MaxRedline

Explosive New Text

Note to self: if using a cell phone to trigger a bomb, do not activate the phone until just prior to the event.

A group of terrorists in Russia learned that lesson, albeit a bit belatedly, last month as they prepared to send a so-called "suicide bomber" into Moscow's Red Square during the New Year's Eve celebrations.  The mistake the woman and her terror group made was to use an existing active cell phone as the trigger. While preparing her suicide belt at a safe house a few hours before the terrible act was meant to happen, her mobile operator sent her a Happy New Year text. That was enough to trigger the detonation killing her and making a real mess of the house.

Hope'n'Change: Rise Of Unions, Fall Of Country

The President of the United States of America has turned over a significant portion of the Executive Branch of the United States government to union bosses.

On December 9, 2009, in the middle of the health care debate, President Obama issued Executive Order 13522, entitled Creating Labor-Management Forums to Improve Delivery of Government Services.

That kind of went unnoticed, due primarily to the timing of the order.  But a memo issued a few days ago makes the ramifications abundantly clear: agency decisions, including budgeting, will be subject to union oversight.  

And as if we needed another reason to disband the TSA, they begin voting on whether or not to unionize in another month.

Public employee unions have driven schools, municipalities, and entire states into fiscal insolvency - yet Obama's response has been to embrace and extend the influence of public employee unions throughout the Executive branch of our federal government.

There are those who contend that it is not Obama's intention to destroy America. His actions indicate otherwise.

Evergreen Goes To China

Three years ago, Massachusetts wooed Evergreen Solar to locate in a former Army base in Devens that had been converted into an office park, hoping it would help boost the state's reputation as a hub for green industry. Now, many are second-guessing if and how government should be in the business of helping private business.

On paper, it was a match made in heaven. Evergreen moved in and began to reap millions of dollars in fringe benefits, from tax breaks to free rent and cash grants. Evergreen grew from 100 to 800 employees. This month, the state woke up to what was basically a note on the kitchen table saying Evergreen was leaving.

Yes, they moved in, they collected millions in "stimulus" money and state matching funds. Government "created or saved" some 800 jobs. Then, when the money started slowing down, the company decided to drop the jobs and move everything to China.

"There was shock at every level," echoes Jack Burroughs, an environmental health and safety engineer, who got the news just one week after starting work at Evergreen. "I left a very good job in order to come here. I thought this was a more long-term career opportunity."

Bradley H. Jones Jr., a Republican state representative, is one of many voices calling for a new review process for future government subsidies and incentives to private businesses.

He says the state was seduced by the lure of a sexy new industry.

"There was a leading with your heart and not your head," Jones says. Officials were all caught up in the idea that "this is going to put us on the map, and we're going to be green, green, green, and this is going to be great," Jones says. "And I think that served to cloud judgment."

Sounds a lot like Oregon in general and Portland in particular: "this is going to put us on the map, and we're going to be green, green, green, and this is going to be great,"

That's good enough for our politicians.

 

Obama Got No Balance

What's Obambi doing on that Egyptian tightrope, anyway? He got no balance, and he got no clue. He got Hillary out there praising Mubarak and urging all sides to exercise restraint, like she's some voice of reason.  How'd that "restraint" thing work for y'all in Waco, Madam Secretary?  Now, what might galvanize so many folks in Egypt to head into the streets?

Well, a small part of the answer is found in the classified cable below:

Reference ID	Created	Released	Classification	Origin
09CAIRO1447	2009-07-28 14:02	2011-01-28 00:12	CONFIDENTIAL	Embassy Cairo

VZCZCXRO8347
RR RUEHROV
DE RUEHEG #1447/01 2091448
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 281448Z JUL 09
FM AMEMBASSY CAIRO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3280
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CAIRO 001447 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR NEA/ELA AND DRL/NESCA 
NSC FOR KUMAR 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/28/2029 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM EG
SUBJECT: RECENT GOE ACTIONS TO SUPPRESS CRITICAL OPINION 
 
REF: A. CAIRO 1332 
     ¶B. CAIRO 1263 
     ¶C. CAIRO 930 
     ¶D. CAIRO 504 
     ¶E. CAIRO 79 
 
Classified By: Economic-Political Minister-Counselor 
Donald A. Blome for reason 1.4 (d). 
 
¶1. KEY POINTS 
 
-- (C) A recent series of selective GOE actions against 
journalists, bloggers and even an amateur poet illustrates 
the variety of methods available to the GOE to suppress 
critical opinion, including an array of investigative 
authorities and public and private legal actions. 
 
-- (U) A journalist was jailed on defamation charges for the 
first time in recent memory, and an amateur poet was 
imprisoned for three months for allegedly defaming President 
Mubarak. 
 
-- (C) The GOE arrested three Muslim Brotherhood 
(MB)-affiliated bloggers, and has repeatedly used the 
Emergency Law to block a court ordered release of another 
jailed blogger. 
 
-- (C) The government is working with NDP operatives to flood 
the courts with suits against political enemies, using 
tactics such as fabricating assault charges against a 
journalist and filing a profanity case against a novelist. 
 
-- (C) The GOE's actions are examples of where it decides to 
draw redlines in an environment featuring frequent press 
articles and blogs critical of both the regime and President 
Mubarak. 
 
-- (C) These GOE actions, combined with arrests of MB 
officials (septel), could be the start of an attempt to 
tighten the political environment in advance of the 2010 
parliamentary elections. 

By all appearances, folks over there have had thirty years of this kind of thing, and have decided that they're about fed up.

Obambi's clueless, but you can bet that whatever he decides his administration should do, it'll backfire.  He's sitting in Jimmuh Cahtah's seat, and we all know how well Jimmuh handled the Iranian crisis.

Damn. What About Freedom Of Religion?

U.S. border authorities have arrested a controversial Muslim cleric who was deported from Canada to Tunisia three years ago and was caught earlier this month trying to sneak into California inside the trunk of a BMW, according to court documents.

This is obviously a "cultural misunderstanding", as the cleric was simply practicing his religion by moving away from the infidels.  It will become clear, over time, that the cleric was praying toward Mecca.  He had no idea that the vehicle was moving into America until the trunk door popped open.

 

Bomb-Sniffing Vegetables

Environmeddlists hate genetically-modified organisms.  Usually, these GMO's are plants, and never mind the fact that the corn and other veggies they love so much are all GMO - just done the hard way, by selective breeding.

Tomatoes?  Started as small, bitter, semi-poisonous.

Corn?  Started as small, bitter, grass-heads.

They, and most everything plant-like, were genetically modified.

Let's leave that aside, and get to the meat of the matter: GMO plants have been developed that can detect contraband better than sniffer dogs.

“Instead of that nasty line at DIA that can wind on forever and ever and ever, you would go through a beautiful garden area. Now in my garden area we would have a variety of plants that would detect a variety of those nasty things that a terrorist might take in,” Medford said.

pp

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

An alert reader passed on the above link to the topic at hand, and it's pretty well done.  Suggested viewing, and thanks to Spencer!

State Bailouts?

That's the next tsunami, and one that is simply unaffordable.

What has caused the financial problems facing states like California, and many others across the country?  Three words: Public Employee Unions.

There was a time when unions actually performed valuable functions.  During that time, they thrived in the private sector, and among many benefits, we owe to them the 40-hour work week.

But as these became the norm, union membership in the private sector began to decline.  Part of this was because conditions of work had gone mainstream, and part of it was due to the fact that people got tired of unions taking chunks of employee paychecks to fund political actions with which many employees disagreed.

So unions started "organizing" public employees.

And the benefits that they negotiated with politicians are completely unsustainable.  That's why states are facing fiscal meltdown.

There is no justification for the existence of public employee unions.

We need a complete reset.  Teacher unions should be shut down, as should all public employee unions.

The current system simply rewards those who don't perform.

 

Locked And Loaded

“We have a fully loaded subduction zone.”

Maybe.  It's been over 300 years since the last massive quake hit the Pacific Northwest.

Scientists say we're due for another one, and it will be massive.

It might happen.  But given their track record to date, you can sleep soundly tonight.

That Darn Man-Made Global Warming

It just doesn't seem to be cooperating.

The water temperature in the subtropical Atlantic Ocean has cooled down since 1998, oceanographers report. Measurements since 1957 had shown a rise of more than ¼ of a degree up to that point, but between 1998 and 2006 the ocean stopped warming and cooled by 0.15°C in the same area.

This really bad news for AlGore and the others who had hoped to profit from human misery.  Isn't it surprising that American media have yet to "report"?

It's just not a good "fit" for them, at this time.  

Should Have Taken The Bus

Oh, right...Tri-Met's been killing bus service to pay down some of the costs of their trains.

Trains are cool; bus lines aren't.  But a bus could have got this guy off the road.  Tri-Met trains don't roll that way.