Happy New Year 2010
[Guest post by DRJ] New Year’s wishes go to our Eastern Time Zone and foreign friends, but it won’t be long until everyone will be celebrating in 2010. And check back soon for Patterico’s 2009 LA Dog Trainer Year-in-Review. – DRJ
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Entries posted on “December, 2009”
Karl Rove’s New Year Resolutions for Obama and the Democrats
Words of snark from the architect.
Obamacare author muses about prison life
Congressman’s husband waxes poetic about lessons he learned in prison camp.
NBC’s Robach: ‘Will [Palin] Ever Just Go Away?’
On the December 26 Saturday Today, as NBC anchor Amy Robach brought up Sarah Palin during a segment on people who made the news in 2009, Robach sounded as if she might have had a wish that Palin disappear from public view as ahs asked if Palin would “ever just go away?” Robach: “And, Brian, another big political story, the rise and fall of Sarah Palin, and yet she continues to grab headlines. Her new book came out. Will she ever just go away? Do you think she’s going to be a big force this next year?” Comedian Brian Balthazar seemed to want Palin to remain in public to be fodder for jokes as he contended that “when she opens her mouth, people pay attention. And, in fact, when she opens her mouth, often she doesn’t stop, so it, there’s so much to work with with Sarah. She’s not going away.” Robach, possibly hinting that she also sees Palin as either a good source for humor or for the news industry which she is a part of, followed up by posing a question to NBC contributor Toure. Robach: “And, Toure, do we really want her to go away? Probably not.” Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the December 26 Saturday Today show on NBC: AMY ROBACH: And, Brian, another big political story, the rise and fall of Sarah Palin, and yet she continues to grab headlines. Her new book came out
Rocket Launcher & Jihadist Writings Found in Houston Apartment
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A rocket launcher and jihadist writings were found in a Houston apartment today. The launcher reportedly belongs to Nabilaye I. Yansane seen here at court earlier this week. Click2Houston reported: Police went to a southwest Houston apartment to break up a disturbance but ended up finding something else, KPRC Local 2 reported Wednesday. A woman called police on Monday and said a man was forcing his way into her apartment in the 5300 block of Elm Street. When officers went inside, they found something that made them concerned enough to call the bomb squad
Radio Equalizer: Limbaugh Hospitalization Brings Out the Hate Brigade
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“Reports of a health scare involving talk titan Rush Limbaugh late Wednesday has fans filled with worry, while liberal foes respond with the usual vitriol,” Brian Maloney observed Thursday as he tracked the vitriol : > Some of the meanest comments found at Washington Post > Timing is everything: Tina Brown rips Limbaugh on Today show > Obamacentric: CNN’s Ed Henry sees health scare in context of Barack’s trip to Hawaii > Orbusmax: Seattle Times forced to remove nearly 50% of Rush-related comments > Liberal columnist implores Left to ’stop wishing Limbaugh dead’ > More Twitter hate
Thanks. And Happy New Year!
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From all of us at TPM, thank you. To our readers for returning again and again, for helping us with our stories and being part of our team. From me, thanks to our amazing, kick-ass TPM staff. Our best year ever and we’ve got a lot more to come next year. Happy New Year. We’ll see you in 2010.
Interrogating Abdulmutallab
[Guest post by DRJ] The United States has filed a federal criminal complaint against Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab , charging him with attempting to destroy a Northwest Airlines plane by detonating a high-explosive device. Abdulmutallab has undoubtedly been advised of his Miranda rights and at his initial court hearing, Abdulmutallab told the court he didn’t have funds for an attorney. The judge said the court would assign him one. Victoria Toensing notes important questions that U.S. intelligence needs to ask Abdulmutallab: “Questions need to be answered. Where was Abdulmutallab trained? Who trained him? Where is the training facility located?
Happy New Year! from the Patriot Room
It’s finally here! Mid-term election year! Let’s kick some liberal ass! 41 House seats – minimum 6 Senate seats. Let’s party like it’s 1994! Happy New Year, everyone!
Judge tosses Blackwater case in Baghdad shooting
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Happy New Year! A federal judge dismissed all charges Thursday against five Blackwater Worldwide security guards accused of killing unarmed Iraqi civilians in a crowded Baghdad intersection in 2007.
Go figure: Mayo Clinic in Arizona to Stop Treating Some Medicare Patients
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Anyone surprised? “The Mayo Clinic, praised by President Barack Obama as a national model for efficient health care, will stop accepting Medicare patients as of tomorrow at one of its primary-care clinics in Arizona, saying the U.S. government pays too little.
Happy New Year!
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I spent an hour this morning on the radio with Bill Bennett and his producer Seth Leibsohn, talking about the highlights and lowlights of 2009. It was fun as always, and, even though 2009 was not a great year by anyone’s standard, in the end I think it was more positive than negative. Two overarching and intertwined stories dominated the news this year, one bad and one good. The bad theme was, of course, the Washington Democrats’ attack on our free enterprise system and on our liberties. The attack was broad-based and unremitting, encompassing the stimulus, TARP II, government medicine, cap and trade, card check and much more. But the good news of 2009 was how the American people pushed back: town halls, tea parties, plummeting poll numbers for President Obama and the Congressional Democrats, and unified Republican opposition in Congress. Above all, though, the opposition came from individual Americans who refused to surrender their hard-won independence without a fight. In hindsight, I think 2009 will be remembered as the year when the conservative movement reawakened
Kings, Villains, and the Personage
I was re-reading Roger Zelazny’s Amber Chronicles this week, and it occurred to me to wonder about an eternal country built on what amounted to a feudal system. The problem…
Sarah Palin, Man of the Year?
[Guest post by DRJ] Sarah Palin, Don Surber’s “2009 Man of the Year” Surber considers several candidates and explains why he chose Sarah Palin . And here’s my reminder why she’d make a good Republican Presidential candidate: Palin is the anti-Obama . H/T Instapundit . – DRJ
Quote of the year
I’m going to make you vote this one out, but feel free to suggest your own in the comments. Read the rest
Matter of interest
Here is the original post:
Matter of interest
TSA Backs off Demand of Immediate Response On Leak
See the article here:
TSA Backs off Demand of Immediate Response On Leak
Working Hard to Protect Americans
[Guest post by DRJ] A quote from an unnamed Obama official as the Administration strives to show how engaged Obama is in dealing with the the Christmas Day terrorist attack on Northwest Flight 253, including how “Obama is balancing his leisure activities with appropriate attention to his job”: “[Obama is] continuing to learn new things … and is continuing to ask a lot of probing questions,” the official said. A commenter we know replies: “I always love it when his own admin people have to puff him up by saying things like he’s asking “probing” questions.” Posted by: MayBee | Dec 31, 2009 7:20:26 PM Note to MayBee: I’m really not following you. I read the article, noticed the good comment, and lo and behold it was you. – DRJ
How Dirty Can You Get?
The London Times gives the suicide bombing that killed seven CIA operatives this lurid billing: “CIA caught in dirty and secretive war against al-Qaeda on Afghan border.” The article is interesting, but fails to live up to its billing as it offers no evidence that the Agency was “caught” as a result of this successful terrorist attack: Forward Operating Base Chapman, and others like it along the border, are the forward edge of American military and intelligence counter-terrorism operations, aimed principally at hunting down senior figures in al-Qaeda and their allies in the Taleban hiding in the lawless tribal belt. The CIA’s main strike weapons are the drones that loiter over the border areas 24 hours a day, watching and listening to telephone networks. While the drones provide surveillance and electronic intelligence and carry out strikes, human intelligence is far harder to acquire among remote communities suspicious of any outsider. Then there are the night raids against suspected insurgent and al-Qaeda linked leaders. It was an operation by what are euphemistically called “other government agencies” that was alleged to have killed a number of students in Kunar province on Saturday, causing widespread anger in Afghanistan. … Such units answer directly to the Pentagon rather than to the Nato command structure, and their operations are often so secretive that even other US forces operating nearby are sometimesmay be unaware of them. Which sounds fine to me. You have to read to the end to find out how successful the Agency’s operations have been: Such has been the effectiveness of strikes on the terrorist command structure that there are persistent reports of al-Qaeda leadership figures relocating to urban areas in Pakistan and shifting the focus of their operations towards Yemen, Somalia and other areas of the Horn of Africa
A question that needs to be answered
Of all the post mortems that have followed the attempted Christmas bombing of the Delta airliner, the weakest in my view is the criticism of Senator Jim DeMint for having placed a legislative hold on Erroll Southers, the nominee for head of the Transportation Security Agency. The notion, I guess, is that if only the TSA had a director, instead of just an acting director, the Nigerian bomber would not have made it onto the plane. But we had a Director of National Intelligence and a CIA director, and that seems to have made no difference. Other things being equal, it’s better that the TSA have a head, rather than an acting head. But it’s more important that the person in charge of the TSA be a good choice for the job. That’s why Sen. DeMint has done a service by placing a hold on Southers.