Fausta’s Blog

Last night I while I was working on a long-term project I was listening to the PUMA’s No We Won’t podcast. Initially I wondered if it’d be yet another festivus of grienvances, but it wasn’t. It was a very interesting podcast where the women explained in detail how the Democrat nomination in several states was handed over to Obama. If you have the time, I suggest you listen to their podcasts.

Why? Because the Democrat convention’s only a few days away and there’s going to be a fight. Today, via Memeorandum, ABC News reports Sen. Hillary Clinton Seeks Democratic Convention Voice
Sen. Hillary Clinton Not Ruling Out Having Name Put Up for Vote in Denver

Sen. Hillary Clinton told a gathering of supporters last week that she’s looking for a “strategy” for her delegates to have their voices heard and “respected” at the Democratic National Convention — and did not rule out the possibility of having her name placed into nomination at the convention alongside Sen. Barack Obama’s.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton told a gathering of supporters last week that she’s looking for a “strategy” for her delegates to have their voices heard and “respected” at the Democratic National Convention where Sen. Barack Obama is expected to be nominated as the Democratic presidential candidate.

“I happen to believe that we will come out stronger if people feel that their voices were heard and their views were respected. I think that is a very big part of how we actually come out unified,” Clinton, D-N.Y., said at a California fundraiser last Thursday, in a video clip captured by an attendee and posted on YouTube.
…
The New York Daily News reported Friday that Clinton has decided not to submit a signed request to the DNC to have her name put into nomination; party rules require such a move for a candidate to be voted on.

But Clinton aides continue to say publicly that such details are still being discussed in consultations among the Clinton camp, the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

“No decisions have been made,” Clinton spokeswoman Kathleen Strand said.

The WaPo’s blog blog (via Media Lizzy) posted this video:

Hillary said,

“I happen to believe that we will come out stronger if people feel that their voices were heard and their views were respected,” she adds to a round of applause. “I know from just what I’m hearing that there’s incredible pent up desire, and I think that people want to feel that OK, it’s a catharsis, we’re here, we did it, and then everybody get behind Senator Obama.”

Catharsis indeed. Dennis Keohane asks, Could Obama lose the nomination?, and lists that in addition to the ABC news statement and the PUMA movement,

- Blogger Patterico alludes to the Hillary Clinton campaign burning up the phone lines to the super delegates.

Hillary sees and opening, and she’s going for it. There are plenty of reasons for her to do so.

Maria sent this article by Victor Davis Hanson on Hillary’s growing shadow, which has the photo of the not-quite “kiss and make up” Hillary and Obama:

VDH lists several of the reasons why Obama’s not quite the annointed:

Without evidence, he unwisely has claimed his opponents (”they”) will play the race card against poor him….
Second, many are beginning to notice how a Saint Obama talks down to them. …
Third, Obama knows that all doctrinaire liberals must tack rightward in the general election. But due to his inexperience, he’s doing it in far clumsier fashion than any triangulating candidate in memory. …
Fourth, Obama is proving as inept an extemporaneous speaker as he is gifted with the Teleprompter. …

And Hanson doesn’t even touch upon the Rezko case, the illegal donations from Gaza, and that Kenyan school Juliette’s helping out because Obama forgot.

As Vodkapundit says, It Ain’t Over Till the Wide-Hipped Lady Swings (For the Fences).

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You can listen to the podcast here
Colombian magazine Cambio researched the information on the FARC computers on Brazilian president Lula. In today’s podcast I translate the article, which you can read in Spanish at HACER’s website.

Chat’s open at 10:45AM, and the call in number is 646 652-2639. Join us!

Andy McCarthy, who prosecuted the perpetrators of the first World Trade Center attack, asks, So … Should Colombia Give the Hostages Back to the Terrorists?

The International Committee of the Red Cross is in a snit over Colombia’s use of its emblem during the brilliant rescue operation that freed Ingrid Betancourt and other hostages from the FARC terrorist group.
…
The ICRC doesn’t have much to say when, for example, Palestinian terrorists use its resources as cover to transport terrorists and explosives (see this 2004 WND report from Michelle Malkin). Why squawk about this one?

Taranto makes exactly the right point:

Maybe we’re dense, but it seems to us that rescuing civilian hostages from a terrorist group is a higher humanitarian priority than preventing unauthorized use of a trademark. The way the Red Cross interprets them, the Geneva Conventions seem almost quaint.

As I mentioned in this afternoon’s podcast, the hostage rescue mission was indeed carried peacefully and its purpose, which was met, was the rescue of prisoners which were held by an organization that had tortured those prisoners for years. It was indeed a humanitarian mission, and not a shot was fired. If the Colombian military wanted to kill the FARC members they could have.

As you can see in the newly-released videos of the hostage rescue, the Red Cross insignia was one of many used in order to make the helicopter look like the helicopters used by any of the many NGOs that routinely deal with the FARC.

Think about it: NGOs dealing with the FARC, a criminal and terrorist organization, use the Red Cross emblem. Why doesn’t the ICRC complain about that, too?

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Neoneocon has a beautiful essay on Fireflies and other childish pleasures.

She posts a photo of her cowgirl outfit, and look at those boots:

When we were little (little enough that my sister hadn’t been born yet) my brother and I cowboy/girl outfits. I was particularly proud of my cap pistols which were shiny and felt heavy to the hand, and of my cowgirl boots, which were black with red inserts.

Neo’s boots look like they had a 3-color pattern. To die for!

(Yes, I should be writing about American and Latin American politics. If you insist, go ahead and write about America exporting its culture. I’d rather think shoes right now.)

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As you can read from Hot Air and PJM, having made millions from the world’s most successful slideshow and his financial ties to global warming, Al’s bought himself a custom-made 100-foot houseboat, which he appropriately named, “Bio-Solar 1″. Yes. BS 1.

And the BS is gynormous.

Surely, Al would be using a 100-footer to cruise the seas?

Nope. To circle around a lake.
Center Hill Lake, Tenn., to be specific.

That’s Al’s idea of reducing the carbon footprint.

Steve Gill has the biofueled details on the BS1: Gore Hits the Waves with a Massive New Houseboat:

the engines are bio-diesel fueled and Gore can expect to use about two gallons an hour to cruise Center Hill Lake.

The marina where the BS is docked doesn’t sell biodiesel.

The solar panels have not yet been installed but are expected to arrive from Reno, Nevada “any day” and will be in working order “soon,” says Austin.

Until that day, the boat’s plugged to the regular outlet.

“This boat is going to be the Toyota Prius of the houseboat business,”

Custom-made yatch = $500,000 to $1,000,000. Toyota Prius = $21,500 to $23,770. Not quite “the Toyota Prius” ballpark.

I wonder if Al’s ready to give up the private jet. Or is that BS2?

Bonus
Al Gore really is a piece of work. Irish Spy has the image of ecosaintlyhood.

UPDATE
No Pasaran has the video.
Tim Blair points us to a vessel that needs to biofuels.

And it sails on the ocean, and it’s beautiful:

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I rarely post entire posts or articles, but you must follow the links from The Foundry

Political experts across the country keep asking why Barack Obama continues to conspicuously fail to cross the 50% threshold against John McCain despite the fact “Democrats enjoy the most favorable political winds since at least 1976.” It may have something to do with the fact that the top issues on voters’ minds this year are energy and the economy, and voters just are not buying the left’s solutions.

Look closely at the laundry list of plans the left has put forward (from both Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s House and Barack Obama’s campaign): higher taxes on oil companies, new restrictions on oil commodity markets, forcing oil companies to drill where there is no oil, releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, free money for everybody, increased fuel efficiency mandates, increased infrastructure spending, government investments in electric cars, etc. What do all of these “solutions” have in common? None of them increase our energy supply.

The latest Energy Information Administration (EIA) numbers show the U.S. currently has 986,000 megawatts of capacity to supply the nation’s demand for electricity. EIA predicts that over the next 20 years, the U.S. will need another 292,000 megawatts to keep the economy running. To meet that demand, EIA sees 54% and 36% of that new capacity coming from coal and natural gas power plants. Currently, solar, wind and geothermal power contribute only 1% of our nation’s energy. There is simply no way these sources can produce enough electricity to meet the energy needs of a growing U.S. economy.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is telling reporters that the left has just recently “found our sea legs“on the energy issue. Schumer’s favorite new tactic: “a new theme portraying GOP support for drilling as a giveaway to big oil companies.” Like all the other tactics the left has tried on energy, this one also does nothing to increase energy supply. But Schumer does have a point, the United States needs a lot more than more oil drilling to meet its energy needs. But only conservatives are offering solutions that include more energy.

The plans coming from John McCain and congressional conservatives have their differences (McCain still does not support drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge), but they both share one thing in common: they take an “all of the above” approach to expanding U.S. energy supply. Many conservatives are less than impressed with McCain’s arbitrary target of 45 new nuclear power plants (we prefer a free market approach to reviving the nuclear industry), but at least McCain is paying more than lip service to nuclear’s future.

Obama’s energy plan calls for “1 million Plug-In Hybrid cars” by 2015. Where does he think these cars will get the electricity needed to run? We suggest he start looking in all the federal lands that his environmental allies have restricted from natural gas production. The EIA estimates there are 83.9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in these areas alone.

Pop quiz: Who said it, Obama or Carter?

Bundlers, again: Big Donors Are a Major Force in Obama Campaign. Help me help you.

The audacity of ego.

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Another must-read: How General Petraeus saved the US economy.

The Balkan Mess Has Just Gotten Messier: Information Versus Disinformation

Let’s play “if Israel did this”

More blogging later.

Government-provided healthcare fails again:
Hospitals ‘infested with vermin’

The cleanliness of most NHS hospitals in England is threatened by frequent invasions of rats, fleas, bedbugs, flies and cockroaches, a report claims.

Figures released by the Conservatives show that 70% of NHS Trusts brought in the pest controllers at least 50 times between January 2006 and March 2008.

It’s one thing if the exterminators are there for regular maintenance. It’s another thing altogether when it’s because the hospital is invaded by the critters.

That’s bad enough. Cause for alarm:

Vermin were found in wards, clinics and even operating theatres. A patients’ group said the situation was revolting.

But health chiefs played down fears the infestations could lead to disease.

Excuse me?? Vermin in the operating room, and the bureaucrats are “playing down fears” it could lead to disease?? This is what we’re talking about:

VERMIN IN HOSPITALS:
Maggots in a patient’s slippers
Fleas in a neonatal unit
Sterile store infested with mice
Mouse droppings in a clinic
Wasp nest in A&E

A&E stands for accident and emergency (not the American cable TV channel). Among the other repugnant creatures found in Britain’s socialist hospitals are mice, silverfish, beetles, and bureaucrats.

Biased BBC notes how the dirt gets mentioned last.

Rats.

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with Rick Moran and Sister Toldjah in Rick’s podcast.

Bruce Ivins Wasn’t the Anthrax Culprit

Over the past week the media was gripped by the news that the FBI was about to charge Bruce Ivins, a leading anthrax expert, as the man responsible for the anthrax letter attacks in September/October 2001.

But despite the seemingly powerful narrative that Ivins committed suicide because investigators were closing in, this is still far from a shut case. The FBI needs to explain why it zeroed in on Ivins, how he could have made the anthrax mailed to lawmakers and the media, and how he (or anyone else) could have pulled off the attacks, acting alone.

You must read that article, which concludes,

From what we know so far, Bruce Ivins, although potentially a brilliant scientist, was not that man. The multiple disciplines and technologies required to make the anthrax in this case do not exist at Army’s Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. Inhalation studies are conducted at the institute, but they are done using liquid preparations, not powdered products.

Many questions, not enough answers.

And the letters were mailed less than two miles from where I’m writing this post.

UPDATE
Anthrax Dryer a Key To Probe
Suspect Borrowed Device From Lab

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