God, how I hate the news media. They would hype the shit out of a fart released at a Taco stand. They currently are in full blown wailing over the impending doom bearing down on the Eastern seaboard of the United States that goes by the name of EARL. You know, Earl the Hurricane.

While I am aging (gracefully I might add) I have not succumbed to Alzheimer’s disease and can actually remember bold predictions made by the weather forecasters. Here’s what they said about our current hurricane season before it started:

The 2010 Hurricane Season in the Atlantic Ocean began on June 1, 2010, and will end on November 30, 2010. Atlantic hurricanes affect the eastern and Gulf coasts of the U.S. and the Caribbean nations. Those with interests in hurricane-prone areas must heed federal and state advice on preparedness, the season in general, and each specific storm in the season.

The experts are predicting a busier-than-usual hurricane season for 2010.7 The early forecasts are being modified as the season progresses but the climactic conditions indicate the 2010 hurricane season will stand in sharp contrast to the relatively mild 2009 season. Special concerns in 2010 are whether a hurricane will hit the already-devastated island of Haiti and how a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico would affect the giant oil slick created by the explosion on the BP offshore driling platform. 8 Another question is whether a hurricane will come ashore in the Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama coastal areas, some of which have not yet recovered from 2005’s Hurricane Katrina.

Busier than usual huh? Read the rest

An Open Thread to discuss the topics of the day, like the additional lawsuit by Obama’s Administration against Arizona. Or how about Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf claiming that the discussion about his Mall-Mosque near Ground Zero:

[snip] “has expanded beyond a piece of real estate and expanded to Islam in America and what it means for America,” [snip]. (Click here to read the rest.)

Freakin’ spare me. What a crock. He wanted it there for a specific reason, and he damn well knows it. Now he is going to try and pull this crap?

Oh, and one last thing to celebrate school starting again, for both the students and the teachers in the crowd (h/t to Linda):

In The Know: Are Tests Biased Against Students Who Don’t Give A Shit? Read the rest

Editor’s Note: John Huey, a security professional involved with aviation security issues for over 28 years, has published several articles for NoQuarter. Learn more about John Huey below this post.

Every year, as we approach the anniversary of that dreadful day in September of 2001, US and European Aviation, as well as other Western target sites, intuitively go to a higher state of situational awareness given the remembered events.

When Ahmed al-Soofi, a legal US resident Yemini national, presented himself for TSA security screening in Birmingham, Alabama last Sunday the security process should have produced an immediate, on the spot, alert requiring positive vetting of al-Soofi’s identity, intent and associations prior to his being allowed to go forward by air to his ultimate destination of Sana, Yemen. Read the rest

To say I was shocked to learn that the State Department included Arizona in its section on Immigration in the paper the State Department presented to the Human Rights Commission. Surely, I misheard this. No way would the State Department include one of its own states on such a list to the United Nations. I did not mishear anything, or misread anything. Sadly, yes, the State Department did.

Let’s be clear here: Arizona is now on the list for trying to uphold Federal Immigration Law, and for making it a law that people who have been stopped for violations can be asked for their papers.

What shocks me even more was Secretary Clinton’s willingness to put Arizona in this category. Yes, she thought it would be a “model,” according to this Fox News report:

[snip] Crowley said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton included the dispute in the report because she thought the U.S. could serve as “a model” to other nations.

“The universal periodic review, we believe, can be a model to demonstrate, you know, to other countries, even other countries on the Human Rights Council, this is how you engage civil society,’ Crowley told reporters. [enip] (Click HERE to read the rest.)

Read the rest

/ Bumped up /

Boy, you’d think after a heady vacation at Martha’s Vineyard that Barack Obama would have learned that being a whiner is not a turn on for the voters. Nope. He’s a goddamned cry baby. Here’s the boy-child from Hawaii in a sob fest with Brian Williams:

President Barack Obama dismissed a recent poll showing that a third of Americans don’t know he’s a Christian – and blamed an online campaign of misinformation by his conservative enemies for perpetuating the myth that he’s a Muslim.

Obama, speaking with NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams on Sunday afternoon, was equally dismissive of conservative talk show host Glenn Beck – saying he didn’t watch the Fox host’s Saturday rally in Washington but wasn’t surprised that Beck was able to “stir up” people during uncertain economic times.

Williams . . . asked Obama why so many people were uncertain about something so fundamental as his faith.

“I can’t spend all of my time with my birth certificate plastered on my forehead,” quipped Obama, who took a deep breath to gather his thoughts when asked if the poll reflected his inability to communicate with voters.

“The facts are the facts. We went through some of this during the campaign — there is a mechanism, a network of misinformation that in a new media era can get churned out there constantly,” said a visibly annoyed Obama, referring to “birthers,” who have waged a guerrilla campaign questioning either the existence or the validity of his Hawaiian birth certificate.

Oh boo-hoo. Read the rest

That is what people who claim there are mosques four blocks away from Ground Zero, so what’s the big deal with building one near Ground Zero? How far is far enough to suit these Islamaphobic bigots anyway?

That is just apples and oranges – yes, there is a mosque four blocks away from Ground Zero, but it has been there for DECADES. Its site was not chosen specifically because it was close to an area targeted by Islamic extremists. The Masjid Manhattan was not chosen precisely because [art of the landing gear of a jet that had been turned into a WMD fell into it, as was the case for the Park 51 mosque. There is a world of difference between the two. It is disconcerting that people like Alex DiBranco, who wrote the article linked above, or since you've probably not heard of him, Mara Liasson of NPR, who made that argument Monday, 8/30, on Fox News All Stars:

[snip] Right, the critics of the project do have a responsibility to say where in Manhattan it would be OK, because there is a mosque four blocks from ground zero, currently. Would they like that one moved?

If it’s just the location, and it’s not the fact that a mosque is being built, where would it be OK? On Staten Island, the upper west side? Where would it be OK? Because there have been other anti-mosque demonstrations elsewhere around the country that are very far from ground zero.

So I think it’s important for the people against this to be extremely clear about exactly what they’re against.[snip]

Read the rest

President Obama — “an amateur cipher” — begins speaking at 8 p.m. ET. Don’t miss Larry Johnson’s post, “Barack Obama’s Mission Accomplished Moment.” Share your take below, and check out more stories: Read the rest

Who knew? George W. Bush and Barack Obama apparently are twin brothers. Bush played politics with Iraq and Barack, not to be outdone, is following suit. We all remember the flight-suit clad George Bush strutting around the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln just before he proclaimed “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED” in Iraq. There was no reason other than politics to do that speech. At the time the Democrats were shitting themselves. Bush looked and acted the role of Commander in Chief. The Dems were certain that the Republicans would trot out those manly images of George W. Bush during the 2004 election. They did not understand that the actual failure to accomplish the mission in Iraq left intact Sunni and Shia insurgents who were not content to go quietly into that sweet night. Hell no! They were going to fight. And fight they did.

We come now to Barack Obama. Although the White House insists this is not a “Mission Accomplished” moment, there is no other possible interpretation. Once Barack completes his speech tonight he will take full ownership of Iraq. This is likely to be seen with the benefit of hindsight as one of the dumbest moves of the Obama Presidency. Why? Read the rest

Editor’s Note: We will all live blog Obama’s speech tonight at 8:00 p.m. ET. The live-blog open thread goes up at 7:15 p.m. The following is John Batchelor’s op-ed on the speech.

Bojinka is the term that the infant Al Qaeda coined for the plot to blow up 12 jumbo jets over the pacific in 1995. That plot failed in part because Ramsi Yousef and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed managed to set their Manila apartment on fire while cooking up a batch of “gun cotton” in their kitchen sink. Their diabolical plan, which had been tested on board a Philippine Air flight in December 1994, consisted of a terrorist carrying the components for a liquid bomb on board a plane. In the case of the Philippine Air flight, Ramsi Yousef boarded the flight in the southern Philippines. During the flight Ramsi went to the bathroom and assembled a bomb that used a Casio data watch, a couple of 9 volt batteries, a bottle filled with a liquid that looked like contact lens solution (but was in fact the explosive, TATP), an tiny light bulb and a bag of “cotton” that was in fact gun cotton. He put it all together and planted the device under his seat. When the plane arrived in Manila he got off and disappeared into the crowd. An unsuspecting Japanese businessman boarded the plane and sat in what had been Ramsi’s seat. The plane took off and when the time counted down the Casio watch produced enough of an electric pulse to spark the broken light bulb which in turn ignited the gun cotton. This in turn detonated the TATP solution. The blast did not bring down the plane but caused significant damage and killed the Japanese man.

So what? ABC reported yesterday the following:

Two men taken off a Chicago-to-Amsterdam United Airlines flight in the Netherlands have been charged by Dutch police with “preparation of a terrorist attack,” U.S. law enforcement officials tell ABC News.

U.S. officials said the two appeared to be travelling with what were termed “mock bombs” in their luggage. “This was almost certainly a dry run, a test,” said one senior law enforcement official. . . .

In addition, officials said, al Soofi was found to be carrying $7,000 in cash and a check of his luggage found a cell phone taped to a Pepto-Bismol bottle, three cell phones taped together, several watches taped together, a box cutter and three large knives. Officials said there was no indication of explosives and he and his luggage were cleared for the flight from Birmingham to Chicago O’Hare. Read the rest

Actually, here are a number of signs, in fact. Allegedly, these are real signs on Northbound I-5 in Washington State, below Seattle (and I wish I knew who to credit for these). With so much going on right now, there is nothing like a little humor to deal with it all, right (even if some of the words are misspelled)? Enjoy:http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=49609#edit_timestamp

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You may think we are devolving back to 2006 – 08 but pay close attention here. We go a little further back – The 1990s. We start with a young state senator who has a friendly relationship with a businessman who has funding ties in the Middle East. As state senator this aspiring politician arranges tax dollars to go to this businessman’s low income housing business. The properties are purchased but, instead of spending the rest of the tax money on fixing the dilapidated buildings, our money is parlayed and it brings the businessman into higher political circles. No. This is not what you think.

The businessman and his wife become known, by their tenants, however as slumlords. This slumlord cheers the state senator all the way to the U.S. Senate and now the slumlord is a subject drawing a lot of attention. If you are thinking Rezko and Obama then you are in the wrong part of the country. Read the rest

LAST NIGHT YOU SAW HER on stage at the Emmy’s when the movie of her life (now in DVD, titled “Temple Grandin“), based on her book, won several awards. Few would disagree that Temple Grandin, Ph.D. — tonight’s guest on Paulie Abeles’ radio show at 9:00 p.m. ET — has revolutionized the American meat packing industry for the better. But how did an autistic child (whose parents were counseled to institutionalize her) understand so intuitively how to make the handling of animals more humane? It looks like the media are also asking questions too:

From Entertainment Weekly’s story today, “‘Temple Grandin’ wins big at Emmys. But who is she?“:

Who is Temple Grandin? Her name was called out seven times at last night’s Emmy Awards, where the rancher-attired Grandin herself was “a palpable presence,” in the L.A. Times‘ words, “at one point, rising and excitedly swinging her hand lasso style from the audience.” Grandin was there, of course, as part of the HBO movie named after her, in which she was played by the Best Actress in a Miniseries or Movie-winning Claire Danes.

There’s more below the fold, including more from the Entertainment Weekly story and a photo of Temple Grandin hugging actress Claire Danes at the Emmys last night. (Claire Danes won last evening’s “Emmy for Best Lead Actress in a Miniseries” for her portrayal of Temple Grandin.) ALSO BELOW: HBO’S VIDEOS OF THE MAKING OF “TEMPLE GRANDIN.”

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New Orleans is in the news this week as we mark the Fifth Anniversary of Katrina, and the devastation wreaked on this city. It is remarkable to see how much has changed, and how much hasn’t.

But who could forget the images from the Superdome, both the structure itself, and the refuge it provided for numerous people. Look at it now:

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Catch Larry Johnson on John Batchelor’s syndicated radio show TONIGHT at around 10:05 to 10:35 p.m. ET. You’ll find programming details and “how to listen” instructions below: Read the rest