Happy New Year

Here’s hoping that 2010 is a much much much better year than 2009 *Takes huge swig of chardonnay*

For your listening enjoyment, back by popular demand, (me), here’s the Irish  Auld Lang Syne:

My Top 10 Top 10 Lists For 2009 And Predictions For 2010

Because I’m too lazy to come up with one, myself…here they are in no particular order:

1. Little Miss Attila: We Don’t Need No Steenking Predictions . . .

2. Frugal Cafe: Closing Out 2009 with My Own Top 10 List… Top Ten Best Sarah Palin Quotes

3. Patterico: The 15 bloggiest stories of 2009

4. Doug Ross: My First Prediction For 2010: Illinois Based Terrorists To Be Freed, Unionized, Hired As        TSA Baggage Screeners

5. Phyllis Schlafly: Ten New Reasons Why Obamacare Can Still Be Killed

6. The Anchoress: 2010 Predictions? – UPDATED

7. Fox News: Nine Big Stories the Mainstream Media Missed in 2009

8. Michelle Malkin: Best (er, worst) of 2009: Hate mail edition (Content Warning)

9. Ed Morrissey, Hot Air: Persons of the Year

10. Moonbattery: Go, Crystal Ball, Go! and What the State-Run Lamestream Media Missed in 2009

I know, I know…some of the lists have more or less than 10 – NITPICKERS!

MORE:

Bob McCarty: Top BMW Stories the Mainstream Media Missed

I think these “What the MSM missed” lists may have to done on a biannual, triannual quad-annual basis in order to keep up with them all.

Dri at AoSHQ: The 30 Most Disturbing Ads of 2009.

BlackisWhite Imperial Consigliere: 2009: The Year In Review: Betrayal Edition

Demure Thoughts: Ten Shitty Things about 2009

Accuracy In Media: Watch The Decline: The Media Lowlights Of 2009

AoSHQ: The Top 10 Conservative Movies Of The Decade

Dana Loesche, Big Government: It’s a Wrap: The Most Under-Reported Stories of 2009

Pundet and Pundette: The year in pictures

Cassie Fiano: Blogosphere Round-up: 2010 Predictions

UPDATE:

Oh, uh huh….See? See? – What did I tell you? I knew there would be nitpickers!

No, they’re not all lists of ten, or even particularly lists…why should I let that stop me? I had my heart set on “my top ten top ten lists”, by God, don’t ruin my fun!

Troglodyte!

We Are Being Governed By Children

Lying, petty, hypocritical, finger-pointing children who do not have grown up priorities.

Oh. My. Gosh.

On December 26, two days after Nigerian Omar Abdulmutallab allegedly attempted to use underwear packed with plastic explosives to blow up the Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight he was on, and as it became clear internally that the Administration had suffered perhaps its most embarrassing failure in the area of national security, senior Obama White House aides, including chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod and new White House counsel Robert Bauer, ordered staff to begin researching similar breakdowns — if any — from the Bush Administration.

Let that sink in…instead of treating the issue as a national security problem, their first instinct was to treat it as a political one.

I was just saying the other day, after Gibbs played the (by now fully expected, and unsurprising) “blame Bush” card:

Weak!

They still have no idea how petty and small this makes them look?

Apparently not.

The idea was that we’d show that the Bush Administration had had far worse missteps than we ever could,” says a staffer in the counsel’s office. “We were told that classified material involving anything related to al Qaeda operating in Yemen or Nigeria was fair game and that we’d declassify it if necessary.”

The White House, according to the source, is in full defensive spin mode.

This is via the Prowler, mind you, which also notes that David Axelrod sits in on national security briefings with the President, something political advisers, like Karl Rove, traditionally have not done.

Hat tip: Weasel Zippers

SEE ALSO:

Verum Serum: White House Finds Way to Blame Bush for Terror Attempt

What the grown ups are saying:

Cheney and Congressional Leaders React to Obama’s National Security Policy

RELATED:

Mind Numbingly Hypocritical: Gibbs Decries “The Blame Game”

MORE:

I said it first!

Mike Hendrix, Cold Fury:

Fire Napolitano? What’s the point?

Andrew McCarthy:

The ‘Fire Napolitano’ Debate

Me, 4 days ago:

Janet Napolitano Echoes Obama:

I understand the disgust with Napolitano, but why would Obama fire her if this is in fact his own policy she’s echoing?

Just sayin’, just sayin’, just sayin’.

UPDATE:

“Full spin mode” in action:

Democrat Spinners: Obama More Aggressive Than Bush Against Al Qaeda

Rush Rushed To Hospital With Chest Pains

Awful news coming tonight from  Honolulu:

Conservative radio talk host Rush Limbaugh was rushed to a Honolulu hospital on Wednesday afternoon with chest pains, sources told KITV.Paramedics responded to the call at 2:41 p.m. at the Kahala Hotel and Resort.

Limbaugh suffered from chest pains, sources said. Paramedics treated him and took him to Queen’s Medical Center in serious condition.He was seen golfing at Waialae Country Club earlier this week. The country club is next to the Kahala Hotel and Resort.The radio show host had been in the islands during the holidays. Coincidentally, his visit comes at a time when two of the nation’s most powerful Democrats, President Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, are also staying in Hawaii.

It didn’t take long for some ghoulish vultures on the left to start circling and crowing, as noticed by iOWNTHEWORLD’s Snark and Boobs:

Some on the Left, however, are on full display as the hateful, creepy people that they truly are. They are wishing for the worst and are almost giddy with excitement, as the comments at TMZ indicate. Some examples:

I hope he dies.

Posted at 10:03PM on Dec 30th 2009 by Chris
2. Best news I’ve heard in years…Hope he joins MJ, the sooner the better!

Posted at 10:02PM on Dec 30th 2009 by Ron Burgundy
1. good riddance!

Posted at 10:01PM on Dec 30th 2009 by james
18. Oh, please let him die! Preferably quickly and very painfully.

Please, please, PLEASE!!!

Posted at 10:06PM on Dec 30th 2009 by Shittohead

@TommyXtopher, a lib, but always a class act, tweeted:

Thoughts and prayers are in order for Rush and his family. Or silence.

Ditto!

UPDATE:

Latest reports say Limbaugh is now in stable condition.

UPDATE II:

The Right Scoop reports:

KITV has confirmed that Rush will not be released on Wednesday night.

UPDATE III:

Check out these sweethearts on Twitter via some bastion of left wing mind-farts pharts called, The Phlog:

1. 
   demonbaby Come on 2009! There’s time for one more!! RT @BreakingNews: Rush Limbaugh rushed to hospital in Honolulu after suffering chest pains. 31 Dec 2009 from TweetDeck
2. 
   BlackCanseco I wonder what Rush Limbaugh will think of healthcare reform come Monday. Hmmm… 31 Dec 2009 from web
3. 
   WatchJ Rush Limbaugh is in the hospital with severe chest pains…God if u can read this tweet please give him a black doctor. Thanks 31 Dec 2009 from TwitBird iPhone
4. 
   BigFatWhale I hope Rush Limbaugh isn’t exaggerating his symptoms like Michael J Fox did. 31 Dec 2009 from TweetDeck
5. 
   billpalmer come on God, I don’t ask you for much, and I very rarely ask you to smite anyone. but please kill Rush Limbaugh tonight. 31 Dec 2009 from web
6. 
   djstangl Breaking news – Rush Limbaugh has a heart! 31 Dec 2009 from Tweetie
7. 
   plan9production Rush Limbaugh was rushed to the hospital. I told him Oxycontin and bacon cheeseburgers were a dangerous mix. 31 Dec 2009 from web
8. 
   Ashley_Stephens So…if Rush Limbaugh dies in Hawaii, will his listeners believe the death certificate? 31 Dec 2009 from web
9. 
   ItzTrizz617 so rush limbaugh did go to the same hawaiian hospital obama was born in #ironysabitch 31 Dec 2009 from mobile web
10. 
    guitarbassfire RT @JoeMyGod @JamesAkersJr: I hope Rush Limbaugh is saved by a black homosexual doctor with a questionable immigration status. #fb

Not even ashamed at how nasty and vicious  they are.

Hey, you  idiots who are praying for Rush to have a black doctor…did you know one of his best friends, James Golden, AKA Bo Snerdley,  happens to be black? Did you know that his co-host on Thursday is his black friend, Professor Walter Williams?

Hello? Why do you care what color Rush’s doctor is? Rush doesn’t.

UPDATE IV:

The Rush Limbaugh Show website issues a statement:

ALERT: Rush was admitted to a Honolulu hospital today and is resting comfortably after suffering chest pains. Rush appreciates your prayers and well wishes. He will keep you updated via RushLimbaugh.com and on Thursday’s radio program.

Speaking of Scott Brown…

William A. Jacobson of Legal Insurrection notes that MA State Senator, Scott Brown, who’s hoping to fill Teddy’s all important US Senate seat in a special election January 19, is “winning the online battle”.

In fact a Scott Brown in Australia has been the be the unwitting beneficiary of all the enthusiasm:

As the Boston Globe reports, in the past few days, as @ScottBrownMA has gained momentum through bloggers and twitterers and other social media, @ScottBrown has been inundated with people seek @ScottBrownMA.

Brown’s Facebook page has 8689 fans versus 6255 at Coakley‘s Facebook page. The BrownBrigade online network has 2517 members; I could find nothing similar for Coakley.

You can join the fray by following  @ScottBrownMA on Twitter, and becoming a fan of his Facebook page, linked above.

FYI: I listened in on a conference call with Brown, yesterday, and was surprised to learn that those rumors about the GOP leaving him in the cold were greatly exaggerated. In fact, “Don’t believe everything you read” is a direct quote from Brown. He wanted us to know that the GOP wasn’t stiffing him. But he is being greatly outspent by his well connected opponent, MA Atty Gen Martha Coakley, who has special interest, and  union $$$ backing her.

Scott Brown has something she doesn’t have, however…and that’s momentum.

You can donate to his campaign here, any time, but a “money bomb” is being planned for Jan. 11  for the last stretch of the campaign. You can go make a pledge, now, too.

Whoa:

Oh my… I just discovered this strictly by accident, I swear, but HUBBA HUBBA!

Long before he was a politician, the Republican candidate vying for Ted Kennedy’s U.S. Senate seat posed nude for the centerfold of Cosmo. Scott Brown won our “America’s Sexiest Man” contest and appeared in the June 1982 issue. In those days he was a 22-year-old law student at Boston College who was cramming for finals just days before stripping down for our photographer.

“Here at Cosmo we’ve had bachelors go on to be actors, models, and reality show stars, so we’re thrilled that one has gone on to become a politician,” says Kate White, Cosmo’s editor in chief. Obviously we know how to pick ’em. This particular bachelor has always had political ambitions and even admitted to being “a bit of a patriot” when we interviewed him.

Aw!

Safe for work (I think…)pictures at link.

Safe School Czar Kevin Jennings Hasn’t Been Fired Yet?

This isn’t a gay/straight issue. It’s a *creepy, pervvy, cultural Marxist who recommends hardcore kiddie porn to school aged kids being put in charge of “Safe Schools” by Obama and their creepy defenders (Media Mutters)* issue.

Gateway Pundit and Andrew Breitbart are  not letting up on their vendetta against Jennings, and I thank God for that. Nothing good can come from having a person like this in a position of authority over children.

The latest via Gateway Pundit:

This week Mass Resistance reported that Kevin Jennings was promoting this porn books to kids for years:

Here’s proof that Kevin Jennings was certainly aware that his organization, GLSEN, recommended porn books for teens.  He had recommended them himself in his 1994 high school reader Becoming Visible porn publisher Alyson Books). On p. 278 in his Questions/Activities section for Chapter 17, he wrote:

15. Other resources for reading are Bennett Singer’s Growing Up Gay, Ann Heron’s One Teenager in Ten: Writings by Gay and Lesbian Youth, Aaron Frick’s Reflections of a Rock Lobster: A Story of Growing Up Gay, and Paul Monette’s Becoming a Man. Films include Robert King’s The Disco Years and Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, based on Jeanette Winterson’s autobiographical novel.

These questionable books (haven’t looked at the films yet…) have been described by Linda Harvey in 2002here), NARTH (late 1990s), and more recently at Gateway Pundit/BigGovernment.com (Dec. 2009).

One of the books personally recommended by Jennings; Reflections of a Rock Lobster, (where gay sex between kindergartners in the school bathroom is treated as normal), is examined over at Gateway Pundit.

As always extreme content warning.

Previously:

Kevin Jennings Still “Safe School Czar” – WHY?

Video: Michelle Malkin Discusses “Safe School Czar” Kevin Jennings On Hannity

More On Kevin Jennings, Obama’s Safe School Czar – It Gets Worse

The Official Media Matters Response To Obama’s Safe School Czar’s Porno Reading List For Kids Scandal

An Open Letter To Obama From A Mother, Re Safe School Czar Kevin Jennings

Deesgusting!:Obama’s “Safe Schools Czar” Kevin Jennings Promoting Child Porn In Classroom Through GLSEN Reading List

Zombie Takes Media Matters To Task On “Safe School Czar” Kevin Jennings

Why Does Obama Have A Known *Pervert Gay Activist (I changed my mind again)PERVERT For His “Safe Schools” Czar?

Various And Sundry Items

I’m having a hard time coming up with something/anything to write about. Not that there’s any lack of  newsworthy items to write about – I seem to be suffering from bloggers block. Part of it is because of the constant interruptions of having the kids at home, and the time I spent taking down my Christmas decor, today.

But most of it is the fact that so many things are happening - there’s almost too much news, and I don’t even know where to start, or what to say. I despair because there are so many other bloggers  out there who have already said it better than I can, anyway.

So I’m in a funk…which hopefully won’t last long.

***

But in the meantime…I thought you might enjoy these bizarro headlines:

Man, clad in underwear and sandals, kills deer with stick

Can’t a guy push a shopping cart full of bongs down the street?

Lincoln police: Man put cat in washing machine

Police: Resident Fires Warning Shot As Partially Nude, Mumbling Man Approaches Him

***

Then there’s this.

I didn’t want to make a huge deal out of it… I’ve noticed those lines on the side of Obama’s head, before…and didn’t think much of it – chalked it up to a bad haircut, but now that they mention it,  it does looks like scar tissue, and the Freepers are asking if Obama’s had brain surgery

***

On a sort of related note…not related to brain surgery per se, but perhaps to Obama’s brain – People are wondering what’s happened to the golden boy’s noted oratory skills.

Neo Neocon says Suddenly, Obama’s not so fluent any more:

Obama was always a fluid if vapid speechmaker, although his off-the-cuff statements featured a lot of hemming and hawing. But I’ve noticed something that seems new: hesitancy even when he speaks from a prepared text.

Obama now seems to go off-teleprompter more often—perhaps because he’s been critiqued so much for its use—and when reading from notes on a lectern he stops and starts, as well as using a tennis-match-like repetitive back and forth movement of his head.

What’s more, Obama’s disfluencies have an odd cadence, coming at times that seem unnatural, as though he’s distracted and not even thinking about what he’s saying but rather merely reading it from a text he’s never seen before. Is he nervous? Lying? Nervous about lying? Nervous about being caught in lying? Aware that the gift he’s relied on his entire life is going or perhaps even gone, now that he needs it most?

Vanderleun has noticed it, too: The Emperor’s New Speech Impediment

And the Anchoress has lots to say about it, as well: Obama and Doing vs Being – UPDATED

My own two cents: I think Obama is very good at reading inspiring sounding but not necessarily meaningful words with a commanding voice. He is most comfortable with the teleprompter, as apparently, he has excellent vision, and prefers to  read the words with a level head. Now, he’s learning on the job how to read from note cards, but the main problem for him is, the subject matter. The main issue he’s been dealing with recently, is just not that alluring to him. Now he has to deal with stuffy-old, real-world problems while he’d rather be dealing with hopey-changey stuff, like; saving the economy by making sure everyone in the country has health insurance, or saving the world from horrors of the climate by taxing us all into oblivion. That’s why I think his most recent speeches have sounded robotical, perfunctory, and flat.

He’s just not that into the whole GWOT dealio.

***

On a totally unrelated note. Did anyone else notice a dearth of Christmas lights, this year? Reeko emailed:

My family drove an entire loop around Dallas and through downtown on Christmas night. Several generations in the vehicle, and we all commented that this year, there were sparse Christmas decorations and lights out everywhere. Most glaringly unlit was the downtown skyline. None of us had ever seen the skyline that dark at Christmas!  We even drove down to City Hall to see the usual “festivus” type park ornaments etc, but nada. nothing. zip. This year, there were not a single jinglebell or wreath or anything on any city light pole or building that we saw except Nieman Marcus. For those who don’t know, Dealey Plaza is never decorated, out of respect for its solemness i suppose, yet even the Bank America building had their distinctive green lights TURNED OFF! the only other times that folks in my family remember the skyline building lights being turned off was after tragedies such as 9/11 and the JFK assasination.  yet OFF they were… ditto the Fountain Place (the pyramid-like building that was almost bombed back in September), Elm Place, Plaza of the Americas, Magnolia, Adolphus… the only lighted building was the Renaissance Tower with its distinctive white cross pattern – nothing else like their usual Christmassy red and green. Even the Reunion Tower Ball was just solid white – no intricate patterns playing, flashing around like during a Stars or Mav game, or any of their colored lights…

I  noticed a general Christmas morass, this year, too.

***

Thanks for the linkage, to my blogging sister, Pundette, a fellow sufferer of writer’s block.

Heh…Obama’s scar got the Zipster’s attention, too. Says he has a surgery scar just like it…

Video: Krauthammer Not Impressed With Obama’s Statement On Iran

I kept hearing about Obama’s supposedly strong condemnation of the Iranian regime today, but when I finally did hear it, it sounded flat, forced, perfunctory…as in (well, I have to say something). Charles Krauthammer called it “flaccid”:

Transcript and video via Gateway Pundit

Krauthammer: “The regime is weakening. This is a hinge in history. Everything in the region would change if the regime is changed. Obama ought to be strong out there in saying it’s an illegitimate government; we stand shoulder to shoulder with the people in the street. When he talks about diplomacy he should be urging our Western allies that have relations to cut them off. He ought to be going into the UN every forum denouncing it. This is a moment in history, and he’s missing it.“

As Krauthammer said in his Dec. 25 oped:

Why is this so important? Because revolutions succeed at that singular moment, that imperceptible historical inflection, when the people, and particularly those in power, realize that the regime has lost the mandate of heaven. With this weakening dictatorship desperate for affirmation, why is the U.S. repeatedly offering just such affirmation?

Apart from ostracizing and delegitimizing these gangsters, we should be encouraging and reinforcing the demonstrators.

This is no trivial matter. When pursued, beaten, arrested and imprisoned, dissidents can easily succumb to feelings of despair and isolation. Natan Sharansky testifies to the electric effect Ronald Reagan’s Evil Empire speech had on lifting spirits in the gulag. The news was spread cell to cell in code tapped on the walls. They knew they weren’t alone, that America was committed to their cause.

Obama has been handed this historical moment in time, giving him a unique opportunity  to say and do the right things – which he should have been saying and doing for six months, now. If he had said yes to freedom and Democracy for Iran, he could have been the sort of inspirational and transformative figure Ronald Reagan was for Eastern Europe before the Berlin Wall fell. But no. He seems bored, and even inconvenienced by the rebellion – like it doesn’t suit his needs.

At best, one could say he’s merely voting “present”.

Iran is at a tipping point….and if the evil and corrupt regime falls due to the courageous and persistent actions of  pro Democracy forces, it will have been done with no encouragement  from Obama, the leader of the free world.

Previously:

Iran’s Pro-Democracy Green Movement Rises Again!

Iranian Basij Commander Orders Guards To Beat Protesters: “Beat Them Silly, Tear Them Apart”

About That Executive Order Amended to Immunize INTERPOL In America….

This story has been simmering slightly under the radar for about a week and a half.  In fact, Obama’s signing of the executive order on Dec 17, would seem to have been purposely timed to coincide with the busiest time of the year – Christmas crunch time, when most people are  shopping, attending Christmas concerts, going to parties, etc. In short, too busy to pay attention to an executive order passed quietly in the night.

Andrew McCarthy explained that previously, the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) was “constrained by the Fourth Amendment, FOIA, and other limitations of the Constitution and federal law that protect the liberty and privacy of Americans, which is what prevents law-enforcement and its controlling government authority from becoming tyrannical”.

This is no longer the case for Interpol:

On Wednesday, however, for no apparent reason, President Obama issued an executive order removing the Reagan limitations. That is, Interpol’s property and assets are no longer subject to search and confiscation, and its archives are now considered inviolable. This international police force (whose U.S. headquarters is in the Justice Department in Washington) will be unrestrained by the U.S. Constitution and American law while it operates in the United States and affects both Americans and American interests outside the United States.

Interpol works closely with international tribunals (such as the International Criminal Court — which the United States has refused to join because of its sovereignty surrendering provisions, though top Obama officials want us in it). It also works closely with foreign courts and law-enforcement authorities (such as those in Europe that are investigating former Bush administration officials for purported war crimes — i.e., for actions taken in America’s defense).

Why would we elevate an international police force above American law? Why would we immunize an international police force from the limitations that constrain the FBI and other American law-enforcement agencies? Why is it suddenly necessary to have, within the Justice Department, a repository for stashing government files which, therefore, will be beyond the ability of Congress, American law-enforcement, the media, and the American people to scrutinize?

Anthony Martin posits that this executive order essentially turns the US into an international police state:

What, exactly does this mean?  It means that INTERPOL now has the full authority to conduct investigations and other law enforcement activities on U.S. soil, with full immunity from U.S. laws such as the Freedom of Information Act and with complete independence from oversight from the FBI.

Oh, this doesn’t look good at all. But perhaps there’s an innocent explanation for what Obama’s done? Frances W. Porretto pointed me to this choice Mike Hendrix rant (which pretty much answers that question):

Obama is not a good man to whom bad things are happening. He is a bad man, doing bad things to our country, and doing them in the most underhanded and deceitful way imaginable. He isn’t a swell but naive guy who’s been hoodwinked by the bad people he’s surrounded himself with his entire life; he is one of them, through and through. Obama is Jones is Ayers is Dorn is Wright is Holdren is the whole psych-ward circus of cracked, left-wing-revolutionary clowns. He may present a pretty face, a pleasant smile, and a courtly manner when he wishes to, but underneath the mask he’s all authoritarian degeneracy and collectivist rot. Based on what we’ve seen and heard from him, there is simply no other conclusion to be reached; anything else is just wishful thinking and/or misguided courtesy.

Just in case there was still any doubt…

Even the left is waking up to the fact that the man is a slick snake-oil salesman who will lie to your face as soon as look at you.

All of this was easily discernible before the 2008 election.

On a related note, Thomas Del Beccaro at Big Government listed Obama’s 6 worst policy decisions. How he was able to whittle it down to a mere six is a testament to his self-editing skills.

Just another powerful reminder that the “change”, (or transformation from a freedom based society to a Big Government run society) Obama is bringing to America is not what most people bargained for when they voted for him.

MORE:

Good Lord. They don’t even care. They don’t even care.

Janet Napolitano: “Actually The System Didn’t Work”

After 24 hours of intense verbal pummeling from those on the right as well as the left, Napolitano has changed her tune – now, “the system failed miserably:.

Notice how Jannie deployed the old  – “quote taken out of context”  Obama standby.

JANET NAPOLITANO: Sure, I think the comment is being taken out of context. What I’m saying is that once the incident occurred, moving forward, we were immediately able to notify the 128 flights in the air of protective measures to take, immediately able to notify law enforcement on the ground, airports both domestically, internationally, all carriers, all of that happening within 60 to 90 minutes, so –

Full transcript at Newsbusters.

Also blogging:

Gabe at AoSHQ:  Napolitano Flip-Flops, Says the System Did NOT Work

Ed Morrissey: Video: Now the system didn’t work

Previously:

Janet Napolitano Echoes Obama

Iranian Basij Commander Orders Guards To Beat Protesters: “Beat Them Silly, Tear Them Apart”

See TehranLive.org for more excellent photos from the protests, today.

Via  Anonymous Iran:

” Pouya, Sadegh (names)”

“Hi- Where are you” “Beat them”

“Enghelab Ave. – Vali Asr Ave….Go there and beat them”

“These Foreigners have gone there to demonstrate, beat them silly, tear them apart, push them toward north, there more Basiji there to beat them”

“Very fast, don’t waste time”

“Jalil (name) go to Enghelab Ave. fast and beat them up”

“Listen, beat and tear them apart, break their legs, god would like that”

“Mohammad – Sadegh – Jalil (Names)”

“Go to east side, about 350 people are gathering there, beat them hard, tear the bodies apart, all of them, send them all to Kahrizak,(the famous prison which beat, turture and rape many prisoners in north of Teharn)”

“Hello Ahmad(name) I can’t hear you, yes yes, good news I hope”

“You go ahead and tear them apart, I will take the blame, don’t worry, do it right now”

“There are 8 to 10 old ladies there, beat them up and clean them up”

“From Enghelab Ave. downward, send small group there”

“Emad – Sadegh (names), do them real fast, beat them and wait for my order there”

“Emad 2, Emad 2 (name) where are you?…They have attacked the fire department (People) , they have burnt their fire cars, get there fast and stop them, you all wait there and be alarm, wait for my order”

Audio of radio transmission at Anonymous Iran.

One of their victims:

Homylafayette Iran News In English reports:

Demonstrators had expected that the regime would refrain from using excessive force because of the peaceful nature of the holy month of Moharram. But footage and photos coming out of Iran indicate that the opposite occurred and that security forces resorted to violence that had been unseen since the deadly protests of this summer.

Seyed Ali Habibi Mousavi (nephew of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi) is reportedly among the dead.

More videos from today’s protests, at Tehran Bureau.

From the looks of the pictures I’ve seen, and the video below…the Basij themselves were in danger of being torn apart by enraged protesters:

People have cornered these security forces. People ask them ‘why do you do this to your people?’ and the riot guards ask for forgiveness, ‘Bebakhshid’ they can be heard to say. ‘You are Yazid’s – …

Here, protesters attack an anti-riot van:

See the BBC and CNN have more pix from the clashes.

Is the Iranian government teetering on the brink?

Doug Ross thinks so.

UPDATE:

The Obama administration finally issued a statement condemning the regime’s  violence. Business Week reports:

The Obama administration today “strongly” condemned a crackdown by Iranian security forces on protesters in Tehran that left at least five people dead.

The deaths and more than 300 arrests were reported in a police statement carried by the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency. One of the people killed was the 35-year-old nephew of Mir Hossein Mousavi, a former prime minister and the main challenger in the disputed June 12 presidential election, Mousavi’s Kaleme.org Web site reported. The New York Times reported at least five more deaths in other cities.

“We strongly condemn the violent and unjust suppression of civilians in Iran seeking to exercise their universal rights,” National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer said in a statement. “Governing through fear and violence is never just.”

Picture courtesy of Expose Liberals on Twitpic

Obama surfaced briefly in Hawaii, (seen above) but has not yet had anything to say about the ongoing revolt in Iran, which Charles Krauthammer finds “unforgivable”.

Nile Gardiner, writing for the UK Telegraph, concurs:

Now once again huge street protests have flared up on the streets of Tehran and a number of other major cities, with several protesters shot dead this weekend by the security forces and Revolutionary Guards, reportedly including the nephew of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, and dozens seriously injured. And again there is deafening silence from the Commander-in-Chief as well as his Secretary of State. And where is the president? On vacation in Hawaii, no doubt recuperating from his exertions driving forward the monstrous health care reform bill against the overwhelming will of the American public and without a shred of bipartisan support.

This is not however a time for fence-sitting by the leader of the free world. The president should be leading international condemnation of the suppression of pro-democracy protesters, and calling on the Iranian dictatorship to free the thousands of political dissidents held in its torture chambers. Just as Ronald Reagan confronted the evils of Soviet Communism, Barack Obama should support the aspirations of the Iranian people to be free. The United States has a major role to play in inspiring and advancing freedom in Iran, and the president should make it clear that the American people are on the side of those brave Iranians who are laying down their lives for liberty in the face of tyranny

Previously:

Iran’s Pro-Democracy Green Movement Rises Again!

Janet Napolitano Echoes Obama

There have been calls for Janet Napolitano to be fired for her absurd response to the Christmas bomber story:

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Sunday that the thwarting of the attempt to blow up an Amsterdam-Detroit airline flight Christmas Day demonstrated that “the system worked.”

Asked by CNN’s Candy Crowley on “State of the Union” how that could be possible when the young Nigerian who has been charged with trying to set off the bomb was able to smuggle explosive liquid onto the jet, Napolitano responded: “We’re asking the same questions.”

Jonah Goldberg is in high dudgeon:

I watched her on three shows and each time she was more annoying, maddening and absurd than the pevious appearance. It is her basic position that the “system worked” because the bureaucrats responded properly after the attack. That the attack was “foiled” by a bad detonator and some civilian passengers is proof, she claims, that her agency is doing everything right. That is just about the dumbest thing she could say, on the merits and politically. I would wager that not one percent of Americans think the system is “working” when terrorists successfully get bombs onto planes (and succeed in activating them). Probably even fewer think it’s fair that they have to take off their shoes, endure delays and madness while a known Islamic radical — turned in by his own father — can waltz onto a plane (and into the country). DHS had no role whatsoever in assuring that this bomb didn’t go off. By her logic if the bomb had gone off, the system would have “worked” since it has done everything right.

Captain Ed noted:

Napolitano has a habit of arguing that DHS is a first responder outfit. Its mission is to deal with “man-caused-disasters” after they occur. It appears she really believes it. If the White House wants to assure people that it takes the war on terror seriously (a term Robert Gibbs used this morning by the way), they could start by firing this patently unqualified hack.

I understand the disgust with Napolitano, but why would Obama fire her if this is in fact his own policy she’s echoing?

What if this question were put to Obama?:

President Obama, Janet Napolitano is under fire for her weak response to the Christmas bomber story. Do you agree with her assertion that “the system worked”?

Wouldn’t his answer be something like this? (Complete with gratuitous Bush dig):

Obama: Yes, because  the first thing we did was make sure that we had an effective emergency response, something that the Bush administration failed to do when we had a hurricane in New Orleans. And I think that we have to review how we operate in the event of not only a natural disaster, but also a terrorist attack.

The second thing was to make sure that we’ve got good intelligence,  A., to find out that we don’t have other threats and attacks potentially out there, and B., to find out, do we have any intelligence on who might have carried it out so that we can take potentially some action to dismantle that network.

But what we can’t do is then alienate the world community based on faulty intelligence, based on bluster and bombast. Instead, the next thing we would have to do, in addition to talking to the American people, is making sure that we are talking to the international community. Because as already been stated, we’re not going to defeat terrorists on our own. We’ve got to strengthen our intelligence relationships with them, and they’ve got to feel a stake in our security by recognizing that we have mutual security interests at stake.

The above was actually Obama’s notoriously bad  answer (slightly modified) to this question during the April 26, 2007  primary debate:

…if, God forbid a thousand times, while we were gathered here tonight, we learned that two American cities have been hit simultaneously by terrorists and we further learned, beyond the shadow of a doubt it had been the work of Al Qaida, how would you change the U.S. military stance overseas as a result?

You may remember that all of the other Democrat candidates, even Silky Pony had stronger, and more competent answers to that question. Obama’s   focus was on “first responders” and making nice with the “world community”.

The episode was just one of  many, many warning signs about Obama that the American people chose to ignore.

It turns out that  Obama’s outreach to the world community has  in fact made us less safe, and it was not the Obama administration’s crack intelligence, but only dumb luck, along with the courageous actions of a passenger that saved the flight from devastation.

Obama’s stance on the “war on terror” is  if by some freak chance a man made disaster occurs, we are to take a defensive posture.

UPDATE:

Oh, of course:

Pathetic. Obama White House Finds Way to Blame Bush for Detroit Terror Attempt

Robert Gibbs and Secretary Napolitano made clear that we are pressing ahead with securing our nation against threats and our aggressive posture in the war with al Qaeda. We are winding down a war in Iraq that took our eye off of the terrorists that attacked us, and have dramatically increased our resources in Afghanistan and Pakistan where those terrorists are.

Weak!

They still have no idea how petty and small this makes them look?

Iran’s Pro-Democracy Green Movement Rises Again!

The green movement is not dead. Not by a long shot. In fact, today, the Iranian regime may be facing the perfect storm, as The Washington ‘Times reports:

A respected opposition leader is being mourned, it is the most holy day of the year for Shiites, and the pro-democracy Green Movement is more energized and radicalized than ever. The spirit of liberation is alive and well.

A week ago, Grand Ayatollah Montazeri passed away at age 87. Montazeri was a senior regime critic who at one time had been the designated successor to Ayatollah Khomeini, but he broke with the revolution when he saw the destructive path it was taking and was sent into internal exile in the holy city of Qom. In November, when the Islamic regime celebrated the 30th anniversary of the occupation of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Montazeri said, “At the time, I supported it, but not today. It was a mistake.”

Montazeri became the spiritual godfather of the reform movement and was a strong supporter of the June 2009 street protests that broke out in the wake of Iran’s presidential election, which was widely believed to have been rigged. At Montazeri’s funeral on Monday, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators turned out, chanting anti-regime slogans and skirmishing with pro-regime Basij militia. It was the largest single civil protest since the street marches last June that made worldwide headlines.

Here is footage from the Montazeri funeral in Qom outside Masoumeh shrine Dec 21:

Here’s the BBC’s report on the events of the 21st:

A speech by the former president of Iran, Mohammed Khatami, was interrupted  by protesters, today:

In this harrowing footage, protesters free two men who are in the process of being hanged:

Doug Ross reports that government mercenaries are beating women in the streets, again.

More reports are streaming in by the minute at #iranelection on Twitter.

Charles Krauthammer called 2009 a year of missed opportunities for Obama. He extended his hand to the  oppressive Iranian regime even during the midst of  its violent crackdown of protesters earlier this year, instead of  “ostracizing and delegitimizing these gangsters”, Krauthammer says, “we should be encouraging and reinforcing the demonstrators”.

Such cool indifference is more than a betrayal of our values. It’s a strategic blunder of the first order.

Forget about human rights. Assume you care only about the nuclear issue. How to defuse it?

Negotiations are going nowhere, and whatever U.N. sanctions we might get will be weak, partial, grudging and late. The only real hope is regime change. The revered and widely supported Montazeri had actually issued a fatwa against nuclear weapons.

And even if a successor government were to act otherwise, the nuclear threat would be highly attenuated because it’s not the weapon but the regime that creates the danger. (Think India or Britain, for example.)

Any proliferation is troubling, but a nonaggressive pro-Western Tehran would completely change the strategic equation and make the threat minimal and manageable.

What should we do? Pressure from without — cutting off gasoline supplies, for example — to complement and reinforce pressure from within.

The pressure should be aimed not at changing the current regime’s nuclear policy — that will never happen — but at helping change the regime itself.

Give the kind of covert support to assist dissident communication and circumvent censorship that, for example, we gave Solidarity in Poland during the 1980s. (In those days that meant broadcasting equipment and copying machines.)

But of equal importance is robust rhetorical and diplomatic support from the very highest level: full-throated denunciation of the regime’s savagery and persecution. In detail — highlighting cases, the way Western leaders adopted the causes of Sharansky and Andrei Sakharov during the rise of the dissident movement that helped bring down the Soviet empire.

Will this revolution succeed? The odds are long but the reward immense. Its ripple effects would extend from Afghanistan to Iraq (in both conflicts, Iran actively supports insurgents who have long been killing Americans and their allies) to Lebanon and Gaza where Iran’s proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas, are arming for war.

One way or the other, Iran will dominate 2010. Either there will be an Israeli attack or Iran will arrive at — or cross — the nuclear threshold.

Unless revolution intervenes. Which is why to fail to do everything in our power to support this popular revolt is unforgivable.

Doug Ross snarked:

When he has a chance — perhaps after his long, relaxing vacation — President Obama can offer an opinion on these poor, unarmed citizens struggling to overthrow despots.

Perhaps when he’s finished eating his waffle cone.

Twas The Night Before Christmas

As sung by The December People -  Lead vocals by Mike Baker  in the style of Led Zeppelin:

We are in the midst of an ice storm turning into a blizzard, here…so no Christmas Eve Mass. We are staying in and playing games with the kids.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas surrounded by family and friends.

Video: Charles Krauthammer On The Great Political Realignment That Wasn’t

I agree with everything he just said, there. In 2008, most Americans were not knowingly voting for Socialism. People did not believe that an actual Socialist was running for President of the United States, and the MSM did little to nothing to dissuade them from their hopey/changey misconceptions.

People are slowly waking up…but is it too late? Congress is on the verge of passing a health care bill that is being designed to be  impossible to repeal. Those of us who had resigned ourselves to an ObamaCare fait accompli, this year, could at least, at one time,  hang our hopes on the possibility that some of the worst provisions or even the entire bill could be repealed if Republicans took over Congress in 2010. We were depending on them to run on that notion, in fact. Harry Reid, drunk with power, has created a rule binding future sessions of Congress to a supermajority to overrule the rationing board, and the Independent Medical Advisory Board.

The rumor is that Obama is putting off health care bill until February so he can focus on jobs. The real reason is because he can read the writing on the wall, which is that the House is not going for the Senate version, and he’s gonna have a protracted battle on his hands, which he doesn’t want leading up to his big State of the Union Speech. And we all know how important speeches are to Obama. He can’t trumpet that B+ rating he gave himself with all that fighting going on.

This is a case where Obama’s dithering is welcome, and to be encouraged. Remember, 2010 is an election year, and the health care bill is wildly unpopular. Dither away, Obama.