Ace Reviews The Publishing Landscape ... and Laughs

I know you guys get tired of commenting on the impending doom of major newspapers night after night, but as a very smart military blog it’s our responsibility to document their death spirals. I know how sad it makes you to read these stories. After all, when they’re gone, who will Decide for us? I fear the nation will become rudderless, not knowing who to turn to as we struggle to find opinions of our own. It’ll all be over soon enough though...

Well, what's taking so long?

The prolonged death of newspapers is due to the fact that there is just enough advertising that some are scraping by. I have the solution.

What, I ask rhetorically, is the most valuable information in a newspaper today?

The news?

Please! By the time it arrives at my door it’s so old it’s begun to putrefy.

The opinons?

Yeah, sure! (sarcasm tag)

No! Take it from me, it’s the advertizing! For one thing, it’s probably the most honest thing you’ll find in the paper. Second, it’s timely. Third, it can save you money.

My wife goes though the Virginian Pilot with scissors and cuts out coupons and checks to see which stores have sales on things she needs.

OK, but do we really need to clutter up the advertizing content with the useless “old news” and crappy opinions? No, I say. And do we need to pollute the planet with the daily refuse that is the newspaper? No, I say again.

So here’s my idea: web sites that consist of nothing but advertizing specifically of the kind you now get in the newspaper, which the option of printing coupons that you can turn in to the store.

How’s that for a problem solver? We end paper pollution, slow the destruction of our forests, eliminate the need of barrels of polluting ink, get rid of the cretins that pretend to think for us, lower the cost of advertizing and solve the problem of what we would do without the newspaper.

This will drive a stake though the newspaper's heart.

Yes!

UPDATE: Are there any start-up Angels out there?

Woman Injured in Power Tool Sex Toy Encounter

How stupid do you have to be?

"confidence builder in chief "

Obama:

"A smidgen of good news and suddenly everything is doing great. A little bit of bad news and ooohh , we're down on the dumps," Obama said. "And I am obviously an object of this constantly varying assessment. I am the object in chief of this varying assessment."

OK. I feel better now.

Citi doesn't need more government capital

Problem solved. Without Geithner.

"Chris, how disingenuous are you?"

From Powerline:

Even though Chris Matthews is a loudmouth and a fool, former Bush administration spokesman Ari Fleischer accepted his invitation to join him on on his MSNBC Hardball show. Matthews asks him why he's appearing on the show. Is he like Napoloeon returning from Elba? Because you invited me, Fleischer responds.

In the course of the sixteen-minute interview segment, Fleischer adroitly responds to the low blows with which Matthews hits him. By the end, I can hear Howard Cosell's voice in the back of my mind: "Will somebody stop this fight? His face is a pulpy mess!"

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Show me the money

Bernard Madoff is reported to have made off with $50 billion or so.

That’s a lot of money.

So where is it?

Because, my friends, it’s virtually impossible to spend that amount of money as a private citizen over a 20 year period without making a really huge splash, and Bernie – despite a fairly lavish lifestyle – did not do that.

I mean, Donald Trump made headlines with his lifestyle and Madoff did not live like The Donald. Not that he didn’t live well, just not with the gaudy flash of Trump

Going to various web sites, this is what we can discover. Please keep in mind all values are estimates and should be taken with a large helping of salt.

Bernie had a Manhattan apartment valued at $7 million and a Palm Beach mansion worth $23 million, a Palm Beach condo worth around $1 million, and a Long Island home worth $3.3 million.

Bernie is half owner of an Embraer Legacy jet worth $24 million, and is also a yachtsman with a boat in the US and another that he keeps in France.

Bernie’s wife Ruth appears to have $70 million in her name.

So we have identified somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 million in boats, planes and homes. And let’s say that he spent $24 million a year ($2 million a month) to live the lifestyle of the rich and famous. Over a 20 year period that would consume roughly $500 million dollars. Let’s say that it took more than that to live the lavish lifestyle. So double that and make it a round billion dollars.

That still leaves somewhere in the neighborhood of $49 billion dollars unaccounted for. Now you realize how hard it is for the super-wealthy to spend their way to poverty. It’s virtually impossible to spend all that money fast enough. The only way to lose a fortune of that size is to lose it in the stock market. And Bernie says that he didn’t invest his victim’s money.

Some of you history buff may know about the "Gold of Tolosa." The story is told of a Roman general and consul named Quintus Servilius Caepio who found a huge cache of gold hidden by a German tribe in the town of Tolosa (modern Toulouse). The find was huge, about 750,000 pounds; larger than the gold in Rome’s treasury at the time. The gold was sent back to Rome under guard, but the convoy was ambushed and the gold vanished. The general belief was that the ambush was actually staged by a band organized by Caepio himself who hid the gold. He was tried and sent into exile but his children were widely believed to have received the gold from their father on his death.

The disappearance of nearly 98% of the money that Madoff supposedly collected from his victims makes me suspect that there is more to the story than has been told. And makes me wonder why there was such a quick plea bargain, no trial, and no apparent cooperation on the part of Madoff in tracking his Gold of Tolosa.

Extreme Justice

It's not a TV show.

That's no moon! That's the National Debt!

Carville Wanted Bush to Fail

Just in case you had not read this on other blog posts or got your news from the drive-by-media.

Dear IRS

I am sorry to inform you that I will not be able to pay taxes owed April 15, but all is not lost.

I have paid these taxes: accounts receivable tax, building permit tax, CDL tax, cigarette tax, corporate income tax, dog licence tax, federal income tax, unemployment tax, gasoline tax, hunting licence tax, fishing licence tax, waterfowl stamp tax, inheritance tax, inventory tax, liquor tax, luxury tax, medicare tax, city, school and county property tax (up 33 percent last 4 years), real estate tax, social security tax, road usage tax, toll road tax, state and city sales tax, recreational vehicle tax, state franchise tax, state unemployment tax, telephone federal excise tax, telephone federal state and local surcharge tax, telephone minimum usage surcharge tax, telephone state and local tax, utility tax, vehicle licence registration tax, capitol gains tax, lease severance tax, oil and gas assessment tax, Colorado property tax, Texas, Colorado, Wyoming, Oklahoma and New Mexico sales tax, and many more that I can’t recall but I have run out of space and money.

When you do not receive my check April 15, just know that it is an honest mistake. Please treat me the same way you treated Congressmen Charles Rangle, Chris Dodd, Barney Frank and ex-Congressman Tom Dashelle and, of course, your boss Timothy Geithner. No penalties and no interest.

P.S. I will make at least a partial payment as soon as I get my stimulus check.

Texas Man Writes IRS & Asks for Same Tax Leniency Treas.Sec Geithner and Dems Get

Seems reasonable.

Iowahawk: "Dear Barry"

I've had a bit of a bad luck patch over the last month (losing my job, watching my 401k completely disintegrate, etc., etc.) and ended up relocating from a high rise in Lincoln Park to a new neighborhood along the Fullerton underpass on the Kennedy Expressway. I was a bit worried about the move at first, but my new neighbors have been great. In fact on move-in day they greeted me with a grocery cart "welcome wagon" containing some lovely and practical gifts like cans of Sterno, cardboard, fortified wine, and a hypo-allergenic harmonica. I would like to show my appreciation with thoughtful "thank you" gifts. Can you recommend something nice that won't break my budget ($3.00 total for 6 gifts)? Please help!


Barbara in Chicago

Dear Barbara:

With my busy schedule of entertaining foreign dignitaries and celebrities at the White House, I know how important a well chosen gift can be
...
Obviously we wanted to return the nice gesture so I sent my interns out on a scavenger hunt for an appropriate present. They couldn't find anything in the West Wing, but luckily Costco was open and was running a 25-for-the-price-of-10 clearance sale in the DVD department.

Read the whole thing.

Sorry about that, Dr. Mengele

Who would be against finding better ways of treating hypothermia or malaria? What monster would prevent us from discovering a cure for gangrene? Who is against better treatment for burns? Given the scarcity of fresh water in many parts of the world, can we find ways of putting seawater to human use? And who knows what useful science can result from the study of twins?

Somehow, at one time and place, certain experiments designed to find the answers to these worthy questions were found to be a crime against humanity. But thanks to the policies of the Obama administration, these outworn shibboleths have been replaced. Today questions of the ethics of these studies must be dismissed as wrongheaded. Science, not politics or ethical standards, must take precedence.

Regarding the destruction of human embryos for the purpose of conducting stem cell research, Obama said this:

…our government has forced what I believe is a false choice between sound science and moral values.

Not only must this science go forward, but it is a moral imperative that it proceed.

... As a person of faith, I believe we are called to care for each other and work to ease human suffering.

There is, of course, controversy about these experiments. For many, the destruction of embryos, like the destruction of fetuses, is not a moral issue. For these, human life does not begin prior to birth. For still others in this camp, such as Peter Singer, human life is not protected until well after birth and ceases to be protected once certain illnesses occur. In fact, for Singer, there is no ethical differnce between human life and, say, a pig.

But most people acknowledge the ethical issues involved. They may not agree, but they recognize that they exist. For Obama, that recognition does not seem to be there, and that’s profoundly troubling.

There is another troubling aspect to this that is receiving virtually no MSM attention: the fact that embryonic stem cell research may not be needed at all in order to create the “pluripotent” stem cells derived from embryos. Techniques have been developed to take ordinary cells and make them pluripotent.

…the development of a technique known as "cell reprogramming," in which ordinary human skin and other cells are transformed into "induced pluripotent stem cells" (IPSC). This achievement and subsequent advances in research were deemed so impressive and important that the journal Science named the development of the IPSC as the scientific "breakthrough of the year" for 2008.

If we cease to acknowledge that "people" exist from the moment of conception to their death, the question of the value of human life becomes one long slippery slope. And we are left with essentially ideological judgments about who is truly human and who is not. Who is endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights – and who is not. When life begins and when it should appropriately end.

We are not the first society that has struggled with these questions. The fact that we still debate these questions says much about the moral evolution of man.

Once we approach that bright line between humanity and inhumanity, and justify experiments based on the end result, we are well on the way of joining Drs. Mengele, Clauberg and others who did what they did in the name of science and the greater good.

Perhaps we owe an apology to those brave pioneers at the Public Health Service who conducted the Tuskegee syphilis experiment. These experiments may not have done anything to advance a cure, but they provided many people at the PHS with a livelihood.

We can’t be sure if the new federally funded research will create any medical breakthroughs, but it will mean millions – sorry, billions – in federal grants and provide a good income for the men and women involved.

But if you're holding your breath for the Obama promises,

...to regenerate a severed spinal cord and lift someone from a wheelchair; to spur insulin production and spare a child from a lifetime of needles; to treat Parkinson's, cancer, heart disease and others that affect millions of Americans ...

don't get your hopes up. So far, none of the embryonic stem cell research that has actually taken place has had any therapeutic effect. Oh, you thought none had been going on? Sorry Charlie.

Speaker Pelosi's Way of Commuting

As your savings dwindle and you tighten your belt, be assured that our public servants are doing their part.

Gulfstream V, the world's first ultra-long range business jet. The Gulfstream V features the most sophisticated technology available to support the rigorous demands of intercontinental missions. From the unique engine design and highly advanced communications capabilities to the cabin that offers maximum passenger comfort and flexibility, the Gulfstream V continues the Gulfstream legacy of innovation and high quality. The Gulfstream V's ability to travel nonstop for 6,500 nautical miles at speeds up to Mach 0.885 sets the benchmark for world travel. For the first time, nonstop business travel between destinations such as Aspen and Rome, London and Singapore, San Francisco and Moscow, and New York and Tokyo is routine.

The sacrifices these public spirited citizens make for us inspire awe and wonder.

How can you get one of these at your and your family's beck and call? Run for a House seat and claw your way to the Speaker's post.

It's for the children.

Jim Vandehei: So What if Obama Lied?

Jim Vandehei: So What if Obama Lied?

Politico’s Jim Vandehei’s comments on Fox News this even in can be summarized in the headline: “OK, so Obama lied about ending earmarks during his campaign, so what?”

This is, of course, what you can expect from an administration that’s shameless about lying and blatant about using a financial panic to pass legislation that has nothing to do with fixing that panic while average Americans are terrified of losing their life savings …and the media shills who enabled Obama.

It makes you wish for Charles Krauthammer to ask Vandehei, “At long last, have you left no sense of decency?". In the case of Jim Vandehei and - I would venture to say for the bulk of the Washington media – the answer is “None!”

How the MSM Protects Its Favorites

Suppose, for just a moment that Rush Limbaugh went into an anti-Semitic tirade in which he accused the Israeli lobby of sabotaging him. We really don’t have to imagine. We have the example of just such an occurrence in the person of Patrick Buchanan who is roundly denounced for proclaiming essentially identical views to those expressed by Chas Freeman. Buchanan is denounced while, in the Washington Post, Walter Pincus puts lipstick on the Freeman pig.

From Powerline:

In his article on the withdrawal of Chas Freeman from his pending appointment as National Intelligence Council chairman, Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus provides an expurgated account of Freeman's parting blast. According to Pincus, the rap on Freeman derived from "questions about his impartiality."

Scott Johnson comments:

One would never know from the article that Freeman ascribed his withdrawal to "unscrupulous people with a passionate attachment to the views of a political faction in a foreign country," to "a special interest group," to "a powerful lobby determined to prevent any view other than its own from being aired," to "the Israel Lobby," to "a group so clearly intent on enforcing adherence to the policies of a foreign government - in this case, the government of Israel," or to any of the other variations Freeman worked into his statement.

Pincus's article does reveal that one of Freeman's congressional critics is named Israel. I'm sure that makes Freeman happy. Pincus's article does not report on any of the opposition to his appointment by activists for Chinese human rights activists and sympathizers (including my old teacher Jonathan Mirsky), or the reasons for their opposition. I'm sure that makes Freeman happy too.

Freeman's parting shot combined falsehoods, misdirection, and anti-Semitism combined with imputations of dual loyalty. It is not only newsworthy in itself, it also raises serious questions about the Obama administration's judgment. In short, the Washington Post has expurgated this story in a most discreditable manner.

Judge for yourself by realing Freeman's comments in full.

Are they that much different from Pat Buchanan's comments? And if Pat is classified as an anti-Semite, should Freeman be exempt?

Keep in mind that anti-Semitism is used as a cudgel by some of the leading lights of Liberalism. Take, for example Ben Smith accusing Sarah Palin of anti-Semitism for using this quote:

"We grow good people in our small towns, with honesty and sincerity and dignity,"

The anti-Semitism doesn’t jump out at you? Well let Smith explain:

…[this quote was] drawing from a once-powerful, now forgotten mid-century conservative columnist named Westbrook Pegler.

And who is Westbrook Pegler?

He was also known for what Philip Roth described as his "casual distaste for Jews," which had become so evident by the end that he was bounced from the journal of the John Birch Society in 1964 for alleged anti-semitism. According to his obituary, he'd advanced the theory that American Jews of Eastern European descent were "instinctively sympathetic to Communism, however outwardly respectable they appeared."

So now we must distance ourselves from closet anti-Semites who praise good people in small towns who exhibit honesty, sincerity and dignity because that will scare Ed Koch.

Howard Kurtz Agrees That Reporters are Pieces of Shit

It’s not often that you have high income, high profile Washington reporters insiders confirm that they and their fellows are useless pieces of shit, but Howard Kurtz did that at the end of this interview.

Tuckahoe, N.Y. : Actually, The Daily Show did a piece last week with John Oliver on the White House press room, which made fun of both the reporters and of Gibbs pledging a new era of transparency with much the same obfuscation and avoidance. Clearly not a pro-Obama piece.

Howard Kurtz: Making fun of reporters=shooting fish in a barrel.

Ignoring Warren Buffett

First Time The MSM Has Ever Ignored Warren Buffett: The press accounts I've read have wildly underplayed Obama supporter Warren Buffet's criticism of the President on CNBC today. It's fairly pointed, and Buffett comes back to it, suggesting he has a message he's trying to deliver.

But of course.

The patient is in cardiac arrest. We need "the paddles" not advice on how he should lose weight.

Art Cashin on the current financial crisis.

Diogenes, Put Down That Lamp. We May Have Found An Honest Man – On Friday, the Kansas City Fed’s Hoenig gave a speech in Omaha, Nebraska. In the speech (which was mostly about the "too big to fail" debate), President Hoenig appeared to join into a perception that permeates the trading floors. That thesis is that, despite the presumed best of intentions, government rescue efforts have been far too “ad hoc” and neither comprehensive nor cohesive. That is the perception that relates to the actions of both the prior and current Administration.

After outlining the series of actions both by the Fed and the government, Hoenig simply said:

The sequence of these actions, unfortunately, has added to market uncertainty.

The folks over at Bespoke Investment Group have noted the sharp drop since Inauguration. They relate it to a couple of initiatives. Here's what they wrote last Thursday:

While there are plenty of factors at work behind the current decline, it is hard to chalk it up as mere coincidence that the most recent leg down began on the day that Congress passed the $789 billion stimulus plan, and accelerated its downside last week with the release of the Administration’s budget. To put the declines in perspective, since the stimulus bill was passed on February 13th, the Russell 3000 has lost $1.7 trillion in market cap, which is over twice the value of the stimulus plan. The market is watching the actions coming out of Washington, and it clearly doesn’t like what it sees. Based on the Administration’s actions and comments towards the Health Care sector, student lenders, and other industries, investors are of the view that Washington is on a crusade to ensure that companies doing business with the Federal government are not entitled to profit from their services.

Net/net markets appear rattled by the fact that there is no "comprehensive plan", especially on the banking crisis. The patient is in cardiac arrest. We need "the paddles" not advice on how he should lose weight.

THE GIRLYMAN GOVERNOR

Steyn on Arnold ... and others of his ilk:

The Times of London put it this way: “Arnie Schwarzenegger Joins the Ranks of Girlie Men.”

Quite. As is well known, the Terminator has been unable to terminate anything — not even the impact study group studying the impact of expanding the Department of Impact Studies.
...

The Golden State is a foldin’ state, going out of business — a far cry from when Ahnuld arrived as a penniless immigrant in a land of plenty. Now he’s an immigrant of plenty in a penniless land.
...

Governor Schwarzenegger is merely the latest “fiscally conservative, socially liberal” mirage to dissolve from shimmering oasis to bottomless toxic swamp. Usually this beast roams the East Coast — see Christie Whitman, George Pataki, William Weld, and others you forgot to remember. I see the nice Maine ladies, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, were hailed for reaching across the aisle on the “stimulus” bill by William Cohen, who helpfully explained to The Washington Post that Pine Tree Staters are “liberal on social issues and conservative on fiscal matters.” And nothing says “fiscally conservative” like voting for a trillion dollars of pork after you’ve stayed up three nights in a row carefully weeding out the $473.84 that shouldn’t have been in there.
...
A “social liberal/fiscal conservative” is not necessarily a girly-man, more of a pre-op transsexual.

...
But the reality is that almost every “socially liberal, fiscally conservative” politician turns out to be fiscally liberal — in the same way that, if you mix half a pint of vanilla ice cream with half a pint of horse manure, it’s not hard to figure which taste will predominate.

Read the whole thing.

Snopes Gets Fact Checked

Via WND:

Snopes was investigating claims that the Environmental Protection Agency was covering over safety concerns with compact fluorescent light bulbs. In determining the concerns a myth, however, Snopes cited as evidence the EPA.

"Notice the sources Snopes relies upon to conclude beyond any doubt CFLs don't pose a serious health threat to anyone," Farah writes, "the same government agency pushing CFLs. Where I come from (nearly 30 years of solid journalism experience), this is not considered good reporting. This is not considered the best way to seek truth and enlightenment or even objective facts."

Re the Obama birth certificate controversy:

In the case of reports and dozens of lawsuits arguing that Barack Obama may not actually be constitutionally eligible to serve as president, Snopes has determined that Obama – despite his refusal to release his long-form birth certificate (which names the delivering hospital, doctor and other specifics) to the press or the courts – is a natural born citizen and eligible to serve as president.

The hoax-buster's choice of sources in making the determination, however, has again led to criticism.

The Snopes conclusion refers to an image posted on another website, FactCheck, which in turn cites as documentation of Obama's Hawaiian birth a "Certification of Live Birth" that the Obama campaign posted during 2008.

Critics, however, have pointed out that the "Certification of Live Birth" posted online is not, in fact, the same as a "Birth Certificate," and COLBs have been issued by Hawaii to parents whose children are not even born in the state.

California lawyer Orly Taitz, whose work is on her Defend Our Freedoms Foundation website, has written to state lawmakers across the nation, confronting the Snopes explanation directly:

"The State of Hawaii, statute 338, allows foreign born children of Hawaiian residents to get a Hawaiian birth certificate. Mr. Obama has never presented any corroborating evidence that he was actually born in Hawaii. His paternal grandmother in Kenya and the ambassador of Kenya made statements that he was born in Kenya," she said.

"The image that Mr. Obama has posted on the Internet was not a valid birth certificate, but rather a limited value document, called Short Version Certification of Live Birth. The Certification of Live Birth does not name a hospital, name a doctor, have any signatures or a seal of the Hawaiian Health Department on the front of the document. This document is usually given to parties that don't have a proper hospital birth certificate and it is given based on a statement of one relative only. Even the state of Hawaii doesn't give full credit to these documents," she continued.

Taitz has suggested the records from the "Annenberg FactCheck" cited by Snopes be subpoenaed "as to how did they claim to have examined Obama's birth certificate and found it valid. Neither the state of Hawaii, nor Obama has ever released such birth certificate, and there is no evidence of Obama being born in any hospital in Hawaii."

Snopes, routinely cited by many as the final word on both frivolous and important stories, is not the well-staffed think tank of researchers, journalists and computer hacks one might expect – but rather, the work of David and Barbara Mikkelson, living in a Los Angeles suburb.


I clicked on the Snopes.com website and found that their references for their article on compact fluorescent light bulbs were the US government and various newspapers. They are, in effect, a clipping service. As such, they reflect the built-in biases of the MSM.

The commentary accompanying their fact checking displays their personal biases.

For example, this sentence regarding the hazards of compact fluorescents contains commentary that’s irrelevant to the issue of safe disposal. Instead it’s an editorial comment:

They also work to save the environment be lessening greenhouse gases.

This assertion assumes that so-called greenhouse gases (obviously referring to carbon dioxide) are a threat to the environment. Which is an obvious indication that the husband-wife team who write Snopes believe the global warming hoax.

Horsehead and Orion Nebulae

Cramer calls Obama White House “Thin Skinned”

Jim Cramer is complaining about the Obama administration and its MSM allies attack on him following his comments about their policies. He sounds wounded.

So, why after toiling in the cable wilderness for four years with Mad Money am I the target of the wrath of the Obama clan…

He points to his previous criticism of the Bush administration.

After all, my criticism of Obama's handling of the economic crisis is a lot less pointed than my withering August 2007 "They Know Nothing" meltdown against the previous regime's handling of the economic crisis.

So what does he perceive to be the difference?

The answer lies in the way the two administrations handled criticism.
The Bush administration, I believed, simply chose to ignore my warnings, perhaps because of a brutal combination of ideology, fecklessness and complacency.

By contrast...

President Obama's team, unlike Bush's team, demonstrates a thinness of skin that shocks me.

Jim, Jim, Jim. Don’t you understand a damn thing, do you? No, I guess not. You see, you are a self identified Liberal. The Bush administration needed a thick skin. How else do you continue to govern when the Democrats in congress and the media question whether George Bush was the Prince of Darkness or if that post was held by Dick Cheney?

What the hell good would a phone call from the White House have done? Supposed they called you or to the editorial page of the NY Times? Tell me Jim, would you not have considered it a badge of honor if they had called to respond to you? Would you have told your viewers you were on the Bush White House “enemies list?” And what do you think would have been the reaction from the editorial writers of the NY Times, the LA Times, the Washington Post or the alphabet networks if the Bush staff would have complained? At best an eerie silence, at worst complaint that they were trying to silence their critics.

Sorry, Jim. The treatment you’re getting only works when the Democrats are in power. These are your people, Jim. This is how they work. This is how they handle dissent. This is how life is lived in state where the government and the press are in love.

And Jim, I thought you were a blowhard before. Now I see that you are a stupid blowhard. But there is a life lesson, as my friend Rush Limbaugh would say.

Even after this, you still don’t get it. They invented a phrase for you: stuck on stupid.. Obama is thin skinned ... because he can.

Fannie Mae and the Congressional Black Caucus

Olberman at Cornell

Home Sales up 100% in California

From Dr. Mark Perry via the Gartman letter:

Home sales increased 100.8% in January in California compared with the same period a year ago, while the median price of an existing home fell 40.5%, the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS (CAR)reported today.

“Statewide sales in January edged past the 600,000 threshold for the first time since October 2005,” said CAR President James Liptak. “The strength in California home sales in recent months signifies that the market is gradually working its way through the large numbers of distressed sales that have followed in the wake of the troubled mortgage problem.

With favorable home prices and historically low mortgage rates, affordability in the California housing market is now at its highest since the start of the decade.”

Closed escrow sales of existing, single-family detached homes in California totaled 624,940 in January at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate, an increase of 100.8% from the revised 311,160 sales pace recorded in January 2008.

The Unsold Inventory Index was 6.7 months in January, compared with16.6 months in January 2008 (a reductionof almost 10 months), and the median number of days it took to sell a single-family home was 49.9 days in January 2009, compared with 70.8 days in January 2008 (almost a 21 day reduction).

Bottom Line: The way the media reports it, you would think we were years away from a solid recovery in the real estate market, especially in states like California, when some of the housing data suggest otherwise. The 40.5% fall in California home prices is helping to stimulate home sales there, as the Law of Demand would predict. Overall sales volume has increased in California by 20.5%, from $1.32 billion a year ago to $1.58 billion in January this year, the Inventory Index has decreased by almost 10 months, and the median number of day to sell a home decreased by almost 21 days. In other words, market forces are working in the California real estate market.

More fairness and tolerance, and less . . . you.

I learned from the best: my sainted father, “Che” Kahane, who stood for free speech with Mario Savio at Berkeley, fought the pigs in Chicago, bombed the science lab in Madison, occupied Columbia University, blew up the townhouse in Greenwich Village, dodged a bullet at Kent State, and kidnapped Patty Hearst. Mao famously said that power flows from the barrel of a gun, so the Flower Children first stuck a dandelion in the muzzle and disarmed society with their pleas for Fairness and Tolerance, then grabbed the trigger the first chance they got. Suckers!

Read the rest.

Arkansas Times Publishes List of Concealed Weapons Holders.

Because it can. It seems only fair to return the favor ...

I agree wholeheartedly with Alan Leveritt, who argued the First Amendment principle of publishing the names and home addresses of those who you disagree with, politically.

Alan Leveritt
12407 Davis Ranch Rd.
Cabot, AR 72023
(501) 988-1211

View Larger Map
You can get a picture of Alan Leveritt's home by going to Google maps and putting in his address. It appears that Leverett lives in s rural area of Arkansas. Someone could approach is home at night without much fear of the neighbors becoming aware.

Some of the others who work for the paper include ...

Joseph Pepe, President and publisher
3195 Wetherby Cv S
Germantown, TN 38139
901-737-8784
901-529-2205, Office
Home Property Tax Information

Steve Tomb, VP of Operations
1846 Wildcreek Cv
Collierville, TN 38017
Phone Unpublished
901-529-2446, Office
Home Property Tax Information

Chris Peck, Editor
21 Belleair Dr
Memphis, TN 38104
901-276-8314
901-529-2390, Office
Home Property Tax Information

Otis Sanford, Editor/Opinion & Editorials
3396 Park Ave
Memphis, TN 38111
Phone Unpublished
901-529-2447, Office
Home Property Tax Information

Eric Janssen, VP of Digital Media
8996 Stratfield Cv
Germantown, TN 38139
901-358-7007, Home
901-212-3597, Cell
901-529-2480, Office
Home Property Tax Information

Scott Sines, Managing Editor
2136 Wentworth Ln
Germantown, TN 38139
Phone Unpublished
901-529-5843, Office
Home Property Tax Information

Daniel Moehle, VP/Chief Financial Officer
3172 Devonshire Way
Germantown, TN 38139
901-757-5911
901-529-2210, Office
Home Property Tax Information

Karl Wurzbach, VP of Sales and Marketing
3098 Bentwood Run Dr
Collierville, TN 38017
Phone Unpublished
901-529-2640, Office
Home Property Tax Information

Robert Jiranek, VP of New Business Development
175 Waring Rd
Memphis, TN 38117
901-251-1810
901-529-6525, Office
Home Property Tax Information

Bob Pinarski, Advertising Director
3961 Herons Landing Ln
Arlington, TN 38002
901-867-5294
901-529-2250, Office
Home Property Tax Information

Denise Holman, Manager of Classified Advertising
720 Litty Ct 103
Memphis, TN 38103
Phone Unpublished
901-529-2216, Office
Home Property Tax Information

Paul Jewell, Marketing Director
1439 Vance Ave
Memphis, TN 38104
901-272-1458
901-529-2219, Office

Someone comments:

I think it's important to note that the people above have good jobs so they probably have a lot of really nice stuff in their houses. Also, given how unhappy they are with CCW types, they probably are unarmed. Not that anyone should care about either of these probabilities, of course.

Homeless man with cell phone .. and Michelle My Belle.

This is what poverty in a rich country looks like.

If this unidentified meal recipient is too poor to buy his own food, how does he afford a cellphone?

And if he is homeless, where do they send the cellphone bills?

How much blame can President Obama take for the stock slide?

I would say, most of it.

Every time another Team Obama spokesman speaks, the Dow falls another 100 points.

Do us a favor, go back to Chicago and "help" the school system.

Better that Patterico fails

An eerie - but long -post (comments included) in which Frey does not deign to address Jeff Goldstein directly.

Frey loses.

OUTLAW!

Different Presidents

Now That The Boob Cowboy Bush is History and Really Smart People are In Charge ....

They present the Russians with a "reset" button that's misspelled.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in greeting Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, presented him with a red plastic button emblazoned with the English word “reset” and the Russian word “peregruzka.”

The gift was a play on Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s call in Munich last month for the two countries to “press the reset button” on their relationship.

“We worked hard to get the right Russian word,” Mrs. Clinton said, handing the button to Mr. Lavrov. “Do you think we got it?”

“You got it wrong,” he replied, explaining that the Americans had come up with the Russian word for overcharged.

Team Obama and the MSM has been telling us how incredibly "smart" this bunch is.

Right?


Right????

Tell me just one thing they got right!

Oh, and they managed to piss off the Brits.

How to Get Your Family out of a Financial Crisis

Step 4 is to find a bank that will lend you lots of money.

Read the whole thing. It sounds suspiciously familiar.

Where's global warming?

Jeff Jacoby:

SUPPOSE the climate landscape in recent weeks looked something like this:

Half the country was experiencing its mildest winter in years, with no sign of snow in many Northern states. Most of the Great Lakes were ice-free. Not a single Canadian province had had a white Christmas. There was a new study discussing a mysterious surge in global temperatures - a warming trend more intense than computer models had predicted. Other scientists admitted that, because of a bug in satellite sensors, they had been vastly overestimating the extent of Arctic sea ice.

If all that were happening on the climate-change front, do you think you'd be hearing about it on the news? Seeing it on Page 1 of your daily paper? Would politicians be exclaiming that global warming was even more of a crisis than they'd thought? Would environmentalists be skewering global-warming "deniers" for clinging to their skepticism despite the growing case against it?

No doubt.

But it isn't such hints of a planetary warming trend that have been piling up in profusion lately. Just the opposite.

The United States has shivered through an unusually severe winter, with snow falling in such unlikely destinations as New Orleans, Las Vegas, Alabama, and Georgia. On Dec. 25, every Canadian province woke up to a white Christmas, something that hadn't happened in 37 years. Earlier this year, Europe was gripped by such a killing cold wave that trains were shut down in the French Riviera and chimpanzees in the Rome Zoo had to be plied with hot tea. Last week, satellite data showed three of the Great Lakes - Erie, Superior, and Huron - almost completely frozen over. In Washington, D.C., what was supposed to be a massive rally against global warming was upstaged by the heaviest snowfall of the season, which paralyzed the capital.

Meanwhile, the National Snow and Ice Data Center has acknowledged that due to a satellite sensor malfunction, it had been underestimating the extent of Arctic sea ice by 193,000 square miles - an area the size of Spain. In a new study, University of Wisconsin researchers Kyle Swanson and Anastasios Tsonis conclude that global warming could be going into a decades-long remission. The current global cooling "is nothing like anything we've seen since 1950," Swanson told Discovery News. Yes, global cooling: 2008 was the coolest year of the past decade - global temperatures have not exceeded the record high measured in 1998, notwithstanding the carbon-dioxide that human beings continue to pump into the atmosphere.

Read the rest.

TIM'S FIXER UPPER

It seems nobody knows how to "play this game."

The Obama administration's $75 billion mortgage rescue plan appears to have been rushed into action and is missing crucial elements that doom it to failure, housing industry insiders tell The Post.

Gibbous Europa

Depression in a rich country

Think small, like Casey Elliott.

She's here picking up a tin of gourmet hot chocolate mix for her kids, a small but welcome treat at a time when her husband is out of work. "We're trying to do simple things, like going for family walks and playing games," she says.

And gourmet hot chocolate milk.

That speaks volumes.

Obama: 39% approval rating

That's obviously too high. I know of no one who agrees with this.

Grin.

Great news: Obama fumbled Brown visit because he’s in over his head

Sources close to the White House say Mr Obama and his staff have been “overwhelmed” by the economic meltdown and have voiced concerns that the new president is not getting enough rest.

British officials, meanwhile, admit that the White House and US State Department staff were utterly bemused by complaints that the Prime Minister should have been granted full-blown press conference and a formal dinner, as has been customary. They concede that Obama aides seemed unfamiliar with the expectations that surround a major visit by a British prime minister. …

Allies of Mr Obama say his weary appearance in the Oval Office with Mr Brown illustrates the strain he is now under, and the president’s surprise at the sheer volume of business that crosses his desk.

Voting "present"s not an option.

In deciding whether to use stupidity or evil as an excuse, they went for stupidity.

Obama's Bizarre Economic Advice to the nation

From the NY Times we learn that ...

The president said he could not assure Americans the economy would begin growing again this year. But he pledged that he would “get all the pillars in place for recovery this year” and urged Americans not to “stuff money in their mattresses.”

“I don’t think that people should be fearful about our future,” he said. “I don’t think that people should suddenly mistrust all of our financial institutions.”

The first part of that forecast is pure "CYA" as unemployment increases, businesses shutter more plants and the stock market declines by 3, 4 5% PER DAY. Market watchers dread the times during the day that members of this administration comment on the economy, each utterance followed by another percentage point drop in the Dow.

Geithner's plan at the IMF sank Indonesia and ended the administration of its ruler. He can't get anybody to work for him ... hell he can't get anybody to talk to him ... and no one has a clue whether he has a plan, or a clue about what a plan should look like (other than taxing the oil industry).

The part about stuffing money under mattresses is pure BS. People are not stuffing money under their mattresses. I know because I am in the business of advising people about their money. I'll tell you what they are doing. They are watching in shock as the value of their stocks and stock mutual funds have evaporated 20% so far this year. They are seeking the shortest term, safest CDs and treasure notes they can find, and they are starting to buy gold. For the first time in a century, the average American - not just gold bugs - are buying gold because they know that some time down the road the trillions of dollars pouring out of the Federal Reserve are going to be recycled into the real economy and inflation will hit like a whirlwind, wiping out the accumulated savings of lots of "average Americans."

At which point the NY Times, if it’s still publishing, will blame Bush.

And people like me stand by in utter amazement that despite the gigantic pain this financial crisis is causing, despite the scattered dreams and lives, Obama has moved on to the next thing on his agenda. Perhaps on the assumption that now that he’s fixed the country's financial health he must move on to minster to its physical well being.

The Cocoon Nebula

These are the Democrats who profited at every step of the mortgage meltdown while blaming George W. Bush for the crisis...

Meltdown



This is housing giant Fannie Mae, described by pundits as a "job shop for out-of-work Democrats."


This is Fannie Mae's stock price, the collapse of which devastated the capital-to-asset ratios of banks and insurance companies like AIG (which held five billion dollars in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac equities).



These are Democratic operatives Franklin Raines, Jamie Gorelick and Jim Johnson, the executive management team of Fannie Mae, all of whom were awarded positions after loyal service in the Clinton administration.


This is Barney Frank (D-MA), claiming that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are fine and that oversight is not needed.

Read the whole thing. The truth will out.

THE 'SACRIFICE' GAP:

Jonah Goldberg:

'WE are the ones we've been waiting for," Barack Obama proclaimed many times during the campaign. He and his throngs of supporters preened in the glow of their own righteousness like cats in a puddle of sunlight. They were for "shared sacrifice" and a "new era of responsibility." They wanted to put aside the "old politics" and the "tired arguments" of the past.

Well, where are those people now? Obama brags - albeit dishonestly - that he's only raising taxes on rich people. Ninety-five percent of the American people will get a tax cut, he insists.

Well, which is it? Do the times demand shared sacrifice from us all, or from just 5 percent of us?

If I tell 10 co-workers, "We all need to chip in together to get this done," and then say, "So, Todd, open your wallet and give five bucks to everyone else in the room," it would sound ridiculous. But when Obama says the same thing to 300 million Americans, it's called "leadership."

Don't worry Jonah, the other 95% have already lost their share via the Obama Bear Market. Leadership you can believe in. It's the Chicago way.

Who's more important; Limbaugh or Obama?

Media Out on a Limbaugh reports Rich Tucker in Townhall.com.

For those who aren’t familiar with the dying newspaper business, it’s critical to remember that editors tend to put the stories they consider most important on page A-1...

In any event, on March 4 The Washington Post featured a front-page (“below the fold” as they say, but still) headline: “GOP Seeks Balance With Conservative Icon Limbaugh.” The story went on to examine the tempest Rush stirred up when he announced -- on Feb. 28 -- that he wants “Barack Obama to fail.” Limbaugh made the front of the Post’s Style section March 4 too, by the way, and was back on the front page on March 6, 2009.

To review: Wednesday’s story was a front-pager looking into a story about an event that happened four days earlier. Compare that to, say Obama’s address to Congress (don’t call it a State of the Union, please) the preceding week. Obama spoke on Tuesday, newspapers fawned over his audacious plans on Wednesday, and that was that. By Saturday -- four days later -- you’d search in vain for a front-page story on Obama’s supposedly ground-shifting speech.

In other words, Limbaugh’s four words seem to have had a greater effect than Obama’s thousands of words did. Interesting, that.

The Post managed to dig up the usual suspects to make the usual ad hominem attacks. “Rush is the bloated face and drug-addled voice of the Republican Party,” former Clinton flack Paul Begala told the paper. “Along with lots of others, I intend to continue to turn up the heat until every alleged Republican either endorses or renounces Rush’s statement that he hopes our president fails.”

Some of the “others” Begala plans to work with include politicians on the public payroll. The Politico newspaper reports that Begala and his fellow attack dog James Carville have daily phone conversations with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanual.

I never though that in my lifetime I would see a battle for the soul of America fought between a President and a radio host, and rooting for the radio guy.

Whose words is he speaking?

Politico headline: Obama's safety net: the TelePrompter

President Barack Obama doesn’t go anywhere without his TelePrompter.

The textbook-sized panes of glass holding the president’s prepared remarks follow him wherever he speaks.

Resting on top of a tall, narrow pole, they flank his podium during speeches in the White House’s stately parlors. They stood next to him on the floor of a manufacturing plant in Indiana as he pitched his economic stimulus plan. They traveled to the Department of Transportation this week and were in the Capitol Rotunda last month when he paid tribute to Abraham Lincoln in six-minute prepared remarks.

Obama’s reliance on the teleprompter is unusual — not only because he is famous for his oratory, but because no other president has used one so consistently and at so many events, large and small.

After the teleprompter malfunctioned a few times last summer and Obama delivered some less-than-soaring speeches, reports surfaced that he was training to wean himself off of the device while on vacation in Hawaii. But no such luck.

...

In a break from his routine, Obama did not use a teleprompter during his pre-Inauguration speech at a factory in Bedford Heights, Ohio — and his delivery seemed to suffer. He paused too long at parts. He accentuated the wrong words. And overall he sounded hesitant and halting as he spoke from the prepared remarks on the podium.

... Obama has shown in the past that he needs the teleprompter. And while he still has his prepared remarks placed on the podium in a leather folder, the White House has shown no sign of trying to wean him off of it.

What is it about a teleprompter that makes Obama fluent? Without it he’s verbally inept. Without notes he makes almost as many gaffes as Biden (abortion is above his pay grade). Why is this disturbing? I have thought about it and can’t put my finger on it, but it is. What is the conncection between the teleprompter and Obama's brain?

How it all works in Illinois politics

Three contractors are bidding to fix a broken fence at the Governor’s mansion in Springfield, Illinois; one from Chicago, another from Tennessee and a third from Kentucky.

They all go to examine the fence.

The Tennessee contractor takes out a tape measure and does some measuring, then works some figures with a pencil. “Well,” he says, “I figure the job will run about $900: $400 for materials, $400 for my crew and $100 profit for me.”

The Kentucky contractor also does some measuring and figuring, then says, “I can do this job for $700: $300 for materials, $300 for my crew and $100 profit for me.”

The Chicago contractor doesn’t measure or figure, but leans over to the Democrat Governor’s staffer and whispers, “$2700.” Incredulous, the staffer whispers back, “You didn’t even measure like the other guys! How did you come up with such a high figure?”

The Chicago contractor whispers back, “$1000 for me, $1000 for you, and we hire that guy from Kentucky to fix the fence.”

“Done deal!” He replies.

And that my friends, is how it all works in Illinois politics.

UPDATE: Welcome Freepers. For more click HERE

Cramer on Obama

‘Obama Bear Market’ Punishes Investors as Dow Slumps

Via Bloomberg; it's official.

March 6 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama now has the distinction of presiding over his own bear market.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 20 percent since Inauguration Day, the fastest drop under a new president in at least 90 years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The gauge has lost 53 percent from its October 2007 record of 14,164.53, slipping 4.1 percent to 6,594.44 yesterday.

More than $1.6 trillion has been erased from U.S. equities since Jan. 20 as mounting bank losses and rising unemployment convinced investors the recession is getting worse. The president is in danger of breaking a pattern in which the Dow rallied 9.8 on average in the 12 months after a Democrat captured the White House, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“People thought there would be a brief Obama rally, and that hasn’t happened,” said Uri Landesman, who oversees about $2.5 billion at ING Groep NV’s asset management unit in New York. “It speaks to the carnage that’s in the economy and the lack of confidence in the measures that have been announced.”

Doctors Caused the Housing Bubble?

People refer to something called the “medical system” as if my visits to my doctor are some part of a well thought-out plan. It’s a statist way of looking at it, of course, and it serves the purposes of people who think that if only they were in charge of doctors, hospitals and drug companies we would all be healthier and everything would be cheaper. In fact one way to reduce what we as a people spend on medical care is to have people die sooner. At least that's the answer being proposed by Mark Warner of Virginia. It's working well in countries that ration medical care like Canada. Think of it as the old fashioned "natural Eskimo" way ... put granny out on an ice floe and give it a push.

It’s statists who have a mental image of a “health care system,” I want to be able to go to my doctor when I’m sick. And I don’t want to have wealthy necrophiliacs like Mark Warner tell me to die because my medical care costs too much.

Charles Krauthammer writes about Team Obama’s nonsense cause-and-effect.

At the very center of our economic near-depression is a credit bubble, a housing collapse and a systemic failure of the entire banking system. One can come up with a host of causes:…

The list is long. But the list of causes of the collapse of the financial system does not include the absence of universal health care, let alone of computerized medical records. Nor the absence of an industry-killing cap-and-trade carbon levy. Nor the lack of college graduates. Indeed, one could perversely make the case that, if anything, the proliferation of overeducated, Gucci-wearing, smart-ass MBAs inventing ever more sophisticated and opaque mathematical models and debt instruments helped get us into this credit catastrophe in the first place.

Yet as we look at the comments following this essay, the Obama supporters, a shrinking band, somehow still refuse to acknowledge that Obama’s formulation is total nonsense. As I have pointed out here, it’s as if by appointing the “indispensable” tax cheat Tim Geithner to the post of Treasury Secretary, Team Obama believes that they have solved the financial crisis and can now move on to more important things … the parts of their agenda that are closer to their hearts, even as the markets tell them that the financial mess is getting worse and their “solutions” are a large part of the problem.

Team Obama seems to be either more incompetent than even I imagined when I voted against them, or they are more evil that I feared.

By the way, is it time for a national discussion on whether people like Mark Warner should be allowed to die with dignity .... sometime soon? Look at him, he doesn't look well.

Treasury Secretary Geithner's choice for deputy withdraws; department still lacks senior staff

The decision followed more than a month of intense scrutiny of her taxes and multiple interviews.

...Five weeks into his tenure, he has yet to name a single top deputy or assistant secretary. This has left Treasury with too few people authorized to make decisions or represent the department in meetings with stakeholders.

Another one bites the dust.

Medical Bankruptcies: A Data-Check

President Obama’s kicking off his health care reform today in the worst possible way: with a mischaracterization of data.

Finally, a lie that isn't about taxes.

Was 'Lady Macbeth' behind Barack Obama's snub of Gordon Brown?

The British are not letting the disrespect shown their prime Minister die.

...no matter how utterly rubbish we have become as a nation in the Blair/Brown years, Britain's friendship is something Obama will come to regret having dispensed with so lightly. This was not the act of a global statesman, but of a hormonal teenager dismissing her bestest of best BFs for no other reason than that she felt like it and she can, so there.

What was the guy thinking? In researching my new book Welcome to Obamaland, I discovered that Obama's judgment is pretty dreadful - but this? My favourite theory so far - suggested by presenter Greg Garrison - was that it was a move calculated to please his Lady Macbeth. At the moment in Britain, we're still in the "Doesn't she look fabulous in a designer frock" stage of understanding of Michelle Obama. Gradually, though, we'll begin to realise that she is every bit the terrifying executive's wife that Hillary Clinton was. Or, shudder, Cherie Blair.


...

Consider her notorious statement that: "For the first time in my adult life I am really proud of my country." Consider her (till-recently suppressed) Princeton thesis, "Princeton Educated Blacks And The Black Community."

In it she writes: "I have found that at Princeton, no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my white professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don't belong. Regardless of the circumstances underwhich I interact with whites at Princeton, it often seems as if, to them, I will always be black first and a student second."

Here we see that she has mastered the authentic voice of grievance culture. She also - the thesis was written in 1985 - pre-empts the Macpherson report's ludicrous, catch-all definition of racism: "A racist incident is any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person." No matter how hard young Michelle's white undergraduate contemporaries try to be nice, it's not their behaviour that counts, but how Michelle feels.

Well put.

Iowahawk channels Christopher Buckley and the NR crew

On reminding us of our place...

This was, as you know, the theme of the National Topsider's exclusive January conference at the private Breakers Club in Nassau where I hosted a veritable murderer's row of top tory thinkers to diagnose the troubles with conservatism. Dame Peggy Noonan was there, of course, along with Kathleen Parker, Douglas Kmiec, and those two mighty Davids of conservative intellect, Brooks and Frum. But enough of the namedropping. The order of the day, after mixed badminton doubles, was to formulate an Rx for our ailing patient. In this regard we were in surprising accord: in order to survive, conservativism simply must start appealing to a better class of people. The sad fact of the matter, as we noted, is that one no longer finds admitted conservatives in any of America's prestige zip codes nor the faculty redoubts of her selective academies. During our Bahamian summit many gambits were proposed to win back America's elite electoral precincts from the left; sponsoring various hip hop colloquia at the better Ivies, supporting integration of gays into Nascar, endorsing state ownership of the means of production. Rod Dreher, whose sensational exegesis "Crunchy Cons" sold well over 200 copies last year, recommended a full embrace of the environmental movement, which as I understand is quite the rage among youthful voters and the trendsetting thespians of Hollywood. Good and bold ideas all, and necessary steps to get the movement started again. But there remains a daunting obstacle - namely, the benighted rubes who constitute so much of our so-called "base," and whose existence make it nigh on impossible to recruit their social betters.

Read the whole thing.

The Tired War on Rush Limbaugh

Jonah Goldberg:

Here we go again. Rush Limbaugh is public enemy No. 1.

Liberal bloggers and media chin-strokers are aghast at Limbaugh’s statement that he hopes Barack Obama fails.

Well, given what Obama wants to do, I hope he fails too. Of course I want the financial crisis to end — who doesn’t? But Obama’s agenda is much more audacious. Pretty much every major news outlet in the country has said as a matter of objective analysis that Obama wants to repeal the legacy of Ronald Reagan and remake the country as a European welfare state. And yet people are shocked that conservatives, Limbaugh included, want Obama to fail in this effort?

But even Goldberg implicitly concedes the argument, letting the canard stand that Limbaugh is “shrill” and extreme. Implicitly assuming that Limbaugh “turns off” moderates. I don’t buy the argument. As a regular Limbaugh listener, I find that his arguments are as well stated as that intellectual hero, Bill Buckley, albeit with much more humor.

Limbaugh has relatively high negatives because, despite the fact that he is the number one listened to talk radio host in the country, fewer than half the country listens to him. 20 million listeners still leaves something like 280 million people who don’t listen … and get their opinions of Rush from the media that despises him.

By making Rush the object of their vitriol, Team Obama may be making a strategic mistake by assuming that his disapproval ratings are graven in stone. They are not. The more people listen to him to find out what the ruckus is all about, the more people will find out that they agree with Rush and call in to say “Ditto.”

Goldberg then suggests that the Right resurrect “Firing Line” minus Bill Buckley, who died a year ago. This is a particularly poor idea, for two reasons. Bill Buckley, like Rush Limbaugh, was a unique personality. “Firing Line” as a not a program with a host, it was a host with a program. Secondly, Bill Buckley may have been very popular among conservative intellectuals and may have founded a magazine that appealed to conservative thinkers, but Bill Buckley never won an election. He once ran for Mayor of NY City and replied to the question of what he would do if he won. His answer: “Demand a recount.”

UPDATE: I have a great deal of admiration for Jonah Goldberg. He has the ability to think outside the box and is one of our most gifted essayists.

So I was thrilled to receive his reply from his iPhone; it read (in its entirety):

I didn't call him shrill. You are looking to take offense.

What could I say? I had to reply:

I did not say you called him shrill. I stated that you let the description stand.

I making the point that people who call for the reincarnation of Bill Buckley are implying that Limbaugh is a rube who needs to be supplanted as the intellectual leader of Conservatives by the dulcet tones of the new Buckley. Well apparently it does not run in the family. Chris Buckley is very nicely parodied by Burge who exhibits an order or magnitude greater comedic powers than Bill Buckley's son who swooned for Obama during the election, thinking he (Obama) was lying..

Another possibility is Mark Steyn. I am a big fan of Mark Steyn but the fact is that he is a much better essayist than a radio host, a spot he has been allowed to fill by Limbaugh.

You are also a good essayist. I have seen you on video and frankly, you need work as an on-air personality in a live format.

But take Burge (Iowahawk) to heart. There is more than a touch of social snobbery about the NT crowd who are desperately seeking an alternative to Limbaugh because he and his assumed listeners are "not just our kind." The people who count in the rebellion against Team Obama are not Chris Buckley and David Brooks. They could not win an election in East Cupcake, NJ. Neither could Bill Buckley. Republicans need Limbaugh, he doesn't need the NR crowd.

I'm not trying to attack (please don't take it wrong) you and I'm not looking to take offense. I like much of your essay. But in it you assume the Liberal position, that Limbaugh turns off middle of the road people. I reject that position, if you read my essay. And if "we" go into the ideological fight with the assumption that our most articulate spokesman is incapable of attracting the average American, you have a seriously skewed idea of what portion of the political spectrum the average American occupies.

If you want another spokesman for the Right, you don't need another Buckley. the intellectual foundation for Conservatism has been laid. We need 2, 3, 4 more Limbaughs.

Regards,

It remains to be seen of there is more tete-a-tete.

Saturn in View

Barack Obama's most troubling tendency

There are many things that bug me about Barack Obama -- the insane laundry list speeches, the silly rhetoric, the hostility to the free market -- but these are all talked about. He has another habit that hasn't been talked about so much and, of all the things he does, it makes me the most queasy.

It's pretty subtle, but I think it's worth keeping an eye on because, if it were to become full-blown, it has the potential to be the most socially damaging element of his presidency.

I'm talking about what I'm going to call his Goldstein-ism, his tendency to make veiled, dark allusions to a recently vanquished "other", an evil being (he is never specific) who is, he always implies, the real cause of all our problems.

I've seen it in every speech -- the peevishness, veiled gibes, and rhetoric that distorts the historical record. I commented about Obama's tendency to make vague references to an evil strawman in a 29 Jan. post following Obama's interview on Al-Arabiya. On Monday Karl Rove devoted a column to the president's "troubling" and "persistent use of the [strawman] device." Rove pointed, for example, to a recent speech in which "Obama said that America's economic difficulties resulted when 'regulations were gutted for the sake of a quick profit at the expense of a healthy market.' " But "Who gutted which regulations?," asked Rove.

This is one of those things that a truly free and independent press would stop simply by questioning him about it. "What do you mean, Mr. President? Who gutted which regulations? Who profited?"

Not much chance of that here.

President Barack Obama just plain rude to Britain. Don't call us in future.

The British press is not pleased with Barack Hussein Obama.

The morning papers and TV last night featured plenty of comment focused on the White House's very odd and, frankly, exceptionally rude treatment of a British PM. Squeezing in a meeting, denying him a full press conference with flags etc. The British press corps, left outside for an hour in the cold, can take it and their privations are of limited concern to the public.

But Obama's merely warmish words (one of our closest allies, said with little sincerity or passion) left a bitter taste with this Atlanticist. Especially after his team had made Number 10 beg for a mini press conference and then not even offered the PM lunch.

We get the point, sunshine: we're just one of many allies and you want fancy new friends. Well, the next time you need something doing, something which impinges on your national security, then try calling the French, or the Japanese, or best of all the Germans. The French will be able to offer you first rate support from their catering corps but beyond that you'll be on your own.

New times, new friends. Racism?

The Obama Economy

From the Wall Street Journal

As the Dow keeps dropping, the President is running out of people to blame.

The market has notably plunged since Mr. Obama introduced his budget last week, and that should be no surprise. The document was a declaration of hostility toward capitalists across the economy. Health-care stocks have dived on fears of new government mandates and price controls. Private lenders to students have been told they're no longer wanted. Anyone who uses carbon energy has been warned to expect a huge tax increase from cap and trade. And every risk-taker and investor now knows that another tax increase will slam the economy in 2011, unless Mr. Obama lets Speaker Nancy Pelosi impose one even earlier.

Meanwhile, Congress demands more bank lending even as it assails lenders and threatens to let judges rewrite mortgage contracts. The powers in Congress -- unrebuked by Mr. Obama -- are ridiculing and punishing the very capitalists who are essential to a sustainable recovery. The result has been a capital strike, and the return of the fear from last year that we could face a far deeper downturn. This is no way to nurture a wounded economy back to health.

The beatings will continue until morale improves.

Equity Analyst in Chief

Jonah Goldberg:

Please Let Me Know When The "Bobbing" Begins [Jonah Goldberg]


Obama:

What I’m looking at is not the day-to-day gyrations of the stock market, but the long-term ability for the United States and the entire world economy to regain its footing. And, you know, the stock market is sort of like a tracking poll in politics. You know, it bobs up and down day to day. And if you spend all your time worrying about that, then you’re probably going to get the long-term strategy wrong.

Because from where I'm sitting, it's just going down. Freefall and bobbing: not the same thing. Though Freefall and Bobbing does sound like a great crime-fighting team.

How media sucks up to White House

It’s far easier for a reporter to get time with a key staffer when both parties know that a flattering profile is coming. And it’s a lot easier to get calls returned from the staffer’s colleagues — especially subordinates — if they know it’s an opportunity to suck up to the subject.

Jonathan Alter, a senior editor at Newsweek, describes the beat sweetener as “a tribal custom” among the press corps.

“It’s emblematic of the way Washington journalism often works,” Alter said, noting that the problem is when a reporter “puts the ease of their working relationship ahead of the interests of the reader.”

And there are no bigger suck-ups that MSM reporters sucking up to the Obama White House. As a friend of mine used to say: "It's enough to gag a maggot."

Wall Street Economics

Young Chuck moved to Texas and bought a donkey from a farmer for $100.
The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day.
The next day the farmer drove up and said, ‘Sorry Chuck, but I have some bad news, the donkey died.’
Chuck replied, ‘Well, then just give me my money back.’
The farmer said, ‘Can’t do that. I went and spent it already.’
Chuck said, ‘OK, then, just bring me the dead donkey.’
The farmer asked, ‘What ya gonna do with a dead donkey?
Chuck said, ‘I’m going to raffle him off.’
The farmer said ‘You can’t raffle off a dead donkey!’
Chuck said, ‘Sure I can. Watch me. I just won’t tell anybody he’s dead.’
A month later, the farmer met up with Chuck and asked, ‘What happened with that dead donkey?’
Chuck said, ‘I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at two dollars apiece and made a profit of $898.00.’
The farmer said, ‘Didn’t anyone complain?’
Chuck said, ‘Just the guy who won. So I gave him his two dollars back.’
Chuck now works for Morgan Stanley in their OTC Default Derivative Department.

Welcome Freepers, go to HOME and read the rest.

Planned Impoverishment?

We have all heard about planned obsolescence. The auto industry does it with annual model changes. Intel does it with computer chips; Microsoft does it with every change in Windows. Hell, even razor blade manufacturer so it.

But planned impoverishment? To what end?

OK, how about this? Total dependence on Government.

The US stock market has dropped 20% since the beginning of the year, and it’s only the beginning of March. This is on top of the 40% drop last year. People are watching their savings and investments evaporate before their eyes. Plans for retirement, education, a home are being abandoned. The wolf is creeping closer to the door.

And what is our “Hope and Change” leadership doing about it? Having announced that Tim Geitner is in charge of the economy, they act as if that fixed the problem. And having proposed spending over three trillion dollars on pork this year, Team Obama has decided it’s priorities are nationalizing health care, making the world one, ending all war, freezing the earth’s climate and making Arabs and Jews love each other.

If I were a suspicious man, I would suspect that Team Obama is not unhappy that people are losing their financial independence. It’s much easier to control people when they don’t have “go to hell” money.

Welcome Freepers, go to HOME and read the rest.

Welcome Instapundit readers. Go HERE for more.

Rush Limbaugh speech to CPAC

Rush Limbaugh speech to CPAC in 10 parts.

Ann Coulter at CPAC

Our Indispensible Media

Drudge reveals that

CNN: How to get Michelle Obama's toned arms

TIME: The Obama Team's Drink of Choice? Coke, Not Pepsi

Oh, did we mention that the newspaper editors cancelled their convention for lack of interest?

The dying struggles of the MSM

Via Breibart:
Newspaper convention canceled amid industry woes


You have all heard the old anti-war slogan “what if they gave a war and nobody came?” Not to worry, you may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.

But what about the media? It seems that there is now not enough interest to get a newspaper convention together. This is, of course, great news for democracy since newspapers have, like previously healthy body organs become cancers on the body politic.

When that happens, it’s best to remove the organ, or, in the case of the news media, to let the inevitable death take place and to rebuild on the rubble.

I should feel sorry for the people who will lose their jobs, but I don’t really. Malignant life forms are never lovable or the object of pity. Perhaps for friend or relatives, but not for the vast majority who have been made victims of their lies and distortions.

I have been reminded by Dennis Gartman who writes The Gartman Letter, that once things begin to slip away, the slip away very quickly. The Shah of Iran was depose and the new Islamic Republic was declared in Iran a mere 2 ½ months after Ayatollah Khomeini returned from exile in Paris on February 1, 1979.

The death of the newspaper industry has been a longer dying process than that, but virtually every day sees the announcement of another paper closing. And the process seems to be accelerating.

Faster please.

The Financial Crisis: Causes and Possible Cures

Outstanding lecture on the causes and cures of the financial crisis by the John Allison, CEO of BB&T.



The Slides

Tea Party Roundup

From Ed Driscoll:


Instapundit is covering many of the protest events, with pictures...


and this...


Michelle Malkin has a good roundup...



The MSM is beginning to pay attention.

Tea party at the Capitol
Protesters rally against stimulus package, bailouts

The Washington Independent on the New American Tea Party








Any interest in a tea party in front of the Virginian Pilot building?

Buyer's Remorse?

You would think that when you go all out to elect Barack HUSSEIN Obama, you would have clue of the policies you are going to get.

In a swift about face from her views as New York's senator, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is now hammering Israel over its treatment of Palestinians in Gaza.

As First Lady, Clinton raised eyebrows when she kissed Suha Arafat.

Since she was then seeking a Senate seat the resulting brouhaha caused her to "re-think" her positions.

"I'm a very strong supporter of Israel," Clinton said back in February 2000.

On Thursday, as Secretary of State she had yet another about face in the form of angry messages demanding Israel speed up aid to Gaza. Jewish leaders are furious.

"I am very surprised, frankly, at this statement from the United States government and from the secretary of state," said Mortimer Zuckerman, publisher of the New York Daily News and member of the NYC Jewish Community Relations Council.

"I liked her a lot more as a senator from New York," Assemblyman Dov Hikind, D-Brooklyn, said. "Now, I wonder as I used to wonder who the real Hillary Clinton is."

Clinton's decision to hammer Israel comes as the Clintons and President Barack Obama are planning to give the Palestinians $900 million toward the rebuilding of Gaza in the wake of the Israeli offensive that was sparked by Hamas rocket fire.

Apparently not.

'Hard choices' budget sees $1.75 trillion deficit

And these are the optimistic figures.

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama unveiled a multi-trillion-dollar spending plan Thursday that would boost taxes on the wealthy, curtail Medicare, lay the groundwork for universal health care and leave a string of deficits dwarfing any in the nation's history.
In addition to sending Congress his $3.55 trillion budget plan for 2010, Obama proposed more immediate changes that would push spending to $3.94 trillion in the current year. That would result in a record deficit Obama projects will hit $1.75 trillion...

reflecting the socialist program of Team Obama.

Green Kills

The Greens are removing "useless eaters" from the world stage... Iowahawk has the inside story.

Bakouma was one of approximately one million people who died of malaria last year. Almost all of them were like him: poor, young, and African. And almost all of those deaths could have been prevented through vaccines, insecticide-treated netting, and (gasp) DDT spraying. Empirical research supports the indoor residual spraying (IRS) of DDT as not only safe, but the most economical and effective method for malaria prevention. For example, a 1996 DDT ban in South Africa, pushed by environmental groups, led to a malaria epidemic with over 60,000 cases reported in 2000. After DDT spraying resumed in 2001, infections dropped 80% in one year. Facing a mounting death toll across Africa the World Heath Organization and USAID have recently lent support to IRS using DDT, but its adoption continues to be opposed by environmental extremists relying on shoddy science and fearmongering.

Dow Soars on NYU White House Takeover

Iowahawk has the scoop:

NEW YORK - Major stock indexes posted broad gains on heavy trading early Tuesday on news that a rogue group of student protesters from New York University had taken over the White House and barricaded themselves in the Oval Office. The Dow posted a 1100 point (17%) gain in the first hour of trading, wiping out nearly all of its loss since January 20 and almost 35% of losses since November 4.

"Finally, we're seeing encouraging signs of sanity in Washington," said UBS market analyst Jane Cohen.

The markets, which went into freefall whenever a member of the administration spoke in public, reacted in a frenzy of buying...

The ensuing chaos, with hundreds of thousands of government employee walking off the job, brought gridlock to Washington freeways and the federal government to a crashing halt. It also sparked a buying frenzy on Wall Street, as bulls rushed in to take advantage of what they saw as a new, totally baked government economic policy.

"In his long list of policy demands, acting President Lozano never mentioned the stimulus package, TARP, or auto industry bailouts," said USB's Cohen. "There has been widespread optimism that he will remain too stoned to remember it."