Charlie Foxtrot

For Whom the Bulb Tolls

2012-01-17T21:06:00.000-05:00

As Instapundit is more than happy to point out, you can still get old-fashioned incandescent light bulbs over on Amazon...

But if you want to find them, don't try looking in new childrens books. In a perfectly unoffensive book that I recently purchased, we find a main character who suddenly has an idea. What appears above her head? This?

No....this:

For over a century the incandescent light bulb has been the symbol of ideas that have come instantly to mind. Now I guess this "new & improved" politically correct image will be the symbol of ideas that take a few minutes to actually reach their full brightness....

But this is what we should expect in our future lives in a European-style social democracy. Things that are not quite as quick, efficient, or enjoyable as they used to be...but it will all be for the common good.

More Hope & Change from the TSA

2011-12-22T21:43:00.001-05:00

Your government at work...keeping you safe from dessert. Perhaps this is part of the First Lady's healthy eating agenda....

TSA confiscates cupcake, calls frosting a "gel"

At Las Vegas International Airport, TSA supervisor [REDACTED] is keeping travelers safe from the terror of delicious cupcakes-in-a-jar. I learned this firsthand earlier today, when I put myself and my fellow travelers at risk by attempting to travel with one.

[...]

I offered to scoop my dangerously conformist cupcake out of its jar and place it in a zip-lock bag, where it could mush about to its heart's content; but Agent [REDACTED] wisely refused. After all, the jar in all its tasty glory "clearly contains more than 3 ounces of total contents," he said.

Then What The Hell Are We Paying You For?!?

2011-11-28T21:56:00.001-05:00

#hhrs #tcot #sgp

Gov. Christie on President Obama's failure of leadership:

"...a President who is a bystander in the Oval Office....listening to the spin coming out of the administration....'the President knew it [the Super Committee] was doomed for failure so he didn't get involved'. Well then what the hell are we paying you for...what have you been doing exactly?"

This Isn't The Government You Were Looking For?

2011-11-26T09:18:00.001-05:00

Be careful what you wish for....

Clean-up on Aisle 5!

2011-09-27T22:53:00.002-04:00

Last weekend, President Obama spoke at a Congressional Black Caucus banquet, where he said the following:

"If asking a billionaire to pay the same tax rate as a Jew, uh, as a janitor makes me a warrior for the working class, I wear that with a badge of honor. I have no problem with that."

Today he also released a video greeting for the Jewish New Year, where he said: "Happy Rosh Hashana. There is clean-up on aisle 5...Jew, uh, janitor to aisle 5 please."

Ok, he didn't say that. But if a Republican had said made the first statement at a conservative banquet, this whole week would have been filled with media undertones of "Is the Right anti-semetic?". Instead, we have lavish media tongue-baths that declare Obama to be "The first Jewish President".

No bias there.... I am sure there is no conflict of interest...

The 'New Tone' at its Finest

2011-09-05T15:53:00.005-04:00

Remember earlier in the year when the Left insisted that the Right needed to speak with a "New Tone" and avoid use of "violent" language? Hard to remember isn't it??

Of course, since then, as the Left's prospects have cratered, there have been numerous ironic examples of speech from the Left tinged with violent imagery. Mostly silly words or phrases that was really not violent at all, but did manage to get the Left's undies in a bunch when the Right used them.

But this example, no surprise from a Union thug [and leader], takes the cake:

Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa had some profane, combative words for Republicans while warming up the crowd for President Obama in Detroit, Michigan on Monday.

"We got to keep an eye on the battle that we face: The war on workers. And you see it everywhere, it is the Tea Party. And you know, there is only one way to beat and win that war. The one thing about working people is we like a good fight. And you know what? They've got a war, they got a war with us and there's only going to be one winner. It's going to be the workers of Michigan, and America. We're going to win that war," Jimmy Hoffa Jr. said to a heavily union crowd.

"President Obama, this is your army. We are ready to march. Let's take these son of bitches out and give America back to an America where we belong," Hoffa added.

New tone, my ass....

And since this was a warm-up speech for President Obama, he must agree with it, no? I haven't heard a denunciation yet... I am sure he will present one after his next vacation.

Welcome to the Whine-mar Republic

2011-08-08T06:41:00.004-04:00

Worried about default? Well, don't be! National Treasure Alan Greenspan says we can avoid default by simply printing as much money as we need!

For those who might think this is a grand idea, I refer you back to a previous attempt at this folly.

A time when 1 Mark became Millions...and not in a good way.

If we are truly entering into a time when the President would rather be petulant and deflect all blame to his opponents, while having his Treasury run the presses night and day, then perhaps we should start calling this era....the Whine-mar Republic.

[h/t: Instapundit]

Obama Retreats to 1967 Borders

2011-05-20T20:09:00.005-04:00

President Obama has suggested that Israel retreat to it's 1967 borders in order to promote peace...

In a speech to the Arab world--even though he's not president of the United Arab States, President Obama called for Israel to retreat to its pre-1967 borders. From a security standpoint, it's analogous to the United States surrendering California to Japan in 1941. Does anyone think a West Bank Palestine is destined to be a peaceful state like Denmark?

And in response, in order to promote peace, Israel requested that Obama retreat to his 1967 borders.....Indonesia....

Corruption Masquerading as Compassion

2011-05-15T13:51:00.004-04:00

Since the President is keen on reducing the budget deficit by rooting out fraud and waste, then the once place he needs to start cutting is one of his party's sacred cows....Housing & Urban Development.

Washington Post: Million Dollar Wasteland: A trail of stalled or abandoned HUD projects.

“The federal government’s largest housing construction program for the poor has squandered hundreds of millions of dollars on stalled or abandoned projects and routinely failed to crack down on derelict developers or the local housing agencies that funded them.”

To quote Glenn Reynolds, "It’s like it’s just a bunch of corruption masquerading as an effort to help the poor."

But if we were to clean up HUD, think of all the ~~Democratic Party donors~~ bureaucrats that would be out of work...and the last thing we need to do is help raise the unemployment rate, right?

The Racist Fence

2011-05-14T15:16:00.007-04:00

Last week the President went down to El Paso to talk about Immigration Reform...the Democrat form of Immigration Reform. Pushing the DREAM Act (i.e. amnesty) and whatnot. But he also bragged on a bunch of accomplishments, one of which being the allegedly formidable border fence.

According to the official, placed on the internet, transcript, the President said: "The fence is now basically complete."

Despite the fact that this is patently untrue, the most interesting item is the audience reaction. Lets take a wider look at the transcript....

"Then they wanted a fence. Well, the fence is --

AUDIENCE: Booo!

THE PRESIDENT: The fence is now basically complete.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Tear it down!

THE PRESIDENT: Then we’ve gone further...."

Interesting....the President wants to brag on the fence, but the crowd at his ~~campaign rally~~ speech wants to get rid of it... It makes you wonder if the White House doesn't know its audience, or the comments were intended for other ears, particularly though a stand-alone sound bite on the news.

It also makes you wonder why the White House would leave the audience comments in the transcript. Might they reflect what the White House really feels?

And while we are on the subject of curious transcript inclusions, check out this exchange...

So, here’s the point. I want everybody to listen carefully to this. We have gone above and beyond what was requested by the very Republicans who said they supported broader reform as long as we got serious about enforcement. All the stuff they asked for, we’ve done. But even though we’ve answered these concerns, I’ve got to say I suspect there are still going to be some who are trying to move the goal posts on us one more time.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: They’re racist!

THE PRESIDENT: You know, they said we needed to triple the Border Patrol. Or now they’re going to say we need to quadruple the Border Patrol. Or they’ll want a higher fence. Maybe they’ll need a moat. (Laughter.) Maybe they want alligators in the moat. (Laughter.) They’ll never be satisfied. And I understand that. That’s politics.

The first salient point (outside of the alligator demagoguery) is the fact that the President didn't object to the characterization that Republicans are racist. I mean, if it was clear enough and important enough to make the official transcript, I am sure the President must have heard it. But he didn't object... And if it was clear enough and important enough to make the official transcript, that tells me that it was an intentional inclusion by the White House communications staff.

Second, this was a speech where the President said "And that’s where you come in. I’m going to do my part to lead a constructive and civil debate on these issues...So I’m asking you to add your voices to this debate...."

Well, his Democratic audience did add their voice to the debate....but it was anything but constructive and civil...

Oil Drops - I Blame the Speculators!

2011-05-05T17:19:00.004-04:00

As seen earlier on Drudge, "OIL PLUNGES BELOW $100...":

I blame the speculators!

I mean, that is how markets [free ones that is] work, right? If speculators can be responsible for the rise in the price of oil, they should at least get the credit when it goes down....

Fiscal Crisis: Don't Worry, Be Happy!

2011-04-24T11:19:00.002-04:00

Over at Ricochet Claire Berlinski introduces us to the 'Don't Worry, Be Happy' approach to the looming fiscal crisis:

Why Anarchist Anthropologists Shouldn't Make Economic Policy

Anarchist anthropologist David Graeber explains why we needn't worry about deficit spending in the New York Daily News. It's all wrong to imagine that governments, like households, must be concerned by debt, he argues. Why? Five reasons:

1. Households can't levy taxes.
2. When households owe money, they owe it to other people. The U.S. debt is owed mainly to ourselves.
3. When households owe money to other people, they can't just print it. The government can.
4. When someone in your household writes a check, the recipient tends to cash it. Not so when the U.S. sells Treasury bonds to banks in Brazil or China.
5. If a household doesn't pay its debts, creditors can take them to court or call the cops. Internationally, we are the cops.

Feel reassured now?

I know I do!

So....Graeber's main argument is that we have nothing to worry about because Government budgets are nothing like family budgets? If you think that is looney, don't read his OpEd any further, or you will run into amazing logic such as this:

"A major reason the U.S. has a deficit to begin with is that we spend more on our military than all other nations in the world combined."

and this:

"Most probably know that if we ever really did balance the budget, it would likely throw our economy into a tailspin."

OK...military spending bad...deficits good!

I hate to break it to you Daaaave, but even if President Obama zeroed-out the Defense budget in his 2012 budget proposal, he would only cut his deficit in half. You see the real-reason we have a deficit and climbing debt are not the discretionary spending, but the mandatory spending (SS, Medicare, Medicaid, Interest on the debt) which keep expanding and are of course "mandatory".

And I for one did not know that a balanced budget would throw our economy into a tailspin. I can't wait to read your sources and evidence.....oh wait, you didn't cite any. Shocking....

Democrat's Cottage Retirement Industry

2011-04-11T21:29:00.005-04:00

Today Instapundit asked the question:

"How safe is your Roth IRA?"

He was quoting from a Megan McArdle article on the fact that some (many?) on the left would ~~like~~ love to get their hands on all that cash which is never going to produce any more taxes for their schemes. (except of course when it is spent...)

So McArdle also dispenses with some unorthodox investment advice on how to avoid any lefty machinations, like perhaps buying a vacation home with the cash. Professor Reynolds adds:

"Or maybe buying a vacation home overseas, the way inhabitants of third-world kleptocracies have done for years to avoid desperate grabs by debt-ridden regimes."

Of course this is an especially apt observation, if by "third-world kleptocracies" he meant Congress, and by "inhabitants" he meant Chris Dodd, or Charlie Rangel.

Here is Congress putting the McArdle plan in action...

Dodd:

Rangel:

Or inaction if you prefer:

Take heed America!

Milwaukee Bob

2011-04-07T16:47:00.005-04:00

This just in from Wisconsin Dems:

"Don't talk about fraud! Fraud?! There is no fraud! Everybody knows there is no fraud,
and anybody who mentions it is, by that mere mention, an agent of discord and deceit."

[h/t - Instapundit]

Obama's Libya Speech - Word Cloud

2011-03-28T20:48:00.006-04:00

Here is the official, "as prepared for delivery" word cloud of ~~Bush's~~ Obama's speech on Libya tonight:

Apparently it had something to do about people (mentioned 39 times)... And here I thought he was going to talk about the current war we are engaged in over Libya, but he only mentioned that word once..

Resetting the Reset Button

2011-03-18T10:26:00.014-04:00

There is a particularly revealing Op-Ed over at The Daily, describing Hillary Clinton's current frustrations. "Fed up with a president “who can’t make his mind up” as Libyan rebels are on the brink of defeat, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is looking to the exits."

One sort of has to feel sorry for the woman. Forced to work for an amateur essentially elected by the media, and forced to be first line of defense against his international dithering.

“Obviously, she’s not happy with dealing with a president who can’t decide if today is Tuesday or Wednesday, who can’t make his mind up,” a Clinton insider told The Daily. “She’s exhausted, tired.”

I am thinking that Hill might want to have her own 'Reset Button', no? But as the link shows, she is not entirely innocent in all of this either.

“If you take a look at what’s on her plate as compared with what’s on the plates of previous Secretary of States — there’s more going on now at this particular moment, and it’s like playing sports with a bunch of amateurs. And she doesn’t have any power. She’s trying to do what she can to keep things from imploding.”

I think the lady may protest too much. One reason she and her Department have so much on their plate, is the way they have conducted business. She has been the one who has been the leader of "smart diplomacy", the concept where if we are just nice and listen to everybody (as opposed to alleged 'Cowboy Diplomacy') then they will be nice to us and everyone can get along and sing kumbayah...

So, since she felt the best course of action was to project a 'Weak Horse' strategy in the Middle East the last two years, she cannot grouse now when she suddenly wants to ride the 'Strong Horse' and can't get her boss away from the Pony Rides.... This is why foreign diplomats describe American diplomacy as "amateur night".

And in reference to Libya “We are wondering if this is a priority for the United States.”

Of course not...this is the priority right now...

Vast Devastation

2011-03-15T08:52:00.003-04:00

As the tragedy in Japan continues to unfold, incredible...almost inconceivable...pictures emerge. The always terrific "Big Picture" site at the Boston Globe shows us the carnage and despair in 'Japan - Vast Devastation'.

Two incredible images:

And forgive me for drawing a parallel, but the following photos reminded me some others:

2011:

1945 (Hiroshima):

2011:

1945 (Nagasaki):

(I am not making a statement on moral equivalence here, just simply that devastation is devastation...)

[h/t - Jammie Wearing Fool]

Tyrants, Tyrants...Everywhere

2011-03-13T12:50:00.004-04:00

No this is not about Mubarak or Qaddafi...its about a tin pot tyrant an his umbrella....

Charlie Rangel's deputy chief of staff, Geoffrey Eaton, threw such a fit over a missing umbrella during Thursday night's downpour at Harlem's popular Chez Lucienne restaurant that management had to call police to escort him out.

According to witnesses, Eaton, 52 -- who's also president of the NAACP's Midtown branch -- flew into a rage after a meal alone at the bar of the Lenox Avenue bistro when the staff couldn't find the umbrella he insisted he'd left by the door on his way in.

"He yelled at everyone, even the customers," said the manager on duty, who asked not to be named. "We said, 'We'll give you another umbrella.' Other people offered . . . we said, 'If that's not enough, we'll pay for your cab home.'

Of course the obvious take away is...what an ass! But the key graph was the following:

BET.com contributor Bevy Smith, who was dining separately at the bistro, told us, "He cursed out the entire waitstaff, and everyone was trying to appease him. He was like, 'Bleep that, I want a bleeping umbrella, why the bleep can't you find it?' " "I said, 'Shhhh.' He yells at me, 'Bleep you, and mind your own bleeping business . . . you're a disgrace to our race.' "

The real lesson to be learned here is not that the world is filled with jack-asses, because it is. But rather, that even on the local or micro-scale, you never get anywhere trying to appease dictators and megalomaniacs.

[h/t - JammieWearingFool via Instapundit]

NYT: Conservatives Are Right, But They're Still Mean!

2011-03-06T14:07:00.004-05:00

Who said this:

"Although taxpayers are on the hook for the recession’s costs, most state employees pay only 3 percent of their salaries to their pensions, half the level of most state employees elsewhere. Their health insurance payments are about half those in the private sector.
In all, the salaries and benefits of state employees add up to $18.5 billion, or a fifth of [the State]’s operating budget. Unless those costs are reined in, [the State] will find itself unable to provide even essential services.
To point out these alarming facts is not to be anti- union, or anti-worker."

Rush Limbaugh? Anne Coulter? ~~Hosni Mubarek?~~ Scott Walker? Nope..none other than the New York Times about NY state's current fiscal woes.

Now over at the NYT, they still can't bring themselves to fully admit that conservatives are right. Saying so leaves such a bitter taste in their mouths, that they must immediately follow up any kudos with a big BUT!

Immediately after printing the words above, they got right back to the business of what passes for civility in Liberal Fantasy Land:

"In recent weeks, Republican politicians in the Midwest have distorted what should be a serious discussion about state employees’ benefits, cynically using it as a pretext to crush unions.
New York does not need that sort of destructive game playing. What it needs is a sober examination of the high costs of wages and benefits, and some serious proposals to rein them in while remaining fair to hard-working government employees."

Really? The Republicans have distorted the discussion? The Republicans have cynically used the situation to their own ends? Really??

Last I checked, the only ones willing to have a serious discussions *were* the Republicans. The only serious discussions that Wisconsin or Indiana Democrats were having were with the waitresses working at the undisclosed hiding locations.

Last I checked, the ones who were cynically using the situation were the Union members who left school children and their parents in a lurch, shouted down debate, held a state capital building hostage [see Presidential lexicon], shoved their opponents around, and essentially told taxpayers "Suck it up whiners, and gimme my due!". This is the type of sober, serious discussion that the NYT wants Republicans to be party to?

The bottom line is that the only folks who have performed "a sober examination of the high costs of wages and benefits" has been those "cynical" Republicans. Democrats prefer to still live in fantasy land where the government gravy-train can go on forever. The only folks who have offered "some serious proposals" to rein in costs have been those same Republicans. Democrats have either abdicated their responsibility, or again believe that their don't need to be serious proposals to change the path of government spending. Of course it is no mystery as to why this is....

It is great that the editorial board at the NYT may be finally catching onto reality, but they need a little more rehab to able to kick the "Blame Republicans" addiction.

Although I fully expect this addict to relapse....

Free The Teachers From Politicians!! (Except The Ones That Will Give Them What They Want)

2011-03-06T08:32:00.012-05:00

Bill Hobbs has some interesting pictures from a Tennessee teachers protest. One in particular caught my eye.

[Photo: Bill Hobbs, 2011]

Now I am confused.... Is this a call for every child to be home schooled?

Or perhaps she is just a big proponent of having bake sales to fund her school. Because that's what it will take once we get "politicians out of education", and all local, state, and federal dollars disappear.

And if there are no politicians involved in education, who is her union going to collectively bargain with? I just hope she isn't teaching a class in critical thinking....

Of course what she really means is "Don't let *conservative* politicians derail the 'union dues-liberal politician campaign warchests-collusive collective bargaining-gold plated pay & benefits for me' gravy train."

Collective Bargaining 101

2011-03-05T12:23:00.004-05:00

Not really sure what 'Collective Bargaining' is? Then head over to the Foundry blog at the Heritage Foundation. The first thing you will learn is that Collective Bargaining is not a Right...it's a privilege.

Second, they have a nice video illuminating the racket that Collective Bargaining really is. Collusion between Public Sector Unions and politicians of a certain persuasion to keep overnment big, tax dollars flowing, and those politicians in power...

"...Government Unions have a direct stake in keeping government big, no matter what the voters may want..."

As Instapundit likes to say...our country is in the very best of hands...

Big Stink By The Bay

2011-02-28T22:48:00.009-05:00

I must admit a certain amount of schadenfreude when two liberal causes do battle, when the consequences of one impact upon the other. It is even more fun when both are environmental causes...

The most recent example happens in San Francisco (of course!):

"San Francisco's big push for low-flow toilets has turned into a multimillion-dollar plumbing stink.

Skimping on toilet water has resulted in more sludge backing up inside the sewer pipes, said Tyrone Jue, spokesman for the city Public Utilities Commission. That has created a rotten-egg stench near AT&T Park and elsewhere, especially during the dry summer months.

The city has already spent $100 million over the past five years to upgrade its sewer system and sewage plants, in part to combat the odor problem."

Ahhhh, unintended consequences...the best part of environmental schadenfreude! Low flow and no-water toilets were supposed to save money (water bills) and save the environment. Well, $100 million later we know they don't save money. How about the environment? Not so much....

"Now officials are stocking up on a $14 million, three-year supply of highly concentrated sodium hypochlorite - better known as bleach - to act as an odor eater and to disinfect the city's treated water before it's dumped into the bay. It will also be used to sanitize drinking water.

That translates into 8.5 million pounds of bleach either being poured down city drains or into the drinking water supply every year.

Not everybody thinks it's a good idea.

A Don't Bleach Our Bay alert has just gone out from eco-blogger Adam Lowry who argues the city would be much better off using a disinfectant like hydrogen peroxide - or better yet, a solution that would naturally break down the bacteria.

As for whether the supposedly environmentally friendly, low-flow toilets are worth the trouble? Well, according to Jue, they have helped trim San Francisco's annual water consumption by about 20 million gallons."

So SF uses less water, but pays millions more for infrastructure, and will end up pouring poisonous bleach into the sewers. I guess the best you can say was that some enviros had a good feeling in their soul for at least a little while.

But in hindsight perhaps it would have cost less and been better for the environment if the city had just kept it's regular toilets....

Democracy...Democrat Style!

2011-02-27T17:55:00.005-05:00

Since earlier this month when Unions began their temper tantrum in Wisconsin, one of the mantras repeated with regularity was that "This Is What Democracy Looks Like!" I guess the protesters think they have cornered the market on "Democracy".

Never mind that Union protests only represent a portion of "Democracy". Never mind that "Democracy" usually requires a *second* (sometimes more) side to an issue. Never mind that "Democracy" spoke in Wisconsin last November via an obscure procedure known as an "election", when the the current Governor was elected by a majority of Wisconsin voters on the very issues he is pushing, and the Unions are protesting. But don't try to tell that to the Unions....

But somebody had better tell that to Eleanor Clift..."Since When Does Scott Walker Represent 'The People'?"

[h/t - @mattsheffield]

Dan Quayle Strikes Again!

2011-02-23T19:47:00.008-05:00

Instapundit asks:

"Why isn’t Obama talking about Libya?"

Well, he (e.g. his administration) started talking, and immediately proceeded to spell Libya incorrectly....

Well...at least they didn't replace the 'y' with an 'a'....

[h/t - Erick Erickson]

UPDATE - Welcome Instapundit readers!  Lets just hope @whitehouse doesn't have to determine how to spell Gaddafi/Kadafi/Qaddafi/Gadhafi....

Same Old Song and Dance

2011-02-22T17:20:00.005-05:00

For many years, at least since the heady days of the Clinton Machine, I have been sure of one thing when it comes to watching national politics...if the Democrats/liberals accuse their opponents of doing something outrageous, it is almost certainly an attempt at mis-direction, as the Democrats/liberals are usually the ones committing those outrageous acts themselves.

Over at the Wall Street Journal, James Taranto makes the same observation about what is being done on behalf of leftist ideology in modern-day Wisconsin (and soon a state government near you!):

"It's quite striking the way almost every lie the left ever told about the Tea Party has turned out to be true of the government unionists in Wisconsin and their supporters..."

Shocked! Shocked, I am...

Taranto also says: "To make sense of what's going on in Wisconsin, it helps to understand that the left in America lives in an ideological fantasy world...."

While at first I would tend to agree with his point, but the more I think about it, I think they know exactly what they are doing....taking pages directly out of the Saul Alinsky playbook. Primarily, "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it."

But Democrats/liberals should heed a warning from their radical guru, for he also said "A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag. Man can sustain militant interest in any issue for only a limited time...."

The public's tolerance for whining on the part of public sector unions that translates to "Gimme gimme gimme!" is already wearing thin in its first instance. If other state's public sector union decide to follow Wisconsin's lead, they may well be in for a heap public opinion trouble....

[h/t - Instapundit]

Wisconsin Public Education Fail

2011-02-19T23:15:00.005-05:00

Public School education you say? I don't believe it....

[Source]

Obviously he didn't get the union memo, otherwise he would know it isn't spelled 'partyers', it is spelled 'baggers'...

Ignored or Ignorant?

2011-02-18T20:17:00.005-05:00

I love this picture* by Anne Althouse from the Wisconsin union protests.

"Never have so few ignored so many"

Given that Wisconsin teachers have abandoned thousands of schoolchildren, I am thinking that the Wisconsin Education Association Council is test marketing a new slogan.

I believe they have a winner!

*Aside from the thrice defiled (1-written on, 2-adorned with a fish, 3-intentionally placed on the ground) American flag... Good way to prove your patriotic chops Union members!

Democracy Sucks!

2011-02-17T22:45:00.005-05:00

To quote Bill Hobbs, "Democrats believe in democracy - except when they lose". This is evidenced most blatantly by Wisconsin's run-away Senators.

But I particularly like this pair of Democrats who apparently are disaffected with the form democracy they live under:

Lets follow the logic here...a Governor who won a legitimate, regularly scheduled election by 6 points and has been in office just over one month, is somehow comparable to a military strongman who ran his country virtually unopposed for the last 30 years by putting most political opposition in jail or worse? Sure...

To take it one step further, these geniuses are suggesting that a recent legitimate election be invalidated because they are unhappy with the result, and....what...have the Wisconsin National Guard take over the state government??

And I wonder how the protesters in Egypt feel about folks with pretty well paying jobs (or any jobs for that matter) appropriating the Egyptian cause for their own selfish ends?

The President's Growing Credibility Debt

2011-02-16T21:18:00.003-05:00

"It is dismaying to realize that we have a President who cannot talk either intelligently or honestly about his own budget." - Powerline

Disaster Preparedness - Egyptian Style

2011-02-15T21:29:00.002-05:00

Facing the possibility of a police truncheon to the head? Afraid of having your skull cracked by a well aimed rock thrown by opposing political thugs? If so, then it pays dividends to be prepared with some protective equipment.

Unfortunately, I don't think these guys have been reading Instapundit and Bill Quick....

Nothing says you value your safety better than a helmet of baguette and flatbread.....

[h/t for most images: Sad & Useless]

2011 SOTU Ryan Response Word Cloud

2011-01-26T00:03:00.001-05:00

The Mob Has Spoken?

2011-01-25T22:52:00.003-05:00

So who really wants over-priced and under-performing "high-speed rail"? Apparently we all do, since the Federal Government is going to give it to us...

I can only imagine that this is the reaction that Democrats think that these boondoggle projects will create in the public...

Count me as on board! I am nearing my military retirement, and need one of those cushy jobs!

2011 SOTU Word Cloud

2011-01-25T20:30:00.005-05:00

A quick look before tonight's speech, here is a word cloud of its most common words....

I suppose it is not a surprise that 3 of the most used words are "new", "American", and "jobs".

I am sure there has to be a message hidden in there somewhere.....

[h/t to the ever-handy Wordle]

Under New Management

2011-01-24T22:50:00.006-05:00

When I saw this AP photo....

All I could think of was "This Establishment Under New Management".

I believe that it is the flag that sells it....

Bring Back the Buggy Whip!

2011-01-19T22:14:00.003-05:00

One reason I think that electric cars are not quite ready for primetime....

London to Edinburgh by electric car: it was quicker by stagecoach

The BBC's stunt of taking an electric Mini to Edinburgh reveals just how impractical rechargeable cars are, writes Christopher Booker

In its obsessive desire to promote the virtues of electric cars, the BBC proudly showed us last week how its reporter Brian Milligan was able to drive an electric Mini from London to Edinburgh in a mere four days – with nine stops of up to 10 hours to recharge the batteries (with electricity from fossil fuels).

What the BBC omitted to tell us was that in the 1830s, a stagecoach was able to make the same journey in half the time, with two days and nights of continuous driving. This did require 50 stops to change horses, but each of these took only two minutes, giving a total stopping time of just over an hour and a half.

Considering that horse power was carbon-free, emitting only organic fertiliser along the way, isn’t it time the eco-conscious BBC became more technologically savvy?

So, until batteries catch up with what we desire from our vehicles (long endurance and range), perhaps electric cars might perform better if we applied a buggy whip during the drive....

[h/t: EJHill]

Gulf War - Air Campaign: 20 Years On...

2011-01-16T23:18:00.004-05:00

While it may get lost it the official holiday, Monday is the 20th anniversary of the start of Operation Desert Storm.

The Air Campaign was kicked off by Task Force Normandy, as 2 USAF MH-53 Pave Low helicopters led 8 Army AH-64 attack helicopters across the Iraqi border...

At 2:38 a.m. on Jan. 17, 1991, U.S. Army 1st Lt. Tom Drew launched Operation Desert Storm by speaking into his radio microphone: “Party in ten.” The pilot of an AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, Drew was part of a joint Army-Air Force strike team making a secret, nocturnal attack on Iraqi radar stations. Drew’s radio call told others in the force that AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-ground missiles unleashed by Apaches would detonate on their targets in ten seconds.

It was called Task Force Normandy. The strike team consisted of a dozen helicopters – eight missile-firing Apaches with a ninth as a backup, a UH-60A Black Hawk for combat rescue if needed, and two Air Force MH-53J Enhanced Pave Low IIIs. The Pave Lows were equipped with a terrain-following and global positioning navigation system to bring the attackers to their destination.

The target was a pair of Iraqi air defense radar installations. On the first night of a conflict, destroying these stations would open a path to Baghdad for warplanes of the coalition arrayed against Saddam Hussein. The timing of Task Force Normandy’s attack was determined by the projected time when Iraqi radar would detect Air Force EF-111A Raven aircraft preceding F-117A Nighthawk stealth fighters in attacks on downtown Baghdad. Destroying the radars would open a pathway for the bombers to proceed.

Army Lt. Col. (later, Gen.) Richard A. “Dick” Cody – a future vice chief of staff – led the strike. Lt. Col. (later, Col.) Richard L. “Rich” Comer led the Air Force contingent.

The attack was devised after U. S. Central Command, under Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, decided against inserting Special Forces troops to destroy the sites. Apaches could bring firepower to bear on the targets and confirm that they had been destroyed.

After months of training, on Jan. 14, 1991, Cody’s force positioned itself under radio silence at Al Jouf, near Saudi Arabia’s border with Iraq. Cody divided the force into two teams. After an ultimatum to Iraq’s Saddam Hussein went unheeded and the order for war came, Cody led the White team out of Al Jouf. The Red team, led by Capt. Newman Shufflebarger, followed 12 minutes later.

The radar installations were close to the border but were separated by 70 miles. About 30 miles south of the target, the MH-53Js delivered their last position update and then peeled off to loiter nearby. The two Apache teams approached their respective radar sites. Each team split into two two-ship groups positioned half a mile apart.

The Hellfire warheads must have created a horrendous mess of concrete and metal churning inside the orange fireball associated with the missile. But the American helicopter crews never witnessed this. They turned home seconds before blowing up the radar sites and opening a 20-mile wide strip for coalition warplanes to travel into Iraq with impunity. Cody transmitted a radio signal indicating the strike had succeeded and led his helicopters back to safety. Minutes later, above a command center in Baghdad, an F-117A dropped the first bomb of the war. Thereafter, air operations faced little danger from what had been Saddam Hussein’s vaunted air defense network. Operation Desert Storm achieved its goal of liberating occupied Kuwait from Iraq six weeks later.

It is hard to imagine that it has been 20 years, and how far we have come as a military since then....

Bloodshed & Liberal Invective: A Bizarro World NYT Editorial

2011-01-10T16:17:00.004-05:00

Sunday's editorial in the NYT was everything you would expect it would be. Half-thought-out reasoning, and heavy-handed conclusions lifted straight from Media Matters for America, blaming political rhetoric for the attack on Congresswoman Giffords.

I am of the mind (based on what I have seen) that Jared Loughner was a loon in need of serious help, whose acts were inspired by the battle (ooops...violent metaphor) in his head rather than any political bloviations from either side.

But given the the Times' intentional focus on the right as the lone purveyor of violent political imagery, I thought it would be interesting to redo their editorial and shift the alleged blame 180 degrees.

Thus I present...

Bloodshed & Liberal Invective: A Bizarro World NYT Editorial

She read the First Amendment on the House floor — including the guarantee of “the right of the people peaceably to assemble” — and then flew home to Arizona to put those words into practice. But when Gabrielle Giffords tried to meet with her constituents in a Tucson parking lot on Saturday, she came face to face with an environment wholly at odds with that constitutional ideal, and she nearly paid for it with her life.

Jared Loughner, the man accused of shooting Ms. Giffords, killing a federal judge and five other people, and wounding 13 others, appears to be mentally ill. His paranoid Internet ravings about government mind control place him well beyond usual ideological categories.

As a devotee of the Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampf, he is very much a part of a widespread squall of fear, anger and intolerance that has produced violent threats against scores of Americans and infected the political mainstream with violent imagery. With legal access to weapons like the one used in the parking lot, those already teetering on the edge of sanity can turn a threat into a nightmare.

Over the past few years, violent political rhetoric has been on the rise. President George W. Bush was continually the subject of violent imagery from the left during his term in office, most of it targeted on his assassination. President Obama has seemed to relish extreme language and metaphors, among other things stating “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun”, and promising “hand-to-hand combat” with the new Republican House majority. He has also compared bankers to suicide bombers, and encouraged his followers to “Hit Back Twice As Hard” against Americans who oppose his agenda. An effigy of Sarah Palin, former Republican Governor of Alaska, was hung from a gallows outside a house in the liberal stronghold of West Hollywood, along with a depiction of Arizona Senator John McCain engulfed in flames. Ms. Giffords herself was declared “now dead to me!” on the leftist Daily Kos website.

It is facile and mistaken to attribute this particular madman’s act directly to Democrats, MSNBC watchers, or KosKids. But it is legitimate to hold Liberals and particularly their most virulent supporters in the media responsible for the gale of anger that has produced the vast majority of these threats, setting the nation on edge. Many on the left have exploited the arguments of division, reaping political power by demonizing ordinary Americans, or small business owners, or the military. They seem to have persuaded many Americans that the American people not just misguided, but the enemy of the state.

[h/t: Instapundit, Ed Driscoll, Patterico, Prof Jacobsen, Michelle Malkin]

'Classic Airliner' = Military Lifeline

2010-12-06T22:30:00.010-05:00

Wired has a gallery of "Classic" airliners, which if you are an aviation buff like me, is pretty cool.

They do qualify that to make the list they must be retired from regular passenger service, regardless of other status.

First on the list is the venerable Boeing 707.

A classic airliner by any measure...but also still a military necessity and lifeline for ongoing wartime operations.

Sadly this old workhorse is still on the front lines in the guise of ISR platforms (RC-135 variants, and E-8 JSTARS) as well as the KC-135, an aerial tanker that the Air Force has been trying to replace for close to a decade.

Unfortunately, as Congressmen posture and postulate, these 'classics' get older and older. The US cannot fight a war without them....

Take a look at this old photo from around the early 1960s. Both the B-52 and KC-135 are still major workhorses in the USAF 40+ years later. 40 years. Classic my ass....

[h/t: Instapundit]

Obama Saves Black Friday!

2010-11-28T09:56:00.003-05:00

Great news! The 'Obama Recovery'® has led to all-time high Black Friday sales receipts!!

Retail sales rose a slight 0.3 percent compared with the day after Thanksgiving last year, to $10.69 billion, according to ShopperTrak. The firm says that's still a record for the day.

Never mind the fact that the economy only 'created' a 0.3% rise in sales. I have it on good authority that according to the new economic standard used by the administration, the 'Obama Recovery'® 'saved & created' a 100.3% rise in sales over last year. Had it not been for the 'Stimulus'® that 'Pulled the Economy Back From the Brink'®, there would have been no Black Friday sales this year at all....due to 'Bush Administration Policies'®.

® - Tradmarked in full by BHO Inc & RahmAxel Enterprises

[h/t Instapundit]

TSA: Dear Terrorists...use an orifice, not your crotch...

2010-11-22T21:12:00.003-05:00

Good news! The TSA doesn't do orifices....

"...today [TSA Administrator] Pistole insisted "we're not going to get in the business of doing body cavities.""

That's great news, but I am not sure how that declaration jibes with this earlier statement:

"...Pistole said Monday that he disregarded internal advice and decided not tell the public in advance about aggressive new screening and pat-down procedures for airline passengers, fearing terrorists could try to exploit the information."

I am not sure this Pistole guy understands the concept of OPSEC. If you are trying to protect your battle plan, you can't tell the enemy...half your battle plan!

A Green Predicament

2010-11-15T22:14:00.003-05:00

It certainly is a confusing enough time to be a lefty, but now this:

Forests in the Interior West could soon flip from carbon sink to carbon source, forest experts say. The region's forests once absorbed and stored more carbon from the atmosphere than they released. But huge conflagrations -- like the 138,000-acre Hayman Fire in Colorado in 2002 and the Yellowstone fires of 1988, which scorched 1.2 million acres -- combined with a series of severe bark beetle infestations and disease outbreaks, have left large swaths of dead, decomposing trees in almost every major Western forest.

Those dead trees are releasing massive amounts of carbon dioxide, turning the region into a net emitter of carbon rather than a CO2 sponge.

The reversal, which has already occurred in Colorado and is anticipated in several other states, is the result of misguided forest management practices and a changing climate, forest experts say. Rising temperatures, resulting in shrinking snowpacks and drier conditions, have left the region's forests more susceptible to disturbances, such as wildfires, bark beetles and disease.

Of course the solution to thwart proliferation of this threat is obvious....cut down all the forests to preclude future forest fires, and thus preventing those burned trees from emitting carbon.

Easy peasy!

Like I said, a conflicting time to be a lefty....what to do, what to do?

Don't Let the Bedbugs...Shop with Plastic Bags!

2010-11-05T18:50:00.003-04:00

Apparently the secret to solving the on-going bedbug problem is the ordinary plastic bag (I am buying S.C Johnson stock next week)....or so says the NYC Dept of Education.

WELL, THAT’S A RELIEF: New York: Bedbugs invading classrooms at alarming rate, but Education Dept. says there’s no epidemic. “To prevent the spread at some affected schools, students and teachers are putting coats and bookbags into plastic containers and bags, a procedure adopted at PS 197 in Midwood, Brooklyn.” This wasn’t what I expected from the 21st Century . . . .

That's right Glenn, pesticides are soooooo 20th Century! But in this new "Green" century, I am surprised that they are using plastic bags! If they really want to enact meaningless solution and save the planet at the same time, they really ought to be using reusable grocery bags. That way they can delude themselves that they are solving an epidemic and saving the planet at the same time!

Election Fraud? There's an App for That!

2010-11-01T21:16:00.004-04:00

Yes, there is an iPhone App to help people report Election Fraud!

'Voter Fraud' is presented by American Majority....

Good news for those looking for an easy way to keep tabs on the New Black Panther Party's shenanigans...

The Department of Free

2010-10-31T13:45:00.001-04:00

A great new poem from Zombie.... #ocra #hhrs #sgp

The Department of Free

Years ago, a wiser man
than you or I devised a plan
to dole out goods at zero cost
to those of us whose jobs were lost.

It seemed benign, so nice and kind
the plan grew to include the blind,
the old the lame then you and me,
and they called this plan
The Department of Free.

It started as a helping hand
to needy folks across the land,
so those who could not make ends meet
would not be forced out on the street.

Unemployment benefits
were just a start, because now it’s
free food, free homes, free surgery,
rebates, bailouts, loans — all free.

Now half of us just stand in line
all day long and gripe and whine
about the stuff we feel we’re owed
the list of which has growed and growed.

The line wends hither, the line wends yon,
and by and by it comes upon
a door above which we can see
those magic words:
Department of Free.

Once inside: a shopping spree
of endless handouts: it’s all free!
Drunken on entitlement
we grab a meal, a house, a stent.

The other half? We’re all employed!
Hearing this, you’re overjoyed
to know that at least some of us
have jobs and never cause a fuss.

But one last thing you ought to know,
our economic Alamo:
The place where we all work, you see,
is in the accursed Department of Free!

I push papers,
while he counts beans.
She helps seniors
and they help teens.
It takes a village to raise a child;
it takes a nation to run hog-wild.

Paul pays Peter, and Peter pays Paul,
yet neither makes anything at all.
Round and round the money goes
but where it comes from no one knows.

It all runs out eventually,
can’t simulate prosperity.
The shopping spree was just a dream,
a baseless potlatch Ponzi scheme.

With nothing left to give away,
The Department of Free itself must say,
“We’re all laid off, the end is near.
There’s no point working, even here.”

The last employed man not offshore
has just one more remaining chore:
Switch off the lights
and turn the key
in the broke
Department of Free.

From Medicare and Medicaid
came Medicould and Medishould
now Medimust and we’ve gone bust
we’re trust-fund kids without a trust.

Delusion has a Thin Skin

2010-10-30T21:22:00.004-04:00

OK, this is just plain weird....

First, the President's delusional rant at the protesters that “We’re funding global AIDS and the other side is not!”

Last we checked Mr President, the Bush Administration increased planned spending by $48 Billion, but your administration is not picking up that gauntlet. Who knew your teleprompter was so disingenuous...

Second, isn't it a little strange to use the phrases "Fund Global AIDS" and "We’re funding global AIDS..." I know that they mean "Spend more $$ to defeat Global AIDS" and "We’re spending Billion$ to defeat global AIDS...", but what you technically said said was "Spend more $$ to help spread Global AIDS" and "We’re funding the spread of global AIDS..."

Perhaps this is the accepted language of the fight against AIDS, but to my ear, it just sounds weird.

H/T: Gateway Pundit

When Pigs Fly

2010-10-17T10:57:00.004-04:00

Culturally-insensitive vandalism using a common food item might now be considered a hate crime:

Bacon attack on an American mosque: prank or hate crime?

Strips of bacon spelling 'PIG' and 'CHUMP' were found in front of a South Carolina mosque Sunday. In post-9/11 America, pork – which is unclean in Islam – is a primary form of anti-Muslim protest.

So I guess this means Pink Floyd should avoid booking reunion concerts in stadiums where Muslims might be nearby?

And really CS Monitor...does bacon lying on a sidewalk in a organized fashion constitute a "Bacon Attack"?? It is like you are trying to push a certain agenda with an inflammatory headline....nah, that couldn't be!

Obama Admin As 1970's Computer Game

2010-10-16T00:17:00.006-04:00

This brings back memories from the dusty synapses in the back of my brain...as it was the forefront of computer gaming in my youth....

And now Iowahawk has given it a much needed upgraded for modern times....Colossal Beltway Adventure!

WELCOME TO ADVENTURE! WOULD YOU LIKE INSTRUCTIONS?

>YES

YOU ARE SOMEWHERE IN BELTWAY FOREST, WHERE SOME HAVE FOUND TREASURES OF GOLD ALTHOUGH SOME HAVE ENTERED AND NEVER BEEN SEEN AGAIN. MAGIC IS SAID TO WORK IN THE FOREST. I WILL BE YOUR EYES AND HANDS. DIRECT ME WITH SIMPLE COMMANDS.

YOU ARE IN AN OVAL OFFICE. THERE IS SNOW OUTSIDE. YOU ARE BEHIND A DESK. ON DESK THERE IS A BUST OF CHURCHILL.

YOU HAVE A CONGRESS.

YOU HAVE A SENATE.

YOU HAVE A MEDIA.

YOU HAVE A TELEPROMPTER.

YOU HAVE A MILITARY.

YOU HAVE A BIG JET.

YOU HAVE $3 TRILLION OF GOLD.

YOU HAVE 82% APPROVAL HEALTH.

THERE IS 7.2% UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE FOREST.

YOU HAVE A RACE CARD.

YOU HAVE INAUGURAL PARTY LEFTOVERS.

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO?

>EAT LEFTOVERS

>RETURN BUST

YOU ARE IN AN OVAL OFFICE. YOU ARE BEHIND A DESK. ON DESK THERE IS NO BUST OF CHURCHILL. THERE ARE NO MORE LEFTOVERS. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO?

>GIVE SPEECH

YOU ARE IN AN OVAL OFFICE. YOUR APPROVAL HEALTH IS 81%. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO?

>NAME TEAM

ENTER TEAM NAMES. GIVE THEM WEAPONS AND SPECIAL POWERS SEPARATED BY COMMA. WHEN YOU ARE DONE PRESS CTL-T

>BIDEN, BRAIN
>HILLARY, RESET BUTTON
>HOLDER, LAW
>GEITHNER, GOLD
>RAHM, CURSES
>JARRETT, FASHION
>AXELROD, MUSTACHE
>SEBELIUS, HEALTH
>LAHOOD, LIGHT RAIL
>CULVER, FOOD
>CHU, AIR
>GOOLSBY, BLACK MAGICK
>GIBBS, MOUTH
>DUNN, FEMALE MOUTH
^T

DO YOU WANT CZARS?

>Y

ENTER CZAR NAMES SEPARATED BY COMMA. WHEN YOU ARE DONE PRESS CTL-T

>JONES, JENNINGS, HOLBROOK, CROWLEY, RATTNER, MONTGOMERY, BERSIN, HAYES, ROSS, STERN, ROSENTHAL, VOLKER, BROWNER, DUBOIS, DAVIS, FRIED, DEPARLE, KUNDRA, BLAIR, MITCHELL, FEINBERG, SUNSTEIN, HOLDREN, DEVANEY, GRATION, ALLISON, CHOPRA, BRENNAN, CARRION, CARTER, SAMORE

I'M SORRY. THAT IS AGAINST THE CONSTITUTION. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO?

>IGNORE CONSTITUTION

YOU ARE IN AN OVAL OFFICE. YOU ARE BEHIND A DESK. YOU ARE BORED. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO?

>GIVE RESET BUTTON TO RUSSIA, BUY CAR COMPANIES

Read the whole, lengthy thing. Well worth your weekend time....

Praise the Blogger and Pass the Ammunition!

2010-10-15T23:38:00.003-04:00

Well, Glenn Reynolds is always warning that it is a bad idea to pick on bloggers....

...now it is not even safe to do from a long distance!

MTV, Obama Astroturf A Town Hall

2010-10-11T20:43:00.003-04:00

From ABC via Drudge:

BACKSTAGE: Actors Recruited For MTV Obama Town Hall; 'Casting Call'...

When President Obama sits down for his MTV town hall this Thursday, the audience of young people who will ask him questions will have been gathered by a casting call.

According to the casting call for the event from talent agency Backstage.com, first reported by National Review Online, the company requests applications for the event, asking what issues the person is “passionate about,” requiring a “short description of your political views,” and also asks for a recent photo.

First reaction....how far he has fallen...

Second reaction...aspiring conservatives, please check your acting careers at the door. Any casting call application that requires you to state a "description of your political views" probably equates to what we in the military call "self-initiated elimination" for those conservatives who want to get into the Hollywood scene...

Hands at 10 & 2...and no talking!

2010-10-09T15:56:00.003-04:00

So America, is this the Change® that you voted for? We are pleased to announce that the Nanny State has called 'Shotgun' in your car....

"U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says he believes motorists are distracted by any use of mobile phones while driving, including hands-free calls, as his department begins research that may lead him to push for a ban.

LaHood, whose campaign against texting and making calls while driving has led to restrictions in 30 states, says his concerns extend to vehicle information and entertainment systems such as Ford Motor Co.’s Sync and General Motors Co.’s OnStar.

“I don’t want people talking on phones, having them up to their ear or texting while they’re driving,” LaHood said in an interview this week. “We need a lot better research on other distractions,” including Bluetooth-enabled hands-free calls and the in-car systems, he said."

Now I am all for reasonable restrictions on things like texting while driving, and even hand-held phones. But when you have a high-level federal official saying things like "I don't want people doing x", then you can be reasonably assured that things have gone too far, and the Nanny State is about to be a pain in your ass

"LaHood, 64, said even hands-free phone conversations are a “cognitive distraction.” Calling for a ban on hands-free communications is a possible outcome of research under way at the Transportation Department’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration into all driver distractions, Olivia Alair, a department spokeswoman, said."

Gee thanks, Ray. While we are at it, lets ban some other “cognitive distractions." First, lets get rid of the radio. We can't have all that rock'n'roll, or right wing talk radio hate distracting people. Or perhaps you could mandate that radio can only be set to the soothing dulcet tones of NPR. Second, no more kids in the car. Boy are they a distraction! And while we are on that track, let s ban *ALL* passengers. One-person SMART Cars with one-station radios for everyone! Just think of all the gas & lives we will save.....but remember to keep those hands at 10 & 2!

The best part of all this, is that it seems Mr. LaHood believes he has unilateral authority to act on his grand designs.

"LaHood plans to meet with the heads of all makers of cars sold in the U.S. to discuss their cooperation in limiting distracted driving, he said in the Oct. 5 interview. He said he’s not yet recommending restrictions on hands-free phone calls and didn’t say when he might make a decision.....The Transportation Department’s powers to push further limits on distracted driving range from exhortations to setting standards backed by the federal government’s financial clout."

I will certainly be waiting on pins and needle for LaHood to make his edict. In the meantime I will be buying futures in Buggy Whips, since it seems we have reached the apex of government-allowable transportation technology, and are sliding backwards all in the name of safety...

Harvard and Unreal Expectations

2010-10-04T20:11:00.002-04:00

Instapundit complains about academic standards at Harvard:

RIGOR: Only 23% of Classes at Harvard Have a Final Exam.

I don't see the problem here...I mean isn't making in to Harvard the accomplishment that really matters? At this rate you could give away the diploma with the acceptance letter, but then Harvard wouldn't get to collect 4-5 years of dowry payments....

Exams only introduce risk to the continuing legend of Harvard's superior academics. It is almost like asking the Editor of the Harvard Law Review to actually write articles. Why provide evidence to ruin the illusion?

Obamacare Gives America the CLAP

2010-09-26T20:32:00.004-04:00

Or at least that is what I am led to understand by the Editors of National Review...

Unintended, But Not Unforeseen

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, is to the law of unintended consequences what Newton’s apple was to the law of gravity: the illustration that bonks us on the head with its obviousness. Practically every week since its passage has added a new dimension of mirth to Nancy Pelosi’s punchline for the ages, that we had to pass the bill to find out what is in it. Out of the mouths of babes and clueless politicians....
[...]
Meanwhile, Obamacare innovations such as the Community Living Assistance Program already are poised to far exceed the budgets established for them in the bill, and the turbocharged Medicaid provisions are threatening to bankrupt states across the country. Thanks to Obamacare, you will pay more for heart stents and other life-saving medical devices, and you’ll have less money to do so once all the additional taxes and fees with which the bill is larded up kick in.

For the life of me I don't understand why people in charge of setting up programs and picking their names many times don't perform a common sense test on the acronyms that those names will produce.

As to how severe this outbreak of the CLAP will be (there is very little info available in Google searches), but I am quite sure the best treatment will be a generous prescription of conservative Amoxicillin in November...

Adios Ciro....

2010-09-22T23:04:00.003-04:00

My absentee ballot is in the mailbox.

Adios Ciro Rodriguez! Holà Quico Canseco....and one step closer to taking back the House of Representatives!

Thomas Friedman - A 21st Century Useful Idiot

2010-09-22T21:11:00.004-04:00

Perhaps this isn't a major news flash, but the evidence continues to accumulate that Thomas Friedman is playing the role of useful idiot to today's big Commies (ChiComs) that the likes of Walter Duranty did during the heyday of the Soviet Union.

The Real China
September 22, 2010 5:55 P.M.
By Jonah Goldberg

From a reader:

Dear Mr. Goldberg:

I have appreciated your past articles exposing Thomas Friedman’s ridiculous envy of so-called “progress” in China. But his latest article demonstrates beyond doubt that he has no clue about the real China or its people. Contrary to his protestation, his opinions are based on illusion and have no credibility whatsoever.

My wife was born in Shanghai and we visit her family there often. We also have traveled to many different provinces in China, including to adopt our two precious daughters. In all our travels, I have never come across anything that can be accurately described as “space age,” “ultramodern,” or “well-appointed” with the exception of the rare, isolated facility designed specifically to impress visiting foreign businesspeople or dignitaries and gullible journalists who are being led around by a governmental tour guide. 99% of the construction in China built for the average Chinese citizen over the last 10 years is comparable both in terms of quality and creativity to public housing built in Chicago, St. Louis or New York 40 or 50 years ago.

If Thomas Friedman bothered to visit with real Chinese families and saw how they actually lived, he would realize that his admiration for China is misplaced. He would no longer stand in awe of its buildings but rather would admire those Chinese citizens who have managed to remain inspired by the dream of freedom and liberty despite the oppression of their government.

(I still have to travel to China so please keep my name confidential in all respects. By the way, doesn’t that request say all that needs to be said about China?)

Yeah, when Friedman talks about the glittering, space age stuff it reminded me of Henry Wallace (FDR’s VP, former editor of The New Republic) and his visit to the Soviet Union, where he found one penal camp after another to be idyllic and often so much more impressive than the way we did things back in the U.S.

Jonah Goldberg, in addition to his indispensable "Liberal Fascism", has done a service of pointing out most examples of Friedman's ludicrous fascination with the shining example of Communist China:

Friedman is of late very frustrated with America for its failure to do what he says it must. Last September, in one of many columns lamenting that China does things better than we do, he wrote: “Watching both the health care and climate/energy debates in Congress, it is hard not to draw the following conclusion: There is only one thing worse than one-party autocracy, and that is one-party democracy, which is what we have in America today.” He continues: “One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks, but when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages.”

Well, for a useful idiot he is certainly more idiot than useful....

Police Action on Poverty

2010-09-13T21:18:00.002-04:00

Over at Ricochet, Pat Sajak points out that for all their pontification about always requiring an "exit strategy" in modern warfare, the Democrats haven't take their own advice....

Current TV reports on its website that the number of people in the U.S. living in poverty is rising under the current administration and is approaching levels of the 60s that led to the War on Poverty. So, after a 45-year war and trillions of dollars spent, we’re back where we started. That’s what you get for entering a conflict without an exit strategy.

Classic....and it only gets better in the comments:

"Meanwhile, the war on prosperity is going quite well."

Vannah, I'd like to buy a vowel and solve the puzzle...the quote is "The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem" by Milton Friedman.

DNC's Message for America...

2010-09-11T23:47:00.004-04:00

I didn't say it was a new message....

Ironically this response came when Jon Stewart asked the question, "What *have* you [Dems] done?" and Kaine is waxing about how it was a major accomplishment for the President to get Obamacare passed (@ 2:12).

How appropriate....

HT: Instapundit

It's Bush's Fault - Part XXIV

2010-09-08T23:31:00.002-04:00

Bryan Preston at Pajama's Media highlights the outrageous and inaccurate statements of an assistant secretary of Veterans Affairs concerning the treatment of injured Vets...

“This unfortunately is the result of dollars. It’s money,” Duckworth said. “I think that we as a nation would want to take care of all of our veterans. But it means that we’re going to have be willing to get the folks in Washington to spend the dollars on all of our veterans. And as long as there aren’t enough dollars, then they are force to prioritize veterans.

“And combat-connected, disabled veterans are the highest priority. That is why when you and I go to the VA they will take care of me first because I am combat-connected,” noted Duckworth, who lost both of her legs when the helicopter she was co-piloting in Iraq in 2004 was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.

“The difference is how did you get hurt. Unfortunately that’s just the way that … it’s a bureaucracy that was put into place in previous administrations in order to prioritize veterans because they didn’t spend enough to take care of everyone,” Duckworth told Wheeler.

As Preston goes on to explain, this is "Grade-A Bravo Sierra".

But the question I have is...if it was all "Bush's Fault", then why hadn't the new Obama leadership at the VA (Duckworth included) done anything about it??

Now you could reasonably expect to have some leeway when you place blame for something complex and intangible like "the economy", but when you are a bureaucratic administrator you cannot blame "a bureaucracy that was put into place in previous administrations" without also offering an explanation for why you haven't changed it after being in office for 18 months....

Of course the easy answer is that they haven't changed it because her statement wasn't true in the first place....

GOP Punches Dog....Twice As Hard

2010-09-06T23:21:00.003-04:00

Apparently the President doesn't like it when his opponents "punch back twice as hard"...

Demonizer-In-Chief Upset People Demonize Him

Obama's line, in his Labor Day speech in Milwaukee before union leaders and a union crowd, that "[t]hey talk about me like a dog," is getting all the attention.

[...]

But what was most Obama-like about the speech was the launching of vicious attacks on his opponents, only to then cry foul over the fact that his opponents push back. Obama, as he did throughout the campaign and has done throughout his presidency, painted a picture of his political opponents as heartless victimizers of others, and of the capitalist system as cruel and inhumane.

[...]

This truly is another of those windows into his divisive soul. The Demonizer-in-Chief and the class warfare expert doesn't like being treated the way he treats others.

Why can't the rubes just appreciate what he has done for them?!?

The Prius Insurection

2010-09-05T19:29:00.005-04:00

Consider this a bit of ironic revenge on all those bumper-sticker-laden Volvos....

Hat Tip to Doug Ross, who also points out the absence of any 'peace' or 'coexist' stickers.

I would offer that the following stickers that could fill the void....

And So The Vote Buying Begins....

2010-09-02T20:38:00.005-04:00

According to the WaPo via the ever-watchful Corner, the Obama Administration will begin to attempt to buy off American voters before the upcoming election.

Obama Administration Considering Payroll Tax Holiday
September 2, 2010 5:31 P.M.
By Daniel Foster

The White House economic team is reportedly considering pushing for a second stimulus comprised of “tax breaks” for businesses — including a possible $300 billion payroll tax holiday, and a $100 billion extension of an R&D tax credit.

The Washington Post reports:

"The staff-level discussions are in preliminary stages. But with the unemployment rate expected to rise again in new jobs numbers due out Friday, such a move could serve both to spur hiring and to combat Republican charges that Obama’s tax policies would hurt small businesses.

More spending on infrastructure – particularly transportation projects – is also under discussion, sources said. But a person familiar with the talks said it would be easier for a package consisting purely of tax cuts to “avoid the stain of a ‘bailout’ or ‘stimulus’ label.”

The proposals could be rolled out as early as next week.

That sounds great if you ask me and my paycheck, but it won't change my vote. And I am betting it won't change a whole lot of other votes as well. In fact I would venture to say that it could drive more voters away, as those who are on the fence may well see it for the attempted bribe that it is.

Additionally, the WaPo offers some extremely flawed analysis by saying "such a move could serve...to spur hiring..." Really? They think that a temporary tax holiday will cause employers to hire permanent employees?? Once the holiday is over, they would have to start paying the taxes again, one of the reasons that they wouldn't have hired those people in the first place.

Tax holidays are good at spurring one-time transactions (purchasing school clothes, TVs, clunkers, etc), but will probably have limited effect on recurring transactions (e.g. payrolls).

Much like 'Cash for Clunkers' and 'First Time Homebuyers' tax credits before it, this proposed temporary tax holiday will most likely have temporary effect...and a bad aftertaste when it is all over.

But then again, this proposal isn't about improving the economy, it is about sustaining the Democratic Party...

Miss Me Yet?

2010-08-31T22:17:00.004-04:00

This says it all....

Ohio: Bush 50, Obama 42

We’ll start rolling out our Ohio poll results tomorrow but there’s one finding on the poll that pretty much sums it up: by a 50-42 margin voters there say they’d rather have George W. Bush in the White House right now than Barack Obama. Independents hold that view by a 44-37 margin and there are more Democrats who would take Bush back (11%) than there are Republicans who think Obama’s preferable (3%.)

Press' Predominating Storyline About Beck Rally

2010-08-29T15:09:00.003-04:00

Jim Treacher has ferreted out the MSM's "un-diverse" implications about a rally held in the capital city of this predominantly white nation....

Presented without comment:

“Conservative commentator Glenn Beck and tea party champion Sarah Palin appealed Saturday to a vast, predominantly white crowd on the National Mall to help restore traditional American values and honor Martin Luther King’s message.” — Associated Press

“Attendees at the rally Saturday largely honored organizer requests that they not bring banners or political signs. Instead, the predominantly white crowd, many seated on folding chairs and accompanied by their children, wore t-shirts with slogans including ‘Got principles?’ and ‘Restoring Honor.’” — AFP

“Meanwhile, many in the predominantly white crowd bent over backward to insist that they are not racists and to note that the crowd was courteous, despite heat and density.” — James Hohmann, Politico

“Beck says he and his overwhelmingly white followers ‘are the inheritors and protectors of the civil- rights movement.’” — Ben Adler, Newsweek

“Though the audience at the event was overwhelmingly white, many of the speakers were African-American, including a woman who sang a song about unity.” — Brian Montopoli, CBS

“Claiming the legacy of the nation’s Founding Fathers and repeatedly evoking civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., the speakers at the ‘Restoring Honor’ rally exhorted a vast and overwhelmingly white crowd to concentrate not on the history that has scarred the nation but instead on what makes it ‘good.’” — Philip Rucker & Carol Morello, Washington Post

“A relatively dense and overwhelmingly white crowd stretched from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial out past the Washington Monument.” — Mark Benjamin, Salon.com

“The speaker list was diverse, including African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans; Jews and Christians; clergymen, military veterans and sports stars, including Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals. The crowd, however, was overwhelmingly white.” — Michael A. Memoli and Kim Geiger, LA Times

“Out in the overwhelmingly white audience… politics was everywhere, with Tea Party supporters describing the damage they envision for President Barack Obama’s Democrats in upcoming midterm elections in November.” — Mitch Potter, Toronto Star

What are they really trying to say?

NYT: Statements of the Obvious

2010-08-22T17:18:00.006-04:00

Is it any wonder that the New York Times is barely treading water?

First, the Editorial Staff has been storing up the sour grapes when it comes to Tom Delay, and do not like that fact that the Justice Department decided last week not to bring charges against him.

Second, their reasoning is that this could not possibly be due to actual innocence, but rather the mere legal inconvenience that what he was accused of doing wasn't illegal...yet. This spawned what is surely an early front-runner for 2010 Top Statement of the Obvious:

"But many of Mr. DeLay’s actions remain legal only because lawmakers have chosen not to criminalize them."

Hmmm....Uhhhh...No duh?

By that soaring logic (which apparently still passes for insightful for the NYT's falling readership), any and all actions by American citizens remain legal only because of the good graces of our ruling class overlords.

But don't worry, they are working on that....

[HT: Ramesh Ponnuru]

Surround Them With Tolerance

2010-08-10T11:09:00.003-04:00

So they want to build a mosque mere feet from Ground Zero?

Of course I am opposed. Not because I am anti-Muslim, but because as we have been brow beaten that multi-culturalism is about not offending the sensibilities of others, building a mosque next to the site where Jihad killed thousands of Americans offends my sensibilities.

But if we can not appeal to the those 'moderate' Muslims building the place, and the condescending liberal bureaucrats clearing the way, at least we can play the same game.

Don't want to take our sensibilities into account? Fine, then we won't take yours either.

In a good first start, Greg Gutfield wants to build a gay bar for Muslim men right next door. Ithink this is a great idea, and will help the cause of spreading tolerance in NYC. Though I think he might have a problem getting a liquor license from those aforementioned bureaucrats. I wish him good luck,

But I think that we could also open a second front, but opening a perfectly legal retail establishment just on the other side of the mosque. Yes, I think we need to open a large Victoria's Secret, with its large display windows and high level of female traffic, right next door, or directly across the street. I think this would go a long way is helping the Muslim culture become more tolerant of the freedom of women in an open society.

Now what NY liberal could oppose that?

GM's Free Advertising

2010-07-31T08:04:00.005-04:00

It is always a good thing when your CEO gets free advertising on TV for your struggling products....

It is even better when your CEO is the President of the United States, which forces the television news outlets to show your products that the CEO/POTUS is using as a backdrop...

TheMichiganView.com:
Standing in front of a Jeep Grand Cherokee in Chrysler's Jefferson North Detroit assembly plant Friday afternoon, President Obama Friday declared that Chrysler "was building the fuel-efficient cars of tomorrow." Come again? The visual non-sequitor was one of many jarring notes in his "Mission Accomplished" visit to Detroit automakers. At one point the president even compared Chrysler's bailout to winning the lottery -- hardly a model for planning long-term corporate security. Eager to claim credit for charting a new course for Detroit with "targeted investments making new technologies," the president strangely chose as his backdrop the iconic Jeep SUV brand that first launched the small truck craze in the 1980s. This the same vehicle that Obama and his green allies condemn as having laid waste to the planet.

Given the seemingly unfair advantage in having the most powerful politician in the world pitch your/his product on free & live TV, on might wonder if Ford might want to petition the Federal Communications Commission for equal time....

Who's Hanging at the Country Club??

2010-07-15T14:33:00.006-04:00

So a major newspaper business columnist has the answer as to why the economy is not recovering....

ACCORDING TO WASHINGTON POST WRITER STEPHEN PEARLSTEIN ON NPR, we’re stuck in a recession because businessmen are dumb and just parrot whatever they hear in the country club locker room.

If you ask me, perhaps the economy isn't recovering because someone else is spending a little too much time in the country club locker room....

C'mon, its not like he's playing muni courses....

Conservative v. Liberal Fantasies

2010-07-13T18:59:00.004-04:00

Jim Treacher lets us a little too far inside his brain, and reveals some dark fantasies. [H/T: Instapundit]

"They both seem like good people and I hope they’ll kiss and make up. I don’t even mean that in a dirty way. Much."

But heck, I'd take that in a minute over Tom Friedman's fantasies!

Powerline: "Thomas Friedman wishes that our democracy worked as well as China's dictatorship. He thus fantasizes about the U.S. being "China for a day.""

Jonah Goldberg: "China’s got us beat, suggests Friedman, because its leaders aren’t hung up on democracy, checks and balances, or any of the other dusty old impediments found in the American system. Friedman has proclaimed his envy for China’s authoritarian system countless times. It’s why he titled one of the chapters in his book “China for a Day.” The idea — he calls it his “fantasy” — is that if we could just be China for a day, the experts could impose by diktat what they cannot win through democratic debate."

So there is your choice. The School Boy's fantasy....or the School Headmaster's Fantasy.

Apparently Health Care Rationing is 'Important' to the Obama Administration

2010-07-11T19:05:00.003-04:00

This past week the Obama Administration provided a recess appointment to Dr. Donald Berwick to be director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency that runs Medicare and Medicaid.

According to ABC News, the White House says "Berwick Appointment 'Too Important' to Wait for a Hearing"

This morning on ABC News’ "This Week," Senior White House Advisor David Axelrod insisted that President Obama’s recess appointment of Dr. Donald Berwick to be the administrator of The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was simply “too important” to wait for a Congressional hearing.

“The Republican Party has made it a policy in the United States Senate to hold up... as many nominations,” as possible, Axelrod said. “This is too important. This position is too important,” he told host Jake Tapper. “In the midst of implementing health reform, it is too important to allow that kind of game-playing to go on.”

So let me get this straight... The Obama Administration considers the appointment of Berwick, a man who advocates "health-care rationing and using the health-care system to redistribute wealth", to be "too important" to held up by some silly constitutional requirement like confirmation.

If they keep this up, some people might start to think they have a hidden motive....

The Coming Obama Tax Increases - Part 4

2010-07-11T12:39:00.001-04:00

Warning: "In just six months, the largest tax hikes in the history of America will take effect. They will hit families and small businesses in three great waves on January 1, 2011."

Higher tax rates on savers and investors

The capital gains tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 20 percent in 2011. The dividends tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 39.6 percent in 2011. These rates will rise another 3.8 percent in 2013.

So much for that pledge. As I have said before America...you get what you vote for, and this can certainly be classified as "change".

More to follow....

Source: Americans for Tax Reform

The Coming Obama Tax Increases - Part 3

2010-07-11T12:28:00.003-04:00

Warning: "In just six months, the largest tax hikes in the history of America will take effect. They will hit families and small businesses in three great waves on January 1, 2011."

The return of the Death Tax
This year, there is no death tax. For those dying on or after January 1 2011, there is a 55 percent top death tax rate on estates over $1 million. A person leaving behind two homes and a retirement account could easily pass along a death tax bill to their loved ones.

More on the Obama Administration's incentivizing death here. Or as Rob Long said, "Who needs Death Panels when we have a Death Tax?"

More to follow....

Source: Americans for Tax Reform

Poll Data Tailor-Made for GOP Ads

2010-07-07T21:07:00.004-04:00

Polling data released by Rasmussen Reports today would seem to provide the GOP some ready-made script material for Congressional and state-level candidates.

Most Americans Not Willing To Pay Higher Taxes For Public Employees, Entitlement Programs
Most Americans would not pay higher taxes for specific public services in their states, but they are more supportive of paying for education and staffing law enforcement than supporting state employees and entitlement programs.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Adults shows that only 19% would be willing to pay higher taxes to avoid layoffs of state employees. Sixty-nine percent (69%) say they would not be willing to pay more in taxes for this reason. Another 11% are undecided.

Adults feel similarly when it comes to funding entitlement programs. Twenty-two percent (22%) would pay higher taxes to prevent cuts in entitlement programs for low-income Americans. Sixty-three percent (63%) say they would not pay more to keep these programs afloat. Another 15% are undecided.

I can imagine an ad with a candidate looking into the camera...

My name is John Doe, and I am running for _________. I think today's culture of goverment spending and entitlements is out of control. I believe in *smaller* government.
A government that provides for our defense, emergency services, and helps parents educate their children. But I refuse to stand by and watch bureaucrats raise our taxes and mortgage our children's future in order to support bloated government payrolls and spend Trillions on programs that most Americans don't want.
If you agree, vote for me on November 2nd. My name is John Doe, I am running for ________, I say *Enough is Enough*, and I approve this message.

Hey RNC....shoot it and run it!

Bees in Barry's Bonnet

2010-07-05T19:21:00.004-04:00

From Instapundit:

KEEPING IN TOUCH WITH THE COMMON PEOPLE: The White House now has a beekeeper. “The idea for a White House hive came up not long after the Obamas moved in.”

Gee, and here I thought all the drones were down in the White House Press Room.

I guess they had to go somewhere after the Queen Bee was driven off....

The Coming Obama Tax Increases - Part 2

2010-07-03T21:45:00.003-04:00

Warning: "In just six months, the largest tax hikes in the history of America will take effect. They will hit families and small businesses in three great waves on January 1, 2011."

Higher taxes on marriage and family

The “marriage penalty” (narrower tax brackets for married couples) will return from the first dollar of income. The child tax credit will be cut in half from $1000 to $500 per child. The standard deduction will no longer be doubled for married couples relative to the single level. The dependent care and adoption tax credits will be cut.

So much for that pledge. As I have said before America...you get what you vote for, and this can certainly be classified as "change".

More to follow....

Source: Americans for Tax Reform

The Coming Obama Tax Increases - Part 1

2010-07-03T21:35:00.007-04:00

Warning: "In just six months, the largest tax hikes in the history of America will take effect. They will hit families and small businesses in three great waves on January 1, 2011."

Personal income tax rates will rise

The top income tax rate will rise from 35 to 39.6 percent (this is also the rate at which two-thirds of small business profits are taxed). The lowest rate will rise from 10 to 15 percent. All the rates in between will also rise. Itemized deductions and personal exemptions will again phase out, which has the same mathematical effect as higher marginal tax rates. The full list of marginal rate hikes is below:

- The 10% bracket rises to an expanded 15%
- The 25% bracket rises to 28%
- The 28% bracket rises to 31%
- The 33% bracket rises to 36%
- The 35% bracket rises to 39.6%

So much for that pledge. As I have said before America...you get what you vote for, and this can certainly be classified as "change".

More to follow....

Source: Americans for Tax Reform

"We Are Not The Enemy"

2010-07-03T06:51:00.006-04:00

Here is a video of CNN's Anderson Cooper bemoaning the fact that the Obama Administration is restricting press access to oil spill clean-up efforts...

(H/T: Allahpundit at HotAir)

The best part is when Cooper repeatedly says "We are not the enemy here!"

Poor Anderson. Surely you have to be intelligent enough to realize you *ARE* the enemy here. Your reporting will no doubt show the recovery efforts in a negative light. Even if you only show a couple of oil covered gulls, that is enough to convey that after a month and a half progress is not being made, and that is not the narrative that this "transparent" Executive Branch wants on the airwaves.

Perhaps you felt a kinship because the President yucked it up with you a the Correspondents Dinners, or you are invested in the idea that things would be different because the President could give some idealistic campaign speeches. However understand this...no matter how much of a sycophantic acolyte you are, if you break their rules and go off of their narrative, you *ARE* the enemy here, and you will end up under the bus.

So you have two choices here....one, do your job and accept your place on the journalistic enemies list, or two, toe the line and enjoy the laughs and Crème brûlée at next year's White House Correspondents Dinner.

This Isn't Working - Pt 3

2010-06-29T20:27:00.002-04:00

This Isn't Working - Pt 2

2010-06-29T20:25:00.002-04:00

This Isn't Working - Pt 1

2010-06-29T20:20:00.003-04:00

Standing Committee for Posterior Selection

2010-06-12T17:29:00.001-04:00

Jonah Goldberg:

"Any day now, after thorough interagency review, the Standing Committee for Posterior Selection will have given provisional approval for a working list of asses for POTUS to kick with an OSHA-approved shoe. Alas, final environmental-impact statements are pending. But once that hurdle is cleared, the president will focus like a laser on ass-kicking."

That about sums it up....

Bingo for Borderjumpers!

2010-06-11T22:12:00.005-04:00

YGBSM....

[Hat Tip: Hugh Hewitt for the title]

Sen Feinstein's Military Discrimination

2010-06-06T00:08:00.007-04:00

So President Obama will nominate Lt Gen James Clapper, USAF (Ret) to be the next Director of National Intelligence.

This is something that Sen. Dianne Feinstein does not like, because Clapper is from the DoD. She said: "The best thing for intelligence is to have a civilian in charge. The elbows are less sharp."

Well technically Dianne, Clapper has been a "civilian" for 15 years, as he retired from the Air Force in 1995. But what you probably meant was that we can't have any of those dastardly types with military resumès running the intelligence biz.

While there are many qualified "civilian" senior executives out there in the Intelligence Community (with sharp elbows to boot!), those with experience leading the various agencies are primarily military generals. In fact, before his current intelligence related leadership gig, Clapper ran *two* of those 3-letter intelligence agencies (DIA, NGA). So, by all measures, he is supremely qualified.

But unfortunately for Clapper, he served 45+ years in the military and DoD civilian positions, which disqualifies him in the eyes of Sen. Feinstein. By all means oppose him for his leadership style, personality, or aversion to congressional oversight. But don't oppose him because he has spent his life in military service.

Oh, and one more thing Dianne...according to the Veterans' Employment Opportunities Act, veterans "are entitled to receive preferential treatment in hiring for Federal government jobs, including civilian military jobs and homeland security jobs." In addition, the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) of 1994 "prohibits discrimination against reservists and veterans in any aspect of employment, on the basis of their military service."

So, while this is an appointment, and not a hiring, it would seem to me that Sen Feinstein is trampling all over the spirit of at least two federal laws, and is being extremely shortsighted to boot.

C'mon Cali voters, why do you continue to send these military-hating women to the Senate?

Competence is its Own Reward

2010-05-29T23:19:00.008-04:00

I heard a great poem by 'Tarzana Joe' on Hugh Hewitt's show Thursday night. I have not seen it posted anywhere, so I decide to transcribe it myself.

Enjoy...

Competence is its Own Reward
By Tarzana Joe

This talk that I lack competence,
Is just a nasty rumor.
I’d laugh at those who say so,
If I had a sense of humor.
Confronted with a problem,
I think once, and I think twice,
And if I can’t resolve it,
I ask Biden for advice.
Solutions we come up with,
I consider fine and dandy.
But for matters of great moment,
I keep the good book handy.
At bed-time when I hit my knees,
I ponder, and I quote it,
And thank the lord each evening,
that Saul Alinsky wrote it.
If I bristle at my critics,
and come on a little strong,
You have to understand,
what I do is never wrong.
I really thought dictators
would kotow and do my bidding,
I vowed to close down Gitmo,
you know I was just kidding.
New York’s the perfect venue,
Where we’ll bring a Sheik to justice,
And I’m doing all I can
So Ahmadinejad will trust us.
I’ve ordered Eric Holder
to keep working days and nights,
To round up every terrorist,
And read them Miranda rights.
The offer I made Sestak,
Shouldn’t cause such consternation.
It was all part of the stimulus,
A little job creation.
So what if Cajun crawfish
Have a slightly oily taste.
I could use another crisis,
Which I won’t let go to waste.
Yes, into waves of turmoil,
I don’t hesitate to leap,
It’s just I am only 6’2”,
And the water’s 8 feet deep.

Obama the Sports Fan...Again...

2010-05-26T06:59:00.004-04:00

Well, President Obama is at it again, wheedling his way into the American attention span by appearing on TV during a major sporting event offering his opinions whether we want him or not. So much for using sports as temporary escape from reality of daily life....the President is there again to remind us that he is still around. I don't know if the thinks we care that he likes sports like the everyday Joe, or if it is a conniving (though poorly thought out) PR plan to get him exposure. Either way, I wish he would stop, and play his narcissistic games somewhere else.

The President did offer two nuggets that we can digest.

1) He is picking the Lakers to win the title. Good Martha Coakley strategy there Mr. President. I am sure that all the GOP candidates for House seats in New England will love to use this to their advantage....

2) He wants us to know that he is deeply concerned about high ticket prices...

"I mean, I think that ticket prices have gotten so high, and I understand that salaries are high, ticket prices are going to be high, but you know, you hate to think that the only person that can go to a game is somebody who's got a corporate account," Obama said. "And that's something that I'd love all professional sports, that's not just NBA, but all professional sports to be thinking about that a little more."

That's great Mr President, but that is one area of American life that I would like you to be thinking about a little less. What I want you thinking about a little more are some of the problems that are more important to some of the average Joes who cannot afford those tickets.

Just imagine, if you had taken all the collective time that you have spent since the beginning of the year watching/playing/opining about sports, and actually traveled to Tennessee to visit and comfort flood victims, your job approval rating might not be so abysmal. Just saying....

Now please let me watch sports in peace!

Restrepo - One Platoon, One Valley, One Year

2010-05-25T23:42:00.009-04:00

Acclaimed author Sebastian Junger, widely known as author of 'The Perfect Storm', has put together what looks to be a most interesting look at an isolated U.S. Army platoon that he embedded with during 2007/08 in eastern Afghanistan.

The movie 'Restrepo', filmed by Junger and co-hort Tim Hetherington, will be released next month. The film has already won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival.

Here is a trailer:

Another (better) version of the trailer can also be viewed in HD here.

Junger has also released a book about his embedded experience titled 'War'.

Kagan & Summers...Separated at Birth??

2010-05-11T22:23:00.005-04:00

Not to go off on a weird Andrew Sullivan-like tangent...but please indulge me this odd question...

Were Elena Kagan and Larry Summers separated at birth?

Or is Kagan simply Summers in drag?

These are the important questions that vex the republic!

Hat Tip: Tokyo Lev

UPDATE: Jammie Wearing Fool has another example.

A Lexicon has been...failed

2010-05-09T17:49:00.008-04:00

Last week when talking of the attempted Times Square car bombing, President Obama said the following:

...They will stop at nothing to kill and disrupt our way of life. But once again, an attempted attack has been—failed...

Awkward phrasing to say the least, but as the Weekly Standard says, "It is as if the president wanted to say the attack “has been thwarted” but then realized he could not. The attack failed because Shahzad did not do a better job of constructing his makeshift bomb. No government agency can take credit for that."

However the most interesting word in that quote from the President is 'they'. Who *is* 'they'??
If we depend upon the White House's official statements, we will never know. for as it turns out, the words words 'terrorism', 'jihad', 'Islam', and even 'enemy' are no longer welcome in the official lexicon of the ~~Global War on Terror~~ Overseas Contingency Operations.

There are two recent looks at this 'phenomenon'.

First from the aforementioned Weekly Standard "Don’t Mention the War", in which authors Stephen Hayes and Thomas Jocelyn ask:

"Why does the Obama administration find it so hard to utter the words ‘terrorism’ and ‘jihad’ and ‘Islamic extremism’?"

[...]

So, three attacks in six months, by attackers with connections to the global jihadist network—connections that administration officials have gone out of their way to diminish.

The most striking thing about all three attacks is not what we heard, but what we haven’t heard. There has been very little talk about the global war that the Obama administration sometimes acknowledges we are fighting and virtually nothing about what motivates our enemy: radical Islam.

This is no accident.

Near the end of their article they cite the incomparable Janet Napolitano, who said she doesn't use the word terrorism in order to avoid “the politics of fear.”

Great. We apparently want to avoid offending those who would instill us with terror (and death), by not engaging in “the politics of fear.” As Glenn Reynolds likes to say, the country is in the very best of hands.

In addition to the Weekly Standard, PJTV released an instructive look at how the lexicon has changed in the past several years.

In their video "Censorship of Islamic Terminology" from April 23d, you will see how along with 'terrorism' the offending terms 'jihad', 'Islam', and even 'enemy' are totally absent from important Obama Administration documents like the National Intelligence Strategy, FBI Counter-Terrorism Lexicon, and Lesson from Ft Hood report.

I wonder what words might be included in the report on the "Times Square Incident"? Recent evidence does not inspire confidence. I guess the real question should be...is this best categorized as cultural sensitivity, or appeasement?

At the very least, this should inspire a rise in billboard space rental....

Another take on 9.9% Unemployment

2010-05-08T00:23:00.007-04:00

This week we saw the April unemployment numbers released, and they ticked up from 9.7% to 9.9%, despite the addition of 290k new jobs.

President Obama says this is progress, "...the storm is receding and the skies are brightening..." But others point out that without the hiring of people to record the Census, the numbers are a bit lower.

That leaves the question about how, if we added 290k new jobs, did the unemployment rate move *up*? As discussed by Jim Geraghty, "discouraged workers – those who had given up looking for work — are getting off the sidelines."

"Discouraged workers" do not show up in the unemployment rate, so if 100k discouraged workers start looking for work again, it is reflected in the unemployment rate the same as if 100k people had lost their jobs. [This is a good reason to follow the more inclusive U-6 Unemployment Rate, which rose to 17.1% in April]

So, why were all these "discouraged workers" suddenly looking for work again in April, and thus being counted again and raising the rate from 9.7% to 9.9%? Was it an improving jobs market? Perhaps so. But here is another option:

President Obama Signs Unemployment Extension

President Barack Obama has signed a bill extending unemployment benefits through June 2...People who lost out on the additional weeks of benefits after exhausting their state-paid benefits will now be able to reapply and receive those checks retroactively.

So, in the middle of April thousands of discouraged workers qualified for retroactive unemployment benefits that had previously run out? The last time I checked, in order to qualify for benefits, you had to be "actively looking for work". Thus in order to qualify, they have to give up being "discouraged workers", and become "unemployed" again.

So, I would argue that perhaps the reason the unemployment rate went up was that the government handed out more unemployment benefits.

Weird, huh?

Tea Party Protests Turn Violent and Riot!

2010-05-03T12:02:00.003-04:00

I am sorry did I say Tea Party Protests? I meant May Day Protests.

You can understand my mistake though. When I heard the word 'protests' and 'violence' on CNN, I naturally assumed it must be the Tea Partiers. I mean that is what the media and none other than Bill Clinton has told us is coming, right? Who would have thunk that lefty anarchist thugs could resort to violence during a May Day protest. I thought that type of behavior was reserved to septuagenarian patriots.

Confederate Yankee highlights another riot on the other side of the country.

Imagine, if you will, what would happen if a group split off from a Tea Party protest and went on a rampage, smashing windows and vandalizing cars. Eleven are arrested, and some of those have known ties to right wing militia groups.

Don't you think that dozens of stories would have flooded network news and talk shows, and that government officials—perhaps Obama himself—would decry the right wing violence?

Well, that likely would occur if the violence was right wing in origin, but when a group of radical leftists split off from the main crowd at a pro-communist May Day parade in Asheville, NC over the weekend and went on a rampage, the national media utterly ignored it.

Seriously though, it is sad when the media can foment so much about how the Tea Parties are a forbearance of violence, but continue to fail to cover the actual violence, when it comes from the left.

Thoughts on Arizona

2010-04-29T19:38:00.007-04:00

First, critics should read the law. The bottom line is that this law does not create new enforcement actions, but only enforces existing Federal immigration laws.

It is amazing how ignorant most criticism is on this issue. It is way out of control. Not that some Republicans have been any better.

If people want to deride this law as 'Nazi' or 'police state' tactics, 'draconian', or surprise surprise, 'racist', then they need to ask themselves, are all immigration laws are racist?

If this law is racist, then so are our existing federal laws. What say you, Mr. President?

Second, some conservatives like the esteemed Hugh Hewitt are worried that this law is problematic for the Right's efforts to win big in this fall's elections. This is a legitimate concern, as the Dems know how to put on a good propaganda show, especially with the media in lock-step.

However, I think things can turn for the better. If the law were to stand, then the propaganda show could proceed apace. However the liberal interest groups will not be able to help themselves, as they trip over one another to get to the courthouse door to get a liberal judge to order and injunction. In doing so, they will shift the focus.

The easiest liberal argument is that Federal laws trump state law on immigration. While this is a valid legal argument, politically it allows conservatives to turn the tables and point out how pourous and ineffective those federals laws actually are.

If the left wants to defeat Arizona by claiming that the Federal Govt trumps states on the issue, then bring it on. Thats isn't a record of achievement I want to run on going into the November elections.

Orszag: Obamacare Rationing is "Automatic"

2010-04-27T22:26:00.004-04:00

#hhrs #ucot #rs #sgp #handsoff
Ed Morrissey: "ObamaCare is a rationing system, and the IPAB will be one of the key drivers for that rationing. If you don’t believe me, just listen to Orszag."

The truth comes out....shocking...

GM's Plan: Using Govt $ to pay back Govt $ to get more Govt $

2010-04-24T10:32:00.006-04:00

#hhrs #tcot #rs #sgp
GM knows its has a problem. It knows that many Americans may not consider buying a GM vehicle while the company is still in effect, a branch of the United States Government.

That would explain why they feel the need to go on TV with ads hype the meme that its has paid back its debt to the government.

Unfortunately, this is all bunk.

GM CEO Ed Whitacre announced in a Wall Street Journal column Wednesday that his company has paid back its government bailout loan "in full, with interest, years ahead of schedule." He is even running TV ads on all major networks to that effect--a needless expense given that a credulous media is only too happy to parrot his claims for free. Detroit Free Press' Mike Thompson, for example, advises bailout proponents to start "warming up their vocal chords" to jeer their opponents with chants of "I told you so."

But before belting out their victory aria, GM-boosters ought to hear the whole story--not just the fairytale version about Government Motors' grand comeback that Mr. Whitacre is feeding them.

Uncle Sam gave GM $49.5 billion last summer in aid to finance its bankruptcy. (If it hadn't, the company, which couldn't raise this kind of money from private lenders, would have been forced into liquidation, its assets sold for scrap.) So when Mr. Whitacre publishes a column with the headline, "The GM Bailout: Paid Back in Full," most ordinary mortals unfamiliar with bailout minutia would assume that he is alluding to the entire $49.5 billion. That, however, is far from the case.

Because a loan of such a huge amount would have been politically controversial, the Obama administration handed GM only $6.7 billion as a pure loan. (It asked for only a 7% interest rate--a very sweet deal considering that GM bonds at that time were trading below junk level.) The vast bulk of the bailout money was transferred to GM through the purchase of 60.8% equity stake in the company--arguably an even worse deal for taxpayers than the loan, given that the equity position requires them to bear the risk of the investment without any guaranteed return. (The Canadian government likewise gave GM $1.4 billion as a pure loan, and another $8.1 billion for an 11.7% equity stake. The U.S. and Canadian government together own 72.5% of the company.)

But when Mr. Whitacre says GM has paid back the bailout money in full, he means not the entire $49.5 billion--the loan and the equity. In fact, he avoids all mention of that figure in his column. He means only the $6.7 billion loan amount.

As Forbes puts it further down in this article, this is "using government money to pay back government money to get more government money".

America, you are being hoodwinked. GM thinks you are a crash test dummy. Don't believe the hype....

Climate Change Helps Killer Fungus!

2010-04-23T07:17:00.004-04:00

Reuters has an interesting article about a fungus that is spreading in Canada and the US, which can be deadly for some people.

Potentially deadly fungus spreading in US, Canada

WASHINGTON, April 22 (Reuters) - A potentially deadly strain of fungus is spreading among animals and people in the northwestern United States and the Canadian province of British Columbia, researchers reported on Thursday.
The airborne fungus, called Cryptococcus gattii, usually only infects transplant and AIDS patients and people with otherwise compromised immune systems, but the new strain is genetically different, the researchers said.
"This novel fungus is worrisome because it appears to be a threat to otherwise healthy people," said Edmond Byrnes of Duke University in North Carolina, who led the study.

This otherwise concerning article takes a humorous turn at the end though....

Freezing can kill the fungus and climate change may be helping it spread, the researchers said.

So how exactly did 'Climate Change' help this deadly fungus? Did it give it a ride across the border?? Did it loan it some money? Baloney.

The article says that this fungus has been spreading over the last few years, during a time which global temperatures have not shown any warming? And given this winter's cold weather, one could deduce that that fungus should have been eradicated.

I am sure this this fungus is deadly, and may even be a wider threat, but let drop the hyperbole about it being worse due to an undefined "climate change" co-conspirator....

Cool Animation of Volcanic Ash Spread

2010-04-18T19:36:00.004-04:00

Astute Bloggers shows us a very cool animation that shows the spread of Iceland's volcanic ash over Europe. Or at least that is what is alleged to be since I don't read Danish...

As of this time, there is no evidence to suggest a link between that incident and this one:

How Do You Really Feel, Mr. President?

2010-04-14T06:55:00.004-04:00

Instapundit linked to a video on Weaselzippers, showing us the President's obvious lament that the United States of America is still a superpower....

I am sure Robert Gibbs will say he was reminding the other nations that we are the remaining superpower.....

But if you are doing that, you would say "Whether *you* like it or not..." Instead he said "Whether *we* like it or not..."

That tells me, that in his mind, he does *not* like being the only remaining superpower....and that is troubling. Although it might explain the whole unilateral nuclear disarmament thing....

Here We Bow Again

2010-04-12T22:31:00.005-04:00

There are a few options that explain this picture:

1) The President has early-onset Osteoporosis

2) Hu Jintao said, 'Hey look, your shoe is untied." ("嘿，你看，你的鞋是不附带条件")

3) The President is being overly deferential to his loan ~~shark~~ officer.

You make the call.....

1981 TV Report on Primitive Internet

2010-04-09T23:29:00.002-04:00

Can you imagine reading newspapers on your home computer?!?

Sadly, there are some newspaper websites that haven't gotten much better in the last 30 years...

'I Like Trying to Explain'

2010-04-09T20:59:00.004-04:00

You gotta love how the Dems can condescend without even knowing it....

LONDONDERRY — Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter told a boisterous crowd last night that the recently enacted health care reform bill is imperfect but needed.

[...]

Ultimately, Shea-Porter didn't shy away from the confrontational tenor of the meeting, and said in an interview later that she enjoyed the give and take.

"I love it," she said. "I like trying to explain."

Gee, it sure was nice of her to come down off the Mount to "explain" how good the impending Nanny State will be for us. I guess she thinks her constituents are too stupid to decide for themselves, and she must "explain" it to them.

It is a great example of how Dems can't understand how there could be a different, legitimate opinion than theirs.

Democratic Rhetoric v. New Nuke Policy

2010-04-06T21:26:00.003-04:00

Dems have been trying to stoke fears that Tea Party "extremism" will lead to violence.

However, the only ones consistently using inflammatory extremist rhetoric are those very same Democrats.

Now there is a new one to add to the collection, from a Democrat District Attorney near Dallas:

“I won’t stop dispensing justice. But I’ve got to fight the political attacks coming at me from all directions. I’ll say it publicly: If you throw punches at us, we’ll drop a bomb on you.”

Perhaps he hasn't gotten the White House memo, that we will no longer be dropping bombs on anyone, no matter what they might do....

He should step it down a notch and take a page out of the Obama/Chicago Extremist Rhetoric playbook:

“If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun...” - Barack Obama

Tea Party Racism on Display!

2010-04-05T22:43:00.003-04:00

It makes me sad to see another reminder of what a racist group these Tea Parties are.....

[Hat Tip: Instapundit & Gateway Pundit]

Life, Liberty, and Whatever - The Sequel

2010-04-03T09:16:00.005-04:00

While we are on the topic of sequels today...

Here is a post of mine from almost 3 years ago, discussing the relative ignorance of people [read: political grandstanders] when using quotes from the Constitution:

Life, Liberty, and Whatever

Instapundit subtly points out that the NYT editorial writers (and their overseers) need to go back to school and re-take U.S. History 101.
THE NEW YORK TIMES' EDITORS think that the phrase "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" is in the Constitution. But then, they believe many things that are demonstrably untrue.
Imagined NYT response:
"Constitution, Declaration of Independence...whatever. You are taking my words out of context, and missing the bigger point....blah, blah,blah."

Fast forward to present day, and we find example of a poor helpless Democratic lawmaker cornered by a dastardly Tea-partier attempting to impugn his honor by asking where in the Constitution exists the "right" to health care.

Interestingly, Congressman Phil Hare (D-Ill) tries to dance around blogger Adam Sharp's (Sharp Elbows) questions by stating:

"I believe it [The Constitution] says we have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness..."

I am so glad that yet another one of our indignant elected officials wants to lecture us, when he doesn't even know the basic differences in our two most important founding documents. I suppose it is not a surprise, given his earlier statement "I don't care about the Constitution on this...." Sadly though, this is fairly indicative of American society, as most people wouldn't know enough to call him on it.

But I bet most Tea Partiers could (as Sharp does during his interview with Neil Cavuto)....

Lets keep those sharp elbows flying!