You've got mail: WSJ trying to profiteer from Obama's coronation

I got this over the email:

Dear Wall Street Journal Reader: Now available for purchase are keepsake press plates from The Wall Street Journal. Commemorate the election and inauguration of Barack Obama with a metal press plate that is a full-size front page of that day's Journal, suitable for framing. This is a limited time offer. To order, go to WSJplates.com. The Wall Street Journal Customer Relations Team P.S. For a full-color reprint, please go to www.djreprints.com

Limited you say? Where can I get the Obama-Head-Lollipop? One side has a head, the other a behind, specifically for media people to enjoy their lollipop.

Opening comments for a while

A while back I closed comments to registered users (registration was free and open), and all comments were moderated. The reason for that was that I was at that time flooded with insane teens from Fark.com and wanted to have the chance to filter out hate and stupidity.

I'm reopening the comments for a while, policy may change again if needed.

Feel free to post questions to me in the comments, I'll try to collect them and answer in a few days...

P.S. apparently blogger will have an outage at 4PM PST. Hopefully not for long.

Shawarma Shared

No - no free food here, today, right now...

Enjoy the photo and the announcement below.


As my friend at Weasel-Zipper announced today, I will be occasionally posting on his blog as well as mine. I'm happy to be on board - and as of now, weasel-zippers is a bigger board then this.

A note regarding pace of posts: This site has had a surge in postings over the last few months. I assure you it was unintentional... news just keeps flowing, and I can't keep my big mouth shut keyboard clicks quite. On a NORMAL case, this site gets a post a day, if not two a week. At some point, I should get back to that routine. Of course - for that to happen, there should be really slow news days, peace on earth and justice for all. Any moment now...


One more Shawarma photo found on Flickr (on the same link as above):

mmm...meat, with pickled everything... with spices... grrr... makes me want to board the next plane back to Israel and gorge on that magnificent street food.

Israel's Court: Pro-terrorists Arab parties OK-d to run

JPost: Court: Balad, UAL can run for Knesset

The Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned the decision to disqualify Balad and UAL from running for Knesset, accepting two appeals submitted on behalf of the Arab parties.

The decision had been made by the Central Elections Committee on the grounds that two parties "support an armed struggle against Israel and that their political platform aims to undermine Israel's existence as a Jewish and democratic state."

The nine Supreme Court justices unanimously accepted the UAL appeal, while the Balad appeal was accepted by eight justices against one. The rulings paved the way for the parties to run in the February 10 elections.

The appeals were both filed by the Israeli-Arab rights group Adalah on behalf of the two parties.

Court basically said the following is OK:
Instigating murder of Jews
Spying for enemy nations, telling them where to shoot rockets
Committing illegal activities such as organizing groups to travel to enemy nations
Advocating destruction of Israel

The English article is missing many details, here's an auto-translate from Ynet's Hebrew article:
High court rules: Anti-Israel Arab Parties can run for Election

Following the decision of the Supreme Court, said "Israel is our home chairman" MK Avigdor Lieberman: "Aharon Barak, he said that democracy does not need to kill herself to prove it is alive. The court today threw that statement to the trash, in fact gave the Arab parties a license to kill the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. We will not give up and will try to pass a citizenship law which will give limits to disloyalty of some of Israel's Arab. "

(Auto translate failed miserably, this was my translation)

Would the court allow the Nazi party to run in Israel? Wait, they just did - the Arab Nazi parties.

Obama's "Day One"

Since we were promised that Obama would be ready from day one:
The Economist, Jan 15th: Ready for Day One
Some Op-Ed in Co local paper:Editorial: Obama is ready from Day One
and of course, it was a campaign promise...

Well - since promises and optemistic predictions were made, all I really want to say in a day after a huge market meltdown is:

Prove my pre-election predictions wrong

So far - shaky start:
Weasel Zippers:Obama Halts Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi Binalshibh's Gitmo Trials as First Executive Order.....
Gateway Pundit:9-11 Killers Spared!... Obama Halts Gitmo War Crimes Tribunals
If you watched yesterday's Glen Beck (at the unreasonable hour of 5:30 Eastern Time), you would have heard some honest opinions from a Berkly law professor regarding what the Gitmo trials mess is about to do to the justice system and the security of the nation... not good at all.

Oh, yea - and the market collapsed following a socialist presidential inauguration speech... Day one.

Israel's efforts to help Arabs in Gaza vs. Hamas' brutality towards "brothers"

Israellycool is a very active blogger. Too active perhaps, because it's hard to keep track. Today I found these very important bits of news, which I believe are worth highlighting:

6:02PM: Some more statistics according to the Coordination and Liaison Authority in the Gaza Strip:

• We coordinated the evacuations of 382 wounded people from the fighting zone
• Humanitarian officers helped evacuate at least 1,150 uninvolved Palestinians from the fighting zone.
• In total, 1,300 trucks entered the Gaza Strip with equipment through the Kerem Shalom crossing during the operation, and 65 trucks came in through the Karni crossing.

Meanwhile, Fatah may not be too happy with the ceasefire..

Following the ceasefire, the defense establishment identified the expansion of Hamas fighters firing at Fatah members and people identified with the Palestinian Authority. The phenomenon is mostly prevalent in the northern Strip, with shots fired mostly at people’s legs.

Dozens of Fatah members have been injured since the ceasefire took effect. In one case on Monday, a former Palestinian police officer from Jabaliya was shot in the legs. In several cases Fatah members were shot for laughing.

Simultaneously, Hamas member continue to kidnap Fatah men and jail them in houses seized from civilians.

Found here: Israellycool live blogging 1/20/2009

Arabs: Where's the outrage? Why do the Arab media cover for the barbarity of Hamas? Every Arab in the middle east should ask himself why would he wish such a regime, a Muslim Brotherhood regime, to abuse him, his family, his clan, his town, his country?

Funny Link

You click - you like - me promise.
If Movie Posters Were Honest


Many more posters, don't miss

As you might have noticed, this blog is not about banging fists against the desk angrily... I have a message, but I also enjoy a good chuckle.

Final days of New York Times?

They just got a bridge loan from a loan shark... so - seriously, what are their chances to survive beyond 2 weeks?
New York Times falls on Slim's expensive loan

New York Times Co (NYT - News) shares fell on Tuesday after the company agreed to a pricey $250 million loan from Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim that it will use to repay debt coming due in May.

The loan is part of a package that would give the telecommunications tycoon a prominent financial role in the Times, one of the most famous newspaper publishers in the world, but one that has been struggling to fix its financial difficulties amid a sharp drop in advertising revenue.

Most importantly for the Times, it allows the publisher, under family control for more than a century, extra time to find ways to sell assets and improve its business.

Times shares fell 50 cents, or 7.8 percent, to $5.91 on the New York Stock Exchange, worse than the 3 percent drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Tuesday afternoon.

The agreement, announced on Monday night, is for 6-year unsecured notes with a 14-percent interest rate, with 11 percentage points paid in cash and 3 percentage points in accrued interest.

"Frankly, New York Times should be pleased they were able to get this financing at all, in our view, given all the pressures going against the company," Barclays Capital analyst Craig Huber wrote in a note to investors.

"Nevertheless, the interest rate is very expensive on an absolute basis and is not a good sign for peer newspaper companies should they try to follow suit in the debt markets," Huber wrote.

The deal gives Slim warrants to buy 15.9 million New York Times Class A shares, which, when added to the 6.9 million shares that he already owns, would make him one of the largest Times shareholders with 17 percent of the stock. The loan pays a dividend, but does not give Slim a board seat.

...
The Times has $1.1 billion in debt and $46 million in cash.

...

Ehem. 14 percent loan. Good luck collecting Carlos.
Chant with me: Sink NYT - Sink. (like Drill Baby Drill, or Burn Baby Burn)

The odd things I find on my mp3 player

Still in pain from the dentist visit this morning, numbness is over - and I'm surprised to hear this on my MP3 player:
Nat King Cole, singing "LOVE" in many different languages. Song came right after some "Alice in Chains", and before "Iron Maiden", so you can imagine the surprise effect here.

Nat King Cole: L-O-V-E


Love and peace in the world. In French, German, Spanish and a few incomprehensibles...

Socialist Presidential Rant at Inauguration = Market Meltdown

Please note - for future generations, because we are apparently doomed for the next few decades.

Smart Money: How to Get Your Finances Ready for the Obama Era
Skipping right to the end:

...Down the Road

It’s a safe bet that Obama’s energy advisers had a different read on the film An Inconvenient Truth than the folks close to former oilman George W. Bush. What’s more surprising: Even with gas prices dropping, the Obama team will likely get started this year on an extremely aggressive energy agenda. The decision to replace Rep. John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat loath to challenge Detroit, with environmentally minded Rep. Henry Waxman (D–Calif.) as head of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, means that body is likely to consider aggressive cap and trade legislation—which tries to lower greenhouse gas emissions by charging companies for the pollution they pump into the air—for the first time ever. Leaders have said they could pass that, and mandate wider use of renewable resources, by 2010.

A cap-and-trade program probably would hit consumers at the gas pump. It would also have fairly big consequences for manufacturing businesses. Gilbert Metcalf, a professor of economics at Tufts University, has calculated that if carbon credits cost $15 per ton, a typical rate, slight price increases would ripple through all kinds of products that take energy to produce—things like clothing and cleaning products. He estimates that the average household cost of living would increase by 1.5 to 1.9 percent, with costs at the higher end of that range in Midwestern states like Indiana, Ohio and Iowa, which are more dependent on high-polluting fuels like coal for electricity.

Whatever happens with this “carbon tax,” it seems likely that other tax increases—at least at the federal level—will be off the table for a while. Obama’s intention to “spread the wealth around” made for some fiery campaign exchanges; his full tax plan involved increasing capital gains, dividend and income taxes for families pulling in $250,000 or more per year, mostly by repealing cuts enacted under Bush

I took this segment out of context, because the article was extremely positive that Obama will make everything so much better. The only problem, investors see exactly these lines and react. Of course they didn't react to that article, barely anyone paid attention to it.

Everybody paid attention to Obama's words.

And gateway pundit got it right:
Worst. President. Ever... Markets Slide After Obama's Dirge

Nice job, Barack.
The president's socialist rant sunk the stock market today:

At this rate we'll be into 7,000 point territory by closing.
Super.

It's been nothing but a disaster since he took over.

Nice touch, "ever since he took over". I see gateway pundit is taking a cue from MSNBC's treatment of Bush - but it is understandably written in sarcasm and humor.

Did you notice a religion missing from Obama's hoopla today?

Israel National News:No 'Change,' No Rabbis, No Muslim Clerics at Obama Inauguration

Evangelical Protestant clerics are delivering the invocations at the inauguration of President Barack Obama Tuesday night (noon EST). Rabbis, who have been bumped off the stage since 1989, and Muslim clerics were not given the opportunity to bless the new president, whose campaign revolved around the slogan "change."

President Obama, the first-ever black American president, is being sworn in with the same Bible that egalitarian Abraham Lincoln used in 1861. The invocations top off of several days of parties and ceremonies, costing approximately $150 million.

One million people are braving sub-freezing temperatures to witness the inauguration where, TIME magazine noted, "They'll hear the Queen of Soul sing and Yo-Yo Ma play. They'll listen to hear if Rick Warren gets preachy when he prays. But there's one thing they won't hear: Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech ha'olam," the Hebrew introduction of prayers which declares the Almighty as the Ruler of the world.

The blessings are being delivered by preacher Rick Warren and Afro-American evangelical Rev. Joseph Lowery.

Even liberal Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt did not include a rabbi in his first inaugural in 1937. However, in 1957 Dwight Eisenhower invited reform leader Samuel Thurman to share the podium with Catholic Father Patrick O'Boyle.

John Kennedy also invited a rabbi to state a prayer in 1961, when Catholic Archbishop Edward Mooney delivered the benediction. Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter invited rabbis to say prayers, as did George Bush Sr.

Bill Clinton reversed the trend in 1989, when Rev. Billy Graham was the only cleric on the stage. Outgoing United States President George W. Bush also reserved the inaugural prayers and benedictions for Christians.

Jews were offended by the inauguration benediction for President Bush in 2001, closely identified with the evangelical Christian movement, when Billy Graham's son Franklin prayed in the name of Catholic deities and used the first person plural "we."

TIME writer Amy Sullivan noted that if someone did not agree with the prayer, "There was apparently nothing for you to do but shuffle your feet."

However, most Jews, whose voting pattern showed 78 percent support for President Obama, celebrated the inaugural events. Nine Jewish groups sponsored the major Jewish community inaugural event in Washington, which was not an official inaugural event.

The official events will include rabbis of the three major streams of Judaism, including the National Prayer Service on Wednesday, the day after the inauguration

Personally, I don't care - it's just that one religion got special attention today - and it was disgraceful:
Obama Grovels to the Muslim World During Inaugural Address....

Not only grovels, but "inclusive" to Hamas supporters:
Spencer: Obama selects a Muslim with ties to Hamas to pray at the inauguration

Hope and change - but please notice for whom...

Hamas attack UN aid trucks, UN Chief condemns Israel - a hypocrite, what a surprise?

Elder-of-Ziyon broke the news this morning (Israel time):
EXCLUSIVE: Hamas hijacks Jordanian aid truck for UNRWA

Jordan's Petra News Agency reports that Hamas hijacked Jordanian aid trucks after they crossed into Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing on Tuesday.

The aid was to go to UNRWA. As the truck drivers started unloading the aid, Hamas gunmen opened fire on them and forced them to go to Hamas-run stores.

The Palestine Press Agency has many angry comments from readers about the episode.

(The first news flash about this occurred about 6 hours ago. Even so, this has not yet been reported in any English language media - not even Petra's English service. Here's Petra's Arabic original story.)_)

Then he asked for a response from UN officials at Gaza:

I emailed to the UNRWA:

Mr. Gunness:

This morning the Petra news agency of Jordan reported that one or more
aid trucks from Jordan, meant for UNRWA,were hijacked at gunpoint by
Hamas. Does UNRWA have any comment?

How many times has this happened, to any NGO aid?

Has UNRWA ever condemned Hamas for such actions?

Thanks

His answer ignored the last two questions and pushed off the first:

We are looking into this and I hope to have a reply for you soon. Chris

Keep in mind that Ban Ki Moon is in Gaza as this is happening, and he is silent on a direct attack on aid for the UN!

Ynet's coverage of Ban's visit to Gaza and Sderot:
Ban calls Gaza situation 'heartbreaking'
I wanted to quote from there, but it was watered down. He said Israel should be investigated for it's attacks on UNRWA facilities. That tidbit does not appear in any English version of the events. It does appears in the Hebrew version of the article here:
UN Cheif in Gaza, 'Situation is Heart Breaking'(not auto translated - article is in Hebrew)

הוא סייר בבית הספר של האו"ם שנפגע מירי צה"ל ובשני מתחמי אונר"א שאף לעברם נורתה אש. מזכ"ל האו"ם כינה את תקיפת מוסדות הארגון "שערוריה" וקרא לפתוח בחקירה.

More "UN is anti-Israel" stories from today:
IAEA to probe Arab claim Israel used uranium ammo on Gaza

UN - Hypocrites? What a surprise...

Numbness and Pain

No - this is not a political post. (or didn't start as such)

Went to the dentist this morning, half of my face is numb. Office's internet is sluggish and all videos are blocked - so basically, I'm also on withdrawal from my "news addiction".

Considering that the numbness effect includes my ear - it allows me to delude myself into thinking that I'm unaware of the massive celebrations going on right now... in CNN and NBC offices.

Congratulations to the new administration, while my expectations are severely low - I do hope for the very best.

I root for America's success - not for specific ideals and programs the new administration is promising. So in essence, I disagree with the following title - yet agree with much of the content found inside:
Josef Farah:Pray Obama fails


It's a blast in DC... Also enjoying the festivities: the hookers and coke dealers.

When politically correct bio-diesel fuel is more important than children's health

Who could've thought that it is still going to be cold again in winter despite the Green propaganda regarding global warming?

Al Gore lied, thank heavens no one died - yet.
Hotair: Schools close when fuel turns to goo

When we first moved to Minnesota, the Mathemagician was 13 years old and not happy about having to start all over again in a new school system. We tried cheering him up by telling him that schools close on heavy snow days, but as it turned out, the Mathemagician got one day off from school for weather the entire time he attended school in Minnesota. The state does too good of a job in clearing roads and getting kids on the bus to let it interfere with their education.

Last Friday, kids got another rare day off due to the weather. Actually, the weather was just the indirect cause. The real problem? Biodiesel fuel:

All schools in the Bloomington School District will be closed today after state-required biodiesel fuel clogged in school buses Thursday morning and left dozens of students stranded in frigid weather, the district said late Thursday.

Rick Kaufman, the district’s spokesman, said elements in the biodiesel fuel that turn into a gel-like substance at temperatures below 10 degrees clogged about a dozen district buses Thursday morning. Some buses weren’t able to operate at all and others experienced problems while picking up students, he said.

“We had students at bus stops longer than we think is acceptable, and that’s too dangerous in these types of temperatures,” Kaufman said.

About 50 of the district’s 10,000 students were affected. Some waited at bus stops for up to 30 minutes; others were stuck on stalled buses.

Backup buses were sent out, but four of the district’s 10 backup buses were also affected, Kaufman said.

The Germans discovered the problem with diesel fuel during World War II. In cold weather, especially on the eastern front in Russia, the fuel in the tanks solidified, making them both useless and defenseless. The Allies stuck with gasoline, which had bigger safety problems but proved reliable for combat.

Apparently, biodiesel makes the problem worse. The school district tried getting a waiver from the state to allow their buses to use regular diesel fuel, to no avail. Instead, buses stalled throughout the district and across the state. Children had to be treated for hypothermia by school nurses after either waiting for buses that arrived far too late in -20F weather or on buses that stalled and whose heaters don’t function without running engines.

This is an absurd requirement for school buses in a state that sees these kinds of low temperatures every year. If the fuel cannot be used in -20F weather, then we should be using fuel that works when it gets that cold. Having school children stand or sit in that kind of weather for any extended period of time is dangerous. To think that using a politically-correct form of fuel is more important than their safety or education demonstrates an obtuseness that simply boggles the mind.

The worst part - there were plenty who knew and warned the idiotic politicians that the buses can't run on bio-diesel in the cold-cold winter. But hey, a left-wing politician never takes responsibility for his mistakes.