links for 2009-03-26

Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent defense analyst in Moscow, says some Russian military leaders fear the U.S. missile defense system planned for installation in Poland and the Czech Republic is really intended to deploy nuclear-armed missiles. Felgenhauer says some Russian military officials warn these missiles could present a deadly first-strike threat against Moscow. Felgenhauer says the Kremlin wants a new arms control treaty with the United States that limits missile defense capabilities. "Though many Democrats are rather skeptical about missile defense, the notion of missile defense is nevertheless popular in the United States, and I don't believe that the two sides could approve any new treaty which will not forbid future development of a global missile defense," he says.

This is an administration that reaches out to adversaries, without preconditions, while making allies nervous about commitments already made. The former receive a personal video or a button with a pleasing word on it. The latter are gracelessly informed that their prior relationships are being reset.

Tells reporters en route to Mexico Wednesday America's "insatiable" demand for illegal drugs, inability to stop weapons smuggling fuels the fire.

"I feel very strongly we have a co-responsibility."

The SecState visits Mexico City and Monterrey Wednesday and Thursday.
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Then, close down the border. Damn it!

Johnny Dollar has a great post today showing just how unhinged the far left has become.

It is no secret that Bill O’Reilly does a lot of charity work. Much of the proceeds from his books and other merchandise go to charity. One of the charities that Bill O’Reilly is a supporter of is the Alexa Foundation. Alexa is a charity that helps rape victims. O’Reilly is appearing at a fund raiser for Alexa free of charge. Normal people can appreciate such charity work, but to the unhinged left Alexa has become another channel for their hatred.

Alexa is under attack from the far left with phone calls and emails and the nutty zealot Keith Olberman (whose ratings are pathetic) at MSNBC has declared O’Reilly a “worst person in the world” for four nights in a row on his show that almost nobody watches.

If you’re a center-left, centrist, center-right or conservative and you’ve uttered an opinion in public, chances are far far left loss leaders Media Matters and Air America have a dossier on you. Radio talk show host and friend of Hot Air Tammy Bruce appeared on last night’s “O’Reilly Factor” to talk about far-left outlets (*cough* Media Matters *cough*) who have a hit list on conservatives and moderate/not-so-far to the left Democrats. Tammy explained the elaborate ruse these far-left individuals use to get national news outlets to get their message out. How does Tammy know? She used to do it herself when she was president of the Los Angeles NOW chapter.

Relevance: Media Matters had a staffer whose job was to record Don Imus and listen for gaffes. He found one, alerted the media, and the rest is history. For icing on the cake, the Soros-funded group tried to convince everyone that Imus is a conservative. Imus is to Media Matters’ political right, but then again so is the entire count

I can no longer effectively perform my duties in this dysfunctional environment, nor am I being paid to do so. Like you, I was asked to work for an annual salary of $1, and I agreed out of a sense of duty to the company and to the public officials who have come to its aid. Having now been let down by both, I can no longer justify spending 10, 12, 14 hours a day away from my family for the benefit of those who have let me down…

The only real motivation that anyone at A.I.G.-F.P. now has is fear. Mr. Cuomo has threatened to “name and shame,” and his counterpart in Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal, has made similar threats — even though attorneys general are supposed to stand for due process, to conduct trials in courts and not the press…

I’m not sure how you will greet my resignation, but at least Attorney General Blumenthal should be relieved that I’ll leave under my own power and will not need to be “shoved out the door.”

Strategic Vision's David Johnson tells me, "I have seen three different polls on NY-20 in the past 24 hours. One shows Murphy up by 2; one shows Tedisco up by 3; and the other shows Tedisco up by just 1. The race is tight but as in all special elections, it will depend on turnout."

A federal judge on Tuesday denied Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's attempt to remove a court-appointed prison health care receiver who is proposing $8 billion in new construction.

U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson in San Francisco rejected the administration's claim that receiver J. Clark Kelso is violating federal law by seeking the construction money. The administration also argued that Kelso is no longer needed because the state is now capable of running its own health care system.

This is pretty surprising. Barack Obama holds his first party fundraiser tomorrow night, an entire 63 days into his presidency. It's at the Warner Theater, and as of 5 p.m. today . . . it was not sold out. HT, Moe Lane.

In fact, on the web site right now, it's indicating tickets are still available, for as little as $250.

According to the UK site Blogstorm, Google has started ranking Twitter search pages for topics (think hashtag-style words) higher, often making the front page for certain queries. This is despite the fact that Twitter blocks Google's spider from indexing search result pages. Which begs the question, how is Google determining that these Twitter topics merit a high weight?