Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) penned a letter to Holder and Defense Secretary Robert Gates suggesting military trials would be a more appropriate venue for the accused terrorists.
“As a former prosecutor, I am not yet convinced that the right decision was made in these cases, nor that the presumption in favor of federal criminal trials over military tribunals for these detainees should continue,” Skelton wrote. …
“The decision to terminate the prosecution of these self-confessed terrorists in military commissions, transfer them to the United States, and bring them into a federal courthouse for trial raises many serious questions which I would like you both to address in a full committee briefing on December 3, 2009, at 1:00 PM,” Skelton requested.

As I’ve said before, Holder’s bowing to the ACLU on this will prove to be one of the most stupid decisions ever made and will put a mess on the plate for Democrats.

Ed Morrissey sums it up:

This is the first significant public pushback from a Democratic Congressman, although some in the Senate expressed at least reservations during Holder’s appearance this week. It probably won’t be the last. After all, it was a Democratic Congress that passed the current military commissions system, working with a Republican President, to find a system that would get the blessing of the Supreme Court while maintaining security for our war efforts in intelligence. Without the Democrats in 2007, there would have been no military commissions system at all. That default would have forced KSM and everyone else at Gitmo into federal court eventually, an outcome that few wanted to see … at least in 2007.

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Sen. Claire McCaskill on Thursday touted the Senate healthcare reform bill by taking a dig at former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s new book.

McCaskill (D) said if the bill was printed in regular size font, it would be the same length as Palin’s (R) memoir Going Rogue: An American Life “but with more meat on the bone.” She tweeted:

If we printed the health care bill in regular size font it would be same legnth as Sarah Palin’s book, but with more meat on the bone.

The Senate healthcare bill is 2,074 pages long. Palin’s book is 413 pages long with 16 pages of photographs.

Best comment at the source

Senator McCaskill would do well to remember that no one is being asked to suffer under the yoke of the contents of Sarah Palin’s book. Nor will they be forced, against their will, and at perhaps great financial cost, to abide by the contents therein. Methinks Senator McCaskill should probably speak less, and listen, (to the American people), more. Dusan on 11/19/2009 at 22:32

Can’t add anything to that.

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If the U.S. captures Osama bin Laden, there’s no need to interrogate him, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Thursday.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the chairman of that committee, said that arguments raised by Republican senators about whether bin Laden would be afforded Miranda rights if he were captured amount to a “red herring.”

“The red herring that my friend [Sen.] Lindsey Graham [R-S.C.] was covering is not realistic,” Leahy said during an appearance on “Washington Journal” on C-SPAN.

“For one thing, capturing Osama bin Laden — we’ve had enough on him, we don’t need to interrogate him,” Leahy added.

So, let me get this straight. If we were to capture the head of Al Qaeda, the man essentially responsible for the deaths of almost 3,000 Americans and certainly behind terror plots to kill countless more, there would be no need to interrogate him? Seriously?!

What’s scary is that this isn’t some random dingbat unknown Democratic congressman from a middle-of-nowhere district saying this. Leahy is a high-ranking Democrat, one with a high position and a lot of power and influence in Washington, DC. If we catch bin Laden alive, we should waterboard him to within an inch of his life, or until we find out every single last bit of intelligence we can about Al Qaeda and their plans. How is that so hard to grasp??

Cross-posted from Cassy’s blog. Stop by for more original commentary or follow her on Twitter!

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Among the participants was Beatboxer Shlomo, who “dedicates his beats to the cause“:

Insights Beatboxer gleaned from the arctic adventure include:

I couldn’t help but notice that it’s really quite cold.

… and …

Being with all these inspired people seems to have filled my head with a zillion ideas for musical endeavours that could easily save the world.

Possibly the most bold and transgressive artwork to be created during the expedition was this piece of performance art by Francesca Galeazzi:

This morning I walked across the fresh snow with a gas cylinder in my arms, containing 6kg of CO2. I took it across the unspoiled snow field of the Jakobshavn Fjord until I found what, to my eyes, was a wonderful place. …

I put the cylinder down, got on my knees and opened the valve. The CO2 came out violently, freezing the air around the nozzle and producing an unpleasant whistle. When I lowered the cylinder towards the ground, the snow blow off all around me under the pressure of the air jet, almost to signify the melting of the Arctic ice shelf because of the Carbon emissions generated somewhere else.

Reading this you might think I am an evil horrible woman.

David Thompson responds:

You’re not evil. That would at least be interesting. You’re merely a talentless poseur and a freeloading narcissist. Not evil, just a bint.

Tragically, no one encountered a hungry polar bear.

Cross-posted at Moonbattery.

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So Al Gore was on Conan last night to tell us how the center of the earth is 9 million degrees. If he’s right, I know what’s causing global warming…

However, since we have no such problem, we might want to reflect on how we’re still alive today considering global warming has been attacking us since the 1700’s.

In that time, we had Thomas Jefferson saying, “a change in our climate … is taking place very sensibly,” and Hugh Williamson saying, “a change in our climate … is taking place very sensibly,” as recalled in the New York Times. Apparently Jefferson was as credible on global warming as he was on slavery.

Or as Al Gore and Barack Obama are on global warming.

Or the mainstream media:

Let’s remember how many times global warming has already happened in the course of human existence:

Sorry, Al Gore, I’m not buying your 9 million degree geothermal carbon tax credit.

China ain’t either, even if you bow to them.

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Conan: Now, what about … you talk in the book about geothermal energy …

Al: Yeah, yeah.

Conan: and that is, as I understand it, using the heat that’s generated from the core of the earth …

Al: Yeah.

Conan: … to create energy, and it sounds to me like an evil plan by Lex Luthor to defeat Superman. Can you, can you tell me, is this a viable solution, geothermal energy?

Al: It definitely is, and it’s a relatively new one. People think about geothermal energy — when they think about it at all — in terms of the hot water bubbling up in some places, but two kilometers or so down in most places there are these incredibly hot rocks, ‘cause the interior of the earth is extremely hot, several million degrees, and the crust of the earth is hot …

[Me] The geothermal gradient is usually quoted as 25-50 degrees Celsius per mile of depth in normal terrain (not, e.g., in the crater of Kilauea). Two kilometers down, therefore, (that’s a mile and a quarter if you’re not as science-y as Al) you’ll have an average gain of 30-60 degrees — exploitable for things like home heating, though not hot enough to make a nice pot of tea. The temperature at the earth’s core, 4,000 miles down, is usually quoted as 5,000 degrees Celsius, though these guys claim it’s much less, while somecontrarian geophysicists have posted claims up to 9,000 degrees. The temperature at the surface of the Sun is around 6,000 degrees Celsius, while at the center, where nuclear fusion is going onbigtime, things get up over 10 million degrees.

If the temperature anywhere inside the earth was “several million degrees,” we’d be a star.

But, hey, don’t forget that it’s OK to exaggerate, per Al Gore. Good thing he doesn’t start his book with a quote about offering you life or death or something.

Expect Gore to not enjoy his Wednesday, as both PETA and Americans For Prosperity to protest him.

But, hey, if wild exaggeration is good for Gore, it must be good for John “Poodle” Kerry.

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Women in their 40s should stop routinely having annual mammograms and older women should cut back to one scheduled exam every other year, an influential federal task force has concluded, challenging the use of one of the most common medical tests.

In its first reevaluation of breast cancer screening since 2002, the independent government-appointed panel recommended the changes, citing evidence that the potential harm to women having annual exams beginning at age 40 outweighs the benefit.

Coming amid a highly charged national debate over health-care reform and simmering suspicions about the possibility of rationing medical services, the recommendations immediately became enveloped in controversy.

“We’re not saying women shouldn’t get screened. Screening does saves lives,” said Diana B. Petitti, vice chairman of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which released the recommendations Monday in a paper being published in Tuesday’s Annals of Internal Medicine. “But we are recommending against routine screening. There are important and serious negatives or harms that need to be considered carefully.”

Several patient advocacy groups and many breast cancer experts welcomed the new guidelines, saying they represent a growing recognition that more testing, exams and treatment are not always beneficial and, in fact, can harm patients. Mammograms produce false-positive results in about 10 percent of cases, causing anxiety and often prompting women to undergo unnecessary follow-up tests, sometimes-disfiguring biopsies and unneeded treatment, including surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.

But the American Cancer Society, the American College of Radiology and other experts condemned the change, saying the benefits of routine mammography have been clearly demonstrated and play a key role in reducing the number of mastectomies and the death toll from one of the most common cancers.

“Tens of thousands of lives are being saved by mammography screening, and these idiots want to do away with it,” said Daniel B. Kopans, a radiology professor at Harvard Medical School. “It’s crazy — unethical, really.”

The new guidelines also recommend against teaching women to do regular self-exams and concluded that there is insufficient evidence to recommend that doctors do the exams or to continue routine mammograms beyond age 74.

Some questioned whether the new guidelines were designed more to control spending than to improve health. In addition to prompting fewer doctors to recommend mammograms to their patients, they worried that the move would prompt insurers to deny coverage for many mammograms.

Less than a year ago, these same people were decrying the decline in mammograms among women in their 40s. And now, suddenly, with Obamacare looming, this panel just coincidentally came to this conclusion? Not shockingly, Ed Morrissey examines the doctors on this panel, and finds not a single oncologist present.

Barack Obama claimed that he would be championing increased screening and prevention. Yet now we’ve got a federal panel wanting to just cut back the number of mammograms performed, mammograms that could potentially be life-saving, because you could get a false positive and feel anxiety? I don’t know if it’s just me, but I’d rather be safe than sorry. I’d rather get the mammogram and have the doctors look into that suspicious lump, false positive or not, than just shove it off for a few years and end up having cancer in a more severe stage. Isn’t that what Obama’s panel here is basically recommending?

And they aren’t even going after just mammograms. They don’t even want women doing self-exams anymore! I guess they don’t want to take the risk of a woman who is “too young” finding a lump on her breast and getting it checked out, just to be safe. I mean, jeez, that would just be waaay too costly. The motivation here is clearly not to save lives or decrease some imagined anxiety women get over their mammograms. (After all, what person wouldn’t be anxious if they thought they had cancer? It seems perfectly natural to me.) It’s just pathetic and extremely depressing to me that Obamacare hasn’t even passed yet — and already, we have federal panels recommending rationing care.

I keep asking — are you happy you voted for change now? Is this the hope you wanted?

No more of this if Obama has his way.

Cross-posted from Cassy’s blog. Stop by for more original commentary, or follow her on Twitter!

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Obama’s purple shirted SEIU cronies are his favorite people. They’re his most frequent visitors, after all, and they stand ready and willing to do whatever Comrade Obama asks of them. If you want to know what direction this country is headed in, just look at the shenanigans the Service Employees International Union thugs are pulling.

For example, Obama is supposedly all about volunteering. He wants young people to be willing to devote their lives to service. He likes that idea so much, that he even floated the idea of instituting a Hitler youth brigade, and for all I know, is still keen on the idea. But Obama and his SEIU pals are only fans of volunteer service performed by young people if they toe the Obama line. Boy Scouts, for example, are far too traditional and they cling to such old, antiquated, conservative values — and therefore, they must be destroyed.

Starting with a seventeen-year-old boy who was doing volunteer work to try to earn his Eagle Scout badge.

In pursuit of an Eagle Scout badge, Kevin Anderson, 17, has toiled for more than 200 hours over several weeks to clear a walking path in an east Allentown park.

Little did the do-gooder know that his altruistic act would put him in the cross hairs of the city’s largest municipal union.

Nick Balzano, president of the local Service Employees International Union, told Allentown City Council Tuesday that the union is considering filing a grievance against the city for allowing Anderson to clear a 1,000-foot walking and biking path at Kimmets Lock Park.

“We’ll be looking into the Cub Scout or Boy Scout who did the trails,” Balzano told the council.

Balzano said Saturday he isn’t targeting Boy Scouts. But given the city’s decision in July to lay off 39 SEIU members, Balzano said “there’s to be no volunteers.” No one except union members may pick up a hoe or shovel, plant a flower or clear a walking path.

“We would hope that the well-intentioned efforts of an Eagle Scout candidate would not be challenged by the union,” said Mayor Ed Pawlowski in an e-mail Friday. “This young man is performing a great service to the community. His efforts should be recognized as such.”

Balzano said Saturday the union is still looking into the matter and might cut the city a break.

“We are probably going to let this one go,” Balzano said .

The possible entanglement of a local Boy Scout in a union dispute underscores the frustration and anger SEIU members feel after being the lone city union to suffer layoffs in the ongoing financial crisis. It may also serve as a preview of future labor battles as the city tries to outsource some necessary jobs as a result of the layoffs.

Anderson, a junior and varsity soccer player at Southern Lehigh High School, is a member of Boy Scout Troop 301 of Center Valley.

He got the idea for the trail while taking hikes along the partially complete, 165-mile Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor. He noticed there were a few missing connections to the trail in Kimmets Lock Park, which is on the Lehigh River near Dauphin Street. He already has logged 250 hours trying to carve out a walking and biking trail along the river.

“I decided to do my part in completing this part of the trail. In that way, others could enjoy walking along the river, without having to walk on the busy road,” Anderson said in an e-mail Friday.

Selfless service? Apparently, this poses some kind of imaginary threat to SEIU workers. And if Balzano isn’t targeting the Boy Scouts, then what is he targeting? People who just do things for the sake of others without asking anything in return? This is typical of liberals to attack the Boy Scouts and a teenage boy trying to do a good thing. And what comes next? Will SEIU members be the only people allowed to mow our lawns? Paint our walls? And then of course, if we do it ourselves rather than letting Obama’s crony pals do it, will Balzano threaten to come after us, too?

Balzano said that he would let this one go — because of the holiday spirit. It’s more likely that he let it go because of all the bad PR he’s getting. It’s sad, though, when you think about it. What would’ve happened if he hadn’t been threatened by bad press filled with the holiday spirit? We all know the answer — he happily would have persecuted a seventeen-year-old kid who was just trying to do a good thing, and Obama would just look the other way. And if we don’t stand up to their thuggery, then our capital could remain looking like this.

Hat Tips: Moonbattery and Michelle Malkin

Cross-posted from Cassy’s blog. Stop by for more original commentary or follow her on Twitter!

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Ojigi (bowing) is an essential part of Japanese daily life. People bow when saying hello, thanking someone, apologizing, saying good-bye and introducing themselves. Although shaking hands (akushu) has become accepted as a form of greeting, many Japanese still are not used to it.

The deeper you bow, the more respect you are showing. There is an old haiku poem; “Minoru hodo atama no tareru inaho kana.” It means “Young rice stalks stand upright, the mature grains bow low,” implying that one grows to understand the meaning of humility. When somebody’s position is higher than the other, the person in the lower position bows his or her head a little lower than the person in the higher position. Generally speaking, older women bow very politely. There are many who bow deeply while shaking hands at the same time, and there are others who bow many, many times. However, greetings between friends are fairly informal. They would casually raise their hands or lightly lower their head (eshaku).

Let’s check a bit more

Basic bows are performed with the back straight and the hands at the sides (boys and men) or clasped in the lap (girls and women), and with the eyes down. Bows originate at the waist. Generally, the longer and deeper the bow, the stronger the emotion and the respect expressed.

Generally speaking, an inferior bows longer, more deeply and more frequently than a superior. A superior addressing an inferior will generally only nod the head slightly, while some superiors may not bow at all and an inferior will bend forward slightly from the waist.

When dealing with non-Japanese people, many Japanese will shake hands. Since many non-Japanese are familiar with the custom of bowing, this often leads to a combined bow and handshake which can be quite complicated to execute. Bows may be combined with handshakes or performed before or after shaking hands. Generally when bowing in close proximity, as necessitated when combining bowing and shaking hands, people turn slightly to one side (usually the left) to avoid bumping heads.

After all that, let’s watch this video sent to Hot Air by an anonymous source

So, Obama not only bowed, but he kinda did it wrong, back wasn’t straight, hands not at his sides, he did the shaking hands thing. Notice that Emperor Akihito neither bowed nor shake his head. Afterwards, Obama did the head shaking thing. So, the question is, is he an idiot for attempting to practice a Japanese custom with no real knowledge of how these things work, especially in terms of POTUS meeting the Japanese Emperor, or, is he a complete boob who was trying to place himself, and the USA, in an inferior position? The Emperor knew the protocol, namely, shake hands, no bows. Doesn’t Obama have people to freakin’ tell him these things?

Meanwhile, the continuation of his Asian vacation is not going so well

……On Sunday, leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum dropped efforts to reach a binding international climate change agreement in Copenhagen next month, settling instead for what they called a political framework for future negotiations.

Obama became the first president to meet with the entire Association of Southeast Asian Nations, including the military junta of Myanmar, and White House officials say he personally demanded the country’s leaders release political prisoners, including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. But Obama failed to secure any mention of political prisoners in an ASEAN communique.

The U.S. and Russia now appear unlikely to complete a nuclear arms reduction accord by Dec. 5, when the current Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty expires…….

Halfway through his Asian tour, Obama is confronting the limits of engagement and personal charm.

It’s kinda tough to get others to do, or at least agree to do, things when one places oneself (and ones country) in a position of subservience.

BTW, I wonder what other world leaders have done when meeting Emperor Akihito?

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove

Conservatives aren’t the only ones scratching their heads on this.

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Powerline:

Obama’s breach of protocol is of a piece with the substance of his foreign policy. He means to teach Americans to bow before monarchs and tyrants. He embodies the ideological multiculturalism that sets the United States on the same plane as other regimes based on tribal privilege and royal bloodlines. He gives expressive form to the idea that the United States now willingly prostrates itself before the rest of the world. He declares that the United States is a country like any other, only worse, because we have so much for which to apologize.

Mark Steyn:

Maybe it’s time for Valerie Jarrett to speak truth to bower.

Thomas Lifeson:

I suspect the poor Emperor was so shocked by the faux pas that he just pretended it didn’t happen. That is one way Japanese people deal with breaches of etiquette, especially from the powerful, who are also ignorant. But the end result is that Obama has been snubbed royally. Imperially, in fact.

All in all, a disgrace. The only redeeming feature is that at least he did not bow his head and bend his knee, as he did with the Saudi monarch.

Bill Kristol:

In any case, Obama claims that his youthful encounters with Asia make him “America’s first Pacific President.” What of William Howard Taft, who served his nation from 1901 to 1903 as the first civilian Governor-General of the Philippines, with great dedication and considerable success? And what of John F. Kennedy and George H. W. Bush, who, four decades later, served their country in the Pacific Theater with great distinction. Don’t they qualify–more than Barack Obama–as “Pacific Presidents?”

But then again, none of them bowed to emperors.

Michelle Malkin sees a pattern.

Jim Hoft says its just too familiar.

Dan Riehl:

Let’s hope he bends over this easily in 2012 so we can kick his sorry azz out of the WH where it never belonged in the first place. Hail the boy media king obsessed with his image and determined to destroy the country’s economy just as the media all but destroyed its culture before hand. By 2012, it’ll be well past time to take it back and we can get a good start on it in 2010. Be sure to remember that! Don’t get mad, get engaged in our political process. If O-Bow-Now can’t stand up for America, it falls to us to do it. No one else can, or will.

MacRanger:

This is expected of a gutless wonder, a child king with big talk but little action. A fooking disgrace to Americans everywhere he treads.

* American Digest, “If a US President Had Just Done This in January 1942 It Would Have Saved Everyone a Lot of Trouble.”

Another Black Conservative, “Bow Wow! Obama Bows Again.”

* Astute Bloggers, “FOR BOWING DOWN TO ANOTHER FOREIGN KING, OBAMA HAS ONCE AGAIN PROVEN HE IS UNFIT FOR OFFICE AND NEEDS TO BE EFFIN IMPEACHED.”

* Atlas Shrugs, “Obowa: Another Country, Another Deep Bow.”

* Berman Post, “Obama Bows to The Emperor of Japan.”

* The Blog Prof, “Video: Obama Drops Yet Another Contact Lens in Front of Royalty.”

* Chicks on the Right, “Inappropriate.”

* Confederate Yankee, “O-Bow-Ma.”

* Don Surber, “Obama, Bow Wow Wow.”

* Fausta’s Blog, “Say No to the Bow.”

* Hot Air, “Obamateurism of the Day.”

* Hot Air Pundit, “Video: Obama Bows To The Emperor Of Japan.”

* Left Coast Rebel, “Obama Bowing to Japan Emperor AkihitoPresident “O-Bow” to Anyone.”

* Maggie’s Farm, “Life Imitates Satire.”

* Neo-Neocon, “Obama: “Ashamed of His Country but Arrogant About Himself”.”

* Nice Deb, “Obama Bows Yet Again.”

* Protein Wisdom, “Obama “Bows Deeply” – UPDATED: Attention Leftists!.”

* Ruby Slippers, “Take a Bow Barack.”

* Sandra Rose, “OBAMA BOWS DOWN AGAIN.”

* Snooper’s Report, “The Bowing Moron In the Marxist House…He’s An ASSHAT.”

* Sister Toldjah, “I Guess This Wasn’t Really a “Bow” Either, Eh, Mr. President?“

*Sweetness and Light, “Obama Bows Again – Japanese Emperor.”

* Weasel Zippers, “Does Obama Think He ONLY Represents America When He Bows Inferiorly?: BO Bows Again..This Time To Emporer of Japan, Akihito…(Please Bring Your Best Snark).”

*WyBlog, “Obama bows before Japanese Emperor Akihito.”

Definitely doesn’t pass the Reagan smell test:

Big hat tip to American Power! via Rightwing News!

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