Thursday, January 31, 2008

Treason Continues.....Treasonous Main Stream Media Ignores...

From counterpunch.
Why is this story being ignored? Because the implications are so vast that it could bring down the entire Neoconservative establishment - and the vast network of Israel supporters - make no mistake about it...if there is reaction ,its going to be an ugly one.:

"We Can't Afford to Let Them Spill the Beans"

By GARY LEUPP

I am not one to easily embrace conspiracy theories, and in particular have found the idea that 9-11 was somehow an inside job too incredible for serious consideration. On the other hand, there are some very fishy aspects to some officials' behavior pertaining to the attacks. Justin Raimondo has made a very good case for the fact that Mossad agents posing as "Israeli art students" were tracking al-Qaeda operatives in the U.S. before 9/11. Over 120 Israelis were detained after 9/11, some failing polygraph tests when asked about their involvement in intelligence gathering. But they were not held or charged with any illegal activity but rather deported. As former FBI translator and whistle-blower Sibel Edmonds has revealed, there was a curious failure of the government before 9/11 to act upon intelligence pertaining to an al-Qaeda attack. Most importantly Edmonds, defying the gag order that former Attorney General Ashcroft imposed on her in 2002, is implicating Marc Grossman, formerly the number three man in the State Department, in efforts to provide U.S. nuclear secrets to Pakistan and Israel. She suggests this was done through Turkish contacts and Pakistani contacts, including the former head of Pakistan's ISI who funneled funds to Mohamed Atta! Now there's a conspiracy for you.

Which Is It Forest City?

One day, Forest City submits an affidavit to the courts, claiming that the lawsuits need to be thrown out ASAP, or else "Atlantic Yards" is in danger of losing its financing (boo hoo) Next day Forest City issues this (via nolandgrab):

FCRC: "We remain completely committed"

Forest City Ratner spokesperson Bruce Bender apparently released the following statement in response to the rash of news reports about the company's claim in court that lawsuits by opponents were having a "chilling effect" on the project's financing.


"The opponents have lost over a dozen court decisions on the merits and have now decided to try to further delay this important project through appeals. While that's their right, we're confident that we will once again prevail in court.

"But let's be realistic here. Their goal is to delay project [sic] in the hope that they can damage it, eliminating along the way the benefits to the surrounding communities, including the much needed jobs and affordable housing. This scorched earth policy of anything goes to delay a development that has been reviewed, supported and approved by the state legislative leaders and an overwhelming majority of people in Brooklyn, is disappointing but not unexpected.

"FCRC has been part of Brooklyn's economic growth for over 20 years and we have successfully developed throughout many different market cycles. We remain completely committed to making Atlantic Yards and its numerous benefits a reality for everyone. Regardless of the opponents' delay tactics, we will continue to move forward as quickly as possible."



So which is it? Is it in jeopardy and thus this statement is a lie...or is the affidavit a lie? We know that Forest City lies. They just have lawyers who make sure its legal. This sort of brazen contradiction is reflection of just how corrupt our system has become -a major company, set to receive billions from the state can blatantly issue grossly contradictory statements and not one main stream media publication or politician outside local ones affected by it says anything.

Oh, and Bender, we're not trying to delay, it we're trying to stop it and replace it with a sensible one.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

$200.00 a barrel oil?

The Fed/Bush/Beltway try to prop up a failing system:

Fed Cuts Rate by Half-Point; 2nd Reduction in 8 Days


ed Cuts Rate by Half-Point; 2nd Reduction in 8 Days
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve reduced short-term interest rates on Wednesday for the second time in eight days, meeting widespread expectations by investors on Wall Street for a big rate cut.

In lowering its benchmark Federal funds rate by half a point, to 3 percent, the central bank acknowledged that it is now far more worried about an economic slowdown than rising inflation, and it left open the possibility of additional rate reductions.

“Financial markets remain under considerable stress, and credit has tightened further for some businesses and households,” the central bank said in a statement accompanying its decision. In addition, it said, recent data indicated that the housing market is still getting worse and the job market appears to be “softening.”


and two 'bomb iran' candidates leading the primaries - thanks to media driven outright censorship and outright lies - the main stream media has shown blatant collusion - we' well on our way. The dollar already fell with the announcement of this latest bit of wisdom from Washington.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

The "Jobs" argument....

Despite falling tax revenues, a flaying economy, and the fact that it is a very bad, very corrupt project to begin with....Elliot Spitzer seems determined to keep supporting Atlantic Yards:

The news comes a day after The Post, citing court papers filed by Ratner's firm, reported that dragging litigation and a drooping credit market jeopardize the developer's ability to secure financing to build an NBA arena for his Nets basketball team and 16 skyscrapers with residential and retail space in Prospect Heights.

The Spitzer administration said yesterday it was still committed to supporting a project that critics say was rushed through in the final days of the Pataki administration.

(link)

Bloomberg is already cutting back services in the city, Spitzer seems oblivious to this and has actually increased spending...but when the crunch does happen, the predictable Ratner/Spitzer/Bloomberg spin will be "it will create jobs"....nonsense.

A. the state is cutting jobs from elsewhere by supporting this project -which means funds meant for other services are allocated to Ratner from existing budgeted services.
B. There are plans such as Extel's and Unity that would not require costly, time consuming lawsuits, not require such huge outlays of capital from the state (Ratner's tax carve out and MTA land giveaway come to mind) that would create jobs.

So continuing to support the Ratner plan, the state is robbing from two people- those people and services effected by the budget cuts, and those companies that could build on the land profitably without such heavy subsidies. And why? To support a corrupt, greedy developer with a long track record of projects that are aesthetic, moral, and financial failures.

Monday, January 28, 2008

And for Good Measure

Antiwar.com:

None Dare Call It Treason
Who is stealing our nuclear secrets – and why are they being shielded by the authorities?
by Justin Raimondo

The Valerie Plame case is, by journalistic standards, ancient history, and naturally any follow-up on a once-important story is considered bad form. Yet there is an interesting – and rather scary – new twist to the narrative. It turns out that Scooter Libby and friends weren't the first to "out" CIA agent Plame, whose alleged employer, a company known as Brewster Jennings, was really a cover for a CIA unit investigating nuclear proliferation issues.

The London Times reveals that a former top U.S. State Department official tipped off Turkish agents about Brewster Jennings' CIA connection, according to Sibel Edmonds, a former FBI translator assigned to produce English-language transcripts of intercepted conversations of Turkish targets – in this case recordings of Turkish embassy officials and a top State Department official discussing, among other things, Brewster Jennings' relationship to the CIA.

The Story Main Stream Media Keeps Ignoring

Tip-off thwarted nuclear spy ring probe

AN investigation into the illicit sale of American nuclear secrets was compromised by a senior official in the State Department, a former FBI employee has claimed.

Sibel Edmonds: 'Buckle up, there's much more coming.'

Sibel Edmonds has been completely ignored by US main stream media....why? The NYT recently endorsed Hillary and McCain, and hired William Kristol as its 'conservative' commentator....the 'establishment' the 'elite' are digging their heals in, oblivious to reality.

Sibel Edmonds: 'Buckle up, there's much more coming.'

"New" Britian Shows Where Its Priorities Are:

Will Pounds and Ounces Survive in Britain ?

“It’s disgusting. We have knifings. We have killings. And they’re taking me to court because I’m selling in pounds and ounces.”
That’s what Janet Devers, a lady who runs a vegetable stand in London, said about facing criminal charges for selling vegetables by pounds and ounces. She could wind up having to pay fines (possibly up to $130,000) and could lose her business:

Janet Devers, 63, was notified of the criminal counts with a 67-page letter that arrived in the mail, outlining 13 criminal charges relating to the “improper” pricing of goods as well as the offense of selling vegetables in bowls.

Obviously, this has something to do with the European Union, which, according to Section 128 of the Treaty on European Union

shall contribute to the flowering of the cultures of the Member States, while respecting their national and regional diversity and at the same time bringing the common cultural heritage to the fore.

But rather than blame the EU for the whole mess, those who don’t like the EU and forced metrication ought also to blame British leaders for allowing it.

The UK had been slowly going the metric route even before entering the European Economic Community (now European Union) but when the UK entered the EEC, metrication was a condition of membership in the club.

The British continued to postpone the acceleration of metrication but in 2000, the European Union’s “compulsory metrication policy” was enacted, prohibiting the use of non-metric weights and measures for sale of goods in Britain.

Ratner Admits Arena Funding In Peril.

By way of NoLandGrab:

COURT TROUBLE

RATNER ADMITS ARENA-FUNDING WOES

The New York Post
by Rich Calder

Could the global credit crisis and sub-prime mortgage woes be the straws that broke Atlantic Yards' back?

Don't fork over money to reserve seats for the Brooklyn Nets just yet.

Developer Bruce Ratner is running into trouble securing funding for his controversial $4 billion Atlantic Yards project, which would bring an NBA arena for Ratner's Nets and 16 skyscrapers with residential and commercial space to Prospect Heights, according to court documents obtained by The Post.

The papers, filed Friday by Ratner's firm in an attempt to speed up the appeal process in a lawsuit by project opponents, reveal for a first time that the biggest development in Brooklyn's history is in jeopardy because of dragging litigation and a slumping fiscal market.

"The credit markets are in turmoil at this time . . . There is a serious question as to whether, given the current state of the debt market, the underwriters will be able to proceed with the financing for the arena while the appeal is pending," one affidavit says.




OK, let me get this straight...forest city's latest gambit is to say - lets throw out these lawsuits ASAP because the credit market is drying up and economy tanking. In other words, lets grab it out of the state budget NOW, so when the shortfalls occur, taxpayers, schools, homeowners will have to absorb the costs, not Forest City. Does this sound like a legitimate project, or just a reckless land and cash grab?

Again, Forest City said:


As the Court surely is aware, the credit markets are in turmoil at this time. Many lenders and bond insurers are facing financial difficulties, and are becoming much more cautious. It is not clear what the financial climate will be in several months, when the arena bond financing is made available to the public.

Although the decision that was issued by Justice Madden in this case on January 11, 2008 should be helpful in providing comfort to potential investors that there is no significant risk that the courts will annul the approvals for the Atlantic Yards project, there is a serious question as to whether, given the current state of the debt market, the underwriters will be able to proceed with the financing for the arena while the appeal is pending before this Court.


They are essentially admitting that the project is financially risky. Why are taxpayers funding it?

Further if the market is drying up for credit, its a reflection that both the real estate market is cooling and bankers are more temperate about financing questionable projects - if that is the case, then why would Forest City/Ratner want to build? Because WE Pay for it, and WE absorb the risks.

Brown banishes 300-year-old tradition by removing Britannia from our 50p coin

...Well we've known for a long time its not just on the 50P. Story:

Thursday, January 24, 2008

DDDB On Bloomberg Math:

From the worthy DDDB:

Priorities

Bloomberg Proposes Budget Cuts Across City Agencies
NY Times City Room Blog

With an already dim fiscal picture turning darker, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg proposed a $58.5 billion budget Thursday that would preserve a popular property tax cut and rebate but cut into virtually every agency, including core city services like education, police, fire, sanitation, cultural affairs and parks. Even after the budget cuts, however, total city spending would increase slightly.

The cuts, totaling nearly $1.5 billion over two years, include a $180 million reduction to the Department of Education this fiscal year and $325 million in the next, a sign of how serious the city’s economic troubles appear. Mr. Bloomberg, who won control of the school system in 2002, has staked much of his legacy on its improvement and has generally increased spending or allowed it to avoid reductions in tight times...
(Emphasis added.)
Mayor Bloomberg proposes key service cuts and cutting $180 million from the Department of Education while handing over $205 million in direct cash subsidy to Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards project, as well as a blank check from city taxpayers for "extraordinary infrastructure costs."

Will the Council go for it?




The Linked NYT article quotes Bloomberg:
“No boom goes on indefinitely today,” the mayor said in a noontime news conference in the Blue Room at City Hall. “I think it’s fair to say that both the national and international economies are in a state of high volatility.”

Yeah, Bloomberg, great time for the city and state to subsidize a billionaire developer with a poor track record's ill conceived attempt to build a highly speculative, poorly designed luxury condo/stripmall/arena complex.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Obama's Racism Gets A Free Pass From MSM..

While they continue to harp over Ron Paul's 20+ year old newsletters link.:

MainStream Media Won’t Ask Obama Those Nasty Paul-Type Questions. But Shelby Steele Could!

By Steve Sailer

This month, we've seen the mainstream and opinion media avert their maidenly eyes in horror from a few paleolibertarian un-PC wisecracks disrespecting race rioters etc. that once appeared in GOP candidate Ron Paul's decade-and-a-half old newsletters.

But, in contrast to the diligence with which archives containing Paul's dusty newsletters have been scoured for shocking witticisms, a man with a far greater chance of being President, has been given almost a free pass:

Senator Barack Obama (D-IL).

Practically no one in the press even bothered to read closely Obama’s illuminating 1995 autobiography Dreams from My Father. For example, although Obama devotes most of pages 274-295 of Dreams to his first meetings with the man who would become his "spiritual advisor," Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., the candidate's intense 20-year relationship with this memorable gentleman only began to draw even modest attention last week.

In 1999-2000, the MSM failed to explain adequately who George W. Bush really was. In 2008, it's failing again with most of the candidates.

I've focused on Obama, not out of any particular bias for or against him, but because he is both more interesting and more misunderstood than the typical White House aspirant.

Too many whites treat Obama as a blank slate upon which to project their hopes. George Will, for instance, is infatuated with Obama because he fantasizes that the half-black half-white Obama is "transcending" race, that the candidate shares Will's emotions:

"Obama seems to understand America's race fatigue, the unbearable boredom occasioned by today's stale politics generally and by the perfunctory theatrics of race especially."[Misreading Obama's Identity, December 30, 2007]

But Will, like so many white commentators, just hasn't noticed that the apt subtitle of Dreams from My Father is— A Story of Race and Inheritance. Race and inheritance—geddit?

Ironically, Will's hope for a man bored by race is more embodied in Obama's estranged half-white half-brother Mark, a Stanford graduate in physics, whose preference for Shakespeare and Beethoven over the culture of the Kenya where he was born, on Obama’s account, perturbed the future presidential candidate, who had nothing further to do with him.

Only A Bound Man, the perceptive but mostly ignored book about Obama by conservative literary critic Shelby Steele—who likewise has a black father and white mother—explains who Obama really is. (See my Washington Times review of Steele's book here.)

Remarkably, much of Obama's campaign image—the "postracial" man, the God-fearing Christian, etc.—is debunked in Obama's own books. Indeed, Obama's potential Achilles heel is that he has such a gift for self-expression combined with so much introspective self-absorption that he can't help revealing himself to the few who invest the effort to read carefully his polished and subtle, but also fussy and enervating. prose.

The bottom line: Obama's 1995 memoir reveals a preppie from Hawaii obsessed with the same question that 62,000 mostly turgid articles have asked about him: Is Obama black enough?

(Why Obama being "black enough" would be in the interest of the 7/8ths of the electorate that isn't black has never been explained—but that's hardly surprising because the MSM hasn't even entertained it as a question).

This question has tormented Obama since he was a child. The psychological trauma helps make him a more interesting personality to contemplate than, say, his now-vanquished rival Bill Richardson, the New Mexico governor. Richardson’s unusual life story (raised in Mexico City, with three grandparents being Mexican and the other a wealthy WASP) would seem to be at least as relevant as Obama's famously exotic background. Yet, nobody paid Richardson who is now out of the race, any attention. That’s partly because Americans find Hispanics less interesting than blacks—and partly because Richardson is a hack, while Obama is something more refined and unusual.

Unfortunately, Obama's actual politics aren't terribly unusual. As Steele points out, "For Obama, liberalism is blackness." To be black enough is tied up in Obama's mind with being liberal enough. As someone raised by whites far from the black mainstream, Obama lacks the freedom to be politically unorthodox enjoyed by men of such iconic blackness as James Brown and Wilt Chamberlain, both of whom endorsed Richard Nixon in 1972.

Also, it's not clear that having a fascinatingly convoluted psyche, such as Nixon had, makes you a better President than having a straightforward one, such as Dwight Eisenhower had.

Still, what does it profit a pundit to explain to the world who the would-be President really is? In recent weeks, Obama's supporters have, with much effectiveness, denounced virtually any criticism of their candidate as "racially insensitive."

Thus CBS News claimed on January 11, 2008:

"Racial Tensions Roil Democratic Race
"Comments from Clintons on Obama, MLK Jr., Have Infuriated Some African Americans

"A series of comments from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, her husband, and her supporters are spurring a racial backlash and adding a divisive edge to the presidential primary as the candidates head south to heavily African-American South Carolina. The comments, which ranged from the New York senator appearing to diminish the role of Martin Luther King Jr. in the civil rights movement—an aide later said she misspoke —to Bill Clinton dismissing Sen. Barack Obama’s image in the media as a "fairy tale"—generated outrage on black radio, black blogs and cable television."

Prejudice At The New York Times?

Prejudice At The New York Times?

This is from Instapundit.com regarding that story about veterans and murder I mentioned Monday:

January 22, 2008

MILITARY VETERANS AND MURDER: Fact-checking the New York Times.

If you published a similarly anecdotal and unfounded piece about black people and murder, the NYT would call you a racist.

And if you were to publish an accurate report, based on Department of Justice statistics, about black crime, they’d call you a “scientific racist” and picket your conferences. Ask Jared Taylor.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Who Said Canadians Were Boring?

They are setting up a state where political dissent is illegal....now that's exciting!

Frightening Canadian Free-Speech Suppression Ignored by US Old Media

My my, the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) is busy these days -- aiding and abetting those who wish to suppress the human right of free speech and expression.

Even though (or is it because?) the vehicle that enabled and emboldened the CHRC's thought police and those who complain to it was the passage of the kind of "non-discrimination" legislation Congress has considered passing for several years, US Old Media could care less.

Some of the CHRC's targets:

A Catholic magazine (also noted by NB's Tim Graham last month) --

In February 2007 Rob Wells, a member of the Pride Center of Edmonton, filed a nine-point complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission alleging that Catholic Insight had targeted homosexuals as a powerful menace and innately evil, claiming it used inflammatory and derogatory language to create a tone of “extreme hatred and contempt.”

Friday, January 18, 2008

Free Lunch

Review From Mother Jones:
For its first 280 pages, the new exposé from this Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter is an engaging look at how the superrich consistently—and outrageously—rely on public handouts while preaching about free markets and wasteful entitlement programs all the way to the bank. The villains in David Cay Johnston's tales run the gamut from railroad executives to sports-franchise owners to hedge-fund managers, all joined by a willingness to take enormous sums from public coffers while providing little or nothing in return.

Turning Truth on Its Head....

How long, I ask, can this bizzaro world last?

Christopher Hitchens Dispenses The Conventional Wisdom On Race

In the Wall Street Journal, the Hitch asserts:

“The enormous advances in genome studies have effectively discredited the whole idea of “race” as a means of categorizing humans. And however ethnicity may be defined or subdivided, it is utterly unscientific and retrograde to confuse it with color. The number of subjective definitions of “racist” is almost infinite but the only objective definition of the word is “one who believes that there are human races.”"

Obviously, Hitchens is an ignoramus about genome studies. More interesting, though, is the lack of self-awareness that political correctness inculcates! Hitchens is America’s most famous atheist, yet his entire life was turned inside out–to the point that he now drops by synagogues–when he discovered his mother was part-Jewish.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Sub-Prime Nation

Pat Buchanan writes: Since it began to give credit ratings to nations in 1917, Moody's has rated the United States triple-A. U.S. Treasury bonds have been seen as the most secure investment on earth. When crises erupt, nervous money seeks out the world's great safe harbor, the United States. That reputation is now in peril.

Last week, Moody's warned that if the United States fails to rein in the soaring cost of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the nation's credit rating will be down-graded within a decade.

Our political parties seem oblivious. Republicans, save Ron Paul, are all promising to expand the U.S. military and maintain all of our worldwide commitments to defend and subsidize scores of nations.

Democrats, with entitlement costs drowning the federal budget in red ink, are proposing a new entitlement – universal health coverage for the near 50 million who do not have it – another magnet for illegal aliens. Moody's is telling America it needs a time of austerity, while the U.S. government is behaving like the governments we used to bail out.

The New Republic: Some "racists" are more equal than others.

Steve Sailer exposes the gross hypocrisy of both the New Republic and main stream media:

The New Republic is also alarmed that:

"The newsletters display an obsession with Israel; no other country is mentioned more often in the editions I saw …"

That's in complete contrast to Marty Peretz's magazine, where Israel, being a small, distant foreign country, is almost never mentioned, and the only test applied to our foreign policy is whether it advances the general welfare of the American people.

Oh, sorry…that's the Bizarro World version of The New Republic. In our space-time continuum, Israel is the most important country in the galaxy, at least according to Peretz's priorities.

In the liberal American Prospect, Eric Alterman mused in his article My Marty Peretz Problem—And Ours, [June 19, 2007] on the 34 years of Peretz's stewardship of The New Republic:

"It would be theoretically possible, I imagine, to overstate the centrality of Peretz's obsession with the Arab-Israeli conflict to the magazine's politics and to its editorial voice. But … it is really not too much to say that almost all of Peretz's political beliefs are subordinate to his commitment to Israel's best interests, and these interests as Peretz defines them almost always involve more war."

Kirchick, enraged by what he has dug up in the antiwar candidate's newsletters, concludes that the libertarian surgeon is "a man filled with hate".

In sharp contrast, Kirchick's boss, Marty Peretz, is the reincarnation of St. Francis of Assisi.

Oh, oops, check that … As Alterman points out, Peretz is in thrall to an "obsessive and unapologetic hatred of Arabs". Alterman quotes Peretz as recently saying about Arabs:

“They are ‘violent, fratricidal, unreliable, primitive and crazed … barbarian’; they have created a ‘wretched society’ and are ‘cruel, belligerent, intolerant, fearing’; they are ‘murderous and grotesque’ and ‘can't even run a post office’; their societies ‘have gone bonkers over jihad’ and they are ‘feigning outrage when they protest what they call American (or Israeli) atrocities’; they ‘behave like lemmings’, and ‘are not shocked at all by what in truth must seem to them not atrocious at all’; and to top it all off, their rugs are not as ‘subtle’ and are more ‘glimmery’ than those of the Berbers."


Only a utterly corrupt elite on the verge of collapsing could be so hypocritical and oblivious to double standards.

Monday, January 14, 2008

A Clear Illustration that Madden's Ruling is a Farce:

Norman Oder writes:

The judge's options

As we know, Madden decided not to even analyze the debate about crime. Given that she had eight months to write the decision, and that laypeople can find the flaws in the crime claims, it would not have been that difficult for the judge to declare doubts about that element of blight.

Thus, Madden could have given some credence to the petitioners' claims that the incidence of blight was overstated, while still affirming that the footprint was blighted.

Or maybe it would have led Madden to rethink her statement that the "blight conditions documented in the Blight Study... provided a rational basis for the ESDC's conclusion that continued new development on the project site was unlikely."


Seriously does any one really believe this? A neighborhood where $700,000 condos were for sale smack in the center of a booming borough wasn't going to be developed? While Ratner and the city abandoned Brooklyn neighborhoods with far worse crime rates were revitalized and now are some of the nicest in the city. By this standard, developers can seize any property they like, anywhere.

This clearly illustrates that the whole process was a rigged farce, manipulated to conform to a pre-determined conclusion: steal property from honest homeowners and give it to a greedy, corrupt developer.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Comforting....

I come back from a long week-end to find Judge Madden ruled in favor of Forest City. I am still ingesting it but DDDB points this out:
Is NYPD Putting Us at Risk, Or Is Newark Just Overly Cautious

The NY Times's coverage of Judge Madden's decision includes the following:

...In rejecting a claim [by petitioners], for example, that the review failed to properly address the prospect that the project would provide a tempting target for terrorists, the judge said the project did not have as many inherent hazards as "facilities with some degree of dangerousness, such as an oil supertanker port, a gas storage facility or a hazardous waste facility."...

The stadium is no more dangerous than a hazardous waste dump or a supertanker storage area. Comforting. Any proposals to put those smack in the middle of three neighborhoods and over a major transportation hub? The judge's, politicians and Forest City's assertions that since there are other risky areas , we shouldn't complain when they build something that is going to make our lives more subject to danger reeks of the worst sort of elitism which has become a hallmark of this project. Would Judge Madden like a hazardous waste facility built in her neighborhood? It is quite fitting that this ill-conceived project constantly has to reference the worst examples of urban planning, safety and security, crowd and traffic control.

Friday, January 11, 2008

As Usual Israeli Papers Are More Honest And Forthcoming Than American Ones.

Not ONE main stream American publication has picked this story up yet;

Report: FBI translator says Israel planted nuclear 'moles' in U.S.

By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service

A Britsh newspaper on Sunday published allegations by a former FBI translator that Israel has planted "moles" in United States institutions dealing with nuclear technology.

I don't know what's funnier...

Neocons like that fat ass homo at the New Republic trying to convince us Ron Paul is a 'nazi' or Neocons trying to convince us they are actually concerned about the well being of Muslims, Arabs, Palestinians and Persians.

Really does any believe that Kristol, Wolfitiz, Perle and the other 'heavyweights' are concerned with anything but their own hyper-ethnic interests?

Its Time To Prosecute the "War Party"

The cabal of necons, Israel-first zionists, war profiteers and sundry traitors. They are not only enemies of the US the enemies of mankind with no regard for human live.

Iran, Again
The War Party is pushing us into attacking
by Justin Raimondo

The Iranians have released their own video of the alleged "confrontation" that occurred between three US warships and five Iranian speedboats in the Strait of Hormuz:

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Palestinians little moved by Bush visit

shocking! Do Neocons seriously think their policies will be met with anything but hostility?

Ann Coulter's Father Died.

One gets the feeling, reading this, that he would prefer a good honest word like 'died' than "passed away".

Steve Sailer Observes::

James Watson vs. Sibel Edmonds

The James Watson brouhaha began, I believe, with a story published in the London Times on a Sunday. By Wednesday of that week, a few comments deep within the article had set off a brouhaha around the world.

In contrast, last Sunday's London Times featured an article with the eye-opening title "For sale: West's deadly nuclear secrets" about former FBI prosecutor Sibel Edmonds's far-reaching charges. Yet, according to Google News, that London Times story has gotten zero coverage so far in the American mainstream press.

It's good to know we've got our priorities straight!

Blood Libel! Antisemite! Homobphobe!

My Note:: Neocons, Israel First Liberals "Zionists" if you will, have been confronted, outed and their hithero unquestioned power is being challenged, and they are reacting with the same old tired tactics. As this article insinuates, those tactics no longer work. It's about time - they crossed the line into treason long ago, and have been trying to shamelesly manipulate our sense of decency to support their bigotry. Enough.

New Republic Readers Decry Old Demagoguery

After reading James Kirchick’s article in The New Republic, which bashes Ron Paul as a racist, homophobic, anti-semitic nutjob conspiracy theorist, I couldn’t be more bored. (Angry White Man, The New Republic, 1-08-08)

First of all, the article itself is almost 4,000 words (where is the editor?) Secondly, the nasty newsletter accusations have already been in on wikipedia and in the New York Times for months. And even the New York Times retracted the story after a while because there was so little there. Thirdly, is it too much to ask for some creative muckraking now and again? How many times do expect us to hear “racist!!!” before we fall asleep?

The only new development in Kirchick’s article is the fact that he’s posted .pdf copies of the newsletters he supposedly dug up. However, given that these newsletter have already been combed over by the most malignant reporters for several years, I don’t see the point. They will show, as they have already shown before, that there are no bylines and are not characteristic of Paul’s style.

Appropriately, only about 10% of the first 80 or so comments posted on the New Republic’s website are impressed with the article. I didn’t look much further than that (there are 1285 comments so far). The other 90% call it what it is: stale, hollow propaganda.

PS: The New Republic has already had to post three corrections to misstated fact from the original article. Surprise, surprise.



It really is just a big smoke screen and Phi. Weiss alludes to:

.

Nationalism as a 'Blinding Force' in Jewish Identity

When Walt and Mearsheimer's paper appeared in LRB eons ago, one of the controversies surrounded their statement that citizenship in Israel is based on "blood kinship." Alan Dershowitz said they were reviving the blood libel.[Alan Dershowitz advocates torture and collective punishment of Palestinians. Alan Dershowitz claims when Zionists commit acts of terrorism, oh like hanging British POWs with piano wire or blowing up the King David Hotel, its not terrorism. God, I hate that man.]Benny Morris said that it was an "outrageous" claim, because Israel has Arab citizens (who are not allowed to serve in its army; how would you feel if blacks couldn't serve in the American army?). I believe in their book, W&M were more careful in their language.

I bring this up now because the latest issue of Raritan has a fabulous piece by Eyal Press about Jewish identity and Israel, "Death and Sacrifice in Israel," in which blood plays a role. When an Israeli is victimized by terrorism, members of the Knesset send out telegrams saying, "We share in your mourning and may God avenge his blood. " His blood. The same expression has been taken up by the settlers' movement. So whether or not the idea of blood kinship is legally correct, it sure is important culturally.

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Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Why Do I Have To Read The British Papers...

to find out what's going on in AMerica?

Economy faces greatest risks for decades


By Edmund Conway, Economics Editor
Last Updated: 7:05pm GMT 09/01/2008

The world is facing the most potent cocktail of economic and political risks for a decade in the wake of the credit crisis, an authoritative report has warned.

A potential recession in the US and the knock-on effects of a collapse in asset prices, such as housing and shares, could throw the world economy into chaos, says a study from the World Economic Forum.

Why Is No Main Stream Media Picking This Up?



a nut case?? Smearing Ron Paul distracting them too much? Why would judges put a gag order on her?

Outing the Traitors

It's been several days, NO main stream media has picked this up - too busy smearing Ron Paul and mongering for bombing Iran.

Sibel Edmonds Speaks...

Posted January 6, 2008 | 03:18 PM (EST)



stumbleupon :Sibel Edmonds Speaks... digg: Sibel Edmonds Speaks... reddit: Sibel Edmonds Speaks... del.icio.us: Sibel Edmonds Speaks...

Sibel Edmonds, the FBI whistle-blower who has been gagged for years by the Bush administration over intercepts she translated while at the bureau, was willing to go to prison to get her story told. She spent years trying to get her day in court, but the State Secrets gag against her prohibited her from telling her story even to a FISA judge. After years of trying to fight her way to through the maze of the US court system, Sibel Edmonds finally decided to tell her story no matter the consequences and offered to do so to any interested US media outlets.

Today, part of that story runs, but not in the United States, where not a single corporate outlet was willing to displease the White House and give Edmonds a platform. The Sunday Times Online, however, proved up to the task - somewhat. Here are the snips from that article:

"A WHISTLEBLOWER has made a series of extraordinary claims about how corrupt government officials allowed Pakistan and other states to steal nuclear weapons secrets.

Sibel Edmonds, a 37-year-old former Turkish language translator for the FBI, listened into hundreds of sensitive intercepted conversations while based at the agency's Washington field office.

Richard Spencer on the Ron Paul Smearer:

It’d be difficult to construct a more perfect third-generation neocon, or a more perfect PC crusader, than the young James Kirchick.

Callow, self-righteous, cubby, Kirchick is the kind of person who undoubtedly waxed on about neocons being the only ones willing to defend the West and expand gay rights in the Middle East between pizza breaks at Pierson college at Yale.

Arriving on the Washington scene this past year, Kirchick has written columns denying that the backers of Israel smear their critics with the “anti-Semite” libel … and then has returned to writing articles about how critics of Israel, or generally anyone he doesn’t much like, are “anti-Semites.” He actually picked up this habit in his student days. It thus came as little surprise that he was out front publicizing the fact that, among the hundreds of thousands of patriots who’ve donated to the Ron Paul campaign, one of them was a neo-Nazi crackpot. Kirchick has a habit of substituting insinuation for argument and evidence.





Note to Kirchick and his ilk - it no longer works - YOU are the haters, the war mongers, the bigots, YOU are the ones who support a racial identity state and want to do so on my dime. YOU are the ones who in turn want to displace Americans in their own country. We're done listening to your bs smears.

Obviously the likes of Alan Dershowitz, TNR, Necons, ADL, AIPAC - the whole rotten corrupt group of Zionists - think that if they scream NAZI loud enough it will cover up their mistreatment of Palestinians, scare people in sheepishly accepting the "need" to nuke Iraq ooops Iran...it will never stop, they will never stop pushing, smearing, name calling, its time to confront them, openly.

Cracking The Ron Paul Code

Reposted in full - hilarious, but sadly paranoid nuts like Kirchick either believe it OR are trying to make people believe it.

Cracking The Ron Paul Code

Posted by Richard Spencer on January 08, 2008

Yesterday on “Tucker,” Jamie Kirchick told the world what we in the right-wing extremist community have known for years: first, Ron Paul is a neo-Nazi-confederate homophobe; and secondly,

“He speaks in code; he’s a transmitter. He’ll say certain things that at first might not appear to be overtly racist, but to certain audiences, they know what he’s talking about. […] People in the know, and people who are in the neo-confederate communities, know exactly what he’s talking about.”

For those just learning to crack the Ron Paul Code, let me offer some sample translations:

1) Take for instance Ron Paul’s statement before Congress in July: “I have been one of the strongest opponents of military action against Iraq. I voted against the initial authorization in 2002, and I have voted against every supplemental appropriations bill to fund the war.” This passage can be roughly translated as, “Hitler was cool, all black people are evil, and I hate gays.”

2) Similarly, when Ron Paul says, “I want to eliminate the income tax,” he’s really trying to transmit, “There’s an international Jewish conspiracy; and the Holocaust never happened.”

I hope this clears everything up. To think, for around a year now, many people have supported Ron Paul because they actually believed he was running a campaign based on non-intervention and fiscal responsibility

Okay Something Positive

No Land Grab reminds Us:

TONIGHT: Reading, "Brooklyn Was Mine"

BWM-lg.gifWEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9, 7:30PM
Barnes & Noble 267 7th Ave., Brooklyn

Readings by:
Jennifer Egan
Susan Choi
Darren Strauss

BROOKLYN WAS MINE

Edited by Chris Knutsen and Valerie Steiker
Riverhead Trade Paperback Original

With essays by Emily Barton, Susan Choi, Rachel Cline, Philip Dray, Jennifer Egan, Colin Harrison, Joanna Hershon, Jonathan Lethem, Dinaw Mengestu, Elizabeth Gaffney, Lara Vapnyar, Lawrence Osborne, Katie Roiphe, John Burnham Schwartz, Vijay Seshadri, Darcey Steinke, Darin Strauss, Alexandra Styron, and Robert Sullivan. And an introduction by Phillip Lopate.

Proceeds from anthology of original work to benefit Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn.

Posted by lumi at January 9, 2008 6:07 AM | Permalink

Republic Vs. Empire

As stated before: the one candidate who wants to restore the constitution, get rid of the patriot act and other infringements on liberty, and get us out of the middle east is smeared by main stream media as a 'nazi. '. What does that tell you about our elite 'freedom is tyranny' or at this point do they think the 'racism' charge even trumps individual liberty?

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Old Media, Big Government: They're Scared and Desperate

Posted by Karen DeCoster at 06:27 PM

The James Kirchick article in The New Republic is so obviously a smear strategy that aims to shut down the campaign of a guy who is an unnerving candidate because he comes from outside The Establishment and he is representative of a very ominous grassroots power. The Establishment and its media stooges have no real strategy for combating, let alone defeating, a massive grassroots-Internet power that has discarded old media and old politics in favor of a grassroots revolution that is supported by a strong finanial network.

Now this whole smear is, of course, a very calculated attempt on the part of the neocon rag, The New Republic, to take down a candidate whom the establishment absolutely fears. This punk kid whole wrote it, James Kirchick, is a Giuliani lover, and one who would love to "make a name" for himself by bringing down the Ron Paul Revolution with a prehistoric strategy of pointing a finger at supposed acts of political incorrectness. As soon as Ron is making the charge into the primaries, in a good position to win one or two of them, out comes the smear cannons.

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Just How Arrogant Has Israel Become?

"Jerusalem square to be named after Pollard"

From the Jewish Telegraph Agency:

A Jerusalem square will be symbolically dedicated to Jonathan Pollard ahead of President Bush's visit to Israel.

Mina Fenton, a Jerusalem city councilwoman, announced this week that the capital's Paris Square will be symbolically renamed "Pollard Square" in a ceremony on Jan. 7, two days before George W. Bush begins his first visit as U.S. president to Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

The move is meant to help lobby Bush to pardon Pollard, a former U.S. Navy analyst who is serving a life prison sentence for spying for Israel. Bush leaves office in 2009.

Paris Square is located between the U.S. Consulate in west Jerusalem and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's official residence. Fenton said there are no plans to formally change the square's name.

On Monday, the Knesset State Control Committee decided to ask State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss to prepare a confidential special report on Israeli government efforts to secure the release of Johnathon Pollard.



A message to foolish American prosecutors trying AIPAC members? A message to anyone opposing the lobby? Though they haven't released Pollard yet, AIPAC and the Neocons have become so arrogant that they are openly defending the current traitors. Yes, unless things radically change, things are going to get very very ugly.

The Illusion of Democracy..

'A Heartbeat Away' From War
With Iran and Pakistan
by Justin Raimondo

As the American people amuse themselves with the illusion that they have any say in the way they are presently governed, our rulers are moving toward war. Two recent incidents underscore the imminence of this prospect.

The Iranian "provocation" in the straits of Hormuz has set the stage for a new "crisis" manufactured wholly by the War Party, the rationale for which is uncritically accepted by our passive "mainstream" media. We are expected to believe that five minuscule speedboats "menaced" the USS Hopper, a destroyer armed with missiles; the cruiser USS Port Royal; and the USS Ingraham, a frigate. That's rather like five gnats "menacing" a trio of elephants. Oh, but that's not all. In addition to intercepting the American flotilla, CNN reports the Iranians supposedly issued explicit threats:

.........


It's interesting that none of the "major" presidential candidates has spoken out on this issue: here we are, on the brink of war, and where are the "antiwar" Democrats? Barack Obama is being touted as some sort of savior who can "bring us together" in a Rapture-like mega love-in of "national unity" and "hope." Yet Obama has said attacking Iran is "on the table," a view he shares with Hillary, Edwards, and all the rest of the Democrats except for Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel.


I believe this is the reason for the peculiar support of Barak, 'white guilt' and somehow, if a black man is elected president, it will 'prove' we're not racist thus washed of our sins. Idealogy makes fools of men.

The Debate Not Taking Place...

No, Virginia, There Is No Israel Lobby (1 Question About Israel in 11 Debates)

Justin Elliott of Mother Jones went over the 11 Democratic debates to see how often Israel came up. His report:

In nine of the 11 debates, the terms Israel, Palestinians, and Gaza were either never uttered or were mentioned once or twice peripherally


I guess it's just not important right? or the #1, most destructive lobby would like to you to think so.

How Much Clearer Does It Have To Be:

For the deliberate displacement of Christianity is obviously where America is headed, if its elites have anything to do with it. A harbinger: the year’s crop of War Against Christmas news items included this remarkable report in The Harvard Crimson by Christopher B. Lacaria ’09 (December 17, 2007)

“Chanukah, a holy day observed by a sizable portion of Harvard students, enjoys the public recognition on campus that it deserves. During the eight-day-long holiday, a giant menorah graced the Yard right in front of Widener Library. Such campus celebrities as former University President Lawrence H. Summers, ‘Justice’ professor Michael Sandel, and current University President Drew Gilpin Faust herself even participated in public menorah-lightings, garnering significant Crimson coverage.

“But not one public Christmas display—no Nativity crèche, no Advent wreath lightings—received any such attention, in the campus daily or on email lists. Surely there are still Christians on campus who cling tightly to their Christmastime traditions, but theirs do not figure meaningfully in the multicultural mélange that dominates Harvard this time of year.”





And of course, when there is a reaction:


.

Last year, reporting on some local hacks’ Khristmaskampf Denial (for example, see here), VDARE.COM friend Ryan Kennedy commented:

It's amazing how the national debate is so uniform. Even up here in Anchorage, AK we have liberal pundits uniformly insisting there is no war against X-mas. There must be some secret meeting they all attend.”

Well, paranoids do have enemies. The Anti-Defamation League has posted on its website a response to the 2006 Sea-Tac controversy—which was triggered by a rabbi’s attempt to insert a menorah—pointedly headed Christmas Tree Episode in Seattle Unleashes Anti-Semitism ”. There can be no doubt that editors across America have received deputations making this same point with earnest eloquence. That’s probably why Fox’s Bill O’Reilly declared victory this year in the War Against Christmas and sharply toned down his rhetoric.

For one reason or another, newsroom culture in America turned hostile to War Against Christmas stories—and also the Christophobes have been arguably less aggressive.

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Media Driven Election, Part 1

I'll let Vdare do the talking:

And the Winner of the New Hampshire Primary is … the Media!

As I write this, with over 81 percent of the precincts counted, Sen. John “If they want a goddamn fence, I’ll build them a goddamn fence” McCain (Media-AZ) has a five percent lead over former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (down however from an earlier lead of eight percent), 37-32 percent, has been declared the winner of the GOP primary by the media, and has given his victory speech.

This is amazing, when you consider that:
1. McCain is the media’s own Frankenstein monster, created in 2000, and that the media brought his campaign back from the dead months ago, and kept it alive;
2. McCain is fundamentally hostile to the interests of Republican voters. He has waged a long, lonely battle on behalf of media control of elections (aka “campaign finance reform”), and on behalf of the abolition of America through open borders and amnesty for illegal immigrants (aka “comprehensive immigration reform”); and
3. New Hampshire voters are supposedly very hostile towards amnesty and open borders.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

The Shape Of Things To Come?

Let's Hope!

Even if Ratner's crap project doesn't go through, future generations will look back at this age as one of greed; earlier generations invested in the future: planting trees and creating parks that future generations would enjoy.

The current crop of politicians, under the influence of voraciously greedy developers, has squandered and opportunity to make the Brooklyn renaissance - which was a true grass roots movement - flourish, rather they are doing everything in their power to displace the people that started it, and destroy the aesthetics of the Brooklyn that set the stage for it. In short, they are simply turning Brooklyn into a concrete and glass boxes with like anywhere else USA.

Anyway, here's a better design for Vanderbilt Yards. Feasible and liveable, two things Ratner's plan which is just a public subsidized land grab, is not.

The UNITY Plan: The Community's Plan for the Vanderbilt Yards

When Atlantic Yards finally goes away, the community is ready with the UNITY Plan. The website for the plan has just launched; there you can also download the pdf of the complete plan and view more plan models.

From the Unity Plan website:

UNITY'S Planning Principles:

  • CONNECT Prospect Heights, Fort Greene and other neighborhoods

  • Develop at a HUMAN SCALE and density

  • Promote DIVERSITY AND VITALITY in urban design

  • Create and preserve AFFORDABLE HOUSING

  • REDUCE TRAFFIC, IMPROVE MASS TRANSIT

  • Create JOBS for Brooklyn residents

  • Create truly usable and accessible PUBLIC SPACES

  • Guarantee an OPEN PLANNING PROCESS, with transparency and accountability
...
The UNITY plan offers 1500 units of housing distributed over 8 acres.

Units of housing currently on the market will remain and additional units can be made available through adaptive reuse.

60% of all units will be permanently affordable to Brooklyn residents and all will be built on site. This creates 900 affordable units compared to the 315 affordable units in phase one of the FCR plan.

To support the housing and create a vibrant community, this community based plan includes schools, senior services, child care, recreation as well as new retail space


While I can't imagine myself enjoying the sunshine on a small island park on the corner of Flatbush and Atlantic, its preferable to a glass and steel hand grendade.

Monday, January 7, 2008

Perhaps If Neocons Lied In Rhyme They'd At Least Be More Entertaining.

The Prince of Poets: Arab Poetry’s Answer to American Idol

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Imagine an American TV network deciding to take the American Idol format and apply it to poetry; lining up poets to read their poems in front of temperamental judges while the nation gets out its mobile phones to vote for its favorite poet. One can be sure the show would not survive the first commercial break before the chastened executives pull the plug on it and replace it with yet another series on the Life and Times of Nicole Ritchie. Yet, that was exactly the formula for the latest TV sensation to take Arab countries by storm.

Perhaps the only thing that is as hard as translating Arab poetry to other languages is trying to explain to non-Arabs the extent of poetry’s popularity, importance and Arabs’ strong attachment to it. Whereas poetry in America has been largely reduced to a ceremonial eccentricity that survives thanks to grants and subsidies from fanatics who care about it too much, in the Arab world it remains amongst the most popular forms of both literature and entertainment. Whereas America’s top poets may struggle to fill a small Barnes & Noble store for a reading, Palestine’s Mahmoud Darwish has filled football stadiums with thousands of fans eager to hear his unique recital of his powerful poems. And while in America a good poetry collection can expect to sell some 2,000 copies, in the Arab world the poems of pre-Islamic era poets are still widely read today in their original words, as are those from the different Islamic eras leading to the present. The late Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani had a cult following across the Arab world, and his romantic poems have for decades constituted standard covert currency between lovers.






Americans, prodded by mainstream media, if they do not think of themselves as sophisticated, from the fox news/cnn/NYT world view, they at least think they are more sophisticated than Arabs...yet, if you look at the state of our popular culture it is not the indicator of a healthy society.

Still No Major American Media Reporting This:

Nukes, Spooks,
and the Specter of 9/11

We're in big trouble if even half of what Sibel Edmonds says is true…
by Justin Raimondo

"The next president may have to deal with a nuclear attack," averred ABC's Charles Gibson at Saturday night's Democratic presidential debate. "The day after a nuclear weapon goes off in an American city, what would we wish we had done to prevent it and what will we actually do on the day after?"

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Why Are No American Media Picking This UP

Link:
For sale: West’s deadly nuclear secrets

A WHISTLEBLOWER has made a series of extraordinary claims about how corrupt government officials allowed Pakistan and other states to steal nuclear weapons secrets.

Sibel Edmonds, a 37-year-old former Turkish language translator for the FBI, listened into hundreds of sensitive intercepted conversations while based at the agency’s Washington field office.

She approached The Sunday Times last month after reading about an Al-Qaeda terrorist who had revealed his role in training some of the 9/11 hijackers while he was in Turkey.

Edmonds described how foreign intelligence agents had enlisted the support of US officials to acquire a network of moles in sensitive military and nuclear institutions.

Friday, January 4, 2008

Could This Bring Bollywood...out of a Slump?


Halla Bol....Opens next week. Starring Ajay Devgan a pretty darn good and kind of bad-ass actor - and Vidya Balan.... We'll see. 2007 was pretty rotten.

Texas Enriched By Die-virsity

Seriously, just how @#$R%#$ clueless are 'elite opinion makers'?

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Honor Killing in Texas?

The double murder of Amina and Sarah Said near Dallas at the hands of their Egyptian immigrant father has honor killing written all over it: Muslim male arrives in the mid-1980s with his family, fails to assimilate but his female children do, expecting to lead American lives with individual freedom. He responds by killing them.

It’s another family culture clash that led to death, a syndrome that has become rather common in Europe, but not as much here. Yet.

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....
Brender Walker then links to this :: remember Podhoretz is one of the most aggresive, militant Neocons...so why would he hold such an opinion? Simple He's one of the most aggresive and militant neocons. Creative destruction isn't only for the Islamic world:
.Muslim immigration no threat, says Podhoretz


In the midst of a long interview in which he criticizes his fellow American Jews for their failure to break free of their habitual belief in liberalism, Norman Podhoretz shows that he has still not broken free of his own habitual belief in mass immigration and the supposedly all-powerful forces of assimilation:

Despite my own criticisms of the American Muslim community, I would not say that it is a big threat to America. I also suspect that the next generation of American Muslims will become more Americanized than its immigrant parents, because the melting pot still seems to be more effective in promoting assimilation than "multiculturalism" is in promoting separatism and balkanization.

While I don't generally like the expression, may we be finally permitted to say at this point that Norman Podhoretz just doesn't get it?
Posted by Lawrence Auster at October 28, 2003 04:25 PM .

How Does This Neocon Shill Ever Expect To Be Elected?

"McCain in NH: Would Be "Fine" To Keep Troops in Iraq for "A Hundred Years""

... Amazing with all the proping up he's had from kingmakers in the media is out of touch with America views have him polling in single digits.

Friday Bollywood Break: Dil To Pagal Hai

I finally caught this movie (colds have a way of making one catch up dvd viewing) one of the most popular and acclaimed 'Bollywood' films of the last decade or so...It was shot in 1997/98, Shah Rukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit at the height of her beauty and charm ( and that killer smile). Well here's an oddity for bollywood: The plot is actually great, the music is great but the dancing...was kind of cheesy - obviously influenced by the more tacky aspects of the Michael Flatly /Riverdance phenomenon at the time. This is one of the few nice numbers, most of the time Madhuri is in appropriate - as in they just make her body look weird- tacky lycra jumpsuits that make her bulge in all the wrong places..and there is one number with Shah Ruk Khan in overalls that will surely be evidence of latent homosexuality...anyway here's the nice number:



A bit crude but nice tune. Actually a good indicator of the generally over all poor quality production values prior to the say, Devdas.

Here are some of the numbers, cool tunes but ...ughh its the kind of stuff that used to cause Indians in America to wince and change the subject at the mention of "bollywood"



Madhuri has got a beautiful face and though a bit less peferct body, can look sexy in the clothing that emphasized her lines....which this get up clearly does not do...as for the men in the orange shirt and black overalls....why not just a big sign saying "We're gay!"

Bag Balm


One reason I am pumping out useless post after useless post is I have a rotten, nasty cold, which is actually, finally a lot better due to the use of garlic ( I kid you not, read up on what the good Dr. Weil has to say about it).

Anyway, after several days of nose blowing and mouth breathing, my nose became a bit soar and my lips quite chapped. I figured I would try some bag balm -since I have used it on minor cuts and after all its good for soar cow udders. OUCH. it burned and stung, and after having it on my lips and nose I can safely say, if I were a cow, I would not want it on my udder, soar or not. Has anyone ever asked a cow if they wanted it?

I like old fashioned country remedies, but I have yet of find this often praised product no more or less effective than aloe or straight petrol jelly. Its good for protecting against wind burn though.