NewsBusted — Islamic Group to Women in Hijabs: Refuse TSA Screenings

Via Theo Spark:

Air Security and Political Correctness

From C. Edmund Wright, at American Thinker, "Why Air Security is the Issue":

It is always shocking to me how many folks are OK with being treated like cattle. Any thinking person instinctively understands that these ridiculous security measures are not going to make us any safer, because any thinking person knows damned well that it is young Muslim males, not four ounces of grandma's shampoo, that destroy airplanes and people and buildings.

It would be bad enough if any of this loss of freedom were actually making us safer. It is not, and there are much easier and less expensive ways to do so. This leads to the inescapable conclusion that those in charge are either really foolish or doing this on purpose, or a combination of both. And interviews with travelers indicate that there is a fairly high "naïf factor" among us. You know, the "I don't like it, but if this is what it takes to keep us safer..." crowd. Puh-leeze.

RTWT.

I'm still not quite there yet, although I'm fascinated at how quickly airport screening has moved to the very front of the national political agenda. But see Dr. Sanity, in any case, "A COLLECTIVE POLITICAL PSYCHOSIS":

We continue to witness a strange mishmash of conflicting memes and confusing behaviors--not on the part of the terrorists, but on the part of Obama and friends. The terrorists are remarkably consistent and rather persistant in their desire to kill us.

The Democratics have adopted the Alfred E. Neuman "What, Me Worry?" approach to national security; and their denial about the threat of Islamic terrorism continues to evolve into complex rationalizations and nuanced idiocies that refuse to confront the true nature of the threat...

Video c/o Melanie Morgan.

RELATED: From HotMES, "Flying on November 24? Then celebrate National Opt-Out Day!!!"

Stevie Ray Vaughan

A follow-up from last night. I had a beer with Steve Ray Vaughan in 1983, after a sound check at the Cathay de Grande:

Tumblr: Blog Platform of Choice for Feminists, Homosexuals, and Druggies?

In the news, "Tumblr dives into a boatload of money" (via Memeorandum).

But as my exchanges with Miss Olga at STFU Sexists indicates, Tumblr's the hip blogging platform for the radical countercultural masses: "Someone Needs to Smoke Another Bowl With Me."

Heidi Montag Regrets Plastic Surgeries

I'm not surprised. Recall I blogged this like a mofo at the time.

See, "Heidi Montag: ‘My Dead Doctor Ruined Me’." And "Heidi Montag Regrets Plastic Surgeries, Blames Dead Doctor."

Leftist Group Demagogues START Debate With New 'Daisy Girl' Ad

It's from the American Values Network, a hard-left progressive faith group:

Burns Strider, the group's founder, was a former aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and was a faith advisor to the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. In other words, this is a Democratic ad blitz using the most outlandish fearmongering imaginable. The original "Daisy Girl" ran at the height of the Cold War. It came in response to Barry Goldwater's bellicose comments on the use of nuclear weapons against the Soviets. There's little of that kind of rhetoric in today's GOP --- and we're not on brink of a nuclear holocaust --- and the ad's claims on inspections under the new START are entirely dependent on Moscow's compliance and transparency. When Obama signed the treaty in April, our Czech allies dissed it as "appeasing Russia." See my previous entry: "Trust Russia on START?"

RELATED: "George Voinovich Hammers Obama's 'Political Expediency' on New START Treaty."

Ireland Bailout Threatens European Monetary Union

This is the big story from Europe, at WSJ, "Irish Grasp at EU, IMF Lifeline":

The Irish government all but buckled to pressure to accept a historic international bailout Thursday, capitulating after a week of intense lobbying from officials across Europe and spurring questions about which other European economies will need a helping hand. Ireland's central-bank governor and finance minister acknowledged for the first time Thursday that the country needs help rescuing its banking industry, which has been crippled by losses on sour loans.

The Irish government is in talks with the International Monetary Fund and European officials about a loan package that is likely to amount to "tens of billions" of euros, the central-bank governor, Patrick Honohan, said. "It will be a large loan because the purpose...is to show Ireland has sufficient firepower to deal with any concerns of the market."

Ireland's grudging decision to accept foreign aid, after insisting it didn't need help, is a bitter moment for a country that won its independence from Britain decades ago. Already, some lawmakers and editorial writers are bemoaning what they see as the inevitable loss of sovereignty that will accompany a foreign bailout.

And this is key, in my opinion:

It is an equally pivotal point for the 16 nations that use Europe's common currency. After rescuing Greece in the spring, European leaders are now betting that if they extinguish the financial crisis engulfing Ireland, it won't spread to other euro-zone weak spots. But with bond markets continuing to punish those countries, new bailouts may be needed soon—a prospect that some believe will call into question the durability of the euro as a common currency.

I reported some time back that Germany's economic resurgence was lapping many other EU nations, and the prospect of renew demands for German autonomy outside the political union was said to threaten European integration. (And at NYT, "German Identity, Long Dormant, Reasserts Itself.")

RELATED: At The Other McCain earlier this week, "EUROPE IN CRISIS: Sudden Financial Emergency Strikes EU Zone UPDATE: Götterdämmerung?"

The Ghailani Verdict and the Anti-Anti-Terrorist Left

I was looking forward to this, from Andrew McCarthy, "A Compromise Verdict, and No Winners" (via RCP):

The Ghailani verdict was irrational, but no more so than the decision to try him as a civilian in the first place.

*****

A federal jury in Manhattan has returned what is transparently a compromise verdict in the terrorism trial of Ahmed Ghailani.

The case centered on al-Qaeda’s bombing of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August 1998. There were 285 counts, including separate murder charges for each of the 224 people killed. Ghailani was acquitted on 284 of them and convicted on a single charge of conspiracy to destroy government buildings.

That sounds like a great victory for Ghailani, but it is nothing of the kind. On the one count of conviction, Ghailani faces a sentence of up to life imprisonment, and there is a mandatory minimum term of 20 years in jail. In that sense, it is a victory for the government: The object of a terrorism trial is to neutralize the terrorist, and one count will do the trick.

But beyond that, the Justice Department walks away from the case as a big loser. That’s because the Obama administration made this much more than a terrorism trial. It cherry-picked the case to be a demonstration that the civilian criminal-justice system is up to the task of trying terrorists. This was to be the “turn the clock back” moment — specifically, back to the Clinton years, when Eric Holder was deputy attorney general and when prosecution in civilian courts was the U.S. government’s principal response to the jihadist onslaught that began with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

This was the model that Barack Obama campaigned on and that the anti-anti-terrorist Left takes as an article of faith. No more Bush-era counterterrorism: no enemy combatants, no military commissions, no indefinite detention, and certainly no aggressive interrogation. The president and his attorney general are adamant that “the rule of law” must be restored.

Never mind that the laws of war — which support all the Bush-administration measures — are the rule of law during wartime. Never mind that at no point in our history have the nation’s wartime enemies been given access to the civilian justice system and endowed with all the protections and presumptions that American citizens receive. To the Obama Left, the law-enforcement approach is effective national security, a way to win the hearts and minds of Muslims and consequently make ourselves safer. It makes no difference that the country was demonstrably unsafe — and repeatedly attacked — during the Clinton years. Nor does it matter that people in Islamic countries have no idea of the legal differences between American civilian and military proceedings — they care only that we are imprisoning Muslims, not about the abstruse details of our basis for doing so.

The Obama Justice Department saw the Ghailani case as the perfect opportunity for the civilian system to prove itself. After all, the case had already been tried successfully: In 2001, before the 9/11 attacks, four terrorists were convicted and sentenced to life terms. Moreover, while critics of the law-enforcement counterterrorism model emphasize that civilian due process requires the government to hand over too much sensitive intelligence, thereby educating the enemy while we are trying to defeat the enemy, that argument was significantly diminished in Ghailani’s case. Because the case had already been tried in the civilian system, most of the relevant intelligence had already been disclosed. You could contend that this was not a good thing, but for better or worse it had already been done.

But instead of a shining moment for proponents of civilian prosecution, the Ghailani case is a body blow.

More at the link.

RELATED: From Steven Givler, "What Nobody Else Will Tell You About the Ghailani Trial."

Renee Ellmers Wins North Carolina's 2nd District Seat

Sister Toldjah has the story at Right Wing News, "Congrats to Congresswoman-Elect Renee Ellmers!"

Although don't miss Robert Stacy McCain's roundup, featuring Ellmers' GZM ad, "BREAKING: Renee Ellmers Wins Recount; Bob Etheridge to Concede; UPDATE: In Concession Speech, Dem Says He Was Victim of ‘Dirty Politics’":

RELATED: At The Monkey Cage, "Combating Rumors about the Ground Zero Mosque." And the link there, "LEARNING THE TRUTH NOT EFFECTIVE IN BATTLING RUMORS ABOUT NYC MOSQUE, STUDY FINDS," from Erik Nisbet and Kelly Garrett. I've e-mailed the authors, and sent them links: "Questions for Imam Rauf From an American Muslim," by Zuhdi Jasser, and "Imam Feisal Rauf and the Genocidal Hamas Covenant."

Megyn Kelly in GQ

Fox News women are the hottest?

Duh.

Via JammieWearingFool, "Need Another Reason to Love Megyn Kelly?"

Also around the 'sphere:

* The Blaze, "Fox’s Megyn Kelly Makes Revealing GQ Appearance."

* MediaBistro, "Fox News’ Megyn Kelly in GQ: ‘You may have heard that we’re number one’."

Yep, conservative women are the hottest!

And amazingly, I've scooped Robert Stacy McCain on this one!

Bristol Palin Is Not Dancing With the Tea Party

At LAT:

In between hearty laughs, Dawn Wildman, co-coordinator of the California Tea Party Patriots, dismissed the idea of an organized coalition to get the dancing competition's mirror ball trophy in Palin's young hands.

"We are all still reeling from the elections and the business at hand with the lame duck session," said Wildman, of San Diego. "And I wish we had the opportunity to spend time to just sort of mull the situation for 'Dancing With the Stars.' But that’s just not happening. It is interesting that the left would think that there is somehow a concerted effort or a conspiracy of the 'tea party' movement to propel this young woman into — what? Winning the giant disco ball award? What would we actually achieve by her doing that? How will it help the nation if Bristol Palin wins 'Dancing With the Stars'? I don’t think any of us have enough time on our hands to consider our options for that one."

More at the link.

Trust Russia on START?

START II never entered into force. Yet, the U.S. went ahead and decommissioned the LGM-118A Peacekeeper, citing underperformance with missile range objectives:

Time exposure shot of testing of the Peacekeeper re-entry vehicles at the Kwajalein Atoll, all eight fired from one missile. With live warheads, each would have the explosive power of twenty Hiroshima-sized (Little Boy) nuclear weapons.

*****

The Russians, on the other hand, also covered in START II, continued to deploy the SS-18 Satan, historically one of the most devastating ICBMs in the Russian nuclear arsenal. And again, while START II was not ratified and nor entered into force, the norms that motivated the treaty apparently had little affect on Russian strategic behavior. The SS-18 Satan is a MIRV'd reentry missile. It remains the backbone of the Russian strategic arsenal. Previously, the SS-18 was thought to have destabilized the U.S.-Soviet deterrence structure, since the enormous size of the missile, along with the multiple warheads, threatened a successful first strike against U.S. land-based missile silos. And this history matters, as symbolism and memory are powerful elements of the Russian identity. To make matter worse, the Obama-negotiated New START doesn't actually call for a large quantitative reductions in deployed missiles (and that's just for START-ers). The U.S., frankly, would be placed at the mercy of Russian compliance with a renewed inspection regime. We are, then, to trust Moscow, not only with numerical ceilings, but with access for the inspection regime? It's asking a lot.

How Far on TSA Opposition?

Two essays for your consideration: At POWIP, "Disagreeing with Ace on Body Scanners, Pat Downs," and AoSHQ, "Is America Freaking Out Too Much Over Naked Body Scans?"

I'd much rather not have the dweebs at TSA touchin' my junk. On the other hand, I keep thinkin' that one of these days an Abdulmutallab wannabe's gonna actually pull it off. I've listened to my students discuss this all week as well. A couple of them recently had full body scans while traveling. They're mostly okay with it, and they hope to remind folks that it's been almost 10 years since September 11th --- and we sometimes forget how dangerous things can be. That said, I have a hard time lining up with Ron Paul on just about anything. Seriously, that's practically a clincher:

RELATED: At O.C. Register, "Letters: Profiling Makes Sense in TSA Screening."

Senator Jay Rockefeller Wishes FCC Would Shut Down Fox News

At Fox News, where else? ...

A powerful Democratic senator, pointing the finger at cable news for a politically toxic climate in Washington, unleashed a stunning tirade in which he expressed his desire to see the Federal Communications Commission shut down Fox News and MSNBC.

"I'm tired of the right and the left," West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller said Wednesday during a Senate hearing on retransmission consent. "There's a little bug inside of me which wants to get the FCC to say to Fox and to MSNBC, 'Out. Off. End. Goodbye.' "

"It would be a big favor to political discourse; to our ability to do our work here in Congress; and to the American people, to be able to talk with each other and have some faith in their government and, more importantly, in their future," said the chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

Rockefeller didn't seem to realize that the FCC only regulates broadcast airwaves, not cable.

Rockefeller's office did not respond to a request for an interview. The FCC declined to comment.

More at Left Coast Rebel.

Album Sides Thursday

That's my favorite DJ, Larry Morgan.

I heard three album sides today: The Police during morning drive time, Outlandos d'Amour (Side 1), Stevie Ray Vaughan at lunch, Texas Flood (Side 1), and AC/DC during afternoon drive time, Back in Black (Side 2), featuring "You Shook Me All Night Long."

Four Loko'd

Big boy James B. Webb announced he was back on November 1st. Since then Brain Rage has witness a grand total of two entries. I guess that brother be busy, out scopin' some beverage: "Partyers Rush to Stock Up On Four Loko Before It Gets Pulled From Shelves After FDA Says It's Unsafe."

'Blood On Your Hands' — LSU Astronomy Professor Warns Conservative Students On Greenhouse Gases

I found this at Inside Higher Ed, which links to CampusReform.org:

And at Fox News, "Global Warming Debate Ignites LSU Classroom."

Ahmed Ghailani Verdict is Shame of Terror-Appeasing Left

Leftist John Cole is brief and to the point, "The System Worked." Give diabolical killers the same rights as U.S. citizens, and forget about achieving justice for those murdered by heinous acts of terrorism. Yeah, that oughta work. See LAT, "U.S. Civilian Court Acquits Ex-Guantanamo Detainee of All Major Terrorism charges," and at NYT, "Terror Verdict Tests Obama’s Strategy on Trials."

So while leftists are cheering how well the "system worked," more sober analysts have decried the verdict. For example, at Weekly Standard, "Ghailani Verdict a Miscarriage of Justice," at Pajamas Media, "Holder Strikes Out in First Gitmo Civilian Trial, " and at Commentary, "The Ghailani Debacle":

Once again, the Obama team has revealed itself to be entirely incompetent and has proved, maybe even to themselves, the obvious: the Bush administration had it right. And in fact, maybe we should do away with both civilian trials and military tribunals and just hold these killers until hostilities end. You know, like they do in wars.

Eminently true, but clueless leftists continue to push back, to say nothing of the White House: "Senior Administration Official Defends Ghailani Trial, Verdict."

'Guilt-Free Fur' Reveals Total Hypocrisy of Animal Rights Movement

At New York Times (where else?), "The Nutria, a Rodent Promoted as 'Guilt-Free Fur'."

Okay, sure, this is not a particularly attractive animal. And apparently these varmints are wreaking havoc on the Lousiana environment. But it's not like minks are all that much more cuddly (minks are cousins to weasels, for that matter). But now the former is becoming a politically acceptable alternative to the latter, which just goes to show that there's absolutely no intellectual integrity to the extremist animal rights movement. People either reject fur apparel, and hence eliminate demand for furry animals, or they stop yapping about how people who like luxurious coats are animal murderers. It's pretty simple, and wholly pathetic:

TREATING nutria as a kind of “guilt free” fur is tough when you’re cutting the pelt and fur gets caught in your eyes. That’s what Micha Michelle Melancon, a fashion designer in New Orleans, found out when she was making a cloak from what is commonly known as a swamp rat.

“This is an animal,” Ms. Melancon said, after her work space became filled with fluffy piles of excess fur. “A soft, furry, once-living-and-breathing being.”

But unlike other soft and furry animals, nutria is being rebranded as a socially acceptable and environmentally friendly alternative way to wear fur. The effort culminates this Sunday, when Ms. Melancon and about 20 designers take part in a “righteous fur” fashion show at the House of Yes, an art space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Fluffy hats, muffs, leg warmers and even a wedding dress will be paraded down the runway, in a show expected to draw about 150 people. Don’t look for any celebrities in the front row. A reporter from National Geographic and someone who works at Marc Jacobs are among the expected V.I.P.’s.

But Nutria-palooza, as the show is being called, is not just about fashion. The main sponsor is the Barataria-Terrebonne Estuary Foundation, a nonprofit conservation group in Thibodaux, La., that works to preserve the 4.2-million-acre swamp in southern Louisiana that is being threatened by the furry critter.

As any resident of Louisiana knows, nutria is a herbivorous rodent, about half the size of a beaver, that is native to South America. The animals were shipped to fur farmers in the United States as early as the 19th century, and some eventually escaped into the Louisiana swamps. At first, the population was kept in check by fur trappers and a marketplace that prized the exotic fur. Hollywood starlets like Greta Garbo were fans of nutria coats.

But when the fur market started to founder in the 1980s, the nutria population soared and started to endanger the fragile ecosystem. The invasive rodent eats away the bottom of the plants that hold the coastal wetlands together.

In 2002, Louisiana started paying trappers and hunters $5 for every nutria killed. The effort to control the nutria population had some success, with bounty hunters killing about 400,000 animals last year. But the carcasses were simply discarded or left to rot in the swamp.

That’s when Cree McCree, an environmentalist and designer from New Orleans, came up with her fashion idea. Instead of wasting all that fur, she wanted to market nutria as a “guilt-free fur that belongs on the runway instead of at the bottom of the bayou,” she said.

“If they’re being killed anyway,” she added, “then why not make something beautiful out of them?”

Lame justification.

The animals don't "need" to be killed in the first place. The "fur market started to founder" because of the left's attacks on the fur industry. And now that things are out of whack in the bayou, Voilà! Kill 'em all and let the "EVIL" marketplace sort 'em out? If these environmentalists were really worth their salt they'd find a way to balance the ecosystem naturally, without having to kill the poor rodents. What a joke.

GOP Elevates Some New Faces

At WSJ, "Freshman House Republicans Pick an African-American and a Woman for Roles in Leadership":

House Republican freshmen chose Reps.-elect Tim Scott and Kristi Noem for new leadership positions Wednesday, as the party looked to capitalize on its midterm-election victories by boosting its appeal to women, minorities and young voters.

Rep. John Boehner (R., Ohio) was chosen, as expected, to lead House Republicans overall, making him the likely speaker in January. In all, House Republicans' top six leaders will be white men.

Not so for the newly elected GOP freshmen class, which will have at least 85 members and constitute more than a third of House Republicans. Mr. Scott, of South Carolina, will be one of two African-American Republicans in Congress, and Ms. Noem, of South Dakota, will be one of two female GOP leaders.

"The freshman class is a big class," said Rep.-elect Steve Womack (R., Ark.). "It's going to wield a lot of clout here for a couple years. And I think the veteran members and the other side are going to pay a lot of attention to what we have to say."

Mr. Boehner announced shortly after the Nov. 2election that he was creating a new seat for a freshman at the leadership table. On Tuesday, he said he would add another. Those two positions will be filled by Mr. Scott, 45 years old, and Ms. Noem, 38. The two are newcomers to Washington, but not to politics.

Mr. Scott, who grew up poor with a single mother, was elected in 1995 to the Charleston County Council and later to the South Carolina legislature, becoming the first black Republican to serve in each body since Reconstruction. He is fiercely anti-tax, wants to make English the official language of government and says he would insist new immigrants learn English.

While serving in the legislature and working as an insurance agent and a partner in a real estate group, Mr. Scott won the Republican nomination for Congress last June in his heavily conservative district. He defeated Paul Thurmond, son of former Sen. Strom Thurmond, who was a segregationist for much of his career.

Ms. Noem is a rancher and mother of three whose family raises cattle and shows horses. When her father died, she left college to help run the ranch full-time. She is also a state legislator, though Republican leaders often play down that aspect of her career.

Ms. Noem wants to end the estate tax, believes guns should not be subject to federal regulation, and promised to maintain a 100% anti-abortion record in Congress.

Mr. Scott and Ms. Noem are among a handful of incoming Republicans whom the GOP leadership is promoting as faces of the new party ...

More at the link, and you gotta love the diversity of the GOP freshman class.