News Clips
1) Multiple suspensions paint complicated portrait of Trayvon Martin... Media Bias/Race Baiting
2) New EPA Rules Could Cost Three MT Plants $90M... Energy Costs/Obama Anti Energy Independence
3) ‘Komodo Dragon of Wasps’: New Wasp Species Has Jaws Bigger Than Its Legs!... Nature/Interest
4) Did James Carville Just Reveal the Democratic Strategy If Obamacare Is Overturned?... Democrats/Socialized Healthcare
5) ‘A Poorly Disguised Cap-And-Tax Scheme’: EPA Moves to Impose Greenhouse Gas Regs on Power Plants... EPA/Obama/Anti Energy Independence
6) Trayvon protesters ransack store... Race Baiters/Violence
7) Does This Video Show SEIU Protesters Admitting Getting Paid to Picket Supreme Court?... Big Unions/Protest Deception
8) Men with Higher Voices Have Higher Sperm Counts... Nature/Interest
9) Pravda on Mitt Romney: 'Out-Of-Touch, Out-Of-Date, Unelectable'... Communist/Pro Obama
1) Multiple suspensions paint complicated portrait of Trayvon Martin
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/26/2714778/thousands-expected-at-trayvon.html
03.26.12
Thousands of people gathered in Sanford to demand an arrest in the case, as more details surfaced about the teen’s suspensions in school.
From left, Shagay Ford, her children Lachaundrea Nabors, Ervens Jr. Ford, 17, Jaylen Ford, 12, and her husband Ervens Ford, all from Miami, march on Monday, March 26, 2012, during the Trayvon Martin rally at Centennial Park in Sanford.
Krop classmates arrive at school wearing black to protest Trayvon case
SANFORD -- As thousands of people gathered here to demand an arrest in the Trayvon Martin case, a more complicated portrait began to emerge of a teenager whose problems at school ranged from getting spotted defacing lockers to getting caught with a marijuana baggie and women’s jewelry.
The Miami Gardens teen who has become a national symbol of racial injustice was suspended three times, and had a spotty school record that his family’s attorneys say is irrelevant to the facts that led up to his being gunned down on Feb. 26.
In October, a school police investigator said he saw Trayvon on the school surveillance camera in an unauthorized area “hiding and being suspicious.” Then he said he saw Trayvon mark up a door with “W.T.F” - an acronym for “what the f---.” The officer said he found Trayvon the next day and went through his book bag in search of the graffiti marker.
Instead the officer reported he found women’s jewelry and a screwdriver that he described as a “burglary tool,” according to a Miami-Dade Schools Police report obtained by The Miami Herald. Word of the incident came as the family’s lawyer acknowledged that the boy was suspended in February for getting caught with an empty bag with traces of marijuana, which he called “irrelevant” and an attempt to demonize a victim.
Trayvon’s backpack contained 12 pieces of jewelry, in addition to a watch and a large flathead screwdriver, according to the report, which described silver wedding bands and earrings with diamonds.
Trayvon was asked if the jewelry belonged to his family or a girlfriend.
“Martin replied it’s not mine. A friend gave it to me,” he responded, according to the report. Trayvon declined to name the friend.
Trayvon was not disciplined because of the discovery, but was instead suspended for graffiti, according to the report. School police impounded the jewelry and sent photos of the items to detectives at Miami-Dade police for further investigation.
A lawyer for the dead teen’s family acknowledged Trayvon had been suspended for graffiti, but said the family knew nothing about the jewelry and the screwdriver.
“It’s completely irrelevant to what happened Feb. 26,” said attorney Benjamin Crump. “They never heard this, and don’t believe it’s true. If it were true, why wouldn’t they call the parents? Why wasn’t he arrested?”
Trayvon, who was a junior at Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High School, had never been arrested, police and the family have said.
“We think everybody is trying to demonize him,” Crump said.
No evidence ever surfaced that the jewelry was stolen.
“Martin was suspended, warned and dismissed for the graffiti,” according to the report prepared by schools police.
That suspension was followed four months later by another one in February, in which Trayvon was caught with an empty plastic bag with traces of marijuana in it. A schools police report obtained by The Miami Herald specifies two items: a bag with marijuana residue and a “marijuana pipe.”
The punishment was the third for the teen. On Monday, the family also said Trayvon had earlier been suspended for tardiness and truancy.
Trayvon was shot to death Feb. 26 while serving out his suspension in Sanford, where his father’s girlfriend lives. A neighborhood watch volunteer called the police to say he saw someone in a hoodie who looked high on drugs, and was suspicious because he walked too slowly in the rain. The unarmed teenager carried Skittles and iced tea, and was talking to his girlfriend on the phone, records show.
Zimmerman told police Trayvon jumped him, punched him in the face and slammed his head on the ground, according to information published by the Orlando Sentinel. The news account came a day after a friend of Zimmerman’s took to television network programs to say the watchman was the victim in the case.
“That sounded like someone in dire need of help,” said friend Joe Oliver, referring to cries heard on 911 tapes. “That sounded like George.”
Zimmerman’s attorney, Craig Sonner, did not return repeated requests for an interview.
Trayvon’s parents viewed the new reports as an orchestrated campaign to demonize their son as a “junkie and thief,” a routine occurrence in such cases, the Rev. Al Sharpton said at an afternoon press conference. Zimmerman, Sharpton said, had no way of knowing about Trayvon’s school record - “because he didn’t interview him before he shot him.”
“The only thing that’s relevant is what Zimmerman knew,” Sharpton said. “Let’s not play this double standard of trying to damage who is dead and sanitize who is the cause of the death.”
Trayvon’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, said her son never had any problems with gangs or the police. In fact, she said, when she transferred him out of Carol City High School to be closer to home, the school wanted him to stay at Carol City because they liked him and he was a good student.
“They killed my son, and now they are trying to kill his reputation,” Fulton said.
Another lawyer for the family said she didn’t put much credence in the report about the jewelry and the screwdriver.
“This is someone in a school writing a report, rumor as far as I’m concerned,” said attorney Natalie Jackson.
The boy’s checkered school record was of little importance to the thousands of people who descended on the city’s civic center for a special city council meeting. Speaker after speaker blasted the investigation and demanded the police file charges in the case.
“We want to reaffirm that we too are in pursuit of truth and justice,” Mayor Jeff Triplett said.
Participants included bus and carloads of people from Miami, including some from Trayvon’s church. Wearing a T-shirt declaring “I am a man,” Miami Homicide Sgt. Ervens Ford was among them.
“This is personal,” Ford said. “I have a son that age. I am getting ready to release him to the world. I have to expose him to things like this. I also have a 12-year-old. I have to be realistic about it: It very very well could have been either one of them.”
Like so many black fathers in America, Ford finds himself schooling his sons on what clothes to wear, what to say to a cop. He calls it “conflict resolution.”
“That man was following him around the way he was, placing Trayvon in fear. Had Travyon shot him and claimed ‘Stand Your Ground,’ Trayvon would have been arrested,” he said. “I’m saying this having been law enforcement for 25 years. I am saying this, and it is my conviction.”
Liberty City activist Renita Holmes attended with about a dozen fellow protesters.
“This case broke me,” she said. “If we continue to do it, it will make a difference. The way we handle this should be a precedent on how we handle every case.”
2) New EPA Rules Could Cost Three MT Plants $90M... Energy Costs/Obama Anti Energy Independence
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/new-epa-rules-could-cost-three-mt-plants-90m/
March 26, 2012
The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) plan to “improve air quality and visibility” in famous parks, such as Yellowstone, could cost three industrial plants in Montana up to $90 million dollars in upgrades. The EPA says the Colstrip coal power plant, Ash Grove cement plant near Montana City, and Holcim cement plant would have five years to make the appropriate upgrades.
“The Environmental Protection Agency plan would clear the air in the Big Sky State of about 15,000 tons annually of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides,” the Great Falls Tribune reports. “Those pollutants react with the atmosphere to create haze.”
Of the three plants that would be affected by the new regulations, Colstrip would get hit the hardest: the coal power plant will have to spend approximately $80 million to clean the emissions from its stacks. Colstrip operator PPL Montana says the new regulations are far too costly and for only “marginal improvements.” Spokesman David Hoffman said the visibility improvements would be “non-perceptible.”
“We‘re moving very quickly in a short period of time at huge costs to obtain a result that’s pretty questionable,” Hoffman said. “It’s going to be a challenge to the plant.”
But there are some exempt from the new regulations. For instance, the coal plant PPL’s Corette in Billings, MT, isn’t required to make any upgrades.
“The EPA was prodded into action by a legal challenge in part by environmentalists who sued the agency to set deadlines to follow through on haze rules adopted in 1999,” the Great Falls Tribune reports. “Two of the groups involved, WildEarth Guardians and the Montana Environmental Information Center, said the agency’s proposal does not go far enough.”
Indeed, even with these new regulations, spokesmen for the environmentalist groups are still dissatisfied with the EPA.
“People might gasp a little bit and say that’s a lot of money but you have to look at how much these companies are profiting off these facilities. It dwarfs these costs,” said Anne Hedges with the Montana Environmental Information Center.
The new EPA proposal could become final after a 60-day public comment period, the Tribune reports. Public hearings hosted by the EPA are scheduled for May 15 in Helena, MT, and May 16 in Billings.
“[T]he reduction in pollution would have spinoff benefits to public health, particularly among children,” EPA spokesman Rich Mylottt in Denver told the Tribune in an emailed statement.
3) ‘Komodo Dragon of Wasps’: New Wasp Species Has Jaws Bigger Than Its Legs!... Nature/Interest
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/komodo-dragon-of-wasps-new-wasp-species-has-jaws-bigger-than-its-legs/
March 28, 2012
Coming across any ordinary wasp is often enough to make even the toughest individual cautiously turn the other direction, but a new species identified in Indonesia will have them sprinting away. If its size isn’t the kicker, the fact that its jaws are longer than its legs will put your legs in motion.
Found by University of California-Davis entomologist Lynn Kimsey, a new insect has been described as the “Komodo Dragon of wasps.” Kimsey discovered the wasp last year but it was recently confirmed as a new species, which she has named Gardua, meaning “king of birds” in Indonesian.
According to National Geographic, Megalara garuda is two inches long and its “sickle-shaped” jaws are larger than its own legs. Even more terrifying, the male species has spikes on its jaws, presumably for defense and reproduction. The Daily Mail reports Kimsey saying, “I don’t know how it can walk”:
“Its jaws are so large that they wrap up either side of the head when closed. When the jaws are open they are actually longer than the male’s front legs.”
[...]
“In another species in the genus the males hang out in the nest entrance. This serves to protect the nest from parasites and nest robbing, and for this he exacts payment from the female by mating with her every time she returns to the nest. So it’s a way of guaranteeing paternity. Additionally, the jaws are big enough to wrap around the female;s thorax and hold her during mating.”
If you happen to be in Indonesia, you may not have to worry about one of these creatures buzzing by you. Kimsey said that so far all the specimens they have found have been dead. Kimsey cites replacing their forest habitat with crop farming as a potential factor in the death of these wasps. Kimsey said it makes her “sick to my stomach” to think of this newly discovered species’ population declining due to human activity.
4) Did James Carville Just Reveal the Democratic Strategy If Obamacare Is Overturned?... Democrats/Socialized Healthcare
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/did-james-carville-just-reveal-the-democratic-strategy-should-obamacare-be-overturned/
March 28, 2012
Are the Democrats expecting to lose the battle over healthcare? Judging from the comments made by several prominent Dems, the party is prepping for what to do after the high court shoots down the individual mandate.
Two days ago, former DNC Chair Howard Dean told CBS Early Morning that he expected the individual mandate to be overturned.
Yesterday, CNN’s Legal Analyst Jeffry Toobin called the proceedings “a train wreck” and predicted that the individual mandate will “likely be struck down.” If true, how will the Democrats then spin the defeat to their benefit? Enter James Carville.
Carville Reveals Democrat Strategy if Obamacare Loses
Last night on CNN, the Democratic consultant made a curious statement about what happens if the Supreme Court rules against the administration. He appears to already be ratcheting up the anti-Republican and anti-Supreme Court rhetoric in preparation, even tying a possible Obamacare defeat to the Bush-Gore election of 2000.
Consider Mr. Carville’s words regarding a potential defeat in the Supreme Court (after saying a defeat would be the “best thing” for Democrats because of rising health care costs):
“They overturned an election. And just as a professional Democrat, there’s nothing better for me than they overturn this thing 5-4. And then the Republican Party will own this health care system for the foreseeable future. … Go see Scalia when you want health care.”
In other words: the Supreme Court gave the country Bush, and now it’s going to take away your health care.
“This is not spin,” he reassured.
Really?
5) ‘A Poorly Disguised Cap-And-Tax Scheme’: EPA Moves to Impose Greenhouse Gas Regs on Power Plants... EPA/Obama/Anti Energy Independence
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/a-poorly-disguised-cap-and-tax-scheme-epa-moves-to-impose-greenhouse-gas-regs-on-power-plants/
March 27, 2012
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed on Tuesday new carbon dioxide emissions standards that threaten to drive up utility costs, “crush jobs,” and “destroy economic recovery,” according to National Mining Association (NMA) President and CEO Hal Quinn.
“[The] EPA’s proposal for controlling greenhouse gas emissions from about half the nation’s electric power supply is a poorly disguised cap-and-tax scheme that represents energy and economic policy at its worst,” Quinn said in a statement.
The regulations will limit the emissions from new coal-based plants (as opposed to plants that existed before the drafting of the proposal). This, of course, will discourage entrepreneurs from establishing and building new power plants. And although the proposed regulations don’t specifically dictate which fuels a plant can and can’t burn, the rules still require new coal plants to match the dioxide emissions from more their “more efficient” gas-powered cousins, according to Reuters.
“The proposed rule…will require any new power plant to emit no more than 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt of electricity produced,” the Washington Post’s Juliet Eilperin writes. “The average U.S. natural gas plant, which emits 800 to 850 pounds of CO2 per megawatt, meets that standard; coal plants emit an average of 1,768 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt.”
As mentioned in the above, these emissions standards are supposedly meant for only new plants. However, the regulations could set the stage for the EPA to come after existing plants in the coming years, Reuters notes.
“We’re putting in place a standard that relies on the use of clean, American made technology to tackle a challenge that we can’t leave to our kids and grandkids,” EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said in a release.
In order to meet the EPA’s new emissions standards, coal-based power plants have been encouraged to invest in equipment that captures carbon emissions and buries them underground for “permanent storage.” But there’s a catch: carbon capture and storage technology isn’t yet “commercially available,” according to the coal industry.
A Poorly Disguised Cap And Tax Scheme: EPA Moves to Impose Greenhouse Gas Regs on Power PlantsNot to worry; the EPA believes the tech will be available soon enough.
“Supporters of the rules argue that the industry has been moving away from coal and towards natural gas because of low prices and abundant supply,” Reuters reports.
“The portion of U.S. electricity fired by coal has slipped from about 50 percent to 45 percent in the last few years as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and other drilling techniques have allowed access to vast new domestic supplies of natural gas,” the report adds.
However, as Ed Morrisey of Hot Air points out, considering the EPA’s current stance against natural gas, this argument may not hold up very well:
This leads us to the natural-gas option…The response might be, “Well, okay, Obama’s bankrupting the coal industry, but we can still use natural gas.” That’s only true if we can get the natural gas. The EPA has also begun blocking the use of hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, which allows for massive improvement in extraction and access to vast amounts of natural gas.
Environmentalist groups praised the Obama administration for proposing “performance standard rules” they say will help “protect the country from climate change.”A Poorly Disguised Cap And Tax Scheme: EPA Moves to Impose Greenhouse Gas Regs on Power Plants
“The bottom line for our country is that cleaner power will cut harmful carbon dioxide pollution, protect our children and help secure a safe prosperous future,” said Vickie Patton, the general counsel for the Environmental Defense Fund.
Oh, but here’s the best part: none of these new EPA climate rules need to be approved by Congress.
“After Congress refused to pass carbon caps, the administration insisted there were other ways to skin the cat, and this is another way - by setting a standard deliberately calculated to drive affordable coal out of the electricity market,” NMA spokesman Luke Popovich told the Washington Post.
NMA president Quinn echoed these sentiment in a searing statement:
Higher utility bills and fewer jobs are the only certain outcomes from this reckless attempt to override Congress’s repeated refusal to enact punitive caps on carbon dioxide emissions.
Requiring coal-based power plants to meet an emissions standard based on natural gas technology is a policy overtly calculated to destroy a significant portion of America’s electricity supply. This is a movie we have seen before, and the script remains unchanged. Volatile natural gas prices will, once again, expose millions of households to higher utility bills, threaten hundreds of thousands of workers with unemployment and weaken both the competitiveness of basic industries and the reliability of the nation’s electricity grid.
This proposal is the latest convoy in EPA’s regulatory train wreck that is rolling across America, crushing jobs and arresting our economic recovery at every stop. It is not an “all of the above” energy strategy; it does not create jobs; and it does not make it easier for Americans to pay their mortgages. Instead, the proposed New Source Performance Standards would deliberately push America to abandon coal, its most abundant and reliable energy source in favor of costlier fuels-even though Congress has repeatedly rejected this policy.
“If you thought gas prices will never stop rising, just wait until you see what happens to electricity after the Barack Obama’s EPA gets its way,” Ed Morrissey writes.
6) Trayvon protesters ransack store... Race Baiters/Violence
http://www.local10.com/news/Police-Trayvon-protesters-ransack-store/-/1717324/9719674/-/xctonpz/-/index.html
Mar 27 2012
NORTH MIAMI BEACH, Fla. -
North Miami Beach police said surveillance video shows dozens of high school students demonstrating in the Trayvon Martin case Friday ransacking a Walgreens store.
The incident occurred during a walkout from North Miami Beach Senior High School in support of Martin, 17, who was fatally shot in Sanford. Protesters have been calling for the arrest of George Zimmerman, 28, who has not been charged because he claimed self-defense in the shooting, according to police.
Minutes after walking out of their school Friday, a large group of students walked through the streets of North Miami Beach. Along the way, they stopped at a Walgreens at 163rd Street and 15th Avenue at about 10:40 a.m.
Surveillance video shows dozens of teenagers running through the store. Police said about 80 to 100 students stormed in, ransacking the shelves, before the school's vice principal ordered everyone outside.
North Miami Beach police said students damaged items worth about $150.
"We do not accept any type of violation on the part of our students," Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said Friday. "There ought to be consequences, and we'll be collaborating with whatever law enforcement entity is investigating that issue."
"I don't think they were doing it, like, to be malicious or whatever. They were just in the moment where they weren't really thinking right because they were so angry," said student Jenny Sincere.
"It showed bad character because that's not what we were out there for," student Eric On-Sang said. "A few just made us look really bad."
Some students admitted Tuesday to being part of the rampage.
"I'm not going to lie. I was one of the people that was pushing in there because I was mad," one student said.
When asked whether the incident may have hurt their cause, student Christopher Paul said, "Yeah, it kind of did, yeah. I was just angry. I don't know what the rest of them were doing. I was just trying to make a point for Trayvon. That's it."
No injuries were reported.
Some of the students dropped their IDs on the way out of the store, police said, so investigators have an idea of who was inside.
The School Board said the students involved could be prosecuted and face disciplinary action at the school.
7) Does This Video Show SEIU Protesters Admitting Getting Paid to Picket Supreme Court?... Big Unions/Protest Deception
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/does-this-video-show-seiu-protesters-admitting-getting-paid-to-picket-supreme-court/
March 29, 2012
What‘s in question in the video below isn’t what the people are caught saying, but rather who gave them the $20 they are overheard talking about.
In a video taken by the blog Disrupt the Narrative, five female protesters donning SEIU purple and signs are seen walking near the Capitol (seemingly recently) and talking about the $20 they were given in paper envelopes.
“We can go to Union Station. [Unintelligible] And then we’ll all leave out together,” one woman is heard saying. “That’s what they gave us that $20 for, to spend. Yes $20. They gave us $20,” she says after another woman asks about it. “In the brown envelope.”
“In the brown envelope,” the other protesters echo in agreement.
Listen to it below:
It should be noted that there’s no way to know who the “they” is that gave the women the money. Maybe it was the union, but maybe it wasn’t. We don’t know. But the video at least raises questions. (And we know D.C. protesters have faced these allegations before.)
However, if it is true the protesters are being paid by the union, the site SEIU Monitor points out some of the reasons it’s unpalatable:
What you may not know is that according to Mary Kay Henry, President of the SEIU, about 30% of SEIU members vote Republican, and an additional 20% are independents. And yet all of their dues money goes to pay for the SEIU’s considerable political operations, which go to predominantly left-wing causes that are entirely unrelated to the working needs of their members.
The SEIU is spending their members dues money on issues that have nothing to do with salaries or working conditions. On top of that, they’re paying people to protest, after accusing anti-Obamacare groups of being “Astroturf”. This is not only a poor use of dues money, but dishonest and hypocritical as well.
And we know SEIU was protesting in D.C. this week, as this video from MRCTV shows (and the outfits and signs are similar to the women above):
Top down, bottom up, and inside out?
8) Men with Higher Voices Have Higher Sperm Counts... Nature/Interest
http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/03/28/men-with-higher-voices-have-higher-sperm-counts/
Mar 28, 2012
Evolutionary psychologists argue that when we find certain traits sexually attractive in others it may be because they signal reproductive fitness. It goes something like this: People who have been sexually attracted to traits that tell the “truth” about genetic superiority have been more likely to choose mates with superior genetics and, therefore, have been more likely to produce healthy offspring that live to an age where they, in turn, can reproduce themselves. Accordingly, nature has selected for individuals attracted to people who display signs of genetic excellence.
Culture throws a wrench in this theory because human can create their own systems of meaning, collectively convincing each other that certain traits are desirable regardless of the relationship between the trait and reproductive fitness. The thinness ideal for women is an excellent example. Judging by pop culture, heterosexual men have a strong preference for very thin women. In fact, however, the weight idealized in mass media is not conducive to reproductive fitness; women won’t ovulate or menstruate below a certain weight because their body recognizes that it can’t support a pregnancy.
A new study - by Leigh Simmons, Marianne Peters, and Gillian Rhodes - offers another tantalizing piece of information regarding the relationship between attractiveness and reproductive fitness. Pre-existing research shows that men with lower voices are judged more sexually attractive, so the authors decided to measure one indicator of their reproductive fitness, sperm count.
The results? Voice attractiveness is related to sperm count, but in the opposite direction expected. Men with higher voices, in fact, have higher sperm concentration, not lower.
The jury is still out about what this means, but it’s an intriguing addition to the ongoing conversation that social and biological scientists are having about how culture and nature interact to shape human experience.
9) Pravda on Mitt Romney: 'Out-Of-Touch, Out-Of-Date, Unelectable'... Communist/Pro Obama
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/pravda-mitt-romney-out-touch-out-date-unelectable_634772.html
Mar 28, 2012
Pravda is hitting Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney over comments he made about Russia. "Russia is the geopolitical foe," Romney said earlier this week in response to President Obama telling his Russian counterpart to give him "space" so that he could have "more flexibility" after the 2012 presidential election.
So, in an op-ed today posted on Pravda's website, the infamous former Soviet newspaper writes, "Electing Mitt Romney as the next President of the United States of America would be like appointing a serial paedophile as a kindergarten teacher, a rapist as a janitor at a girls' dormitory or a psychopath with a fixation on knives as a kitchen hand. His comments on Russia are a puerile attempt at making the grand stage and boy, did he blow it..."
Pravda goes on to question American democracy and say that Romney is just an "adolescent" school boy:
Somewhat like Condoleezza Rice did before the Bush regime was er..."elected" ..., Mitt Romney takes the chance to mouth off about Russia, calling her "our number one geopolitical foe" which fights "every cause for the world's worst actors". Unfortunately, such vapid stupidity has become commonplace among senior US politicians, providing the rest of the world with a telling insight as to the real nature of the political class in that country - out of touch, out of date and dangerously jingoistic. In short, overgrown self-opinionated schoolboys with super-egos but nothing whatsoever to back it up with.
True, it feels great to slag off another country's cuisine and say, for example, that "Mexican food is crap! American food is far better!" Adolescent-type comments such as these generally provoke a session of back-patting, and a ra-ra-ra raucous explosion of national pride which after a few drinks degenerates into "My God is better than your God" and then "My President could smack the crap out of yours".
Fine for grade school playgrounds. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is where this upstart nonentity Mitt Romney belongs, certainly not to the intricate and complex wheels and cogs of world policy and nowhere near a red button. Imagine this guy as President!
Then, Pravda praises present Russian relations with the United States under President Obama. "Exactly at a time when Russia and the USA are finding that they have far more in common than differences, exactly when they see that they are much more friends than foes, when they see that there is so much to be gained through collaboration, a foul-mouthed, big-headed oaf like Romney with more money than sense makes a comment that reveals who he really is to the world: a pea-brained, pith-headed simpleton with too much testosterone and too little common sense, with zero tact, no diplomacy and a paramount grasp on the intricacies of world politics. A prize, good-for-nothing ignoramus," writes Pravda.
The piece ends by threatening Romney. "So talking about geopolitical foes...next time Mitt Romney had better back off, butt out and mind his manners, so as not to appear like a foul-mouthed guttersnipe whose utter ignorance and pig-headed arrogance is only too clear for all to see. See how he walked straight into this one, ladies and gentlemen? Imagine THAT as your President..."
The opinion piece is titled, "Mitt Romney: Out-of-touch, out-of-date, unelectable."
2) New EPA Rules Could Cost Three MT Plants $90M... Energy Costs/Obama Anti Energy Independence
3) ‘Komodo Dragon of Wasps’: New Wasp Species Has Jaws Bigger Than Its Legs!... Nature/Interest
4) Did James Carville Just Reveal the Democratic Strategy If Obamacare Is Overturned?... Democrats/Socialized Healthcare
5) ‘A Poorly Disguised Cap-And-Tax Scheme’: EPA Moves to Impose Greenhouse Gas Regs on Power Plants... EPA/Obama/Anti Energy Independence
6) Trayvon protesters ransack store... Race Baiters/Violence
7) Does This Video Show SEIU Protesters Admitting Getting Paid to Picket Supreme Court?... Big Unions/Protest Deception
8) Men with Higher Voices Have Higher Sperm Counts... Nature/Interest
9) Pravda on Mitt Romney: 'Out-Of-Touch, Out-Of-Date, Unelectable'... Communist/Pro Obama
1) Multiple suspensions paint complicated portrait of Trayvon Martin
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/26/2714778/thousands-expected-at-trayvon.html
03.26.12
Thousands of people gathered in Sanford to demand an arrest in the case, as more details surfaced about the teen’s suspensions in school.
From left, Shagay Ford, her children Lachaundrea Nabors, Ervens Jr. Ford, 17, Jaylen Ford, 12, and her husband Ervens Ford, all from Miami, march on Monday, March 26, 2012, during the Trayvon Martin rally at Centennial Park in Sanford.
Krop classmates arrive at school wearing black to protest Trayvon case
SANFORD -- As thousands of people gathered here to demand an arrest in the Trayvon Martin case, a more complicated portrait began to emerge of a teenager whose problems at school ranged from getting spotted defacing lockers to getting caught with a marijuana baggie and women’s jewelry.
The Miami Gardens teen who has become a national symbol of racial injustice was suspended three times, and had a spotty school record that his family’s attorneys say is irrelevant to the facts that led up to his being gunned down on Feb. 26.
In October, a school police investigator said he saw Trayvon on the school surveillance camera in an unauthorized area “hiding and being suspicious.” Then he said he saw Trayvon mark up a door with “W.T.F” - an acronym for “what the f---.” The officer said he found Trayvon the next day and went through his book bag in search of the graffiti marker.
Instead the officer reported he found women’s jewelry and a screwdriver that he described as a “burglary tool,” according to a Miami-Dade Schools Police report obtained by The Miami Herald. Word of the incident came as the family’s lawyer acknowledged that the boy was suspended in February for getting caught with an empty bag with traces of marijuana, which he called “irrelevant” and an attempt to demonize a victim.
Trayvon’s backpack contained 12 pieces of jewelry, in addition to a watch and a large flathead screwdriver, according to the report, which described silver wedding bands and earrings with diamonds.
Trayvon was asked if the jewelry belonged to his family or a girlfriend.
“Martin replied it’s not mine. A friend gave it to me,” he responded, according to the report. Trayvon declined to name the friend.
Trayvon was not disciplined because of the discovery, but was instead suspended for graffiti, according to the report. School police impounded the jewelry and sent photos of the items to detectives at Miami-Dade police for further investigation.
A lawyer for the dead teen’s family acknowledged Trayvon had been suspended for graffiti, but said the family knew nothing about the jewelry and the screwdriver.
“It’s completely irrelevant to what happened Feb. 26,” said attorney Benjamin Crump. “They never heard this, and don’t believe it’s true. If it were true, why wouldn’t they call the parents? Why wasn’t he arrested?”
Trayvon, who was a junior at Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High School, had never been arrested, police and the family have said.
“We think everybody is trying to demonize him,” Crump said.
No evidence ever surfaced that the jewelry was stolen.
“Martin was suspended, warned and dismissed for the graffiti,” according to the report prepared by schools police.
That suspension was followed four months later by another one in February, in which Trayvon was caught with an empty plastic bag with traces of marijuana in it. A schools police report obtained by The Miami Herald specifies two items: a bag with marijuana residue and a “marijuana pipe.”
The punishment was the third for the teen. On Monday, the family also said Trayvon had earlier been suspended for tardiness and truancy.
Trayvon was shot to death Feb. 26 while serving out his suspension in Sanford, where his father’s girlfriend lives. A neighborhood watch volunteer called the police to say he saw someone in a hoodie who looked high on drugs, and was suspicious because he walked too slowly in the rain. The unarmed teenager carried Skittles and iced tea, and was talking to his girlfriend on the phone, records show.
Zimmerman told police Trayvon jumped him, punched him in the face and slammed his head on the ground, according to information published by the Orlando Sentinel. The news account came a day after a friend of Zimmerman’s took to television network programs to say the watchman was the victim in the case.
“That sounded like someone in dire need of help,” said friend Joe Oliver, referring to cries heard on 911 tapes. “That sounded like George.”
Zimmerman’s attorney, Craig Sonner, did not return repeated requests for an interview.
Trayvon’s parents viewed the new reports as an orchestrated campaign to demonize their son as a “junkie and thief,” a routine occurrence in such cases, the Rev. Al Sharpton said at an afternoon press conference. Zimmerman, Sharpton said, had no way of knowing about Trayvon’s school record - “because he didn’t interview him before he shot him.”
“The only thing that’s relevant is what Zimmerman knew,” Sharpton said. “Let’s not play this double standard of trying to damage who is dead and sanitize who is the cause of the death.”
Trayvon’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, said her son never had any problems with gangs or the police. In fact, she said, when she transferred him out of Carol City High School to be closer to home, the school wanted him to stay at Carol City because they liked him and he was a good student.
“They killed my son, and now they are trying to kill his reputation,” Fulton said.
Another lawyer for the family said she didn’t put much credence in the report about the jewelry and the screwdriver.
“This is someone in a school writing a report, rumor as far as I’m concerned,” said attorney Natalie Jackson.
The boy’s checkered school record was of little importance to the thousands of people who descended on the city’s civic center for a special city council meeting. Speaker after speaker blasted the investigation and demanded the police file charges in the case.
“We want to reaffirm that we too are in pursuit of truth and justice,” Mayor Jeff Triplett said.
Participants included bus and carloads of people from Miami, including some from Trayvon’s church. Wearing a T-shirt declaring “I am a man,” Miami Homicide Sgt. Ervens Ford was among them.
“This is personal,” Ford said. “I have a son that age. I am getting ready to release him to the world. I have to expose him to things like this. I also have a 12-year-old. I have to be realistic about it: It very very well could have been either one of them.”
Like so many black fathers in America, Ford finds himself schooling his sons on what clothes to wear, what to say to a cop. He calls it “conflict resolution.”
“That man was following him around the way he was, placing Trayvon in fear. Had Travyon shot him and claimed ‘Stand Your Ground,’ Trayvon would have been arrested,” he said. “I’m saying this having been law enforcement for 25 years. I am saying this, and it is my conviction.”
Liberty City activist Renita Holmes attended with about a dozen fellow protesters.
“This case broke me,” she said. “If we continue to do it, it will make a difference. The way we handle this should be a precedent on how we handle every case.”
2) New EPA Rules Could Cost Three MT Plants $90M... Energy Costs/Obama Anti Energy Independence
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/new-epa-rules-could-cost-three-mt-plants-90m/
March 26, 2012
The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) plan to “improve air quality and visibility” in famous parks, such as Yellowstone, could cost three industrial plants in Montana up to $90 million dollars in upgrades. The EPA says the Colstrip coal power plant, Ash Grove cement plant near Montana City, and Holcim cement plant would have five years to make the appropriate upgrades.
“The Environmental Protection Agency plan would clear the air in the Big Sky State of about 15,000 tons annually of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides,” the Great Falls Tribune reports. “Those pollutants react with the atmosphere to create haze.”
Of the three plants that would be affected by the new regulations, Colstrip would get hit the hardest: the coal power plant will have to spend approximately $80 million to clean the emissions from its stacks. Colstrip operator PPL Montana says the new regulations are far too costly and for only “marginal improvements.” Spokesman David Hoffman said the visibility improvements would be “non-perceptible.”
“We‘re moving very quickly in a short period of time at huge costs to obtain a result that’s pretty questionable,” Hoffman said. “It’s going to be a challenge to the plant.”
But there are some exempt from the new regulations. For instance, the coal plant PPL’s Corette in Billings, MT, isn’t required to make any upgrades.
“The EPA was prodded into action by a legal challenge in part by environmentalists who sued the agency to set deadlines to follow through on haze rules adopted in 1999,” the Great Falls Tribune reports. “Two of the groups involved, WildEarth Guardians and the Montana Environmental Information Center, said the agency’s proposal does not go far enough.”
Indeed, even with these new regulations, spokesmen for the environmentalist groups are still dissatisfied with the EPA.
“People might gasp a little bit and say that’s a lot of money but you have to look at how much these companies are profiting off these facilities. It dwarfs these costs,” said Anne Hedges with the Montana Environmental Information Center.
The new EPA proposal could become final after a 60-day public comment period, the Tribune reports. Public hearings hosted by the EPA are scheduled for May 15 in Helena, MT, and May 16 in Billings.
“[T]he reduction in pollution would have spinoff benefits to public health, particularly among children,” EPA spokesman Rich Mylottt in Denver told the Tribune in an emailed statement.
3) ‘Komodo Dragon of Wasps’: New Wasp Species Has Jaws Bigger Than Its Legs!... Nature/Interest
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/komodo-dragon-of-wasps-new-wasp-species-has-jaws-bigger-than-its-legs/
March 28, 2012
Coming across any ordinary wasp is often enough to make even the toughest individual cautiously turn the other direction, but a new species identified in Indonesia will have them sprinting away. If its size isn’t the kicker, the fact that its jaws are longer than its legs will put your legs in motion.
Found by University of California-Davis entomologist Lynn Kimsey, a new insect has been described as the “Komodo Dragon of wasps.” Kimsey discovered the wasp last year but it was recently confirmed as a new species, which she has named Gardua, meaning “king of birds” in Indonesian.
According to National Geographic, Megalara garuda is two inches long and its “sickle-shaped” jaws are larger than its own legs. Even more terrifying, the male species has spikes on its jaws, presumably for defense and reproduction. The Daily Mail reports Kimsey saying, “I don’t know how it can walk”:
“Its jaws are so large that they wrap up either side of the head when closed. When the jaws are open they are actually longer than the male’s front legs.”
[...]
“In another species in the genus the males hang out in the nest entrance. This serves to protect the nest from parasites and nest robbing, and for this he exacts payment from the female by mating with her every time she returns to the nest. So it’s a way of guaranteeing paternity. Additionally, the jaws are big enough to wrap around the female;s thorax and hold her during mating.”
If you happen to be in Indonesia, you may not have to worry about one of these creatures buzzing by you. Kimsey said that so far all the specimens they have found have been dead. Kimsey cites replacing their forest habitat with crop farming as a potential factor in the death of these wasps. Kimsey said it makes her “sick to my stomach” to think of this newly discovered species’ population declining due to human activity.
4) Did James Carville Just Reveal the Democratic Strategy If Obamacare Is Overturned?... Democrats/Socialized Healthcare
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/did-james-carville-just-reveal-the-democratic-strategy-should-obamacare-be-overturned/
March 28, 2012
Are the Democrats expecting to lose the battle over healthcare? Judging from the comments made by several prominent Dems, the party is prepping for what to do after the high court shoots down the individual mandate.
Two days ago, former DNC Chair Howard Dean told CBS Early Morning that he expected the individual mandate to be overturned.
Yesterday, CNN’s Legal Analyst Jeffry Toobin called the proceedings “a train wreck” and predicted that the individual mandate will “likely be struck down.” If true, how will the Democrats then spin the defeat to their benefit? Enter James Carville.
Carville Reveals Democrat Strategy if Obamacare Loses
Last night on CNN, the Democratic consultant made a curious statement about what happens if the Supreme Court rules against the administration. He appears to already be ratcheting up the anti-Republican and anti-Supreme Court rhetoric in preparation, even tying a possible Obamacare defeat to the Bush-Gore election of 2000.
Consider Mr. Carville’s words regarding a potential defeat in the Supreme Court (after saying a defeat would be the “best thing” for Democrats because of rising health care costs):
“They overturned an election. And just as a professional Democrat, there’s nothing better for me than they overturn this thing 5-4. And then the Republican Party will own this health care system for the foreseeable future. … Go see Scalia when you want health care.”
In other words: the Supreme Court gave the country Bush, and now it’s going to take away your health care.
“This is not spin,” he reassured.
Really?
5) ‘A Poorly Disguised Cap-And-Tax Scheme’: EPA Moves to Impose Greenhouse Gas Regs on Power Plants... EPA/Obama/Anti Energy Independence
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/a-poorly-disguised-cap-and-tax-scheme-epa-moves-to-impose-greenhouse-gas-regs-on-power-plants/
March 27, 2012
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed on Tuesday new carbon dioxide emissions standards that threaten to drive up utility costs, “crush jobs,” and “destroy economic recovery,” according to National Mining Association (NMA) President and CEO Hal Quinn.
“[The] EPA’s proposal for controlling greenhouse gas emissions from about half the nation’s electric power supply is a poorly disguised cap-and-tax scheme that represents energy and economic policy at its worst,” Quinn said in a statement.
The regulations will limit the emissions from new coal-based plants (as opposed to plants that existed before the drafting of the proposal). This, of course, will discourage entrepreneurs from establishing and building new power plants. And although the proposed regulations don’t specifically dictate which fuels a plant can and can’t burn, the rules still require new coal plants to match the dioxide emissions from more their “more efficient” gas-powered cousins, according to Reuters.
“The proposed rule…will require any new power plant to emit no more than 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt of electricity produced,” the Washington Post’s Juliet Eilperin writes. “The average U.S. natural gas plant, which emits 800 to 850 pounds of CO2 per megawatt, meets that standard; coal plants emit an average of 1,768 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt.”
As mentioned in the above, these emissions standards are supposedly meant for only new plants. However, the regulations could set the stage for the EPA to come after existing plants in the coming years, Reuters notes.
“We’re putting in place a standard that relies on the use of clean, American made technology to tackle a challenge that we can’t leave to our kids and grandkids,” EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said in a release.
In order to meet the EPA’s new emissions standards, coal-based power plants have been encouraged to invest in equipment that captures carbon emissions and buries them underground for “permanent storage.” But there’s a catch: carbon capture and storage technology isn’t yet “commercially available,” according to the coal industry.
A Poorly Disguised Cap And Tax Scheme: EPA Moves to Impose Greenhouse Gas Regs on Power PlantsNot to worry; the EPA believes the tech will be available soon enough.
“Supporters of the rules argue that the industry has been moving away from coal and towards natural gas because of low prices and abundant supply,” Reuters reports.
“The portion of U.S. electricity fired by coal has slipped from about 50 percent to 45 percent in the last few years as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and other drilling techniques have allowed access to vast new domestic supplies of natural gas,” the report adds.
However, as Ed Morrisey of Hot Air points out, considering the EPA’s current stance against natural gas, this argument may not hold up very well:
This leads us to the natural-gas option…The response might be, “Well, okay, Obama’s bankrupting the coal industry, but we can still use natural gas.” That’s only true if we can get the natural gas. The EPA has also begun blocking the use of hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, which allows for massive improvement in extraction and access to vast amounts of natural gas.
Environmentalist groups praised the Obama administration for proposing “performance standard rules” they say will help “protect the country from climate change.”A Poorly Disguised Cap And Tax Scheme: EPA Moves to Impose Greenhouse Gas Regs on Power Plants
“The bottom line for our country is that cleaner power will cut harmful carbon dioxide pollution, protect our children and help secure a safe prosperous future,” said Vickie Patton, the general counsel for the Environmental Defense Fund.
Oh, but here’s the best part: none of these new EPA climate rules need to be approved by Congress.
“After Congress refused to pass carbon caps, the administration insisted there were other ways to skin the cat, and this is another way - by setting a standard deliberately calculated to drive affordable coal out of the electricity market,” NMA spokesman Luke Popovich told the Washington Post.
NMA president Quinn echoed these sentiment in a searing statement:
Higher utility bills and fewer jobs are the only certain outcomes from this reckless attempt to override Congress’s repeated refusal to enact punitive caps on carbon dioxide emissions.
Requiring coal-based power plants to meet an emissions standard based on natural gas technology is a policy overtly calculated to destroy a significant portion of America’s electricity supply. This is a movie we have seen before, and the script remains unchanged. Volatile natural gas prices will, once again, expose millions of households to higher utility bills, threaten hundreds of thousands of workers with unemployment and weaken both the competitiveness of basic industries and the reliability of the nation’s electricity grid.
This proposal is the latest convoy in EPA’s regulatory train wreck that is rolling across America, crushing jobs and arresting our economic recovery at every stop. It is not an “all of the above” energy strategy; it does not create jobs; and it does not make it easier for Americans to pay their mortgages. Instead, the proposed New Source Performance Standards would deliberately push America to abandon coal, its most abundant and reliable energy source in favor of costlier fuels-even though Congress has repeatedly rejected this policy.
“If you thought gas prices will never stop rising, just wait until you see what happens to electricity after the Barack Obama’s EPA gets its way,” Ed Morrissey writes.
6) Trayvon protesters ransack store... Race Baiters/Violence
http://www.local10.com/news/Police-Trayvon-protesters-ransack-store/-/1717324/9719674/-/xctonpz/-/index.html
Mar 27 2012
NORTH MIAMI BEACH, Fla. -
North Miami Beach police said surveillance video shows dozens of high school students demonstrating in the Trayvon Martin case Friday ransacking a Walgreens store.
The incident occurred during a walkout from North Miami Beach Senior High School in support of Martin, 17, who was fatally shot in Sanford. Protesters have been calling for the arrest of George Zimmerman, 28, who has not been charged because he claimed self-defense in the shooting, according to police.
Minutes after walking out of their school Friday, a large group of students walked through the streets of North Miami Beach. Along the way, they stopped at a Walgreens at 163rd Street and 15th Avenue at about 10:40 a.m.
Surveillance video shows dozens of teenagers running through the store. Police said about 80 to 100 students stormed in, ransacking the shelves, before the school's vice principal ordered everyone outside.
North Miami Beach police said students damaged items worth about $150.
"We do not accept any type of violation on the part of our students," Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said Friday. "There ought to be consequences, and we'll be collaborating with whatever law enforcement entity is investigating that issue."
"I don't think they were doing it, like, to be malicious or whatever. They were just in the moment where they weren't really thinking right because they were so angry," said student Jenny Sincere.
"It showed bad character because that's not what we were out there for," student Eric On-Sang said. "A few just made us look really bad."
Some students admitted Tuesday to being part of the rampage.
"I'm not going to lie. I was one of the people that was pushing in there because I was mad," one student said.
When asked whether the incident may have hurt their cause, student Christopher Paul said, "Yeah, it kind of did, yeah. I was just angry. I don't know what the rest of them were doing. I was just trying to make a point for Trayvon. That's it."
No injuries were reported.
Some of the students dropped their IDs on the way out of the store, police said, so investigators have an idea of who was inside.
The School Board said the students involved could be prosecuted and face disciplinary action at the school.
7) Does This Video Show SEIU Protesters Admitting Getting Paid to Picket Supreme Court?... Big Unions/Protest Deception
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/does-this-video-show-seiu-protesters-admitting-getting-paid-to-picket-supreme-court/
March 29, 2012
What‘s in question in the video below isn’t what the people are caught saying, but rather who gave them the $20 they are overheard talking about.
In a video taken by the blog Disrupt the Narrative, five female protesters donning SEIU purple and signs are seen walking near the Capitol (seemingly recently) and talking about the $20 they were given in paper envelopes.
“We can go to Union Station. [Unintelligible] And then we’ll all leave out together,” one woman is heard saying. “That’s what they gave us that $20 for, to spend. Yes $20. They gave us $20,” she says after another woman asks about it. “In the brown envelope.”
“In the brown envelope,” the other protesters echo in agreement.
Listen to it below:
It should be noted that there’s no way to know who the “they” is that gave the women the money. Maybe it was the union, but maybe it wasn’t. We don’t know. But the video at least raises questions. (And we know D.C. protesters have faced these allegations before.)
However, if it is true the protesters are being paid by the union, the site SEIU Monitor points out some of the reasons it’s unpalatable:
What you may not know is that according to Mary Kay Henry, President of the SEIU, about 30% of SEIU members vote Republican, and an additional 20% are independents. And yet all of their dues money goes to pay for the SEIU’s considerable political operations, which go to predominantly left-wing causes that are entirely unrelated to the working needs of their members.
The SEIU is spending their members dues money on issues that have nothing to do with salaries or working conditions. On top of that, they’re paying people to protest, after accusing anti-Obamacare groups of being “Astroturf”. This is not only a poor use of dues money, but dishonest and hypocritical as well.
And we know SEIU was protesting in D.C. this week, as this video from MRCTV shows (and the outfits and signs are similar to the women above):
Top down, bottom up, and inside out?
8) Men with Higher Voices Have Higher Sperm Counts... Nature/Interest
http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/03/28/men-with-higher-voices-have-higher-sperm-counts/
Mar 28, 2012
Evolutionary psychologists argue that when we find certain traits sexually attractive in others it may be because they signal reproductive fitness. It goes something like this: People who have been sexually attracted to traits that tell the “truth” about genetic superiority have been more likely to choose mates with superior genetics and, therefore, have been more likely to produce healthy offspring that live to an age where they, in turn, can reproduce themselves. Accordingly, nature has selected for individuals attracted to people who display signs of genetic excellence.
Culture throws a wrench in this theory because human can create their own systems of meaning, collectively convincing each other that certain traits are desirable regardless of the relationship between the trait and reproductive fitness. The thinness ideal for women is an excellent example. Judging by pop culture, heterosexual men have a strong preference for very thin women. In fact, however, the weight idealized in mass media is not conducive to reproductive fitness; women won’t ovulate or menstruate below a certain weight because their body recognizes that it can’t support a pregnancy.
A new study - by Leigh Simmons, Marianne Peters, and Gillian Rhodes - offers another tantalizing piece of information regarding the relationship between attractiveness and reproductive fitness. Pre-existing research shows that men with lower voices are judged more sexually attractive, so the authors decided to measure one indicator of their reproductive fitness, sperm count.
The results? Voice attractiveness is related to sperm count, but in the opposite direction expected. Men with higher voices, in fact, have higher sperm concentration, not lower.
The jury is still out about what this means, but it’s an intriguing addition to the ongoing conversation that social and biological scientists are having about how culture and nature interact to shape human experience.
9) Pravda on Mitt Romney: 'Out-Of-Touch, Out-Of-Date, Unelectable'... Communist/Pro Obama
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/pravda-mitt-romney-out-touch-out-date-unelectable_634772.html
Mar 28, 2012
Pravda is hitting Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney over comments he made about Russia. "Russia is the geopolitical foe," Romney said earlier this week in response to President Obama telling his Russian counterpart to give him "space" so that he could have "more flexibility" after the 2012 presidential election.
So, in an op-ed today posted on Pravda's website, the infamous former Soviet newspaper writes, "Electing Mitt Romney as the next President of the United States of America would be like appointing a serial paedophile as a kindergarten teacher, a rapist as a janitor at a girls' dormitory or a psychopath with a fixation on knives as a kitchen hand. His comments on Russia are a puerile attempt at making the grand stage and boy, did he blow it..."
Pravda goes on to question American democracy and say that Romney is just an "adolescent" school boy:
Somewhat like Condoleezza Rice did before the Bush regime was er..."elected" ..., Mitt Romney takes the chance to mouth off about Russia, calling her "our number one geopolitical foe" which fights "every cause for the world's worst actors". Unfortunately, such vapid stupidity has become commonplace among senior US politicians, providing the rest of the world with a telling insight as to the real nature of the political class in that country - out of touch, out of date and dangerously jingoistic. In short, overgrown self-opinionated schoolboys with super-egos but nothing whatsoever to back it up with.
True, it feels great to slag off another country's cuisine and say, for example, that "Mexican food is crap! American food is far better!" Adolescent-type comments such as these generally provoke a session of back-patting, and a ra-ra-ra raucous explosion of national pride which after a few drinks degenerates into "My God is better than your God" and then "My President could smack the crap out of yours".
Fine for grade school playgrounds. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is where this upstart nonentity Mitt Romney belongs, certainly not to the intricate and complex wheels and cogs of world policy and nowhere near a red button. Imagine this guy as President!
Then, Pravda praises present Russian relations with the United States under President Obama. "Exactly at a time when Russia and the USA are finding that they have far more in common than differences, exactly when they see that they are much more friends than foes, when they see that there is so much to be gained through collaboration, a foul-mouthed, big-headed oaf like Romney with more money than sense makes a comment that reveals who he really is to the world: a pea-brained, pith-headed simpleton with too much testosterone and too little common sense, with zero tact, no diplomacy and a paramount grasp on the intricacies of world politics. A prize, good-for-nothing ignoramus," writes Pravda.
The piece ends by threatening Romney. "So talking about geopolitical foes...next time Mitt Romney had better back off, butt out and mind his manners, so as not to appear like a foul-mouthed guttersnipe whose utter ignorance and pig-headed arrogance is only too clear for all to see. See how he walked straight into this one, ladies and gentlemen? Imagine THAT as your President..."
The opinion piece is titled, "Mitt Romney: Out-of-touch, out-of-date, unelectable."