February 21, 2011

• Pakistan Reissues Arrest Warrant for former President
• Clapper or Crapper?
• Mexican ICE Agent Murder Political Disgrace
• Geithner Is China’s Toady
• Obama Abandons Israel
• Mangling Multiculturalism Cult
• Sun Burped Monday
• PBS Love Affair With Murderer Che
• Unemployment Over 10%: Gallup
• Tea Party Out to Defeat 3 Longtime GOP Senators
• $225 Million Medicare Fraud

Fist, bullets and brickbats were flying in Dreen, Germany as neo-NAZIs clashed with police.

 A court in Pakistan reissued an arrest warrant Saturday for former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in connection with the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, a public prosecutor said. Bhutto was killed in a suicide bombing on December 27, 2007 while campaigning against Musharraf. At the time of the killing al Qaeda took credit for her murder.

Prosecutors claim that an investigation shows Musharraf was responsible for not providing adequate protection for Bhutto and has not responded to a prosecutor’s request to answer questions, prompting the court-ordered arrest warrant.

 Authorities were unable to serve an arrest warrant issued last week because Musharraf is not in Pakistan.

 Ali said the court ordered authorities to serve the new warrant at all of Musharraf’s residences, including those abroad. Musharraf is currently living in self-imposed exile in London.

 The court was then adjourned until March 5.

Bhutto, who spent many years in exile, was assassinated in 2007 as she campaigned against Musharraf for the presidency.

Some have accused Musharraf of being involved in the assassination, but Musharraf denies any involvement. Late last year, Pakistani authorities arrested two police officials in the case.

A United Nations panel looking into Bhutto’s assassination concluded that Pakistan’s former military-led government failed to adequately protect her and that intelligence agencies hindered the subsequent investigation.

 The panel’s scathing report in April 2010 said the suicide bombing that killed Bhutto “could have been prevented” and that police deliberately failed to pursue an effective investigation into the killings. But Musharraf’s government has said Bhutto had been afforded adequate protection.

Musharraf’s legal adviser has said that Musharraf has not appeared before the court because the accusations against him are baseless and politically motivated.

“This is political victimization against Musharraf,” Muhammad Ali Saif said. “Musharraf was never contacted by investigators to get his version of the assassination.”

 Musharraf went to London after resigning in 2008.

Musharraf decided to start a political party last year and make a comeback. He has said he wants to return for a presidential run in 2013 because he sees suffering in Pakistan and doesn’t see a political party offering a solution.

Turmoil in Pakistan is particuarly dicey because it has perhaps 150 nuclear warheads. Reportedly two of those have been sold to Saudi Arabia and at last report are still in Pakistan near two Saudi Cargo planes and crews awaiting the OK from the Sauds to fly them to Saudi Arabia.

 Security forces battled hundreds of protesters in Benghazi, a major Libyan city, on Feb. 16. Witnesses said at least 14 people were injured when the protesters, many of them throwing stones, called for the end of the regime of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

James Clapper, the DNI (Director of National Intelligence), provided a disjointed assessment of China’s growth as an international power in relatively benign terms, reflecting what critics say is a bias in intelligence reporting on the threat posed by Beijing’s rise to near superpower status.

Clapper said recent “episodes” of aggressive Chinese behavior, including diplomatically threatening Japan over the disputed Senkaku islands, had merely “fueled perceptions” that China is a “more imposing and potentially difficult international actor,” wording that appears designed to play down the threat posed by China that has been growing steadily for the past two decades.

Clapper also noted that Beijing supported North Korea’s sinking of the Cheonan and the artillery attack on South Korea.

“Neighboring countries that have long pursued constructive relations with China are now more anxious about Beijing’s motives and plans,” Clapper said, noting that the Chinese aggressiveness is linked to economic factors.

Repeating claims by Chinese leaders that China has peaceful intentions, Clapper expressed concerns about “the possibility that Beijing’s perceptions of its influence and clout could fuel more assertive Chinese behavior, or increase the potential for unintended conflict between China and its neighbors, especially in the maritime realm.”

Clapper said China’s fears of internal instability were used by Beijing to resist pressure on currency valuation and conduct repression of political dissent.

Clapper warned that stable relations with Taiwan could turn sour if political dialogue and economic ties are strained.

On China’s military buildup, Clapper said it accelerated in the 1990s based on China’s noting the threat posed by long-range precision guided warfare in the Persian Gulf war and the Balkans.

“Beijing is investing heavily in short- and medium-range ballistic missiles, modern naval platforms, improved air and air defense systems, counterspace capabilities, and an Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) system,” he said.

“For example, the Chinese have recently conducted the first flight test of what we refer to as a fifth-generation fighter, the J-20,” Clapper said, offering a defense of intelligence shortcomings in failing to gauge the rapid progress of the development.

“We have known about this program for a long time and the flight test was not a surprise,” he said. “We judge that this event is another indication of China’s aspiration to develop a world-class military, and it is a capability we take seriously. But this program, like others in China, will have to overcome a number of hurdles before reaching its full potential.”

Office of Naval Intelligence director Vice Adm. David Dorsett has said the J-20’s progress took place faster than U.S. intelligence estimates, a claim echoed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Clapper made no mention of the failure on estimating the J-20, which was the basis for a decision in 2009 by Gates to cap production of the F-22, the world’s only fifth generation fighter.

Apparently Clapper has not studied or even read China’s 12^th 5-year plan 2011-2016 that was recently released and is sounding alarm klaxons worldwide but especially throughout Asia. Clapper seems to comport with Obama’s excusenik strategy that has endangered. the middle East,  Mediterranean, and the entire Pacific. The goal of the national 12th FYP is to smooth the way for the Chinese economy to overtake that of the U.S. in ten years or less the military portiojn is secret but very aggressive reportedly with broad goals for dominance of the Pacific..

California Retread Gov. Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown ordered state agencies to stop buying key chains, coffee mugs and other swag, saying the state spent $7.5 million on such items from 2007 to 2010.

“Not a cent of taxpayer money should be spent on flashlights, ashtrays or other unnecessary items, most of which likely end up in landfills,” Brown said in a prepared statement. “Every taxpayer dollar we save by cutting waste is a dollar than can be used to pay for critical public safety and social services.”

The two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who were attacked in Mexico last week yelled out that they were American diplomats to their assailants, who nonetheless killed one agent and wounded the other in a barrage of gunfire, U.S. lawmakers and officials said Thursday.

U.S. officials close to the investigation say they have no evidence to suggest the agents were targeted because of their work. The officials said they were still exploring possibilities, including that the gunmen, believed to be from a drug cartel, may have thought the agents worked for a rival cartel or simply wanted to steal the Americans’ armored SUV-a favorite among cartels.

The fact is the gunmen fired on the agents knowing they were Americans, however, suggests cartels in Mexico are becoming more reckless and a greater danger to U.S. citizens, lawmakers said.

“This is a wake-up call for all of us in the U.S. that this is a big issue which the U.S. needs to focus on,” said Rep. Ben Quayle (R., Ariz.), who was also briefed by ICE officials.

Nobody want to explain  why the agents were not armed and could not defend themselves. Many thinbk the reason was more politically correct claptrap pretending cooperation between the corrupt Mexican and U. S. governments that resulted in the agent’s death.

The Lakers lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Even the Kardashian sisters won’t accept their phone calls now — Leno

Egypt has agreed to allow two Iranian warships to cross through the Suez Canal in a move that puts the country’s new military regime in a prickly position with its Israeli neighbor.

 The post-Hosni Mubarak caretaker government gave the green light to the Iranian warships Friday, state media reported. They are expected to be the first Iranian warships to sail through the Suez since the Islamic republic’s 1979 revolution.

 The canal is an internal body of water, and as such, Egypt has sovereignty over it. But Egypt also is bound by the 1976 Camp David Accords, which guaranteed the right of free passage by ships belonging to Israel and all other nations on the basis of the Constantinople Convention of 1888. Before that, Egypt did not allow Israeli ships to sail through the canal.

Last week, Egypt’s military government said it would honor all its international treaties. That would include Camp David.

“This is awkward — at a minimum,” said David Schenker, director of the Program on Arab Politics at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Schenker said the Iranians had asked for a frigate — the Alvand — and a military supply ship — the Kharg — to cross into the Mediterranean. Both are armed with missiles, he said. Their passage would create more uncertainty in the region.

“It’s destabilizing. It raises tension, particularly in this time of transition in Egypt,” Schenker said. “This is typical of Syrian-Iranian opportunism.”

Egypt’s decision, analysts said, could show the direction that the military caretakers intend to take the Arab world’s most populous nation.

Donald Trump is considering a run for the presidency in 2012. He says he has a plan for reducing the deficit by combing the rest of our money over to hide it.– Conan

Confidential diplomatic cables from the U.S. embassies in Beijing and Hong Kong lay bare China’s growing influence as America’s largest creditor.

As the U.S. Federal Reserve grappled with the aftershocks of financial crisis, the Chinese, like many others, suffered huge losses from their investments in American financial firms - from Lehman Brothers to the Primary Reserve Fund, the money market fund that broke the buck.

The cables, obtained by WikiLeaks, show that escalating Chinese pressure prompted a procession of soothing visits from the U.S.Treasury Department. In one striking instance, a top Chinese money manager directly asked U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for a favor.

In June, 2009, the head of China’s powerful sovereign wealth fund met with Geithner and requested that he lean on regulators at the U.S. Federal Reserve to speed up the approval of its $1.2 billion investment in Morgan Stanley, according to the cables, which were provided to Reuters by a third party.

Although the cables do not mention if Geithner took any action, China’s deal to buy Morgan Stanley shares was announced the very next day.

The two Treasury officials to whom the cables were addressed, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Asia Robert Dohner and Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Monetary and Financial Policy Mark Sobel, declined through a spokesperson to comment for this story. The State Department also declined to comment.

China is America’s biggest foreign lender, playing a crucial role in the U.S.Treasury auctions that allow Washington to borrow what it needs to keep its government running. At the same time, the United States is China’s top export destination: America’s trade deficit with the nation reached a record $273.1 billion in 2010. Most economists describe the two economies as co-dependent.

The cables also indicate a high level of confidence among the Americans that China can’t entirely stop buying U.S. debt, a sentiment shared by most economists who describe the dynamic as a form of mutually assured financial destruction.

Jordan’s King Abdullah was said to have been alarmed by unrest within his traditional Bedouin tribal base. A letter signed by 36 tribal leaders urged the king to end corruption and anti-democratic measures in Jordan.

“It [Jordan] will sooner or later face the flood of Tunisia and Egypt because of the suppression of freedoms and looting of public funds,” the letter warned.

Obama is siding with Israel’s enemies. He is fracturing America’s long-standing alliance with the Jewish state and leaving it isolated surrounded by enemies. But wven Obama’s arrogance has limits The United States vetoed Friday a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have declared Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said that while the United States agrees about “the folly and illegitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity, we think it unwise for this council to attempt to resolve the core issues that divide Israelis and Palestinians.”

Her comment can be in part explained as a kow tow coverup to satiate the Arabs and Muslims.

The Obama administration recently told Arab governments Washington will support a U.N. Security Council resolution that stipulates the world body “does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity.” The move is almost unprecedented. America has almost never publicly criticized Israel - our best friend in the Middle East and the region’s only genuine Western-style democracy - at the U.N. The reason: The organization is dominated by anti-Semitic, anti-American dictatorships obsessed with condemning the Jewish state. Israel is lambasted constantly while the rampant human rights abuses of other countries - especially Arab regimes, Russia and China - are barely noticed. The United States has opposed this double standard - until now.

The result of Obama’s duyplicity will be to drive a wider wedge between Washington and Jerusalem. Israelis rightly will conclude that Mr. Obama is willing to betray a pivotal pro-American ally in order to appease the “Arab street.” Radical Islamists also will realize that Washington’s support is fickle; their dream of driving the Jews into the sea no longer seems unattainable. In fact, now it is entirely possible.

Mr. Obama’s decision to betray Israel should come as no surprise. He is a privileged liberal who reflects the values and prejudices of the academic left. The cultural milieu of his intellectual formation was steeped in hatred of America and the West. His father was an anti-colonial socialist determined to destroy European imperialism. His mentor was Frank Marshall Davis, an avowed communist. His pastor was the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a black nationalist known for his Jew-baiting. His seminal intellectual influences were revolutionary Marxists such as Frantz Fanon and Edward Said. They championed the belief - prevalent among college radicals - that Israel symbolizes Western subjugation of Third World peoples. In their view, it is a militaristic, quasi-fascist state based on oppression and Zionist expansion. In other words, for the hard left, Palestine is a continuation of the anti-imperial struggle - a mass movement for liberation from Western occupation. That is why progressives have only two real enemies: the United States and Israel.

During his presidency, Obama has appeased and emboldened radical Islamists. He has apologized for America to the Muslim world. He has prematurely withdrawn U.S. troops from Iraq, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. He has undermined President Hamid Karzai’s government in Afghanistan, enabling the Taliban to make significant inroads. He has turned a blind eye as Turkey becomes increasingly Islamic and Hizbullah has taken control in Lebanon. In 2009, he did not lift a finger - or even say a word of encouragement - to the Green pro-democracy movement in Iran. When it came to supporting the secular, pro-American demonstrators of Teheran, Mr. Obama was stone silent. In fact, he publicly said Washington should not “interfere” in Iranian “internal” affairs. Even today, as brave Iranian democrats battle the forces of tyrant Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president cannot muster the indignation he demonstrated toward former Egyptian autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Mr. Obama refuses to demand that the Persian strongman step aside - as he did with the Egyptian pharaoh.

The fall of the Mubarak regime signifies a major victory for the Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt’s military is in control. The top brass has promised to hold elections in about six months. The Brotherhood is the most disciplined, organized and effective political force on the Nile. It is the oldest modern Islamist movement in the Middle East, comprising a vast underground that has been patiently waiting to seize power. The Brotherhood is the future; secular moderates are the past.

The Brotherhood aims to erect an Iranian-style theocracy. Its founder, Hassan al-Banna, sought to imitate the fascist movements of the 1930s. Instead of desiring a world dominated by a German master race, he wanted a global caliphate - the restoration of an Islamic empire stretching from the Middle East to Europe. Last year, the Brotherhood’s supreme guide, Mohammed Badie, said that the defeat of Israel and America could only occur “by raising a jihadi generation that pursues death just as the enemies pursue life.” The Brotherhood is a mortal threat to Israel and to the West.

Rather than confronting this ugly reality, the administration insists on whitewashing the Brotherhood’s true intentions. Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper recently claimed that the Brotherhood was “largely secular.” At a Senate hearing on Wednesday, he said the group had no “specific agenda” and was “heterogeneous,” consisting of multiple political wings. Mr. Clapper is a liar and should be told to resign.

The Brotherhood has one primary goal: the destruction of the Jewish state. Its leaders call for scuttling Egypt’s 1979 peace treaty with Israel. The group openly glorifies Mr. Ahmadinejad and Iran’s one-party, fundamentalist regime. Its Palestinian branch is Hamas, which is dedicated to the extermination of the Jews. By abandoning Mr. Mubarak, Mr. Obama has paved the way for the radicalization of Egypt. Israel now faces the specter of being strategically encircled by anti-Semitic bellicose states - Hamas in Gaza, Hizbullah in Lebanon, Bashir Assad’s autocracy in Syria and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Behind them stands Iran. Mr. Ahmadinejad is inching closer to acquiring the nuclear bomb and fulfilling his vow to “wipe Israel off the map.”

The Jews are reliving the nightmare of the late 1930s. Except this time, it is Islamic fascism that threatens their very existence. They were alone then, and they are increasingly alone today. Obama has shown that Israel cannot count on the White House in its hour of need.

Foregoing adapted from an article by Jeffrey T. Kuhner is a radio talk show personality and a columnist at The Washington Times and WorldTribune.com.

American kids who work more than 21 hours a week at a job are more likely to get bad grades. In China, they call a kid that works 21 hours a week “lazy.” - Leno

Don’t look now, but the cult of multiculturalism is finally crumbling into the vast dustbin of history. Multiculturalism is the left-wing fantasy that all cultures are equal, no matter how many millions of poor people are deliberately starved, mutilated, tortured or butchered by the likes of the Sudanese fascisti and others.. The cult of multiculturalism is the feverish brainchild of leftish professors, who prefer not even to read the daily newspapers for a sanitized version of reality in the Sudan, Congo, Iran and Saudi Arabia. Multiculturalism is the fantasy that Saddam Hussein had to be left in power in Iraq, but that Egypt’s Mubarak had to go for unspecified sins against democracy.

The indoctrinated left lives in a bubble of its own devising, and they are terrified to peek out at the real world. So they loved the cult of multi, because it allowed them to avoid having to take a moral stand. What evil? I don’t see no evil!

Multiculturalism denied, among other things, that humans ever practiced cannibalism. But that turned out to be false, because we now know that all humans carry genetic immunity against prions, which are infectious particles that you get from - you guessed it - eating dead people. We carry immunity against the bad stuff that comes after gobbling up human brains, and that means that humans once practiced so much cannibalism that our bodies needed a way to protect us from flesh-borne toxins.

Why don’t you and I eat people today? Because it is a profound cultural taboo for Westerners, derived from our biblical roots. Other peoples don’t necessarily have such humanitarian taboos. The fact that we are horrified by cannibalism shows that our culture is morally different, and that we are not the Stone Age Yanamamo tribe of Chile, who spend their weekends trying to kill each other. According to anthropologists who have studied them for decades, about a third of Yanamamo males die a violent death, in their version of Monday night football. But who are we to judge them?

Well, the cult of multi is no more. The Cult is Dead! Long live the Cult!

How can we tell? Because the head of three important European nations have proclaimed multiculturalism dead and buried: Germany’s Angela Merkel, France’s Nicolas Sarkozy, and Britain’s David Cameron. Melanie Phillips gives us a summary in The Spectator:

“First, the Prime Minister did indeed travel a huge distance from the ruinous position taken by the previous government on both multiculturalism and Islamic extremism. The most important change he made was to end the absurd idea that the only threat comes from ‘violent extremism’. Cameron has understood instead that the source of the threat lies in a set of ideas, and not just in the terrorist actions that sometimes result from those ideas.

“…we need to be absolutely clear on where the origins of where these terrorist attacks lie. That is the existence of an ideology, Islamist extremism. …

There is only one reason why all three of them are coming out with the same message. Europe is now really scared by its own suicidal open-door policy to millions of Pakistanis, Algerians, Sudanese, Somalis, and other Muslims who have been brainwashed to want to destroy Western culture. The annual burning of French automobiles in the suburbs of Paris has finally hit home. Europe now wants to teach Western values to its immigrants for fear of Islamofascist imperialism. But it’s going to be close a race against time.

Fluke (flook) noun:1. The flat, triangular piece at the end of an arm of an anchor.2. A barb or barbed head on a harpoon, arrow, etc.3. Either of the two lobes of a whale’s tail. Etymology of uncertain origin. Earliest documented use: 1561. Modern usage “a stroke of good luck.”.

The Sun “burped” Monday expelling billions of tons of matter and radiation– such events can cause radio blackouts and interfere with communication satellites, but the most likely outcome this time will be brilliant Northern Lights displays, U.S. scientists said.

NASA scientists on Monday reported an X-class solar flare, the first in more than four years. X-class flares are the most powerful of all solar events that can trigger radio blackouts and long-lasting radiation storms.

It was one of a series of three solar flares and prompted speculation that a new solar cycle may be ramping up.

“This is one of the first real solar events of the next solar maximum — that is when you would see the highest number of solar flares,” said Brady O’Hanlon, a doctoral student at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

O’Hanlon said solar activity typically peaks in 11-year cycles. “We’ve been at the depths of one of the quietest ever 11-year periods,” he said in a telephone interview.In the mid-19^th century, around 1859 and Sun threw a coniption fit that if it happened today would cause trillions of dollars in damage to communications and internetworks worldwide.

Solar flares are intense, short-lived releases of energy. They show up as bright areas on the sun, producing high levels of radiation and charged particles that can intensify solar winds — electrically charged particles continuously spewing outward from the sun.

The Earth’s magnetic field largely protects the planet from space weather. But massive solar flares can disrupt power grids, interfere with high-frequency airline and military communications, disrupt Global Positioning System signals and interrupt civilian communications, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which tracks solar flares.

NASA says the particle cloud produced by February 14 event is relatively weak, and most likely will only result in some beautiful sightings of the aurora borealis — shimmery displays of red, green and purple that are expected to light up the northern sky this week.

But O’Hanlon, who conducts research on space weather and its effects on GPS software receivers, says people who have come to rely on their GPS technology during the period of quiet solar activity may see more interference with their navigation systems as solar activity picks up.

“It’s been minimum activity, and we haven’t had to really worry about GPS. That may not be quite the case over the next few years,” he said.

Home Depot says they will hire 60,000 seasonal workers ahead of the home improvement season. Maybe now you’ll be able to find someone in the store that works there. — Leno

You have seen the ponytailed refugees of the tie-dyed hippie generation wearing T-shirts celebrating the emblazoned visage of the murdering bastard Che.

As Congress debates federal funding for public TV and radio, a Cuban exile has learned that telling the truth about the Castro regime in Cuba is not an assignment that the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) feels inclined to take on.

Agustin Blazquez, a Cuban exile, ran into a series of roadblocks from PBS and its parent, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), when he requested funding for films on life under the Castro dictatorship and Castro’s murderous accomplice Che Guevara. Not only did public TV refuse to fund the anti-communist films, public broadcasting would not consider airing them, according to a column by Mary Grabar for Pajamas Media.

 His new documentary, “Che: The Other Side of an Icon,” also got the label “too hot” for public TV. It is a response to what Blazquez calls “the pro-Che propaganda in the popular press.”

Blazquez explains: “It profiles the life of the man killed in Bolivia, as well as ‘Che,’ the icon, who lives on today. It presents the real man behind the myth, his legacy and why he has become so popular among the youth, revolutionaries and terrorists of the world. It explores the dangers of believing in Che’s carefully constructed fake public image.”

Forty years since the War on Drugs began. This makes Charlie Sheen its most decorated veteran - LenoTwo years ago Obama promised no more than 8% unemployment based on the success of his trillion dollar stimulus package. Then he said its success would dictate whether he could win a second term.

 

Unemployment, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, increased to 10.1% in September — up sharply from 9.3% in August and 8.9% in July. Much of this increase came during the second half of the month — the unemployment rate was 9.4% in mid-September — and therefore is unlikely to be picked up in the government’s unemployment report on Friday. The underemployment rate is now a stunning 18.8%.

The Bureau of Labor statistics will engage in elaborate fiduciary fornication and screw around with the numbers to justify a more politically acceptable lower rate. But, except for all but  the most leftists nobody is buying it.

How bad is it? The Federal Reserve has ordered the 19 largest U.S. banks to test their capital levels against a scenario of renewed recession with unemployment rising above 11 percent, said two people with knowledge of the review.

“They’re essentially saying, ‘Before you start returning capital to shareholders, let’s make sure banks’ capital bases are strong enough to withstand a double-dip scenario,’ ” said Jonathan Hatcher, a credit strategist specializing in banks at New York-based Jefferies Group Inc. Regulators don’t want to see banks “come crawling back for help later,” he said.

When Egypt was in turmoil the dictator Mubarek shut down most of the Internet.

The communist nation of China controls the Internet, as does the despot in Cuba.

Recently, in the name of “national security” (the same reason for Egypt, China and Cuba to control the Internet in their nations) President Obama signed an Executive Order giving him “emergency powers.”

How is that working out?

“The US Government has yet again shuttered several domain names this week. The Department of Justice and Homeland Security’s ICE office proudly announced that they had seized domains related to counterfeit goods and child pornography. What they failed to mention, however, is that one of the targeted domains belongs to a free DNS provider, and that 84,000 websites were wrongfully accused of links to child pornography crimes.”

This just happened not once. Not a dozen time but 84,000 times to mostly small businesses without explanation or apology.

Visitors to these websites were treated to announcements and warnings such as: “This site is currently down,” or even “This site has been temporarily seized by Homeland Security.”

Or  taken to a banner with the logos of the Homeland Security and the Department of Justice, beneath which text reading: “This domain name has been seized by ICE — Homeland Security Investigations pursuant to a seizure warrant … under the authority of Title 17 USC 2254. Advertisement, distribution, transportation, receipt, and possession of child pornography constitute federal crimes….”

Is Obama incompetent or corrupt?  Just ask the owners of 84,000 web sites he recently took over, by “mistake”.

Richard Lugar (R) Indiana;Liberal  Olympia Snowe (R) of Maine, and Orrin Hatch (R) of Utah are all being targeted by the TEA Party for replacement in 2012. In Indiana, the tea party is organizing to unite behind one candidate who could challenge Lugar in a primary. In Maine, the plan is for a spring “Snowe Removal.” In Utah, Hatch’s efforts have begun to pay off, but the junior senator, Mike Lee, who replaced Sen. Robert Bennett in a tea party upset in 2010, has said he won’t endorse Hatch for re-election.

33 of the 100 seats in the Senate being contested in regular elections whose winners will serve six-year terms from January 3, 2013 until January 3, 2019. Additionally, special elections may be held to fill vacancies that occur during the 112th United States Congress. Currently, Democrats are expected to have 23 seats up for election, including 2 independents who caucus with the Democrats, and Republicans are expected to have 10 seats up for election.

The U.S. government on Thursday charged 111 doctors, nurses and other defendants with Medicare crime schemes that exceeded $225 million in false billings, the largest health care fraud crackdown so far.

About 45 million elderly and disabled Americans are enrolled in taxpayer-funded Medicare plans, which have come under fire from critics who say the government pays too much to the companies running them and that they are subject to fraud.

Medicare reform represented a key part of the sweeping year-old health care law championed by Obama, but opposed by many Congress, and according to poll most rank and file Americans

The latest charges covered defendants in nine cities. In addition to arrests, law enforcement agents also executed 16 search warrants.

The defendants were charged various crimes, including conspiracy to defraud the Medicare program, false claims, kickbacks and money laundering, administration officials said.

They said the alleged schemes involved various medical treatments, tests and services, such as home health care, physical and occupational therapy and medical equipment.

“Although today marks a critical step forward in combating and deterring illegal activity, our work is far from over,” Holder said. Fraud has accounted for as much as an estimated $60 billion a year in the Medicare program.

A top FBI official, Shawn Henry, said 2,600 health care fraud cases were under investigation and that organized crime groups have been increasingly linked to the alleged schemes.

Sebelius said $4 billion was recovered last year, and the government’s Medicare Fraud Strike Force was recently expanded to nine cities, with the addition of Dallas and Chicago.

Last week a gallon of gasoline hit a 29 month high with the national average reaching $3.13 per gallon $1.20 more than 2-years ago. Prices are expected to average between $3.50 and $3.75 per gallon by summer as Americans suffer under Obama’s disasterous energy policy he continues to lecture ideologically but appears incapable of  leadership.

As if we need anything else to diminish confidence in national government we now learn that Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory “lost” cocaine, amphetamines, opium and black tar heroin that was undergoing forensic evidence testing and other uses, leaving personnel unable to determine if the drugs had been misused or misappropriated, according to a federal report.

Some drugs were missing, while opium and black tar heroin were found in greater amounts than lab records showed were purchased legally, the Energy Department’s inspector general said in the report, released Thursday.

“I don’t think that the inspector general’s office said there was anything nefarious going on here,” lab spokesman Jim Bono said. “What they pointed out was less than stellar record-keeping. And we agree.”

Employees at Livermore, one of the federal government’s top science labs, handle as many as 42 different kinds of controlled substances. Illicit drugs are kept at the lab mainly to use as controls when testing whether drugs seized by law enforcement agencies are what they appear to be.

The lab is also officially registered to use drugs for biomedical research and in its health clinic. Workers are required under federal law to track the use closely, with penalties that can include fines up to $10,000 per violation.

The report, however, said employees failed to adequately monitor at least six of the 42 varieties of drugs on site. It noted quantities of an amphetamine known as MDA had disappeared between 2004 and 2009, and that five times more opium and 20 times more black tar heroin was found at the lab than records accounted for.

Sloppy record-keeping meant that “responsible personnel were not in a position to determine if controlled substances were purchased and then misused or misappropriated,” it added.

The inspector general’s report said records showed the lab had 12 milligrams of heroin on hand. But the actual weight of the sample was 244 milligrams.

Bono said scientists at the lab believe the dramatic weight increase may have simply resulted from the drug sample absorbing moisture from the air.

In addition, inspectors found records at the lab for one bottle of cocaine hydrochloride but no references to the amount inside. There were also references to two additional shipments of cocaine hydrochloride in 2006, but it was unclear if those shipments ever arrived.

Bono said the lab keeps a gram or less of all but two of the substances, and all controlled substances are kept in a safe. Meanwhile, drugs sent by law enforcement are immediately destroyed during the forensic testing, he said.

Building permits collapsed in January down more than 10.4 % naationally Apparently the only thing ready to shovel was best suited for fertilizer