Wednesday, June 23. 2010
Guess who holds patent for carbon-trading plan- Disgraced Fannie Mae CEO set to cash in for millions:
Former Clinton and Obama budget adviser Franklin Raines owns a key carbon-emissions patent he developed as CEO of the government-sponsored mortgage giant Fannie Mae, positioning him and his partners to make millions of dollars if it is used in any carbon-capping scheme implemented by the Obama administration.
Raines and his associates led Fannie Mae and Congress to believe Fannie Mae owned the patent, despite public records to the contrary, a WND investigation has found.
Al Gore sex attack. This is sad and pathetic, and I prefer to think that this is not his MO. Nobody is perfect. So, please let's not blame it on you-know-what.
 "Every Other Monday: Twenty Years of Life, Lunch, Faith and Friendship" by John Kasich
There is a climate black list
A little history of "Arbeit macht Frei"
Most millionaires are only millionaires for a year
Ouch: The Law of Supply and Demand Strikes the Law Business
Roger Simon: Does Barack Obama want to be president? We always thought he was running to be VP
 Amsterdam mayor considers using 'decoy Jews' to combat anti-semitism
Missouri: The Next Health Care Battle. These days, feels like the country is falling apart. Unemployment, Afghanistan, health care, a government war against Arizona, higher taxes on the way, etc.
A crucifixion in Saudi.
Brit nannies label cardiovascular disease "largely avoidable." Since when?
Not your grandfather's Connecticut
 Sharron Angle fights back. Lots of Conservative women out there this year. To the minds of Leftist women, Conservative women cannot be Feminists. That is the No True Scotsman Fallacy.
Is Illinois the New California?
Headline if Bush were still Pres: "General McChrystal Speaks Truth to Power"
From VDH's Obama’s Straws And Our Tired Back:
...it might be better anyway for Obama to have a hostile “them” Congress that he can perpetually run against. That can take the place of a now stale “Bush did it.” As it is, the Democrats give Obama what he wants, and what he wants is not what we the people want, at least if polls are any indication.
But with an obdurate opposition in power, Obama can speechify and do what he does best: demagogue, soaring with we should and must do without much worry about the icky details of actual implementation that never will come due to all those right-wing Beck and Hannity types.
Tuesday, June 22. 2010
Bob Dylan, The Neighborhood Bully, lyrics below
Well, the neighborhood bully, he's just one man
His enemies say he's on their land
They got him outnumbered about a million to one
He got no place to escape to, no place to run
He's the neighborhood bully.
The neighborhood bully he just lives to survive
He's criticized and condemned for being alive
He's not supposed to fight back, he's supposed to have thick skin
He's supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in
He's the neighborhood bully.
The neighborhood bully been driven out of every land
He's wandered the earth an exiled man
Seen his family scattered, his people hounded and torn
He's always on trial for just being born
He's the neighborhood bully.
Continue reading "Singalong with Bob"
The old conundrum of how many angels fit on the head of a pin is now surpassed by how many Obama-Pals can be tossed under the bus before the bus falls over.
There’s soon departing White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who has pissed off everybody and is entangled in the former Illinois governor’s corruption trial, and White House Director of the Office of Management and Budgets Peter Orszag, who has run up $trillions of deep debts with the “stimulus” and ObamaCare.
Now, maybe to go is the Commanding General in Afghanistan Stanley McChrystal, who voted for Obama, agreed to Obama’s trimmed and late arriving mini-surge, imposed US life-threatening rules-of-engagement, and now exposes the crippling inanity of the Obama national security team meddlers.
As Jackson Diehl writes at the Washington Post:
McChrystal may be at fault for expressing his frustrations to Rolling Stone. He is not at fault for the lack of coherence in the Afghan campaign or the continued feuding over strategy. That is Obama’s responsibility.
As is the other messes that Obama has created.
It is getting crowded under the bus where Obama tries to hide his blunders. How long until the bus falls over?
Senator John McCain says,
“If McChrystal goes, McCain reiterated, "we need to have a look at the functioning of the whole team."
Fish stink from the head. That's for 2012. 2010 is for emptying Obama's smelly fish tank in Congress.
 Kimball: Economic reality vs. wishful thinking: the Case of Paul Krugman
City Journal: An Independent Mind - Thomas Sowell’s prodigious intellect has long been at odds with intellectuals.
Justice, Italian-style, and the punishment of the decisive
Why does the American press love Castro?
No more cocktail party in France. It offends the Moslems. Or might.
Barnes: Running on Empty - The wheels come off the liberal juggernaut, but it’s still dangerous.
Examiner: Spending will kill, not save, our recovery
Rubio slipping in polls. Sad
Kristol: Small People Rule! The establishment hasn’t been this discredited since the mid-1960s.
Arizona law puts Democrats' seats in peril
This guy likes Connecticut's Linda McMahon
Fausta's news: Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean
Douthat:
Liberals had hoped that Obama’s election marked the beginning of a long progressive era — a new New Deal, a greater Great Society. Instead, from the West Coast to Western Europe, the welfare state is in crisis everywhere they look. The future suddenly seems to belong to austerity and retrenchment — and even, perhaps, to conservatism.
In this environment, the rage against Obama for not doing more, now, faster, becomes at least somewhat understandable. It’s not that he hasn’t done a great deal for liberals during his 18 months in office. It’s that liberalism itself may be running out of time.
Monday, June 21. 2010
From Howie Carr via Betsy:
Criticizing Bush - the highest form of patriotism. Criticizing Obama - hate speech. Who caused Bush’s problems? - Bush. Who causes Obama’s problems? - Bush.
When Bush mispronounced a word (like nuclear) - more proof he is a complete cowboy moron.
When Obama mispronounces a word (like corpsman) - how dare you even bring this up, racist?!
Unemployment at 4.6 percent under Bush - a jobless recovery.
Unemployment at 9.7 percent under Obama - the new normal, “steady,” a lagging indicator of the happy days that CNBC says are here again.
Economic woes under Bush - portents of a new Depression. Economic woes under Obama - a blip on the radar screen, surprising.
Cindy Sheehan under Bush - a future recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Sheehan under Obama - give it up already, you old bag.
Bush playing a rare round of golf - complete video coverage, showing his utter indifference to the suffering of the American people.
Obama playing one of his endless rounds of golf - only still photos allowed, yet another glowing indication of our dashing president’s youth and physical fitness.
Romantic music works
Kaplan: Saving France
Is my testosterone too low?
Reason: Ideas Having Sex - How prosperity and innovation exceeded the expectations of John Stuart Mill and Adam Smith
Review of God's Brain
Powerline:
Since his emergence as a national figure, Obama has fretted about America's lack of popularity in the world. It does not seem to have occurred to him that, though being disliked may be unpleasant, the most serious trouble begins when a nation is viewed with contempt by its enemies and with pity by its friends.
Sen. Kyl Claims Obama Told Him: “If We Secure the Border, Then You Won’t Have Any Reason to Support Comprehensive Immigration Reform”
Mead on modern nationalism:
The tragedy of modern life seems to lie in the fact that we cannot live with nationalism and we cannot live without it. The deep loyalties and affinities we fell towards those who speak our language and share our customs and our historical memories provides much of the social capital that allows modern society to develop and grow. On the other hand, the conflicts between national and ethnic groups must be overcome if we are to have any hope of peace.
Ed Lasky likes Mike Pence. So do I.
EJ Dionne: A guy who definitely would have been on England's side in the Revolution
One guy golfs, one guy sails. What's the diff?
Docs weaning themselves off Medicare patients
Sunday, June 20. 2010
 The world has 5 times as many polar bears today than it did 50 years ago. I blame climate change.
Samuelson: Why Our Poverty Measure Misleads
Ocean pH alarmism, easily debunked
Via Q&O:
Russia is eliminating the capital gains tax. Sadly, the ex-commies know something we apparently don't. http://bit.ly/cSzTOe
Was it a shakedown? Of course it was.
Is this legal to do? NYC Going After Teen 'Sexting' -- In The Home
Wouldn't an Arizona lawsuit be like suing yourself? All their law does is repeat federal law on a state basis.
Lowry: The O turns out to be mortal
Thompson on Egalitarian Superiority:
In my experience, the more egalitarian a person says he is, the more superior he wishes to be, or assumes he already is. Egalitarian sentiment is, and generally has been, a license for hypocrisy, double standards and exerting power over others. Much as a professed disdain for inequality is a way to signal one’s own moral, intellectual and social superiority.
Some pigs are more equal than others.
From Steyn:
Chris Matthews and the other leg-tinglers invented an Obama that doesn't exist. Unfortunately, they're stuck with the one that does, and it will be interesting to see whether he's capable of plugging the leak in his own support. If not, who knows what the tide might wash up?
Memo to Secretary Rodham Clinton: Do you find yourself of a quiet evening with a strange craving for chicken dinners and county fairs in Iowa and New Hampshire, maybe next summer? Need one of those relaunch books to explain why you're getting back in the game in your country's hour of need?
"It Takes A Spillage."
Father's Day image on top courtesy of Theo
Image below of the O worrying about the oil leak, via Jammie (the point is not that the guy likes golf. Lots of people like golf - most cannot afford to be delivered to the course via helicopter, however. The point is the double standard. What if Bush...):
Saturday, June 19. 2010
 Mort Zuckerman, Obama supporter: World Sees Obama as Incompetent and Amateur.
A quote:
"There are always two chess games going on. One is on the top of the table, the other is below the table. The latter is the one that counts, but the Americans don't know how to play that game."
Another:
Obama has asserted that America is not at war with the Muslim world. The problem is that parts of the Muslim world are at war with America and the West.
Shucks, who knew? I thought the real world was a college bull session.
Friday, June 18. 2010
Who'd a thunk it? Tough Moslems, too. Everybody is afraid of them, even in a place like Tennessee, the home of Davy Crockett.
Revealed: Orangutans use language of at least FORTY different gestures to 'talk'
Yesterday was Bunker Hill Day
PJ O'Rourke on public schools: End them, Don't Mend Them. A quote:
Schaeffer calculated that Los Angeles, which claims $19,000 per-pupil spending, actually spends $25,000. The New York metropolitan area admits to a per-pupil average of $18,700, but the true cost is about $26,900. The District of Columbia’s per-pupil outlay is claimed to be $17,542. The real number is an astonishing $28,170—155 percent more than the average tuition at the famously pricey private academies of the capital region.
I believe that the $ should follow the kid to wherever the family wants.
Vitter: Obama Exploiting Oil Spill to Push Liberal Agenda
Krauthammer: The O is Dreamer in Chief
Soccer is a Capitalist Tool
Q&O:
Legislators are not executives, they are process orientated admins. The skill sets for the two are completely different. One set requires decision making of the highest order – sometimes on an instant and unilateral basis. The other set requires slow deliberation, compromise and consensus building. One deals with pure leadership. The other deals with the duller aspects of management. Executives are result oriented. Administrators are entirely process driven. Executives use action as their means of accomplishment. Administrators set goals and work toward them as their means of achievement.
Hmmm. Chicago Law Prof on Obama: “The Professors Hated Him because he was Lazy, Unqualified & Never Attended any of the Faculty Meetings”
Other McCain:
...am I the only reader who resents being lectured to by 22-year-olds? I don’t care what your SAT score was, sweetheart. You’re not that precocious.
Duke: Goodbye to One Man, One Vote
Thursday, June 17. 2010
Female Viagra fails
From Shiver at Pajamas:
When I see a president with enough leisure time on his hands to party (not on his own dime, lest we forget) chime in on a baseball umpire’s call, and never miss a beat on the Democrat fundraising circuit or a chance to shave one more point from his golf score while crises explode unfettered from here to kingdom come, I see a president so out of touch with reality that it would take a complete nitwit not to assume the man has simply lost all his bearings. Flipped out. Gone ‘round the bend. Is so out to lunch that he doesn’t even have the good sense to pretend he’s hard at work so as to quell the public’s growing-more-frantic-by-the-day concern.
And when all is said and done, I shall always remember the Hey Jude sing-along as the most clarifying image of the whole unseemly mess we refer to as the Obama presidency. He’s done.
Is he? I did think this quote from his speech was strange, when he spoke of "our determination to fight for the America we want for our children ... even if we're unsure exactly what that looks like."
More detail from that IPCC insider:
The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change misled the press and public into believing that thousands of scientists backed its claims on manmade global warming, according to Mike Hulme, a prominent climate scientist and IPCC insider.
The actual number of scientists who backed that claim was ”only a few dozen experts,” he states in a paper for Progress in Physical Geography …
Powerline: The O's long nose
IRANIAN AND HEZHOLLAH FLOTILLAS ARE SAILING
There is plenty of oil around
The BP Oil Disaster: Big Government’s Dream Come True
$5m prize for good governance goes unclaimed again in Africa
Feds move to grab power over state governent unions
Did you wonder, as I did, who Mead was and what he does?
131 Law School Deans Fail To Sign Letter Supporting Kagan
Wednesday, June 16. 2010
The US Labor Department is going after employers of children age 13 and under.
Anyone illegally employing 12-and 13-year-olds will now face a penalty of $6,000 for each violation. The maximum fine previously was $900.
Those employing children under 12 will face a penalty of $8,000 per violation. That's up from a previous maximum of $1,150.
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis (soh-LEES') says the new fines are part of a stepped up effort to crack down on illegal child labor. The penalties could go as high as $11,000 per violation in cases that involve injury or willful and repeated offenders.
I started working at age 5, sweeping the sidewalks in front of stores, dusting stock, shoveling snow, and the myriad of other jobs I could find in the neighborhood. Twenty-five cents for an afternoon’s work was big bucks to a poor slum kid. More important, I learned work habits. Friends raised in rural areas worked in the fields at age 5. They learned work habits. We all feel better off today for the learning.
No one is in favor of putting kids in sweat-shops for 16-hour days, or such, as my grandparents were in the early 1900s.
But, next time you hear anyone complaining that kids don’t have work habits, or don’t value the money they have or the comforts, thank the types who feel that childhood and adolescence should be a skate or so protected as to deny kids and teens the opportunities to become adults with better work habits and self-responsibility.
From Gateway:
Over the past 30 years:
Democrats have blocked the development of new sources of petroleum.
Democrats have blocked drilling in ANWR.
Democrats have blocked drilling off the coast of Florida.
Democrats have blocked drilling off of the east coast.
Democrats have blocked drilling off of the west coast.
Democrats have blocked drilling off the Alaskan coast.
Democrats have blocked building oil refineries.
Democrats have blocked clean nuclear energy production.
Democrats have blocked clean coal production.
But, they’re funding projects in Brazil.
We have the Chinese drilling off our southern coast, and Brazil is drilling everywhere they can. I think the Dems have an aversion to American oil.
The IPCC consensus on climate change was phoney, says IPCC insider
Compare, contrast: News Judgment, Washington-Post style
Chantrill begins:
It is true that liberalism is cruel, corrupt, wasteful, and unjust. But one should never forget its delusion. The delusion is a simple one. It is a belief that government can be made rational and efficient. This delusion leads our liberal friends into disaster after disaster.
Applebaum: Acting like politicians can solve all our problems just makes us look weak
NPR Poll Shows Tough Road Ahead For Democrats
MSNBC bashes the O. Scroll down and see the Frank Luntz video. Good grief. Americans really can see through BS.
Powerline: Was Einstein bright?
Tiger: Meritocracy and teachers unions cannot coexist
A new friend in Iran? Ahmadinejad: Obama Is Immature
Remarkable: One-fifth of NYC supports Tea Party
Hillary Clinton: Secretary of Your Estate
No Soccer please, we're Moslems
Cruel, via Insty:
IN THE MAIL: From Mike Cullen, Whiny Little Bitch: The Excuse-Filled Presidency of Barack Obama. That’s rather harsh for a sitting President, but it does support my observation that Obama’s first term has already morphed into Bush’s second term. .
If not Carter's...
Steyn:
Now Mr. Bawer finds himself cited for "Islamophobia" in an official report from Norway's near parodically Orwellian "Ministry of Children, Equality and Social Inclusion". .
A repeat, which splains it all:
Tuesday, June 15. 2010
Boortz: THE GOLDEN AGE OF GOVERNMENT UNIONS IS OVER
Legal Insurrection: Unions Rescued In Rhode Island
These things should be illegal. The intrinsic conflict of interest would never be legal in business.
Remember CBS’ 60 Minutes Mike Wallace? One of the most feared questions used to be, “I’m Mike Wallace, and I’d like to ask you a few questions,” as Wallace showed up with camara crew at someone’s front door. As this tribute DVD to Wallace summarizes his career, “Take any great event in the last 50 years, and CBS News correspondent Mike Wallace has been there – asking the tough, frank, and even impertinent questions of the famous and the infamous.”
Now we have a young person daring to just ask a congressman whether he supported the Obama agenda, actually “"Do you fully believe in the Obama agenda?" The congressman repeatedly asks, “who are you?” The young person repeatedly answers, “a student.” The congressman grabs the questioner. (It is still unknown who the questioner is.)
It may be an “assault” by the congressman, punishable under law. It is a congressman acting excessively, when he could have just walked away.
It is, also, a sidewalk interviewer, accompanied by another shooting video, refusing to identify himself.
I would ask the same question as the congressman did, and without an answer or an answer that would lead me to not talk with the interviewer, I would walk away. (Scott Johnson at PowerLine agrees, and still reminds us that the congressman acted like a “bully and a nut.” I think neither, but rather unhinged as the congressman apologized for acting.)
At least Mike Wallace identified himself.
Yes, there is fear being struck into the hearts of liberal Democrats by being exposed as fools and tools by ambush journalism. Liberal journalists are defending the congressman.
There’s also many fools and tools among Republican congressmen.
Will those who defend anonymous ambush journalism be as defensive of it when Republican fools are similarly exposed?
Anyone being interviewed has the right to know who the questioner is, and the right to not reply to questions. Anyone asking a question of another should have the civility and integrity to let the interviewee know who the questioner is, at least if asked. Unless assaulted themselves, the target of the interview does not have the right to assault the questioner. That much is clear.
What isn't clear is whether ethics, journalistic or otherwise, flow both ways. It should.
Monday, June 14. 2010
NYS borrowing from pension fund to make annual required payment to pension fund. Just like Euroland.
I have heard of people who use credit cards to pay the interest on other credit cards.
The New York Times’ headline could have been “Turkey’s Islamist Government Is Just Doing the U.S. A Favor, Wink, Wink” instead of “For Turkey, an Embrace of Iran Is a Matter of Building Bridges,” by Sabrina Tavernise.
With the imprimatur “News Analysis”, the NYTs bureau chief in Istanbul, Sabrina Tavernise, with a 1993 B.A. from Barnard College in Russian Studies, tells us that “Top leaders of Mr. Erdogan’s party believe that only a Turkey that is independent from the United States will be an asset for Washington in the long run.” Tavernise adds, “Turkey is not lost, they say, but simply disagrees with the United States over how to approach the problems in the Middle East.”
Although mildly disagreed with by some sources in her article, her “news analysis” is an apologia for Turkey’s Islamist government siding with Iran, Syria, Hamas against the US, Israel, and the West. Oh, and now Hizbullah. Erdogan has invited the head of Hizbullah, on the recommendation of Hamas, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may attend also, to attend a rally in Turkey honoring Erdogan.
Tavernise is mostly carrying water for the Erdogan government, akin to the NYT’s Walter Duranty for Stalin’s.
Continue reading "NYTs “Walter Duranty” Bureau Chief In Istanbul"
Saturday, June 12. 2010
Episcopalians against Israel: Religious Rally Against Israel. Good grief.
Why didn't the O give his Auntie a hand? Oh, I get it. Government is supposed to take care of our aging and dysfunctional relatives. We pay taxes, don't we? Are there no workhouses?
They lied. Health overhaul to force changes in employer plans
Nobody in America could read before the Federal Dept of Education was created. Harsanyi: The Revolt Against Liberal Orthodoxy
TNR: Why haven’t progressives mounted more of a challenge to the war in Afghanistan?
Stasi-Style Doctors On The Way. Can't wait.
Kagan: A results-oriented justice. Is that like a hangin' judge?
Tiger: ACORN, voter fraud, and Barack Obama. Can you imagine if Bush...
Powerline: Take back South Dakota
Big Hollywood: Mad at Christians
Eric asks Do you have the freedom to eat what you want? Of course not. Government gets to decide for you, thus simplifying your life and keeping you healthy for work on their tax plantation. Too bad there is no reliable prescription for a healthy diet, yet. And who would care anyway? I was raised on Cheerios, Fluffernutter sandwiches, TV dinners, and spaghetti from a can, and I turned out fine, 6'2", strong, slim, Conservative, and a highly intelligent chick magnet. I never saw a salad outside an Italian pizza restaurant when I was a kid. I thought salads were an Italian thing. My Dad called it "rabbit food," and he still will not touch it. He warns everybody eating a salad, without a trace of pc, that "the Mexicans shit in the fields."
How Little League baseball put me on the road to Conservatism
Sweden: 13-months of Paternal leave? I can think of a fun way to game this so you'd never have to work until retirement age. Heck, why should guys have to work at all? We guys are mostly too cool to work. Too sensitive, too. God made us for lovin', fishin' and huntin'.
The O as Anglophobe. That is shameful. For all of her faults, she is America's Mother Country.
On what grounds can Lefties attack Ayaan Hirsi Ali? And why would anybody want to? She is brilliant and beautiful. Maybe too cute for the Lefties...
Now off to our special annual urban hike with pals and gals: Battery Park to the Cloisters (if we make it). With whistle stops at pubs along the way. Need good shoes and a good liver for this event. Broadway was the old Indian trail. One good thing about urban hikes is that you don't need to carry anything except a few bucks in your pocket. Another is that you can take the subway back home. Next year, I am considering handing out Maggie's Farm t-shirts for the hike, with a Farmall and a logo. Our group is around 25 people now, and we draw straws in advance for who gets to decide on the route. I was hoping for the end point to be Alexander Hamilton's farmhouse, but somebody picked the Cloisters.
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