Bush Should Use the "Joe Walsh Defense"

The President of Iran, Mr. Ahmedsomethingorother has challenged President Bush to a televised “debate”. I think the Bush should use the defense that I long ago dubbed the “Joe Walsh Defense”. During the 1970s the rock artist Joe Walsh released a live album named “Joe Walsh Live – You Can’t Argue With a Sick Mind.” Clearly Mr. Ahmedsomethingorother fits into that category of sick minds. It is completely useless to “debate” a liar and not only is the Arab world full of liars (the old saw concerning “Arab rug merchants” comes to mind) but Mr. Ahmedsomethingorother has been living la dolce liar.

Driving a Porsche 911 in the Dirt

Rallying a Porsche 911


Check out Henri Toivonen flog on his Rothman’s 911 during the 1984 FIA Rally season. Because so much rallying is done in the dirt Henri made very good use of the rear weight bias of the rear-engined 911 that he drove. If you have ever wondered about apexing a 911 in the dirt, the helicopter shots from this film will give you some good hints.

Screwed-Up Muslims Force FOX News Reporters to “Convert”

It seems that the price that the Gaza muslims extracted was to get Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig to “convert” to islam. Great here is a religion that not only allows a washed up ‘70’s pop singer to issue religious death edicts (9th paragraph) but kidnaps people in order to get them to follow their religion. You know that your religion is screwed-up when…

Sudanese Charge Chicago Tribune Correspondent as a Spy!

Today the government of the Sudan has charged Paul Salopek, a 44 year-old foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune with one count of espionage and two criminal counts in the war-torn province of Darfur. The two-time Pulitzer Prize winner was charged with writing “false news”. The Trib story is here. Salopek’s Pulitzer winning pieces can be found here and here.

c Eric Allie, Chicago
Hey, If That's What it Takes...

Carter Appointee Has Conflict of Interest

The Gateway Pundit is all over the conflict of interest story concerning the Federal Judge who ruled on the NSA wiretap case that Flying Debris commented on in Carter Appointee Proves that Billy was the Smart One. The original story contains another example of the Judge's conflict of interest.

The 12th Imam - Living in Chicago, Wooing Life

c Flying Debris
The 12th Imam Finds Peace in the Left Field Bleachers

If only that Iranian guy knew; Ronnie has been haunting Wrigley Field for decades.

Gone Racing

Actually I’ve gone to watch racing this weekend; the Le Mans Series up at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wi. I’m bringing the Nikon.

Carter Appointee Proves that Billy was the Smart One

Both Powerline and the Gateway Pundit have great pieces on today’s appalling decision by the 6th Circuit Court’s Judge Anna Diggs Taylor, a 1979 Carter Appointee. The Gateway Pundit reviews some parts of her biography that didn’t make it onto her official court biography; like the fact that her two husbands have been very active in Democratic politics and that her first husband Rep. Charles Diggs, was “convicted of 29 counts of running a payroll kickback scheme in his office.” Her second husband was some sort of mucketty-muck in Carter’s 1976 campaign. The Gateway Pundit puts the entire affair into great perspective with this observation: “(s)o, in case you are wondering... Our national security was just decided by a liberal judge closely associated (married) to a scandal-plagued Democratic Representative and America's most liberal and worst president, Jimmy Carter.”

One Gateway commenter noted that the Judge had been divorced from the scandal plauged Rep. Diggs before the commision of his crimes. Among other things the Judge had worked in her husband’s office and likely knew something of his character; it may even be why they were divorced. I doubt that the relevant timing makes a difference to the argument that Mr. Carter was likely rewarding Democratic supporters with her appointment, that’s how it works here in Democratic Chicago and the federal judiciary has had its share of that.

John Hinderaker of Powerline notes that Judge Diggs Taylor was involved in a judge-shopping contriversy while on the federal bench in Detroit. Mr. Hinderaker also comments on the likely venue-shopping tactics of the ACLU, an organization that apparently believes that terrorists should have pretty much free rein here in the good ol’ US of A.

The specifics of the case are interesting as they rely on the balance of power between the executive and legislative branches. The unspoken specifics are also interesting as it has brought to the fore those naïve people who believe that wireless telephony is perfectly secure. It has also brought to the fore those who would argue that a rerouted phone call (a telephone number here in the US that is used to reroute a call to an overseas telephone number) is somehow protected communications. In that case we have reached a point where the “civil” or “human” rights of machines trump our right to protect ourselves and our nation. Thank you Mr. Carter.

At least Billy got paid.

Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency, Israel & Northrop Grumman Developing a Short Range Missile Defense System

Check out the story from Huntsville here.

Rendezvous Meets Google Earth

Rendezvous

This is the best car chase without a chase, an accompanying real time guide map is linked below

Claude Lelouche made one of the great Paris/Car movies of all time with the Rendezvous, an early morning drive at breakneck speeds through the streets of Paris without regard to any traffic signals. Mr. Lelouche used a Mercedes 300 and later a Ferrari for the engine soundtrack; no Mercedes has ever sounded this good. Well, over at bhendrix.com they have gone and put the movie online and synced it to a Google Earth moving map of the ride through Paris. The fantastic mashup and great travelogue is here.

The Autoblog has more on the great original movie.

Cell Phone Mystery Likely Solved

c reaganite/Little Green Footballs
Little Green Footballs reader reaganite sent in this photo last March; cell phones for profits indeed

Maybe. Last March Little Green Footballs (LGF) reader reaganite sent in the above photo from Iraq of an Improvised Explosive Device (IED). Tonight LGF posted the photo as a likely explanation for the mysterious cell phone purchases. For several days now we have heard stories of Arab men being arrested (mostly) around the Midwest buying untraceable cell phones, one group has even been allegedly linked to a plot to blow up the Mackinaw Bridge (later downplayed). The LGF post goes a long way to pointing out one possible reason for this undoubtedly nefarious activity. Nefarious on somebody’s part, whether the alleged purchaser or the men themselves. I guess the real question is where do they plan on using all of those IEDs?

Drunken PCA Member Wrecks Porsche 908 – PCA Pays $250,000

Disclosure – the author has been a member of PCA for many years.

The Porsche Club of America (PCA) has been found liable for the drunken actions of two of its members four years ago. An owner of a Porsche 908 was gracious enough to display his uber-rare race car at a club technical event in Huntsville, Al. The car’s owner had an agent who was responsible for transporting the car and the agent was unable to pick the car up the following week as planned; the agent finally arranged pick-up of the car six weeks later. The week of the delayed pick-up two PCA members had access to the car, one was an officer of the local region and the other was the owner of the garage that was storing the car. The two members decided to drive the race car on the street after drinking wine at breakfast. Apparently that foray passed without incident because more wine was consumed at lunch and the car was subsequently wrecked during some more drunken street driving. The cost to repair the vehicle was approximately $250,000.

The car’s owner filed suit and the Federal District Court in the Northern District of Alabama heard the case last year and handed down the opinion last June. The President of the PCA, Tom Bobbitt wrote in the August issue of the club magazine Panorama (the August issue is not yet online) that “the two drivers were acting outside the scope of any club authorization and not in connection with any club event, the Court nevertheless found that PCA had an ongoing obligation to care for the car indefinitely because it had been used in a PCA event and PCA benefited from the arrangement.” Neither Mr. Bobbitt nor I are attorneys but he described the liability as a “bailment for which PCA as the bailee is liable.” Mr. Bobbitt also wrote that the club intends to strip the two members of their memberships and that the club will attempt to recover damages from the two.

Club President Bobbitt wrote about three lessons to be learned from the experience; two of them have to do with the casual nature of many club events and the need for more contractual agreements. The third lesson has to do with the personal responsibility of club volunteers, a very diplomatic way of saying that one should not act like a jerk. Flying Debris would like to add two more lessons to that list; one is the stunningly obvious - don’t drive race cars drunk. The other is that if you’re going to drink alcohol at breakfast you may as well not kid yourself, drink liquor. Frankly a few pops in the morning should be followed with a comfortable couch and a few football games on the tube rather than driving a purpose built race car around the neighborhood.

Welcome Rennlist Members (and readers), I hope that you find this post informative. As stated the post is from a letter Tom Bobbitt wrote in Panorama - I'm just passing it along.

This blog is mostly political so Porsche fans may be more interested in the Sunday Porsche Blogging blog; a project that I have been having trouble keeping up with during the summer. My former FIA Group 4 911 (also here, here and here) and the Autobahn Country Club have quite a lot to do with the recent lack of posts. Btw - my 911 does not appear as it did while racing Group 4. The car was restored using standard SWB 911 fenders (I still have the originals) however it has retained its twin-plug 906 engine.

Sunday Porsche Blogging: How to Kill a 911

Top Gear - How to kill a Porsche 911

If This Video Were't So Funny It Would be Truly Depressing! In complaining about how tough this early seventies 911 is Jeremy, a Brit says, "Germans; can't beat us, can't beat Croatia" and then continues to try to kill the poor 911.

To Understand The PR in Gaza - Watch This

Pallywood

This 18 Minute Documentary is a Must See to Understand the Jihadist Propaganda

Has Rahm Emanuel Joined the Deanettes on Their New Hit “Cut and Run”?

Rahm Emanuel is the Chair of the Democratic Congressional Committee and he is my congressman. Mr. Emanuel and I have some mutual friends and we have spoken several times over the years, mostly about politics. Earlier this summer I had a chance to speak to Mr. Emanuel concerning what I saw as some sort of internecine warfare in the Democratic Party. There was a battle between the Chairman of the party, Howard Dean and Mr. Emanuel concerning the direction of the party and its funding methods; specifically the “50 State Strategy” that Dean is invoking. That strategy involves funding every district in the nation in order to make the party more of a “national party”. Mr. Emanuel has been publicly critical of the Dean plan and rightly so, Dean is even spending money in and visiting the Virgin Islands which has a total of zero votes in the Electoral College and has no representation in either the House or the Senate.

During our recent conversation we discussed the then upcoming Connecticut Senate primary and the involvement of certain blogs in the race. The conversation was private so I will not divulge anything past what one could reasonably discern from his public statements. Mr. Emanuel was animated at the mention of those blogs and he genuinely seemed to understand the possible problems that some of those bloggers and their readers could pose for the image of the Democratic Party. We were in a public place so those comments were made to me with a somewhat hushed voice; this district has a very large population of committed leftwing moonbats.

A few days later I had a chance to speak to one of our mutual friends, a man who is one of the original Friends of Bill (Clinton), and we both agreed that although Mr. Emanuel uses the red meat rhetoric of the leftwing, he was much more practical and down to earth than he often sounds. This gentleman (the FOB) said that he wasn’t surprised that Mr. Emanuel was leery of the left side of the blogasphere and that he was trying to blunt their effect on the party, Mr. Emanuel has always struck this Southern gentleman as more down to earth than the leftists who are in ascendancy in the Democratic Party.

Well it appears that Mr. Emanuel has seen the writing on the wall concerning the leftward drift of the Democratic Party, several weeks ago his office sent out an e-mail that included a poll to help him gauge the opinions of the folks in his district. I never received an e-mail from Mr. Emanuel’s office until I contacted them online, so I would think that the group used for the survey would be restricted to people who have contacted Mr. Emanuel’s office and who also bothered to respond; not exactly scientific but I am sure that they realize the restrictions of their poll. Anyways, what struck me about the “survey” was the wording of one of the questions, the following:

“Some members of Congress have called for a strategic redeployment of our
troops, where some troops currently on the ground in Iraq would come home and
others would be relocated to fight the War on Terror more effectively. Do you
support the strategic redeployment strategy?”

That is one very interesting way to describe cutting and running. With the growing threat of Iran in the region the best place to “relocate(d) to fight the War on Terror more effectively” may actually be inside of Iran. That is a strategic option that has little or no support on either side of the aisle. I guess that the surprise in the survey is that only 44% of my neighbors supported that position, whereas 29% replied that they did not support that position, of course 27% just didn’t know.

During our conversation I indicated that I was hopeful that people like Mr. Emanuel would succeed in trying to keep the Democratic Party from running off of some sort of left wing cliff. After reading Mr. Emanuel’s comments in the wake of Ned “the Cable Guy” Lamont’s primary victory over Senator Lieberman this week I really had to wonder if even the comparatively reasonable Democratic politicians are gunning their engines toward that cliff. Here is what Rep. Emanuel had to say about the former Democratic candidate for the Vice Presidency, Senator Joe Lieberman:

“This shows what blind loyalty to George Bush and being his love child means.
This is not about the war. It’s blind loyalty to Bush.”

As interesting and amusing as it is to watch the Democrats make such imbeciles of themselves, it is also pretty alarming.

British Terrorist – Knows Brit MP

Here’s a shock, one of the British terror suspects has met with British Member of Parliament George Galloway, the disgraceful fascist apologist, "many times".

Security Level Raised – British Bomb Plot – Expect Delays at Airports

The Chicago Sun Times is reporting that British authorities have uncovered a major plot to blowup flights headed to the US using bombs smuggled onto planes using hand luggage. Homeland Security has put additional restrictions on laptops, handheld luggage, cell phones, i-pods, plus “liquids and gels and containers of any size”. Breast milk, formula and medications seem to be exempt. The Chicago Department of Transportation and the Chicago Police are now saying that Chicago was not a direct target and that precautions are only at O’Hare and Midway. They are both warning of “long delays.” Homeland Security will have a press conference at 7:00 AM Central Time. No flights are coming from or going to the UK. The security is level is now Orange.

Jerry Garcia – Dead Eleven Years Now

c Flying Debris
Jerry Garcia with the Grateful Dead at Soldier Field Chicago - 1995

Jerome John “Jerry” Garcia August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995

NY Times Happily Spreads More Propaganda

Wow, I got home this afternoon and I found out that the Gateway Pundit has caught the NY Times in a blatant pro-fascist propaganda stunt meant to assist Hezballah. The heads-up came from the Bizzyblog and it is damning. Why is it the Times only pulls propaganda stunts that hurt those who support the idea of liberal democracy that the Times allegedly stands for? Just asking.

c Defense Review
This is to Hunting What Ice Houses are to Fishing

The photo above is a roof mounted shot gun set up. Check out this site for the deer season special, although I think that it is still illegal to hunt from the road.

Hat Tip: the Autoblog

Soros to Sell Deathtraps #2

c Paul Tan
The New Soros Deathtrap after Crash "Worthiness" Test


During my “summer break from blogging” I ran across an article in Autoweek concerning George Soros and his plans to import the new Soros Deathtrap (the Chery QQ) into the US. It has sat forgotten on the bottom of a pile on my desk for nearly two months. So here is a link to the Autoweek article. In addition both Forbes and Plastics News wrote timely articles about the Deathtrap; as did the Autoblogger, Edmonds.com, the great Mark Tapscott and many more that can be found on this Google search page. Flying Debris has blogged about the "Deathtrap" below or here and here.

Update: links cleaned up

Delete or Not Delete plus Naked Bloggers

Early Friday morning I took down a comment to this post because it struck me as incoherent and besides I knew that I wouldn’t have time to respond or even read my blog for several days. Because anonymous was so upset that I deleted his ignorant musings Flying Debris has decided to repost his ridiculous comments:

"Do you actually look into anything before you write?

Do you know that the car
showed (sic) will never hit the US shores and yes, does sell for about $4,000 in
China?

Do you know that many of the luxury goods you buy currently are made
in China?

Do you know that some idiot saying something on a blog does not
make it so?

Can you dress yourself?"

The anonymous Canadian wrote “Do you know that the car showed (sic) will never hit the US shores and yes, does sell for about $4,000 in China” The original post stated that the car sells for “$3600 overseas and as much as 5000 euros in Europe”. The original post also stated “Hey George, good luck with the US Department of Transportation, I’m sure that they would love to allow that thing into the states.” That bit of sarcasm may be over anonymouses head but a normal person would interpret that line as stating my doubts about the car being allowed into the US. As an aside I own a ’66 Porsche race car that was brought into the states six years ago, so I do have some familiarity with the process. Anonymous also wrote “Do you know that some idiot saying something on a blog does not make it so?” Alert, sarcasm follows! Good Lord, you’re kidding me! Do you mean to say that keyboards don’t have miraculous powers? Sarcasm over. One should also be wary of insinuating that the Gateway Pundit is an unreliable source, it is not.

The deleted post also contained this bit of wisdom “Do you know that many of the luxury goods you buy currently (ed. “you buy currently”?) are made in China?” Actually I’m not buying much in the way of “luxury goods” from Wal-Mart so that statement is disputable, however I did recently purchased a Ryobi cordless drill that was made in China. Drills are not luxury goods. I simply do not consider the deleted comment to be criticism as it includes this doozy “Can you dress yourself?” I’m not sure what that is other than a comment from some guy sitting in a basement in Ottawa fanaticizing about naked bloggers. If I had time to respond to that incoherent post before the markets opened Friday morning I would’ve done that instead of simply deleting the thing but I was in a hurry at 5:45 Friday morning, what with having an actual job and all. As the blogger here I do have that power and will exercise it at my discretion.

As to Mr. Soros worrying about me, he doesn't and he shouldn't. I understand that he has handed the firm’s trading duties over to his son; however every great trader wonders who is out there to take him/her down a peg (or some pegs as the case may be). Although I have never met Mr. Soros, I would not be surprised if has heard of me, I am interviewed in the financial press five days a week. And as to the comment concerning me “outfoxing” the Soros Fund, you are showing your ignorance, a good (small) trader lets the big boys beat themselves up while gathering the crumbs. One can live pretty well on the crumbs left by the likes of George Soros (see above reference to Porsche race car). And finally, yes I have less money than George Soros, I am in the same boat as billions and billions of other folks on this planet; making that “insult” rather ignorant, a reoccurring theme with this commenter.

The ignorant commenter also missed the fact that Flying Debris misspelled the car’s name, it is the Chery QQ rather than the Cherry QQ. In the mean time the Hoser has congratulated himself for some sort of witty criticism that was just too tough to handle; I have already stated that the comment was simply dumb and said nothing useful, thus it wasn’t even criticism it was keyboard masturbation.

c Paul Tan
The New Soros Deathtrap - "Safe For Onlookers Only"

Soros to Sell Deathtraps

c Paul Tan
George Soros wants to sell you this Cherry QQ for $20,000

The Gateway Pundit has the story about George Soros’ plans to team up with Oil-For–Food Scandal star Maurice Strong to sell an allegedly pirated automobile design in the US. The strangely named the Cherry QQ is allegedly a near exact knock-off of the Daiwoo Matiz. The Chinese manufacturer has been sued by GM subsidiary Daewoo over the alleged rip-off. The car is a scary looking thing that is sold for $3,600 overseas and as much as 5,000 euros in Europe. Soros has the brainstorm to sell them for, oh about $20,000 here in the states. Keep it up George; the PR and Advertising world could use some more of your money. When I first saw the piece on Soros accompanied by a photo of the car I figured that they would try to sell the things for less than $10,000, a lot less. To get an American to buy a Chinese car at this point in time is going to be a challenge but a crappy little econo-box for $20,000? This is their plan to bring down the big three American auto makers? Hey George, good luck with the US Department of Transportation, I’m sure that they would love to allow that thing into the states. I think that Soros and Strong may need to employ Owsley Stanley in their promotional campaigns. Maybe they already have.

More on Stanley here.

More on the Photo above here.

Update: If I was approached to invest in a scheme like this I would assume that it was a scam. I once knew a person who sold penny stocks (I knew him, I did not associate with him) and ran into him at the Vector Aeromotive display during the Chicago Auto Show about 15 years ago and it was clear as day that Vector was a money scheme and not an auto company. The Wikapedia article that I linked to is informative but too friendly; I saw that Wiegert guy in action and I do not trust him.

Update 2: This is just par for the course with Soros and his Democratic pals; they consider Americans to be idiots.

Carter & Son on CBOT Floor #2

After talking to some folks I have found out that my memory is correct, Carter's son worked at the CBOT during the '80s. One source said that Amy worked here as a runner for a few weeks during the '80s (thank you Tony). I also think that one of Jerry Ford's kids (Jack?) worked here at that time. I do remember mayor Jane Byrnes kid "working" here in the late '70s or early '80s. The grandson of the Democratic lawyer who was the counsel for the Republicans during the impeachment of Clinton also was a runner down here. I cannot remember his or his grandfather's name at the moment but I will post it when I get home; I read his book on the impeachment and it is in my bookcase.

UPDATE: the Counsel refered to above is David P. Schippers whose book is Sell Out - The Inside Story of President Clinton's Impeachment. The book is a great read and his grandson who worked on the trading floor one summer is a nice kid.

Carter & Son on CBOT Floor

Former President Jimmy Carter and his son, a Senate candidate are now on the Agricultural floor of the Chicago Board of Trade. Hopefully they won't come near me; I didn't vote for the guy in my first election because even as a teenager I understood that Carter is a loser. He was in 1980 and he is even more dispicable today. I can't imagine that his kid is any better. If I'm not mistaken the kid may have worked here in the '80s.

Canadian hajis Attack Peaceful Demonstrator

In another disgusting display of “peacefulness” a group of hezbollah supporters (hajis) in Montreal attacked a Jewish man who was exercising his freedom of speech on a public street. The CBC taped part of the attack but called the haji protest “peaceful”. Check out this video to see the bizarre “religion of peace” in action.

Hat Tip: Little Green Footballs

PS. Try that in Chicago losers, and you will find out how we do things here! Ha-Ha!

Marine Sues Murtha!

Rep. Murtha (D-Pa) is being sued for defamation by one of the US Marines who he has defamed. Flying Debris has commented on Mr. Murtha here, here and here.

Happy Birthday Jerry

Today is the Birthday of the late great Jerry Garcia. Jerry would’ve turned 64 today. RIP