Terror in Glasgow

Telegraph(UK);

A four-wheel drive vehicle has crashed into Glasgow Airport’s terminal building and burst into flames.

Reports said witnesses saw a car attempting to drive into the airport through the main doors. After it crashed its occupants were seen fighting with police inside the terminal.

TV footage showed flames and huge plumes of black smoke rising from a vehicle in front of the building. Police have arrested and detained two men.

The airport has been evacuated and all flights are suspended. BAA, which manages the airport, was not immediately available to comment

H/T photo and more, Jawa Report.

Will Larry Johnson please call his office.

More, Allah Pundit, Hot Air

Addendum;  Oh not to worry.  Allah Pundit, Hot Air,  has the video, as Keith Olbermann and Larry Johnson call the London event a “non-event.’  Obviously, it was a “non-event” whcih exploded in Glascow.

Michelle Malkin does a bit of a roundup on posts about Cuba’s healthcare system… you know.. the one The Great Rotundo is so fond of.

Claudia 4 Libertad strikes back:

Ask any Cuban who has recently left the island (because they can’t talk freely about this inside of Cuba) about their health care system and they will tell you that it is often a challenge just to get aspirin and they often have to get it on the black market. The run-down, dilapidated and unsanitary conditions in the facilities that the average Cuban must go to for care are a far cry from the hospitals and clinics reserved for high-ranking members of the communist party or the military. There are actually special facilities in Cuba that serve foreigners who can pay in foreign currency.

As for the conditions that the avgerage Juan has to contend with, a picture is worth 1000 words.

As Michelle suggests; “Someone ought to make a documentary about that. ”

On more or less the same topic, I notice Joyner this morning talking about former Alabama governor Don Siegelman.  Mr. Siegelman was carted off to jail this week to serve time for his conviction on corruption charges.  Since this is posted under the heading of health care systems, you can imagine what the corruption charges were over: Siegelman, was taking massive bribes from the then CEO of HealthSouth… One Richard Scrushy, and others in what James calls a classic Quid Pro Qou fashion.

James says:

As I noted in my first post on this matter nearly two years ago, “Siegelman is one of the few Democrats I’ve voted for, although I later came to regret it.”

Yeah, well, there’s a message there, isn’t there?
But by my read, there’s also a message with regards to socialist Healthcare systems in general; stay away.  I mean are people like Siegelman the type of people that were supposed to be turning health care systems over to?  Yes, they are.

I don’t think it’s any accident that Siegelman, a Democrat, was pushing for socialist health care along with the rest.
And let’s go what this in a little larger fashion, OK?

When I see people like Clinton, (Either Bill or Hillary, actually) who have spent their entire lives grasping for power, and money also being one of Socialized healthcare’s biggest supporters, my instinct tells me that their goal has nothing to do with the betterment of health care.

All this, of course, leaving aside the idea that were socialist systems have been put into place, elsewehre in the world, they haven’t been better.. but rather have been decidedly worse. As with everything else about these people, it’s the money…. OUR money… and how to obtain power over it.

And that, dear reader, is something that the likes of The Great Rotundo will never add to one of their supposed documentaries.

There’s another matter to be disposed of here: Since this case was prosecuted by attorneys from the U.S. justice department, the ones replacing the ones who were fired, by the way… one wonders if this case is going to come up in relationship to those fired attorneys. The left, of course, is claiming that there is corruption in the Justice Department because Siegelman was ever prosecuted.  However I’d point out that he would not have been convicted had the evidence not been there.  He did the crime.  That was proven.  He was convicted based on that proof.

The left, as is usual, is charging that Mr. Siegelman is currently stinking up a jail cell, because Mr. Bush had it in for him.  Still, why would that be true?  The crimes, as you may or may not know, occurred well over seven years ago.  And there are, perhaps, some issues as regards the statute of limitations. One assumes that those issues would have been dealt with the trial, prior to the conviction.  So that rather makes the statute of limitations among point.  I bring it up, only because Democrats are using it as an excuse to suggest the whole thing was unjust. I guess if it’s the only excuse you’ve got ….
But here’s the thing; Were the Justice Department attorneys in his district ignoring the case?  If so, was that why they were fired?  Were they fired in favor of someone who was actually willing to prosecute the case against the criminal?

If so will all this come out, in the smoke generation festival that the Democrats are currently putting on about the supposedly unjustly fired U.S. attorneys?  If so, I suspect that this is the leading edge of a pattern of why attorneys were being fired.  Simply put, they were not doing their jobs, unless you consider that their job was to protect corrupt Democrats.

If that’s the case, this Justice Department investigation may be a little bit too hot for Congress to handle.  They may have tied on for more than they bargained for.

When asked about his thought on illegal immigration that late Sonny Bono said:

“what can I say, it’s illegal.”  

Julie Hirchfeld Davis’ ignorance and intollerance is displauyed by the Associated Press:

Championed by President Bush and influential members of both parties, the immigration overhaul was nonetheless something of an orphan from the beginning. Even its strongest supporters viewed it as good enough but far from ideal.

Davis is simply out of touch:

“The bill was defeated by an anti-immigrant revolt that intimidated Republican lawmakers, and they folded. They wilted under the pressure,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, one of several liberal groups that backed the measure despite misgivings about some of its key elements

Davis would never describe a liberal group like Mothers Against Drunk Driving as an “anti-motorist” group.  She would not describe Planned Parenthood as “pro-abortion” group.  Peace Groups are not described as “pro-surrender.”   Yet for some strange  reason Davis is willing accept opposition to illegal immigraton as somehow being against all, both legal and illegal immigration.   The Ted Kennedy Shamnesty bill made no claim to halt legal immigration

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James at OTB is saying there was a SECOND car bomb found near Piccadilly. No shock, of course, that the usual denizens over at Kos and the DU(h) were too busy claiming the the first carbomb was a fake to notice the second one.  Apparently, the existence of a second car bomb, doesn’t meet with their world view, and thereby must not exist.
Meanwhile, The London Times is reporting:

Nightclubs across Britain were warned they could be terrorist targets just days before yesterday’s attempted double car-bomb attack in London, according to a report in the Times of London.

Apparently, these two carbombs were parked in such a way so as to blowup serially… one perhaps 15 minutes behind the other, so as to take out first responders to the first bomb.

Lovely people, these.

So course now the question becomes at what point does the left admit that the threat of terrorism is real?

Whoo boy…

WILLIAMS, Ariz. -KPHO-TV- A 65-year-old St. Louis man who Amtrak personnel kicked off a train in the middle of a national forest in Williams has been found dehydrated and disoriented two miles from where he was dropped off.

When you see a story like that, you’re thinking “lawsuit” after the first sentence. Then you start getting into it, a little.

Amtrak officials said train workers followed policy when they put off the train a man they thought was drunk, but the man’s family says he was in diabetic shock at the time.

Police said Roosevelt Sims, a factory worker who had just retired last week, was discovered Thursday night walking along the railroad tracks barefoot by Coconino County sheriff’s deputies.

He was rushed to a Flagstaff hospital for emergency treatment, deputies said.

Sims headed to Los Angeles but was asked to leave the train shortly before 10 p.m. Sunday at a railroad crossing five miles outside Williams.

Well, the case has risen to the state of arguable.  But clearly, somebody’s policy is out of whack, here.  I can’t imagine that this isn’t going to court.  The sad part is, this will be the last time we’ll hear all of this.

I can hear the commercial now; Amtrak… all the sensitivity of the post office, except we have trains.

Keep in mind, that these are the same type of people we’re supposed to turn our Healthcare system over to….

David Horowitz is just on fire, here.

When he was in office and responsible for protecting us, Al Gore was absent from the war on terror. As Vice President, he was part of an administration that failed to respond to the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993; that cut and ran when al-Qaeda ambushed US Army Rangers in Mogadishu; that called for regime change in Iraq when Saddam expelled the UN weapons inspectors but then failed to remove Saddam or to get him to allow the UN inspectors back in; that failed to respond to the murder of US troops in Saudi Arabia or the attack on an American warship in Yemen; that reacted to the blowing up two US embassies in Africa by firing missiles at an aspirin factory in the Sudan and empty tents in Afghanistan; that refused to kill or capture Osama Bin Laden when it had a dozen chances to do so; and that did not put in place simple airport security measures, its own task force recommended, that would have prevented 9/11.

Look, David, we’re never going to get anywhere if you keep holding back like this.

In short, to every act of war against the United States during the 1990s, the Clinton-Gore response was limp-wristed and supine. And worse. By refusing to concede a lost presidential election, thereby breaking a hundred-year tradition, Gore delayed the transition to the new administration that would have to deal with the terrorist threat. As a result of the two-month delay, the comprehensive anti-terror plan that Bush ordered on taking office (the Clinton-Gore team had none) did not arrive on his desk until the day before the 9/11 attack.

Yet, it is characteristic of Gore’s myopic arrogance that he would wag his finger at the Bush administration for its failure to anticipate the 9/11 attack. “It is useful and important to examine the warnings the administration ignored,” Gore writes in his self-referentially titled new book, The Assault on Reason. As if to underscore his own hypocrisy – he then adds: “not to ‘point the finger of blame’….” Of course not.

And just in case you think the Tree is being singled out:

Contrary to everything that Al Gore and other Democrats have said for the last four years, Saddam’s violation of the arms control agreements that made up the Gulf War truce – and not the alleged existence of Iraqi WMDs – was the legal, moral and actual basis for sending American troops to Iraq.

…The Authorization for the Use of Force bill – passed by majorities of both parties in both Houses – is the legal basis for the president’s war, which Democrats have since betrayed along with the troops they sent to the battlefield. The Authorization bill begins with 23 “whereas” clauses justifying the war. Contrary to Gore and the Democratic critics of the Bush administration, only two of these clauses refer to stockpiles of WMDs. On the other hand, twelve of the reasons for going to war refer to UN resolutions violated by Saddam Hussein.

He goes on for significantly longer, and the remainder of his points are of a kind with these; Directly on point, And absolutely devastating to the Democrat arguments.

You need to read the whole thing. I have a sneaking suspicion, but the facts and the wording of this document, are going to be quite handy indeed, in the forthcoming presidential elections. A reminder of the facts once in awhile, is a good thing.

Well Dirty Harry is not listening to the public and the punks are just not listening to me.  Alas. I keep telling the punks not to piss off an old  Marine,.  here and here.   Yet the punks just never seem to learn. Byran, Hot Air. has the story and video link:

PLANTATION, Fla. — One man is dead and another in critical condition after the duo was shot by a customer while they were attempting to rob a Plantation Subway shop Wednesday night, police said.

Of the two perps, one is dead and the other, if he lives,will be charged with felony murder.

Aside to hoplophobes like Mrs. Clinton and Eliot Spiter, this a purpose of the Second Amendment.   This incident all happened within seconds, in much less time than a police force could ever respond.

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Me at OTB, just now:

Frankly, I understand both sides of this business about Coulter.

Disclosure; as I think I said at my own place, Dodd, and his site’s success were large reason why I decided to get going on my own blog, years ago. I have a good deal of respect for him.

I understand Dodd’s objections to Coulter, but I think the emphasis on those objections is misplaced. While I suppose it is only fair to say that there are occasions when her comments can be considered over the top, which seems to be his main objection….that is by definition the task of any satirist. And that’s really what’s going on here.

IMV, There is nothing that the woman has said which cannot be directly compared to with comments from the side opposite. Nothing.

Further, what she is generating is demonstrably the same kind of heat that’s been tossed at Republicans for generations, now. What annoys so many people on the left is that she’s giving it back.

At the risk of speaking for him , what annoys people like Dodd, best I can tell, is that either side is generating such heat. I respect that, but I suspect that it is time for somebody like Coulter, who has the ability of fighting fire with fire.

Such things are defensive mechanism. When you’re trying to survive in hell, you simply become part of the hell. I view such matters as any other kind of war. The best way to lose, is to limit yourself in terms of weaponry. Until recently that’s what the republicans have been doing. Coulter is remarkable (And becomes such a lightning rod) because she is among the first in recent times to stem that trend.

And unfortunately, that’s what politics has become anymore; a war, carried on by other means… to coin the phrase from the opposite side. Believe me when I tell you, I understand the wish that it wasn’t. Hell… I share it. But it is that way, and the biggest issue now is not succumbing to it.

Add to that, that Coulter, unlike most of those on the left is a satirist. Most of the people who we are comparing two here on the opposite side do not use satire. Moore, since his name is being brought up in this thread, certainly doesn’t make such a claim. But that’s precisely what Coulter is doing.

How such matters are defined, seems to me to be dancing on the head of a fairness doctrine.

I think the left, is finding her as distasteful as they are, for two reasons:

First of all, they can’t control her , though seemingly most of their effort has expanded on that control.

Secondly, the fact of the matter is she it’s too close to home when she makes those kind of comments.

Let’s see, here… an example; , A a video of John Edwards spending at least ten minutes fussing over as hair and is makeup, to the tune of “I feel pretty” and simply coming out and calling the guy a faggot… I think most people will admit there’s kind of a fine line between those two. Granted, at least the video had the advantage of proving the point wordlessly, frame by frame. In any event , ultimately, they both mean the same thing. And as I suggested earlier in this thread Wiegel’s comments, lend some serious truth to the allegation. and that’s the point.

Any kind of humor, regardless of the genre, doesn’t work unless there’s a grain of truth of the center. The bottom line is, Coulter’s comments in general and in the case of Edwards specifically, had that grain of truth as the video and Wiegel’s comments bear out.

as to the comments from her as regards the suicide bomber, how was that any different than the comment she was actually responding to? Seems kind of a draw, to me.

However, in fairness I make an offer; when I see democrats denouncing Bill Maher for his comments as regards Dick Cheney (which, it should be noted, was the context within which Ann was working, at the time… as people would know, if they’d actually play the entire clip as opposed to editing it for their own advantage ) when I see the left going after Wonkette for her excesses, on the same subject no less, when I see them going after Michael Moore, on the same score, and so on, I’ll start taking their complaints about and Coulter a little more seriously.

Since none of that is happened, Nor, it isn’t likely to, they have not a leg to stand on with the complaints.

Wow. Fairness… what a concept, huh? I mean, of course, actual fairness, as opposed to governmental control.

See also, heat, kitchen, Withdrawal therefrom.

And perhaps the issue about governmental control is a point to be made here. We just got through daunting a bullet as regards the “fairness doctrine”. Do we really need to impose another false set of standards on political speech?

Dirty Harrry Reid’s problem is simple.  He will not listen to the American People.   We want our borders to be secure, our national sovieignty respected and our laws enforced.   This is not rocket science.

Dirty Harry took a page from Mrs. Clinton and to concoct a long complicated plan in utter secrecry, devoid from all public input and then blamed Talk Radio when the public spat out Dirty Harry’s vile plan.

Allah Pundit, Hot Air, has the video of Dirty Harry attempt to blame Talk Radio for his failure

l.

Police have defused a car bomb found near Piccadilly Circus in London’s West End.

The “explosive device”, discovered at 2am, posed a real and substantial threat to the surrounding area, according to a police source

That’s word from Duncan Hooper at the Telegraph, who also has video and some added details.

Personally my first reaction would be to wonder what kind of denial strategy the left will be able to come up with, for this occasion.

Some others blogging this: Hot Air The Jawa Report
Redstate  Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler  Captain’s Quarters, Pajamas Media, The Blotter, Ali Eteraz, Blue Crab Boulevard Michael P.F. van der Galiën Power Line, Michelle Malkin JammieWearingFool Confederate Yankee, JunkYardBlog  

David Grazer in the WSJ:

TORONTO–“I haven’t seen ‘Sicko,’ ” says Avril Allen about the new Michael Moore documentary, which advocates socialized medicine for the United States. The film, which has been widely viewed on the Internet, and which will officially open in the U.S. and Canada on Friday, has been getting rave reviews. But Ms. Allen, a lawyer, has no plans to watch it. She’s just too busy preparing to file suit against Ontario’s provincial government about its health-care system next month.

Her client, Lindsay McCreith, would have had to wait for four months just to get an MRI, and then months more to see a neurologist for his malignant brain tumor. Instead, frustrated and ill, the retired auto-body shop owner traveled to Buffalo, N.Y., for a lifesaving surgery. Now he’s suing for the right to opt out of Canada’s government-run health care, which he considers dangerous.

Ms. Allen figures the lawsuit has a fighting chance: In 2005, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that “access to wait lists is not access to health care,” striking down key Quebec laws that prohibited private medicine and private health insurance.

…

Mr. Moore goes to London, Ontario, where he notes that not a single patient has waited in the hospital emergency room more than 45 minutes. “It’s a fabulous system,” a woman explains. In Britain, he tours a hospital where patients marvel at their free care. A patient’s husband explains: “It’s not America.” Humorously, Mr. Moore finds a cashier dispensing money to patients (for transportation). In France, a doctor explains the success of the health-care system with the old Marxist axiom: “You pay according to your means, and you receive according to your needs.”

It’s compelling material–I know because, born and raised in Canada, I used to believe in government-run health care. Then I was mugged by reality.

What’s the old adage?  A conservative as a liberal is a liberal who has been mugged by reality?

Consider, for instance, Mr. Moore’s claim that ERs don’t overcrowd in Canada. A Canadian government study recently found that only about half of patients are treated in a timely manner, as defined by local medical and hospital associations. “The research merely confirms anecdotal reports of interminable waits,” reported a national newspaper. While people in rural areas seem to fare better, Toronto patients receive care in four hours on average; one in 10 patients waits more than a dozen hours.

And here’s the thing… this is a known issue. I’m sitting down here about 60 miles south of the border, about 60 miles out of Buffalo, and I can tell you for a fact that the healthcare facilities are going great guns…. all of them… facilities designed and built to accommodate the Buffalo of 20 to 50 years ago.  Buffalo, as you may not know, has lost roughly half of its population in the last 60 years.  So, where are the people coming from that are filling these health care facilities to the brim?  Canada.

And here I sit, watching with interest as this situation that Gartzer describes, gets played out:

Canadian doctors, once quiet on the issue of private health care, elected Brian Day as president of their national association. Dr. Day is a leading critic of Canadian medicare; he opened a private surgery hospital and then challenged the government to shut it down. “This is a country,” Dr. Day said by way of explanation, “in which dogs can get a hip replacement in under a week and in which humans can wait two to three years.”

It is not by accident that Michael Moore’s film, and indeed Michael Moore himself, say nothing of this.  To do so would be to admit that the entire basis of the film is dead wrong.  And when’s the last time you ever seen a liberal admit they were wrong? You would think that they would do it when people’s lives are in the balance, as they are.

But no. That wouldn’t suit Moore’s view of socialism.

Roger Simon over at Politico points up Hillary Clinton sticking her foot in it again:.

Once again, Hillary, as her campaign officially refers to her, looked like she was in charge, with a command of the issues and even some soaring rhetoric now and again: “Yes, we have come a long way. But, yes, we have a long way to go. The march is not finished.”

She seemed to get carried away only once, when she said, “Nonviolent offenders shouldn’t be serving hard time in our prisons!”

You mean like Scooter Libby?

Ooooohhh…. That’s a keeper, that is.

Of course, every single one of the democrats, complained about the U.S. Supreme Court ruling yesterday that said you can use rail discrimination to cure a racial discrimination.  Not unexpected.  In fact, I predicted it.  But that’s another post.

Some of our readers, doubtless, will have heard of this accident occurring a few days ago, where five high school graduates died in a headon crash with a tractor trailer truck about 25 miles southeast of me, here. I refrained from commenting, for several reasons, not least of which was that there were a number of issues as yet unresolved which I did not feel capable of staying on top of that time.

My instincts told me at the time that there was something major that was missing from the story.  Apparently, that has now come out, and is being reported via AP

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — AP- State records show the driver in the crash that killed her and four teenage friends in western New York had only a junior driver’s license, which made it illegal for her to be driving at that hour or carrying so many young passengers in her vehicle.

Bailey Goodman, 17, had a Class DJ license, which places added restrictions on the privileges for New York drivers under 18, authorities told the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle.

Goodman and four other recent graduates of Fairport High School in suburban Rochester, all 17 or 18, died when the sport utility vehicle she was driving collided head-on with a tractor-trailer in the Finger Lakes region of New York on Tuesday at about 10 p.m. That was an hour later than state law permitted her to drive.

According to the state Department of Motor Vehicles, junior drivers cannot drive after 9 p.m

without a parent, guardian or someone performing parental duties, unless they’re going to work or school. They also cannot carry more than two passengers under 21 unless they’re members of the immediate family.

Drivers graduate from junior status when they turn 18 or complete a state-approved driver education course.

It’s not very often that I’m going to stick up for the government, and added laws. But in this case, as with the immigration debate, I’m going to suggest that there are some laws that are established for reason.  Consequences ensue, when those laws get ignored.

The story goes on to remind us, that this was not the only time just recently this is happened under these circumstances:

Brown also confirmed that Brian Sayasith, 17, of North Chili outside Rochester, driver in a one-car crash that killed him and two other teens about 10 p.m. on May 27 in Chili, also had a junior license. Two more young passengers were seriously injured.

And this is, in fact, only two of a rash of accidents around these parts, fatal accidents, were the drivers were twenty years old or younger.  A total, I believe, of ten fatalities in the Rochester area alone, within the last 30 days.

My heart goes out to those lost, and their families and friends.  But I have to say this;
I’m sorry folks, but it’s time to recognize that seventeen, and maybe up to 20, for that matter, is too damned young to be driving.  30 are 40 years ago, with less traffic on the roads?  We probably could have gotten away with it.  Not today.  Mistakes that we older folks used to get away with as a matter of routine under those lighter traffic conditions, can no longer be countenanced.

Yes, I saw this the other day and resisted commenting on it. But I can resist no more.

For Your Entertainment posts a link to Time  (Who of course has no motivation to distribute bad news about a Republican candidate…. right?).. who in their turn reports:

The incident: dog excrement found on the roof and windows of the Romney station wagon. How it got there: Romney strapped a dog carrier — with the family dog Seamus, an Irish Setter, in it — to the roof of the family station wagon for a twelve hour drive from Boston to Ontario, which the family apparently completed, despite Seamus’s rather visceral protest.

Of course Time, in the interests of fairness, no doubt, posts with the story, a still from “National Lampoon’s Vacation”.

Why do I get the feeling that least part of this story as being amplified, so as to place Mr. Romney in a bad light?   Understand; I’m no fan of Mr. Romney.  But this strikes me as a 101 class example of “gotcha politics”.

I see by way of REGHARDWARE that Dell is now picthing their XPS series laptops at the mainstream.

This is no surprise; yesterday’s game machines, while they are starting to show signs of age in terms of being able to play today’s games correctly, still make a hell of a desktop, or a laptop.  One of my servers here at Casa De Bit, these days, is an old hacker special rigged for performance with gaming programs of the day. A PII/400 runnig at around 700MHz. (Yes, overclocked, and and the variable speed cooling fans on the proc sound like a B29 taking off when pushed by network needs)
So I suppose it’s no big surprise, the Dell should try to position their XPS line at the meanstream SOHO user. frankly, you see, even with newer machines, the lines between the needs of gamers, and the needs of business users, particularly given the needs of Vista. are growing thinner the time.  (What, after all, is Vista but an XP backend with graphics that would make most gaming machines cringe?)

(OK, OK, I suppose I’ve started a holy war with that one. )

Still, the point remains that Vista requires a number of graphics enhancements that until recently were found only on gaming machines.  And of course, as all the readers of this site now, the technology has been getting faster, exponentially.  Meaning that this transition from “bleeding edge” to “mainstream” for a given system design, is moving faster all the time.

Most Americans have more computing power on their desktops than the entire day of most third world countries did just a few short years ago.  I marvel at this, just a bit.  But I wonder, how long it’s going to be before the Federal government steps in to regulate such matters .  In the interest of fairness, of course.  (snort)