We really should be thanking San Francisco for showing the rest of the country what America would look like if we handed the keys over to the left.

SAN FRANCISCO — The first vision was simple and straightforward: To curtail puppy mills and kitten factories, the sale of cats and dogs should be banned in San Francisco, where the loving guardians of animal companions come to regular blows — politically — with the loving parents of children.

The ban was put on hold last year after animal advocates broadened it to include anything with fur or feathers. Now it’s back, with a new name and a new strategy: More is more. The Humane Pet Acquisition Proposal is on its way to the Board of Supervisors, and it hopes to protect everything from Great Danes to goldfish.

Yes, goldfish. And guppies, gobies, gouramies, glowlight tetras, German blue rams. No fish, no fowl, no reptiles, no amphibians, no cats, no dogs, no gerbils, no rats. If it flies, crawls, runs, swims or slithers, you would not be able to buy it in the city named for the patron saint of animals.

“Why fish? Why not fish?” said Philip Gerrie, a member of the city’s Commission of Animal Control and Welfare and a co-author of the proposal. “From Descartes on up, in the Western mindset, fish and other nonhuman animals don’t have feelings, they don’t have emotions, we can do whatever we want to them. If we considered them living beings, we would deal with them differently. . . . Our culture sanctions this, treating them as commodities and expendable.”

Keep reading…

In related news, Pelosi says she has perfected the Jedi mind-trick.

Washington (CNN) — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi framed her campaign argument against Republicans ahead of the 2012 elections, predicting the GOP will be blamed for the high unemployment rate.

“When the . . . unemployment rate is high, it’s hard for the incumbent to win,” [she does realize Barack Obama is President and Dems control the Senate? — ed.] Pelosi said in an interview with CNN Chief Political Correspondent Candy Crowley. “I remind you though, we’re not the incumbent. The Republicans are the incumbent.”

Republicans won control of the House in the 2010 midterm elections, later passing a budget proposed by Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

HT: Fox Nation

Above is a picture of a 20-week-old fetus, who according to the left, is not a human and therefore can be killed.

(NY Times) — Dozens of new restrictions passed by states this year have chipped away at the right to abortion by requiring women to view ultrasounds, imposing waiting periods or cutting funds for clinics. But a new kind of law has gone beyond such restrictions, striking at the foundation of the abortion rules set out by the Supreme Court over the last four decades.

These laws, passed in six states in little more than a year, ban abortions at the 20th week after conception, based on the theory that the fetus can feel pain at that point — a notion disputed by mainstream medical organizations in the United States and Britain. Opponents of abortion say they expect that discussion of fetal pain — even in the face of scientific criticism — will alter public perception of abortion, and they have made support for the new laws a litmus test for Republicans seeking the presidency.

“The purpose of this type of bill is to focus on the humanity of the unborn child,” said Mary Spaulding Balch, director of state legislation for the National Right to Life Committee. “Fetal pain is something that people who are in the middle on the abortion issue can relate to.”

Since Nebraska passed the first 20-week limit last year, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Oklahoma and, this month, Alabama have followed. A similar law has advanced in the Iowa legislature, and anti-abortion campaigners have vowed to promote such laws in more states next year.

Keep reading…

Different day, same oppression.

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Hundreds of Muslim protesters descended on a Jehovah’s Witness temple and a bar in a conservative Muslim neighborhood of the Senegalese capital on Sunday, setting the buildings on fire in a rare instance of religious extremism in the predominantly Muslim nation.

Thierno Mbeugne, spokesman for the local imam association, said the head imam in the conservative Yoff district of Dakar had asked the youths to march on Sunday against what they considered “acts of aggression against their faith.” They were targeting the temple because they claim its members were proselytizing, and the bar because it was selling alcohol.

He said the Islamic religious leaders did not endorse the violence, “but they do think that the youths were right” to destroy the church and the bar.

One of the rioters Mame Faye, 24, explained that the mob set upon the temple while churchgoers were praying inside before setting upon the bar.

Other witnesses, however, said that the hundreds of protesters burst into the establishment and began drinking the cans of beer. They then stripped the building, making off with the refrigerator, the air conditioners and the furniture. Then they set it on fire.

Mbeugne claimed that the head of the temple had been actively trying to convert locals. He said that under the cover of teaching English, she had started handing out crosses and Jehovah’s Witness literature.

Hell to the yeah!

(LWJ) — US Predators struck for the first time in a week in Pakistan’s Taliban-controlled tribal agency of South Waziristan today, killing 13 “militants,” according to reports from the region.

The remotely-piloted Predators or the more deadly Reapers fired four missiles at a vehicle traveling in the village of Kond Ghalay Pnaga in the Birmal area of South Waziristan. Thirteen “militants” were killed in the strike, according to SAMAA.

The target of the strike is unclear. The strike took place in an area close to the border of North Waziristan, and is used by fighters loyal to Taliban Hafiz Gul Bahadar as well as the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan.

Today’s strike is the first in Pakistan’s tribal areas since June 20, when Predators hit a Taliban training camp in the Kurram agency. The US has carried out 11 strikes in Pakistan this year, exceeding the previous monthly high of nine strikes in January. There were 3 strikes in February, seven in March, two in April, and seven in May. The previous four months, from September to December 2010, averaged almost 16 strikes per month (21 in September, 16 in October, 14 in November, and 12 in December).

Useful idiot extraordinaire.

(AFP/NOW Lebanon) — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad spoke Monday of the legitimate demands of his people during a meeting with visiting US congressman Dennis Kucinich, SANA state news agency said.

Assad told the anti-war Democratic Representative of “current events in Syria and the implementation of reforms” during their talks in Damascus, the agency reported.

The president told Kucinich that “Syrians have legitimate claims which the state is currently meeting and that armed groups have been exploiting these demands to create chaos and destabilize the country.”

Keep reading…

Bummer.

(WJC) — Six ships that were scheduled to take part in the Gaza-bound flotilla have been detained by Greek port authorities, the Israeli news website ‘Ynet’ reported. Senior officials in Jerusalem confirmed the report, which followed a decision by Greece on Sunday to stop the American vessel ‘Audacity of Hope from participating in the convoy. While the organizers claim that more than 1,500 activists are set to take part in this year’s flotilla, it now appears that no more than seven ships, carrying between 200 and 500 passengers, will set sail next week.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated that Israel would not allow any ship to breach its naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. Jerusalem believes that the dwindling extent of the sail can be largely attributed to the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s diplomatic efforts to stop the flotilla. “The Foreign Ministry is leading diplomatic efforts to delegitimize the flotilla in the eyes of the international community,” Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon said. “The world is aware that such sails are unnecessary, that they are just provocations which violate international law.” Ayalon added that Israel was still gearing to meet whichever vessels do end up participating in the flotilla.

On Monday, the Israeli Security Cabinet voted in favor of stopping the flotilla from breaching the maritime blockade and from reaching its shores. The senior ministers ordered the IDF to “adamantly” stop the sail should it try to breach the siege, while doing everything possible to spare human lives.

Be afraid, be very afraid.

Obama shifts from consensus to instincts on key calls — LA Times

In the first two years of Obama’s presidency, his top aides had grown accustomed to a process in which Obama drew out and explored the views of his full team and searched for a consensus — decision by ballot, some called it.

Increasingly, however, that process has changed, according to a wide group of Obama’s personal friends, informal advisors and top aides interviewed during the spring. In recent months, they say, the president has been relying more heavily on his own instincts and feeling less impelled to seek accord among advisors.

HT: Jim Geraghty

Nanny staters hardest hit.

(Human Events) — Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R. –Missouri) who chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee on financial services and general government, says her measure already moving through Congress would defund the panel’s work.

“I’m very concerned that the voluntary guidelines being promulgated by the Interagency Working Group would lead to extraordinary pressure from the federal government to restrict efforts to market healthy foods to the American public,” Emerson said.

The government says these are not regulations, but suggestions written by the Federal Trade Commission, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The intent is to combat childhood obesity, and if the guidelines are not followed to radically reduce sugar, sodium and fats then food companies should stop marketing their products to everyone under age 17, the government says. . . .

Industry officials say that marketing icons such as Tony the Tiger and Toucan Sam would become endangered species, that restaurants could no longer sponsor softball teams, and even advertising targeted at adults such as NASCAR sponsorships, would be eliminated, all at a loss of millions of dollars to the advertising as well as television industries.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, his son and his intelligence chief for crimes against humanity in the early days of their struggle to cling to power.

Judges announced Monday that Gadhafi is wanted for orchestrating the killing, injuring, arrest and imprisonment of hundreds of civilians during the first 12 days of an uprising to topple him from power after more than four decades, and for trying to cover up the alleged crimes.

The warrants turn Gadhafi, his son Seif al-Islam Gadhafi and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanoussi into internationally wanted suspects, potentially complicating any efforts to mediate an end to more than four months of intense fighting in the North African nation.

She went to Africa to meet with Oprah?

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) — First lady Michelle Obama met media mogul and friend Oprah Winfrey on Tuesday evening in South Africa, a White House official said, as the two women were visiting the country at the same time.

Obama is in the middle of a week-long tour of South Africa and Botswana, her second official solo visit abroad as first lady. Winfrey was in South Africa for an event related to her school, the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls.

Kristina Schake, Obama’s communications director, said the two women met at the first lady’s hotel in Johannesburg and ate together. Tuesday was Obama’s first full day in South Africa. She arrived on Monday night with her daughters and her mother.

Winfrey campaigned for President Barack Obama when he was a senator from Illinois running for the White House. She and the Obamas consider each other friends.

God forbid we upset the people we’re shedding blood and treasure for.

Via NRO:

Andy’s excellent article on Saturday argued, among other things, the absurdity of U.S. military efforts to follow Islamic law in our wars in the Muslim world.

It turns out that the civilian branch of the U.S. government is also doing its part to comply with Islamic law as part of the war effort. In a statement that could have been lifted from the website of the embassy of Saudi Arabia, the U.S. Postal Service website uses sharia guidelines to list what is forbidden in packages sent from America to U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan:

Military Mailing Restrictions

Learn what you should — and shouldn’t — send to our troops.

Before you send a letter or package to one of our military service members overseas, make sure you’re aware of the restrictions. Mail addressed to military and diplomatic post offices overseas is subject to certain conditions or restrictions regarding content, preparation, and handling. Although there are specific restrictions for each five-digit Military and Diplomatic Post Office ZIP Code (APO/FPO/DPO), generally, the following are prohibited in the region of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom:

Obscene articles (prints, paintings, cards, films, videotapes, etc) and horror comics.

Any matter depicting nude or seminude persons, pornographic or sexual items, or nonauthorized political materials.

Bulk quantities of religious materials contrary to the Islamic faith. Items for the personal use of the addressee are permissible.

Keep reading…

Example #4,980,672 America should withdraw from the UN and boot it off US soil.

(CNS News) — U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has come under fire for apparently endorsing an “anti-terrorism conference” hosted by Iran, at which the United States and Israel repeatedly were attacked and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reprised his 9/11 conspiracy claims.

Also attending the two-day event this past weekend in Tehran were leaders of three of the top six recipients of U.S. aid in fiscal year 2010 — Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.

According to Iranian state media and the “International Conference on the Global Fight Against Terrorism” Web site, a message from Ban was read out at the event, expressing the hope that the conference would “attain great goals.”

Multiple Iranian media reports on the conference highlighted the participation of the United Nations. The event’s Web site carries the U.N. logo alongside those of six other organizing entities — such as the conference secretariat and offices of Ahmadinejad and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — further implying U.N. involvement and endorsement.

This article doesn’t mention it, but this was the conference I posted about yesterday where Ahmadinnerjacket pushed his wacky Jooooish conspiracy theories.

(Ynet) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad questioned the September 11 terror attacks and compared them to the Holocaust on Saturday.

Speaking at an international conference on terrorism in Tehran, Ahmadinejad said: “If the black box of the 9/11 incident and Holocaust were opened, then some of the truth would be exposed, but the United States does not allow this.”

He further added: “There are those who believe that the goal of 9/11 was to revive the Zionist regime, reinforce stability in the region, divert US public opinion from the poor economic state. In terms of reference and benefits, 9/11 is very similar to the Holocaust.”

Democracy is by definition “un-Islamic.”

Shaykh ‘Abd-al-’Azim: I want to say that democracy is a bad idea. We should not feel ashamed to say it. It is a bad, backward, and retarded idea, which is taken from Greece. Democracy is spoken of like it’s a modern discovery.

Via Translating Jihad

Awesome.

(National Journal) — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signed a budget Sunday that cuts education and health clinics — including Planned Parenthood clinics — to plug a $3 billion shortfall without raising taxes, AP reported.

The two-year, $66 billion budget passed in the state legislature without a single Democratic vote.

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America denounced the budget, which eliminated state and federal funding for the organization’s clinics.

Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin says it has 27 health centers across the state, which provide birth control, cancer screenings, annual exams, and sexually transmitted disease testing and treatment to 73,000 patients every year.

Wisconsin is the fourth state to target Planned Parenthood because of conservative-led objections to the group’s abortion services — even though they are funded separately and make up a small fraction of the services Planned Parenthood provides.

Like herpes . . . “she” won’t go away.

(Daily Caller) — She might be gone, but she’s not completely forgotten. And now as a columnist for the Fall Church (Va.) News-Press, she might be making a comeback.

In an appearance at the Busboys & Poets bookstore in Washington, D.C. on Sunday afternoon, embattled former Hearst newspapers columnist Helen Thomas, once known as the dean of the White House press corps, said she misses her spot in the White House briefing room.

“Nothing can replace being there when you’re a reporter,” Thomas said. “Seeing with your own eyes — no, nothing can replace that. I was very lucky to cover history for so long.”

Thomas lost her spot in 2010 after making some ill-advised remarks some regarded as anti-Semitic. Anas “Andy” Shallal, the owner of Busboys & Poets and moderator for her appearance Sunday, followed up by asking her if she had reapplied for those credentials. According to Thomas, she said she had but hadn’t gotten an official response and assumed she had been denied.

For a job . . . errrr . . . well done?

(Mediaite) — Despite all the talk of belt-tightening in Washington, CNN’s Lisa Desjardins dug through many Congressional expense reports and discovered up to $6.1 million was paid out in bonuses to Congressional staff members during the beginning of the year, at the height of talks about a potential government shutdown. . . .

Even though Congressional staffers do not earn a high salary to begin with, the idea of taxpayer money being used for discretionary bonuses is sure to rub many people the wrong way.