Conflicker Virus (PCs beware)...

I've known this for a few weeks.  Here's the link to the full story:

We're less than a day away from a global computer meltdown — or a terrific April Fool's joke.

At some point on April 1, the Conficker virus, which has quietly infected millions of PCs worldwide to herd them into a "botnet" of linked machines, will phone home for new instructions.

What it'll do next is anyone's guess. It could muster enough silicon firepower to take down any Web site on the planet, or send out enough spam to fill the inboxes of every e-mail user on Earth.

It could offer itself up to the highest bidder, mostly likely an Eastern European cybercriminal. Or it could do what it's been doing for months — nothing.

More info to come.

On to the Elite Eight!!!

Following a 20-point smack down of UCLA top get into the Sweet Sixteen, Villanova schooled Duke by 23 points tonight to get to the Elite Eight.

Next up?  Pitt on Saturday in Boston for the rights to reach the Final Four.

V-for Villamooooooova... V-for Victoryyyyyyyyyy...

TOTUS

I posted at the beginning of the month that the POTUS (President of the United States) will be using a TelePromTper (or an in-ear monitor, whichever is convenient for the situation) whenever he speaks in public.  Fox News reports about his use of one at his latest news conference on Tuesday (but really wasn't much help when he had to answer random Qs from the press).  So did Politico.

Well, TOTUS (Teleprompter of the United States) has a book.

It also now has a blog.

Very informative and enlightening, I must say.

*snicker*

"It's raining cash, alleluia, it's raining cash..."

So, the federal government wants to buy up $1,000,000,000,000 in "toxic assets".

And now the Federal Reserve is starting to manufacture out of thin air $1,000,000,000,000 in paper money (with nothing to base it on or back it up).

Suicide of the West has an excellent commentary on this insanity:

... Bernanke announced that the Fed would “purchase” $1 Trillion in Treasury bonds and mortgage securities. Where did the trillion dollars come from?

Keyboard magic, folks. And it spells the end of America. Why?

I-N-F-L-A-T-I-O-N.

Inflation is classically defined as “too many dollars chasing too few goods.” It manifests itself in rising prices and that’s how people think of it. But inflation is really a debasement - a cheapening - of the currency. Some inflation in an economy is good. Slowly and steadily rising prices are accompanied by rising wages and profits, and both reflect a healthy level of economic activity...

... The Federal Reserve’s job is to regulate the money supply in order to achieve steady, stable growth in the economy. But the Fed under Bernanke has panicked, and it has shut down the monetary sweat glands altogether by opening the spigot on the printing and distribution of money. It will take some time for the overheating to kick in, but Bernanke is creating the eventual likelihood of hyperinflation, or economic heat stroke.

The value of the dollar drops 25% under The One.  And BofA's strategist says to sell instead of buy because he sees this light at the end of the tunnel is actually an on-coming freight train. The GOP is trying to warn us that The One's budget is going to spell trouble for us all.

What else is happening??  China continues to buy U.S. debts:

Investing in U.S. Treasury bills is "an important component part of China's foreign currency reserve investments," People's Bank of China Vice Governor Hu Xiaolian said at a news conference on Monday.

"So as an important component we are naturally relatively concerned with the safety and profitability of U.S. government bonds," Hu said -- a statement apparently aimed at concerns that rising debt to fund Washington's stimulus package could spur inflation and weaken the dollar.

China is Washington's biggest foreign creditor, holding an estimated $1 trillion in U.S. government debt. A weaker dollar would erode the value of those assets.

China then calls for "a new world currency" to replace the dollar:

China’s central bank on Monday proposed replacing the US dollar as the international reserve currency with a new global system controlled by the International Monetary Fund...

... “This is a clear sign that China, as the largest holder of US dollar financial assets, is concerned about the potential inflationary risk of the US Federal Reserve printing money,” said Qu Hongbin, chief China economist for HSBC.

Of course, Geithner is "open" to this new idea that China has proposed:

Geithner, at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the U.S. is "open" to a headline-grabbing proposal by the governor of the China's central bank, which was widely reported as being a call for a new global currency to replace the dollar, but which Geithner described as more modest and "evolutionary."

"I haven’t read the governor’s proposal. He’s a very thoughtful, very careful distinguished central banker. I generally find him sensible on every issue," Geithner said, saying that however his interpretation of the proposal was to increase the use of International Monetary Fund's special drawing rights -- shares in the body held by its members -- not creating a new currency in the literal sense.

"We’re actually quite open to that suggestion – you should see it as rather evolutionary rather building on the current architecture rather than moving us to global monetary union," he said.

So, we'll have hyper-inflation or stagflation by this time next year (sooner if oil prices go crazy again this summer), then the federal government will go bankrupt, then China will..............???

A Second Look at that Achy Breaky AIG mess...

Per Gateway Pundit, The One knew about the bonuses for months:

Cue the outrage. For months, the Obama administration and members of Congress have known that insurance giant AIG was getting ready to pay huge bonuses while living off government bailouts. It wasn't until the money was flowing and news was trickling out to the public that official Washington rose up in anger and vowed to yank the money back.

Seems that The One also got his bonus from AIG last year, along with Senator Dodd (via Ace):

Senator Barack Obama received a $101,332 bonus from American International Group in the form of political contributions according to Opensecrets.org. The two biggest Congressional recipients of bonuses from the A.I.G. are - Senators Chris Dodd and Senator Barack Obama.

The A.I.G. Financial Products affiliate of A.I.G. gave out $136,928, the most of any AIG affiliate, in the 2008 cycle. I would note that A.I.G.’s financial products division is the unit that wrote trillions of dollars’ worth of credit-default swaps and "misjudged" the risk.

Seems also that Dodd's wife is a former Director of AIG's Bermuda-based control company:

From 2001-2004, Jackie Clegg Dodd served as an "outside" director of IPC Holdings, Ltd., a Bermuda-based company controlled by AIG. IPC, which provides property casualty catastrophe insurance coverage, was formed in 1993 and currently has a market cap of $1.4 billion and trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol IPCR. In 2001, in addition to a public offering of 15 million shares of stock that raised $380 million, IPC raised more than $109 million through a simultaneous private placement sale of 5.6 million shares of stock to AIG - giving AIG a 20% stake in IPC. (AIG sold its 13.397 million shares in IPC in August, 2006.)

Of course, the Republicans got ripped apart for objecting to the bailout.  And Michelle Malkin wants us all to take a look behind the curtain to see that the outrage against the bonuses is manufactured.  Perhaps we should be asking why the bailout occurred in the first place.

This is getting verrrrrrry scary, now...

I first found this one via the Caveman, and then picked up by Gateway Pundit:

Obama promised during the campaign to create a Socialist National Civilian Security Forcesimilar to what they have in other Marxist regimes. Yesterday, the US House took the first step in organizing Dear Leader's dream youth service corp.

The House passed the Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act on Monday. The bill includes language indicating young people will be forced to participate inmandatory national service programs. The bill also states that "service learning" will be a mandatory part of the youth curriculum.
That doesn't sound much like "volunteerism" does it?

The Hitler Youth Plan was just passed by the US House this week.

But wait!  There's more:

The mandatory youth plan requires America's youth to participate in mandatory service youth programs.  But that's not all.  The mandatory youth plan also forbids members from attending religious services and forbids youth from witnessing their religious beliefs.

Analysis via Free Republic:

Is this the change you really voted for? President Obama has only been in office for two months. Now we have HR 1388. The Bill was sponsored by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) with 37 others. The Bill was introduced to the floor of the House of Representatives where both Republicans and Democrats voted 321-105 in favor. Next it goes to the Senate for a vote and then on to President Obama.

This bill’s title is called “Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education” (GIVE). It forms what some are calling “Obama’s Youth Brigade.” Obama’s plan is require anyone receiving school loans and others to serve at least three months as part of the brigade. His goal is one million youth! This has serious Nazi Germany overtones to it.

The Bill would forbid any student in the brigade to participate in “engaging in religious instruction, conducting worship services, providing instruction as part of a program that includes mandatory religious instruction or worship, constructing or operating facilities devoted to religious instruction or worship, maintaining facilities primarily or inherently devoted to religious instruction or worship, or engaging in any form of religious proselytization.” That means no church attendance or witnessing.

RedState takes up the subject in a 2-part post here & here:

And here are just a few of the lowlights in the legislation:

1. The bill will substantially increase the size and reach of an existing federal government program;
2. The bill will burden taxpayers with more than 5 billion tax dollars at a time when we should be cutting back, not spending more;
3. The bill will steer funding and volunteers for public service away from churches, individuals, neighbors, and others who would like to lend a helping hand and toward organizations selected by bureaucrats;
4. The bill is full of vague language and has insufficient safeguards to prevent left-wing special interest groups from using tax dollars to advance their agenda in the name of “community service;”
5. The bill risks politicizing charity and community service by funneling funds and volunteers toward the preferred organizations picked by ideologues;
6. The first 25% of this bill is really education legislation, and should be in an education bill at the state level; and
7. The bill will compound the disincentives created by new limits on federal tax deductions for charitable giving, thereby decreasing the role of families, churches and other local organizations in their communities.

This bill should scare the hell out of every American. Our national government in Washington – the same folks who are supposed to be managing our budget ($10 Trillion+ in debt and running), our borders (10 million illegal immigrants or more?), and who brought you social security and medicare (each of which are bankrupt) – are now going to tell us how to volunteer, and start telling our kids that they must volunteer and with whom they must do it.

Don't say I didn't warn you a month before the election.

The Bad, The Good, and the Hopeful...

First, "The Bad (news)" from American Papist:

A wide-ranging study on American religious life found that the Roman Catholic population has been shifting out of the Northeast to the Southwest, the percentage of Christians in the nation has declined and more people say they have no religion at all.

Fifteen percent of respondents said they had no religion, an increase from 14.2 percent in 2001 and 8.2 percent in 1990, according to the American Religious Identification Survey

Next, the "Good (news)" from Hot Air:

Chaput decries the state of Catholic education that has allowed people to fundamentally misunderstand their own faith, and scolds the church for allowing itself to become more concerned with membership than truth.

And, now "The Hopeful" from Happy Catholic.

Read all three links!

NAT Party or Bust for 2010?...

Below is a compendium of my thoughts from comments I made on one of Flopping Aces' posts:

I want a “New American Tea Party” political party based on serious federal fiscal responsibility (deep cuts in spending, taxes and regulations) with candidate challenges against EVERY congressman and senator who voted for ANY of the TARPS, Bailouts or Stimulus Bills.

I then added a second post to expand my thoughts:

I know that the vast majority of congressmen and senators that have voted for the TARPS, Bailouts and Stimulus’ (stimuli???) have been Democrats, although a handful have also been Republicans. The problem is that for a large majority of those seats, people who normally and regularly vote Democrat won’t vote for a Republican just because of the (R) at the end of the name.

By having fiscal conservatives competing in those specific races (bashing both parties because, let’s face it, except for the brief ‘95-’01 period of R’s running congress it’s obvious that BOTH parties share the blame of fiscal irresponsibility), it’ll get enough disgusted voters to swing for “something new” even though it’ll just be standard fiscal conservatism but without the R name brand attached to it.

It will cause one of two things to happen: (a) actually get a committed NAT Party member in office, or (b) syphon off enough votes away from the incumbent D to get the challenging R elected. Because, in those hard-core, perpetually-D districts, you will NEVER get them to vote R, but you MAY get them to vote "NAT".

I got some resistance to the idea, so I clarified my points:

How are you going to get large, dense (in both senses of the word) pockets of hard-core registered Democrat voters to vote for Republicans? I grew up in Philly. Lived their for 31 years. The city has been a 1-party town for DECADES. They will NEVER vote for a Republican. But they MAY vote for someone who’s NOT a Democrat if they are appealing to them when their current Democrat politicians are pissing them off.

You may get the very rare, brief, local occurrence (e.g., Rudy in NYC, or Riordan in LA), but not in federal offices (why did the likes of Barney Frank, Rangel, etc. get re-elected despite all the scandals, etc?) [and certainly not in large or long-lasting numbers]. Why does Liebermann get re-elected AS A REGISTERED INDEPENDENT over BOTH the R & D candidates for senate [in a heavily-D state]?

If you are a registered Republican and are a strong conservative (such as myself), would you EVER vote for a Democrat? NO! Even though your own rep or senator is a friggin’ joke who infuriates you. Because you know what the “D” stands for as a party, and you don’t want to give that side of the aisle any additional power. Better a half-empty glass rather than a completely empty glass, you say to yourself. The letter “D” to a hard-core registered “R” has a taint to it. And vice versa. A hard-core registered “D” will NEVER pull the lever for an “R” candidate no matter how perfectly that “R” candidate matches that “D” voter’s politics. There’s no getting around that.

But if you are given a choice (for your own, small representative district) among (a) the current officeholder who is in the same party as you but who is royally pissing you off, (b) another candidate who’s registered with the other party that you consider a 4-letter word, and (c) one more candidate that articulates exactly what your thoughts and concerns are for the fiscal/economic situation at hand, but is not a member of “that other evil party”… you MAY be inclined to check the box for that third option.

Given that many, many more Democrat politicians in solid-D districts would be the targets, it’s a win-win situation for Conservatives. You get to maintain (for the most part) the existing Republicans in congress (at least the ones who are doing their jobs), and you open up an avenue for fiscal conservatives to pick up those otherwise untouchable seats.

Instead of treating the “third party” issue as a way of making the Republicans the Whig Party 2.0 (like too many conservatives have thought of doing since Ross Perot in ‘92), we’d instead be making the Democrat Party the Whig Party 2.0 — diminishing it to the smallest pocket of far-left socialists that they really are, and making them a perpetual small minority, politically. And the Republicans with the “third” party members would be better able to develop coalitions on key legislation (fiscal issues, foreign policy, etc.).

What are your thoughts?

15-1 for my Sweet 16 Picks...

My picks through the first round of March Madness gave me a record of 23-9.  Round Two, though, has me with 15 of the 16 picks in the Sweet Sixteen (Wake Forest being my only multi-round flub pick).

And my beloved Villanova Wildcats smacked some Big East butt with a 20-point victory over UCLA on Saturday.

Next up?  Duke on Thursday.

GO 'CATS!!!

My 2009 March Madness Brackets...

Okay, I finally got my brackets filled out... This was tougher than I thought.

First Round: I have seven “lower’ seeds advancing:
#9 Siena
#9 Tennessee
#10 Maryland
#10 Minnesota
#12 Arizona
#12 Western Kentucky
#13 Mississippi State

My Sweet 16 are:
Midwest – Louisville, Wake, Kansas, Michigan St.
West – UConn, Purdue, Missouri, Memphis
East – Pitt, Xavier, Duke, Villanova
South – NC, Gonzaga, Syracuse, Oklahoma (but I’m rooting for Clemson)

Elite 8:
Wake (upsetting Louisville)
Mich. St. (beating defending champs Kansas)
UConn (squeaking by Purdue)
Memphis (squeaking by Missouri)
Pitt (knocks out Xavier)
Villanova (over a weak Duke)
NC (over the Zags)
Syracuse (a last victory over Oklahoma)

Final Four:
Memphis (UConn w/o their key guard finally does ‘em in)
NC (Syracuse finally runs out of gas)
Villanova (they have Pitt’s number)
Wake vs. Mich St. (a toss-up, but it doesn’t matter because...)

Championship Game:
Memphis vs........ (heart says Wildcats, head says Tar Heels)

Memphis loses... again... in the championship game.

So... the 2009 Champs will be North Carolina (but I'm reeeeealllllly rooting for my Wildcats to get there).

That's my bracket and I'm stickin' to it!

*caveat... if Louisville manages to get out of the Midwest Bracket unscathed, all bets are off!!!

Jay Wright & the Villanova Wildcats...

Great article on Jay Wright, coach of the Villanova Wildcats basketball program:

From 1989-2004, Villanova never made it to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats were in the field six times. They won three games, against Princeton, Portland and Long Island.

In the last 4 years they've made it to two Sweet 16s and a Final Eight. All three times they've lost to the eventual national champion. Now they're favored to get to the third round once again.

So how much more does anyone really need to know about the Jay Wright era?

The third-seeded Wildcats (26-7) will play No. 14 American (24-7), your Patriot League champion, in a first-round NCAA East Regional game Thursday night at the Wachovia Center. This 'Nova team was supposed to be good. Yet few, including the coach, figured it would be this good. Which means nil once the Madness gets going. It's the same group that narrowly made the field last March before winning twice as a 12 seed. It can happen, both ways.

Wright insists his four seniors, who weren't the most heralded recruiting class to grace the Main Line, are the reason for this season's success. They'll tell you that it all stems from his lead.

Maybe they're both right. There's obviously a connection that goes above and beyond. Even when Wright gets in somebody's mug, which only happens about every other timeout. Or perhaps it works because he does.

"He can get into you a little bit," said one of those fourth-year guys, Dwayne Anderson, the team's emotional center. "But it's all for the good. He gave [the upperclassmen] ownership, so we can try and get the message across instead of having him yell all the time. In huddles, we're not as animated.

"When he says something, you really believe it. He tells it like it is, even if it's not what you want to hear. Whatever he feels you need to do. His No. 1 goal is for you to be a great man. Then you can be a great player.

"Once you realize he only wants you to get better, you can get past all [the battles]. When you're young, you're not used to that. In high school, they pretty much let you do anything you want. There's no one to answer to. Here, he's the boss. You have to take his game plan and fit your game in that. He takes a lot of pride in playing for all the guys that came before."

It's tough love, from someone who gets it.

"It's not always pretty," Wright explained. "But I hope they understand we really care about them. We don't pump them up, make them think they're something that they're not. We try to be very realistic. I think in the long run, they appreciate that. But some struggle with it. Their buds are telling them they should be in the NBA, you're telling them all the areas they have to improve.

"One thing we always say is, 'The greatest gift we can give you is the truth.' I think kids, deep down inside, want to be coached. Sometimes, it doesn't work. It's not always perfect. I think we have good relationships, but not the type of relationship everybody thinks it is."

From across town, Temple coach Fran Dunphy sees the finished product. And as someone who usually gets the most out of his guys, he admires the craftsmanship.

"I think there is something special about [Wright's] goodness," Dunphy emphasized. "He carries that through, in everything he does. He's great with people. I'm sure he chews them out when he needs to. But at the end of it, he's ready to give them a hug. That's a critical piece to those kids knowing he has their best interests at heart. This is serious stuff. It doesn't come easy. There's a price we all have to pay, to play at such a high level of basketball. A lot of what they're doing goes right to the genuine quality of his person.

"When they were giving out that stuff, he for whatever reason got the whole package. He has a plan, and sticks with it. He's got a terrific product to sell, and he's doing his all to sell it."

Even if that passion is often an acquired taste.

"It can get intense," said junior guard Scottie Reynolds, speaking from experience. "He's really saying, 'How are you going to respond?' Not just in basketball, but in the real world. A lot of things in life are going to be way worse than what happens in games.

"When he battles you, he's just trying to get us to the next level. That's why you're a competitor. His voice definitely gets us going. I remember my freshman year, we got into it. Afterward he said, 'I love that.' But I can't do that during a game. It's bad for him and me, and our program. But it's good to have that fire, to go out and show him something.

"He'll point at you, and you know what's coming. But there's no denying that he's right in what he's saying, before he ever says it. I know what I just did. So you have to take a step back and get prepared for it. If you can't overcome that, you're going to have a rough time in life."

So, how are you going to fill out your NCAA pool?

 

March Madness Time!!!

It's that time of the year, and my alma mater - Villanova Wildcats - got a #3 seed in the East bracket; they're playing in their backyard at the Wachovia Center in my home town of Philly on Thursday night.

WOO-HOO!!!

I'm already College Hoops Crazy!

The Getty Gardens (Part 3)...

One more:

"Moonrise over Museum (Sycamores)"

The Getty Gardens (Part 2)...

A few more pix:

"This Buds For You"

"Tulips"

"Carbon Stream"

"Travertine in Shadow"

"Fuzzy Wuzzy Was the Leaf"

The Getty Gardens...

On the 7th, my girlfriend and I went to the Getty Center Museum for the day.  The weather was gorgeous, and the artworks and gardens were all stunningly beautiful.  Below are just a few pix I took of the gardens.  I hope you enjoy them (just click on each to see the larger pix):

"Blooming Blue Bush"

"Spiked Flowers"

"Flower Envy"

"Ruby Lips"

"A-maze-ing"

Michael Tin...

Michael Tin... I mean, Michael Steele - has been a complete disappointment since being elected head of the RNC.  From comments about making the GOP a bit more "hip hop", to his comments about affirmative action (uhhhh, if an African American can become President, I don't think it's needed anymore), to his agreeing with a liberal TV commentator in denouncing Rush's speech at CPAC, to not challenging that same TV commentator's labeling of the GOP & CPAC as "a bunch of Nazis", to his questionable comments on homosexuality, to his now infamous comments on abortion.

Disappointing... really, really disappointing.

Regarding that last issue, Curt Jester posted this.

Rush Roundup...

For a nice collection of news and commentary on the White House's fruitless campaign against Rush Limbaugh to try to distract everyone from their horrible attempts at trying to fix the economy.  First is the Wall Street Journal:

Team Obama -- aided by Clintonistas Paul Begala, James Carville and Stanley Greenberg -- decided to attack Rush Limbaugh after poring over opinion research. White House senior adviser David Axelrod explicitly authorized the assault. Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel assigned a White House official to coordinate the push. And Press Secretary Robert Gibbs gleefully punched the launch button at his podium, suckering the White House press corps into dropping what they were doing to get Mr. Limbaugh.

Was it smart politics and good policy? No.

Next is Captain Ed @ Hot Air:

If the first six weeks of the Barack Obama administration can be summed up in one sentence, it would be this: Obama fiddled with Rush Limbaugh while Wall Street burned.

Hot Air continues with this post.

Politico continues here:

Democrats realized they could roll out a new GOP bogeyman for the post-Bush era by turning to an old one in Limbaugh, a polarizing figure since he rose to prominence in the 1990s. 

Limbaugh is embracing the line of attack, suggesting a certain symbiosis between him and his political adversaries. 

"The administration is enabling me,” he wrote in an e-mail to POLITICO. “They are expanding my profile, expanding my audience and expanding my influence. An ever larger number of people are now being exposed to the antidote to Obamaism: conservatism, as articulated by me. An ever larger number of people are now exposed to substantive warnings, analysis and criticism of Obama's policies and intentions, a ‘story’ I own because the [mainstream media] is largely the Obama Press Office.” 

The Anchoress loved the way Rush responded to the whole absurd plan hatched from the White House:

I tuned in to Rush Limbaugh for his opening monologue.

Riveting. I’m not a regular listener, but it was amusing and amazing and altogether brilliant to listen to Limbaugh cordially invite the president (not Carville, not Begala, not Rahm Emmanuel, who Rush concedes “is very busy”) to come on to his show and spend three hours debating him...

... And he seems utterly, supremely confident. He suggests that if President Obama can debate “without notes or teleprompter” and defeat Limbaugh in the eyes of the audience, (I’m paraphrasing) “you will own America. You will have no opposition standing. Santelli is being silenced, Cramer will be gone soon, though not without a fight. You have the press, you have Hollywood. The only thing standing between you and complete ownership of the United States is me and my little radio show.”

The transcript of Rush's show in question is here (read it all!).

Here is the original transcript of Rush saying that he wanted Obama's policies to fail if they hurt the economy and the country.

Rush also goes after Newt, who foolishly tried to weigh in on the situation.

Meanwhile, Gateway Pundit dug the fact that James Carville - on the morning of 9/11/01, just moments before the planes struck - wanted Bush to fail.

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, just minutes before learning of the terrorist attacks on America, Democratic strategist James Carville was hoping for President Bush to fail, telling a group of Washington reporters: "I certainly hope he doesn’t succeed."

Carville was joined by Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg, who seemed encouraged by a survey he had just completed that revealed public misgivings about the newly minted president.

"We rush into these focus groups with these doubts that people have about him, and I’m wanting them to turn against him," Greenberg admitted.

The White House is already realizing that this whole course of action was an utter failure. (Of course!  What else is new?)  HAH!!!

Morgan Freeberg at RWN calls Chris Wallace (and his idiotic reaction to the story) "A human jacuzzi of stupid."

John Hawkins at RWN takes another tack, commenting that Rush is not what's wrong with the GOP... something else is.

Tick-Tick-Tick...

U.S. War Ships Head Off to South China Sea

A potential conflict was brewing last night in the South China Sea after President Obama dispatched heavily armed American destroyers to the scene of a naval standoff between the US and China at the weekend.

Mr Obama’s decision to send an armed escort for US surveillance ships in the area follows the aggressive and co-ordinated manoeuvres of five Chinese boats on Sunday. They harassed and nearly collided with an unarmed American vessel.

Read more here.

Think it might be partially related to this???

Premier Wen Jiabao's message is unlikely to be misunderstood at theWhite House. It is counting on Beijing to help pay for its stimulus package by buying U.S. bonds. China already is Washington's biggest foreign creditor, with an estimated $1 trillion in U.S. government debt. A weaker dollar would erode the value of those assets.

"Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I'm a little bit worried," Wen said at a news conference Friday after the closing of China's annual legislative session. "I would like to call on the United States to honor its words, stay a credible nation and ensure the safety of Chinese assets."

and

China is the biggest holder of U.S. government debt and has invested an estimated 70 percent of its $2 trillion stockpile of foreign exchange reserves, the world's largest, in dollar assets.

"We have lent a massive amount of capital to the United States, and of course we are concerned about the security of our assets. To speak truthfully, I do indeed have some worries.

"I would like, through you, to once again request America to maintain their creditworthiness, keep their promise and guarantee the safety of Chinese assets," Wen said.

Meanwhile, look who's Obama's third choice for Commerce Secretary.

And we have the snobby and arrogant empty-suit charlatan with radical socialist policies from the corrupt Chicago political machine as our "fearless leader".

God help us!!!

President Moloch Offers Up A Sacrifice...

Hot off the wires:

"... President Barack Obama plans to lift restrictions Monday on taxpayer-funded research using embryonic stem cells."

And FOCA's just around the corner.

The Effin Idiot!!!

I expect something like this from my vapid junior senator, Barbara Boxer, NOT from Ms. Feinstein.

Un-effin-believable!!!

Just go ahead and blow our strategic Pakistani cover, you friggin' idiot!

Obama to Get In-Ear Monitors...

(Via Flopping Aces)

That's right... The Obamessiah needs in-ear monitors for press conferences - most likely because he can't think on his feet, or just can't think and so needs to have on-point messages filtered into his little brain when someone asks a difficult question.  Then again, since the MSM is his drooling lapdog, I don't know if he'll ever get asked any difficult questions... at least, not yet.

But this fakery is par for the course, given that those "Official Barack Obama Commemorative Coins" also turned out to be fake.

Santelli, Jindal, Rush & Pence (sounds like a law firm)...

Via Flopping Aces, Rick Santelli on CNBC goes off!  This spread like wildfire when this aired last week.  It is well worth watching.

Another video is a clip of a comedian who went gangbusters on the Conan O'Brien show last week - another vid that caught fire.  Watch and learn.

Gateway Pundit posts the text of Gov. Bobby Jindal's rebuttal to The Obominations non-State of the Union address last Tuesday night.  Many (including way too many on this side of the political aisle) bitched and moaned about Jindal's delivery of the message.  Rush goes off on those who quickly and irrationally criticized.  Jindal had a follow-up interview the following morning in which he was on fire and on point.  Meanwhile, Michael Gerson looks deeper into the "Jindal Phenomenon."

HotAir posts the full Rush Limbaugh address to CPAC this weekend which rocked the house (a 9-part video set).  Ace also posts Congressman Mike Pence's address as well.

Ecclesiastical Backbone...

The Anchoress posts on the Pelosi vs. Pope Benedict showdown on abortion and the basic human right to life.

CMR posts on Bishop Martino's own showdown with Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey Jr. (D) on this same issue.

CMR also posts on the North Dakota state house attempting to outlaw abortion.  I posted a comment there, which is worth the read.

Obameconomics 101...

Ace has a post on what economic model NOT to follow (Japan of the 80s = Obameconomics).

The Anchoress posts another economic theory (Obameconomics = Carter 2.0).  David Warren via Real Clear Politics also looks at this theory.

She also posts a video of Reagan & Obama "in their own words."

Reason.com looks deeper into the numbers and finds that only 4 of the 50 states are causing the housing mess - California (surprise surprise... as a 14+ year resident of this state, I've known and followed this trend for years), Florida, Arizona and Nevada.

These four states alone combine for 55% of all U.S. housing foreclosures, and 87% of all housing value declines.  California alone accounts for 66% of all housing value declines nationwide.  The Golden State also accounts for 34% of all foreclosures, even though the state accounts for only 10% of the nation's homes.

Meanwhile, is Peter Schiff running for congress?  Looks like he's being recruited.  Not sure if he'll bite.