Good question.

(The Hill) — Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty accused President Obama and Democrats of “coddling” unions and applauded the Tea Party movement as “modern-day Paul Reveres.”

Speaking to a convention of Tea Party activists in Phoenix on Saturday, the Republican White House hopeful sounded a populist tone while blasting unions and Democrats. “Thank you for standing up to the ruling class . . . and big bailed-out businesses,” he told attendees.

Pawlenty has taken an increasingly tough tone in recent weeks when talking about Obama as he seeks to endear himself to a Republican primary electorate ahead of an expected presidential run next year.

The former governor said he wasn’t one to “question the existence of the president’s birth certificate,” which drew laughs from the audience. “But when you listen to his policies, don’t you at least think, what planet is he from?” he said. “We don’t share President Obama’s world view.”

Pawlenty cited the labor standoff in Wisconsin, where Gov. Scott Walker (R) has proposed stripping public-sector employees of collective-bargaining rights and rolling back their benefits.

Obama said recently that the move seemed to be “an assault on unions.”

“And I think it’s very important for us to understand that public employees, they’re our neighbors, they’re our friends,” the president told WTMJ TV.

Holding up a copy of the Constitution, Pawlenty said the government wasn’t mandated to “coddl[e] out of control public employee unions.”

“Mr. President, Wisconsin does not need a lecture from somebody who’s never balanced a budget in his life,” he said.

Rest here »

You know he’d rather be giving us the finger.

(New York Magazine) — Waving is an odd thing, if you think about it. It’s like, Hello, look, here is my hand. I’m moving it all around because we can see each other! Most people don’t wave that often, but President Obama does it all the time, whether for a crowd or a camera. Not because he necessarily wants to, but because it’s expected of him. The president is supposed to be a friendly and folksy character, and waving as if he gives a shit helps to foster such an image. Usually, Obama pulls it off just fine, with a big happy grin. But sometimes, he just can’t fake it, and the look on his face reveals how grudgingly and unenthusiastically he is performing this charade for us.

More classic Obama-waving poses at the link.

I really want to get behind the rebels, but then I read stories like this that say they’re plastering Tripoli with “Gaddafi, you Jew,” graffiti.

TRIPOLI, Libya — The embattled Libyan regime passed out guns to civilian supporters, set up checkpoints Saturday and sent armed patrols roving the terrorized capital to try to maintain control of Moammar Gadhafi’s stronghold and quash dissent as rebels consolidate control elsewhere in the North African nation.

Residents of its eastern Tajoura district spread concrete blocks, large rocks and even chopped-down palm trees as makeshift barricades to prevent the SUVs filled with young men wielding automatic weapons from entering their neighborhood — a hotspot of previous protests.

With tensions running high in Tripoli, scores of people in the neighborhood turned out at a funeral for a 44-year-old man killed in clashes with pro-regime forces. Anwar Algadi was killed Friday, with the cause of death listed as “a live bullet to the head,” according to his brother, Mohammed.

Armed men in green armbands, along with uniformed security forces check those trying to enter the district, where graffiti that says “Gadhafi, you Jew,” “Down to the dog,” and “Tajoura is free” was scrawled on walls.

Outside the capital, rebels held a long swath of about half of Libya’s 1,000-mile (1,600-kilometer) Mediterranean coastline where most of the population lives, and even captured a brigadier general and a soldier Saturday as the Libyan army tried to retake an air base east of Tripoli. The state-run news agency also said the opposition held an air defense commander and several other officers.

On Friday, pro-Gadhafi militiamen — including snipers — fired on protesters trying to mount the first significant anti-government marches in days in Tripoli.

Gadhafi, speaking from the ramparts of a historic Tripoli fort, told supporters to prepare to defend the nation as he faced the biggest challenge to his 42-year rule.

“At the suitable time, we will open the arms depot so all Libyans and tribes become armed, so that Libya becomes red with fire,” Gadhafi said.

And in Trumka’s “real world” raising taxes is the “best way to create jobs.”

Via The Blaze

The oppression of Christians in Islamic lands continues.

(Spero News) — A Christian woman, Agnes Nuggo, was accused of blasphemy and arrested in the Diocese of Faisalabad, in the Punjab province of Pakistan. The Catholic Church, which is handling the case, expressed “extreme concern” over the affair.

The Commission for Justice and Peace in the diocese reported that Agnes (50) is married to Bashir Masih, has children and lives in the Christian quarter of Waris Pura. She was accused of blasphemy after a dispute over a piece of land that had already created controversy with his relatives. Some Muslim neighbours accused her of having made insulting statements against the Prophet Mohammed and against Islam. On 16 February, the local police registered a FIR (First Information Report) pursuant to art. 295/a of the Criminal Code and arrested her. Agnes professes her innocence and says the accusations are completely fabricated.

Fr. Nisar Barkat, Director of the Justice and Peace Commission in Faisalabad, reported “Bishop Joseph Coutts has become aware of the case and asked me to follow it closely.” Fr. Nisar was in court and obtained a copy of the complaint against Agnes, who will have her first court hearing in two weeks. The church will find her a lawyer and will take care of her family.

He should take his own advice and leave now.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi must leave now.

Obama made the comments to German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a private telephone conversation Saturday as they discussed the violence in Libya.

The White House says Obama told Merkel that when a leader’s only means of holding power is to use violence against his people, then he has lost the legitimacy to rule and needs to do what’s right for his country by “leaving now.”

I’m happy to grant her metaphor as long as she concedes that present-day Detroit is a metaphor for the damage wrought to the USA by the Obama Regime.

Full text below the fold.

(more…)

Douchetastic!

It’s “The Official Not-for-Profit Blog of Keith Olbermann” and his first post is a riff on the old “Worst Person in the World” segment he used to do back when he had a real job. Here’s the link if you feel compelled to check it out. Warning: He’s just as vile in writing as he was on television.

No, not a joke.

A U.S. military chaplain who served in Iraq is calling Christians to take up the spiritual battle against radical Islam, inviting them to “adopt a terrorist for prayer.”

“Where is the Christian response to terrorism?” writes former reserve chaplain Thomas Bruce on his organization’s website, Adopt-a-Terrorist for Prayer. “If the struggle against violence done in the name of Islam is primarily spiritual, then defeating it requires a spiritual response.”

The website continues, “The war on terrorism transcends flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12). It involves spiritual powers behind twisted ideologies. With prayer, we fight fire with water. We engage the actual enemy with a spiritual weapon forged by the completely opposite Spirit.”

Founded in 2008, Adopt-a-Terrorist for Prayer features short biographies of individuals identified by the FBI and State Department as terrorists and terrorism sponsors. It even offers to send “adoption papers” to those who will agree to pray for the spiritual liberation, repentance and salvation of radical jihadists.

Keep reading »

Look at these lovable little scamps available for adoption:

Full list here.

No need to worry, Big Sis has the border under control.

More civilians were killed last year in Ciudad Juarez, the Mexican city across the border from El Paso, Texas, than were killed in all of Afghanistan.

There were 3,111 civilians murdered in the city of Juarez in 2010 and 2,421 in the entire country of Afghanistan.

On a per capita basis, a civilian was 30 times more likely to be murdered last year in Juarez, where there are 1,328,017 inhabitants according to Mexico’s 2010 census, than in Afghanistan, where there are 29,121,286 people according to the CIA World Factbook.

The number of civilians killed in Afghanistan was compiled by the Congressional Research Service and published in a CRS report released on Feb. 3. The number of civilians killed in Juarez was compiled by Molly Molloy, a research librarian at New Mexico State University who maintains a count of murders Juarez and published it on the Frontera List Web site. Molloy’s work on civilian murders in Juarez was also referenced in arecent CRS report on Mexican drug cartels.

Much of the violence in Juárez is sparked by drug trafficking organizations battling over one of the major smuggling corridors into the United States.

Keep reading »

With the exteme irony (aparrently lost on Think Progress) being Reagan was one of the greatest union-busters in modern times. See: PATCO.

Give it a standing O.

HT: The Daily Caller

Of course, this is the same mayor who led the charge to boycott Arizona because it sought to lawfully defend itself from illegals with, among other things, a wall.

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has asked for approval for a six-foot-wall around the Getty House, the mayor’s official residence in Windsor Square, according to city documents.

But at least one planning official was “caught off guard” by Villaraigosa’s request for increased security around the taxpayer-owned property.

The mayor’s office filed its request on Feb. 2 for a variance to city bylaws with plans to erect a security wall around the property at 605 S. Irving Blvd.

Officials say the wall’s design includes “embedded” security features that will save taxpayer money by cutting costs for security staffing.

Initially, the mayor proposed an eight-and-a-half-foot wall, which was quickly rejected by the Windsor Square Association.

Villaraigosa has scaled down his plans, but the new proposal still exceeds the permitted 42-inch height.

(more…)

Sure thing, Dick Weed, whatever you say.

(The Hill) — President Obama reiterated his call for Congress to invest in the nation’s long-term future in his weekly address Saturday, at times repeating almost to the word what he said during his State of the Union address last month.

As lawmakers prepare to take up a stop-gap budget bill to keep the government funded past the end of next week, the president again linked the twin goals of out-educating and out-innovating the rest of the world while getting the nation back on sound fiscal footing.

“Investments in education, innovation, and infrastructure are an essential down payment on our future,” he said. “But . . . the only way we can afford these investments is by getting our fiscal house in order. Just like any family, we have to live within our means to make room for things we absolutely need.”

Fiscal conservatives criticized the president’s budget proposal last week for running up the national deficit to a record $1.6 trillion this year while punting on solutions to the problem of growing entitlement spending.

In his weekly address, the president defended his proposal to freeze domestic spending over the next five years, which he said would cut non-security discretionary spending down to a share of the economy “lower than it was under Ronald Reagan.”

Rest here »

This from the great state that gave us anti-capitalist Barack Hussein Obama: HideAwayInRockford.com.

HT: Allah

(more…)

“These people make the Keystone Cops look organized. . . .”

(more…)

Makes so little sense I wouldn’t know where to start.

Via HAP

The Republican party is saying that the president of the United States has bosses, that the union bosses this president around, the unions boss him around. Does that sound to you like they are trying to consciously or subconsciously deliver the racist message that, of course, of course, a black man can’t be the real boss?

Interfaith outreach?

ROME — Italian police said Friday they had arrested six suspected Moroccan militants, with one report saying they wanted to “punish” Pope Benedict XVI for converting a Muslim journalist to Catholicism in 2008.

They “are accused of setting up a group that aimed to incite discrimination, racial and religious hatred, violence and jihad against Christians and Jews,” police in the northern city of Brescia said in a statement.

Five of the Moroccans have been put under house arrest, while the sixth is in jail. The six are all suspected of belonging to an Islamist fundamentalist movement called Adl Wal Ihsane (Justice and Charity), the statement said.

ANSA news agency reported that a note had been found on one of the Moroccans that called for revenge against the pope for converting Egyptian-born Magdi Allam, a former columnist for Italian daily Corriere della Sera.

Allam, who condemned Islam for being a “violent” and “conflictual” religion was baptised by the pope in March 2008. The comment against the pope was found in a notebook hidden inside a jacket, the report said.

Obama seen nodding in approval.

ROME, FEBRUARY 25 — “Those who don’t love me do not deserve to live, it will be hell for them”. This is the message from Muammar Gaddfi, who has made a speech to crowds in Tripoli that was broadcast live on television.

The colonel appeared before supporters of his regime in Green Square, propped up against the wall of a government building. “Prepare to defend Libya,” Gaddafi cried, his fist raised. “Arms deposits are open to arm the people and together we will fight, defeat and kill those who are protesting”.

“Look Europe. Look America, this is the Libyan people, this is the result of the revolution. The revolution has revived Omar Al Mukhtar, we will fight for the land of Libya,” Gaddafi continued. “We defeated Italian invaders and in the same way we will defeat any foreign attempt against us. We will fight, we will fight to regain every piece of Libyan land. We will defeat them as we defeated Italian colonialism”. “Look, I am among you: dance, sing and be happy,” Gaddafi ended, greeting the crowd and leaving the square.

Brilliant!

(Yahoo! News) — What’s the best way to get Americans back to work?

Raise taxes, according to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. Specifically, he wants to raise the federal gas tax as a means to fund infrastructure spending. “We need a dedicated source of revenue to create infrastructure in this country,” he tells Aaron Task in the accompanying clip.

“We need to create jobs. The best way to do that is through infrastructure development.” Simply maintaining the existing infrastructure in this country will cost $2.2 trillion over five years, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. That doesn’t include Obama’s objective of high-speed rails and green energy projects.

Trumka didn’t say specifically how much he would raise the gas tax, but mentioned he’s shown the President a $256 billion plan to improve infrastructure. If every billion spent on infrastructure creates 35,000 jobs, as he claims, this package would create close to 9 million jobs over the next five years.

The idea would also improve America’s fiscal and competitive future, says Trumka. “There’s also a downstream effect, you put people back to work, they pay taxes, they don’t use services, they’re contributing, other jobs are created along the way as well,” he explains.

Keep reading »

HT: Doug Ross