Saturday, October 31, 2009

We Need More Rogues

I don’t think that there is anything that gets under the skin of a lefty more than when a member of a demographic, that Democrats take for granted, gains prominence in the conservative movement. Democrats prefer blacks and women as docile, servile victims rather than strong and independent thinkers.

Just ask Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Beginning with his nomination, Justice Thomas has been subjected to the left’s hateful, full-throated and often racist vitriol for nearly two decades.

Two free thinkers who have resisted appeals to victimhood, and have earned the left’s most passionate hatred as a consequence, are Sarah Palin and Liz Cheney. Both are attractive and have accomplished all that feminists have claimed is possible for all women, but whom none who follow feminism’s prescriptions ever achieve. Each has had 5 children while succeeding in their careers. And both are frequent targets of the worst that the left can throw at them.

Sarah Palin really seems to get under the left’s skin. They hate her because she’s effective. While non-roguish Republicans have remained trembling on the sidelines, hoping that Democrats would self-destruct, Sarah Palin has not shown the slightest hesitancy to step into the arena. Nothing has done more to slow the imposition of Obamacare than her pithy summation of Obamacare’s “death panels.”

In mid-April, Obama told Bloomberg News where he expected to achieve the financial saving he promises for Obamacare: “The chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives are accounting for potentially 80 percent of the total health- care bill out here.”

The Republican mainstream said nothing.

About three weeks later he told a New York Times Sunday Magazine how healthcare rationing would be administered: “I think that there is going to have to be a conversation that is guided by doctors, scientists, ethicists. And then there is going to have to be a very difficult democratic conversation that takes place. It is very difficult to imagine the country making those decisions just through the normal political channels. And that’s part of why you have to have some independent group that can give you guidance.”

If the Republican mainstream noticed, they kept it to themselves.

In June, during an ABC produced Obamacare infomercial, he told a questioner from the audience that the elderly might need to content themselves with a pain pill rather than expect life extending healthcare.

No pulse was detected in the Republican mainstream.

All it took to bring Obamacare’s warts into clear focus was for Sarah Palin, on August 7th, to express her concern that her chronically ill newborn son might not meet Obama’s standard for continued care and would be condemned by a “death panel.” With that succinct distillation, she cleared away all of Obama’s long-winded, rhetorical squid’s ink and illuminated what Obamacare advocates did not want you to know.

The term stuck because it had the ring of truth and Obamacare has run aground, giving Americans more time to evaluate the legislation and consider what’s wrong with it. It had been the Democrats’ goal to ram this through before anybody, even Congressmen, had a chance to read it.

To get a sense of the left’s uncompromising hate for her, a look alike collection of venomous anti-Palin essays called “Going Rouge” is scheduled to arrive on bookshelves the same day as Palin’s memoir “Going Rogue.” The obvious intent is to trick Palin fans into buying the bogus book.

How obsessive must your hatred be to go to all that trouble just to sabotage a book release?

The malevolent left has lately turned its smear machine on Liz Cheney. Her crime has been her clear, logical and informed criticism of Obama’s unfocused and ineffective foreign policy. Civilization’s enemies have not felt so comfortable and secure since Jimmy Carter’s reign of error.

Along with William Kristol and Debra Burlingame, she helped establish a website that focuses attention on Obama’s inattention. The site aggregates news and commentary on Obama’s feeble foreign policy. She has also appeared on talk shows and has shown herself to be a confident and informed commentator who can parry any leftist thrust. The left has responded predictably, not by addressing the substance of her arguments, but with personal attacks and name-calling.

It won’t be getting any easier for lefties. Michelle Bachman is another rising conservative star. And she has five children too.

The New York Times Shows Why They Deserve Their Obama Seal of Approval


The photo op president didn't like what the Times said about his photo op. So, the Times obediently changed it.

Friday, October 30, 2009

Transparency!


It takes cyberhacking for the public's business to become public.

As the House was conducting scheduled votes Thursday, ethics chairwoman Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., went to the microphone to announce that a confidential weekly report of the committee from July had leaked out in a case of "cyber-hacking."

A committee statement said its security was breached through "peer to peer file sharing software" by a junior employee who was working from home. The staff member was fired.


Of course, there's a very good reason why a Democraticly led Congress wouldn't want this information leaking out, especially when one sees names like Nancy Pelosi, Jane Harman, Charles Rangel and Maxine Waters.

Five of the seven House Defense Appropriations Committee members under investigation are high prominent Democrats.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Obama Unhappy With Criticism

BFD.

President Barack Obama says only once since Jan. 20 has White House life annoyed him.

It was the Saturday in May when, trying to be a good husband, he kept a campaign promise to take his wife, Michelle, to New York after the election for one of their "date nights" - dinner and a Broadway play.

Conservative commentators and Republican officials criticized him for doing so.

"People made it into a political issue," Obama told The New York Times Magazine for an article about the Obamas' marriage, appearing in the Nov. 1 issue. The article was posted on the Times' Web site on Wednesday.


If only George Bush had so little to worry about.

Obama's Truman Show presidency isn't as interesting to normal people as it is to the mainstream media. Certainly nobody gives a rat's ass about Obama's opinion about that.

Honduras Acted Lawfully To Remove Leftist Despot

Of all the miserable behavior coming from the Obama Administration, surely the most seemly has been Obama's backing of former Honduran president Manuel Zelaya. Zelaya was trying to impose a Venezuelan-style dictatorship on Honduras, when the Honduran legislature and the Honduran Supreme Court removed him from office.
Obama and the Democratic Party, both of which have shown more sympathy for dictatorships than free people condemned it as a coup and have applied enormous pressure on Honduras, trying to force that country into a leftist dictatorship.

Well, the Library of Congress has handed down a finding regarding Honduras's actions and guess what? Honduras acted lawfully to remove Zelaya. And guess what again? The Democrats are trying to force the Library of Congress to retract the finding.

The chairmen of the House and Senate foreign relations committees are asking the Law Library of Congress to retract a report on the military-backed coup in Honduras that they charge is flawed and "has contributed to the political crisis that still wracks'' the country.

The request, by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. and Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., has sparked cries of censorship from Republicans who say the Democrats don't like what the August report said: that the government of Honduras had the authority to remove President Manuel Zelaya from office.

Zelaya has been holed up at the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa for several weeks, and high-ranking U.S. officials arrived Wednesday to try to broker a resolution.

Critics of the Obama administration -- which condemned Zelaya's removal in June -- have pointed to the report as evidence that the White House was wrong when it sided with most Latin American countries in calling for Zelaya to be returned.


Wrong! The political crisis that "still wracks" Honduras is a consequence of Barack Obama, Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, Cuban dictator Raul Chavez and other leftist interfering in Honduran affairs.

All Chinese Look The Same, Don't They?

Sun Tzu. Mao Tse-Tung. What's the difference?

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Obama Already Shaping His Historical Legacy

Bill Clinton at least had the class to wait a couple of years before worrying about how the history books would record his time in office. I wonder if Obama's already raising money for his presidential library?

Obama legacy defense gets early start - Carol E. Lee - POLITICO.com

Renting Out The Lincoln Bedroom

Again

The only difference is that the rent has gone up and it's being administered by a property manager - The DNC.

Obama, Childlike and Disgusting

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Fraud plagues government health care | Washington Examiner

Fraud plagues government health care | Washington Examiner

I've got a great idea! Let's let government run all of health care.

Two Vaccine Shortages, Two Presidents, Same Biasd Media

What a difference five years makes on flu vaccine shortage | Washington Examiner

Hardly a negative word has been uttered in the mainstream media this week about President Obama and the shortage of swine flu vaccine shots, despite assurances from his administration in September that an "ample supply" would be available by "mid-October."
But five years ago when it was George W. Bush in the White House and insufficient supplies of flu vaccine were available in a timely manner, folks in the media were jumping all over the administration

This Is Why California Sucks

You might think that California would want to create new jobs. But that's not how California works. Sacramento tells Nestle: Stop building bottled water plant - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

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The city of Sacramento has ordered food giant Nestlé to stop work on construction of a new bottled water plant in south Sacramento while the City Council decides whether to impose new planning requirements on such facilities.

The council is scheduled to vote tonight on whether to require special permits for beverage bottling plants – which means they would have to go through public hearings before the Planning Commission and council.

Stricter environmental regulations could also be placed on the projects if the proposed ordinance is passed, said David Kwong, acting director of the Community Development Department.

"With a pending ordinance, the issue of allowing work to more forward came into question," Kwong said. "This was a prudent measure."

Brendan O'Rourke, a supply chain director for Nestlé, criticized the city for issuing the stop work order without an immediate explanation. The order – which was taped to a warehouse door around 3:45 p.m. Friday – put 80 people out of work, according to Nestlé.

Monday, October 26, 2009

CNN Drops To Last Place In The Ratings

Do you suppose this might be the reason?

CNN anchor Anderson Cooper followed his colleague David Shuster into the gutter on his Anderson Cooper 360 program on Tuesday in making a vulgar “tea-bagging” joke about Republicans/conservatives. After CNN’s senior political analyst David Gergen remarked that Republicans were “searching for their voice” after two electoral losses, Cooper quipped, “It’s hard to talk when you’re tea-bagging.”


Even Cooper belatedly realized how stupid it was.

But this could also be the reason.

It’s no surprise the Glenn Becks of the world have been attacking Obama since the moment he stepped into the Oval Office. Beck and his blathering buddies on the right — you know, the stinky kids in the coatroom who eat their own boogers. Always pick on the kids least likely to fight back.


You'd think that somebody, somewhere would catch a clue about the decline of the mainstream news media. Here's one bit of evidence that conservatism sells.

While newspapers overall lost 10.6% of their circulation last year, the Wall Street Journal was the only paper in the nation that increased its circulation.

Hoffman Leading In NY-23?

The sponsor of this poll has an agenda, but we can hope that it's true, can't we?



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Plenty of Time For Golf

But no time for Berlin.

POLITICO CLICK: President Obama ties George W. Bush on golf - Patrick Gavin

Barack Hussein Obama is too busy to attend the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

President Obama has reportedly informed the German government that he will not travel to Berlin on November 9 to participate in the 20th-anniversary celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall. It is an unfortunate decision on multiple counts.

First, it is another slight to another European ally — one that is going all-out to celebrate the event. The invitation to Obama was extended personally by Chancellor Angela Merkel last June.

Second, it is a failure to correct the historical misstatement of his citizen-of-the-world address last year in Berlin, when he credited the fall of the wall to the “world standing as one” and failed even to mention the names of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.

Third, it is an embarrassment for the United States not to be represented at the highest level for the commemoration of an event of this magnitude. As Matt Welch writes in the November issue of Reason magazine, November 1989 was “the most liberating month of arguably the most liberating year in human history” — the end of the Soviet Union and communism in Europe and a 50-year Cold War that was a worldwide ideological battle. It was battle led by America.

Fourth, it is an opportunity for Obama to give a speech in which he does not apologize for his country but celebrates the triumph of freedom that has been the driving force of American history from its beginning through his own election. As a former president eloquently said, the power of liberty is one that “brought settlers on perilous journeys, inspired colonies to rebellion, ended the sin of slavery, and set our nation against the tyrannies of the 20th century.” The American president should be in Berlin on November 9 to celebrate a moment that was a triumph for America as well as Germany.


He's too busy to formulate a plan for Afghanistan.

But he has plenty of time for golf. He really ought to work on his bowling.

I haven't bowled in about 30 years, and maybe rolled 10 lines in my lift. But I'm pretty sure that I could still beat a 29. I don't think that I've ever scored less than 120.

Back To The Future

This is what the Democrats have in mind for us. Except when they force us to ride buses.



Hat tip to the Blogfather.

Obama Approved Journalist Slurs Catholocism


Who but Maureen Dowd would take zero evidence and turn it into slur.

Ms. Dowd notes that American nuns are quickly aging and then adds that the investigation — she calls it an “inquisition” — hopes to “herd them back into their old-fashioned habits and convents and curb any speck of modernity or independence.”

If that was the entire point then Ms. Dowd could be forgiven her mocking tone. The idea of Vatican thugs dragging nuns out of their private apartments, forcing them into habits, and then locking them inside cloistered walls would be pretty horrific. In actual fact, the idea is somewhat ridiculous.

What the Vatican is worried about, as it should be, is that American nuns are vanishing at an alarming rate.


Who needs evidence, when you have the New York Times?

Read more: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/holy-post/archive/2009/10/25/charles-lewis-nuns-pope-benedict-and-maureen-dowd-s-nasty-insinuation.aspx#ixzz0V3Hi3xaX
The New Financial Post Stock Market Challenge starts in October. You could WIN your share of $60,000 in prizing. Register NOW

How Deeply Have Islamic Extremists Infiltrated Congress?

Have Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood placed operatives on Congressional staffs?

Fox News is reporting that Rep. Sue Myrick of North Carolina, and three other lawmakers are investigating whether the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a U.S. non-profit Muslim activist group associated with Islamist terrorist groups such as Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, has placed their operatives as interns on the staffs of members of targeted national security-related Congressional committees, including the Intelligence, Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

How Big An Asshole Is Barack Hussein Obama?

This big.

The Chicago mob's behavior is unbelievably unseemly. Here they were given an immense amount of material, a complete strategic review and plan with the author's heading left blank. President Bush felt it was his duty to do so. And all Obama can do is smear president Bush, even after he filled his own name into the author's column.

Obama seems not to understand that it is not President Bush who is suffering here. Rather, it is our under-resourced soldiers in Afghanistan who are suffering. Obama has had his hands on this plan for a full year now, and he's done virtually nothing except play politics. He needs to give our soldiers the resources to succeed, and then help create the political atmosphere so that they have time to succeed. It seems he has the intestinal fortitude to do neither. Weak, weak, weak.

Barack Obama - Liar

After Dick Cheney criticized Obama's dithering on Afghanistan, the Obama administration fired both barrels back at Cheney - with lies.

"There was no request on anyone's desk for eight months," said the defense official. "There was not a request that went to the White House because we didn't have forces to commit. So on the facts, they're wrong."

When Obama took office, he ordered an Afghanistan review of his own. Led by former CIA official Bruce Riedel, the Obama review team looked at Afghanistan and made its recommendations. On March 27, the president announced his new Afghanistan strategy--one that included many of the recommendations of the Bush administration's review. And that is another indignity. Not only did the Obama administration understand full well that the Bush administration had conducted a comprehensive assessment of Afghanistan, and not only had Jim Jones asked that the Bush review be withheld from the public--but Obama's "new" strategy bore an uncanny resemblance to that prescribed by the Lute review.

Says Eliot Cohen, "My challenge to the Obama administration is: Why don't you declassify both documents--the Bush administration's Afghanistan review and your own."



Of course, there is a way to settle this. Declassify the evidence. Unfortunately, it's up to Barack Obama what will and will not be declassified. You don't really think that he'd make available evidence that would expose him as a liar.

Is Obama Embarassed That We Won The Cold War?

Is Obama really so bothered by our victory in the Cold War that he won't join in Europe's celebration of its liberation from communism? Yes.

Barack Obama, who found time to go on a 24-hour jaunt to Copenhagen on Oct. 2 to seek the 2016 Olympics games for Chicago, apparently cannot find the time for a 24-hour trip to Berlin on Nov. 9 for a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Well, we all have our priorities, and the president can't be everywhere at once, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will surely represent the United States ably in Berlin.


Of course, this isn't the first time that Obama has expressed his distaste for American victories.



His grasp of history isn't so good either.

From The People Promising You Government Health Care

How about a national emergency?

On Sept. 13, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, told ABC's This Week program that the government was on schedule to deliver an "ample supply" of swine flu vaccine by mid-October:

"We're on track to have an ample supply rolling by the middle of October. But we may have some early vaccine as early as the first full week in October. We'll get the vaccine out the door as fast as it rolls off the production line."

But here we are five weeks later and news reports are coming in from across the nation of long waiting lines of people wanting the shot, but being turned away because of grossly inadequate supplies.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Never Let A Crisis Go To Waste

Even if you have to invent one.

Background here.

“Rule 1: Never allow a crisis to go to waste,” White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel told the New York Times right after the election. “They are opportunities to do big things.” Over the weekend, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told an audience at the European Parliament, “Never waste a good crisis.” Then President Obama explained in his Saturday radio and Internet address that there is “great opportunity in the midst of” the “great crisis” befalling America.

CNBC Earns Its Obama Seal Of Approval



The new first commandment: Though shalt not speak ill of THE ONE.

CNBC host defends her network's seal of approval by shutting down criticism of Barack Hussein Obama. Of course, the NBC family of networks has a fiduciary interest in floating Democrat boats.

A double hat tip to HotAir.













Pimps and Whores, The Chicago Way


Until about a week ago it was okay with Congress for health insurance companies to engage in, “price-fixing, bid-rigging and market allocation.” But suddenly, in a fit of moral outrage, the Democrats decided to strip health insurance companies of the antitrust exemption that Congress had previously granted them. What gives?

The problem was that the insurance companies had the audacity to challenge the legislation that Democrats were crafting that had the obvious intention of destroying private health insurance. And when the insurance companies spoke up in their own defense, the Democrats retaliated.

A study commissioned by insurance companies and conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers predicted that Obamacare would add $4000 annually to the average American family’s insurance premiums by 2019.

The insurance companies knew they were vulnerable but clearly decided that they would rather live without this antitrust exemption than face certain extinction under Obamacare. So, the Democrats retaliated against the insurance companies, as the insurers certainly knew they would. It’s the Chicago way. And that’s how we are now governed.

This should serve as an object lesson for the American Medical Association. The AMA has been in a dance with the Democrats, who were dangling a quarter trillion dollar incentive before the doctors in exchange for the AMA’s support for Obamacare.

As the law is now written, doctors are due to have their Medicare reimbursements slashed by 21% this January. These cuts will take effect unless Congress acts to defer them, which is what the AMA lobbies for every year. The Democrats were dangling the prospect of a ten-year moratorium on Medicare reimbursement cuts before the AMA in exchange for giving Democrats political cover. This would have cost the taxpayers a quarter of a trillion dollars and would have blown a major part of the saving that was an essential element of the supposedly fiscally sound Baucus reform bill.

As the insurance companies have learned, when Congress makes you a dependent, they expect obedience. What Congress giveth, Congress will taketh away if you tick them off.

This alliance between an easily corruptible Congress and an equally corruptible private sector has yielded other unholy alliances.

You’ve probably noticed that the NBC family of networks is easily the furthest left of all the mainstream news media. In particular NBC has provided the “greenest” programming out there. A few years ago, NBC had a green week during which it broadcast news from threatened glaciers in Greenland and from Antarctica where penguins were imperiled by global warming.

The Weather Channel has become a non-stop shill for Al Gore’s wacky theories. And of course, MSNBC has become the full-throated howl of the extreme left.

If we turned over a stone or two, might we find a cause other than ideology for NBC’s subservience to the Democratic Party? Well yes, we would, now that you ask.

NBC is owned by General Electric. And GE has a huge investment in “green technologies” such as wind turbines. Wind turbines are unreliable, hideously expensive and economically infeasible – unless the government subsidizes their construction and compels the use of the electricity they generate. Congress is only too happy to comply.

And if that weren’t enough, GE is likely to reap another generous benefit at your expense for its service as the Democrat’s propaganda organ. Three weeks ago a provision was inserted into the Democrats’ climate bill that would require all commercial and military jets to use General Electric’s “green” jet engines.

GE is the world’s largest manufacturer of jet engines and they have designed a new, low emission engine that would probably not be competitive in the marketplace because it is so much more expensive than more conventional engines. And so, in what has become the tradition of American politics, when your product is uncompetitive in the marketplace, you outlaw the free market.

And NBC is reaping other benefits from its propagandizing. While the Obama Administration tries to freeze out Fox News by keeping its allies from appearing on Fox shows, Obama took valuable hours out of his fundraising activities Monday to sit down with MSNBC’s most radical hosts, Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow, for an off the record chit chat.

It just goes to show that facilitating prostitution is not the sole province of ACORN. The government is happy to pimp for companies willing to prostitute themselves. But, as everyone knows, you don’t cross your pimp.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Embrace Enemies


Snub friends. Obama's "smart diplomacy."

Stung by perceived snubs from U.S. President Barack Obama and encouraged by the growing importance of the G20, Sarkozy is increasingly reaching out to non-aligned states in an effort to extend France's international influence.

He has forged especially close ties with Brazil, is seeking alliances in central Asia and is intensifying his activities in the Middle East, using multi-billion dollar military and civilian nuclear trade deals as his calling card.

These initiatives are being played out against a discordant tone in Franco-American relations. This lack of harmony does not constitute a crisis, but is nonetheless raising eyebrows.

"Sarkozy has clearly been thrown off course in his relations with America," said Didier Billion, a senior researcher at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (IRIS).

"America remains of primordial importance to him, but things are more complicated than they were a few months ago," he said.

Ironic Headline of the Century

Deficit limits Obama's options for battling sluggish economy | Washington Examiner

When has the deficit limited Obama's spending?

It Seems That We Were Right

Examiner Editorial: Uncovering the bull under the bailout | Washington Examiner

American public opinion opposed this load of crap. As Thomas Jefferson knew well, there is no greater reservoir of wisdom than the American people. Unfortunately, we seem to elect our stupidest members to represent us in Congress.

Even Democrats Uncomfortable With The Chicago Way

Thuggery may work is Chicago, but it's costing Obama allies where we still have democracy.

Liberal Democrats have little heartburn over the administration’s attacks on Fox and Limbaugh. But the attacks make moderates uneasy — especially when they extend to the Chamber of Commerce.


Do Americans really want to live in Venezuela?

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Patrick Leahy And The Government's Unlimited Amorphous Power

LEAHY: Why would you say there is no authority? I mean, there’s no question there’s authority. Nobody questions that.


That's All The Stimulus You're Going To Get


Guess what? This is as good as it gets, according to a Christina Romer top Obama economist and architect of this wonderful stimulus.

Christina Romer, the chair of President Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, said Thursday that the $194 billion already spent gave a jolt to the economy that contributed to growth in the second and third quarters of the year. She told a congressional panel that by the middle of next year, the impact of the stimulus will level off.


It has certainly worked out well so far.

Jobless Data Worse That Expected.

Hope!

The number of newly laid-off workers filing claims for jobless benefits rose more than expected last week, after falling in five of the past six weeks, as employers remain reluctant to hire even with the economy showing signs of recovery.


But don't worry, the stimulus is "working exactly as we anticipated."

MSNBC Takes Directions From Obama On The Air

A Whiner For A President

Poor baby. Apparently only having 99% of the mainstream media worship him isn't enough.

A new note is creeping in to President Obama's campaign speeches lately -- a frustrated tone sharply at odds with the hope and change themes of less than a year ago.

As he travels this week on behalf of Democratic candidates in multiple states, Obama is lashing out at his critics, and those who won't give him credit for nine months of work.

"I said this before, last week at a fundraiser -- I don't mind cleaning up the mess that some other folks made, that's what I signed up to do," Obama said. "But while I'm there mopping the floor I don't want somebody standing there saying, 'You're not mopping fast enough.' Or, 'You're not holding the mop the right way.' "


Obama's Purge

Once again, Barack Hussein Obama takes a page out of the Soviet Union's playbook.

The Obama White House has deliberately placed favored Washington institutions of the Bush years in its crosshairs, a sign of an escalating battle between the Democratic administration and some of the city's pre-eminent power players.

In recent days, the administration has attacked the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the insurance industry for opposing key administration objectives, has criticized the nation's largest banks and financial firms for outsized executive pay, and has tried to delegitimize the Fox News Channel by mocking its objectivity.

"When you're on their side, it's all OK, but if you're not, they rain hell down on you," said R. Bruce Josten, executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, bemoaning the administration's bellicose response to differing opinions on health care and financial regulatory reform proposals.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

MSNBC Cain't Tell Them Coloreds Apart

It's The Chicago Way

Obama hits opponents with Chicago brass knuckles | Washington Examiner

ACORN Busted

Again. This time in Philly.



Liars! And that includes the mainstream media.

Too Much Power Equals Fascism

Since when does the federal government have the power to hire and fire bank executives and force business decisions on them? Since Obama was elected.

Government regulators threatened to remove top Bank of America executives if they backed out of a buyout of failing brokerage giant Merrill Lynch, and offered to provide taxpayer funds to compensate for Merrill's poor performance, according to company records obtained by The Washington Times.

Guess What? We Won't Turn A Profit

Do you remember about this time last when when the Charles Schumers of the world assured us that the government would make a profit on the TARP bailout? Well, it ain't gonna happen.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

The October Rasmussen Trust numbers. (Ten for ten)

The October Rasmussen Trust numbers. (Ten for ten)

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Can you imagine how good Republican numbers would be if they existed? Has anybody heard anything from a Republican lately?

Encapsulating Fox News

POLITICO: Containing Fox - Ben Smith - Containing Fox

Hasn't the White House noticed that the mainstream media are happy in their cocoons already? By constantly raising this, Obama and his thugs simply draw attention to Fox and force their allies to put distance between them and Obama to preserves whatever shreds of dignity they still believe that possess.

Harry Reid plan: 'Vaporize' 2010 GOP opponent - Manu Raju and John Bresnahan - POLITICO.com

Harry Reid plan: 'Vaporize' 2010 GOP opponent - Manu Raju and John Bresnahan - POLITICO.com

Not possible. Only Republicans have a "slime machine."

Why are Democrats sticking with Charlie Rangel? | Washington Examiner

Why are Democrats sticking with Charlie Rangel? | Washington Examiner

Clearly the Democrats don't have much talent on the bench.

And To Think That The MSM Accused Bush Of Politicizing The Justice Department


Justice concludes black voters need Democratic Party - Washington Times

KINSTON, N.C. | Voters in this small city decided overwhelmingly last year to do away with the party affiliation of candidates in local elections, but the Obama administration recently overruled the electorate and decided that equal rights for black voters cannot be achieved without the Democratic Party.

The Justice Department's ruling, which affects races for City Council and mayor, went so far as to say partisan elections are needed so that black voters can elect their "candidates of choice" - identified by the department as those who are Democrats and almost exclusively black.


Obama views black voters as the Stepin Fetchit crowd that won't know who to vote for is Democrats don't tell them.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Everybody Who Works At CBS Is A Liberal

I never would have guessed.

And CBS is not the most liberal network. I award that to NBC. And NBC is getting rewarded for its bias. NBC is a wholly owned subsidiary of General Electric. If you've ever wondered why NBC is so pro-Democrat and so "green," that's why.

Facial Bones Created From Adipose Stem Cells

In the first procedure of its kind, doctors at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center replaced a 14-year-old boy's missing cheekbones—in part by repurposing stem cells from his own body.


No human embryos were harmed in this breakthrough.

Some People Never Learn


Easy-money mortgages still provided, by the feds - Washington Times

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You'd think that somebody in Washington might have learned a lesson from the mortgage meltdown.

Who wants to go through all this again?

Our financial system broke down because we had, thanks to government policies, a housing bubble. So what is the response of Democratic policymakers? Inflate the housing bubble again.

Obama To Ease The Pain Of Unemployment


Hey! Who needs a job when you've got some good doobie? Maybe this is that second stimulus program they've been talking about.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Shovel Ready!

If you happen to be shoveling BS.

Of course, I remember when New York was providing job training to tarot card readers.

Iran Spits On Obama's Extended Hand

Everything is America's fault.

"We consider the recent terrorist attack to be the result of US action. This is the sign of America's animosity against our country," Larijani said.

"Mr. Obama has said he will extend his hand towards Iran, but with this terrorist action he has burned his hand," he said referring to US President Barack Obama's repeated diplomatic overtures to Tehran.

The Guards said foreign powers were behind the attack.

"The world arrogance, by provoking its lackeys and mercenaries in the region, carried out a terrorist attack on a popular meeting between the Guards and tribesmen," the Guards said in a statement carried by local media.

Iranian officials and several government bodies term Western powers, including the United States, as "world arrogance."

Aladdin Borujerdi, senior MP and head of parliament's commission on national security and foreign policy, also pointed the finger at Washington.

"The enemies of the Islamic revolution, especially the United States is the main supporter of terrorist networks" such as Jundallah, he was quoted as saying by Mehr news agency.


Will our "smart diplomacy" administration learn anything from this? I doubt it.

So, How Is Fox News Worse Than The New York Times?

Jacob Weisberg is offended by the way that Fox News responds to criticism.

Last week, when White House Communications Director Anita Dunn charged the Fox News Channel with right-wing bias, Fox responded the way it always does. It denied the accusation with a straight face while proceeding to confirm it with its coverage.

Consider Fox's Web story on the episode. It quotes five people. Two of them work for Fox. All of them assert that administration officials are either wrong in substance or politically foolish to criticize the network. No one is cited supporting Dunn's criticisms or saying that it could make sense for Obama to challenge the network's power. It's a textbook example of a biased journalism.


When the New York Times is accused of bias, it turns to its house boy Clark Hoyt. Clark Hoyt then interviews a few Times editors who all profess innocence, and then writes an article absolving the Times of all sin. So, is the Times also un-American?

At least Fox acknowledges criticism. Most news networks simply ignore it.

My Favorite Political Philosophers Are Adolf Hitler And Mother Theresa

So, how did you react to that? Anita Dunn seems to think that because she also invoked Mother Theresa, she should be forgiven for citing history's greatest mass murderer and the architect of the world's largest slave state.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Democrats Admit Obama Opponents Aren't Racist


But don't expect this finding to change their rhetoric. They really just don't know any other way.

“It’s not just a political motivation, it’s an ethical imperative given what they think Obama’s goals are.”

Darfur Gets Thrown Under The Bus

Change!

There is apparently no limit to Obama's affection for despots and tyrants.

The Reprehensible McCain Repubicans

Republicans are learning something unpleasant. They’re not popular among the TEA Party crowd. I’m sure they fantasized that this grass roots movement was their natural ally. But it’s not turning out that way. Contrary to what you’ve read in newspapers or seen on television, TEA Partiers are not a creation of the Republican Party and never were. The TEA Party is an amalgam of Americans who agree that government has gotten too big, too intrusive, too expensive and too profligate in its spending.

And if Republicans really want to completely alienate this crowd and give birth to a third party, they should follow the lead of Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) who has thrown his lot in with John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) to push one of the worst pieces of legislation in American history, the carbon cap and trade bill.

Aside from John McCain, no one suffers from a worse case of McCainism than Lindsey Graham. McCainism is a condition that afflicts Republicans who hunger for the approval of the Washington Post and the New York Times and who consider invitations to Meet the Press as the pinnacles of their careers. Lindsey Graham accomplished at least two of those goals this week and will probably be granted the third. In exchange he got promises that domestic oil and gas production would be accelerated and that restrictions on nuclear power would be relaxed.

Graham (and McCain) seem not to have considered what good more domestic fossil fuel development can do if we’re not allowed to use it.

According to the analyses done by the Obama Administration, cap and trade will cost every American family about $1800 per year in increased electricity costs. This conforms nicely to Obama’s prediction that his energy policy would cause energy costs to “necessarily skyrocket.” Other analyses predict that by 2050, cap and trade will reduce gross domestic product by 3.5%. Now to give you perspective, a 3.5% annual growth rate is considered a healthy economy. Cap and trade would reduce a healthy economy to a stagnant economy. Conditions that would allow a slow, but growing, economy would become a recession. A recession would become a Great Depression.

The reliably oafish John Kerry revealed that he knows exactly what the real consequence of cap and trade will be: “Let me emphasize something very strongly as we begin this discussion. The United States has already this year alone achieved a 6 percent reduction in emissions simply because of the downturn in the economy, so we are effectively saying we need to go another 14 percent.”

Considering the pain that we had to suffer to take the American economy only 30% of the way toward Kerry’s goal, who really wants to give him what he seeks?

The dirtiest secret of all is that even if cap and trade passes and accomplishes what its advocates claim, it won’t make a significant difference. Cap and trade reduces carbon emissions enough to depress economies, but not nearly enough to change climatic outcomes. That’s because, even if one accepts these climate models (which a growing number of climatologists do not), cap and trade will not reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It will only slow the rate of increase.

And really, what’s the hurry? Temperatures have been gradually declining for more than a decade. Last year, Geologist David Gee, chairman of the science committee of the 2008 International Geological Congress rhetorically asked, “For how many years must the planet cool before we begin to understand that the planet is not warming? For how many years must cooling go on?”

The Earth is indeed cooling. The leftwing BBC took notice of this and followed with explanations from climatologists that the Earth could be expected to see another 20 years of global cooling. National Public Radio recently did a report about how the oceans are definitely cooling.

The Kyoto Protocols that global warming alarmists believe were carried down from Mount Sinai on stone tablets are only expected to accomplish a fraction of a degree slowing in the rate of temperature increase. If memory serves, the Kyoto Protocols were only predicted to reduce global temperature increases by less than one degree Fahrenheit by 2100. And for that paltry, insignificant, theoretical and probably imaginary reduction in the rate of global warming, Lindsey Graham is willing to paralyze America’s economy. If that’s Republicanism, then count me out.
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Friday, October 16, 2009

Why Obama Gave New Orleans The Short Shrift

A lot of New Orleans residents were unhappy that Obama only scheduled 4 hours for his visit. Now we know why. He had something more important on his calendar - raising money.

Lefty anger splits Dems -- and may sink them | Washington Examiner

The extreme left is unhappy with the far left wing of the Democratic Party.

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Obama adviser Jones shifted Afghanistan views -- a lot - Washington Times

What does Obama's National Security Advisor believe? Just about everything

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Thursday, October 15, 2009

Jimmy Carter Was A Jerk

And Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead. Some things never change.

Secret Service agents open up and tell all about the men they guarded.

Carter is portrayed as a phony according to the agents interviewed by Kessler. Carter would put on a show for the public to convey himself as a common man, but it was never anymore than an act. For instance, we are told that when Carter would make a point of carrying his own luggage in front of the press, he was really carrying empty bags. He expected others to carry his real luggage. Unfriendly, Carter “didn’t want the police officers and agents looking at him or speaking to him when he went to the [Oval] office,” explained an assistant White House usher. “The only time I saw a smile on Carter’s face was when the cameras were going,” one former agent told Kessler.

After his presidency, Kessler reports that when Carter would stay at a townhouse maintained for former presidents in D.C., he would take down pictures of other presidents and put up more pictures of himself! “The Carters were the biggest liars in the world,” one agent told Kessler of the Carter era.

A Million Jobs Created Or Saved

That's what Obama says. It seems he's only about 970,000 off. And I think that's an overestimate. I have a feeling that they're not counting jobs destroyed by Obama, like all the people who worked in those Chrysler and GM dealerships he closed. Or all the people who lost their jobs when he ordered GM and Chrysler to cut their advertising by half.

How Can You Tell When A Conservative Is A Threat?

When the big liberal media turns on its smear machine

The Media's War Against Liz Cheney

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Why Not? The Dead Vote Democratic Anyway.

Alabama Democrats appoint a dead man to their executive committee.

Reynolds Smith Jr. was a stalwart Democratic voter in stark-red Alabama. But the Alabama Democratic Party overlooked another fact when it appointed Smith to an interim party panel:He died in November at age 83.

Party executive director Jim Spearman told the Press-Register
Tuesday that the mistake was caused by outdated records. He said
the party received Smith’s name from a 2006 list of candidates for
the county committee and then used a voter list to verify him as an
active voter.

The panel was charged with replacing the local party’s executive
committee.

Baucus, The New BS?

The shenanigans used to create the illusion of a fiscally sound health care bill are coming unraveled. No wonder Democrats want to pass this before anybody gets a chance to read it.

[A]nalysts point out that much of the program — and the spending associated with it — does not really begin until the 2013. A 10-year cost beginning that year would be significantly higher, argue analysts, and would be closer to $1.3 trillion.

Critics say the bill masks other big costs, such as the adjustments to Medicare payments for doctors that Congress routinely
makes.

The bill makes the assumption that Congress will suddenly begin allowing scheduled payment cuts, even though lawmakers have always blocked those cuts from happening, in part because many believe doctors are already underpaid by Medicare.

“That means Baucus will come up at least $200 billion short on the revenue side, making his bill a budget buster,” said Michael Cannon, director of health policy studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.


Update here.

The CBO estimates that the bill will reduce the deficit by $81 billion over the next decade, and even more beyond that. But that's assuming Congress will make good on its threat to cut Medicare by hundreds of billions of dollars.

Even the CBO does not believe that.

A careful reading of the evidence suggests that the Baucus bill will add as much as $376 billion to the federal deficit through 2019. And that figure understates the full impact of the bill on the budget. If the big-spending parts of the proposal started next year rather than in 2014, the fiscal damage would be much greater.

At face value, the Baucus bill seems to be close to what the president ordered. According to the CBO, the bill gives coverage to 29 million uninsured Americans for less than $900 billion while simultaneously reducing the deficit. The problem is that the bill counts as savings large cuts to Medicare providers that will almost certainly never happen.

The most blatant example is the annual cut in fees paid by Medicare to physicians. The cuts started out small, about 5% a year, but even that was unsustainable. To "solve" the political problem without having to admit to a big increase in the deficit, Congress has given doctors a series of one-year fixes. The foregone payment reductions add up, and next year Medicare is supposed to slash doctor's fees 21%.

Clearly, that will not happen.

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Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Diplomacy By Other Means

The fine art of negotiation with terrorists.

Monday, October 12, 2009

When You've Lost The Comedians

Late night comedians are finally discovering that there's humor in arrogance, egotism and incompetence.

"That's pretty amazing, winning the Nobel Peace Prize," Jay Leno said Friday night of President Barack Obama's latest accolade. "Ironically, his biggest accomplishment as president so far ... winning the Nobel Peace Prize."

Obama Wins Motortrend Car Of The Year Award

I predict he'll win the Heisman Trophy too.

This Is How Peace Is Done

What happens to Taliban fighters when they're discovered planting an IED?

Boom! "Lead off with Hellfire, follow with 30 mm."

One Day of Peace, Obama Style

North Korea test fires five missiles.

Obama to buy off the Taliban.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Tea Partiers Don't Care For Republicans

You don't supposed that their dissatisfaction has anything to do with this?

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina publicly announced his support for climate legislation on Sunday in an op-ed column with Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.

"Our partnership represents a fresh attempt to find consensus that adheres to our core principles and leads to both a climate change solution and energy independence," the two senators wrote in The New York Times. "It begins now, not months from now — with a road to 60 votes in the Senate."

Graham's support is a major win for climate supporters, who are seeking Republican support for climate legislation. A climate bill passed the House in last June, but prospects for the legislation have dimmed amid the contentious health care debate.


Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1009/28158.html#ixzz0TeSlxQVV

Maybe he should pay more attention to what John Kerry expects his cap and trade bill to accomplish.

Let me emphasize something very strongly as we begin this discussion. The United States has already this year alone achieved a 6 percent reduction in emissions simply because of the downturn in the economy, so we are effectively saying we need to go another 14 percent.

Just Don't Ask When

Obama promises to end "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

Why Do They Give Peace Prizes To Pussies?

More Work For CNN Fact Checkers



Looks like Wolf Blitzer will have work this Monday. Also, who knew that the Saturday Night Live crew was a bunch of terrorist sympathizers.

2010 Census Still a Boondoggle for the Left

2010 Census Still a Boondoggle for the Left

What could go wrong?

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Saturday, October 10, 2009

The Silicon Boob Olympics

I am not making this up. I do like the swimsuit competition better.

For those of you who buy Playboy to read the articles, here's a newspaper story for you.

Related news here.

Fact Checking Saturday Night Live, But Not Obama

Do you remember last year when the mainstream news media took Tina Fey to task for her unflattering and unfair portrayals of Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live? If you do, then please get back to me, because I certainly don’t remember it. In fact, as I sift through the cobwebs and dust bunnies of my memory, I seem to recall that Tina Fey was awarded an Emmy Award for her lacerating, below the belt satires. And I recall that her skits were replayed on news programs at more convenient hours so that a broader audience could watch them.

Every time that I think that the mainstream news media have hit rock bottom, they unlimber their picks and shovels, spit on their hands, and start digging. Last weekend, the late night comedy show Saturday Night Live did a short skit poking fun at Barack Obama, something that they have done uncountable times to every other president since the show’s inception. But this time it was different. No, this skit wasn’t any funnier. The difference was the reaction. CNN actually devoted a portion of its evening news program to fact checking the SNL skit.

I am not making this up. CNN cited an organization called “PolitiFact,” which fancies itself as a non-partisan arbiter of political debate. During CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer’s “Situation Room,” PolitiFact’s Bill Adair picked apart the SNL skit piece by piece comparing it with his perception of reality.

Is it any wonder that Fox News attracts more viewers in the key 25-54 year old demographic at 3:00 AM than CNN does during its 8:00 PM primetime broadcast?

With a slightly better delivery, Wolf Blitzer could represent a threat to Comedy Central’s Daily Show and Colbert Report. I doubt that Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert ever imagined anything so laughable as CNN’s fact checking a comedy routine that dared to poke fun at the Chosen One.

Fox News’ Glenn Beck has become a favorite punching bag of the media lately, but measured by the standards that the mainstream media apply to themselves, Glenn Beck should be a multiple Pulitzer Prize winner. After all, it is Glenn Beck who has spearheaded investigations of the powerful whom CNN defends. Glenn Beck’s exposés of Obama’s “Green Jobs Czar” Van Jones forced Jones’ resignation. The ACORN prostitution and underage sex slave scandal gained national exposure through Glenn Beck. And the attempt to politicize the National Endowment for the Arts as the propaganda organ for the Obama Administration was brought into national view by Glenn Beck. Glenn Beck may well be a buffoon, but he’s outperforming the people who ridicule him.

Perhaps CNN should follow the lead of the New York Times and hire someone to train an ear now and then outside its own echo chamber and learn what concerns normal people.

So out of touch had the New York Times become that it had to hire a double secret editor tasked with taking occasional peaks outside the Times’ cocoon. The Times Public editor, Clark Hoyt, described how the Gray Lady was caught flatfooted on numerous occasions by events that did not register as priorities within the Times regimented, lockstep monoculture. The first that Times readers learned of the fulminating controversy that eventually overtook top Van Jones was when the Times reported his resignation. The ACORN scandal finally made the Times when Congress voted to defund it.

Clark Hoyt reported in a follow up column the laments of loyal Times’ readers, such as the one who lamented that he could not discuss current events with friends, “I get all my news from The New York Times.”

Two weeks into the experiment, the Times’ double secret editor hasn’t managed to see much. So far, the Times is unaware that Obama’s “Safe Schools Czar,” Kevin Jennings, had confessed to facilitating a sexual relationship between an older man and an underage boy enrolled at the school where he was a teacher. And this is not an aberration. Jennings is on tape praising the founder of the North American Man Boy Love Association. CNN has similarly ignored the story except to defend Jennings by claiming that the boy was 16 years old, not 15 as Jennings believed.

CNN and the New York Times are losing viewers and readers. I’ve got an idea. Why not try reporting? It works for Glenn Beck.

Thursday, October 08, 2009

While Obama Dithers And Give Hope To the Taliban

Here's Obama's plan




Here's the truth - from CBS for crying out loud! Absolute disaster!!


Watch CBS News Videos Online

At about 6:50 into the video "it's nonsense." A minute later "the biggest lie."

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Is War With Iran Inevitable?

Yes, according to this guy.

War with Iran is now inevitable. The only question is: Will it happen sooner or later? Tehran's recent missile tests and war games suggest that the apocalyptic mullahs have reached the same conclusion.

Iran is on the march. Their medium-range Shahab-3 and Sajjil missiles can reach Israel, the entire Middle East and parts of Europe. Tehran is slowing expanding its regional sphere of influence. It has backed insurgency groups in Iraq, which have killed U.S. soldiers. It sponsors Hamas and Hezbollah. It has transformed Syria into a political vassal. It has forged an alliance with Hugo Chavez's Venezuela. It has purchased key air defense systems from Vladimir Putin's Russia.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a Holocaust-denier and virulent anti-Semite. He is a Persian Nazi strongman who vows to wipe Israel "off the map." He is a revolutionary Shi'ite. He believes the Jews must be extinguished in order to usher the coming of the Shi'ite Messiah, the so-called "Hidden Imam."

ACORN Still Raking In Taxpayer Money

ACORN has been de-funded - right? Wrong!

Nearly $1 million in Homeland Security funding typically earmarked for fire departments has been awarded to ACORN, despite a clear signal from Congress that it intends to cut off federal funding to the embattled group.

The grant to ACORN's Louisiana office became public on Oct. 2, less than three weeks after the House and Senate voted to cut off ACORN funding after employees were caught on video advising a fake prostitute and pimp on scams.

Basking The The Glow Of Himself

George Will dissects Obama and Michelle's presentation to the International Olympic Committee and finds that the Obama are in love with themselves.

In the 41 sentences of her remarks, Michelle Obama used some form of the personal pronouns "I" or "me" 44 times. Her husband was, comparatively, a shrinking violet, using those pronouns only 26 times in 48 sentences. Still, 70 times in 89 sentences conveyed the message that somehow their fascinating selves were what made, or should have made, Chicago's case compelling.

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Krugman Scolds Republicans For Cheering Obama's Olympic Failure

And I agree. We should not have celebrated this. But at least we didn't cheer for military defeat.

The Atlantic Deploys Its Wayback Machine

The Atlantic Monthly informs us that a majority of Americans favor Obamacare. The problem is that to get to that, they need to go back to polls taken before Americans had a chance to look at the Democrats' plans.

Using that technique, 75% of Americans have a favorable opinion of Barack Hussein Obama.

Monday, October 05, 2009

John Edwards Was Right

As the world is beginning to understand, Barack Hussein Obama really is a pussy.

Obama Furious With Afghan Commander

Too much truth going on out there for Obama's tastes.

At Least We Don't Cheer Dead Soldiers

Paul Krugman notes that conservatives were inappropriately gleeful last week when the International Olympic Committee handed Barack Hussein Obama his arrogant ass. But at least we aren't cheering soldier deaths the way that Democrats were during the last few years of the Bush Administration.

Lawmaker calls on Obama to fire official in gay sex ed controversy | Washington Examiner

Lawmaker calls on Obama to fire official in gay sex ed controversy | Washington Examiner

How a pedophilia advocate and enabler could make the cut in the first place is incomprhensible.

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Sunday, October 04, 2009

A Grim Milestone

While Obama dithers, our soldiers are dying.

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POLITICO: Zinni: W.H. close to 'dithering' on troop request - POLITICO Live - Zinni: W.H. close to 'dithering' on troop request

POLITICO: Zinni: W.H. close to 'dithering' on troop request - POLITICO Live - Zinni: W.H. close to 'dithering' on troop request

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Saturday, October 03, 2009

Sweatshops and Moral Exhibitionism

There’s nothing like a little moral exhibitionism to animate some truly bad ideas. We all know moral exhibitionists. These egotists enjoy nothing more than to project their air of smug superiority over the rest of us. They raise awareness without accomplishing anything substantive. They use guilt and our moral insecurity as cudgels. And if they’re at all clever, and are not indisposed to turning a profit, they will morph into remora-like beings that attach themselves to the capitalist system and can turn their moral exhibitionism into a comfortable living. Ever heard of Michael Moore?

The latest example of moral high grounding to come across my desk is the move to make the entire state of Washington “sweat free.” No, that doesn’t mean that honest labor will be driven from the state, although sometimes that does seem to be Olympia’s goal. What sweat free means is that no state agency will do business with vendors that are deemed to produce clothing under “sweatshop” conditions.

States purchase a lot of clothing - $400 million dollars annually, from uniforms to souvenir tee shirts. And so whoever can gain control of that much government spending wields a great deal of power.

The concept sounds good. Promise only to do business with vendors who do not run sweatshops. There is even a consortium that, for a fee, will give its seal of approval to factories that conform to internationally approved labor standards.

But the unfortunate truth is that many countries around the world and many people have only their low priced, unskilled labor to offer in the global marketplace. If they have their livelihoods taken away because some guy in an Armani suit, sitting in an air-conditioned office, finds their working conditions substandard, then they have nothing. Manufacturers who build factories in these countries and take advantage of low priced labor are commonly accused of worker exploitation and even racism. And it is true that they build such factories, not to provide work to the needy, but to reduce labor costs and to make their products more competitive. But however exploitative this practice may seem, it’s a better deal for the workers than starvation.

Of course everybody would like to see everyone else on earth receive a living wage. Unfortunately, however good it makes us feel to proclaim this principle from the highest mountaintop, our moral vanity fails us when we search for the best prices.

What these sorts of measures accomplish is to drive apparel manufacturing out of truly poor countries, which desperately need the hard currency that their low priced labor attracts, toward communist China, which can get away with paying unskilled laborers as little as $50 per month. In this scenario, the people whom our moral exhibitionists would like us to believe are being helped end up being the ones who are harmed the most. A conspiracy theorist might imagine that such movements are the creation of Chinese secret agents trying to soak up all the world’s unskilled labor market for themselves.

On top of all this, I think I pick up a whiff of indulgences up for sale. To be in the good graces of the Workers Rights Consortium, the non-governmental organization that certifies adequate labor conditions, one must pony up $5000 per year. This is quite reminiscent of the civil rights protection rackets that overtook and then replaced the honest civil rights movement. To keep the civil rights racketeers off their backs, corporations have to pay a considerable sum of money to one of more of these civil rights racketeers. Failure to do so would result in potentially devastating accusations of racism or even boycotts.

Leaders of these so-called civil rights groups wear expensive tailored suits and $1000 per pair Italian loafers and can afford to keep their mistresses living in comfort.

Lately this same type of scam has infected the environmental movement. To get a green seal of approval, many companies feel compelled to purchase carbon credits, which enrich well-known, mainstream news media approved environmental spokespersons.

So why shouldn’t anti-sweatshop moral exhibitionists get in on the action?

Washington hopes to have its anti-sweatshop policy in place by January 1, 2010. I would like to believe that politics, payoffs, and cheap moral grandstanding at the expense of the world’s poorest will not play a role in the formulation of this policy. But, I’d like to believe in Santa Claus too.

Friday, October 02, 2009

Another Story For The New York Times' Double Secret Editor

Having been caught flat footed by the Van Jones and ACORN controversies, the New York Times appointed a double secret editor to keep tabs on topics that don't come up in New York liberal salons, and therefore escape the notice of the Times' newsroom.

Well, here's a dandy of a story about the man whom Barack Obama selected as his ironically misnamed "Safe Schools Czar," Kevin Jennings. First of all, as a young public school teacher, Jennings facilitated a sexual relationship between an underage boy and an older man.

If that weren't enough, Jennings is also an admirer of the founder of the North American Man-Boy Love Association, NAMBLA.

Yep, that's just the sort of guy that I'd like to have guaranteeing safe schools.

Another Story For The New York Times To Ignore

Having been caught flat footed by the Van Jones and ACORN controversies, the New York Times appointed a double secret editor to keep tabs on topics that don't come up in New York liberal salons, and therefore escape the notice of the Times' newsroom.

Well, here's a dandy of a story about the man whom Barack Obama selected as his ironically misnamed "Safe Schools Czar," Kevin Jennings. First of all, as a young public school teacher, Jennings facilitated a sexual relationship between an underage boy and an older man.

If that weren't enough, Jennings is also an admirer of the founder of the North American Man-Boy Love Association, NAMBLA.

Yep, that's just the sort of guy that I'd like to have guaranteeing safe schools.

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Headline Of The Century


"The Ego Has Landed"

Update: The man who can do no wrong.

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Thursday, October 01, 2009

It Must Really Suck Being This Guy Today

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Renovated Jimmy Carter Museum Reopens In Atlanta


I'm sure people will be lining up to get in.

I can't read his list of accomplishments, but up near the top must be his defense of civilization against killer rabbits.

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ACORN's Plan To Take Over Oklahoma

ACORN's 'Power Plan" found in documents group left behind in Oklahoma City | Washington Examiner

ACORN was scheming to "make Oklahoma a progressive state in the way it was 100 years ago."

Now, as a non-profit, ACORN is legally forbidden from engaging in partisan politics. And we all know how strictly ACORN adheres to the law.

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Not Just A Hypocrite

But a liar too.

Two officers of the Portsmouth, New Hampshire Police Department removed Carol Shea-Porter and Susan Mayer from a February 2005 town hall event hosted by then-President George W. Bush at the request of the owner of the property, a spokesman for the Police Department tells NowHampshire.com.

The revelation contradicts statements made by Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter as recently as this week that she was not removed from the event.

“[T]here were no disruptions and no rudeness and I wasn’t removed. If it happened, don’t you think there would have been photos or video or news stories from that day? There aren’t because it didn’t happen,” Shea-Porter told the Portsmouth Herald this weekend.

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Civil Rights Commission Wants Answers From Racist Holder

Here's another story for the New York Times double secret new media editor to bring his bosses up to speed on.

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights asked Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Wednesday to name a Justice Department official to oversee the production of what it called "our overdue information requests" for documents in the dismissal of a civil complaint against members of the New Black Panther Party accused of disrupting a Philadelphia polling place in the November elections.

Commission Chairman Gerald A. Reynolds said in a letter that the department has been "largely non-responsive" to requests for information since questions about the dismissal were first raised in June and had turned over "none of the documents" being sought.


It's a good thing that the Obama Justice Department has been "de-politicized."

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