http://www.liveleak.com/browse?channel_token=2e6_1302947547 Items in channel 'SF Talon' Tue, 18 Jun 2013 02:26:37 -0400 Liveleak http://edge.liveleak.com/80281E/u/u/ll2/logo.gif http://www.liveleak.com/browse?channel_token=2e6_1302947547 Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:29:15 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=6f7_1283401672 SF_Talon DAN ELLIOTT | 08/ 9/10 06:55 PM Associated Press OVER THE PACIFIC OCEAN - In a historic first for Cold War adversaries, U.S., Canadian and Russian military officers directed fighter jets and ground controllers to test how well they could track an international terrorist hijacking over the Pacific Ocean. A chartered American jet code-named Fencing 1220 sent a mock distress signal shortly after taking off from Anchorage, Alaska, on Sunday, triggering a pursuit by at least seven fighters and a flurry of radio and telephone calls between military and civilian officials on both sides of the Pacific. The Associated Press had exclusive access to Fencing 1220, a plush executive-style Gulfstream whose passengers included a Russian Air Force colonel and a senior commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, the joint U.S.-Canadian command that patrols the skies over North America. Their goal: To ensure that two militaries still distrustful of each other can work effectively tackling a terror threat that worries both nations. One question that arose Sunday was just how much information they need - from the ground, from the fighters, from the hijacked pilots and from the terrorists - and whether fewer, simpler messages might be better than the flood of communication the exercise generated. Canadian Forces Col. Todd Balfe, the deputy commander of NORAD's Alaska region, acknowledged it may seem "incongruous" that the exercise was taking place amid tension between his country and Russia over recent Russian bomber flights probing the northern boundaries of Canadian airspace. But with al-Qaida at the front of North American minds and Russia dealing with threats from Chechen rebels, terrorism transcends national boundaries, and exercises like this could lay the foundation for cooperating on other issues as well, Balfe said. "So we'll start out with this mission, and if that leads into other missions, for example, probing of air spaces, well, that would be a great thing as well," he said. Even veteran officers aboard the Gulfstream were struck by the unprecedented cooperation the exercise required and the breathtaking sight of fighter jets so near that the pilots' helmets were clearly silhouetted against the bright blue sky. "I'm kind of in awe," said U.S. Army Maj. Michael Humphreys, the senior American officer on Fencing 1220 and a spokesman for NORAD. "It was a remarkably well-planned and well-executed exercise." It is only half over. The plane will fly back to Alaska later this week, again pursued by fighter jets and tracked by controllers on the ground and in the air. Russian Air Force Col. Alexander Vasiliev said he knew the day would come when the former Cold War enemies would work in concert, but "he never thought it would be him sitting on the aircraft," his translator said. Vasiliev declined to be quoted directly, saying he would leave that to a Russian spokesman at a news conference planned later in the week. The intricate exercise began about 10 minutes after the Gulfstream took off from Alaska. Its civilian pilots sent an agreed-upon digital distress code, 5475, to civilian air traffic controllers in the U.S. to signal that the plane had been "hijacked." Ben Rhodes, one of the pilots, followed up with a voice radio call: "Fencing 1220 squawking 5475 for the exercise." NORAD then dispatched two F-22s and an E-3 Sentry - an airborne surveillance and command post - to shadow the plane. The Gulfstream was still over Alaska at about 38,000 feet (11,500 meters) when the angular, silver F-22s drew alongside, about 10 minutes after the hijack signal. They edged to within 500 feet (150 meters) and after about 30 minutes, they turned back to refuel and didn't return. On the ground and in the air, commanders at NORAD headquarters at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., and civilian aviation officials in Alaska were communicating with their Russian counterparts. About two hours after the F-22s fell back, while the Gulfstream was over the Pacific, NORAD officers aboard the E-3 Sentry radioed their counterparts on a Russian surveillance and command post plane that Fencing 1220 was theirs to follow. Two Russian Su-27 fighters painted pale blue and white soon pulled up from behind the Gulfstream and hovered off its right side, red stars clearly visible on their wings and twin tails. They shadowed the Gulfstream for about 90 minutes before banking sharply to the left and peeling away. Three other Russian fighters, a MiG-31 and two Su-27s, later shadowed the Gulfstream during the 7 1/2-hour flight. All the fighters were unarmed, a condition of the exercise. The scene aboard Fencing 1220 was a dramatic contrast to the ominous threats and bluster that marked U.S.-Soviet relations for most of the last half of the 20th century. One of the lowest points came in 1983, when the Soviet air force shot down a Korean Air Lines jumbo jet, killing 269 people. The jet had strayed far off course near the USSR's Pacific coast and was brought down near Sakhalin Island, well south of the route Fencing 1220 took. Aboard the Gulfstream, Balfe and Vasiliev chatted amiably about the planes they flew and their families. The radio sometimes carried the voices of Russian officers speaking heavily accented English, asking questions or delivering route instructions. "To see those Russian fighters pull up right on time, to hear the Russians (talking on the radio), it's just incredible," the U.S. Army's Humphreys said. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/09/us-russian-militaries-team-up-air-force_n_676388.html http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=6f7_1283401672 SF_Talon U.S. And Russian Militaries Team Up For Terrorist-Tracking Exercise United States, Russia, Canada, Cooperation, Terrorism, Muslims Tue, 06 Jul 2010 21:02:01 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b98_1278463537 SF_Talon by Jason Mattera from HumanEvents.com 07/06/2010 I could've also titled this piece "Cringe-Worthy" and "Mind-Numbingly Painful to Watch." Um, the video you're about to see is that awful for two reasons: 1) It's a clear reminder that we're losing our ethos and heritage as a country and 2) Wow, oh wow, our education system is quite the disaster. So here's the deal: On the cusp of the Fourth of July, late-night comedian Jay Leno filmed one of his usual "Jaywalking" segments, this time testing the historical knowledge of Americans on... American history... in light of America celebrating her triumph over tyranny. Alas, the stupidity is all there... America gained independence from... Greece! Martha Washington sewed the first American Flag! Winston Churchill was the general who led the Revolutionary War! There were 30 original colonies! America came to being in the year... 1922! (That gem, mind you, came from a college professor. Seriously.) This Leno clip may be funny, but as you'll see following the video, the answers contained therein really do mirror the dumbing down of the American mind. See for yourself. Now that the laughs are out of the way, how scary is it that these folks actually can go to the voting booth on Election Day? I mean, these people don't even posses rudimentary knowledge of this country: the reasons why we broke ties from England and the moral basis our forebears articulated while organizing a limited form of government. The Leno segment is not some anecdotal anomaly, but rather a national indictment. Writing on the pages of HUMAN EVENTS, Dr. Richard Brake pointed out that only 46 percent of college seniors were able to identify that the line "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal" is in the Declaration of Independence. If that weren't bad enough, only 49 percent of Americans overall can name the three branches of government. Forty-nine percent, people! Similarly, according to research done by the American Civics Literacy Program, 75 percent of college grads have no clue what purpose the First Amendment serves, and barely 50 percent can describe what a free-market is. One main reason why we have an army of ignoramuses out there-or, Obama Zombies, as I like to call them-is because of our Leftist-dominated education establishment. Western Civilization and American civics are no longer education staples. Multiculturalism has replaced George Washington. Schools proudly offer classes like "Native American Feminism" (University of Michigan) and "Cyber Feminism" (Cornell University). Or how about the University of Pennsylvania's "Adultery Novel" class, which studies a series of 19th and 20th century works about adultery and watches "several adultery films" to place adultery "into its aesthetic, social and cultural context" Heck, UPENN even finds room for Marx in a course on marital infidelity, viewing trysts through "sociological descriptions of modernity, Marxist examinations of family" and "feminist work on the construction of gender." This is what the Left means when they talk about "diversity" and "multiculturalism": heavy on nonsense and short of American education. But this kind of erasure of American identity and history goes a long way toward explaining the MTV-driven crap that preys on students' abysmal understanding of the workings of the most powerful and affluent country on the planet. As we're celebrating our country's beginning, let us remember the words of Thomas Paine, as we take it upon ourselves to educate the next generation: "Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it." Mr. Mattera is the editor of HUMAN EVENTS and the author of Obama Zombies: How the Liberal Machine Brainwashed My Generation (Simon & Schuster). http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=37922 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b98_1278463537 SF_Talon Embarrassingly Stupid Americans, the Video! Jay Leno, Jaywalking, 4th of July, Human Events, Dumbass Americans, California Sun, 02 May 2010 00:28:47 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ea4_1272773899 SF_Talon Dedicated to one of the best comedy groups. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ea4_1272773899 SF_Talon Kids in the Hall - Ham of Truth kids in the hall, ham of truth, comedy, canada, HBO Mon, 26 Apr 2010 21:22:47 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=5b7_1272330930 SF_Talon I'm 63 and I'm tired... by Robert A. Hall (Blog post) Feb. 19, 2009 I'm 63. Except for one semester in college when jobs were scarce and a six-month period when I was between jobs, but job-hunting every day, I've worked hard, since I was 18. Despite some health challenges, I still put in 50-hour weeks, and haven't called in sick in seven or eight years. I make a good salary, but I didn't inherit my job or my income, and I worked to get where I am. Given the economy, there's no retirement in sight, and I'm tired. Very tired. I'm tired of being told that I have to "spread the wealth" to people who don't have my work ethic. I'm tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy to earn it. I'm tired of being told that I have to pay more taxes to "keep people in their homes." Sure, if they lost their jobs or got sick, I'm willing to help. But if they bought McMansions at three times the price of our paid-off, $250,000 condo, on one-third of my salary, then let the left-wing Congress-critters who passed Fannie and Freddie and the Community Reinvestment Act that created the bubble help them with their own money. I'm tired of being told how bad America is by left-wing millionaires like Michael Moore, George Soros and Hollywood Entertainers who live in luxury because of the opportunities America offers. In thirty years, if they get their way, the United States will have the economy of Zimbabwe , the freedom of the press of China , the crime and violence of Mexico , the tolerance for Christian people of Iran , and the freedom of speech of Venezuela . I'm tired of being told that Islam is a "Religion of Peace," when every day I can read dozens of stories of Muslim men killing their sisters, wives and daughters for their family "honor"; of Muslims rioting over some slight offense; of Muslims murdering Christian and Jews because they aren't "believers"; of Muslims burning schools for girls; of Muslims stoning teenage rape victims to death for "adultery"; of Muslims mutilating the genitals of little girls; all in the name of Allah, because the Qur'an and Shari'a law tells them to. I'm tired of being told that "race doesn't matter" in the post-racial world of Obama, when it's all that matters in affirmative action jobs, lower college admission and graduation standards for minorities (harming them the most), government contract set-asides, tolerance for the ghetto culture of violence and fatherless children that hurts minorities more than anyone, and in the appointment of U.S. Senators from Illinois. I think it's very cool that we have a black president and that a black child is doing her homework at the desk where Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. I just wish the black president was Condi Rice, or someone who believes more in freedom and the individual and less arrogantly of an all-knowing government. I'm tired of a news media that thinks Bush's fundraising and inaugural expenses were obscene, but that think Obama's, at triple the cost, were wonderful; that thinks Bush exercising daily was a waste of presidential time, but Obama exercising is a great example for the public to control weight and stress; that picked over every line of Bush's military records, but never demanded that Kerry release his; that slammed Palin, with two years as governor, for being too inexperienced for VP, but touted Obama with three years as senator as potentially the best president ever. Wonder why people are dropping their subscriptions or switching to Fox News? Get a clue. I didn't vote for Bush in 2000, but the media and Kerry drove me to his camp in 2004. I'm tired of being told that out of "tolerance for other cultures" we must let Saudi Arabia use our oil money to fund mosques and madrassa Islamic schools to preach hate in America , while no American group is allowed to fund a church, synagogue or religious school in Saudi Arabia to teach love and tolerance. I'm tired of being told I must lower my living standard to fight global warming, which no one is allowed to debate. My wife and I live in a two-bedroom apartment and carpool together five miles to our jobs. We also own a three-bedroom condo where our daughter and granddaughter live. Our carbon footprint is about 5% of Al Gore's, and if you're greener than Gore, you're green enough. I'm tired of being told that drug addicts have a disease, and I must help support and treat them, and pay for the damage they do. Did a giant germ rush out of a dark alley, grab them, and stuff white powder up their noses while they tried to fight it off? I don't think Gay people choose to be Gay, but I damn sure think druggies chose to take drugs. And I'm tired of harassment from cool people treating me like a freak when I tell them I never tried marijuana. I'm tired of illegal aliens being called "undocumented workers," especially the ones who aren't working, but are living on welfare or crime. What's next? Calling drug dealers, "Undocumented Pharmacists"? And, no, I'm not against Hispanics. Most of them are Catholic, and it's been a few hundred years since Catholics wanted to kill me for my religion. I'm willing to fast track for citizenship any Hispanic person, who can speak English, doesn't have a criminal record and who is self-supporting without family on welfare, or who serves honorably for three years in our military.... Those are the citizens we need. I'm tired of latte liberals and journalists, who would never wear the uniform of the Republic themselves, or let their entitlement-handicapped kids near a recruiting station, trashing our military. They and their kids can sit at home, never having to make split-second decisions under life and death circumstances, and bad mouth better people than themselves. Do bad things happen in war? You bet. Do our troops sometimes misbehave? Sure. Does this compare with the atrocities that were the policy of our enemies for the last fifty years and still are? Not even close. So here's the deal. I'll let myself be subjected to all the humiliation and abuse that was heaped on terrorists at Abu Ghraib or Gitmo, and the critics can let themselves be subject to captivity by the Muslims, who tortured and beheaded Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, or the Muslims who tortured and murdered Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins in Lebanon, or the Muslims who ran the blood-spattered Al Qaeda torture rooms our troops found in Iraq, or the Muslims who cut off the heads of schoolgirls in Indonesia, because the girls were Christian. Then we'll compare notes. British and American soldiers are the only troops in history that civilians came to for help and handouts, instead of hiding from in fear. I'm tired of people telling me that their party has a corner on virtue and the other party has a corner on corruption. Read the papers; bums are bipartisan. And I'm tired of people telling me we need bipartisanship. I live in Illinois , where the "Illinois Combine" of Democrats has worked to loot the public for years. Not to mention the tax cheats in Obama's cabinet. I'm tired of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers and politicians of both parties talking about innocent mistakes, stupid mistakes or youthful mistakes, when we all know they think their only mistake was getting caught. I'm tired of people with a sense of entitlement, rich or poor. Speaking of poor, I'm tired of hearing people with air-conditioned homes, color TVs and two cars called poor. The majority of Americans didn't have that in 1970, but we didn't know we were "poor." The poverty pimps have to keep changing the definition of poor to keep the dollars flowing. I'm real tired of people who don't take responsibility for their lives and actions. I'm tired of hearing them blame the government, or discrimination or big-whatever for their problems. Yes, I'm damn tired. But I'm also glad to be 63. Because, mostly, I'm not going to have to see the world these people are making. I'm just sorry for my granddaughter. Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=5b7_1272330930 SF_Talon I'm 63 and I'm tired... politics, liberals, socialism, race, democrats, immigration, illegals, bailouts, corruption, islam Thu, 25 Mar 2010 12:25:24 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=25e_1269533949 SF_Talon How the Healthcare Bill actually got enough votes By KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL WSJ_3/22/10 Last week Republican Rep. Mike Pence posted on his Facebook site that famous Schoolhouse Rock video titled "How a Bill Becomes a Law." It's clearly time for a remake. Never before has the average American been treated to such a live-action view of the sordid politics necessary to push a deeply flawed bill to completion. It was dirty deals, open threats, broken promises and disregard for democracy that pulled ObamaCare to this point, and yesterday the same machinations pushed it across the finish line. You could see it all coming a week ago, when New York Rep. Louise Slaughter let leak a breathtaking strategy whereby the House would not actually vote on the unpopular Senate bill. The House would instead vote on a "reconciliation" fix to that bill, and in the process "deem" the underlying legislation-with its Cornhusker kickbacks and Louisiana purchases-passed. The Slaughter Solution was both blunt admission and warning. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not have 216 votes to pass the Senate bill, there never was going to be majority "support" for it, but they'd pass it anyway. The final days were a simple death watch, to see how the votes would be bought, bribed or bullied, and how many congressional rules gamed, to get the win. President Obama flew to Pennsylvania (home to five wavering House Democrats), Missouri (three wavering), Ohio (eight), and Virginia (four) to hold rallies with small, supportive crowds. In four days, Mr. Obama held 64 meetings or calls with congressmen. The goal was to let undecideds know that the president had them in his crosshairs, that he still had pull with the base, and he'd use it against them. By Saturday the tactic had yielded yes votes from at least half the previously undecided members of those states. As for those who needed more persuasion: California Rep. Jim Costa bragged publicly that during his meeting in the Oval Office, he'd demanded the administration increase water to his Central Valley district. On Tuesday, Interior pushed up its announcement, giving the Central Valley farmers 25% of water supplies, rather than the expected 5% allocation. Mr. Costa, who denies there was a quid pro quo, on Saturday said he'd flip to a yes. Florida Rep. Suzanne Kosmas (whose district is home to the Kennedy Space Center) admitted that in her own Thursday meeting with the president, she'd brought up the need for more NASA funding. On Friday she flipped to a yes. So watch the NASA budget. Democrats inserted a new provision providing $100 million in extra Medicaid money for Tennessee. Retiring Tennessee Rep. Bart Gordon flipped to a yes vote on Thursday. Outside heavies were enlisted to warn potential no votes that unions and other Democrats would run them out of Congress. Al Lawson, a Tallahassee liberal challenging Blue Dog Florida Rep. Allen Boyd in a primary, made Mr. Boyd's previous no vote the centerpiece of his criticism. The SEIU threatened to yank financial support for New York's Michael McMahon. The liberal Working Families Party said it would deny him a ballot line. Obama deputy campaign manager Steve Hildebrand vowed to challenge South Dakota Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin if she voted no. New York's Scott Murphy was targeted as a part of a $1.3 million union-financed ad campaign to pressure him to flip. Moveon.Org spent another $36,000 on ads in his district and promised a primary. Messrs. Boyd and Murphy caved on Friday. All the while Mrs. Pelosi was desperately working to provide cover with a Congressional Budget Office score that would claim the bill "saved" money. To do it, Democrats threw in a further $66 billion in Medicare cuts and another $50 billion in taxes. Huzzah! In the day following the CBO score, about a half-dozen Democrats who had spent the past months complaining the bill already had too many taxes and Medicare cuts now said they were voting to reduce the deficit. Even with all this, by Friday Mrs. Pelosi was dealing with a new problem: The rule changes and deals winning her votes were losing her votes, too. The public backlash against "deem and pass" gave several wary Democrats-such as Massachusetts's Stephen Lynch and California's Dennis Cardoza-a new excuse to vote no. Mrs. Pelosi jettisoned deem and pass. Once-solid Democrat yes votes wanted their own concessions. Oregon's Pete DeFazio threatened to lead a revolt unless changes were made to Medicare payments to benefit his state. On Saturday Mrs. Pelosi cut a deal to give 17 states additional Medicare money. By the weekend, all the pressure and threats and bribes had left the speaker three to five votes short. Her remaining roadblock was those pro-life members who'd boxed themselves in on abortion, saying they would vote against the Senate bill unless it barred public funding of abortion. Mrs. Pelosi's first instinct was to go around this bloc, getting the votes elsewhere. She couldn't. Into Saturday night, Michigan's Bart Stupak and Mrs. Pelosi wrangled over options. The stalemate? Any change that gave Mr. Stupak what he wanted in law would lose votes from pro-choice members. The solution? Remove it from Congress altogether, having the president instead sign a meaningless executive order affirming that no public money should go to pay for abortions. The order won't change the Senate legal language-as pro-choice Democrats publicly crowed within minutes of the Stupak deal. Executive orders can be changed or eliminated on a whim. Pro-life groups condemned the order as the vote-getting ruse it was. Nevertheless, Mr. Stupak and several of his colleagues voted yes, paving the way to Mrs. Pelosi's final vote tally of 219. Even in these waning minutes, Senate Democrats were playing their own games. Republicans announced they had found language in the House reconciliation bill that could doom this entire "fix" in the Senate. Since many House Democrats only agreed to vote for the Senate bill on promises that the sidecar reconciliation would pass, this was potentially a last-minute killer. Senate Democrats handled it by deliberately refusing to meet with Republicans and the Senate parliamentarian to get a ruling, lest it be unfavorable and lose House votes. The dodge was a clear dereliction of duty, but Democrats figure the Senate parliamentarian won't dare derail this process after ObamaCare passes. They are probably right. So there you have it, folks: "How a Bill Becomes a Law," at least in Obama-Pelosi land. Perhaps the most remarkable Democratic accomplishment this week was to make the process of passing ObamaCare as politically toxic as the bill itself. President Obama was elected by millions of Americans attracted to his promise to change Washington politics. These were voters furious with earmarks, insider deals and a lack of transparency. They were the many Americans who, even before this week, held Congress in historic low esteem. They'll remember this spectacle come November. Ms. Strassel writes the Journal's weekly Potomac Watch column from Washington. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748703775504575136133814210008.html http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=25e_1269533949 SF_Talon Inside the Pelosi Sausage Factory pelosi, healthcare reform, extortion, obama, liberals, slaughter rule, corruption Wed, 24 Mar 2010 20:55:59 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=344_1269478286 SF_Talon Oh, Canada! by Ann Coulter 03/24/2010 Since arriving in Canada I've been accused of thought crimes, threatened with criminal prosecution for speeches I hadn't yet given and denounced on the floor of the Parliament (which was nice because that one was on my "bucket list"). Posters advertising my speech have been officially banned, while posters denouncing me are plastered all over the University of Ottawa campus. Elected officials have been prohibited from attending my speeches. Also, the local clothing stores are fresh out of brown shirts. Welcome to Canada! The provost of the University of Ottawa, average student IQ: 0, wrote to me-widely disseminating his letter to at least a half-dozen intermediaries before it reached me-in advance of my visit in order to recommend that I familiarize myself with Canada's criminal laws regarding hate speech. This marks the first time I've ever gotten hate mail for something I might do in the future. Apparently Canadian law forbids "promoting hatred against any identifiable group," which the provost, Francois A. Houle advised me, "would not only be considered inappropriate, but could in fact lead to criminal charges." I was given no specific examples of what words and phrases I couldn't use, but I take it I'm not supposed to say, "F----you, Francois." While it was a relief to know that it is still permissible in Canada to promote hatred against unidentifiable groups, upon reading Francois' letter, I suddenly realized that I had just been the victim of a hate crime! And it was committed by Francois A. Houle (French for "Frank A. Hole"). What other speakers get a warning not to promote hatred? Did Francois A. Houle send a similarly worded letter to Israel-hater Omar Barghouti before he spoke last year at U of Ottawa? ("Ottawa": Indian for "Land of the Bed-Wetters.") How about Angela Davis, Communist Party member and former Black Panther who spoke at the University of Zero just last month? Or do only conservatives get letters admonishing them to be civil? Or-my suspicion-is it only conservative women who fuel Francois' rage? How about sending a letter to all Muslim speakers advising them to please bathe once a week while in Canada? Would that constitute a hate crime? I'm sure Canada's Human Rights Commission will get to the bottom of Francois' strange warning to me, inasmuch as I will be filing a complaint with that august body, so I expect they will be reviewing every letter the university has sent to other speakers prior to their speeches to see if any of them were threatened with criminal prosecution. Both writer Mark Steyn and editor Ezra Levant have been investigated by the Human Rights Commission for promoting hatred toward Muslims. Levant's alleged crime was to reprint the cartoons of Mohammed originally published in a Danish newspaper, leading practitioners of the Religion of Peace to engage in murderous violence across the globe. Steyn's alleged crime was to publish an excerpt of his book, America Alone in Maclean's magazine, in which he jauntily described Muslims as "hot for jihad." Both of them also flew jet airliners full of passengers into skyscrapers in lower Manhattan, resulting in thousands of deaths. No, wait-that was somebody else. Curiously, however, there was no evidence that either the cartoons or the column did, in fact, incite hatred toward Muslims-nor was there the remotest possibility that they would. By contrast, conservative speakers are regularly subjected to violent attacks on college campuses. Bill Kristol, Pat Buchanan, David Horowitz and I have all been the targets of infamous campus attacks. That's why the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute (a sponsor of my Canada speeches) and the Young America's Foundation (a sponsor of many of my college speeches) don't send conservatives to college campuses without a bodyguard. You'd have to be a real A-Houle not to anticipate that accusing a conservative of "promoting hatred" prior to her arrival on a college campus would in actuality-not in liberal fantasies of terrified Muslims cowering in terror of Mark Steyn readers-incite real-world violence toward the conservative. The university itself acknowledged that Francois' letter was likely to provoke violence against me by demanding-long after my speech was scheduled, but immediately after Francois disseminated his letter-that my sponsors pony up more than $1,200 for extra security. Also following Francois' letter, the Ottawa University Student Federation met for 7 1/2 hours to hammer out a series of resolutions denouncing me. The resolutions included: "Whereas Ann Coulter is a hateful woman; "Whereas she has made hateful comments against GLBTQ, Muslims, Jews and women; "Whereas she violates an unwritten code of 'positive-space'; "Be it resolved that the SFUO express its disapproval of having Ann Coulter speak at the University of Ottawa." At least the students didn't waste 7 1/2 hours on something silly, like their studies. At the risk of violating anyone's positive space, what happened to Canada? How did the country that gave us Jim Carrey, Mike Myers, Martin Short, Dan Aykroyd and Catherine O'Hara suddenly become a bunch of whining crybabies? After Tuesday night, the hatred incited by Francois' letter is no longer theoretical. The police called off my speech when the auditorium was surrounded by thousands of rioting liberals-screaming, blocking the entrance, throwing tables, demanding that my books be burned, and finally setting off the fire alarm. Sadly, I missed the book-burning because I never made it to the building. But, reportedly, a Canadian crowd hasn't been this excited since they opened a new Tim Hortons. Local reporters couldn't make out what the crowd was chanting, but it was something about "Molson" and a "sled dog." I've given more than 100 college speeches, and not once has one of my speeches been shut down at any point. Even the pie-throwing incident at the University of Arizona didn't break up the event. I said, "Get them!" and the college Republicans got them, and then I continued with my rambling, hate-filled diatribe-I mean, my speech. So we've run this experiment more than 100 times. Only one college speech was ever met with so much mob violence that the police were forced to cancel it: The one that was preceded by a letter from the university provost accusing me of hate speech. (To add insult to injury, Francois didn't even plan to attend my speech because Tuesday is his bikini wax night.) If a university official's letter accusing a speaker of having a proclivity to commit speech crimes before she's given the speech-which then leads to Facebook postings demanding that Ann Coulter be hurt, a massive riot and a police-ordered cancellation of the speech-is not hate speech, then there is no such thing as hate speech. Either Francois goes to jail or the Human Rights Commission is a hoax and a fraud. http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=36191 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=344_1269478286 SF_Talon Oh Canada! ann coulter, liberals, hate speech, censorship, brown shirts, canada Wed, 30 Dec 2009 17:20:23 -0500 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=adf_1262211119 SF_Talon Funny parody and annual troll tax... http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=adf_1262211119 SF_Talon The Government Can! Politics, Government, United States, Funny, Parody, Obama, Liberals Fri, 07 May 2010 20:48:27 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=601_1273279437 SF_Talon BP (NYSE:BP) has released footage of their remote operating vehicle (ROV) successfully capping one of the three leaks that is pouring an estimated 5,000 barrels of oil a day into the waters off the Gulf of Mexico. This is the first video I've seen of the oil leak itself . The sheer volume of oil gushing out is quite incredible - you can see it at about the 2 minute 15 second mark of the video. The ROV used a robotic arm to cap the leak, which did not reduce the total volume of the oil leak, but according to officials makes the task of capping the other two leaks much easier. Time is getting short for BP as reports are coming out this afternoon that oil has begun to wash up on the shores of a major Louisiana wildlife refuge. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=601_1273279437 SF_Talon First Underwater Footage: Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill at Source oil spill, BP, underwater footage, Louisiana, deepwater horizon Fri, 20 Feb 2009 23:33:07 -0500 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=256_1235190433 SF_Talon Jan 22nd 2009 From The Economist print edition Military setbacks and ideological disputes have put al-Qaeda on the defensive OSAMA BIN LADEN'S messages from the wilderness get little attention nowadays. Al-Qaeda has been unable to land a blow on Western soil since the 2005 London bombings. Its leaders lurk in Pakistan's tribal belt, hiding from regular lethal attacks by America's unmanned Predator aircraft. Their Pushtun hosts are tiring of their troublesome guests. Perhaps most damaging, former supporters publicly denounce its ideology. The resultant bickering and low morale do not mean that al-Qaeda and its followers cannot still mount spectacular attacks. Western intelligence services are convinced the group tried to blow up several transatlantic airliners in 2006. It can still pose a menace in, say, parts of Asia. But for now, Mr bin Laden has to try to exploit the news, rather than to make it. So it was with his last philippic, an audio recording issued on January 14th, in which he claimed that his jihad against America since 2001 had been responsible for bringing about the superpower's economic collapse. His followers would "continue jihad for another seven years, seven more after that, and even seven more after." The inauguration of Barack Obama, he said, changes nothing; democracy is a form of "polytheism". The new president is "like one who swallows a double-edged sword" and will be hurt however he moves. If he withdraws from his predecessor's wars, Mr Obama suffers military defeat; if he continues, he deepens the economic crisis. Above all, Mr bin Laden sought to exploit Muslim outrage over Israel's war in Gaza. Forget about street protests, diplomatic mediation or treacherous Arab leaders, said Mr bin Laden; the only way to defeat Israel was through jihad. Jonathan Evans, the head of MI5, Britain's domestic intelligence service, is among those who worry that the war in Gaza will have radicalised more Muslims. Yet Palestine is a problem as well as an opportunity for al-Qaeda. It wants to be linked with the cause that is dearest to Muslims' hearts, but it has little to offer. Others have fought harder against Israel, chiefly Hamas, the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Hizbullah, the Shia militia in Lebanon. But jihadists of al-Qaeda's sort regard the Muslim Brotherhood as, at best, deviant. By taking part in elections they place man's law above God's. And they see Shias as apostates. Al-Qaeda's failure to fight for Palestine comes up repeatedly in jihadist internet forums. It also forms part of the latest ideological counter-attack against al-Qaeda by Sayyid Imam al-Sharif, one of its founders in 1998 and a leading jihadist ideologue under the pen-name "Dr Fadl". He has since fallen out with its leaders, particularly Ayman al-Zawahiri, who succeeded him as head of Egypt's Islamic Jihad group. Al-Qaeda, he now says, "did not offer Palestine anything except words". Dr Fadl was arrested in Yemen in 2001 and extradited to Egypt. His first assault on al-Qaeda for its profligate killing of Muslims, at the end of 2007, prompted Mr Zawahiri to write a rebuttal of nearly 200 pages. The rejoinder to that, issued in November, was serialised in an Egyptian newspaper. His latest critique ranges from personal attacks on Mr Zawahiri to accusations that al-Qaeda has distorted Islamic law on jihad and inflicted a series of disasters on Muslims. Dr Fadl accuses Mr Zawahiri of being an agent of the Sudanese intelligence services who agreed to carry out ten attacks in Egypt in the 1990s in exchange for $100,000. He denounces him as a liar and a coward who incites others to die in jihad while not taking part in the fighting. Egyptian prisons and graveyards were filled with jihadists, but Mr Zawahiri fled abroad, he says. Al-Qaeda blames America for all the woes of the Muslim world. But Dr Fadl says the problem is Muslims' own failings. He accuses al-Qaeda of declaring entire populations, even in Muslim countries, to be apostates, and of establishing a "criminal doctrine" of wholesale slaughter. This defies traditional injunctions in Islamic law against indiscriminate killing. Even the killing of non-believers in war is restricted, he avers, pointing to the bans on killing women, boys, the demented and hired hands such as labourers and peasants. The attacks on America in 2001, says Dr Fadl, prompted foreign invasions and the destruction of the "Islamic state" set up by the Taliban. It led to the death of more Muslims than have been killed in all of Israel's wars. "Every drop of blood that was shed or is being shed in Afghanistan and Iraq is the responsibility of bin Laden and Zawahiri and their followers," he writes. Their talk of Palestine is "just for propaganda"; they cannot find allies among Palestinians. Do the ideological revisions of Dr Fadl, facilitated by the Egyptian security services, matter when the assault in Gaza may have won al-Qaeda new supporters? Some officials argue that the emotional fury will pass; they say Dr Fadl's first attack hurt al-Qaeda even though it followed Israel's equally brutal war in Lebanon in 2006. But pundits such as Bruce Hoffman, of Georgetown University in Washington, think the impact will be marginal. "Dr Fadl discomfits al-Qaeda," he says. "Young hotheads are not going to listen to some geriatric sitting in an Egyptian prison. But al-Qaeda worries he might have an impact on its finances." Counter-terrorism officials say that al-Qaeda is short of money. Individual attacks may be quite cheap, but running an organisation-and supporting the families of members who are killed-is costly. Tellingly, Mr bin Laden appealed for money in his last message, arguing that Muslims had a duty to wage "financial jihad". What better way to raise funds than to evoke the unending agony of Palestine? So it was with his last philippic, an audio recording issued on January 14th, in which he claimed that his jihad against America since 2001 had been responsible for bringing about the superpower's economic collapse. His followers would "continue jihad for another seven years, seven more after that, and even seven more after." The inauguration of Barack Obama, he said, changes nothing; democracy is a form of "polytheism". The new president is "like one who swallows a double-edged sword" and will be hurt however he moves. If he withdraws from his predecessor's wars, Mr Obama suffers military defeat; if he continues, he deepens the economic crisis. Above all, Mr bin Laden sought to exploit Muslim outrage over Israel's war in Gaza. Forget about street protests, diplomatic mediation or treacherous Arab leaders, said Mr bin Laden; the only way to defeat Israel was through jihad. Jonathan Evans, the head of MI5, Britain's domestic intelligence service, is among those who worry that the war in Gaza will have radicalised more Muslims. Yet Palestine is a problem as well as an opportunity for al-Qaeda. It wants to be linked with the cause that is dearest to Muslims' hearts, but it has little to offer. Others have fought harder against Israel, chiefly Hamas, the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Hizbullah, the Shia militia in Lebanon. But jihadists of al-Qaeda's sort regard the Muslim Brotherhood as, at best, deviant. By taking part in elections they place man's law above God's. And they see Shias as apostates. Al-Qaeda's failure to fight for Palestine comes up repeatedly in jihadist internet forums. It also forms part of the latest ideological counter-attack against al-Qaeda by Sayyid Imam al-Sharif, one of its founders in 1998 and a leading jihadist ideologue under the pen-name "Dr Fadl". He has since fallen out with its leaders, particularly Ayman al-Zawahiri, who succeeded him as head of Egypt's Islamic Jihad group. Al-Qaeda, he now says, "did not offer Palestine anything except words". Dr Fadl was arrested in Yemen in 2001 and extradited to Egypt. His first assault on al-Qaeda for its profligate killing of Muslims, at the end of 2007, prompted Mr Zawahiri to write a rebuttal of nearly 200 pages. The rejoinder to that, issued in November, was serialised in an Egyptian newspaper. His latest critique ranges from personal attacks on Mr Zawahiri to accusations that al-Qaeda has distorted Islamic law on jihad and inflicted a series of disasters on Muslims. Dr Fadl accuses Mr Zawahiri of being an agent of the Sudanese intelligence services who agreed to carry out ten attacks in Egypt in the 1990s in exchange for $100,000. He denounces him as a liar and a coward who incites others to die in jihad while not taking part in the fighting. Egyptian prisons and graveyards were filled with jihadists, but Mr Zawahiri fled abroad, he says. Al-Qaeda blames America for all the woes of the Muslim world. But Dr Fadl says the problem is Muslims' own failings. He accuses al-Qaeda of declaring entire populations, even in Muslim countries, to be apostates, and of establishing a "criminal doctrine" of wholesale slaughter. This defies traditional injunctions in Islamic law against indiscriminate killing. Even the killing of non-believers in war is restricted, he avers, pointing to the bans on killing women, boys, the demented and hired hands such as labourers and peasants. The attacks on America in 2001, says Dr Fadl, prompted foreign invasions and the destruction of the "Islamic state" set up by the Taliban. It led to the death of more Muslims than have been killed in all of Israel's wars. "Every drop of blood that was shed or is being shed in Afghanistan and Iraq is the responsibility of bin Laden and Zawahiri and their followers," he writes. Their talk of Palestine is "just for propaganda"; they cannot find allies among Palestinians. Do the ideological revisions of Dr Fadl, facilitated by the Egyptian security services, matter when the assault in Gaza may have won al-Qaeda new supporters? Some officials argue that the emotional fury will pass; they say Dr Fadl's first attack hurt al-Qaeda even though it followed Israel's equally brutal war in Lebanon in 2006. But pundits such as Bruce Hoffman, of Georgetown University in Washington, think the impact will be marginal. "Dr Fadl discomfits al-Qaeda," he says. "Young hotheads are not going to listen to some geriatric sitting in an Egyptian prison. But al-Qaeda worries he might have an impact on its finances." Counter-terrorism officials say that al-Qaeda is short of money. Individual attacks may be quite cheap, but running an organisation-and supporting the families of members who are killed-is costly. Tellingly, Mr bin Laden appealed for money in his last message, arguing that Muslims had a duty to wage "financial jihad". What better way to raise funds than to evoke the unending agony of Palestine? http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=256_1235190433 SF_Talon The growing, and mysterious, irrelevance of al-Qaeda bin laden, middle east, al-Qaeda, palestine, Zawahiri, Dr Fadl