but, that's just my opinion

Texas Secedes from Union

Damn, Perry has pulled Texas out of the union and we  didn't know it. The State Dept. recognizes Texas as a foreign country.

David Souter to Step Down

U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter to retire in June, AP reports

Justice David Souter has told the White House that he will retire from the Supreme Court at the end of the court's term in June, a source said Thursday night.

The source spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for Souter.

Speculation that the 69-year-old justice will be stepping down has been fueled by his failure to appoint law clerks from the fall term.

National Public Radio reported that Souter will remain on the bench until a successor is confirmed.

The Supreme Court declined to comment on the report.

Souter's retirement would give President Barack Obama his first pick for the high court. Court watchers expect him to choose a woman to join Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, currently the only woman on the Supreme Court. 

More soon at: http://link.latimes.com/r/FGRUKJ/QT6G6/25X27T/2EM4/UU2ZZW/OS/t 

Two Faced Liberals

Best of the Web
Last night found us at the Alexander Hamilton Award Dinner, an annual Manhattan Institute extravaganza. One of the guests of honor was Henry Kissinger, the former secretary of state, and in introducing Kissinger, institute trustee Peter Flanigan mentioned something that had escaped our notice until now, and that we confirmed via a February story from London's Daily Telegraph:

Kissinger, the pioneer of Cold War detente during the Nixon era, has made a return to frontline politics after President Barack Obama reportedly sent him to Moscow to win backing from Vladimir Putin's government for a nuclear disarmament initiative.

The Daily Telegraph has learned that the 85-year-old former US secretary of state met President Dmitry Medvedev for secret negotiations in December. According to Western diplomats, during two days of talks the octogenarian courted Russian officials to win their support for Mr Obama's initiative, which could see Russia and the United States each slashing their nuclear warheads to 1,000 warheads.

The decision to send Mr Kissinger to Moscow, taken by Mr Obama when he was still president-elect, is part of a plan to overcome probable Republican objections in Congress.

There's nothing unusual about a president (or, in this case, a president-elect) calling on an elder statesman for help, but this one caught our attention because of what happened the last time Kissinger was in the public eye. As The Wall Street Journal wrote in a December 2002 editorial:

In yet another sign that American liberalism has lost its bearings, we are now being told that Henry Kissinger is unfit to be President Bush's choice to lead a probe into government actions prior to September 11, 2001. What did he do, lie under oath in a legal deposition?

The Thought Police = Obama

Vice President Joe Biden's Today show appearance this morning has been the talk of the cablers today, after the VP said, "I would tell members of my family, and I have, that I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places now.

CNN, FNC and MSNBC were all live with Robert Gibbs' press briefing just after 2pmET today when ABC News' Jake Tapper asked for clarification. After one attempt, Tapper followed up: "I sympathize with you trying to explain the Vice President's comments, but that's not even remotely close to what he said." Then, to laughter from the room, Gibbs said, "I understand what he said, and I'm telling you what he meant to say."

Glenn Beck on Glenn Beck

FNC's Glenn Beck sat down for a Q&A with EW.com's Hollywood Insider and he clearly shows who, among the Fox News hosts, has the best sense of humor:

Q: Glenn Beck trails only The O'Reilly Factor and Hannity in the cable news ratings. What should you do right now to take both of them down and rocket yourself to No. 1?

Beck: I do have a call in to Dick Cheney to take them hunting.

Q: Let's talk about the famous April 13 fainting, when a guest passed out while shaking your hand. Were you aware that a mere touch from you could put a man right to sleep?

Beck: Usually it's my voice, my topics, my looks, my general presence. But the handshake? No, I wasn't. I felt like Spock. It was good.

Q: Here's what Jon Stewart said about you: "Finally, a guy who says what people who aren't thinking are thinking." What do you think he meant by that?

Beck: Isn't it time that those people have a voice? I am their king.

Joe The "Gaff" Biden

Some practical advice from Joe Biden, oooppsss, sorry the "Messiah" said I couldn't say this:

Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday that he would not recommend taking any commercial flight or riding in a subway car “at this point” because swine flu virus can spread “in confined places.”

“I would tell members of my family – and I have – I wouldn’t go anywhere in confined places now,” Biden said on NBC’s “Today” show.. “It’s not that it’s going to Mexico. It’s [that] you’re in a confined aircraft. When one person sneezes, it goes all the way through the aircraft. That’s me. …

So, I will lie and my spokesperson will say this:

...The advice he is giving family members is the same advice the Administration is giving to all Americans: that they should avoid unnecessary air travel to and from Mexico. If they are sick, they should avoid airplanes and other confined public spaces, such as subways.

...and this administration want us to believe them... I don't f**king think so. ...

Joe Biden is a heart beat away from being the president.

Politics and Swine Flu at the Border

Who is the Racist

The Jerusalem Post’s Khalid Abu Toameh reports:

The three-judge panel found the defendant guilty of violating PA laws that bar Palestinians from selling property to ‘the enemy.’ In its ruling, the court, which convened in Hebron, said that Brigith had acted in violation of a Palestinian ‘military law’ dating back to 1979, which states that it is forbidden for a Palestinian to sell land to Jews. The accused was also found guilty of violating a law dating back to 1958 that calls for a boycott against Israel, as well as another law from 1953 that bans trade with Israelis. The judges issued the verdict unanimously and pointed out that the defendant did not have the right to appeal. The death sentence, however, must be approved by PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

Mind you, this is not the act of the extremist Islamists of Hamas. This comes from a court whose officers and judges are all affiliated with the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority — the supposedly moderate peace-partner to whom most of the world is pressuring Israel to make concessions. But even to these “moderates,” a real-estate transaction with a Jew is a capital offense because it is an article of Palestinian faith that every inch of their country must be rendered Judenrein in order for their national destiny to be fulfilled.

As Abu Toameh points out, this would be the first official execution over selling land to Jews but, in fact, many others accused of this “crime” — whether the charges stand or not — have often been abducted and murdered by Palestinian gangs.

All of this ought to highlight a key truth about the Arab-Israeli conflict: though Israel is routinely depicted as a “racist” or “apartheid” state, it is actually the Palestinian nationalist movement that is predicated on hatred and exclusion — not Israel, which protects the political and property rights of its Arab minority.  commentary

More Obama Lies

Oh Lordy, Even the AP can see through this cloud of smoke and mirrors:

Obama’s desire to escape all accountability for his economic policies was also on display earlier in the day when he told a town hall in Missouri: “We inherited a $1.3 trillion deficit. That wasn’t me.” Oh really? The Associated Press fact checked Obama’s claim and reports:

Congress controls the purse strings, not the president, and it was under Democratic control for Obama’s last two years as Illinois senator. Obama supported the emergency bailout package in President George W. Bush’s final months — a package Democratic leaders wanted to make bigger.
…
He’s persuaded Congress to expand children’s health insurance, education spending, health information technology and more. He’s moving ahead on a variety of big-ticket items on health care, the environment, energy and transportation that, if achieved, will be more enduring than bank bailouts and aid for homeowners.

The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated his policy proposals would add a net $428 billion to the deficit over four years, even accounting for his spending reduction goals. Now, the deficit is nearly quadrupling to $1.75 trillion.

The cost of Obama’s massive spending explosion is about to hit home. The Treasury Department announced yesterday that it is going to step up the issuing of 30-year bonds to cover the hundreds of billions of dollars the Obama administration is spending on bailouts and stimulus. A special advisory committee to the Treasury then warned, “Treasuries will probably not receive the same favorable demand treatment from either source over the coming quarters.” Translation: foreign and domestic investors are going to demand significantly higher interest rates in exchange for buying the avalanche of new bonds.

Memos Effect

....The memos’ release will not have a catastrophic effect on U.S. counterterrorism efforts. Indeed, most of the information in the memos was leaked to the press years ago and has long been public knowledge. However, when the release of the memos is examined in a wider context, and combined with a few other dynamics, it appears that the U.S. counterterrorism community is quietly slipping back into an atmosphere of risk-aversion and malaise — an atmosphere not dissimilar to that described by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (also known as the 9/11 Commission) as a contributing factor to the intelligence failures that led to the 9/11 attacks.... www.stratfor.com