Oprah has jumped aboard the foreclosure prevention bandwagon — channeling ACORN’s propaganda campaign to support President Obama’s massive mortgage entitlement expansion.

She’s in Sacramento playing the world’s smallest violin for families who bought more home than they could afford and are now paying the consequences.

I am not shedding tears:

“I think it’s wonderful that Oprah and her crew are giving a voice to this crisis,” Steeb said. “The crisis is much bigger than Sacramento, and the bottom line is we need help to serve the huge number of people that we are now seeing.”

Burke said Winfrey’s producers contacted Loaves & Fishes earlier this month, and said they singled out Sacramento because of its high number of home foreclosures and its growing homeless population.

“I told them that we had a system of care that was overwhelmed even before the recession hit, and that we now are seeing more newly homeless people than ever before.”

Soon, a crew was on the way.

Among the “newly homeless” featured in the show will be Favor Whitesides, who is 36 years old and has three children ages 9 to 13.

Whitesides and her husband, Ryan, lost their home last year after they got in over their heads on an adjustable mortgage, she said. She now lives at the Family Promise shelter at Loaves & Fishes. Her children attend Mustard Seed School. Her husband is bunking with friends.

After living in hotels, run-down apartments and at the Cal Expo winter shelter for a time, Whitesides said, she is grateful to have found Family Promise.

But she never thought she would need such a program.

“Not long ago, we had a Lincoln Navigator and a beautiful home. We had it all,” said Whitesides. “It’s really shocking for my kids to be living this way. But they’re resilient. They’ll be OK.”

Whitesides is hardly proud of her situation but said she thought it was important to tell her story. “People need to know that this can happen, and about programs like this,” she said of Loaves & Fishes.

“This” doesn’t just “happen.”

Falling into debt isn’t like bad weather.

You make choices.

You put your family and your children in this position.

You bought a Lincoln Navigator instead of saving up to pay your mortgage bills.

You made it happen.

Fire Oprah. We need a Dave Ramsey intervention here ASAP.

Here’s some background on Red Ken. Here’s more by the erudite Theodore Dalrymple:

The real significance of the affair is this: only in a frivolous and debased country could a man as inarticulate, rude, and uncouth as Livingstone be considered fit for public office of any kind, let alone an important public office.

As for the Conservative winner, Boris Johnson, he’s a piece of work and I’m not a big fan. Even among the feckless Tories, BoJo has distinguished himself as a real waste of distinguished hair.

Not only has he tried to renounce his American citizenship, apparently more or less on a whim, he’s also a useless appeaser who wants to give nukes to Iran.

But as with many elections this year, I’m resigned to counting the “least worst” outcome as a victory.

Yee-haw! Zippidy-doo-dah! Enthusiasm!

Well, maybe this will help (from the first link) about the election’s consequences for Labour:

Sky’s political editor Adam Boulton says the result is “beyond the worst” predicted by most analysts.

“This a shattering result for Gordon Brown and Labour,” he said.

“200 seats lost was very bad, 300 seats lost was chronic. Beyond that is panic territory.

I blame George Bush!
___________

UPDATE: Looks official. Good day for the Tories and Bojo, about whom there’s more info here.

…the self-confessed “bumbling buffoon” has suddenly become one of the most powerful men in Britain, with an £11 billion budget under his control.

His shambolic appearance, colourful love life and TV comedy career were relentlessly derided by his opponents, but they have in the end turned out to be his great strengths, as they have given him an undoubted popularity with the general public.

MORE: To paraphrase Paul Anka, “You’re on freakin’ notice, Bloomberg.”

{Post by See-Dubya}

Posts from Michelle on Red Ken: one, two.

London Mayor Ken Livingstone called on Britons Saturday not to demonize Muslims after a double car bomb plot was foiled in the capital, amid fears of a Islamist terror threat…”In this city, Muslims are more likely to be law-abiding than non-Muslims and less likely to support the use of violence to achieve political ends than non-Muslims,” he told BBC Radio. “They have played a good and active and growing role in creating a multi-cultural society,” he added.

Livingstone is known as “Red Ken” and “Ken Leninspart” for his far Left, jihadi apologist views. As I noted two years ago during the 7/7 London bombings aftermath, Livingstone was a staunch defender of one of the Islamists’ top, suicide bomb-advocating clerics. Livingstone welcomed Sheikh Yusuf al Qaradawi to London in 2004 for a radical Muslim conference and condemned those who protested as bigots. Read his apologia for al Qaradawi here. More here and here on how Red Ken has defended the fanatical Islamist leader as a “moderate.” Melanie Phillips has more background.

Under Livingstone’s watch, London has become a festering swamp for active jihadis and their support system.

Three cheers for that “multi-cultural society,” eh, Red Ken?

It’s the one-year anniversary of the 7/7 London jihadi bombings. Pajamas Media has extensive, extended coverage throughout the day. Andrew Ian Dodge expresses my feelings today:

“I am still incensed that the Muslim community spends more time whingeing about “islamophobia” than they do trying to route out extremism. I am incensed that whenever question about terrorist attacks by young British Muslims is posed Muslim representatives seem to be far more keen to blame Pres. Bush, Blair, Sharon or anyone else than the evil in their midst.”

What good is remembrance if it is wrapped not in resolve, but appeasement? Diana West nails it:

Just in time for the one-year anniversary of 7/7, a poll conducted for The Times of London indicates that 13 percent of British Muslims believe that the four Islamic suicide bombers who murdered 52 people in London last July should be regarded as “martyrs.”

With a Muslim population in Britain estimated at 1.6 million, this means that some 208,000 British Muslims regard these killers with what can only be described as a worshipful attitude, which is despicable. But Mother England, it seems, is home to an awful lot of despicable people.

One of them, surely, is Anjem Choudary, who made related news this week. Mr. Choudary is a former leader of al-Mujahiroun, a defunct, jihad-inciting group, whose venomous pronouncements on Islamic supremacy have earned him a strange prominence in the British media. He refuses to condemn the 7/7 attacks, says Muslims shouldn’t help police combat jihad terror and advocates sharia (Islamic law) for Britain. During a BBC “Newsnight” appearance this year, the host asked Mr. Choudary why he didn’t simply move to a sharia state like Iran.

“Who says you own Britain, anyway?” Mr. Choudary replied. “Britain belongs to Allah. The whole world belongs to Allah … If I go to the jungle, I’m not going to live like the animals, I’m going to propagate a superior way of life. Islam is a superior way of life.”

In a way, the 39-year-old Essex man was just found guilty of a charge connected to propagating that “superior way of life.” It all started last February when Mr. Choudary organized a march on the Danish embassy in London to protest Mohammed cartoons first published in a Danish newspaper. This wasn’t one of those anti-Danish protests in which people were killed — hundreds died around the Islamic world in this year’s Days of Cartoon Rage — but it was definitely murder-minded. “Behead Those Who Insult Islam,” said one placard. “Slay Those Who Insult Islam,” said another. “Kill Those Who Insult Islam” and, for variety, “Butcher Those Who Mock Islam,” said others. Hundreds of demonstrators marched through London, praising the 7/7 killers or calling for the murder of journalists who publish Mohammed cartoons. And the police stood by.

More accurately, they made sure the protest went off smoothly, as the Times Online reported. “People who tried to snatch away [the placards] were held back by police,” the newspaper reported. “Several members of the public tackled senior police officers guarding the protesters, demanding to know why they allowed banners that praised the ‘Magnificent 19′ — the terrorists who hijacked the aircrafts used on September 11, 2001 — and others threatening further attacks on London.”

Why, indeed. The “Newsnight” show on which Mr. Choudary subsequently appeared included news footage of an English bobby vigorously silencing such a citizen, described as a van driver, who, according to the televised report, had angrily criticized the Muslim protesters. It is tragically enlightening.

“Listen to me, listen to me,” said the policeman, shaking his finger at the van driver. “They have a right to protest. You let them do it. You say things like that you’ll get them riled and I end up in [trouble]. You say one more thing like that, mate, and you’ll get yourself nicked [arrested] and I am not kidding you, d’you understand me?”

Van driver: “They can do whatever they want and I can’t?”

Policeman: “They’ve got their way of doing it. The way you did it was wrong. You’ve got one second to get back in your van and get out of here.”

Van driver: [bitter] “Freedom of speech.”

This vignette wasn’t law and order in action. It was desperate, craven appeasement. As the bobby put it, “You say things like that, you’ll get them riled.” And we mustn’t get them riled. Let Anjem Choudary and his band of thugs praise mass killings, threaten more attacks and advocate murder by beheading on London streets in broad daylight, but don’t get them riled.

More dhimmitude in Britain:

- A call to replace St. George as the patron saint of the Church of England…to avoid offending Muslims.

- P.C. Tories

- More on Choudary at LGF

Andrew Bostom recommends What The West Needs To Know About Islam.

Remember the victims of 7/7.

***

All previous 7/7 coverage here.

Armed police are attending an incident – connected to the attempted London bombings – in the Notting Hill area of the capital after a series of small explosions were heard.

Unconfirmed reports suggest the police are shouting instructions to someone inside a flat whom they are calling Mohammed, possibly in an attempt to arrest the person.

Armed police in blue boiler suits and black flak jackets have been seen donning gas masks.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “We are in the early stages of an armed operation in the W10 area of west London.

“It’s in connection with the attempted bombings on July 21 and cordons are in place as a precaution.”

It appears that a small bomb has gone off, followed by gunfire. Police have said they have used stun grenades.

AP account here. Notting Hill is a chic, upper-class neighborhood in West London. So much for that terrorists-as-poor-oppressed-victims meme.

More at The Counterterrorism Blog.

***
Update: Arrests.

Missed opportunities.

More.

I missed this on ABC News last night, but The UK Times online followed up and Andrew Stuttaford at The Corner linked:

Shocking new images have emerged of unexploded bombs, some packed around with nails, which were found in a car left behind by the July 7 London bombers.

In total, 16 bombs were found in the red Nissan car parked at Luton railway station. It is is believed the car was rented in Leeds by Shehzad Tanweer, one of the four bombers who killed themselves and 52 others in a co-ordinated attack on three London Underground trains and a bus earlier this month.

The sheer number of devices has raised fears that the scale of the July 7 bomb plot was much larger than originally imagined.

The presence of nailbombs graphically illustrates that the bombing cell wanted to inflict the maximum possible pain, injury and risk of death on innocent London commuters, security analysts say.

“You see what is bulging on the sides of the bottle are nails. Many, many nails,” said Robert Ayers, a security expert who was shown the pictures by the American ABC News channel last night.

“And the nails are put there so that when the bomb goes off, the nails will tear tissue and kill people in the area. Bombs don’t kill by concussion. Small bombs, they kill by the blast effects of fragments of glass or metal, and this is designed to kill people.”

Here’s the ABC News transcript of the interview between ABC presenters Elizabeth Vargas and Pierre Thomas, and Robert Ayers, a security analyst who was shown the nailbomb pictures. It ends:

THOMAS: So now, Elizabeth, you understand why police here in London are so deeply concerned. They are in a race against time, against people who want to kill.

Memo to the White House: This is a war. Not a “struggle.”

***
Related:

Latest news on the arrests of bombing suspect Yasin Hassan Omar and others here.
Another suspect is Muktar Said Ibrahim. Here’s what one of his London neighbors told the Belfast Telegraph:

A neighbour of Ibrahim, Sarah Scott, age 23, who lives two doors down from the Stanmore home Ibrahim used to live with his parents, described a conversation they had last November. “We were standing outside our houses chatting. He asked me if I was religious and I said I did not believe in anything. He said I should. He told me he was going to get 80 virgins when he got to heaven if he praised Allah.

“He smiled and laughed as he said it, then he gave me this book about Islam and told me to read it.

Just another case of plotting to blow up the hand that feeds…

The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, said: “The police acted to do what they believed necessary to protect the lives of the public.

“This tragedy has added another victim to the toll of deaths for which the terrorists bear responsibility.”

Confronted with a furtive individual who reportedly refused to obey orders, dressed suspiciously, and fled over a turnstile towards the subway train, London authorities made a fateful split-second decision in a moment of great danger. I have a feeling that no one who works in law enforcement–here or around the world–will blame the police for the actions they took, and I doubt the majority of Britons will either.

***
Update: Read Captain Ed for more.

Arthur Chrenkoff cuts through leftist smoke. Go read the whole thing.

The latest from the Guardian on the hospital search:

Armed police have resumed searching a hospital in central London amid reports that a suspected would-be suicide bomber was on the run inside after explosions on tube trains and a bus today.

Officers went back into University College Hospital (UCH) an hour after calling off their original search, which came after an incident involving explosives at the nearby Warren Street tube station.

Speaking at 4.50pm, a Metropolitan police spokesman said: “We have armed deployment at UCH, but we are not prepared to discuss this further at this stage.”

At 4.30, the Sky News television channel reported that a convoy of police vans and two armed response units had arrived at the hospital, including officers from the anti-terrorist branch.

The report said a patient had seen around 30 armed police inside the building.

Sky News earlier reported that a memo had been sent to hospital staff, at the request of the Metropolitan police, asking them to be on the lookout for a black or possibly Asian man, 6ft 2in tall, wearing a blue top with wires protruding from a hole in the rear.

Staff had been told to call 999 if they saw the suspected bomber, but not to approach him.

Two arrests reported via This is London.

Press conference coming up soon with London Police. Stand by…

1248pm EST. Sir Ian Blair, police commissioner, confirming the four scenes. “Attempts have been made to set off explosive devices…This is an incredibly fast-moving scene…”

London Mayor “Red Ken” Livingstone: “It is not surprising that we’ve had another attempt to take life…We will get through this.”

Q&A Ian Blair: Clearly, the intention must have been to kill…From what I understand, some of the devices remain unexploded.

No fatalities. One reported casualty.

Reporter asks if authorities have suspect descriptions: Blair declines to give them out.

110pm EST. Fox News’ Simon Marks: Hunt for an “unknown number” of suspects is underway. Police helicopters hovering above. “The cordon is wide” around Houston Road — main thoroughfare.

200pmEST. Here’s a quick chemistry lesson from Hyscience on acetone peroxide.

Tonight: Fox News reporting that the two arrests are not related to the terror attacks.

***

Previous:

Not again

El-Nashar had a PhD in biochemistry. He studied chemical engineering at North Carolina State in 2000. Based on this list of recent graduates, it appears he did not complete his course of study at NCSU.

Police in London believe El-Nashar rented a home in Great Britain that was used as a bomb-making factory weeks before the 7/7 attacks.

According to The Sun Online, a University of Leeds spokesman said that El-Nashar “was sponsored by the National Research Centre in Cairo. His visa had been updated by the [British] Home Office this year.”

The University removed El-Nashar from its list of faculty, but he is included in the cached version here.

News 14 North Carolina reports that the Raleigh FBI office is working on the case.

Updates:

Reuters reports that El-Nashar has been arrested in Egypt.

Andy Cochran got El-Nashar’s CV from Steve Emerson and posted it here (Word document).

***

Related:

Jawa Report, “College Professor Implicated in London Bombings; Fourth Bomber Jamaican”

***

Previous:

The 7/7 attacks: Who did it?
The 7/7 attacks: Who did it? Pt II
The 7/7 attacks: Who did it?, Pt III
The 7/7 attacks: Britain’s breeding ground for suicide bombers

Reuters/Sky TV…

The bomber responsible for the attack on a London bus last week was killed in the blast, Sky television reported on Tuesday, quoting police sources.

It was not clear whether the man had intended to detonate the bomb on the bus, Sky said. Police would not confirm the report.

Sky said a decapitated head found near the scene had been that of the bomber.

More Sky news on home raids related to the attacks.

***
1135am EST. Sky: All four bombers died in the attacks. WaPo wire here.

1200pm EST: The Economist reports on breakthroughs in the hunt for the bombers. And those security TV cameras may have come in handy after all.

BBC coverage here (hey, they let the word “terrorist” get through. Someone’s snoozing on the job.)

The Counterterrorism Blog has a chock full of updates.

1230pm EST. Press conference. Scotland Yard executed six warrants in the West Yorkshire area, including three of the four suspected terrorist bombers. All four arrived by train in London on the morning of 7/7. Video shows the group meeting at King’s Cross station.

Evening update…

A closer look at the terrorist bomb squad:

Three of the men lived in Leeds and the immediate fear is that members of a terrorist cell linked to the city are planning further strikes. The mastermind behind the attacks and the bombmaker are both still thought to be at large.

The man who planted the bomb at Edgware Road was named last night as Mohammed Sidique Khan, 30, the married father of an eight-month-old baby, who is believed to have come from the Leeds area.

Two other terrorists were Hasib Hussain, 19, who bombed the bus in Tavistock Square, of Colenso Mount, Leeds, and Shehzad Tanweer, 22, the Aldgate bomber, who lived at Colwyn Road, Leeds.

Police are still trying to identify the fourth, whose remains are believed to be in the bombed Tube train carriage on the Piccadilly Line. It is thought that he comes from Luton.

***

Previous:

The 7/7 attacks: Who did it? Pt. III
The 7/7 attacks: Who did it? Pt. II
The 7/7 attacks: Britain’s breeding ground for suicide bombers
The 7/7 attacks: Who did it?

Hat tip: Andy Cochran at The Counterterrorism Blog.

President Bush vows: “We will not yield.”

LondonToronto Sun columnist Mark Bonokoski has a moving piece today about the woman behind the mask and the man who assisted her:

“She never once cried.”

Her name is Davinia. His name is Paul. Read the whole thing.

***

British expat Mamoon Chowdry is raising money for victims of the 7/7 terrorist attacks. Go here. Excellent idea.

Correction, 7/11: Bonokoski works for the Toronto Sun, not the London Sun.

Biased BBC has a round-up of BBC watchdogs. Harry’s Place has the lowdown on BBC’s editorial scrubbing; also here. Meryl Yourish keeps track here and here.

Smash notes:

When I was in the Sandbox, some of my British counterparts told me that several Royal Navy ships had stopped showing BBC News broadcasts to their crews, in favor of U.S. outlets like FOX and CNN.

Watching the BBC was deemed “bad for morale.”

Flashback October 2001: BBC softpedals terrorism
Flashback October 2002: BBC, Terrorism’s best friend
Flasbhack October 2004: BBC: Terrorism is a myth
Flashback November 2004: BBC reporter cries over Arafat
Flashback January 2005: It’s official–BBC is a turn-off