The Morning Praise Hour with Mika Brezinski and Mickey Geist continues over on MSNBC. Brezinski and Geist mentioned at least 10,000 times that the president has a high approval rating conveniently tied to his overseas ambassadorial trip. First of all, I don’t believe in the polls they’re citing—I think the Obama Praise Hour finds the people they poll on the Huffington Post or the Daily Kos. If you dip your toe in a pond of Liberal Groupthink, you will find a lot of approbation of a left-liberal politician, but you will not have a realistic view of anything.
What is Obama doing, anyway? Does it accomplish a single thing? Don’t we have ambassadors for this? A state department? I thought it was their job to “make nice.” Obama failed in the one area where he might have done some good but there was a precedent for that. It was Obama’s job on the Foreign Affairs Europe committee to get Germans and French aboard for military assistance in Afghanistan and Iraq, yet he never showed up or convened a single meeting. I suppose he was waiting for his great moment on the world stage, which came and went with nothing accomplished in that direction. Once again, the Germans and French told Obama that they were not putting their troops in harm’s way. Plenty of “bonhomie” and 3,000 more bodies for the “non-combat” experience and training. Leaving our guys by themselves. Is that the way the Democrats define “success?” Apparently. The toady driveby media does the rest of the job. There were some bumps in the Obama road, however:
• President Obama, in England, told the world he was looking for a “foreigner” in the news media, an embarrassing gaffe.
• President Obama apologized to all and sundry for American “sins” going back hundreds of years.
• President Obama equivocated about “disarmament” as the North Koreans fired a nuclear missile test over Japan and toward the U.S. Pacific coast.
• President Obama failed to get the Europeans to put any more stimulus money into their economies to match the U.S. effort. That may have been a bad plan, as the Europeans believe, but it was THE PLAN.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Monday, April 6, 2009
Turks Arrest Man Who Wanted to Stab Obama
The story was first reported by the Arab newspaper Al Watan but it went out to the rest of the world through the Jerusalem Post and now everyone's scratching their heads about the man the Turkish police arrested for trying to kill President Obama.
The would-be assassin was arrested today by Turkish authorities and confessed his intent to kill the U.S. president. The man is said to be a Syrian who had been living in Turkey for several years. When arrested by Turkish authorities, the man was carrying an Al Jazeera press pass which he intened to use to get close to Obama. One of the news sources reported that the man professed to have three accomplices but no further information was given about the man or his companions.
Turkish authorities didn't release the man's name nor did they film the interrogation of the would-be assassin. The political activist group MoveOn Dot Org has not indicated whether they suspect the man had been tortured to obtaina confession, nor have they pressured the American Red Cross to visit. Errrr....make that Red Crescent....
Allah be praised for the free press at Al Watan. Leaving it to the "drivebys" would have allowed Obama's staff to hide it from public view. It interferes with the rosy picture they are painting of Obama's triumphant world jaunt.
Editors Note: I have been praying daily, even before Obama was elected, that nothing should happen to the man. Of course, I also prayed that McCain would be elected instead.)
The would-be assassin was arrested today by Turkish authorities and confessed his intent to kill the U.S. president. The man is said to be a Syrian who had been living in Turkey for several years. When arrested by Turkish authorities, the man was carrying an Al Jazeera press pass which he intened to use to get close to Obama. One of the news sources reported that the man professed to have three accomplices but no further information was given about the man or his companions.
Turkish authorities didn't release the man's name nor did they film the interrogation of the would-be assassin. The political activist group MoveOn Dot Org has not indicated whether they suspect the man had been tortured to obtaina confession, nor have they pressured the American Red Cross to visit. Errrr....make that Red Crescent....
Allah be praised for the free press at Al Watan. Leaving it to the "drivebys" would have allowed Obama's staff to hide it from public view. It interferes with the rosy picture they are painting of Obama's triumphant world jaunt.
Editors Note: I have been praying daily, even before Obama was elected, that nothing should happen to the man. Of course, I also prayed that McCain would be elected instead.)
Obama Transforms European Perceptions
Not much has changed with President Obama's trip overseas but he and wife Michelle were surely successful on the charm offensive. People from other countries are fascinated with the Obamas mostly because they don't really understand the U.S. except in terms of slogans they've heard. Just about anyone who lives here with eyes open is not at all surprised that an African-American was elected president but many, like me, are surprised that Obama was elected. (I thought it would have been more likely that somebody like Colin Powell, or Condaleeza Rice, or somebody of the centrist mold,would have been elected.) So the Obamas have a novelty factor going on, especially for the Europeans, who still don't know quite what to make of race, nationality, and culture.
When you talk to "foreign" visitors to the U.S., you notice a bit reticence among those who subscribe to the usual pre-packaged tropes and most are surprised at the degree of freedom here. Freedom isn't always the most comfortable thing in the world and that's why Europeans and others like less of it in their own countries.
However, even the severest critics of America are loathe to leave once they experience this freedom and opportunity .
When you talk to "foreign" visitors to the U.S., you notice a bit reticence among those who subscribe to the usual pre-packaged tropes and most are surprised at the degree of freedom here. Freedom isn't always the most comfortable thing in the world and that's why Europeans and others like less of it in their own countries.
However, even the severest critics of America are loathe to leave once they experience this freedom and opportunity .
Binghamton cops defend response to shooting -- Newsday.com
Binghamton cops defend response to shooting -- Newsday.comThe police around the country have had their hands full and receive criticism from every direction. The issue of whether to approach a police call with abundant caution or with a friendly demeanor is something most of us will not have to face. Yet, the chance of making the wrong decision can be fatal. The Binghamton police acted with an abundance of caution, perhaps reading about the friendly Oakland California police who were shot dead while making a traffic stop.
The environment in which police must operate is becoming increasingly menacing. The Pittsburgh cop-killer was said to think the police were government agents trying to take his guns away. The Oakland California cop-killer was a Poster-Child-Hater-Hero of the Uhuru Movment, a racist extremist group spouting modified 60s slogans encouraging death of "the pigs" and the "imperialist oppressors." I can just imagine those guys in uniform.
We need to realize that the police are just like the rest of us, trained (mostly) and dressed up in uniforms. We need to humanize them, not demonize them. Some people may not agree with this. For them, I would say: Next time you need the police for something, phone the Uhuru Movement and ask them to help you.
The environment in which police must operate is becoming increasingly menacing. The Pittsburgh cop-killer was said to think the police were government agents trying to take his guns away. The Oakland California cop-killer was a Poster-Child-Hater-Hero of the Uhuru Movment, a racist extremist group spouting modified 60s slogans encouraging death of "the pigs" and the "imperialist oppressors." I can just imagine those guys in uniform.
We need to realize that the police are just like the rest of us, trained (mostly) and dressed up in uniforms. We need to humanize them, not demonize them. Some people may not agree with this. For them, I would say: Next time you need the police for something, phone the Uhuru Movement and ask them to help you.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
North Korea Launches Missile: Hilary Warns of “Consequences.”
Well, the headline's partially right. Hilary Clinton did warn of consequences, but that was before she was silent about the North Korean missile launch. And I guess the "consequences" she spoke of meant a stalemate at the United Nations where the world body can't seem to form an opinion on the subject. Not surprising for a world government body which can only formulate opinions of historical occurrences. Massacres, atrocities, thumbing your nose at the world—these can only be addressed in retrospect, when the topic has entered the history books. The U.N is best at "standing by" as in "standing by" when people are being slaughtered, as they are so often in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, and Sudan….
ABC Covers Binghamton and Pittsburgh Killings, Ignores Oakland
Leave it to ABC to focus on the parts of any store which fits their agenda. Everybody these days knows the PC Game and nobody plays it like ABC. The "Good Morning America" program spun killings in Binghamton, NY and Pittsburgh, Pa. as a gun control issue. At the same time, they completely ignored the killing of 4 police officers in Oakland, California which occurred in the previous week. It's astounding that ABC didn't even mention Lovell Mixon's cold-blooded murder of two traffic cops and two SWAT team members later as he lay in wait in the apartment hiding place provided by relatives and friends.
There's good reason for ABC to ignore the Lovell Mixon case. First of all, California has the toughest gun laws in the nation and ex-cons like Mixon flaunt the fact that the laws don't apply to them. Secondly, Lovell Mixon has fans. That's right, fans. Many people in the Oakland neighborhood and in the Bay Area surrounding it had only praise for Mixon in killing the 4 cops and groups like Uhuru have deified him for ridding California of "pig" oppressors. The level of Mixon's anti-police hatred wouldn't fit ABCs flaccid middle-class liberal lamenting of "guns in our society."
Nor is their any mention of drugs, pertinent to both the killings in Binghamton, NY and the Oakland, California cases. The Asian man who killed 13 people at the Binghamton Civic Center was said to be crack-addicted and, coincidentally, had moved to California for several years before returning to New York. There is little published information about his life in California so we can assume he just vanished into the vapors and emerged later in NY as a gun-toting madman. I wonder why ABC chooses to ignore the influence of illegal drugs on these murderers. Lovell Mixon had been charged with multiple drug offenses which may have played into his bad judgment in charges that he sexually assaulted a 12 year old girl.
The murderer of three policemen seems, at this point, to be a different matter though it is still too early to tell. It may very well be that he is Lovell MIxon's counterpart on the east coast. Both men were filled with racial hatred, but the Pittsburgh murders are a "safe" topic for ABC to report, whereas the Mixon murders are, to ABCs reckoning, culturally sanctified and appropriate.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Obama Speak: An Obama Administration Language Guide
The following guidelines may be helpful in the day-to-day operation of Obama Life. There are other concepts, other euphemisms, other canards. Post your own in the commments section, if you want. But here are some terms you need to know:
“The mess we inherited…” Expect to hear this phrase beginning or interlaced with every speech the President makes until you blow your lunch.
“Foreigner…” Obama’s word for the toady European press, used first during a press conference after a G20 meeting. The president said he wanted to take “just a couple more questions” and then looked around for a “foreigner” newsperson. He realized his provincial gaffe right away and checked himself from further embarrassment by a quick, nervous chuckle, saying “heh-heh...I’m kidding. I’m the foreigner. Heh-heh.” Expect this not to happen again. David Plouffe, Rahm Emmanuel, and David Axelrod were not happy to see their guy looking like an Illinois rube.
“I’m kidding you guys…” The president uses this construction often and then smiles and looks around for Chuck Todd. Chuck Todd is a Keith Olbermann/Chris Matthews clone who sucked his way into the general news media spotlight after providing favorable and fawning spin about Obama during the campaign . “Chuck,” as the president likes to call him, can always be relied upon to through an underhand softball which will help the president underscore his public face as an amiable person.
“The mess we inherited…” Expect to hear this phrase beginning or interlaced with every speech the President makes until you blow your lunch.
“Foreigner…” Obama’s word for the toady European press, used first during a press conference after a G20 meeting. The president said he wanted to take “just a couple more questions” and then looked around for a “foreigner” newsperson. He realized his provincial gaffe right away and checked himself from further embarrassment by a quick, nervous chuckle, saying “heh-heh...I’m kidding. I’m the foreigner. Heh-heh.” Expect this not to happen again. David Plouffe, Rahm Emmanuel, and David Axelrod were not happy to see their guy looking like an Illinois rube.
“I’m kidding you guys…” The president uses this construction often and then smiles and looks around for Chuck Todd. Chuck Todd is a Keith Olbermann/Chris Matthews clone who sucked his way into the general news media spotlight after providing favorable and fawning spin about Obama during the campaign . “Chuck,” as the president likes to call him, can always be relied upon to through an underhand softball which will help the president underscore his public face as an amiable person.
Kimberley Strassel Says the Attempted Political Assassination of Eric Cantor Reveals What the Left Fears Most - WSJ.com
Kimberley Strassel Says the Attempted Political Assassination of Eric Cantor Reveals What the Left Fears Most - WSJ.comWall Street Journal SnottyGirl Editorial Writer is one of my favorites. She's cold, analytical, straight-talking, and usually right. The toady press may have declared a "honeymoon" for Obama but, make no mistake about it, the Dems are going at the opposition with kidney punches, low blows, and bitch slaps....
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
9 patients made nearly 2,700 ER visits in Texas - Health care- msnbc.com
9 patients made nearly 2,700 ER visits in Texas - Health care- msnbc.comAn unusually fine Associated Press story about which nothing will done. Perhaps the New Marxist government will build a hospital so that these 9 unfortunate people do not ever have to leave public care. The legalization of drugs would help these people, too, as the draconian Bush administration often busted people for trafficking, creating tremendous inconvenience for "those most vulnerable" to the sweeping changes that capitalism has introduced into our lives.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Four Murdered Oakland California Police Officers
The horror of Baby Raper Lovell Mixon's murder spree was compounded when certain members of the Oakland community applauded the police killings. The comments expressed regarding the YouTube video are various, but some expressed happiness about the police killings, similar to the way some Arabs cheered the World Trade Center was struck. The woman in the video clip expresses the human view, naturally, and the other animals who applauded the murders cannot be much different from the murderer himself.
The police have yet to release details about how the murders occurred but one radio commentator met with police at a San Francisco meeting and put out the word that the two police conducting the traffic stop had been told to approach vehicles with hands well away from their weapons so as not to frighten people. The PC politicians who levied this policy are perhaps to blame for what happened. The radio commentator, Michael Savage, said the police approached the bullets with open arms and amiable smiles. Killer Mixon shot one officer straight away and then chased the other down the street in a homicidal mania to kill him with more pistol shots.
Reports from other sources such as the Oakland Tribune reported that residents of the apartment complex where Baby Raper Mixon retreated to helped to hide him from police for two hours or more. If this version is accurate, and if Mixon's protectors did shelter him, then they are also to blame for the officer deaths.
The police have yet to release details about how the murders occurred but one radio commentator met with police at a San Francisco meeting and put out the word that the two police conducting the traffic stop had been told to approach vehicles with hands well away from their weapons so as not to frighten people. The PC politicians who levied this policy are perhaps to blame for what happened. The radio commentator, Michael Savage, said the police approached the bullets with open arms and amiable smiles. Killer Mixon shot one officer straight away and then chased the other down the street in a homicidal mania to kill him with more pistol shots.
Reports from other sources such as the Oakland Tribune reported that residents of the apartment complex where Baby Raper Mixon retreated to helped to hide him from police for two hours or more. If this version is accurate, and if Mixon's protectors did shelter him, then they are also to blame for the officer deaths.
Can't Wait To Buy A Nano
It costs about 2K and gets great MPH. I can't wait to see the president's motorcade of armored Tata Nanos. Following behind in similar models would be Barney Frank, Al Gore, and Chris Dodd.
Do we have a cap and trade deal with India? If not, then ought we not to place high tariffs on the Nano? I mean, what if noone buys Ford 150s any more and buys a version of the Tata Nano pickup truck?
Hey, don't knock it. Just think of the figure you'll cut at the local lumber yard with your Tata Nano pickup. Who needs radio or air-conditioning? Your real macho guys like John Kerry drive these babies to Georgetown lumber yards, I bet. Does Georgetown have a lumber yard? A quarry? Hey, there's no reason quarries and lumber yards should be taxed, right? I mean, aren't they using renewable resources?
Hey!...Hey, maybe I could join a Tata Nano pickup truck club. You, too? Hey, hit on the headline link and you'll get to a Wall Street Journal test drive.
Do we have a cap and trade deal with India? If not, then ought we not to place high tariffs on the Nano? I mean, what if noone buys Ford 150s any more and buys a version of the Tata Nano pickup truck?
Hey, don't knock it. Just think of the figure you'll cut at the local lumber yard with your Tata Nano pickup. Who needs radio or air-conditioning? Your real macho guys like John Kerry drive these babies to Georgetown lumber yards, I bet. Does Georgetown have a lumber yard? A quarry? Hey, there's no reason quarries and lumber yards should be taxed, right? I mean, aren't they using renewable resources?
Hey!...Hey, maybe I could join a Tata Nano pickup truck club. You, too? Hey, hit on the headline link and you'll get to a Wall Street Journal test drive.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Ashley Biden Caught on Tape Using Cocaine? - Associated Content
Ashley Biden Caught on Tape Using Cocaine? - Associated Content: "I hadn't seen this story until it appeared on Associated Content. Maybe now Obama and Biden will see the need for a real domestic drug policy rather than attacking 2nd Amendment rights. Don't these people have a clue about where the money spent on cocaine and other drugs goes? Legalization talk is another pipe dream (pun intended)-- Do people really believe that legalization of all drugs will create this really terrific Government tax income flow and stop all violence, gang warfare, and smuggling? Cracks me up! (no pun intended)"
NRA-ILA :: War on Drugs, or on Gun Owners’ Rights?
NRA-ILA :: War on Drugs, or on Gun Owners’ Rights?You've already heard that Obama's Attorney General and his Secretary of State have begun their assault on Second Amendment rights. Hillary and Holder, the Heralds of Hell, have both made sweeping public statements aimed at the looney-left underpinnings of the Obama administration.
Don't you know that Mexico's drug, cartel, illegal immigration and poverty problems all have a single cause: American guns moving South of the border. As much as they tout this as a major problem, the only film clips I saw on CNN and other TV news programs was a small colllection of shotguns, a few pistols and revolvers,and a rifle or two. There is no real data to support any of this claptrap and there will not be. The reason is that there is none. Sure, some guns do flow across the border but they are statistically insignicant when measured against the tons of illegal drugs, illegal aliens, and cartel criminals flowing North.
So the NRA is right in pointing this out and it's a message that has gotten through to centrist Democrats like CNN Lou Dobbs, who is one of my Heroes Du Jour. Dobbs is smart, passionate, and blunt in addressing the issue of Second Amendment rights. He is aware that the gun-pablum crowd hasn't been sober or drug-free long enough to realize that America's constitution has nothing to do with Mexico's.
The U.S. should do whatever it can to help President Calderon but Mexico has to help control the multitude of border problems. Control of the borders is an essential beginning of a sane immigration policy for the U.S.
What we've heard from the administration so far has been lame, misplaced, inaccurate, and inadequate drug and immigration policy.
Don't you know that Mexico's drug, cartel, illegal immigration and poverty problems all have a single cause: American guns moving South of the border. As much as they tout this as a major problem, the only film clips I saw on CNN and other TV news programs was a small colllection of shotguns, a few pistols and revolvers,and a rifle or two. There is no real data to support any of this claptrap and there will not be. The reason is that there is none. Sure, some guns do flow across the border but they are statistically insignicant when measured against the tons of illegal drugs, illegal aliens, and cartel criminals flowing North.
So the NRA is right in pointing this out and it's a message that has gotten through to centrist Democrats like CNN Lou Dobbs, who is one of my Heroes Du Jour. Dobbs is smart, passionate, and blunt in addressing the issue of Second Amendment rights. He is aware that the gun-pablum crowd hasn't been sober or drug-free long enough to realize that America's constitution has nothing to do with Mexico's.
The U.S. should do whatever it can to help President Calderon but Mexico has to help control the multitude of border problems. Control of the borders is an essential beginning of a sane immigration policy for the U.S.
What we've heard from the administration so far has been lame, misplaced, inaccurate, and inadequate drug and immigration policy.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Massachusetts's Health-Care Program Offers a Preview of Barack Obama's Universal Health-Care Plan - WSJ.com
Massachusetts's Health-Care Program Offers a Preview of Barack Obama's Universal Health-Care Plan - WSJ.comDoes health care rationing and medical price controls enforced by the government follow Obama's Universal Health Care "Plan?" We use the term "plan" loosely. Here's a Wall Street Journal article about what happened in Massachusetts.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Obama Stops Stock Market Slide at Mere 50 Percent
The President explained his delayed response regarding AIG bonuses to a reporter at a recent press conference by saying he didn't like “talking about things until I know what I'm talking about." That's admirable but that reservation hasn't prevented the President or other administration officials from talking about other things they know about about before, the economy being foremost among them.
Certainly, the Obama administration has shown a willingness to try anything except common sense in taking on unprecedented debt to leverage America's economy. Thank God for Obamanomics (duck, atheists!). It was bad, bad, bad, getting worse. It couldn't be said enough. Bad, bad, bad, you dig?
And suddenly, without anything being different, it's getting better, better, better and we're hopeful, hopeful, hopeful..and we can't fix it in one day, one day, one day....
Certainly, the Obama administration has shown a willingness to try anything except common sense in taking on unprecedented debt to leverage America's economy. Thank God for Obamanomics (duck, atheists!). It was bad, bad, bad, getting worse. It couldn't be said enough. Bad, bad, bad, you dig?
And suddenly, without anything being different, it's getting better, better, better and we're hopeful, hopeful, hopeful..and we can't fix it in one day, one day, one day....
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Senator Dodd Needs to Resign
As a former federal employee, I've always been mindful, not only of avoiding corruption, but of avoiding the appearance of corruption. It's not always easy to do that. Although I was entrusted with the care of a significant amount of taxpayer money, I was once swept up in a financial scandal which threatened to topple the pile of files on my desk. It's true I investigated the scandal myself and reported my heinous misdeed to my boss in a public meeting, disgracing myself forever. I'm not proud of my crime--making an emergency $3.84 long distance phone call to a relative when my mother was ill. I couldn't get away to a private phone and made the cold, calculated decision to make the call on the public dime. Needless to say, I repaid my debt in full and a letter of reprimand appeared in my personnel file.
So I have a bit of criminality in common with Senator Chris Dodd, whose wife received an annual stipend from AIG, and who got cheap loans from bankrupt Countrywide Bank, and who failed to report on his federal taxes the gift he received of a mansion in Ireland. We're birds of a criminal feather, we are, Senator Dodd and I.
Neither of us belongs in government. I resigned in late 1999, taking an early out and a reduced pension. Now if only Senator Dodd would do the same.
So I have a bit of criminality in common with Senator Chris Dodd, whose wife received an annual stipend from AIG, and who got cheap loans from bankrupt Countrywide Bank, and who failed to report on his federal taxes the gift he received of a mansion in Ireland. We're birds of a criminal feather, we are, Senator Dodd and I.
Neither of us belongs in government. I resigned in late 1999, taking an early out and a reduced pension. Now if only Senator Dodd would do the same.
Obama Raises American Prestige in Europe
We were told it would happen. American prestige in Europe would rise like a tide with the New President. So why is the president of the European Union calling President Obama's economic plans a road to hell? Perhaps it's because the Czech leader Mirek Topolanek already had a bad experience with a heavy-handed centralized economy.
Topolanek felt that Obama's spending avalanche was reckless and would undermine the global economy.
Topolanek felt that Obama's spending avalanche was reckless and would undermine the global economy.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Hayward: Kalifornia or California? Four Oakland Cops Killed by Oakland Gangsta'
Some discerning Californians like to spell the name of their states as follows: Kalifornia. The notion that their stated may be heavily tilted toward fascism has some basis in fact. Kalifornia has some of the toughest gun laws in the nation, obeyed only by law-abiding citizens. Thugs and outlaws, meanwhile, routinely use guns in violent crimes, most of them involving drugs, another area where Kalifornia government officials like to bury their heads in the sand.
The latest incident occurred yesterday when Gangsta' Lovell Mixon kill four cops. He killed two cops with a handgun in Oakland, Kalifornia, when they'd made a traffic stop. Later, he killed 2 SWAT team members of a team which fired back and killed Mixon.
Mixon had a long criminal history, including violent assault and drug convictions, and was very comfortable with Kalifornia's anti-citizen pro-thug gun laws. He was armed with a handgun and a semi-automatic rifle.
Lest you be alarmed or shocked by this tragic event, you should know that some Kalifornia communities are fighting back against violent crime and drugs. The Hayward, Kalifornia police department has begun enforcing a city ordinance prohibiting smoking cigarettes in gangs--meaning groups of two or more--in places outside of other places where smoking is banned.
Offenders are issued citations and fined $50 for smoking outdoors within 20 feet of places where other citizens may be shopping. The reason the Hayward City authorities are going after hardened gangs of outside cigarette smokers is because smoking in groups can be an intimidating factor to non-smokers and may prevent them from shopping at Hayward's businesses.
You think I'm kidding? I'm not. Maybe sometime in the near future, authorities everywhere from local city councils all the way up to the President will pull their heads out of their butts and realize that illegal drugs are causing most of the violence and pain in this country.
The latest incident occurred yesterday when Gangsta' Lovell Mixon kill four cops. He killed two cops with a handgun in Oakland, Kalifornia, when they'd made a traffic stop. Later, he killed 2 SWAT team members of a team which fired back and killed Mixon.
Mixon had a long criminal history, including violent assault and drug convictions, and was very comfortable with Kalifornia's anti-citizen pro-thug gun laws. He was armed with a handgun and a semi-automatic rifle.
Lest you be alarmed or shocked by this tragic event, you should know that some Kalifornia communities are fighting back against violent crime and drugs. The Hayward, Kalifornia police department has begun enforcing a city ordinance prohibiting smoking cigarettes in gangs--meaning groups of two or more--in places outside of other places where smoking is banned.
Offenders are issued citations and fined $50 for smoking outdoors within 20 feet of places where other citizens may be shopping. The reason the Hayward City authorities are going after hardened gangs of outside cigarette smokers is because smoking in groups can be an intimidating factor to non-smokers and may prevent them from shopping at Hayward's businesses.
You think I'm kidding? I'm not. Maybe sometime in the near future, authorities everywhere from local city councils all the way up to the President will pull their heads out of their butts and realize that illegal drugs are causing most of the violence and pain in this country.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Strassel: 'Greed' Is Not Good - WSJ.com
Strassel: 'Greed' Is Not Good - WSJ.comHere's a very hard-hitting and insightful editorial from a tough-minded real reporter for the Wall Street Journal. Kim Strassel is the writer.
Damaged Sector in President Obama's Head: Special Olympics Bowling Scores?
President Obama was on the Jay Lenno Show last night, relaxed, comfortable and aloof. So aloof, in fact, that his lame attempt at self-deprecation had the opposite effect. I think he was trying to project humility when he made the remark that his bowling score was at the "Special Olympics" level. How did the President acquire the notion that low bowling scores were the province of inferior individuals?
Former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin set the record straight about the unique individuals who make tremendous efforts to compete in real-world events that many of us could not achieve. I have to agree with her description of the unique qualities of Special Olympics athletes, among other. I know developmentally challenged weightlifters who reach far beyond the capabilities of most of us, including the president.
As an amateur boxing coach, I have as one of my boxers a young man who received special education at a local public schools. His name is Nick. Extremely awkward, at first,he now spars with the rest of the boys like an old pro. He's fast and he hits hard. Only a little remains of the initial awkwardness but it's not so you'd notice if you were in the ring with him.
So Obama's remarks are something of a low blow, unbecoming to the office of a president. But how do such notions arise? Is it the smug fascism of a pampered elite?
Former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin set the record straight about the unique individuals who make tremendous efforts to compete in real-world events that many of us could not achieve. I have to agree with her description of the unique qualities of Special Olympics athletes, among other. I know developmentally challenged weightlifters who reach far beyond the capabilities of most of us, including the president.
As an amateur boxing coach, I have as one of my boxers a young man who received special education at a local public schools. His name is Nick. Extremely awkward, at first,he now spars with the rest of the boys like an old pro. He's fast and he hits hard. Only a little remains of the initial awkwardness but it's not so you'd notice if you were in the ring with him.
So Obama's remarks are something of a low blow, unbecoming to the office of a president. But how do such notions arise? Is it the smug fascism of a pampered elite?
Pennsylvania Gambling Board Enjoys Gambling Junket
Governor Rendell was on Fox News this a.m. defending Turbotax Tim Geithner and pushing back on louder calls for his resignation. Rendell doesn't mind a little cheating and knows that Pennysylvania taxpayers are used to crooks. The already controversial PA gambling commission members decided to take a little junket to Italy to the tune of $27,000.
It's nice to know that someone's having fun while Americans are struggling to find jobs and pay their debts. The rascally gambling commission members are not even apologetic about their junket spending. The hypocrisy is frightening in that they pointed out that the gambling commission budget doesn't come out of "taxpayer revenues."
Hello! Aren't gambling revenues, intended to help the elderly, the poor, and the schools, part of the public trust? Is the PA gambling commission a private business where taxpayers are supposed to keep silent while state government Junketeers enjoy great meals and hotel lodging in sunny Italy?
Even more disgusting is that one of the defenders said they went on the junket spending trip at taxpayer expense because it was "non-refundable." They told the news media that they had told Ed Rendell about the trip and that he approved it.
Hell, Ed.... It's Italy!.... We gotta' go there!
It's nice to know that someone's having fun while Americans are struggling to find jobs and pay their debts. The rascally gambling commission members are not even apologetic about their junket spending. The hypocrisy is frightening in that they pointed out that the gambling commission budget doesn't come out of "taxpayer revenues."
Hello! Aren't gambling revenues, intended to help the elderly, the poor, and the schools, part of the public trust? Is the PA gambling commission a private business where taxpayers are supposed to keep silent while state government Junketeers enjoy great meals and hotel lodging in sunny Italy?
Even more disgusting is that one of the defenders said they went on the junket spending trip at taxpayer expense because it was "non-refundable." They told the news media that they had told Ed Rendell about the trip and that he approved it.
Hell, Ed.... It's Italy!.... We gotta' go there!
Obama Mocks Critics of Jay Lenno Appearance
Nero fiddled while Rome burned and President Obama flew to Los Angeles while his Fiddlers burned the American economy. Obama knew that this Lenno appearance would attract attention. After all, that was the sole purpose. Obama hoped to keep afloat a popularity that begins to show a tattering around the edges. How best and where to do that was obvious: Hollywood!
The message was clear. The economy? Don't think about it! Let your government do the thinking you. We'll manage the nation's budget. We'll "save" 3 million jobs (which means hiring 3 million as baby boomers retire-a net of zero).
So having given a Lenno appearance, Obama had some readily prepared quips to make to deflect the inevitable criticims. Among them:
"Some folks think I can't appear on the Lenno Show and be president at the same time."en
Heh-heh. But he can! Wow! Look how relaxed, look how elegant! Princely even!
Remember, he's President Obama, a better actor than Ronald Reagan, except that Reagan didn't need a teleprompter. Obama's pretty good off the cuff, but only when he's in the sort of round-table academic atmosphere lubricated with cocktails and mutual admiration society. This precludes answering off-the-cuff questions about something as complex as the economy.
It's okay Obama has a passion for thge limelight but the timing of the trip couldn't have been worse. Geithner is under increasing pressure to resign. Dodd is stumbling about the stage like a booze-sotted sailor, saying one thing one minute and the opposite the next. Barney Frank is hurling accusations in every direction (except at himself) from the prow of a sinking ship.
People are rightly angry at the mismanagement and seat-of-the-pants direction of the economy. AFter all, these people are not steady like that guy who landed the plane in the Hudson and saved hundreds of lives.
These are people who have little idea of what they are doing; they are panicked and pumping money into the economy to give it an artificial boost without dealing with its obvious underlying problems.
The message was clear. The economy? Don't think about it! Let your government do the thinking you. We'll manage the nation's budget. We'll "save" 3 million jobs (which means hiring 3 million as baby boomers retire-a net of zero).
So having given a Lenno appearance, Obama had some readily prepared quips to make to deflect the inevitable criticims. Among them:
"Some folks think I can't appear on the Lenno Show and be president at the same time."en
Heh-heh. But he can! Wow! Look how relaxed, look how elegant! Princely even!
Remember, he's President Obama, a better actor than Ronald Reagan, except that Reagan didn't need a teleprompter. Obama's pretty good off the cuff, but only when he's in the sort of round-table academic atmosphere lubricated with cocktails and mutual admiration society. This precludes answering off-the-cuff questions about something as complex as the economy.
It's okay Obama has a passion for thge limelight but the timing of the trip couldn't have been worse. Geithner is under increasing pressure to resign. Dodd is stumbling about the stage like a booze-sotted sailor, saying one thing one minute and the opposite the next. Barney Frank is hurling accusations in every direction (except at himself) from the prow of a sinking ship.
People are rightly angry at the mismanagement and seat-of-the-pants direction of the economy. AFter all, these people are not steady like that guy who landed the plane in the Hudson and saved hundreds of lives.
These are people who have little idea of what they are doing; they are panicked and pumping money into the economy to give it an artificial boost without dealing with its obvious underlying problems.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Outrage: Grassley Says Kill Yourselves; Schumer Says We'll Mug You at Tax Time
Senator Charles Grassley appeared on CNBC’s Sqawkbox, an early morning business show, and was questioned about his remarks. You haven’t heard of his remarks on the bailouts and, specifically addressed to the people who pumped subprime mortgages where there was a high risk of default and on the hedge funds and banks that played upon the down cycle?
The media reports Grassley’s remarks with a great deal of indignation and quite literally. As if Sen. Grassley said the following:
“Listen up, investment bankers... Go kill yourselves!”
Grassley was referring to the fact that some “investment bankers” had no sense of shame in ferreting out the subprime toxic debt that financial institutions were carrying and then making bets (through SWAPs and CDOs) that profited from the market downturn. Grassley referenced Japanese businessmen who have a culture where business disgrace is equal to personal disgrace and have been known to commit hari-kari.
It makes sense to me—kill yourselves, assholes—but no one really expects them to do that. The idea is more that those responsible for causing the mess and profiting from it should have a sense of remorse and not reward themselves for their weaknesses. That’s what Grassley meant. Yet one CNBC guest, Cliff Asness, asked Grassley an interesting question
Did Grassley think his advice should apply just as much to people like Barney Frank who engages in daily public theatrics,” kabuki”, and shows of public indignation on television? The commentator correctly pointed out that such high profile Democrats as Frank and Dodd pushed sub-prime mortgages through congressional legislation and public exhortation. Dodd’s unethical affiliation with bankrupted sub-prime former mortgage giant Countrywide Bank and CEO Angelo Mozilo has been widely reported in the Wall Street Journal and other newspapers.
On the other hand, there is considerably less media indignation regarding Senator Chuck Schumer’s remarks about the AIG execs who get bonuses for their failed performances. Schumer got ever more beyond himself in a public display of righteousness unmatched in the Bible, the Koran, the Torah or any other book.
Schumer said that, if the bonus getters wouldn’t return the bonuses, he and his cohorts in Congress would tax the payments at 100 percent. Laughable, isn’t it? That’s putting the Obama administration in the unusual position of threatening to violate contract law a la Marxist dictatorship, something President Obama surely wants to avoid.
For that matter, the Obama administration hasn’t been able to make up its mind where it stands on the issue of the AIG bonuses. The President himself expressed “outrage” but then later had key spokespersons explain that contract law was contract law and couldn’t be violated. Well, Schumer’s flagrant display of blunt authoritarianism was perhaps intended to deflect attention away from the mounting problems Obama faces. It didn’t work—Democrat approval ratings are beginning to slide as people wake up to the many ways in which they have been hornswoggled, and to the fact that 155 million bucks doesn’t add up to the trillions of dollars in debt laid at the feet of taxpayers by Obama Inc.
The media reports Grassley’s remarks with a great deal of indignation and quite literally. As if Sen. Grassley said the following:
“Listen up, investment bankers... Go kill yourselves!”
Grassley was referring to the fact that some “investment bankers” had no sense of shame in ferreting out the subprime toxic debt that financial institutions were carrying and then making bets (through SWAPs and CDOs) that profited from the market downturn. Grassley referenced Japanese businessmen who have a culture where business disgrace is equal to personal disgrace and have been known to commit hari-kari.
It makes sense to me—kill yourselves, assholes—but no one really expects them to do that. The idea is more that those responsible for causing the mess and profiting from it should have a sense of remorse and not reward themselves for their weaknesses. That’s what Grassley meant. Yet one CNBC guest, Cliff Asness, asked Grassley an interesting question
Did Grassley think his advice should apply just as much to people like Barney Frank who engages in daily public theatrics,” kabuki”, and shows of public indignation on television? The commentator correctly pointed out that such high profile Democrats as Frank and Dodd pushed sub-prime mortgages through congressional legislation and public exhortation. Dodd’s unethical affiliation with bankrupted sub-prime former mortgage giant Countrywide Bank and CEO Angelo Mozilo has been widely reported in the Wall Street Journal and other newspapers.
On the other hand, there is considerably less media indignation regarding Senator Chuck Schumer’s remarks about the AIG execs who get bonuses for their failed performances. Schumer got ever more beyond himself in a public display of righteousness unmatched in the Bible, the Koran, the Torah or any other book.
Schumer said that, if the bonus getters wouldn’t return the bonuses, he and his cohorts in Congress would tax the payments at 100 percent. Laughable, isn’t it? That’s putting the Obama administration in the unusual position of threatening to violate contract law a la Marxist dictatorship, something President Obama surely wants to avoid.
For that matter, the Obama administration hasn’t been able to make up its mind where it stands on the issue of the AIG bonuses. The President himself expressed “outrage” but then later had key spokespersons explain that contract law was contract law and couldn’t be violated. Well, Schumer’s flagrant display of blunt authoritarianism was perhaps intended to deflect attention away from the mounting problems Obama faces. It didn’t work—Democrat approval ratings are beginning to slide as people wake up to the many ways in which they have been hornswoggled, and to the fact that 155 million bucks doesn’t add up to the trillions of dollars in debt laid at the feet of taxpayers by Obama Inc.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Double Dunce Dick Durban and the Mexican Border Problem
So I’m not a dumb person, well maybe a little, but for the life of me I can’t figure out how the Congress gets away with it. Here you have Double Dunce Dick Durbin talking about how the problems in Mexico are caused by “thousands of guns sent over the border” and causing the violent deaths of “innocent people.” Yeah, that’s what he said, “innocent people,” So why doesn’t somebody clue Durbin in that more than 90 percent of people killed by the drug cartels were involved in the drug trade.
But I guess Double Dunce Durbin doesn’t want to know that. He’d have to suddenly wake up and realize “Omigod, I’m stupid.” Besides, pretending that violence south of the border is caused by guns shipped from America has a great deal of appeal to his lunatic gun-control constituency. Has it ever occurred to him that there are more guns in the American border towns and yet places like El Paso, where people can legally carry guns, have low crime rates and few murders?
Durbin’s what Marx and Lenin referred to when they coined the term “useful idiot.” Obama needs people like Durbin around him to conduct policy with a blunt end. The only trouble with Durbin is that he has two blunt ends and only one of them has ears.
But I’m glad President Obama is sending more drug agents to the border, though the small number he’s sending only goes to show you that few can be spared from America’s own all-night illegal drug store. I have a really, really, really novel idea and I’d like to present it to the president since he today requested ideas instead of criticisms.
Do something about illegal drug consumption in the U.S. Wouldn’t that help a little in quelling drug violence in Juarez and Tijuana and other places in the Mexican border states? Without America sending 50 billion dollars worth of illegal drug money out of the country, there would be little reason for the multi-millionaire drug moguls to send their armies out to kill each other and the Mexican police, too.
This whole dopey notion Duncecap Durbin has stops way short of the top floor of his brain building. Guns are manufactured everywhere around the world. Does Durbin think that a worldwide drug smuggling operation is so short of wits that it couldn’t figure out how to bring guns in from Belgium, Argentina, or perhaps Bulgaria?
Yet statements of the unfounded type that Durbin and other anti-gun nanny-state simpletons routinely make are not made to improve the human condition but rather for the purpose of increasing the misery. The reason for increasing the misery, of course, is so that you can be saved, and people like Double Dunce Durban can appear to be the saviors.
But I’m not a dumb person, well…maybe a little….but that doesn’t stop me from wondering why the Administration, amidst all of its high-flown sentiments and astral ideals, has chosen the reduction-ad-absurdum approach to a problem that is destroying America. And Mexico too!
But I guess Double Dunce Durbin doesn’t want to know that. He’d have to suddenly wake up and realize “Omigod, I’m stupid.” Besides, pretending that violence south of the border is caused by guns shipped from America has a great deal of appeal to his lunatic gun-control constituency. Has it ever occurred to him that there are more guns in the American border towns and yet places like El Paso, where people can legally carry guns, have low crime rates and few murders?
Durbin’s what Marx and Lenin referred to when they coined the term “useful idiot.” Obama needs people like Durbin around him to conduct policy with a blunt end. The only trouble with Durbin is that he has two blunt ends and only one of them has ears.
But I’m glad President Obama is sending more drug agents to the border, though the small number he’s sending only goes to show you that few can be spared from America’s own all-night illegal drug store. I have a really, really, really novel idea and I’d like to present it to the president since he today requested ideas instead of criticisms.
Do something about illegal drug consumption in the U.S. Wouldn’t that help a little in quelling drug violence in Juarez and Tijuana and other places in the Mexican border states? Without America sending 50 billion dollars worth of illegal drug money out of the country, there would be little reason for the multi-millionaire drug moguls to send their armies out to kill each other and the Mexican police, too.
This whole dopey notion Duncecap Durbin has stops way short of the top floor of his brain building. Guns are manufactured everywhere around the world. Does Durbin think that a worldwide drug smuggling operation is so short of wits that it couldn’t figure out how to bring guns in from Belgium, Argentina, or perhaps Bulgaria?
Yet statements of the unfounded type that Durbin and other anti-gun nanny-state simpletons routinely make are not made to improve the human condition but rather for the purpose of increasing the misery. The reason for increasing the misery, of course, is so that you can be saved, and people like Double Dunce Durban can appear to be the saviors.
But I’m not a dumb person, well…maybe a little….but that doesn’t stop me from wondering why the Administration, amidst all of its high-flown sentiments and astral ideals, has chosen the reduction-ad-absurdum approach to a problem that is destroying America. And Mexico too!
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Eric Holder's Faux Border Policy
Dear Eric Holder:
Lose the mustache! I know you're an admirer of Adolph Hitler but there is a worry you'll embarrass the president. You're not working for Bill Clinton any more, after all. Now, let's get down to the heart of the matter.
America is awash with illegal drugs and neither you nor your boss in the White House has a clue about what to do. Sure, the media is reporting that the president "might send troops to the border. Whoopie-doo, dude! WTF does that mean? You'll have to have a better plan than to entertain us with a dog and pony show; after all, that kind of act originated in Mexico. You need to do something real, not b.s. the people into the idea that the problem has to do with the flow of American guns to the drug cartels operating in Mexico and other parts of Latin America. How about telling us what your policy is?
According to a recent report, the amount of illegal drug U.S. dollars flowing across the border is larger than the legal amount of 26 billion sent home by U.S. Mexican-Americans to their families. Annual drug capital flows to Mexico and Latin America are said to amount to 39 billion dollars but I'd venture to say that the real number is considerably higher. So if that's not your idea of a "Stimulus Plan" for the Mexicans, you need to do something besides pose as an Attorney General and utter sweet nothings about gun control into the ears of your rich elitist limousine liberal Democratic supporters.
Our kids are killing each other, killing innocents, and killing themselves with drugs. You need to do something to stop it. There are drug gangs operating not only in major cities but also in the ubiquitous American suburbs and even in the country districts where drug activity tends to go unnoticed. Crime has wheels and wings; it's mobile like never before or haven't you heard?
I realize you're clueless so I'm free with my advice. The first thing to do is take your head out of your butt and admit that America is being ruined by illegal drugs. The second step would be to say something about it. The third thing would be to actually do something about it. I realize you would rather talk about gun control and "assault weapons" because the thought of having to act against America's drug scourge is terrifying to someone who has so long displaced his priorities.
You want to help out the Mexicans? You want to help us out? Get Americans to stop using drugs. Tell them where their money is going and what it's buying and what it's doing to the quality of life in America. There's this whole liberal horseshit thing where you talk about "prevention" and "treatment" but the facts are that every minute someone's bleeding from a drug deal gone bad or from robberies gone bad or because someone is so whacked out of their head with dope that they can't do anything else but get somebody wet.
Aren't you guys supposed to be the "community" types, the boys from the hood and all that. Well, the 'hood is dying and those who can get out are gettin out but it's often no use because America's all-night Illegal Drug Store is operating 24/7 and you're doing nothing about it but pretending. Yours is a sin of omission. You're letting our kids grow up in this violence, this violence which ruins our communities and our schools. You guys ain't no "community" boys--You're pocketbook boys--spoon-fed in elite schools and the last thing you want to do is connect with where the problem is really at.
Isn't there something better you can do than to pretend?
Lose the mustache! I know you're an admirer of Adolph Hitler but there is a worry you'll embarrass the president. You're not working for Bill Clinton any more, after all. Now, let's get down to the heart of the matter.
America is awash with illegal drugs and neither you nor your boss in the White House has a clue about what to do. Sure, the media is reporting that the president "might send troops to the border. Whoopie-doo, dude! WTF does that mean? You'll have to have a better plan than to entertain us with a dog and pony show; after all, that kind of act originated in Mexico. You need to do something real, not b.s. the people into the idea that the problem has to do with the flow of American guns to the drug cartels operating in Mexico and other parts of Latin America. How about telling us what your policy is?
According to a recent report, the amount of illegal drug U.S. dollars flowing across the border is larger than the legal amount of 26 billion sent home by U.S. Mexican-Americans to their families. Annual drug capital flows to Mexico and Latin America are said to amount to 39 billion dollars but I'd venture to say that the real number is considerably higher. So if that's not your idea of a "Stimulus Plan" for the Mexicans, you need to do something besides pose as an Attorney General and utter sweet nothings about gun control into the ears of your rich elitist limousine liberal Democratic supporters.
Our kids are killing each other, killing innocents, and killing themselves with drugs. You need to do something to stop it. There are drug gangs operating not only in major cities but also in the ubiquitous American suburbs and even in the country districts where drug activity tends to go unnoticed. Crime has wheels and wings; it's mobile like never before or haven't you heard?
I realize you're clueless so I'm free with my advice. The first thing to do is take your head out of your butt and admit that America is being ruined by illegal drugs. The second step would be to say something about it. The third thing would be to actually do something about it. I realize you would rather talk about gun control and "assault weapons" because the thought of having to act against America's drug scourge is terrifying to someone who has so long displaced his priorities.
You want to help out the Mexicans? You want to help us out? Get Americans to stop using drugs. Tell them where their money is going and what it's buying and what it's doing to the quality of life in America. There's this whole liberal horseshit thing where you talk about "prevention" and "treatment" but the facts are that every minute someone's bleeding from a drug deal gone bad or from robberies gone bad or because someone is so whacked out of their head with dope that they can't do anything else but get somebody wet.
Aren't you guys supposed to be the "community" types, the boys from the hood and all that. Well, the 'hood is dying and those who can get out are gettin out but it's often no use because America's all-night Illegal Drug Store is operating 24/7 and you're doing nothing about it but pretending. Yours is a sin of omission. You're letting our kids grow up in this violence, this violence which ruins our communities and our schools. You guys ain't no "community" boys--You're pocketbook boys--spoon-fed in elite schools and the last thing you want to do is connect with where the problem is really at.
Isn't there something better you can do than to pretend?
Pennsylvania Democrats Wear Too Many "Caps"
It's the ultimate in hypocrisy and constituency flim-flam. I got an email from the Pennsylvania Democrats touting their efforts to "rein in" energy prices in 2010. Currently, electricity rates are regulated in Pennsylvania but the regulations are set to expire very soon. PA residents expect high rates of increase in their electric bills. So what do the Democrats have to brag about? Well, they've introduced a bill to prevent the Power companies from raising rates more than 15 percent in any given year. Read that again!
Pretending to be helping you, the bastards are allowing 15 percent annual rate increases on all users. That could mean fifteen, thirty, forty-five, sixty, seventy five, ninety, and then rates could go to a hundred and five. Fact is the Democrats are screwing us over on both the local and national level.
Not only are electricity rates set to rise, but the Obama administration is pushing "cap and trade" taxes on all industries which will push energy prices even higher. Guess who pays? Guess who should pay?
The bastards who pretend to be helping us while they're trying to brainwash into a mindless acceptance of astronomical energy rates should pay heavily---at the polls.
Vote the bastards out!
Pretending to be helping you, the bastards are allowing 15 percent annual rate increases on all users. That could mean fifteen, thirty, forty-five, sixty, seventy five, ninety, and then rates could go to a hundred and five. Fact is the Democrats are screwing us over on both the local and national level.
Not only are electricity rates set to rise, but the Obama administration is pushing "cap and trade" taxes on all industries which will push energy prices even higher. Guess who pays? Guess who should pay?
The bastards who pretend to be helping us while they're trying to brainwash into a mindless acceptance of astronomical energy rates should pay heavily---at the polls.
Vote the bastards out!
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Waters Helped Bank Whose Stock She Once Owned - WSJ.com
Waters Helped Bank Whose Stock She Once Owned - WSJ.comI just found out from another Wall Street Journal report that there are "white banks" and African - American banks and that racial politics could be played to the good effect of enriching oneself. I certainly do think it is admirable to create minority owned businesses but here, once again, we have a California Democrat trying to enrich herself in the Congress. And here I thought money was green.
Economic Stimulus: Go to Congress, Get Rich
There's been a lot of questions raised by Senator Chris Dodd's lucrative relationship with Angelo Mozilo of the defunct Countrywide Bank. Friends of Angelo Mozilo got cheap loans with few questions. One hand washed the other, as Dodd and Barney Frank urged bankers to put out as much housing money as they could in the form of subprime loans. Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae, with congressional urging, could be relied upon to absorb as much bad debt as they could. It was all done "for Americans across the country" and now the very same Americans are done in by the rot and corruption.
That wasn't Dodd's only caper. A reporter at the Hartford Courant has found Dodd playing fast and loose with Government ethics in the purchase of a house in Galway, Ireland. If the idea of our "civil servants" getting rich on the strength of their connections seems squishy to you, the method of acquisition, in little bits and pieces, stretched over time shows Dodd's conniving reach and obsession for making money while "serving the people." This cries out for investigation and finally the wheels are beginning to move.
Dodd first bought 1/3 of the estate, and then 8 years later bought the other 2/3 at one-tenth its real value. Reporters conjecture it was payback for Dodd's lobbying with Bill Clinton for a pardon of Dodd's long-time buddy, Edward Downes Jr. Downes is a convicted felon, having vioated SEC rules.
There's no end of grabbing for riches when you're in Congress. What is it with top Democrats and real estate deals? Know what? I don't trust many of the leading Democrats, and I doubt the president, with his previous Rezko joint purchase connections, will anything more than talk about integrity in government. Because, when there is none, that's all you can do. Talk.
So when little Johnny comes home from school and asks you why someone would want to go to congress, you can say:
"Well, that's easy, son. People go to the Congress of the United States to get rich, most especially from real estate deals."
That wasn't Dodd's only caper. A reporter at the Hartford Courant has found Dodd playing fast and loose with Government ethics in the purchase of a house in Galway, Ireland. If the idea of our "civil servants" getting rich on the strength of their connections seems squishy to you, the method of acquisition, in little bits and pieces, stretched over time shows Dodd's conniving reach and obsession for making money while "serving the people." This cries out for investigation and finally the wheels are beginning to move.
Dodd first bought 1/3 of the estate, and then 8 years later bought the other 2/3 at one-tenth its real value. Reporters conjecture it was payback for Dodd's lobbying with Bill Clinton for a pardon of Dodd's long-time buddy, Edward Downes Jr. Downes is a convicted felon, having vioated SEC rules.
There's no end of grabbing for riches when you're in Congress. What is it with top Democrats and real estate deals? Know what? I don't trust many of the leading Democrats, and I doubt the president, with his previous Rezko joint purchase connections, will anything more than talk about integrity in government. Because, when there is none, that's all you can do. Talk.
So when little Johnny comes home from school and asks you why someone would want to go to congress, you can say:
"Well, that's easy, son. People go to the Congress of the United States to get rich, most especially from real estate deals."
Monday, March 9, 2009
Stimulus Plan Needs a Stimulus Plan
I thought it was funny a few days ago when President Obama advised people to buy stocks now and hold them for the long term. No doubt he was contemplating a Hail Mary pass. And how long did he mean? The comments were as ill-advised as his invitation to public dialogue with Rush Limbaugh. This was after having his spokespersons telling everyone the stock market didn't matter.
Any stimulus bill had to be focused directly on jobs, the banks, the housing market. Departing from that focus has accounted for a great deal of lost credibility. The President's limousine liberal pals haven't been eager to rush into the markets, either short term or long term.
The Obama Stimulus Plan seems to have driven the markets down, and the confusion telegraphed to business around the world has contributed to economic collapse. The economic plans of the administration create the impression of being spur-of-the-moment reactions to conditions they don't understand in the first place. The cap-and-trade talk is a retardant; a tax on corporations, passed onto consumers, will not help matters.
Don't think I'm being gloomy. I have good news for you. The Obama plan will indeed "create or save three" or four million jobs. That's because millions of baby boomers are beginning to retire even as we speak, and millions more to follow. But what of the money already spent so the administration can claim that its humungous money dump was successful? It's blocking the markets from finding its true footing, allowing to to fall through a series of false bottoms until it doesn't know exactly where it really is.
That's why Obama's liberal limousine elite are giving lip service only to the Obama economic plan. When asked to vote their pocketbooks, they vote no and run for the hills.
Any stimulus bill had to be focused directly on jobs, the banks, the housing market. Departing from that focus has accounted for a great deal of lost credibility. The President's limousine liberal pals haven't been eager to rush into the markets, either short term or long term.
The Obama Stimulus Plan seems to have driven the markets down, and the confusion telegraphed to business around the world has contributed to economic collapse. The economic plans of the administration create the impression of being spur-of-the-moment reactions to conditions they don't understand in the first place. The cap-and-trade talk is a retardant; a tax on corporations, passed onto consumers, will not help matters.
Don't think I'm being gloomy. I have good news for you. The Obama plan will indeed "create or save three" or four million jobs. That's because millions of baby boomers are beginning to retire even as we speak, and millions more to follow. But what of the money already spent so the administration can claim that its humungous money dump was successful? It's blocking the markets from finding its true footing, allowing to to fall through a series of false bottoms until it doesn't know exactly where it really is.
That's why Obama's liberal limousine elite are giving lip service only to the Obama economic plan. When asked to vote their pocketbooks, they vote no and run for the hills.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Obma Economic Wizards Continue to Hammer Markets
Inauguration Day marked the largest decline in the stock market in several months and the decline has continued. Yesterday, there was what Wall Streeters call a "sucker rally" but today the Dow lost that 200 points and went down 100 more.
Business analysts are no longer shy about expressing their opinions. It's hard to find anyone who believes that the pin-brain trust has any clue about what they're doing besides spending money and lots of it.
The common people are still a bit confused and a dwindling number of them are still in denial but they're catching on to the fact they are being conned and hoodwinked. Eventually, they'll be calling for heads to roll. So far the foxy guardians of the henhouse, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, and Patrick Leahy, have managed to deflect criticism. They're desperate to talk about anything beside what the administration is doing about the economy--spending money and tons of it--all of it in a scattershot approach.
The brain-dead Obama administration refuses to acknowledge anything is wrong. They're quite happy to engage in some public puppet-show with Rush Limbaugh in the hope that'll get them temporarily off the hook.
Fact is, things have gotten steadily worse. There's no confidence in the Obamaa team, and it is not enough to cite phony polls hyping Obama's high approval ratings. Why then does our local survey of 2000 people chosen at random show 44 percent who think the Stimulus Plan will not help, another 40 percent who believe it will be harmful, and the rest supporting Obama. That's sure not a 60 percent approval rating so where does that crap come from? The DNC and their toadies at MSNBC, no doubt.
Business analysts are no longer shy about expressing their opinions. It's hard to find anyone who believes that the pin-brain trust has any clue about what they're doing besides spending money and lots of it.
The common people are still a bit confused and a dwindling number of them are still in denial but they're catching on to the fact they are being conned and hoodwinked. Eventually, they'll be calling for heads to roll. So far the foxy guardians of the henhouse, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, and Patrick Leahy, have managed to deflect criticism. They're desperate to talk about anything beside what the administration is doing about the economy--spending money and tons of it--all of it in a scattershot approach.
The brain-dead Obama administration refuses to acknowledge anything is wrong. They're quite happy to engage in some public puppet-show with Rush Limbaugh in the hope that'll get them temporarily off the hook.
Fact is, things have gotten steadily worse. There's no confidence in the Obamaa team, and it is not enough to cite phony polls hyping Obama's high approval ratings. Why then does our local survey of 2000 people chosen at random show 44 percent who think the Stimulus Plan will not help, another 40 percent who believe it will be harmful, and the rest supporting Obama. That's sure not a 60 percent approval rating so where does that crap come from? The DNC and their toadies at MSNBC, no doubt.
Democrats Defend President Obama from Rush Limbaugh Attacks - Associated Content
Democrats Defend President Obama from Rush Limbaugh Attacks - Associated ContentDemocrats launch a "Twinkie Defense" of President Obama, as they launch an offensive against Rush Limbaugh.
AnnCoulter.com - Archived Article: OLBERMANN'S PLASTIC IVY
AnnCoulter.com - Archived Article: OLBERMANN'S PLASTIC IVYI have never been a big fan of Ann Coulter but, after reading this, I may have to revise my opinion. Perhaps she's a better writer than talk-show appearance person.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
An Honest Leftist - WSJ Editorial
Best of the Web Today: An Honest Leftist - WSJ.com People are buzzing about Rush Limbaugh? Here's a truthful admission by a man who prayed for the U.S. to fail in the Iraq war. Limbaugh's fulminations only hurt some feelings; the shameful thinking of the anti-war crowd helped get American soldiers killed.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
The Obama Economic Team Tanks the Markets
Okay, it’s time for some truth telling. Much of the electorate was convinced that President O. would give the economy a boost. To be technical, he did, only it was a boost in the wrong direction.
Today Obama was on television speechifying about how he wouldn’t “take a short term view of the economy.” I think that’s kind of sad because you could learn a lot from a short-term view. You could learn, for instance, that the stock market has dropped like a rock in a short time and that the much vaunted “change you can believe in” slogan is now understood as “change we don’t need.” It’s okay for “Bubble Boy” Obama to hide from reality but what about the rest of us soon-to-be-geriatrics who lost money we could ill afford in our IRAs and Keogh style savings plans. He doesn’t care about us, for sure. Obama thinks we don’t know what it is to struggle, and that finally arriving in some modicum of a middle class, we are to be turned upside down and pick-pocketed. It’s rough—I’m starting over—joining the other oldsters who are scrabbling along sideways like crabs toward a Social Security program which Obama will cut in order to make his phantasmagorical numbers work.
It’s not just Obama—because let’s face it, Obama’s not an economist and has little grasp of financial issues. His comments on economic matters are halting, reticent, uncertain. Compare him to Turbo-Tax Timothy, the blue-eyed devil of a Treasury Secretary and Tax Cheat. Compare him to Bernanke who, though restrained, does have a clue. Or rather, is withholding a clue. The clue is that Obama’s numbers don’t work and will require tax increases beyond those already announced. The Obama team is projecting a growth rate of 3 % or more in 2009. That shouldn’t surprise anyone since just about everyone in Obama’s staff and cabinet is enjoying the benefits of the new liberalized medical marijuana policies.
Of course, marijuana will still be illegal to transport and sell so the cartels won’t feel as if they are being singled out for torture, abuse, or discrimination. But marijuana usage will expand since everyone will feel safe to smoke in public. The worst part of that is the hypocrisy. Why not legalize marijuana and smuggling, going all the way with the Obama relaxed drug policy? The way things stand, the Mexican police will continue to be challenged by the violent cartels. And so will we at the bordera and north of it.
Don’t worry, though. Obama’s little mustachioed Nazi Eric Holder is mounting an extensive gun control initiative. Word is spreading all along the border that a new sheriff is in town. The cartel is quaking in its boots. You know they are quaking in their boots because you can hear the laughter all the way to Canada.
Certainly, additional gun bans on law-abiding citizens with 2nd Amendment rights will mitigate the violence along the borders in Mexico and the U.S. Drug dealers and murderers always follow the rules. Believe you me, there will be a peaceful, easy, feeling in Harvard Yard.
It’s time to tell the truth. Obama supporters have no more confidence in their guy than the people who voted for John McCain. They’re not buying into today’s revamped economy with its housing-gambler bailout of people who used their homes as if they were debit cards. Are they? Are waves of investors who believe in the Obama economic hype dying to get into the markets at these rock-bottom prices?
Wait ‘til the kids find out that Obama’s mortgaged their futures, relegating them forever to a marginal standard of living, without jobs, without the economic padding the president has pulled from the nation’s coffers to achieve his flaky political motives and demagogic ambitions.
Today Obama was on television speechifying about how he wouldn’t “take a short term view of the economy.” I think that’s kind of sad because you could learn a lot from a short-term view. You could learn, for instance, that the stock market has dropped like a rock in a short time and that the much vaunted “change you can believe in” slogan is now understood as “change we don’t need.” It’s okay for “Bubble Boy” Obama to hide from reality but what about the rest of us soon-to-be-geriatrics who lost money we could ill afford in our IRAs and Keogh style savings plans. He doesn’t care about us, for sure. Obama thinks we don’t know what it is to struggle, and that finally arriving in some modicum of a middle class, we are to be turned upside down and pick-pocketed. It’s rough—I’m starting over—joining the other oldsters who are scrabbling along sideways like crabs toward a Social Security program which Obama will cut in order to make his phantasmagorical numbers work.
It’s not just Obama—because let’s face it, Obama’s not an economist and has little grasp of financial issues. His comments on economic matters are halting, reticent, uncertain. Compare him to Turbo-Tax Timothy, the blue-eyed devil of a Treasury Secretary and Tax Cheat. Compare him to Bernanke who, though restrained, does have a clue. Or rather, is withholding a clue. The clue is that Obama’s numbers don’t work and will require tax increases beyond those already announced. The Obama team is projecting a growth rate of 3 % or more in 2009. That shouldn’t surprise anyone since just about everyone in Obama’s staff and cabinet is enjoying the benefits of the new liberalized medical marijuana policies.
Of course, marijuana will still be illegal to transport and sell so the cartels won’t feel as if they are being singled out for torture, abuse, or discrimination. But marijuana usage will expand since everyone will feel safe to smoke in public. The worst part of that is the hypocrisy. Why not legalize marijuana and smuggling, going all the way with the Obama relaxed drug policy? The way things stand, the Mexican police will continue to be challenged by the violent cartels. And so will we at the bordera and north of it.
Don’t worry, though. Obama’s little mustachioed Nazi Eric Holder is mounting an extensive gun control initiative. Word is spreading all along the border that a new sheriff is in town. The cartel is quaking in its boots. You know they are quaking in their boots because you can hear the laughter all the way to Canada.
Certainly, additional gun bans on law-abiding citizens with 2nd Amendment rights will mitigate the violence along the borders in Mexico and the U.S. Drug dealers and murderers always follow the rules. Believe you me, there will be a peaceful, easy, feeling in Harvard Yard.
It’s time to tell the truth. Obama supporters have no more confidence in their guy than the people who voted for John McCain. They’re not buying into today’s revamped economy with its housing-gambler bailout of people who used their homes as if they were debit cards. Are they? Are waves of investors who believe in the Obama economic hype dying to get into the markets at these rock-bottom prices?
Wait ‘til the kids find out that Obama’s mortgaged their futures, relegating them forever to a marginal standard of living, without jobs, without the economic padding the president has pulled from the nation’s coffers to achieve his flaky political motives and demagogic ambitions.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Robert Gibbs, Obama Press Secretary Speaks:
"We want to give the people that work in the CIA the tools they need to keep us safe, but do so in a way that also protects our values," said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs. UMMMMMHHHH.... What was Gibbs talking about?
Well, the Obama administration feels that waterboarding is torture, and in its new and highly selective "opennness" is releasing lots of information about the CIA and its workings in the war on terror. Oh, and we will not be using the words "war on terror" any more, under orders from the Obama Pin-Brain Trust.
Also considered forms of torture by the Obama administration are loud music and sleep deprivation. I expect next that interrogators will have to adopt new rules of etiquette and a dress code. Interrogators will advise detainees of their Miranda rights, and provide prompt referals to lawyers provided at the expense of the government.
What gibberish is Gibbs uttering when he says "we want to give the people that work in the CIA the tools they need to keep us safe but do so in a way that protects our values."
What tools are these, I'd like to know? Subpoenas? Search warrants? Television appearances? Oratory?
Well, the Obama administration feels that waterboarding is torture, and in its new and highly selective "opennness" is releasing lots of information about the CIA and its workings in the war on terror. Oh, and we will not be using the words "war on terror" any more, under orders from the Obama Pin-Brain Trust.
Also considered forms of torture by the Obama administration are loud music and sleep deprivation. I expect next that interrogators will have to adopt new rules of etiquette and a dress code. Interrogators will advise detainees of their Miranda rights, and provide prompt referals to lawyers provided at the expense of the government.
What gibberish is Gibbs uttering when he says "we want to give the people that work in the CIA the tools they need to keep us safe but do so in a way that protects our values."
What tools are these, I'd like to know? Subpoenas? Search warrants? Television appearances? Oratory?
Bubble Boy Obama and the Tall Tales of Economic Salvation
I wonder if Rahm Emmanual is afraid to tell “Bubble Boy” that there’s no confidence in his economic plans. Left, middle, liberal, conservative—all are whispering that Obama’s economic march is a backward one. Why do they have to whisper? Even those who believe in the administration policies, and so many of the folks who voted of Obama, feel that Obama’s foot on the neck of the economy comes at too high a price, and at the wrong time, and has sent the American economy reeling.
Today’s marked another 300 point drop in the stock market, to follow on the heels of a previous 1500 drop. The stock market’s not everything, of course, but pretending that it doesn’t exist is typical of “Bubble Boy” Obama. Doesn’t he realize that the moms and pops and blue-collar Joes have their already shrunken head pension monies in mutual funds? Bubble Boy keeps talking the markets down though, and the pension funds follow him down.
Who in the hell needs higher energy costs? And taxes which will be paid out in higher food costs, electric costs, everything costs, paid out by the little people Bubble Boy has mesmerized with high-flown phrases.
Is there anything more to cap and trade than environmental fascism? It hasn’t yet been shown there’s science behind it. Isn’t science supposed to be empirical? Where’s the data?
When people voted for Obama, they often said to each other:
“How could thing be any worse than under Bush?”
Now, they know. Presumably. Unless they prefer to live in the bubble with Bubble Boy.
Today’s marked another 300 point drop in the stock market, to follow on the heels of a previous 1500 drop. The stock market’s not everything, of course, but pretending that it doesn’t exist is typical of “Bubble Boy” Obama. Doesn’t he realize that the moms and pops and blue-collar Joes have their already shrunken head pension monies in mutual funds? Bubble Boy keeps talking the markets down though, and the pension funds follow him down.
Who in the hell needs higher energy costs? And taxes which will be paid out in higher food costs, electric costs, everything costs, paid out by the little people Bubble Boy has mesmerized with high-flown phrases.
Is there anything more to cap and trade than environmental fascism? It hasn’t yet been shown there’s science behind it. Isn’t science supposed to be empirical? Where’s the data?
When people voted for Obama, they often said to each other:
“How could thing be any worse than under Bush?”
Now, they know. Presumably. Unless they prefer to live in the bubble with Bubble Boy.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Human skeleton found in chimney was man who disappeared two years ago - San Jose Mercury News
Human skeleton found in chimney was man who disappeared two years ago - San Jose Mercury NewsThis man's last crime was two years ago.... Read the story and you'll learn how Mr. Barriga decided to walk the straight and narrow--forever!
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Bankruptcy is Path to the Good Life
Note to self: You should have been a bankruptcy lawyer. What seemed a dull profession to many law students just a few years ago may have developed a golden sheen. With so many companies gasping for air, their CEOs are scouring the country with fistfuls of money to hand over. You’re not talking chump change, either. It’s like star pro basketball or football money. They’re getting swept off the streets and paid millions….
Pelosi: Jill-in-the-box or Obama Lictor?
I’d lately given up on Fox News in the morning because, though I like Steve Doocy, Brian Kilmeade, and Gretchen Carlson, they seemed to have been given their marching orders to compete with the fluff stuff on the 3 Big Networks. I’m not all that cheery at 6:00 in the a.m. and I’m usually watching one of the adult business networks like CNBC or Fox Business News. I always tuned in to Fox and Friends for a little while though, and this morning was a delightful exception. They were really funny as they chided Pelosi and poked that smarmy Keith Olbermann. Thank Obama for providing the occasion.
Prominently featured was Political Calisthenics with Nancy Pelosi. Seated behind Obama during the joint session of Congress, Pelosi needed the exercise and popped up like a jack-in-the box at the end of Obama’s every sentence. She reminded me of one of Julius Caesar’s lictors—Axelrod should have equipped her with one of those things with the axe and rods (accidental quip) as she stood behind Imperator.
Murder Victim Lured to Death by Sex Tryst - Associated Content
Police Blotter for Pocono Mountains: Murder Victim Lured to Death by Sex Tryst - Associated ContentPosting this story, written by myself for another Web site, to show the changine face of rural America....
Monday, February 23, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
CNBC's Rick Santelli Wires the Revolution
Larry Summers and Tim Geithner are the self-annointed geniuses of the economy, but no one out there in the hinterland believes it. The S&P index is about to hit a double bottom. The DOW Jones Industrials is at half of its value, which explains why, as a very small investor of $17,000, I have lost $10,000 on the S&P index. I promise you I won't cry but the people down in Washington are deaf to the poor struggling schmucks like us. I could tell you tales of youthful poverty that would break your heart (if you had one), tales that could match any of the horror stories of poverty I've seen when I've lived in and visited the "ghettoe." (I volunteer with mostly minority youth in boxing gyms) I've been busting my ass since I was 12 just to make it to some pale version of the middle class. Like many other working schmucks right now, I feel like I'm starting over. The only problem is that you can't give me back my youth.
It was popular campaign fodder for Obama to beat up on Wall Street but at least they do honest arithmetic. The honest arithmetic, applied to the Obama econoomic plan, is enough to foment a revolution. Anyway, here's the hot video where Rick Santelli pops a cork while doing work on the floor of the stock exchange in New York.
It was popular campaign fodder for Obama to beat up on Wall Street but at least they do honest arithmetic. The honest arithmetic, applied to the Obama econoomic plan, is enough to foment a revolution. Anyway, here's the hot video where Rick Santelli pops a cork while doing work on the floor of the stock exchange in New York.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
(Hispanic) Day Laborers Are Easy Prey (for Blacks) in New Orleans
(Hispanic) Day Laborers Are Easy Prey (for Blacks) in New OrleansKumbaya moments from the New York Times.... I wonder why Eric Holder isn't talking about this?....
Stinging Remarks on Race From Attorney General (Eric Holder)
Stinging Remarks on Race From Attorney General (Eric Holder)So go ahead, Eric Holder.... We're waiting to hear what you have to say on the subject--probably not too much. I'm for removing all barriers to race but that doesn't mean I have to like you, does it? I wonder how things are going with race in Barbados, Sudan, or one of those European countries you admire so much. C'mon--talk about it, Eric. Don't be bashful...
Shocked! Shocked!: Hamas Hides in Civilian Houses?
20-year-old Mohammed Amazi was captured by Israeli soldiers when he ran out of hiding from a civilian house. Only 20 when he was captured, Amazi was 12 when he was recruited by older Hamas child abusers. Like many of his peers, Amazi was trained in a suicide bombing unit and brainwashed.
In his interrogation by IDF soldiers, Amazi described how he and his group were given Israli Army uniforms so that they could mingle in the civilian populations to detonate their bombs. Kidnapping was also a priority. Amazi was captured by the Israeli forces while hiding in a second civilian household, pretending to be engaged the frightened civilian's daughter. It's hard to argue with terrorists with guns and bombs. Unfortunately, the IDF soldiers weren't as stupid as all that. Now he's singing his guts out and this could point to more terrorist arrest.
In his interrogation by IDF soldiers, Amazi described how he and his group were given Israli Army uniforms so that they could mingle in the civilian populations to detonate their bombs. Kidnapping was also a priority. Amazi was captured by the Israeli forces while hiding in a second civilian household, pretending to be engaged the frightened civilian's daughter. It's hard to argue with terrorists with guns and bombs. Unfortunately, the IDF soldiers weren't as stupid as all that. Now he's singing his guts out and this could point to more terrorist arrest.
Obama Posts Recovery Act Web Site
So I'm in one of those ridiculous forum arguments at the local newspaper with Obamaniac "willoughby2". Willoghby2 (the cad from Jane Austen?) tells me that all the information we need to know is in the Obama site which everyone already knows about. Hell, why should I keep talking. I'll just copy our latest bout of jousting:
Willoughby2My Comments
Member Since: 11/24/2008
Total posts: 246
On Feb 17, 2009 at 08:20 PM, Willoughby2 said:
WWW.recovery.gov
This will tell you were the spending is going so you can stop with rumors.
Yeah, I looked at that site yesterday.... parts of it are informative but the site is something of a magical mystery tour mixed with agitprop. So you're saying also that it's a "rumor" about Harry Reid's insertion into the bill of a train from Los Angeles to Vegas?
Like most people, I would support provisions of a true stimulus bill but Obama's plan was a runaway train filled with pork in the hands of Pelosi and Reid et al. The President should have spanked them hard but he's too unsure of himself and his leadership. In short, it's amateur hour at the White House and I wish things would improve. There's already a credibility problem with the "stimulus" bill- - big mistake. Obama said he would "create jobs" but now he's switched his language to "create or save 3 or 4 million jobs."
GM and Chrysler are back again for more billions and the UAW-KGB won't yet reveal the terms of its so-called agreement with GM.
The housing and mortgage debt crises should have been a priority in the bill, not millions for the National Endownment of the Arts. I'm not against NEA even though it withholds money from conservatives and passes out money to its left-liberal toadies but that's not "stimulus". How does that create jobs that help the economy?
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
FOXNews.com - Beheading in New York Appears to Be Honor Killing, Experts Say - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News
FOXNews.com - Beheading in New York Appears to Be Honor Killing, Experts Say - Local News | News Articles | National News | US NewsHard at work in changing the image of Muslims in America was Muzzammil Hassan, a man who decapitated his wife in what the District Attorney believes is an honor killing.
Michael Moore: Bowling for Columbine Mentality Afflicts Colorado Schools
Once again the gun control idiocy inspired by brain-fat movie guy Michael Moore has infected the classroom. This time it was Marie Morrow, honors student and a drill-team commander in the Young Marines, who was expelled from school. Marie's crime? Well, when you rehearse for drill team, you need these props, and it helps if the props resemble a rifle since that's what you're going to be twirling about.
The dangerous honors student, Marie Morrow, left the rifle shaped props in the back of her car at Cherokee Trail High School in Aurora, Colorado, where they were spotted by sharp-eyed anti-military PC proponents with axes to grind. The "props", made of wood and plastic and festooned with decoration, could only be mistaken for rifles by an half-educated buffoon like Michael Moore or his self-aggrandizing cohorts.
Nonetheless, the kid had to lose precious days at school while preparing for a competition at the Air Force Academy in April. She planned to attend practice for this right after school.
What's next? I wonder what would happen if she were to twirl one of those 3 ft American Flags. Would that also be counter to Colorado Law, and resemble a rifle in someone's eyes?
Should the young student sue the school for deprivation of education? I would only laugh if she did.
The dangerous honors student, Marie Morrow, left the rifle shaped props in the back of her car at Cherokee Trail High School in Aurora, Colorado, where they were spotted by sharp-eyed anti-military PC proponents with axes to grind. The "props", made of wood and plastic and festooned with decoration, could only be mistaken for rifles by an half-educated buffoon like Michael Moore or his self-aggrandizing cohorts.
Nonetheless, the kid had to lose precious days at school while preparing for a competition at the Air Force Academy in April. She planned to attend practice for this right after school.
What's next? I wonder what would happen if she were to twirl one of those 3 ft American Flags. Would that also be counter to Colorado Law, and resemble a rifle in someone's eyes?
Should the young student sue the school for deprivation of education? I would only laugh if she did.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Burris Defends Himself Amid Calls for His Resignation - WSJ.com
Burris Defends Himself Amid Calls for His Resignation - WSJ.comThe Witches Cauldron is still boiling over in Chicago. The sad thing is that the Democrats put this guy on board to vote for anything the Porkulus Plan can dish out....
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
Chuck Schumer Thinks You Don't Miind "tiny little porky amendments"
Yes, those tiny millions and billions of dollars don't matter to petulant and outre taxpayers like yourself, according to the NY Senator Schumer.
There's that tiny little porky $8 billion for Harry Reid's Railroad from LA to Vegas. How could anyone find fault with a "stimulus" like that one?
Then there's the tiny little porky 1 billion for Prevention & Wellness Programs, including STD education. And blah, blah, blah...and more blah, blah, blah... C'mon, it's only a billion.
And of course, we've got to pay back those people who beat the streets for Barack Obama so there are more billions for "neighborhood organization" groups. Get that "street money" out there right away, just like the old time Boss Tweed Tammany Hall Operators.
The list goes on and on but the most abhorrent thing about it is that the Democratic Congress, plus Specter, Collins, and Snow will try this stuff now with the economy reeling. How can they expect us to swallow this kind of offal? The Stimulus Bill has the kind of bloat one sees from a corpse rotting in the sun on a 100 degree day. It's shameful, especially at a time when we needed a clean stimulus bill.
There's that tiny little porky $8 billion for Harry Reid's Railroad from LA to Vegas. How could anyone find fault with a "stimulus" like that one?
Then there's the tiny little porky 1 billion for Prevention & Wellness Programs, including STD education. And blah, blah, blah...and more blah, blah, blah... C'mon, it's only a billion.
And of course, we've got to pay back those people who beat the streets for Barack Obama so there are more billions for "neighborhood organization" groups. Get that "street money" out there right away, just like the old time Boss Tweed Tammany Hall Operators.
The list goes on and on but the most abhorrent thing about it is that the Democratic Congress, plus Specter, Collins, and Snow will try this stuff now with the economy reeling. How can they expect us to swallow this kind of offal? The Stimulus Bill has the kind of bloat one sees from a corpse rotting in the sun on a 100 degree day. It's shameful, especially at a time when we needed a clean stimulus bill.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Judd Gregg Withdraws Nomination for Commerce Secretary
This is strike two for Department of Commerce. Bill Richardson, Obama's first choice, had to withdraw due to a scandal investigation. Gregg's press release indicates there were some issues and conflicts with the administration's Stimulus Plan. Translate that to mean things that Gregg couldn't support. The news is still forthcoming but I bet you'll find treachery also behind the NH Governor's promise to fill the vacant seat with a Republican. I give my props to Gregg for thinking of his principles first. Commerce Secretary would have been a nice career move for him. It's good to know they're not all glory and power loving bastards down there in Congress.
Will Obama Announce "End Times?"
"Catastrophe" seems to be one of Barack Obama's favorite words lately. But I figure that it's a short hop from "catastrophe" to "end times" and I expect Barack Obama will soon make that leap. His job is to convince Americans that his billion dollar Porkulus program, combined with a smaller billion dollar Stimulus Plan, is absolutely necessary to kick the economy into gear. You don't believe in the Obama administration fix for the economy? You'd better. Here we are at the "end times." Proof of it is what already didn't work.
The 2008 Stimulus Plan in which people received amounts ranging from zero to 1200 bucks didn't work. Thank you, George Bush and Senate Democrats. We enjoyed our $1200 bucks and did what we were supposed to do as patriotic Americans. We spent some of the windfall on a $700 flat screen TV. I have no clue what we did with the rest...it seems to have evaporated somehow into our negatively inclined balance sheet.
$350 billion spent by Hank Paulsen to shore up the credit markets didn't work either. Not only that, but no one has any clue as to where those billions went. If they did, there would have been no need to call Bank Executives onto the carpet at a Senate Hearing yesterday. The Senate Banking Committee hearings provided an opportunity for a public flogging and a great opportunity for stagecraft for Barney Franks and Chris Dodd, among others. I don't how it is in your family, but in our family, we do enjoy a public flogging on occasion except in those cases where the floggers should have been the floggees. WTF was the "Banking Committee" when we needed it most? Pushing sub-prime loans at Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac or getting special loans from Friends of Angelo Mozilo at the bankrupt Countrywide Bank?
Tim Geithner announced a new flim-flam plan(rhymes)on Tuesday for the spending of the second tranche(French, for "slice.") of the 750 billion already apportioned for freeing up the credit markets. The stock market responded to Geithner's "reassurances" with a nearly 400 point drop, after a previous week of decline. This new "tranche" money will disappear like the first shot of monetary policy adrenaline as banks engage in that favorite buzzword of euphemistically inclined economists: "de-leveraging." "Deleveraging" means holding on to the money you got from the government with your hot little hands and using it to prop up your balance sheet.
"De-leveraging" is not a French word like "tranche" but the French probably have a name for it that doesn't bear repeating. Perhaps the famous French proverb will do: "Plus ca change, plus ce le meme chose!" No need to translate this--you already know even if you don't speak a word of French.
Yesterday, Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to the tune of close to a trillion conveniently not counting interest to be paid by future generations. There's lots of what NJ Governor Corzine called "good stuff" (CNBC's Squawk Box) in the bill but so little of it qualifies as "stimulus." Most economists define "stimulus" as money which flows into the economy in the current year, not years into the future. I like the name of Obama's stimulus plan, though: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Not only does it sound hopeful, but it has none of the cynicism of the poisonous card check bill being prepared like a punji pit in the House. The card check legislation goes by the hearty euphemism "Employee Free Choice Act," an appellation which implies the Bill is exactly what it is not. You have to have done a stretch on a truck loading dock in below zero weather,with both Teamster Union and operations management goons prowling the dock trying to influence your vote, to truly appreciate the "Employee Free Choice Act." That was "back in the day," though, and I'm sure that modern union-management adversaries no longer carry guns as insurance of their own safety. Just drive by any blue-collar pier, oil rig, or truck loading dock or similar environment these days and you'll surely see Union and Management officials sitting around cheerfully holding hands and singing "Kumbaya."
But hey, I am no Cassandra and can't see any farther into the future than anyone else. I think a little common sense will go a long way here, though,and I'd like to close my rant on an optimistic note. There's no way that these times, in spite of the massive and heartbreaking job losses, can compare to the sufferings of the Great Depression. I expect that America will be going back to the seventies, though, when the economy was stagnant and contracting: there were gasoline lines and sky-high interest rates. In the 70s, the unemployment rate was higher than it is now and there were thousands upon thousands of unemployed Vietnam war veterans looking for jobs.
A "bright note of our "progressive" era is that returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans may face financial and social hardships but not the shameless treatment to which Vietnam veterans were subjected. The economy is cyclical and dynamic as people are free, in this country, to devote themselves to the pursuits of life, liberty and happiness. That means bank and automotive executives as much as it means those of us who will benefit from extended benefits on the unemployment line. The worst damage sustained by the credit crisis originated within an inflated housing "bubble" and we are still waiting to hear the Geithner remedy for that.
The Obama administration has been criticized recently by left, center, and right for having feet of clay in response to the economic crisis. America being what it is, the economy will most certainly rebound. The trick, for the Obama administration, is not to get too much in the way or too heavily mortgage the future by creating false bottoms which undermine the confidence people need to feel about the future. That way, Obama can claim his stimulus package caused the rebound which is certain to occur within the four years of his first term.
The question people will be asking themselves then will be familiar: "Was doing something at the risk of doing harm to the future economy better than doing nothing now?"
The 2008 Stimulus Plan in which people received amounts ranging from zero to 1200 bucks didn't work. Thank you, George Bush and Senate Democrats. We enjoyed our $1200 bucks and did what we were supposed to do as patriotic Americans. We spent some of the windfall on a $700 flat screen TV. I have no clue what we did with the rest...it seems to have evaporated somehow into our negatively inclined balance sheet.
$350 billion spent by Hank Paulsen to shore up the credit markets didn't work either. Not only that, but no one has any clue as to where those billions went. If they did, there would have been no need to call Bank Executives onto the carpet at a Senate Hearing yesterday. The Senate Banking Committee hearings provided an opportunity for a public flogging and a great opportunity for stagecraft for Barney Franks and Chris Dodd, among others. I don't how it is in your family, but in our family, we do enjoy a public flogging on occasion except in those cases where the floggers should have been the floggees. WTF was the "Banking Committee" when we needed it most? Pushing sub-prime loans at Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac or getting special loans from Friends of Angelo Mozilo at the bankrupt Countrywide Bank?
Tim Geithner announced a new flim-flam plan(rhymes)on Tuesday for the spending of the second tranche(French, for "slice.") of the 750 billion already apportioned for freeing up the credit markets. The stock market responded to Geithner's "reassurances" with a nearly 400 point drop, after a previous week of decline. This new "tranche" money will disappear like the first shot of monetary policy adrenaline as banks engage in that favorite buzzword of euphemistically inclined economists: "de-leveraging." "Deleveraging" means holding on to the money you got from the government with your hot little hands and using it to prop up your balance sheet.
"De-leveraging" is not a French word like "tranche" but the French probably have a name for it that doesn't bear repeating. Perhaps the famous French proverb will do: "Plus ca change, plus ce le meme chose!" No need to translate this--you already know even if you don't speak a word of French.
Yesterday, Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to the tune of close to a trillion conveniently not counting interest to be paid by future generations. There's lots of what NJ Governor Corzine called "good stuff" (CNBC's Squawk Box) in the bill but so little of it qualifies as "stimulus." Most economists define "stimulus" as money which flows into the economy in the current year, not years into the future. I like the name of Obama's stimulus plan, though: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Not only does it sound hopeful, but it has none of the cynicism of the poisonous card check bill being prepared like a punji pit in the House. The card check legislation goes by the hearty euphemism "Employee Free Choice Act," an appellation which implies the Bill is exactly what it is not. You have to have done a stretch on a truck loading dock in below zero weather,with both Teamster Union and operations management goons prowling the dock trying to influence your vote, to truly appreciate the "Employee Free Choice Act." That was "back in the day," though, and I'm sure that modern union-management adversaries no longer carry guns as insurance of their own safety. Just drive by any blue-collar pier, oil rig, or truck loading dock or similar environment these days and you'll surely see Union and Management officials sitting around cheerfully holding hands and singing "Kumbaya."
But hey, I am no Cassandra and can't see any farther into the future than anyone else. I think a little common sense will go a long way here, though,and I'd like to close my rant on an optimistic note. There's no way that these times, in spite of the massive and heartbreaking job losses, can compare to the sufferings of the Great Depression. I expect that America will be going back to the seventies, though, when the economy was stagnant and contracting: there were gasoline lines and sky-high interest rates. In the 70s, the unemployment rate was higher than it is now and there were thousands upon thousands of unemployed Vietnam war veterans looking for jobs.
A "bright note of our "progressive" era is that returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans may face financial and social hardships but not the shameless treatment to which Vietnam veterans were subjected. The economy is cyclical and dynamic as people are free, in this country, to devote themselves to the pursuits of life, liberty and happiness. That means bank and automotive executives as much as it means those of us who will benefit from extended benefits on the unemployment line. The worst damage sustained by the credit crisis originated within an inflated housing "bubble" and we are still waiting to hear the Geithner remedy for that.
The Obama administration has been criticized recently by left, center, and right for having feet of clay in response to the economic crisis. America being what it is, the economy will most certainly rebound. The trick, for the Obama administration, is not to get too much in the way or too heavily mortgage the future by creating false bottoms which undermine the confidence people need to feel about the future. That way, Obama can claim his stimulus package caused the rebound which is certain to occur within the four years of his first term.
The question people will be asking themselves then will be familiar: "Was doing something at the risk of doing harm to the future economy better than doing nothing now?"
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Please, President Obama, Don't Halp Us!
I'm reminded of those photos of American troops in Iraq who took offense at John Kerry's elitist remarks to the effect that only dumb people went into the military. Everybody else went to college, according to Kerry. The statement was accompanied by a hilarius photo showing troops holding up a white bed-sheet upon which the following words were emblazoned:
I get somewhat the same feeling from the Obama administration attempts to "halP" the economy, with the latest implosion coming from Tim Geithner's opening statement about his rescue plan. If that's rescue, let us drown, so the stock market seemed to say. The S & P was hammered and the Dow dropped close to 400 points, following major losses during the previous week.
Meanwhile, Obama seems to be reincarnating Jimmy Carter's "malaise" diagnosis. For weeks, we've been terrorized into buying into a Porkulus Plan which devotes only 12 cents on the dollar into true stimulus and offers a menu of political paybacks and pet Democratic projects. Obama used the word "catastrophe" several times during the past week. This is like telling "folks" the sky is falling after it's already fallen.
I kind of feel sorry for tax-cheat Geithner who received a thumbs down from the Street. The reason? Most pundits says it's because the plan was not a plan at all, and that it offered no specifics. I listened to Geithner's talk--I didn't think it was totally bad. I thought it was rather like one of those summaries you put at the end of your term paper: dry, academic, designed to impress without admitting you have not the slightest idea what you're writing about.
"Please John Kerry, Halp us!"
I get somewhat the same feeling from the Obama administration attempts to "halP" the economy, with the latest implosion coming from Tim Geithner's opening statement about his rescue plan. If that's rescue, let us drown, so the stock market seemed to say. The S & P was hammered and the Dow dropped close to 400 points, following major losses during the previous week.
Meanwhile, Obama seems to be reincarnating Jimmy Carter's "malaise" diagnosis. For weeks, we've been terrorized into buying into a Porkulus Plan which devotes only 12 cents on the dollar into true stimulus and offers a menu of political paybacks and pet Democratic projects. Obama used the word "catastrophe" several times during the past week. This is like telling "folks" the sky is falling after it's already fallen.
I kind of feel sorry for tax-cheat Geithner who received a thumbs down from the Street. The reason? Most pundits says it's because the plan was not a plan at all, and that it offered no specifics. I listened to Geithner's talk--I didn't think it was totally bad. I thought it was rather like one of those summaries you put at the end of your term paper: dry, academic, designed to impress without admitting you have not the slightest idea what you're writing about.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Obama Speak: Stimulate Means Spend
At some point, people will realize that Obama is a great speaker only to his fan base in the media. The president was on the telly trying very hard to be entertaining in that imitable sing-song way of speaking that he has.
"Some folks have criticized my Stimulus Plan by saying it is too heavy on spending. Spending? Isn't that what a Stimulus Plan is.... Spending?" ....and har-har-de-har, guffawed the Prez.
Wow! SAT word match! We stand corrected. I thought "stimulate" meant to excite something or get something moving again. Spending may be a stimulant for pork-seeking Democrats but there are other ways of stimulating the economy. It is the economy they're talking about, isn't it?
But Barack has been advised he needs to take that whole bunch of taxpayer money, all that private capital, launder it through the sacred halls of government, and pour it into the public sector.
Talk about scare tactics! There are so many parts of the package that have nothing to do with stimulating the economy, and won't created jobs, and won't loosen credit, and won't do anything about the collapsed housing market.
It won't work, I'm telling you now. The economy has a mind of its own and will re-bound in good time. Meanwhile, be sure to teach your children how to build tee-pees because that's all they'll be able to afford when the Treasury has to print all that money, interest rates go through the roof, and it costs 30 bucks to buy a cup of coffee at Starbucks. If there is a Starbucks....
"Some folks have criticized my Stimulus Plan by saying it is too heavy on spending. Spending? Isn't that what a Stimulus Plan is.... Spending?" ....and har-har-de-har, guffawed the Prez.
Wow! SAT word match! We stand corrected. I thought "stimulate" meant to excite something or get something moving again. Spending may be a stimulant for pork-seeking Democrats but there are other ways of stimulating the economy. It is the economy they're talking about, isn't it?
But Barack has been advised he needs to take that whole bunch of taxpayer money, all that private capital, launder it through the sacred halls of government, and pour it into the public sector.
Talk about scare tactics! There are so many parts of the package that have nothing to do with stimulating the economy, and won't created jobs, and won't loosen credit, and won't do anything about the collapsed housing market.
It won't work, I'm telling you now. The economy has a mind of its own and will re-bound in good time. Meanwhile, be sure to teach your children how to build tee-pees because that's all they'll be able to afford when the Treasury has to print all that money, interest rates go through the roof, and it costs 30 bucks to buy a cup of coffee at Starbucks. If there is a Starbucks....
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Leon Panetta, Maximum Bureaucrat
I'm watching the Panetta CIA confirmation hearings. Instead of qustioning, Democratic representatives have taken their turns at the mike to provide extensive and long-winded character references. Barabara Mikulski has just relinquished the floor and Leon Panetta is grinning on cue.
"That's an excellent answer," says Mikulski to a slogan uttered by the former Clinton chief of staff.
The boredom is taking its toll as Mikulski launches into a phrase heard ad nauseum from the speeches of other Democrats: "Speaking Truth to Power."
Democrats always take on the look of puff adders whenver the phrase is uttered, and Mikulski uses it several times, as does Ron Wyden. Meanwhile, Panett'a every answer is thoughtful, reasoned, measured, bureacratic and empty. Panetta searches his mind for the right thing, the right phrase, the right tone. His every answer is squared and boxed. There are no loose ends, not a hair out of place, and nothing original. Panetta avoids excitable thoughts, and issues his familiar catch-phrases in press-ready form. He edits himself as he speaks. He blinks his eyes, often. There is no way of telling what the man is thinking. He is a seamless, robotic, hypnotic bureaucratic manager. His bureaucratic thought process is convertible to usage in a university, a bank, a law firm, a meat-packing plant.
"We will work as a team," Panetta says.
Go team. Say yes. Be quiet. Smile.
"That's an excellent answer," says Mikulski to a slogan uttered by the former Clinton chief of staff.
The boredom is taking its toll as Mikulski launches into a phrase heard ad nauseum from the speeches of other Democrats: "Speaking Truth to Power."
Democrats always take on the look of puff adders whenver the phrase is uttered, and Mikulski uses it several times, as does Ron Wyden. Meanwhile, Panett'a every answer is thoughtful, reasoned, measured, bureacratic and empty. Panetta searches his mind for the right thing, the right phrase, the right tone. His every answer is squared and boxed. There are no loose ends, not a hair out of place, and nothing original. Panetta avoids excitable thoughts, and issues his familiar catch-phrases in press-ready form. He edits himself as he speaks. He blinks his eyes, often. There is no way of telling what the man is thinking. He is a seamless, robotic, hypnotic bureaucratic manager. His bureaucratic thought process is convertible to usage in a university, a bank, a law firm, a meat-packing plant.
"We will work as a team," Panetta says.
Go team. Say yes. Be quiet. Smile.
Leon Panetta Will Spay the CIA
I don't know about you but I've never been impressed with Leon Panetta, nor his cultivated avuncular mien. It's not fair to say he reminds me a great deal of Bill Richardson, but he does. While the Panetta appointment doesn't violate Obama's dictate about not hiring registered lobbyists, Leon has done a lot of unregistered lobbying for groups doing business with the government. Since serving as Bill Clinton's chief of staff, Leon has spent his time spinning in the revolving door between government and private industry. The purpose of all that, of course, is to make money, be a success, use his connections in government to do so.
The Wall Street Journal reports that he earned more than $700,000 since the beginning of 2008. The money has come from making speeches for troubled banks and investment corporations like Merill-Lynch. He's also consulted for companies that invest in defense contracting. There's a whole lot more but you need to read Glenn R. Simpson to get full facts and details. Isn't that all a bit sticky? Are we going to re-install the entire Bill Clinton apparatus of government? About the only Bill Clinton era appointee that makes sense is Hillary and that is only because she earned it. I worry less about what Hillary will do as Secretary of State than I do about what Panetta will do at CIA.
Panetta is not that exciting a speaker that anyone would pay him thousands of dollars just to talk. They pay him because he's a prototypical bureaucrat, steeped in the ways of Washington, and willing to sell access. He's not much different from Blagojevich except that Blago is blunt whereas Panetta quietly gathers in the chips.
The worst part of a Pinhedda appointment is what he believes about terrorism and the right of nations to defend against it. He's formed himself into a sort of a plastic amorphous image of a blind monkey. Joe scarbough described the choice of Panetta as one of the "most baffling appointments" of the Obama administration. He's for closing Gitmo, throwing out the interrogations as well as the interrogators, and for granting rights of habeus corpus to people like Khalid Sheikh Mohammad.
Panetta is sort of an hyper-broadcast announcement of American weakness and vulnerability at a time when foreign terrorists are most likely to succeed. A eunuch-inspired CIA is not what we need right now.
The Wall Street Journal reports that he earned more than $700,000 since the beginning of 2008. The money has come from making speeches for troubled banks and investment corporations like Merill-Lynch. He's also consulted for companies that invest in defense contracting. There's a whole lot more but you need to read Glenn R. Simpson to get full facts and details. Isn't that all a bit sticky? Are we going to re-install the entire Bill Clinton apparatus of government? About the only Bill Clinton era appointee that makes sense is Hillary and that is only because she earned it. I worry less about what Hillary will do as Secretary of State than I do about what Panetta will do at CIA.
Panetta is not that exciting a speaker that anyone would pay him thousands of dollars just to talk. They pay him because he's a prototypical bureaucrat, steeped in the ways of Washington, and willing to sell access. He's not much different from Blagojevich except that Blago is blunt whereas Panetta quietly gathers in the chips.
The worst part of a Pinhedda appointment is what he believes about terrorism and the right of nations to defend against it. He's formed himself into a sort of a plastic amorphous image of a blind monkey. Joe scarbough described the choice of Panetta as one of the "most baffling appointments" of the Obama administration. He's for closing Gitmo, throwing out the interrogations as well as the interrogators, and for granting rights of habeus corpus to people like Khalid Sheikh Mohammad.
Panetta is sort of an hyper-broadcast announcement of American weakness and vulnerability at a time when foreign terrorists are most likely to succeed. A eunuch-inspired CIA is not what we need right now.
How To Feel Good About the TARP
Many people are queestioning Barack Obama's sincerity in putting a $500,000 limit on executive pay for companies receiving "extraordinary assistance" from the Taxpayers. The New York Post, for example, ventured that the timing of the message was designed to re-focus the media away from the Tom Daschle debacle. Whatever the motivation, you could say that a bit of bully pulpit sermonizing wouldn't hurt. It plays to the worst part of us, our petty resentments. If I haven't been clever enough to ever make over $75,000 a year, then why should anyone else, especially now that the national economy is slouching toward zero. So now that all of us low earners have nourished ourselves on the pablum of empty slogans, let's list a few of the problems associated with the Obama dictum:
* Lots of banks and institutions are exempt and have already been paid out, so they're already laughing at the windfall afforded them.
* Top executives will be looking for jobs as execs in foreign companies with subsidiaries in the U.S.
* Enforcement is impossible for a government that found it so difficult to monitor reckless, government sponsored institutions like Fanny and Freddie.
* Clever CFO's get to become CFO's by having the expertise to outwit the lead-footed spawn of administration public relations hacks newly lured away from the mass media.
* Lots of banks and institutions are exempt and have already been paid out, so they're already laughing at the windfall afforded them.
* Top executives will be looking for jobs as execs in foreign companies with subsidiaries in the U.S.
* Enforcement is impossible for a government that found it so difficult to monitor reckless, government sponsored institutions like Fanny and Freddie.
* Clever CFO's get to become CFO's by having the expertise to outwit the lead-footed spawn of administration public relations hacks newly lured away from the mass media.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
That's Right, Barack Obama--You Did Screw Up
Even though it was obvious to everyone, even the New York Times, that President Obama screwed up in some of his cabinet picks, it sure was nice to hear him say it in his interview with CNN. I've begun to think the guy has potential. Now if only he could whip his Party into coming up with a stimulus plan that didn't resemble an old-style Communist Party Cultural Purge, we could get something truly stimulative done.
With regard to Obama's announcement today about the cap on executive salaries at corporations taking bailout funds, I find that a double-edged sword. I'm okay with XO's who make a lot of money--that's none of my business so long as you're not taking our tax dollars.
But I don't see how the government, which found it so hard to police the wild activities in Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac, could effectively monitor salaries and compensation in corporate America. It would be more believable if the president called for hearings on Countrywide Bank connections with Chris Dodd and with Fanny Mae while top Democrats ran the housing agencies.
'Splain yourself, dude...
With regard to Obama's announcement today about the cap on executive salaries at corporations taking bailout funds, I find that a double-edged sword. I'm okay with XO's who make a lot of money--that's none of my business so long as you're not taking our tax dollars.
But I don't see how the government, which found it so hard to police the wild activities in Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac, could effectively monitor salaries and compensation in corporate America. It would be more believable if the president called for hearings on Countrywide Bank connections with Chris Dodd and with Fanny Mae while top Democrats ran the housing agencies.
'Splain yourself, dude...
Senator Inhofe & Me: Keep Guantanamo Prison Open for Business
Senator James Inhofe (R –OK) is out in front of the hunt for something dear to my heart—the announced closing of the Gitmo facility by the Obama administration. Inhofe is calling for the President to keep it open. There are 110 dangerous killers in there. The Bush administration already released hundreds of the less dangerous ones. The remaining terrorists are unwanted in all countries.
Obama succumbed to the lamenting of Democratic Party loony left wing of the party in making the announcement they would close the terrorist prison at Guantanamo, Cuba. Obama should think a little more about his Terrorist Catch and Release Program. Does he want it on his conscience if one of the hard-cores gets off the reservation and goes back to killing some mother’s son or daughter? I wouldn’t. But that’s what’s happened already, and more than once.
I’m sure there are lots of people in the U.S and the whole world., particularly among the aged poor population, who wouldn’t mind being interned at Gitmo. I don’t expect I’d get better treatment anywhere after Alzheimer’s set’s in (if it hasn’t already) than in Gitmo.
• The Red Cross notes plenty of recreation in beautiful recreation areas.
• Great medical treatment for free—much better than Medicaid or Medicare.
• A varied menu in keeping with personal and religious preferences.
Please, Barack, Mr. President….Isn’t there something you could do to get me interned there when I’m 94 and alone?
Obama succumbed to the lamenting of Democratic Party loony left wing of the party in making the announcement they would close the terrorist prison at Guantanamo, Cuba. Obama should think a little more about his Terrorist Catch and Release Program. Does he want it on his conscience if one of the hard-cores gets off the reservation and goes back to killing some mother’s son or daughter? I wouldn’t. But that’s what’s happened already, and more than once.
I’m sure there are lots of people in the U.S and the whole world., particularly among the aged poor population, who wouldn’t mind being interned at Gitmo. I don’t expect I’d get better treatment anywhere after Alzheimer’s set’s in (if it hasn’t already) than in Gitmo.
• The Red Cross notes plenty of recreation in beautiful recreation areas.
• Great medical treatment for free—much better than Medicaid or Medicare.
• A varied menu in keeping with personal and religious preferences.
Please, Barack, Mr. President….Isn’t there something you could do to get me interned there when I’m 94 and alone?
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Slick, Smooth-Talking Tom Daschle Joins Democratic Tax Cheats
It's getting to be a habit. God forbid the IRS agents should start churning into other federal tax matters in Obama appointees. First, there was Geithner and his TurboTax scandal. Barack spanked him and gave him a do-over opportunity. The Confirmation Committee caved, thinking that a bit of mercenary moral expedience would be excusable in an economic crisis. It's a fine example we're setting for the kids. A little bit of cheating is okay so long as you are photogenic and have an engaging personality.
Now Daschle doesn't have the "boy wonder" look. What he has is a slick, unctuous, but monotonous voice that could sell a lot of baby food. If he doesn't get the Commerce job, perhaps he can work for Gerber's.
But the news reports say he cheated Uncle Sam out of over a hundred thousand dollars. And they haven't so far reported who was Daschle's rich Sugar Daddy, either, no doubt out of an excess of caution. Why doesn't Daschle answer? That would solve the legal problem and truly be the "open government" the Dems are talking 'bout.
Now Daschle doesn't have the "boy wonder" look. What he has is a slick, unctuous, but monotonous voice that could sell a lot of baby food. If he doesn't get the Commerce job, perhaps he can work for Gerber's.
But the news reports say he cheated Uncle Sam out of over a hundred thousand dollars. And they haven't so far reported who was Daschle's rich Sugar Daddy, either, no doubt out of an excess of caution. Why doesn't Daschle answer? That would solve the legal problem and truly be the "open government" the Dems are talking 'bout.
Victory for Democracy in Iraq: Elections Conducted with Little Conflict
I wonder when President Obama will acknowledge that the surge in Iraq was a good idea, followed by decisive action, and a result which blazed a path to democracy in Iraq. I hope that Barack Obama doesn't try to reverse the tremendous progress which has been made by declaring a defeat, as he did in the primary presidential campaign. Four thousand American soldiers deserve better, and so do all of those who served.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Luzerne County, Penn., Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael T. Conahan Plead Guilty to Fraud in Juvenile Detention Scheme
Luzerne County, Penn., Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael T. Conahan Plead Guilty to Fraud in Juvenile Detention Scheme
Two Pennsylvania judges were given prison sentences for defrauding taxpayers of millions of dollars and suborning the juvenile justice system.
http://www.associatedcontent.comarticle/1428015/luzerne_county_penn_judges_mark_ciavarella.html
Two Pennsylvania judges were given prison sentences for defrauding taxpayers of millions of dollars and suborning the juvenile justice system.
http://www.associatedcontent.comarticle/1428015/luzerne_county_penn_judges_mark_ciavarella.html
Former Russian President Putin Disses on Michael Dell in Davos
Look, I wasn’t in Davos but the vignette is telling. CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo, the Money Honey, was the one telling it. Looking svelte and mischievous with wide sunglasses hung above a wide smile, Bartiromo made a brief appearance on MSNBC to talk about the 2009 Economic Forum.
In the brief but entertaining snippets she provided, she spoke of an encounter between strong-man guy Vladimir Putin and metrosexual Michael Dell. In typical overweening fashion, and with great consciousness of “improving the image of America” (the blood sport of America’s rich liberal elite), Dell leaned over solicitously to Putin and whispered the following in his ear:
“Is there anything we can do to help you?” he gushed.
Putin was rightly put off by the unctuous and avuncular familiarity.
“Help us? Russia doesn’t need help. Help is for invalids and weaklings.”
Ah…the good old days, when men were men and weren’t massaging each other expensive dinners in Davos. Remember when America prided itself on individuality, on doing things for yourself?
In the brief but entertaining snippets she provided, she spoke of an encounter between strong-man guy Vladimir Putin and metrosexual Michael Dell. In typical overweening fashion, and with great consciousness of “improving the image of America” (the blood sport of America’s rich liberal elite), Dell leaned over solicitously to Putin and whispered the following in his ear:
“Is there anything we can do to help you?” he gushed.
Putin was rightly put off by the unctuous and avuncular familiarity.
“Help us? Russia doesn’t need help. Help is for invalids and weaklings.”
Ah…the good old days, when men were men and weren’t massaging each other expensive dinners in Davos. Remember when America prided itself on individuality, on doing things for yourself?
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Geraldo Rivera Ambushes Blagojevich
I'm having a slight shift of attitude with regard to Blagojevich, Boy Wonder. Though Blago appears sometimes to cultivate the image of an angel with a dirty face, I think he's been swimming in the river of Chicago political scum so long that he's become buoyant.
Today he was ambushed by Geraldo Rivera outside the set of "the View," that slightly daft daytime gossip opinion show featuring Whoopi Goldberg, among others. The reason I mention Whoopi is that she was ambushed, too, just after the Blago interview.
Prosecutor Fitzpatrick better have something good on the man, and by that I mean more than a Cagneyesque patois on audiotape. Eff them...this job is worth something! So I give Rivera and Blago credit for not being two-faced S.O.Bs; they were quite chummy during the interview, with hands on each others backs, but they sang the same song I'm now singing. Blago's a bad boy but is he a criminal? Did he try to sell Obama's Senate seat? Or is he just taking the fall for nearly all of Chicago and its seedy history?
What Rivera got from Blago is that he wants to be able to call witnesses before he gets railroaded through an impeachment trial. An impeachment trial is not a criminal trial, and there are no appeals. So why can't he call witnesses, among whom Rahm Emmanual and Valerie Miller are bound to figure.
Blago rightly demands that he be able to call witnesses. "What kind of country do we live in?" he asked Geraldo. Yet, the rules of impeachment are quite different from a criminal prosecution and, frankly, I don't know what they are in the state of Illinois. I would think that the man still has Constitutional rights; after all, there are some in congress who are trying to extend constitutional protections to Al Qaeda terrorists, so I should think that Blago must be allowed to properly defend himself.
Today he was ambushed by Geraldo Rivera outside the set of "the View," that slightly daft daytime gossip opinion show featuring Whoopi Goldberg, among others. The reason I mention Whoopi is that she was ambushed, too, just after the Blago interview.
Prosecutor Fitzpatrick better have something good on the man, and by that I mean more than a Cagneyesque patois on audiotape. Eff them...this job is worth something! So I give Rivera and Blago credit for not being two-faced S.O.Bs; they were quite chummy during the interview, with hands on each others backs, but they sang the same song I'm now singing. Blago's a bad boy but is he a criminal? Did he try to sell Obama's Senate seat? Or is he just taking the fall for nearly all of Chicago and its seedy history?
What Rivera got from Blago is that he wants to be able to call witnesses before he gets railroaded through an impeachment trial. An impeachment trial is not a criminal trial, and there are no appeals. So why can't he call witnesses, among whom Rahm Emmanual and Valerie Miller are bound to figure.
Blago rightly demands that he be able to call witnesses. "What kind of country do we live in?" he asked Geraldo. Yet, the rules of impeachment are quite different from a criminal prosecution and, frankly, I don't know what they are in the state of Illinois. I would think that the man still has Constitutional rights; after all, there are some in congress who are trying to extend constitutional protections to Al Qaeda terrorists, so I should think that Blago must be allowed to properly defend himself.
Piling On New York Governor Patterson
Why's everybody jumping on a blind man and a Kennedy heiress? Let me get Caroline off the hook, first. She wasn't the best choice to replace Hillary Clinton and the reasons for that are pretty plain--there's no point beating the drum about Princess Pony's diction and phraseology at a bombed out news conference. But Patterson saw that and didn't appoint her, disappointing the gushing hordes who wanted to revive "Camelot" and assure a permanent flow of money to Democratic Party coffers. Picking Caroline Kennedy to replace Hillary would have been a disaster of gigantic proportions, and NY power pols had already retreated to battle stations in preparation of engaging in the coming battle. But why beat on Caroline? You can't blame a girl for trying a little aristocratic hustle. Let it go. It's done--so overrrrr!
More to the point, and somehow lost in the media spotlight, is the fact that New York is a big state. Central and upstate New York are a great deal different from the Upper East and West Sides and much different still from the East and West Villages. I've heard there were people up there who managed dairy farms, went hunting, ice skating in natural ponds, joined the military services, were patriotic, and put common sense ahead of ideology in their political choices.
The Gillebrand appointment is a dog that hunts (pun intended). What really kills me is that some of the media windup toys were actually comparing Blagojevich's "quick action" to appoint a successor to Obama's senate seat with Patterson's slower appointment of Gillebrand. What a crock! Consider where the criticism comes from--the wild-eyed sycophants and court toadies of the New England aristocracy.
More to the point, and somehow lost in the media spotlight, is the fact that New York is a big state. Central and upstate New York are a great deal different from the Upper East and West Sides and much different still from the East and West Villages. I've heard there were people up there who managed dairy farms, went hunting, ice skating in natural ponds, joined the military services, were patriotic, and put common sense ahead of ideology in their political choices.
The Gillebrand appointment is a dog that hunts (pun intended). What really kills me is that some of the media windup toys were actually comparing Blagojevich's "quick action" to appoint a successor to Obama's senate seat with Patterson's slower appointment of Gillebrand. What a crock! Consider where the criticism comes from--the wild-eyed sycophants and court toadies of the New England aristocracy.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Obama Inaugural Poet Elizabeth Alexander Gets D Minus in Poetry Composition - Associated Content
Obama Inaugural Poet Elizabeth Alexander Gets D Minus in Poetry Composition - Associated ContentThe flip and flap. Don't forget to give us your opinion in the comments section.
Liberal "About Face" (In Print Anyway)
The Washington Post today has an editorial affirming Bush policies on Gitmo terrorists. Finally confronting reality, the liberal media "about face" has already begun. They've even taken note that Obama said a week ago that Dick Cheney gave him "good advice" about terrorism.
In order to match deeds with words, Obama's going to have to smack down most of his own party. I don't think he is strong enough to do that. Will he be able to say that there will be no terrorist attacks on his watch? Not on the path he's followed in signing an executive order to close Gitmo with no announced plan of what to do with terrorists.
In order to match deeds with words, Obama's going to have to smack down most of his own party. I don't think he is strong enough to do that. Will he be able to say that there will be no terrorist attacks on his watch? Not on the path he's followed in signing an executive order to close Gitmo with no announced plan of what to do with terrorists.
Obama Treasury Nominee Timothy Geithner Doesn't Blame Turbotax for His 2001 - 2002 Income Tax Problems
Obama Treasury Nominee Timothy Geithner Doesn't Blame Turbotax for His 2001 - 2002 Income Tax Problems
A humorous moment came when Senator Charles Grassley asked Geithner what self-help Tax Preparation software he used when he prepared his taxes. The answer: Turbotax.
http://www.associatedcontent.comarticle/1407417/obama_treasury_nominee_timothy_geithner.html
A humorous moment came when Senator Charles Grassley asked Geithner what self-help Tax Preparation software he used when he prepared his taxes. The answer: Turbotax.
http://www.associatedcontent.comarticle/1407417/obama_treasury_nominee_timothy_geithner.html
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
Don't Share State Secrets with Jill Biden - Hillary Clinton Second Choice
Talking too much seems to be a Biden family trait. Jill (or Jillie, as Joe cutely calls her) blew it during a celebrity appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show when she told Oprah that hubby Joe was Obama's first choice for both vice-president and Secretary of State. Hillary Clinton was something of an afterthought, according to the VPs wife. The only hurt this time is to Hillary Clinton's feelings but I hope that "Barry" Obama and "Joey" Biden don't share nuclear secrets with "Jillie." We could be in deep trouble if "Jillie" announces some sort of backdoor negotiations with the N. Koreans or Iranians on Oprah. Or do we call her "Opie?"...
Sunday, January 18, 2009
George Bush Image Set to Improve in 4 Years
My headline is geared toward sensationalism, true, but the question remains as to whether Barack Obama will be able to have the same post 9-11 score as George Bush. The president's record is clear. Not a single American has been lost to a terrorist attack in the U.S. since Bush took the reins.
Bush wasn't afraid to take the heat for unpopular decisions. Obama lives in a media bubble of love which he may be loathe to forfeit by making the tough decisions required of a president. Being a civil rights president (a good thing) will not be enough to face an Equal Opportunity Terrorist Attack.
There are a lot of changes the loonie-elite wants to make. Establish a Terrorist Catch and Release program by closing Guantanamo. Withdrawal from Iraq is a much safer idea since much of that pain has been absorbed by the Bush Administration in a winning effort. The defeatnik mentality of Joe Biden would have set a failed three-state solution for Iraq which would have increased bloodshed and loss of life. And Iraq would have become a haven for Al Qaeda, something that the loonie-left will dispute, but then again they dispute everything that stands to America's benefit.
Bush wasn't afraid to take the heat for unpopular decisions. Obama lives in a media bubble of love which he may be loathe to forfeit by making the tough decisions required of a president. Being a civil rights president (a good thing) will not be enough to face an Equal Opportunity Terrorist Attack.
There are a lot of changes the loonie-elite wants to make. Establish a Terrorist Catch and Release program by closing Guantanamo. Withdrawal from Iraq is a much safer idea since much of that pain has been absorbed by the Bush Administration in a winning effort. The defeatnik mentality of Joe Biden would have set a failed three-state solution for Iraq which would have increased bloodshed and loss of life. And Iraq would have become a haven for Al Qaeda, something that the loonie-left will dispute, but then again they dispute everything that stands to America's benefit.
Obama Appointees Won't Support 2nd Amendment Rights
NRA-ILA :: Obama Appointees Face HearingsI guess it's another case of being "for it" before being "against it." Barack Obama has picked Eric Holder as his Attorney General nominee. When Holder's not involved with pardoning people like Marc Rich (who made a fortune smuggling illegal oil from Iran while American hostages were tied to poles in the desert), he courts an anti-gun Second Amendment cultural elite. What is it about these people who do nothing about guns in the hands of urban gangsters but are vehemently opposed to guns in the hands of law-abiding people. There they go again. Give your local congressional representative the message. You can click on the headline to learn more...
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Nice Guy Timothy Geithner Should Do the Right Thing: Quit
The angular patrician face conveys seriousness, not avarice. Yet the man Obama tapped for his Treasury Secretary owed the IRS $34,000 in FICA taxes he should have paid while he worked for the International Monetary Fund. The IMF is a sort of watchdog on world economic matters. It has both humanitarian and fiduciary goals. It is a large scale organization which employs about 2400 persons, most of whom are provided with earmarked payments for paying their taxes.
Barack Obama doesn't think this is a problem. He calls it an understandable mistake. He points out that Geithner paid his tax bill. The worshipful Obama media is bemused, characterizes it as the precocious mistake of a financial wunderkind. The Republicans like Geithner and are also willing to dismiss Geithner's tax evasion as a faux pas. The Wall Street Journal offers a somewhat bemused editorial entitled "A Geithner Tax Amnesty." The newspaper's suggestion is that everyone in America who owes similar amounts be given the same sort of tax forgiveness which we are about to give Geithner. I think that is a fair idea, but fairness is not the objective here, certainly, and it would be naive to think it is.
It now seems to follow that the economic bankruptcy which America faces was preceded by the same type of moral bankruptcy that we are asked to accept in the appointment of nice guy Timothy Geithner. Shelter your larcenous hearts and look the other way. Isn't that what they did at Fanny Mae? Isn't that what they did in the packaging and selling of derivatives? Isn't that what they did when they used scare tactics to "improve" a situation which becomes progressively worse with each dollor squandered in the hopes of creating false bottoms?
And worse, this type of wilful myopia is sanctioned by the man we have elected to the presidency. Isn't that proof that we are born fools? Isn't that proof that we have become willing slaves by allowing our money to be stripped away to pay bankers and power brokers who work in a conjoined fraternity of mutual enrichment?
Barack Obama doesn't think this is a problem. He calls it an understandable mistake. He points out that Geithner paid his tax bill. The worshipful Obama media is bemused, characterizes it as the precocious mistake of a financial wunderkind. The Republicans like Geithner and are also willing to dismiss Geithner's tax evasion as a faux pas. The Wall Street Journal offers a somewhat bemused editorial entitled "A Geithner Tax Amnesty." The newspaper's suggestion is that everyone in America who owes similar amounts be given the same sort of tax forgiveness which we are about to give Geithner. I think that is a fair idea, but fairness is not the objective here, certainly, and it would be naive to think it is.
It now seems to follow that the economic bankruptcy which America faces was preceded by the same type of moral bankruptcy that we are asked to accept in the appointment of nice guy Timothy Geithner. Shelter your larcenous hearts and look the other way. Isn't that what they did at Fanny Mae? Isn't that what they did in the packaging and selling of derivatives? Isn't that what they did when they used scare tactics to "improve" a situation which becomes progressively worse with each dollor squandered in the hopes of creating false bottoms?
And worse, this type of wilful myopia is sanctioned by the man we have elected to the presidency. Isn't that proof that we are born fools? Isn't that proof that we have become willing slaves by allowing our money to be stripped away to pay bankers and power brokers who work in a conjoined fraternity of mutual enrichment?
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Are Bush and Obama Playing Russian Roulette with U.S. Economy? - Associated Content
Are Bush and Obama Playing Russian Roulette with U.S. Economy? - Associated ContentSome fun stuff... To read more, click on the link.
Presumed Bin Laden Audio Tape Lacks Photo
Leave it to CNN to put up a youthful picture of UBL to accompany his latest cant. Bin Laden, aged 51, probably looks older and worse than Zawahiri but CNN won't miss an opportunity to proselytize for Hamas. UBL's latest shy audio tape is redundant and reiterates the homogenized theme of "Israeli aggression."
Demonstrating once again the anti-Jewish bias in reporting of the Gaza conflict, this report is supposed to be about Bin Laden but CNN adds irrelevant body count statistics to its non-story. Okay, you have to mention Israel's retaliatory attack on Hamas terrorists but this one-sided mentioning of Palestinian deaths ignores that a large number of them were terrorists and, of the innocents who died, many of them were killed as a result of secondary Hamas bomb storing caches and methods.
CNN ought to remind people that using civilians as human shields, as Hamas routinely does, is a war crime. It is for this reason that I am starting up a new non-Jewish organization called "Catholics for Israel." All denominations may apply, including Muslims, some of whom are reportedly not pleased with Hamas.
Demonstrating once again the anti-Jewish bias in reporting of the Gaza conflict, this report is supposed to be about Bin Laden but CNN adds irrelevant body count statistics to its non-story. Okay, you have to mention Israel's retaliatory attack on Hamas terrorists but this one-sided mentioning of Palestinian deaths ignores that a large number of them were terrorists and, of the innocents who died, many of them were killed as a result of secondary Hamas bomb storing caches and methods.
CNN ought to remind people that using civilians as human shields, as Hamas routinely does, is a war crime. It is for this reason that I am starting up a new non-Jewish organization called "Catholics for Israel." All denominations may apply, including Muslims, some of whom are reportedly not pleased with Hamas.
Obama Report: More Questions Than Answers? - Associated Content
Obama Report: More Questions Than Answers? - Associated ContentTo read more, just click... The "report" was released a day before Christmas. Were yu 2 bz to read it?
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