The Pajamahadin: 05/01/2010

Terrorism Enablers Criticize US Security

The New York Time, which has on numerous occasions leaked sensitive intelligence information to terrorists and other foreign enemies, is criticizing the US government for not enacting more security measures.

The threat of attacks on the homeland is real and present. The nation has gotten lucky twice in recent months when attempts to bring down a plane over Detroit and to explode a bomb in Times Square failed. If that luck runs out, the nation is going to be asking why Washington hasn’t done more. The White House and Congress should be asking those questions, and addressing these gaps, right now.

Hey, I've got an idea for improving US security. Close the New York Times.

Trust Me

Barack Obama Batting .000

Zero for four in crises. His Gulf oil spill bumbling is the latest in a pattern.

So we have seen Four Crises as handled by The One in the last 6 months: The Fort Hood Massacre, Christmas Day Bomber, the Times Square Bomber, and the BP Oil Spill.

The president has underestimated the problem each time out.

Not all of these things are his fault — or the federal government’s. But each called for a reaction that was greater and later than the president gave.

The Christmas Day bomber went through Amsterdam security, not ours. The Times Square Bomber was a U.S. citizen. BP is responsible for its rig.

The presidential reaction in each case was in slow motion. The president failed to quickly see that this was an emergency and that cost him the ability to lead.

We saw this first with the jihadist major who slaughtered 13 people at Fort Hood — which was the government’s fault; we should never choose PC over security.

That day, the president came out of a meeting with Native Americans (photo op of the day; all presidents do this) and gave a press conference. His first words were not holy crap, there has been a massacre at Fort Hood, but rather a “shout out” to one of the participants in his photo op of the day.

The president was clueless as to the gravity of the situation. His “shout out” was inappropriate and it made the deaths of 13 people less important than the feelings of one tribal leader.

So was anyone surprised when he continued to vacation for 4 days before holding a brief press conference on the Christmas Day bomber?

The Times Square bombing came while he was playing the fool for the press at a snooty dinner in Washington. I don’t fault him that and staying out of the picture was fine because Mayor Bloomberg stepped up to the plate and New York City handled the matter, thank you very much.

The Practical Impracticability Of Electric Cars

How long does it take you to fill your tank at the local Stinker Station? Somewhat less than an hour and a half?

Their dream may be a good one. But it’s also problematic. There were, after all, five i-Mievs on this drive that needed charging, and with only one charger it didn’t take 20 minutes to fuel them. It took about an hour and a half.

Mitsubishi didn’t leave us to cool our heels during that charging, but took us to a nice lunch. Imagine how nasty the scene could get if five i-Miev owners showed up at one charger with the fifth in line finding out he’s going to be spending more than an hour cooling his heels at Sonic. So what if he has a coupon that gets him two milk shakes for the price of one?

A modest, average size gas station has, say, eight pumps. And usually those pumps push fuel at a rate of between five- and ten-gallons per minute. Going on the low end of the scale, lets say it takes three minutes to fuel up an average car with a 15-gallon tank. So in an hour, that eight-pump station could theoretically fuel 160 average cars from empty to full.

How Much Is Enough?

Hillary Clinton says that the rich don't pay enough. Does she do her own taxes?

Obama's Chicago Style Politics

You can take the thug out of Chicago...

As he often does, Obama tried to distance himself from his own administration’s mess. He ducked a personal response and had his lawyer issue a memo on the Joe Sestak job-offer scandal on the Friday before Memorial Day. He thereby succeeded in revealing that Sestak is a fabulist, his own White House is little more than a Blago-like operation, an ex-president has been reduced to the the role of a “cut out,” and the whole lot of them practice the same sleazy-politics-as usual that Obama ran against (which, ironically, was symbolized in the primary by Hillary Clinton)...

...Obama has been compared to Jimmy Carter (in his misguided notions about the world), to Richard Nixon (in his sleazy backroom dealing and lack of transparency) and to LBJ (in his infatuation with government). Unfortunately, it appears that he embodies the worst of three unsuccessful presidents. And like all three, he may manage to drag his party down with him.

Blaming Bush For The Oil Spill

Time magazine leaps into action.

On Sunday’s syndicated Chris Matthews Show, Time magazine columnist Joe Klein joined the ranks of left-leaning media figures like Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann in blaming the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on the Bush administration. As the panel discussed President Obama’s handling of the disaster, Klein opined that "this is more Bush’s second Katrina than Obama’s first," and, after agreement from host Matthews, Klein continued: "Yes, because it was the Bush regulations, it was Dick Cheney’s deregulation, and lording over the Minerals Management [Service]-"

Truly, George Bush is omnipotent.

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brad-wilmouth/2010/05/30/time-s-joe-klein-oil-spill-bush-s-second-katrina-republicans-look-wor#ixzz0pVhBozW5

The Impossibility Of Al Gore's Green Utopia

What's the difference between liberals and conservatives? Education.

Bryce used to be a left-liberal, but then: "I educated myself about math and physics. I'm a liberal who was mugged by the laws of thermodynamics."

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Going-_green_-95143534.html#ixzz0pVedl6sm

Obama Finally Springs Into Action On Gulf Oil Spill II

Covering his own ass.

Elena Kagan, Osama bin Laden and Goldman Sachs

She's been raking in money from both.

Obama's Imaginative Sestak Bribe Defense

First, they tried to foist the blame on a politician with no reputation for integrity to lose. Now they're sending out Fast Eddie Rendell to admit that he does it too. That's just what Obama needs - to equate himself with Fast Eddie.

Just days after the Obama administration claimed it did nothing improper by offering Rep. Joe Sestak a job to drop out of the Pennsylvania Democratic Senate primary, a sitting governor has announced that he too once offered a politician a job to convince him to stay out of a race.

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” said such offers have “happened in politics for time immemorial.”

“I did the same thing in 2006 to ask a former congressman, Joe Hoeffel, to drop out of the race against Bob Casey in the primary,” Rendell told Fox News’ Chris Wallace.

Sestak admitted months ago that the Obama administration offered him a job to back out of his primary challenge to Sen. Arlen Specter in the Pennsylvania Democratic primary. Sestak went on to win that race. But it wasn’t until Friday that the White House Counsel’s Office divulged details about the offer and admitted that it was former President Bill Clinton who offered Sestak a non-paying advisory board position.

In 2006, Rendell said that he didn’t exactly offer Hoeffel a job quid pro quo but rather dangled the prospect of a job in front of him to convince him not to run. “I said come back and see me if you do it,” Rendell explained. “He came back and saw me, and he was out of public service. I appointed him as a deputy secretary of commerce.”

Ayaan Hirsi Ali Deserved It

According to the New York Times' Nicholas Kristof.

What an asshole! But then, we all knew that. The only surprise is that I am still surprised at the lengths to which the Times will go to suck up to Islam.

Obama Votes "Not Present"

He's gone downhill since his Illinois state legislature days.

Critics have called the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion “Obama’s Katrina,” and argued that the disaster could signal the decline of Obama’s presidency. Their evidence? The president is visiting the affected areas for just a second time*— 38 days after the Deepwater burst into flames. Below you’ll find a parallel of timeline juxtaposing the tragedy in the gulf and the president’s golf games.

April 22: The Deepwater Horizon drilling platform, which had been burning for two days, sinks into the gulf. President Obama, after speaking in New York about the significance of financial regulatory legislation, hosts an Earth Day celebration in the Rose Garden.

April 23: The U.S. Coastguard pronounces 11 Deepwater workers dead after traveling almost 2,000 miles throughout the gulf in search of their bodies. The president and First Lady Michelle Obama travel to North Carolina for a brief vacation, where they enjoy BBQ.

April 24: Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry announces that the Deepwater wellhead is spewing crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The president and first lady continue to enjoy their vacation in North Carolina.

April 26: A remote sub fails to stop the leak. Just four days after the explosion, the spill covers an area the size of Rhode Island. After hosting a ceremony for the New York Yankees, Obama travels to Andrews Air Force Base for a game of golf.

April 28: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) pegs the leak rate at 5,000 barrels a day — up from BP’s claim of 1,000 barrels a day. Obama leaves Iowa and spends the day in Illinois, where he speaks to the owner of a family farm. He then visits a biofuel plant where he picks up mechanical parts and pretends to be interested in them.

April 29: Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal declares a state of emergency, as the spill “now covers a 600-square-mile area” and “is about 16 miles off the state’s coast.” Obama delivers remarks in Washington on the importance of cybersecurity. Later in the day, he attends a FEMA meeting about hurricane preparedness.

May 1: The U.S. military lends BP two C-130 aircraft to release potentially dangerous chemical dispersants over the oil spill. Obama tells jokes at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner, including one about killing the Jonas Brothers using CIA drones.

May 2: Obama makes a quick trip to Louisiana to ”get a firsthand view of the recovery efforts.”

May 3: Alabama Attorney General Troy King demands that BP stop asking fisherman to sign complicated agreements that would severely limit the amount BP would be forced to compensate them for the loss of their livelihood. Obama hosts dinner for the Business Council, “a group of current or former chief executive officers from a broad range of companies.”

May 8: BP’s containment dome, thought by many to be one of the environmentally safest solutions, fills with ice and fails to stop the leak. Obama plays golf at Arkansas’s Fort Belvoir.

May 9: The first tar balls wash up on Dauphin Island off the coast of Alabama. Obama delivers the commencement address at Virginia’s Hampton University.

May 12: Under pressure from journalists and government agencies, British Petroleum releases a short video of the wellhead, located one mile beneath the gulf surface. Using independent analysts, NPR determines from the video that at 50,000 barrels a day, the leak rate is 10 times higher than NOAA’s estimate and 50 times higher than BP’s early claim. Obama spends the morning with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai. After lunch, Obama retires to the Oval Office with his advisers.

May 17: While BP attempts to siphon oil into a special tube, scientists warn that the oil is headed for the Gulf Stream, which would carry it around the southern tip of Florida and into the Atlantic Ocean. Obama hosts the University of Connecticut’s women’s basketball team.

May 18: Tar balls wash up on the shores of Key West, Fla. Obama tours a factory in Ohio. Later in the day, he meets with Jewish members of the Democratic Caucuses.

May 21: ABC News reports that in the course of one month, enough oil has spilled to “fill enough gallon milk jugs to stretch more than 11,300 miles. That’s more than the distance from New York to Buenos Aires, Argentina, and back.” Obama hosts the Pittsburgh Steelers at the White House. Also signs a presidential memorandum “outlining the next steps in his vision for cleaner, more efficient vehicles.”

May 22: Wildlife officials in Louisiana tell the Associated Press that they are considering setting the state’s fragile marshes on fire in an effort to staunch the contaminating effects of the oil. White House officials announce that they are beginning a multi-year renovation project for the north side of the White House. Obama delivers the commencement address at the Military Academy at West Point.

May 26: BP announced yet another plan for stopping the spill, a maneuver called “Top Kill” that involves pumping mud into the Deepwater wellhead in order to clog it. This same day, officials begin pulling fisherman off the gulf due to toxic oil fumes. Obama hosts the U.S. World Cup soccer team and the Duke men’s basketball team.

May 28: Obama makes only his second visit to a grief-stricken Louisiana before heading on vacation.

Groveling Doesn't Earn Respect

A lesson for the Obama regime - if they choose to learn it.

Taking back some of the gains U.S. leadership enjoyed in 2009, four out of six Arab League countries Gallup has surveyed each year since 2008 are now less approving of U.S. leadership than they were in fall 2009. Egyptians’ approval ratings have declined the most since last fall (18 percentage points), followed by Algerians’ (13 points). Approval did not decline significantly in Iraq or the Palestinian Territories as the changes are within the margin of error.

Deep Thinking Frank Rich Reveals The Real Tragedy Of The Oil Spill

It makes Obama look bad. Is it possible that God isn't a Democrat after all?

FOR Barack Obama’s knee-jerk foes, of course it was his Katrina. But for the rest of us, there’s the nagging fear that the largest oil spill in our history could yet prove worse if it drags on much longer. It might not only wreck the ecology of a region but capsize the principal mission of the Obama presidency.

Nancy Pelosi Figures Out Who's Really Responsible For Oil Spill

Shocker!

“Many of the people appointed in the Bush administration are still burrowed in the agencies that are supposed to oversee the [oil] industry,” Pelosi said when asked if Democrats could have prevented or mitigated the crisis by keeping a closer watch on the industry.

Added the Speaker, “the cozy relationships between the Bush administration’s agency leadership and the industry is clear…I’ve heard no complaints from my members about the way the president has handled it,” Pelosi stated.

Bill Maher Says Obama Not Authentically Black

Agreeing with - Rush Limbaugh parodies? Can we agree now that Bill Maher is a oaf? Plus, what are the chances that he'll get the Don Imus treatment? Pretty low I'd imagine. I'm pretty sure that Maher has Justice Brothers insurance.

"I thought when we elected a black president, we were going to get a black president. You know, this [BP oil spill] is where I want a real black president. I want him in a meeting with the BP CEOs, you know, where he lifts up his shirt where you can see the gun in his pants. That's -- (in black man voice) we've got a 'motherfucking problem here?' Shoot somebody in the foot."

Double Dip?

Obama's fake economy is running out of steam.

Like last week, with stocks lurching wildly with the headlines -- up by triple digits one day, down the next. For the month, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 7.9% and is negative for the year. The Nasdaq Composite and the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index also are in the red for the year.
Some pretty smart people are cautious. Seth Klarman at Baupost Group is worried. John Hussman of the Hussman Funds says all sorts of warning lights have lit up across his screen. Even Ron Muhlenkamp of the Muhlenkamp Fund, who usually takes a sunnier view of things, says he has moved a big chunk of his mutual fund into cash in case there's a plunge.
How far will it go? Mr. Hussman says the technical indicators have only been this bad 19 times before in the last half century -- and on average the market plunged about 20% over the following 12 months. When markets were also high, like now, the picture's even worse.

If Obamacare Is So Good, Then Why Lie About It?

Weren't we promised that once Obamacare passed, we would all be deliriously happy once we learned what was in it? Why yes we were. So why do the Obamatons have to lie about what's in it? At taxpayer expense I might add.

It appears there is no misrepresentation to which Obama administration officials will not stoop in their deceitful effort to sell Obamacare to the American public.

Support for repeal and replacement of the fatally flawed law is steadily growing -- reaching 63 percent in the most recent Rasmussen survey. Maybe that is why Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has resorted to sending millions of senior Americans a sales brochure that is packed with blatantly false claims about Obamacare.

Sebelius has yet to respond to a recent letter from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and seven of his GOP colleagues demanding explanations for the many falsehoods in the brochure, which is titled "Medicare and the new health care law -- What it means for you." It was published by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the sprawling division of HHS that is at the center of Obamacare implementation and management. That this brochure was prepared by government employees and paid for with federal tax dollars is only the first of multiple outrages here.

CNN Tells The Truth

Is CNN trying to save itself by changing the narrative?

CNN on Friday aired allegations that BP bused temporary workers into the Gulf Coast of Louisiana as a dog and pony show for President Obama's visit to the area.
"Now, if true, some other words might apply, a sham, a crock, an insult to the people down here who need help, real help, not to mention an attempt, if the allegations are true, to BS local leaders, Gulf state governors and the President of the United States," said Anderson Cooper at the beginning of Friday's program bearing his name.
The almost eight-minute segment included an interview with Jefferson Parish Councilman Chris Roberts who said, "Well, basically at about 7:30 this morning on school buses, a number of workers came in, approximately 300 to 400."
Oddly, Cooper never asked the Councilman, or anyone else involved in the segment, how BP got those school buses.

Obama Is A Lousy Golfer

Hard hitting reporting from the New York Times - at last. I guess we're supposed to take comfort from the claim that he is not as crooked as Bill Clinton, at least on the golf course.

“His golf games are long because he’s not very good,” said Don Van Natta Jr., a reporter for The New York Times who wrote “First Off the Tee: Presidential Hackers, Duffers and Cheaters From Taft to Bush” (PublicAffairs, 2003).
Unlike Mr. Clinton, who had a reputation for shaving strokes off his score, Mr. Obama “doesn’t fudge his scores,” Mr. Van Natta said, adding: “If he shoots an 11 on a hole, he will write down 11.” (Mr. Obama shoots in the 90s on a good day, Mr. Van Natta said.)
White House officials, trying to protect their boss from guffaws, refuse to divulge Mr. Obama’s scores. The president himself envelops his golf game in a cloak of secrecy. Unlike the drill with many of his predecessors, who allowed reporters to watch them play the first hole, and then return to the 18th to watch the grand finish, the White House press pool covering Mr. Obama is kept far away from the action.

At least he's better at golf than he is at bowling or baseball.

Nation Of Islam Goons Threaten White House Pool Reporters

The reporter pool got a taste of Chicago politics. I'm sure Obama would like to have these goons available in DC.

Dispatches from the small group of reporters that always travel with the president – referred to as “pool reports” – are usually pretty mundane affairs: Air Force One landed at such and such a time, POTUS (president of the United States) motorcaded to such and such spot, POTUS did this, POTUS did that.

But Saturday evening in Chicago, as the pool of roughly seven or eight reporters waited for President Obama while he and his family attended a backyard barbecue at a friend’s house, they were surrounded by nearly two-dozen members of the Nation of Islam’s security services.

The Democrat Destruction Of The Black Family

It was bad in 1965. It has gotten almost inconceivably worse now.

In 1965, a quarter of nonwhite births in the United States were out of wedlock, eight times the proportion among whites. Today the proportion of nonmarital births among non-Hispanic blacks exceeds 72 percent, compared with a proportion among non-Hispanic whites of around 28 percent.
Only 38 percent of black children now live with married parents, compared with three-quarters of non-Hispanic white children. Many boys in fatherless families drop out of school, fail to find living-wage work and turn to idleness or crime. Many girls become poverty-stricken single mothers themselves.

Obama Takes Another Vacation

Frankly, I wish he would go on vacation permanently, but considering the milieu, is Obama really that tone deaf?

Presidents are never really off the clock, even when they go on vacation. But President Obama's decision to skip the traditional Memorial Day ceremony in Arlington while on his second vacation since the BP oil spill began has some wondering what the schedule says about his priorities.

On "vacation," Obama still holds staff meetings, occasionally attends local events and often gets his "relaxation" time swallowed up by pressing national and international business -- his vacation to Hawaii in December coincided with the attempted Christmas Day airline bombing. The retreat this weekend is marked by a side-trip to Louisiana to inspect the damages from the oil spill.

But some conservatives, still smarting over the criticism George W. Bush fielded for his frequent trips to Crawford, Texas, say Obama's trip to Chicago over Memorial Day weekend is conspicuously poor in its timing.

Democrat In Texas Opposes Voting Rights For Servicemen

It's true.

A Pattern Of Criminal Behavior

Joe Sestak isn't the only aspiring Senate candidate offered an administration job by Barack Hussein Obama. But in one case, the Colorado news media have joined in the cover up.

A Democrat candidate running against a Senate incumbent is offered a job by the White House as an incentive to drop out of the primary race. Sounds like the Joe Sestak scandal in which he alleged that someone in the White House offered him a job in order to drop out of the race against the incumbent senator from Pennsylvania, Arlen Specter. Right? Well, yes. However, this also perfectly describes another similar scandal in which it is alleged that the White House offered a job to Andrew Romanoff (photo) in order to drop out of the primary race for the senate from Colorado against incumbent Michael Bennet. And the amazing thing about this scandal is that the newspaper that broke it has since remained completely silent on any further reporting.

Obama Encourages Memorial Day Observances

Do as I say, not as I do.

What does this say to those who are currently serving in a dangerous conflict around the world? The White House casually announced that President Obama will stop by a veterans cemetery in Chicago, but that really isn't Arlington National Cemetery, a symbol recognized worldwide of America's ever-vigilant fight against tyranny and for liberty.

Perhaps we should be thankful that Obama isn't merely driving by the cemetery and tossing a wreath out of his limousine window given his track record of snubbing the military. As one of the few American Presidents who has not worn his nation's uniform, we shouldn't be surprised that he would nominate a Supreme Court Justice who has not served in the military, but is replacing the last Supreme Court Justice who has. Although Justice Stevens was of a decidedly liberal bent, he did have the "life experience" of a distinguished military career like so many millions of his fellow Americans.

Elena Kagan was outright hostile to military recruiters who dared to venture onto the Harvard Law School campus while she was the dean. As Ed Whelan wrote in Bench Memos on May 14, 2010, "...Kagan treated military recruiters worse than she treated the high-powered law firms that were donating their expensive legal services to anti-American terrorists."

Chris Matthews Praises Rush Limbaugh

The tingle is gone.

The Big Lie

Media and the Democratic Party, joined at the hip and bound by lies. What's worse? The lie or the cover up?

McClatchy News was responsible for the single worst story reporting the allegations of Reps. Andre Carson, John Lewis. Emanuel Cleaver and James Clyburn that Tea Party protesters abused black congressmen with racial epithets while demonstrating against Obamacare on Capitol Hill on March 20. The story is "Tea party protesters scream 'nigger' at black congressmen."

We believe that the congressmen's story was a fabrication intended to defame the Tea Party movement and distract attention from the resistance to Obamacare. Not a single video corroborates it, despite Andrew Breitbart's offer of a $100,000 reward to anyone producing such a video. And no independent journalist or other eyewitness has stepped forward to vouch for the congressmen's story.

Given the involvement of Rep. Clyburn in promoting the story, the fabrication extends to the Democratic congressional leadership. It is a scandal that warrants the attention of the mainstream media, yet the story has languished and died.

Restricting Free Speech In Michigan

If one Democrat gets his way, only "approved" journalists will be allowed.

A Michigan lawmaker wants to license reporters to ensure they’re credible and vet them for “good moral character.”

Senator Bruce Patterson is introducing legislation that will regulate reporters much like the state does with hairdressers, auto mechanics and plumbers. Patterson, who also practices constitutional law, says that the general public is being overwhelmed by an increasing number of media outlets--traditional, online and citizen generated--and an even greater amount misinformation.

“Legitimate media sources are critically important to our government,” he said.

Obama Following Spain Down The Toilet

We now have another good reason to hope that Barack Obama fails. On at least eight occasions, Obama has pointed to Spain’s economy as the model that he believed the United States should emulate. Well, he’s halfway there. Spain’s unemployment rate is about 20%, while we hover at about 10%. I hope he fails to follow Spain.

What Obama found so attractive about Spain’s economy was its emphasis on so-called “green jobs.” He was so enamored with the concept of green jobs that he installed a self-described Marxist and conspiracy theorist as his green jobs czar. He had to reach deep into the far left’s loony bin because no serious economist would want his name attached to this.

The concept of green jobs dates back to Al Gore’s ludicrous 1992 tome “Earth in the Balance.” In that book Al Gore proposed that we replace our current productivity-based economy with a green economy. Instead of paying people to make things, we would pay them to pick up trash, clean up streams and replant forests. This fairy tale economy caught on with the abysmally ignorant, including it seems, our man-child president.

Someday, Al Gore might stand alongside Rachel Carson as authors whose ignorant books ultimately resulted in catastrophic damage by seducing equally ignorant disciples.

One of those seduced was Spain’s socialist president, José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero. Since assuming office, his government has pushed a green economy with hefty government subsidies and today Spain is in shambles.

That Zapatero’s policies contributed to Spain’s economic collapse was revealed in a study commissioned by Zapatero himself. Previously an independent economic analysis of Spain’s green jobs initiatives estimated that for every green job created, 2.2 real jobs were destroyed. The study commissioned by Zapatero found that the private study actually underestimated the job losses.

Spain’s consumers are required to pay 12 times as much per kilowatt hour for solar-generated electricity compared with the electricity generated from fossil fuels. This has forced Spain’s industries to pay 17% more for power compared to their international competitors. As Obama himself declared, green energy policies cause electricity rates to “necessarily skyrocket.” To Spain’s sorrow, he was right. As a consequence, Spain’s emission of carbon dioxide has indeed declined. But that’s the sort of thing that one should expect when factories close and lay off their employees.

To underwrite all his green initiatives, Zapatero has driven his county into a debt crisis that experts predict will dwarf Greece’s. That is Spain’s fate. And if some have their way, it will be ours.

The mainstream American news media have not yet reported on this and might never, but the Spanish press has published the information. One week ago the Spanish newspaper La Craceta published a front page story titled, “Spain admits that the green energy as sold to Obama is a disaster: The Spanish government leaks a report that admits the ominous economic consequences of betting in favor of renewable energies.” The story is a devastating indictment of the sort of government manipulation of the energy markets that Obama envisions for us. Indeed there is a bill before the Congress today that copies Spain’s disastrous strategy.

The so-called “Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act” co-authored by Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) would start us down Spain’s path. Kerry boasts that this bill will create jobs by subsidizing green technologies, precisely as Zapatero claimed his initiative would.

Is there any reason to believe that the laws of economics are any different in the western hemisphere than they are in the eastern? Here we are in the midst of a deep recession and this country’s majority party wishes to set us on a course that is a proven path to ruin.

Who in his right mind really believes that following Spain off the cliff will be good for America? But that’s not the point. The point is to concentrate power in Washington, DC. The Kerry-Lieberman bill will put the government in control of just about every aspect of our lives under the guise of saving the planet. If carbon emissions were really the peril that Democrats claim then all they would have to do is facilitate nuclear power generation. If Al Gore really believed that carbon dioxide was going to make the seas rise, would he have purchased a new $9 million beach front mansion? If green jobs promote prosperity, then why is Spain in the toilet?

Clinton's Job Offer Illegal

You would think that given months to work on it, the Obama Regime could have come up with something more believable than the tale they told yesterday to cover their bribe offer to Joe Sestak. Not only does their story conflict with previously known information, but Joe Sestak was not legally eligible to serve on that advisory board.

The White House admitted Friday that it used former President Bill Clinton to determine whether Representative Joe Sestak would drop out of the contentious Pennsylvania Democratic Senate primary race with Sen. Arlen Specter in return for an unpaid position in the administration.

The only problem: Sestak, as a sitting member of Congress, was never even eligible to accept the advisory post.

Speaking on the Capitol steps yesterday afternoon, Sestak said that he “heard the words ‘presidential board’” during his brief conversation with Clinton. “It was about either intelligence or defense.”

But numerous sources have pointed out that Sestak would have been ineligible to serve on the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board. According to the Board’s official Web site:

The Board consists of not more than 16 members appointed by the President from among individuals who are not employed by the Federal Government. Members are distinguished citizens selected from the national security, political, academic, and private sectors.

Obama's Designated Liar

William Jefferson Blythe Clinton III.

After Barack Obama won the White House, he and his aides wrestled for weeks over what to do about Bill Clinton if his wife joined the administration. They worried that the irrepressible former president might overshadow Hillary Rodham Clinton, or even Obama himself. That didn't happen. Now, 18 months later, he has become indispensable in a way the new president probably did not anticipate.

Clinton has become the "Michael Clayton" of the Obama White House, a roving, always on-call fixer who lends his political skills to help Obama and the Democrats in tough situations. Clinton is campaigning and raising money in places where Obama is less (or less than) welcome. And, as was revealed Friday, he has been an intermediary on sensitive, off-the-grid conversations with candidates such as Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.), whom he tried -- on behalf of the White House -- to talk out of running for the Senate.

What amazes me (but shouldn't) is not just how quickly the mainstream news media have swallowed the Obama/Sestak myth, but how eagerly they have constructed an entire narrative to support it.

Obama Is Lying

How do I know? The Truth-o-Meter tells me so - along with common sense.

Beat The Boycott

Eight things you can buy to support Arizona.

Sarah Palin's Stalker Worried About His Own Privacy

Krauthammer Shreds Obama/Clinton/Sestak Lies

Clintonian. It's hard to believe that the mainstream media is falling for the Obama story. Certainly Charles Krauthammer doesn't buy it. This is why the MSM is dying and the alternative media are thriving.

Sometimes Guilty People Act Guilty Too

A Democratic operative explains how the White House mishandled the Joe Sestak bribery affair.

"How do you make something out of nothing?," asked one such operative who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the matter. "By acting guilty when you're innocent."

How can anybody still believe the White House is innocent? The explanation offered today was transparent nonsense and does not begin to match up with the story it was supposed to cover up.

"Were you ever offered a federal job to get out of this race?" Kane asked near the end of the 30-minute interview.
"Yes," Sestak answered.
"Was it Navy secretary?" Kane asked.
"No comment," Sestak replied.
In response to follow-up questions from the host, Sestak said the job was offered by the White House. He also nodded when asked if the offer was for a high-ranking post.
President Obama and other leading Democrats are supporting Specter, a five-term incumbent who switched from the Republican Party last spring. Some Democrats, including Gov. Rendell and state party Chairman T.J. Rooney, have publicly urged Sestak to spare the party an expensive primary fight.
After the taping, which was attended by an Inquirer reporter, Sestak declined to answer questions about the alleged offer from the White House.
"I'm not going to say who or how and what was offered," Sestak told The Inquirer on Thursday. "I don't feel it's appropriate."
Sestak, a retired admiral, said he was approached in July. He announced his challenge in August.

An advisory role on an obscure panel is not a "high ranking post."

Obama Proposed Cutting Oil Spill Response Capabiltiy

Daddy, did finish destroying America's ability to plug the hole?

Three months before the massive BP oil spill erupted in the Gulf of Mexico, the Obama administration proposed downsizing the Coast Guard national coordination center for oil spill responses, prompting its senior officers to warn that the agency's readiness for catastrophic events would be weakened.

That proposal is feeding a mounting debate over whether the federal government is able to regulate deep-sea oil extraction. Defense analysts and retired agency leaders question whether the Coast Guard -- which shares oversight of offshore drilling with the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service -- has the expertise and resources to keep pace with industry advances.

Accidents happen, "but what you're seeing here is the government is not properly set up to deal with this kind of issue," said Robbin Laird, a defense consultant who has worked on Coast Guard issues. "The idea that you would even think about getting rid of catastrophic environmental spill equipment or expertise at the Department of Homeland Security, are you kidding me?"

Culture Of Corruption And The Oil Spill

How much did corruption at the Minerals Management Service contribute to the Gulf oil spill fiasco?

Minerals Management Service Director Liz Birnbaum has resigned. Upon hearing of the resignation, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Birnbaum "has been a strong leader, and we have done tremendous work." Salazar also said that Birnbaum helped to address a "culture of corruption" in MMS.

In reality, Liz Birnbaum contributed to the culture of corruption, enabled and abetted by a number of other political appointees at MMS and Interior, including Secretary Salazar, who never acted to correct the record after Birnbaum lied under oath to Congress in March about an offshore drilling comment period.

The story that remains to be pursued in the context of the April 20, 2010 oil rig explosion and spill is whether the blatant dishonesty American Solutions experienced in our own dealings with and observations of MMS and Interior extended into more important life and death matters like drilling safety and oversight.

White House Releases Lies About Sestak Bribe

It took how many months to concoct this pathetic lie?

Grim Milestone

Obama's oil spill surpasses Exxon Valdez.

Even using the most conservative estimate, the new numbers mean the leak has grown to nearly 19 million gallons over the past five weeks. If the oil filled gallon milk jugs lined up side by side, there would be enough to reach from New York to Chicago and back.
In the worst case scenario, if 39 million gallons has spilled, the oil would fill enough jugs to stretch from the Louisiana marshes to Prince William Sound in Alaska. That's where the Exxon Valdez ran aground in 1989, spilling nearly 11 million gallons.

Obama To Vets - Screw You

Showing up at Arlington National Cemetery is VP work.

Obama Enlisted Clinton To Extend Job Offer?

That's what the Washington Post is reporting.

Senior White House advisers asked former President Bill Clinton to talk to Joe Sestak about whether he was serious about running for Senate, and to feel out whether he'd be open to other alternatives, according to sources familiar with the situation.

But the White House maintains that the Clinton-Sestak discussions were informal, according to the sources. The White House, under pressure to divulge the specifics of its interactions with Sestak, will release a formal statement later today outlining their version of events, including Clinton's involvement.

According to the sources, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel asked Clinton and his longtime adviser, lawyer Doug Band, to talk to Sestak about the race. It's unclear right now whether the White House will say that Clinton was asked to suggest specific administration positions for Sestak, whether Clinton floated positions on his own, whether Clinton discussed other options not related to the adminstration, or whether employment even came up at all in the talks.

Either way, either Joe Sestak is a liar or he's covering up for Obama. At some point, this is going to get big enough for the mainstream media to get interested.

Chris Matthews Loses His Tingle

NASA Stalling On Climategate

How long does it take to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request? Answer: At least three years if you're hiding something.

The man battling NASA for access to potential "Climategate" e-mails says the agency is still withholding documents and that NASA may be trying to stall long enough to avoid hurting an upcoming Senate debate on global warming.
Nearly three years after his first Freedom of Information Act request, Christopher C. Horner, senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said he will file a lawsuit Thursday to force NASA to turn over documents the agency has promised but has never delivered.
Mr. Horner said he expects the documents, primarily e-mails from scientists involved with NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), will be yet another blow to the science behind global warming, which has come under fire in recent months after e-mails from a leading British research unit indicated scientists had manipulated some data.
"What we've got is the third leg of the stool here, which is the U.S.-led, NASA-run effort to defend what proved to be indefensible, and that was a manufactured record of aberrant warming," Mr. Horner said. "We assume that we will also see through these e-mails, as we've seen through others, organized efforts to subvert transparency laws like FOIA."

Wasn't Obama Supposed To Be Competent?

I have no idea where the idea came from, other than from Obama, but his response to the oil spill gives the lie to that notion.

I don't see how the president's position and popularity can survive the oil spill. This is his third political disaster in his first 18 months in office. And they were all, as they say, unforced errors, meaning they were shaped by the president's political judgment and instincts.

There was the tearing and unnecessary war over his health-care proposal and its cost. There was his day-to-day indifference to the views and hopes of the majority of voters regarding illegal immigration. And now the past almost 40 days of dodging and dithering in the face of an environmental calamity. I don't see how you politically survive this.

The president, in my view, continues to govern in a way that suggests he is chronically detached from the central and immediate concerns of his countrymen. This is a terrible thing to see in a political figure, and a startling thing in one who won so handily and shrewdly in 2008. But he has not, almost from the day he was inaugurated, been in sync with the center. The heart of the country is thinking each day about A, B and C, and he is thinking about X, Y and Z. They're in one reality, he's in another.

Obama And Sestak Coordinating Stories

In the real world, this would be witness tampering.

Richard Sestak, the congressman’s brother, who has served as his top political adviser and campaign lawyer, spoke with administration officials Wednesday, Joe Sestak said.

“They got a hold of my brother on his cell phone, and he spoke to the White House . . . about what’s going to occur,” said Sestak, who said he expects the White House will release its information Friday. He declined to elaborate on his discussions with Richard.

More here.

On Thursday, Congressman Joe Sestak took the centuries old position of all children in trouble: my brother did it.

And his brother? Richard Sestak, the candidate's campaign guru, is now conspiring behind the scenes with the White House on what to say. According to Joe Sestak himself.

In a stunning admission Thursday, the same day President Obama answered Fox News White House correspondent Major Garrett's question on the issue at the President's first press conference in almost a year, the Washington Post is reporting this morning that Sestak is now admitting:

"They (the White House) got hold of my brother on his cellphone, and he spoke to the White House… about what's going to occur," said Sestak, who said he expects the White House will release its information Friday. He declined to elaborate on his discussions with his brother.

Get that last line: Congressman Sestak "declined to elaborate on his discussions with his brother."

In other words, in yet another startling revelation, Sestak is now confessing the White House is coordinating their story with his brother -- collaborating on the same day the President was insisting to the nation:

"I can assure the public that nothing improper took place."

Another update here. White House working with Joe Sestak's brother to get their lies straight. Let's face it, you don't have to coordinate truths.

Sestak said his brother and an unnamed White House official or officials spoke about “what was going to occur.” Sestak declined to identify who made the call for the administration, adding that he has had no direct contact with the White House.
Sestak called Obama a “pretty legitimate person.” He added, “But we’ll find out shortly what they have to say.”

Sestak was tight-lipped about the situation, declining to comment on whether he would agree with the White House’s take on the situation. He pledged to say more — and even to return to Washington for a Capitol Hill news conference over the weekend or early next week — once the White House had made its announcement.

“When the president speaks — or whoever speaks from the White House — we obviously will have something to say,” he said.

Obama Beheads Court Jester

Though shalt not speak ill of irresponsible deficit spending.

Tensions rose when a happily beaming Obama demanded to be riddled. After a string of well-received topical posers, Motley asked the following:

A pocket-hole that grew so large,

A giant couldn't eat it.

A cache of gold that never was,

But nonetheless depleted.

When the President confessed to being stumped, Motley revealed the answer to be "the National Debt, of course."

Witnesses said Obama's mood immediately darkened and, pounding on the arm of the Presidential Throne, he demanded new jesting. After nervously clearing his throat, Motley was heard to ask, "Wherefore is the National Debt like a sprouting leaf of spinach?" When a glowering Obama demanded the answer, Motley stated, "For it shall rapidly grow into something our children cannot bear."

At this, Obama reportedly dropped the large turkey leg in his hand and signaled to nearby Secret Service agents, who seized Motley and dragged him, pleading, to the Executive Dungeon. The President exited the Hall in a fury, and within minutes had drafted an order of execution by beheading.

"The First Executioner completed his task in one true swing," said White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who presided over the assembled crowd of some 20,000 onlookers. "His head has been spitted on a pike and displayed facing E Street as a warning to they who would mock our most precipitously extended federal debt."

What Would It Take Before The News Media Covered The Sestak Bribe?

More than this. The press wouldn't cover it "if Rahm Emanuel announced it in the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue wearing nothing but a Speedo."

How Many Other Bribes?

Has anybody considered that Obama's bribe offer to Joe Sestak respresents business as usual for the Chicago thugocracy? I mean, they are multiple offenders when it comes to threats and intimidation.

Political payoffs are so commonplace in Washington that I was initially unable to muster an appropriate level of outrage at hearing that Rep. Joe Sestak had accused the Obama administration of offering him a job in exchange for his withdrawal from the Pennsylvania Democratic senatorial primary.

Until, that is, I heard President Barack Obama's senior advisor David Axelrod explain to CNN's John King that though there was "no evidence" (hey, if the administration's senior advisor claims there is no evidence we should move along) if such an offer were made, it would constitute "a serious breach of the law."

If the Democratic Party's choice for the Senate in Pennsylvania is a fabulist -- as Axelrod is effectively saying -- why does Sestak's story sound so familiar to one in the Democratic Senate primary in Colorado?

In a September 2009 article headlined "D.C. job alleged as attempt to deter Romanoff," the Denver Post's Michael Riley reported that Andrew Romanoff, former speaker of the Colorado House, then still contemplating a run again against the governor-installed administration-sanctioned foot solider Michael Bennet, received an "unexpected communication" from a renowned kingmaker in Washington.

"Jim Messina, President Barack Obama's deputy chief of staff and a storied fixer in the White House political shop," wrote Riley at the time, "suggested a place for Romanoff might be found in the administration and offered specific suggestions, according to several sources who described the communication to The Denver Post."

Harry Reid Supports The Troops

From the office of the irony-proof Harry Reid.

Democrats Go After Free Speech Again

Nancy Pelosi wants to shut bloggers up.

Just when you thought it was safe to start expressing your right to free speech, Democrats in Congress are gearing up for a vote on a new piece of legislation to blatantly undermine the First Amendment. Known as the DISCLOSE Act (HR 5175), this bill – written by the head of the Democrats’ congressional campaign committee – is their response to the recent Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. In short, the Supreme Court found that the government could not restrict the free speech rights of individuals or other entities wishing to participate in the political dialogue.

It is hard to see how establishing a level playing field for free speech – as our Founding Fathers did by making it a right under the Constitution and which the Supreme Court upheld – is a threat to our democracy. Nevertheless, the White House and their allies on Capitol Hill see honest criticism as a threat to forcing their big government, liberal agenda through Congress. So, there is no time like the present – namely five months before an election – to start putting the muzzle on those individuals and organizations not sticking to the Democrats’ talking points.

Racists Run Amok In Massachusetts

The Bay State cracks down. No word on how this will affect Obama's aunt Zeituni.

The Massachusetts Senate passed a far-reaching crackdown yesterday on illegal immigrants and those who hire them, going further, senators said, than any immigration bill proposed over the past five years.

In a measure of just how politically potent illegal immigration has become, the Senate, on a 28-10 vote, replaced a far milder budget amendment it had passed Wednesday. The sweeping provision, if it makes it into law, would toughen or expand rules that bar illegal immigrants from public health care, housing, and higher education benefits.

Obama Will Answer Bribery Charges

When it suits him.

Obama, who took 10 questions, was asked about the charges made by Rep. Joe Sestak, Pennsylvania Democrat, in the very last question of the session, by Major Garrett of Fox News. Most of the press conference was dominated by talk about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

When pressed by Garrett whether White House officials did anything wrong, Obama said they had not.

“I can assure the public that nothing improper took place, but as I said, there will be a response shortly on that issue,” Obama said, brushing off further questions on the matter.

I cannot believe what the mainstream news media permit the messiah to get away with.

How Stupid Can The Left Get Regarding Arizona?

At least this stupid. But I think they've got more in them.

Don't be surprised if, any day now, you read that the People's Republic of Arizona is in the market for nuclear warheads to put an end, once and for all, to illegal immigration on its southern border. After all, it's the next logical step for the rogue state.

Keep in mind. This guy is a full time paid journalist!

Thuggery A Normal Course Of Conduct For This Group

SEIU can get away with anything, but it's normal for "this group." This Montgomery copy makes an awfully good case for home handgun ownership. If it takes the cops this long to respond....

If You Criticize Washington

Then you're a hypocrite.

“I think there’s a comprehension gap,” said Kerry. His point: While people may not be feeling the benefits of the bailouts and healthcare reform yet, Congress has been working with Obama to right the economic ship. Still, he sounded sympathetic to those kicked around by the economy. “There’s a sense of some things unraveling” to them, said Kerry.

But he said that the D.C.-directed attacks are hypocritical, since many of those attacking Washington spending presumably want to keep their Social Security and Medicare and want Washington to play a big role in the Gulf Oil cleanup. “There’s a huge contradiction on a daily basis,” he said.

But I guess that's better than accusing Americans of sedition.

Stimulus Surprise: Government Spending Smothers The Economy

Harvard researchers were surprised! They shouldn't have been.

Recent research at Harvard Business School began with the premise that as a state's congressional delegation grew in stature and power in Washington, D.C., local businesses would benefit from the increased federal spending sure to come their way.

It turned out quite the opposite. In fact, professors Lauren Cohen, Joshua Coval, and Christopher Malloy discovered to their surprise that companies experienced lower sales and retrenched by cutting payroll, R&D, and other expenses. Indeed, in the years that followed a congressman's ascendancy to the chairmanship of a powerful committee, the average firm in his state cut back capital expenditures by roughly 15 percent, according to their working paper, "Do Powerful Politicians Cause Corporate Downsizing?"

"It was an enormous surprise, at least to us, to learn that the average firm in the chairman's state did not benefit at all from the unanticipated increase in spending," Coval reports.

Hat tip: The Blogfather.

Obama's War On Banks Starting A New Great Depression

Blaming the banks for all the ills of the world may be good politics, at least among his leftist constituency, but over regulation is causing a frightening contraction of the money supply.

The stock of money fell from $14.2 trillion to $13.9 trillion in the three months to April, amounting to an annual rate of contraction of 9.6pc. The assets of insitutional money market funds fell at a 37pc rate, the sharpest drop ever.

"It’s frightening," said Professor Tim Congdon from International Monetary Research. "The plunge in M3 has no precedent since the Great Depression. The dominant reason for this is that regulators across the world are pressing banks to raise capital asset ratios and to shrink their risk assets. This is why the US is not recovering properly," he said.
The US authorities have an entirely different explanation for the failure of stimulus measures to gain full traction. They are opting instead for yet further doses of Keynesian spending, despite warnings from the IMF that the gross public debt of the US will reach 97pc of GDP next year and 110pc by 2015.

What Part Of Pay-As-You-Go Is So Incomprehensible?

Asks USA Today. It's about time that someone in the mainstream news media asked this.

Memo to congressional Democrats: It's not 2008 or 2009 anymore. Then, when the nation was facing financial catastrophe, it made sense to borrow as much as necessary to stave off economic depression.

Those days are over. Now it's time to start making choices about what's vital, and for those programs that are, paying the bills instead of borrowing.

You'd think that with the soaring national debt emerging as a major issue in this fall's elections, congressional leaders wouldn't need this kind of reminder. But they began this week pushing two big new spending bills that together would cost more than $230 billion over 10 years. The initial plan, according to one estimate by the Congressional Budget Office, was to pay for less than one-fifth of that and borrow the rest.

This, apparently, is what the leaders consider fiscal responsibility. It makes a mockery of their recent chest-thumping about pay-as-you-go rules, and it sends a signal that unlike most of the rest of the country, Congress still doesn't get it. With the economy finally clinging to a modest recovery, the best way to begin whittling down record deficits— running at a stupefying $1.6 trillion for this year alone — is to stop making them bigger.

Cadaverous Larry King The Ideal Mascot For CNN

Is CNN relevant anymore? Does anybody care? If CNN died, would anyone notice?

So far, CNN cannot compete. “Larry King Live” is now struggling in the ratings, as is CNN as a whole. The ratings for the new “John King, USA” political show at 7 p.m. have been disappointing, and Campbell Brown announced last week that she was quitting her 8 p.m. show after concluding that her newscast could not compete with the bombastic opinion-oriented shows on Fox News and MSNBC.

Ratings for Mr. King, 76, are about 20 percent better than those of his lead-in, Ms. Brown, but he ranks a distant third behind the conservative Sean Hannity on Fox and the liberal Ms. Maddow. His audience has been cut in half since the last presidential election, to an average of just 725,000 viewers a night.

Someday, those same answers will be asked about The New York Times. And yes, it will be missed - by Islamist terrorists.

National Guard Deployment Even Less Than A Guestur

As it turns out, I gave Barack Hussein Obama too much credit. I thought his National Guard deployment to the Mexican border was nothing more than an empty gesture. It isn't even that.

President Barack Obama on Tuesday authorized the deployment of up to 1,200 additional troops to border areas but State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters, “It’s not about immigration.”
He said the move was “fully consistent with our efforts to do our part to stem, you know, violence, to interdict the flow of dangerous people and dangerous goods — drugs, guns, people.”

He said the extra troops would be used to free up civilians engaged in support functions so that law enforcement personnel can be increased along the 2,000-mile-long (3,200 kilometer) border.

Nearly 13 million Mexicans live in the United States, more than half of them illegally.

“We have explained the president’s announcement to the government of Mexico, and they fully understand the rationale behind it,” Crowley said.

It seems that Felipe Calderon is dictating our immigration policy.

God Is A Democrat, Part 2

Stephanie Miller must be ecstatic.

President Obama plans to announce Thursday that he is extending the moratorium on permits to drill new deepwater wells for six more months and will delay or cancel specific projects off the coasts of Alaska and Virginia and in the western Gulf of Mexico, a White House official said.
Mr. Obama, who will discuss the decisions at a midday White House news conference, is taking the actions in response to the initial 30-day safety review of offshore drilling ordered after a BP rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 men and opening a gusher of oil that has yet to be stopped.
The latest moves come amid deepening frustration and criticism of the administration’s handling of the crisis. The president’s order is intended to halt further permits for new wells for six months, delay planned exploration in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas off the coast of Alaska, cancel the August lease sale in the western Gulf and cancel the lease sale off the coast of Virginia, the White House official said.

The Pajamahadin

Monday, May 31, 2010