Teachable Moment? Beer Summit? What?

The “teachable moment” is going on right now on the White House lawn. It looks very uncomfortable for all concerned. The press has to post up very far away and take photos with a telephoto lens, giving the scene a cinematic aspect.

The biggest surprise for me is that Joe Biden is there. So you have the president, the VP, Crowley, and Gates together with untouched mugs of beer on the table. Could we at least get a photo of someone sipping? Pretending to be sipping?

Professor Gates looks completely uptight. Obama is stretched out, in shirtsleeves, laconic, casual. Crowley looks uptight and uncomfortable too—he knows he’s not calling the shots and doesn’t know how long it will last. I think it would have been funny had he appeared in his Cambridge police uniform. That would have been perfect.

So what are they talking about? We’ll never know. We’ll get a narrative, though, you bet.

The Associated Press: Gates says it's time to 'move on' from his arrest

The Associated Press: Gates says it's time to 'move on' from his arrest rather abrupt turnabout for Professor Gates. Apparently, he doesn't like getting his nuts squeezed in the White House vice. Just click on the headlines to read this fresh AP story from two hours ago....

Cambridge Police Sergeant James Crowley Cuffs Elite Harvard Professor, Henry Louis Gates, Jr - Associated Content

Cambridge Police Sergeant James Crowley Cuffs Elite Harvard Professor, Henry Louis Gates, Jr - Associated ContentLook how prescient I am! The Associated Press has already published a story quoting Gates as saying "it's time to move on" and how he'd like to have a beer with Sergeant Crowley. My prescient conclusions are at the bottom of my article on Associated Content.

No lawsuit forthcoming. Check out the comments section, too. And feel free to upbraid me, too, if you need to.

Fresh Off Controversy, Sen. Boxer Faces Potentially Tough Challenge From Carly Fiorina - Political News - FOXNews.com

Fresh Off Controversy, Sen. Boxer Faces Potentially Tough Challenge From Carly Fiorina - Political News - FOXNews.comBoxer is am embarrassment to California. She should resign--Yes, ma'am. Yes, Madam. Yes, Madame. Oui, monsieur!

One could only hope Fiorina would run.

Could I Sell You A Ford Fusion Hybrid?

There was good news for Ford stockholders yesterday when Ford announced upwards of 2 billion in profit in the last quarter. That means it's possible for American business to turn a profit the old-fashioned and traditional way--without being nationalized by the U.S. government.

Ford stock jumped .60 cents yesterday and closed at 6.98, well higher than the $2 stock it was several months ago. Ford is managing this even while the Obama team is using taxpayer money to flush generous subsidies (for rebates and buying incentives) down the toilet in order to compete with Ford and the Japanese automakers.

Of course, the bottom line is cars and Ford has been making the ones people want:

The Ford Flex sold many more units than expected though the price is a bit steep for people like myself.

The Ford F-150 continues to be the top of the line in full-size trucks and is vastly superior to its competitors. The price for the new Ford F-150s is not cheap either but the mileage ratings have improved to 20 or 21 on the highway--that's very good for a big truck with fully boxed frame and tough safety features.

The Japanese are trying hard to sell their more expensive vehicles to people who have been tolerably brainwashed by European inspired auto magazines. The Tacoma is a top seller with a top price, and the full-size Tundra is lagging with its sensitive skin which tends to fall apart under heavy pounding. I don't want to bash the Japanese; they're also making cars without government help and the U.S. auto industry owes them a lot of establishing higher standards of quality during the 80s. The Japanese have also made wonderful innovations in manufacturing which have had a positive effect on U.S. car makers.

But here's the thing. I think the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight are great cars but they reek of sandalwood and Birkenstock sandals. Small and egg-shaped, they would seem perfect for tooling around Mall parking lots but, when you see them puffing along in heavy highway traffic next to sixteen-wheelers and crazy motorheads, you think....eeeeeh...no, thanks.

Which explains why the Ford Fusion Hybrid is selling well in spite of its higher price. For that matter, the regular gas powered Fusion gets 33 mpg and neither does driving it make it appear as if Woodstock was the high point of your life. The Ford Fusion is a good-looking car, has good handling, adequate power, and a "real-car" design that is only vaguely reminiscent of its heritage.

So, buy a Ford. If you don't want to buy a Ford, buy a Japanese vehicle made in the U.S. and employing American workers. That's what I think, anyway.

I'm burning mad about the Obama government bailouts for bankruptcy, don't you know?

Obama Touts Decline in Caterpillar as Stimulus Success

Is the President permanentaly out to lunch? Another hyperbolic claim made by President Obama is that his administration's success was in line with Caterpillar Corporations' recently quarter profit results. That's a sad analogy, and further proof of a clueless seat-of-the-pants White House. There's some truth in what the president said. He's tanked the U.S. economy by his reckless out-of-control money giveaways to who knows where....

Caterpillar did get stimulus money but sales have declined immensely from last year and are down from 40 to 60 percent in some areas. Caterpillar did make some money on its foreign operations, mainly due to currency weakness in the U.S. but that's not something the Obama administration should brag about.

Obama Tells America He’ll Cut Medicare and Medicaid to Pay for Obamacare.

President Obama is really irritating in the way he makes vague claims about how he’s going to create a national health care plan that everyone can afford and how it’s going to be this great utopia where you won’t have to wait in line, and it’ll be free, and you’ll get the best medical care possible. You’ve really got to suspend belief when you’re listening to him. It’s the kind of stuff I might have believed when I was fourteen but I think, by the time I went into the U.S. Army, I was entirely cured.

Obama told America today that he was going to pay for the new public health care benefits by cutting out unnecessary payments to Medicare and Medicaid.

No mention about what these “unnecessary” payments were. You’d think there’d be a tremendous outcry but the sheep are still out in the pasture as Obama escapes the stage without taking a single question.

Americans need to wake up. If Obama’s going to cut Medicare and Medicaid, then he ought to tell us what parts of it he’s going to cut. I imagine someone right now is making a list of medical tests that won’t be paid for and medical procedures which won’t be approved and this same list will be passed on to the New Obamacare Program just so the president can appear to have done something.

NRA-ILA :: Joint Statement On Judge Sonia Sotomayor's Nomination To The United States Supreme Court

NRA-ILA :: Joint Statement On Judge Sonia Sotomayor's Nomination To The United States Supreme CourtSotomayor is hostile to questions about 2nd Amendment Rights. I watched part of the hearings. Her response to several questions about whether she respected the 2nd Amendment, she engaged in Obamanesque obfuscation, verbiage, bureacratic spew...




Here's what the NRA had to say...

Military Robot Eats Liberal Members of Congress

Finally, some good news comes from the Obama defense department where a company under contract to the Pentagon is developing a robot which can convert biomass to energy. The machine is supposed to be able to gobble up everything from furniture to dead bodies.

There are plenty of dead bodies and the one that most often comes to mind is the Democratic Congress which can only gobble up America's money. Turn that damn robot loose in the Capitol Building, but only after you program it to eat the Big Deficit Spenders, the Bailout Payola Bunch, Social Welfare Utopians first.

What Sotomayor Said and Meant Focus of Senate Judiciary Hearings

The Senate Judicial Hearing on the Sotomayor confirmation continues with consternation everywhere over the nominee’s statements about the “Wide Latino Woman.” Sotomayor claims that people have misunderstood her words which “fell flat,” a claim that is at least on the edge of condescension. In fairness to Sotomayor, we note that the words do sound strangely like the words “Wise Latino Woman,” which is being co-opted in liberal bastions as a bumper sticker slogan meant to get the Obama message out:

““Yes, we will militate for judicial activism on the Supreme Court Bench. And we do indeed believe in the inherent superiority of this “Wise Latino Woman” to make decisions for lesser (other immigrant groups who had an easy time of it in America) Americans.””

Still, some folks are skeptical and suggest that the scientific method will restore some reason to this hot-button issue.

“Weighing Sotomayor or measuring her hips will not serve the purposes of the Judiciary Committee in determining exactly what Sotomayor said or meant in saying it,” said Patrick Leahy, Vermont’s top self-styled liberal firebrand.

Wide Latino Woman Sotomayor Falls Flat

I watched part of the confirmation hearing for the Obama Supreme Court nominee and was greatly underwhelmed by Sotomayor's lack of response to such questions as gun rights, the death penalty, and her "wise Latino woman" remarks. She wouldn't admit to making the stupid remark until after several times attempting to sidestep the issue. Her method was Obamanesque...the remarks were "taken out of context" blah-blah.."it could be intepreted some other way"...blah-blah...and then finally she admitted it was stupid and that her remarks "fell flat."

On the whole, Sotomayor seems to speak a kind of New York City collective bureaucratese which is a combination of "groupthink" and "we-think." The mode of communication (rather un-communication or ex-communication) is ubiquitous in New York City, from the hallowed halls of the parking ticket commission to the state Supreme Court.

Call her Obama's Evil Gender-Ethnic Twin.

Wise Latino Woman Confirmation Hearings

The Wide Latino Woman (or is that "Wise?) Confirmation Hearings are in full swing. The chorus has been singing the weekly praise and the stage is set. They've even hired a comedian-- Al Frankel. For what other reason would they have a jerk like that serving on the Judiciary Committee? Unless they hand out law degrees at Saturday Night Live... well, I guess qualifications are not very much an obstacle with liberal Democrats these days. A two year Senator in the White House.... and just look at the bloopers in the Obama World Tour where the President never misses a chance to advance a revisionist left-wing view of world politics.

Frankel's much the same, with the added benefit of being a comedian. Ha-ha!... So listen, Sonya...did you hear the one about?... Har-har....

California’s 3.2 Billion Cost for Educating Illegals Could Bail Out Pennsylvania

God, what a generous state California is—spending 3.2 billion dollars upon educating illegal immigrants. How does that feel when your real estate taxes are being raised and your moronic Governor (Rendell in our case) can’t spare any more money to educate citizens and needs exactly that much to balance the Pennsylvania budget?

Eric Holder to CIA: Up Against the Wall, *xx*#$#ucker!

The worm is turning in Eric Holder’s Attorney General Office. Now, instead of fighting gangs, racial hatred, drugs, violent murder and rape in America’s ghettoes, Eric Holder is said to be trying to placate the Wienie Wanking Left Wing Obama bum boys by investigating the CIA’s methods in dealing with terrorist head-cutters. I guess it was inevitable with these people in the White House. Holder and Obama are typical of the new breed of African-American (ahem) “leaders” who abandon the folks who got them elected. These Gucci elites cannot be said to have abandoned their “roots” because their roots are in the Ivy League, not in the ghettoes which are bleeding profusely from violent crime, mostly associated with drug dealing.

I guess the 4 million jobs Obama promised haven’t materialized and ghetto unemployment rises higher than the near the 10 percent point achieved by the Obama Eeekonomy.. I’ve lived in the ghetto and I know that there are thousands of hard working and responsible American citizens who get their asses on the bus every day to take jobs across town. Most have families and aspirations, as well they should, but the left wing political elite offers plenty of hat but no cattle.

People like Obama and Holder know that, unless they play a version of 3 card Monte to keep these people focused on hating Republicans, they will not survive politically. This stupid business the Democrats have of expecting African Americans to continue voting for air, smoke, and promises will eventually be see for what it is—pimping.

Obama Becomes the Butt of Titillated Bloggers, Page 2 of 2 - Associated Content

Obama Becomes the Butt of Titillated Bloggers, Page 2 of 2 - Associated Content

Ward Churchill Seethes at "little Eichmanns"

Yeah, go Ward! You tell 'em, baby. I know you've been there at the barricades, rebelling at the Mullah free speech oppressors in Iran, throwing students out the window onto the concrete streets, shooting young women in the chest, pounding heads with steel mallets... Or at least that's what I thought you meant when you made the statement that got you fired from your cushy university job at U of C. But then I found out later that you were merely gloating at the mass death which occurred in the Twin Towers of the WTC. Boy, that must have made you feel great. What else could account for the eruption of verbiage which cascades from your sadly butt-fucked brain? I print some of the fine sentiments you conjured up to explay why the innocent victims of 9-11 writhed in the terrorist flames:

.

More likely, it was because they were too busy braying, incessantly and self-importantly, into their cell phones, arranging power lunches and stock transactions, each of which translated, conveniently out of sight, mind and smelling distance, into the starved and rotting flesh of infants. If there was a better, more effective, or in fact any other way of visiting some penalty befitting their participation upon the little Eichmanns inhabiting the sterile sanctuary of the twin towers, I'd really be interested in hearing about it

Franken Joins Senate Judiciary Committee to Confirm Sotomayor

So a guy who's not funny, not smart, not honest, who steals elections, and knows nothing about the law gets to sit on the important Senate Judiciary Committee. That's change you can believe in, isn't it?

Rumor has it that the funny guy has had a rubber stamp made up with his likeness upon it. Expect it to appear everywhere his Orwellian masters need his mindless approval, and most certainly on the Sotomayor confirmation vote.

Exactly what are his qualifications besides SNL? But then again, what qualification does one need to be another punk-ass Barack Obama jock strap caddie?

Warp Speed GM Bankruptcy Heralds Future Worker's Utopia

Wow, I’m impressed. GM emerges from bankruptcy just 40 days after entering the proceedings. You know legal corners were cut and stop signs ignored. You know that Obama fan-boy (or girl) judges were eager to please and delighted to find the ready-made rationale to circumvent private property rights and contract laws, those nuisance things which obstruct the Great Obama Utopia we have been promised.

And wow, too, that only 20,000 more people have lost their GM jobs, according to reports. The work force is currently at 40,000, according to the same TV report, only slightly down from the 400,000 person workforce in GMs salad days.

Well, those cynics who refer to the GM logo as “Government Motors” have got it wrong, right-wing conspirators that they are! The new company should properly be called UN Motors with the U.S. and Canada sharing sovereignty with the UAW.

But hey, we’re phat, with the U.S. owning 60 percent and Canada owning about 17.5 percent and the union owning the rest. Now let the good times roll, right along with the assembly line turning out GMC and Chevy Big Trucks and 60s muscle cars like the Camaro. That new Camaro doesn’t set mileage records but it kicks ass in the quarter mile. That’s the silver lining, I guess, in the perfect storm of Obamanomics Cloudy Weather.

Panetta: Lying Now or Then or Never?

So the wing-ding Democrats yesterday sent a letter to Leon Panetta, CIA Director, requesting that Panetta "correct your statements" regarding whether the CIA lied to Congress, as Nanny Pelosi claims. Remember that Panetta recently and very loudly proclaimed that the CIA didn't lie to Congress (mostly referring to Gitmo interrogations) and had brief Pelosi and others on the enhanced interrogation methods.

The wing-ding letter says that Panetta later testified that the CIA lied to Congress several times and continuously from 2001 to last week. The letter doesn't have any further information to offer so it is nothing more than a political move.

So the issue becomes: When was Panetta lying? Then or now or never?



Epilogue: You'd think matters of national security could be better served if Alcee Hastings and the other Gang of Seven woke up some security guards in federal buildings. Apparently, the guards were sleeping as investigators walked into Federal buildings with parts they assembled into real live bombs later in the day.

I seriously doubt we'll survive the remaining years of Obama's term without a homeland terrorist attack with this crew of incompetents in office. Where's Janet Napolitano in all this? Bombs in federal buildings and all she's worried about is former military people joining militias.... we're in trouble.

Sen. John McCain: The Man Who Would Be President

If 60 percent of the electorate hadn't drunk the Liberal Kool-Aid....

Job Hunting in the Federal Government

Ever wonder where your money went in the Obama - Reid - Pelosi stimulus package? The GOP talking points tracking dogs are on the case...

Auto Company Roulette: Epilogue

See if you can find some logic in this. The Obama stimulus plan doesn’t work. Instead of creating or “saving” the promised 3 or 4 million dollars in new jobs, the unemployment figures skyrocket and now approaches ten percent. The finance and insurance bailouts were supposed to unlock the frozen credit markets but only managed to cause anger and a panic which reverberates through American business. Obama claims success—borrowing has been loosened, and to a slight extent, that is true. You can borrow money from the banks but only if you already have a great deal of it. For the rest of America, credit is a dead issue.

You’re the POTUS, so what do you do? The answer is obvious only to Obama bum-boys like Paul Krugman of the New York Times. You admit to no errors and instead look around for a convenient tautology which proves that your original multi-trillion dollar mistake resulted from a lack of enthusiasm. Krugman’s column yesterday proposed that Obama was holding too tightly to the pursestrings and was unwilling to spend enough. Krugman urges the president o let loose the pursestrings. Imagine that! Obama, the niggardly miser, the tight-fisted supply-sider! The remedy, says Krugman, echoing the complaints of the administration, is to conjure up a larger spending plan.

In effect, that’s what the Obamaniacs are doing now, hatching a plan for spending additional billions in taxpayer stimulus money to pour down the drain merely to provide the impression, entirely for the benefit of Obama’s cheerleaders, that you are doing something. Bailing out the car companies may have helped the UAW and Fritz Henderson in Detroit but it hadn’t helped much on Main Street.

On that score, I went shopping around for a replacement of my high-mileage 1999 Ford Truck again today. I know you’re not supposed to feely sympathy for used car sales people but I did. I talked to several of them in the last couple of weeks or so. The happiest among the lot were the Ford dealers but that wasn’t saying much. A certain salesman at a Ford dealership told me today it was the worst he’d seen it in all his 18 years of auto sales.

“Yesterday, they laid off four mechanics,” he added.

I tried to cheer him up, telling him that Ford sales were up 14 percent in China and that Ford was only down 11 percent from its figures a year ago. Chrysler and GM were totally in the pits, with downside of about 42 percent from the previous year. The man agreed that Ford was doing pretty well but that his dealership was having trouble getting product. I’d read that Ford was ramping up production at some plants and told him so.

At a GM dealer further down the road, a sales guy told me he was going to quit the business after 22 years. His wife was against the idea, telling him to buck up, that things would improve. I was apologetic because I’d been curt with him and wanted to make it up.

“I don’t mean to be an asshole—it’s just that my wife is waiting in our car and I promised her I wouldn’t be long,” I said.

I told him my name. I gave him my phone number and email address and took the time to describe exactly the type of truck I was looking for in case he could find one in the “system.”

“Anthony,” he said, “That’s my son’s name. Well, I appreciate your saying that. People just drive through any more and don’t even bother to say anything—they head right back onto the highway. I’d just like to know how the hell I’m going to send the kid to college he’s getting near that age right now.”

It really sucks for these guys…it sucks for a whole lot of people. But
I have an idea that would help these people and also help the auto industry. Obama should have taken all those billions he squandered to lawyers and union executives and bankruptcy court officials and he should have distributed it directly to the people who needed it. With about $16,000 or $20,000, I could have a pretty neat used pickup truck and the car dealerships would have a new and better customer. Maybe some mechanics would still be working. And the car sales people could make a buck, too.

Best of the Web with James Taranto - powered by FeedBurner

Best of the Web with James Taranto - powered by FeedBurner

Ford Beats Toyota Sales Four Months in a Row

Ford continued to outsell Toyota for the 4th straight month in a row but is still down 11 percent from its year-ago figure.

We have one Ford and our next car will be a Ford too, although I will buy a Toyota or a Honda before buying a Government Motors car.

Obama planted the kiss of death on GM and Chrysler so far as I’m concerned. No one asked me and no one asked the Congress eitherThe government car companies continue to cost taxpayers billions as they work their way through Obama-sponsored bankruptcy courts. But even with taxpayer dollars being doled out to Obama’s lawyer friends, Government Motors continues to falter with GM sales falling 33 percent and Chrysler declining by 42 percent over June of 2008. .

It’s too bad, though. The former Free Chrysler and the Free GM built some good cars and trucks but when Obama made the big payback to the UAW—that was the last straw.

Obama Cried and Iran Died

It’s laughable that President Obama has so little to say about Iran’s bloody repression and yet seems to rattle the sabers about the coup in Honduras, a little country where the President was ushered out of the Presidential Palace in his pajamas. A coup is a coup, it is true and bears some condemnation, but isn’t the President worried that his words will be seen as “meddling” in Honduran affairs. He’s worried so much about meddling in the case of Iran that one wonders if he has lost the faculty of speech and now, like any rock star, is content to warble his way through life in the White House.

Iran’s rat-like illegal Ayatollah installed president Mahmoud thumbs his nose at Obama, and continues to berate him as you would a balky mule. The President is stricken mute; Mahoud interprets the president’s silence as a secret plot against Iran. One could only wish. The men and women who surround Obama are no better, and perhaps worse. Bill Burton continues to emit his canned rephrasing of the Obama policy. It’s all so lame and made up. Clearly, Mahmoud the Rat, with his white socks and three-day-stubble look of a common workman, is enjoying Obama’s confusion and stymied look. He’s getting what he wants:

Nuclear weapons production going full blast.

An American president who rewards his enemies and punishes his friends.

A left wing anti-Israel administration which sees the Palestinian-Israeli problem in terms which were popular in leftist circles of the 60s and 70s.

An administration approbation to continue supporting Hezbollah and Hamas in their violent attacks and subornation of civilized democracies..