The American Pundit

In perhaps its most brazen snubbing of the west to date, the Islamic Republic of Iran ratcheted up its enrichment of uranium to 20%.

Uranium enriched at the 3.5% level — the current enrichment level in Iran — can fuel nuclear plants. Iran claims it needs 20% enriched uranium for its nuclear research reactor, but that’s unlikely to be the country’s goal. Rather, Iran is widely believed to be pursuing a nuclear weapon.

The ratcheting-up process was begun at the Natanz facility. IAEA nuclear inspectors, employed by the United Nations, were present at the time. Such an open defiance doesn’t help defeat the western perspective on Iran’s end goal.

Why should the west be concerned? After all, you need 90% enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon. Well, it takes about a year to reach 20%, but only an additional 6 months to reach 90%. Iran may well have weapons-grade uranium within 18 months.

Which would put the announcement of nuclear status somewhere around August 2011. Mark your calenders, ladies and genltemen.

Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) has died at the age of 77, with his friends and family by his side.

Roll Call reports that Murtha passed away this afternoon. He had been in intensive care after a routine surgery to remove his gallbladder.

May he rest in peace.

You know the guy.

Scott Lee Cohen is was the Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor in Illinois. He was also arrested for domestic abuse, spent time with a prostitute, sued successfully by his own brother for $200k, had federal tax problems, and was the subject of a restraining order taken out by his ex-wife who accused him of trying to force her to have sex with him. Oh, and he admitted to having used steroids.

And yet he was nominated by Illinois Democrats for Lieutenant Governor. Supposedly because he was considered the underdog and was never fully vetted by the media and public. But more likely because he was a Democrat in an insanely corrupt blue state and the media wasn’t terribly interested in digging up dirt on the Democratic field.

Anyway, he’s gone now. He made his announcement at a Chicago bar. Seriously.

We’ve been hearing rumors from major media outlets for several days now that the New York Times will soon be dropping a bombshell revelation involving New York Governor David Patterson (D). Supposedly the story will be in the Spitzer territory.

Well, now Business Insider has a source in the governor’s office claiming that the story will drop on Monday. Additionally, the publication reports that Patterson’s resignation will follow shortly after.

Several media outlets have reported on these rumors.

Elizabeth Benjamin at The Daily News describes the report as “much worse” than Spitzer, though she declines to name NYT by name.

We’ve now heard from a single source familiar with the goings on at the Governor’s office that the story will likely drop on Monday, and that the governor’s resignation will follow.

No confirmation yet, obviously, but it appears the liberal establishment is attempting to dump the politically-toxic Patterson before the gubernatorial primaries. And it might just succeed.

This is it? This is what caused a firestorm of controversy? Oh, right, the controversy was caused by the pro-abortion crowd being haunted at the very thought of a commercial celebrating life. This is actually the first time anyone’s been able to actually see the ad in question. But I digress…

You wouldn’t know this is an anti-abortion commercial if you hadn’t seen the news stories leading up to its release. It consists of Tim Tebow’s mother talking about how he almost didn’t make it, calling Tim a “miracle” baby, him thanking his mother, and them hugging. Then we get a final text line mentioning the celebration of family and life.

In other words, this could have been any generic PSA about living life to the fullest and celebrating the ones you love. Nothing that should be controversial in the least. Unless you’re not a fan of families and living. In which case you have something to get outraged over.

Which helps to explain the oral diarrhea that’s been coming from the Planned Parenthood crowd.

No confirmation on the total number of people injured, but two are already confirmed dead and emergency services are labeling it a “mass casualty” event. CNN also reports that upwards of 100 emergency response vehicles are headed toward the scene. Locals describe the blast as feeling like an earthquake.

Houses in the area were reportedly injured when the explosion hit. The facility, Kleen Power Plant, is a 620-megawatt gas-fired power plant. WTNH says people could hear the explosion from as far as 15 miles away from Middletown, where the facility is located.

More soon.

Wonder why Amnesty International has been doing everything possible to make the United States lose the war on terrorism? It’s been bad enough that some wonder if the organization actually wants the Taliban and its allies to win. Well, that might just be the case.

A senior official for group has accused Amnesty International of being in bed with the Taliban. Yes, a senior official from the organization is accusing it of allying itself with an international terrorist group.

A SENIOR official at Amnesty International has accused the charity of putting the human rights of Al-Qaeda terror suspects above those of their victims.

Gita Sahgal, head of the gender unit at Amnesty’s international secretariat, believes that collaborating with Moazzam Begg, a former British inmate at Guantanamo Bay, “fundamentally damages” the organisation’s reputation.

In an email sent to Amnesty’s top bosses, she suggests the charity has mistakenly allied itself with Begg and his “jihadi” group, Cageprisoners, out of fear of being branded racist and Islamophobic.

Sahgal describes Begg as “Britain’s most famous supporter of the Taliban”. He has championed the rights of jailed Al-Qaeda members and hate preachers, including Anwar al-Awlaki, the alleged spiritual mentor of the Christmas Day Detroit plane bomber.

Amnesty’s work with Cageprisoners took it to Downing Street last month to demand the closure of Guantanamo Bay. Begg has also embarked on a European tour, hosted by Amnesty, urging countries to offer safe haven to Guantanamo detainees. This is despite concerns about former inmates returning to terrorism.

Sahgal, who has researched religious fundamentalism for 20 years, has decided to go public because she feels Amnesty has ignored her warnings for the past two years about the involvement of Begg in the charity’s Counter Terror With Justice campaign.

“I believe the campaign fundamentally damages Amnesty International’s integrity and, more importantly, constitutes a threat to human rights,” Sahgal wrote in an email to the organisation’s leaders on January 30. “To be appearing on platforms with Britain’s most famous supporter of the Taliban, whom we treat as a human rights defender, is a gross error of judgment.”

Amnesty is the world’s biggest human rights organisation with 2.2m members and a galaxy of celebrity supporters, including Bono, John Cleese, Yoko Ono, Al Pacino and Sinead O’Connor. Its decision to work with Begg poses liberal backers with a moral dilemma and raises questions about the direction in which Amnesty has travelled since it was set up in 1961 to support “prisoners of conscience”.

“As a former Guantanamo detainee it was legitimate to hear his experiences, but as a supporter of the Taliban it was absolutely wrong to legitimise him as a partner,” Sahgal told The Sunday Times.

To sum that up: Amnesty International is openly defending terrorists, and working against the United States in the war on terrorism, in order to avoid being labeled Islamophobes. They’re so politically correct that they’ll help the Taliban win in order to avoid being labeled intolerant.

Gallup has this new, handy map dedicated to displaying the philosophical and political leanings of each state in the union. There are quite a few interesting results. For example:

Pennsylvania

• Republican/ Republican Leaning: 38.2%
• Democrat/Democrat Leaning: 50.1%

But, that said, here’s the ideological breakdown.

• Conservative: 38.8%
• Moderate: 38%
• Liberal: 20%

Conservatism is the largest ideological group. Conservatives and moderates make up an astounding 76.8%, with liberals — in a state with 50.1% leaning or identifying as Democrats — only making up 20%.

That bodes well for a candidate like Pat Toomey, who’s likely to be running against the party-flipping and unpopular Arlen Specter.

Nevada

• Republican/Republican Leaning: 38.8%
• Democrat/ Democrat Leaning: 45.3%

But again, things look more promising when we get into ideological breakdown.

• Conservative: 37.2%
• Moderate: 36.8%
• Liberal: 22.8%

Again, conservatism is the single largest ideological group in the home state of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Conservatives and moderates make up about 74% of the population, with liberalism left at 22.8%.

New Hampshire

• Republican/Republican Leaning: 38.5%
• Democrat/ Democrat Leaning: 46.2%

Once again, ideology.

• Conservative: 37.8%
• Moderate: 35.7%
• Liberal: 22.5%

Moderates and conservatives make up 73.5% of the population, again leaving liberals in the low-2os.

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I won’t do every state, though I recommend checking out the graph.

The point here is that you shouldn’t assume that a typically-blue state will automatically break for Democrats this November. That should’ve been painfully obvious (to Democrats) in states like Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Virginia over the past few months.

If the Republican candidate can win over independents/moderates, and there’s countless polls to show he can, the party could pick up quite a few House and even Senate seats come November. Possibly enough to regain control of one or both chambers.

All rumors as of now, but the sources are important. The Huffington Post, Albany Times-Union, New York Magazine, NY Daily News, etc.. We’re not talking an obscure Daily Kos diary — or my site for that matter — here. The rumors appear to be coming from people in the know.

The last few weeks have brought two major eruptions of rumors concerning Paterson’s private life: reports of nuzzling at a New Jersey restaurant and being caught in semi-flagrante in a utility closet in the Governor’s Mansion — stories that Paterson and his press office have vehemently denied.

According to sources who have actually been interviewed for the Times’ story, its central narrative is the role played by members of Paterson’s inner circle in his personal and political activities.

Rumors about a possibly publication date for the story have ranged from Monday to today; the latest suggests Sunday, but it’s hard to believe that the Times would hold the story much longer when knowledge that it’s pending has put every other reporter in the Capitol and elsewhere on the scent. Possible reasons for delay include editorial fine-tuning and thorough legal review.

Not that any of this really matters. Patterson’s approval rating can’t go much lower and, if he runs again, he’s about to get beaten by Andrew Cuomo in the primary. Still, a fitting political end for the guy who replaced Elliot Spitzer.

The United Nations’ organization on climate change is no longer reliable. That’s the determination of the second most populous nation on Earth after a slew of evidence came to light that the organization had made up data and knowingly pushed bogus claims.

India, which has an estimated population of 1.15 billion, is forming its own panel to investigate climate change and determine if any real risk exists. The news comes as a major blow to the UN’s scandal-ridden Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The move is a significant snub to both the IPCC and Dr Pachauri as he battles to defend his reputation following the revelation that his most recent climate change report included false claims that most of the Himalayan glaciers would melt away by 2035. Scientists believe it could take more than 300 years for the glaciers to disappear.

The body and its chairman have faced growing criticism ever since as questions have been raised on the credibility of their work and the rigour with which climate change claims are assessed.

Yeah, getting your assessment of glacial melting wrong by several hundred years seems quite serious. And as we learned recently, the panel had claimed that 40% of the rainforest would be eliminated by global warming in coming years. Turns out that assessment was based on claims by global warming activists with no scientific background. So the IPCC’s credibility has been hurting recently.

All of this comes after emails from the prominent Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia were leaked, showing that scientists were lying to the global community and couldn’t actually find ongoing global warming. The scientists talked about “hiding the decline”, manipulating data to show warming, and outright lying to people.

And yet global warming alarmists still label anyone who questions their conclusions “flat-Earthers” or just “deniers”. Amazing.