Kathleen Ann Soliah Rearrested

Kathleen Ann Soliah, who the media insist on calling by her assumed name of Sara Jane Olson when they report about her, has been rearrested after being incorrectly paroled. She should not have been released, since it seems she had another year to serve even under the bizarre rules California uses to determine sentences and release dates.

State corrections officials re-arrested Sara Jane Olson on Saturday – five days after she was released – and announced that they intend to keep her in prison for another year.

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesman Oscar Hidalgo said that officials miscalculated Olson's sentence and gave her a year's more time off her term than she deserved.

"We're launching an investigation to prevent this from happening again," Hidalgo said.

Hidalgo said that Olson, the former Symbionese Liberation Army member who was convicted of killing Myrna Opsahl inside the lobby of a Carmichael bank in 1975 and of trying to bomb police cars in Los Angeles, was detained Friday night at Los Angeles International Airport as she was preparing to fly to Minnesota, where her family lives.

I Pulled out my copy of a book titled The Voices of Guns by Vin McLellan and Paul Avery about the Symbionese Liberation Army who Kathleen Soliah belonged to. The woman killed in a botched bank robbery where Soliah was present – as a participant, and not for the good guys – was Myrna Lee Opsahl. Her husband was on staff at the Carmichael American River Hospital where she was rushed after being shot. Despite desperate efforts by the staff to get him there in time, Myrna Opsahl died before he could reach her side.

Kathleen Soliah can wait to reunite with the family she lied to gain.

The Easter Gunny Drops By

In what has become an annual tradition here at the Crabitat, the Easter Gunny dropped by for a visit:

Fabrique National (Herstal) FNP-9. 9mm parabellum. Polymer body, black-finished stainless steel slide. Double-single action. 16 + 1 magazine capacity (three magazines standard with pistol). Three dot fixed sights. Interchangeable handgrip backstrap (flat or arched). Ambidextrous de-cocking levers, no manual safety. And it has a rail. 

Curiouser And Curiouser

So, the latest trigger for howling outrage from the left is the State Department contractors who have been peeking at Barack Obama's passport records. Somewhat lost in the shrieking is the fact that the records of John McCain and Hillary Clinton were also accessed. What I doubt will get much attention from the left is the curious fact of who one of the State Department contractors worked for: A Barack Obama adviser.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The CEO of a company whose employee is accused of improperly looking at the passport files of presidential candidates is a consultant to the Barack Obama campaign, a source said Saturday.

John O. Brennan, president and CEO of the Analysis Corp., advises the Illinois Democrat on foreign policy and intelligence issues, the source said.

Brennan briefed the media on behalf of the campaign this month.

The executive is a former senior CIA official and former interim director of the National Counterterrorism Center.

He contributed $2,300 to the Obama campaign in January.

When asked about the contribution, a State Department official told CNN's Zain Verjee, "We ethically awarded contracts. Political affiliation is not one of the factors that we check."

On Friday, the department revealed that Obama's passport file was improperly accessed three times this year, and the passport files of the two other major presidential candidates — Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican John McCain — had also been breached.

Will we ever know exactly what happened at State? Possibly not. But one should be asking another question entirely here. What is a man who makes a lot of money from government contracts doing advising a politician seeking a job as Commander in Chief? Anyone see the conflict of interest here? Anyone see the candidate of hope and change doing business as usual? Anyone see a former government employee cashing in on their government contacts? Anyone else see the hope for bigger and better contracts behind any of this?

Anyone see size fourteen clay feet?

Global Warming Er, Never Mind

So, the 'settled' science is not quite as settled as the true believers shout. The much-vaunted climate models are seriously out of whack with actual data. The draconian 'solutions' are, therefore, not solutions at all. Because the earth is not, in fact, warming, despite increased carbon emissions.

Last Monday – on ABC Radio National, of all places – there was a tipping point of a different kind in the debate on climate change. It was a remarkable interview involving the co-host of Counterpoint, Michael Duffy and Jennifer Marohasy, a biologist and senior fellow of Melbourne-based think tank the Institute of Public Affairs. Anyone in public life who takes a position on the greenhouse gas hypothesis will ignore it at their peril.

Duffy asked Marohasy: "Is the Earth stillwarming?"

She replied: "No, actually, there has been cooling, if you take 1998 as your point of reference. If you take 2002 as your point of reference, then temperatures have plateaued. This is certainly not what you'd expect if carbon dioxide is driving temperature because carbon dioxide levels have been increasing but temperatures have actually been coming down over the last 10 years."

Duffy: "Is this a matter of any controversy?"

Marohasy: "Actually, no. The head of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has actually acknowledged it. He talks about the apparent plateau in temperatures so far this century. So he recognises that in this century, over the past eight years, temperatures have plateaued … This is not what you'd expect, as I said, because if carbon dioxide is driving temperature then you'd expect that, given carbon dioxide levels have been continuing to increase, temperatures should be going up … So (it's) very unexpected, not something that's being discussed. It should be being discussed, though, because it's very significant."

Duffy: "It's not only that it's not discussed. We never hear it, do we? Whenever there's any sort of weather event that can be linked into the global warming orthodoxy, it's put on the front page. But a fact like that, which is that global warming stopped a decade ago, is virtually never reported, which is extraordinary."

Duffy then turned to the question of how the proponents of the greenhouse gas hypothesis deal with data that doesn't support their case. "People like Kevin Rudd and Ross Garnaut are speaking as though the Earth is still warming at an alarming rate, but what is the argument from the other side? What would people associated with the IPCC say to explain the (temperature) dip?"

Another must read. Seriously. A couple of graphs to chew on. Recent southern hemisphere sea ice extent is here. Recent northern hemisphere sea ice extent is here. By all means, go over to the site where those came from and poke around. Look at the graphical data.

The data does not match the catastrophic predictions.

Not Post-Racial At All

Mark Steyn on why Obama's big speech proved that Obama is not a post-racial candidate. By embracing the Reverend Jeremiah Wright rather than renouncing Wright's ugly conspiracy theories, Obama proved he could not get beyond the type of nastiness he promised to end.

Before the speech, Slate's Mickey Kaus advised Sen. Obama to give us a Sister Souljah moment: "There are plenty of potential Souljahs still around: Race preferences. Out-of-wedlock births," he wrote. "But most of all the victim mentality that tells African Americans (in the fashion of the Rev. Wright's most infamous sermons) that the important forces shaping their lives are the evil actions of others, of other races." Indeed. It makes no difference to white folks when a black pastor inflicts kook genocide theories on his congregation: The victims are those in his audience who make the mistake of believing him.

The Rev. Wright has a hugely popular church with over 8,000 members, and Sen. Obama assures us that his pastor does good work by "reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS." But maybe he wouldn't have to quite so much "reaching out" to do and maybe there wouldn't be quite so many black Americans "suffering from HIV/AIDS" if the likes of Wright weren't peddling lunatic conspiracy theories to his own community.

Nonetheless, last week, Barack Obama told America: "I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community."

What is the plain meaning of that sentence? That the paranoid racist ravings of Jeremiah Wright are now part of the established cultural discourse in African American life and thus must command our respect? Let us take the senator at his word when he says he chanced not to be present on AIDS Conspiracy Sunday, or God Damn America Sunday, or US of KKKA Sunday, or the Post-9/11 America-Had-It-Coming Memorial Service. A conventional pol would have said he was shocked, shocked to discover Afrocentric black liberation theology going on at his church. But Obama did something far more audacious: Instead of distancing himself from his pastor, he attempted to close the gap between Wright and the rest of the country, arguing, in effect, that the guy is not just his crazy uncle but America's, too.

To do this, Obama promoted a false equivalence. "I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother," he continued. "A woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street." Well, according to the way he tells it in his book, it was one specific black man on her bus, and he wasn't merely "passing by."

When the British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan dumped some of his closest Cabinet colleagues to extricate himself from a political crisis, the Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe responded: "Greater love hath no man than to lay down his friends for his life." In Philadelphia, Sen. Obama topped that: Greater love hath no man than to lay down his grandma for his life.

This one is a must read. The ugly and vicious theories that Wright has championed for at least twenty years now are beyond the pale. They are either the product of a deeply disturbed mind or of one utterly indifferent to the truth for whatever selfish reasons. This is going to haunt Obama's candidacy and cause him serious grief if he wins the nomination. Bet on it.

No Power For You

Britain is reportedly set to announce plans for joint ventures with the French to develop new nuclear technology and to build nuclear power stations. This has provoked howls of outrage and ludicrous claims from the usual suspects, in this case the so-called friends of the earth.

According to the Guardian, the plan calls for Britain to tap into France's nuclear expertise to create both a skilled workforce and technology that can be exported worldwide within the next 15 years.

The paper says Britain is eager to come up with alternatives to fossil fuels.

But Friends of the Earth campaigner Neil Crumpton said: "The idea of selling nuclear power around the world as a solution to climate change is just nonsense.

"Nuclear power is limited, dangerous and requires a lot of hi-tech skills to deal with the waste. By far the better technology is renewables."

Mr Crumpton said desert climates need to look to solar energy, while more northerly countries should embrace wind power.

"It is these safe, simple, easily constructed technologies that the UK and all other countries should be promoting."

Long on rhetoric, short on understanding of the engineering realities as always. One can only continue to point out that the sun does not shine all day and that the reliability of wind power is only about 30%. The reality is that both of these sources of power require 100% instantly available conventional generation to provide reliable service when the wind stops or the sun is covered by cloud (or at night). There are engineering facts that wishful thinking cannot get around, period.

Snowbound For Easter

Britain is experiencing some truly awful Easter weekend winter weather and it is causing chaos all across the country. Up to six inches of snow is expected across wide areas along with high winds and bone-chilling temperatures.

In theory, spring has already sprung.

But in reality, winter still has much of Britain in its icy grip – and it's going to get even tighter.

Yesterday, high winds lashed many parts of the country while temperatures plummeted. It was a bitter prelude to what forecasters warn will be the worst Easter weather for a quarter of a century.

Snowstorms are expected in to hit large swathes of eastern England and Scotland today and tomorrow, with up to six inches likely to settle.

The cold conditions are due to continue into next week, threatening more travel chaos for the return home on Monday after many endured a nightmare Good Friday getaway.

However, it was a mixed picture yesterday, with many parts of southern England enjoying bursts of glorious sunshine.

The upper Midwest of the United States is also getting hammered with massive snowfalls.

More than a foot of snow fell in parts of southern Wisconsin. Nearly the same amount blanketed southeastern Minnesota.

"Everyone is pretty tired of the snow but I think most people will agree these types of storms aren't unusual in the spring," National Weather Service meteorologist Steve Davis said. "These kinds of early-spring, late-winter storms are fairly common."

The timing of the storm was especially disappointing for church officials planning Good Friday services. Events were canceled at dozens of churches.

"It was a hard decision but for the safety of everybody, especially of the elderly, we think it was prudent to make this decision," said the Rev. Jonathan Jacobs of Ascension Lutheran Church in Milwaukee.

Dozens of flights were delayed or canceled at the Milwaukee and Madison airports, leaving officials there bracing for larger crowds over the weekend.

The early spring snow storm was sliding through Detroit and much of Michigan's southern Lower Peninsula, making driving hazardous and forcing the cancellation of several flights.

The National Weather Service said the system was expected to dump up to 12 inches of snow in parts of the region as it tracked through the Ohio Valley on Friday and early Saturday.

Snow forced the cancellation of more than 450 flights and delayed numerous others at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, one of the world's busiest.

That isn't a new lawn ornament out in front of your house. That's the Easter Bunny, flash frozen.

All Units Respond!

If you want to see the police make an all-out effort to catch someone, just have that person steal a doughnut truck. Trust me, the police will pull out all the stops.

The van, owned by Donut Delite of Moline, Ill., was stolen early Thursday while the driver was making deliveries at a hospital in nearby Rock Island. The driver had left the van running, and a man jumped in and headed for Iowa, just over the Mississippi River.

A Benton County, Iowa, sheriff's deputy spotted the van later in the morning, and eight other officers eventually joined the chase. Authorities finally cornered it in neighboring Tama County.

Frank Alvarado, 46, of Moline, Ill., was charged with theft and other counts and was held on $15,000 bond.

The apprehension of the thief (who we suspect had a glazed look when he saw all the police) was lucrative for the cops. The doughnut shop gave them the van load of doughnuts for catching the doughnut-jacker.