Side Tracks

There's a bathroom on the right.. (listen for it).

Muddy Waters

The river is rising, perhaps soon to levels unseen by any living Memphian. But this seems strange:

Tunica’s casinos are planning to shut down this weekend because of flooding concerns along the Mississippi River.

When Mississippi passed the law allowing gambling it was for 'riverboat gambling'. Riverboats float. So why the big concern about a rising river down there? Yeah, I know.

Meanwhile, up here, and elsewhere along the river, it's a grim, slow moving disaster in the waiting. We're not sure what will result here if the Bird's Point levee is blown, but then again this is uncharted territory. And if that's not enough, we got a call from somebody today that sounded a lot like an automatic voice telling us to brace ourselves because a test earthquake was occurring. It was a good reminder, but geez, we're all kind of shaky down here right now.

Trump Gets Results!

Boy, Jerome Corsi must be ticked off today...the Donald got the results he couldn't after years, and his yet to be released book will probably tank. Here's a prediction: Trump will now slowly disappear back into TV Land while Corsi continues the fight.

Meanwhile the presidential race of 2012 can proceed forward without the specter of Obama baiting a birther hook to reel in some GOP candidates, allowing MSM TV debate moderators to give prospective candidates a birther litmus test, only to have the administration spring the document for maximum embarrassment at a time of their choosing.

Now that it's out how about a few questions for the players? Like why were they presumably spending money to stop Phillip Berg from uncovering this in 2008, then others along the way, if there was nothing on it? Will someone ask Carney if this 'distraction' was a political stunt all along?

And will anyone question why Hawaiian state officials lied or bent the truth... first by changing their rules on a Home Lands application to include the short form (after their web site said a short form was not good enough), then just recently this statement:

But Wisch, the spokesman for the attorney general's office, said state law does not in fact permit the release of "vital records," including an original "record of live birth" — even to the individual whose birth it records.

"It's a Department of Health record and it can't be released to anybody," he said. Nor do state laws have any provision that authorizes such records to be photocopied, Wisch said. If Obama wanted to personally visit the state health department, he would be permitted to inspect his birth record, Wisch said.

And in the same story, the former records chief Fukino said:

She found the original birth record, properly numbered, half typed and half handwritten, and signed by the doctor who delivered Obama, located in the files. She then put out a public statement asserting to the document's validity.

Presumably her definition of "half handwritten" means a few signatures, since that's the only handwriting on it. Were these officials idiots, fans, or were they being ordered into their deceptions?

Oh well, now that the distraction is behind us we can move on to the important issues (as if presidential constitutional eligibility is a mere distraction) like Libya, debt ceilings, trillion dollar debt, no job growth, and terrorists still gathering around the gates.

MORE 4/27/11

In looking over the birth cert here are some thoughts.

One, it's not a fraud. Look over the Nordyke Twins' certs and you will see they use the same format. They were born one day later than Obama.

For those who think it's a conspiracy that Stanley Ann didn't sign the document until August 7th, as opposed to when baby Barack popped out, then look at the Nordyke version--the mother signed the form on the 7th. The higher document number for Obama's cert is probably due to a clerical issue.

It's settled, folks. Finally.

What's not settled are the other mysteries, but now that he's made the birthers look bad (and the press will run with it) it will also make anyone who questions anything else look equally nutty. So his lies about the Ayers relationship appear to be safe.

MORE 4/28/11

This from the coming Oprah interview...

Mr. Obama had to get Hawaii to waive a law that prevents the long form birth certificate from being photocopied or released to anyone, including himself.

Today he told Oprah, "And so at that point I said to my team, look, even though this is not usually what the State of Hawaii does, even though the Republican Governor of Hawaii, the Democratic Governors of Hawaii, all the various officials had confirmed that I was born here, let's ask them for a special dispensation where they will go ahead and provide us with the original to see if we can put this to rest."

...is complete and utter BS. Anyone with a tangible interest could compel those state bureaucrats to provide a copy of a vital record. It's clear they were spinning to keep the issue at bay until the One finally released it. BTW, in the clip released on RCP yesterday it's likely Obama was mildly shocked when the first question Oprah asked was, "why did it take so long"? He spun, cracked a joke and didn't answer, at least in the length of that clip.

Can anyone imagine Brian Williams asking such a question, or her next question? They're all cowered with fear of being called or thought a racist, which Obama has used to his political benefit from day one, just like he's using this issue regardless of how his reaction comes off to those who questioned his eligibility. Then again unlike the Hispanics, he has no problem 'punishing his enemies'.

Be Healed?

Can this country possibly get any more divided? Can the president possibly do any less to heal this divide? On Monday his spokesgeek Jay Carney reacted to the Reverend Franklin Graham's fuzzy answer on a Sunday show about the birth certificate:

Carney, in an abrupt answer, reacted and said, "It's interesting that a minister would use Easter Sunday to make preposterous charges."

Yes, the same Easter Sunday Obama barely mentioned, other than saying he went to church. Graham probably thinks there's an ulterior motive involved cough Muslim Brotherhood cough. But who can say there isn't when the man won't even clear up his birth records so he can use it as a wedge issue and has been appointing Muslim brotherhood sympathetic persons into his government? Racist! Or wait, is he just trying to hornswoggle the Arabs into peace? It's hard to say. We've never had a president so confusing or one who seems to delight in utter confusion.

For instance, he goes to church on Easter but chooses a pastor hung up as much on race as on Jesus, who equates talk radio hosts, Rush Limbaugh specifically, with the KKK. Limbaugh then goes on the air and tries to rip away the left's main reason to mention Jesus at all--insinuating Christ was a tax and spend liberal so let's raise taxes, you wingnuts--by asking "what would Jesus take?" Blasphemy, says Lawrence O'Donnell, who shot back by saying Jesus would "take everything"! Or at the least be down with a 39 percent tax bracket. And here many of us were hoping he'd support the Fair Tax. No clown, he would take nothing--he would ASK for everything. He didn't care about government policy.

But criminy, all this bickering over religion? Where is that promised healing? Obama said the whole world would breath a sigh of relief when he was elected. So did everyone mistakenly hyperventilate? In reality the healing was probably healing America from itself. As stated many times and in many places, Obama thinks America itself is part of the problem, and he's trying to fix us from within for our own good because he knows best. That's really the only thing that explains most of this strange behavior.

Wiki Leaks: GITMO

Funny, the Wiki Leaks dump on this stuff came last year but somehow they are just now finding their way to the press, right before the congressionally-approved military tribunals begin.

Anyway, here's the Times on their big new secret:

A trove of more than 700 classified military documents provides new and detailed accounts of the men who have done time at the Guantánamo Bay prison in Cuba, and offers new insight into the evidence against the 172 men still locked up there.

And their competition a bit further south, who decided to take a different tact:

The documents also offer some tantalizing glimpses into the whereabouts and operations of Osama bin Laden and his Egyptian deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Meanwhile McClatchey focuses on "disarray":

Viewed as a whole, the secret intelligence summaries help explain why in May 2009 President Barack Obama, after ordering his own review of wartime intelligence, called America's experiment at Guantanamo "quite simply a mess."

In other words, McClatchey is confirming that war is sometimes confusing after a surprise attack.

Scorecard so far--Times is still looking for the Gulag; WaPo is affirming Bush-Cheney's version of a serious threat and the escape of AQ's leadership; McClatchey is pointing out that Obama is still awesome. All are trying to muddy the waters of upcoming tribunals by publishing this top secret classified info not meant to be released for another 20 years.

Once again, this new leak does nothing to persuade the public that that any particular Wiki Leak provides the complete picture of events or just the picture of events the Wiki Leaker wants to show. Cherry picking is in the eye of the leaker, in other words. And since all the docs are classified the government can't easily leak stuff not included in the Wiki Leak to complete the picture and still go after the leakers for leaking. Finally, if the birth certificate was leaked would the press publish it?

Free Speech on Trial or Just a Nut?

The reportage has been spotty, which leaves me wondering-- why was Koran burner Terry Jones in court Friday? Can someone now be summoned to appear for something they haven't done yet? And what was he found guilty of--potentially offending Mohammad?

As reprehensible as his views are (which is a standard disclaimer because he's so unpopular nobody wants to be associated with him in any way even if they agree somewhat) he's only doing what Hillary screamed was patriotic during the Bush years. Who else fondly recalls the whining over 'free speech zones' when it came to protesting the W? Where's the outrage?

Besides, Jones has actually found a way to get the Muslims out in the street standing up for peace and tranquility and brotherhood:

Hundreds gathered at the Islamic Center on Thursday night for what was described as an interfaith rally against the Jones protest. An Episcopal bishop led a prayer, and about a dozen religious leaders from nearly as many faiths and sects led the crowd out of the mosque in silence. Participants stood outside for about ten minutes with their hands joined, no one talking. The religious leaders posed for photos with their arms interlocked.

Even Obama couldn't do that. Maybe Jones could be appointed his religious czar. But seriously, the way this guy is being handled--including from the likes of Lindsay Graham--remains troubling in the broadest sense.

Side Tracks

Father..




And son..

Narrative Games

The Trump mystery continues. Here's MSNBC parroting an AP story that suggests the Donald has forced all the presumptive GOP candidates to 'take a stand' on Obama's fuzzy narrative:

In recent days several prominent Republicans have distanced themselves, with varying degrees of emphasis, from the false claim that Obama was born in a foreign country. But with a new poll showing that two-thirds of adult Republicans either embrace the claim or are open to it, nearly all these GOP leaders are not calling for a broader effort to stamp out the allegations.

And right on cue, here's the NY Times corralling a bunch of experts to dissect just how bat crazy those 45 percent are who can't take a faith-based approach to the president:

What drives this kind of false political belief and why is it so hard to dispel?

What drives them? Perhaps it's called a media that didn't do their jobs in vetting this man, and still won't. To illustrate this point, Joy Behar had Trump's trophy wife on and actually said the following about 'vetting' presidents:

"I don't know what skeletons he's got in his closet, but everyone gets vetted when they're going to be president--you know what that means 'vetted'? They've going to look into everything...

Everything, except just about everything for the first black president. We probably know more about Trump than we do about Obama. Which brings us to a clarification--the birther thing isn't really limited to the birth, it's really about the entire narrative. Let anyone question it and.. watch out. For instance, yours truly believes O was born in Honolulu but there might be some interesting factoids on the vital record regards his step-father Soetoro, which might be interesting reading. That along with his masterpiece of fiction likely co-written by a terrorist. But it's all the same to the smear merchants.

Our crafty president is not affected and continues using the issue, one that he created, to gain politically no matter how much it might divide America. It was only a matter of time before the mainstreamers realized they could jump onboard and help the cause, and they are doing so. If they know what Trump is really up to they aren't saying, but it doesn't matter now.

Lots of good speculation out there. A good point was also made on the O'Reilly show tonight regarding star power. Obama is a celebrity. He won by being a celebrity who bashed Bush, in league with the best Saturday Night Live or Comedy Central characters, hip and cool. That may be the model for 21st century America. On a side note, actually running a country is a bit harder, less sexy, boring, and perplexing, but one can always farm out sticky problems to beer summits or blue ribbon task forces (whose laborious ground rules practically guarantee the issue will be forgotten in a 24/7 news cycle). Or just blame the previous guy.

Trump is also a celebrity, so far insulating him from being called a racist for questioning the nativity narrative, but the rest of the field doesn't have that luxury and must answer correctly or be relegated to the dustbin of candidates and a SNL cartoon figure. Obviously this leaves them weak and trembly and defensive. Palin is an outlier--she's clearly also a celebrity (which is why the left pulled a collective groin muscle swarming on her with long knives right off the bat--they saw her persona potential) but she'll easily be called a racist dingbat for not answering correctly. She's less scared, but just as naked to the barbs. So as the AP indicates, Trump is having a negative affect.

That leaves a scenario where if nothing changes America may actually witness an incumbent winning a second term with stagnant employment above 9 percent, high gas prices, 3 wars, and a trail of broken promises only because people are made to believe his opponents are racists. Somebody may yet pop out of the woodwork, or Trump's investigators may actually have something interesting (that's not Jerome Corsi's book), but it better happen soon. Of course, we can't forget Dick Cheney--his book is still in the wings and may have a few surprises. He knows a lot.

MORE 4/23/11

Here's CNN with a "birther" story. It's a factual story about states wanting to pass eligibility bills, but in an overarching sense it's just another "these people are nuts--how dare they demand to know any more information than what we've told them about the leader of the free world" screeds.

Chances are they've published more stories about the crazy birthers than about Obama's past in general. Trump is helping that cause big-time, and the longer he delays entrance or revealing his 'interesting' information, the more damage they can do. Meanwhile none of them will ask biographer Christopher Andersen about why he claimed Ayers co-wrote Dreams or grill the administration on why they lied in the campaign about the relationship in general. But when you're as far in the tank for someone as they are, it must be hard to see the sunlight.

RACIST! 4/23/11

Take a look at the comment section of any story on the birth cert and you'll quickly notice that a preponderance of the attack replies call anyone who questions the birth narrative a racist. A frequent refrain is "if he was white and named John Smith, nobody would be asking these questions".

There might be some truth to that thinking. But it's not a perfect analogy.

Obama has a Muslim-African name. The better analogy would be this-- what if a white GOP candidate, whose father was from Germany, had the first name "Adolph"? Or the last name of "Himmler" or "Goering"? Somehow I think the same people calling the birthers a bunch of racists would be demanding long forms, investigations, etc. etc.

FAIR AND BALANCED 4/24/11

These two stories epitomize the narrative issue to me. First, Fareed Zakaria:

Then there is the ‘birther’ issue. I regard this as coded racism, frankly. I don’t think there’s any other word for it.

For goodness' sake, George Stephanopoulos displayed Obama's Certificate of Live Birth on network TV and this rumor still doesn't die. Put it this way: If the President was a white man named John Smith with the other background issues being the same - foreign student father, mother in Hawaii, etc. - would there be any of these dark insinuations? Trump should be ashamed of himself. But then, I suppose, he wouldn't be Donald Trump.

BTW, not sure about you but I know I've been waiting impatiently for him to finally weigh in! Finally! Next, not an awesome CNN analyst, lowly blogger Tom Maguire:

Yet back in the day, the Times did not assemble a panel to question the sanity of the 9/11 Truthers. Instead, we were given a wry, tongue partly in cheek appraisal of their "work".

I can only imagine your surprise.

ERRATA: Here we have Howard Dean pandering to the truthers on NPR, and John Edwards doing the same at a town hall.

Go to the site for his links, including polls that were almost the same as the birther polls in reverse. Yes, although it seems hardly possible the mainstream media is even more in the tank for this president than they were when they helped him get elected by not completely vetting him (in part due to a fear they would be called racists by the likes of Zakaria).

Break Time

That's basically what our politicos are doing to us.

Others Still Unknown

In 2002 Obama said the following about Iraq:

“the world, and the Iraqi people, would be better off without [Saddam Hussein],” he also argued that “Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military [is] a fraction of its former strength, and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history.”

Rather ironic considering his strange foray into Libya, which is presumably not a dumb war even though he's about to give 25 million worth of war stuff to a group of unknown rebels--some of whom are undoubtedly tied to al Qaeda affiliates. Then again, AQ did basically endorse him (by endorsing McCain, so we they could win):

Al-Qaeda is watching the U.S. stock market's downward slide with something akin to jubilation, with its leaders hailing the financial crisis as a vindication of its strategy of crippling America's economy through endless, costly foreign wars against Islamist insurgents.

And at least some of its supporters think Sen. John McCain is the presidential candidate best suited to continue that trend.

"Al-Qaeda will have to support McCain in the coming election," said a commentary posted Monday on the extremist Web site al-Hesbah, which is closely linked to the terrorist group. It said the Arizona Republican would continue the "failing march of his predecessor," President Bush.

So, as Obama wages a congressionally unsanctioned kinetic action to protect Libyans from Libya, he still seems to believe Iraq was the biggest foreign policy mistake ever, even if it becomes a great foreign policy success some day. Saddam was heading for the dustbin had we only given him time....Gaddafi needs to go, now despite Bush defanging his WMD program. Sometimes liberals are so smart their reasoning is almost unintelligible.

But we're talking about politicians as well. Iraq has been berry berry good to the One, getting him elected president over that rube who voted for the war back when it was cool, which got her relegated to a secretarial position. Even now he continues to use it as a hammer.

But will it ever come back to bite him? Strap into the wayback machine and return to that ugly time shortly after the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. Reporter Jayna Davis made a case for Iraqi involvement in the plot by insinuating that one Hussein al-Hussaini, an Iraqi expat living in Ok City at the time (and reportedly seen by some with McVeigh), was John Doe Number Two. Her evidence was circumstantial, and she largely stayed away from domestic connections. On the other hand, McVeigh attorney Stephen Jones did not, writing about them in his book, "Others Unknown" (an FBI description).

While Jones also believed, like Davis, that other conspirators were involved he didn't limit them to Arab Islamists. Thanks to a generous taxpayer-funded defense budget he was able to hire private investigators to look into the various connections, including one in the Philippines involving Terry Nichols and al Qaeda operatives and another between McVeigh/Nichols and far right anti-government neo-nazi types at a compound in Arkansas called Elohim City.

In the process Jones broke a fairly interesting revelation--or insinuation at least--that didn't make much news at the time. Or after 9/11. Or even after Bush invaded Iraq. From a writ of Mandamus submitted in 1997:

The Iraqi government has given Dennis Mahon thousands of dollars over the past six years. Mahon has admitted to receiving money from Iraq approximately once a month and stated that "it's coming from the same zip code where the Iraqi Embassy is, but they don't say it's from the Iraqi Embassy." The money started arriving in 1991 after Mahon started holding rallies protesting the Persian Gulf War. Mahon is a close friend of Andreas Strassmeir, the ex-head of security at Elohim City and Mahon has lived at Elohim City.

Here's an excerpt from the opening statement, explaining the premise:

The McVeigh defense, based upon the material provided to it, suggests the following hypothesis: A foreign power, probably Iraq, but not excluding the possibility of another foreign state, planned a terrorist attack(s) in the United States and that one of those targets was the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City. The Murrah Building was chosen either because of lack of security (i.e. it was a "soft target"), or because of available resources such as Iraqi POW's who had been admitted into the United States were located in Oklahoma City, or possibly because the location of the building was important to American neo-Nazis such as those individuals who supported Richard Snell who was executed in Arkansas on April 19, 1995.

The plan was arranged for a Middle Eastern bombing engineer to engineer the bomb in such a way that it could be carefully transported and successfully detonated. There is no reported incident of neo-Nazis or extreme right-wing militants in this country exploding any bomb of any significant size let alone one to bring down a nine (9) story federal building and kill 168 persons. In fact, not even members of the left-wing militant groups such as the Weatherman were ever able to accomplish anything of this magnitude.

This terrorist attack was "contracted out" to persons whose organization and ideology was friendly to policies of the foreign power and included dislike and hatred of the United States government itself, and possibly included was a desire for revenge against the United States, with possible anti-black and anti-semitic overtones. Because Iraq had tried a similar approach in 1990, but had been thwarted by Syrian intelligence information given to the United States, this time the information was passed through an Iraqi intelligence base in the Philippines.

Very interesting, yet there was Bubba out blaming Rush Limbaugh for inciting those nuts in an effort to score reelection points. Even today liberals use Oklahoma City to apologize for Islamic nuts and Ground Zero mosques when they're not trashing the right over Iraq.

But is there any truth to it? Jones et al were clearly searching for any low hanging branch to save McVeigh from death and make themselves legal legends. Nobody has done an in-depth investigation. There was no public commission. But imagine for a second that it is true--think of the affect on 1) the Democrats, 2) the national media, and 3) the Clinton machine. Many former Clintonites now work for Obama, including the Attorney General and head of CIA. The FBI director will soon be replaced and a few former Clinton-era names have been mentioned. Some are still trying to figure out exactly why Sandy Berger took the incredibly risky chance of pilfering documents from the National Archives, so we're not likely to get a clear answer anytime soon.

But Bush certainly knows. His attitude about Iraq pertaining to matters of legacy has always been strategic--"history will be the judge". Maybe there's more to the story to support such clever subterfuge, or maybe it's just a defeated politician trying to deflect short term scorn by deflecting to long term image. The Clintons know, and Obama also surely knows. The FBI has known for awhile. Terry Nichols knows. The media doesn't want to know anymore, and Wiki Leaks is only for leaking information damaging to the right. So who knows.

The FLOTUS Deal

Some knees must be about to jerk off and fly out windows in DC...

Later Wednesday, the FAA said in a statement it will now require supervisory oversight in monitoring flights transporting the vice president or first lady. Such supervision is currently required in monitoring flights carrying the president, the FAA said.

As stated, the FLOTUS was never in danger of crashing into the other plane. The planes got too close, but not dangerously close. The controller did the right thing by ordering the plane to 'go around' and try the approach again. Had he/she not done so, THAT would have been a much worse scenario.

But doesn't it seem a bit like these stories are trying to suggest the controller intentionally lost separation, as if desirous of an incident? Does to me.

Sad

This is sad:

The White House reacted to charges that the president's signing statement on Friday was a campaign contradiction, saying that the president wasn't against all signing statements, but just felt President George W. Bush over-used them.

"His concern was with what he saw as an abuse of the signing statement by the previous administration. So that the positions he took in the signing statements on the budget bill are entirely consistent with that position," Carney said at Monday's White House briefing.

Sad because his original statement is on tape and unambiguous. Sad because Americans would like to think of their president as above such flagrant and transparent prevarication, distortion, fact-bending and ass-covering when it comes to personal dignity, especially in regards to those thing he used (and is still using) against his predecessor to gain victory.

It's also sad because the GOP trusted this guy, and sad because right now there's nobody in the Republican field who can displace the dude next year.

Uh, No

This might be the stupidest comment ever from this cartoonish nitwit:



Chalk another one up for the blonde! Two in a row.

Now some facts for miss "Joy". Reagan fired the controllers and broke the PATCO union in 1981 yes, but he had no choice. Feds simply cannot be allowed to strike and they had been offered an increase, then a 48 hour chance to return. The postal service had suffered a wildcat strike in 1978 under Grits Carter and the controller's union brass thought it was a precedent. They chose poorly.

Fast forward to now--and much to Joy's surprise--there is another controller union, called NATCA. They have made some big gains in the Obama era, and are currently immune to the 2 year pay freeze (collective bargaining contract, one of the few who can bargain over wages). But union or no, few like working mid shifts and as they say, stuff happens.

When someone is sitting in a dark tower for five hours with 3 scheduled flights it's hardly stimulating. Shockingly, people sometimes doze off. Adding another person doesn't always solve the problem either--in the recent Lubbock event TWO controllers were "unresponsive".

That's not to defend napping by any means--people who work rotations need to learn how to stay awake, especially safety related folks--but it's doubtful there's any sudden spike in sleeping. Most likely these stories are coming up due to the DC event coupled with all the government shutdown/budget talk and pilots or others are tattling. As a result the FAA lost a good man today in Hank Krakowski, who had to fall on his sword. But after the dust settles nothing much will change except perceptions.

With that, here's a tribute to all sleepy feds.....

And Obama said to Joe...

Yes, yes, he blamed Bush again. And floated above the problem like Balloon Boy, taking zero blame. But the thrust of his sleepy speech can be boiled down to one man--Joe. Joe the Plumber. Tax the rich, spread the wealth, throw in some token cuts mainly to due with waste. A more "balanced" approach.

He's right, we do need more balance.

Right now a large segment of the country doesn't pay any net tax at all. Obama suggests that's not fair, and that they should pay even less and that doubling down on taxing the rich and ballooning the class divide is patriotic and will help America "Win the Future" (WTF).

And you know what? In a perfect world he might be right--it might be patriotic for the haves to pay far more in percentage taxes than the have-nots--combined with cuts--if we're going to save America from Bush's economic disastrophy.

But here's the problem with tax increases---they are usually spent, not saved. Not used to pay down debt. And spent unwisely. By people like the president. On liberal boondoggles. Like high speed rail and socialized health insurance.

Obama said, "we're a nation that built a railroad across the continent". In other words, the government "invested" and built a railroad. Not quite. The government issued land grants to Monopoly-like rich barons who built the railroad. One of the companies--Union Pacific--is still around today and owns all the land along its right-of-ways. There is absolutely no correlation between building the transcon railroad and anything being proposed today. But it sounds like an investment, which is now a tax, which is pure goodness. And that's what counts.

Matter of fact, taxing the rich is now called "spending reductions in the tax code" and a "debt failsafe" is an automatic tax increase if the extra revenue from the reduction in the tax code received gets spent unwisely on frivolous things like high speed rail. Oh, and the rich want to pay more taxes--just ask them! At least the patriotic ones.

Let's get to the bottom line. Obama was right--this debate is about the future. Obama's future was best described by what he told Joe the Plumber. And he's not giving up on it, no matter what rhetorical inventions, half-truths and lies he has to foist on us.

What a Deal

Anyone looking for a used space vehicle? They are free, aside from a nominal shipping and handling fee..

The space shuttle Atlantis will be displayed at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida; the Endeavour, at the California Science Center in Los Angeles; the Discovery, at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia; and the test shuttle, Enterprise, at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York, NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. said during a ceremony at the Kennedy Center.

...of 28 million bucks. And perhaps a few winks and slaps on the back..

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said the Johnson Space Center in Houston should have been one of the retirement homes for an orbiter, "but it is clear political favors trumped common sense and fairness in the selection of the final locations for the orbiter fleet," he said in a statement.

Well, hope Cornyn has more evidence than Trump. Then again, why would Obama want to reward either Texas or the Bush oil family with anything? There's always a political calculation for these guys, even with a dying space program.

Speaking of which, soon the world will have no operating Concorde supersonic transports or Space Shuttles. If that seems like a reverse course for western civilization and aeronautics in general, that's because it is.

BTW, doh! The Airbus A380s wingspan is so wide that many US airports cannot handle the behemoth without widening the taxiways or taking special care. Not sure it happened here but:

“Comair might not have stopped in an outrageous spot for every other airplane in the world,” though the A380’s wingspan may have erased any margin for error, Voss said.

Surprising they didn't get any passenger interviews -- that looked like it might have hurt.

Meanwhile, at the Front

Not the kinetic front, the real front in the war on terror:

The Pakistani Army firmly believes that Washington’s real aim in Pakistan is to neutralize the nation’s prized nuclear arsenal, which is now on a path to becoming the world’s fifth largest, said the Pakistani official closely involved in the decision on reducing the American presence.

On the American side, frustration has built over the Pakistani Army’s seeming inability to defeat a host of militant groups, including the Taliban and Al Qaeda, which have thrived in Pakistan’s tribal areas despite more than $1 billion in American assistance a year to the Pakistani military.

In a rare public rebuke, a White House report to Congress last week described the Pakistani efforts against the militants as disappointing.

So we had a bunch of CIA contractors and operatives roaming Pakistan; after the Davis affair they got spooked and wanted some of them out; we get mad and rebuke them for not helping us win the war we are paying them to help us win and they respond by telling us to stop the drone attacks. SSDD..

American officials believed the training program was essential to improve the capacity of the nearly 150,000 Pakistani soldiers deployed to fight the Taliban in the tribal region.

The C.I.A. quietly withdrew all contractors after Mr. Davis’s arrest, the Pakistani official said.

Why oh why are we still working with the ISI? Can this even be partially explained to the average American? Perhaps the shady real goal is to keep an eye on their nukes--know thine enemy, makes the most sense--but if so we don't appear to be winning. Add in the deaths of the UN workers over a burned Koran in Florida and it appears we don't have the hearts and minds, either.

But does anyone care? Despite a lack of media coverage our troops are still dying over there, fighting to stop terrorism while our politicians are over here trying to stop America from going bankrupt. Few would see a tie-in with the exception of bin Laden--he hasn't forgotten. Oh well, maybe Obama can explain how he's actually kicking big time ass over there in his speech Wednesday night after he scolds 'both sides' for not settling their differences.

Birthermania

Trump continues to fan the flames of the birth certificate bonfire, this time with an angry rebuttal letter to Gail Collins of the Times. Ms. Collins then bites back sanctimoniously without the slightest trace of journalistic curiosity. So go the birther wars.

Meanwhile, Jack Cashill--who has done yeoman's work in asking questions that people like Gail Collins should be answering--now has facial egg for failing to notice that a photoshopped picture of a real photo does not prove the real picture is photoshopped. Jack--dude--in the future please get one of your grandkids or some IT geek in the office to look over such things before pulling the trigger.

But back to Collins. In her re-rebuttal letter to Trump she flippantly mentions the "Ayers wrote Dreams" allegation as such:

Ayers is the former ’60s radical who became a huge Republican talking point in 2008 because he had once given a house party for Obama when he was running for state senate. It’s a pretty big jump from coffee and cookies to writing an entire book, but I guess that’s what neighbors are for.

Excuse me ma'am, but Ayers is STILL a radical, he just doesn't blow stuff up anymore. Has the Times laid off their research staff? She then tackles the granny (to her credit, the evidence granny witnessed the birth is unconvincing) and birth cert by only mentioning factcheck.org, which only proved the short form birth cert was real. America still doesn't know from which hospital Obama popped forth or the doctor who popped him forth. And yes, there's a slight significance to that. There was a time when the state of Hawaii didn't even take the state of Hawaii's word on the short form if Hawaiian heritage was being established.

Of course she's not the first mainstreamer (Fox News, too) to simply throw out opinion to rebut these claims. They are are so crazy! But from her picture (probably not recent) she appears to be no spring chicken so perhaps she remembers the old days when a REAL journalist might tackle the controversy by say, setting up a few interviews:

1) State of Hawaii, to ask why they required the long form to claim 'homelands exemption', at least until 2008,
2) Jack Cashill, to discuss his book "Deconstructing Obama",
3) Christopher Andersen, to discuss his book "Barack and Michelle" and the allegation that Ayers ghost wrote "Dreams", which is written right there on the pages (her own paper's Times Book Review didn't bother reviewing it),
4) Bill Ayers himself--perhaps to ask him if he thinks it's weird that Obama's white girlfriend was strangely just like his own,
5) and, after collecting all the info, asking for a response from the administration.

This is how journalism used to work before the reporters started getting their copy off factcheck.org and the Daily Kos.

BACK TO REALITY 4/10/11

We all know the mainstream media will probably never turn back from their thinly-veiled advocacy journalism posture, so it's a waste of time lecturing them about it. All that aside--what's Trump really up to here? The explanations of his little theater production has several possibilities... 1) he really believes it and is trying to help the GOP unseat Obama by deflating this issue ahead of time, but will not run; 2) he really believes it and is planning to run, whose status will be greatly helped by being the one who unearthed the 'truth'; 3) he's playing possum for ratings; 4) he's playing possum to help certain non-birther GOP candidates by trying to lure their on-the-fence competitors into taking a stand, thereby destroying them; 5) he's an undercover Democrat simply trying to keep the story going, just like Abercrombie.

We'll have to watch this story to see if number 4 has any merit.

NBC COMES THROUGH (SORT OF) BUT SO DOES TRUMP.. 4/10/11

It's possible Trump is getting results others could not. NBC's Mike Isikoff did what was suggested above for Ms. Collins--he called someone in the Hawaii Dept of Records and asked some questions. Actually, someone formerly in the records dept, the person who came out in 2008 and said she'd 'seen' the actual birth certificate on file and he was really, really born in Hiwayer. Chiyone Fukino went further than anyone has previously by saying the following:

Before she would do so, Fukino said, she wanted to inspect the files — and did so, taking with her the state official in charge of vital records. She found the original birth record, properly numbered, half typed and half handwritten, and signed by the doctor who delivered Obama, located in the files. She then put out a public statement asserting to the document's validity. She later put out another public statement in July 2009 — after reviewing the original birth record a second time.

Emphasis added to highlight new information heretofore unreleased. Now, here's what she said back in 2008:

“There have been numerous requests for Sen. Barack Hussein Obama’s official birth certificate. State law (Hawai‘i Revised Statutes §338-18) prohibits the release of a certified birth certificate to persons who do not have a tangible interest in the vital record. Therefore, I as Director of Health for the State of Hawai‘i, along with the Registrar of Vital Statistics who has statutory authority to oversee and maintain these type of vital records, have personally seen and verified that the Hawai‘i State Department of Health has Sen. Obama’s original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures.”

This clarified that indeed there was an original, or vault copy but there was no mention of it being impossible to obtain this same long form, and no mention of a doctor or hospital. All she did was confirm the short form was not a fake. Still, it threw most of the media dogs off the hunt along with yours truly (for a long while at least).

Now she's saying the so-called short form was the only document the records department has released since the 80s, therefore Obama could not have gotten anything else. And that's where Isikoff dropped the ball:

On June 12, 2008 the title for this abbreviated form was Certification of Live Birth. The title for the form that this family received in the first week of June 2009 is Certificate of Live Birth. I called The Dept of Health and confirmed that the title of the form had been changed. The bureaucrat that I spoke to said the change had been made “recently”, but could not or would not tell me when. Sometime between June 12, 2008 and the first week of June 2009 the Hawaiian Dept of Health changed the title of this abbreviated form from “Certification of Live Birth” to “Certificate of Live Birth“. Why?

Why indeed. If one goes to the Hawaii records website and reviews the procedure for applying for a "Home Lands exemption" they find a definite clarification between short and long forms:

Birth certificates (Certificates of Live Birth and Certifications of Live Birth) and Certificates of Hawaiian Birth are the primary documents used to determine native Hawaiian qualification.

The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands accepts both Certificates of Live Birth (original birth certificate) and Certifications of Live Birth because they are official government records documenting an individual’s birth. The Certificate of Live Birth generally has more information which is useful for genealogical purposes as compared to the Certification of Live Birth which is a computer-generated printout that provides specific details of a person’s birth. Although original birth certificates (Certificates of Live Birth) are preferred for their greater detail, the State Department of Health (DOH) no longer issues Certificates of Live Birth. When a request is made for a copy of a birth certificate, the DOH issues a Certification of Live Birth.

The problem is, back in 2007 and at least part of 2008 that same page said that applicants HAD to provide a long form to apply, the short form was simply not detailed enough. The evidence for this change has largely been wiped off the web but a few sites saved some quotes. World Nut Daily claims it was somewhere in mid 2009, but we all know their rep. So it was a question Isikoff should have asked, but didn't. Maybe he didn't want to know.

The pushback for the change was that it wasn't really a change at all, just an oversight; a rogue 'obsolete' page on the state's website they "cleaned up" somewhere around 2009. Are we to believe that obsolete page had been there with erroneous information since 2001 when Hawaii first started issuing the computerized short form? Why wouldn't Phillip Berg's initial investigation have brought it to light in mid 2008 and forced a change? Another question Isikoff needed to ask.

At any rate they now allow both short and long forms to be used on the "updated" the Home Lands web page, even though one can no longer obtain a long form. Another question Isikoff didn't ask.

But props to NBC--they actually practiced journalism by contacting someone other than MarKos. In the process they got a former official to admit that a physician attended Obama's birth, something heretofore yet confirmed. Props also to Trump for this gem, which no doubt would not have tumbled out without his making a fuss.

And it could be very useful. The admission there was a doctor present indicates that Obama may well have been playing possum with this issue all along, perhaps planning to spring it at some crucial moment next year. GOP candidates still holding any doubts about this issue would do well to heed this admission and back as far away as possible and leave Obama standing there holding that trump card all by himself.

Side Tracks

The more things change, the more they remain the same.

Back in Libya...

What the hades is going on there now other than random collateral damage? Are we still engaged in any way? Is Quedaffy dead yet or in the Hague? The Times tries to explain:

“We haven’t had a significant military operation in which the Americans have taken a back seat for quite some time,” said Malcolm Chalmers, a professor of defense at King’s College London, according to The Associated Press. “It really is unclear whether the Europeans can rise to that challenge.”

Doesn't really sound like "winning!" yet. And good golly, what's the fate of al-Megrahi? Is he still near death? So many questions, but the media seems to have abandoned the fight along with the president.

Guess we'll just have to settle for an interview with a regime rape victim. Kind of makes Pelosi's shutdown rhetoric a bit hollow, eh? More like damnable, actually.

VICTORY IS THEIRS! 4/8/11

The hell with Gaddafi, the liberals have apparently won the war on women, stopping Boehner from bombing them with abortion cuts and other unmentionables. Thank heaven.

More.. Jennifer Rubin thinks Boehner may have won this battle. The question is how the rest of the media will spin it, and what will Jon Stewart say.

Trumped

What in the world is he up to? Can anyone imagine him having the patience to not only run, but to govern? Doesn't he understand that we have a president, not a supreme leader?

He's not running. He just can't be. So it's hard to figure why he would suddenly take on the birther cause. Some say for the publicity; yes, he's a master of PR and attention, but there are much easier and less risky ways to get it than going down this bumpy road.

Perhaps it's because he knows that by taking on a taboo subject others won't touch it will make him instantly the stand out guy, with the birther stuff not really bothering most conservatives. That would make sense if he were really running. But he's not. Even still, surely he's had private conversations with GOP movers and shakers about this birther stuff and he might know a thing or two about who really thinks what. Maybe he also knows what the Obama machine and their mainstream media wing are planning to do with all of this in the upcoming election cycle.

For example, it's not hard to imagine that every single GOP candidate will be given a birther litmus test by the press. If they answer too definitively it could be seen as a slam on part of the base ("of course I'm not nuts like those people", etc). But if they answer too wafflely it gets them nutter status from the left and could even be used against them by other primary candidates. It's a tight rope!

So maybe Trump is trying to deflate this balloon before it becomes the Hindenberg. Only a birther with his status could crack the big media bubble and be given the time to challenge the narrative without being yanked off the set. They all respect his business acumen too much to go nuclear--yet. So maybe the plan is that by making this an issue now (where was he a few years ago, for instance) it could force Obama to play his own 'trump card' too early--in response to his persistence and threats--thereby removing it from play when the real war begins.

Otherwise, we're left to believe the absurd--that he's really running and is simply rich and powerful enough to get away with challenging the first black president's bona fides, which propels him to the top of the pack. In this day and age that could be called courage--unless of course he's acting for the Democrats under deep cover....

Take the Highway

As the budget house burns down the president leaves for a fundraiser at Al Sharpton's National Action Network while scolding Congress on his way out of town:

"At a time when you are struggling to pay your bills and meet your responsibilities, the least we can do to meet our responsibilities is produce a budget. That is not too much to ask for. That is what the American people expect of us, that's what they deserve. You want everybody to act like adults, quit playing games and realize it is not my way or the highway," President Obama said in Pennsylvania before he is set to hold a fundraiser tonight.

Does anyone really think he's talking about the actual 2011 budget? Because that would be a condemnation of Nancy Pelosi for never bringing it to a vote before the November election (despite having the supermajority). Funny time for pointing out the foot-dragging if one is sincerely condemning the politics.

But we've come to expect it from the only "adult" in the room, who is once again floating above the political fray while feverishly playing his part in the Democratic floor dance to either 1) shame the GOP into capitulation, which Wasserman-Schultz will immediately spin as victory while pointing out how upset it will make the Tea Party, or 2) goading them into actually closing the government, which will immediately be called 'extremism' by every liberal mouth within media range.

Is there a win for the GOP in shutting things down? Doesn't seem an easy one, if so. But it certainly appears easy to explain why Obama filed his reelection papers this week--fond memories of Clinton/Gingrich dancing through his head. The only wild card this time is whether the public is childish enough to fall for it or gets madder than hell over a bunch of children who can't manage their credit card debt. We shall see.

Journo-Treason?

Interesting story today about an ABC journalist who in the mid 90s became a confidential informant for the FBI after the Oklahoma City bombing:

The journalist “advised that a source within the Saudi Arabian Intelligence Service advised that the Oklahoma City bombing was sponsored by the Iraqi Special Services who contracted seven (7) former Afghani Freedom Fighters out of Pakistan,” an April 17, 1996 FBI memo states, recounting the then-ABC journalist’s interview with FBI agents a year earlier on the evening of the April 19, 1995 bombing. (The Iraqi connection, of course, never materialized.)

I'm still a little fuzzy on the whole 'never materialized' thing, perhaps because the public investigation of the Murrah attack was so darned private. The FBI once talked of "others unknown" but once they fried McVeigh and sent Nichols to the Supermax it was case closed.

Anyway, having just read Jayna Davis' book "The Third Terrorist" this was an interesting development. She discusses the Saudi connection and Cannistraro beginning on page 37 by mentioning an ABC News report on April 19 by John McWethy saying the FBI had been watching several Islamic groups in Oklahoma before the attack. While not mentioning the Saudi source, she relates an interesting encounter between Cannistraro and McVeigh defense attorney Stephen Jones (who was convinced there was a middle eastern component to the attack) two pages later:

"The government is not interested in a foreign plot. It has its perpetrators and they don't want anyone or anything complicating it".

Cannistraro's name would come up a few years later in an interview by ABC News reporter Sheila MacVicar regarding the possibility of bin Laden and Saddam joining forces. That aired in 1999 but oddly, after Bush actually invaded Iraq, Cannistraro became more of a dove. MacVicar is now the London correspondent for CBS and sadly, McWethy was killed in a skiing accident in 2008, not to say either of them were in any way involved.

The question is why the FBI would sign up a journalist at ABC while Cannistraro was also there as an expert, able to provide them with the same info since he was giving it to the reporter. The answer might be 'to check up on him'. The 'how' of such a thing is unknown--he was ex-CIA counter-terror and we've read umpteen stories about how the two don't get along. But there was also supposedly a "wall" between FBI and CIA at the time, so maybe people were trying to pass notes around it using former players. The story says:

FBI officials declined to identify the reporter, but confirmed to the Center for Public Integrity that the bureau did in fact treat the reporter as a potential confidential source for a limited period of time as it tried to ascertain the validity of the information suggesting Iraqi involvement in the Oklahoma City bombing.

Which seems to suggest they didn't trust Cannistraro. Iraq was getting blamed for a lot back then, even by the president, but an act of war was something that couldn't be spun politically. They also had to worry about being played by the Saudis. Obviously they didn't trust Davis' investigation, rebuffing her many times then finally taking her dossier only to lose it.

Then again, Davis' data is heavy on the circumstantial and light on the evidence. She failed to convince me that Hussein al-Hussaini, a Shia Muslim Iraqi immigrant whose artist father was targeted by Saddam, was in any way involved in the event. The man was recently busted for drunk and disorderly in Massachusetts--why would be still be in America? The Iraqi connection to Oklahoma City seems to be missing quite a few dots.

However, she did help advance the Terry "the farmer" Nichols goes to Cebu City to get bomb-making tips from Ramzi Yousef story, which if ever proven true would leave some bigtime splainin' for the Clinton bunch since they let everyone believe it was only far right radicals (which is why it will never happen in our lifetimes, Wiki Leaks or not).

KSM and Holder, Again

My, my, wasn't our Attorney General a bit flustered while explaining his reversal of the venue for KSM and friends. He blamed just about everyone except himself and his boss for all the delay, even though it was his department that stopped KSM's Bush-era tribunal in its tracks, delaying and politicizing everything.

But here we are again. Two questions remain for me--one, Holder has never explained exactly why it was so important to try KSM in Manhattan federal court instead of Gitmo. Two, he's never suggested that alleged Cole bomber al-Nashiri should be tried in federal court, only a tribunal.

There are some conventional wisdom answers to both. One, he delayed KSM to make an ideological point about federal courts and fighting the war on terror in general, and two, Nashiri attacked a military asset. Never mind that KSM attacked the biggest military target--the Pentagon, it's probably a given that the KSM delay and NY trial were all part of the close Gitmo, blame Bush plank of the Democratic Party.

Keep in mind one of the first actions Obama took was to throw out al-Nashiri's tribunal to review the case. Only now is the beginning in sight again, despite no suggestion he would ever be tried in federal court. So why the 2 year delay? There was no complication from Congress. So please with the "it's time for justice" stuff--they wasted two years.

Anyway, in reading through the unsealed federal indictment the motive of teh Barack Holder team becomes a bit more clear. The supporting information in the intro goes back to 1989 when bin Laden first formed al Qaeda, detailing his move to the Sudan and then Afghanistan and mentioning his two declarations of war against America. But there were no mentions of all the attacks. Mohammed's role seems to begin in 1999.

Ironically most of those unmentioned 90s attacks occurred with Holder was with the Justice Department working under Reno. There was also no mention of the prior indictment against KSM, issued in 1996...guess they didn't want people speculating on what might not have occurred had we got him back then.

And of course, no mention of all the previous terrorist attacks KSM had already copped to in his first Gitmo trial. For those who've forgotten, here's KSM's laundry list of attacks he claims to have engineered. Oh right though, he exaggerated. The left said so. And of course all those were gained via waterboarding. Some even bought the story that he was killed in the raid.

But Holder's super clean 9/11-only trial would have gotten rid of all those loose ends, including recent evidence that indeed it was KSM's cursed hand that slashed the throat of Daniel Pearl. And since that was one of the ones they said he exaggerated perhaps somebody might also ask why he said he was involved with the shoe bomber plot to bring down "two" airplanes. We only know of one.

Burning Korans

Said the top US envoy in Afghanistan:

"I don't think we should be blaming any Afghan. We should be blaming the person who produced the news – the one who burned the Quran," he said.

So blame the nutball American pastor for burning a book but NOT the firebrand Imam who stirred a mob into beheading innocent people? Criminy. What next--Koran burning becomes a hate crime in America?

Yes, yes, it's clear the act was provocative and threatening to our troops. That's the point. And no, it's not clear whether some Taliban members inserted themselves into the mob and did the killing to force outrage in America and Europe leading to calls for withdrawal. If so that's exactly the kind of terror we are still fighting. Yet the people who didn't do any killing were also marching out of rage--and they helped target the UN, who did nothing to deserve any rage other than being a symbol of the west. Tell us again this is not a holy war.

It's tiresome. If we can't get the terrorists, many of whom are hiding in Pakistan and Iran, and we can't affect change in the country, then we are wasting our time over there.

MORE 4/3/11

Time magazine blames Karzai for the massacre but also admits they engage in media conspiracies to spike stories they don't want to publicize (just as their favorite president was about to go to kinetic action in Libya):

For once we had to agree with Jones, at least partially. The media did its part to keep his March idiocy from spreading into tragedy. This time the guilt lies with the guy in the cape and karakul – who aside from being an allegedly corrupt politician, is one we now know uses tactics that are as medieval as the Florida preacher's are.

OK, agreed about Karzai (although have to wonder about Iran as well) but Time didn't fail to get their shots in at the preacher (a Neanderthal). For comparison, wonder how Time covered the "Piss Christ" and "Mary in elephant dung" art exhibits that outraged many Christians across the world back in the day?

Well, here's one article that basically bashes conservative Senators for expressing outrage over PC; here's one talking about artistic expression and Christian icons; and here's one referring to the pushback over the Virgin Mary in elephant crap exhibit as an "attack" on art by mayor Giuliani. So, had Jones only set up his Koran burning display as a art exhibit in the front yard of his church he would have left many journalists seriously conflicted. Theoretically, at least.

MORE 4/5/11

Right Truth points to a woman named Ann Barnhardt who has something to say to Lindsay Graham. A lot, actually. While she seems a tad hostile she did admit to having more 'balls' than everyone else, so there ya go. Whatever the case, all her counter-points to his Sunday comments were correct. Not sure if that means the left will tag her as an extremist tea bagger or agree with her with reservations, it's just hard to tell anymore.

Aviation Update

This past week we had the story about a bullet hole in a US Airways jet:

The FBI, who are investigating the incident, said that the hole extended from the jet's skin into the cabin, and praised the pilot for discovering it. They have collected the spent bullet as evidence and sent it for ballistic analysis.

The story went on to say that a tiny bullet hole would not cause rapid depressurization. Today we see this story:

Passenger Brenda Reese said Flight 812 had just left Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport for Sacramento, Calif., when a "gunshot-like sound" woke her up. She said oxygen masks dropped for passengers and flight attendants as the plane dove.

Ian Gregor, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman in Los Angeles, said the pilot "made a rapid, controlled descent from 36,000 feet to 11,000 feet altitude."

"Just left" is misleading; obviously the plane was out of rifle range since it was already at cruising altitude when the event occurred, well west of Phoenix. The witness-described sound of a 'gunshot' is merely a coincidence. As mentioned in the article, fuselage ruptures are not unheard of. They went on to explain how holes might occur:

Holes in aircrafts[sic] can be caused by metal fatigue or lightning. The National Weather Service said the weather was clear from the Phoenix area to the California border on Friday afternoon.

Or as seen on the US Airways plane, from gunshots. The question is whether a an unforeseen gunshot hole could cause a peel away event at altitude.

At any rate, this past week has not been a good one for commercial aviation in general. After the saga of the sleeping tower controller we've seen an 'air conditioning system' problem cause the controlled dive of a Qantas jet in Australia, a similar air conditioning problem resulting in the diversion of an American jet in the US, and the weird event featuring 'middle eastern' looking men acting strangely, causing another diversion.

Not a good week for Southwest either considering the Florida event where a 737 crew agreed to emulate a fighter jet in trying to determine why a prop plane was not responding to ATC radio calls. Maybe a sleeping pilot! Anyway, as they say, stuff happens, the question is always whether it's the normal stuff or other stuff. The bottom line is that nobody got hurt.

MORE 4/3/11

Another day, another apparent decompression event. American 883 enroute from Boston to St. Thomas took a dive from cruising altitude to 10,000 feet in a hurry and diverted to JFK. According to flight tracking site FlightAware, the 757 dropped from 35,000 to 10,000 in 3 minutes, then bounced back up to 21,000 feet a minute later, then back down to 10,000 feet after another 3 minutes. Part of that dipsy doodle could be a reporting glitch, but at any rate it was a pretty rapid descent. No word on the cause of the pressurization problem.

Side Tracks

"I want to talk to the pilot,
He's in charge of my dreams.
But he insists on vanishing
Just as soon as he thinks he's been seen."

Carrying Water

Michael Scheuer said it--Dan Gainor wrote it:

Where have all the war protesters gone, long time passing?

They’re mostly backing Obama’s attack on Libya or at least keeping quiet so they don’t aid those evil conservatives intent on criticizing the president. More moderate lefties had once promised a third way. Now we find out that was a typo. It’s not a third way, it’s a third war.

The hypocrisy is stunningly predictable, of course. Our intrepid media long ago lost all hope of objectivity when they imbibed so much Obama kool aid they were unable to vet him. Now, in a weird parallel, lefties are doing it again, exemplified by this comment from our Secretary of State:

“The opposition has demonstrated a ‘commitment to democracy and to a very robust engagement with people from across the spectrum of Libyans,’ but ‘we do not have any specific information about specific individuals from any organization who are part of this,’ she said.”

So once again, like Obama, the rebels are 'too good to check'. Well, guess we can always hope and pray things work out.

SNARK ATTACK 4/1/11

Can't help but point out that when Bush went into Iraq his detractors on the left often said he didn't know the difference between Shia and Sunni, proving he was an imbecile. That was a misnomer of course, because he and all his advisors knew the difference very well, if nothing else from being around Bush 41 and that gang. Now as we go into Libya the administration openly admits it doesn't know the difference between terrorist and freedom fighter--and chances are good they don't--but now it doesn't matter.