Sunday, July 31, 2011
ATFE Investigates U.S. Army’s Lost AK-74s: I Feel So Much Better Now
Read the rest.When twenty-six AK-74 rifles and one Dragunov sniper rifle went missing from a U.S. Army storage depot at Fort Irwin, California, however, Army officials knew just who to call: the ATFE.
After all, no other Federal agency has more experience with losing rifles than the ATFE, which spent years deliberately losing track of thousands of rifles, most of which were ultimately delivered to Mexican drug cartels and used to murder civilians, police, and two U.S. law enforcement agents (so far).
Labels: Guns
Obama Pledge Video - the scary bits!
Hey, Big D.C. Spenders
Don’t You See?
Good news from the Middle East
I have been very, very skeptical about the revolutions that are taking place in the Middle East. The current version of Islam is the problem.
But this ... is a hopeful sign. Top Syrian Generals Defect – Announce Formation of Free Syrian Army to Fight Assad
The current regime has been brutal.
Administration officials have tried to "convert" the Assad dictatorship.
Via Gateway Pundit
But this ... is a hopeful sign. Top Syrian Generals Defect – Announce Formation of Free Syrian Army to Fight Assad
The current regime has been brutal.
Administration officials have tried to "convert" the Assad dictatorship.
Via Gateway Pundit
A Syrian Major-General has deserted Assad’s army along with a group of other officers and joined the rebels.
In an Arabic video clip posted on Youtube on July 29, 2011, the officer, Major-General Riad El As’ad is seen in the company of other officers, announcing the establishment of the “Free Syrian Army whose main goal will be to fight the army of oppression headed by President Bashar Assad”.
As’ad accused the Assad regime of crimes against the Syrian people and called on the officers and soldiers in the Syrian army not to aim their weapons at the people. He further called on them to join the Free Syrian Army.
Labels: Islamofascism, Middle East
You're Gonna Pay
The Other McCain provides the lyrics to the first verse:
Old people grumblin’ ’bout funded medications
Subsidized housing in the capital of the nation
3 trillion dollar deficit on top of 15 trillion dollar debt
Bullet trains, windmills, and monkeys on cocaine
Monkeys on cocaine
You’re gonna pay
You’re gonna pay
You’re gonna pay
Someone’s got to pay
Labels: Economy, Government waste, Liberalism, social security, taxes
NY Times record: Russia, China, Cuba and now Egypt.
I have always been a skeptic about the eventual trajectory of the revolts in Egypt and elsewhere in northern Africa. I don’t believe that the revolutionary urges found there today are going to make life better for the people or make the region more peaceful.
As if on cue, the Muslim Brotherhood is flexing its muscles as it prepared to take over Egypt. The NY Times keeps insisting that the Muslim Brotherhood is the “moderate” voice of Islam and wants us to be afraid of “Salafists.” I can foresee the day, not too far in the future that the NY Times will proclaim that the takeover by the Muslim Brotherhood will the triumph of moderation. That will set up a few billion dollars in foreign aid to people who want to kill us … moderately.
And example of just that thinking came from the comments on Ann Althouse’s blog which linked to the NY Times article. Here is commenter Lyle:
Lyle at 9:07 PM
We're just going to have deal with the fact that Islamism is popular with some of our fellow man at this time and they will be as religious as they want to be. As long as they don't get overly violent... that's okay.
Lyle at 9:46 PM
They're still violent, but as long and they don't massacre Christians or secularists, they can hate all they want to.
Lyle at 1:08 AM
I expressly wrote that if they start killing people it will be bad.
J. Allen at 10:30 AM
You’re naïve about Egypt and, probably, the larger picture too. Opposition to the Brotherhood is being eliminated, churches are being burned and bombed, and Christians and secularists are being murdered.
Lyle at 11:22 AM
I'm not ignorant about what is going in Egypt. I'm aware of the flash mob attacks on Christians. I'm aware of what the Muslim brotherhood is.
However, my point is that Egypt is a majority Muslim country. And those Muslims are quite religious at the moment and they're going to be very religious. And there's nothing we can do about it. If they kill some Christians, they kill some Christians.
At some point you expect Lyle to tell us you can't make an omelet without cracking a few eggs. He begins his defense of the transformation of Egypt by saying that everything was OK as long as things did not get "overly violent" which leaves him with lots of wiggle room. He ends up with “If they kill some Christians, they kill some Christians.” I guess killing Christians does not fall into the category of being “overly violent.” Religious Muslims got to do what Religious Muslims got to do.
There’s no hope for Lyle. What is interesting to watch is the reaction of those who hailed the toppling of the old order in the Middle East as the beginning of the new dawn of freedom, just as, I am sure, those who saw the toppling of Russia’s czar as the road to democracy. It didn’t quite work out that way and I predict that the hopes of those who saw the false dawn in the Middle East will also see their hopes dashed.
And then there are the Lyles who will play the role of the true believers who went to the USSR after the Communists took over to proclaim, like Lincoln Steffens: “I have seen the future and it works.”
Labels: Egypt, Islamofascism, Liberalism, Middle East, TimesLies
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Washington Is Annoyed at Wall Street's Failure to Panic
Obama and the MSM has been screaming that the end of the financial world is here and blaming the Tea Party. I have told people who ask that there will not be a default. And the markets have not paniced. After the TARP debacle people are a lot more cynical.
...lots of people in Washington, D.C. expected that this would be a week marked by panic in the markets. Stocks would tank. Bonds would get clobbered. The dollar would do something dramatic. And all of this would help convince reluctant lawmakers that they had to reach a compromise on the debt ceiling.
"We were following the script from 2008. When the market collapsed after TARP failed, that spooked everyone enough to get them to fall in line. We thought the same thing would happen this week," he said.
Instead, the market has just been on a quiet, non-panicked slide.
Stocks have sold off by a couple of percentage points, but nothing that indicates a real fear trade in the works.
Labels: Economy, investing, media, Obama
Lessons From Wisconsin: What happens when you take on the public sector unions and win? You get a better state.
Baseline budgeting.
Just in case you wonder why budget cuts always lead to more spending, you need to understand "baseline budgeting." I'll let Mark Steyn explain:
Washington created its own form of fantasy accounting: "baseline budgeting," under which growth-in-government is factored in to federal bookkeeping as a permanent feature of life. As Arthur Herman of the American Enterprise Institute pointed out this week, under present rules, if the government were to announce a spending freeze – that's to say, no increases, no cuts, everything just stays exactly the same – the Congressional Budget Office would score it as a $9 trillion savings. In real-world terms, there are no "savings," and there's certainly no $9 trillion. In fact, there isn't one thin dime. But nevertheless that's how it would be measured at the CBO.
Baseline budgeting assumes that the budget will grow say, 7% each year, and any budget that arrives at a figure lower than that is called a "cut." The baseline budget allows politician in Washington to spend more money every year while lying to us about their frugality. The fact is that none of the budget proposals being debated are going to save a penny. They're only fighting over how much more they will spend and who is going to be paying for it.
Our only hope for meaningful reform is the election of 2012.
Labels: congress, Economy, Liberalism
Getting attacked by Nancy Pelosi is good for Republicans
Getting attacked by Nancy Pelosi the Botoxed shrew is good for Republicans.
The Other McCain has yet another example that supports my theory that the last time Pelosi got her Botox treatment the needle slipped and ended up in her brain.
This follows her claim that
The Other McCain has yet another example that supports my theory that the last time Pelosi got her Botox treatment the needle slipped and ended up in her brain.
Yes, she really said that!Republican presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann’s failure to address a disturbing trend of teen suicides within her own congressional district does not reflect well on her White House ambitions, House minority leader Nancy Pelosi told The Advocate Thursday.
This follows her claim that
"What we're trying to do is save the world from the Republican budget. We're trying to save life on this planet as we know it today."
What is it with Liberals? Obama said that his election would lower the sea levels and heal the planet. When he said that I was waiting for the self deprecating grin, the "aw shucks" look or the punch line, but he was dead serious.
Pelosi, Obama, Reid, and the entire Hollywood/MSM cabal are simply a richer, better dressed version of Harold Camping and his followers; apocalyptics in tailored suits. But there is this difference, Camping did virtually no damage, Liberals are deadly.
Labels: crime, Liberalism, McCain, Obama, Pelosi, Religion
Two Thoughtful Washington Times Editorials
America abandons Obama
Obama’s economic collapse
Read the whole thing. The promise and the reality are diverging at an increasing pace.
So much for hope and change. With the economy growing worse and worse, the grand promises of Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign have faded as the reality of malaise takes hold.
Obama’s economic collapse
Smack in the middle of the debt-ceiling crisis comes word that the economic situation is worse than everyone thought. New Commerce Department figures show the gross domestic product (GDP) growing at an anemic 1.3 percent rate in the second quarter of 2011. Even more alarming, the initial first-quarter 1.9 percent figure was sharply downgraded to a scant 0.4 percent. If the second-quarter rate is later reduced that much, it would signal that the country is in a recession. Most Americans suffering during this historic downturn wouldn’t be surprised....
The first Obama budget promised GDP growth of 4.0 percent in 2011. Instead, the current annual rate is 1.3 percent, and year-to-date growth annualizes to less than 1 percent. The promised unemployment rate for 2011 was 7.1 percent, to drop to 6 percent in 2012. Actual June unemployment was 9.2 percent, up from 8.8 percent in March ...
Read the whole thing. The promise and the reality are diverging at an increasing pace.
When I read or hear the remaining supporters of Obama and his policies tell us how wrong the Tea Party people are, I just want to tell them to shut up and sit down. They tried it their way and we are well and truly screwed with a double dip recession and trillions more in debt. We are literally worse off that when Obama took office because the hole he dug us is deeper and the tools we have to get us out are fewer.
Labels: Economy, Obama, The Press
Friday, July 29, 2011
Wonder what the loans from China are paying for? Wonder what Obama wants to tax you more for?
Your tax dollars at work: Judge Judy - Here's Who You Support With Taxes
You are paying Duane Brooks, Jr. to learn how to play the guitar and diddle his roommate on YOUR dime. So far Duane has cost the taxpayer over $70,000, but that's a mere down payment. He's only 21. Any bets that he won't be on the taxpayer payroll 5, 10, 20, 50 years down the road?
You are paying Duane Brooks, Jr. to learn how to play the guitar and diddle his roommate on YOUR dime. So far Duane has cost the taxpayer over $70,000, but that's a mere down payment. He's only 21. Any bets that he won't be on the taxpayer payroll 5, 10, 20, 50 years down the road?
Labels: Education, Liberalism, Obama, taxes
Obama hits low of 40% in Gallup tracking poll
President Obama's approval rating has hit an all-time low of 40% in the Gallup daily tracking poll.
His disapproval rating is up to 50%, the poll says.
Jammie Wearing Fool notes:
He's lucky to be where he is. If he didn't have the lamestream media propping him up he'd likely be around 15% by now.
Glenn Reynolds: HOW’S THAT DEBT-FIGHT WORKING FOR YOU?
The Other McCain: Obama Speaks, Markets Fall
Doug Ross:
Attention UAW Members: If You Want to Keep Your Jobs, Perhaps You Should Look at the Republican Candidates in the Next ElectionYeah! How many UAW union members will it take to produce the few cars that get over 55 MPG?
Investors piling into securities just before downgrade?
From today's Wall Street Journal:
Does this make any sense at all? The author gives reasons:
Let's see if I understand this: the three major rating agencies are promising to cut the AAA rating on US debt, but "investors" are flocking to these bonds prior to the most publicized downgrade in human history?NEW YORK—Many investors sold stocks and other riskier assets and flocked back to safe-haven Treasury bonds as disappointing U.S. economic data added to fears about the global growth outlook.
Does this make any sense at all? The author gives reasons:
- Slower economic growth.
- The Europeans have even bigger problems.
- The size of the market for US Treasury bonds.
Spenditol
Labels: congress, Economy, Liberalism
Obama aide says premature to say if U.S. will prioritize debt
Translation: the Messiah has no plan.
Jarrett told Reuters Insider that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was studying the options and would disclose his plans closer to August 2.
"It's premature," she said. "I know that he's going through an analysis now with his team. As it gets closer to the date, he will announce what he will be doing.
Default, Dear Brutus, Is Not In Our Stars, But In Ourselves
From Iowahawk:
What is the outcome if the debt ceiling isn't raised? It's too horrible to contemplate:
August 2 is but a few days away, and you know what that means: I need to buy mom a birthday card. Also THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE BUDGETARY MELTDOWN END DAYS WHERE WE FACE FINAL ARMAGEDDON UNLESS WASHINGTON GETS ITS BAR TAB RAISED ANOTHER TRILLION. Or something.
What is the outcome if the debt ceiling isn't raised? It's too horrible to contemplate:
Read the whole thing.Cowboy poetry utterly lacking in metre.
General Motors unfairly forced to build cars that people want, for a profit.
Chaos reigns at Goldman Sachs, who no longer knows who to bribe with political donations.
Mankind's dream of high speed government rail service between Chicago and Iowa City tragically dies.
Chevy Volt rebate checks bounce, stranded owners more than 50 miles from outlet.
Labels: debt, Economy, humor, Iowahawk
Where's the sacrifice on the part of politicians?
Andrew Klavan: The Facts of Life for Liberals
The Media [Reuters] on the debt negotiations.
The Reuters story reviewing the debt ceiling negotiations blames Republicans for failing to pass a bill that is sure to be rejected by the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Boehner's plan, which would cut spending by about $900 billion and raise the debt ceiling for a few months, is sure to be rejected by the Democratic-controlled Senate but could factor into an eventual compromise.
His inability to win quick passage in the Republican-run House could weaken his position at the bargaining table.
My question is “why?” If I went into a negotiating session and my opponent knew that I could not “compromise” certain principles, that would strengthen my position, not weaken it. Any bill that passes has to get past both the Senate AND the House. Yet for some reason, the House Republicans are the ones assigned by the media to come up with the plan what can then be shaped, molded, stapled, and mutilated by the Senate into something that the Democrats want? That’s not a negotiating stance; it’s the starting point for capitulation.
Great; let’s see the Reid-Obama plan; you surely have one, right?Top Senate Democrat Harry Reid wants to raise the debt ceiling by enough to kick the crisis beyond the November 2012 presidential election.
Reid indicated late on Thursday that he may advance his own bill, which cuts spending by $2.2 trillion over 10 years, in the Senate rather than use Boehner's proposal as the basis for a compromise.
Labels: biased reporting, Economy, Republicans, The Press
The most expensive car crash in history?
Leftists are "passionate advocates" the Right is "nuts."
A Barton Hinkle on how to get good press: be a Left Wing "firebrand."
Read the whole thing.The late Sen. Paul Wellstone of Minnesota was a man of the hard left—"the Senate's most liberal member," as Mickey Kaus once termed him in the liberal online journal Slate. Wellstone opposed the first Iraq War—and the second one. He was no friend of the Second Amendment—or the First. He thought the government should strictly control campaign ads by groups such as the Sierra Club and the NRA. Even The New York Times, which supports the rationing of political speech, called Wellstone's idea a proposal "of questionable constitutionality."
Wellstone died in a plane crash in 2002, and was immediate lionized. The Washington Post called him one of the Senate's "leading liberals. . . . Colleagues from across the political spectrum praised Wellstone as a passionate advocate for his beliefs." He was "a hero to the left," the paper said, noting "there was little doubt where his heart lay." To The New York Times, Wellstone was "a rumpled, unfailingly modest man," a "firebrand," and although "his opponents always portrayed him as a left-wing extremist," Wellstone was "so happy, so comfortable, so unthreatening that he was able to ward off the attacks." Rumor has it he once fed a crowd with five loaves of bread and a couple of fish.
Tea Partiers ... are "obstreperous," "flatly and dangerously wrong," and "not interested in governing." (These are all quotes from major media organs, not obscure blogs.) They're "crazy" proponents of a "dangerous delusion"—"ridiculous," "extremist," "ultraorthodox tax haters," players of "ideological games," "totally unrealistic," authors of "madness," etc. etc.
Labels: Conservative, Liberalism, Tea Party, The Press
Thursday, July 28, 2011
What I don’t understand.
What I don’t understand.
I just watched Special Report with Brett Baier and both Stephen Hayes and Charles Krauthammer – who I admire - are insisting that if Republicans pass the bill that Speaker Boehner crafted they will be in a strong position at the negotiating table.
I have to admit that I need a lot of things explained to me when something is not glaringly obvious but I kept asking: “Why?”
Harry Reid has already said the bill will not pass the Senate. Obama has said he will veto it if it miraculously reaches his desk. I take both at their word. The House passed and the Senate killed the “Cut, Cap, Balance” and even NPR said that it puts the “Onus on Democrats.”
Yet here we are not even one week later and the Republican leaders in the House, after negotiating with themselves have offered another sacrificial lamb to be slaughtered, and we are told that THIS TIME it will put the Republicans in a strong position. All that seems to be accomplished is that Conservatives who were elected with the strong support of the Tea Party movement are being “whipped” to betray their constituents.
I don’t want to see the government forced to stop paying the bills for its vital obligations. But I totally fail to see how offering up bills that Democrats will vote down gets us even one step closer to fiscal sanity or responsibility.
Perhaps the smarter people in the room can enlighten me.
UPDATE: For an blow-by-blow description here's The Other McCain.
For some analysis looking a few steps ahead, here's Rush Limbaugh.
Here's Redstate: More Proof It Is A Trap
Jim Geraghty At National Review Online:
Sarah Palin reminds Republican freshmen why they were sent to Washington:
UPDATE: For an blow-by-blow description here's The Other McCain.
For some analysis looking a few steps ahead, here's Rush Limbaugh.
Here's Redstate: More Proof It Is A Trap
Jim Geraghty At National Review Online:
Fine, Senate Democrats. Let’s vote on the Obama plan. You do have copies, right?I'm tired of this issue, but that's just how the Left wins: they stay at the table until you get tired and give in.
Sarah Palin reminds Republican freshmen why they were sent to Washington:
... stick to the principles that propelled your campaigns. When you take your oath to support and defend our Constitution and to faithfully discharge the duties of your office, remember that present and future generations of “We the People” are counting on you to stand by that oath. Never forget the people who sent you to Washington. Never forget the trust they placed in you to do the right thing.
Labels: Economy, Politics, Republicans
Devastating Chinese train crash
A glimpse of the future of high speed rail.
NEW YORK TIMES READER KILLS DOZENS IN NORWAY
Ann Coulter on the NY Times and the new meaning of "Christian."
Read the rest.A casual perusal of Breivik's manifesto clearly shows that he uses the word "Christian" similarly to the way some Jewish New Yorkers use it to mean "non-Jewish." In this usage, Christopher Hitchens and Madalyn Murray O'Hair are "Christians."
Labels: Christianity, Coulter, crime, Europe, TimesLies
How to buy your $25 million private jet.
Palin to Keynote Tea Party Rally in Iowa
In the latest indication that her sights are still set on a presidential run, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has accepted an invitation to keynote a Tea Party rally in Waukee, Iowa, on Sept. 3, RealClearPolitics has learned....Many prominent political analysts and Republican operatives have expressed skepticism that Palin is seriously considering a presidential bid, since she has not taken many of the steps that candidates traditionally take before jumping into the race, such as signing early-state consultants, contacting key powerbrokers and boosting their travel schedules.
But Palin has a long history of shunning the Republican Party machinery and taking an unconventional approach to campaigns -- a mind-set that appears to have been in play throughout the past several months.
If Palin runs it will be as a non-Republican, anti-establishment candidate. Her positioning is almost perfect. No one likes what's going on in Washington (people thing the politicians there are corrupt). Obama will have the economy as an anchor around his neck. Romney only has money; his support is an inch deep and his only advantage is that he's not Obama. Perry is little known outside of Texas, and he's not Obama. The rest of the Republicans, with the exception of Bachmann can't seem to get any traction with the voters, although they would all put up a respectable showing if they got the nomination.
So far Palin has run a flawless non-campaign campaign; allowing her potential opponents to self destruct while standing out of the the way of the carnage. Her run would be both scary and exhilarating. Can the media continue their campaign of destruction? Can the Republican establishment sabotage her? Can she actually win against all the forces arrayed against her?
Pray for the Republic.
Woman Sues Government after Sex Injury On Work Trip
This happened in Australia, but I can definitely see it happening here.
I would think that no one would want to take this sort of thing to court. I would be wrong.The woman, who cannot be identified, was injured when a glass light fitting came away from the wall above the bed as she was having sex with a man in 2007.
The light struck her in the face, leaving her with injuries to her nose, mouth and a tooth, as well as "a consequent psychiatric injury" described as an adjustment disorder.
She is claiming entitlement to compensation because her injuries were caused "during the course of her employment" because she was sent to a regional town to spend the night ahead of a meeting early the next day.
Her lawyers argue that the injury was sustained "in an ordinary incident of life, commonly undertaken in a motel room at night -- namely, lawful sexual activity."
Buying gold?
As the fear of inflation takes hold and the value of treasury bonds gets called into question, more people are looking at owning some gold.
The easiest and lowest cost way of owning gold is to buy a gold ETF (exchange traded fund) which owns actual gold bullion held in a vault. You can buy and sell this just like a stock and the only added cost is the commission to buy or sell. One of the biggest ETFs has the ticker symbol GLD and is traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
Gold is not for everyone. It pays no dividend. You can’t eat it or live in it. Its intrinsic value is hard to measure. Its price has risen so far and fast that there may be a “gold bubble.” I just wanted to add my two cents because Glenn Reynolds and Stacy McCain both mention it today.
Labels: Economy, Instapundit
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
More good news from the Obama depression: study finds massive, permanent job loss from de facto drilling moratorium
Read more @ Doug Ross.Maybe the hapless, lying sack of weasel dung (which is the phrase he prefers, I hear) named Timothy Geithner can pin the blame for this story on, say, Dwight D. Eisenhower or Barry Manilow.
Gas Pump Sticky-Note Campaign Part Deux
Dictatorial Daydreams
This is getting frightening.
Bush was supposed to usher in the dark night of Fascism according to the Left in the MSM, entertainment and academia. Today, because Obama has to deal with a fractious Republican party, many of whom were elected specifically to rein in government spending and regulation, there is a serious call for an Obama dictatorship … by these same people.
James Taranto in today’s Wall Street Journal has done us all a favor by providing us with a list of Liberals who really do recommend that Obama take dictatorial powers.
First there’s the would-be dictator himself who suggests that it would be much simpler for him to rule by decree.
"Some people want me to bypass Congress and change the laws on my own," Obama told the National Council of La Raza Monday. He paused while the crowd chanted, "Yes, you can! Yes, you can!" and then said, "Believe me, the idea of doing things on my own is very tempting."
Then we have the NY Times in a news story saying that
“… the president could instruct the Treasury to borrow money without congressional authorization on the basis of the 14th Amendment
From academia we have
“Jack Balkin, a professor at Yale Law School, on what would happen if Obama did assert this authority: "At the point at which the economy is melting down, who cares what the Supreme Court is going to say?" Balkin told the Times. "It's the president's duty to save the republic."
From the opinion pages of the Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson:
"It seems to me that definitive action--unilateral, if necessary--to prevent the nation from suffering obvious, imminent, grievous harm is one of the duties any president must perform"
Of course a power grab is more palatable if the people standing in Obama’s way can be classified as enemies who are a threat to the country. Which is what Nicholas Kristof, columnist for the NY Times does when he calls opponents of Obama:
He says they are a:
"... national security threat," … "Only it's not coming from abroad, but from our own domestic extremists," whom Kristof compares to "Iran and al Qaeda."
Thomas Friedman, who likes the way the Chinese Communists run their country likens Conservatives to the 9/11 perpetrators, insane killers who blow people up and kill innocent civilians:
…"If sane Republicans do not stand up to this Hezbollah faction in their midst, the Tea Party will take the G.O.P. on a suicide mission."
Another academic chimes in. Geoffrey Stone, a law professor from the University of Chicago, also calls Republicans terrorists:
“By threatening to wreak havoc with the national interest, [Republicans in Congress] are attempting to terrorize rather than persuade the nation into doing what they want. . . .”
Republicans are crazy animals according to another professor:
“David Barash, a psychology professor at the University of Washington, likens congressmen to bull elephants who have become "temporarily 'crazy' " and “… calls for a dictatorial power grab by President Obama, which he describes in the benign terms of governing "as best he can for the good of the country."
These people are not the fringe of the Democrat party. These are Liberal opinion leaders and "respected academics" who are actually advocating a coup d'état by Obama if Republicans don’t submit. This is serious stuff. This is how it often begins. Demands from a clique that someone take dictatorial power is the traditional way for tyrants to subvert democracy. These kind of expressions should be taken as seriously as death threats because they actually threaten the life the freedom we have enjoyed for almost 250 years. This cannot be tolerated in a free country.
“… enemies of the state.”
Labels: Academia, Fascism, Liberalism, Obama, The Press
VIDEO: ATF agent who implemented 'Fast and Furious' says 4 federal agencies were 'full partners'
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Screenshot of Facebook page of Anders Behrings Breivik
Some curious aspects of this suspect.
His picture (headshot) look professionally done. Not the usual thing for a farmer.
The Facebook page is in English, not Norwegian.
There are no "friends" or people he linked to, or people that linked to him.
The references to books and movies are virtually all English or American.
Darleen at Althouse note this:
His picture (headshot) look professionally done. Not the usual thing for a farmer.
The Facebook page is in English, not Norwegian.
There are no "friends" or people he linked to, or people that linked to him.
The references to books and movies are virtually all English or American.
Darleen at Althouse note this:
What I find odd is that I got a chance to look at the FB page before it got shut down. There were no friends, no groups just a bunch of posts about music plus the odd interests in movies/games/tv that were 100% American.
It struck me at the time that it was set up like a "spam" site ... totally fake for a purpose.
Misunderstanding: Why would US Government Bonds Be Downgraded?
Those who think that a downgrade would result from failure to raise the debt ceiling have it exactly backward. The issue facing the US – and the world – is the apparent inability of too many governments to control their urge to spend beyond their means.The United States is not on a downgrade watch because the markets fear we won’t raise the debt ceiling in time to avoid a default; the United States is on a downgrade watch because the markets believe the debt-ceiling debate presents the last real opportunity for the government to enact a meaningful fiscal-reform program before it is well and truly too late to avoid a national crisis. The credit agencies, wisely or not, aren’t worried about the short-term political fight leading to an immediate default, but about the near- to medium-term fiscal situation, which is plainly unsustainable.
Glenn Reynolds reader Michael McFatter is beginning to suspect that the issue is the failure to face reality; misunderstanding the opposition.
I’m worried. See if you follow my concern. Thus far the Democrats have proved intractable on these negotiations. But more than that, they seem to be living in denial as regards the national debt and more importantly the deficits. Right now we’re projecting deficits of 1.5 trillion every year for the next ten years. But those projections are based on growth rates of something like 3 – 3.5% from 2013 onwards. Which is unrealistic when you consider the current debt load plus piling on 1.5T more every year. It’s obvious that these projections are pure fantasy. They’re in denial about Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid sustainability and about Obamacare. They genuinely believed O-care was going to “bend the cost curve”! It’s ridiculous.
Now, we all know this. None of this is new information. What has me worried is the idea that the Democrats ACTUALLY DON’T UNDERSTAND THIS IS THE END OF THE ROAD. What if they actually aren’t capable of recognizing when they’ve lost? Or when we’ve run out of other people’s money? None of these people work for a living. Their concept of where money comes from and how wealth is created (and destroyed) is completely divorced from reality because they live in a government bubble. And the very small minority among them that do understand this from previous jobs and experience are okay with Progressive policies aimed at leveling/equalizing/delivering-economic-justice because they just assume that the economy can handle some siphoning. And usually it can. But not at this volume or for this time scale.
Here’s the position I think we may be in. We’ve been negotiating with the President and The Democrats in Congress on the assumption that they’re sane. It’s okay to play hardball with these guys because eventually, whether they like it or not, reality insists upon itself and they have to cave. It’s a painful process so you expect some tantrum throwing and caterwauling, but eventually they HAVE to accept reality. Except if they’re not sane. If they want five apples and there’s only two plus two but they CAN’T ACCEPT that two plus two equals four. Orwell wasn’t just writing a parable about the eventual end point of IngSoc. He was describing what human psychology can drive Ministers to inflict upon the populace for the sake of “justice”. I’m worried they’ll pull the trigger on default as just one more “political” step in the march towards freedom from want or whatever other principle they’re operating under. They’re playing this game as if they could win, as if taxes in a downturn are a good idea with benign consequences. As if debt equivalent to GDP is survivable for the world’s anchor economy/currency, let alone sustainable.
And so maybe, just maybe, Republican strategy (what little there is of it) has badly misread the opposition. Obama tried to add 400 billion in taxes to a deal he had already agreed with Boehner at the last minute. Boehner walks out cause Obama is negotiating in bad faith and has been all along, but what if Obama is actually incapable of good faith negotiation? I think right now that it’s actually possible we won’t see a deal at all. Because the Republicans are looking at the math and at reality and saying “Okay, Democrat demands can’t be serious because they can’t possibly work” and Democrats are looking at politics and how it works and saying “We don’t have to give in cause that’s not how you win these things. You pin it on the other guy politically and then reap the political dividends.” I wasn’t around for the start of WWI, but I get the feeling I understand Kennedy’s fascination with Tuchman’s Guns of August. I’m not talking about a shooting war, but about leaders overestimating and underestimating and just plain misjudging each other in a brinksmanship scenario. In short, it could be too late to do anything when people finally wake up. The crisis may have already arrived with an economic and fiscal momentum all it’s own that no amount of dealing or compromise or statesmanship can stop..
Labels: Culture, Democrats, Economy, Obama
The Obama Presidency
Obama 41%, Ron Paul 37%
Amazing:
This is all about the debt crisis and despite the MSM spin, it's not breaking well for Obama and the Democrats.Congressman Ron Paul may be a long shot to win the Republican presidential nomination, but he runs competitively with President Obama right now.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely Voters shows Paul picking up 37% of the vote, while the president earns 41%.
Labels: election, Obama, Polls
Friday, July 22, 2011
Rich people can do whatever they want.
Bill Gates commenting on the fact that solar energy is "cute" ... and impractical:
Bill Gates in an interview in the July issue of Wired magazine:
[Chris] Anderson: When you look at the big picture [for the future of energy], where should we be focusing besides nuclear? On massive solar plants in the desert? On middle-size stuff for office roofs? Or is there a reinvention that could be done right in the home?
Gates: If you're going for cuteness, the stuff in the home is the place to go. It's really kind of cool to have solar panels on your roof. But if you're really interested in the energy problem, it's those big things in the desert. . . .
I think people deeply underestimate what a huge problem this day-night issue is if you're trying to design an energy system involving solar technology that's more than just a hobby. You know, the sun shines during the day, and people turn their air conditioners on during the day, so you can catch some of that peaking load, particularly if you get enough subsidies. It's cute, you know, it's nice. But the economics are so, so far from making sense. And yet that's where subsidies are going now. We're putting 90 percent of the subsidies in deployment—this is true in Europe and the United States—not in R&D. And so unfortunately you get technologies that, no matter how much of them you buy, there's no path to being economical. You need fundamental breakthroughs, which come more out of basic research. . . .
Anderson: So suffice to say we will find no solar cells on the roof of the Gates residence?
Gates: Oh, we like to be cute like everyone. For rich people, this is OK. Rich people can do whatever they want.
And that really is the point, isn’t it? Rich people like Bill Gates can afford to be “cute.” They can afford to put solar panels on their houses even if the cost is astronomical and the payback is miniscule because to them a few thousand or even a few million dollars is a rounding error. They’ll never feel it even for a moment.
For the country as a whole to indulge some poorly educated schmuck - who didn’t know that there is no such thing as “shovel ready jobs” - in Fantasy Island projects like large scale solar energy or high speed rail from nowhere to nowhere – even as the country’s in such a deep debt hole that it can never hope to climb out – is insanity. Only a totally irresponsible or incurably dumb electorate puts up with this crap.
Labels: Economy, energy, Obama
Americans With No Abilities Act (AWNAA)
(Found in my mailbox)
Washington, DC July 20, 2011
The US Senate is set to pass sweeping legislation that will provide new benefits for many Americans: The Americans With No Abilities Act (AWNAA). President Obama said he will sign it as soon as it hits his desk.
The AWNAA is being hailed as a major legislative goal by advocates of the millions of Americans who lack any real skills or ambition.
'Roughly 50 percent of Americans do not possess the competence and drive necessary to carve out a meaningful role for themselves in society,' said California Senator Barbara Boxer. 'We can no longer
stand by and allow People of Inability to be ridiculed and passed over. With this legislation, employers will no longer be able to grant special favors to a small group of workers, simply because they have some idea of what they are doing. We are legalizing another protected class of Americans.'
In a Capitol Hill press conference, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) pointed to the success of the U.S. Postal Service, which has a long-standing policy of providing opportunity without regard to performance. Approximately 74 percent of postal employees lack any job skills, making this agency the single largest U.S. employer of Persons of
Inability.
Private-sector industries with good records of non-discrimination against the Inept include retail sales (72%), the airline industry (68%), and home improvement 'warehouse' stores (65%). At the state government level, the Department of Motor Vehicles also has an excellent record of hiring Persons of Inability (a whopping 83%).
Under The Americans With No Abilities Act, more than 25 million 'middle man' positions will be created, with important-sounding titles but little real responsibility, thus providing an illusory sense of purpose and performance.
Mandatory non-performance-based raises and promotions will be given so as to guarantee upward mobility for even the most inept employees. The legislation provides substantial tax breaks to corporations that promote a significant number of Persons of Inability into middle-management positions, and gives a tax credit to small and medium-sized businesses that agree to hire one clueless
worker for every two talented hires.
Finally, the AWNAA contains tough new measures to make it more difficult to discriminate against the Non-abled, banning, for example, discriminatory interview questions such as, 'Do you have any skills or experience that relate to this job?'
'As a Non-abled person, I can't be expected to keep up with people who have something going for them,' said Ken Cox, who lost his position as a lug-nut twister at the GM plant in Flint , Michigan due to his inability to remember 'righty tightey, lefty loosey.' 'This new law should be real good for people like me,' Cox added. With the passage of this bill, Cox and millions of other untalented citizens will finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.
Said Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL): 'As a Senator with no abilities, I believe the same privileges that elected officials enjoy ought to be extended to every American with no abilities It is our duty as lawmakers to provide each and every American citizen, regardless of his or her inadequacy, with some sort of space to take up in this great nation and a good salary for doing so.'
Labels: congress, humor, Liberalism
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
“Change Direction”
Mark Steyn on the "Dead Parrot" Economy
The US economy is going to do poorly "unexpectedly" until Obama's removed from office.The media are loyally doing their best for the Flatline Administration by insisting that the dead parrot economy is not deceased but merely resting for an “unexpectedly” longer period of time than had been expected. Nevertheless, having nothing to show for blowing a trillion dollars of other people’s money does at least make the point in a fairly spectacular way: The distinguishing feature of the west at twilight from Sacramento to Albany to Brussells to Athens is the failure of the Chu class — the People Who Know What’s Best For Us.
Labels: Economy, Instapundit, Obama
Wealthy GOP donors "couldn't live with Sarah Palin," voted for Obama instead
From Pundit and Pundette.
I have a wealthy friend who told me that he voted for Obama because he could not vote for Palin.Several of them said: I’m Republican but I voted for President Obama, because I couldn’t live with Sarah Palin. Many said they were severely disappointed in the president. The biggest complaint was what several called “class warfare.” They said they didn’t understand what they had done to deserve that: If you want to have a conversation about taxation, have a conversation. But a president shouldn’t attack his constituents – he’s not the president of some people, he’s president of all the people. Someone mentioned Huey Long populism.
Cry me a river. They looked at Obama's Harvard law degree and that sharp pant crease and thought he was one of them, or at least more so than that uncredentialed piece of Wasilla trash, with all her vulgar "you betchas" and excessive children, including that embarrassing baby she doted on. And these snobs, instead of apologizing for contributing to the downfall of America, have the nerve to complain about "class warfare."
After many years of observation I realize that wealth (of the earned kind) is not the result of wisdom. Instead, it's most often the result of very hard work, a bit of luck, the willingness to take risks, and the monomaniacal devotion to a single idea. But like the academic genius, it often means that they are foolish outside the area of their focus and expertise. In fact. because they are so focused on their one big idea, they are often less wise than average about other things.
Labels: Liberalism, Obama, Palin, Republicans
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Walsh to Obama: Quit Lying
Walsh doubles down on 'quit lying' call on CNN
Labels: biased reporting, Economy, The Press
Rep. Walsh takes on Chris Matthews on MSNBC's Hardball
Labels: biased reporting, Democrats, Politics, The Press
Warren Buffett: "RUBE"
Warren Buffett pushes back against the Obama administration's demonization of corporate jets while appearing on CNBC
Buffett joins Steve Wynn and Ann Althouse in the not-very-exclusive, ever growing, ever expanding "Rube Club."
Welcome Instapundit readers. Please look around & don't forget to visit Stacy at The Other McCain
Buffett joins Steve Wynn and Ann Althouse in the not-very-exclusive, ever growing, ever expanding "Rube Club."
Welcome Instapundit readers. Please look around & don't forget to visit Stacy at The Other McCain
Democrat Wynn CEO Goes On Epic Anti-Obama Rant On Company Conference Call
Here's a guy who helped Dingy Harry Reid get re-elected in Nevada by giving his employees time off during the day and telling them to vote for Reid. What does he have to say about Obama?
And I'm saying it bluntly, that this administration is the greatest wet blanket to business, and progress and job creation in my lifetime. And I can prove it and I could spend the next 3 hours giving you examples of all of us in this market place that are frightened to death about all the new regulations, our healthcare costs escalate, regulations coming from left and right. A President that seems, that keeps using that word redistribution. Well, my customers and the companies that provide the vitality for the hospitality and restaurant industry, in the United States of America, they are frightened of this administration.And it makes you slow down and not invest your money. Everybody complains about how much money is on the side in America.
You bet and until we change the tempo and the conversation from Washington, it's not going to change. And those of us who have business opportunities and the capital to do it are going to sit in fear of the President. And a lot of people don't want to say that. They'll say, God, don't be attacking Obama. Well, this is Obama's deal and it's Obama that's responsible for this fear in America.
The guy keeps making speeches about redistribution and maybe we ought to do something to businesses that don't invest, their holding too much money. We haven't heard that kind of talk except from pure socialists. Everybody's afraid of the government and there's no need soft peddling it, it's the truth. It is the truth. And that's true of Democratic businessman and Republican businessman, and I am a Democratic businessman and I support Harry Reid. I support Democrats and Republicans. And I'm telling you that the business community in this company is frightened to death of the weird political philosophy of the President of the United States. And until he's gone, everybody's going to be sitting on their thumbs.
Well, Wynn is very right about people in business not wanting to grow or expand with what Wynn calls this "weird" political philosophy of Obama. But it’s not weird at all. What’s astounding is that Wynn supports Reid, the man who’s doing everything he can to implement Obama’s socialist plan.
There is nothing “weird” about Obama’s philosophy; it’s simply socialism, a political philosophy that’s been around for hundreds of years. What’s weird is that Wynn supports the very people who are implementing it.
Labels: Democrats, Economy, Obama
Monday, July 18, 2011
‘President Blowhard’ Sabotages Talks
The Rape of Men
Read the whole thing.Sexual violence is one of the most horrific weapons of war, an instrument of terror used against women. Yet huge numbers of men are also victims. In this harrowing report, Will Storr travels to Uganda to meet traumatised survivors, and reveals how male rape is endemic in many of the world's conflicts
Labels: sexual politics, violence, War
"The MSM are largely acting as a giant repeater..."
J.E. Dyer uses the Gunwalker scandal and the debt negotiations to illustrate how the MSM simply repeats the Obama talking points without a scintilla of analysis.
The mainstream media are failing to address two central truths about key domestic issues for America this summer.
1. Agencies of the US federal government created the “Gunwalker” problem.
2. President Obama is the one who will decide who gets paid after 2 August, if there is no budget deal.
The two issues are largely unrelated, except through the principles on which the Obama administration has handled them and the MSM are dealing with them. The latter principle is one of slavishly repeating the talking points put out by the Obama administration. In both Gunwalker and the budget stand-off, the administration has relied on obfuscation and unrealistic narratives to frame the public discussion. And the MSM are largely acting as a giant repeater, propagating the original signal without modification or loss of fidelity.
In reporting on Gunwalker, even Fox is parroting the Obama line. For some reason the fact that agents of the federal government ordered gun shop stores sell to straw buyers, in bulk, morphs into a reason to restrict people's rights to buy guns. It's insane, but we're talking about people who are not hired for their brains.
It was the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE) that directed licensed gun dealers and local agents to ignore activity they would otherwise have pursued as suspicious, under existing law and existing enforcement standards. The problem in this situation is not current law or enforcement standards; it’s BATFE.
The outcome of the operation clearly doesn’t justify increasing gun restrictions on the people. The falsity of the premise articulated by Ms. Stoddard is so laughably obvious, it can’t help evoking the propaganda campaigns of Soviet-era Pravda. Government creates a problem, the media talk it up, and then government increases restrictions on the people to “fix” it.
When the talk turns to social security checks it should be obvious to anyone who can fog a mirror that there is enough money coming in to the treasury to pay social security recipients. If the checks don't go out it will be because Obama decides that other people are going to get paid first. It's his decision, not members of congress.
If Obama presides over a sea of unsent Social Security checks in August, that too will be a problem of his administration’s making. As confirmed in Congressional hearings this week, there will be plenty of funds to service the debt and meet Social Security and defense obligations after 2 August. Choosing not to meet them – choosing instead to pay, for example, the salaries of union workers in the non-defense civil service – will be up to Obama
Labels: biased reporting, Obama, The Press
The Social Security Acounting Trick
One of the positive by-products of the debt negotiations is the fact that more and more people are learning that the Social Security Trust Fund is an accounting fiction.
Sometimes it takes a crisis for the truth to come out. Bernie Madoff would still be scamming his clients if the market had not tanked and enough people wanted their money back. The public would still think that there is a real Social Security trust fund with real assets in it until Obama threatened that Social Security checks may not go out unless the government could borrow more money.
Mark Steyn:
That monthly Social Security check? Fuhgeddabouddit. “I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on August 3rd if we haven’t resolved this issue,” declared the president. “Because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it.”
But hang on. I thought the Social Security checks came out of the famous “Social Security trust fund,” whose “trustees” assure us there’s currently $2.6 trillion in there. Which should be enough for the August 3rd check run, shouldn’t it? Golly, to listen to the president, you’d almost get the impression that, by the time you saw the padlock off the old Social Security lockbox, there’s nothing in there but a yellowing IOU and a couple of moths. Indeed, to listen to Obama, one might easily conclude that the whole rotten, stinking edifice of federal government is an accounting trick. And that can’t possibly be so, can it?
I'm curious why we on the Right, including those in elected office are not making a bigger deal about this.
Labels: social security, Steyn
Sunday, July 17, 2011
The wisdom of Sarah Palin
“Helicopter” Ben Bernanke created about $600 billion dollars that he used to buy much of this year’s deficit. Other than stimulating the stock market (yeah!), it does not seem to have done much for the “real” economy: the one in which the unemployed find it impossible to find a job.
The Fed thought it would have a stimulative effect, but the economy grew at an anemic 1.7% for the second quarter of 2011 (after a lousy 1.9% for the first quarter). Team Obama told us that this would be the “summer of recovery.” Do you feel that recovery yet?
I’m deeply concerned about the Federal Reserve’s plans to buy up anywhere from $600 billion to as much as $1 trillion of government securities. The technical term for it is “quantitative easing.” It means our government is pumping money into the banking system by buying up treasury bonds. And where, you may ask, are we getting the money to pay for all this? We’re printing it out of thin air.
The Fed hopes doing this may buy us a little temporary economic growth by supplying banks with extra cash which they could then lend out to businesses. But it’s far from certain this will even work. After all, the problem isn’t that banks don’t have enough cash on hand – it’s that they don’t want to lend it out, because they don’t trust the current economic climate.
And if it doesn’t work, what do we do then? Print even more money? What’s the end game here? Where will all this money printing on an unprecedented scale take us? Do we have any guarantees that QE2 won’t be followed by QE3, 4, and 5, until eventually – inevitably – no one will want to buy our debt anymore? What happens if the Fed becomes not just the buyer of last resort, but the buyer of only resort?
All this pump priming will come at a serious price. And I mean that literally: everyone who ever goes out shopping for groceries knows that prices have risen significantly over the past year or so. Pump priming would push them even higher. And it’s not just groceries. Oil recently hit a six month high, at more than $87 a barrel. The weak dollar – a direct result of the Fed’s decision to dump more dollars onto the market – is pushing oil prices upwards. That’s like an extra tax on earnings. And the worst part of it: because the Obama White House refuses to open up our offshore and onshore oil reserves for exploration, most of that money will go directly to foreign regimes who don’t have America’s best interests at heart.
We shouldn’t be playing around with inflation. It’s not for nothing Reagan called it “as violent as a mugger, as frightening as an armed robber, and as deadly as a hit man.” The Fed’s pump priming addiction has got our small businesses running scared, and our allies worried. The German finance minister called the Fed’s proposals “clueless.” When Germany, a country that knows a thing or two about the dangers of inflation, warns us to think again, maybe it’s time for Chairman Bernanke to cease and desist. We don’t want temporary, artificial economic growth bought at the expense of permanently higher inflation which will erode the value of our incomes and our savings. We want a stable dollar combined with real economic reform. It’s the only way we can get our economy back on the right track.
How's that for a prediction that came true? There's even talk about QE3! And from a woman who's caricatured by the "smart set" as too stupid to breathe.
The national debt is getting so big that there is no reasonable way of actually paying it off. The classic way that a nation reneges on its debt is not via bankruptcy or by default but by inflating its currency. Paying off debt with dollars that have the buying power of 50 (or 40 or 30 or 20) cents today. Of course that stiffs not just the people who have bought your debt, but it also robs the nation’s savers and pensioners as the things they can buy with their money becomes ever more expensive and they can afford to buy less and less.
I am really amazed that her enemies both Right and Left continue to portray Palin as stupid when she’s actually exhibiting a high level of basic wisdom on economic and legislative issues. That resonates with the American people. Since the election of 2008 Palin has been largely in a defensive mode while keeping her visibility up; occasionally making sharp, insightful remarks that sting, like her reference to “death panels” which did incredible damage to ObamaCare.
If she should become a candidate for President, she can move from defense to offense, using some of her past comments as ammunition, showing just how on-target her ideas have been. Palin would be the most formidable Republican opponent to Obama, no matter the hatred of the Left or the disdain of the Establishment Right. The fact the she has enemies on either side will make her even more attractive to the vast majority of the American people who give low marks to both the President and Congress.
It helps to have the right enemies.
Labels: debt, Economy, election, Obama, Palin
Approve: 44%
A new Obama record!
Is the University of California Committed Enough to Diversity?
James Taranto in the Wall Street Journal recounts the almost endless ways that UC is focussed on "diversity." AT UC San Diego they have the:
.... Chancellor's Diversity Office, the associate vice chancellor for faculty equity, the assistant vice chancellor for diversity, the faculty equity advisors, the graduate diversity coordinators, the staff diversity liaison, the undergraduate student diversity liaison, the graduate student diversity liaison, the chief diversity officer, the director of development for diversity initiatives, the Office of Academic Diversity and Equal Opportunity, the Committee on Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Issues, the Committee on the Status of Women, the Campus Council on Climate, Culture and Inclusion, the Diversity Council, and the directors of the Cross-Cultural Center, the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Center, and the Women's Center.
Apparently in this time of tight budgets, that's not enough commitment. The school
...is creating a new full-time "vice chancellor for equity, diversity, and inclusion."
Meanwhile the budget for academics is being slashed. Now, if only UC San Diego could get rid of its students, life would be perfect for its administration.
Could we outsource them?
Read more »Labels: Academia, Economy, Liberalism
Saturday, July 16, 2011
The future of the lightbulb ban
The phantom of the Obama budget.
Blaming It All On the Tea Party, an essay by James W. Ceaser and John York [H/T Glenn Reynolds] explores the way the Left mischaracterizes the Tea Party movement. The Tea Party has now become the villain of choice for creating an impasse on negotiating a spending and borrowing settlement. Toward the end they note the fact that Obama has not proposed a budget since his original proposal was voted down in Congress earlier this year, receiving exactly zero votes from either party.
In my years of watching politics, it has always been the President who has proposed the federal budget. That’s why he has the Office of Management and Budget. In the past, congress has had input and the actual legislation is always introduced in the House, but preparing the budget was always the responsibility of the President.
This has been the case for the lifetime of all the members of the press. The fact that they are allowing Obama to get away with claiming that it’s his job to wait for Congress to present a budget to him, rather than the other way around, is testimony to how far in the tank they are for this man.
Ceaser and York:
“We are witnessing the sorry spectacle of high-minded commentators, who only recently were chanting in unison for greater transparency in our politics, and who now bite like a school of perch at the cheap plastic lures and leaks being tossed out by White House flaks. These are men and women without an ounce of pride in either themselves or their craft.”
If any more proof was needed that there are no honest reporters left it is the total silence about this fact, one that everyone knows and no one acknowledges.
But let’s be realistic about the situation the country finds itself in. I cannot imagine a budget proposal coming out of the Obama White House that would actually address the critical issue of government overspending. If I were one of the high-minded commentators I would maintain that Obama’s OMB simply cannot produce a budget proposal that grapples with the problems of the debt and the deficit. To have them spend time and effort fruitlessly is probably not a good use of their time. OMB Director Jack Lew is probably better off preparing to testify before the House of Representatives.
This leaves Americans with a dilemma. Let’s face it; Congress is very bad at actually writing good legislation. ObamaCare is exhibit A and Frank-Dodd is exhibit B. Monstrosities both and preparing the federal budget is at least as complex. So I’m not sure what can be accomplished about an actual budget before the federal debt ceiling is reached. It is widely reported that the federal government last passed a budget over 800 days ago. That means that the largest government in the world is winging it financially. If that doesn’t worry you, you’re not worried about the right things.
Labels: Economy, Obama, Tea Party
TORONTO SCHOOL BOARD: Only White People Are Racist.
From Blazing Cat Fur:
Racism:
"While people in different contexts can experience prejudice or discrimination, racism, in a North American context, is based on an ideology of the superiority of the white race over other racial groups. Racism is evident in individual acts, such as racial slurs, jokes, etc., and institutionally, in terms of policies and practices at institutional levels of society. The result of institutional racism is that it maintains white privilege and power (such as racial profiling, hiring practices, history, and literature that centre on Western, European civilizations to the exclusion of other civilizations and communities). The social, systemic, and personal assumptions, practices, and behaviours that discriminate against persons according to their skin colour, hair texture, eye shape, and other superficial physical characteristics."
Labels: Canada, Education, Race
Mr. Obama... you’re not my president! [Papa B]
Dear Mr. Obama,
You’re not my president... and this decision was yours, not mine.
Read the whole thing.
Labels: Obama
How the welfare state begins and ends.
The Dreaded Lemonade Crimes Unit Strikes Again
Drudge Roundup on Debt Limit 7/16/2011
OBAMA: 80% OF AMERICANS WANT HIGHER TAXES...
GOP's no-tax proposal 'not serious'...
McConnell: We'll take it to the people...
'I WILL WIN'...
'Don't you remember my campaign?'
Warns of 'Armageddon'...
PALIN: 'LIES'...
BOEHNER: HE HAS NO PLAN...
KRAUTHAMMER: CALL THE BLUFF!
GOP's no-tax proposal 'not serious'...
McConnell: We'll take it to the people...
'I WILL WIN'...
'Don't you remember my campaign?'
Warns of 'Armageddon'...
PALIN: 'LIES'...
BOEHNER: HE HAS NO PLAN...
KRAUTHAMMER: CALL THE BLUFF!
Woman Gropes TSA Agent's Breast at Security Checkpoint
Turn around is fair play?
Labels: TSA
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Liberal Reactionaries
I have noticed that the newspapers are full of comments and demands that things go on just as they have always gone. The most enthusiastic supporters of Barack "HopeN'Change" Obama sound like the most hidebound reactionaries. "Don't change anything" is the cry from the Left. Keep running for the cliff because there is no cliff. There will never be an end to other people's money.
Mired in a deep recession with no end in sight, a debt that can never be repaid, a world that hates us more that it did when Bush was president, where is the hope and where is the change? Instead, the Left demands "more of the same."
Labels: Economy, Liberalism, Obama
My Experience with The Other McCain
Robert Stacy McCain blogs as “The Other McCain” and is a freelance writer. And a very good one.
I recently wrote a little essay after reading at Ann Althouse that she believed that her decision to vote for Obama was reasonable. She was not caught up in all the hype … oh, no … her reasons for voting for Obama were well thought out, as she put it: "a rational choice."
Anyway, I decided to e-mail McCain my essay and he wrote back that I was being much too gentle; that she needed to be mocked. It appears that a professional wordsmith is much better at it than me and he proceeded to eviscerate Althouse.
I have to admit that I enjoyed the lesson in really gutting and filleting another blogger. It also told me that I am too gentle when dealing with people that I admire for some of their other work. Ann Althouse is an example of someone who is in the right place at the right time and with the right tools to bring the bare knuckles of the political fight in Wisconsin to life. McCain is an example of a great writer who has the courage of his convictions and is willing to put himself out there in expressing them.
Plus, I got a lot of hits … with never a mention by Glenn Reynolds.
Thanks.
Labels: blogging
European forces are wearing out from the beating they are delivering to the Libyan dictator.
Rope-a-dope by Richard Fernandez.
Reuters reports that some NATO countries participating in the Libya operation have punched themselves out, although Khadaffy is still standing. “New U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Monday that some NATO allies operating in Libya could see their forces ‘exhausted’ within 90 days.” European forces are wearing out from the beating they are delivering to the Libyan dictator.
Destroyed cotton T-shirt, Balmain, $1,624
Via American Digest
This is a little hard to believe, but believe it ...
I cannot imagine having enough money to buy this crap and then using that money to buy it.
Support the Troops! Summer Military Fashion - Discover More Summer Fashion Trends on ELLE:
Destroyed cotton T-shirt, Balmain, $1,624, collection at Jeffrey, NYC. Canvas shorts, Bottega Veneta, $590. Shell earrings, Celestina, $780. Webbing belt, Burberry, $325. Ribbon ID bracelets, Miansai, $120 each.
Total cost of looking like an albino Somalian amazon, $3,559 (Plus Tax).
I cannot imagine having enough money to buy this crap and then using that money to buy it.
Drama Obama
From Drudge
WALKS OUT OF WHITE HOUSE MEETING...
POUTS: 'ENOUGH IS ENOUGH'...
'DON'T CALL MY BLUFF'...
CAMP DAVID SUMMIT?
WALKS OUT OF WHITE HOUSE MEETING...
POUTS: 'ENOUGH IS ENOUGH'...
'DON'T CALL MY BLUFF'...
CAMP DAVID SUMMIT?
Labels: Obama
