The fix is in

During the 2008 presidential election cycle, I wrote over 60 posts — including extensive analysis of the primaries and conventions — at my personal blog, The Vulture Lurks (recommended by 4 out of 5 curmudgeons). So far this election cycle I’ve written a handful of minor posts. Why the drop-off? That’s easy. This isn’t an election we’re witnessing. It’s a coronation, at least on the Team Elephant side of the ledger.

Why would I call it a coronation? How could I call it a coronation when there is no clear front-runner and the first primary hasn’t even occurred yet? Follow along as I read the tea leaves.

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Conservative media: Fox News (“fair” and “balanced”) is in the tank for Romney. Big time. Some of Fox’s so-called analysts are so far up Romney’s butt that they taste his lunch mere seconds after he does.

Fox has proclaimed Romney winner of nearly all of the debates. Yet after one of the debates, Michele Bachmann surged into the lead in the polls. After another, it was Herman Cain. After yet another, it was Newt Gingrich. You should be getting the idea by now. No matter Romney’s showing, he’s the winner.

Every time Fox gets on the subject of the “Primary front runners”, Romney’s name is first on their lips. No matter where he is in the latest polling, first, second, even FOURTH, he is always “a front runner”. Meanwhile, if he is first or second, NO ONE beyond second place gets a mention. Hell, when he was in fourth place in an Iowa poll recently, the candidate ahead of him, Ron Paul, was omitted from mention in the front runners discussion. But not Mitt.

Talk radio isn’t quite as blatant; in fact, many talk show hosts are reluctant to be seen as endorsing anyone, such is the general distaste for Romney among the listening public. But almost without fail, all talk show hosts assert that no matter who the Republican nominee is, no matter how much they might deviate from conservative principles, we HAVE TO vote for them – ANYONE but Obama. Never mind that a vote for Romney is a vote for “Obama-lite”. You gotta do it!

Columnists of various stripes have wandered hither and yon regarding Romney. But two powerhouse conservative pundits have lined up foursquare behind him: Ann Coulter and Charles Krauthammer. Both of these two alleged conservatives have shelved principle and gone with “electable” as be-all/end-all for their candidate. Never mind that it was said of Ronald Reagan in 1980 that he was unelectable. This is different.

Bang the war drums: Every candidate still in the race, with the exception of Ron Paul, is obsessed with proving their warrior bona fides. “I would go to war with Iran NOW!”, one after another will thunder. The audience (God help us!) eats that shit up. It would appear that so-called conservatives have bought into the propaganda that never-ending pre-emptive war is “defense”. Again, God help us!

One is left in amazement that a candidate can spew vitriol with regards to all of the wasteful spending in Washington, and yet opine that the military, estimated to hit around $1.4 TRILLION in spending in 2012, needs to be beefed up. We’re drowning in debt, but without war-without-end and the trillions of dollars it requires, we’re going to be overrun by cave-dwelling terrorists, and conquered.

The military-industrial complex lives and thrives.

The Team Elephant elite: They’ve made it clear for over a year – Romney is their guy. I suppose they’d settle for Gingrich in a pinch (much as they settled for McCommie last cycle, when Rudy Giuliani was their preference). But they’re adamant. It WILL be Romney or an equally conviction-free statist. Period.

Do you really think the attacks on Governor Perry Gardacil, Herman Cain, and Michele Bachmann happened because Big Media (the BM for short) hates “real” conservatives and wanted to destroy them? Those attacks were friendly fire. Those attacks were orchestrated. Don’t be surprised if Newt succumbs to something similar to what happened to Cain between now and mid-January.

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“Okay, Vulture. You believe there’s a coronation afoot. What do you say we do about it, smart guy?”

What CAN we do? Truthfully, we in the West have gone so far down the slippery slope to ruin that I don’t think it matters any more who we elect.We might crash and burn and start to recover sooner with one candidate over another.

But crash and burn we shall.

The REAL reason the Islamic extremists hate us… (Part II)

Another reason why the Islamic extremists hate us:

[Daily Mail] –  It is easy to forget what’s going on in the world around you when busting a move on the dance floor.

But a U.S. Army soldier appears to remain completely oblivious as he dances on a tank – even when two missiles fire past close behind him.

In a YouTube video that has been watched nearly half a million times in four days, the soldier is shown dancing in full army gear on top of a M1068 mobile command centre.

As he gets into the rhythm of the Tom Jones hit ‘It’s Not Unusual’ – showing off his moves and swinging his hands from side to side – a rocket suddenly rushes through the sky.

But like a true dance professional the soldier does not flinch and carries on with his routine completely unfazed.

Even when a second rocket fires close to his roof-top position, he continues to boogie with flare and style.

Dressed in helmet, boots and full combat gear, the soldier seems completely unaware of what is going on behind him.

The dancing solider is seen dancing ‘The Carlton’ dance made famous by television show Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

The funky moves became popular and were called ‘the funniest dance in the world’ after being performed by the character Carlton played by actor Alfonso Ribeiro on the cult show.

Taking credit

Amidst all of the happy talk following the death of Usama bin Laden, there is a telling tale of the true nature of our dear President, Il Duce.  In his press conference Sunday night, he made a big show of highlighting his decisiveness and his role in the military action.

Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad Pakistan.

Uh, yeah…about that…

The operation was at this time effectively unknown to President Barack Obama or Valerie Jarrett and it remained that way until AFTER it had already been initiated. President Obama was literally pulled from a golf outing and escorted back to the White House to be informed of the mission. Upon his arrival there was a briefing held which included Bill Daley, John Brennan, and a high ranking member of the military. When Obama emerged from the briefing, he was described as looking “very confused and uncertain.” The president was then placed in the situation room where several of the players in this event had already been watching the operation unfold. Another interesting tidbit regarding this is that the Vice President was already “up to speed” on the operation. A source indicated they believe Hillary Clinton had personally made certain the Vice President was made aware of that day’s events before the president was. The now famous photo released shows the particulars of that of that room and its occupants. What that photo does not communicate directly is that the military personnel present in that room during the operation unfolding, deferred to either Hillary Clinton or Robert Gates. The president’s role was minimal, including their acknowledging of his presence in the room.

At my direction? Uh-huh.

One need only take a look at the photograph of the situation room to know what Il Duce’s role in the event was. It’s standard meeting protocol; the people who are directly involved in decision making have a seat at the table, and everyone else grabs a chair where they can. Vice President Hairplugs and Succubus of State Clinton have a seat at the table; they are in on the decision making. Obama’s seat indicates spectator status.

As if we should be surprised…

Oh my….Bomb Explosion at Iranian Mosque Kills at Least 9

Fox News

Exclusive: Barak calls off German trip next week as Damascus raises war alarm

Israel’s security cabinet convened Wednesday, April 2, to examine the homeland’s preparedness for war. It decided to redistribute the bio/chemical warfare masks a few months after they were called in. DEBKAfile’s military sources disclose intelligence data indicating the possibility that Syria may transfer to Hizballah chemical or biological warheads known to have been developed for its war arsenal.

A few hours earlier, the London-based al Quds al-Arabi quoted Damascus officials as claiming that Israel is preparing a big attack on Syria and Hizballah. Syria was said to have ordered a partial call-up of its military reserves.

DEBKAfilereports that Damascus has placed its missile units on the alert after last week deploying two armored brigades on the Beirut-Damascus highway under the command of President Bashar Assad’s young brother Maher Assad, chief of the presidential guard. They were posted there to block the road in case Israeli armored columns attempted to reach Damascus through Lebanon.

Our sources also note Syria plans to release the findings of its inquiry into the death of Hizballah leader Imad Mughniyeh in February. Sources close to Israel’s defense minister Ehud Barak report he called off his trip to Germany next week because he expects Damascus to use those findings to put Hizballah on the spot where it can no longer duck exacting revenge for his death from Israel, which is held responsible for his death.

IDF sources report Iran has sent Syria state of the art equipment for surveillance and eavesdropping on Israeli military command centers and bases.

Israel’s home defense command scheduled April 6-10 a nationwide exercise to improve the home front’s readiness for emergencies. Warning sirens will be tested on April 8.

Tuesday, Barak toured Israel’s northern border and reported “a great deal of activity on the other side.” He added:”…we are learning the lessons of the last war, Israel is the strongest country in the region and I would not advise anyone on the other side to test us.”

In their briefing to the Knesset foreign affairs and security committee Tuesday morning, IDF intelligence officers confirmed intense Hizballah activity, much of it in South Lebanon by operatives in civilian disguise. The officers referred to the Lebanese Shiite terror group’s rearmament with more powerful and longer-range rockets.

On March 22, DEBKAfile first revealed that Hizballah had more than trebled its pre-war rocket arsenal.

“Some of their 40,000 rockets of Syrian and Iranian manufacture can hit Israeli targets as far south as Beersheba, 350 km. away. Not only has Tel Aviv come within range, but Hizballah and the Palestinian Hamas in Gaza can between them now cover most of Israel up to its southernmost tip at Eilat. The possibility is now under consideration that these rockets may be armed with Syrian non-conventional warheads.

Will some one please..Flatten these people. Sick and God Damn tired of Syrians, Persians, their friends that launch rockets, wear bomb belts, train children to become martyrs…Let’s get it over with..done, finished, the end.

DEBKA

Breaking News: Al-Sadr Calls for Million-Strong Demonstration Against U.S. ‘Occupation’ in Iraq on April 9

More to be issued…  http://www.foxnews.com/

No one has killed this fat smelly son of a whore yet.

 UPDATE:

No additional information of this “Breaking News” story, has been reported by Fox News. Why? I have no idea. They “Report”, ‘You Guess’.

FINALLY…the rest of the story.

Reuters

Iraq Journal: The Liberation of Karmah, Part II

The small city of Karmah sits between Fallujah and Baghdad, two Iraqi cities that have suffered more insurgent and terrorist violence than most. Karmah, however, was more hard-hit than either. It’s right on the bleeding edge of Anbar Province where the outskirts of Baghdad taper away. Unlike Fallujah, it has no hard perimeter to defend, nor was it considered a top priority for counterinsurgency operations. Surge forces in Baghdad drove Al Qaeda in Iraq members out of the capital’s neighborhoods and straight into Karmah during most of 2007.

Al Qaeda in Iraq did in Karmah what they have done everywhere else – intimidated and murdered civilians into submission. They decapitated police officers and placed severed heads all over the city. They destroyed the homes of anyone who opposed them. The message was clear: This is what will happen to you if you work with the Americans.

Great Read!

Michael J. Totten reporting for Fox News

Breaking News >> British Defense Secretary Postpones Plans to Withdraw 1,500 Troops From Iraq

From Fox News

Guess the religion: “Beat up infidel tourists, says cleric”

Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who was convicted of conspiracy over the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, but was later cleared and released from prison, has some instructions for his young followers in The Religion of Peace.

Bashir, the co-founder of the Jemaah Islamiah terrorist network, recently feted extremists blamed for Indonesian bombings as “counter-terrorists” who he says are role models for other Muslims.

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Here is an excerpt from the report in The Australian, March 24 2008:

ISLAMIC cleric Abu Bakar Bashir has returned to his hardline rhetoric with a call for followers to beat up Western tourists and for young Muslims to die as martyrs.

In the sermon, organised by an Islamic youth organisation and delivered a few kilometres from the home village of convicted Bali bombers Amrozi and Mukhlas, Bashir likened tourists in Bali to “worms, snakes, maggots”, and specifically referred to the immorality of Australian infidels.

The address was caught on video by an Australian university student.

“The youth movement here must aspire to a martyrdom death,” said the
“The young must be first at the front line – don’t hide at the back. You must be at the front, die as martyrs and all your sins will be forgiven. This is how to achieve forgiveness.”

• Meanwhile, Robert Fisk claims that “There is no connection between Islam and ‘terror’.” (‘scare quotes’ his)

More on Saddam and the Terrorists. LIES all lies, just ask any indoctrinated (by their own choice) Leftist. Should any want to dirty their eyeballs and then have to wash, rinse and dry your computer/laptop, just visit The Daily InterKos. OH and to be fair, some conspiratorial extreme right wing nut houses.

The Washington Times reports on the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) paper on Saddam Hussein’s connections with terrorist groups, which we’ve already commented on a number of times. The IDA report concludes that “Iraq was a long-standing supporter of international terrorism”:

“Many terrorist movements and Saddam found a common enemy in the United States,” said the report. “State sponsorship of terrorism became such a routine tool of state power that Iraq developed elaborate bureaucratic processes to monitor progress and accountability.”

Zawahiri’s Islamic Jihad group, which merged into al Qaeda with Zawahiri as al Qaeda’s number two leader, worked closely with Iraqi intelligence and received Iraqi help in organizing terrorist attacks. So the IDA report, which is based on a review of only a fraction of the Iraqi intelligence documents that are now available, confirms the threat to the U.S. and its allies that was posed by cooperation between Saddam’s regime and Islamic terrorist groups. It’s hard not to agree with Rep. Pete Hoekstra:

Mr. Hoekstra bemoaned the White House’s refusal to highlight the Islamic Jihad-Saddam connection, or, for that matter, recent disclosures that Saddam told his FBI interrogator that he planned to resume production of weapons of mass destruction.”It just points out from my standpoint how pathetic this administration has been in really talking to the American people about the threat from radical jihadists in general and what was going on in Iraq in particular,” he said.

White House spokesmen did not return calls seeking comment on the IDA report.

SCOTT adds: Tom Joscelyn writes to comment:

Unfortunately, I think this Washington Times account shows how much confusion there still is regarding al Qaeda. There is a subheading in the article that reads “Al Qaeda out” and the article goes on to explain that the IPP study found no “no direct operational link” between Saddam’s Iraq and al Qaeda. That’s true, the report does have one throw away line in the executive summary that says that. But it is also highly misleading and based on a false premise. Then, under another subheading that reads “Egypt jihad in,” the article explains how the IPP study found that Saddam’s regime had an “an alliance with Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ)” dating to the early 1990’s. The second point is true, and it also directly contradicts the first.

Here is where the confusion comes in. The EIJ, as anyone who has studied al Qaeda knows, is as much “al Qaeda” as Osama bin Laden himself ever was. A number of accounts have pointed out that the EIJ merged with al Qaeda in 1998 (or not fully until 2001, depending on who you talk to). The implication being that the EIJ wasn’t really “al Qaeda” until that time. This is nonsense for a lot of reasons.

The EIJ and its leader, Ayman al Zawahiri, who is al Qaeda’s #2, have worked closely with bin Laden since the mid-1980’s. There is ample evidence of this close working relationship from then on. Montasser al-Zayyat, an Islamist attorney in Egypt who represented Zawahiri’s terrorist colleagues in court, has explained this in his book The Road to al-Qaeda. Zayyat writes: “Zawahiri managed to introduce drastic changes to Osama bin Laden’s philiosophy after they first met in Afghanistan in the middle of 1986, mainly because of the friendship that developed between them. Zawahiri convinced bin Laden of his jihadi approach, turning him from a funamentalist preacher whose main concern was relief work, into a jihadi fighter, clashing with despots and American troops in the Arab world. Zawahiri gave bin Laden some of his closes confidants to help him. They [EIJ members] later became the main figures in bin Laden’s al-Qaeda.” Zayyat goes on to recount how the influence went both ways, but clearly Zawahiri was an important influence on bin Laden early on. There is much more, of course. Lawrence Wright documents the close dealings between the EIJ and bin Laden from the late 1980’s on in The Looming Tower. Regardless of when the EIJ “formally” merged with bin Laden, whether you want to claim it was 1998 or 2001 or whenever, the two were working hand-in-glove long before – since the mid to late 1980’s. They cooperated on attacks, in al Qaeda’s founding in the late 1980’s, shared the same financing and training infrastructure, etc. Bin Laden even put the EIJ’s members on his payroll in the late 1980’s.

The point is that it takes a special brand of myopia to claim that a significant relationship between Saddam’s regime and the EIJ does not somehow represent a “direct connection” to al Qaeda. Zawahiri and the EIJ are as much ‘al Qaeda’ as bin Laden ever was.

And now, thanks to the recently released Iraqi Intelligence documents, we know that Saddam had a working relationship with the EIJ going back to at least 1990.

Power Line

Hamas Threatens to Overrun Israeli Border Next….Good Luck! Courtesy, missredi.

(IsraelNN.com) Encouraged by their success in breaking through the Egyptian border with Gaza last week, a Hamas spokesman has threatened to gather 500,000 Palestinian Authority residents of the region for a similar assault on the perimeter fence dividing southern Israel from PA-controlled Gaza.

Ahmad Yousef, political advisor to the Gaza-based PA leader Ismail Haniyeh, called the fall of the barrier between Egyptian Sinai and Gaza last week a sign of the start of “a third Intifada.” Speaking with the PA’s Bethlehem-based Maan news agency, Yousef said the next stage in such a campaign could involve thousands of Gazan Arabs swarming the IDF-controlled Erez Crossing between Israel and and the PA in an effort to attract international support.

Meanwhile, Hamas militia forces cooperated with Egyptian soldiers on Monday in closing one of three gaps in the security barrier in the city of Rafiah, which straddles the Egyptian-Gaza border. Barbed wire was strung across a section of the separation wall known as the Brazil Gate; however, the main gate in the area remained open, allowing Gaza Arabs to continue to enter Egyptian towns unimpeded. Last week, when Egyptian forces attempted to close the border on their own, a PA bulldozer knocked a new opening in the separation wall.

The partial border control collaboration comes after Egyptian security forces ordered all stores in El-Arish, bordering the Gaza region, to close as of Sunday. Trucks loaded with goods and supplies were prevented from leaving El-Arish towards Rafiah. The move deprived PA Arabs who had charged into the Sinai from Gaza during the past week of a central economic incentive for their having done so.

Arutz Sheva

You know Yousef, if you people spent as much time trying to build a decent and civilized society, as you do trying “to attract international support“, (which you already have, financially. You get millions and millions from damn near everyone, including your Islamic bretheren) some may even grow to like you people.

Yes Yousef, that includes your Islamic bretheren. ‘They’ don’t even like you, it is the reason they try to kick your asses out of every freakin’ Islamic nation, there is. Yousef, get a clue. That is the reason ‘they’ send you millions and millions and millions of dollars. ‘They’ pay you to stay the hell out of where ‘they’ kicked your asses out of.

By the way Yousef, what happens to all that money, beside spending it on weapons from Persia, the new Tsar of Russia, Vladimir, etc, etc? Yousef you don’t spend it on the people you profess to care about, for if your did, why would they be breaking walls down at the border of Egypt trying to buy FOOD?

Something tells me Yousef, you have Swiss banking accounts that you stuff that money in, while those you say you are devoted to, STARVE!

Idiots Everywhere

Melbourne has it’s share of idiots and moonbats, but Marrickville Council up in Sydney must have borrowed moonbats from all kinds of places, to come up with some of their schemes. Like this one.

Personally, I think if you kill 202 people, you deserve to cop some real justice.

2008: Year of the Moonbat?

South Australian Premier Mike Rann has called for David Hicks to apologize for his Taliban training and terrorist sympathies. In response, here are some words of wisdom from a commenter at abc.net

Hicks never trained with al-Qaeda, there was no al-Qaeda until 9/11.The term al-Qaeda was thought up by the CIA, who has subsequently admitted doing so. The falsehood was started in January 2001 by Jamal al Fadl, a Sudanese who had been with Bin Laden in the early 1990s. Jamal al Fadl stole money from Bin Laden, and then sought protection in the USA. The FBI and CIA paid him hundreds of thousands of dollars to create the al-Qaeda fiction. In fact, al Fadl invented the name al-Qaeda.Osama Bin Laden never used the term al-Qaeda until after 9/11, when he realized that al-Qaeda was the term the Americans had invented for him.

This is all about oil, a consortium represented by George W Bush’s father met with the Taliban to discuss the construction of a pipeline through Afghanistan to convey oil from Azerbaijan to a port in Pakistan, where it was to be tankered directly to the US. This consortium’s proposal was rejected by the Taliban, who gave the rights to the pipeline to Brazil. Thus the Taliban became the world’s enemy #1 according to the US.

If the Taliban had agreed to Bush snr’s proposal Hicks would have been a friend of the US, not an enemy. The invasion of Afghanistan and later Iraq would never have happened, and life as we know it would not have changed in any way.

U.S. and British policies like apartheid-era government: Tutu

OH, PUHLEEZE !

By Wendell Roelf

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) – Archbishop Desmond Tutu accused the United States and Britain on Monday of pursuing policies like those of South Africa’s apartheid-era government by detaining terrorism suspects without trial.

At an event to commemorate the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UNDR), the Nobel laureate said the detention of suspected al Qaeda and Taliban members at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was a “huge blot on a democracy”.

“Whoever imagined that you would hear from the United States and from Britain the same arguments for detention without trial that were used by the apartheid government,” Tutu told a news conference in Cape Town.

Do read on….IF you feel you must.

Reuters via Breitbart