Monday, February 23. 2009
 A Modest Proposal for CO2 emissions.
I noticed this too. Obama is running hard for reelection already. The family Bush was always above that sort of thing. Dems are "better" pols: They understand the power game better.
11 states skeptical about the Trojan Ponies in the stim bill. Bobby Jindal on accepting stimulus money:
...here's the problem. So many of these things that are called temporary programs end up being permanent government programs. But this one's crystal clear, black and white letter law. The federal stimulus bill says it has to be a permanent change in state law if you take this state money. And so within three years the federal money's gone, we've got now a permanent change in our laws, we have to pay for it, our businesses pay for it. I don't think it makes sense to be raising taxes on Louisiana businesses during these economically challenging times. And what it shows is what we're going to do in the stimulus is we're going to look at every program, every dollar. If it makes sense for Louisiana, makes sense for our taxpayers, we'll use those programs and dollars. If it doesn't, like on Friday we said, "This doesn't make sense for us. This is not a good deal for us." It makes--my job is to represent Louisiana's taxpayers. Makes no sense for us to take temporary federal dollars and create permanent state obligations.
Some states, like some businesses and individuals, can be blinded by greed. Bobby is the Not Obama.
It's not easy to demonize a tall skinny blond-with-a-brain who has a sense of humor, but the MSM has done it - and made her a "controversial" celeb in the process. Love her or hate her, Ann Coulter serves a useful purpose. From Klavan on the Culture:
Look, I don’t always agree with Coulter. She sometimes seems to scream black whenever the media screams white (a strategy that works only about 85 percent of the time). I’m pretty sure we really did evolve from apes—myself within living memory. And I enthusiastically endorse any and all non-bloodletting sex acts done in private between consenting adults—as long as you don’t then ask me to pay for the resulting child, abortion or course of medication.
But the whole way liberals work is to redefine manners and morals in such a fashion that conservative common sense automatically becomes hateful. If you note that women and men are different, you’re misogynistic. If you denounce the destruction of marriage in black communities, you’re racist or moralistic. If you call for the defense of America against the world-wide Islamist menace, you’re a bigoted warmonger. If we take this garbage seriously even for an instant, we spend our whole lives playing catch-up, saying sorry, going on defense.
Coulter’s answering strategy is to blow all that foolishness away. She says the unsayable thing, does it with intelligence, humor and style and gets the world exactly right far more often than not. And did I mention she’s disconcertingly adorable? There’s more good, honest material in a paragraph of her work than in any entire edition of the New York Times. She may be a loose cannon now and then, but somehow the barrel always ends up pointed in the right direction.
Ann loves to stir the pot, but most important is that she keeps things "sayable" that others are too timid to say. I always get a kick out of Ann.
 FYI: Van Morrison's live performance of Astral Weeks, recorded in Nov. 2008, is released this week.
Sunday, February 22. 2009
 I would break that surveillance camera if I were a Brit today. Government monitoring my wine? If I recall, that government was not at Cana.
American Idle. Money! The more irresponsible you are, the more the gummint works for you. Related: What Obama/Reid/Pelosi have planned for you next. This is overreaching, I think, but they are going to do it so fast that nobody can react.
However, the conservatives are coming back to life.
A good time to buy stuff. Everything good is cheap. Will Wilkinson bought a diamond ring. I am buying some stuff too.
Stop the presses. Global warming will create mental health problems in Tasmania.
Where is Octodad? And who needs Dads anyway? h/t, Dr. Helen. A quote:
Out-of-wedlock birth rates in the U.S. are now 38%; among African-Americans the figure is 70%. Fathers of children living with single mothers are far less involved with their children than are married fathers; about a third of all children in single-mother families have not seen their father in the previous year. Yet decades of social science have made it clear: Children who grow up without their fathers experience more poverty, have more problems at school, more trouble with the law -- and more single motherhood in the next generation.
In recent years, medical science has also raised doubts about our frequent desire to wish fathers away. Every week, it seems, science confirms just how much genes matter. Everything from eye color, to propensity to high cholesterol, to a rotten disposition, to talent at math or tennis is encoded, to some degree, in the genetic material passed on from our two biological parents.
Kaus:
...why should taxpayers fork over $30 billion so that UAW workers can continue to make $28 an hour as opposed to, say, $26 an hour or even $24 an hour, which would still be a reasonable wage these days? Or so that GM's bondholders don't have to take a bigger loss? It's not as if other workers--even at companies way more successful than GM broke--aren't taking big wage cuts. ...
"The world is nuts. The country is nuts. The government is nuts." Eat a Sea Kitten. Heck, eat two of 'em. Halibut is my choice.
Certification. It will replace much of "higher ed." Good idea. Plato, sad to say, is not for everybody. There is a natural aristocracy of mind - and I do not claim to be part of it.
The Tea Party is growing. Good fun. Why should moonbats be the only ones to protest? It's patriotic, right?
How Spring Break could pay off the entire US deficit
Oh no! Not a penny for Katrina! Never mind about that Katrina scam. Game over.
A VDH mini-rant. A quote:
Mr. Biden, there is no reason to set the reset button on foreign policy, as you promised all those Europeans. None at all. Tell that resetting stuff instead to Ahmadinejad, Chavez, that Korean nut, Putin, and all the other thugs who kill and cause misery, but not to our America that saves and feeds and helps. Mrs. Clinton, it’s now your turn. We are not impulsive as you told the world. So you can stop apologizing for America’s recent behavior—unless you think the world would be a better place with the Taliban, and Saddam and his two boys in power. Or maybe Europe should have Schroeder and Chirac back, or Libya with nuclear weapons, or Khalid Sheik Mohammed freed from Guantanamo. Or maybe America shouldn’t have given that $15 billion for AIDs relief in Africa, or helped with earthquakes in Pakistan and tsunamis in Indonesia. Now all that was sorta impulsive.”
As he thinks about this apology business, the battered American always gets a little angrier, “And another thing. Mr. Holder, I’ve never said or done a racist thing in my life, not one. Always supported equal opportunity, always will. So don’t call me a “coward” or my countrymen “cowards,” not when you’re my Attorney General. You are The Attorney General of the United States of America, so please, no more playing Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson, leveling the latest shake-down charge on television.
AP analysis: Dems self-destructing over ethics
Courts full of junk science. Can that be fixed?
Is it the dawn of a Newt Age? I hope so.
It's only 5 states with foreclosures. h/t, Insty
Our Socialist friend Stumbling defends bonuses.
Who is to blame? Neither Dodd nor Frank. Course not.
Who was John January? Wow
ACORN breaking into homes, occupying them. Good grief. What are people thinking?
Dems keep trashing the past. It is unbecoming of them. Gentlefolk do not do things like that.
Even the horrible Soros agrees that letting Lehman fail was a big mistake. It was, but I also understand why it was done. I am in golf and cash. I meant gold and cash. And real estate, which changes in value but never disappears. that's why it is called "real."
The NYT omits one inconvenient truth. Yes, the world is getting colder. I can feel it every morning here.
When we release Gitmo creeps.
Jindal rejects gummint $. Good on him. Most state and local governments are acting like whores.
Has anyone seen Lie To Me? I wonder how it is.
As goes California, so goes the country?
California is in a French-like bind: unable to afford a welfare-type state, and unable to overhaul it. "The people say they want all these programs, then there's nothing they want to pay for," says Hector De La Torre, a Democratic assemblyman. "The schizophrenia in the legislature reflects the peoples'."
Train people to act like babies, and they will gladly do so. I have already been asked by many how to take advantage of the stimulus, and so we are working on it. Our clients pay taxes, and they want their piece of the action too. Why not? They will be paying for it, and they aren't stupid.
Saturday, February 21. 2009
Thus far, most corrupt White House ever. Nobody cares.
The Dow under Obama. Related, at Pajamas: Turn Back, Mr. President
Chicago wants surveillance cameras everywhere. Except in their pols' offices, no doubt.
Disagreement with stimulus is racist, claims Congressman
Can we stop talking about race? Mod. Voice
A "kick me" foreign policy. Krauthammer
No correct answers: A solution to the math and science gender gap
Jamie Dimon likes the Admin's mortgage relief plan (video). So does Baseline Scenario
"Let housing find its clearing price." Saft at Reuters. Don't worry - it will.
Friday, February 20. 2009
Thanks, I'll pass.
 David Brooks tries to make the case for showering money on "frauds and greedy idiots" (his words). He does a lot of "we should...for the good of all" talk.
But what he never says is "I, David Brooks, want to shower my own money on frauds and greedy idiots." Of course, he could do that today if he wanted to. All he'd have to do would be to phone a Merced, CA bank and offer to cover somebody's defaulted mortgage. One phone call. He can afford to do that, and so can multi-millionaires Obama, Hillary, Rahm Emanuel, John Kerry, Charlie Rangel, Ted Kennedy, etc. - and zillionaire Dems like Bill Gates, Bob Rubin, George Soros, etc.
Hence our proposal: If every caring Liberal in the USA would do that to the extent of their ability, problem solved. Plus they would get to feel good about themselves, and to prove that they care.
We just want to see some proof. Readers may have seen Jammie Wearing, who noted in our link this morning how MA taxpayers refuse to "help the children" with voluntary tax dollars when given an easy opportunity to do so: "the left wants to have at it with your money, not their own." (All you need to do is to look at all of the Dem tax cheats unearthed this winter. Now we have Al Sharpton too to add to the lengthening list of prominent Dem tax dodgers.)
But to get back to mortgages, it seems clear to me that government mortgage deals, while buying votes, will accomplish little to (artificially) support the prices of housing. After all, the government already does tons of things to distort and to artificially support and inflate housing prices: mortgage interest deductions*, the passing forward of cap gains from a sold house to a new one, the one-time 1/2 million free throw when you sell, etc.
And speaking of enabling dysfunctional behavior, here's a good use of stimulus $: Free housing for drunken bums. Save me a room, just in case.
* The mortage interest deduction raises the price of housing just as the availablility of student loans and scholarships raise the price of college tuition. These things are not favors to us: they are favors for the greedy housing and greedy academic industries, disguised as favors for us.
Photo via Tiger's amusing series of photos from the Denver protest. Me? Unlike The NJ, I don't want a pony. Already have enough equines. I just want a free one-week trip to Siena. Make that 10 days, so I can cover a little more ground.
Thursday, February 19. 2009
Sowell: How government legal threats created the sub-prime mortgage market. Naturally, they didn't want to hold on to that junk, so they packaged it up, and sold it to willing buyers. Totally logical. If you think there aren't people out there who want to buy junk, just check out eBay some time. They once had a booming market in Beanie Babies. Caveat emptor.
Ed. notes:
Related from neoneo: Bubbles and the Tragedy of The Commons
Related from Dino: Grifters get a second chance
I tried hard. Give me an A. It used to be sarcastic to refer to "A for effort."
The plight of the (delusional) Left-wing talkers
Carpentry joke du jour: What's the difference between Jesus and Obama?
Who will qualify for mortgage help? Not speculators. I'm glad about that. This via Insty:
MEGAN MCARDLE ON OBAMA’S HOUSING PLAN: “Well, the obvious point is that it represents a massive transfer to borrowers from lenders and the rest of us. As far as I can tell, there is no penalty for having borrowed more than you could realistically afford to repay–not so much as a speck of dirt on the credit report. The administration’s release talks a lot about ‘responsible homeowners’, but very few responsible homeowners have payments that amount to 43% of their monthly income.”
My take — let’s see what they’ve done with the first trillion before we give them any more money to play with . . . .
Dem culture of corruption: Rahm Emanuel's tricks. And remind me again - how do people with these political jobs become multi-millionaires?
Getting politics involved with the bailout was a big mistake
EPA expected to regulate carbon dioxide. Good grief. The world has gone mad. If they try to regulate fireplaces and wood-burning stoves, we will consider civil disobedience.
How much "authenticity" can a marriage handle?
The ten most famous UFO hoaxes
Redefining "hate speech." Volokh. With rules like those, how can anybody say anything about anybody?
Just name the "disaster":
Let me guess: this disaster can only be forestalled through yet higher taxes and still more suffocating regulations, which coincidentally benefit no one but authoritarian bureauweenies like Michael Bloomberg.
But here's some sanity from Mayor Bloomberg:
"One percent of the households that file in this city pay something like 50% of the taxes," explained the Mayor. "In the city, that's something like 40,000 people. If a handful left, any raise would make it revenue neutral. The question is what's fair. If 1% are paying 50% of the taxes, you want to make it even more?"
Economic warfare? Jules:
We could dicker all day about whether George Bush’s response to the Sept. 11 attacks was appropriate, proportionate, all that. We could argue all day about the same on Obama’s plan. No one sane thinks either man should not have responded in some way. It’s a question of how, how much, and what it gets you. At the current rate, Obama’s economic war will make Bush’s shooting wars look like an exercise in fiscal restraint and a bargain. If Obama’s plan works, fine. War’s over, we all go home. But at what point does Obama’s econ war get a downloadable counter, and when does Congress and the national media start squawking and declare a quagmire?
Wednesday, February 18. 2009
The giant private equity fund Cerberus, which owns Chrysler, wants another 5 billion from the taxpayers to stay in business.
But Cerberus itself refuses to invest further funds into Chrysler. Chrysler, sad to say, is dead. Bury it.
Bloomberg on Merced, CA. I don't know what the big deal is about one's house being underwater. Heck, when you take out a car loan on a new car you are immediately underwater too, paying off a now-used car at a new car price. Nobody promised that housing prices can only go up. The extent of subprime lending still amazes me though, and the willingness of supposedly prudent fiduciary institutions to buy that crap amazes me too. One quote:
U.S. homeowners lost an estimated $3.3 trillion in house value last year, real estate valuation service Zillow said. In California, the state with the most foreclosure filings, the share of underwater owners will rise to a third of all mortgage holders by the end of the year, according to data provider First American LoanPerformance of Santa Ana, California.
Merced, located about 110 miles southeast of San Francisco in California’s agricultural Central Valley, became a housing boom town in the early part of the decade as buyers with subprime loans sought affordable property within commuting distance of Bay Area job centers, said Jeff Michael of the University of the Pacific’s Eberhardt School of Business in Stockton.
Median home prices in Merced rose from $150,000 in January 2002 to a peak $382,750 in December 2005, according to MDA DataQuick, a San Diego-based property research firm. In December 2008, the median stood at $120,500, down 52 percent from a year earlier, as four out of five resales involved properties that had been foreclosed on in the prior 12 months.
 Wooly Mammoths used to live in LA. Not very long ago, either.
But you already knew that (h/t, Jungle Man). They are findling lots more interesting bones, though.
 The moral preening of celeb hypocrites. Paltrow in this case (photo)
Putin warns American Dems against Socialism
Surprise. Chrysler and GM want more $. The populist in me is getting tired of rewarding failure and imprudence.
Waiting for the backlash. P'line
How severe is the economic situation? Dino. Related, the explanation of why Geithner seemed so lame
Deconstructing Krugman. RCP
All of them are British citizens
Style over substance on the economy. Villainous
You mean it's not a quagmire? Surge in Afghanistan begins
Stanford Financial Group and the ongoing Dem culture of corruption. h/t, Insty
What will become of the "Freetown of Christiania"? Sounds like a den of thieves to me.
Something else to panic about. Eastern European debt. Big mess. Another result of cheap money.
Kill The Rich! Am Thinker. But aren't there tons of rich Dems? I'd wager that there are far more filty rich Dems than there are Conservatives. Certainly true in public life, beginning with the Clintons and the Obamas. And heck, Wall Street has been a huge Dem donor source for years.
Hey Will! We're part of the anti-intellectual knuckle-dragging, nose-breathing Right, and we are offended by that. Truth is, 97.4% of the Conservative political brains are in Newt's head.
Bank nationalization gains ground among Repubs
New t-shirts, via Theo:
Tuesday, February 17. 2009
Thanks to Tiger for pointing out a new economic site, Baseline Scenario.
Their global Baseline Scenario, 2/9/09 is a grim but plausible piece. They do a clear job putting the housing bubble in perspective, as one part of a global cheap money house of cards. Furthermore, it is written in English instead of economese.
 She's a Dartmouth gal, and she keeps rifles around the house.
I think she's a Maggie's Farm sort of senator (despite being D-NY). The self-protective instinct seems sadly lacking in the flabby Western world these days. Plus she has a nice, honest smile.
If you get immunized for Polio, you should just as reasonably immunize yourself against the bad guys by being armed. Both dangers are rare, but can really hurt you.
Somebody made her move those guns, though.
 Dem culture of corruption exposed further: Burris in hot water
Is Rep Eric Cantor now targeted for Palinization? (Or should we call it Gingrichization?) Why? See Dem Underground: Repub Party needs to be "eliminated." Liberal fascism, anyone? Why the heck can't we debate issues rationally and in a civil manner?
Teen sexting leads to child porn arrests. Not worth the risk, kids.
Isn't it about time for some government-required "fairness" on TV? PBS' latest outrage.
Has an Afghan surge already begun? I will be skeptical about anything we try to do there, because the place is not a country in any usual sense of the word. It's just a place.
Why don't they love us now? Protests against Hillary in Indonesia. North Korea greets Hillary with threats.
We do not have "unfettered Capitalism" in the US today. We have what's termed a "mixed economy." But if you compare our economy's handling of downturns with Europe and Japan, we handle it better.
Dear Obama: Make it rain candy. Good grief. Maybe we have become a nation of children.
I doubt this would have happened with Bush in office: Pakis make truce with Taliban
Photo: Re our post last night. If Starbucks wants to thrive, I think they should serve booze. Or at least Irish Coffee in the morning.
Monday, February 16. 2009
Starbuck's stock price tracks the economy. Ouch.
As much as we enjoy promoting the simple virtues of Dunkin Donuts here, we have never really been mad at Starbucks. I like their House Blend, and I think the idea of a "third place" to hang out for a while either alone or to meet - which isn't a pub - is a civilized thing.
And, when you think about it, they don't charge any more than a pub would charge you for a drink. As with a pub, you are paying for a place to go to, not for the liquid.
I think they over-reached in their expansion. The are spots in NYC where you can see at least two of them from one corner.
Dunkin is still making money, and, if you don't mind hard plastic chairs, no wireless, no semi-cool CDs for sale, no bean-sprout sandwiches on bread so "natural" that I doubt Medieval serfs would want to eat it, no phony 1/4" thick ambience, and no barristas, Dunkin is still a pleasant "third place" for lots of folks.
Still, for your first e-Harmony get-together, Starbucks is probably a better idea...
 How Democracies become Tyrannies. Am Thinker
Somebody will eat crow. But who? Dino
Men often view naked women as objects. How much did that study cost? (h/t, Theo)
Re Fairness:
Waxman is also interested, say sources, in looking at how the Internet is being used for content and free speech purposes. "It's all about diversity in media," says a House Energy staffer, familiar with the meetings. "Does one radio station or one station group control four of the five most powerful outlets in one community? Do four stations in one region carry Rush Limbaugh, and nothing else during the same time slot? Does one heavily trafficked Internet site present one side of an issue and not link to sites that present alternative views? These are some of the questions the chairman is thinking about right now, and we are going to have an FCC that will finally have the people in place to answer them."
Rowan Williams: "Everybody agrees" that some Sharia would be good
No goat jokes allowed in Europe.
Media needs to be more hysterical about warming, says IPCC official
Is Hannity right about Japan's recession?
Britain literally a police state now. Stumbling
Quagmire: Losing the war on drugs for 40 years
BDS: They just can't get over it. VDH. Related, from John Hawkins:
It's ... worth noting that it was Barack Obama who made unity and bipartisanship a core part of his campaign platform. Granted, Bush ran as a "uniter, not a divider, too" but he actually tried to make it work. He did institute a "new tone." He did partner with Ted Kennedy to write "No Child Left Behind." His payback for his effort to reach out to Democrats was a campaign of demonization unprecedented in the history of American politics. John McCain also promised bipartisanship, but John McCain would have actually made it work by moving his proposals to the left. That's why Republicans like me constantly want to strangle the guy.
Photo above: Train of death, according to James Hansen. Cranks rule the world.
And just one related comment about all of the excitement about electric cars. What do they run on? Coal. Coal is where the electricity comes from. Some people seem to think it comes from magic out of sockets.
Aspiring moonbat Prince of Wales to travel with gigantic carbon footprint to spread warming religion
We used to joke about "thought police." It's become real, in the UK. Spiked
Driving ships through the graveyard of the Pacific. I have run a few bars in my time in boats, and it is scary.
Depressing. What we just did. Surber: "Too bad this bill is born-again communism."
The Obama plans for February. They were serious about changing America.
Have Obamacons been Obamaconned? Q&O. Duh.
Obama to Eastern Europeans: You're on your own. Nice. Looks more and more like Carter.
Who was America's best Presidential speechwriter? Ted Sorensen answers.
Jeb Bush: Make Repubs a national party.
I'd be scared to lend too, with these economic idiots in charge
Sign above from Right Wing Prof. More seriously from him, What have I been saying? College kids are not prepared for college-level work.
Get ready. I don't know what this has to do with stimulus, but the stimulus bill gives the government the power to over-rule your doctor for cost purposes. That is insane, politically and humanly.
Stimulus gives states incentive to add to their welfare rolls.
New York State gets stimulus windfall:
Gov. Paterson called yesterday for fiscal restraint with the massive influx of federal aid. His budget office estimated that New York will receive $24.6 billion over the next two years, $4 billion more than first believed.
Restraint? Haha. Fat chance.
Obama's "shock and awe" will be paying the bill. But what the heck, White House admits stimulus won't do anything.
A few things economists agree upon. Mankiw
From a piece by Paglia:
Speaking of talk radio (which I listen to constantly), I remain incredulous that any Democrat who professes liberal values would give a moment's thought to supporting a return of the Fairness Doctrine to muzzle conservative shows. (My latest manifesto on this subject appeared in my last column.) The failure of liberals to master the vibrant medium of talk radio remains puzzling. To reach the radio audience (whether the topic is sports, politics or car repair), a host must have populist instincts and use the robust common voice. Too many Democrats have become arrogant elitists, speaking down in snide, condescending tones toward tradition-minded middle Americans whom they stereotype as rubes and buffoons. But the bottom line is that government surveillance of the ideological content of talk radio is a shocking first step toward totalitarianism.
One of the nuggets I've gleaned from several radio sources is that Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who has been in the aggressive forefront of the campaign to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine, is married to Tom Athans, who works extensively with left-wing radio organizations and was once the executive vice-president of Air America, the liberal radio syndicate that, despite massive publicity from major media, has failed miserably to win a national audience. Stabenow's outrageous conflict of interest has of course been largely ignored by the prestige press, which should have been demanding that she recuse herself from all political involvement with this issue.
Stimulus is largest increase in government hand-outs in history. Good grief. Yes, we are back to the dole again, undoing Clinton's best deed for the poor. I think the Admin is over-reaching here. Same mistake Clinton made in the beginning. Nobody wants a change back to 1970.
Greenies upset with stimulus' billions for highways. I am actually sympathetic with them. Don't we have highways everywhere? Around here, we have highways to nowhere already.
Do the Blue Dog Dems have any clout anymore? Less, but still some.
Road to Serfdom, in cartoons. We linked this once in the past. h/t, Insty
Stimulus problems, at RCP. A quote:
"If we borrow money from China to give money back to individuals to spend (in the form of tax cuts or tax credits), will their spending eventually go back to China because they use it to make purchases at stores such as Wal-Mart?" she asks.
Which begs a follow-up question: How would that stimulate job growth here?
The current stimulus plan lacks ambition, innovation and creativity, Brown says. Government shouldn't create jobs; it should create markets that spur private companies to create jobs. "The government's job is to speed up the process known as 'creative destruction,' " she says.
Much of the money in the stimulus plan goes to states to help balance their budgets or to programs created long ago -- some successful (such as Pell grants) and some controversial (sexually transmitted disease prevention) -- but not many that are really "new" or experimental.
"Too much for too little" is Brown's assessment of the stimulus package.
Plus I always wonder what happens when China stops wanting to buy our debt...Won't we be in the same position as the banks? Insolvent, with nowhere to borrow and nobody left to tax? Which is precisely where California is right now.
Bumper sticker below from Gay Patriot:
Sunday, February 15. 2009
 What's my house worth? What's yours worth? We all have no idea today. Probably darn little right now - or nothing at all - because I hear there are no bids out there for anything. No bid means no current value or, as they say sort-of euphemistically, a highly "illiquid investment."
I'm glad my place is my home, and not an investment. I wish it were fully paid for.
From Bruce Kesler:
That isn’t my headline. It’s the headline on a report in the Huffington Post from Iraq by a reporter opposed to the war in Iraq writing about another who is opposed, Dahr Jamail.
Shane Liddick is a freelancer out of San Diego, with newspaper and magazine reporting experience, currently in Anbar Province, Iraq. Dahr Jamail is also a freelancer, who has been the darling of the left.
Dahr Jamail’s shoddy anti-Iraq propaganda, indeed invention of false horror stories, has been exposed before. I wrote about him in March 2008, as “an accomplished propagandist and fabulist on Iraq,” with links to Jules Crittenden, Instapundit, and most tellingly to a series of exposes by Denis Keohane. The Keohane exposes can be seen here.
Liddick’s words are direct:
… I saw many of the same things you did. But I've come to very different conclusions. That, I believe, is because you had a pre-existing agenda you were determined to conform evidence to (i.e., war is bad, the U.S. is waging a war, so whatever it's doing in Anbar is bad); and because you're a coward….
He goes on to say -
I still don't think we should be here. But that debate became passé six years ago. Now it's a question of how soon the U.S. gets out and what happens before and after it does. I've met too many good and decent people here to write this place off, smart and hard working Iraqis that want and deserve a first-world existence….
As a journalist, criticizing military policy without talking to the military is completely incompetent. But with you, it goes deeper. You hide behind political artifice to lob your mines of pre-conclusion, like a craven wretch. And really, I think that goes to the solid core of the dregs of the problem. You're not a coward merely because you're afraid to seek the truth when it might not conform to your views ... rather your chickenshit views are shaped by the fact you're a coward….
Nearly every American soldier on the ground--no matter how misguided vis-à-vis the underlying motivations that brought the U.S. to Iraq--is here because of a sincere and genuine desire to help; none of them, I wager, have come to further an empire. Whether it be to fight against terrorism so people back home feel a little safer in skyscrapers, or to relieve a weary Iraqi population of a dictator, they're here for honorable reasons; just as is the case with the majority of those Iraqi soldiers (who still have targets on their foreheads). Which makes your fink agenda a slap in the face to about a million people who have fought and died and lost legs, brothers, and lots of blood in the hope of making something as simple as a secure place to live.
The military has been surprisingly forthcoming with me and all I had to do was ask. Marine Corps Colonel Patrick Malay sat with me on three different occasions, for long discussions about security in his area of operation in Anbar. One thing I learned quickly is that the military's officer corps is filled with the best of America's minds--kids that aced their college entrance exams, were the captains of their ball teams, and had to be nominated by senators to go to the schools they did. These are the guys (along with their much more experienced superiors) that are deciding strategy--and they're fucking smart. I was allowed to sit in on a couple of their high level briefings--again, all I had to do was show some kind of aptitude for objectivity--and I can tell you their comprehension of the situation on the ground is apt, their thinking clever, and their intentions centrally wrapped up with the Iraqi people….
The military's policy is designed from the bottom-up on security. The plan is simple--so simple (in theory), it can't fail. Security will bring outside investment, which will thereby enhance existing security, which will bring more investment, further enhancing security, and so on. It's uncomplicated and it's already working. The lynchpin is security. The people of Anbar want it desperately (I lived with these people for most of the past month, and I can't tell you how desperately they want it) and they need it to be able to rebuild….
The heart of the problem in all of this isn't only with the people of Iraq, it's also with Americans in this age of rapid and uncensored hydra-headed media--and the fact anybody can print anything. The threat there lies in the fact that 80-percent of people in society are grazers (and you can check Chomsky on this, Colonel Malay, or anybody who's served time); non-thinkers that only want to be herded and told what to do. It's those people who read your half-truths online and don't realize you're "independent" for a reason.
I'm phobically allergic to the conservative Republican types the military is rife with, but I've only been in country four months and already I hate liberals. There's plenty of ugliness to report in Iraq (as there are thousands of stories of hope and headway)--and the U.S. military certainly isn't beyond reproach. Nobody's telling you to report on one side or the other. But manipulating the truth because of your own personal biases is wretched and works in the face of progress. The other end of the political spectrum disregards you, Dahr, and now I know why. I thought it was because you're a liar--but you aren't. You don't have enough backbone to be a liar. You're a craven obfuscationist, intent on promoting your agenda at the cost of a menagerie of much braver men and women. ... s.d. liddick
Inflationary warning above from People's Cube via Moonbattery
The WaPo is in love with Obama. But is it love or lust?
Rick Moran isn't:
I hate to say it but we have got to find a way to right the ship at the White House. History has reached out and tapped this novice on the shoulder at a time when there is real danger his bungling will result in a catastrophic economic collapse as bad as the worst in our history.
Mark Steyn not in love with O either: So far, it's been Obomateur Hour. (h/t, Jules)
Stimulus: 1.6 billion for "science." Yes, just "science."
We are not great fans of Geert Wilders, but we are fans of free speech. Atlas has posted his 15 minute film Fitna here.
A rising voice: Rep. Cantor of VA
Ledeen: We are all Fascists now. One quote:
...not one person in a thousand knows what fascist political economy was. Yet during the great economic crisis of the 1930s, fascism was widely regarded as a possible solution, indeed as the only acceptable solution to a spasm that had shaken the entire First World, and beyond. It was hailed as a "third way" between two failed systems (communism and capitalism), retaining the best of each. Private property was preserved, as the role of the state was expanded. This was necessary because the Great Depression was defined as a crisis "of the system," not just a glitch "in the system." And so Mussolini created the "Corporate State," in which, in theory at least, the big national enterprises were entrusted to state ownership (or substantial state ownership) and of course state management. Some of the big "Corporations" lasted a very long time; indeed some have only very recently been privatized, and the state still holds important chunks-so-called "golden shares"-in some of them.
Back in the early thirties, before "fascism" became a pure epithet, leading politicians and economists recognized that it might work, and many believed it was urgently required. When Roosevelt was elected in 1932, in fact, Mussolini personally reviewed his book, Looking Forward, and the Duce's bottom line was, "this guy is one of us."
Fascism, like Socialism and Communism, assumes that politicians are wiser, more far-seeing, and have more integrity and less self-interest than the average person. Also, that the regular person is a feckless dope. Little evidence for that, on average, thus far in history. Politics is just "Hollywood for ugly people," as they say - but also for many who cannot make it in the real world.
Speaking of Fascism, Jerry Brown:
“a little state control (of radio) wouldn’t hurt anybody”
Democracy at work, at Ace:
"We are obviously very pleased with the court's decision ... there's a large chunk of ballots that have now been taken out of play," said Franken lawyer Marc Elias.
The unintended consequences of the executive pay cap. NYT
Sen. Burris: "I forgot." (He's a lawyer, mind you.) But here's the most revolting Dem corruption story of the month.
Sisu on timeless wisdom and hopey-changey socialism. She reminded us of our 2006 post The paradox of conservatism: Seeking power to extend freedom.
Saturday, February 14. 2009
 "Academia outraged" by crucifixes at Boston College
The future for designer babies
A possible relation between Alzheimer's and herpes simplex
Did Obama lie about Caterpillar?
Did you catch that Atlantic swimmer hoax?
Dark comets threaten the earth
How many of our banks are insolvent? Related: Bank recovery stalls on donations to Congress
How Krugman distorts numbers for Dem agenda. It's only blogs that ever call him on it.
Is this a failed presidency already?
Bill Clinton wants more "fairness" on the radio. How come nobody talks about "fairness" on TV?
Photo: A Theo Valentine
Friday, February 13. 2009
But it passed. No Repubs on board, and 7 Dems against it. We just got screwed, big time. It will take a while for us to find out how badly we got screwed, since nobody has read the thing yet.
As he said, Ayn Rand, call your office.
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