Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Heh. Faking it
From NRO:
Fake Umpire Hiding Behind Fake Love of Baseball? [Ed Whelan]Pardon the baseball fan in me:
President Obama says he’s a longtime fan of the Chicago White Sox, but he callsComiskey Park “Cominskey.” And Judge Sotomayor, in her testimony yesterday, asserted that “Few judges could claim they love baseball more than I do” and that she “grew up … watching baseball.” But a March 28, 1995, story in USA Today, titled “U.S. District judge not a baseball fan,” stated that Sotomayor “grew up a few miles from Yankee Stadium but says she knows little about the sport.” And yesterday she said that “many residents of Washington, D.C. have asked me to look at the Senators” as her new team. But as even a casual baseball fan would know, the D.C. team is the Nationals, not the Senators.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Hundreds of terrorists traded for journalist
Too ugly to comment upon. Read it here:
But then Roxana Saberi was thrown into Evin Prison in Tehran, and the Obama Administration started negotiations with the mullahs. I have been told that the key office in the American Government was Vice President Joe Biden’s, and that the Swiss Government (our official liaison to Tehran) played an active role. In early May, the deal was arranged: more than thirty Iranian “VIP” detainees would be released (first to the Iraqis, then to the Iranians), and then, in the fullness of time, several hundred (repeat, several hundred) others of less importance. Within days, Iraqi leader Maliki flew to Iran to work out the details. Saberi was quickly released, and the triumphal return to Iran for the Five was scheduled for shortly after the Iranian elections.
Secret plan to kill terrorists! (Jack Bauer, where are you when we need you?)
Gasp! What have we come to? The administration is thinking of appointing a special prosecutor to find out if there was a secret plan, which was never carried out, to kill Al Qaeda terrorists, er, extremists, er, disrupters. Have we become pantywaists who can't own up to fighting an actual WAR? Read about it in the WSJ:
One former senior intelligence official said the program was an attempt "to achieve a capacity to carry out something that was directed in the finding," meaning it was looking for ways to capture or kill al Qaeda chieftains. The official noted that Congress had long been briefed on the finding, and that the CIA effort wasn't so much a program as "many ideas suggested over the course of years." It hadn't come close to fruition, he added.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
And so let it be written: Those days are over
President Barack Hussein Obama:
This time, CEOs won’t be able to use taxpayer money to pad their paychecks or buy fancy drapes or disappear on a private jet. Those days are over.
There's no time for delay. We need durable and successful flows of credit in our economy, but we can't tolerate profits that depend on misleading working families. Those days are over.
"The days when we are going to be able to grow this economy just on an overheated housing market or people maxing out on their credit cards, those days are over," he said.
All San Franciscans commanded to eat healthier
Billions on jungle gyms, bike paths
Yeah. Here's Ted Kennedy, that slim paragon of workout virtue who has access to more jungle gyms than anyone in the world, who wants to spend billions on stuff to aid our "health infrastructure." Looks like he's done that all his life. Whaddya think the likelihood is that obese Americans are going to change their ways and start going to a new training circuit at, say, Hood Park on weekends? What? You say, you haven't seen them at the Frank School training circuit? I thought so. EXTRINSIC motivation, rather than INTRINSIC motivation, when it comes to working out, tends to peter out after one pulled muscle. Let's blow billions we don't have. Read at Red State:
But advocates, including Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, defend the proposed spending as a necessary way to promote healthier lives and, in the long run, cut medical costs. “These are not public works grants; they are community transformation grants,’’ said Anthony Coley, a spokesman for Kennedy, chairman of the Senate health committee whose healthcare bill includes the projects.
Business climate of fear
A must-read concerning the climate of fear the administration is creating in numerous fields. Read it at Business and Media:
“The new and proposed regulations will remove every competitive advantage of the community bank, and make every bank identical, forced to operate exactly as does Bank of America,” he explained. “Then, absent competitive opportunity, all of the independent banks will be greatly de-valued and handicapped. They’ll be vulnerable and easily rolled up into the handful of remaining giants … the small bank’s wealth made into fresh food for the insatiable hunger of the big banks’ deficits and losses. This is, I and others believe, the next step in Obama’s plan to take total control of the financial system and money supply, a requirement of dictatorship. “What is most significant about these statements is the person making them. This is not some freak like the fellow Mel Gibson portrayed in the movie “Conspiracy Theory.”. He’s not somebody stockpiling food in a cabin hidden away in the woods, to escape to when anarchy erupts. Not anybody you would expect to hear express such thoughts. And he’s not a lone voice.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Common sense
Even the WaPo has got wind of some pretty awful "change" taking place in our economy. Read Michael Gerson's article here:
To pass his health proposal this year, Obama would first need to violate his word. As a presidential candidate, he pledged that "no one making less than $250,000 a year will see any type of tax increase" -- the most memorable number of the 2008 campaign. Taxing health benefits would certainly cross this very bright line and add to the public stock of cynicism.
Hope and change!
Read here about hope and change at Commentary Magazine:
The storm clouds that have been amassing on the horizon are beginning to move overhead. The second most worrisome consideration for the President is that things may well get worse before they get better, particularly when it comes to unemployment. Such a development would not, by itself, be debilitating. After all, Ronald Reagan had to endure a very bad year in 1982 as he and Paul Volcker wrung stagflation out of the economy.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Burdensome cap and tax bill exposed
PowerLine has some interesting comments about the cap and tax bill. Also be sure to read "The Garden of Piggish Delights" at NRO for details of the bill:
The cap-and-tax bill combines incredibly burdensome and intrusive regulatory mandates and taxes in one gargantuan monstrosity. The bill is an outrage. The July 4 tea parties chronicled by Glenn Reynolds yesterday are a fitting sign of the times. The bill needs to be exposed -- thanks to Spruiell and Williamson for beginning the job -- and killed.
Govt spends $2.6 mill on sex workers
in CHINA...Yeah, that makes sense. My hard earned taxpayer dollars going to Chinese prostitutes.
(CNSNews.com) -- The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAA), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will pay $2.6 million in U.S. tax dollars to train Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly on the job.
Dr. Xiaoming Li, the researcher conducting the program, is director of the Prevention Research Center at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit.
The grant, made last November, refers to prostitutes as "female sex workers"--or FSW--and their handlers as "gatekeepers."
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Friday, July 3, 2009
50 things wrong with the global warming bill
A fairly exhaustive rundown of the bill from Hell. Read it at National Review Online:
Two main things to understand about Waxman-Markey: First, it will not reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, at least not at any point in the near future. The inclusion of carbon offsets, which can be manufactured out of thin air and political imagination, will eliminate most of the demands that the legislation puts on industry, though in doing so it will manage to drive up the prices consumers pay for every product that requires energy for its manufacture — which is to say, for everything. Second, it represents a worse abuse of the public trust and purse than the stimulus and the bailouts put together.
Waxman-Markey creates a permanent new regime in which environmental romanticism and corporate welfare are mixed together to form political poison. From comic bureaucratic power grabs (check out the section of the bill on candelabras) to the creation of new welfare programs for Democratic constituencies to, above all, massive giveaways for every financial, industrial, and political lobby imaginable, this bill would permanently deform American politics and economic life.
N Dakota tea party smashing success!
It's happening all over the country...one at the NYC Times Square, N Dakota and all over the country tomorrow, July 4, INDEPENDENCE DAY! Read about N Dakota's here at Say Anything blog:
The energy and passion on display at this event was nothing short of amazing. And it wasn’t just coming from the stage. While we had a number of intelligent, passionate, fired-up people speaking at the event what really stole the show were the comments from the crowd. Veterans. Business owners. Laborers. School bus drivers. Plumbers. You name it, they were on hand to have their say. Some of the comments brought gales of laughter. Others were so poignant people were visibly choked up.It was an emotional event, all the way around.
I’m not sure there are many moments in my life that I will ever be more proud of than having the opportunity to organize this event with some of my fellow conservatives, and having the honor to add my voice to theirs in an effort to get this country back on the right course.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
More blowback on WaPo's selling of influence
How embarrassing and shameful is that. Supposedly an objective news outlet selling influence of its reporters AND Obama administration officials? It doesn't get any worse than this. Read PowerLine's take on the situation, which was withdrawn when brought to light:
So the Washington Post is selling lobbyists access to "key Obama administration officials" for a mere $25,000 per evening. Obviously they could not have done this without arranging in advance for those "key officials" to participate. Where does the Obama administration end and the Washington Post begin? That is becoming an increasingly metaphysical question.
California: who gets paid in cash and who gets an IOU?
Well, figure it out! Check it out here:
California: The haves and have-nots:
| People who get California IOUs | People California pays in cash |
| Grants to aged, blind or disabled persons | University of California |
| People needing temporary assistance for basic family needs | Public Employees’ Retirement System |
| People in drug prevention, treatment, and recovery services | Legislators, legislative employees, and appointees |
| Persons with developmental disablities | Judges |
| People in mental health treatment | Department of Corrections |
| Small Business Vendors | Health Care Services payments to Institutional Providers |
Ego porn
The American Thinker has an interesting piece about our president's motivation:
They've got his number, all the political con artists around the world. For a little balloon-pumping flattery Obama will sell out American national security interests -- not to mention those of our allies. Obama's "historic" Epistle to the Muslims, delivered last month at Cairo's Al Azhar University (an international center for Islamist propaganda) was not really intended to make a billion Muslims fall down at his feet. No, the main goal of all those grand gestures is to make Obama feel better about himself. That's the key to his character.
Walking to work? No more troops?
Regardless if they need them. Bob Woodward reporting that the solution is now "economic" rather than " military." Heh. More taxpayer money (whee! Let's print some more!) will solve the problems of Islamic militants...not more military force, even if their lives depend on it. After all, the president might say "all requests for more troops will prompt a “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” response in the Oval Office. " (For the uninformed....take the first letter of each word...WTF...what do you think that means?) Read Jules Crittenden's take on it:
Woodward goes on to repeat the strategic mantra, ”security, economic development and reconstruction.” The mission statement: ”Killing the enemy is secondary.” The generals may think they need up to 32,000 more troops in addition to the 68,000 already authorized, but … WTF? Jones tells jarhead commanders in Afghanistan: “The piece of the strategy that has to work in the next year is economic development.”[SNIP]“We’re doing this very differently,” Nicholson said to his senior officers a few hours before the mission began. “We’re going to be with the people. We’re not going to drive to work. We’re going to walk to work.”
Reporters confront tool Gibbs at conference
Listen to the giggling Robert Gibbs respond to questioning by Chip Reid and Helen Thomas, of all people, about the lack of transparency in this administration and the so-called townhall meeting that has pre-selected people and questions...never real questions. Helen is "amazed," at "you people." Are pigs flying?
Shared sacrifice? Not including politicians
Read about it at American Issues Project. Follow this link.
Politicians may want the greedy bankers and CEO's to suck it up and skip their bonuses, but don't expect the elite in Washington to share in the suffering. This may be the worst recession since the Great Depression or since the Reagan years but don't be fooled, our leaders in Congress aren't hurting any.
After the stock market meltdown late last year, lawmakers gave themselves a $4,700 pay increase. This amounted to an additional $2.5 million that taxpayers spent on congressional salaries last year. In fact, Congress set it up so they would get their raise automatically, no matter what their work produces. The Hill reported on this pay increase:
State run media sells access
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Harkening back to our principles of living
Once again, Powerline hits it right on the mark with political historian Paul Rahe:
It is easy enough to see why progressive doctrine should be attractive to our masters. Tyrannical ambition is nothing new, and throughout human history it has nearly always presented itself to men in the guise of idealism. We are all inclined to meddle in other people's business; we are all inclined to think that we know better; and higher education tends to inflate our vanity and to make us more inclined to lord it over those who are less well-instructed. Never for a moment does a Barack Obama stop to ask whether depriving us of responsibility for our own well-being is demeaning. He and his supporters know that they know better, and their putative wisdom in this regard constitutes for them an absolute claim to rule. The logic unfolding within the progressive impulse requires that there be a class of Guardians empowered to supervise our lives in every particular, and to an ever-increasing degree this is the reality with which we live.
Retrofit your home to be able to sell your house?
Ugh. They're involved in everything: tanning beds, lightbulbs, Tylenol, whether your windows are "tight enough"...read the particulars of the bill just passed in the House:
The program would involve a system of certified auditors, inspectors, and raters who inspect homes and businesses using devices such as infrared cameras (which measure how much heat a building is giving off) to measure their energy efficiency.
The results of these energy audits would then be used to determine what retrofits need to be performed. The audits would examine things like water usage, infrared photography, and pressurized testing to determine the efficiency of door and window seals, and indoor air quality.
Those retrofits would be performed by licensed retrofit contractors using government-approved methods and resources including roofing materials that reflect solar energy.
UPDATE: White House spokesman Bill Burton just confirmed on Fox News that this is indeed what will happen if the Senate passes this bill. Each home seller will have to retrofit windows, doors, air conditioning and heating units.
Watch the polls
American Thinker has an interesting take on the Rasmussen polls in "Our Melting President":
Republicans do not need a 1994 Tsunami to de-rail Obama. A couple of dozen House seats and a handful of Senate seats will force Obama's last two years in the White House into a Jimmy Carter holding action. The key poll to watch is not the goofy and doctored nonsense of the Leftist press, but the day by day scrupulous polling of Scott Rasmussen. If the slow, and sometimes uneven, trend continues, and by September the percentage of Americans who "strongly disapprove" of Obama is in the low forties, then the American people have gotten wise to this Chicago politician and his demands that Congress pass huge unread (even unwritten) bills as a way to cure our problems.
Behind the thin veneer
Powerline has an interesting take on the series of pictures of Obama that were posted on Drudge yesterday. Interesting, and truly disturbing:
The White House has released a series of photographs in which, as the Drudge Report puts it, Obama directed "the evil eye" at various foreign leaders who visited him. Included on the list were German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
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