Todd and Sarah to join Rolling Thunder Veterans

Posted on by

From Josh Painter:

Todd and Sarah may ride with the Rolling Thunder vets.

Blue Star parents Todd and Sarah Palin may be riding with tens of thousands of Rolling Thunder veterans Sunday.

From WaPo:

The former Alaska governor, who is the subject of a lot of overheated speculation about whether she will run for president in 2012, has accepted an invitation to participate in the annual Rolling Thunder memorial ride this Sunday, an official says.

“As far as I know, she is trying to rent a motorcycle, so she can ride with her husband,” said Nancy Regg, a spokeswoman for Rolling Thunder.

Gregg says the tentative plan is for Palin to join up with the ride at the Pentagon at 7 a.m. The ride kicks off at noon, and hundreds of bikers will snake through D.C. to the event’s main stage, which will be between the Reflecting Pool and the Korean War Veterans Memorial on the Mall. The program is scheduled to kick off at 1 p.m.

UPDATE! She's Confirmed!

From ABC News:

For the riders of Rolling Thunder, the news that Sarah Palin will participate in their national rally on Sunday came as a surprise. A welcome surprise

I certainly welcome any positive publicity surrounding our cause, anything to bring attention to POWs and MIAs,” said Jeffrey Stewart, who leads a Rolling Thunder chapter in New Hampshire.

I’d love to see [President] Obama walk out and say, ‘Thank you,’” he said. “I’d love to see [Vice President Joe] Biden come out and say, ‘Thank you.’ Anyone who wants to be president, I'd love for them to come and acknowledge us.”

Photo credit - JanetCharletonsHollywood.com

New fee on your Hotel Bill next time you visit NYC?

Posted on by

Democrats solution to Strauss-Khan? An Anti-Rape Tax

From Eric Dondero:

We reported here at LR last week, that Democrat Assmb. Rory Lancman from Brooklyn (photo below) introduced the "Strauss-Kahn Chamber Maid Protection Act""; a bill to require that New York hotels install a (red?) Panic Button in all rooms to help ensure mostly female cleaning ladies will not be molested.

Now the Hotel & Lodging Association has chimed in. From Joseph McInerney, Assoc. CEO:

“an overreach and overreaction. When you look at the number of people who stay in hotels every night and the number of people working in rooms, these incidents are really few and far between... it’s a step too far to require hotels to spend money on incidents that don’t happen that often.”

The Washington Times editorializes - "Strauss-Kahn prompts panic" - against such legislation as ""ridiculous," and raises a scary, but knowing New York, possible result of such legislation:

It’s one thing if hotels elect to provide staff with devices or training to promote safety, as many do. If the government begins to mandate it, however, don’t be surprised when anti-rape fees pop up on New York hotel bills.

Editor's comment - And we'll all be able to thank the idiot IMF Chief from France.

Harper stands out on Israel at G-8

Posted on by

UNBELIEVABLE!

Canadian PM only leader to oppose Israel's return to '67 Borders

From Eric Dondero:

We reported on Monday, that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was increasingly being viewed as the new World leader for Freedom.

Now this from the Globe and Mail:

Alone among G8 leaders, the Canadian Prime Minister refuses to embrace the U.S. President’s plan to begin peace negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis on the basis of a return to Israel’s de facto borders as they existed before its 1967 war with neighbouring Arab countries – a precondition, accepted by Arabs and by many previous Israeli leaders and Canadian governments, that would be necessary to get Palestinians back to the table.

Mr. Harper made his opposition to that position clear through a spokesperson shortly after Mr. Obama’s Middle East speech last week in a pre-G8 briefing, making him the lone leader in the G8 not to back the U.S. preconditions.

Note - Although, Harper himself has not embraced the "libertarian" label, he has been called a libertarian or libertarian-leaning by some Canadian media.

Ballot Initiatitive next step for Voter I.D. in Minnesota after Dem Gov. Veto

Posted on by

From Eric Dondero:

Republicans have majorities in both the Minnesota House and Senate. A bill to require photo i.d. voting passed through both chambers easily. According to SurveyUSA 76% of Minnesotans support voter i.d. Yet Democrat Governor Mark Dayton just vetoed the bill.

From KSAX.com:

The bill would have required Minnesotans to show a photo ID in order to cast a vote.

The governor also cited $23 million in costs that would have been incurred by local election officials. Despite the governor's veto, it's likely that photo ID's will be required eventually. Republicans who control the House and Senate say they'll pass a bill that would put the issue on the 2012 ballot.

Dayton himself won election by a razor thin margin of 1%. Many Minnesota Republicans suspected fraud, and illegal voters in urban centers such as Minneapolis and St. Paul involved in his election.

Non-English speaking non-Citizen Somalis voting in US Elections

Posted on by

From Eric Dondero:

Kris Kobach is the newly-elected libertarian Republican Secretary of State in Kansas.

Columnist DeRoy Murdock wrote in 2010 before the election:

I have known Kris Kobach since I was a Georgetown University junior. Kobach was then and remains a terribly bright, engaging, and personable patriot... Conservatives and libertarians should cross their fingers for Kobach.

Yesterday he had an editorial in the Wall Street Journal, "The Case for Voter ID - You can't cash a check, board a plane, or even buy full-strength Sudafed over the counter without ID. Why should voting be different." Kobach in his research found one particularly egregious case from Missouri:

Voter fraud is a well-documented reality in American elections. To offer a few examples, a 2010 state representative race in Kansas City, Mo. was stolen when one candidate, J.J. Rizzo, allegedly received more than 50 votes illegally cast by citizens of Somalia. The Somalis, who didn't speak English, were coached to vote for Mr. Rizzo by an interpreter at the polling place. The margin of victory? One vote.

Kobach also reported that in his home State of Kansas, "221 incidents of voter fraud were reported between 1997 and 2010 [including] absentee-ballot fraud, impersonation of another voter, and a host of other violations.

Finally, an alarming note:

My office already has found 67 aliens illegally registered to vote in Kansas...

Editor's comment - If it's this bad in a conservative Mid-Western State like Kansas, just imagine how bad it is in well-known voter fraud states like Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, California and Washington State. Photo credit - BlogsPitch.com

Under Mubarak Nazis had to meet in secret; Now under Muslim Brotherhood they’re an organized Party

Posted on by

American Taxpayer subsidized National Socialism

From Eric Dondero:

Oh, the irony. Real live Nazis emerging in the "New Egypt."

From the Jerusalem Post "Egyptian activists 'to form Nazi party', newspaper reports":

'Al-Masry Al-Youm' report says Facebook pages launched to attract followers; Nazi parties operated secretly in Egypt during Mubarak regime.

A group of Egyptian political activists have announced plans to set up a local version "of the Nazi party," an Egyptian newspaper reported on Thursday.

Citing a leftist Egyptian news portal, the Al-Masry Al-Youm daily said that "the party's founding deputy is a former military official," and that the party would be aimed at bringing "together prominent figures from the Egyptian society."

Note - Egypt is the largest recipient of US foreign aid, and President Obama just approved the relief of over $1 Billion in debt to the US from the Arab World, most of which for Egypt.

Tom Pawlenty reaching out to libertarians

Posted on by

From Eric Dondero:

Presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty was in Washington meeting with the folks at the Cato Institute on Wednesday.

From the Washington Post "Pawlenty reaches out to free-market conservatives":

Pawlenty made a direct appeal to a gathering of conservatives in downtown Washington, pledging to place a temporary freeze on public employee salaries and to cut one in two federal jobs through attrition.

The venue, the libertarian Cato Institute, was rich with the symbolism of what Pawlenty was hoping to do: fill the free-enterprise space that many Republicans had hoped Daniels or Christie would step into — and demonstrate that he was up to the task.

“We can’t have federal employees getting a better deal than the people paying the bill — and that’s the taxpayer,” Pawlenty said at the third stop of a week-long swing across the country that began Monday with the official kickoff of his presidential campaign.

It has been a week of symbolic backdrops. In Iowa, where the ethanol lobby has held an iron grip on political discourse, Pawlenty promised to end ethanol subsidies. In Florida, where politicians historically have courted an older population by promising to protect entitlement programs, he pledged to stem the runaway costs of Social Security and Medicare by tightening benefits. And in New York on Friday, he will take aim at the bailouts of big businesses and Wall Street.

Crane noted that Pawlenty received an 'A' from Cato in his last year as Governor. But hinted that the Beltway libertarian crowd is still holding out hope for Christie.

Craig Huey "libertarian Republican" for Congress – California Special Election

Posted on by

From Eric Dondero:

Craig Huey shocked the California political establishment last week, by winning a run-off spot for the open Jane Harmen seat in Congress. The district is heavily Democrat, and the incument Dem Secretary of State was expected to place 2nd. Huey beat her by 7,000 votes.

From his website:

THE RESULTS ARE IN! Craig Huey shocks media and career politicians with second place win in race for California’s 36th Congressional District.

Now we are gearing up for a surprise victory in the run-off election Tuesday, July 12, 2011. If you live in Del Aire, El Segundo, Hermosa Beach, Lennox, Lomita, Los Angeles, Manhattan Beach, Marina del Rey, Redondo Beach, San Pedro, Torrance, Venice, West Carson or Wilmington, you may be able to vote in this election.

From Jessica Levin, columnist KCET Public Radio - Los Angeles Commentary - How Did a Conservative Finish as One of Top-Two Vote-Getters in the Liberal 36th Congressional District?:

As I and many other hapless souls who engage in predictions confidently stated, the runoff election would be between Hahn and Secretary of State Debra Bowen.

File this under, "I was wrong." In a true political upset, conservative Republican Craig Huey and Democratic Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn bested 14 other candidates in the special election to fill former Rep. Jane Harman's congressional seat.

We ran one of the very few stories in the Nation on his unexpected 1st-round win last week. Craig contacted Libertarian Republican yesterday. He wanted to make sure that our readers saw this interview with him from April 25, with The Daily Bell "Craig Huey on Running for Office as a Libertarian Republican and Salvaging the American Dream".

You're running for Congress in the 36th District in California, and apparently you're doing fairly well, despite the force arrayed against you. Tell us a bit about your background. You consider yourself to be libertarian more than a Republican don't you?

Craig Huey: I'm not a career politician. I'm a small business owner running for a special congressional office on May 17th, just a few weeks away. But I've had an interest in freedom and the free market for a long time. In high school I was introduced to Frederic Bastiat and his classic The Law, the writings of Ludwig Von Mises, Frederic Hayek, Milton Friedman and other great libertarian thinkers and economists.

Read the full interview here.

AND PLEASE HELP CRAIG WITH A DONATION TO HIS CAMPAIGN NOW!

CraigHuey.com

Bollywood Acress Veena Malik attacked in Pakistan

Posted on by

From Eric Dondero:

Initial reports last week said that famed Pakistani-turned-India actress Veena Malik was involved in a simple car crash on the highway between Islamabad and Lahore. Now the full story is coming out.

From the Middle East Media Research Institute "Outspoken Pakistani Actress Veena Malik Injured In Attack on Her Car" May 23:

Noted Pakistani actress Veena Malik, who confronted an Islamic cleric in a live debate on Pakistani television early this year, was injured when the car she was riding in was attacked while travelling from the Pakistani capital of Islamabad to Lahore on the night of May 16, 2011.

Malik is a renowned Pakistani actress, model, social worker, and television anchor. She has played lead roles in a number of box-office hits produced in Urdu and Punjabi languages over the past decade in Lollywood, Pakistan's film industry. In recent years, she has hosted television shows on Pakistani and Indian television channels, becoming a household name across Pakistan and India...

While initial Pakistani media reports said that Veena Malik was injured in a car crash, her publicist said that it was a deliberate attack. Her publicist Sohail Rashid said: "A speeding vehicle overtook Veena Malik's car, hit its side door and raced off. The car went off-balance and collided."[1] "It seemed as if they deliberately hit our car. We couldn't see their faces. They hit us, and saw our car colliding. They would have stopped had they hit us by mistake," Rashid said, adding that Malik is now out of danger and her condition is stable.

Media note - CNN, typically very quick to cover any international story with a high-ratings producing Bollywood angle, has yet to cover this story? Photo credit - BollywoodChaska.com

Republican Congressman on PC Madness on Airport Screenings

Posted on by

Bass Ackwards - Old Granny, and little Girl patted down; Muslim man goes free

From The Hill:

The Transportation Security Administration is too worried about “political correctness,” according to a Republican lawmaker.

Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.), a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said TSA is too politically correct when it chooses which passengers to search at airport security checkpoints.

During a recent trip, Broun said he saw TSA pat down an elderly person and a child, but not a man he himself deemed suspicious.

“I walked through … right behind me there was a grandmother — little old lady, and she was was patted down,” Broun said on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal.”

“Right behind her was a little kid who was patted down. And then right behind him was a guy in Arabian dress who just walked right through. Why are we patting down grandma and kids?”

H/t Weasel Z...

More hints on left-libertarian/Paleo trickery in NY CD-26

Posted on by

THIS WEBSITE CONDEMNS IN THE STRONGEST TERMS POSSIBLE EFFORTS BY SOME LIBERTARIANS, MAINLY ON THE LEFTSIDE OF OUR MOVEMENT, TO TRY TO HELP DEMOCRATS DEFEAT GOP CANDIDATES

From Eric Dondero:

We have maintained here at Libertarian Republican, that left-libertarians and paleo/anti-war infiltrators in the GOP recruited 3rd party candidate Jack Davis as a spoiler in New York CD-26.

Now this from Politico, Monday, the day before the race:

Jack Davis, the independent candidate who could play the spoiler in Tuesday’s special House election, comes across as a populist mix of libertarian Ron Paul and protectionist Ross Perot.

I like Ron Paul,” Davis said of the Texas Republican, who also opposes the negotiated free trade agreements like NAFTA. “He’s my kind of guy.”

Note - Upstate lawyer, former Democrat and self-proclaimed anarchist, left-libertarian James Ostrowski, is on the editorial board of LewRockwell.com. Rockwell, of course, is the former Chief of Staff to Cong. Paul, and his longtime personal confidante. Ostrowski has also been a guest on AntiWar.com radio by Eric Garris and Justin Raimondo. Garris is webmaster for Rockwell's site.

Clarification: While we like Ron Paul on domestic matters, it's a great shame that some of his supporters would work to help defeat a good conservative Republican for congress, perhaps over foreign policy differences. It should be noted Jane Corwin has the 3rd most conservative voting record in the NY Assembly.

See our previous article from May 18 on Jack Davis "Paleo-Democrat"

Photo credit - Newscopy.org

Could McCotter take the Ted Nugent wing of the GOP?

Posted on by

He's Strong on Defense, Anti-Islamist and stridently Free Markets

From the WSJ:

The hand-wringing over the Republican presidential field has not abated much since Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels announced he would not be seeking the GOP nomination, but a new name might soon be entering the fray, Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, the guitar-playing, soul-searching libertarian from Michigan.

Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R., Mich) (AP Photo/Harry Hamburg) Mr. McCotter has told Politico he’s seriously considering a run and will make his decision in the next two weeks.

And this intriguing note from the Manchester Union-Leader. He's headed to New Hampshire, hosted by libertarian Republicans.

The Granite Status has learned that McCotter, who told Politico on Monday that he's strongly considering a run for President, has accepted an invitation to attend one of the biggest GOP late spring events, the Belknap County Republican Committee's annual “Lincoln Day” cruise aboard the M/S Mount Washington.

McCotter's attendance was confirmed by Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire Chairman Andrew Hemingway, who has had Capitol Hill connections with McCotter.

Conservative Netanyahu criticizes Muslim executions of Gays in speech to Congress

Posted on by


Israel the only Country in the Middle East for Human Rights including Homosexuals and Rights for Women

"In a region where women are stoned, gays are hanged, Christians are persecuted, Israel stands out. It is different.

"As the great English writer George Eliot predicted over a century ago, that once established, the Jewish state will 'shine like a bright star of freedom amid the despotisms of the East.'

H/t Calgary Herald for the text.

Rover Accident

Posted on by

Artists concept of the Mars Rover Curiosity. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

 

There was a bit of an “incident” with the newest Mars rover Curiosity.

A crane lift of the hardware caused unexpected mechanical loads on interfaces between the back shell and its ground support equipment. These interfaces are used during ground operations in preparation for launch. A structural assessment of the back shell was performed in the area of these interfaces.

The NASA speak wasn’t too specific but let’s take a shot at it shall we?  :mrgreen:

When they say:

A crane lift of the hardware caused unexpected mechanical loads on interfaces between the back shell and its ground support equipment.

They mean:

_______________________________________

Here’s my guess: CRAP! (or something much more colorful LOL) We  dropped it!!!

Fill in the blank, whadda think?

One thing is for sure, I bet they had that “sick feeling” in the pits of their stomachs for a few minutes and since everything is apparently fine we can be a little glib.

The press release from JPL is below and by the way there was little or no damage.

PASADENA, Calif. — During processing of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Fla., an incident occurred on Friday, May 20, involving the spacecraft’s back shell.

A crane lift of the hardware caused unexpected mechanical loads on interfaces between the back shell and its ground support equipment. These interfaces are used during ground operations in preparation for launch. A structural assessment of the back shell was performed in the area of these interfaces.

Inspections and analyses through Monday, May 23, have not identified any damage. Flight processing is expected to continue this week.

The back shell is used to protect the rover and descent stage during entry in Mars’ upper atmosphere.

Mars Science Laboratory will launch during the period from Nov. 25 to Dec. 18, 2011, taking its rover, Curiosity, to an August 2012 landing. During a two-year mission on Mars, Curiosity will investigate whether a selected area of Mars has offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life and for preserving evidence about life.

The spacecraft’s back shell, heat shield and cruise stage were delivered to Kennedy Space Center on May 12. The rover and descent stage will be delivered in June.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. More information about the Mars Science Laboratory is available online at http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ and http://www.nasa.gov/msl.

Eclipsing (Helium) White Dwarfs

Posted on by

An artist concept of a binary system. Credit: Nature.com

[Edit]  I forgot to credit the University of Warwick for the following press release, I was being chewed on by Holly and those puppy teeth are sharp.

Researchers at the University of Warwick have found a unique feuding double white dwarf star system where each star appears to have been stripped down to just its helium.

We know of just over 50 close double white dwarfs but this was only the second ever eclipsing close white dwarf pair to be found.  The University of Warwick astronomers Steven Parsons and Professor Tom Marsh were able to use the fact that the stars eclipse each other when seen from Earth to make particularly detailed observations of the system.

These observations revealed that uniquely both the white dwarf stars in this pairing are composed largely of helium. Most white dwarfs tend to have largely inert cores of carbon and oxygen that have formed over the star’s long life when it has used up most of its hydrogen and helium.  Helium white dwarfs are a sure sign that the star has undergone some extreme mass loss at some point. To find two such helium white dwarfs stars is a clear sign to astronomers that both stars have had an exotic and mutually destructive past.

What was originally the most massive star of the pair had once actually began to expand to become a red giant but its outer hydrogen envelope was ripped off by its companion. This meant the star never got an opportunity to start fusing its helium and it was left as a helium white dwarf. When the companion star then began expanded it also had its expanding layer torn off by the first star – but as the first star was already reduced to a white dwarf it could not use that new material. That hydrogen  was therefore simply lost to the star system leaving behind helium white dwarfs.

In just over 1 billion years, the two stars feud will end as they will spiral together and merge, finally igniting each other’s helium to become an object known as a hot subdwarf which should last for 100 million years

The University of Warwick researchers found this star system CSS 41177  (which is over 351 parsecs , or 1140 light years, away – in the constellation Leo) using  a combination of data from the robotic 2m Liverpool Telescope in the Canary Islands and the 8m Gemini Telescope on Hawaii.

The full paper has been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal and is entitled A deeply eclipsing detached double helium white dwarf binary Authors: S. G. Parsons, T. R. Marsh, B. T. Gänsicke, A. J. Drake, D. Koester