Are full body scanners really the best technology available?

Which way the wind blows

The AP reports:

At least 13 state lawmakers in five states have defected to Republican ranks since the Nov. 2 election, adding to already huge GOP gains in state legislatures. And that number could grow as next year’s legislative sessions draw near.

Dems fear bi-partisianship

House Democrats fear that Pres. Obama may try to work with the Republicans. They want incoming Minority Leader Pelosi to stop that. The AP reports:

Behind Democrats' decision to keep Pelosi as their leader after historic losses lies intense concern among liberals who dominate the party's ranks on Capitol Hill: They fear Obama will go too far in accommodating the GOP in the new era of divided government, and they see Pelosi as a counterweight.

House Dems give Pelosi credit for the Obamacare disaster:

When Democrats panicked after losing their Senate supermajority last winter, Pelosi rebuffed feelers by then-White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and others to settle for a smaller health care bill. She derided the approach as "kiddie care" and pushed forward with the sweeping overhaul she painstakingly steered through the House by a razor-thin margin.

Maybe it should have been called PelosiCare.

PREVIOUSLY on Speaker Pelosi:
•Pelosi: Pass Obamacare so artists can quit their day jobs!
•Pelosi: let them eat cake!
•Eco-hypocrite of the day

What do liberals really mean by "tolerance"

As seen at a store in Greenville, NC (via the always excellent Legal Insurrection):

Conclusion: tolerance = mocking people who go to church.

PREVIOUSLY on liberals and their peculiar concept of "tolerance":
•Tammy Bruce exposes the myth of liberal "tolerance"
•"Tolerance" means ending free speech
•NY Times discovers the intolerant left
•Obama sees Republicans as "intolerant."
•Liberal tolerance and diversity
•Tolerance means "do nothing which I might find offensive."
•Does "tolerance" mean "agree with us or we'll kill you"?

Liberals and their sexual fetishes II

Sean Hannity interviewed (video) well known liberal attorney Gloria Allred:

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: "Did they touch your body parts?"

GLORIA ALLRED: "Yeah, they did and it was a first time anybody touched them in a long time and frankly, I liked it."

That does lead to an interesting question. Does sexual frustration lead to liberal political views? Loneliness and sexual frustration do seem to be a factor in terrorism.

RELATED: How much of a thrill did the TSA give Gloria? ABC News reports that the TSA will put their hands inside your underwear:

An ABC News employee said she was subject to a "demeaning" search at Newark Liberty International Airport Sunday morning.

"The woman who checked me reached her hands inside my underwear and felt her way around," she said. "It was basically worse than going to the gynecologist. It was embarrassing. It was demeaning. It was inappropriate."

PREVIOUSLY on media liberals and their sexual imagination:
•Mother Jones' sexual fantasy of Sarah Palin
•Wash. Post: Obama and his "chiseled pectorals"
•SF Chronicle: Obama's "handsomeness"
•Salon imagines Sarah Palin as a dominatrix
•Obama is one of "25 fittest"
•ABC News: Obama's "white dress-shirt clinging to his body"

Despite MSM, Tea Party support grows

In a story headlined "Tea Party support grows", USA Today reports that

Just about as many Americans want Tea Party-backed members of Congress to take the lead in setting policy during the next year as choose President Obama, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds.

In a survey taken Friday through Sunday, 28% say Obama should have the most influence on government policy next year while 27% say the Tea Party standard-bearers should. GOP congressional leaders are chosen by 23%, Democratic congressional leaders by 16%.

What amazes me is that Tea Party support has grown despite a year-long campaign of hate by the Democrats/MSM, including USA Today, to brand the Tea Party as racist or worse.  Maybe some day, they will look for the real racists and bigots.

PREVIOUSLY on Tea Parties in the San Francisco area:
•Long Strange Trip: Hippies defend establishment; Tea Party protests (Jul 18)
•A Tea Party greets Obama in San Francisco and the left is not happy about it
•Collected photos of this year's San Francisco Tea Party events
•Minutemen vs. May Day protesters in San Francisco
•A tax day Tea Party breaks out in San Francisco's Union Square
•A tax day Tea Party breaks out on the San Francisco Peninsula
•3 in 10 Californians identify with tea party protests
•To protest Obamacare, San Francisco holds a sick-in (Nov. 15)
•A Tea Party greets Obama in San Francisco (Oct. 15)
•Videos of the October 15 San Francisco Tea Party
•San Franciscans speak to Nancy Pelosi (Aug. 14)
•The San Francisco Tax Day Tea Party Protest in Pictures (Apr. 15)
•Farmers protest in San Jose (Nov. 21).
•Tea Party breaks out in Palo Alto (Nov. 21)

Does Hulu Plus hate its customers?

After spending an evening trying out their service, it sure seems that way. Hulu's competitor, Netflix, offers a wide variety of programming for instant download and it is, by contrast, commercial-free. One of the pleasant discoveries one makes after using Netflix instant for a while is how much better TV shows are when they are not interrupted by commercials, not even a break to fast-forward past commercials. Without commercial breaks, characters are more interesting and plots more compelling.

Like Netflix instant, Hulu Plus charges a monthly fee. Unlike Netflix, Hulu Plus has commercials. The commercials are frequent and un-skippable. There are commercial breaks of 30 second to a 1 minute or more duration at the beginning of each program, followed by commercial interruptions every 5 to 10 minutes, and a commercial at the end. That makes the interruptions on Hulu Plus more frequent than even broadcast TV.

Hulu Plus has more current TV programs than Netflix and some might argue that the commercials are necessary to pay for that content. In a pig's eye. Let's look at the numbers. According to this site, a 30-second commercial in a "medium-sized market" can be purchased for $0.005 per viewer. The Superbowl is famous for its expensive commercials. It is reported that "the average cost of a single 30-second TV spot during this game (seen by 90 million viewers) has reached US$2.7 million." That is $0.03 per viewer. In other words, Hulu Plus is ruining the value of their content with commercials and all they get for it is pennies per viewer. I'd be happy to have them raise the monthly fee by some pennies on the condition that I never have to endure another commercial break.

In addition to full episodes of current TV, Hulu Plus offers "clips." Many of the clips are brief cast interviews or other thinly disguised advertising for their TV shows. Try to play one and you will have to wait through some un-skippable commercial. In other words, Hulu Plus even interrupts its own ads with more ads.

For all the inconvenience of Hulu Plus, it charges more per month than Netflix. The advantage is the wider choice of current TV shows. However, Netflix has a wide variety of movies that Hulu lacks and they are available on demand, at no extra cost, and commercial-free.

Technology is making many industries obsolete. These include dead-tree newspapers, over-the-air radio, and the 30-minute network evening newscasts. Commercial television belongs in the same category. No one wants to watch commercials. With advances such as DVR and Netflix, no one has to. Hulu Plus is offering a state-of-the-art internet-based product but it is wedded to a 1950s era business model. Hulu Plus can try as hard as it wants to cling to the past but it can't stop the future.

RELATED: Praise for Roku player, which supports both Netflix and Hulu Plus, is here.

Gov. Christie vs. greedy Superintendents

New Jersey Gov. Christie has capped school Superintendent pay to $175,000 per year plus up to 20% bonus and benefits on new contracts.  The school boards fight back, as Gov. Christie explains:

PREVIOUSLY on Gov. Christie:
•Gov. Christie's greatest hits
•Gov. Christie on New Jersey and the astounding greed of its teacher's unions
•U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie prosecutes terrorists

Wind turbines pose threat to songbirds

In a looming enviro-catastrophe, Ohio's Oregon City Schools want to install wind turbines. As the Toledo Blade reports, environmentalists are horrified:

The Black Swamp Bird Observatory [BSBO] near Oak Harbor has voiced concerns about the district's proposed project and the lack of regulation on noncommercial midsize turbines.

Kim Kaufman, the observatory's executive director, said the Clay and Eisenhower turbines would be on the western flank of the Lake Erie marsh region and would pose risks for birds landing to rest before completing their annual flight north.

"We're talking about birds that are mostly migrating at night, and that includes songbirds," Ms. Kaufman said. [Emph. added]

The Obama administration, having no concern for songbirds, may subsidize this disaster with, as the Blade reports, "federal stimulus money, tax incentives, state grants, and other government programs." The BSBO has issued a press release calling for a moratorium:

With full support of the BSBO Board of Directors and the support of many other organizations, agencies, and private citizens, BSBO is seeking to introduce a three-year moratorium on any additional wind turbines along the Lake Erie Coast in Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky, and Erie Counties until further research can be conducted on the potential impacts on birds and bats.

The BSBO is urging all good environmentalists to sign their petition.

Airports have long struggled with the problem of birds. As a consequence of the way their brains evolved, birds are not capable of reacting to an approaching object until the impact is less than 5 seconds away. That may work well if the approaching object is an average predator. If it is an airplane, it is too late.

PREVIOUSLY on wind turbines:
•Victims say clean energy is making life "unbearable" and destroying their property values
•Alternative energy meets reality in NYC
•Environmentalists and corporate welfare

How Democrats think

From IOwnTheWorld:
PREVIOUSLY on Rep. Rangel:
•Rangel: "Quite frankly I don't give a damn"
•How to buy a congressman
•Rep. Charlie Rangel and unpaid taxes
•Are House Democrats racist?

Hybrid car bursts into flames, causes $1.1 million in damage

The San Jose Mercury News reports:

The three-alarm blaze that caused $1.1 million in damage to a warehouse filled with rock legend Neil Young's music equipment and memorabilia appears to have started in a one-of-a-kind hybrid car stored at the site, a fire official said Monday.

Flames began in a 1959 Lincoln Continental dubbed LincVolt, which runs on electric batteries and a biodiesel-powered generator, and then spread to the warehouse at 593 Quarry Road in the early morning of Nov. 9, according to Belmont-San Carlos Fire Marshal Jim Palisi and a website devoted to the car.

Environmentalists have yet to come to terms with the fact the batteries in their beloved hybrid and electric cars are filled with flammable and extremely toxic chemicals.

PREVIOUSLY on the subject of environmentalism:
•Victims say clean energy is making life "unbearable" and destroying their property values
•Environmentalists more likely to cheat: being a liberal means not having to follow the rules
•The ever-increasing energy use of Al Gore's mansion
•Ethanol subsidies in perspective
•Global warming whitewash: Penn State and the Michael Mann
•Global warming's profiteers
•Penn State to investigate its global warmist Mann, or not
•Climategate: laws were broken
•The collapse of the UN IPCC's credibility
•Yet another UN IPCC Glacier-gate scandal
•UN IPCC claims of melting Himalayan glaciers exposed as fraud

California Supreme Court rules: Illegals get in-state tuition

The LA Times reports that California taxpayers will be required to fund higher education for illegals:

The California Supreme Court decided unanimously Monday that illegal immigrants may continue to be eligible for in-state tuition rates at the state's colleges and universities rather than pay the higher rates charged to those who live out of state. . . .

[T]he state high court said a California law that guarantees the lower tuition for students who attend California high schools for at least three years and graduate does not conflict with a federal prohibition on giving illegal immigrants educational benefits based on residency.

In other words, if California gives you 3 years of taxpayer-paid high school education even though you are illegal, then the taxpayers must also subsidize, via reduced tuition, your higher education. There is a significant catch: California ranks 49th out of the 50 states for high school education. Self-respecting illegals may want to get their high school education elsewhere, possibly in a state that is not currently headed toward bankruptcy.

RELATED: California Budget Deficit 25 Percent Worse Than a Month Ago. (Hat tip: Instapundit.)

PREVIOUSLY on the subject of education:
•Establishing a cult of personality: public school students pledge to become "Obama scholars"
•School failure: Liberals are economically illiterate regardless of their level of education
•Public school caught spying on kids at home
•Study: sexist women teachers stunt learning of girl students
•Berkeley High to eliminate "white" science labs
•Black students, harassed for "acting white," get $150,000
•Teaching self-esteem backfires
•Education in Korea vs. the US: does "self-esteem" backfire?
•LA pays teachers not to teach
•What teachers learn in teacher's ed.
•Obama promises to throw money at schools
•How to get a job teaching in California even if you are illiterate

Krista Branch: "Remembering Honor"

Here is the amazing Krista Branch in a musical documentary of Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor Rally:

PREVIOUSLY on music for Tea Parties:
Krista Branch sings "I am America"
Jamie Teachenor & Ben Clark: "Never Gonna Stand for This"

Who counts the ballots?

Tea party patriots from around the San Francisco Bay area have been observing the ballot counting in the hotly contested US House race between David Harmer (R) and incumbent Jerry McNerney (D). How trustworthy is the process? A photo taken by the Tri-Valley Patriots shows the ballot counting process in action at the Santa Clara County Registrars office:

Yes, all ballots in Santa Clara County will be counted by members of the left-wing SEIU union. It is their job.

WELCOME to GatewayPundit and Uncoverage readers.

PREVIOUSLY on the subject of vote fraud:
•How vote fraud is done in New Jersey
•Obama DoJ: vote fraud helps "increase turnout"
•More vote fraud: New York State
•How to buy a vote
•NJ Dems demand equal rights for fraudulent voters
•Nevada accuses ACORN of 39 felonies
•Three Obama supporters plead guilty
•Another ex-ACORN worker pleads guilty
•An insider's guide to vote fraud
•Vote fraud update
•Absentee ballot and dishonest elections
•Fraud and Deceit in 2004

FOR MORE on issues of vote fraud in the California election, see also these stories at Uncoverage:
•Voting “Irregularities” Investigated in Two California Congressional Races
•Has California’s Election Been Affected by Poll Theft in SF?
•Will Someone Review California’s Election?
•Harmer Campaign in Court Today on Ballot Count
•Has California’s Election Been Stolen?

Bush saved London

From the (London) Times:

George W. Bush has claimed that information extracted from terrorist suspects by “waterboarding” saved British lives by preventing attacks on Heathrow and Canary Wharf.

In an exclusive interview with The Times, the former US President offered a vigorous defence of the coercive interrogation technique: “Three people were waterboarded and I believe that decision saved lives.”

Hat tip: Don Surber.

Liberals and their sexual fetishes

The latest cover for Mother Jones magazine shows how liberals in the media see Sarah Palin:
Below are links to more examples of liberals imagining politicians as sexual objects. Why do they do this? Does it indicate relationship issues? Support for that idea comes from a McDaniel College study which found that children of liberal parents were less able to form close positive relationships

WELCOME to Texas4Palin readers.

PREVIOUSLY on how media/liberals sexualize both their heroes and their enemies:
•Wash. Post: Obama and his "chiseled pectorals"
•SF Chronicle: Obama's "handsomeness"
•Salon imagines Sarah Palin as a dominatrix
•Obama is one of "25 fittest"
•ABC News: Obama's "his white dress-shirt clinging to his body"

Experience does matter

Before the 2008 election, we were told that Obama was so brilliant that his lack of qualification and experience were irrelevant.  The left-wing Politico newspaper now reports that Democrats are having second thoughts:

Congressional Democrats consider him distant and blame him for their historic defeat on Tuesday. Democratic state party leaders scoff at what they see as an inattentive and hapless political operation. Democratic lobbyists feel maligned by his holier-than-thou take on their profession. His own Cabinet — with only a few exceptions — has been marginalized. . . . .

[M]any Democrats privately say they are skeptical that Obama is self-aware enough to make the sort of dramatic changes they feel are needed — in his relations with other Democrats or in his very approach to the job.

His party "scoffs" at him and doubt that he is "self-aware enough" to do his job? That is pretty harsh on a man who was once promoted as the Messiah.

I'm from the government and I am here to help you

Chuck wants to start a business. The Institute for Justice explores his options:

Hat tip: M. J. Perry

PREVIOUSLY on government regulations:
•Regulators use false science
•Regulators with the best of intentions
•Businessmen report government regulations and red tape slowing the economy
•Federal regulations responsible for raising health insurance premiums
•Obama Administration appears to want to use campaign finance regulations to silence opposition
•Regulators pressed banks to issue more and riskier loans
•Regulators and the mortgage loan crisis
•Obama Administration proposes polticizing financial regulations
•Democrats blocked financial regulation reform
•Who wants to be the last to die for a regulation
•Obamacare regulations may raise insurance costs by 54%

Einstein explains California

Counter to the national trend, the state of California, a failed state after 30 years of liberal rule, moved further left on Tuesday: the Governorship and both houses of the legislature will be controlled by Democrats. Expanding the Democrats power, the legislature no longer needs a 2/3rds vote to pass new spending: Proposition 25 reduced the requirement to a simple majority so minority Republicans will no longer be able to put any brake on spending. Michael Ramirez channels Albert Einstein to explain the situation:Investor's Daily has more on California as a failed state.

PREVIOUSLY on California politics:
•California 2nd worst state for business climate
•Your CA tax dollars at work — at strip clubs
•California pension funds face huge losses, money spent on luxury trips and gifts

•Californian farmers to resell state-subidized water at a profit

•San Francisco rally for Nancy Pelosi's opponent John Dennis
•CA Pot growers oppose pot legalization in CA
•California's upcoming ballot propositions: a quick look
•Minutemen vs. May Day protesters in San Francisco (photos)
•In Oakland, CA, civilization is collapsing
•Ma'am Sen. Boxer for and against climate whistleblowers.

Arab Technology meets German Engineering

This ad is reportedly very popular in Europe:

This ad certainly would not be shown in the US because it would offend terrorist-Americans.

Hat tip: Pat G.

PREVIOUSLY on the subject of terrorism:
•Saddam provided terrorists with money, training camps, and weapons says ex-Minister Aziz
•9-11 in review

•Round-up of left-wing terrorism
•Yet another left-wing terrorist
•Obama's humane plan for terrorists: kill rather than interrogate
•The root cause of terrorism
•Gitmo torture: Metallica is proud of its music's message to terrorists
•Speaker Pelosi's deep thoughts on giving Miranda rights to terrorists.
•AG Eric Holder was for enhanced interrogation before he was against it.
•The NY Times finally admits we were fighting Al Qaeda in Iraq
•Gitmo torture tactic revealed: "she touched my thigh!"
•Terror color codes updated for Obama (illustrated)
•NY Times skeptical of Bush but trusts terrorists
•Global warming predicted to cause more terrorism
•Before Al Qaeda: the socialist-terrorist alliance of the 1980s

Liberally homophobic

Singer Cher is an outspoken liberal who says Pres. Bush was "stupid" and his 8-years in office almost "killed" her. By contrast, her former husband, Sonny Bono, was a Republican. At Big Hollywood, AWR Hawkins notes the former couple's opposite reactions to their daughter's announcement that she was gay:

And here’s an interesting insight into the “progressive” Cher and the Republican Sonny:

Cher kicked Chastity out of her NY apartment when her daughter came out to her, and it took her a while to come to terms with it. Chastity’s father, the late singer and Congressman Sonny Bono, was said to be immediately accepting and to have already realized that his daughter was gay.

Her own daughter.

When liberals accuse others of racism, sexism, homophobia, or whatever, one should remember that it likely all psychological projection.

PREVIOUSLY on the subject of psychological projection:
•More psychological projection: Democrats says those racists call them names
•The masters of astroturf claim that tea parties are astroturf
•Air America projects hate
•Air America fantasizes a right-wing hate machine
•Syria imagines that Israel does not want peace
•The New Republic says lying is 2nd nature to Republicans
•Rahm Emanuel caught projecting his strategy onto Republicans
•Alec Baldwin projects his hate onto Republicans
•Progessives and prejudice and hate
•HuffPost blogger projects enviro-hypocrisy
•Dems accuse other Dems of acting like Republicans

Obamacare: the revenge

Last year, support from AARP was critical to passage of Obamacare as AP reports:

The 40 million-strong AARP represents people 50 and older, including retirees on Medicare and Social Security. Its endorsement of health care overhaul came at a critical time last year, days before a close vote on the House floor.

This year, AARP is telling its own employees that their health insurance costs are going up because of Obamacare while, at the same time, AARP must increase their co-pays and deductibles to avoid the future "cadillac plan" tax.

May all the Obamacare shills suffer similarly.

PREVIOUSLY on the subject of ObamaCare:
•Obamacare forcing Boeing to cut back employee healthcare coverage
•Special privileges: McDonald's and 29 other companies get waivers from Obamacare
•Obamacare threatens health coverage for fast-food workers
•ObamaCare threatens child-only insurance
•Medical insurance prices rising due to ObamaCare
•Obamacare endangers student health
•Obama's health care and economic policies explained
•Obamacare may raise insurance costs by 54%
•Harvard economist explains why Obamacare will raise premiums
•HHS says Obamacare will cause costs to go up and cause employers to drop coverage

Liberal sexism on display

In a story about Rep. Michelle Bachman's bid for a House leadership position, the liberal newspaper Politico decides to use a photo (at right) of her applying makeup. They wouldn't do that to a male politician getting TV makeup. The sexism is obvious.

Separately, listen to Chris Matthews try to abuse her on MSNBC. As background, in October 2008, Rep. Bachmann called on the media to report on the candidates with unsavory and anti-American views. At the time, of course, they couldn't do that because their candidate was Pres. Obama. Two years later, Matthews is still hounding on her on that. (Apparently, the media see a call for honest reporting as being the same thing as "McCarthyism.") After politely ignoring the taunts, she zings him back:


WELCOME to readers of Shot in the Dark.

PREVIOUSLY on the subject of Democrats practicing sexism:
•Feminists attack a woman while ignoring an issue important to women
•Pelosi: Sexism in the House
•Majority Leader Reid declares: men are abusive.
•It was all about the racism and sexism
•MSNBC's sexist attacks on Sec. Rice and Obama's sexist attacks on Hillary
•DailyKos opposed to treating Hillary "fairly"
•Two examples of sexist stereotyping
•Sexists in the Senate
•A Democrat opposes sexism
•Media sexism backfires
•Salon has a sexual fantasy about Palin as a dominatrix
•Sexist attack on Palin or merely an example of Obama's "silver tongue"?
•Dem Gov says Dem primary voters are sexist and racist
•What is the victim status of your identity group?
•Dems urged to vote their gender

Denver voters reject plans for extraterrestrial welcoming committee

What is the next priority for progressive Democrats now that Obamacare is law? The Wall Street Journal reports:

Denver voters decided not to roll out the red carpet for space aliens, soundly rejecting a ballot initiative that would have required the city to establish an Extra Terrestrial Affairs Committee.

Even before the results came in, UFO buff Jeff Peckman, who ran the campaign for Initiative 300, was philosophical about the voters’ verdict on his plan for the city to study reports of UFOs and develop protocols for welcoming aliens to the Mile High City.

“It took, what, 18 years for health-care reform to happen,” Mr. Peckham said. “And how many years for women to get the vote? So some big things take a while to get going.”

If aliens land in Denver, they will have to do so without government help. Blame this on the cruelty and short-sightedness of Republicans.

WELCOME to readers of Diogenes' Middle Finger.

Colorado Dems officially embrace 9-11 trutherism

From page 31 of  the "Colorado Democratic Party Platform Committee Report 2010-12" (PDF), the following was passed with 71% in favor:

Whereas many disturbing facts were consciously ignored by the 9/11 Commission; Be it resolved, therefore, that the CDP [Colorado Democratic Party] calls for the establishment of a truly independent Grand Jury and public investigation into these and other anomalies in order to find the truth of the September 11, 2001 attacks, so that we have a greater probability of preventing attacks of this nature in the future.

Hat tip: Colorado911Visibility.org

If the Democrats lose in tomorrow's election, I expect that we will an increasing number descend even deeper into paranoia.