The Scariest Revelation of ObamaCare Yet

Dr. David Janda repeats what 100 members of Congress told him about ObamaCare:

Democrat Congressmen and Congresswomen now serving know these facts. They just don't want to tell you.

Don't--please don't--put them back into office!

Use your vote.

__________

Yemen Arrests Woman for Sending Explosives to Chicago Synagogues

Yemeni women in San'a; 25% of Yemeni girls become child brides.

Today, reportedly based on information provided by the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates, Yemeni authorities surrounded a house in San'a, the capital of Yemen, and arrested a woman whom they said was "hiding" there.

Now authorities are looking for a male "accomplice."

"Hiding" and "accomplice." Those are interesting choices of words to describe a Muslim woman who lives under Shariah servitude in a country where mere opposition to selling little girls into forced marriages brands one as an apostate, a crime punishable by death.


I wonder what Batina the Hidden (the burqa-wearing super-heroine soon to be featured in a Shariah-compliant cartoon series) will have to say about it. If she's allowed to speak.

A little something you might want to keep in mind when doing your Christmas shopping is that a series starring Batina the Hidden and 98 other Muslim super-heroes opposing such "dark forces" as a Christian king is scheduled to start soon on the kid's TV network, The Hub, formed by a 50-50 partnership between Hasbro Toys and Discovery Communications (Discovery Kids).

__________

Oldie but Goodie: Barney Frank(enstein) Mashes with the Monsters

I doubt that this crew is having quite as good a time this Halloween as last:

This year, Barney's going to his Halloween party as a "damsel in distress." A recent quote from one of the chief architects of the subprime mortgage crisis that drove millions of Americans out of their jobs and homes: "The Tea Party Express thinks that it has me tied to the tracks."

Isn't it time for Barney to start reading the want ads?


__________

Remember When Obama "Wasn't Aware" of the Tea Party?

Maybe he was just hoping:

But things have changed:

I'm not worried about the survival of the Democrat Party. Any party that can bus high school kids to polling places to vote for their candidates and hand deliver ballots to prisons while neglecting to send ballots to soldiers in combat--that's a party that can take care of itself.

It's the survival of economy, our freedoms, and the value of our votes that I'm worried about.
___________

Obama Tells Jon Stewart: You Won't Be Able to Choose Your Own Doctor. No, wait . . .

What the President really told Jon Stewart last night was "we have done things that some folks don't know about":

Obama: . . . I look over the last 18 months and I say, we prevented a second Great Depression, we've stabilized the economy — an economy that was shrinking is now growing — we've got 9 months of consecutive private-sector job growth, we have passed historic healthcare reform, historic financial regulatory reform, we have done things that some folks don't even know about —

Stewart: What have you done that we don't know about? [laughter] Are you planning a surprise party for us? "Filled with jobs and healthcare!"

One of the "things" that Obama and his Democrats have done that "some people don't even know about" is that the Democrat Congress has already passed legislation depriving most Americans of their freedom to choose their own doctors. 

Fortune Magazine, where they read the fine print of the 2000+ page Senate bill, explained one "thing" that will happen to most Americans under ObamaCare:

You're assigned a primary care doctor, and the doctor controls your access to specialists. The primary care physicians will decide which services, like MRIs and other diagnostic scans, are best for you, and will decide when you really need to see a cardiologists or orthopedists.

That sounds to me like you'll also need to get the approval of your government-assigned physician to get a second opinion if you aren't happy with the diagnosis and treatment plan provided by the government-assigned doctor.

A little something to think about before you go into the ballot box to endorse ObamaCare by voting for your favorite Democrat candidate.

Thanks for the heads up from Adrienne at Adrienne's Corner.

___________

Michael Arcuri: Pelosi's Rubber Stamp

Who knows what Michael Arcuri really thinks? You'll never find out by calling any of his offices.

But if you want to know how he is going to vote, ask Nancy Pelosi.

__________

Obama Tells Latinos "Punish Your Enemies"

Obama during a radio interview on Univision yesterday:

“If Latinos sit out the election instead of saying, ‘We’re gonna punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us....'"

__________
Tweet

Cuomo at Work: ONE TRILLION TAX DOLLARS to Cover Defaulted Mortgages

Go ahead, New Yorkers. Vote for Andrew Cuomo, the guy who couldn't wait to use your hard-earned tax money to guarantee "risky" mortgages to people he knew would default on their payments.

Of course, Cuomo wasn't running for governor of New York at the time (he was working for Bill Clinton), so he was quite happy to go on camera and brag about it, all in the interests of cracking down on "institutionalized discrimination," otherwise known as that antique banking custom of requiring that mortgage holders have enough income to make their mortgage payments.

Under Clinton, Cuomo ran HUD, the agency regulating Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's "affordable housing" mission, and in 2000, he demanded that Fannie and Freddie devote HALF of their mortgage financing to folks with no credit or damaged credit.

If you live in the U.S. economy, you know the results of that little vote catcher.

What you may not know is that even though Cuomo initially floated the subprime mortgage policy with a bill to taxpayers of a mere $2.1 billion, after careful nurturing on his part (and assistance from other politicians, including Barack Obama), that paltry sum has blossomed into a bill to taxpayers estimated at $1 trillion.

Yes, Andrew Cuomo personally initiated the downslide of this nation's economy, so, New Yorkers, make sure to rush right over to your local polling place on November 2 to give the man your vote of confidence to manage New York State's $120 billion dollar debt.

Considering Cuomo's prior experience, New York can rest assured that what Cuomo did to the U.S. economy, he can do with equal ease to New York State.

__________
Tweet

His Eye Is On The Sparrow, Sung by Mahalia Jackson

Why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows come,
Why should my heart be lonely and long for Heavenly home?
When Jesus is my portion, My constant Friend is He:
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me,
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

I sing because I'm happy, I sing because I'm free,
For His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

__________
Tweet

Hypocrisy, Thy Name is NPR

Everybody except Lefties, Liberals, and Progressives knows that Lefties, Liberals, and Progressives want everyone in the world to follow their politically correct program, as long as that program isn't enforced in their neighborhoods. 

That's one reason it is so much fun seeing someone like Matt Welch of Reason Magazine nail the hypocrisy of America's Leftist press with spot-on accuracy.

[Juan] Williams' firing is a clarifying moment in media mores. You can be Islamophobic, in the form of refusing to run the most innocuous imaginable political cartoons out of a broad-brush fear of Muslims, but you can't admit it . . .

BLAM!

Or, seen through the discerning eyes of Stilton Jarlsberg:

H/t: Allapundit at HotAir.
__________
Tweet

Newsflash for League of (Politically Correct) Women Voters

Hat tip: *American Perspective
__________
Tweet

Excerpts from Geert Wilders' Trial: An Expert Arabist Testifies

Geert Wilders, a member of the Dutch parliament, has just come out on the other side of part of his ordeal of being tried in his homeland on criminal charges of "insulting a group" and incitement to racial hatred and discrimination based on his numerous statements opposing the spread of Islam in the Netherlands. On October 15th, following a televised trial, Wilders was found not guilty on all counts by the prosecution, who have recommended that the charges be dropped.

Wilder's defense was that it is not a crime in the Netherlands to speak the truth. He petitioned the court to let him bring in experts in Islamic norms to explain to the court (no jury was involved) whether his statements reflected fact or bias. From a long list of potential witnesses, the judges agreed to review the testimony of two experts, one of them being Simon R. Admiraal, a Dutch Arabist, translator, and researcher. The testimony was obviously convincing to the judges prosecutors, and, if you are like me, you will find this testimony disturbing.

Below are videos of one of the judges reading Admiraal's signed affidavit, which I found at the Web site of the International Civil Liberties Alliance.  The first 5 minutes or so cover Admiraal's qualifications to testify. His own comments start then. Interestingly, this footage was not shown in the UK, where in 2009 Wilders was banned from entering based on fear that his presence would be a "threat to one of the fundamental interests of society."

Addendum: According to Dutch law, the prosecutors’ decision is not final. The judges' final ruling, which does not have to reflect the prosecution's recommendation, comes November 5.

Hat tip: Gates of Vienna.
__________

Soldier: Dying woman at Fort Hood cried 'My baby!'

Via Backyard Conservative:

FORT HOOD, Texas - A pregnant soldier shot during a rampage at a Texas Army post last year cried out, "My baby! My baby!" as others crawled under desks, dodged bullets that pierced walls and rushed to help their bleeding comrades, a military court heard Monday.

A soldier had just told Spc. Jonathan Sims that she was expecting a baby and was preparing to go home, when the first volley of gunfire rang out Nov. 5 in a Fort Hood building where soldiers get medical tests before and after deploying.

"The female soldier that was sitting next to me was in the fetal position. She was screaming: 'My baby! My baby!'" Sims said.

Pvt. Francheska Velez, a 21-year-old from Chicago, had become pregnant while serving in Iraq. She was among the 13 killed in the worst mass shooting on an American military base.

Sims was one of 10 soldiers to testify Monday at an Article 32 hearing that will determine whether Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan will stand trial on 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder.

Who was Pvt. Francheska Velez? According to her friend, Sasha Ramos, “She was the most fun and happy person you could know. She never did anything wrong to anybody.”

Addendum: I do not understand why Pvt. Velez's unborn child has not been counted as the 14th person murdered by Jihadist Hasan in accordance with the UNBORN VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE ACT OF 2004, which recognizes a "child in utero" as a legal victim if that child is killed or injured during the commission of a federal crime of violence.  The law does cover, among others, violent crimes committed on federal property, violent crimes committed by members of the military, and crimes of terrorism. Certainly acknowledging the murder of this beloved unborn child as a crime is the least courtesy that this country can offer to the memory of Pvt. Velez.

__________

Related posts:

• Nidal Hasan Faces His Accusers in a Military Hearing
  
• Now They Tell Us: "You Don't Want Hasan in Your Foxhole"
• Jihadist Hasan Has More Suspicious Contacts
• Jihadist Hasan, Card Carrying "Soldier of Allah," Literally
• Straight Talk on Jihadist Hasan: Political Correctness Killed Ft. Hood Patriots  
  
• American Woman Shoots Down Ft. Hood Jihadist 
• Massacre at Fort Hood (Updated 11/6/09)

Get the Popcorn: Paladino-Cuomo Debate Tonight (Updated)

LIVE STREAMED

                                                                                                    

or

on NPR radio*
                                              *not all stations

TONITE  AT  7:00 EST

 

"I can't be intimidated" Carl Paladino, running for NY governor on the "We're mad as hell" Tea Party platform

vs. 

"I never saw a high-risk mortgage I didn't like" Andrew Cuomo, running for promotion to NY governor on the "Mayor Bloomberg likes me almost as much as Imam Rauf" platform

ALSO in the Ring:

Kristin "Manhattan Madam" Davis of the Anti-Prohibition Party
Charles Barron of the Freedom Party
Howie Hawkins of the Green Party
Warren Redlich of the Libertarian Party
Jimmy McMillan of the Rent is Too Damn High Party. 

.

Live streaming at www.news12.com and www.newsday.com
(access limited to News12 and Newsday subscribers)

__________

Tweet

 

Michelle Obama: Eat as I Say, Not as I Eat

This is the lunch Michelle Obama, wanna-be dietary czar for the nation, ate at a Milwaukee diner last week when she went out for lunch with family members while on the campaign trail.

I wonder whether the First Lady consulted with wanna-be salt-intake czar Michael Bloomberg about how many times a salt shaker should be permitted to dance over that mound of fries.

H/t to theblogprof.
__________
Tweet

Tony Rice & Ricky Skaggs: "The Soul of Man Never Dies"

__________

Another Democrat Meltdown: This Time It's NY's Maurice Hinchey

When a reporter asked U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey (NY-22) a question he didn't want to be asked, the Congressman decided that the proper response was assault and battery.

The question that Hinchey is currently finding so distressing concerns his financial interest in a project in his district known as the Partition Street Project, for which Hinchey secured $800,000 in federal funding. Interestingly, Hinchey is part owner of land connected to the project. Back in May, according to the local press:

Hinchey said although he lists the land as an asset on his congressional financial filings, he has no direct involvement in efforts to develop the property into a hotel and conference center.

Now Hinchey offers an even more succinct explanation: "Shut up!"

And if telling a reporter to shut up doesn't work? Well, there are alternatives. From Capitol Tonight:

After the shooters turned off their cameras and started to break down, Hinchey made a beeline for [reporter] Kemble and got in his face, according to a YNN videographer who was on the scene. The congressman poked Kemble in the chest aggressively, according to the YNN staffer.

I spoke with Kemble briefly this afternoon, and he told me Hinchey “put his hand on my throat” and then “realized what he had done and walked away.” The YNN shooter told me he did not witness this part of the altercation.

From Legal Insurrection:

This was Hinchey's Bob Etheridge moment.

This video and news report should go viral.  Hinchey epitomizes the arrogance of entrenched Washington, D.C., politicians, who feel that they have the right to physically assault reporters in a public place asking legitimate political questions.

A few more items you might want to keep in mind when making voting decisions this November:

Hinchey is a guy who really knows how to pander to a Progressive voter and the Working Families (ACORN) Party. For example, he co-sponsored Dennis Kucinich's bill to impeach George Bush.  He is strongly anti-business and has one of the worst records on pro-family legislation imaginable.

Hinchey is, as one would expect of a Democrat these days, very pro-green, under certain conditions.  Medical marijuana is high on his wish list, and he consistently votes to put more of that green stuff into Congressional paychecks and "stimulus" efforts. No so for the pockets of school children wanting to bail out of failing schools: he voted against letting tax monies go to school vouchers in DC.

Maurice Hinchey has shown through his votes that he firmly supports stricter sentencing for "hate crimes"; for other crimes, less prison. [I am not making this up.] 

Hinchey's voting record is available here.

His "shut up" record is not available.
__________
Tweet

Nidal Hasan Faces His Accusers in a Military Hearing

One news event that's being overshadowed by the political melees breaking out around the country is the military hearing of the Fort Hood Shooter, now in its third day. The purpose of this hearing is to determine whether there is probable cause for Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan to face a court martial. Hasan has been charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder.

Some of Hasan's victims were soldiers waiting for bloodwork or immunizations before deploying to combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan or were undergoing medical screening prior to receiving officer training.  Hasan, a psychiatrist whose business card identified him as a "soldier of Allah," himself was supposed to deploy with the 467th Medical Detachment, which had arrived at Fort Hood a day earlier.

Among the injured survivors was another soldier in Hasan's detachment, Specialist Grant Moxon, who threw himself over the body of his squadron leader "in hopes of protecting" the heavily bleeding man" "from the onslaught of bullets."

[Private George Stratton III] said he knew he would be shot after kneeling to help a bleeding friend and then turning to see Hasan, who Stratton said had just reloaded his gun November 5 at the post's Soldier Readiness Processing Center. Stratton, who was shot in the shoulder, echoed testimony of other witnesses on Wednesday at Hasan's Article 32 hearing.

“We looked eye to eye,” now-retired Staff Sergeant Alvin Howard said, “and he just shot me. 

“I will never forget his face,” Howard said when asked if he recognised Hasan in the courtroom.

***

Staff Sergeant Joy Clark told the court that one of two friends pulled her to the ground when the gunfire began. Lying on the floor, she called her friends' names, then checked their pulses. Captain Russell Seager and Lieutenant Colonel Juanita Warman had been fatally shot. 

***

[Staff Sgt. Patrick] Ziegler spoke carefully and sometimes paused as he described the horror that left his left side so damaged that he had to relearn to walk and his head so riddled with bullet and bone fragments that 20 percent of his brain had to be removed. His fiancée listened intently from an aisle seat, sometimes biting her lip.

Some witnesses testified that Hasan used two weapons, both with laser sights. A number of the witnesses said that Hasan shouted "Allahu Akbar" before he started shooting.

Several witnesses described watching the gunman stalk wounded soldiers and fire at people on the ground. Testifying from a video link from Afghanistan, Spc. Alan Carroll recounted being hit and then taking three more rounds as he tried to help a wounded comrade. 

"I was told never to leave a fallen colleague," Carroll said. "I needed to get him out with me."

These soldiers' courage must be honored. We forget their nightmare and Hasan's evil intent at our own--and our country's--peril. 
__________

Related posts:

• Now They Tell Us: "You Don't Want Hasan in Your Foxhole"
• Jihadist Hasan Has More Suspicious Contacts
• Jihadist Hasan, Card Carrying "Soldier of Allah," Literally
• Straight Talk on Jihadist Hasan: Political Correctness Killed Ft. Hood Patriots  
  
• American Woman Shoots Down Ft. Hood Jihadist 
• Massacre at Fort Hood (Updated 11/6/09) 

Tweet

Batina the Hidden: Burqa-Wearing Superhero Coming to Your TV

From the New York Post:

Hide your face and grab the kids. Coming soon to a TV in your child's bedroom is a posse of righteous, Sharia-compliant Muslim superheroes -- including one who fights crime hidden head-to-toe by a burqa. 

These Islamic butt-kickers are ready to bring truth, justice and indoctrination to impressionable Western minds.

Scheduled for release on the new network The Hub -- formerly Discovery Kids -- which launches today (Time Warner and DirecTV carry it in the city), is a cartoon beloved in the Arab world and received timidly in Britain last year, "The 99." 

The program chronicles the adventures of 99 superheroes, each of whom embodies an attribute of Allah.

Jabbar is a Muslim Incredible Hulk. Mumita is wicked fast. But Wonder Woman-style cleavage has been banned from the ladies. And, in this faith-based cartoon, hair-hiding head scarves are mandatory for five characters, not including burqa babe Batina the Hidden. 

In another break from standard world-saving fare, male and female characters are never alone together. (Imagine the stoning super-strong characters would dish out.) "The 99" even has the seal of approval of a Sharia board -- which polices Muslim law -- affiliated with an Islamic bank from which the show received financing.

From The Wall Street Journal:

The story line is based on an historical event: the sacking of 13th-century Baghdad and the burning of that Islamic empire's library. At the time, it was the largest repository of knowledge in the world. In the comic books, Muslim teenagers from such diverse places such as Saudi Arabia, the Philippines and Hungary, work to bring wisdom and reason back to the world.

Jabbar, a Hulk-like figure from Saudi Arabia, has enormous strength, Noora, a young woman from the United Arab Emirates, has power over light. Darr, a blond American boy in a wheelchair, can relieve and inflict pain. Standing in their way is an evil multinational corporation and its leader, who wants to keep the world ignorant and violent.

From Hope n' Change, comes this observation:

The only thing stranger than an American network introducing a children's show about Muslim superheros who "embody the attributes of Allah," would be if that program was enthusiastically endorsed by...you guessed it!...Barack Hussein Obama.

In a meeting with Arab entrepreneurs, Barack Hussein Obama (who, like other superheros, guards his true secret identity) praised the comic series which inspired the show, saying the "superheroes embody the teachings of the tolerance of Islam."

Frankly, we're not sure why you need a guy who looks like The Hulk to teach tolerance; it sounds a lot more like intimidation. But if the "education" president says this is good for our kids, then it must be good for our kids...and we think they should watch!

As long as the boys (Allah be praised!) watch in one room...and the dreadful little girls watch in another.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Naif al-Mutawa, the 39-year-old Kuwaiti entrepreneur who started the original "The 99" comic-book series is backed by Islamic-compliant private investors. He is a psychologist who grew up in the U.S.

The "new" Wonder Woman

"I'm hoping that it will be the next Pokémon," Mr. Mutawa says, referring to the Japanese characters that created a sensation in the 1990s as they cropped up on trading cards, television, electronic games and elsewhere. 

"Elsewhere" for "The 99" already includes a number of theme parks in Saudi Arabia.

Don't be looking for any help from that Amazon Princess, Wonder Woman, who will be teaming up with the Muslim superheroes, along with Superman and Batman.

No doubt out of respect for the belief system of Wonder Woman's new "team," DC Comics has already stripped Wonder Woman of her healthy good looks and her patriotic red, white, and blue costume, and has required her to "cover up" with a baggy black leather jacket and matching tights.

When in the presence of Shariah law, even Wonder Woman can't be wonderful anymore.
___________  
Tweet

Air Force Family Finds Lost Michelangelo Masterpiece

A family who lives outside of Buffalo, New York, has received expert confirmation that the painting they kept stored behind their sofa is likely an unfinished work by Michelangelo.

The painting is known to have passed to two Catholic cardinals in Europe. In the 19th century it ended up in the hands of a German baroness, who willed it to her lady-in-waiting, who sent it to her brother-in-law in America in 1883.

The Kober family called the painting, "the Mike," but no member of the family seriously looked into the family story that the painting was really a masterwork until 2003, when Air Force Lt. Col. Martin Kober retired and was charged by his father to find out whether Michelangelo had really produced the painting.

Kober, now 53, dug into the history of the painting, contacting auction houses, Renaissance art scholars, European archives, and even meeting museum directors in Italy.

Finally, an Italian art restorer and historian, Antonio Forcellino, agreed to view the painting. He found it to be "even more beautiful than the versions hanging in Rome and Florence. The truth was this painting was much better than the ones they had."

A scientific analysis of the painting proved that the Michelangelo claim was not so crazy.
Forcellino told The Post that infrared and X-ray examinations of the painting -- on a 25-by- 19-inch wood panel -- show many alterations made by the artist as he changed his mind, and an unfinished portion near the Madonna's right knee.

"The evidence of unfinished portions demonstrate that this painting never, never, never could be a copy of another painting," Forcellino said. "No patron pays in the Renaissance for an unfinished copy."

Additionally, the provenance, or ownership history, points to the work being done by Michelangelo around 1545 for his friend Vittoria Colonna. That was about 45 years after Michelangelo did his famed "Pieta," or pity, sculpture of Mary holding Jesus, housed in St. Peter's Basilica.

The Kober family has moved the painting to a bank vault. Depending on the opinions of experts over time, the painting's potential value is "millions and millions."

The rare Michelangelo drawings that have come up for sale in recent years have sold for as much as $20 million. And a possible Michelangelo at the Metropolitan Museum of Art could be worth as much as $300 million.

__________

As the Deer Panteth for the Water

 

Musicians: Mathew Burtner and Mac Lynch
__________

Saturday Pep Talk

I thought I'd pass along this insight from AJ at The Strata-Sphere:

The era of big government will be over, soon enough. The vast majority of Americans have grown beyond the need of the nanny state, or union bullies, or big corp rigidness. We stand on our own two feet, and we are preparing to dismantle as much of the federal bureaucracy as is safely possible (which will require many rounds of trimming and assessing to get it right). We will enjoy trimming back Big Government and returning our hard earn money to ourselves. This does not frighten us, since we handle just about all other aspects of society better than government could ever hope to do.

__________

Two-Month Wait to See Your Family Doctor: Coming Soon Under ObamaCare

It's already happened in Boston, where the state's ObamaCare prototype health care system "boosted the insured rate" by about 4%, and thus inadvertently lengthened the average Bostonian's wait time to see a family doctor to more than two months. By comparison, the same wait in Miami is only seven days.

That long wait has happened despite the fact that Massachusetts has the country's highest concentrations of doctors and despite the fact that Boston has 14 teaching hospitals.

All kinds of knowledgeable groups are predicting "crisis-level" doctor shortages as the result of ObamaCare. The American College of Physicians expects "a catastrophic crisis" to ensue from ObamaCare.

Reducing that crisis to actual figures, the Association of American Medical Colleges, predicts a shortage of 63,000 doctors in just 5 years, and a shortage of more than 91,000 doctors in 10 years. About half of the missing physicians will be family doctors, the rest surgeons and specialists.

As the editors of Investors Business Daily have pointed out: "A few Americans might be better off under ObamaCare than they were before. But for almost everyone else, health care quality will decline."

And, of course, those hurt worst will be the people who already are "most vulnerable and underserved." "And weren't those the very people the Democrats said they wanted to help by moving the country into a national health care system?"

November.

The people of our country desperately need a Congress with the political will to overturn ObamaCare. 
__________

Times Square Bomber Gets Life in Prison

In May, when the bomb planted outside a Times Square theater packed with children there to see "The Lion King," New York City's Mayor, Michael El-Bloomberg, had the bomber pegged as a homegrown, lone nutcase:

"Homegrown maybe a mentally deranged person or someone with a political agenda that doesn't like the health care bill or something. It could be anything."

But when the Times Square Bomber was caught minutes before succeeding in his getaway attempt, Shahzad, a Pakistani-born naturalized American citizen, who lived in Connecticut when he wasn't training with the Taliban in Waziristan, wanted to go on record as pleading guilty to all ten of the charges against him, including the two that carry mandatory life sentences.

Shahzad's insistance on opting out of a trial by pleading guilty sped his case through to his sentencing today:

Calm, but clearly angry, and standing the whole time, Shahzad spent nearly an hour giving the judge a narrative of his failed bombing attempt, and how he changed from a financial analyst with an MBA to a would-be bomber and what he called "part of the answer" to the U.S. killing of Muslims. He also confirmed that he had placed the bomb in Times Square at its busiest in order to do the maximum damage. 

Shahzad admitted driving a Nissan Pathfinder into midtown Manhattan on Saturday evening, May 1, when the city's theater district was packed with tourists. He abandoned the SUV, which was stuffed with fireworks, propane, gasoline and fertilizer, after trying to use the fireworks to ignite the vehicle.

Much of Shahzad's courtroom performance, including his claim that he planned to detonate another bomb two weeks after the first, seems like the bluff and bluster of a man trying to cover up the fact that had failed to live up to his videotaped plan to martyr himself for the cause.

Nonetheless, it is foolhardy to underestimate the enemy, and other Islamic terrorists have offered plenty of proof of their merciless capacity to cause suffering to the innocent.

Through a combination of accident and diligence, America was saved from the suffering Shahzad hoped to inflict on us. But it is imperative that we remember Shahzad's reaction after Judge Miriam Cedarbaum pronounced sentence. Before Shahzad was led away to life imprisonment, he repeated the jihadist war cry that, in his televised video, he encouraged others to take up: "Allahu Akbar."

__________
Related:  

• Times Square Bomber Pleads Guilty: Aimed to Do "Maximum Damage"
• Great! 59 New Cap-and-Trade Boondoggles from Big Nanny
• Car Bomb in Times Square (UPDATED)
• Religion of Peacer's Plans for Times Square and Grand Central Stations Revealed.

Teachers Union Marches Proudly With "One Nation" Socialists

Great public schools for every student? Or is that great socialist indoctrination for every student at private taxpayer expense?

The nation's teachers union proudly helped organize Saturday's "One Nation" rally and then sent their president, Dennis Van Roekel, to the Lincoln Memorial to address their fellow demonstrators. From NEAtoday:

Soccer practice can wait. The leaves will be there next weekend for raking. Everything can be put on hold for a day to march on Washington on behalf of the new civil rights movement — jobs and education for all.

Tens of thousands are expected to converge on the National Mall Saturday for the One Nation Working Together march.

Photo courtesy of Marooned in Marin

The event is organized by a broad coalition of more than 170 civil rights, labor and education groups, including the National Education Association. Standing side-by-side, participants will conduct a major demonstration of grassroots support for equal opportunity and justice for all — tenets that include access to a secure job, a safe home and a quality education.

Yes, helping to litter the nation's capital and one of our nation's sacred memorials to America's war dead was none other than the NEA, the union representing public school, college, and university faculty, support personal, and staffers.

To see the identities of many of the other groups that organized the rally, check out teresamerica.

Cross-posted at Potluck.
__________

The Devil Is a Liar, A Capella

A Liberian Men's Christian Group singing Kuo (The Devil is a Liar).




Translation

Chorus:
The devil can fool you.
The devil is a liar
And he will take you to hell
if you are not careful.

1st lead:
During the time of the war
Nothing happened to us
Because the Lord protected us
With his hands.

2nd lead:
I want you to know
That the devil is
Defeated forever.
He cannot save you.

__________

The One Nation Rally: Just Who You'd Expect (Updated)

Doug Ross @ Journal has 15 Photos from the #OneNation Rally You'll Never See in Legacy Media. Here's a sample:

In my little corner of the world, the United Auto Workers Local and the Progressive Paradise Worker's Center sponsored a free bus ride to and from this gathering. The free bus ride offer was treated as a news event every half hour on a local radio station for two days running.

Box lunches were provided, of course. I think the sponsors failed to mention that, contrary to widespread belief, there's really no such thing as a free lunch. There is, however, such a thing as box lunch litter.

William Jacobson has issued A Call For Photos From The "One Nation" Rally in Washington.  But "not just any photos." The Professor wants "photos of communist and socialist participants which appear in the mainstream media."

He's quite a jokester, that guy.

Update: And then there's these photos of "One Nation" posters at Just a Conservative Girl. Such as:

Update:

And then there's Doug Ross's animated video comparison of this Union/Socialist/Communist rally and the 9/12 Rally of Constitutional Conservatives it was organized to answer:

__________

The AFL-CIO wants my vote . . .

I just received a call from the AFL-CIO (more accurately, from their computer), telling me how important it is to them that I vote for incumbent Democrat Michael Arcuri for Congressman in New York's 24th District. I find that interesting for several reasons, one of which is that I am not and never have been a union member.

Another is that the AFL-CIO is opposing one of its own members: Richard Hanna, Arcuri's opponent, who not only is a card-carrying member of the AFL-CIO but has been one since 1978.

What Richard Hanna is not, obviously, is a Democrat running with the backing of New York's Working Family's Party, which infamously shares funding and manpower with ACORN.  Instead, Hanna is a libertarian (a supporter of the CATO Institute) running for office on the Republican ticket.

If the AFL-CIO is calling me to get Arcuri a vote, Arcuri's campaign is in trouble. Especially in light of Arcuri's pro-Obama record, that's to be expected; Hanna lost his last competition with Arcuri by a mere 2%, long before Arcuri proved himself to be one of Obama's numerous Congressional rubber stamps.

Richard Hanna is another of the upstate New York self-made businessmen running for office who definitely have got the goods when it comes to knowing how to create jobs and handle money. 

Hanna's immersion in fiscal responsibility began at the age of 20, when his father died and he stepped in to become the chief breadwinner for his mom and four sisters for eight long years, during which time he even, very honorably, paid off the substantial debt that his dad had left behind.

It's not difficult to believe that a man whose initiation into adulthood came packaged with that level of financial obligation is speaking from the heart--and not from the political playbook--when he argues that we must cut spending, reduce the budget deficit, and pay down the national debt.

Eventually, Hanna put himself through college, earned a degree (with honors) in economics, and started his own small residential construction firm. Twenty-seven years later, his company employs more than 450 people, and he has other business interests as well.

The district that Hanna and Arcuri are competing over covers a large chunk of New York real estate stretching from the Adirondack Mountains almost to the state's southern border, with much of the Finger Lakes region in between. It's an area where taxpayers don't get much return on their tax dollars for more than the usual reasons: Most state tax revenue raised there flows downstate to be gobbled up by New York City.

It's time for the people of upstate New York to be represented by a leader who knows how to earn money and not just spend it--and who doesn't take his "spending orders" from New York State's Democrat machine.

__________