Oil's surge felt by drivers, fliers and shoppers

Yahoo News  "Retail consultant John Haber said online florists, pizza delivery companies, trash collectors, cruise lines and taxi drivers raised rates in 2008 as gasoline and diesel jumped above $4 per gallon. The rise in oil this year "is going to trigger the exact same type of behavior," said Haber, a partner at NPI. Diesel fuel, used by truckers, railroads and cruise ships, is up to $3.78 per gallon.
"Already, the impact can be seen at the grocery store, where consumers buy lettuce, onions, strawberries, avocados, eggplant, and other produce shipped from Mexico and California, Haber said."

Records show agents fired beanbags in fatal border gunfight

Arizona Daily Star  "But Terry's brother, Kent Terry, said the other agents who were there that night told him that they were instructed to use the non-lethal beanbags first. It's a policy that doesn't make sense to Kent Terry.

""You go up against a bandit crew that is carrying AKs, and you walk out there with guns loaded with beanbags - I don't get it," Terry said in a phone interview from Michigan. "It's like going to the Iraqi war with one knife. It boggles my mind. ... These guys (Border Patrol agents) are professionals; they should be able to use their judgment call on their own.""

The Jobs Obama is Leaving Behind

Heritage  "Since President Barack Obama was sworn into office, the private sector workforce has shrunk by 2.6 percent while shedding 2.9 million jobs, but the federal workforce (excluding Census and Postal workers) has grown by 7 percent while adding more than 144,000 jobs."

‘You’re [expletive deleted] dead!’

NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE  "You may recall what the “reverend” shouted on a trip to Cuba some years ago. “Viva Fidel Castro! Viva Che Guevara!” Bill Buckley asked Jackson, on television, whether, when he wished long life to the dictator, he meant, at the same time, to wish short life to his prisoners. (A short life, given the brutality of the Cuban gulag, could be better.)"

Uncivil Unions

Ann Coulter  "Members of public sector unions see their pensions and benefits the way the Mafia views its "partnership" with a restaurant, as described in the movie "Goodfellas": "Business bad? F--k you, pay me. Oh, you had a fire? F--k you, pay me. Place got hit by lightning, huh? F--k you, pay me."
"Spoiler alert: When the restaurant owner is unable to pay his mob tribute, they burn the place to the ground.
"But government employees aren't exactly like the mob. At least the Mafia guys have a strong work ethic."

http://townhall.com/cartoons/ericallie

Scott Walker responds to Obama: You sound a little like a union boss, you know that?  “I’m sure that President Obama simply misunderstands the issues in Wisconsin, and isn’t acting like the union bosses in saying one thing and doing another.”

Iran to build permanent naval base in Syria

DEBKAfile  "Iran has much to celebrate, debkafile's military sources report. It has acquired its first military foothold on a Mediterranean shore and its first permanent military presence on Syrian soil. Tehran will be setting in place the logistical infrastructure for accommodating incoming Iranian troops to fight in a potential Middle East war."

What if the TEA Party had done something like this?

Angry protesters confront a locked-out Sen. Grothman  "Protests against Gov. Scott Walker's budget and the battle for access to the Capitol took a tense turn last night when GOP Sen. Glenn Grothman was locked out of the building and was eventually surrounded by hundreds of angry protesters, according to the Cap Times." 

Moore On Wealthy People's Money: "That's Not Theirs, That's A National Resource, It's Ours"

About.com

RealClearPolitics  According to this piece of work, your paycheck is a "national resource", got that?  ""They're sitting on the money, they're using it for their own -- they're putting it someplace else with no interest in helping you with your life, with that money. We've allowed them to take that. That's not theirs, that's a national resource, that's ours. We all have this -- we all benefit from this or we all suffer as a result of not having it," Michael Moore told Laura Flanders of GRITtv."

Politics Seen to Limit E.P.A. as It Sets Rules for Natural Gas

NY Times  "They have been helped in their lobbying efforts by a compelling storyline: Cutting red tape helps these energy companies reduce the nation’s dependence on other countries for fuel. Natural gas is also a cleaner-burning alternative to coal and plentiful within United States borders, so it can create jobs." However...this being the NY Times, you knew there would be a however, didn't you? 

Official: Suspect in Deadly Shooting of U.S. Airmen at German Airport Acted Alone

Fox News  "The suspect, Arif Uka, is said to be a Muslim man with family in Kosovo who was born in Germany and was working at the airport at the time of the attack. He reportedly said "Allah Akbar" before opening fire on a bus outside the airport, a source told Fox News. The deadly attack also wounded two others before the man was taken into custody."

Details Emerge on Jihadi Arif Uka Who Opened Fire on U.S. Airmen Just Arriving From America
"The [e-media] is reporting a "lone" jihadi. How the hell do they know what Islamic group Arif Uka belonged to? We are always being admonished not to rush to judgment (they are still scratching their heads over the Fort Hood jihadi -- Gd forbid they rush to judgment), but these devout bastards can wail Koranic verses while they are mowing people down -- but Gd forbid we say it.
"How many have to die before we can call this war what it is? How many?
"No independent state for Kosovo! Are they crazy?"

Gunman Screams 'Allahu Akbar', Obama Sees Motive Unclear  "Once again, the President and the mainstream media -- even the report on Fox News -- scrupulously avoid the words "Muslim," or "Islam" and reference to any possible religious motive for the attack. It is true that we don't have "all the information"-not that this has been any impediment in the past for the President to shoot off his mouth-but we do have some extremely strong evidence that the man was an Islamic terrorist." Right-wing TEA Party activists suspected.

More Cat Stevens: The music of revolution

Al Jazeera "We speak with rock icon Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, about his latest song My People which is inspired by the popular uprisngs(sic) calling for freedom and change in the Arab world."
The image I get is this 1960 Volkswagen van bedecked with flowers and a guitar in the front seat, loaded with 500 pounds of explosives. The driver yells "Allahu Akbar!", which being translated means "peace train!" .



How Obama Is Making Gas Prices Higher

Heritage  "Anyone could have predicted that the recovering world economy, coupled with the continued growth of India and China, was going to push oil prices higher. So if an Administration wanted to keep gas prices down, they could have mitigated increased oil demand by increasing domestic oil production. But that is not what the Obama Administration has done. Instead of increasing domestic oil supplies, the Obama Administration has cut them at every opportunity, and Americans are now suffering because of those choices"