How Many Nobel Laureates Did It Take to Give Solyndra $1/2 Billion?

Add Steven Chu to the list.

Energy Secretary Chu is really, really good at cooling atoms with laser light, for which he won the Nobel Prize in 1997.

It doesn't look like he is doing quite so well making his brother Nobel Laureate, Barack Obama, look like the coolest president ever.

From The Washington Post:

Energy Secretary Steven Chu acknowledged Thursday making the final decision to allow a struggling solar company to continue receiving taxpayer money after it had technically defaulted on a $535 million federal loan guaranteed by his agency.

Solyndra's loan default might have been a red flag to an Energy Secretary out to protect taxpayer money, but Chu hadn't made that his first priority. In fact he "restructured Solyndra’s loan to put taxpayers behind a group of private investors to be repaid if the company went bankrupt."

What's a mere $1/2 billion among friends?

Don't ever let anyone tell you that money isn't energy, at least at the U.S. Department of Energy.
__________

Yemen Says Anwar al-Awlaki Is Dead

h/t: I Own the World
__________

On Golf Shoes, Bedroom Slippers, Inmate Footwear, and Barn Boots

Saturday evening, as Herman Cain and his supporters were celebrating his massive victory in the Florida GOP candidate straw poll, the President of the United States was trying to stir up an Alynsky-ite racial divide by rousing the 41st Congressional Black Caucus, a group which in which membership depends on a pigment test, to take off their bedroom slippers and get people marching in the streets "for equality":

©2011 Stilton Jarlsberg

One can't help noticing that Obama didn't tell the Congressional Black Caucus to remove their golf shoes. That would have been too obvious a case of the pot calling the kettle, well, you know.

According to a recent editorial in Investors Business Daily:

Federal tax records show the caucus' charitable wing spent more money catering its 2008 dinner — $700,000 — than it spent giving out scholarships. The nonprofit is supposed to help "disadvantaged African-Americans," yet it also sank donations into its $4 million Embassy Row digs, golf outings and an annual visit to a Mississippi casino resort. It spends as much decorating its Beltway gala as it does on internships.

Mississippi casino visits don't quite equal vacationing on the coasts of Spain, Honolulu, or Martha's Vineyard, but these undeniably are steps in the Obama presidency's direction.

The same editorial hinted that a fair number of the 42 members of the Caucus might look better in inmate slippers. That list includes:

The latest in inmate footwear.

Maxine Waters, D-Cal., [who] stands accused of improperly lobbying Treasury officials to bail out a black bank, OneUnited, where her husband owned stock and served on the board. . . .

Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., convicted last year of 12 ethics violations. Among other things, the former Ways and Means Committee chair accepted gifts from donors with business before the tax-writing body. He also failed to pay taxes on rental income, and filed bad financial disclosure papers.

Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., a Rangel confidant caught up in an ongoing Justice corruption probe into prominent Queens Democrats.

Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, who admitted improperly steering $31,000 in Black Caucus Foundation scholarships to relatives and children of an aide.

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., who has come under Justice investigation for his role in former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's influence-peddling scandal.

Other caucus members who have found themselves in ethics or legal trouble in recent years include: Rep. Laura Richardson, D-Calif.; Rep. Melvin Watt, D-N.C.; Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Fla.; ex-Sen. Roland Burris, D-Ill.; ex-Rep. Frank Ballance, D-N.C.; ex-Rep. Earl Hilliard Jr., D-Ala., and ex-Rep. William Jefferson, D-La.

When Jefferson refused to step down after FBI agents caught him red-handed with $90,000 of bribery cash in his office freezer, the caucus thoroughly shamed itself by supporting the crook. He's now serving 13 years — in the federal pen.

None-too-cleverly buried in Obama's speech is his--and the Caucus's--plan to burden the country with more debt in a futile but vote collecting plan to deliver jobs to the black community, jobs that the president and the Caucus will never mention were lost because of Democrat policies and regulations to guarantee home ownership to minorities who couldn't pay their mortgage bills.

What kind of footwear would be best for selling the U.S. another trillion dollars worth of debt for that cause, as Maxine Waters has suggested? Barn boots?

Available in all sizes.

__________

I'm On My Way to Canaan's Land - Flatt and Scruggs

__________

Solyndra Execs Plead Fifth

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

~ Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

From the statements made by Solyndra execs Brian Harrison and W.G. Stover (above) to the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, you'd never guess that people invoke the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution specifically when faced with questions that might cause them to testify against themselves in a criminal case.

You'd think the Fifth Amendment protects the Solendra execs from answering any old question, for no particular reason, rather than protecting their reticence to discuss any actions on their part that might land them in the slammer after it came to the Oversight Subcommittee's attention that the company led by Harrison and Stover managed to skip off with more than half a billion dollars provided by U.S. taxpayers.

The two execs had like responses to every question posed to them: "On advice of my counsel, I invoke the privilege afforded by the fifth amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and I respectfully decline to answer any questions."

Libs may regard the Second Amendment as a dangerous anacronism, but they sure like that old Fifth Amendment (with the obvious exception, of course, of that part about taking private property for public use--that's called "spreading the wealth around" because "there is no one in this country who got rich on their own").

Actually, it's looking more and more like someone at Solyndra didn't get rich on their own.

"We will get to the bottom of this," said the Rep. Cliff Stearns, the Florida republican who heads the Subcommittee.

But not before hearing more invocations of the Fifth Amendment, I'm thinking. 
__________

He's not a narcissist, really!

Courtesy GettyImages

Thanks to Just a Conservative Girl, Weasel Zippers, and PJ Tatler, who reports that the head of state standing behind the hand of "the smartest guy in the room" is Tsakhia Elbegdorj, the president of Mongolia.

Obama doesn't believe the US is exceptional, but the president of the US? That's another story.

Either this photo is a fake, or Obama is running on autopilot.
__________

Guess Who Else Doesn't Pay Taxes?

General Electric paid zero federal income taxes for 2010. Master of hypocrisy, Warren Buffett, infamously owes the federal gov't $1 billion in federal taxes.

Another stranger to the tax man is the largest union in the country, the conspicuously wealthy National Education Union.
 
From Larry Sand, writing for Union Watch:

The NEA, which has an annual budget of $371 million, spent more than $56.3 million in the 2007-2008 election cycle on state and federal campaigns, political parties, and ballot measures, $12.5 million ahead of the second-place group. And yet, NEA doesn’t think it should pay income tax and rarely does.

The law says you must pay income tax unless you are a tax exempt entity, and if you are accorded that status, you cannot be involved with politicking. The Landmark Legal Foundation has been on to the NEA and its tax evasion for years now, and has gained some traction. In 2006, the Wisconsin Education Association, a NEA affiliate “realized it needed to pay $171,000 in federal taxes after LLF asked if the organization had paid taxes on $430,000 it gave to the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee. Stan Johnson, the WEAC’s president, admitted the organization should have paid taxes on the expenditures.”

Alinsky's Rules for Radicals is an NEA recommended read.

If NEA ever stopped blathering about the rich not paying their “fair share” and actually started paying its own (and were dinged for past years’ payments with appropriate penalties), it would certainly help to solve the budgetary problems it claims are inhibiting our education process.

The NEA, which is part of the world's second-largest international union, has 3.2 million members and more than 550 employees. Whatever it may say on Obama's teleprompter screen, it is the collection of the financial contributions of such "friends" as these that constitutes the Democrat Party's real "green agenda."

Through the efforts of the NEA, that "green agenda" comes with its own insidious insurance policy: through daily indoctrination of American school children with the Democrat "vision," the NEA faithfully delivers to the Democrat Party each year a new crop of Democrat voters, supporters, and donors.
__________

Top Ten AttackWatch Tweets

__________

Waivers: Solyndra Didn't Pay Sales Tax, Either

Breaking ground for the half-billion-dollar Solyndra solar-panel plant that Joe Biden said would produce 500 MV of solar power each year, not to mention 3,000 construction jobs and 1,000 permanent jobs. Instead, Solyndra fired its 1,100 employees with no notice or pay.

As reported in the Los Angeles Times, Solyndra didn't merely rush away with $535 in loan money as it slid down greased skids into bankruptcy--it picked up another $27 million from California in sales tax breaks.

Like for the federal loan, California largesse with taxpayer dollars wasn't experienced by just one "green" company.  No, the California state tax waiver granted to Solyndra was (and remains) available to other "special" businesses, that is, the "clean-energy" companies you hear so much about, those that can't stay in business unless you work extra hours to support them.

Separately, lawmakers in Sacramento questioned a $27-million tax break given to Solyndra under a state law intended to encourage clean-energy companies to do business in California.

State Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima), who co-wrote the bill, said he planned to examine the tax break at a hearing this fall.

Uh-huh.

"We're certainly revisiting the due diligence that was done before an award was given," he said.

I wonder where State Senator Padilla thinks he's going to find the "due diligence" to "revisit" the prior "due diligence."

Assemblyman Brian Nestande (R-Palm Desert) said he intended to ask Treasurer Bill Lockyer's staff to explain "what their vetting process was."

Go ahead, Treasurer Lockyer. Tell the nice gentleman what you are really thinking: "Vetting process? State treasurers in charge of taxpayer dollars don't need no stinkin' vetting process."

The law, which was approved unanimously by the state Senate and Assembly and signed by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in March 2010, exempts qualified clean-technology companies from paying sales tax when buying manufacturing equipment.

The law established a committee to review applications from companies that sought the tax breaks. In November, Solyndra applied for a credit that would allow it to avoid paying nearly $35 million in sales tax on the purchase of more than $380 million of equipment.

The request was granted, but the company used only $27 million of the credit before it went out of business, said Joe DeAnda, a Lockyer spokesman.

Gee. $35 million minus $27 million: That's $8 million of taxpayer earnings that Solyndra sloppily let slip from its grasp. Doubtless the California Legislature will remedy that situation promptly, likely with other "indirect benefits from state agencies" to other so-called "green" companies cast in the Solyndra mold:

Under the California Solar Initiative, a program created by Schwarzenegger and the Legislature, customers that bought Solyndra-manufactured solar-power modules received about $4.9 million in state subsidies, according to Terrie Prosper, a spokeswoman for the California Public Utilities Commission.

Hold onto the dollars you saved in subsidies, Solyndra customers. Something tells me that those warranties of Solyndra products you were counting on will not be honored.

__________

Have a Little Talk with Jesus -- Heavenly Gospel Singers

__________

The Perfect Thing to Wear to an Event Marking the Murder of 3,000 Americans?

Yes, indeedy. Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama actually wore this little number yesterday to a Washington DC event marking the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The event was "A Concert For Hope" held at the Kennedy Center.

I'm thinking exactly what the woman on the right is thinking.


Thanks to Adrienne at Adrienne's Corner. Go to her post to learn more about the oratorical genius of the man who is so smart he has voluntarily chosen to escort Michelle to public events.

Linked at And So it Goes in Shreveport, where Pat Austin is preparing for Oktoberfest at Barksdale Air Force Base. Thank you, Pat!

__________

Project 2,996: A Tribute to William J. Meehan

 

I wrote this tribute to William J. Meehan in 2009 as part of Project 2,996, in which bloggers volunteer to remember the valuable lives of the people we lost on September 11, 2001. Earlier today, I posted a remembrance of the Hanson family, who also were murdered that day.

Bill Meehan was a 49-year-old husband and father of three who lived in Darien, Connecticut, and who had had just moved his office to the World Trade Center in late August of 2001 because he was being asked more and more frequently to share his views of Wall Street on CNBC. Bill was chief market analyst for Cantor Fitzgerald, the country's largest bond firm, with more than 1,000 people working in four floors of the north tower.

I never knew Bill Meehan, but Amy Langfield did, and she wrote about him in a letter to her parents on September 18, the day she learned of his death. Amy had just returned to New York, where she reported on Wall Street matters for Reuters. Later, Amy published that letter in her blog, Amy's New York Notebook, on June 24, 2002, in a post entitled, "There's No Forgetting."

Here's some of what Amy wrote:

I used to talk to Bill Meehan nearly every morning when I was writing the market curtain-raiser for Reuters. He was often the first person I talked to in the mornings and always helped me get my bearings for the day. Super nice guy, always helpful, and had a good grasp of overall market conditions. I had to call analysts about 7:20 a.m. and find out what they thought the most important factors in the market would be that day -- there weren't that many people already in the office and on the ball by then, but Meehan was, and was [one of] only about five guys we knew who would bother to talk to reporters that early.

The New York Times had a few things to say about Bill Meeham too:

William J. Meehan liked to say he had the ideal job. "All he had to do was give an opinion," said his wife, Maureen. But when Mr. Meehan opined, Wall Street listened: he was chief market analyst for Cantor Fitzgerald.
The job was ideal if you did not mind rising at 4:30 a.m., which Mr. Meehan, 49, did to write his column for The Cantor Morning News, an online newsletter. He was a fixture on the proliferating financial shows and got to banter with Louis Rukeyser on "Wall Street Week."
A Meehan opinion was grounded in books. "He would read everything and anything," his wife recalled, "not just financial but also biographies and Harry Potter, too." He bought the early Potter books for his daughter, Katie -- and ended up reading them himself. But for a man who spent many a vacation day between hard covers, Mr. Meehan was also big on the Internet. "He was the first guy I knew to buy his Christmas tree online," said Steven Montano, The Morning News's managing editor.
Mr. Meehan initially worked for Cantor in Darien, Conn., where he lived, getting home in time to coach his three children in Little League, flag football and basketball. But in August, as his TV appearances became more frequent, he shifted to the World Trade Center.

In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Alkaban, a book that Bill Meehan might have read if he had lived, Dumbledore tells Harry, “‘You think the dead we loved ever truly leave us? You think we don’t recall them more clearly than ever in times of great trouble? Your father is alive in you, Harry, and shows himself most plainly when you have need of him."

September 11, 2001, is a date that has been made sacred by the passing of so many. Every day since, many of us have been in need of somebody who died that day. In the days to come, America will continue to have much need of those we have lost, and we will profit much if we look inside ourselves to capture the lessons they would impart.
__________

Project 2,996: Remembering the Hanson Family: Peter, Sue, and Christine

I wrote this post as part of Project 2,996, in which bloggers remember the precious lives of those we lost on 9/11/01. On the morning of that day, the Hanson family, Peter, his wife Sue Kim, and their little daughter, Christine Lee, just 2 1/2 years old, were flying from Boston to Los Angeles to visit Sue Kim's grandmother and brothers in California. They were also anticipating Christine's first visit to Disneyland.

They never made it to their destination: terrorists hijacked their flight and crashed the United Airlines airliner into the South Tower of the World Trade Center.

Peter Burton Hanson, a successful software salesman and enthusiastic Grateful Dead fan, had recently taken up gardening. The previous spring, in his typically passionate way, he had planted not only roses and lilacs outside the young family's two-story white colonial house in Groton, Massachusetts, but he had also planted at least 30 trees on the property as well.

Christine loved to help her father in the garden. "After they were all done planting," recalls Peter's mother, Eunice Hanson of Easton, Connecticut, "Christine would say to a tree or plant: `I bet you are thirsty. Let me feed you and give you a hug." Christine liked to visit the playground behind the Groton, Massachusetts, Public Library, where a plaque bearing her image now stands.

Peter and Sue Kim had been married for eight years. After they met, Sue, the practical one, persuaded Peter to give up his hippie lifestyle and earn his MBA at Boston University, where she would later became a doctoral candidate in micro-biology immunology. After completing his studies, Peter become vice president of marketing at TimeTrade, a software developer in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Peter's forebears had been Greek immigrants; Sue’s parents had emigrated from Korea. Although born in Los Angeles, Sue had spent her earliest years in Korea. She lost her mother when she was just 15, and Sue appreciated the closeness and structure of Peter's family, who loved her deeply.

Peter was one of the few people who managed to reach someone on the ground as his plane was hijacked. The person he reached was his father, Lee Hanson. An audiotape of Peter's parents talking about their experience is available here.

It is worth remembering today, as the Grateful Dead reminded us in their song, "Ripple," that "there is a fountain not made by the hands of men." Surely Peter, Sue, and Christine Hanson have gone to a place where they are enjoying the water flowing from that sacred fountain.

__________

Hostias from Mozart's Requiem -- Leipzig Radio Choir & the Staatskapelle Dresden Orchestra

On this infinitely sorrowful day, the Offertorium from Mozart's Requiem:

__________

Photo of Terrorist Believed Plotting 9/11 Attack Tomorrow

From the UK Daily Mail, via Atlas Shrugs, via vinienco:

This is believed to be one of the men counter terrorism chiefs say are plotting a terrorist attack in America on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11.

 Jude Kenan Mohammad, American born Muslim

An image of American-born 22-year-old Jude Kenan Mohammad has been posted on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list.

He has been linked to what officials have called a credible but unconfirmed al-Qaeda threat to set off a car bomb on bridges or tunnels in New York City or Washington.


The Wall Street Journal reported Mohammad is among three al-Qaeda leaders that investigators believe pose a particular threat because they have lived in the U.S.
Should that mission prove impossible, the attackers have been told to simply cause as much destruction as they can.


Mohammad, who was born in Florida, dropped out of North Carolina's Fuquay-Varina High School in 2006 and left the U.S. two years later to visit Pakistan, his father's homeland.


A federal grand jury in North Carolina indicted him and seven other men in 2009 on charges that they conspired to carry out terrorist activities around the world. Two of the men have pleaded guilty, and the trial of four others is set for September 19 in New Bern.

Federal authorities have never arrested Mohammad in the case, saying that they believe he has been in Pakistan since the indictment was issued.

Why are Americans again having to pick up their information from a UK media outlet?

__________

Bloomberg: "Don't Call Ground Zero, "Ground Zero"

Via Angel at Woman Honor Thyself: Mayor Bloomberg the Dhimmi:

‘Don’t call it Ground Zero anymore’: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg urges Americans to move past the moniker linked to twin towers’ destruction

People should stop calling the site of the September 11 attacks ‘Ground Zero,’ New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said today, urging Americans to move past a term long linked with the World Trade Center’s twin towers destruction.

Angel takes exception to Bloomberg's admonition:

I WORKED AT “GROUND ZERO” at the pit, for months and months and months. And guess what Libturds…

Ground Zero in NYC was made into a mass grave, (courtesy your new pals..the IzlamoNazis…. ) where the World Trade Center used to stand.

I'm pausing for a moment of silence. My thoughts are with those of Angel, brave Angel.

And they are also with those of my friend whose daughter was among those murdered where "the World Trade Center used to stand."

My friend's daughter was on Floor 92 of the North Tower of the World Trade Center when an American Airlines Boeing 767 carrying 92 people and 15,000 gallons of jet fuel--and going 500 miles per hour-- was deliberately crashed by Islamic terrorists into Floors 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, and 98 above her. No one on Floor 92 or on any of the floors above it--a total of 1,344 souls--survived. At least 37--and perhaps twice that many--people jumped to their deaths, "apparently to escape agonizing deaths from smoke inhalation."

Here is a frame from a videotape of the murder of my friend's daughter and the other 1,343 souls who happened to be above Floor 91 of the WTC's North Tower at 8:46 a.m. on September 11, ten years ago:

The only known image of the impact of the Boeing 747 on the North Tower

Below is an aerial view of what was left of the neighborhood by the time the IslamoNazis were finished with this particular foul deed. The red box indicates the planned location of the Ground Zero mosque, just one building away from total destruction:

Aerial view of the area that Mayor Michael Bloomberg thinks should not be called "Ground Zero." The red box outlines a building whose roof was destroyed by the fuselage of the jet that was deliberately crashed by Islamic terrorists into the WTC's South Tower, together with the dust of thousands of incinerated bodies.

Perhaps Mayor Bloomberg thinks that if he can browbeat Americans into calling Ground Zero something else, we will be deterred from calling his pet religious project, the Ground Zero mosque, "The Ground Zero mosque." The mosque then will be referred to in the New York Times and all other NYC government and private propaganda media as the "National Day of Service Mosque," the "United We Serve" mosque Community Center and National Minaret, or some other term preferred by his wealthy partners in the Islamic Shariah finance market.

God help us.

Linked as a Backyard Pick by the BackyardConservative, who keeps us informed about the insidious creep of Chicago politics. Thank you, Anne!

__________

Time Out for a Quote-of-the-Day Chuckle

From the comment section in It Don't Make Sense: One If By Land And Two If By Unions:

Dear Siggie,

I am a middle-aged Tea Party supporter. Jimmy Hoffa has just threatened to take me out. What should I wear? Casual or something slinky?

Exfoliating in Seattle

__________

So Glad to Find Out that I'm Not A Worker . . .

For longer than I care to mention, this Tea Party member has been under the illusion that the activity I have been performing for 6 or 7 days a week since I was a teenager to produce money to pay village, city, county, state, and federal taxes was work.  Lucky I've got Jimmy Hoffa, Jr. to explain the error of my ways.

Hey Jimmy, pass me that box of bonbons and order me another pink champagne cocktail. I've got to do my nails.









Recommended read at Pundit & Pundette, where Pundette notes that Obama's Washington Post Love Boat has sailed without him. Thanks, Jill!
__________

As 9/11 Approaches: Laudate Pueri Dominum -- The Manhasset High School Kinsmen

Over 40 people from the Long Island hamlet of Manhasset died in the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Here, the Manhasset High School Kinsmen dedicated their touching rendition of Felix Mendelssohn's Laudate Pueri Dominum (Praise the Lord, Ye Children) in memory of those who perished.

Latin:

Laudate pueri Dominum:
laudate nomen Domini.

Sit nomen Domini benedictum:
ex hoc nunc et usque in sæculum.


English:

Praise the Lord, ye children:
praise the name of the Lord.

Blessed be the name of the Lord:
from henceforth now and for ever.

__________

Sad: Israel Philharmonic hounded off BBC by Palestinian "hooligans"

"Hooligans." That's putting it politely. Even more politely, and much more accurately, they are called the "Palestine Solidarity Campaign."

From the Globe Theatre Arts Desk, via Gates of Vienna:

Police. Placards. Protests. And bag checks. It meant only one thing. Jews were performing at the Proms. Here we were in the Royal Albert Hall in London in 2011 witnessing a stage of musicians being barracked [jeered at] and abused for having the gall to be Jewish. . . . No, not a portrait of Europe in the early 20th century, but Britain in the 21st. I wonder. In a few years, will Jews be able to make music publicly in Britain at all?

. . . A few minutes into a fuzzily luxuriant performance (even the triangle was being vibbed) of Webern's Passacaglia, Op 1, a bunch of protesters in the choir stands got to their feet and began to barrack. To the strains of Beethoven's Ode to Joy, they sang their anti-Israeli chants. I imagine a few of the audience and orchestral members would have been familiar with this sort of public abuse, from when they were children in mainland Europe.

They made it difficult to concentrate on the Webern, though Mehta made sure some of their fortissimos sliced through the taunts. They returned to dog the start of the Bruch Violin Concerto in G minor. Zubin Mehta, the Israel Philharmonic and Gil Shaham . . . stood still, silent and calm, while the ushers and security swept out the protest. Amid this maelstrom, Mehta and Shaham, their patience wearing thin, tore into the opening bars. The work achieved a level of meaning and fury that no one will ever witness the like of again.

Zubin Mehta, Gil Shaham and non-protesting members of the Proms audience © Chris Christodoulou

But while it was all sparks and springs in the outer movements, in the slow, both soloist and orchestra bowed to the softest, gentlest, most tender sound imaginable, as if they were reaching down to plant a kiss on a baby's crown. Not even the Neanderthals dared break this spell. Nor dared they interrupt Shaham's elegantly sculpted performance of the Preludio from Bach's Third Partita.

The BBC had by now switched off their live Radio 3 broadcast after the audience began barracking the barrackers at the beginning of the Bruch. [Listen to the BBC broadcast here.] It was understandable - no point giving the protesters publicity - but disappointing, considering that, if the listeners had been given an opportunity to hear the whole Prom, they would have heard the Prommers shouting down the protests, and the Israeli Phil[harmonic] ploughing on valiantly through their programme, to repeated standing ovations. That is, they would have heard us win.

Was it because of the feeling that the BBC had deserted him and his orchestra that Mehta and his musicians came out on stage looking deflated? The continued protests must have demoralised them. It did me. They never quite recovered the responsive vim of the first half. There was another moment of comedy among the PSC disrupters - before the depressingly repetitive boredom of it all set in - as two whiskery old men started to hound the orchestra from a box and a lady next door hooked one of their necks with her walking stick [emphasis mine].

. . . What do we do now? What can we do now? The protesters have all now walked free to hound some more Jews. The recorded concert - what's left of it - will be salvaged and aired next week. One thing we do know: the Israel Phil[harmonic] won't be coming back to these shores in a hurry.

I wish I had a photo of that bearded Palestinian "sympathizer" with that brave music lover's walking stick around his neck. That's one woman who knows what to do now.

Western governments, take notice.

__________

The Real Reason O's College Transcripts Are Kept Secret

By Jove, I think that Jill the Pundette has divined the real reason we're intended never to see the college transcripts of the smartest president ever to prove totally incapable of delivering a large enough crumb of hope to the American population to inspire the creation of a single job:

No one has laid eyes on Obama's college transcripts but I'll bet they're littered with I's for Incomplete.

That's because they don't give I's for Incompetent.

Read the post: "Obama: Bo ate my jobs plan."

__________