Blog Heap of Links for the day 16 July 2011

Laura Ingraham presented a remix, of sorts, juxtaposing portions of former President Jimmy Carter's 1979 "Malaise Speech" (also known as his "Crisis of Confidence Speech" or, perhaps, his "Generally Terrible Stuff Speech") with recent comments made by President Barack Obama.

First up is Eric Holder. He is gonna fall. Watch for Holder news — it's coming. They are gonna fight hard to keep him in there. He's done a hell of a job keeping the lid on so much sh-t. But that's about to change. I ain't saying I trust Issa, but it's been explained to me that he knows that he's doing and it's getting done. So ok…I'll see if that's the case. Then it's on to 2012 with the information in hand that will be the result of Holder stepping down from the DOJ. It's gonna be a race to get it out there before the election, but we sure as hell are gonna try. And even if Obama manages to get his re-election, we will cripple him politically…we will trip him up enough, that his second term will be nowhere near the threat to the country that this one has been. And he may not be able to complete that second term. The information that will be forced into the hands of the media, the people, the party leaders, the donors…the man thinks he's under political pressure now? Just wait. They made a big mistake, and we got them. We got them…

Sean Hannity completely pwned Juan Williams last night on Hannity. Sean asked Williams to respond to Eric Cantor's comments on raising the debt ceiling. When Juan got through trashing Cantor, Hannity told him that actually those were Obama's comments from 2006. Watch Juan Williams' expression when he finds out he got totally pwned.

Oh, don't worry, says Barack Obluffer. To demonstrate how serious he is, he's offered to put on the table for fiscal year 2012 spending cuts of (stand well back now) $2 billion. That would be a lot in, say, Iceland or even Australia. Once upon a time it would have been a lot even in Washington. But today $2 billion is what the Brokest Nation in History borrows every 10 hours. In other words, in less time than he spends sitting across the table negotiating his $2 billion cut, he's already borrowed it all back. A negotiation with Obama is literally not worth the time.

Obama strode sternly into the White House and broke his own tacit rule of never mixing the nation's business with his own political strategy. "Whoever the Republican nominee is," he declared, " we're going to have a big serious debate about what we believe is the right way to guide American forward and to win the future." [Never mixes the nation's business with his own political strategy??? When has he ever done ANYTHING ELSE??] "And I'm confident that I will win that debate because ... we've got the better approach," he added. This came minutes after he accused Republicans of playing the same old "Washington" political games. [Another round of Alinsky, anyone?]

"With respect to senator McConnell's plan, as I said, I think it is a -- it is constructive to say that if Washington operates as usual and can't get anything done, let's at least avert armageddon. That's -- I'm glad that people are serious about the consequences of default." [President eloquence invokes religion, badly, again.]

Iran's intelligence minister said Friday that his country has found a way to block the so-called "Internet in a suitcase," a program reportedly developed by the U.S. to bring online access to dissidents around the world. The minister, Heidar Moslehi, told Muslim worshippers that Iran was aware of the program from the start. "We prepared a solution for it,"

Jane Fonda's scheduled appearance on QVC to promote her new memoir was canceled after the cable shopping channel got calls threatening boycotts over her Vietnam War protests, the actress wrote Saturday on her blog. ... Fonda blamed the cancellation on the "far right."

The House on Friday morning moved to block federal light bulb efficiency standards without even a roll call vote. ... forbids the Department of Energy from enforcing the standards in the next budget year. ... only fixes the problem through September 2012.

Lawmakers passed on a voice vote an amendment to energy-spending legislation for fiscal year 2012 barring the Energy Department from implementing or enforcing lighting-efficiency standards set by 2007 legislation.

Despite the fact that city authorities have temporarily dropped a case against Oak Park resident Julie Bass for growing a vegetable garden in her front yard after the story received nationwide attention, Bass has now been hit with a new criminal charge for owning unlicensed dogs, clear evidence says Bass that she's the victim of a vendetta.

Prior to the rise of the Taliban, women in Afghanistan were protected under law and increasingly afforded rights in Afghan society. Women received the right to vote in the 1920s; and as early as the 1960s, the Afghan constitution provided for equality for women. There was a mood of tolerance and openness as the country began moving toward democracy. ... [Afghanistan under the Taliban] Women are imprisoned in their homes, and are denied access to basic health care and education. Food sent to help starving people is stolen by their leaders. The religious monuments of other faiths are destroyed. Children are forbidden to fly kites, or sing songs... A girl of seven is beaten for wearing white shoes. ...The burqa is not only a physical and psychological burden on some Afghan women, it is a significant economic burden as well. Many women cannot afford the cost of one. In some cases, whole neighborhoods share a single garment, and women must wait days for their turn to go out. For disabled women who need a prosthesis or other aid to walk, the required wearing of the burqa makes them virtually homebound... [And now the punchline:] The Taliban claimed it was trying to ensure a society in which women had a safe and dignified role.

When asked "what sort of pollution worries you the most", I said "light pollution from all the rural living city hipsters too scared to turn their fucking lights off". When I go out into the "country", I expect to see stars, not your fucking stadium lights because you're too big of a pussy to just by a gun and leave the porchlight on.

Gladney trial: SEIU's "surprise witness" who said he started it can be seen walking up 12 seconds into the video, which started late. She must have been over 50 yards from the fight when it started — at night in the dark.

Just before he was hit, Rooney downplayed concerns about the lightning. "He had just said that lightning doesn't strike two people in one family right before it happened, not long before it happened, he said that," ... Steve Rooney's father George was also killed by lightning 48 years ago when Steve was just a 5-year-old boy.

ConocoPhillips spokesman John Roper said he anticipates "most people will keep their jobs" through the split into a company that produces oil and another that refines it into gasoline and other fuels, although he couldn't address specifics. He said there will "have to be a wall" between the new companies, but that "they will co-exist." "Oklahoma is part of our history and it's key to ConocoPhillips," Roper said. [Until it's not.]

Following a series of moderate earthquakes that struck the country Tuesday, residents around the Guacalito River in Costa Rica discovered that the river had disappeared. ... It was not immediately known if the waters of the river had disappeared due to sinkhole activity that can occur after earthquakes or if the earth shaking caused damming that dried up the river ...

FEC reports released Friday show that former Speaker Newt Gingrich's campaign has $1,030,627.82 in debt. ... nearly half of the debt comes from charting [sic -- must mean "chartering"] private airplanes....

After a decade in which spending increased by more than 60 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars and the debt limit was raised no fewer than 10 times, the government is about to max out its $14.3 trillion credit line, leading to fears that Washington is going to default on its bonds, stop cutting Social Security checks, and destroy the economy more than it already has. But the current debate over the debt ceiling is full of malarkey for at least three reasons. [video]

An Oklahoma lawmaker is pushing to make sure welfare recipients aren't abusing the system. Sen. Randy Brogdon wants anyone who applies for help under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program would have to be tested for drug and alcohol use. "If the state government is going to offer welfare assistance to anyone, it is a very reasonable expectation to make sure none of those taxpayer dollars are being spent on drugs and alcohol," Brogdon said. ... The Department of Human Services is expressing concern about the cost of Brogdon's plan, saying it would set the agency back about $3 million every year. [And SAVE how much at the same time? Oh, never mind.]

D.C. Circuit ... This morning, the federal court ruled that the "naked scans" of air travelers do not violate Americans' constitutional rights. ... Judge Douglas Ginsburg writes that the advance imaging technology is not unreasonable given the security concerns on airplanes, and that people have the option to opt out for a pleasurable patdown. The court notes that some "have complained that the resulting patdown was unnecessarily aggressive," but the judges don't seem overly concerned about that. ... Good news for body scanner manufacturers Rapiscan and L-3. Bad news for those who don't like having to choose between digital nudity and frisking.

a Colorado woman is accused of putting her hands on a TSA agent at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix. ... grabbed the left breast of the female agent ... squeezed and twisted the agent's breast with both hands ... There's no word why she touched the agent. [No, can't imagine!] now faces a felony count of sexual abuse. [Oh, goodj! Oh, wait, they don't mean TSA....]