Happy Independence Day!
Music to listen to while reading some of these: God done shed His Grace on Thee
Vanderleun: How Beautiful We Were
Vinnie’s Grapes on the 4th of July
One day a few months before he died I stopped by and asked him a favor: Could I have some clippings from his vines to plant in my backyard? Vinnie said sure, but if I wanted grapes, I should just buy a new plant. It would take ten years for a clipping from that vine to give me any grapes, a store-bought vine would produce fruit must faster. I smiled and answered: “You don’t understand, I don’t want grapes, I want your grapes so that years from now when my children and grandchildren eat them, I can say they are eating Vinnie’s grapes and tell them about you.”
Vinnie gave me three clippings and I planted them that year just before he died. Two of them took. They have slowly grown bigger and yesterday my wife called me outside on a pretext and asked me to check on the vines. I had a pleasant surprise…
Today, I’d like you to consider the words of The Declaration as well as the events that led to its signing.
Independence Day 2011: Happy 235th birthday, America
One of Reagan’s famous quotations engraved on the statue provides an apt warning for holiday revelers who forget the reason for the season:
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.”
May we never take for granted the sovereignty and liberty our Founding Fathers risked their lives to secure 235 years ago.
Counting Down to July 4th: The Sermon on Iwo Jima
Types of Government, Explained
This video explains the different types of government, what they mean, and what they stand for.
Make sure you read Instapundit’s whole article (is linked in the quote), too…Three ways to bolster liberty on Independence Day
Earlier today, I prescribed a blend of civic and personal for celebrating Independence Day. Glenn Reynolds, better known as Instapundit, offered a more active plan for both celebrating and promoting liberty today and in the future in his Washington Examiner column yesterday. Besides e-mailing New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg a photo of yourself eating a hotdog (brats here in the Upper Midwest, natch), Glenn writes that Americans can declare their independence from those who want to keep us dependent on an out-of-touch federal nanny-state government in three ways:
- Attack the funding. Many of the most anti-liberty activities of state and local governments are driven by federal funding — either direct funding, or grants. …
- Stop supporting the enemies of freedom and start supporting your friends. Cancel your subscriptions to cable TV channels, magazines or newspapers that support big government over individual liberty.
- Join Together. It may seem contradictory to assert your independence by banding together. But our Founding Fathers didn’t set America free by acting alone.
*snip*
Every group is different, as the Tea Party is a movement, not a party, and has no main office. Find one that suits you, or start one if you can’t.
If there’s one issue you care about a lot, get involved there. Gun rights activism crosses party lines, but has had a major influence in expanding liberty — over the past decade, the growth of Second Amendment rights has been one of the major Bill of Rights success stories. There are lots of other causes, ranging from fathers’ rights to tax fairness. Pick one.
And if you’re not a joiner at all, well, you can always start a blog. For some people, that works out pretty well!
It worked out well for us, quite obviously, and that didn’t come from simply writing a blog from a log cabin in the wilderness. Success for people like Glenn and others came from networking with people of similar interests and passions, linking together (literally and figuratively) to advance arguments and inspire action, and work to build momentum for policies that advance liberty and freedom. It’s a modern version of the pamphleteering that advanced the American experiment, both before and after the Revolution.
It is an amazing privilege to live in a country where such power still remains in the hands of its citizens, a good point to remember on this day of all days.
How to celebrate the 4th of July
After publication, his ignorant editors (putting it kindly) felt that he should have included a line pointing out that he was far from the first to write about the fates of the Declaration’s signers. Because he hadn’t, Jacoby was suspended for four months without pay. Note that The Globe did not, because they could not, suspend him for plagiarism.
Jacoby’s full response to his suspension is here. His most important points were these:
In short, whatever-happened-to-the-signers is an old, old theme in American inspirational writing …. These stories have been repeated so often, and by so many people, that they have risen to the level of American legend. Which is why it didn’t occur to me to take up valuable space in the column with footnotes or citations to earlier versions….
…. I care greatly about accuracy. Knowing that previous treatments of the lives-of-the-signers theme contained mistakes and exaggerations, I tried to take pains not to repeat anything untrue. As best as I could given the constraints of a deadline, I double-checked the biographical information I had, using encyclopedias of American history, books on the American Revolution, and relevant web sites, such as the one at www.colonialhall.com.
Patriotism — or why I love America
This year, though, the third July 4th we’ve seen under Barack Obama’s presidency, I have a sense of a nation under siege, not from a foreign enemy, but from a Fifth Column. Day after day, I read about the administration’s assaults on our “American-ness.” By this I mean that Obama’s policies aren’t simply well-intended, but incompetent, efforts to preserve the nation in a modern incarnation of the Founder’s vision (or, indeed, of the vision of most Americans up through the 1960s). Instead, Obama and his crew truly intend to be transformational — not, as naive voters believed, to raise us up; but, as Communists understood, to tear us down and rebuild us in an image alien to the traditional American ethos.
Whether it’s by returning us to a pre-industrial era by choking off our energy supplies; reducing us to a poor nation by drowning us in debt; destroying our status as a shining city on a hill by subordinating our interests to every tin-pot tyrant the world over; leaving us prey to terrorism (and even larger attacks) by yielding at every point to enemies who have us in their existential cross-hairs; constraining our individuality by a vastly increased bureaucracy that controls our banking, manufacturing, health care, etc.; or generally projecting an apologetic, self-abnegatory, self-loathing attitude that colors a nation’s view of itself, Obama is busy making America less than it was, less than it is, and less than it could be.
Sadly, the Obamas of the world have been busy at work in our education system for the past forty years, leaving two or three generations of Americans incapable of articulating what it is that makes our country special. Worse, they’ve been told that our country is anything but special. It’s not even average. It’s bad: a selfish, gluttonous, arrogant bully. Although they might experience a sense of loss if the current administration ultimately succeeds in transforming this nation, in the here and now, as the transformation is in progress, we have several generations of Americans who, like the dodo, don’t realize that they’re staring at their own extinction. Only when the last dodo is standing will he or she starting thinking “Damn, why didn’t I stop this before it happened.”
So — what’s wonderful about America?
Ace, on that Harvard study I mentioned yesterday on how Fourth of July celebrations just don’t really work for Democrat Socialists:
What the left will say is that the right has “hijacked patriotism.”
We didn’t hijack it. We didn’t need to hijack it.
You abandoned it.
Bingo. That’s what happens when you seethe and wail for decades about patriotism being “the last refuge of a scoundrel” — a symptom of troglodytic xenophobia and bigotry — and then smarmily declare yourself a “citizen of the world.”
Live with it, bastards. When it comes to making any credible claim of real patriotism, you broke it; now you own it. And all the sniveling in the world ain’t gonna change it.
This one is for the guys. If All You See…
Today’s Must Reads:
If there is any long term significance to the Halperin story it is a possible indicator that the governing narrative is weakening. Sovietologists have long known that the first, and often fatal signs of a factional distress are the unguarded lapses in “reliable” organs of information. A political enterprise is in real distress, not when it is attacked by its enemies which is normal, but when it can no longer be praised by its friends. And when those friends must deliver praise or respect through gritted teeth then the incipient trouble is all the greater.
Toby Harnden: Down on the Fourth of July: the United States of gloom
On this day in 1776 a group of 13 colonies broke away to found a new nation free to govern itself as it saw fit, pledging that each citizen would have the unalienable right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. A nation, as Americans are apt to declare without equivocation, which became the greatest on the face of the earth.
That’s the good news. On the flip side, however, a country whose hallmark has always been a sense of irrepressible optimism is in the grip of unprecedented uncertainty and self-doubt.
With the United States mired in three foreign wars, beaten down by an economy that shows few signs of emerging from deep recession and deeply disillusioned with President Barack Obama, his Republican challengers and Congress, the mood is dark.
The last comparable Fourth of July was probably in 1980, when there was a recession, skyrocketing petrol prices and an Iranian hostage crisis, with 53 Americans being held in Tehran.
Frank Luntz, perhaps America’s pre-eminent pollster, argues that his countrymen are much more downbeat now than in 1980. “The assumption with the Carter years was that it was a failure of the elites, not the system. We thought the people in charge screwed up. We didn’t blame ourselves.” Remarkably, many Americans think things will only get worse and the good times will never return.
Mark Steyn: Obama’s Declaration of Dependence
Speaking of corporate jets, did the president fly commercial to Denver? Oh, but that’s different! He’s in “public service.” A couple of weeks before he flew Air Force One to Denver, he flew Air Force One to Williamsburg, Va. From the White House (well, via Andrews Air Force Base). That’s 150 miles, a 30-minute flight. He took a 747, a wide-bodied jet designed to carry 500 people to the other side of the planet, for a puddle-jump across the Potomac.
Oh, but it was for another “economic forum.” This time with House Democrats — the ones who voted for the Obama Corporate Jet Tax Break. “Economic forums” are what we have instead of an economy these days.
Aside from the Sultan of Brunei and one or two similar potentates, no other head of state goes around like this. In a self-governing republic, it ought to be unbecoming. But in the Brokest Nation in History it’s ridiculous. And the least the beneficiary of such decadence could do is not condescendingly lecture those who pay for their own transportation. America’s debt is an existential crisis, and playing shell games with shriveled peas of demonizable irrelevancies only advertises your contempt for the citizenry.
By the way, one way to cut back on corporate jettage would be to restore civilized standards of behavior in American commercial flight. Two weeks ago, a wheelchair-bound 95-year-old woman at Northwest Florida Regional Airport flying to Michigan to be with her family for the final stage of her terminal leukemia was made to remove her adult diaper by the crack agents of the Transport Stupidity Administration. George III wouldn’t have done this to her.
Oh, c’mon, do you want to compromise your kids’ safety in order to give grope breaks to dying nonagenarians? A spokesgroper for the Transport Stupidity Administration explained that security procedures have to be “the same for everyone” — because it would be totally unreasonable to expect timeserving government bureaucrats to exercise individual human judgment. Oddly enough, it’s not “the same for everyone” if you’re Olajide Oluwaseun Noibi from Nigeria, who on June 24 got on a flight at JFK with a college ID and an expired boarding pass in somebody else’s name. Why, that slippery devil! If only he’d been three-quarters of a century older, in a wheelchair, and dying of leukemia, we’d have got him! He was arrested upon landing at LAX, and we’re now going to spend millions of dollars prosecuting him. Why? We should thank him for his invaluable exposé of America’s revolting security theater, and make him head of the TSA.
Japan and the softly glowing world…
- BBC
- NHK in English (Live feed in upper right corner)
- Telegraph of London
- Kyodo Wire
- Japan Times
- Asahi Shimbun
- The Daily Yomuri
- Japan Today
- ImTranslator – Online Translator, Dictionary, TTS add on for Firefox (It comes in handy)
- Japanese government list of nationwide radioactivity concentration
- Japan Geigermap
- Ibaraki Prefecture Geiger Counter Readings
- US National Radiation Map (updated every minute)
- Via Soylent Green: Radiation Exposure in Daily Life
- Radiation Dose Chart
- Radiation Converter
- ZeroHedge commenter Max2205′s excellent post about radioactivity including a list of radioactive elements and their half lives.
- Donations to the American Red Cross that are being designated to Japanese Earthquake relief are already getting to the folks in Japan and are most helpful.
Reactor 3 SPF Has At Least One Fuel Bundle Left, Near Water Surface
(I’m trying to be positive here.)
Arnie Gundersen commenting on Ian Goddard‘s discovery of a single fuel bundle in the Reactor 3 Spent Fuel Pool: New Analysis of Unit 3 Fuel Pool Video Reveals Top of Fuel Bundle
Fukushima I Nuke Plant Reactor 5 Cooling Stopped for 3.5 Hours Due to Ruptured Pipe
A worker doing the routine inspection of the site in the morning of July 3 noticed the seawater gushing from the pipe that connects to one of the two temporary RHRS (residual heat removal system) pumps for the Reactor 5. The rupture on the pipe was 30 centimeters long and 7 centimeters wide.
During the 3.5 hours while the cooling was stopped to replace the pipe, the temperature of the water in the Reactor Pressure Vessel went from 43 degrees Celsius to 48 degrees Celsius, according to Kyodo News Japanese.
So it would take about 40 hours of no cooling till the water inside the RPV starts to boil. (The RPV of the Reactor 5 is at atmospheric pressure.)
Current Cesium-137 measurements in Japan similar to amounts seen in April (CHART)
Combine this with the tea from Shizuoka and you have both a drink or an energy source… Cesium found in Tokyo tap water for first time since April
The facility belongs to Chisso Petrochemical, and it contained 765 kilograms of depleted uranium at 0.3% concentration. It caught fire when the adjacent Cosmo Oil LPG tank caught fire and exploded. Not a problem, the Chiba government now says, and Chisso hasn’t said anything about the facility.
There was a “baseless rumor“(link in Japanese) that circulated on the Internet on March 12 that said “Harmful substance will come down with the rain after the Cosmo Oil fire. Do not expose your skin.” Cosmo Oil and the government dismissed the rumor vehemently. Maybe the “baseless rumor” was not about Cosmo Oil’s tank but about Chisso’s depleted uranium…
World News:
Update DSK Rape Scandal: Everyone is a Whore, Case Closed
The conclusion is: Just about everyone involved in this DSK scandal, from beginning to end, is an amoral piece of crap.
Things That Make You Go Hmmm – The Game Of Sovereign KerPlunk!
Theater Of The Absurd: Greece Has Already Missed Its June Budget Target
Greece: Suddenly There’s A Fear That Ratings Agencies Will Wreck The Bailout
To sum up: while the state of the Arab League has little bearing on OPEC’s functioning, there is potential for a major split within the cartel concerning the question of boosting output to dampen high oil prices and stabilize the global economy. Unsurprisingly, the rivalry is once again between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The Saudis could try to attain a massive growth in petroleum production, but one wonders whether the Wahhabi kingdom can compete with Russia in the lucrative Asian markets, perhaps leading to a reversal on Saudi Arabia’s plan to go along with the IEA. All we can do is watch how events will unfold.
Yet the more important point is that the United States cannot depend on oil imports for much longer. It is undeniable that demand for petroleum is accelerating at a much quicker pace than possible short-term increases in output. The need for energy independence is becoming ever more urgent.
Regardless, the bottom line with rare earths — actually, a lot of commodities, including boring old oil — is that there’s a ton of it out there, it’s just a matter of what it costs to get it, and what kind of environmental concerns you’re willing to toss out.
Curses! Foiled Again! — Canadian Gaza activists foiled by Greek Coast Guard
Terrorist Bill Ayers, Barack Obama and his good friend Jew-hater Rashid Khalidi
There were also reports that terrorists Bill Ayers and his wife Bernadine Dohrn were at the same Jew-bash.
Khalidi was thought to be connected to the PLO.
Last year the anti-Israel radical raised cash for a ship named “The Audacity of Hope” to smash through the Gaza Blockade. Well they finally raised enough cash and the American ship is ready to join this year’s Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla 2.
Yesterday, Rashid Khalidi, Noam Chomsky, Ali Abunimah and others release a video urging the Obama Administration to free Gaza and allow bombs to be imported by the Hamas terror group.
And Another Failed Treasury Auction this time in Egypt
In other words of 5.5 billion Egyptian pounds offered they only sold 45% of the offering which should give everyone some insight as to how the faith in the “Arab Spring” and suspicions of the Islamist Summer are starting to impact the financial markets. I would not get too concerned at this moment as Saudi Arabia might continue to fund their poor sister to the West so as to prevent instability from seeping over into their nation. This situation will need to be monitored in the MENA region however as a possible indication of the coming rejection of emerging market debt, especially in regions prone to war, terrorism, and uprisings.
Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood Branches Out Into Anti-Semitic Movies To Recruit New Members…
SKY TV is First Western News Agency to Get Video of Syria Protests [Graphic]
The Democrats and their Islamofascist allies can not afford to lose Assad…Non-news of the Day
Both these incidents underscore just how “problematic” relations with Pakistan have become. From a strategic point of view, the War on Terror, whose existence the administration would prefer to deny, has blown the sand away from a number of states and intelligence agencies which form the core of international terrorism. But it is still official policy to concentrate on the proxies, not the masterminds. John Brennan recently said:
As we approach the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, as Americans seek to understand where we stand a decade later, we need look no further than that compound where bin Laden spent his final days. There he was, holed-up for years, behind high prison-like walls, isolated from the world. But even he understood the sorry state of his organization and its ideology.
It may be true that al-Qaeda has been defeated. But there’s plenty more where they came from. The states and intelligence agencies which gave rise to 9/11 attacks are all alive and well; all this is, except Iraq. The Guardian reports that a US “roadmap” which envisions “Syrian reform”, but with Assad kept in place.
Iran Mocks US on Independence Day: America Is Not Independent
Iran: Mullah Regime Escalates Crackdown On Christians As Number Of Muslims Converting Rises…
The window of opportunity for attacking Iran’s fast-moving nuclear and missile development has now closed. This is equivalent to the Allies in World War II allowing Hitler to develop nuclear weapons and long-range missiles. In the field of nuclear proliferation, if you don’t preempt, you are enabling proliferation. Obama has now reversed sixty years of American and Western efforts to reverse rogue nuclear proliferation. The horse of Armageddon is out of the barn.
Read that sentence again if you didn’t quite get it the first time, because it’s the biggest, wildest gamble an American president has ever taken.
It is a world catastrophe, and as far as I can tell, it has been done with malice aforethought.
Report: Taliban Have Captured And Executed A British Soldier…
American Boots on Ground in Somalia
Obviously, the “boots on the ground” bit is somewhat cheeky; some drone attacks followed by an in-and-out recovery mission isn’t exactly Vietnam. Or, hell, Panama. But it’s shocking that we’re in half a dozen kinetic military operations and your average American would be doing well to name three. Something’s not quite democratic about that.
Additionally, as the piece goes on to note, there are some strategic, moral, and philosophical questions about this wide-ranging use of drones, including for missions only tangentially related to America’s national security interests. What’s the desired outcome? Are they doing more harm than good? With killing so divorced from risk, is war too easy?
Nigeria: Islamists Bomb Another Beer Garden, 10 Killed…
Because having a good time is “un-Islamic.”
First Things discusses a concept that is supposed to be gaining ground in the UK: the duty to die. The key concept in Duty to Die is to remove control over life extension therapies from the doctor to policy.
Dr Brian Keighley, chairman of the British Medical Association Scotland, said in some cases tens of thousands of pounds were spent on drugs to extend cancer patients’ lives for relatively short periods. Speaking ahead of his organisation’s annual meeting, the GP said the country had to debate the merits of these kinds of aggressive treatments and the effects they had on the NHS budget. But he stressed any decision had to be made at a society level, rather than being left to doctors.
“Who pays the piper, calls the tune”. When medical care becomes socialized, medical decisions are inevitably made by the government. People may disagree over whether this is a good thing, but that it is so should not be in dispute. In 2009 the Daily Telegraph talked about a new option for people on public health care. All expense-paid assisted suicide in Oregon.
Venezuelan Marxist Leader Hugo Chavez Returns Home (Video)
Heartbreaking: ‘Best Friend’ Chomsky Turns on Hugo Chavez
When you’ve lost “renowned scholar” Noam Chomsky, you know things are bleak. First he admits he has cancer, and now his socialist pals are turning on him. Poor Hugo.
How The Economic Miracle of Chile Increased Life Expectancy by Almost 22 Yrs. in Just Half a Century
Bottom Line: The “Chilean economic miracle” demonstrates that free market capitalism and free trade are the best paths to prosperity and a long life.
“Half of Cuba lives off the black market … And the other half depends on it.”
When you seek to have the State completely control commerce, production, consumption, and capital this is what it produces. People always find a way to survive, even if it is outside the restrictions of a system, especially communism. And imagine how it will be here when such policies take full command over our healthcare (see: ObamaCare), energy (see: outlawing light bulbs, the cost of energy/oil-gas), and the push to control what and how much we eat … Just to name a few.
There will never be a statue of Obama placed there…Statue Of Ronald Reagan Unveiled In London
In celebration of America’s independence day a statue of Ronald Reagan was unveiled in London today. The unveiling coincides with the celebration of what would have been “The Gipper’s” 100th birthday. His statue joins those of Dwight D Eisenhower and Franklin Roosevelt, both for their instrumental roles in WWII as well as being former presidents.
Lady Thatcher and Condoleezza Rice Honor Ronald Reagan at London Independence Day Tribute (Video)
Thatcher, who was prime minister from 1979 to 1990, had been invited to the ceremony but was unable to attend. She has suffered a series of minor strokes and has dementia, and has not been seen in public for months.
But in a statement read out by Hague on her behalf at the embassy in Grosvenor Square, she said of her Cold War ally: “Ronald Reagan was a great president and a great man — a true leader for our times.
“He held clear principles and acted upon them with purpose. Through his strength and his conviction he brought millions of people to freedom as the Iron Curtain finally came down.
“It was a pleasure to be his colleague and his friend and I hope that this statue will be a reminder to future generations of the debt we owe him.”
O, Canada, we stand PC for thee…
One nutty member of Parliament — Carolyn Bennett — decided to PC “O Canada.” She described it as “gender neutral, secular, bilingual.”
David Warren on the Vancouver Riots: Guilt & shame
The children – and I call these “young adults” that, consciously intending to insult and demean them – were merely “expressing themselves.” They were never taught in school to trash streets, smash plate-glass windows, torch cars, or set murderously upon an individual who was chastising them. But they were taught to “express themselves,” and this is what they chose to express.
They were taught “self-esteem”; and they were taught that guilt and shame are evils. They were taught that they have “rights,” without regard to duty, and that they are entitled to “respect” which they need never earn. They were taught that religion is the principal oppressor of mankind, and that all forms of morality are bogus, especially the sexual.
And all of these ideas were expressed in the course of the rampage. To the older and more bourgeois, the principal imagery was of these children hamming it up before the cellphone cameras, and through all “social media.” Far from expressing anger and rage, they were striking happy poses. They were enjoying themselves, on a large scale, as we see them enjoying themselves towards closing time in almost any campus pub.
Microsoft admits Patriot Act can access EU-based cloud data
At the Office 365 launch, Gordon Frazer, managing director of Microsoft UK, gave the first admission that cloud data — regardless of where it is in the world — is not protected against the USA PATRIOT Act.
It was honestly music to my ears. After a year of researching the Patriot Act’s breadth and ability to access data held within protected EU boundaries, Microsoft finally and openly admitted it.
The question put forward:
“Can Microsoft guarantee that EU-stored data, held in EU based datacenters, will not leave the European Economic Area under any circumstances — even under a request by the Patriot Act?”
Frazer explained that, as Microsoft is a U.S.-headquartered company, it has to comply with local laws (the United States, as well as any other location where one of its subsidiary companies is based).
Though he said that “customers would be informed wherever possible”, he could not provide a guarantee that they would be informed — if a gagging order, injunction or U.S. National Security Letter permits it.
He said: “Microsoft cannot provide those guarantees. Neither can any other company“.
While it has been suspected for some time, this is the first time Microsoft, or any other company, has given this answer.
US News:
Land of the Six Dams News and Info sources:
- KELO-Sioux Falls, SD
- KFYR-Bismarck, ND
- KCAU-Sioux City, IA
- KETV-Omaha, NE
- Say Anything
- Plains Daily
- “Land of the Six Dams” flood gage status interactive map.
Frustrated Residents in Iowa Blow Up their Own Levee to Ease Flooding
There is increasing evidence [ see Matt Bunk’s new report at Great Plains Examiner and Joe Herring at American Thinker here and my June 20 report here ] to prove that the Corps waited too long this spring to begin venting snowmelt and rain from the dams, in order to appease environmentalist concerns about the piping plover and the pallid sturgeon. The result has been catastrophic flooding the entire length of the river, which will continue, at minimum, until the fall.
Frustrated, anonymous flooded residents near Council Bluffs, Iowa took matters into their own hands Friday morning. Shame on the Army Corps of Engineers or any other agency who seeks to “investigate” who did this. The government’s foolish decisions to save fish and bird over people has caused this problem. The levee is apparently private property. The Corps and other “officials” were mired in legal clusterf++k and doing nothing to help these people. There is plenty for law enforcement and elected officials to be doing in this historic catastrophe. Don’t you dare punish the citizens for fixing their own problems that you are creating!!
Fire growing toward the east — Los Alamos crews setting up another containment line around city
Rio Rancho Police and Fire, USFS Live Audio Feed
TRAGEDY: Obama’s golf game cancelled due to rain
Under Obama, “unexpectedly bad” ends up being “much worse.”
Rand Paul plans to filibuster until Senate debates debt ceiling
“Dems dig in: GOP trying to sabotage economy on purpose”
Mr. President, Chuck Schumer, et al: There is no recovery happening. And stealing more private sector money to send to the government so that craven politicians too stupid to learn from past mistakes can piss it away on new “stimulus” projects that enrich their cronies and do nothing to help the economy — and in fact, drag it down, as the money is filtered through the bureaucracies and more and more of it is wasted or stolen — is a non-starter.
The President and the Democrats won’t pass a budget. They are content to stall, watch people suffer, and then try to blame all that suffering on the GOP for wanting to cut out of control government spending and reform entitlement programs that are clearly unsustainable.
What is so repulsive about this is that there is simply no way they could carry this off without the help of our vaunted mainstream press. The progressive left — including its media and academic enablers — are at war with the American people. This 20% — socialists, Marxists, Trotskyites, social democrats — are holding both the GOP and the American citizen hostage; and you can bet your ass Obama will make it hurt should he not get his way.
He is willing to allow the pain to happen. And when the social security checks stop going out, or the military benefits are cut, we have to scream loudly and tell everyone we can that the baseline budget Obama is using already includes what was supposed to be “one-time” stimulus money, and that that money alone — nearly a trillion dollars — could pay benefits, and that it is Obama and the Dems who are cutting essential services in order to blackmail the electorate into taking even MORE money from citizens.
Let it fucking crash. Better now than to allow these bastards to take even more and then be comfortably out of office when the whole thing comes tumbling down.
It’s time for spontaneous marches on Washington and elsewhere.
Obama’s Carefully Burnished Economic Ignorance
Yet on the other hand, President Obama seems genuinely, privately ignorant on these issues. The political gossip going around right now is that the Obama administration is panicking because they sincerely expected a robust economic recovery by now, and they wanted to campaign next year by borrowing Ronald Reagan’s “it’s morning again in America” theme–without actually having to borrow any of Reagan’s policies. We have to presume that if Obama knew how to revive the economy, he would, and he seems genuinely stumped as to why his stimulus is not working.
So what explains the deep-seated ignorance of economics on display in his public comments? Why does he demonstrate such a lack of practical appreciation of how business works?
The answer is that he lacks it because it is forbidden knowledge.
Consider Obama’s background. He grew up among leftists, his childhood mentors were outright communists, and he then went off to academia, where he spent his formative years in an environment where business and profit-making are looked down upon as ugly, dirty, rapacious, immoral. Is it any mystery why he doesn’t know about business or economics? Asking him to study the economics of the free market is like asking one of the old New England Puritans to thumb through a manual on sex education. Why immerse oneself in a subject that is so unseemly? Why make a study of how to be immoral?
It is for this attitude that Obama was elevated in American politics. He won the Democratic primaries because, unlike Hillary Clinton, he really seemed to believe in all of the old “liberal” pieties.
Top 10 Obama Attacks on Capitalism
President Obama occasionally cozies up to the corporate world, especially during fund-raising time, and delivers a modicum of support for business. But have no doubt about it, this is a man who honors the power of government over the marketplace.
Why Doesn’t Obama Come Right Out and Say, ‘Democrats Want to Raise Taxes’?
If the president was willing to continue “tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires” when Democrats controlled Congress, why is he now insisting that these “breaks” must be ended?
In terms of the wisdom or equity of the policy, nothing has changed in the past seven months, and we can only conclude that the president’s shift is not a matter of policy, but of politics.
That is to say, Obama knows damned well that the House of Representatives is never going to agree to any tax increase under any imaginable circumstance. The GOP just won a mid-term landslide after a campaign fought straight-up on this policy terrain. Nothing could be more clear than that House Republicans owe their majority to voters who rejected the deficit-spending Keynesian “stimulus” policies enacted by Obama and congressional Democrats during the first two years of the current administration. And the voters who rejected Pelosi’s Democrats certainly did not do so with the idea that Republicans would raise taxes. No, the GOP’s 2010 mandate was to rein in the out-of-control spending, and this they are honor-bound to do if they are truly to be representatives of the people who elected them.
I am not surprised that this is happening now. The banks have sucked the gubmint teat dry and now they would rather get something for these houses then lose money on them via foreclosure and the inability to resell them because the housing marked has cratered. This should have been done a long time ago and would have been if the gubmint would have kept their nose out of it. In fact the whole mess could have been avoided if the gubmint had kept it’s nose out of it by insisting that banks make loans to NINJA deadbeat ‘minorities’ all in the mane of “affirmative action”…Mortgages quietly written down
The point they’re missing is that this was a loan Chase acquired through one of the failing banks it took over. The folks at the Times are immensely puzzled by the whole thing, but the fact is that the asset, no matter what it said on the books, was only worth $170,000 (the price for which she sold it a little later.) If she had walked on the loan, the bank would have been lucky to eventually realize $50,000. But what really must have gotten their attention is that court have been increasingly unwilling to go through on foreclosures, especially if it’s unclear who held the note. Some properties have simply been turned over to the possessors because the court just couldn’t figure out who held title to foreclose — and some banks have now been fined pretty heavily for trying to foreclose with bad documents. Then the bank gets nothing.
Joys of the Obama Economy: ‘Housing is More Affordable Than It’s Been in a Generation’
Only an Obama drone can pretend devalued home prices is something good for the American economy.
Indeed, we have a ways to go. To January 20, 2013, to be specific, before this disaster comes to a close.
Inventory Glut Of Ultra Luxury Homes Hits Greenwich, Over 4 Years Of Supply
And while it is difficult to correlate real estate sales and general net worth of Greenwich’s hedge fund-based residents, it appears that there isn’t much appetite for local housing purchases. On the other hand, that there is such an inventory glut also shows that nobody is too desperate to cut prices to sell at any cost. Following this trend over the next several months will likely provide additional clues into how hedge funds truly measure their own relative strength as we enter the second half of the year.
Obama’s own economic advisers have confessed that the Stimulus was a failure.
Obama and the 111th Congress burned trillions and trillions of our dollars — more money than the annual budgets of the Defense Department or Medicare — in the furnace of government cronyism.
Our children and grandchildren are on the hook for these so-called “Stimulus” funds, with interest payments, that utterly and completely failed. Unless you count rewarding Obama’s public sector union supporters.
Plentiful Energy? Not On Obama’s Watch!
The Bakken formation, along the Montana North Dakota border, is thought to contain four billion barrels of oil — the biggest proven estimate outside of Alaska. The drilling boom is responsible for North Dakota’s unemployment rate of only 3.2% — the lowest in the country. Keep that in mind when the Obama administration remains bewildered about how to create jobs.
Well, we can’t have plentiful oil and gas making the President’s release of 60 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve look unimportant. Environmental organizations have challenged everything about fracking claiming that oil shale production techniques were unproven, dangerous, water supply, royalties too low, etc. etc. etc. Earthjustice filed two big lawsuits on behalf of 13 environmental groups to block, well, everything.
Why is European broadband faster and cheaper? Blame the government
Standing next to an Amsterdam canal, Wagter used a historical analogy: Those canals were built and operated by private firms, he says. When they were built, they helped Amsterdam become the world capital of commerce and finance. But after a hundred years or so, a new technology — railroads — was proving itself to be more efficient.
The new transportation system was helping Holland’s neighbor to the west, the UK, race ahead of the Netherlands. When Dutch entrepreneurs petitioned to build a train, the owners of the canals “were screaming murder”.
“They were saying, ‘Oh, we can accelerate the boats a little bit, and convey a little bit more if you need more capacity’,” Wagter says. The canal owners said the new railroads would “take away their business, and it was absolutely forbidden, and government shouldn’t interfere.”
Wagter says it’s fortunate that the Dutch government at the time didn’t listen to those arguments. Whether or not U.S. officials will make the same decision when it comes to next-generation broadband, he says, is “a matter of political will.”
Is Another Ballot Heist Coming?
As the 2012 election looms, concerned voters should recall the nationwide voter registration frauds of ACORN, Al Franken’s brazenly stolen Minnesota Senate election, and George Soros’ SOS Project which seeks to install crony Secretaries of State to “oversee” how close elections are “decided.” The massive vote fraud in Florida in 2000 ought to concern every voter in every state. If the Democrat party so brazenly tried to steal Florida’s 2000 election, chances are very good that they will try to steal other “close” elections in 2012.
Recall too that the groundwork is already being laid for vote fraud in 2012. Donna Brazile is already complaining about nonexistent “voter disenfranchisement” (just as the Democrats did in 2000). Editorials are being written and lawsuits are being filed in an attempt to thwart any meaningful measures to eliminate vote fraud. Whomever the GOP nominates for president, he or she will face Obama’s vicious nonstop smear machine, the usual network media bias, and a massive George Soros-funded effort to steal this election. With Obama’s poll numbers as bad as they are and with his reelection prospects as bleak as any President’s in living memory, a massive and nationwide voter fraud campaign is already underway. And, if past elections are any indication, this vote fraud campaign will be successful to varying degrees. The degree to which the 2012 Democrat vote fraud campaign will be successful depends on whether voters who care enough to show up to vote care enough that their votes are being stolen and complain about it. And if they care that they are the voters who are actually being “disenfranchised.”
Presidential Elections: An End Run Around the Constitution?
In any event, one doesn’t change 200 years of precedent unless one can come up with something better; NPV is clearly worse. Yet, popular election of the president might be worthy of consideration, but only if American elections were error- and fraud-free, and only if the results of our elections could be “proven.”
On the Road to Totalitarianism With the Sixth Circuit
In essence, because the health care market is already regulated, the industry is said to be unique and therefore can be utterly controlled by the central government.
Consider:
All citizens will need shelter and many regulations already dictate the nature and construction of housing. Can the central government compel individuals to purchase certain minimum levels of housing and builders to offer certain services under a regime of price controls? Apparently so.
All citizens will need food and a battery of regulations at every level of government already dictate every aspect of food manufacture and distribution. Can the central government require individuals to buy certain foods — perhaps under the aegis of healthy eating — and businesses to offer a menu dictated by a central authority? Apparently so.
All citizens will require transportation and a host of regulations govern every modality of travel — by air, bus, automobile, and even bicycle. Can the central govenrment require all individuals to buy, say, bicycles under the banner of healthy living, clean energy and personal transportation? Apparently so.
Under this decision, with this Court, the destruction of our country — through its transformation into a totalitarian regime — comes one step closer to reality.
George Will Asks This Week Panel: Can Congress Require Obese People to Sign Up for Weight Watchers?
TSA: A Portrait in Islamization
This is not simply foolish, but evidence that our governmental agencies are already engaged in Islamization, for Islamization has taken root when a society abandons its decades of prevailing standards of dignity and common sense so as to accommodate Islam. In this case, American policy has set aside our historic respect for individual personhood as well as law enforcement’s tried and tested method of profiling the most likely to commit a particular crime. Groping little girls, afflicting old women, and invasively searching middle-aged people with no indication of being a threat is not the American way and would not, in other circumstances, be tolerated by any civil rights organization except here due to our preoccupation of not offending Muslims.
When a society asks its citizens to accept their own debasement and forgo their right to modesty and propriety — and all that constitutes first-class citizenship — so as to accommodate Muslim demands, those citizens have now taken a backseat; they have become second-class. Second-class citizenship for non-Muslims so as not to offend Muslims is called dhimmitude, a core Islamic belief, the a priori subtext of the Islamization process. In effect, it elevates the Muslim over the non-Muslim and holds in higher regard how he is to be treated relative to how the Christian or Jew is to be treated. This is the ideal practiced throughout the Islamic world.
There are those that call this accommodation, but in reality it is Islamization for it, step-by-step, leads to an acceptance by society and ultimately society’s new standard. The imams and Islamic organizations are well aware of Western society’s desire to be accommodating and have seized upon it as a way to begin the process that goes from accommodation to a society submissive to its own dhimmi status, in its very own land.
TSA De-diapers Old Lady (Update) And German Jokes
Koshetz defended the agency that boldly pats down infants, nursing mothers, buxom blonds, and other would-be terrorists—how heroic!—and said, “the procedures are the same for everyone to ensure national security.”
That is false. There is no reason in the world to have searched and humiliated that gentle old lady. National security was not helped in any way. Not only that, security was actually harmed. To my knowledge, there has never been a terrorist meeting the dying lady’s description. By humiliating her in the name of “We were just following orders” is to allow those much more likely to cause harm to slip through security unimpeded.
Combating class warfare rhetoric the easy Doug Ross way
My critics on Twitter revel in the standard class warfare rhetoric endemic to failed revolutions throughout history. The French Revolution. Russia in 1917. Peron in Argentina. The game-plan is always the same: demonize the rich, attack private industry, segregate political constituencies by race, gender, creed and religion in order to prey upon the weak-willed.
Such is the recipe of one Barack Obama, who has attacked industry after industry: coal miners, oil companies, health insurers, pharmaceutical manufacturers, medical professionals, and “millionaires and billionaires”, among others.
Our Dangerous Commander-in-Chief
Unfortunately, with our current Commander-in-Chief, there appear to be no Chief Master Sergeant types willing to grab him by the scruff of the neck and knock some sense into him. Barack Obama is too smart to know how little he knows. His insecurity around all those seasoned Generals and his arrogance mean he will continue to ignore the advice of people with an eternity of more experience than he has on any given issue. With military lives on the line around the globe, the stakes are too high to have this man in Command.
Obama’s Afghanistan Debacle, and The Obama Doctrine That Made it Possible.
The key to implementing Obama’s strategic vision is through deepening American involvement with multinational institutions. He favors cooperation with the International Criminal Court, pledges “rededication” to the United Nations, progressive treaties , a nuclear Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the UN treaty on the rights of women. He is committed to the “transnational law” movement, a vehicle for political progressives to constrain the power of democratically elected government officials. The movement works to circumvent legislatures by arguing that administrators and judges should adopt its ideas as “rights”.
Rep. Walsh to Spitzer: Obama ‘Acted Like a 10-Year-Old’
Obama: Still Getting the Hang of Answering Questions
So even ten questions from the White House press corps can take Obama off his game. Among the highlights of today:
- Asked about whether the War Powers Act was constitutional, he responded, “I’m not going to put my constitutional law professor hat on here.” Er, wait, wasn’t that a reason folks were supposed to vote for you?
- Asked whether marriage was a civil right – a yes or no question that obviously put him on the spot about gay marriage – he began talking about separate issues, like hospital visitations.
- Occasionally Obama’s gaffes would seem strangely honest, like when he said, “I’ll keep on giving you the same answer until I give you a different one,” on gay marriage, or “I don’t even have to get to the Constitutional question,” rather bluntly acknowledging he was ignoring Chuck Todd’s actual question on the War Powers Act.
- The President constantly infuriated by the perception that he hates the private sector responded to a question, “The business community always complains about regulations.” Unlike unions, trial lawyers, public sector employees, apparently.
- Asked about the ATF “Fast and Furious” operation, Obama said that Attorney General Eric Holder made very clear that he would have opposed the operation… you know, the one that occurred on his watch.
- Discussing the DREAM Act, Obama said, “Kids who grow up here and think of themselves as Americans… let’s make sure those kids can stay.” There’s no dispute that many of these children and teens often have heartbreaking stories, and no real emotional or physical connection to their country of legal citizenship. But thinking of yourself as an American is not the same as being an American. Citizenship is not a state of mind.
- “It’s time to stop playing games,” he concluded, and then ended the press conference for the next event on his schedule: welcoming the WNBA Champion Seattle Storm to the White House Rose Garden.
Obama survives difficult questions by avoiding them and waiting for the world to move on. His Republican opponents must challenge him, early and often, and consistently.
The Community Organizer Who Would be King
I couldn’t get the image of Kipling’s The Man Who Would be King out of my head. You might remember it. It’s the story of two men who travel to a place called “Kafiristan” (actually Afghanistan) where they offer themselves up as military advisers and trainers to the locals.
After helping them defeat their most hated enemy, one of the men (Danny) is treated as a god, a reincarnation of Sikander (Alexander the Great) by monks who mistake his Masonic Jewel for one worn by Alexander when he passed through the land centuries earlier. He’s treated to treasures which once belonged to Alexander.
Then, he loses touch with reality and develops delusions of grandeur. By chance his intended bride, fearful of being wed to a god, punctures the myth by biting him and making him bleed. Since gods don’t bleed, the Kafiristan denizens realize he is human and, angry at being misled, kill him.
I think we’ve reached a similar turning point in this presidency where (a) Obama’s (and Michelle’s) delusions of grandeur have become objects of ridicule; b) Obama’s feet of clay are obvious. He may be the only person left in Washington who has not yet realized how inadequate he is to the tasks before him; (c) the people and the press are beginning to turn on him, and as his failures become even more obvious with each passing day, more people will feel free to attack him and his policies and their attacks will become ever more savage as the gap between the promise and reality grow ever more stark.
An Open Letter to That Democrat Deadbeat Who Keeps Hustling Me for a Handout
With all due respect, Sir, just what is your major malfunction? Whatever did you do with all that left over booty from your last little pole-dancing auto-fornication festival around the 57 states? I mean it’s not like you’ve had a lot of big ticket personal expense items since then. Are you replacing the bowling avenue in the basement of 1600 with your own private Uncle Scrooge money bin where you backstroke the nights away under the glitter ball with Sir Elton and Bono?
And I won’t even get into the humongous billions we gave you that you just blew on some Green Jobs at about 15 gazillion smackers per job. And then there’s the line of credit that’s extending into so many trillions that we’ll be running a water park on the fourth planet of Alpha Centauri before it’s paid back.
As for your rollicking sidekick Jingles Joe Biden being an extra added attraction for this private dinner at the nation’s expense in the nation’s house… well, if you promise me Joe will show up trussed on a platter in the center of the table with an apple in his mouth, I just might be willing to pay real folding money for that moment. If not, you get zip, zero, nada.
Joe Biden Warns Teamsters: Vote Dem or ‘You’re on Your Own, Jack’
Do you think the White House getting a little nervous that another Teamsters flip to a GOP endorsement could be on the dismal economic horizon the way it happened with Reagan?
“You’re on your own.” No help from Joe Biden? What a frightening prospect. Given a choice between being “helped” by Joe Biden or being on my own, I’d choose “on my own” 99.99% of the time (the .01% would be if I needed a skilled partner for a water gun fight or directions to the nearest one-and-a-half-star hair transplant clinic).
Obama to Dump Biden for Andrew Cuomo
“He’s a big name, a big-state governor, and a Democrat who is taking on the issue of public-employee salaries and pensions. Plus, he looks good,” Brown said of Cuomo.
It’s funny how a Democrat can take on public-employee salaries and pensions and there’s nary a peep from the unions, let alone the media. But when a Scott Walker of Chris Christie does it, all hell breaks loose. So the Democrats could have a ticket with an anti-gay marriage candidate in Obama and a union-busting VP in Cuomo.
Finally, some change we can believe in.
It’s probably a given the media will ignore the buildup of the Fannie Mae-Freddie Mac fiasco while Cuomo was HUD Secretary under Bill Clinton. He doesn’t need the messy reminders.
More of that “NewCivility”…Typical: Democrat official celebrates violence against Republicans
This Tweet is from Graeme Zielinski, the Communications Director for the Wisconsin State Democratic Party. Would you be surprised to learn he used to be a “reporter” for The Washington Post…?
Uhm, in truth? No.
This is yet another example demonstrating how far the modern Democrat Party has fallen. Harry Truman and JFK would no longer recognize their party, hijacked by the likes of George Soros and other monied, hard-left forces of internationalism.
Their hatred of the Constitution is palpable. Violence and suppression of free speech are on their menu if it will help them retain power. Elections don’t matter, laws don’t matter, our history and traditions don’t matter.
Gunwalker/Fast & Furious
“Fast and Furious” Guns Killed Mexican Attorney, Showing Up in Arizona Crimes
The legal “vise” is tightening around the Obama administration in the “Operation Fast and Furious” gun-running scandal, so what is happening now is a massive deception, deflection, and projection by Democrats. They are hustling to cover up the facts: The Obama administration, likely from Obama himself since he has editorialized in favor of assault gun weapon controls, gave the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms orders to “allow” at least 2, 500 high-power weapons to be sold to Mexican drug cartel operatives from American gun shops along the border.
“Fast and Furious” shows a cynical, calculating, ideological White House will do ANYTHING, including letting innocent people getting killed….in order to gain more control over American citizens through gun control. Ironically, they will tell you they want to keep America safer. I repeat: The Obama administration has allowed gun sales to the Mexican drug cartels, people have been killed by those guns, and now the Democrats and administration want you to ignore HOW they weapons got into the wrong hands. Just do their bidding. Don’t ask questions. This is beyond impeachment of Attorney General Eric Holder and Barack Obama. This is criminal. Democrats are hoping to distract and confuse the public enough to get past the 2012 election. If Obama is re-elected, this investigation and the U.S. Constitution, will all go away.
ATF’s “Fast & Furious” guns showing up in US crimes
The war that dares not speak its name…US and Libya:
*crickets*
Look for the Union Label/Whackademia:
“Environmental Literacy” or Indoctrination?
An early passage from the guide says “consumption of natural resources, air and water pollution, and the impacts of climate change are among the many complex challenges that threaten human health, economic development, and national security.” It goes on to talk about the need to “take informed action.”
That’s not education, it’s indoctrination. Myron Ebell of CEI points out that “it’s propaganda and it’s designed to raise up a new generation of easily led and poorly educated and misinformed students.”
Beware of associations and groups that are just delighted to step in and offer all sorts of free materials to help with the education of your children. They usually have an agenda. When kids’ ability in math is a problem, it’s not wise to take more time away from the subject to play around with activist agendas. Environmental literacy, indeed. Our school have been busy indoctrinating kids in “environmentalism” because they can write papers about cute polar bears and find all sorts of pictures on the internet. Do they learn that polar bear numbers are increasing, and the bears are not endangered? Not likely.
Homosexual Brainwashing for California Public School Students
What goes in California textbooks goes in everybody’s; it’s a big enough market to effectively dictate to the rest of the country what children will be taught.
NEA Convention Reminds Us: It’s About Union Power, Not Children
In Other News…
A reader emails Glenn Reynolds about his post concerning teen unemployment: As a business owner, I maintain a policy of hiring grandpa over teeney, twenty, and definitely 30-ish. For our Nanny State (thank you Mayor Bloomberg, etc.), and although there is an ocean between abuse and discipline, somehow all these kids who were never told “no,” had their butts swatted, or received any harsher punishment than having their iPhones removed, cannot show up on time, take direction, t-h-i-n-k (duh) or process through random challenges. There seems to be this prevailing concept that they granted me the privilege of paying them, wee socialists. Gone are the 80′s wiz kids. And, therefore today’s 20-year-olds also from working in my business. That leaves 30-year-olds with a sense of entitlement and kids of their own. Fat chance: Those are the ones who act pious for being stupid, irresponsible, not showing up (my child (who is 14) needed a ride to play practice) or otherwise not doing their job (“I am on the phone. Now, Brenda, Mommy is sorry School wasn’t fun today…”). I never hire illegals. So, if that means sending a recruiter to a nursing home, so be it. Business is business.
Your safety is now an unsafe topic
If even the police are not allowed even to warn citizens that an area is dangerous, what good are they? Doesn’t that go to the heart of their basic purpose? How would a concerned citizen learn whether the house he is thinking of buying is in a high crime neighborhood? How would a tourist or out-of-town visitor learn which neighborhoods might be safe for walking around?
At the rate things are going crime statistics will soon be classified information.
Bubba handicaps the GOP field . . . Brace yourself — He likes the RINOs
Obviously, electability is both tricky and critical: The GOP has to pick a candidate who can win in the general election. But to gauge who can win, I’d rather the GOP look to the electorate and not to somebody like Clinton, the ultimate politician, whose agenda doesn’t exactly match the conservative platform.
After all, Clinton’s not actually afraid moderate candidates will lose the GOP nomination — he’s afraid the GOP will pick someone who can unseat Obama (and that person, I’d argue, is unlikely to be a milquetoast moderate — and very likely to be whichever candidate most clearly articulates a message that resonates with the values of American voters). If Democrats like Clinton and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid could only pick our candidate, they’d pick whoever will bow to Obama most obsequiously, whoever will surrender most readily.
Precisely so. Conservatives ought to look at the “moderates” being pimped by the MFM — Romney, Huntsman, et al — with a very jaundiced eye…and run like hell in the opposite direction. Probably towards whoever seems to freak the libs out the most, I’d say. The more viciousness and bile the MF hurls at a candidate, the better they’re likely to be all the way around.
Michelle Bachmann Is Compassionate: Says She’ll Help Obama Find A Job
She’s a nice lady
BDS2: Is Michele Bachmann’s Husband….Gay?
Dr. Bachmann runs his own “Christian Counseling” practice in Minnesota, and one of his specialties is “helping” people “overcome” homosexuality.
But many online pundits are pointing out that those who speak the most vociferously against homosexuality are often hiding something.
Of course! They’ve found us out! Everyone on the Right is gay! We’re either lesbians trapped in a man’s body or homosexuals trapped in a woman’s body.
ThinkProgress found a clip of Dr. Bachmann talking about homosexuality:
And there you go: George Soros funded Think Progress is pushing the smear. Shocker.
Anyhow, they push the meme like being gay is a bad thing. Interesting how they always seem to use this smear (along with “you’re a raaaaacist”)
BDS2 – Bachmann Derangement Syndrome. #2 because Bush will always be the first who pushed the left to complete unhinged behavior.
From the Land of Sky Blue waters…
- The funny thing in all of this is that Mark Dayton is the heir of the Dayton-Hudson department store fortune and is one of the richest people in Minnesota. For him taxes are for ‘the little people’-his fortune is locked up in tax free South Dakota bank accounts. Governor Doofus Shuts Down Minnesota
Bottom line: Even the biggest budget in Minnesota history was not enough for this tax-happy Democratic governor. So he shut down “his” state, putting out of work “his people.” Targeting the rich, sort of whipping boys, or better yet, straw men, he attacks the successful, the job-creators, the job-expanders. How loony tunes is that?
Mark Dayton worry? No, his South Dakota-based blind trusts provide him with millions while he refuses to accept the governor’s salary during the shutdown. Those who voted for this governor, though, this utter failure as a U.S. Senator, don’t have a choice: They lose their income. No South Dakota blind trusts for them. Let them eat, ah, cake with sour cream filling?
Soak-the-rich strategies, result mainly of envy and green-eyed jealousy, are forms of self- destructive class warfare. Tax-the-other-guy (the one behind the tree?) resonates with less affluent, uninformed and, apparently, with liberal — oops, progressive — mainstream media. They simply don’t “get it.” What else isn’t new?
Finally, this just in: Census numbers and equivalent of state GDPs prove indisputably (except to die-hard, hard-left liberals) that populations are up in the south, and their economies grow too, like Texas, like Topsy. Will chilly Minnesota be left behind in the dustbin of failed high-tax havens, also minus a seat in the House of Representatives? If Governor Doofus has his intractable way, the answer could well be sadly, yes
Minnesota’s government shutdown has made national news, in part because it foreshadows, in some respects, the battle that will play out in Washington over the next month on the debt ceiling. What has happened in Minnesota is clearcut: our Republican legislature passed a budget for the next two years, consisting of nine spending bills. Our Democratic governor, Mark Dayton, didn’t think the legislature spent enough money, so he vetoed them. As a result of Dayton’s vetoes, state agencies ran out of funding as of July 1 and, with the exception of certain critical functions, the state’s government shut down.
Dayton’s claim that the legislature didn’t want to spend enough money will resonate only on the far left, given that the nine bills appropriated more money than Minnesota has ever spent in any two year period. But put that fact to one side: it is simply indisputable that the legislature appropriated funds for parks, roads, schools, drivers’ license bureaus, etc. If those agencies have shut down, it is solely because of Governor Dayton’s vetoes. In this context, for the Democrats to claim that Republicans somehow shut down the state’s government is ludicrous.
Yes, things are getting pretty grim in Minnesota, as the state enters Day 3 of its government shutdown. Bad enough that state camping grounds are closed. Soon we’ll be hearing reports of citizens resorting to backyard barbeques, frisbee catches or even taking in a Twins game to pass the time this holiday weekend.
Weekend coverage emanating from Minnesota via Reuters and the Associated Press is doing its level best to run interference for Democratic Governor Mark Dayton, who has chosen to shut down the government rather than sign a budget which does not include tax increases.
One unbylined AP report is a softball Q&A which inadvertently gives away that Dayton’s intransigence is, from his point of view, far more about party politics than the welfare of Minnesotans. In a longer AP profile by Patrick Condon with help from Martiga Lohn, Dayton abuses the Bible, in this case Luke 12:48 (as “progressives usually do), and reveals the all too typical liberal guilt found in born-wealthy liberals. In that second report, Condon provides another giveaway by drawing a parallel to President Obama and DC Democrats who are heading down a similar path on the national level. It’s a pretty obvious reminder to Dayton that he can’t afford to have a Democratic governor give in on the issue and set a problematic precedent for Washington
Maybe we ought to nickname him Rip Van Geier.
In his coverage of this weekend’s We The People Convention in Columbus, Ohio early Saturday morning, Columbus Dispatch reporter Ben Geier found it “surprising” that many attendees would “go after the Republican Party and House Speaker John Boehner” in expressing their opinions relating to developments in Washington. It’s as if he’s totally unaware of what the movement’s leading members and its grass roots activists have been saying (and proving) since the first anti-stimulus rallies in early 2009, since Utah Tea Partiers unceremoniously ousted supposedly entrenched incumbent Bob Bennett in May 2010, and since Ohio Tea Partiers ran serious but largely unsuccessful opposition candidates for State Auditor, Secretary of State, and the State Republican Party’s Central Committee slots that spring.
Since Rip Van Geier missed it, here’s the message: The Tea Party movement isn’t about propping up a party; it’s about electing sensible, Constitution-following conservatives to political office regardless of party, revising state and federal laws to reflect constitutional principles, and of course educating the general populace about those principles and their importance.
I attended the We The People Convention, attended almost a dozen breakout sessions during its two days, participated in one of Saturday’s panels with fellow Ohio bloggers Matt Hurley and Maggie Thurber, and spoke with a number of people who have attended other activist conferences. Thus, I can confidently attest that Geier’s description of the We The People breakout program as “a number of small sessions” is totally inadequate.
New York City: Chaos on Christopher: Iconic Village stretch overrun by drug dealers, prostitutes, violent youths
Christopher St., the Village’s most iconic block, has been taken over by drug peddlers, prostitutes and marauding youths, residents and shop owners say.
Teenage troublemakers regularly wreak havoc along the colorful strip of boutiques, bars and restaurants extending from Seventh Ave. to Hudson River Park, merchants say.
Crime has spiked in recent months, prompting cops to step up patrols and longtime residents to retreat indoors.
“You take your life into your hands when you come down here, especially after dark,” said Bob Goodman, 69, who has lived in the area for more than three decades. “Friends of mine have been mugged. Places have been broken to. There are fights all the time.
“I’ve never seen it like this. Fifteen years ago, you could walk down the street and you wouldn’t have to worry about getting mugged on your way home.”
It’s an Obama World… NYC Rations Toilet Paper at Coney Island
Regina Ballone, 25, of Brooklyn visited a boardwalk bathroom at West 16th Street Wednesday and was “grossed out” at the thought of someone else handling her toilet paper.
“Never in my life have I experienced anything like this,” she said. “I walked toward a stall, and a bathroom attendant stopped me by shouting, ‘Hey, mami! There’s no toilet paper here,’ and she whipped out a big roll for me to grab some.”
Beachgoers also have been forced to line up for their paltry allotment of the city’s cheap, single-ply toilet paper at the boardwalk’s other women’s restroom at Stillwell Avenue.
Massachusetts: Next hack judge? There oughta be a law
Just because you flunk the bar exam seven times doesn’t mean you can’t become a judge.
At least not in Massachusetts, and not if one of your brothers is already a (Jane Swift-appointed) judge and another one is a big-time lobbyist who donated more than $100,000 to Beacon Hill pols. It also doesn’t hurt if you were hired into the hackerama by none other than Jailbird Jackie Bulger, Whitey’s ex-con brother.
Meet the hack du jour, Peter M. Coyne. This career coatholder, who already makes $85,000 a year as an assistant clerk-magistrate, has been nominated for a $130,000-a-year juvenile-court judgeship by Gov. Deval Patrick.
Graphic: More fun facts about the award-winning, worst-in-the-nation, Illinois Pension System
Effort to Recall Louisiana Gov. Jindal Falling a Few Signatures Short
Ron Ceasar would have needed to gather more than 908,000 signatures by early next week to get a recall election against Jindal. The Louisiana Secretary of State’s Office says 55 signatures have been registered so far.
The recall effort took the wrong approach in collecting signatures. He should have told people the petition was to ban conservative talk radio and he might have gotten more than 55 people to sign it.
Why Do Blacks Convert to Islam Which has Enslaved Blacks for Centuries?
A Leftist Feminist’s Journey Out of the Political Faith
Cooling Out: From Spare Change to No Change
It’s even cooler when you consider that the cool One is sure to take the last final shred of whatever may have once, long ago, been cool about the Vineyard and grind it into fishmeal. When that’s done, the Vineyard will look and feel, at last, pretty much like Provincetown, but without the Gay Pride floats and Speedos. People worry about the coming fall and the heating up of swine flu, but I don’t worry about fevers when I see that the all-consuming chill of “cool” is likely to get us first.
Cool’s a funny thing. Before it was cool to be cool, being cool was actually sorta cool. But now that being cool is as required as a tramp-stamp at age 14 in order to gain admittance to a U2 Concert, cool’s just not cool. Once “cool” is codified it’s kaput. And since cool’s not cool, there is no way to really be cool. Once you have a bunch of media lapdogs actually lapping on the lap of the President of the United States, even media’s uncool. That would be okay since nothing cool is cool forever. After all, the groove must move to keep from becoming a rut.
The problem is that the left-behind Culture of Cool has now infested the landscape like locusts on crack and is gnawing the cool out of the American earth. Cool comes from a random sense of motion whirled within a certain spirit of place. As Kerouac wrote, “Man, you gotta go.” Once you kill that spirit with predictable motion, you don’t have cool but kabuki. And moving in that dead dance you don’t find hipsters, but cold corpses twitching in a jerking dance of post-mortem effects. You know, like pithed frogs or rappers.
I grew up in a town with a small log mill in the mountains of the West and I used to lay in bed at night and listen to the soulful melody of a train running a mile behind our house. I remember those damp nights when the rumble of the train came right up into the house and made my whole room resonate with the melancholy beauty of its sound. That haunting sound today simply brings back memories of those nights safely in my bed, home safe and surrounded by people that love me, the laughter of my Mom in the kitchen with my Dad, a tonic for any worries a child could have.
Agenda 21: Conspiracy Theory or Real Threat?
Some conservatives are trying to attract attention to Agenda 21 by labeling it a secret conspiracy to create a one world government. While that will wake some people up, it will turn off others. It does not matter whether it is a conspiracy or not. There are people on the left side of the political spectrum – who may even believe they have good intentions – working together to spread their vision for society worldwide. Whether they meet in dark rooms or openly in public meetings is irrelevant; they are having great success convincing local governments in the U.S. to adopt their socialist and extreme environmentalist programs under the guise of feel-good buzz words. Left wing billionaire George Soros’s Open Society has provided $2,147,415 to ICLEI. Van Jones’ Green for All and the Tides Foundations’ Apollo Alliance are also reportedly ICLEI contributors.
Agenda 21 ostensibly seeks to promote “sustainability” (the latest revisionist word for “environmentalism,” since Americans have learned too many negative things about environmentalism). “Sustainability” is an amorphous concept that can be interpreted to an extreme degree that would regulate and restrict many parts of our lives. When will the level of carbon emissions be low enough? How much must we reduce our consumption of fossil fuels? Preserving the environment is a dubious science, and what steps are really necessary to protect the environment are anyone’s guess.
Agenda 21 promotes European socialist goals that will erode our freedoms and liberties. Most of its vague, lofty sounding phrases cause the average person’s eyes to glaze over, making it easier to sneak into our communities. The environmentalist goals include atmospheric protection, combating pollution, protecting fragile environments, and conserving biological diversity. Agenda 21 goes well beyond environmentalism. Other broad goals include combating poverty, changing consumption patterns, promoting health, and reducing private property ownership, single-family homes, private car ownership, and privately owned farms. It seeks to cram people into small livable areas and institute population control. There is a plan for “social justice” that will redistribute wealth.
Predictable: Man Protesting Motorcycle Helmet Laws Dies in Crash
He’d have survived if he was wearing a helmet. Well, duh.
Sick: HIV-Positive Man Charged With Raping Six-Month-Old Son
It just doesn’t get more disturbing than this.
MSM Circus and Celebutard Side Show:
Liberal Media Celebrates the Fourth
Comcast/NBC VP Hosts Fundraiser for Obama — But Damn, Those Fox News Execs Sure are Biased!
This makes me wish I had Comcast just so I could call and cancel it.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled diatribe about how Fox News executives are the only ones in the media with a political agenda.
Told you So: Glenn Beck show on Fox News to be Replaced by Panel of …..Liberals
Elitist FOX News Contributor Liz Trotta Bashes Palin and Bachmann (Video)
East-coast Palin-hater Liz Trotta is at it again.
In July 2009 she accused Sarah Palin of being inarticulate and uneducated.Now the elitist FOX News contributor is going after both Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann.
She said they both studied at “Fleabag U.”
Classy: Fox News Twitter Account Hacked, Messages About Obama Being Assassinated Posted
A group of hackers called The Script Kiddies appeared to claim responsibility for the Independence Day hoax, BBC News reported.
At one point, the account’s picture was replaced with the group’s logo, and a description said, “”H4CK3D BY TH3 5CR1PT K1DD3S.”
In an interview with Stony Brook Magazine’s Think magazine, a person claiming to be a part of the organization said the group had close ties to the infamous hacking clan Anonymous.
Twitter accounts that appeared to belong to the group, including @TheScriptKiddie and @ScriptKiddi3s, were suspended Monday morning.
Newsweek Columnist on Obama’s Hyper-Partisan Press Conference: “He Was a g*ddam Democrat” (Video)
“Yeah, because it’s happened before – Obama has got to be President of the United States,” Thomas said. “He has to be two things. He has to make a public case of how bad is this, because he is not doing that. He’s not being honest about just how bad this is going to be — no, he was partisan. He was God [bleep] Democrat! He was just, you know – being a party guy. I applaud the energy but it wasn’t getting me anywhere. He has got to rise above that and then in private, in private – he’s got to make a deal.”
Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer’s sentiments fell in line with Thomas’s.
“Instead of saying, as a president ought to say, is that we have a problem — it is a serious problem, it’s a growing problem, it’s a structural problem and we have to do something, he says, as in the sound bite you showed, it is a choice between helping the elderly on Medicare and corporate jets and oil tax breaks,” Krauthammer added. “That is pure demagoguery and that is not leadership.”
Tom Hanks said: “If you would have told me a few years ago that ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ would be repealed and about a billion jobs at General Motors and Chrysler would have been saved because the president was smart enough and strong enough and bold enough to do so, I would have said, ‘Wow. That’s a good president, I think I’ll vote for him again’.”
So how is that new movie doing?
From Nikkie Finke on July 2, 2011: “Tom Hanks & Julia Roberts In Holiday Flop.”
But what about his co-star? From EITB on September 20, 2010, Miss Roberts “said she ‘speaks with Obama’ adding ‘I hope I don’t get into trouble with Mrs Obama’!”
As for Oprah, TV By The Numbers reported her network is not off to a great start.
Global Warmening:
This is a great resource! I have put it under The Clue Bat™ in the blogroll… Earth’s Climate System Is Ridiculously Complex – With Draft Link Tutorial
Coral bleaching on the GBR – no evidence of net decline
God Bless the Brits. They show us what not to do
And now we get to the full blown insanity part.
About those backup gas turbines. They have the ability to quickly move from idling to full power to compensate for the erratic wind turbines. Funny thing about that “idling”. The turbines emit more CO2 when they’re idling than when they’re at full power. They’re designed to run at full power all the time. That’s the most efficient mode of operation for them. Idling is inefficient and emits more CO2. The CO2 emitted while idling wipes out any savings you could get from the wind farms!
Summing up, the Brits have committed to a plan that will give them very expensive electricity and have no effect on their CO2 emissions.
Bonus! Don’t forget that the Brits have recently discovered that they have vast reserves of natural gas (shale gas). A big gas power electric plant is an inexpensive way to generate electricity. So not only will they have expensive electricity, they’ve chosen to ignore the option of cheaper electricity.
Read the whole article. It sounds as if the judge said he had to rule in favor of the “government scientists” (note to self: add that to the oxymoron list) because nobody could prove that global warming isn’t threatening the survival of polar bears. Well, we can’t prove that space aliens and double cheeseburgers aren’t threatening their survival either, so with this kind of logic on the bench the global warmists still have hope, no matter how much the scam is otherwise exposed.
The Sock Drawer:
For Sister Pat Penguin: Butterball (aka Lardbutt/Hindenberg/Pacific Plate/The Chick that is so large he creates his own gravity well) finally got his fat a$$ off the nest today! He is the one that is standing by the nest ring on the right. He is starting to get his ‘bonnet’, too. I did see him try to do a ‘feeding chase’, he sorta waddled ‘fast’ for about ten paces then gave up and went and laid down on the nest. The seismographs at Edinburgh University probably recorded it…
Butterball has a rival! Flurry (the grey chick who is Snowflake’s great grandchick) is getting bigger then Butterball! Here he is bugging his mom for some food. I think I am gonna start to call him ‘Europa’ because he could be as large as the moon of Jupiter of the same name. (Butterball is the top left Penguin). At least Flurry can haul a$$-he moves pretty fast in the feeding chases.
It’s a boy! DNA results confirm Happy Feet’s sex
Night-time supernova: Amazing time-lapse images show Utah’s starry sky
Last Vietnam-era draftee left in the Army
He didn’t join the Army willingly, but as Command Sgt. Maj. Jeff Mellinger prepares to retire, he’s grateful he found his calling.
Mellinger was drafted to fight in the Vietnam War, and the Army believes he’s the last draftee to retire, after 39 years. Most did their two years and left. But Mellinger had found home.
“I think I’m pretty good at it, but I like it. That’s the bottom line. I love being a soldier and I love being around soldiers,” he said.
Will Smith and his 1.8 million dollar mobile home
Cheeky monkey! Macaque borrows photographer’s camera to take hilarious self-portraits
Because of his unique colour, the two-month-old calf, still unsteady on his feet, caused over 2,000 Native Americans from across the U.S. to flock to the Lakota Ranch, in Greenville near Dallas, for yesterday’s celebrations.
White buffalo are considered to be sacred signs in several Native American religions, and thus have great spiritual importance in those cultures and are visited for prayer and other religious ceremonies.
. . .
The Lakota Sioux believe that Whope, the goddess of peace, once appeared in the form of a white buffalo calf, and the belief is that the goddess will return once four such calves are born, bringing in ‘a new age’, which some reckon could be the end of the world.
‘He’s the hope of all nations,’ said Arby Little Soldier, upon whose land the calf was born on May 12.
‘That night it started to rain and thunder and lightning and hail. But now the red man, black man, white man and yellow man; we’ve all got to come together as one.’
Nobody thought twice before sending this mascot out to terrorize fans? Or make them die of laughter?
I don’t blame her…Is that why she was tearful? Prince Albert’s bride ‘tried to run away THREE times’
