Blog Heap of Links for the day 25 June 2011

A shocking report prepared by Russia's Federal Atomic Energy Agency (FAAE) on information provided to them by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) states that the Obama regime has ordered a "total and complete" news blackout relating to any information regarding the near catastrophic meltdown of the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant located in Nebraska. According to this report, the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant suffered a "catastrophic loss of cooling" to one of its idle spent fuel rod pools on 7 June after this plant was deluged with water caused by the historic flooding of the Missouri River which resulted in a fire causing the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) to issue a "no-fly ban" over the area. [h/t to Zilla http://zillablog.marezilla.com/2011/06/did-obama-order-news-blackout-ove...

Obama's illegal war in Libya is costing us nearly $9.5 million every single day. Congress held two votes on June 24, 2011 regarding Obama's Libyan Lunacy. The first vote admonished Obama for his illegal war in Libya and the House overwhelmingly spanked Captain WTF, with 70 Democrats joining in, including progressive Congressman Jerrold Nadler, from New York City, who said that Obama was becoming an "absolute monarch". (H/T The Lonely Conservative) The second vote was to de-fund Obama's illegal war in Libya (where he has our troops helping al qaeda and other jihadis who have a history of helping to kill Americans). That vote failed, thanks in part to the 89 Republicans who joined 149 Democrats in voting against the measure. (See who voted how HERE) http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2011/roll494.xml ... Darryl Issa, Allen West, Michele Bachmann and Paul Ryan voted arm in arm support with Nancy Pelosi, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and the other rabid progressives to continue this constitutional violation and allow President Obama to continue violating the law.

Some factions just won't accept shrinking the size of government. Most in them run in the same tight circles as Geithner. Never hearing anything other than support for increasing the size of government, they assume that's what Americans want. But quite a few Americans have been wanting to cut government for decades, and that number is growing as the almost intractable problems created by overspending have become more obvious.

American Crossroads, a conservative outside spending group, announced it's starting a $20 million ad campaign to hammer President Obama's economic policies. The group, which was co-founded by former Bush strategist Karl Rove, said Friday it would run ads over the next two months both nationally and locally in several states that will be key in the 2012 election.

US commodity regulators were examining Friday whether word of a decision to coordinate a release of global oil stockpiles was leaked ahead of Thursday's announcement by the International Energy Agency

Our secretary of state questions the patriotism of those criticizing the administration's Libyan policy and disregard of the War Powers Act. Remember when dissent was the highest form of patriotism?

Quit is a strong word, I know. Everyone I've talked to has repeated that I've had a marvelous career and that I've retired with honor. Maybe that's true on paper; I guess that it's reflected by the record. But that's not how I feel. I feel like I've quit. And because I'm not a quitter, I feel I have to explain why — not that anyone is asking, but because perhaps they don't know to ask.

"Throughout my service, first as a senator and then as a presidential candidate and then as a President, I've always run into you guys. And for some reason it's always in some rough spots. First time I saw 10th Mountain Division, you guys were in southern Iraq. When I went back to visit Afghanistan, you guys were the first ones there. I had the great honor of seeing some of you because a comrade of yours, Jared Monti, was the first person who I was able to award the Medal of Honor to who actually came back and wasn't receiving it posthumously." The problem is, Jared Monti was killed in action in Afghanistan, on June 21, 2006. He was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously, September 17, 2009. President Obama handed the framed medal to his parents, Paul and Janet Monti. He and the First Lady comforted them in the Oval Office following the ceremony.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told the House Small Business Committee on Wednesday that the Obama administration believes taxes on small business must increase so the administration does not have to "shrink the overall size of government programs." [Getting it exactly backwards. But thanks for the connection. Let's cut taxes on small business!]

"My favorite? Oh, this is a tough one. It is tough, you know, because if I say something not healthy, people will be, like, you aren't really committed to health. If I say something healthy, you know -- I do -- honestly, I like all kinds of foods. [Indian food ... Mexican food ...] No, if I picked one favorite, favorite food, it's French fries. (laughter) Okay? It's French fries. I can't stop eating them. (laughter) But eat your vegetables. (laughter) And exercise." [Cringe! (no laughter)]

C'mon, Baby! [He never looked more realistic.]

A "National State of Emergency" is national martial law plain and simple, other than in name. We were in a national state of emergency from 1939 to 1945 for World War II and from 1950 to 1978 for the Cold War. We are now in a national state of emergency and have been since September 2001. It's administered discreetly and with softened edges, but martial law it is. It's been made largely unobtrusive but forbearance is always at their pleasure, not ours. When the federal government declares a national state of emergency the lead agency is the Department of Homeland Security, under the direction of the Commander In Chief. It's why the TSA can grope you and your kids with impunity, it's why local police have been equipped with combat gear and armored vehicles and fill-in-the-blank search warrants, it's why the armed forces train for urban warfare and nation-building rather than to defeat other armies or repel invasion. ... Here is what to expect under "worst case scenario" martial law ....

A group of hackers that has claimed attacks on websites run by the U.S. Senate and the Central Intelligence Agency posted a cache of documents from Arizona police, calling it a protest against a controversial state law. ... LulzSec, as the group commonly refers to itself, said the posting of the documents was a protest of Arizona's SB1070, controversial state legislation that critics say is anti-immigration. The key provision of the law has been frozen because of legal challenges. ...

Although Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has championed women's rights from Azerbaijan to Zambia, it took her weeks to respond to an appeal to publicly support a campaign by Saudi women to be permitted to drive. Even then, her comments on Tuesday came not of her own initiative, but in response to a question at a press availability — and after Saudi women activists and journalists had questioned her public silence on the subject.

Metro has responded to 339 calls for service in the first half of 2011 involving a suspicious person, package, bomb threat or similar condition, according to the transit agency. That's almost two cases every day. ... It was not immediately clear how many — if any — of the 339 cases involved actual bombs or credible threats.

The metal object that killed a Waterbury woman while she was riding in a sport utility vehicle on Interstate 95 south in Greenwich on Saturday was a locking pin that likely flew off a one-ton dump truck, State Police said Wednesday. Investigators at Troop G in Bridgeport are trying to uncover what happened around 12:34 p.m. that led to the object smashing through the windshield of a 2003 Ford Escape and striking the victim, Sara Betancourt, who was sitting in the front passenger seat....

Chicago's new top cop says the accessibility to firearms in America is an extension "of government-sponsored racism" that goes back to the days of slavery and Jim Crow. ... said the topic of race is a sensitive issue "because everybody's afraid of race" but that he wasn't afraid to broach the subject. ... "Now I want you to connect one more dot on that chain of the African American history in this country, and tell me if I'm crazy. Federal gun laws that facilitate the flow of illegal firearms, into our urban centers across this country, that are killing our black and brown children," he said. "The NRA does not like me, and I'm okay with that. We've got to get the gun debate back to center, and it's got to come with the recognition of who's paying the price for the gun manufacturers being rich and living in gated communities," McCarthy said. McCarthy illustrated his point by recalling a crime scene investigation while he was a police official in Newark, New Jersey where five children were shot, two of whom were killed. McCarthy said when he got home, he turned on his television to unwind and found an episode of "Sarah Palin's Alaska" showing. "She was caribou hunting and talking about the right to bear arms. Why wasn't she at the crime scene with me?" [Uh... okay, I'll tell you. You're crazy. "Say Anything!" continues. WTF???]

Those who belong to the conservative movement known as the Tea Party are acutely aware of the power of popular culture, so they have been cautiously delving into the creation of entertainment that promotes their values. It usually manifests itself in snippets of online political parody. Coming Sunday, though, is perhaps the most ambitious effort yet: A "TV show" created by a couple of Tea Partiers who have formed their own production company. The one-hour drama is called Courage, New Hampshire, and it premiers Sunday at a movie theater in Monrovia, Calif. Co-hosting the red carpet activities are Saturday Night Live alumna Victoria Jackson and radio personality Tony Katz, both of whom regularly speak at Tea Party rallies.

A 62-year-old Holiday woman missing for four days was found Tuesday afternoon neck deep in mud and tangled in mangroves along the shore of a lake. ... a pedestrian... heard faint cries for help.

Al Gore: "One of the things we could do about [the absurd notion he's still pushing of human-induced global warming] is to change the technologies, to put out less of this pollution, to stabilize the population, and one of the principle ways of doing that is to empower and educate girls and women. You have to have ubiquitous availability of fertility management so women can choose how many children have, the spacing of the children. You have to lift child survival rates so that parents feel comfortable having small families and most important — you have to educate girls and empower women. And that's the most powerful leveraging factor, and when that happens, then the population begins to stabilize and societies begin to make better choices and more balanced choices." [Someone stick a fork in this blowhard. He's cooked to puffy perfection.]

It's not surprising that it took me so long to discover the extent of my miseducation, because the last thing an elite education will teach you is its own inadequacy. As two dozen years at Yale and Columbia have shown me, elite colleges relentlessly encourage their students to flatter themselves for being there, and for what being there can do for them.