Here’s Hillary’s take on those “huge profits” of the evil oil companies who have “made out like bandits.”

Northwestern University has decided to withdraw its offer of an honorary degree to Jeremiah Wright.

Another Clinton supporter switches to the Obama camp … and here’s the long-winded explanation of why.

Iran is upset with Hillary Clinton for threatening to “totally obliterate” the country … so it runs to the UN to whine about it.

Michelle Obama says that she didn’t want Barack to get into politics because “people are mean” and she would rather him teach, write, sing, dance or do anything else.

Is Hillary Clinton implying that once you make more than $250,000 you are no longer “doing hard work to keep our country going”? I wonder what all those small business owners have to say about that Hillary.

What do you get when you mix environmental dogma and bureaucratic collectivism … disaster.

Airlines are starting to slow down their planes to save on fuel. If they carried less fat people, they’d save a lot more fuel.

When trying to tackle gang-related violence, the first step is for the government to rename gangs as “crews.” Yeah, that’s better. The violence is bound to stop now.

New Jersey is considering a “sin tax” on fast food sales. Citizens are complaining that it is unfair because “it is a necessity to eat.” Just like smokers will continue to smoke, despite cigarette taxes … lardasses will continue to get their daily dose of BigMacs.

When your newspaper publishes information about a $16 million advertising bill for taxpayers to help get the government re-elected … that’s ground for a police invasion to find out who is responsible for printing the information.

The most outrageous part of this story is that the principal of this government high school asked her staff to create a detailed list of any students who were dating so that she could “keep an eye on them to cut down on public displays of affection.”

What is the worst possible thing you can think of that the government could build in your neighborhood … in Baltimore that answer seems to be a government school.

A government school teacher accidentally drove to school with her husband’s loaded gun on the roof of the car. She is now suspended.

Looks like Philadelphia is having a hell of a time with their gun laws.

Are you writing a history paper about the Prophet Muhammad? That’s cause for a Muslim riot.

The outgoing government in Italy decided that its final act would be to publish every Italian’s declared earnings and tax contribution on the web for all to see.

(hat-tip Boortz)

This is the World Famous Friday Open Thread. A Free Speech Zone. Comments, questions, linkage, track-backs, etc. are welcome.

Ta-Nehisi Coates, writing in the Atlantic, has penned an article that will leave me in a reflective mood for some time.

It’s about race. It’s about culture. It’s about America. And, it is an honest appraisal of our unfinished business as a uniquely American culture — a frank and unflinching glimpse into the inner ticking of an African-American writer who takes a close look at Bill Cosby and the message (and the messengers) of black self-reliance.

I’ve written several times about growing up in the 60’s Deep South, believing that this experience gives a unique perspective on the subject of racism. But, as I mentioned previously, growing up on the white side of the divide, I really have no idea of what it was like for the blacks, and I want to thank Mr. Coates for granting some much needed perspective.

Here are a three excerpts:

the liberal notion that blacks are still, after a century of struggle, victims of pervasive discrimination is the ultimate collective buzz-kill. It effectively means that African Americans must, on some level, accept that their children will be “less than” until some point in the future when white racism miraculously abates. That’s not the sort of future that any black person eagerly awaits […]

Part of what drives Cosby’s activism, and reinforces his message, is the rage that lives in all African Americans, a collective feeling of disgrace that borders on self-hatred. As the comedian Chris Rock put it in one of his infamous routines, “Everything white people don’t like about black people, black people really don’t like about black people …

the “organic” black conservative tradition: conservatives who favor hard work and moral reform over protests and government intervention, but whose black-nationalist leanings make them anathema to the Heritage Foundation and Rush Limbaugh. When political strategists argue that the Republican Party is missing a huge chance to court the black community, they are thinking of this mostly male bloc—the old guy in the barbershop, the grizzled Pop Warner coach, the retired Vietnam vet, the drunk uncle at the family reunion. He votes Democratic, not out of any love for abortion rights or progressive taxation, but because he feels—in fact, he knows—that the modern-day GOP draws on the support of people who hate him. This is the audience that flocks to Cosby: culturally conservative black Americans who are convinced that integration, and to some extent the entire liberal dream, robbed them of their natural defenses.

A couple of points: First, the statement that conservative black men “know” that the GOP draws on the support of people who hate them is a straw man argument. Who are these haters and bigots? Being labeled a racist, bigot, homophobe by liberal writers does not make one a racist, bigot, or homophobe. There is no shortage of liberal bloggers and reporters who love nothing more than the opportunity to label a Republican as a racist. Of course, “gotcha” journalism is not the exclusive arena of liberal writers, but this is one area that truly deserves some introspection.

Because, in the end, it’s not so much a matter of the lack of respect, as Mr. Coates asserts, but rather, a lack of trust. Embracing the likes of Farrakhan and the NOI does nothing to build trust. Nor does the embrace of Black Liberation Theology. I do not trust these particular people, or these particular institutions, nor do I have any use for many of the words and ideas they promote.

The excerpts really don’t do justice to this fine essay. Please read it all. Also, in the vodpod sidebar, please take a look at the video featuring Coates and Bill Cosby.

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This is the World Famous Friday Open Thread: a Free Speech Zone.
Comments, questions, linkage, trackbacks, are all welcome.

WFFOT: Be the thread.

Here are a few stories that have caught my attention today…

The Airborne Laser Cannon — Ready to Deploy

Creating a laser that can melt a soda can in a lab is a finicky enough task. Later this year, scientists will put a 40,000-pound chemical laser in the belly of a gunship flying at 300 mph and take aim at targets as far away as five miles. And we’re not talking aluminum cans. Boeing’s new Advanced Tactical Laser will cook trucks, tanks, radio stations—the kinds of things hit with missiles and rockets today. Whereas conventional projectiles can lose sight of their target and be shot down or deflected, the ATL moves at the speed of light and can strike several targets in rapid succession.

“Lower the drawbridge” … Yuma AZ ponders digging a moat (I kid you not)

There have been virtual fences, real fences, increased patrols and night-vision cameras. Now the latest initiative by the US to seal its increasingly porous border with Mexico harks back to one of the oldest approaches: dig a moat. City officials in Yuma, in south-western Arizona, have come up with a scheme to create a “security channel” along the nearby border by reviving a derelict two-mile stretch of the Colorado river.

“The moats that I’ve seen circled the castle and allowed you to protect yourself, and that’s kind of what we’re looking at here,” Yuma county sheriff Ralph Ogden told the Associated Press. The scheme would see engineers dig out a two-mile stretch of a 180-hectare (440-acre) wetland known as Hunters Hole.

Harvard student database hacked, posted on BitTorrent

Harvard University says about 10,000 of last year’s applicants may have had their personal information compromised.

At least 6,600 Social Security numbers were exposed. Worse, a compressed 125 M-byte file containing the stolen student data is currently available via BitTorrent, a peer-to-peer network.

In a statement published Monday night Harvard officials said the database containing summaries of GSAS applicant data for entry to the Fall 2007 academic year, summaries of GSAS housing applicant data for the 2007-08 and 2006-07 academic years, and administrator information had been compromised. The server had been taken offline for several days last month to investigate the extent of the problem.

AP: This winter has been WARMER than average

Winter storms and snow notwithstanding, this winter was still warmer than average worldwide, the government reported Thursday.

The global temperature for meteorological winter — December, January and February — averaged 54.38 degrees Fahrenheit, 0.58 degrees warmer than normal for the last century, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported.

Temperatures have been rising over recent years, raising concerns about the effects of global warming, generally attributed to human-induced impacts on the atmosphere.

No, wait a minute …. NOAA: Coolest Winter Since 2001 for U.S., Globe

The average temperature across both the contiguous U.S. and the globe during climatological winter (December 2007-February 2008) was the coolest since 2001, according to scientists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. In terms of winter precipitation, Pacific storms, bringing heavy precipitation to large parts of the West, produced high snowpack that will provide welcome runoff this spring.

A complete analysis is available online.

Financial News Roundup………………

President Bush addresses ECNY. Calls for “Political Courage”

In a speech to The Economic Club of New York, Bush said this was not the first time the economy has been rattled and that he is certain that it will ride out its troubles. “These are uncertain times,” he said.

Security Capital Assurance Halts Taking on New Business

Troubled bond insurer Security Capital Assurance Ltd. on Thursday posted a massive fourth-quarter loss and said it will stop writing new policies in an effort to preserve capital.

The Bermuda-based company reported it lost $1.2 billion, or $18.67 per share, in the last three months of the year as the value of securities backed by home loans the company insured deteriorated rapidly. During the same period in 2006, SCA posted a profit of $35.8 million, or 56 cents per share.

JPMorgan and Fed Move to Bail Out Bear Stearns

Bear Stearns, facing a grave liquidity crisis, reached out to JPMorgan on Friday for a short-term financial lifeline and now faces the prospect of the end of its 85-year run as an independent investment bank.

With the support of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, JPMorgan said in a statement that it had “agreed to provide secured funding to Bear Stearns, as necessary, for an initial period of up to 28 days.”

For the next month, JPMorgan will work with Bear Stearns to reach a solution for its financing crisis. Options could include organizing permanent financing or, according to people briefed on the discussions, buying the bank for a discounted price.

Carlyle may help CCC investors: Rubenstein

Private equity group Carlyle (CYL.UL) will look at ways to help investors who have lost money in Dutch-listed Carlyle Capital Corporation (CCC) (Amsterdam:CARC.AS - News), Carlyle co-founder David Rubenstein told media in statements confirmed to Reuters by a spokeswoman.

In an interview with France’s Les Echos newspaper, Rubenstein said Carlyle had done all it could to help CCC, citing a $150 million credit line provided by its partners “no doubt at a loss” but wanted to try and make amends.

Congress Examines Municipal Bond Ratings, Bond Insurance Industry

The fast-spreading U.S. mortgage crisis prompted lawmakers Wednesday to explore problems with municipal bonds, painting a bleak outlook for bond insurers that one official said imposes a “secret Wall Street tax” on state and local taxpayers.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is investigating how credit rating agencies grade the risk of municipal bonds and said the existing system is “quite possibly illegal.” He joined other state officials in calling for changes at a House committee hearing.

Carlyle Capital Corporation: commentary

No one can complain that they weren’t warned. The implosion of Carlyle Capital Corporation is a spectacular failure, probably the most damaging to sentiment in credit markets since Northern Rock. But this time all those closely involved were consenting adults.

Those who read the prospectus for the company had no doubt about its potentially precarious nature. You lose count of the number of references to “leverage without limit”. Never mind the eye-popping 32 times gearing CCC opted for. There was nothing in the company rules to prevent it leveraging up 320 times.

Read the Prospectus? What a novel idea!
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This is the World Famous Friday Open Thread: A Free Speech Zone.

Please feel free to post your comments, shout-outs, questions, ponderings, musings, poetry, video, linkage, or whatever grabs your attention, or otherwise strikes your fancy.

WFFOT: Open Threads are like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.

from Washington Times…

The spring before his wife began her White House campaign, former President Bill Clinton earned $700,000 for his foundation by selling stock that he had been given from an Internet search company that was co-founded by a convicted felon and backed by the Chinese government, public records show.

Mr. Clinton had gotten the nonpublicly traded stock from Accoona Corp. back in 2004 as a gift for giving a speech at a company event. He landed the windfall by selling the 200,000 shares to an undisclosed buyer in May 2006, commanding $3.50 a share at a time when the company was reporting millions of dollars of losses, according to interviews.

Now, it is certainly possible that the Clinton’s reluctance to release their tax returns has nothing at all to do with this information. No one is saying that this was illegal.

But it sure doesn’t look good.

h/t Kearney,
also at the linkviewer

Speaking of the LGF Linkviewer, I gotta say, this is a pretty nifty thinkamajig. It is a great source of news, however, I’ve noticed that a lot of it is just recycled headlines from Free Republic. But, there are also a lot of headlines and interesting input from pro-Israel bloggers that you might not see otherwise.

Certainly worth a look-see.

THIS IS the World Famous Friday Open Thread……..A Free Speech Zone.

WFFOT: To boldly go where no thread has gone before! (trackbacks welcome)

from American Spectator…

Dr. James Dobson, who has largely been made irrelevant to the 2008 Republican presidential race, has apparently found his man, and according to an adviser, is ready to change the landscape of the Republican nomination race.

“He is the leader of the evangelical and social conservative movement in America, and he’s going to reassert that position and leave no doubt that he’s in charge,” says the adviser based in Colorado.

Sources close to Dobson say that within the next ten days he is coordinating an endorsement plan with the presidential campaign of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. According to a Huckabee insider in Iowa, the event would be staged in that state at a rally, followed by a bus tour across the state, and an appearance by Huckabee on Dobson’s radio show, which is heard nationally.

Dobson’s endorsement, according to the Huckabee source, could mean millions in fundraising to the campaign, allowing it to compete at the same level with the top tier candidates Huckabee has been inching toward in the polls after a series of strong debate and campaign appearances.

Big news for the Huckabee campaign. And it couldn’t have come at a better time…

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This is the World Famous Friday Open Thread: A Free Speech Zone. Comments, questions, links, trackbacks, etc. are welcome.

WFFOT: To boldly go where no thread has gone before…

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Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson’s Website, The Virtuous Republic, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Right Truth, The Populist, The Amboy Times, Leaning Straight Up, Cao’s Blog, The Bullwinkle Blog, Pursuing Holiness, Allie Is Wired, Woman Honor Thyself, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, Blue Star Chronicles, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Wolf Pangloss, Dumb Ox Daily News, High Desert Wanderer, Right Voices, The Yankee Sailor, Gone Hollywood, and Church and State, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.