The Pajamahadin

Law Abiding Mexicans Cling Bitterly To Illegal Guns

2012-01-31T08:02:00.000-08:00

Where guns are outlawed, only the outlaws have guns. Like Mexico. How's that been working out?

The cold-blooded murders of Benjamin LeBaron and Luis Widmar galvanized the community, Julian LeBaron says. It prompted them to take a stance that is familiar to Second Amendment advocates in the U.S., but one that is taboo in Mexico.

"I think there would be less violence if there were more guns, in the sense that I could barge in here and do whatever I want, knowing that this guy doesn't have a gun," says Jose Widmar, the brother of slain Luis.

Today, if the gangsters return, the LeBaron colony is locked and loaded.

They have an advocate in their cousin Alex LeBaron, a 31-year-old Chihuahua state deputy with national aspirations. He's a burly, baby-faced politician who attended college in New Mexico and served in the U.S. Navy. His own father was killed in a carjacking.

If Alex LeBaron makes it into the federal congress, his most passionate issue will be changing Mexico's convoluted gun laws.

"We're Mexican citizens 100 percent, and we have the right to bear arms, and we're going to keep fighting for that right as long as it takes," he says.

If only Obama's Department of Justice were as helpful arming the law abiding as it has been arming the bad guys.

The Path To Prosperity In Obama's America

2012-01-31T07:39:00.000-08:00

Get a job with the federal government, make too much money and make everyone else's life miserable.

Buoyed by generous benefit packages, federal workers earn significantly better compensation than similarly educated workers in the private sector, according to a report released Monday from Congress‘ chief scorekeeper that threatens to reignite at the national level last year’s state battles over public-employee rights.

Overall, federal workers earn 16 percent more in total compensation — including wages and benefits — than comparable private-sector employees, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Only private-sector workers with the highest levels of education, such as doctors and lawyers, earn more than their public counterparts.

The finding is incendiary at a time when Republicans in Congress are fighting for a freeze on federal worker salaries and the Obama administration is balking, arguing that after two years of freezes, it’s time to ramp up pay.

This isn't trickle down economics. It's trickle on economics.

Fourth Quarter Growth Numbers Suck

2012-01-31T06:36:00.000-08:00

The mainstream news media have been trying to spin last quarter's 2.8% growth rate as some sort of good news. It wasn't. It stunk.

[T]hat meager 2.8 percent annual growth really isn’t what it seems to be.

That’s because 75 percent of that 2.8 percent growth involved businesses restocking inventories. Who says? The Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, which released this data.

So people like you and me weren’t really buying all that stuff in the last months of 2011. It was businesses buying stuff and putting it on their shelves in hopes that people would soon come along and buy it from them.

Inventories will only build up so much before companies say “no more.” So these restockings are not considered a particularly good thing when the ultimate buyer — the consumer — is still uncooperative.

But that wasn’t the only scary thing in the GDP report. In fact, it wasn’t even the most important thing.

In order to get to that 2.8 percent growth the Commerce Department used a very unrealistic level of inflation in its calculations.

Let me explain: The government comes up with a figure on how much it thinks the economy grew, or shrunk. Friday’s figure was a first estimate for the fourth quarter, so most of the numbers used in the calculation are only guesstimates anyway. (But that’s for a different story.)

The government then takes that growth figure, subtracts the rate of inflation and comes up with the real growth it reports in its press release.

So, in other words, if inflation is rising it reduces the rate of actual, after inflation, growth — which is the figure that Washington reports.

In Friday’s number the government used 0.4 percent as the rate of inflation. Zero. Point. Four. Percent.

In which country is inflation that low? Certainly not in America. Absolutely not in the last four months of 2011.

The consumer price index, which is put out by the US Census Bureau, had prices up 3 percent for the year.

And the rate of inflation used in calculating the third-quarter 2011 GDP was 2.6 percent; in the first and second quarters, combined, the rate was 2.5 percent; it was 1.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010.

Just for comparison, last year's fourth quarter GDP, which was also inflated was over six percent.

Obama Finds Family Disaster "Interesting"

2012-01-31T06:29:00.000-08:00

This proves that he isn't Spock after all. Spock would have said "fascinating."

During his Google+ hangout Pres. Obama tells a woman that her husband shouldn't be unemployed from the growth he has seen in the economy. Obama said he finds it "interesting" because he is getting "the word" that someone in her husband's job field "should be able to find something right away."

I wonder if he'll have more luck than Bill Clinton did when he was trying to find work for Monica Lewinsky.

How Many Navy Seals Is Obama's Reelection Worth

2012-01-31T06:24:00.000-08:00

We know that Obama is prepared to raise and spend a billion dollars on his reelection. The real question is, how many Navy Seal lives will he spend?

America's premier Special Operations force is once again in the headlines after a team of Navy SEALs rescued two hostages from captivity in Somalia last week. Elite U.S. forces have carried out such operations periodically over the past decade, always with skill and bravery. The difference in recent months is that the details of their work haven't remained secret. On the contrary, government officials have revealed them for political gain—endangering our forces in the process.

Self Guiding Bullet

2012-01-31T06:19:00.001-08:00

Now this is cool.

Designed with the military, law enforcement, and recreational shooters as potential customers, the bullet is four inches long and has an optical sensor embedded in its nose for the detection of a laser on its target, Sandia said in a release today. The bullet also has built-in guidance and control electronics that receive data from the optical sensor and then manipulate the electromagnetic actuators. And the actuators use that data to steer small fins in order to direct the bullet directly to its target.

Sigh. Another Obama Green Failure

2012-01-31T06:15:00.000-08:00

Will liberals even consider the possibility that Obama either has no idea what he's doing or, that he's just plain crooked? I vote for all of the above.

Some of President Barack Obama’s top donors and fundraising bundlers are partners in Amonix Inc., the latest Solyndra-like corporate crash. The company has announced a layoff of 200 workers — two-thirds of its workforce — despite a federal green-technology tax credit of $5.9 million in 2010.

The investors include John Doerr’s venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Daniel Weiss’ Angeleno Group LLC and Steve Westly’s eponymous Westly Group, according to Amonix’s website.

These three investors have also invested heavily in Obama and other Democrats — and the president’s aides are now trying to minimize the political damage.

Eric Holder's Bodyguard Of Lies Starting To Crumble

2012-01-31T06:10:00.000-08:00

Yes he knew about Fast and Furious. His claims to the contrary are either outright lies, or he's running the most dysfunctional Justice Department in history where he's the person who has no idea what's going on around him.

Holder wants Americans to believe an obvious fantasy, namely that he didn't know about Fast and Furious until witch-hunting House Republicans made it a highly charged partisan issue a few months ago. But after reviewing new emails made public by the Justice Department last Friday, it seems clear that accepting Holder's claim at face value would be credulous in the extreme.

He is scheduled to appear Thursday before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The first question for Holder will concern a series of emails sent in the immediate aftermath of the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry on Dec. 15, 2010. The emails make clear that Monty Wilkinson, then Holder's deputy chief of staff, was informed by U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke of Terry's death, and that weapons found on the scene were bought in Phoenix and were among those in "the investigation we were going to talk about."

Other documents obtained by the committee make clear that the investigation in question was Fast and Furious. The emails also establish that Wilkinson and other senior Justice Department officials in Washington were briefed on the program shortly after Terry's murder. In other words, within days, if not hours, of Terry's death, it was known at the highest levels of the Justice Department that he was killed by guns sold with the full knowledge of federal officials who then lost track of them.

It is simply inconceivable that Wilkinson did not inform others in the Justice Department, including Holder, about these facts. Regardless of the political damage that such a scandal would cause, Wilkinson should have made informing Holder a top priority. Doing anything less was at the least gross negligence. This is even more the point with Holder: Either he actually knew about Fast and Furious months before he told Congress he did, or he didn't know when he should have. No wonder nearly 100 House members have signed a resolution of no confidence in Holder.

Investor's Business Daily says that it's time for impeachment hearings.

For incompetence alone, Attorney General Eric Holder should resign in the wake of the illegal "Fast and Furious" gunrunning scandal. But fresh news that he knew of it and is covering it up warrants impeachment.

In the latest Friday night document dump — news released as to minimize its scandalous impact on the White House — congressional investigators learned that Attorney General Holder knew all along that a gun his Justice Department intentionally let fall into the hands of Mexico's cartels was used to murder U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry on Dec. 15, 2010.

Holder must have known right away because his Deputy Chief of Staff Monty Wilkinson received an email from then-Arizona U.S. Attorney General Dennis Burke telling him just that: "The guns found in the desert near the murder(ed) BP officer connect back to the investigation we were going to talk about — they were AK-47s purchased at a Phoenix gun store."

According to the Daily Caller, the emails also showed that Wilkinson then "alerted" Holder about the killing of the U.S. agent.

Another Obama Green Failure

2012-01-31T06:03:00.000-08:00

Obama green jobs training program was supposed to turn out 80,000 jobs. So far, it has placed 8,000. That's ten percent for those of you who have received your education from Obama.

President Obama has made green jobs a cornerstone of his economic agenda. In his first 2012 campaign ad this month, he said clean energy industries created 2.7 million jobs and were "expanding rapidly." But Republicans have pounced on failures, such as the bankruptcy of Solyndra, a solar panel maker backed with a Department of Energy loan guarantee.

Citing what he calls "abysmal results" in the job training program, House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., is demanding answers about how the Department of Labor awarded the grants, which were funded out of the 2009 stimulus bill.

If you're snarkily guessing that the Obamatons are blaming Bush, you're right.

"This grant came just as the recession heightened."

But, wasn't this supposed to fix everything? But the real tragedy isn't the waste of money. It's the waste of lives. These people have been trained for jobs that will never exist except in liberal fantasies. They might as well have been trained as unicorn herdsmen.

Obama Destroys 25 Million Jobs

2012-01-30T19:12:00.000-08:00

Considering that there are 3 million fewer jobs than when he took office, his claim to have created 22 million jobs, his record must contain this disclaimer.

A New Definition Of Lying

2012-01-30T18:53:00.000-08:00

"Mistakes were made."

From his perch at the National Press Club, where Janet Napolitano was speaking earlier today, The Washington Examiner’s Charlie Spiering brought readers a disgruntling, callous quote from the Department of Homeland Security secretary. A reporter asked her how the United States has or will work with Mexico to suppress Mexican drug cartels. Napolitano responded with this:
“Obviously I think if the question is referring to things like Fast and Furious, I think everyone has acknowledged that mistakes, serious mistakes, were made there,” Napolitano replied, “The key question [is] to make sure that those mistakes, from my standpoint, are never again repeated.”
Mistakes? To suggest that Fast and Furious was not a program that was intentionally designed to funnel firearms to straw purchasers is disingenuous and to use the mild word “mistake” to color over a program that led to the death of a U.S. border patrol agent and more than 200 Mexicans is irresponsible. While it’s encouraging that Napolitano wants to ensure that administration officials never design such a foolish and lethal program again, her language seems too calculated to also create the impression that administration officials have no possible culpability here. In her mind, it was all just a series of “mistakes” from which to learn and move forward — but, again, even if the operation was intended to lead to a different ending — to the prosecution of the biggest fish within Mexican drug cartels — the sale of the weapons to straw purchasers in the first place was not a mistake. It was that tactic that was and is and will continue to be controversial — and Napolitano’s comments should reflect that the tactic should never have been used in the first place.

How Elizabeth Warren Became A One Percenter

2012-01-30T18:35:00.000-08:00

By screwing the little guy. She has already denied being wealthy, despite having over $10 million in assets.

One of the Harvard professor’s many well-com-pensated part-time gigs included consulting for Travelers Insurance. I know that it is hard to believe that on one hand, Democrats would be bashing an industry, and on the other hand they are making money from it. To be a Democrat is to be a hypocrite.

What did Lizzy do to earn $44,000 in compensation from the insurance company? She made it harder for claimants to collect. Warren helped establish the bankruptcy strategy for companies to avoid crushing lawsuits. In short, go bankrupt to avoid paying victims.

In court briefings, she supported the effort to protect Travelers Insurance from future lawsuits after agreeing to a $500 million settlement with asbestos plaintiffs.

That sort of destroys her image as consumer advocate, doesn’t it?

It is too bad that Brown and Warren signed the pact banning third-party television commercials, because I’m sure the nonpartisan League of Women Vultures has been gearing up to run ads showing asbestos victims complaining about Lizzy. Yeah, right. Well, maybe they could at least issue an apology to Brown for the nasty ads they ran last summer against him on clean air.

Michelle Obama Blows 50 Grand On Luxury Shopping Spree

2012-01-30T05:46:00.000-08:00

A one woman one percenter stimulus program.

The First Lady – better known for shopping at more modestly-priced High Street stores – along with the Queen of Qatar, Sheikha Mozah, closed off part of Madison Avenue to spend time in the luxury lingerie shop. Their purchases contributed to a market-spanking 12.5pc lift in sales.

Agent Provocateur, which is styled on vintage Hollywood glamour, sells handmade Calais lace corsets that sell for up to £900, which could ruffle the feathers of more than just President Barack Obama in an election year.

Better known for shopping at more modestly priced stores? Is that where one purchases $500 sneakers? Or $2400 cocktail dresses?

Eric Holder Caught In Another Bald-Faced Lie

2012-01-30T05:26:00.000-08:00

The perfect poster boy for the Obama Regime.

Attorney General Eric Holder’s Department of Justice dumped documents related to Operation Fast and Furious on congressional officials late Friday night. Central to this document dump is a series of emails showing Holder was informed of slain Border Patrol agent Brian Terry’s murder on the day it happened – December 15, 2010.

An email from one official, whose name has been redacted from the document, to now-former Arizona U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke reads: “On December 14, 2010, a BORTAC agent working in the Nogales, AZ AOR was shot. The agent was conducting Border Patrol operations 18 miles north of the international boundary when he encountered [redacted word] unidentified subjects. Shots were exchanged resulting in the agent being shot. At this time, the agent is being transported to an area where he can be air lifted to an emergency medical center.”

That email was sent at 2:31 a.m. on the day Terry was shot. One hour later, a follow-up email read: “Our agent has passed away.”

Burke forwarded those two emails to Holder’s then-deputy chief of staff Monty Wilkinson later that morning, adding that the incident was “not good” because it happened “18 miles w/in” the border.

Wilkinson responded to Burke shortly thereafter and said the incident was “tragic.” “I’ve alerted the AG [Holder], the Acting DAG, Lisa, etc.”

Then, later that day, Burke followed up with Wilkinson after Burke discovered from officials whose names are redacted that the guns used to kill Terry were from Fast and Furious. “The guns found in the desert near the murder BP officer connect back to the investigation we were going to talk about – they were AK-47s purchased at a Phoenix gun store,” Burke wrote to Wilkinson.

“I’ll call tomorrow,” Wilkinson responded.

And let's be clear. This is a scandal for the mainstream news media. Why is the New York Times ignoring this? And CNN? And ABC, NBC, CBS, the Washington Post, etc.?

The Politics Of Envy And Revenge

2012-01-30T04:49:00.000-08:00

Barack Hussein Obama's entire adult life has been motivated by a desire to exact revenge upon those who out perform him. Now he's acting on it.

There are 1.1 million more unemployed Americans today than when President Obama was sworn into office in 2009. The number of Americans in poverty has risen by 6.4 million.

Unemployment is up 9 percent, the number of food stamp recipients is up 45 percent, and home values are down 13 percent. If Obama were to seek re-election based on his economic record, he would surely lose.

That is why Obama and his political advisers have determined that income inequality, or "fairness" as they call it, is the defining issue of our time.

"In the last few decades, the average income of the top 1 percent has gone up by more than 250 percent to $1.2 million per year," Obama recently said in Osawatomie, Kan.

"Now, this kind of inequality -- a level that we haven't seen since the Great Depression -- hurts us all."

And how does Obama propose to reverse this income inequality? Through something he calls "the Buffett Rule," which would force all Americans making more than $1 million a year to pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes.

Now isn't this just perfect liberalism? Don't try to improve the condition of people at the bottom. Pull the successful people down. Liberals hate success more than they hate poverty.

New York Times Lied

2012-01-30T04:37:00.000-08:00

General Electric did pay taxes in 2010. The Times originally claimed that GE paid no taxes that year.

Contrary to multiple news reports in 2011 that fingered General Electric as an income tax dodger during 2010, a GE representative told The Daily Caller the company did in fact pay more than $1 billion in U.S. taxes that year. Additionally, a document GE provided to TheDC establishes that the company paid $2.671 billion globally in income tax in 2010.

The document, a two-page chart from GE’s audited financial statements, turns on its head a strange corporate-accountability episode that began with an erroneous New York Times story.

The Times’ David Kocieniewski reported on March 24, 2011 that the company’s ”American tax bill” was “None. In fact, G.E. claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion.”

College Presidents Prepare To Get Screwed

2012-01-30T03:55:00.000-08:00

By Obama. But they'll still all vote for him in November.

This is rich. College costs have been driven skyward by liberal Democrat schemes and subsidies and now the most liberal Democrat of all, who probably supported every one of those schemes and was disappointed that more wasn't done is now criticizing the results his party imposed.

Fuzzy math, Illinois State University's president called it. "Political theater of the worst sort," said the University of Washington's head.

President Obama's new plan to force colleges and universities to contain tuition or face losing federal dollars is raising alarm among education leaders who worry about the threat of government overreach. Particularly sharp words came from the presidents of public universities; they're already frustrated by increasing state budget cuts.

To be honest, if I were in charge, college would cost a lot less, because I'd get rid of all the politically correct department, relieve most professors of their research appointments (most are incapable of producing any scholarship of lasting value) and I'd hire more teaching faculty with Master's degrees or even Bachelor's if they have good experience.

Tenure would be a thing of the past. Higher education has grown to become a bloated, top heavy, lactating sow that exists for liberals to suckle from. A lot of people earning six figure salaries at colleges and universities are less capable than the guy who flips your burger at McDonald's.

He's Proud To Be Screwing You

2012-01-30T03:44:00.000-08:00

A real teachers union hero. Just what teachers unions are all about. This is a win for them too.

Hell no, he won’t go.

In a defiant raspberry to the city Department of Education — and taxpayers — disgraced teacher Alan Rosenfeld, 66, won’t retire.

Deemed a danger to kids, the typing teacher with a $10 million real estate portfolio hasn’t been allowed in a classroom for more than a decade, but still collects $100,049 a year in city salary — plus health benefits, a growing pension nest egg, vacation and sick pay.

Mayor Bloomberg and Gov. Cuomo can call for better teacher evaluations until they’re blue-faced, but Rosenfeld and six peers with similar gigs costing about $650,000 a year in total salaries are untouchable. Under a system shackled by protections for tenured teachers, they can’t be fired, the DOE says.

“It’s an F-U,” a friend of Rosenfeld said of his refusal to quit.

“He’s happy about it, and very proud that he beat the system. This is a great show-up-but-don’t-do-anything job.”

So When Will The Elites Start Lecturing Us About Hate Crimes Against Jews?

2012-01-29T15:20:00.000-08:00

Because Jews aren't fashionable victims. Muslims are.

Incidents of anti-Islamic hate crime in 2010 accounted for only 12.1% of those motivated by religion and just 2.4% overall.
Jews remain the faith group most likely to be targeted in hate crimes. There were 887 anti-Jewish incidents in 2010, comprising 67.1% of those linked to religion. This is 5.5 times the number of anti-Islamic incidents, despite the fact that the Jewish population is no more than two and a half times as large as the Muslim population in the U.S.
Last year saw more anti-black (2,201), anti-white (575), anti-Hispanic (534), and anti-homosexual (1,230) incidents than anti-Islamic ones. Based on population data, the per-capita rate for blacks was similar to that for Muslims; the rate for gays was higher.
Once again, no Muslim was killed for being Muslim. Fifteen years (1996-2010) of online FBI reports tabulate 149 deaths (“murder and nonnegligent manslaughter”) due to hate crimes, but the records show zero anti-Islamic fatalities during this period.

Jesse Jackson Claims That Jan Brewer's Confrontation With Obama Was Racist - yawn.

2012-01-29T08:19:00.000-08:00

I'm certain that Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann (whoever that is), Bill Maher and Ed Schultz will soon say the same thing. Or already have. In the future, everyone will be a racist. And as long as these charlatans are around, the future is now.

And, to be honest, have we ever had a president who wags his finger in our face more than Obama? If finger wagging is disrespectful, then...

Why Does Obama Mention Bin Laden At Every Opportunity?

2012-01-29T08:13:00.000-08:00

Because it's all he's got.

Freshman Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) panned President Obama’s State of the Union speech during the weekly Republican address, saying the president largely ignored his own record because he has made the economy worse during three years in office.

“It was an opportunity for the president to talk about his accomplishments over the last three years and to lay out his plans for the year ahead. And he missed on both counts,” Rubio said. “You didn’t hear much talk about the success of his administration—and that’s because there isn’t much.”

Spike Lee - Older And Wiser?

2012-01-29T07:34:00.000-08:00

Has Spike Lee been listening to Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter? I wonder if saying this sort of thing will cost Lee his street creds?

Lee blamed the influence that crack cocaine has had in poor neighborhoods and the influence that media have had in glorifying drugs and gangsters, whom he said are primarily portrayed by Black actors.

“I am from the pre-crack generation. When I was growing up, we never, ever, never ridiculed someone because they were a good student,” he said.

“Your generation, they now equate intelligence with acting White and ignorance with acting Black, and they wear it like a badge of honor. They say, ‘I’m ghetto. I’m gangster.’ What they are is ignorant.”

When Hell Freezes Over

2012-01-29T07:18:00.000-08:00

Or the Thames. According to NASA scientists, we have far more to fear from a new Ice Age than we have from global warming fantasies.

The supposed ‘consensus’ on man-made global warming is facing an inconvenient challenge after the release of new temperature data showing the planet has not warmed for the past 15 years.

The figures suggest that we could even be heading for a mini ice age to rival the 70-year temperature drop that saw frost fairs held on the Thames in the 17th Century.
Based on readings from more than 30,000 measuring stations, the data was issued last week without fanfare by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit. It confirms that the rising trend in world temperatures ended in 1997.
Hide the decline...

...According to a paper issued last week by the Met Office, there is a 92 per cent chance that both Cycle 25 and those taking place in the following decades will be as weak as, or weaker than, the ‘Dalton minimum’ of 1790 to 1830. In this period, named after the meteorologist John Dalton, average temperatures in parts of Europe fell by 2C.

Greening His Campaign While Browning America

2012-01-28T23:59:00.000-08:00

In Barack Obama’s America, the path to prosperity passes through his campaign coffers.

The conventional wisdom surrounding Obama’s denial of a construction permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada assumes that he is once again postponing a critical judgment until after the general election, because a decision either way will anger one of his core constituencies, either the elitist, leisure class environmentalists or the labor unions.

Certainly, evading the electoral consequences of a difficult decision was his original goal, when he cynically announced that he would not decide until after the election. His hand was forced by Republicans who inserted language into the payroll tax relief bill passed just before Christmas that required him to make a decision.

His response was to deny the application, then invite a re-application, once again permitting him to evade the consequences of exercising either courage or leadership.

But the likely truth is that Obama does not want the pipeline – period.

One of the funniest moments of the 2004 presidential campaign involved the Democratic candidate John Kerry explaining how George W. Bush deceived the Senate by being truthful with them. According to the highly-nuanced, French-looking senior senator from Massachusetts, that’s not how business is done in the world of politics. Obama seems to have fooled a great many in Washington using the same ploy, by telling everyone exactly what he intends and permitting the deep thinkers to stroke their beards and ponder what he really meant.

Early in 2008, Obama told the editorial board of the San Francisco Chronicle that part of his economic plan was to bankrupt energy companies that used fossil fuels. The Chronicle did not find this information newsworthy, an opinion shared by most of the mainstream news media. If it were ever broadcast on ABC, CBS, NBC or CNN, most of the world would hear it for the first time. This is likely the first time you’ve heard of it.

After his election, he explained to ABC News that higher gasoline prices were another of his economic goals. The few who tuned in to watch the interview probably remember it, but again, Obama’s Praetorian Guard Press managed to limit its dissemination.

So when Barack Obama denied the application for the Keystone XL oil pipeline that would have brought ethical oil from Canada and created tens, if not hundreds of thousands of jobs, the mainstream news media assumed that Obama was just playing politics and not pursuing his ideology.

No, he meant it. He does not want that oil passing through that pipeline.

First of all, Obama has promised us a magical “green economy.” And even though he has thrown billions of dollars at alternative energy companies owned by some of his biggest fundraisers, these companies have failed because energy from fossil fuels is far cheaper, sometimes by an order of magnitude.

The only way to make his green cronies competitive is to use the authority of his office to drive the competition from the field.

So far, his Environmental Protection Agency has ordered the shutdown of 25 gigawatts of electrical generating capacity based upon some fanciful projections that failing to do so will cause Americans to fall dead by the thousands.

And now Obama is obstructing the importation of oil from neighbors to the north, who have made it clear that if the United States doesn’t want the oil, then China’s next on the list. If this were about saving the planet, then burning the oil in the United States with our air pollution controls makes far more environmental sense than sending it up China’s filthy smokestacks.

There’s another angle to consider as well. Denying that construction permit won’t keep the oil out. It will just have to enter the US and travel to the refineries by a less efficient means - the railroads. And if you guessed that another of Obama’s filthy rich political allies will get richer as a result, then you’re absolutely right.

According to a Bloomberg News Agency story published Tuesday, Warren Buffet will be the prime beneficiary of Obama’s obstructionism. He owns Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, and is ideally positioned to haul the oil southward.

When asked about the prospect of hauling Canadian oil, Krista York-Wooley, a spokeswoman for Burlington Northern happily declared that if the Keystone XL pipeline "doesn't happen, we're here to haul!"

It pays to have friends in high places. And renting Obama’s friendship is beyond the working man’s means.

Update: Another "green" Obama proposal will fatten the wallet of George Soros.

Democrats Want To Monitor Your Internet Use

2012-01-28T16:35:00.000-08:00

Big Brother. Hawaiian style.

Its House of Representatives has scheduled a hearing this morning on a new bill (PDF) requiring the creation of virtual dossiers on state residents. The measure, H.B. 2288, says "Internet destination history information" and "subscriber's information" such as name and address must be saved for two years.

H.B. 2288, which was introduced Friday, says the dossiers must include a list of Internet Protocol addresses and domain names visited. Democratic Rep. John Mizuno of Oahu is the lead sponsor; Mizuno also introduced H.B. 2287, a computer crime bill, at the same time last week.

Leon Panetta Going Rogue?

2012-01-28T08:18:00.000-08:00

First, Leon Panetta speaks out about how Obama's military budget cuts are harming the nation's ability to defend itself. Now he speaks the unspeakable: Pakistan had to know about Bin Laden.

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta says he believes government authorities in Pakistan knew about the whereabouts of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

"I personally have always felt that somebody must have had some sense of what was happening at this compound," said Panetta about the fugitive's hideout in an interview to air Sunday on CBS's 60 Minutes.

Well, considering that the Pakistanis were up to their necks in the Mumbai massacre, at some point we're going to have to pull our heads out and admit that Pakistan is a state sponsor of terrorism.

Eric Holder To Crack Down On Mortgage Fraud

2012-01-28T06:48:00.000-08:00

Considering that the most prominent fraudsters were huge Democrat donors and politicians, and with the Department of Justice itself clogged with these criminals, it will be interesting to see how honestly the most politicized Justice Department in history will handle this. I have a feeling that this is all a charade that will do nothing until after the election, after which, it will all go away.

"On Tuesday night, the President referenced this initiative, asking us to, 'hold accountable those who broke the law, speed assistance to homeowners, and help turn the page on an era of recklessness that hurt so many Americans,'" Attorney General Eric Holder said this morning. "That is precisely what we intend to do."

In addition to "illegal" activity, Holder indicated that he will try to punish "unethical" financial industry practicies. "We also have learned that behavior that is unethical or reckless may not necessarily be criminal," the attorney general said. "When we find evidence of criminal wrongdoing, we bring criminal prosecutions. When we don’t, we endeavor to use other tools available to us – such as civil sanctions – to seek justice."

Obama's Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Shaun Donovan, added, during the same press conference, that "We still have unfinished business with those responsible for this crisis."

Obama Thin Skinned

2012-01-28T06:37:00.000-08:00

When the press reports on his thin skin.

President Barack Obama’s three-day trip won’t be remembered for his talk here on rising college tuition costs. Or for his flogging of clean energy proposals in Nevada and manufacturing tax breaks in Iowa.

No, the enduring image of his tour through five key states this week will be Obama confronting Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer over months-old insults from her book, his dismissive mien facing down her French-manicured fingertip.

Democrats Bash "Secret" Campaign Cash

2012-01-28T06:31:00.000-08:00

While raising gazillions of their own secret money.

In recent days, Obama released an ad blasting “secretive oil billionaires” for attacks on him, Nancy Pelosi unveiled a campaign slogan calling for “a new politics free of special interest influence,” and the Democratic National Committee released a web ad accusing Mitt Romney of lying about his ties to a super PAC that’s spent millions supporting him.

Maybe that would have sounded better in 2008, when Obama put the kibosh on the Democratic outside money infrastructure — or even in 2010, when Obama led a chorus of Democrats assailing Republicans’ outside spending.

But this year, Democrats are playing the same game. Obama’s team has blessed a network of super PACs trying to raise the same seven-figure checks as Romney’s. And Obama’s allies have gone even further than Romney’s, setting up non-profit groups that do not disclose their donors at all.

In fact, top Democrats are so ardent about the need to raise unlimited — and sometimes secret — cash this year that some operatives aren’t pleased about the recent attacks, grumbling that it makes it a whole lot tougher to get wealthy liberals to fork over mega-checks when the politicians who’d benefit are ripping Republicans for taking the same types of contributions.

Reuter Confesses To Left Wing Hit Piece

2012-01-28T06:26:00.000-08:00

"Fiasco." "Disgrace." But the writers still have jobs.

After Daily Caller blogger Matt Lewis eviscerated a harsh Reuters story on Florida senator Marco Rubio, the wire service was forced to make five corrections.

Now Reuters is attempting damage control and conceding the story is regrettable:

From Politico.

Reuters is still kicking itself over an article about Republican golden boy Senator Marco Rubio that yielded five corrections yesterday and may have warranted more.

One senior staffer at Reuters described the episode to me as a "fiasco," another as a "disgrace."

It was so bad, in fact, that the editors and writer involved have been asked not to talk about it. (I reached out to editors David Lindsey and Eric Walsh, but have not heard back.)

The article, by David Adams, had intended to detail why Rubio was an unlikely pick for Vice President: "Rubio may not be as coveted as Gingrich or Romney would have it appear as they press for votes in Florida, where more than 450,000 Hispanics identify themselves as Republicans," Reuters David Adams wrote. "Despite his reputation as a watchdog over federal spending, Rubio, 40, has had significant financial problems that could keep him from passing any vetting process as a potential vice presidential choice, Republican and Democratic strategists say."

But after pressure from the Rubio staff, Reuters was forced to issue corrections that quickly became a larger talking point than the article itself.

Rubio's staff reached out to the editors and the writer early yesterday, prompting Reuters to issue two corrections. But the Daily Caller's Matt Lewis, who spoke with Rubio's staff as well, wrote an item suggesting that there were at least seven errors or exaggerations that warranted mention, and Reuters ultimately issued three more.

Global Cooling

2012-01-27T17:37:00.000-08:00

Really cold!

David Archibald, polymath, makes a bold prediction that temperatures are about to dive sharply (in the decadal sense). He took the forgotten correlation that as solar cycles lengthen and weaken, the world gets cooler. He refined it into a predictive tool, tested it and published in 2007. His paper has been expanded on recently by Prof Solheim in Norway, who predicts a 1.5°C drop in Central Norway over the next ten years.

Our knowledge of they solar dynamo is improving, and David adds the predicted solar activity ’til 2040 to the analysis. Normal solar cycles are 11 years long, but the current one (cycle 24) is shaping up to be 17 years (unusually long), and using historical data from the US, David predicts a 2.1°C decline over Solar Cycle 24 followed by a further 2.8°C over Solar Cycle 25. That adds up to a whopping 4.9°C fall in temperate latitudes over the next 20 years. We can only hope he’s wrong. As David says ” The center of the Corn Belt, now in Iowa, will move south to Kansas.”

He also predicts continuing drought in Africa for another 14 years, with droughts likely in South America too.

If he’s right, it’s awful and excellent at the same time. Cold hurts, but wouldn’t it be something if we understood our climate well enough to plan ahead?

I fear global cooling far more than global warming.

Obama Proposal To Make George Soros Even Richer

2012-01-27T07:52:00.000-08:00

George Soros knows that the best return on an investment is into Democratic Party campaign coffers.

One company that stands to benefit handsomely from the president’s proposal is Westport Innovations. The company converts diesel engines to be fueled by natural gas. Wall Street analysts predicted a boom for the company if the NAT GAS Act were passed. CNBC analyst Jim Cramer said he “expects shares to absolutely explode” in the event the legislation were to pass.
Jim Cramer made positive mention of Westport, calling it a solid play on natural gas should Congress pass its pending Natural Gas Act. Westport converts diesel engines (i.e. – those found in semi trailers) into ones that run on natural gas.

Benefiting Westport is that it’s: A) basically first to the market, at least in terms of mass production, and B) high barriers of entry for competition because of the complex technology involved in the transformations.
If Westport reaps the predicted windfall, one of the chief beneficiaries will be George Soros, a major Obama donor and supporter. Soros’s hedge fund holds 3,160,063 company shares (as of its last SEC filing).

Soros has given $384,090 to the Democratic Party, Democratic PACs, and Democratic Candidates in the three election cycles beginning in 2008, including $4,400 to Obama himself, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. He describes himself as “an early supporter of Barack Obama, first in his Senate campaign in Illinois and later when he ran for President. Soros supported Obama in his presidential bid because he believed he could provide the transformational leadership the country needed.”

Obama's Pathetic Economic Record

2012-01-27T07:44:00.000-08:00

Just 1.7% real GDP for all of last year. Economy expected to slow down.

And here are Obama deep economic insights.

"On Tuesday at the State of the Union, I laid out my vision for how we move forward," President Obama said at a campaign event in Las Vegas, Nevada. "I laid out a blueprint for an economy that's built to last, that has a firm foundation. Where we're making stuff and selling stuff and moving it around and UPS drivers are dropping things off everywhere."

"That's the economy we want. An economy built on American manufacturing, with more good jobs and more products made here in the United States of America," he also said.

Maybe food stamps and unemployment checks aren't the best economic stimulus we have at our disposal after all.

Of course, the best first step in accomplishing that is a new president and a new majority in the Senate.

To Democrats, Creating Jobs Equals Terrorism

2012-01-27T07:29:00.000-08:00

No, I'm not making this up.

A senior Democratic congressman likened Republican lawmakers to terrorists on Thursday for their insistence on tying approval of construction of a new oil pipeline to must-pass legislation.

California Rep. Henry Waxman, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the coauthor of the 2009 cap-and-trade climate change bill, decried efforts by the GOP to force the Obama administration into approving a permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline.

"They want to use legislation as a way to act like terrorists. They hold things as hostage," Waxman said. "We almost couldn't fund the government because Republicans wanted to hold that idea hostage, we almost couldn't pay our debts because the Republicans wanted to hold that legislation hostage to their extreme agenda, and I wouldn't be surprised if they scuttled this conference by trying to hold us hostage."

Once again proving that all the civility bullshit was about shutting down one side of the debate.

Obama Lies, CNN Buys

2012-01-27T07:08:00.000-08:00

For most of his life, Barack Hussein Obama has been a committed socialist. Now, he claims he isn't and never was. Of course, rather than investigate, CNN just takes his word for it.

Journalism at CNN: As the president launches his re-election bid by striking a more centrist tone, the partisan press is helping him whitewash his radical past. Teamwork or not, it'll be hard to bleach.

Exhibit A is CNN's Soledad O'Brien. Earlier this week, she hosted a segment that tried to de-link Obama from Chicago socialist Saul Alinsky. The late Alinsky is the father of community organizing and the author of the far-left bible "Rules for Radicals."

O'Brien opened her piece by scolding GOP front-runner Newt Gingrich for warning Obama "will represent Saul Alinsky (and) European socialism" in a second term. "President Obama has never said that he was influenced by Alinsky," O'Brien insisted.

Of course he hasn't. He's not stupid enough to publicly link himself to a socialist. But the record is clear that he was in fact influenced by Alinsky, if only CNN's "journalists" would do their homework. Allow us to do it for them:

• Obama first learned Alinsky's rules in the 1980s, when Alinskyite radicals with the Chicago-based Alinsky group Gamaliel Foundation recruited, hired, trained and paid him as a community organizer in South Side Chicago. (Gamaliel's website expressly states it grew out of the Alinsky movement.)

• In 1988, Obama even wrote a chapter for the book "After Alinsky: Community Organizing in Illinois," in which he lamented organizers' "lack of power" in implementing change.

• Gamaliel board member John McKnight, a hard-core student of Alinsky, penned a letter for Obama to help him get into Harvard Law School.

• Obama took a break from his Harvard studies to travel to Los Angeles for eight days of intense training at Alinsky's Industrial Areas Foundation, a station of the cross for acolytes.

• In turn, he trained other community organizers in Alinsky agitation tactics.

• Obama also taught Alinsky's "Power Analysis" methods at the University of Chicago.

Stop The USS John Murtha

2012-01-27T06:11:00.000-08:00

The last of the so-called Haditha marines has been exonerated. John Murtha smeared them on national television as cold-blooded killers. And he deserves to have a ship named after him?

Now there is a movement to stop the US Navy from honoring this antiwar Democrat with a ship in his name.

No Murtha Ship! has been created by concerned Navy veterans and their supporters who believe that politicians like John Murtha should be indicted, not celebrated. We are led by Larry Bailey, a retired Navy Captain who spent 27 years as a Navy SEAL.

Larry announced the launch of No Murtha Ship this week after the 8th and final Haditha Marine was exonerated.
Folks, this is the official launch of our effort to convince the Secretary of the Navy that LPD-26, the ship that is to be launched next year, should be named after either a great American city (like her sister LPD, the USS San Antonio) or a true American hero.

Here is our brand-new website: http://www.nomurthaship.com Take a look. Scott Swett did a great job of putting it up, and Linda Eddy did a great job of designing our logo.

We intend to serve notice on Navy Secretary Ray Mabus that it is intolerable to name this fine vessel after John P. Murtha, arguably (and demonstrably) one of the most corrupt politicians ever to sit in Congress.
It should be made clear that we are not connected to any political party or movement; we just want our Navy’s ships to be named appropriately.

Pass the word, please, to your mailing lists. And tell recipients that any money raised over what our actual costs are (website management, advertisements, etc.) will be donated to a worthy military charity. Nobody is on salary, but contributions will be required to keep us up and running.

You will note that checks must be made out to “Larry Bailey/Sink Murtha.” That is because my bank (USAA Bank) would not allow me to open an account under an organizational name. We also have a PayPal account, as you’ll see on the website.

You have my permission to simply forward this e-mail. However you pass the word is all right with me; just get the message out there that we will not allow a corrupt congressman to be honored by the US Navy!

Many thanks to you all!
Larry Bailey

If Romney's 14% Tax Rate Is Too Low...

2012-01-27T05:51:00.000-08:00

...Then what does Harry Reid think about General Electric's zero percent tax rate.

Actually, Romney's effective tax rate is closer to 45%.

No Need For Global Warming Panic

2012-01-27T05:40:00.000-08:00

According to sixteen climate scientists who can't be bought or bullied.

A candidate for public office in any contemporary democracy may have to consider what, if anything, to do about "global warming." Candidates should understand that the oft-repeated claim that nearly all scientists demand that something dramatic be done to stop global warming is not true. In fact, a large and growing number of distinguished scientists and engineers do not agree that drastic actions on global warming are needed.

In September, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Ivar Giaever, a supporter of President Obama in the last election, publicly resigned from the American Physical Society (APS) with a letter that begins: "I did not renew [my membership] because I cannot live with the [APS policy] statement: 'The evidence is incontrovertible: Global warming is occurring. If no mitigating actions are taken, significant disruptions in the Earth's physical and ecological systems, social systems, security and human health are likely to occur. We must reduce emissions of greenhouse gases beginning now.' In the APS it is OK to discuss whether the mass of the proton changes over time and how a multi-universe behaves, but the evidence of global warming is incontrovertible?"

In spite of a multidecade international campaign to enforce the message that increasing amounts of the "pollutant" carbon dioxide will destroy civilization, large numbers of scientists, many very prominent, share the opinions of Dr. Giaever. And the number of scientific "heretics" is growing with each passing year. The reason is a collection of stubborn scientific facts.

Check Your Brain At The Door Before Working For The Washington Post

2012-01-27T05:36:00.000-08:00

Josh White is clueless when it comes to fathoming the motives of a jihadi.

Would someone please buy the Washington Post's Josh White a clue? He can't seem to get a handle on the "motive" for the actions of Yonathan Melaku (actually, I think White is pretending).

Melaku has just pleaded guilty and will be sentenced to 25 years in jail. Authorities say he vandalized military grave markers, shot at the Pentagon and military museums, and was working on an improvised explosive device. But the headline to White's story (HT Atlas Shrugs) and the reporter's content act as if no one has the foggiest idea what drop Melaku to do what he did.

More Money Down The Shit Hole

2012-01-27T05:28:00.000-08:00

More green economics. If this shakes out as other green subsidies have, we'll learn that your green goes into the pockets of Obama political allies and working people lose their jobs.

Ener1 subsidiary EnerDel received a $118 million stimulus grant from the Energy Department in 2009, and Vice President Joe Biden visited the company's new battery plant in Indiana last year.

Ener1 is the third company to seek bankruptcy protection after receiving assistance from the Energy Department under the economic stimulus law. California solar panel maker Solyndra Inc. and Beacon Power, a Massachusetts energy-storage firm, declared bankruptcy last year. Solyndra received a $528 million federal loan, while Beacon Power got a $43 million loan guarantee.

Solyndra, of Fremont, Calif., was the first renewable-energy company to receive a loan guarantee under the 2009 stimulus law, and the Obama administration frequently touted it as a model for its clean energy program.

Since then, the company's implosion and revelations that the administration hurried a review of the loan in time for a 2009 groundbreaking has become an embarrassment for President Barack Obama and a rallying cry for GOP critics of the administration's green energy program.

Visit France!

2012-01-26T17:13:00.000-08:00

Americans Banned From Escaping Egypt

2012-01-26T17:10:00.000-08:00

How's that Arab Spring going? About as well as smart diplomacy I'd say.

Six Americans working for publicly funded U.S. organizations promoting democracy in Egypt have been barred from leaving the country, provoking angry demands in Washington that Cairo's new military rulers stop "endangering American lives".

Among those hit by travel bans - one of those targeted called it "de facto detention" - is a son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, as well as other foreign staffers of the International Republican Institute and National Democratic Institute, officials at the two organizations said.

The United States said Egypt should reverse them: "We are urging the government of Egypt to lift these restrictions immediately and allow these folks to come home as soon as possible," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

"We are trying to get them free to travel as soon as possible, and we're hopeful that we can resolve this in coming days," she said.

A month after police raided the Cairo offices of the IRI, NDI and eight other non-governmental organizations, it raises the stakes for Washington, which had already indicated it may review the $1.3 billion it gives the Egyptian military each year if the probe into alleged breaches of local regulations went on.

Some see it as a poor omen for Egypt's fledgling democracy following last year's overthrow of Hosni Mubarak.

Ya think? Reuters is really sticking its neck out on that one.

You Open The State Of The Union With, "I Got Bin Laden?"

2012-01-26T07:08:00.000-08:00

Even Jon Stewart is tiring of Obama's schtick. In Obama's defense, what else does he have?

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Congress Resists Obeying The Law

2012-01-26T06:14:00.000-08:00

Immunity from insider trading provides Congressmen with a route to "legal" bribery. And bribery is the primary revenue stream for most of these scum. And they don't want to turn that money spigot off.

President Obama’s plea to ban Congressional insider trading may poll well and have bipartisan support, but it’s already facing stiff resistance from lawmakers the morning after his State of the Union address.

On Tuesday night, the president spoke in no uncertain terms: “Send me a bill that bans insider trading by Members of Congress, and I will sign it tomorrow,” he said. “Let’s limit any elected official from owning stock in industries they impact.” The remarks were cause for celebration for Breitbart editor Peter Schweizer, who authored a 2011 book exposing Congressional insider trading, and 60 Minutes , which ran a widely-viewed segment based on his book (CBS quicklyuploaded the portion of the speech last night). But early reactions from Congress (Republicans and Democrats) shouldn’t encourage much optimism.

The Tim Geithner Precedent

2012-01-26T06:07:00.000-08:00

Thirty six Obama staffers owe $833,000 in back taxes.

A new report just out from the Internal Revenue Service reveals that 36 of President Obama's executive office staff owe the country $833,970 in back taxes. These people working for Mr. Fair Share apparently haven't paid any share, let alone their fair share.

Previous reports have shown how well-paid Obama's White House staff is, with 457 aides pulling down more than $37 million last year. That's up seven workers and nearly $4 million from the Bush administration's last year.

Nearly one-third of Obama's aides make more than $100,000 with 21 being paid the top White House salary of $172,200, each.

The IRS' 2010 delinquent tax revelations come as part of a required annual agency report on federal employees' tax compliance. Turns out, an awful lot of folks being paid by taxpayers are not paying their own income taxes.

President Thin Skin

2012-01-26T06:04:00.000-08:00

Worship Him or feel his wrath.

The Purpose Of Public Schools Is To Fatten Unions

2012-01-26T05:49:00.000-08:00

And not the education of children. According to the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Watch the video and see the sparks fly. Note in particular how Dean, trying to make the case that teacher unions support reform, cites a charter school in NYC established by a teachers union. Scarborough pounces, essentially calling the school a Potemkin village designed to give the unions cover and provide talking points to their defenders like Dean.

What The US Can Learn From Canada

2012-01-26T05:40:00.000-08:00

The green economy sucks.

If Canada’s “green” media — especially in the Parliamentary Press Gallery — demanded the same standards of accountability of themselves as they do of politicians, they would be killing entire forests right now apologizing to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Why? Because in sidestepping the economically suicidal stampede onto the green energy bandwagon which they relentlessly shilled for, Harper was right and they — along with the Liberals, NDP, Bloc and Greens — were wrong.

Today, so-called “green” energy is in retreat all over the developed world, as taxpayers and consumers in countries that blindly raced into it are in open revolt against paying exorbitant, ever-rising prices for unreliable, inefficient power sources that don’t lower carbon dioxide emissions.

Germany is poised to slash public subsidies for solar energy — which sent shares in solar companies crashing world-wide — because it can’t afford the grossly inflated, 20-year feed-in-tariffs it has been paying for energy that’s so unreliable. It has had to import nuclear power from France and the Czech Republic this winter to avoid blackouts, plus restart an old, oil-fired electricity plant in Austria.

As Germany’s Spiegel Online reported: “Solar energy has gone from being the great white hope to an impediment to a reliable energy supply.”

In the U.K., an all-party alliance of MPs has been formed to fight the proliferation of wind turbines, amidst public fury over higher energy prices, unreliability and the problems it has caused for the nation’s electricity grid. Even world-famous U.K. environmentalist James Lovelock, who supports nuclear power, has described wind turbines as useless and growing blights on the landscape.

It’s the same story across Europe, whose seven-year-old cap-and-trade carbon market, the Emissions Trading Scheme, is in disarray, with electricity and consumer prices rising, multi-billion-dollar frauds and no reduction in emissions. In Tuesday’s State of the Union address, Barack Obama ignored the growing list of alternative energy fiascos in the U.S., including taxpayers losing $535 million in the bankruptcy of Solyndra, the California solar company that was his poster-child for green energy.

Instead, showing incredible hypocrisy, given his cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline, Obama bragged about having opened “millions of new acres for oil and gas exploration” in the U.S. and “directing my administration to open more than 75% of our potential offshore oil and gas resources.”

I really don't understand why the Toronto Sun finds Obama's hypocrisy "incredible." I would startled if he ever exhibited authenticity.

Nancy Pelosi Is Full Of Shit

2012-01-25T17:15:00.001-08:00

And venom. According to Nancy Pelosi's office, she really doesn't have the incriminating or embarrassing information that she threatened to release yesterday.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s office on Wednesday said the minority leader doesn’t have any dirt on Newt Gingrich.

Pelosi has suggested in two interviews that she knows something that could prevent Gingrich from becoming president, but her office said the California Democrat doesn’t have any secrets about Gingrich, who has shot to the top of national Republican polls after winning the South Carolina primary.

"The 'something' Leader Pelosi knows is that Newt Gingrich will not be President of the United States. She made that clear last night," Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said in a statement.

Gingrich answered Pelosi's smear by telling her to "put up or shut up." She can't do the former and lacks the intelligence or emotional maturity for the latter.

"I have a simple challenge for Speaker Pelosi...you know, put up or shut up. I mean, I have no idea what she's talking about. I don't think she has any idea what she's talking about, but bring it on," Newt Gingrich said on The Washington Times affiliated radio program "America's Morning News"

Everybody (Else) Must Sacrifice

2012-01-25T17:15:00.000-08:00

How about that $2400 cocktail dress that Michelle Obama wore to the State of the Union address?

While the president spoke about the economic frustrations of average Americans in his State of the Union address Tuesday night, his wife, Michelle Obama appeared at the event in a sapphire blue dress from designer Barbara Tfank’s 2012 Resort collection, estimated to cost over $2k.

The first lady’s press office, however is mum on dress, telling The Daily Caller that they will not offer comment “as of right now.”

Tfanks, a West Coast designer, recently described the dress as “a criss cross bodice cap-sleeved slim dress in silk twill,” to The Hollywood Reporter.

The first lady also wore a Tfanks in 2010 to meet Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace for a Medal of Honor ceremony.

The price is not listed on Tfanks collection, however People Magazine has pinned the cost at $2,400.

What would expect from someone who demands that the taxpayer feed her Kobe beef steak and arugula for dinner and wears $540 sneakers to homeless shelters.

The Mind Of A Sniper

2012-01-25T17:08:00.000-08:00

"[T]he snipers she studied were rational and intelligent young men."

Snipers almost never referred to the men they killed as targets, or used animal or machine metaphors. Some interviewees even said that their victims were legitimate warriors.

"Here is someone whose friends love him and I am sure he is a good person because he does this out of ideology," said one sniper who watched through his scope as a family mourned the man he had just shot. "But we from our side have prevented the killing of innocents, so we are not sorry about it."

This justification - which was supported by friends, family and wider Israeli society - could be one reason why the snipers didn't report any trauma after killing, she suggests.

"Being prepared for all those things that might crack their conviction, actually enabled them to kill without suffering too much."

Obama's Speech Written To The Eighth Grade Level

2012-01-25T07:46:00.000-08:00

The most child like speeches of any modern president. Well, when you consider who his core constituencies are...

Obama's SOTU addresses have the lowest average Flesch-Kincaid score of any modern president; Obama owns three of the six lowest-scoring addresses since FDR

For the third consecutive State of the Union Address, Barack Obama spoke in clear, plain terms.

And for the third straight Address, the President's speech was written at an eighth-grade level.

In Obama's own words: "My message is simple."

But was it too simplistic?

A Smart Politics study of the 70 orally delivered State of the Union Addresses since 1934 finds the text of Obama's 2012 speech to have tallied the third lowest score on the Flesch-Kincaid readability test, at an 8.4 grade level.

Obama also delivered the second lowest scoring address in 2011 (at an 8.1 grade level) and the sixth lowest in 2010 (at an 8.8 grade level)

Obama Versus Jobs

2012-01-25T06:48:00.000-08:00

There's a no-brainer job creation and economic stimulus plan out there and all that Obama has to do is get out of the way. He won't. So Republicans are trying to push him out of the way.

The State Department is bashing House GOP legislation to force approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.

The legislation, which Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) is pushing, “imposes narrow time constraints and creates automatic mandates that prevent an informed decision,” Kerri-Ann Jones, the State Department’s Keystone point woman, says in written testimony set to be delivered to a House Energy and Commerce Committee panel Wednesday morning.

Terry's legislation would put the final verdict on the pipeline into the hands of the independent Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), not the State Department. The bill instructs FERC to issue a permit and limits its discretion to reject the project.

House GOP leadership is weighing attaching the bill to upcoming legislation to extend the payroll tax cut for the rest of the year in an effort to overturn Obama’s decision last week to reject the pipeline.

Of course, doesn't much like economic activity that doesn't fatten his campaign contributor's wallets.

How Many Jobs Did Romney Create At Bain Capital?

2012-01-25T06:25:00.000-08:00

One hell of a lot, by any measure. It's certainly better than the millions destroyed by Barack Hussein Obama.

There are two ways to look at job creation. The first is to look at jobs created and lost in Bain Capital’s companies at the time Romney left Bain Capital at the beginning of 1999. The second is to look at jobs created and lost in those same companies today. This gives Romney and Bain Capital credit for having invested in those companies when they were young. It is inappropriate to include companies that Bain Capital invested in after Romney left because he did not have any impact on those investments.

While it is difficult, if not impossible, to get employment data on all of Bain Capital’s investments, and not all of the data are perfect, it is possible to look at some of the successes and failures to get a sense of magnitudes.
Among Bain Capital’s investments under Romney, the large job creators are clearly Staples and Sports Authority. Both of these were small, young companies when Bain Capital invested in them. Bain invested in Staples when it had only one store, so there were likely fewer than 200 employees at the time. Bain appears to have invested in the Sports Authority when it had fewer than ten stores.

Unfortunately, there are no public data to say how many people were employed at that time. At the end of 1998, Staples had more than 42,000 employees, Sports Authority had almost 14,000, Gartner Group had almost 3,000, and Steel Dynamics had over 500. So at the beginning of 1999, when Romney left Bain Capital, these four companies alone employed almost 60,000 total employees. While some of the job growth at Sports Authority came from acquisitions, there is no doubt that these four companies created tens of thousands of jobs over the period.

Fast forward to today. By the end of 2011, Staples had about 89,000 employees. Sports Authority is now a private company. The last time it reported employee numbers, in 2006, it had 14,300 employees. In addition, Gartner Group had over 4,400 and Steel Dynamics had over 6,000 employees. Using the most recently available data, these four companies alone employed almost 125,000 total employees.

Bain Capital also successfully turned around several existing businesses during Romney’s tenure. For example, Bain Capital bought Wesley Jessen Vision Care for $6 million in 1994. It had been a division of Schering Plough and was not profitable. Bain Capital and a new CEO turned it around and sold it to Ciba Geigy for over $300 million in 2001. When it was sold, it appears to have had 2,600 employees. Today, the company is part of Ciba Vision.

Stephanopolous Stops Pretending

2012-01-25T06:15:00.000-08:00

And simply reads DNC propaganda right off the page. He used to take the time to put it in his own words.

Question: What do you call it when a former Democratic operative recites an e-mail from the Democratic National Committee to an adviser for a Democratic president? Answer: Good Morning America. On Tuesday, George Stephanopoulos interviewed David Plouffe and began, "[I] got this e-mail from [the] Democratic National Committee...saying Mitt Romney's tax returns release raises more questions than it answers."

Fresh New Obamanomics

2012-01-25T05:48:00.000-08:00

Just like old stale Obamanomics. Higher taxes. More spending. No prospect of recovery.

In an ambitious speech that focused on manufacturing, clean energy investment and educational training as economic opportunities, the president said he wants to return America to prosperity by eliminating inequalities that he claims favor the rich at the expense of the rest. He prioritized extending a payroll tax cut and suggested raising the rates on wealthy Americans to pay for it.

"Right now, we're poised to spend nearly $1 trillion more on what was supposed to be a temporary tax break for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans," the president said. "Do we want to keep these tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans? Or do we want to keep our investments in everything else -- like education and medical research; a strong military and care for our veterans? Because if we're serious about paying down our debt, we can't do both."

But with an entitlement system that eats away more than 40 percent of the government's annual spending and a $15.2 trillion debt that is expected to rise this week after a Senate vote to lift the debt ceiling once more, some fiscal watchdogs are wondering whether the president is serious about economic recovery.

"The president missed an opportunity to throw down the gauntlet to Congress on the debt and demand a large, bipartisan debt reduction plan this year," said Maya MacGuineas, head of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. "We've punted on this issue for far too long, and the longer we wait the more difficult it will be to control rising debt and the closer we get to a potential crisis."

"Where's the guts? Where's the hard stuff? Where's the beef?" Alan Simpson, co-chairman of the president's commission on debt and deficits, asked on Fox Business Network.

Republican SOTU Guests Include Americans Harmed By Obama's Pipeline Denial

2012-01-24T17:12:00.000-08:00

Do something like this every day.

President Barack Obama might not be addressing his refusal to green-light the Keystone XL pipeline project during his State of the Union address, but House Speaker John Boehner is trying to keep the issue front and center — announcing Tuesday afternoon that his guests for the Tuesday night speech will be some of the people “hurt by” the president’s denial of the Keystone permit.

Boehner will host four local leaders in the House gallery Tuesday, who he says were harmed by the president’s failure to approve the pipeline from Canada to Texas, a project that would create an estimated 20,000 jobs.

“President Obama’s rejection of the Keystone project has caused a public outcry and provided another example of how his policies are making our economy worse,” Boehner said in a statement.

Obama Supporter Warren Buffett The Big Winner In Obama's Keystone XL Denial

2012-01-24T15:21:00.000-08:00

You can't see this article anymore on the original site. So, I'm posting screen shots.

In Obama's Green Economy

2012-01-24T06:17:00.000-08:00

The leisure environmentalists prosper. Everyone else suffers.

[W]hen it comes to the environment, the president showers favors on the rich while punishing the poor.

During last year's Occupy Wall Street protests, Obama expressed sympathy with calls for more "green" policies from the self-styled advocates for the 99 percent. So far, however, the environmental agenda has overwhelmingly favored the 1 percent.

Consider the Obama administration's subsidies for electric vehicles. To start with, there is the $7,500 credit for the car itself. Add to that the recently expired $1,000 credit for installation of a 220-volt charger.

And on top of these, the government has thrown more than $3 billion at the Chevrolet Volt alone -- which totals out to $250,000 per vehicle. Not only do these credits go to corporate giants like General Motors, they subsidize cars for the wealthy.

The Volt sells for about $40,000, while the Fisker Karma sells for $100,000 -- well above most Americans' price range. That means that the federal government is again working to benefit the rich so they can drive cars that ease their environmental conscience.

And for what? If 6 million wealthy Americans buy these cars, as the president hopes, it will reduce oil consumption nationwide by less than 1 percent.

OK, so Obama's environmental policies are subsidizing the rich, but they're helping the poor, too, right? Wrong. In fact, nearly every environmental policy hurts the poor the most.

Obama's A Failure, By His Own Measure

2012-01-24T06:06:00.000-08:00

He has managed to make the rich, richer with no trickle down.

Corporate profits under Obama have climbed 68%, and companies are sitting on a record pile of cash — more than $2 trillion. The Dow is up about 50%.

Those gains haven't trickled anywhere. Median family income is down 5% since the Obama "recovery" started in June 2009 — a steeper drop than occurred during the recession itself, according to Sentier Research.

The ranks of the long-term unemployed have grown by 1.5 million, and almost a million have dropped out of the labor force altogether. Even union membership has dropped since he took office.

And income inequality is on the rise, according to the commonly accepted measure used by the Census Bureau. (It was flat during Bush's eight years.)

Obama can't blame Bush for any of this. It all happened on his watch, after the recession ended.

Don't Come To The House Floor Dressed Like A Bum

2012-01-24T06:01:00.000-08:00

No one wants to see your moobs Barney!

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Monday told members to dress appropriately on the House floor.

He did so while giving members a three-minute reminder of how they can ensure adherence to proper floor procedures, including the dress code.

"Members should wear appropriate business attire during all sittings of the House, however brief their presence on the floor might be," Boehner said. He then added mischievously, "You know who you are," drawing laughter from the seated House members.

What Obama Hath Wrought

2012-01-23T19:08:00.000-08:00

Hope or change?

So far, during the presidency of Barack Obama, the price of a gallon of gasoline has jumped 83 percent, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

During the same period, the price of ground beef has gone up 24 percent and price of bacon has gone up 22 percent.

NLRB Appointee Still Drawing Paychecks From A Union

2012-01-23T17:30:00.000-08:00

Corruption? What corruption?

Financial disclosure documents filed by two of President Obama’s illegal appointments to the National Labor Relations Board show that one will continue to receive payments from a major labor union during his time on the board.

Richard Griffin, the former general counsel for the International Union of Operating Engineers, will receive regular payments under two different IUOE pension plans. The payment amounts are not listed on the disclosure form. He will also receive a single lump sum payment equal to three weeks of salary (one week for each of the three years since he enrolled in the plan). Griffin’s annual salary as the IUOE’s general counsel was $376,778, according to the disclosure form.

In his capacity as general counsel, we have noted, Griffin advanced policies that helped insulate corrupt union leaders from challenge.

The Lies Obama KNEW He Was Telling

2012-01-23T17:12:00.000-08:00

A great deal of what Obama has done is a consequence of his abysmal ignorance. However, a recently revealed letter from the head of Obama's Council of Economic Advisers reveals that in some very big instances, Obama knew he was bullshitting the American people.

Number 1 through 3, and you didn't already know this, then you'd have to be a either moron or a mainstream news media journalist:

1. The stimulus was about implementing the Obama agenda.
The short-run economic imperative was to identify as many campaign promises or high priority items that would spend out quickly and be inherently temporary. … The stimulus package is a key tool for advancing clean energy goals and fulfilling a number of campaign commitments.
2. Team Obama knows these deficits are dangerous (although it has offered no long-term plan to deal with them).
Closing the gap between what the campaign proposed and the estimates of the campaign offsets would require scaling back proposals by about $100 billion annually or adding new offsets totaling the same. Even this, however, would leave an average deficit over the next decade that would be worse than any post-World War II decade. This would be entirely unsustainable and could cause serious economic problems in the both the short run and the long run.
3. Obamanomics was pricier than advertised.
Your campaign proposals add about $100 billion per year to the deficit largely because rescoring indicates that some of your revenue raisers do not raise as much as the campaign assumed and some of your proposals cost more than the campaign assumed. … Treasury estimates that repealing the tax cuts above $250,000 would raise about $40 billion less than the campaign assumed. … The health plan is about $10 billion more costly than the campaign estimated and the health savings are about $25 billion lower than the campaign estimated.

A Huge Windfall For California

2012-01-23T07:18:00.000-08:00

Chronically broke California is sitting on a huge oil reserve. All that's needed is some enlightened political leadership.

Never mind.

Yet another emerging shale play is in the making.

Don’t yawn – this one is different.

It’s old, but new again – and Big.

We’re talking the Miocene-age Monterey shale in southern California that’s been produced in one way or another for more than 100 years.

“Almost all the oil in California has been sourced by the Monterey,” said AAPG member Marc Kamerling, senior geologist at Denver-based Venoco Inc. “Only a small percentage has come from other source rocks.”

To put this in perspective, the Monterey has sourced producing giants such as the Kern River, Elk Hills and Midway-Sunset fields, to name a few.

It’s the source rock for about 37 to 38 billion barrels in conventional traps such as sandstones, according to Kamerling. All told, it’s estimated to contain more than 500 billion barrels of oil in place.

Along with the copious amounts of Monterey oil being produced from conventional reservoirs, there’s also production from the shale itself. In fact, the rock produced in the Santa Maria Basin as far back as 1900.

“Historically, production goes all the way from outcrops mined early on to the very deep,” said Mike Edwards, vice president of corporate and investor relations at Venoco. “The Alcatraz Asphalt Company had a couple of open pit mines along the Santa Barbara coast, and a mine shaft they used now sits below the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara.”

The new tools and technologies spawned by the many still-relatively new shale plays across the United States have encouraged companies such as Venoco to look at the Monterey shale in a whole new way, i.e., an unconventional play with enormous production potential.

Obama Fails To Deport Felon - 3 Dead

2012-01-23T07:16:00.000-08:00

Barack Hussein Obama's immigration policy pays another dividend.

When burglar Kesler Dufrene became a twice-convicted felon in 2006, a Bradenton judge shipped him to prison for five years. And because of his convictions, an immigration judge ordered Dufrene deported to his native Haiti.

That never happened.

Instead, when Dufrene’s state prison term was up, Miami immigration authorities in October 2010 released him from custody. Two months later, North Miami police say, he slaughtered three people, including a 15-year-old girl in a murder case that remains as baffling today as it did the afternoon the bodies were discovered...

...The episode is a black eye for U.S. authorities, who by law could not detain Dufrene indefinitely after the Obama administration ordered a temporary halt of deportations to the island nation. The deportations were halted because of the carnage wrought by Haiti’s January 2010 earthquake.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/22/2602909/immigration-authorities-released.html#storylink=cpy

Name That Party

2012-01-23T07:12:00.000-08:00

The Des Moines Register neglects to mention the party affiliation of an Obama operative arrested in identity theft scandal.

Gee! What possible reason would Edwards want to falsely implicate Schultz in perceived unethical behavior in office? Come to think of it, what is the political affiliation of Edwards? Reading the Register story, one could not guess if not already familiar with Iowa politics or if you are still one of those permanently offline folks. Of course, as is often the case, the detailed background to this story was found that same day on the Web at the Iowa Grounds blog by editor Shane Vander Hart which actually contains more pertinent information in just the headline than the entire Register article...Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz Targeted for Identity Theft by Former Obama Staffer:
Just some background information on Edwards. He works for LINK Strategies, his bio:
Zach Edwards got started in web-based research while based in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2006 . After a stint as a part-time political blogger and local democratic volunteer, he joined the Obama campaign in early 2007 as an intern organizing North-West Las Vegas. In September 2007, Zach joined the Obama New Media department as co-director of the Nevada New Media team and then moved on to direct New Media operations in five other primary states (New Mexico, Texas, North Carolina, and South Dakota).

During the 2008 General Election, Zach was the Iowa Director of New Media. In this capacity, he worked closely with communications, research and field operations to provide cutting-edge organizing tools and new media-based opposition research; which was emulated in battleground states across the country. After the election, Zach began working at Link Strategies as the Director of New Media, where he provides innovative web-based research tools, video analysis and production, and web-based communication tools to assist our clients.

Oh, that explains it…. he worked for Obama. He can also add identity theft to his portfolio, ok maybe not since he doesn’t appear to be very good at it. LINK Strategies is a Democratic lobbying , campaign consulting, opposition research and press shop. It was founded by Jeff Link who has been around the block as a Democratic operative who was formerly U.S. Senator Tom Harkin‘s (D-IA/Bahamas) chief of staff. Harkin is also a client of his. Former U.S. Senator and Presidential Candidate John Edwards (D-Soon to Be In Prison) worked with him on his 2004 campaign. They also ran a press shop for former Democratic Iowa Governors Tom Vilsack and Chet Culver.

American Meteorological Society Despotism

2012-01-23T05:53:00.000-08:00

Agree with us, or we'll shut you up.

A new campaign, Forecast the Facts (www.forecastthefacts.org), launches Sunday to pressure TV meteorologists to inform their viewers about climate change. The launch coincides with the kick-off of the American Meteorological Society’s (AMS) annual meeting in New Orleans, LA.

“This is an important moment in the history of the AMS,” said Daniel Souweine, the campaign’s director. “It’s well known that large numbers of meteorologists are climate change deniers. It’s essential that the AMS Council resist pressure from these deniers and pass the strong statement currently under consideration.”

Obama The Job Killer

2012-01-23T05:44:00.000-08:00

Never let a day pass without reminding Americans about Obama's rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline.

We're All Extremists Now

2012-01-23T05:17:00.000-08:00

Let's face it. Unless you subscribe to Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama's extremist agenda, then you're an extremist.

Democrats seem to have two preferred adjectives to describe Republicans this year-- racist and extremist. Angry charges of "Extremists!" have become common and ubiquitous. Rarely do leading Democrats, such as Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, ever talk about Republicans without adding the charge of extremist. Listen to them and it becomes quite clear that they believe "extremist" Republicans in Congress are the root of all evil. And, that these very "extremists' that are responsible for the American credit-worthiness downgrade, loss of competitiveness, high unemployment, and a sluggish economy. Golly.

Charges of "extremists" Republicans have grown so common, that Democrat leaders such as Wasserman-Shultz have recently taken an even greater leap in logic and lament that fact that these same “extremist” Republicans are responsible for a break down in common civility and even hateful violence. Not only has the main stream media missed the irony of that charge, but all too often they echo the very same charges of “extremism”.

A closer look at what Democrats mean by "extremists" is long overdue--so what (by Democrat standards) does it really mean to be “extreme”?

As Oil Price Soar, Consumers Shiver

2012-01-22T17:29:00.000-08:00

And Obama fiddles.

Gosh, wouldn't it be nice if Canada had great gobs of oil and all we had to do was build a pipeline to bring into the US? Because we can't, we have to struggle with this.

When David Harris built his 2,000-square-foot hilltop home nine years ago, he wanted to put in natural gas, but the utility wouldn’t run a line to his house. Like many people here, he was stuck using heating oil.

Mr. Harris added a wood stove to help cut costs and now uses only about one-third of the oil the house would otherwise need. But that did not stop a deliveryman for Crowley Fuel from handing him a $471.21 bill earlier this month for a refill that should get him to April.

“You just cross your fingers and hope that it doesn’t get too much worse,” Mr. Harris said.
Actually, it probably will — for him and the residents of the roughly eight million other American homes that use heating oil, mostly in a band from Maine to Pennsylvania.

While natural gas prices have plummeted to 10-year lows, heating oil prices have been steadily rising for years and are expected to reach record levels this winter, precipitated by higher costs for crude oil and the shutdown of several crucial refineries in the Northeast and in Europe. The Energy Department projects a price of $3.79 a gallon over the next few months, more than a dollar above the winter average for the last five years. Analysts do not expect much relief in the longer term, either, because global oil prices are expected to stay high amid political instability in the Middle East and rising demand from developing countries.

Arab Spring Releases Arab Bigotry

2012-01-22T15:54:00.000-08:00

Egyptian Islamists emulate Nazi Krystallnacht.

Anti-Christian violence continues in Egypt, according to local sources, the episodes are linked to the attempt of fundamentalist Islamic fringe - Salafis - to block the vote of the religious minority in the next election. On 19 January, a mob attacked the Coptic Christian community of the village of Kebly-Rahmaniya, near the town of Nag Hammadi, Qena governorate, Upper Egypt. The assailants, chanting "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) attacked and burned down houses, huts, shops and businesses (click here to see the video). The raid was also caused two injuries: a 16 year old boy, struck by a bullet and a 40 year old man with facial injuries.

Witnesses quoted by Assyrian International News Agency (AINA) report that Egyptian security forces did not intervene promptly to repel the onslaught and defend the Christians. Even the teams of firefighters delayed their intervention, arriving only 90 minutes after the assault, and when most of the buildings were already in flames. A source adds that a hut belonging to a Coptic Christian was burned to make room for the construction of a mosque. Moreover in the area there are now 300 Muslim places of worship, compared to only one Christian church even though Christians are 50% of the local population.

According to the Copts, the anti-Christian violence is related to the upcoming parliamentary elections: the Salafis, in fact, want to prevent the religious minority from voting which, with its 20 thousand members, can shift the balance of power in the area. The Copts are close to the Muslim moderate wing, which opposes the Islamist front. A witness confirmed that "no Copt from Rahmaniya-Kebly could vote" and that "the Salafis will win the elections."

If the Arab Spring accomplishes nothing else, it will give the world an unobstructed view of Arab culture.

The New York Times Disapproves Of South Carolina

2012-01-22T14:15:00.000-08:00

According to the New York Times, Gingrich's victory in South Carolina was a triumph of racism and a backlash against the leftwing news media. The Times' editors are half right. It was a reaction against the news media. As for racism, isn't there something a bit racist about a newspaper that infers racist code language everywhere?

It was Mr. Gingrich who pulled the race into the gutter, where he found considerable support. He repeatedly called Mr. Obama “the greatest food-stamp president in American history,” and lectured a black questioner at Monday’s debate about the amount of federal handouts to blacks, suggesting their work ethic was questionable.

On Thursday, in the derisive tones of a radio talk-show host, he said Mr. Obama’s cabinet looked like Mickey Mouse and Goofy. At that night’s debate, he lashed into the moderator for asking a perfectly reasonable question about his ex-wife’s allegation that he wanted an open marriage, saying it was typical of an “elite media” that was trying to protect the president by attacking Republicans.

That was just what South Carolina voters wanted to hear, the signal that he would not only challenge Mr. Obama but work to bloody him, to destroy his dignity. As one voter told a reporter, “I think we’ve reached a point where we need someone who’s mean.”

They got that candidate on Saturday. Mr. Gingrich shocked Mr. Romney by making an issue of the jobs he destroyed in his leveraged-buyout firm, and he is clearly prepared to take negative campaigning against Mr. Obama to a new low. In his victory speech, he even descended into Rick Perry territory by accusing the “elite media” of anti-religion bias. Is that really what Republicans across the country want from their nominee, or is South Carolina, with its history of acute racial tension and contrarianism, simply sending a singular, extreme message?

We do need someone a bit mean. We certainly know that Obama, Pelosi, Schumer and Reid will steer the debate into the gutter. And, as the Times and MSNBC frequently demonstrates, the leftwing news media are most comfortable with gutter fighting.

Gabrielle Giffords To Step Down

2012-01-22T12:27:00.000-08:00

To concentrate on her recovery.

Classy lady. She'll be missed. If all Democrats were like her, the world would be a much more civil place. For that matter, if 10% of elected Democrats were as classy as Gabby Giffords, the world would be a perceptibly more civil place.

This is the right decision, for her and her constituents. It's true that her recovery has been miraculous, but she's far from recovering sufficiently to perform her job and she really does have a very long, arduous road ahead of her.

This is a severe disappointment for the Democrats who would have had Giffords mounted by a taxidermist if that was what they had to do to keep her Congressional seat occupied.

Win, Win For Republicans

2012-01-22T08:38:00.000-08:00

The Congressional Research Service rules that Congress may give approval for the Keystone XL pipeline. If John Boehner's office isn't already drafting this legislation, then we need a new leader.

Capitol Hill lawmakers probably have the Constitution at their back if they require a permit for the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline that President Obama rejected days ago, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

Republicans are mulling bills that require approval of Keystone XL, which would bring oil sands crude from Alberta to Gulf Coast refineries.

The Jan. 20 CRS legal analysis notes that while the executive branch has historically handled the approval of border-crossing facilities, it doesn’t have to be that way. “[I]f Congress chose to assert its authority in the area of border crossing facilities, this would likely be considered within its Constitutionally enumerated authority to regulate foreign commerce,” the analysis states.

Republicans are highly unlikely to have enough political support to win Senate passage of bills that require a permit, let alone Obama’s signature. But the CRS analysis may buoy Republicans rallying around the bills to attack Obama’s Jan. 18 denial of TransCanada Corp.’s permit application.

If Harry Reid blocks it, then it will shine a light on why this Congress can't get anything done. If it reaches Obama's desk and he vetoes it, then the light will be on him. If it passes and he signs it, then Republicans get credit for creating jobs. Obama is already on the record opposing it. And who are Republicans going to piss off? Envirnomentalist wackos?

Christine Gregoire Dramatically Embraces Gay Marriage - Yawn

2012-01-21T23:59:00.000-08:00

I have a counter proposal for Governor Christine Gregoire’s gay marriage proposal. Just undo it.

With great fanfare and a dreadful timing, Governor Gregoire ushered in the New Year by announcing that she had overcome her Catholic upbringing and was now in favor of gay marriage.

Now I don’t know why she was blaming priests for her hesitancy on the issue up until now. She has never permitted her faith to interfere with support for abortion. Just one year ago, when Washington was facing an even larger deficit than it is today, Gregoire found enough taxpayer money to underwrite abortions. If I knew more about Catholicism, I’m confident that I could point out other public policy positions that she has taken that were in direct conflict with her faith’s doctrine.

I don’t know the hierarchy of moral transgressions against Catholic doctrine, but as an outsider it would seem that killing unborn babies is a more egregious sin that letting individuals choose their own life partners.

Bringing gay marriage up at this moment is bad timing because the Washington Legislature already has far more urgent business on its docket than social engineering. The legislature has another multibillion dollar spending gap to fill (Yes, I know it’s officially $1.5 billion, but these estimates are always too optimistic.). Contentious social issues are not likely to smooth that process.

And the issue lacks any real urgency because already Washington has what is colloquially known as “everything but marriage” available to same sex couples. That 2009 law conferred upon same sex couples all the rights accorded to heterosexual couples, but stops short of calling the arrangement “marriage.” This law was upheld by a vote of the people later that year.

No doubt that vote helped quell some of Gregoire’s moral anxiety.

Here’s my plan. Get government out of the marriage business entirely and recognize everyone’s marriage as a domestic partnership. Marriage and its definition are the business of religion and not the dominion of government. Domestic partnerships are in the domain of contract law, which is within the bailiwick of government. Instead of leaving government in the business of deciding whose marriage is legitimate, let’s just leave that up to the individuals involved. And if they can convince an ordained pastor of a religion to which they adhere to grant them religious blessings, so be it.

As Thomas Jefferson might have phrased it, “It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.”

A self described conservative Republican gay homosexual lawyer educated me on the issue of gay marriage long ago. He considered the entire debate an intentionally disruptive sideshow. Everything that heterosexual partners get from marriage was equally available to homosexual partners in the form of existing contract law. In his view, that was where government’s authority ended. Consecration of the union was up to religion and, by definition, none of the government’s business.

Governments have already demonstrated that they are entirely incapable of fairly and equally recognizing and managing marriages.

It seems that every few years, a SWAT team somewhere in the US will descend upon a splinter Mormon sect that permits plural marriages and break it up, often sending participants to jail or worse.

And yet, there are plural marriages that the government won’t disturb. The Muslim faith permits men to take up to four wives. And this is not at all unheard of here in the United States. What is unheard of is stories of armed law enforcement teams kicking down the doors of the families involved. That’s probably because one rarely reads stories in the papers about Mormon suicide bombers.

A few years back, pundits Andrew Sullivan and Bill Bennett (both Catholics) were debating the issue of gay marriage. Bennett argued that if gay marriage were permitted in contradiction to thousands of years of tradition, then any limitation was simply arbitrary and therefore certain to be crossed.

What’s to prevent two brothers from marrying, or three men and two women from calling their union a marriage?

Sullivan found the proposition appalling and declared that society would never permit such perversions.

But Sullivan missed the point. Two brothers could probably enter into a union based upon contract law now. So could three men and two women.

We would all be better off if we adhered to Thomas Jefferson’s view of government’s proper role in our lives and stayed out of issues that leave our legs and our pockets unmolested.

Brazilian Oil Headed To China

2012-01-21T18:42:00.000-08:00

Obama lent the Brazilians (and his political ally George Soros) billions to develop their oil discoveries at the same time that he was crippling domestic oil exploration and said that he hoped that Brazilians would sell that oil to the US. But Brazil just told Obama to go stuff himself and contracted with China.

President Barack Obama has suffered the second embarrassment over oil imports within the space of a week. Brazil, whose offshore deposits of oil were sought by the Obama administration, has signed contracts with China for the product.

According to the Washington Times, Brazilian offshore crude may number about 38 billion barrels. Obama went to Brazil last month to put in a bid for the oil, offering loans and other support to develop the oil in an "environmentally responsible matter," The Hill reported at the time. Republicans criticized that initiative, pointing out Obama has placed roadblocks in the way of domestic development of oil and gas reserves.

Brazil's decision comes on the heels of Obama's refusal to permit the building of the Keystone XL pipeline to bring oil from Canada's tar sands in Alberta to Texas oil refineries, according to the Los Angeles Times. The decision was criticized by Republicans as well as union officials who point out that 20,000 jobs the pipeline would bring would therefore not be created.

Obama's policy in regard to oil and gas has been a study in incompetence driven by an ideological mania against hydrocarbon fuel in favor of more politically correct forms of energy production. This has not only led to what amounts to a campaign against oil and gas production in the U.S., but embarrassing scandals such as Solyndra, brought on by unwise federal loan guarantees to dubious green energy companies.

Joe Paterno Near Death

2012-01-21T18:27:00.000-08:00

Family is rushing to his side to be near him in his final minutes.

Obama To Announce His Latest Economic Stimulus Tuesday

2012-01-21T17:58:00.000-08:00

He's had three years to stimulate the economy. If he actually had any idea how to do accomplish that, then why wait until now?

Vilified by the Republicans who want his job, President Barack Obama will stand before the nation Tuesday night determined to frame the election-year debate on his terms, using his State of the Union address to outline a lasting economic recovery that will "work for everyone, not just a wealthy few."

As his most powerful chance to make a case for a second term, the prime-time speech carries enormous political stakes for the Democratic incumbent who presides over a country divided about his performance and pessimistic about the nation's direction. He will try to offer a stark contrast with his opponents by offering a vision of fairness and opportunity for everyone.

So, it appears that Obama's economic is may summarized as spreading the misery.

Motion Picture Association Of America Threatens To Withhold Bribes

2012-01-21T17:52:00.000-08:00

It's president, former Senator Chris Dodd (D-Labrasserie) knows what moves Congress. Bribes certainly moved him when he was in the Senate.

Consumer group Public Knowledge on Friday accused the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and its head, former Sen. Chris Dodd, of trying to intimidate lawmakers into supporting a pair of controversial anti-piracy bills.

In recent days, Dodd and other top Hollywood figures have threatened to cut off campaign donations to politicians who do not support their effort to crackdown on online copyright infringement.

"Those who count on quote 'Hollywood' for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who's going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don't pay any attention to me when my job is at stake," Dodd said on Fox News on Thursday.

"Threats like that are no way to conduct the serious, sober discussions needed to figure out exactly what ails the movie industry and to come up with solutions," Harold Feld, legal director of Public Knowledge, said in a statement. "It was Hollywood’s arrogance in pushing bills through Congress without proper vetting that caused them to be withdrawn; these threats also are not helpful to figuring out what ails the industry and how to solve their issues. As the Blackout Day showed, that type of thinking is how the old politics works."

Do Your Jobs!

2012-01-21T13:07:00.000-08:00

The Washington Post's Ombudsman has some advice for his paper's reporters.

I think there was way too little coverage of his record in the Illinois Senate and U.S. Senate, for example, with one or two notably good exceptions. But there were hard-hitting stories too, even a very tough one on Michelle Obama’s job at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

And that’s what The Post needs to do in covering his reelection campaign this year: be hard-hitting on his record and provide fresh insight and plenty of context to put the past three rough years into perspective.

More than anything else, Obama campaigned and was elected on the promise of change, of changing politics to something less partisan so that Washington would work better. Did he do that? How hard did he try to work with Republicans? How hard did Republicans try to work with him?

How are his, and Congress’s, choices on the financial crisis and bailouts looking now, three years later? Were banks regulated too much or not enough? Was enough done to ease the mortgage and foreclosure problems? What do nonpartisan economists say about this record?

Obama campaigned on health-care reform, and he got a massive bill passed, most of which will not go into effect until 2013 and beyond. How do experts look at it as implementation gets closer — its potential costs and its benefits?

Obama also campaigned on green technologies, and he used the stimulus bill to tilt government spending toward those objectives. How effective has it been, beyond the Solyndra fiasco? Can we get a better handle on how effective the stimulus bill was, or wasn’t, in creating jobs or keeping economic activity from bottoming out?

In foreign policy, Obama campaigned on getting the Middle East peace process moving again. It hasn’t happened. Why not? Is it his fault, or are changes within Israel and the Middle East more broadly to blame? Has Iran’s drive for nuclear technologies been blunted at all?

On the other hand, does anyone seriously believe that the Post even employs a single reporter capable of honestly examining Obama?

State Sheds Jobs, Unemployment Rate Goes Down

2012-01-21T09:26:00.000-08:00

Washington state is using the Obama method for reducing unemployment. Shrink the work force.

The state's unemployment rate slid to 8.5 percent in December, down 0.2 percentage point from November and the lowest jobless level since February 2009, officials said Friday.

But a separate survey of Washington employers suggested the state's economy lost 10,700 jobs last month, led by the professional and business-services sector and the retail sector. The private sector shed 9,500 jobs and the public sector, 1,200 jobs.

Yep, you can reduce the unemployment rate even when losing jobs, just so long as enough people despair of ever finding work again and simply give up and leave the workforce.

Michelle's Health School Menu Creates A Black Market

2012-01-21T09:17:00.000-08:00

For food that actually tastes good.

The revamped school lunches at Los Angeles Unified School District have won awards, commending them for improving the menu at the second largest school district in the nation. Too bad the students don’t agree.

Rejecting healthful alternatives like vegetarian curries and tamales, quinoa salads and pad Thai noodles, students are throwing them in the trash by the thousands, bringing junk food from home and buying instant noodles and other decidedly unhealthy fare from the “black markets” that have begun to thrive at campuses across the district, according to the Los Angeles Times.

China Kills

2012-01-21T05:44:00.000-08:00

With sub-standard medicines.

Hopes of controlling malaria in Africa could be wrecked by criminals who are circulating counterfeit and substandard drugs, threatening millions of lives, scientists are warning.

They are calling for public health authorities to take urgent action to preserve the efficacy of the anti-malarials now being used in the worst-hit areas of the continent.

There has been growing hope of an end to the age-old scourge of malaria, with UN and donor countries having contributed to a massive effort to get modern technological tools to endemic areas, including insecticide-impregnated bed nets and new drugs that had their origins in China, derived from artemisinin plants. Artemisinins have replaced old medicines such as chloroquine and mefloquine in places where the malaria parasite has developed resistance. It is the common fate of anti-malarials, which is why the World Health Organisation has urged that the artemisinins should only be used in combination with other drugs, which delays resistance developing.

But large parts of Africa are threatened by the distribution of fake and poor quality anti-malarials made illicitly in China.

Obama Pipeline Rejection Is Pure Madness

2012-01-20T17:30:00.002-08:00

Actually, it's not insanity. It's zealotry.

President Obama’s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico is an act of national insanity. It isn’t often that a president makes a decision that has no redeeming virtues and — beyond the symbolism — won’t even advance the goals of the groups that demanded it. All it tells us is that Obama is so obsessed with his reelection that, through some sort of political calculus, he believes that placating his environmental supporters will improve his chances.

Aside from the political and public relations victory, environmentalists won’t get much. Stopping the pipeline won’t halt the development of tar sands, to which the Canadian government is committed; therefore, there will be little effect on global-warming emissions. Indeed, Obama’s decision might add to them. If Canada builds a pipeline from Alberta to the Pacific for export to Asia, moving all that oil across the ocean by tanker will create extra emissions. There will also be the risk of added spills.

Now consider how Obama’s decision hurts the United States. For starters, it insults and antagonizes a strong ally; getting future Canadian cooperation on other issues will be harder. Next, it threatens a large source of relatively secure oil that, combined with new discoveries in the United States, could reduce (though not eliminate) our dependence on insecure foreign oil.

Finally, Obama’s decision forgoes all the project’s jobs. There’s some dispute over the magnitude. Project sponsor TransCanada claims 20,000, split between construction (13,000) and manufacturing (7,000) of everything from pumps to control equipment. Apparently, this refers to “job years,” meaning one job for one year. If so, the actual number of jobs would be about half that spread over two years. Whatever the figure, it’s in the thousands and thus important in a country hungering for work. And Keystone XL is precisely the sort of infrastructure project that Obama claims to favor.

The big winners are the Chinese.

Supreme Court Tosses Out Dishonest Texas Redistricting Map

2012-01-20T17:30:00.001-08:00

Democrats gained this map by deceiving the courts in the first place. It should be thrown out.

In its first ruling on political boundary-drawing based on the 2010 U.S. Census, the high court unanimously set aside the interim maps created by federal district court judges in San Antonio.

The high court said it was unclear whether the judges in Texas followed the appropriate standards and sent the cases back for further proceedings.

At issue were the maps that Texas will use in its primary contests set for April 3 that will decide party candidates for congressional and state legislature elections in November.

The dispute had been closely watched because it could help decide whether Republicans or Democrats gain as many as four seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in November.

Texas Republican officials appealed to the Supreme Court, said the lower-court overstepped its authority and argued the judges should have deferred to the maps drawn by the elected lawmakers. Those maps favor Republican candidates.

The officials won at least a partial victory, though the court stopped short of adopting the maps drawn by the Republican-dominated legislature.

The Supreme Court ruled that the judges appeared to have unnecessarily ignored the state's plans in drawing certain districts and those maps can at least be used as a starting point.

Illinois Raises Taxes And Still Can't Pay Its Bills

2012-01-20T17:30:00.000-08:00

Catastrophic liberal failure. And it's the path that California and New York continue to follow.

As WBBM Newsradio’s Regine Schlesinger reports, officially, the state has a backlog of more than $4.25 billion in unpaid bills.

But Illinois State Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka says when one factors in other bills, the figure is closer to around $8.5 billion.

Those other outstanding bills include tax refunds, employee health insurance, and bills that have not yet reached her desk.

Topinka says this is extremely disappointing, since a year ago, the state sharply increased income taxes (by 67 percent) and corporate taxes.

“After the largest tax hike in our history, the state continues to be in this precarious fiscal position with persistent payment delays, and frankly, the situation is unlikely to significantly improve in the near term,” she said.

If You've Been Wondering Why Obama's Justice Department Has Refrained From Prosecuting Obvious Mortgage Fraud?

2012-01-20T17:29:00.000-08:00

I thought that it was just that the biggest players were highly influential Democrats such as Franklin Raines, James Johnson, Rahm Emmanuel, Jamie Gorelick, Janet Reno, etc. But it could be that Eric Holder and his top lieutenant are up to their necks in it.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Lanny Breuer, head of the Justice Department's criminal division, were partners for years at a Washington law firm that represented a Who's Who of big banks and other companies at the center of alleged foreclosure fraud, a Reuters inquiry shows.

The firm, Covington & Burling, is one of Washington's biggest white shoe law firms. Law professors and other federal ethics experts said that federal conflict of interest rules required Holder and Breuer to recuse themselves from any Justice Department decisions relating to law firm clients they personally had done work for.

Both the Justice Department and Covington declined to say if either official had personally worked on matters for the big mortgage industry clients. Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said Holder and Breuer had complied fully with conflict of interest regulations, but she declined to say if they had recused themselves from any matters related to the former clients.

Reuters reported in December that under Holder and Breuer, the Justice Department hasn't brought any criminal cases against big banks or other companies involved in mortgage servicing, even though copious evidence has surfaced of apparent criminal violations in foreclosure cases.

The evidence, including records from federal and state courts and local clerks' offices around the country, shows widespread forgery, perjury, obstruction of justice, and illegal foreclosures on the homes of thousands of active-duty military personnel.

Because It's Not Their Money, It's Yours

2012-01-20T17:25:00.000-08:00

Why are Solyndra employees destroying millions of dollars in parts?

Afghanistan On Our Border

2012-01-20T17:11:00.000-08:00

Actually, even worse. And Obama is withdrawing the National Guard?

Organized crime-related deaths in one Mexican border state during the first nine months of 2011 exceed the number of Afghan civilians killed in roughly the same period in all of war-torn Afghanistan.

According to the Mexican government, from January through September 2011 2,276 deaths were recorded in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, which borders Texas and New Mexico.

A Nov. 2011 Congressional Research Service (CRS) report states that over nearly the same period – January through October 2011 – 2,177 civilians were killed in Afghanistan, where a U.S.-led war against the Taliban is underway. It did not provide a breakdown of responsibility for that period, but said that in 2010, 75 percent of civilian deaths were attributed to the Taliban and other “anti-government elements.”

Per capita, a person was at least nine times more likely to be murdered in Chihuahua last year than in Afghanistan. (Chihuahua has 3,406,465 inhabitants, according to Mexico’s 2010 census; the CIA World Factbook reports that in July 2011 the estimated population of Afghanistan was 29,835,392.)

Obama Justice Department Takes The Fifth

2012-01-20T17:10:00.000-08:00

Over the Fast and Furious scandal. What does that tell you?

The chief of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona is refusing to testify before Congress regarding Operation Fast and Furious, the federal gun-running scandal that sent U.S. weapons to Mexico.
Patrick J. Cunningham informed the House Oversight Committee late Thursday through his attorney that he will use the Fifth Amendment protection.

Cunningham was ordered Wednesday to appear before Chairman Darrell Issa and the House Oversight Committee regarding his role in the operation that sent more than 2,000 guns to the Sinaloa Cartel. Guns from the failed operation were found at the murder scene of Border Agent Brian Terry.

The letter from Cunningham’s Washington DC attorney stunned congressional staff. Last week, Cunningham, the second highest ranking U.S. Attorney in Arizona, was scheduled to appear before Issa‘s committee voluntarily. Then, he declined and Issa issued a subpoena.

William Shatner Goes Out With A Bang

2012-01-20T07:30:00.000-08:00

The only way he could.

Obama's DOJ Nothing More Than An ACORN Surrogate

2012-01-20T06:14:00.000-08:00

It made news when Congress cut off ACORN's federal funding. Big deal. ACORN simply subsumed the Department of Justice.

[D]ocuments obtained recently by Judicial Watch via the Freedom of Information Act suggest that President Obama -- who was employed by Project Vote as a community organizer early in his career -- and Attorney General Eric Holder have no qualms about working closely with present and former ACORN and Project Vote operatives on voter registration drives aimed at people on public assistance.

Take, for example, an April 2009 letter to deputy assistant attorney general Sam Hirsh from former ACORN attorney and current Project Vote director of advocacy Estelle Rogers. She described preparations for a subsequent meeting about Department of Justice plans concerning National Voter Registration Act litigation in states deemed not being sufficiently aggressive in registering public assistance recipients.

Among those to be included in the meeting, according to the Rogers letter, were Nicole Kovite, director of the public agency project for Project Vote; Spencer Overton, deputy assistant attorney general for legal policy; Cecilia Munoz, then-director of intergovernmental affairs in the Obama White House; and Tino Cuellar, special assistant to the president for justice and regulatory policy. Munoz was recently promoted to chief domestic advisor to Obama.

Obama's Desperation

2012-01-20T06:09:00.000-08:00

Even the Obama-friendly Atlantic Monthly thinks that Obama's in big trouble - and he knows it.

Here in South Carolina, all the attention is on the looming primary and on Romney's tax returns. But the most revelatory development over the last 24 hours is that President Obama's re-election campaign is up with its first ad, which strikes a surprisingly defensive tone - especially for a sitting president. The Obama team apparently thought Obama could be vulnerable on ethics -- usually perceived as a relative strong suit for him -- and is defending his record on that front.

News Media Highlight Gingrich's Bitter Ex-Wife

2012-01-20T06:03:00.000-08:00

And could not be less interested in Obama's links to terrorists.

As I watch the media circus surrounding Marianne Gingrich's interview regarding her relationship with her ex-husband and GOP candidate, Newt Gingrich, I am once again reminded of the double standard afforded to the Democrats and Barack Obama in particular. Coming on the heels of the Herman Cain melee in which the press had a field day parading one accuser after another before video cameras, it is difficult not to repeat the question of why the Democrats get a free pass. Why are calls for Mitt Romney to release his tax return not met with calls for Barack Obama to release his college transcripts -- something that is just as customary for presidential candidates?

However, of greater importance in my view is the silence, save for a few journalists and pundits on the right, regarding exposing a videotape recorded in 2003 of Barack Obama at the farewell dinner for terrorist-supporting Palestinian Rashid Khalidi. News of the videotape's existence came to light while Obama was a candidate, and the free pass given to him by the mainstream media was only just beginning to come to light when the enamored Chris Matthews' shared news of the tingle up his leg.

America's Rudest Cities

2012-01-20T06:00:00.000-08:00

All Democrat strongholds. No, liberals are not the kind hearted people the try to convince us they are.

Which is worse when you’re traveling: the local driver who blithely cuts you off in traffic or the surly cabbie who gives you attitude right to your face?

Such skirmishes no doubt fueled this year’s America’s Rudest Cities contest, voted on by Travel + Leisure readers. Three-time-champion Los Angeles, home of road rage, went head-to-head with classically brusque East Coast cities such as Boston, New York and Washington, D.C. — all of which landed in the top five.

New York ultimately claimed the title of No. 1 rudest city, a dubious award determined as part of T+L’s annual America’s Favorite Cities survey, in which readers rank 35 major cities in categories such as the best pizza, the most pedestrian-friendly streets, and even the most reliable wireless coverage.

Even The Washington Post Gags On Obama's Rejection Of Keystone XL Pipeline

2012-01-20T05:44:00.000-08:00

The Washington Post would not be so surprised if it really looked closely at what Obama is. He's a crony capitalist. He only helps those who help him. And, he's a zealot. He had told the world on multiple occasions that he intends to make war on oil. He wants high prices he wants to put fossil fuel companies out of business. This isn't a speculation from conservatives. He has said it himself. The Washington Post et al simply refuse to hear what they don't want to hear.

ON TUESDAY, President Obama’s Jobs Council reminded the nation that it is still hooked on fossil fuels, and will be for a long time. “Continuing to deliver inexpensive and reliable energy,” the council reported, “is going to require the United States to optimize all of its natural resources and construct pathways (pipelines, transmission and distribution) to deliver electricity and fuel.”

It added that regulatory “and permitting obstacles that could threaten the development of some energy projects, negatively impact jobs and weaken our energy infrastructure need to be addressed.”

Mr. Obama’s Jobs Council could start by calling out . . . the Obama administration.

On Wednesday, the State Department announced that it recommended rejecting the application of TransCanada Corp. to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline, and Mr. Obama concurred. The project would have transported heavy, oil-like bitumen from Alberta — and, potentially, from unconventional oil deposits in states such as Montana — to U.S. refineries on the Gulf of Mexico coast.

Environmentalists have fought Keystone XL furiously. In November, the State Department tried to put off the politically dangerous issue until after this year’s election, saying that the project, which had undergone several years of vetting, required further study. But Republicans in Congress unwisely upped the political gamesmanship by mandating that State make a decision by Feb. 21. Following Wednesday’s rejection, TransCanada promised to reapply — so the administration has again punted the final decision until after the election.

We almost hope this was a political call because, on the substance, there should be no question. Without the pipeline, Canada would still export its bitumen — with long-term trends in the global market, it’s far too valuable to keep in the ground — but it would go to China.

ObamaCare Flunks The Physican Test

2012-01-20T05:34:00.000-08:00

Incomes down. Costs not controlled.

It's one thing to mandate insurance for all, but quite another to do so without incentivizing physicians or those considering the profession. In fact, the law does the opposite: For many doctors, there becomes a financial disincentive to practice medicine.

The Association of American Medical Colleges estimates that the USA will be 160,000 physicians short by 2025 (when all patients would be insured under ObamaCare), and this is without even considering those doctors who will limit their practice to insured patients because of decreasing reimbursements or who retire early when faced with increasing costs with little return.

Doctors are catching on fast to the essential deficiencies of ObamaCare, but so are America's patients. The concern of doctors is reflected among the American people: Support for the law has sunk to 29% in the latest Associated Press poll.

Think of ObamaCare as a heavy horse-drawn cart loaded with all of America's patients and best technologies. As the cart gets heavier and heavier, does it make sense that we don't add more horses but instead feed the ones we have less and less while expecting them to pull the additional weight?

I think more and more doctors are going to pull up lame if the law's many shortfalls aren't addressed — and stat.

Bain Capital Saved America

2012-01-20T05:28:00.000-08:00

So it's not coincidental that Barack Hussein Obama paints himself as the opposite of Bain Capital.

Arguably, the primary force that set off the 1980s upheaval in U.S. corporate restructuring was the deregulation begun by Jimmy Carter and continued by Ronald Reagan. Airlines, ground transportation, cable and broadcasting, oil and gas, banking and financial services all experienced regulatory rollback.

Meanwhile, a competitive, globalized marketplace was rising. Management at some of America's biggest companies, confused by these rapid changes, found themselves sitting on huge piles of unused or poorly deployed cash and assets.

Thousands of Mitt Romneys allied with huge pension funds representing colleges, unions and the like, plus a rising cadre of institutional money managers, to force corporate America to reboot. In the 1980s almost half of major U.S. corporations got takeover offers.

Singling out this or that Bain case study amid the jostling and bumping is pointless. This was a historic and necessary cleansing of the Augean stables of the American economy. It caused a positive revolution in U.S. management, financial analysis, incentives, governance and market-based discipline. It led directly to the 1990s boom years. And it gave the U.S. two decades of breathing room while Europe, with some exceptions, choked.

Teachers Union Wants Sex Education In Kindergarten

2012-01-19T06:19:00.000-08:00

Well, why not? They've failed at teaching math, science, English, history...

By the time they leave elementary school, children should be able to “define sexual orientation,” and by the eighth grade be able to “define emergency contraception and its use,” according to a report containing controversial new recommendations for sex education in U.S. public schools.

“Ideally, comprehensive sexuality education should start in kindergarten and continue through 12th grade,” says the “National Sexuality Education Standards” report, drawn up by a range of advocates, academics and public education officials.

The Future of Sex Education (FoSE), an initiative started by sex education advocates, developed the standards “to create a strategic plan for sexuality education policy and implementation.”

Also involved are the American School Health Association, the National Education Association Health Information Network – the non-profit arm of the nation’s largest teacher’s union, the NEA – the American Association for Health Education and the Society of State Leaders of Health and Physical Education.

An advisory committee includes senior officials from Planned Parenthood and the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN).