Clifford D May writes on National Review.com about the possibility of a nuclear weapon being detonated on American soil, and the inability of our intelligence services to find the information needed to prevent it:

Gary Anthony Ackerman, research director of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, also recently told Congress that “the prospect of terrorists detonating a nuclear device on American soil sometime within the next quarter-century is real and growing.”

And Cham D. Dallas, who directs the Institute for Health Management and Mass Destruction Defense at the University of Georgia, says flatly: “It’s inevitable.” Testifying before a Senate hearing this month, he added: “I think it’s wistful to think that it won’t happen by 20 years.”

Fear-mongering, right? Not so much. The tactic of terrorism will be used to try to defeat the United States, and the stakes will be raised to do it. Detonating a nuclear weapon on American soil would be devastating. So what is being done to prevent it?

According to the article, the intel is difficult to come by due to far-left political influence and trial lawyers looking for a payday:

Could the intelligence community be more certain? Yes, our spies could do more to increase our chances of detecting — and preventing — terrorist attacks of all varieties. But they are being denied the tools. The most notable example: The law that gave America’s intelligence agencies the authority to freely monitor the communications of foreign terrorists abroad expired in February.

A bill to restore that authority passed the Senate by a solidly bipartisan 68-to-29 majority. A bipartisan majority in the House would almost certainly vote in favor of the same measure but Speaker Nancy Pelosi — for more than two months — has used the power of her office to stop members from casting their votes yea or nay.

Why would she do something so irresponsible? Groups on the Left, important to the Democrats in this election season, demand that foreign terrorists abroad be given the same privacy protections enjoyed by American citizens here at home.

So rather than let the democratic process go forward, she shelves a very important part of our counter-terrorism toolchest. And it may have already cost American lives:

In at least one instance, U.S. officials labored for nearly ten hours to get legal approval necessary to conduct wiretaps to help them locate three American soldiers kidnapped by al-Qaeda combatants in Iraq. The soldiers were not successfully rescued.

“We are extending Fourth Amendment (constitutional) rights to a terrorist foreigner . . . who’s captured a U.S. soldier,” Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell complained to a congressional committee during a legislative battle over this same issue last year.

It would seem that Nancy is more interested in securing her legacy as a San Francisco liberal than she is about the security of American. The idea that this bill is not being heard and voted on is pitiful. If the bill is bad, then rewrite it. If it is good, then vote on it. But to let it sit while our enemies prepare in our blindness is irresponsible.

Vote on the bill and let our intel folks keep us safe.

It could have happened to anyone:

Whether he was up to no good or simply desperate to play BrickBreaker, a Mexican press attache was caught on camera by Secret Service pocketing several White House BlackBerries during a recent meeting in New Orleans, FOX News has learned.

Sources with knowledge of the incident said the official, whose first name is Rafael, took six or seven of the handheld devices from a table outside a special room in the hotel where the Mexican delegation was meeting with President Bush.

Everyone who goes into the meeting has to leave their cell phones outside, which the article says is standard operating procedure. But when they came out, their hardware was missing:

It didn’t take long before Secret Service officials reviewed videotape taken by a surveillance camera and found footage showing “Rafael” absconding with the BlackBerries.

Sources said “Rafael” made it all the way to the airport, where the Mexican president was preparing to leave New Orleans, before Secret Service officers caught up with him. He was forced to return the BlackBerries.

What do you think BlackBerries go for on the Mexican black market? Or was this a deliberate act of espionage?

Remember when Israel blew the crap out of a non-descript building in Syria and nobody said anything about it? Well, that’s a bit of exaggeration. There were rumors at first, then Syria came out and admitted it. Now video surfaces of North Koreans helping out around the facility:

A video taken inside a secret Syrian facility last summer convinced the Israeli government and the Bush administration that North Korea was helping to construct a reactor similar to one that produces plutonium for North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, according to senior U.S. officials who said it would be shared with lawmakers today.

The officials said the video of the remote site, code-named Al Kibar by the Syrians, shows North Koreans inside. It played a pivotal role in Israel’s decision to bomb the facility late at night last Sept. 6, a move that was publicly denounced by Damascus but not by Washington.

Sources familiar with the video say it also shows that the Syrian reactor core’s design is the same as that of the North Korean reactor at Yongbyon, including a virtually identical configuration and number of holes for fuel rods. It shows “remarkable resemblances inside and out to Yongbyon,” a U.S. intelligence official said. A nuclear weapons specialist called the video “very, very damning.”

Of course, Syria is denying it all, saying that we shouldn’t trust the U.S. government more than the North Koreans and the Syrians. Personally, I’ll stick with the CIA on this one.

A passage from this article that really sticks out to me is here:

U.S. officials said that Israel shared the video with the United States before the Sept. 6 bombing, after Bush administration officials expressed skepticism last spring that the facility, visible by satellite since 2001, was a nuclear reactor built with North Korea’s assistance. Israel has a nuclear weapons arsenal that it has never declared.

But beginning today, intelligence officials will tell members of the House and Senate intelligence, armed services and foreign relations committees that the Syrian facility was not yet fully operational and that there was no uranium for the reactor and no indication of fuel capability, according to U.S. officials and intelligence sources.

The first sentence makes sense, in that we are explaining how we saw the video. But then the second seems like some kind of anti-Israel texual Tourettes statement. I mean, it really doesn’t belong there. It’s like they had to get it in the story, but didn’t know where to put it, so they just jammed it in there and then they go right back to the story.

What does it even have to do with the fact that North Korea was helping Syria build a nuclear reactor? Nothing.

It seems, however, that the Iraq War is having a positive influence on the region:

Syria’s top envoy to Washington said the CIA briefings were meant to undermine diplomatic efforts with North Korea, not to confront Syria. Why, Moustapha said, are “they repeating the same lies and fabrications when they were planning to attack Iraq? The reason is simple: It’s about North Korea, not Syria. The neoconservative elements are having the upper hand.”

He added, “We do not want to plan to acquire nuclear technology as we understand the reality of this world and have seen what the U.S. did to Iraq even when it did not have a nuclear program. So we are not going to give them a pretext to attack Syria.”

Good call, Moustapha. Now let’s talk about Hezbollah.

His ads say he does not take that dirty oil money, but facts are stubborn things:

Sen. Barack Obama continued accepting donations from oil company executives and employees last month even as he aired ads in which he stated he took no oil company money, his campaign finance reports show.

Obama has taken at least $263,000 from oil company executives, family members and employees since entering the presidential race last year, including $46,000 last month. At least $140,000 has come in chunks of between $1,000 and $2,300, the maximum permitted under federal law.

I don’t care that he takes money for oil folks. I care that he tries to pull the wool over people’s eyes and get them to believe he is something he isn’t.

“Since the gas lines of the ’70s, Democrats and Republicans have talked about energy independence but nothing’s changed — except now Exxon’s making $40 billion a year and we’re paying $3.50 for gas. I’m Barack Obama. I don’t take money from oil companies or Washington lobbyists, and I won’t let them block change anymore,” says the spot, which aired as recently as April 8.

Obama’s ad is factually correct. He does not take money from oil companies. A 1907 federal law bars all corporations from giving money to political candidates. However, oil company employees can make donations.

As the ad aired, Obama took $12,400 from oil company executives and employees in increments of $1,000 or more. Altogether, people who identify themselves as working for oil and gas companies donated $46,000 in March.

Just another scheming politician, trying to play himself off as being different from the rest. He isn’t.

EW.com has published it’s list of the 20 worst comic-book movies ever. Here are their picks…

He’s Happy To See You

Ghost Rider (2007)
The Shadow (1994)
Barb Wire (1996)
Catwoman (2004)
Brenda Starr (1992)
The Phantom (1996)
Daredevil (2003) / Elektra (2005)
Tank Girl (1995)
Fantastic Four (2005)
Sheena (1984)
The Punisher (2004)
Supergirl (1984)
Barbarella (1968)
Howard The Duck (1986)
Steel (1987)
Swamp Thing (1982)
Batman & Robin (1997)
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)
Superman IV: Quest For Peace (1987)
Judge Dredd (1995)

First of all, that’s 21 movies. Second of all, not all of these were comic books. Third of all, whoever wrote this list is retarded.

Sure, Howard the Duck was a movie that never should have been made. Batman & Robin wasn’t the greatest… but one of the worst? Batsuit nipples aside, it was an entertaining flick. Not worthy of being on this list.

The real mind-number, for me at least, is The Punisher. The Punisher was really a pretty bad-ass movie. I have read a good number of Punisher Comics, and I thought it captured the feel of the comics pretty well. It was a good movie in it’s own right as well. My only guess is that they somehow confused the Tom Jane Punisher with the 1989 Dolph Lundgren Punisher – a cinematic abortion.

Noticeably absent from this list was the early 1990′s Captain America snoozer. Where was Spawn on this list? What about the 2007 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, Richie Rich, and Josie and the Pussycats?

So now you have an idea of the corrected list, let’s hear your opinion. What would you pick as the five worst comic book movies of all time? Feel free to chime in with your five favorites too.

Sometimes you see a headline, and suddenly… your mind is blown.

A man reported missing from a Florida hospital was found in North Carolina dressed like a doctor and driving a stolen ambulance with a dead deer wedged in the back, authorities said.

If I only had a dollar for every time that has happened to me.

Holliman was admitted to a North Carolina hospital for a psychiatric evaluation. Police said they would decide whether to charge Holliman after that evaluation is complete.

No word yet on how this will effect the race between Hillary and Barack.

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The United States is asking China to not only stop sending Mugabe arms shipments, but to take back the one they sent:

Beijing was told “to refrain from making additional shipments and, if possible, to bring this one back,” department spokesperson Tom Casey said, referring to a Chinese ship loaded with arms intended for Zimbabwe and now reportedly headed to Angola.

Washington has also asked Angola and Zimbabwe’s other neighbours, including South Africa, Mozambique and Namibia, not to allow the ship, identified as the An Yue Jiang, to dock or offload the weapons.

“We don’t think that under the present circumstances given the current political crisis in Zimbabwe that now is the time for anyone to be increasing the number of weapons and armaments available in that country,” Casey said.

Why are we even dealing with this? What business is it of ours if China sells Zimbabwe arms or not? Mugabe is a ruthless thug, but I don’t know that it is any of our business if this transaction occurs.

What are your thoughts?

From Free Republic:

McCain ’08

The choice in the ’08 election.

On one side, you have a choice between a witch who is a lawyer married to a lawyer and a lawyer who is married to a witch who is a lawyer.

On the other side, you have a true war hero married to a woman with a huge chest who owns a beer distributorship.

Is there a contest here?”

It was warmer 10,000 years ago than the scientific consensus thought it was. Much warmer. A Spruce tree that took root just following the last Ice Age shows that ten millenniums ago, it was warmer than it is today:

The world’s oldest tree has been found in Sweden, a tenacious spruce that first took root just after the end of the last ice age, more than 9,500 years ago.

The tree has rewritten the history of the climate in the region, revealing that it was much warmer at that time and the ice had disappeared earlier than thought.

Remember, there was a scientific consensus on this, just like there is a scientific consensus on “global warming.” The fact is, the consensus was wrong:

It had been thought that this region was still in the grip of the ice age but the tree shows it was much warmer, even than today, he says.

“Spruces are the species that can best give us insight about climate change,” he says.

The summers 9,500 years ago were warmer than today, though there has been a rapid recent rise as a result of climate change that means modern climate is rapidly catching up.

If I keep coming across articles like this, I may need to write a follow-up article to “10 Reasons to Doubt Global Warming is Man-Made.” It may be up to 20 now.
Hat Tip: Newsbusters

Muslim “scientists” called for the world to abandon Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). Instead, it is time to switch to “Mecca Time” (insert obligatory MC Hammer reference here):

The call was issued at a conference held in the Gulf state of Qatar under the title: Mecca, the Centre of the Earth, Theory and Practice.

One geologist argued that unlike other longitudes, Mecca’s was in perfect alignment to magnetic north.

He said the English had imposed GMT on the rest of the world by force when Britain was a big colonial power, and it was about time that changed.

Yes, instead, the entire Earth should be set to Islam’s most holy site. There’s not really anything more to this, is there?

But wait folks, there’s more. Because Mecca Time comes with a free Mecca Watch:

The watch is said to rotate anti-clockwise and is supposed to help Muslims determine the direction of Mecca from any point on Earth.

That’s right folks! The new Mecca watch runs backwards. That’s pretty telling, isn’t it? It will be very helpful when we turn our watches to Mecca time.

Step one, turn your clock back 1400 years.

I didn’t say it. Someone much more of an authority on the subject of journalism said it. In defending the doctoring of the most famous photo from World War II, “Managing Editor Richard Stengel said the cover art was part of the publication’s global warming advocacy…”

He continued:

Stengel defied the traditional notion that journalists should be unbiased. “I didn’t go to journalism school,” Stengel said. “But this notion that journalism is objective, or must be objective is something that has always bothered me – because the notion about objectivity is in some ways a fantasy. I don’t know that there is as such a thing as objectivity.”

Stengel supported his claim by stating the role of journalists is not to ask questions, but answer them.

So, newspapers are not there to ask questions, but to answer them. There is a word for that.

He went on to say that journalists just make up standards as they go along.

“I don’t even know what rules there have been all along in journalism,” Stengel said. “There are rules we kind of observed by tradition, but it’s not like you know the legal code or the being a doctor with the way you treat people. We sort of make it up as we go along and I think that is what will continue to happen.”

Stengel’s position ignores principles set down in the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics. The “standards of practice” that Stengel’s standpoint might have violated include:

• Examine their own cultural values and avoid imposing those values on others.
• Distinguish between advocacy and news reporting. Analysis and commentary should be labeled and not misrepresent fact or context.
• Be sensitive when seeking or using interviews or photographs of those affected by tragedy or grief.
• Admit mistakes and correct them promptly.

Hat Tip: BMI and Free Republic

According to WikiAnswers, the national average cost for public school students is “$9866 per year.” I hate answers that aren’t referenced, so I kept looking for the answer to the question:

What is the national average cost per student in public school?

From a July 2004 article,

Well Education Weak noted recently that an estimated $501.3 billion in taxpayer money is spent for education in the United States.

Crunching the numbers, we found that’s an average of over $10,000 per K-12 student, and that it takes four taxpayers to raise this amount.

So now we are up to around $10,000 per kid. Any other stats?

In Virginia, Prince William County “has a projected annual cost per pupil of $10,496, compared with $12,917 in Fairfax, $12,461 in Loudoun, $17,500 in Arlington and $17,968 in Alexandria.”

Pocket change. According to the Washington Post:

We’re often told that public schools are underfunded. In the District, the spending figure cited most commonly is $8,322 per child, but total spending is close to $25,000 per child – on par with tuition at Sidwell Friends, the private school Chelsea Clinton attended in the 1990s.

For a little perspective, The Center for Education Reform puts the cost per student at private schools nationally at $4,689, $3,236 for Catholic Schools. That is a national average. It might be more or less where you are, but I would put money it isn’t more than what DC is spending.

How did they come to that number? Addition and division:

To calculate total spending, we have to add up all sources of funding for education from kindergarten through 12th grade, excluding spending on charter schools and higher education. For the current school year, the local operating budget is $831 million, including relevant expenses such as the teacher retirement fund. The capital budget is $218 million. The District receives about $85.5 million in federal funding. And the D.C. Council contributes an extra $81 million. Divide all that by the 49,422 students enrolled (for the 2007-08 year) and you end up with about $24,600 per child.

Those must be some outstanding students learning in state of the art learning environments, right? Not so much. In fact, when I started researching the state of DC’s schools, the first resource I found was a seven part Washington Post investigative series titled “Fixing D.C.’s Schools.”

Seven part, fifteen stories. That has to be one seriously malfunctioning school system. But the funding is higher than most school systems in the country.

This is the same mechanism that wants control of your health care. Is there any doubt where the quality of care will be in ten years if they get it?

And just so you know how much does homeschooling costs, per student, per year?

As much as you make it cost. And I don’t have to steal anyone else’s property to fund it.

Hat Tip: Why Homeschool

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How can anyone even think about voting for this guy:

Hat Tip: Donald Turnbull