Lying Lichtblau gets bitch slapped

Little Sulzberger must be overjoyed at the way Eric Lichtblau's "reporting" accurately reflects the editorial bias of the New York Times. Too bad he's making it all up:

New York Times reporter Eric Lichtblau has a considerable career investment (and, I suspect, an ideological investment as well) in the idea that the NSA program is illegal. It would seem that Lichtblau's preconceptions and biases prevented him from accurately reporting what happened in the Judiciary Committee hearing yesterday. His suggestion that the main thrust of the judges' testimony was to "voice skepticism about the president's constitutional authority" is simply wrong; in fact, I can't find a single line in more than 100 pages of transcript that supports Lichtblau's reporting. It's a sad thing when a once-respected newspaper can't be counted on for a straight account of a Congressional hearing.

I'm just trying to figure out the last time the New York Times was respected. The 1800's?

Today's Hoot!

Potfry reveals that Anti-War Hostages Air-Dropped Back into Iraq:

The British military announced today that they had air-dropped former hostages Norman Kembler, James Loony and Harmeet Singh Sooden into the Iraqi desert, just a week after their rescue from a house west of Baghdad. The men had been held by insurgents for four months.

Since their release, the three men, all from a Christian Peacemaker team, have spoken with deep admiration and respect for their captors, while not offering any degree of gratitiude to the British commandos who risked their lives to save them.

“We realize now that we made a huge mistake,” said Captain Ian Coates of the British Army, “and it was time to return these men to the people they love and respect."
...
"To keep it a surprise, we used our commandos to gather the men in the middle of the night," he said. "They were so surprised and excited that we needed to duct tape their mouths and tie them up. But there was no doubt that they were overjoyed to be returning to Iraq. Their eyes were as big as saucers, and Kembler even wet his jammies in excitement!"
...
“The air drop was a remarkable moment, something I was honored to see,” he said. “The men were writhing around, screaming and crying with joy. There wasn’t a dry eye in the helicopter as we rolled them out.”

Much more hilarity by following the link. My only quibble is that these scum really deserve a high altitude drop without parachutes.

Stuff I didn't want to know

Handsets get taken to the grave:

More people than ever are asking to be buried or cremated with their mobile phones when they die, say researchers.

The trend, which began in South Africa, has now spread to a number of countries, including Ireland, Australia, Ghana, and the US.

Martin Raymond, director of international trend-spotting think-tank, The Future Laboratory said that this had started off "in the realm of the urban myth", but was fast becoming fact.

"You hear about it, the idea that people are being buried with their mobile phones, but you can't really believe it," he told the BBC World Service's Culture Shock programme.

Given that it's the BBC and a professional "trend-spotter," I'm still a tad dubious, but rock on:

He explained that the first cases of people asking to be buried with their phone originated in Cape Town, where some people's belief in witchcraft meant they feared that "they could fall under a spell, be put to sleep and actually be buried.

"In fact, they were asking for the phones to be put into the coffins with them in case they woke up."
...
And one service in South Africa will put a number of batteries in the coffin just in case the dead person wakes up much later and finds their own battery has run out.

Sheesh, now I believe it. I'm surprised that they don't furnish an aboveground antenna and a powerplug too. But it's not just the imperfectly civilized:

Mr Raymond said that in Australia the trend was more about affluence.

"People wanted to be buried with the totems that they felt represented their lifestyle," he explained.

"We came across one guy who asked to be buried with his mobile phone and his Blackberry, and also with his laptop."

Maybe there's a special instant messaging icon like a tiny coffin signifying "permanently offline."

He added that in many cases, being buried with your phone is part of what he termed limelight funerals, people wanting to be buried like celebrities.

The phone is put in the coffin along with diamonds, jewellery, expensive suits, and gold watches.

If the relatives and the funeral home employees don't get there first, I guess. More:

"When we looked at this in Chad and Ghana, there was part of that implicit in the burial service - that you were taking things with you that would be useful," Mr Raymond said.

"In Ireland, where we came across this, it was more to do with people being buried with things they liked. One guy we came across was buried with a pack of cigarettes and some matches.

No Guiness and a bottle opener? Over in the USA, the story takes a different twist:

In some cases, they are even taking their mobiles into cremation.

"We came across this in places like South Carolina in the US - people were being burned but unknown to the crematorium, they had left the phones in their jackets," Mr Raymond said.

"If you heat a mobile phone battery, it tends to explode, and the first reports were about explosions, and that's how they started noticing this trend."

I guess I'll have to forget about the Remington pump loaded with double ought buck.

They're selling the Mayor Ray Nagin Memorial Motor Pool on eBay!

New Orleans to Sell Flooded Buses on EBay:

Starved for cash, the New Orleans school district is taking a long shot and hoping to sell its flooded, unsalvageable school buses on eBay.

Some submerged to their roofs in the black flood waters, the yellow school buses were widely photographed in the days after Hurricane Katrina and have become an icon of the city's devastated school system.

School officials acknowledge the sale of the buses on the Internet auction site may puzzle some people used to more traditional school fundraisers like bake sales.

"There's no shame in it. Not one bit," said school board president Phyllis Landrieu. "This is a new mechanism for selling things. I think it's very upbeat what we're doing."

Does anyone in New Orleans government have even a whiff of a clue?

Baghdad Jim Gets Bitch Slapped

And a nice sound it makes, too:

A federal appeals court ruled today that Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., violated federal law by turning over an illegally taped telephone call to reporters nearly a decade ago.

In a 2-1 opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that McDermott violated the rights of House Majority Leader John Boehner, who was heard on the 1996 call involving former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

The court ordered McDermott to pay Boehner more than $700,000 for leaking the taped conversation. The figure includes $60,000 in damages and more than $600,000 in legal costs.

So when do we get to the trial for aiding and abetting the enemy? And here's a shock, the MSM thinks illegal wiretapping is just peachy when a Republican is the victiim:

Lawyers for 18 news organizations — including ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, The Associated Press, The New York Times and The Washington Post — filed a brief backing McDermott.

Via Michelle Malkin who's not holding her breath for this to appear on any MSM front pages. I think it will show up, but on the editorial pages with lots of "chilling effect" whining.

Public Service Announcement!

From E-nough:

The Department of State advises U.S. citizens traveling or residing in France to avoid areas where crowds are expected to gather, to exercise caution, particularly during evening and nighttime hours, and to closely follow media reports.

...

If you are looking for a true French experience but do not want to risk your life, we suggest staying stateside and making reservations at Le Bernadin in NYC. A battalion of wait staff will hover about your elegantly appointed table without offering any service, the table captain will rush you through your butter poached lobster and crème glacée au beurre noisette to clear out the scut in advance of the after-theater crowd, and all at the same extortionate prices of les grandes tables of France.

Enjoy your French experience!

Well gosh, I thought they'd be glad to see us and just throw another Renault on the carbeque! Heck, they all speak English.

Official Google Blogspot blog deleted by spam filter

Seems that Viking Pundit and Betsy's Page (who suffered the same fate recently) are in good company. Here's the embarrassing admission at the newly restored googleblog.blogspot.com:

The Google Blog was unavailable for a short time tonight. We quickly learned from our initial investigation that there was no systemwide vulnerability for Blogger. We'll let you know more about what did happen once we finish looking into it.

Update: We've determined the cause of tonight's outage. The blog was mistakenly deleted by us (d'oh!) which allowed the blog address to be temporarily claimed by another user. This was not a hack, and nobody guessed our password. Our bad.

Bad indeed and the laughs are echoing around the Internet. You'll see that they aren't exactly admitting that the spam filter got it, but there aren't too many reasonable alternatives and that seems to be the general belief:

Blogger blog?

check

allows trackbacks?

check

exists just for SEO's?

check

nearly all posts contain a link to a site owned by the same people?

check

posts made by non human entities?

check

aha! we have one! Delete it! Delete it!

More details and screenshots here.

That's what I call a target rich environment

Illegal Aliens: Just Mobbing the Streets - Americans Won't Mob:

To the astonishment and delight of the news media, Saturday saw an unprecedented protest by an estimated 500,000 illegal aliens and their advocates in Los Angeles. Smaller rallies were held in cities across the country, opposing efforts to secure the border and finally crack down on illegal entry into America by millions of unscreened foreigners. Apparently, the protests prove what a “divisive” issue illegal immigration is. To me, they simply prove that criminals dislike the prospect of increased law enforcement.

And that the criminals don't want to be separated from the government teat and begrudge the taxpayers their consternation at all the sucking.

But that’s not all the protests prove. They also prove how ridiculously out of control our federal government has let the problem get. Which is worse -- that a half million immigration criminals and their descendants and sympathizers can be found in a single American city, or that the current immigration enforcement system is such a joke that the half million have nothing to fear from openly entering the public streets and arguing against legislation currently before Congress?

It’s as if thieves thought they could form a union to lobby for fewer cops.

Time to do a little street sweeping and truck the collection bin to the border.

The part I liked best was all the news stories quoting illegal aliens whining that it was really unfair that they might have to return to their native dung wallows when they were all having such a swell time in the USA. Don't go away mad, folks! Just go away. You can do plenty of marching back home.

Today's Hoot!

I know it's early yet, but it's going to be hard to beat this one from the NY Post - 'COFFEE-SCALD' POL IN HOT WATER WITH SENATE:

STATE Senate officials are considering an unprecedented "censure" vote against violence-prone Queens Democratic Sen. Ada Smith, who was charged last week with throwing hot coffee in the face of an aide.

As soon as the latest charge against the erratic Smith became public, Senate officials began researching the possibility of expelling or "impeaching" Smith, but concluded that state law does not allow such dramatic action, a senior Senate official said.

State law does require the expulsion of a legislator convicted of a felony, but the latest charge against Smith - like one involving a confrontation with the State Police two years ago - is a misdemeanor.

"This has gone on long enough," said the Senate official.

"She's been out of control for years, and we have to take some action against her to recognize that if she's convicted on this one."

Gosh, what's ole ADA been up to?

In past incidents, Smith - often called the "Madwoman" or "Wild Woman" of Albany - was accused of menacing an aide with a meat cleaver and attacking a guest at a wedding party with a garbage-can cover. She was also once Maced after confronting a traffic officer in Brooklyn.

Sounds like she's the life of the party! This is good so far, but wait, there's more:

Smith allegedly threw "a cup of hot coffee into the eyes" of former staffer Jennifer Jackson of Albany on Tuesday morning.

The court papers said the senator also pulled a hairpiece from Jackson's head, causing a neck and shoulder injury and injury to her eyes.

Smith's office said Jackson no longer works for the senator.

According to the Albany Times Union, the incident happened after the senator returned from a Weight Watchers meeting and said she had lost about four pounds. Jackson responded she thought Smith would have lost more, given her active lifestyle.

Bwahaha! I guess that'll teach Jennifer not to suck up to a nutjob.