High Ranking FARC Leader Surrenders

BOGOTA, Colombia ( – A wanted leader of Latin America’s largest guerrilla army handed herself over to Colombian authorities on Sunday, Colombia’s defense minister said.

Eldaneyis Mosquera, also known as “Karina,” was one of the most senior women in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. She operated in the country’s mountainous, northwestern region, where security officials blamed her for a series of attacks and kidnappings.

Some good news, but I wonder a bit at the total effect of this. It would be interesting if she decided to turn a connection with Crazy Uncle Hugo, I guess, but we’ll see.

I’m going to point out something you may not have noticed that happened over the weekend. It represents a major shift in the position of the Democrats… particularly Obama. To do this, I need to redirect your attention to the comments of President Bush, as posted here last week:

“Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along,” Bush said at Israel’s 60th anniversary celebration in Jerusalem.

“We have heard this foolish delusion before,” Bush said in remarks to Israel’s parliament, the Knesset. “As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: ‘Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.’ We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.”

Now, along about the same time that Bush was saying this, Obama was saying stuff like this:

WATERTOWN, S.D. — Senator Barack Obama responded sharply on Friday to attacks on his foreign policy, linking President Bush and Senator John McCain as partners in “the failed policies” of the past seven years and criticizing them for “hypocrisy, fear peddling, fear mongering.”

So, Obama is saying Bush is lying, and that Iran is not a threat, as of Friday morning.

But after the Bush speech in Israel on Friday about mid day, Obama’s shifted his stance a bit:

Sen. Barack Obama said Friday the use of military force should not be taken off the table when dealing with Iran, which he called “a threat to all of us.”

The speed with which we traverse the distance between “Bush is lying, Iran isn’t a threat’ to “Iran’s a threat to everyone” is nothing short of breathtaking.  Good thing Obama’s such a physically fit inDUHvidual. The G-forces of such a dramatic shift of direction would normally squeeze mere mortals into paste.

¼/p>

The madness is reaching epidemic proportions.

Now, the claim is being made that heavier people make for more global warming.

I’ve got an idea. I suggest that a ban on any energy being used on spreading the global warming myth will lower our energy use by at least 10%, all in one stroke.  We must act now, this is an emergency situation.

Addendum: (David L)

I don’t understand.  Do you mean fat as in Micheal Moore?  Fat as in Al Gore?  Or fat as in the late Teddy Kennedy?

… While looking up something else…

If it’s on broadcast radio, it’s likely available here.. a place called Mike’s Radio World

Barack Obama caught red-handed trying to scare seniors into voting for him:

GRESHAM, Ore. (AP) – Democrat Barack Obama told seniors Sunday that Republican ohn McCain would threaten the Social Security that they and millions like them depend on because he supports privatizing the program.

BO promised to be a new kind of politician, but rather than uniting people and bringing them together, BO is trying get votes the democrat’s old way, by scaring the heck of senior citizens.    Some parties never change.

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“Those who are screaming the loudest for increased production from Saudi Arabia are the very same people who are fighting the fiercest against domestic exploration, against the development of nuclear power and against expanding refining capacity,”

President George W. Bush, via Sean Lengell, Washington Times.

Judith Klinghoffer over at The American Thinker, asks a timely question: What do the Saudis want?

Slowly but surely it is beginning to dawn on a world mesmerized by the Democratic primary contest that an oil cartel has been picking our pocket with impunity by willfully failing to adjust its output to the additional needs of China and India. More specifically, Americans are beginning to wonder at the logic of continuing to keep Saudis safe. Hence, the US-Saudi oil axis faces a day of truth when president Bush will deliver diplomatically to his Saudi hosts the message NY senator Chuck Schumer delivered most undiplomatically

We are saying to the Saudis that, if you don’t help us, why should we be helping you?

And the Saudis are only NOT helping, they are hurting.

The Saudis have let their output fall from 9.5m to 8.5m bpd over the last two years, camouflaging the move behind the accession of Ecuador and Angola to the group (which boosted nominal supply). OPEC failed to compensate for a 330,000 bpd drop in Nigerian production in April, allowing the market to tighten further.

Saudi behavior baffles none other than Dr Fadhil Chalabi, a former OPEC secretary-general and now director of the Centre for Global Energy Studies:

“They have about half a million barrels a day of good crude that they could put on the market. The puzzle is why they are not doing it. The soaring price is obviously telling us that the world needs more oil,”he said. “I can’t understand why the Saudis would risk their strategic relationship with the US over this.
“They need the US more than ever given the growing influence of Iran in the region,” he said.

Prior to President Bush’s visit, the Saudis put out the word out that they would promise Bush to produce more though they would not help lower the price of oil regardless of Congressional threats to proceed with legislation penalizing the OPEC producers’ cartel for “anti-competitiveness practices”. But when Bush arrived they rebuffed him completely arguing that they had already increased production by 300,000 barrels per day earlier this month. Consequently, the Saudi oil minister insisted, all is well:

“Supply and demand are in balance today… The fundamentals are sound.”

Well, yes, that’s the argument I’ve made here. The fundamentals do not support $50/bbl, much less over double that figure.

So, clearly, there’s more than the Saudi influence at work here. Klinghioffer then goes on to list what the Saudis are thinking, in her view, and some of the problems that their kind of weath creates on the world stage. It’s a great bit I advise you read.

Here’s the deal, however; WHO CARES what the Saudis want?

We could be avoiding most of these problems by getting our heads out of this sack the environmentalists have us in, and increasing domestic drilling.  We have more in the way of oil here in the the US than all of what the Saudis own or influence…. an amount which would certainly change the game. We handed OPEC all the aces when we decided to eschew drilling ANWR, and off our coasts.

Like it or not, our future will involve oil, at least in the short term and possibly the long term as well. The much ballyhooed alternative energy sources are not ready for prime time and it’s doubtful they will ever make it beyond a ‘nice to have’.  Sorry, Enviro-left, dem’s da breaks.

So why are we insisting on playing the victim, here, of everyone who has the courage and foresight to drill for oil?  Why are we so opposed to making use on the world stage, of the energy we have as a controlling factor for all this gamesmanship by OPEC?  I hasten to point out that our immediate price problems would ease long before such domestic sources came online. All that needs doing is to show the world we’re not playing the victim, anymore. How to do that?

Drill, refine, repeat.

It’s that simple.

Oh… there is the added dimension of telling the enviro-whack jobs to sit down and shut up.  But, stop at any gas station, and tell the people paying twice what they should for fuel, that they’re saving the Snail Darter. After you remove the gasoline hose from your mouth, (and barf up a few gallons of the stuff they’ve poured into you) and get several attackers off of you, you’ll begin to understand that there is a groundswell of anger against the left and the enviro-whackjobs on these issues. The only out here is increasing supply.. and making a commitment to keep domestic oil supplies flowing. We do have the power to do this. Such an increase doesn’t need to supply all our needs, but needs to be enough to change the rules of the game OPEC is playing… because what affects OPEC will also change the rules of the speculation game that’s now going on, and keeping our prices high.  The person, the party which makes that commitment, that does all that will be unbeatable come November. (Hint: The Democrats haven’t done this, nor are they likely to)

John McCain are you listening? Congressional GOP, are YOU listening?

I doubt it.

McQ reminds us today is Armed Forces day.

Mark Beech at the end of a longish bit at si.com notes the same thing I did within hours of the death of Eight Belles:

And so racing will probably only have three more weeks to admire its newest superstar. And after he is gone, the game will still have to deal with the problems that the death of Eight Belles put squarely in the spotlight: the weakening of the thoroughbred breed through inbreeding, the use of performance enhancing substances and the dilemma presented by the presence of synthetic racing surfaces. Outcry or no, these problems will not go away in a month or a year or five years.

Indeed. As Beech notes, there’s a mess of money involved here:

Hours before the race, IEAH Stables, the outfit that owns Big Brown, sold his syndication rights to Three Chimneys Farm. Robert Clay, who runs the Lexington, Ky., breeding operation wouldn’t divulge the terms of the deal, but speculation at the track was that it was for around $50 million. With all that money on the line, it is highly unlikely that Big Brown will race again after the Belmont. Neither the owners nor the farm can risk losing that kind of money because of injury.

Well, therein lies the central problems with cleaning up this mess; There’s far too much money involved, and it’s a consideration that renders inert, any objections to current horse racing, and horse breeding practices. What we saw a few weeks ago has not only been part of horse racing for most of the last century, it’s become an increasing problem. Alas, that it is going to take far more than the death of one horse, however much a fighter, to get people to deal with this situation. The income of the owners and trainers will need to be threatened.

Do not mistake me here. I have not “gone PETA” on you, dear readers. My point here, is both less and more than PETA activists will undoubtedly make it. It strikes me that the problems we’ve been witness to in the horse racing world, are emblematic for the problems in all of pro sports the last few decades, including the use of performance enhancing drugs which threaten the life of the athlete… in this case, the horses… and the money that comes from that needle.

Yes, in the world of horse racing, there is the added dimension of inbreeding which makes the situation that much worse, along with the at least borderline ethics of the thing.

At this stage, it looks like the only thing that will prevent Big Brown from getting that Triple Crown prize money for his owners, and handlers, and the attached breeding services that comes with it, is another incident like Eight Belles.  Such an incident is not to be hoped for, certainly, but I begin to wonder if anything less dramatic and heart-wrenching will change the situation.

Crystal Gail Mangum has graduated from North Carolina Central University,  two of the innocent young men she falsely accused fo rape have not yet graduated. Kristin Butler, Chronicle (Duke University), Summa cum loony:

In reality, [Crystal Gail] Mangum-who arrived at the lacrosse players’ party so drunk and high she could barely stand-may have feared another psychiatric commitment the morning of March 14, 2006, and so she accused three men of rape to garner sympathy.

As an aside, if anyone at NCCU still believes her story, I would invite them to review court records indicating Mangum had DNA from two unidentified men in her rectum; two more in her pubic region; one man in her vagina; and four to five men on her panties-none of whom were lacrosse players (a physical impossibility because Mangum said her attackers wore no condoms during the “rape”).

It would be nice to think that Mangum has turned her life around, but I’d kind of doubt it.

Hat Tip:  Ace.

In case you were holding your breath, and your vote, waiting to see what Gore Vidal thinks,

(Is he even able to think? Seems a bit of a stretch at the off, given he apparently lost that ability 40 years gone, which was exactly when he figured out what JFK was..)

“I never believed in Jack’s charisma,” Vidal says shortly. JFK, he believes, was “one of our worst presidents”; Bobby, his brother, was “a phoney, a little Torquemada”; and their father, Joseph, was “a crook – should have been in jail”.

So much for Camelot. “But Jack had great charm,” he adds. “So has Obama. He’s better educated than Jack. And he’s been a working senator. Jack never went to the office – he wanted the presidency and his father bought it for him.”

Well, gee… I know I feel better, now, don’t you? (Shudder)

There’s no guarantee, of course, that the Democrats will triumph later this year, even if Obama does win the nomination. Does he think Obama can beat John McCain?

His views on the man the Democratic candidate will have to beat are even more brutal than his views on Hillary: ” You could beat McCain! I’ve never met anyone in America who has the slightest respect for him.

The direct result of being 80 years disconnected from reality, I suppose.  Example; Out here in the real world, I’ve yet to meet anyone who had any respect whatever for Gore Vidal. Someone get the old boy some melba toast, huh? It’ll shut him up for a while.

Ever notice a gender feminist. a/k/ cow.  that had mind of her own, or actually took a stand to improve the lot of women?  Neither have I.  

The cows were out in force in St Louis, Kavita Kumar,, STLtoday, “Hundreds turn back on Schlafly at ceremony”

ST. LOUIS — Some felt the silent protest with white armbands and the dramatic turning of backs was disrespectful.

But those who took part said it was a fitting way to show their disapproval that Washington University was honoring a woman whose views and life’s work they strongly disagree with.

For her part, Phyllis Schlafly, the 83-year-old at the center of the controversy, said she thought it was “juvenile” of students who were “raining on their own parade.” But it didn’t ruin her moment, she said.

At today’s commencement ceremony held on a sunny Brookings Quadrangle, Schlafly did not seem to notice the hundreds of backs turned to her while a citation heralding her accomplishments was read. A tense hush settled over the gathering of more than 14,000 people. Schlafly responded with a tranquil smile she held for several minutes as she was given an honorary doctorate of humane letters.

Margaret Bush Wilson, a retired civil rights attorney, volunteered to introduce Schlafly as faculty and students were

LIke any good cow, the cows in Saint Louis know what that told,and only believe that that told to believe, Kathryn Jean Lopez, National Review, “What a Disgrace:”

Reportedly a third of the students graduating from Washington University today turned their back on Phyllis Schlafly. Washington University is her alma mater and the history maker and mover was receiving an honorary degree. The protesters should really be ashamed of their childishness. They ought to show a little respect. And, oh, by the way: She happens to have been right.

How stupid can a cow get, Bruce Walker, American Thinker, “Twilight of the goddesses – The Ragnarok of Feminism:”

 It is the Twilight of the goddesses today.  The world is staggering toward totalitarianism, and that certainly includes the Leftists in free democracies who hate the freedom and hate the democracy which prevents them from grasping raw power.  Hillary was never going to become the master of America.  Feminism is a cruel joke played on women.  It is no more “pro-women” than the Nazi Party was “pro-German” or the Ku Klux Klan was “pro-white people.”  Just as the Wagnerian catastrophe of Nazi produced a horrible Ragnarok for the German people, so feminism is producing a needless savaging of women

A moo on command, Jessica, Feministing, “Hundreds Thousands turn their back on Phyllis Schlafly:”

Awesome! If anyone has pictures, please send them in!

No moo here, Elizabeth Scalia: Anchoress:

Okay, then, moving on: I’ve invented a new word: Obnoxism. It describes taking an obnoxious, infantile and ultimately extremely illiberal behavior and then encouraging others in it until a vast crowd turns its back on an 83 year old woman, with most of them probably having no idea why they’re doing it except that, “she’s an intolerant conservative, not a tolerant liberal, like us!”

The gender feminists, which to say the cows, keep saying that they want access to power.  They say they want strong women leaders.   Yet no American woman has been a strong as Schlafly and no other American of the previous century as had so much personal impact on our constitution.    Schlafly, achieved power and used it.  Rather than savor the freedom fought for by Schlafly, the cows moo for the serfitude of a Betty Freidan.

?

Look, I think Wayne Allard is a putz… an admittedly quick assessment based on limited info.

But he got this one right:

May 1st, 2008 – Washington, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) joined New Mexico Senator Pete Domenici, the Republican leader of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and other Republican Senators to announce the introduction of the American Energy Production Act of 2008. The bill will address America’s soaring gas prices by focusing on common sense measures that will increase production of oil and gas in America.
Allard specifically addressed the critical issue regarding the needed development of oil shale in Colorado as an important piece of addressing the energy supply shortages facing the country.

“North America’s 3.7 trillion barrel resource of unconventional fuels exceeds by nearly 40% the entire world’s known remaining conventional oil supplies,” said Allard. “U.S. oil shale resources alone exceed 2 trillion barrels of potential supply. There are companies that are ready to start producing oil from shale this year. We in Congress should not be preventing this kind of progress.

Of course the Democrat run Senate voted it down. Kinda makes you wonder whose side the Senate Democrats are on, doesn’t it?

So Business Week reports…

Plane maker Airbus and diversified manufacturer Honeywell International Inc. on Thursday said they are developing a biofuel that by 2030 could satisfy nearly a third of the worldwide demand from commercial aircraft, without affecting food supplies.

Along with JetBlue Airways Corp. and International Aero Engines, they plan to produce fuel from vegetation and algae-based oils that do not compete with existing food production or land and water resources.

Great. Now what does that do to the fish feeding on this stuff?

Via MSNBC:

U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, a leading Democrat, was rushed to the hospital Saturday, according to multiple media reports.

CNN said Kennedy had the symptoms of a stroke, according to Reuters, but local affiliate WHDH said his illness was not disclosed.

Kennedy, 76, was taken to the hospital by medical air transport. Kennedy is the senate’s second senior member.

Sister Toldjah has more.