We discovered a fine blogger this week, when she linked to one of our articles. She’s been blogging for over a year, and has a lot of interesting material about current political events. Go visit Brenda Bowers and get to know a new friend in the Blogoshpere.

Neither does law professor Ann Althouse. Read her post: The Air Force 1 flight over NYC can’t possibly have been made for the purpose of taking that photograph.

Perhaps others are already saying this, and I’m just pointing out the obvious. But here goes….

Presumably, the picture was taken from the cockpit of one of the F16s that flew alongside Air Force 1. …. There’s no passenger seat. There’s no room for a professional photographer. How does it make any sense to do a big photo shoot without a professional photographer?

One can imagine the F16 pilot steering with his knees while taking a crummy snapshot at high speeds in dangerous proximity to the big Boeing 747. Or not. Some speculate that the flight over New York City, that terrorized the poor folk who experienced 9/11, was a payoff to big campaign donors. Says Ann:

Yes, I know. I’ve moved into conspiracy theory territory. It’s not my thing, normally. But this is just staring me in the face, and I feel required to say what I see. The pieces don’t fit. I want to know more. The Caldera resignation does not turn the page. Who was in Air Force 1?

Suzy Rice is another bloggeress who is unconvinced — THE OBAMA FLYOVER:

My conclusions are that since the flight was from the outset deemed to be “Air Force One,” it was formatted to include the U.S. President and that’d be Barack Obama, who alleges he wasn’t on the plane despite the format….

Thus, the escapade appears to have been more than mere photo-taking but some unexplained escapade by Barack Obama, instead, involving who knows who was likely also on board. And if not Obama, then the title of the flight makes no official sense. More than likely, it was another event for entertainment purposes by Barack Obama and related whomevers….

Visit Suzy’s blog BIRD and read all of her interesting take on this. Also, Suzy is a great artist, and she always embellishes her posts with some interesting graphics. Enjoy.

P.S. We always thought paybacks for big campaign donors involved the Lincoln bedroom…

Get to know William A. Jacobson, Associate Clinical Professor of Law, Cornell Law School, Ithaca, NY. As we watch the growing “tea party” movement and contemplate Glenn Beck’s civil unrest scenarios, you can check Jacobson’s unique blend of legal knowledge and historical literacy.

A case in point is the current post, in which he discusses the “tea party” events in comparison with Soviet oppression of their peasant class:

The Revolt of the Kulaks Has Begun

The beginning of a protest movement against Barack Obama’s redistributive policies is underway. Though still small, every movement starts somewhere. While called the “Tea Party” after the Boston Tea Party, this movement is similar to movements throughout history where the producers of society refuse to have their property and income confiscated….

History tells us, however, that economic redistribution plans fail because the producers of society would rather not produce, than have the fruits of their production taken away and given to others. Obama can raise the tax rates on income, but he cannot force people to generate income to be taxed. People may just say “no.” This resistance will not come from evading taxes, but from evading taxable income. In the end, as must all economic redistributors, Obama either will have to resort to repressive measures, or he will have to abandon his redistributive plans.

The best example of this phenomenon is the forced collectivization of farms in the Soviet Union….

Go visit his blog Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion and read all of it.

We found this terrific listing of Democratic tax cheats and bribe takers written by blogger Dwayne Horner at Townhall — Democrats by the Numbers:

$34,000: the amount of federal taxes that Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner (D) failed to pay during his employment at the International Monetary Fund despite receiving extra compensation and explanatory brochures that described his tax liabilities.

$75,000: the amount of money that the head of the powerful tax-writing committee, Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY), was forced to report on his taxes after the discovery that he had not reported income from a Costa Rican rental property. His excuses for the failure started with blaming his wife, then his accountant and finally the fact that he didn’t speak Spanish.

$93,000: the amount of petty cash each Congressional representative voted to give themselves in January 2009 during the height of an economic meltdown.

$133,900: the amount Fannie Mae “invested” in Chris Dodd (D-CT), head of the powerful Senate Banking Committee, presumably to repel oversight of the GSE prior to its meltdown. Said meltdown helped touch off the current economic crisis. In only a few years time, Fannie also “invested” over $105,000 in then-Senator Barack Obama.

$140,000: the amount of back taxes and interest that Cabinet nominee Tom Daschle (D) was forced to cough up after the vetting process revealed significant, unexplained tax liabilities….

There is much more, so go read the entire post.

The text of Dwayne’s post has gone viral without attribution to the author as an email entitled Trivia Pursuit…. We were able to source the material through SodaHead, which we recommend as a resource for websurfers. The reference is here, and you can learn more about using SodaHead here.

Young Iranians are risking their lives to blog for freedom. Half of Iran’s population is under 25 years old, and Iran is the third largest nation of bloggers.

Lots of folk blog as a form of social networking, and share ideas on all the various lifestyle topics — sports, cars, cooking, sewing, music, books they’ve read. Others join the global conversation to influence the political process where they live, and American Daughter falls into that category. But the most serious bloggers are those from countries that do not allow free speech. They risk their very lives to talk about forbidden subjects among themselves, and to put the truth before the world.

ReadWriteWeb has posted an article about the Iranian bloggers:

Iran: A Nation of Bloggers

Millions of young bloggers are challenging the conservative government of Iran, at great personal risk. The following “infographic” video from the Vancouver Film School tells this story powerfully in just 2 minutes….

Here’s the video.

Look to Germany for extreme media bias regarding the upcoming US presidential election. Two astute German/English bloggers at Davids Medienkritik keep a watch on the German media’s commentary on the American scene. They have just documented an astounding instance of negative bias:

SPIEGEL’s Marc Pitzke calls Bill Ayers “Widely Respected University Professor”

It’s election season and - as usual - things are getting ugly at SPIEGEL ONLINE. In his most recent article, SPIEGEL ONLINE America correspondent Marc Pitzke smears John McCain as a liar and characterizes Bill Ayers as a “widely respected university professor”.

Pitzke’s entire article, like so much of his work, reads like a half-plagiarized mix-tape featuring a “best of” play list of the latest dogma of the American Left. It smacks of a regurgitated mix of commentary from the Huffington Post, Daily Kos, Keith Olbermann and other popular left-wing media outlets - hastily re-blended and spoon fed by Mr. Pitzke to a German audience desperate to reinforce its own prejudices about the United States.

Returning to Ayers - let’s not forget that our “widely respected university professor” stated to the New York Times right around 9/11 that he didn’t regret setting bombs in the 1960s and wished he could have done more. Is Ayers “widely respected” in the United States? Hardly. If the opposite were true, he would have never become the obvious liability to the Obama campaign that he is today….

Dear readers, you might want to add Davids Medienkritik to your regular websurfing itinerary!