You have to understand. I said 'butts'....I want to
cut off your butts. They aren't good for you.
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How Chuck Schumer Caused the Second Largest Bank Failure in US History

The collapse of Indymac bank, the second largest bank failure in American history, began with a letter from the office of Senator Charles Schumer on June 27. He questioned the viability of the bank. When a senior senator who is in a number of influential posts regarding oversight of bank regulators directly attacks the confidence of a depository institution, it matters.

Not surprisingly, the director of the Office of Thrift Supervision concluded that the collapse of the bank immediately following the Senator’s comments has not a coincidence. Director Reich concluded that Senator Schumer had ‘given the bank a heart attack’.

Why? Why would a federal official with enormous power, destroy an institution on which tens of thousands of depositors (not all of whom are insured) and employees depend? Why would a New York Senator attack a Pasadena bank, acting as some sort of amateur, self-appointed, long-distance bank examiner?

Perhaps this might help answer the question: Indymac has been under attack from the hard left. The Center for Responsible Lending issued an attack on Indymac within a few days of Schumer’s letter. CRL is part of a small army of left of center ‘research’ groups, community organizers, and public interest law firms who make their living accusing home lenders of racial redlining and predatory lending. On June 20th the Center accused Indymac of unfair practices regarding minority borrowers.

On the other hand, maybe it is a coincidence that CRL and Sen. Schumer attacked the same bank in the same week. Maybe he didn’t know about the CRL report, nor CRL about his letter. Maybe the community group didn’t know about the trial-lawyer class action lawsuit which was launched against Indy a couple of weeks before all of this started.

Yeah, right.

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“Please, educate me: In over 5,000 years of more or less recorded history, how many tyrannies have been overthrown by noble sentiments? How many genocides have been averted by reasonable discussions? How many wars have been prevented by Quakers?

Ralph Peters, LTC, USA-Ret., Author

There are a million ways to say "thank you."
Operation Gratitude has found them all.

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The Battle of the Surge Was a Win

Page 12 of a Government Accountability Office report published June 23 features data about the war in Iraq that must be central to the debate about what the United States does next in that country.

It indicates we have started to win a war we cannot afford to lose. [snip]

The first fact: We are now almost two years past the point where overall enemy attacks in Iraq peaked.

The second fact: The peak in overall enemy attacks was reached in October 2006 -- the month leading up to the 2006 U.S. congressional elections... [snip]

So, the question now: Which strategic decision by our own politicians is more likely to bring victory?

Should we continue the strategy that delivered the security and political progress of the past year? Or should we abandon it and begin withdrawing from the country?

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Iraq's Oil Surge

Here's a thought experiment: Assume that Iraq's democratic government declared it was nationalizing its oil industry, a la Venezuela or Saudi Arabia, while excluding American companies from the country. How do you think U.S. politicians would react? With angry cries of "ingratitude" and "this is what Americans died for"?

Of course they would, led no doubt by that critic for all reasons, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York.

So it is passing strange that Mr. Schumer and other Senators are now assailing Iraq precisely because it is opening up to foreign oil companies, especially to U.S. majors like Exxon Mobil and Chevron. For some American pols, everything that happens in Iraq is bad news, especially when it's good news for the U.S....

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Bipartisan Support for New FISA, Nets See 'Controversy' & 'Spying'

Despite the overwhelming bipartisan majorities in the Senate and House which agreed to a new Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) which the President will happily sign, NBC and ABC painted it as “controversial” based on how the bill blocks lawsuits against telecommunications companies which cooperated with the President after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Though the program tracked communication between suspected terrorists overseas and people within the United States, not all of them Americans, NBC's Brian Williams delivered a more nefarious picture of firms that had “helped to spy on Americans”...

[what bias?]

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Momentous Pro-Jewish Court Case Win in France

France TV 2 has lost a major court case in France that makes the lie to a major piece of Palestinian propaganda. In 2000 an incident occurred in the Palestinian areas that has since been used as propaganda for the Palestinian cause all across the world.

In 2000 the Palestinians began what they called the second intifada against Israel, a kick in the teeth to the Israelis seeking only peace. During the early stages of this attack France 2 TV, a state run television station, aired what it claimed was a video of a child and his father being shot and killed by Israeli security forces.

The shock of this small boy being mercilessly shot down by Jews drew condemnation like a lightening rod. Supporters of Palestine the world over were outraged, posters appeared, protests were whipped up, postage stamps with the image of this child's supposed last minutes on Earth were even created in Egypt and Tunisia. The "death" of Muhammad al-Dura rallied support to Palestinians against the Jews. And for the last 8 years the New York Times has been right there with the "news" pushing the story for all its worth. [snip]

Philippe Karsenty felt that the whole thing was a Palestinian fake and he began to agitate for the truth.

Well, it is now 2008 and the French court case is over and it is a stunning result. Mr. Karsenty won. The case of libel was thrown out. This is a stunning victory because Mr. Karsenty had to prove to the French court that his claims that the film is a fraud are legitimate claims. Karsenty presented enough evidence for the French court to rule against a state operated entity and this is a big upset in France because this does not typically happen. The state almost never loses. [snip]

Since the New York Times used this story to succor terrorist supporters in 2000, 2002, 2005 and May of this year, one might imagine that the Times would rush to correct the record now that the evidence proving that the al-Dura tale is a lie has been accepted by French courts.

One would be wrong: There has been no story in the Times of the Karsenty victory since the French court ruling was handed down - on May 21st. Not one.

[Recommended > ]

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Europe faces Russian nuclear missile threat

[HT:NC]
Russia is thinking of aiming nuclear weapons at western Europe for the first time since the end of the cold war, according to defence sources in Moscow. The move is being considered in response to American plans to develop a defence shield against missiles from Iran and other countries. (Snip) A Russian parliamentary committee visited the enclave 10 days ago to examine how a new generation of nuclear missiles could be based there...

[useful idiot alert: they'll be many in this country that say this is America's fault. Never mind that the DEFENSE shield is literally incapable of stopping numerous launches and this is all a transparent excuse for Russia to resume its threatening ways {or that its their missiles, that their pointing at Europe}]

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China 'is fuelling war in Darfur'

Darfur - The BBC has found the first evidence that China is currently helping Sudan's government militarily in Darfur. The Panorama TV programme tracked down Chinese army lorries in the Sudanese province that came from a batch exported from China to Sudan in 2005. The BBC was also told that China was training fighter pilots who fly Chinese A5 Fantan fighter jets in Darfur...

[by all means let's put them on the UN security council with veto authority]

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Russia, China Veto UN Sanctions for Mugabe Regime

United Nations - Russia and China vetoed proposed sanctions on Zimbabwe on Friday, rejecting U.S. efforts to step up punitive measures after the African nation's disputed presidential election. Western powers mustered nine votes, the minimum needed to gain approval in the 15-nation council, in a show of hands.

But the failed resolution — which had been a priority for the U.S. — failed because of the action by two of the five veto-wielding members...

[we need replace the UN with the LLD]

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U.N. Warming Program Draws Fire

A United Nations program designed to combat global warming has started doing something no one expected: It is subsidizing fossil-fuel power plants that spew millions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere annually.

In the past year or so, 13 big plants in India and China that burn natural gas have won the U.N.'s blessing which entitles the owners of the plants to receive millions of dollars a year from a U.N. program...

[where's the UN get its money from again?]

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Clean Air Causes Global Warming, Global Warming Causes Smog

In today's "People Can Prove Whatever They Want If They Really Try Hard Enough" moment, Swiss scientists claimed early this week that efforts to clean the air over Europe the past three decades are responsible for at least half of that continent's 1°C rise in temperatures since 1980.

In an interesting chicken and the egg conundrum, scientists in America claimed Thursday that global warming causes smog.

So, cleaning the air causes global warming -- which ends up leading to higher levels of smog?

[get it? good - now let's spend trillions...]

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EPA Delays Regulation of Greenhouse Gases

The decision follows last year's ruling by the US Supreme Court, which ordered the agency to devise ways to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from motor vehicles under the Clean Air Act.

But the EPA said in a 588-page report released Friday that given "the complexity and magnitude of the question" there were doubts whether "greenhouse gases could be effectively controlled under the Clean Air Act."

"One point is clear: the potential regulation of greenhouse gases under any portion of the Clean Air Act could result in an unprecedented expansion of EPA authority that would have a profound effect on virtually every sector of the economy and touch every household in the land,"

... the court's decision has ramifications on several other ongoing issues, such as the agency's refusal to regulate emissions from electricity plants which produce some 40 percent of US carbon dioxide emissions. Motor vehicles are responsible for just 20 percent.

[environmoralists are expected to be stupid. But these wacko judges, that 'rule' that CO2 is a pollutant, can bankrupt this nation if not expunged]

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Judge Blocks Gas Drilling in Michigan Forest

[yet another one...]

A federal judge has overturned a decision by the U.S. Forest Service to allow oil and gas drilling near a forest and a river in Michigan's northern Lower Peninsula.

U.S. District Judge David Lawson of Detroit ruled Thursday the agency had acted "arbitrarily and capriciously" in 2005 by giving Savoy Energy LP of Traverse City a permit to drill an exploratory well... [snip]

Forest supervisor Leanne Marten said when approving Savoy's application that the project wouldn't significantly harm the environment and the company would be required to keep noise to a minimum.

But the judge ruled the Forest Service did a "inadequate" job of evaluating how the drilling might affect the Kirtland's warbler, an endangered songbird that nests in the area.

Two environmental groups, the Sierra Club and Anglers of the Au Sable, sued the government to halt the drilling.

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Russia's Putin tours new rig in Arctic oil drive

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Friday toured a new Arctic oil rig intended to boost Moscow's position in the intensifying competition for northern energy reserves. Putin also met ministers and top oil executives in the Severodvinsk shipyard to discuss prospects for developing more Arctic fields, which are estimated to contain up to a quarter of Russia's proven oil and gas reserves.

[everyone but us. If only we had a National Reserve in the Arctic]

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Oil as weapon...

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Czechs See Oil Flow Fall and Suspect Russian Ire on Missile System
Moscow - Three days after the Czech Republic signed an agreement with the United States to host a tracking radar for an antiballistic missile system that Russia vehemently opposes, the authorities in Prague said the flow of Russian oil to their country was beginning to dwindle...
[and Europe is rushing to place itself behind the same eight-ball]
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Venezuela To Cut US Oil Flow If Exxon Hurts PdVSA - Chavez
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened Sunday to stop oil shipments to the U.S. if Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) succeeds again in freezing the financial accounts of Petroleos de Venezuela SA overseas. "If they freeze us, there's no more oil for the United States, and the price of crude will go to $300 a barrel," Chavez said as he addressed the V PetroCaribe summit...
[ it's about national security - we need start drilling now.]
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Obama: Oil price is among most dangerous weapons
“The price of a barrel of oil is now one of the most dangerous weapons in the world,” Obama said in remarks prepared for a speech in Ohio. “Tyrants from Caracas to Tehran use it to prop up their regimes, intimidate the international community and hold us hostage to a market that is subject to their whims.” [why is it subject to 'their' whims?]

Obama used Iran as an example to illustrate his point, saying that, if the country decided to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, oil prices could double to $300-a-barrel and the price of a gallon of gasoline could triple in the U.S. to $12.

“The challenge we face from our energy dependence is great. Meeting it will take time, and it will not be easy,” Obama concluded. “But if we’re willing to work at it, and invest in it, and sacrifice for it; if we’re willing to summon the same spirit of optimism and possibility that has defined this country’s greatest progress, then I believe that we too will be able to do it if we really try."

[unbelievable. take time, not easy, invest, sacrifice - who believes this drivel? These words are only applicable to how government would go about it. Industry considers it easy, will get results fast on their investments {their money, not yours}. No sacrifice required {that's is what we're doing now}.]
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“Right now, our strategy on gas prices is
‘Drive small cars and wait for the wind.’”

Democratic Aide Regarding the Refusal by House Democrats to Take Up Energy Legislation for Fear of a GOP-Forced Vote on Domestic Drilling

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