Saturday Morning Thoughts

With Deb away, I guess its up to Geoff and I to make sure that there is something for Deb’s readers to consider on this day, and since Geoff doesn’t really post anything, it appears that it falls to me.

So this morning, I read about a  new translation of the Bible, that is “easier to comprehend”. 

Professor David Capes says the Bible “is probably the most owned and least read book out there. That’s because, for many, it’s too difficult to understand.”

The “own it but haven’t read it” demographic is his target market, says Capes, who teaches the New Testament at Houston Baptist University and was part of a team that compiled “The Voice,” a new translation of the King James Bible. Capes told CNN that the motivation behind the translation, seven years in the making, was to emphasize the meaning behind the words.

“‘The Voice’ considers the narrative links that help us to understand the drama and passion of story that is present in the original languages,” according to the website for the book. “The tone of the writing, the format of the page, and the directness of the dialog allows the tradition of passing down the biblical narrative to come through in ‘The Voice.’”

I really have mixed feelings about this.  While there are several translations of the Bible that are the result of years of translation from original greek texts, that have allowed for a deeper, richer understanding.  This still requires an effort from the reader, and it is precisely the difficulty in understanding certain portions that causes me to read from these translations in the first place. 

But what makes this different is the fact that it is someone re-writing a King James Version because it is too difficult to understand.  This smacks of the same thinking in which people denigrate the Constitution, because it is too hard to understand, or refuse to read the Federalist Papers because they are difficult, or CS Lewis’ apologetics, or…well, you get the point.  It isn’t the average person who benefits when such books are “dumbed down”, and it empowers the ones doing the dumbing down.  You don’t value what you don’t pay for, and when this version has abandoned the use of “angel”, “Christ”, and “apostle”, I don’t get a sense that it ends well.  It smacks a little too much of the continual “redefinition” of all things being forced upon us in other parts of culture and society.

The Final Insult: Napolitano Considering Exempting Muslims From Airport Pat Downs

Excuse me?

Uh…..

Pssssst TSA: Doesn’t this sorta defeat the purpose?!

According to Judicial Watch, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is actually considering waving airport pat downs for Muslim women who consider them offensive. I consider them offensive – do I get an exemption, too?

The demand came last week from the politically-connected Muslim rights organization that serves as the U.S. front for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. Calling the searches “invasive” and “humiliating,” the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) advises Muslim women wearing religious head covers known as hijabs to reject full-body checks before boarding planes.

Those who are selected for the secondary screenings should remind Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers that they are only supposed to pat down the head and neck and that they should not subject Muslim women to a full-body or partial body pat-down, according to CAIR’s advisory. It further says that, instead of a body search, Muslim women can request to check their own hijab and have officers perform a chemical swipe of their hands.

While Americans are forced to deal with the degrading searches, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is actually considering exempting Muslims as per CAIR’s demands. Madame Secretary confirmed this week that there will be “adjustments” and “more to come” on the issue of Muslim women in hijabs undergoing airport security pat-downs.

In the meantime her agency is targeting a San Diego man who received worldwide media coverage for refusing to let a TSA agent conduct a thorough body search that he felt amounted to a “sexual assault.” Referring to his genitals, the man told the TSA officer; “you touch my junk and I’m going to have you arrested.”

The head of TSA in San Diego called a press conference this week to announce that the agency has launched an investigation into the 31-year-old software programmer who was not allowed to board the plane. The feds plan to prosecute and fine him thousands of dollars for making them look bad. Actually, the official charge is leaving the airport’s security area without permission, which is prohibited to prevent terrorism.

This is how completely upside down this country’s national security posture has become. The people who frankly, should be receiving the most attention at airport screenings may get exempted from the offensive grope and grabs, while innocent toddlers  in wheelchairs get worked over.

The “Don’t Touch My Junk” guy is a national hero. In saner times, he would be given a medal for refusing to submit to an insane, and unjust policy.

Linked by Maggie’s Notebook, thanks!

The Blaze Jumps The Shark

Image via SGP

Following Glenn Beck’s recent shark-jumping.

Unless this post is retracted, and an apology offered forthwith, I see no reason to continue having The Blaze on my blogroll, or to ever visit the site, again. Glenn Beck and pals are deploying the left’s most despicable Alinsky tactics against fellow conservatives,  now, and it defies all rational explanation.

Big Journalism’s John Nolte wonders what the heck is going on over there?

Beck’s fall from grace started when his site, The Blaze, falsely attacked James O’Keefe — to the delight of the very people who used to attack Beck. Then Beck, of all things, betrayed the Tea Party in the worst way any conservative could. I thought he’d hit bottom with that. After all, how much lower can you go than selling out to the mainstream media?

Well, yesterday, what I thought had been a rhetorical question was answered when The Blaze went full Andrew Sullivan, full Politico, full Wonkette, and and attacked Sarah Palin over a situation involving her family.

The Governor’s sin? Composing what amounts to a touching article about her family’s life with Trig – Todd and Sarah Palin’s youngest son with Down Syndrome.

To understand how misleading the Blaze attack is, you first have to read what Beck’s writer, a piece of work named Eddie Scarry (more on him below), wrote:

What’s the first thing that came to mind when you heard that Rick Santorum‘s special needs child was in the hospital with pneumonia late last month? I bet all of Mitt Romney‘s money it wasn’t Sarah Palin unless you are Sarah Palin. …Of the roughly 900-word article, 123 of them relate to Santorum and his daughter Bella who was born with Trisomy 18, a disability similar to Down syndrome.

It’s all downhill from there. For more perspective, the names “Rick” and “Santorum” appear three times total and are all found in the first paragraph. The word “my,” in reference to Palin herself, appears 15 times throughout the rest.

What the Blaze is intentionally doing here, is misleading its readers into believing Governor Palin was supposed to write a piece about the Santorum family and their daughter Bella. Moreover, The Blaze obviously wants their readers to believe that Palin selfishly exploited what happened to the Santorums so that she could write something all about herself.

Read the rest at Big Journalism - You won’t want to miss the screenshot of a vile tweet from the writer, Eddie Scarry.

The truth is, in the wake of the Santorums’ close call with Bella’s illness, Newsweek had reached out to Sarah Palin, asking her to write a piece about her life raising a special needs child. She had already written a Facebook post dedicated to Beautiful Bella Santorum.

The comments  at The Blaze are in virtual 100% agreement that the post in question was in poor taste, and a poor excuse for journalism:

Here are some samples:

KyWriter

Posted on February 7, 2012 at 11:59am

Geez, Glenn, this is one of the creepiest excuses for a blog article I have ever seen. Did you know this clown was writing it or did you assign it to him? If he wrote this without your knowledge, it’s time to tighten up your management style. If you assigned this hit piece, you need a prayer or two.

JackieJill128

Posted on February 7, 2012 at 11:51am

What a complete moron and perfect example of Palin Derangement Syndrome! I sincerely hope he will be dismissed. Very disappointed that Glenn and his staff overlooked this creep! Glenn: Do the right thing and remove him from your staff and issue an apology.

bigspike

Posted on February 7, 2012 at 12:08pm

time to send him back to Kos or PuffHo or wherever they scraped him up.

Rightwinger22

Posted on February 7, 2012 at 11:31am

You are losing your base Glenn. Time to wake up.

All the comments are in a similar vein.

Shark-cleared.

UPDATE:

Scarry updated with a weak attempt at a correction.

UPDATE: Many Palin supporters have read this post and taken issue with the fact that it does not mention Palin was actually asked by “Newsweek” to write about her experience raising a special needs child. She did not approach the publication and that is a crucial piece of information that should have been included for BLAZE readers.

This post was a brief analysis of the perception I, among others, had of Palin contributing to a magazine she regularly criticizes. And though my thoughts on Palin’s column still stand, it‘s also important to acknowledge that Palin’s experience raising her son Trig is a fascinating story and is worth a read in her book “Going Rogue.” –Eddie Scarry

No, the  point of the post was clearly to insinuate that she was selfishly and brazenly inserting herself into someone else’s story. Why else would he have been mocking her for referring to herself more than Santorum? The bit about Palin writing in a magazine she “regularly criticizes” was a single line, and obviously not the point of the piece because who the hell cares?

Linked by Doug Ross in Larwyn’s Links, thanks!

Loyal Friend of Joran Van Der Sloot Excuses Heinous Murder To Outraged Nancy Grace

I don’t watch her show, much, but every time I see her she’s seems teed off. Well here – she’s almost shaking with rage at this unbelievable creep of a guest who keeps insisting that his pal Joran Van Der Sloot was provoked by his latest victim because she had asked him about Natalee Holloway. She put herself at risk by putting herself in that situation, he argued.

‘You’re DEFENDING van der Sloot?’ she howled.

The conversation escalated when Grace described the bloody crime scene, and he persisted in his defense. Finally, she turned off his mic -  ”I reserve this for very, very few people, but you, sir, are a fool.”

Just between you and me, I think the word she was looking for, was “douchebag”, but that one’s probably not allowed per CNN’s media guidelines.

Hat tip: The Blaze

DHS Monitoring Websites In Order To Provide “Situational Awareness” In Order To Help Government Manage Responses to Cataclysmic Events

‘HOMELAND SECURITY’ MONITORING DRUDGE

‘WILL RETAIN INFORMATION’

…Or Something…

Remember back in the good ol’ days when Americans only needed to feel paranoid about being watched when they were communicating with foreign Jihadis?

Reuters reported Wednesday afternoon:

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s command center routinely monitors dozens of popular websites, including Facebook, Twitter, Hulu, WikiLeaks and news and gossip sites including the Huffington Post and Drudge Report, according to a government document.

A “privacy compliance review” issued by DHS last November says that since at least June 2010, its national operations center has been operating a “Social Networking/Media Capability” which involves regular monitoring of “publicly available online forums, blogs, public websites and message boards.”

The purpose of the monitoring, says the government document, is to “collect information used in providing situational awareness and establishing a common operating picture.”

The document adds, using more plain language, that such monitoring is designed to help DHS and its numerous agencies, which include the U.S. Secret Service and Federal Emergency Management Agency, to manage government responses to such events as the 2010 earthquake and aftermath in Haiti and security and border control related to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia.

A DHS official familiar with the monitoring program said that it was intended purely to enable command center officials to keep in touch with various Internet-era media so that they were aware of major, developing events to which the Department or its agencies might have to respond.

***

These include social networking sites Facebook and My Space – though there is a parenthetical notice that My Space only affords a “limited search” capability – and more than a dozen sites that monitor, aggregate and enable searches of Twitter messages and exchanges.

Among blogs and aggregators on the list are ABC News’ investigative blog “The Blotter;” blogs that cover bird flu; several blogs related to news and activity along U.S. borders (DHS runs border and immigration agencies); blogs that cover drug trafficking and cybercrime; and websites that follow wildfires in Los Angeles and hurricanes.

The Atlantic Wire listed specific sites they’re monitoring:

Social Networks

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Myspace

Blogs

• The Drudge Report
• The Huffington Post
• The New York Times‘s Lede blog
• Wired’s Threat Level
• Wired’s Danger Room
• ABC News’ investigative blog The Blotter
• “blogs that cover bird flu … news and activity along U.S. borders … drug trafficking and cybercrime”
• Jihad Watch
• Cryptome
• Informed Comment

Multimedia

• Hulu
• YouTube
• Flickr

I added Jihad Watch, Cryptome, and Informed Comment because they were also specifically mentioned in the Reuters article.

DHS confirmed to Reuters the authenticity of the list, but officials authorized to speak for the Department did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.

Linked by Michelle Malkin in Buzzworthy, and Peach Pundit, thanks!

Video: Virginia School Board Doubles Down – Defends Having Third-Graders Sing Occupy Indoctrination Song

Via CBS 19 News:

The School Board in Charlottesville is clearly out of line, and not fooling anyone with their lame explanation for how kids came to sing a class warfare song at an assembly.

Indoctrinating other people’s children with their political messages is a tactic leftists use all the time.  Conservatives shouldn’t stand for it, and need to continue to sound the alarm on this story. This is an outrage.

video via Weasel Zippers, (watch for Zip cameo at the 44 second mark.)

Yes, they’re actually asking us to believe that the group, “Kid Pan Alley” doesn’t “shape or censor the lyrics”.  Third-grade children came up with topic, and  class warfare lyrics all by themselves.

Give me a break!

What do we know about the group, Kid Pan Alley, which the school board chair says is doing such good work? J Christian Adams reported at Big Government:

Kid Pan Alley’s infiltration into government schools goes well beyond Woodbrook Elementary in Charlottesville.  They have a presence in Payne Elementary in Lynchburg (VA), Union Elementary in Montpelier (VT), Campbell Court Elementary in Martinsville (VA), Burnley Elementary in Charlottesville (VA), Thompson Elementary in Marshall (VA), Pierce Elementary in Remington (VA), Red Hill Elementary in Virginia, Brownsville Elementary in Crozet (VA), and many many more.

Consider the results of Kid Pan Alley’s residency inside Parker Elementary Waimea, Hawaii.  They spent a week inside the school writing the song “Walk to Japan” with an apocalyptic environmental message.  “Reduce, reuse and recycle, maybe it’s time to face what we messed up, cause if we don’t save the ocean, we’ll have to walk to Japan.”

When you consider the leftist activists who introduced this garbage into Woodbrook Elementary, the agenda is even more clear.  Kid Pan Alley receives money from the William and Mary Greve Foundation.

The Greve Foundation funds many other causes at odds with American traditions, including the American Society for Muslim Advancement, which is run by a 9-11 conspiracy theorist.  The Greve Foundation is headed by John Kiser, III, author of Communist Entrepreneurs : Unknown Innovators in the Global Economy.  (From a review: “the book is of value in confronting tired stereotypes about the inherent inferiority of technology under Communism.”)  Kiser is from Sperryville, Virginia, which might explain why so many Virginia elementary schools.

You can watch Kid Pan Alley’s video “If I Change One Thing” here for another whiff of Occupy.  The kids sing the answer: “If I could change one thing, I’d change all the rules.  Freedom would be free.  I’d be my own boss no matter what the cost.”  Sort of like a mob.

The nonsense continues in the song:  “What if kids could vote, its love that sets us free, when everyone has what they needed.  There would be no more war. Yeah, that’s what kids are for.”

Once again, the lyrics the third graders at Woodbrook Elementary “wrote”, with my suggested accompanying color sheet:

Suggested caption: “I’m so happy to be part of the 99, I’m going #2″

Some people have it all
But they still don’t think they have enough
They want more money
A faster ride
They’re not content
Never satisfied
Yes — they’re the 1 percent

I used to be one of the 1 percent
I worked all the time
Never saw my family
Couldn’t make life rhyme
Then the bubble burst
It really, really hurt
I lost my money
Lost my pride
Lost my home
Now I’m part of the 99

Some people have it all
But they still don’t think they have enough
They want more money
A faster ride
They’re not content
Never satisfied
Yes — they’re the 1 percent

I used to be sad, now I’m satisfied
’Cause I really have enough
Though I lost my yacht and plane
Didn’t need that extra stuff
Could have been much worse
You don’t need to be first
’Cause I’ve got my friends
Here by my side
Don’t need it all
I’m so happy to be part of the 99

Some more coloring sheets for the kiddies at Woodbrook Elementary :

Just print these out to give the kids something fun and relevant  to color in between lessons:

Suggested caption: Because he was a blood-sucking Jew, Goldman Sachs CEO ‘s decapitated head is stuck on a pole at an “Occupy Wall Street” rally in New York

Suggested caption: Everyone dropped trou for some festive fun at the Occupy World’s Largest Gathering of Naked Santas.

Suggested caption: As members of the “1%”, police officers get what’s coming to them at #OWS protests.

Suggested caption: Zuccotti Love

Suggested caption: Exposing injustice in this sagging economy.

Suggested caption: “Time for some window-breaking fun!”

Suggested caption: Soon, #OWS may be coming to a park near you!

Suggested caption: Don’t worry, as one of the “99″, you’re safe.

Linked by Free Republic, thanks!

Video: The Ron Paul Twilight Zone

Some of Ron Paul’s most notable quotables, presented in nostalgic black and white as Twilight Zone music plays in the background. Pitch perfect:

You know what’s even more disturbing than Paul’s ideas?

The drones on YouTube who watched that video and still support”Dr. Paul”: – Ron Paul 2012!!!

Hat tip: Weasel Zippers

#OWS Becomes A Den Of Thieves

As I’ve been saying, a whole host of left-wing pathologies are on display at the #occupy protests…

This is just one more thing you’ll never experience at a Tea Party.

The New York Post reports:

Occupy Wall Street protesters said yesterday that packs of brazen crooks within their ranks have been robbing their fellow demonstrators blind, making off with pricey cameras, phones and laptops — and even a hefty bundle of donated cash and food.

“Stealing is our biggest problem at the moment,” said Nan Terrie, 18, a kitchen and legal-team volunteer from Fort Lauderdale.

“I had my Mac stolen — that was like $5,500. Every night, something else is gone. Last night, our entire [kitchen] budget for the day was stolen, so the first thing I had to do was . . . get the message out to our supporters that we needed food!”

Crafty cat burglars sneaked into the makeshift kitchen at Zuccotti Park overnight and swiped as much as $2,500 in donated greenbacks from right under the noses of volunteers who’d fallen asleep after a long day whipping up meals for the hundreds of hungry protesters, the volunteers said.

“The worst thing is there’s people sleeping in the kitchen when they come, and they don’t even know about it! There are some really smart and sneaky thieves here,” Terrie said.

“I had umbrellas stolen, a fold-up bed I brought because my back is bad — they took that, too!”

“The people united will never be defeated” -

“This is what Democracy looks like!” -

“Tax the rich” -

“I’m taking your stuff!”

It should surprise no one that a materialistic movement that seeks to “redistribute wealth”, and is characterized by a pathological class envy would have this problem.

MORE:

Or as Ace puts it:

Wow, it’s almost like some people don’t respect the concept of private personal property, and think — how does it go? — that property should be parceled out from each according to his ability to each according to his need.

Hat tip: Rush, who started his show off, today talking about this.

In Interview Paul Krugman Says He has Regular Contact With White House, Bush WH Was “Evil and Stupid” – Obama WH “Good Guys and Smart”

Krugman laments that those good, smart guys in the Obama White House aren’t forceful enough. (after all, Obama could go over the heads of Congress and pass everything by executive fiat.)

He says he’s trying to make this Communist “progressive” moment in American history  a success.

This very special interview was conducted on September 3rd, and is brought to you courtesy of The Blaze:

Pure Genius: MSNBC’s Schultz Says Reason Obama’s Poll Numbers Are Down Is Because “Nobody in the White House is Talking Like James Hoffa”

Sergeant Schultz was giddy because when Union boss James Hoffa said he wanted to take out those sons of bitches in the tea party, he was “spot on!”

Schultz proceeded to make some truly absurd remarks about how there was nothing wrong with what Hoffa said because of things previously uttered by conservatives such as former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann.

I guess he forgot about all the calls for civility in political discourse – including from himself! – following the tragic January shootings in Tucson.

Missing his own hypocrisy, Schultz actually told his viewers that President Obama’s poll numbers are down “because liberals in many parts of the country are very frustrated that nobody in the White House is talking like James Hoffa.”

Yeah, he really said that.

Note, he even took time to slam the Republican “young guns” ( Eric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy, Paul Ryan) because “young guns” is somehow a troublesome nickname, while glorifying Hoffa’s violent rhetoric.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Schultz brought Hoffa on via satellite to ask the burning question, “Do you think the Republicans are sons of b—hes?”

Hoffa responded, “Well, I think they are if they’re trying to take away food out of the mouth of working people.”

Well yes, that’s the thinking man’s answer. Of course middle class tea partiers (who work for a living, too) “want to take food away from the mouths of working people.” That makes perfect sense.

-

After listing off a litany of tea party offenses from wanting to take away public union “collective bargaining rights” (guilty!) to “basically (wanting to)take away their pensions” (make modest cuts), he declares, “that’s a BAD person!”

-

You can count me among the legions BAD persons and SOBs out there who aren’t down with the Obama/big labor/CPUSA agenda.

Left-Wing Idiots Think They Caught Charles Koch Calling Obama Saddam Hussein

Good Gad, if you take a look at  Memorandum, today, you’ll see this is a top story in the left-wing feverswamps: Exclusive Audio: Inside the Koch Brothers’ Secret Seminar. Oh my guh-ness, what are those eeevil Koch brothers up to now???

“We have Saddam Hussein,” declared billionaire industrialist Charles Koch, apparently referring to President Barack Obama as he welcomed hundreds of wealthy guests to the latest of the secret fundraising and strategy seminars he and his brother host twice a year. The 2012 elections, he warned, will be “the mother of all wars.”

Operative word here – apparently because Obama could just as apparently not be who he was referring to. The sentence doesn’t even make sense as a reference to Obama.

It probably took John from Verum Serum all of two seconds to figure this out:

The problem with Brad Friedman’s report is that Charles Koch wasn’t referencing the President here. The reference is in fact to Saddam Hussein who on January 17th, 1991 was still full of bravado:

In Baghdad, Saddam Hussein remained defiant. He said the “Mother of all Battles had begun”.

Here’s a contemporaneous printed report of the same statement. Granted, Mr. Koch remembered it as the “mother of all wars” instead of battles, but he was speaking extemporaneously.

There is one more reason I’m certain this is the correct interpretation of the remarks. If you listen carefully to the full audio at Brad’s site, you can hear a missing word which didn’t make it into his transcript. It should read:

But we’ve been talking about — we have as Saddam Hussein, this is the Mother of All Wars we’ve got…

What dolts.

Brad plans to crap out part two of his groundbreaking report on the sooper secret Koch Bros Seminar at Mother Jones, tomorrow.

(Btw, I don’t know about you, but it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy that those boys are raising big time bucks to defeat President Zero, who is projected to raise a billion dollars for his re-election campaign.)

The Koch brothers rock!

MORE:

John updates with:

Mother Jones isn’t going to correct this and thus another BS progressive factoid is born.

Of course.

UPDATE II!

Follow Up on Mother Jones-Brad Friedman Attack on Charles Koch

Verum Serum now has the the official Koch brothers response.

(Hint: It’s pretty much what you’d expect.)

Linked by Michelle Malkin, thanks!

Obama’s Uncle Omar Is An Illegal Alien, Yet Has MA Drivers License and Federal SS#?

Obama’s uncle Omar,” Onyango Obama, (also known as, Obama Onyango), who was arrested last week in Framingham, MA, last week, was ordered to be deported in 1992, according to two federal law enforcement officials with knowledge of the case. Despite his illegal status, Uncle Obama has a valid MA drivers license and a  federal SS.

Boston.com via Weasel Zippers:

Onyango Obama, who is from Kenya and is known as the president’s Uncle Omar on his father’s side, had lived a quiet life in Massachusetts until last Wednesday, when police said the car he was driving darted in front of a police cruiser, nearly causing the officer to hit his car.

The federal officials, who spoke about Obama’s immigration status on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak about the case, said Obama had been told to leave in 1992, but he did not go.

Obama is the second relative of the president to have defied a deportation order, reigniting debate over illegal immigration and raising questions about how a man who had lived in the United States illegally for years had managed to secure a job, a Massachusetts driver’s license, and apparently, a federal Social Security number, without being detected by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

“There are hundreds of thousands of people who have been ordered deported and just ran off and nobody’s looking for them,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors strict controls on immigration.

Onyango Obama’s sister, Zeituni Onyango, also faced deportation before a Boston immigration judge granted her asylum last year. She, too, had avoided the spotlight, living in public housing in South Boston despite a deportation order. Her immigration status was leaked to the media days before her nephew’s historic election in 2008.

Here’s Sean Hannity discussing the strange story on his show, last night.

Local CBS affiliate WBZ reported that Aunt Zeituni and Uncle Omar are brother and sister.

Aunt Zeituni, allegedly also has a valid SS# issued between 2001 and 2002 in the state of Indiana, although she is not known to have ever lived in Indiana.

Zeituni and Omar’s famous nephew allegedly has a SS# issued in CT, although he’s never lived in CT.

The President has little to do with his  Massachusetts relatives.

Pretty weird, huh?

How The White House Plans To Politicize The 10th Anniversary of 9/11

Latest AP ObamaHalo pic via Weasel Zippers

According to a set of guidelines the White House is disseminating to federal agencies and overseas embassies, instead of commemorating the victims of the 9/11 attack, and honoring the heroic first responders, the focus on the 10th anniversary of that fateful day, will be on national service (like say, OFA), and Obama himself - his leadership team and his nation.

JammieWearingFool read through the lines of the NYT’s story for Human Events:

First responders aren’t even invited to participate in ceremonies this coming September 11 and instead it appears as if the primary focus of 9/11 will be paying tribute to Barack Obama​ while downplaying the terrorism threat facing us.

Members of the clergy will also not be allowed, but that was Mayor Bloomberg’s call.

So what’s left?

The White House in recent days has quietly disseminated two sets of documents. One is framed for overseas allies and their citizens and was sent to American embassies and consulates around the globe. The other includes themes for Americans here and underscores the importance of national service and what the government has done to prevent another major attack in the United States. That single-page document was issued to all federal agencies, officials said.

And even more nauseating:

After weeks of internal debate, White House officials adopted the communications documents to shape public events and official statements, and they sought to strike a delicate balance between messages designed for these two very important but very different audiences on a day when the world’s attention will be focused on President Obama, his leadership team and his nation.

Weeks of internal debate? Huh? It appears these folks have spent more time figuring out how to prop up Obama than Obama and his people have spent on their long-awaited so-called jobs plan. But what’s particularly galling is the part where they note the world’s attention will be focused on President Obama, his leadership team and his nation.

The only question is, how many me, myself and I’s will be mentioned in his speech? He may actually shatter his old record of  800 per paragraph. Oh, and how many times will he refer to his gutsy call?

Hey, and maybe if the lighting is just right -  another gorgeous halo will form around his head – and maybe if he’s able to get through the speech with a minimum of stutters and snafus,  they’ll use the speech for Obama’s Gutsy Call movie - the one set to be released in October of  2012.

You know what’s funny? (Not really).

Just last night, two notorious progressive sh*t for brains morons, Keef and Kos, were ruminating bitterly about how Republicans used 9/11 as a “political opportunity.”

The reason, according to Moulitsas, is “because they were able to take that and use it to stifle their domestic critics, push through a radical agenda, try to silence anybody who opposed him [Bush].”

Uh huh. I’ve dealt with this so many times…. It never happened.

It enraged them to no end that a Republican was the President at that traumatic and historic moment, and he rose to the occasion.

“It essentially won him another term in 2004 based on 9/11 because he wasn’t popular on any other matter. So, for Republicans, even today, 9/11 is the gift that keeps on giving. The fact that 3,000 people died is incidental to them. They don’t care about that. What was there was a political opportunity and he took it.”

You see what I mean about “left-wing projection”, people? See. what. I. mean?

Scene Stealing Squirrel and Dramatic Chipmunk Join Biden In China

After witnessing several days worth of cringe-worthy gaffes and missteps by Joe Biden in China, some comic relief may be in order.

Daniel Foster at the Corner found an interesting pic of Biden in China, and decided he had to have a caption and photoshop contest. He wasn’t taking no for an answer:

Cornerites, you must submit your captions in the comments below or e-mail me your photoshop job. You must do one or both — but under no circumstances neither — as soon as is humanly possible. I’ll update the post with selected captions, and winning photoshop(s) will go on the homepage.

Again, kindly do this immediately.

Naturally, he got submissions right away. (I’m going to have to be that firm next time I have a photoshop contest.)

Of course, this was a good excuse to dust off the scene stealing squirrel, and his furry pal, dramatic chipmunk:

Via Ace of Spades HQ, where a caption contest has also been waged. CONTENT WARNING IF YOU GO THERE.

Video: Obama Now and Then On Individual Mandate

It’s pretty sad that 16 months after Obama’s signature achievement, the abominable ObamaCare was passed, (against the will of the people), he is still out on the campaign trail his Magical Misery/Malaise Tour stumping for it. Sadder still that his position on the individual mandate is 180 degrees away from what it was when he was running for President, as this video, via Weasel Zippers, demonstrates:

So which Obama is right, A.) the 2008 Hope and Change Obama, or B.) the 2011 Misery and Malaise Obama?

If you chose A, the 2008 Hope and Change Obama (the one who was elected) *Ding Ding Ding!* you are correct!

ObamaCare’s defenders claim that all Americans consume health care, so Congress can use its power under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution to compel everyone to pay for their care via insurance. The purpose of that individual mandate, they insist, is to prevent “free riders” from shifting their health-care costs on to others.

Nonsense, said the judges: The administration’s arguments are a “convenient sleight of hand,” obscuring what the law truly does. In reality, they concluded, it forces healthy people to buy “fully loaded” health plans to subsidize insurance companies — which in turn are compelled to provide unlimited coverage to people with chronic illnesses and pre-existing conditions.

In short, the law converts insurers into private tax collectors, collecting mandatory premiums from the healthy to pay for politically popular changes in the insurance laws.

Drawing on copious statistics, the judges show that today’s health-care “free riders” are largely illegal immigrants (who are exempt from the mandate) and low-income Americans (who will get coverage under the law’s vast expansion of Medicaid). In other words, the mandate doesn’t prevent free riding — it enforces it.

In imposing the mandate, wrote the judges, “the Congress sought to mitigate” the costs of popular reforms like covering pre-existing conditions and removing lifetime caps on payouts “by compelling healthy Americans outside the insurance market to enter the private insurance market and buy insurers’ products.”

That is, it forces people to enter the insurance market — and forcing people to enter into commerce is different from regulating them once they voluntarily engage in it. Only the latter is constitutional.

When people forego insurance, that is “inactivity,” argued Judge Roger Vinson, who ruled for the 26 states and against the Obama administration in a lower court. Vinson said that if Congress “has the power to compel an otherwise passive individual into a commercial transaction,” there is no practical limit on Congress’ power.

Judges Hull and Dubina agreed with Vinson. But they made a further argument that may be decisive before the Supreme Court — namely, that the Obama administration contrived its Commerce Clause argument on a falsehood.

The Obama lawyers argue that health-care consumption is “universal” and “inevitable,” that there is no such thing as being “inactive” in health-care commerce, that people without insurance are actively deciding to be “free riders.”

That’s a whopper. Half the population consumes little or no health care, the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality reports. Yet the law would subject them to the same insurance mandate as those who consume health care.

bestsy@hospitalinfection.org