Officials Will Burn Down Giant Home ‘Bomb Factory’ In California
San Diego County officials announced last night that they will torch a home “bomb factory” because the huge cache of explosives proved too dangerous to remove manually.
Last week, the San Diego Sheriff’s Department suspended its investigation of the Escondido home of George Djura Jakubec due to dangerous conditions, resulting from at least nine pounds of explosives found in the home.
Jakubec pleaded not guilty last Monday to “12 felony counts of possessing destructive devices and 14 counts of possessing ingredients to make destructive devices, along with two bank robbery charges,” according to KGTV news in San Diego.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Sheriff Bill Gore said at a town hall meeting last night “that burning the house is the only safe way to rid the neighborhood of the explosive materials.” Officials are planning to burn the home between December 8-10, depending on weather conditions, and will close nearby Interstate 15 and evacuate several neighboring homes.
Among the explosives found was Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), the same type of explosive used by shoe bomber Richard Reid in 2001, underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab last Christmas, and the UPS package bombs last month.
Randi Rhodes Wishes Global Warming Would Cause Flood to Wash Out Limbaugh’s Home
Don't let anyone claim that liberal talk radio show hosts don't wish for bad things to happen. On Monday's show, Randi Rhodes was giddy about the prospect of global warming causing the oceans to rise enough to engulf Rush Limbaugh's Florida home:
And so, the global warming deniers — like Rush Limbaugh, whose house I can't wait until the ocean swells and eats his house — and he will be the first to go because he's got the best location! He's on Palm Beach, which is nothing but a little island…a long, skinny, little sliver of billion dollars worth of — crap! Mostly over-the-top, overdecorated, overpainted, overdone houses with silk draperies and Renaissance designs in a tropical setting…On the edge of this little silvered island with a rising, rising ocean — he's going first, I live out west, my house is going to be the new Palm Beach and I can't wait. I can't freaking wait!
NewsBusters.org – Exposing Liberal Media Bias
Home prices falling faster in September
Delayed pain.
The housing bubble continues to deflate despite the Obama administration’s efforts to delay the inevitable. Housing prices sank faster in September than in any time this year after seeing them rise briefly in the spring, thanks to short-term interventions by the federal government. As foreclosures start increasing, values will drop even further: Home prices are […]
Obama’s chickens come home to roost
(Paul)
In a front-page story in today’s Washington Post, Karen Tumulty finds that leading Republicans have unearthed a previously obscure concept with which to attack President Obama. That concept is “American exceptionalism.” Tumulty seems to view this development as part jockeying for position among presidential hopefuls and part attempt to raise questions about Obama’s Americanism.
Tumulty’s first error is to assume that the concept of “American exceptionalism” is obscure. The term may not be common, but the view that this is a special nation — which is, I believe, supported by overwhelming evidence — is a staple of American thought.
Until now, U.S. presidents have consistently articulated this view, their speechwriters competing to find ways to say it in novel ways. President Reagan’s “shining city on the hill” probably takes the first-place prize. But think too of George H.W. Bush’s statement (reiterated by Bill Clinton at the 1992 Democratic convention) that “America is a special place, not just another pleasant country somewhere on the UN Roll Call between Albania and Zimbabwe.”
If the theme of American exceptionalism generally has been articulated mainly in “big occasion” speeches, that’s because it is considered a given. And if we are now suddenly witnessing a drumbeat, that’s because Obama has challenged American exceptionalism.
He did so most notably when he stated in France, during his first trip overseas, “I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.” Suddenly America was just another pleasant country like England or Greece.
Obama followed up by saying that the values in our Constitution are exceptional. But he also mentioned our “imperfect” faithfulness to these values. And, though he acknowledged that U.S. leadership in the world is “incumbent,” he expressed no particular enthusiasm or pride in this role. Thus, Obama’s attempted “walk-back” from his initial put down of American exceptionalism was incomplete and unsatisfying.
Tumulty also implies that the comparison to the “Brits and Greeks” is the sole basis for the claim that Obama rejects American exceptionalism. But after Michelle Obama said that her husband’s progress as a candidate made her proud of America for the first time in her adult life, Obama’s gloss on her remark took no serious exception to it. And when Rev. Wright regularly castigated America in his sermons, Obama took no offense. Oprah Winfrey left Wright’s congregation; Barack Obama did not.
One can understand why the concept of American exceptionalism underwhelms Obama. As Tumulty notes (per Seymour Martin Lipset), the concept often has been invoked as an explanation for why the U.S. is the only industrialized country that does not have a significant socialist movement or Labor party. Much of Obama’s career, especially his many years as a community organizer, strongly suggests that he is less than comfortable with the fact that the U.S. is exceptional in this respect. No wonder he put the concept of American exceptionalism down when asked about it in France.
If American exceptionalism has indeed become a “conservative rallying cry,” it means that Obama’s chickens have come home to roost.
UPDATE: Obama is far from the only liberal who finds the concept of American exceptionalism a bit ridiculous. Tumulty herself seems to have trouble writing about it with a straight face. She begins her story with this line: “Is this a great country or what?”
One of Florida’s Fallen Heroes Comes Home
This past Sunday, Staff Sergeant Juan L. Rivadeneira of Davie, Florida, returned home to the Fort Lauderdale / Hollywood International Airport after being killed in action in the Afghan theatre. Sgt. Rivadeneira was greeted by family, friends and a group of local activists that make it a point to greet all U.S. Servicemen and women returning home from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Among those in the crowd of mourners, was none other than retired Lt. Colonel, and now Congressman-Elect Allen West. Congressman-Elect West was the ‘only‘ elected official that found time out of his busy day to go out welcome Sgt. Rivadeneira home. Hat Tip to Allen!
Rivadeneira joined the Army in May 2003 and arrived at Fort Campbell in May 2009. He is survived by his wife, Melissa Rivadeneira and son, Juan A. Rivadeneira of Germany; and mother, Yenni S. Rivadeneira of Venezuela.
Krugman’s chickens come home to roost
In the Terry-Gilliam film Brazil,
Robert de DeNiro’s Archibald Tuttle character becomes enmeshed by papers-Jonathan Pryce’s Sam Lowry frantically digs into the pile-and discovers that the rebel plumber is gone. Or was he ever there?
I was thinking of Tuttle when I read Doug Ross’ post, Krugman’s Chickens Come Home to Roost: Imminent Euro Meltdown Begs the Question-When Will Debt Contagion Infect the U.S.? Beneath the European Union’s bonds, is there, well, nothing? Is Euro-prosperity an hallucination?
Paul Krugman is a New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize-winning economist who is an advocate for increased government spending and is a stauch defender of the welfare state.
Meanwhile, President Obama, although he was not stated so, wants to push America into a European style social democracy.
Technorati tags: 
democrats Politics news economy New York Times paul krugman
Worst New Home Market Ever; AP’s Crutsinger Downplays, Lowers the Recovery Bar
There are many annoying aspects of the sea change in media coverage of the economy since Barack Obama became president. At or near the top of the list is how the business press has downplayed the unprecedented housing industry disaster, while lowering the bar that will supposedly represent a real recovery to ridiculous levels.
According the the Census Bureau (12-page PDF), 23,000 new homes were sold nationwide in October. That figure ties August 2010 and December 1966 (when the population was 35% smaller) for is the lowest single month since records have been kept. More extensive evidence of how bad things are will come after the jump.
On Wednesday, the Associated Press's Martin Crutsinger provided as good an example as any of the press template for housing coverage — acknowledge that, yes, things are really bad; give readers an absurdly low benchmark for what would represent real improvement and how long it should take to get there; locate some "expert" to say it's really not all that bad; and find some kind of anecdote somewhere, anywhere, that will leave the impression that things might somehow be getting better:
Worst New Home Market Ever; AP’s Crutsinger Downplays, Lowers the Recovery Bar
There are many annoying aspects of the sea change in media coverage of the economy since Barack Obama became president. At or near the top of the list is how the business press has downplayed the unprecedented housing industry disaster, while lowering the bar that will supposedly represent a real recovery to ridiculous levels.
According the the Census Bureau (12-page PDF), 23,000 new homes were sold nationwide in October. That figure ties August 2010 and December 1966 (when the population was 35% smaller) for is the lowest single month since records have been kept. More extensive evidence of how bad things are will come after the jump.
On Wednesday, the Associated Press's Martin Crutsinger provided as good an example as any of the press template for housing coverage — acknowledge that, yes, things are really bad; give readers an absurdly low benchmark for what would represent real improvement and how long it should take to get there; locate some "expert" to say it's really not all that bad; and find some kind of anecdote somewhere, anywhere, that will leave the impression that things might somehow be getting better:
NewsBusters.org – Exposing Liberal Media Bias
After the mosque: jihad on the home front
Last Friday at Restoration Weekend I participated in this panel, along with Frank Gaffney, Karen Lugo, Mark Thiessen, and S. E. Cupp.
(For the record, S. E. Cupp misunderstood what I was saying, which was as far from “Give up” as light is from darkness.)
Investigation Of Giant Home ‘Bomb Factory’ Suspended Over Dangerous Conditions
The San Diego Sheriff’s Department has suspended its investigation of the alleged home “bomb factory” of George Djura Jakubec because the huge weapons cache was just too dangerous.
Jakubec pleaded not guilty on Monday to “12 felony counts of possessing destructive devices and 14 counts of possessing ingredients to make destructive devices, along with two bank robbery charges,” according to KGTV news in San Diego.
The Sheriff’s Department says that though “proactive operations on site have been suspended” because of the dangerous conditions, local, state, and federal officials are planning to re-enter the home to remove the chemicals and equipment, which Deputy District Attorney Terri Perez described as the “largest quantity of this type of homemade explosives found in one location in the history of the United States.”
Jakubec, a 54-year-old Escondido, CA resident, was arrested and charged after a gardener was injured after stepping on a supply of hexamethylene triperoxide diamine (HMTD), an explosive powder, that was allegedly in Jakubec’s backyard.
According to KGTV, investigators from the Sheriff’s Department, the FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms allege that they found at least nine pounds of explosives inside Jakubec’s house that include HMTD, Erythritol tetranitrate (ETN) and Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), the same type of explosive used by shoe bomber Richard Reid in 2001, underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab last Christmas, and the UPS package bombs last month. Officials also found blasting caps and homemade grenades.
Jakubec is an unemployed software technician, and a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Serbia. He pleaded not guilty to the 28 charges in San Diego County Superior Court on Monday, and was ordered by the judge to remain in jail on $ 5 million bail. He was on probation from a previous burglary charge after pleading guilty to shoplifting from an electronics store, the AP reports.
Authorities decided to halt all activity inside the house, which the Sheriff’s Department described as “extremely cluttered, making movement and observation extremely difficult.” The investigation will continue on December 1 at the earliest.
As for the robbery charges, KGTV reports:
According to the prosecutor, Jakubec robbed banks in San Diego County on June 25 and July 17, and got away with a “substantial amount” of money.
She did not provide details, but San Diego police reported a robbery at a Bank of America in the Sorrento Valley on June 25 that was first believed to be the work of the so-called “Geezer Bandit.”
If convicted, Jakubec faces up to 40 years in prison.
