US Now No. 2 in Energy Consumption, China Leads

China is now the world's largest energy consumer.

The milestone reflects China's decade-long burst of economic growth and its rapidly expanding future needs as an industrial powerhouse.

According to new data from Paris-based International Energy Agency, China devoured 2,252 million tons of oil equivalent last year, or about 4% more than the U.S., which burned through 2,170 million tons of oil equivalent. The oil-equivalent metric represents all forms of energy consumed, including crude oil, nuclear power, coal, natural gas and renewable sources such as hydropower.

China has grown dramatically. Ten years ago, China's energy consumption was only half of that of the U.S. China's demand for energy is credited for sustaining higher prices for everything from oil to uranium.

Muslims Threaten to Leave Facebook

Unless specific demands are met, 2.5 million Muslims are threatening to leave Facebook. A template letter posted on numerous Facebook pages demands that Facebook prohibit disrespecting Islam and disable all pages that do so.

Also demanded is reinstatement of four popular Islamic pages removed for violations of terms and conditions.

Facebook is given notice that unless the changes are introduced then 2.5 million Muslim users will leave to join madina.com, a social networking site for Muslims.

The letter reads: ‘Although you have attended the world’s best communication skills courses you have been most successful in growing great hatred and hostility between you and Muslims around the world, but seriously this time you have caused an almost unrepairable [sic] damage.’

Heh.

Syria Bans Veils at Universities

(Damascus, Syria) Syrian Education Minister Ghaith Barakat has banned women from wearing full-face veils on university campuses.

Reportedly, parents requested the measure to keep their children from being educated in an "environment of extremism."

The minister's decree follows a decision last month to dismiss 1200 Syrian school teachers who wear the face veil in class. Education officials, at the time, stressed that Syria was a "secular society," and that extremism is "unacceptable."

Al-Arabiya TV quoted an education ministry official, who argued the niqab was "against academic principles" as well as "campus regulations." He also called the practice an "ideological invasion." Syria's ruling Ba'ath Party denounced niqab-wearing at a recent conference.

Obviously, the ruling will sharpen the divide between fundamentalist Muslims and their pro-Western counterparts.

However, Syria's political friends such as Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah likely will be far from pleased with the veil ban. On an individual level, some fear has been expressed that women attending school without veils may be threatened.

Companion at TJR.

Baby Tests Positive for Methamphetamine

(Carson City, Nevada) A 22-year-old local mother, Charlene Marie Benitez, was arrested last Friday as a result of her one-year-old daughter testing positive for methamphetamine.

The mother allegedly told police that earlier in the day she's smoked methamphetamine with a male friend as her daughter slept upstairs.

Benitez then went to lay down with her daughter, and after a nap, took a shower about 4:30 p.m. while the baby was awake in the living room.

At 9:30 p.m., according to reports, Benitez called her sister and said her daughter was “acting weird.” The sister drove the two to the hospital.

Benitez was booked into custody at the Carson City Jail with bail set at $50,000.

Outing Top Secret America

As reported here last Friday, the Washington Post has published "Top Secret America," the results of its investigation of "government documents and contracts, job descriptions, property records, corporate and social networking Web sites, additional records, and hundreds of interviews with intelligence, military and corporate officials and former officials." Dana Priest and William M. Arkin authored the piece.

Actually, today's Post article is just the first in a series and contains data and information regarding the size and expanding nature of America's intelligence community. Tomorrow, WaPo will detail the role of private contractors in the intelligence community and, on Wednesday, WaPo gets up close and personal with a profile of one "Top Secret America community."

Summarizing today's piece, WaPo has crafted the big picture, naming many of the key figures and facilities of the intel network along with discussion regarding the massive growth of the intelligence bureaucracy since 9/11. Billions of dollars have understandably been expended to assure America's safety. However, billions of dollars in the hands of bureaucrats who operate in secrecy has led to internal quarrel-based, some seemingly childish, turf battles and intractable restraints to communication and cooperation.

Examples are cited where lack of coordination and cooperation in the massive and expensive bureaucracy has "dropped the ball." In particular, the cases of the Fort Hood shooter and the Christmas Day attempted bomber are examined.

In a nutshell, it seems WaPo is sending a message to the intelligence community that, "Hey, you are too big, too expensive, too uncoordinated and nobody can check your work." To a greater or possibly lesser degree, I contend the complaint would apply to virtually any government bureaucracy.

Among specific concerns, the piece discusses aspects of security at intelligence facilities, I contend unnecessarily, and it identifies, by name, one contract company doing top secret work and, even though the information may be accessible from a public source somewhere, it now is readily available in the training materials provided to every jihadi and comrade of the "Kill America" persuasion.

Companion post at TJR.

Gadsden flag banned by Facebook?

If true, this would close many (most?) Tea Party pages! As the election gets nearer, Leftists are cracking down more and more on any opposition

"Facebook has sensationally banned the official Alex Jones Facebook page after a customer services representative admitted that all material containing images of the famous Gadsden flag was being deleted by the social networking giant.

While some fan pages remain up, the official Alex Jones Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/realalexjones has been terminated. Other Alex Jones pages run by Infowars readers have also been deleted, such as the page that was formerly at http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Real-Alex-Jones/.

If Facebook has embarked on a policy of banning political expression and images it deems offensive then the company should be more open about the fact. While Facebook didn’t consider it necessary to delete a fan page dedicated to the British murderer Raoul Moat, it is now purging all material related to the Tea Party movement, states’ rights and the Gadsden flag, which is a symbol of resistance against tyranny and was originally used by the United States Marine Corps.

Source

I have just put up the Gadsden flag on my Facebook page. Could be interesting.


Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

American Taxes Pay for Illegal Alien Penis Pumps

(Shakopee, Minnesota) Frankly, it's difficult to pay much attention to activists and protesters advocating more concessions for illegal aliens when U.S. taxpayers are covering medical costs of their inflatable penis pumps.

In one incident, the cost was more than $50,000.

According to Scott County Attorney Pat Ciliberto, it's unknown how many illegal aliens are receiving emergency medical assistance for inflatable penis pumps. Curiously, it's odd to have the words "emergency" and "penis pumps" in the same sentence.

In any event, foreign nationals are illegally entering the United States and getting free medical care and some of it is quite expensive and of an outrageous nature.

Sheriff Arpaio's .50-Cal Crime Sweeper



Sheriff Arpaio's belt-fed .50 caliber machine gun
(Phoenix, Arizona) Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is undeterred by the controversy over Arizona's soon-to-be-effective immigration law. While the federal government is suing Arizona regarding the law, Sheriff Joe employs a bigger and more effective gun in immigration enforcement.

Although the next crime suppression operation had been announced for July 29, Arpaio said the one-day sweep was executed sooner due to reports of many drug and immigrant smugglers activity through the Vekol Valley.

Arpaio ordered the deployment of a powerful belt-fed .50 caliber machine gun to be on site during the operation to ensure deputies' safety, as there have been recent reports of violence in the desolate desert areas.

“If anyone shoots at our deputies, they are going to have a problem,” said Arpaio in a news conference in the minutes prior to the sweep.

You've got to hand it to Arpaio, sometimes called "America's Sheriff." While activists and protesters clamor for the rights of illegal aliens, Sheriff Joe brandishes a .50 caliber machine gun and says,

"I want to send a message to these criminal traffickers that we will not be intimidated by reports claiming that traffickers are better equipped than our law enforcement officers […] we have the machine guns too and we will not hesitate to use them if the situation calls for it."

Heh.

Companion post at TJR.

Youths Riot in France, Cars Torched



(Grenoble, France) Two consecutive nights of rioting followed Thursday's fatal shooting of 27-year-old Karim Boudouda during a police chase after a casino robbery. It's been determined that the police acted in self-defense.

The incident triggered an outbreak of car burnings and violent attacks against police by "hoodlums and delinquents" carrying bats, knives and guns in the largely-immigrant sections of Grenoble.

The immigrant population is comprised chiefly of sub-Saharan Africans and North Africans who suffer from high unemployment and seemingly nothing to occupy themselves on hot summer nights other than drinking, doping and committing crimes.

The mayor of Grenoble, Michel Destot, said police had arrested 19 people for offences including drug trafficking and arms possession. He described the suburb as largely immigrant and poor, with an unemployment rate of more that 30 percent.

"Villeneuve is a working-class neighbourhood where the difficulty is that the population is not mixed enough and people have been weakened by the economic crisis," he told Reuters.

"There has been a rise in the underground economy and a relatively small gang of youth have imposed their law and created a climate of extreme insecurity."

Many French cities are encircled by suburbs plagued by high unemployment, crime, poor public services and drug trafficking.

Notably, after reviewing six different media sources, only one identified the rioters as Muslim youths. Hoodlums and delinquents, without reference to the fact they are Muslim, are the politically correct terms employed by most media.

In conclusion, Muslim youths torching cars in Europe could arguably be considered a form of summer recreation. Years of evidence supports the contention that it's hardly newsworthy. Sadly, it's expected.

However, what is newsworthy is the ominous eventuality that, given enough baby-making time, Muslim youths will be burning cars in North America.

Companion post at TJR.

He came, he saw, he spent

In the latest stop on his “Recovery Summer” tour, rock star President Barack Obama landed in Holland, Michigan Thursday, insulted its congressman, handed American stimulus dollars to a Korean corporation, and proclaimed Obamanomics a success even as Michigan has lost 94,000 jobs since his Recovery Act was enacted.

All in all, another day in the life of an increasingly unpopular president who seems to be living in an alternative universe.

That universe insists that government is the source of jobs, and so Obama was in Western Michigan to declare another victory in Washington’s mission to create a new green economy.

But the green economy looks like a lot of green for the well-connected. The president handed $150 million in stimulus money over to Korean CEO Peter Bahnsuk Kim of LG Chem. LG Chem is an $11 billion Korean conglomerate that hardly seems a candidate for the American Recovery Act. No wonder the program is so unpopular.

Accompanying Obama was Governor Jennifer Granholm - Obama praised her as “one of the best governors in America” even as she presides over the nation’s second highest unemployment rate – who has been complaining that Washington Republicans are denying her the $500 million in stimulus money she needs to plug Michigan’s Medicaid budget hole. So here she was in West Michigan celebrating $150 million for Corporate Korea. Huh?

Obama said his benevolence would create 300 jobs in Holland – but that’s $500,000 per job. At least it’s a bargain compared to the $ $1.25 million per job Obama spent on two solar companies in Arizona over the July 4 weekend.

West Michigan is suffering 12 percent unemployment yet President “Audacity of Hope” had the audacity to suggest that the stimulus “efforts we took we are no longer bleeding jobs." In fact, since his $1 trillion Recovery Act was passed a year ago, Michigan has lost nearly 100,000 jobs....

More HERE

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Pregnant Woman Arrested for Meth

(Lawrence County, Alabama) After a three-month-long investigation, county agents arrested a local woman, Amber Marie Knight, for alleged involvement in manufacturing methamphetamine.

Sheriff Gene Mitchell said Knight was supplying a meth cook with the ingredients in exchange for the finished product.

He also said Knight was pregnant and that she had been using meth. At that point, Lawrence County Drug Endangered Child Unit investigators got involved in the investigation.

Knight confessed to using meth while pregnant, which led investigators to charge her with chemical endangerment of a child. She is also charged with unlawful manufacturing a controlled substance second degree and possession of a controlled substance.

Knight was booked into custody at the Lawrence County Jail with bond set at $3,000.

Clinton, Carter Talking with HAMAS on Prisoners?

There's a report out that "Washington" (presumably the U.S. government) is having discussions with HAMAS leadership to have former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter go to the Gaza Strip to negotiate a prisoner exchange in which kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit would be traded for the release of Palestinian prisoners.

Reportedly, the possibility of an exchange was raised by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu speaking to Bill Clinton on a recent visit to New York.

The source of the information is Islamic in nature and remains unconfirmed.

The paper further stated that if such a visit were to take place, it would be the most prominent sign of the Obama administration's openness towards Hamas, following unofficial talks between American diplomats and the movement's heads in Damascus.

The presidents, if they do in fact visit the Strip, are also slated to address the Israeli blockade on Gaza, Hamas' international isolation, and the movement's recognition in the international arena in exchange for certain guarantees.

The U.S. government negotiating with a designated foreign terrorist organization, HAMAS, is a complete reversal of the historic posture that America doesn't negotiate with terrorists.

But that's not all. It seems completely out of character for the Obama administration, which for 18 months has been frosty toward Israel, to now try to benefit the Jews by engaging HAMAS.

Sending Bill Clinton on a diplomatic mission isn't unusual, though, he's been quite the bon vivant traveling statesman since he left office.

However, a real jaw-dropper is the proposal to send Jimmy Carter to negotiate with HAMAS on behalf of the Jews. Carter has garnered a widespread reputation of being unfriendly toward Israel and the Jews. I'd suggest Jimmy Carter is not the best person to represent Israeli and Jewish interests.

Given that the proposal was written up in one Middle East newspaper, I suspect that it may just be a trial balloon to see how many people will actually support such an endeavor. Superficially, the idea is really ludicrous.

Tip: Kenny Solomon

Say No to Ground Zero Mosque



More Americans need to hear this message from Pat Condell.

Tip: THarb

Must not depict Obama alongside Hitler and Lenin

Even though there are many ideological similarities. But displaying pictures of GWB with a Hitler mustache etc. were just fine, of course

"The North Iowa Tea Party has removed a billboard comparing President Obama's socialism to Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin after holocaust survivor groups and many on the organized Left objected, according to an Associated Press story for July 14.

The billboard claimed that "Radical leaders prey on the fearful & naive," and had Obama's "Democrat Socialism" between Hitler's "National Socialism" and Lenin's "Marxist Socialism."

“The message they intended was to point out the similarities between Obama’s policies and the socialist policies of Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin,” communications specialist Michael Fiala of Mason City, Iowa, explained in his blog, “like nationalized health care, the collusion of government and business to interfere with free markets, and government collaboration with labor unions aimed at control to name a few.”

Indeed, Hitler's National Socialism bailed out the automobile industry in the depths of the depression, creating Volkswagen as a state socialist enterprise, similar to how the Bush-Obama policy utilized bailout funds to rescue General Motors and Chrysler.

But the image of Obama sandwiched on the billboard by Hitler and Lenin overshadowed the project. "The purpose of the billboard was to draw attention to the socialism. It seems to have been lost in the visuals," North Iowa Tea Party leader Bob Johnson told the Associated Press for July 13. "The pictures overwhelmed the message.”

Source

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

WaPo Outing America's Secrets

From the Office of the Director of National Intelligence:

Early next week, the Washington Post is expected to publish articles and an interactive website that will likely contain a compendium of government agencies and contractors allegedly conducting Top Secret work. The website is expected to enable users to see the relationships between the federal government and its contractors, describe the type of work the contractors perform, and may identify many government and contractor facility locations.

Publication is expected starting July 19, 2010 with additional articles published thereafter. We request that all ODNI contractors remind all cleared employees of their responsibility to protect classified information and relationships, and to abide by contractual agreements regarding non-publicity. Employees should be reminded that they must neither confirm nor deny information contained in this, or any, media publication, and that the publication of this website does not constitute a change in any current ODNI classifications. They should also be reminded that if approached and asked to discuss their work by media or unauthorized people, they should report the interactions to their appropriate security officer.

Foreign intelligence services, terrorist organizations, and criminal elements will have potential interest in this kind of information. It is important that companies review their overall counterintelligence posture to ensure that it is appropriate. Specifically, we recommend that companies affected by this publication and website assess and take steps to mitigate risk to their workforce, facility and mission, to the extent consistent with your contractual relationship with ODNI. These steps should include re-enforcement of security and counterintelligence protections and steps to enhance workforce awareness. CI and security events related to the publication of these articles and website should be reported through normal company channels to the MSC/Security office. For the time being, thresholds should be lowered to aggressively report anomalous behavior.

If someone could explain why this is happening, please leave a comment. I'd really like to know why someone thinks this is a good idea. For a newspaper to publish the identity of those performing Top Secret work and disclose what they are working on must have national security implications.

Meanwhile, be advised that the Obama White House is reportedly "cool with it."

Tip: Kenny Solomon

Michigan Woman Arrested for Meth Lab in Vehicle

(Emmet County, Michigan) A 40-year-old Harbor Springs woman, Tammy Marie Mulder, was arrested last week after sheriff's deputies caught her operating a methamphetamine lab in her vehicle.

Sheriff's deputies initially observed a broken down vehicle, approached and conducted a search.

Mulder, who was still on probation for two January 2007 felony drug convictions (possession of methadone and diazepam) in 57th Circuit Court, gave both deputies consent to search her vehicle.

During this search, deputies discovered a pack of Marlboro blend cigarettes on the passenger seat, as well as a small piece of tin foil with burnt materials on it, which Mulder allegedly confirmed to be “used methamphetamine.”

According to the court affidavit, deputies continued the search and further uncovered a small silver container with a screw top in Mulder’s purse, the contents of which Mulder allegedly identified as meth. Deputies later conducted a field test on this substance, which tested positive for meth.

Nearing the end of their search, deputies asked Mulder if the components and chemicals used in the manufacturing of meth were in her vehicle. She denied such items being in her possession.

Officers then obtained a search warrant and conducted a further search of the interior of Mulder’s vehicle, as well as in her trunk.

During this search, deputies allegedly found chemicals and equipment which Lt. Ken Mills from Straits Area Narcotics Enforcement identified as being “the components of a lab used in the manufacturing of meth.”

Mulder was booked into custody with bond set at $20,000.

Even MSNBC Doesn't Agree with Janeane Garofalo



As a conservative, I believe that all the leftists are mixed up but, even so, Janeane Garofalo seems overly scrambled. Heh.

Tip: Ragnar

73,000 Blogs Shut Down by U.S. Government

Wordpress blog host Blogetery and 73,000 of its blogs have been snuffed.

Although details are still very tentative, here’s what we know: Blogetery’s entire site has been taken down, and the company’s ISP is claiming that they had to terminate Blogetery’s account immediately after being ordered to do so by law enforcement officials, “due to material hosted on the server.”

“This was not a typical case, in which suspension and notification would be the norm,” Blogetery’s ISP said. “This was a critical matter brought to our attention by law enforcement officials. We had to immediately remove the server.”

Although TorrentFreak speculates that this is part of a recent Homeland Security effort to take down file sharing sites, that doesn’t quite make sense: surely in that case Blogetery would have been asked to pull specific infringing blogs, not have the rug yanked out from under them.

Developing….

Emmy Award - Hat Tip to Group Think

The Emmy nominations (News & Documentary) have been announced. Public Broadcasting (PBS) reaped the most, 37.

The public television system was followed closely by CBS, which had a particularly good showing, scoring 31 nominations, including 16 for its long-running Sunday newsmagazine “60 Minutes.” HBO placed third with 20 nominations, one of its largest hauls ever, followed by National Geographic, which earned 19. NBC had 17 and ABC got 9.

“CBS Evening News With Katie Couric” may trail its rivals in the ratings, but it earned eight nominations, the most of the network evening broadcasts, including two for its “Follow the Money” investigative series. The top-rated “NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams” got six nods, while ABC’s “World News,” anchored last year by Charles Gibson, had one.

Crikey! I'm so-o-o out of touch with news and documentaries. I watch absolutely none, nada, zero, zilch of the programming offered by the award nominees.

In fact, on those rare occasions when I accidentally surf into one of the aforementioned "news" sources, I'm reminded that many important stories are common knowledge within the public by the time the award nominees start reportage. Of course, that's assuming that the mainstream media actually, finally report.

The Emmy Award process appears to have gone to school on the Nobel Prize process, just another official hat tip to group think.

Lynne Stewart Appeal - 28 Months Becomes 10 Years

(New York City) Originally found guilty on 2005 of aiding terrorist Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, attorney Lynne Stewart appealed her conviction in 2009. Her original sentence was 28 months.

Yesterday, the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the original conviction and re-sentenced 70-year-old Stewart.

Ruling that the original sentence of 28 months needed "enhancement" for terrorism, perjury and abuse of her position of trust as a lawyer, the appeals court gave Stewart 10 years in federal prison.

"Lynne Stewart broke the oath she swore as an attorney and now stands sentenced in the system of laws that she betrayed," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said Thursday in a statement issued by the Justice Department.

The new sentence extends her stay in the slammer by seven years and eight months. Stewart has likely collected her last retainer. Heh.