studio. This clip was leaked by CNN staff.

This video is FAIR USE depicting an historical event. I encourage this video to be downloaded, and re-uploaded to other websites to get more people to see this.

Video at the link.

Ooooh, and Jaco is MAD, downright LIVID!
I have just now come across a false and defamatory posting on your website from July 28, 2009 titled “Did Charles Jaco Fake a Desert Storm CNN Report”. I’m adding your email and your website to the list being sent to my attorneys.
Etc, Etc., threaten, bluster.
Wow, in addition to being thin-skinned, Jaco apparently has no clue about protected speech and fair use. We have Climategate going on and a deficit on the run but Jaco would rather waste money making a mockery of himself across the Internet. It does make for interesting speculation as to whose cases would be more successful: the men and women activists who were smeared by Jaco or a reporter known for smearing people on air who ironically takes liberty with others asking questions or making observations about a video in which he’s admitted to participating.

The old adage was "Don't fight with people who buy ink by the barrel". Nowadays we don't have to buy ink to respond to stuff like this, which makes it an even worse idea.

I have to disagree with something Kaus wrote: this isn't a once in a lifetime chance for Democrats to guarantee health care for every citizen;

this is a once in a lifetime chance for the government to seize control of our health care; BIG difference.

I'm about at the point that if this monstrosity is passed in any form, we should all visit DC and start dragging people out of those taxpayer-supplied offices. And at least some of them should be introduced to tar & feathers. Not only for the piece of crap they're trying to force onto us, but for the followup they plan:
Then Democrats in both houses could, at their leisure, consider a second mop-up bill to modify what they'd just done--happily milking lobbyists for everything they've got for months, even years. But the default, the baseline, would be victory.
"Nothing counts except as it's good for the Party, and the Party will get even richer from this!"

Maybe instead of the T&F, we should take some ropes along for some of these people...

If time travel is ever developed, THIS would be interesting

to see:
A cataclysmic flood could have filled the Mediterranean Sea — which millions of years ago was a dry basin — like a bathtub in the space of less than two years. A new model suggests that at the flood’s peak water poured from the Atlantic into the Mediterranean basin at a rate one thousand times the flow of the Amazon River, according to calculations published in the Dec. 10 Nature.
...
The flood would have had a dramatic effect on local ecosystems(gee, ya THINK?), and could even have affected the global climate. The model suggests that global sea level dropped 9.5 meters as a result of the flood. The team points out that a much smaller flood in North America 12,000 years ago has been linked to a worldwide cold snap, and suggests that the Mediterranean flood may have had similarly significant effects.
Interesting speculation: the NA flood was cold fresh water flooding into the north Atlantic; this would be Atlantic water flooding into the Med. Could that disrupt the conveyor belt? At the least, that much water moving into the basin would have climatic effects in Europe, North Africa and the mid-East regions.

There's no way to summarize these two but

"Globular Warmering Believers lose asses; asses quickly handed to them.

The FDIC needs a serious first-class ass-kicking

for this crap. And a bunch of people should be fired.

Insty pointed to it, and ruined my good mood.

I don't have time to read the document right now, but the summary

sounds like a "Bow down to authority" politicians wet dream.
This research examines the creation of a high-end police force, which the authors call a Stability Police Force (SPF). The study considers what size force is necessary, how responsive it needs to be, where in the government it might be located, what capabilities it should have, how it could be staffed, and its cost. This monograph also considers several options for locating this force within the U.S. government, including the U.S. Marshals Service, the U.S. Secret Service, the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) in the Department of State, and the U.S. Army's Military Police.
Because OBVIOUSLY there's not enough LE agencies in the government now. And just because THEY won't talk to each other and won't do their job due to PC bullcrap, we need ANOTHER bunch of badge-carriers with broad authority to eff things up even more.

To all those saying "Obama won't try to take away guns or attack honest gun owners, you're either a fool

or a liar.
According to the 65,000-member LEAA, Attorney General Eric Holder "revealed a stunningly broad and aggressive anti-gun agenda.

“The President of the United States asked that politicians not use the Ft. Hood attack to engage in ‘political theater’. It appears those committed to attacking gun owners and the Second Amendment simply can’t help themselves and are engaged in blaming guns and gun owners on the heels of this terrorist attack. Sadly it looks like ‘politics as usual’,” said LEAA’s spokesperson, Ted Deeds.

After explaining and defending his decision to give enemy combatants constitutional protections and the right to public trial in civilian courts in New York City, Attorney General Holder revealed his support for a national gun owner registration scheme and authorizing the government to ban firearm possession for any person by merely adding that person’s name to the terror watch list, Deeds revealed in a statement.
Because banning people who don't know they're on a list or why and can't find out is just good governing, right? Because keeping lists of honest citizens is just good governing, right?

Read it all, and yell at your congresscritters. Loudly.

I realize I'm not a geothermal expert, but if there were 'small improvements'

that would make hard-rock drilling easy and economical, wouldn't people who have to drill this stuff all the time like, oh, oil companies, be trying it? Or would it be forbidden by the Green Energy Fairy to ask them about such things?
The project’s apparent collapse comes a day after Swiss government officials permanently shut down a similar project in Basel, because of the damaging earthquakes it produced in 2006 and 2007.
...
In fact, AltaRock immediately ran into snags with its drilling, repeatedly snapping off bits in shallow formations called caprock. The project’s safety was also under review at the Energy Department after federal officials said the company had not been entirely forthcoming about the earthquakes produced in Basel in making the case for the Geysers project.
Yeah, people in Californicated might be a bit touchy about things affecting earthquakes and such...

Update: Link there now.

Sen. Dick Durbin(Slanderer of Troops-IL) is a lying sack of crap

What I am saying is, this is not the choice of the majority leader. It is the choice of the Congressional Budget Office.
Bull.Shit. Reid and the other slimy little buggers don't have to wait for the CBO report to tell everyone else what's in this sack of garbage they want us to swallow: they don't WANT to tell us. If they could they'd ram it through with NO details being released.

Durbin is a liar. Durbin is helping Reid hide what he's doing(you really believe he has no idea what Reid's stuck in this now?), and is blaming the CBO for it being 'secret'.

Liar, liar, your pants SHOULD be set on fire.


And, speaking of gutless bastards who want to hide what they're doing...

I'd wondered when something like this would happen in Iran

At the time, I also heard another reason, which, if true, would be the main reason. There are serious doubts about the military itself. The army and parts of the Revolutionary Guards (abbreviated as RG) would, under those circumstances, choose the side of the opposition and the people. The military power of Khamenei would be broken. This, however, was speculation without proof.

Now there is evidence to support it. On December 10, a statement signed by a number of officers and commanders of the Iranian army was released. The regular army of Iran had not been involved in the suppression of the population. The statement was signed by:

* Pilots and personnel of the aviation division of the regular army (Havanirooz)
* Commanders and personnel of the 31th artillery division of Isfahan of the regular army
* Pilots and airmen of the regular army
* Teachers of the Shaid Satari University of the regular air force
* Officers and staff of the logistics training unit the regular army
* Professors and lecturers of the Imam Ali University for officers of the regular army
* Officers, staff, and commanders of the chief of staff of the regular army

What did these soldiers write?
From what I read, when the PRC decided to smash the protesters at Tiananmen Square they brought in units from way the hell out in other parts of China: they did not want any troops who might be related to, connected to or have sympathy with the protesters. Iran can't do that: too many people in too many places protesting, family and friends and people who, without doubt, have the sympathy- even if not active agreement- of people in the military. You order a general 'arrest and kill and imprison', you're going to have problems. Which Iran can't afford.

They go on: “Therefore, we warn the Guards who have betrayed the martyrs (from the war between Iran and Iraq) and who decided to attack the lives, the property and the honor of the citizens. We seriously warn them that if they do not leave their chosen path, they will be confronted with our tough response. The military is a haven for the nation. And we will defend the peace-loving Iranian nation against any aggression.”
That's about as blunt as it gets: "Do what you're considering and there will be war in this country; we will not stand by while you do this."

Wow, Dudley Do-right would be ashamed

of these guys!

Well, this is just bloody wonderful

as a declaration of "The law is what I say it is."
..."I said, 'I didn't know it was against the law to take a picture of an officer in uniform.' He [Basford] said, 'It's not against the law to take a picture of a police officer unless they don't want you to.'"
Isn't that just a wonderful attitude by the Charleston Police Department?

I've heard good and bad about Arpaio,

but this is looking like an arrogant jackass with a badge bleeding over into the whole agency.
On Wednesday, the morning after a sheriff's detention officer reported to jail to serve a contempt of court sentence, 20 of his colleagues called in sick for work at the Maricopa County Superior Court Buildings in Phoenix.

Those same buildings were evacuated for three hours Wednesday morning when a bomb threat was called in targeting public defenders, the Arizona Republic reported.
...
Arpaio said neither the absentee rate nor the bomb threat were related to Stoddard's sentence, but said he does "have a political prisoner in jail who happens to be my detention officer."
POLITICAL PRISONER?!? He snuck a document out of a lawyer's files! IN the freaking COURTROOM, and was caught on video! To play this game over this idiot is insane, and to say things like this is just flat stupid.

But wait! There's MORE!!
The case involving the deputy who read over and grabbed the defense attorney's papers gets stranger by the moment, even allowing that the county attorney up there and the sheriff are reputedly, well, nuts.

As noted earlier, the judge held the deputy in contempt. Now the county attorney has filed felony charges against the judge. On a quick read they are pretty strange. For one thing, they are quite ambiguous. The judge provided "money, transportation, weapon or disguise or other means of avoiding discovery, apprehension, prosecution of conviction" to any judges, officials, or attorneys (only two being named).

For another, look at the verification. "Subscribed and sworn upon information and belief this 9th day of December 2009" .... and there is no signature of a notary. Then it has the judge's home address.

BTW, the defendant is the chief criminal judge of the county.
Oh, jeez, this is effing insane. Which is apparently what Arpaio has become. Either that, or so damned arrogant he thinks he IS the law; and last I heard Judge Dredd was a frickin' comic book character.

Yeah, Obama's really going to be able to talk turkey

with this nutcase:
The Iranian news Web site Tabnak reported that Ahmadinejad, while speaking to survivors of soldiers killed during the 1980's war against Iraq, asserted that U.S. officials believe the Mahdi -- or the Hidden Imam whom Shiite Muslims believe will be ultimate savior of mankind -- is coming and they are working to prevent it from happening, al-Arabiya said Tuesday.

Saw this a couple of days ago, then was reminded when I read this at ShrinkWrapped. Key quote:
It is often difficult for Western secular rationalists to appreciate that when paranoid religious zealots make what sound to their ears like irrational statements, the zealots actually mean what they say. Ahmadinejad, the public face of the most religious fundamentalist Twelvers, actually tells us, repeatedly, what he believes. The fact that so many sophisticated Westerners don't believe he means it is their limitation, not a comment on his perspective.
There's a scene in the movie Khartoum when Gordon has just returned from a visit with the current mahdi, and has realized that the guy is not a fake: that he is as devout in his religion as Gordon in his(understandable; Gordon was used to devout people), and that he's not a warlord using the belief to gain followers; he truly believes himself to be The Mahdi. At which point Gordon knows it's war to the knife with him, that there can be no compromise.

Gordon understood what he was facing, and why; our politicians, far too many, don't or won't believe that Ahmadogcrap really means it. And if we're not very damned lucky, an awful lot of people are going to die because they refuse to believe it.

I knew it was going to be slow this time of year;

according to the FedEx website, the S&W won't get to the factory till the 17th.

Spoiled brats and leftists:

often the same people.
Police ended the occupation of the campus's Wheeler Hall earlier Friday. They arrested 65 people inside on misdemeanor trespassing charges, including about 24 who were not students, Mogulof said. One person was arrested outside the hall on suspicion of inciting.

He said the university decided to clear the building after protesters began breaking into locked classrooms and publicizing an all-night hip-hop party Friday.

The Wheeler Hall protesters were cited and released at the university's request, but those at the chancellor's home "will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law," Birgeneau said.
Let's see, California is broke largely because clowns like these expected other people to pay for everything; now fees and tuition are going up and you protest. Tough crap, people.

Oh, and what was that about the chancellor's home?
Eight people were under arrest Saturday after protesters broke windows, lights and planters outside the home of the chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley.

University spokesman Dan Mogulof said 40 to 70 protesters also threw incendiary devices at police cars and the home of Chancellor Robert Birgeneau about 11 p.m. Friday. There were no fires or injuries.

The protest at the chancellor's home came late the same day that police arrested 66 protesters at a campus classroom building that was partially taken over for four days.
Protest m oving up to property damage moving up to riot and arson; yeah, does sound like a bunch of leftists, doesn't it?

For our Moron of the Day we have Kevin Frink

Willingboro animal control officer Michelle Hamilton is in stable condition at Cooper University Hospital with 32 bite wounds to her back, shoulders and legs.

The incident happened at about 12:20 p.m. Wednesday at a home on Pickwick Lane in Willingboro.

According to officials, the 62-year-old Hamilton responded to the home following a call about two loose dogs.

When Hamilton arrived at the home, she saw a male dog go around the side of the home. When no one answered the door, she tried to secure the male dog in a yard where a female dog also lived.

"There was a hole in the fence that as she went around the side of the house to take a peek, he was already at the hole, charged through the hole and attacked her," Lt. Joseph Dey of the Willingboro Police Department explained.
She managed to call for help.
Lt. Dey said the two dogs were shot and killed by arriving officers after coming at them in an "aggressive manner."
Up to this point we have Bad Dog Owner and Bad Dogs; the Moron part comes in now:
Eyewitness News has learned that it is the third time since 2005 that officers have responded to the home for reports about the dogs.

The dogs' owner, Kevin Frink, contends it was the first time his dogs have ever bitten someone. Frink believes the officers did not have to gun down his dogs.

"They became the judge, the jury and prosecutor at that moment," Frink said.
Frink is apparently the level of moron who doesn't see that his dogs are not a threat to others, and does not maintain his fence. And he is, by his own words above, the level of moron who seriously deserves his ass kicked.
A: They only get to bite one person, idiot.
B: When they then behave aggressively toward the cops, they get shot.
C: You should be prosecuted. And possibly beaten severely by Hamilton when she's recovered.

I've had two families live next door to me with pit bulls. The first, I would not have trusted those dogs at all; they weren't treated very well(yes, Animal Control was by more than once) and were quite aggressive toward people. The second... they were treated as pets, and I never had to worry about more than the normal 'woof-woof' when I went out, or was mowing. Once I made friendly with them, the woofs were primarily "Hey! I'm over HERE! Munchy?"* Frink apparently either didn't treat them right and/or didn't train them right. Jackass.

*I'll note that after a while, when they saw me pruning trees they'd get real attentive: one day while chopping some stuff up I noticed them watching me. And remembered seeing one of them jumping up to grab a branch and chewing on it. So I cut a couple of pieces about a foot long and a little more than an inch across and walked over to the fence. The female was at the fence(they bred them and kept them apart most of the time), the male on the other side of the yard, both locked on. I held up a stick and said "You want a chew?" The female was practically vibrating when I dropped hers over the fence, and she pounced on it. Tossed the male one and he grabbed it and did that bouncy doggy "I've got a CHEW!" run over to a shady spot. It made them very happy when I was pruning.

In today's Globular Warmering "Act now or we're all gonna DIE!"* post,

we start with this article at the NYEffin' Times. Which largely consists of bits like this
“The truth is that the e-mails, while unseemly, do little to change the overwhelming scientific consensus on the reality of man-made climate change. But they do hand a powerful political card to skeptics at the start of perhaps the most important environmental summit in history. Still don’t know what to make of it?”
to which the followup is
As far as Walsh is concerned, the big lesson is that “in the aftermath of the e-mails, climate scientists and advocates will need to rethink how they engage with critics.”
Nothing to really deal with the rather inconvenient-to-the-cause information about data being massaged(to put it politely) and faked and threats to illegally destroy data rather than let a 'doubter'(i.e., an actual scientist who wants to see if the data holds up to repeated examination) get hold of it.

I will say that it is a fairly good article, in that it points out that a lot of scientists are really bugged by the way the CRU and associated people/groups are so actively hostile to actual peer review and have tried to destroy the careers of people who won't fall into line; but it keeps coming back to that overwhelming scientific consensus on the reality of man-made climate change crap. And, again, glosses over the problems with the data the CRU put out, and the effects it has on all the others being used. Primary thrust is "Scientists need to wear down the skeptics by open debate. Which would be great; open debate and open access to the data is what a lot of the 'skeptics' wanted in the first place, and it was the True Believers denying that that caused the damned problem. Article closes with this:
Perhaps the lesson of Copenhagen is that raw politics and thinking critically don’t mix. One hopes, however, that the politics of science allow some room for open debate. That doesn’t mean letting your opponents run roughshod over the facts. Nor does it involve shutting off their microphones.
with the strong hint that the people doubting AGW are 'running roughshod over the facts', which is kind of hard when A: they weren't allowed to let their infidel eyes gaze upon the Holy Raw Data and B: in science, the data is SUPPOSED to be run over with roughness; tried over and over, in different ways, to see if it holds up to the examination.


Second thing is this over at Flopping Aces, in which one of the 'not a real scientist' people has something to say about the e-mails:
“The recent ‘ClimateGate’ revelations coming out of the UK University of East Anglia are but the tip of a giant iceberg of a well organized international climate warming conspiracy that has been gathering momentum for the last 25 years,” said Colorado State University’s Dr. William Gray.

His are the annual hurricane forecasts that are the standard for weather prognostications. His work pioneered the science of forecasting hurricanes and he has served as weather forecaster for the United States Air Force. He is Emeritus Professor of Atmospheric Science at CSU and heads the school’s Department
of Atmospheric Sciences Tropical Meteorology Project.
Remember, this is one of the people derided as 'bought off' and 'not a REAL scientist' for not going along with that Holy Consensus on AGW. FA also has a link to a piece by Roy Spencer, I'll borrow one part:
4. Skeptics are not unified with an alternative explanation for global warming. Well, that’s the way science works in a field as immature as climate change science. The biggest problem is that we really don’t understand what causes natural climate variability. Kevin Trenberth has now famously admitted as much in one of the Climategate emails, where said it’s a “travesty” that we don’t know why warming has stopped in the last 7 to 10 years. For century-time-scale changes, some believe it is cloud cover being modulated by cosmic ray activity, which is in turn affected by sunspot activity. A few others think it is changes in the total energy output of the sun (possible, but I personally doubt it). In my opinion, it is internal, chaotic variability in the ocean and atmosphere circulation causing small changes in cloud cover. Since clouds are a natural sunshade, changing their coverage of the Earth will cause warming or cooling. The IPCC simply assumes this does not happen. If they did, they would have to admit that natural climate change happens, which means they would have to address the possibility that most of the warming in the last 50 has been largely natural in origin.
Also this one, on those pesky glaciers:
5. But the glaciers are melting! Many glaciers which have been monitored around the world for a long time have been retreating since the 1800’s, before humans could have been responsible. A few retreating glaciers are even revealing old tree stumps…how did those get there? Planted by skeptics?

I have to take note of that line in 4 about 'unified with an alternative explanation'; what the HELL does 'unified' have to do with dealing with facts? A lot of scientists and doctors have been screwed over mightily by others 'unified' in the knowledge that this new idea is obviously bullshit; thus things like germ theory and vaccinations, for instance, did not become what they are as early as they could. Being 'unified' behind an idea doesn't make it right, and claiming otherwise is crap.


*Reminds me of the people in the 80's screaming "Nuclear freeze or FRY!"

Sen. Reid says that promise didn't actually promise what it promised,

and besides "I HAD to do it to keep costs down, so shut up and stop causing problems."
The internet is buzzing today with the news that Harry Reid quietly inserted a loophole in the Senate health care bill that would let insurance companies put limits on medical care for folks struggling with costly illnesses — angering patient advocates, and in apparent violation of a promise made by Obama this fall.

But in an email to me, Reid’s spokesperson defended the move, arguing it was necessary to hold down premiums.
My first thought is they're playing "Maybe we can bribe the insurance companies with this to shut them up." And it won't keep Obama & Co. from trying to destroy private health insurance down the road, so breaking this promise won't mean much to them(as if any of them really do).

Tam says 13 is cold;

well, hell YES! it is.

Remember that bit from WKRP? Johnnie Fever is announcing "And in weather, it's a balmy 17 degrees outside with a gentle wind wafting out of the north at about a thousand miles an hour."