The Phillies are Rolling

Lidge got an easy save, Rollins and Utley turned a nice double play and Ryan Howard launched an estimated 475-foot, third deck grand slam.

Video of the bomb is here.

The Phils hold onto a half-game lead over the hated Mets.

Sunday Morning News and Notes

In beautiful Hershey, PA for a baseball tourney.

Here's what's news:

-Gitmo detainees to get computer training including how to use the Internet. What could go wrong?

-Becoming fat, dumb and happy at taxpayers expense. It's a good gig if you can get it.

-While the average American is cutting unnecessary expenses, the Obama's take an unnecessary vacation. The man has a tin ear when it comes to listening to the common man. The GOP will rightly bash the hell out of them for it.

-P.J. O'Rourke on why Americans fell out of love with the American car.

-A charter school in Southern California recruits prospective teachers using words such as this:

"We are looking for hard working people who believe in free market capitalism. . . . Multicultural specialists, ultra liberal zealots and college-tainted oppression liberators need not apply."

The school is scoring unbelievably high on tests and sending poor kids to college. In other words they are hugely successful. The Obama administration and NEA will therefore try to shut them down.

-The country where the Kyoto Protocols were launched is realizing what a scam it actually was.

Friday Morning News & Notes

Good morning. TGIF and enjoy the weekend.

Here's what's new:

--The Constitution seems more a set of guidelines and less protected rights in Obamanation. Here's example one and here's example two. Didn't the left criticize Bush incessantly for every perceived trampling of rights while they seem amazingly quite on this...

--Ahmadinejad: The ACORN of Iran. Neither care how legally or morally they get votes.

--Americans taking a look at the cap and trade scam scheme and increasingly saying "screw that".

--Even Ralph Nader thing the "Government Motors" plan is a bad one.

--Terri has thoughts on Sotomayor.

--Bush may be gone but BDS lives on and on and on...

Lies, Lies and More Damn Lies About Effectiveness of Stimulus

The Obama administration crowed about what the effects of the stimulus plan were going to be. The world would be a more green, wealthy and happier place once we pushed that baby through.
Here we are 100 days later and we are neither wealthier or happier but may be a little, tiny bit greener. Here's Tapper:

The project is described by the Obama administration this way:

"Using $27 million of Recovery Act funding, a public housing development in Washington, D.C., the Regency House, has undergone a green retrofit. As part of this upgrade, the building installed solar panels, a 'green' roof, a rainwater collection system, energy-efficient lighting as well as water conserving toilets, showerheads, and faucets. The greening of this building will allow the Regency House to save money in energy costs, while lessening their impact on the environment."

In reality, the work done on the Regency House that was funded by the stimulus package amounted to $59,000 in parts and labor, according to Dena Michaelson, director of public affairs for the Washington DC Housing Authority.

...In addition, though the White House's "100 Days, 100 Projects" entry for the Regency House work lists "solar panels, a 'green' roof, a rainwater collection system, energy-efficient lighting as well as water conserving toilets, showerheads, and faucets" as what was done as "part of the upgrade," the only parts funded by the stimulus were the solar panels, at a cost of $45,000, and the rainwater collection system, at a cost of $14,000.

I wrote that the stimulus was a bad idea but since it was inevitable, the money should be highly concentrated on construction because it would benefit the most people:

$4.19 billion would pay for a lot of roads and dozens of schools. Just as an example, I was recently working on a $32-million dollar combination middle/grammar school for ages pre-K through 8th. That project is employing 9 different construction trades encompassing about 70-90 workers making good, union wages. Add to that engineers and management and you're looking at another 10 people making upper-middle class wages. Now add to that the people who are ancillary site workers--surveyors, cleaning people, street sweepers, etc. Now add to that the service suppliers like the port-a-potty guy, the roach coach guy, the office cleaners, etc. Now add to that the suppliers who supply windows, doors, steel, roofing materials, mortar mix, fuel and a million other things. Add it up and you have 120-150 people directly associated with the job with double that still to work after this phase is completed including floor guys, finish electricians, HVAC guys, painters, sprinkler guys, etc. All those jobs on a job contracted at $32-million.

Instead, the money was spread to ACORN and other idiotic causes where it will not stimulate anything. The construction industry was pumped for the money and was looking to jump in but instead was left broken-hearted by The One.

History will show that this was the single largest money grab and scam against the American people in history. I suspect we'll see some serious perp walks happening when the government gets serious about finding out where this money is really going.

Thursday Morning News and Notes

Hey, what's up?

Here's the news in a flash:

-The Soto-Mayor selection is generating some serious partisanship. Gingrich leads the way.

-Joe Sestak gives Arlen Specter the finger. Spend that money, Arlen.

-Keeping an eye on ACORN.

-It's on: Intel agencies battle.

-Today's must read: The Liars Club.

Obama Hits Bottom, Keeps Digging

Digging in a hole so deep he'll eventually hit China who will demand payment on all the debt we have that they've bought. Toxic assets if you will.

So far Obama has heeded none of the cautionary tales on what to do during a recession. Increase spending? It didn't work for FDR but Obama increased it so much it would make old Franklin cringe. Nationalize industries? Hugo Chavez is green with envy.

Now the man who has never met a tax he didn't like is contemplating really lowering the boom:

With budget deficits soaring and President Obama pushing a trillion-dollar-plus expansion of health coverage, some Washington policymakers are taking a fresh look at a money-making idea long considered politically taboo: a national sales tax.

Common around the world, including in Europe, such a tax -- called a value-added tax, or VAT -- has not been seriously considered in the United States. But advocates say few other options can generate the kind of money the nation will need to avert fiscal calamity.

At a White House conference earlier this year on the government's budget problems, a roomful of tax experts pleaded with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner to consider a VAT. A recent flurry of books and papers on the subject is attracting genuine, if furtive, interest in Congress. And last month, after wrestling with the White House over the massive deficits projected under Obama's policies, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee declared that a VAT should be part of the debate.

These people are shameless. We may just be seeing the Democratic party digging a hole that will swallow them for two decades. Should The One commit to this, he will be a one-termer and Congress will swing back to the GOP in record time. While that sounds great, we still have 3 1/2 years for Obama to cause potentially irreparable harm and an 80% majority in both houses couldn't fix what he could damage.

The current administration is in a pickle; tax revenues are at lows not seen since Reagan started dragging out of the mess Carter made and, as the wealthy are getting creative, the formerly wealthy are hiding what they can and the less wealthy are either out of work or too broke to buy anything. So the liberals in Washington revert to form and suggest a regressive tax that will stifle growth for years:

A VAT is a tax on the transfer of goods and services that ultimately is borne by the consumer. Highly visible, it would increase the cost of just about everything, from a carton of eggs to a visit with a lawyer. It is also hugely regressive, falling heavily on the poor. But VAT advocates say those negatives could be offset by using the proceeds to pay for health care for every American -- a tangible benefit that would be highly valuable to low-income families.

More pipe dreams and smoke and mirrors from liberal Democrats who will push this with all their might. It's time for a GOP hero to step up and yell enough. Who will it be?

Obama Tactics Nixonian

Richard Nixon used the government to achieve his ends; it appears Obama has learned from more than one 1970's president:

A tipster alerted me to an interesting assertion. A cursory review by that person showed that many of the Chrysler dealers on the closing list were heavy Republican donors.

To quickly review the situation, I took all dealer owners whose names appeared more than once in the list. And, of those who contributed to political campaigns, every single one had donated almost exclusively to GOP candidates. While this isn't an exhaustive review, it does have some ominous implications if it can be verified.

However, I also found additional research online at Scribd (author unknown), which also appears to point to a highly partisan decision-making process.

It sure appears Obama or his staff targeted GOP-supporting dealers and the data generally plays that out.

Good work by Doug Ross.

Tuesday Night News and Notes

On the road again...

What's new y'all? The Phillies took two out of three from the Yankees and the weather was excellent.

Here's what's new in this crazy old world:

-Obama's next takeover target is the Internet. The car companies, the banks and now the ultimate nationalization--the World Wide Web. Imagine if George W. Bush had even so much as suggested this.

-Reaping what they sow: Big Ethanol against Big Environment.

-California high court upholds the will of the people for the most part. At least democracy has not been completely obliterated in Obamanation.

-Please just shut the UN. It's prime Manhattan land and the low-lives who congregate there can be moved to a place more up their alley...like, maybe, Bangkok.

-The rich bolt the Socialist Republic of Maryland in droves.

-Jim Marshall photographed the most iconic groups in rock history. Go spend some time looking at his work. These would be among my favorites:

The Worlds Bad Guys Give Obama the Finger

Yeah, the whole "we'll talk with them without preconditions" thing is working out awesome, isn't it?

Kim Jung-il told Obama in no uncertain terms what he thinks about him and his foreign policy initiatives by detonating a nuclear weapon on Memorial Day and then to make sure the point was taken launched some missiles. That is the diplomatic equivalent of punching him in the face, feeling up his his wife and flattening his tires.

Next we have Ahmadinejad making his intentions known by telling Obama thanks but no thanks on that whole nuclear weapon talk:

"The nuclear issue is a finished issue for us," Mr. Ahmadinejad told reporters Monday in Tehran. But he made an offer that Mr. Obama will find difficult to refuse, proposing to debate the president and his teleprompter at the U.N. "regarding the roots of world problems." But no talks about the Iranian bomb. "Our talks [with the major powers] will be only in the framework of cooperation for managing global issues, and nothing else.

All in all a pretty successful holiday weekend for The One. If we have many more of these we'll be about as respected a world power as Mali or Sri Lanka.

But hey, Obama is "gravely concerned" so that should get old Kim back in line.

Hope and change [TM] indeed.

Update: Maybe Obama should install John Bolton at the UN again. He's the only one who seems to foresee the error of his policies.

Stop the Insanity! Obama to Apologize to Germans for WWII?

The America Sucks tour continues unabated with The One apparently set to apologize to Germany for a "war crime" committed by the Allies:

But when one considers just where exactly in Germany Obama is headed, then the significance of the visit becomes more clear. There is some talk of Obama visiting the Buchenwald concentration camp outside Weimar, in whose liberation Obama’s great uncle Charlie Payne is famously supposed to have taken part. But the Buchenwald visit appears not to be the main event and indeed it can be presumed to have been included in discussions as something of an alibi.

The latest German reports suggest Obama’s principal German destination will be Dresden. According to an article in the local paper Die Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten, representatives of the German and American governments met in Dresden last Wednesday to discuss preparations for the visit. An American security detail is reported to have already scoped out sites in the city: presumably for a public speech.

The symbolic significance of a visit to Dresden by the American president — especially one undertaken in connection with a D-Day commemoration in France — may be missed by some Americans, but it is absolutely unmistakable for the German public. For Germans, Dresden is the symbol bar none of German suffering at the hands of the Allies. The city was heavily bombed by British and American air forces in February 1945, toward the end of the war. According to the most recent estimates of professional historians, anywhere from 18,000 to at most 25,000 persons died in the attacks. These numbers come from a historical commission established by the city of Dresden itself. But far higher numbers — ranging into the hundreds of thousands — have long circulated in Germany and beyond. The bombing of Dresden is commonly described as a “war crime” in German discussions.

Once again, Obama is displaying his lack of experience and the incompetence of his foreign policy team. Just as when he bowed to the leader of Saudi Arabia (and subsequent lame excuses) was a clear sign to the Arab world that we are not as powerful under Obama as we once were; this is a sign to Europeans that we are now no longer exceptional either. We are saying, in essence, that taking offensive action in a nation that invaded numerous sovereign countries, killed millions in planned exterminations and started a war that killed millions more was wrong and we are sorry for it.

Well I'm not. My heritage is German and I still have relatives over there but our actions were warranted, justified and in my mind stopped short of what they could have been. We needed to knock out their industrial complex and to not saturation bomb would have been the real crime.

Tomorrow I'll bring you the news of Obama apologizing to the relatives of Saddam Hussein for being rough when they pulled him out of that rat hole he cowered in.

Dems Just Helping Out Old Buddies

Thursday Morning News and Notes

On the road again...

Here's what's news:

-Arlen Specter plays the good lapdog to Pelosi. Expected of course. He'll probably find himself on the wrong side of this issue as well.

-The vile Joe Klein is, well, vile.

-The GOP will survive and gain in 2010. Mark these words. Now if they could tap into the tax revolt in California.

-Obama's expansion of executive power and his overall power grab is enough to make both Bush and Cheney blush by the sheer audacity of it. we see what happens when one has absolute power.

-Privatizing air traffic control. It's not going to happen during the union friendly and government job creating BHO admin.

The War on Terror Continues

Newburgh, NY terrorists on a mission to take out a military plane and synagogues were busted red-handed by authorities from the police, DHS and FBI:

Four homegrown Muslim terrorists on a mission from hell were arrested last night as they planted what they thought were high-powered plastic explosives at two Bronx synagogues, authorities said.

The men were also allegedly plotting to use a Stinger missile to shoot a military plane out of the sky in upstate New York immediately after the bombings.

"This is America's finest hour. The best resources of the Police Department, Homeland Security and the FBI kept us safe," said Jonathan Rosenblatt, a rabbi at the targeted Riverdale Jewish Center.

At 9:00 PM last night, they began their own personal jihad:

They planted what they thought were explosives in a parked car outside the house of worship.

One acted as a lookout, while the other three allegedly drove up the block to the Riverdale Jewish Center and planted two more bags of "explosives" in cars.

Unbeknownst to them, their explosives were duds -- supplied by authorities who had been monitoring their plan for more than a year.

I guess the question that needs to be asked is this: Since this investigation started over a year ago, what methods did the Bush administration allow the federal entities to use to track these guys and get inside? The next would be would Obama allow the same methods to be employed.

Finally, will the media publish the arabic names of the guys involved or the Americanized ones?

LA Times Upset By People Exercising Their Protected Rights

The great unwashed residing in the formerly great state (and my former and I hope future home) of California voted down five propositions that would have increased taxes and yes on one that would have rewarded state legislators for poor performance. God bless them.

The LA Times sees it a bit differently:

Californians are well known for periodic voter revolts, but on Tuesday they did more than just lash out at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature over the state's fiscal debacle.

By rejecting five budget measures, Californians also brought into stark relief the fact that they, too, share blame for the political dysfunction that has brought California to the brink of insolvency.

Rightly or wrongly, voters in the special election refused either to extend new tax hikes or to cap state spending. They also declined to unlock funds that they had voted in better financial times to set aside for special purposes.

Nearly a century after the Progressive-era birth of the state's ballot-measure system, it is clear that voters' fickle commands, one proposition at a time, are a top contributor to paralysis in Sacramento. And that, in turn, has helped cripple the capacity of the governor and Legislature to provide effective leadership to a state of more than 38 million people.

When has any governor or legislature provided effective leadership? But I digress.

There's no more democratic way of deciding issues than to have people vote for them. California was at the forefront of increasing democracy and bringing it to the people in choosing the proposition vote.

The Times is too damn ideological to see exactly what they are saying is not only anti-democratic but anti-American as well. They would never, ever write that a major cause of the budget deficit in the state is high spending, coddling illegal aliens and a bloated state bureaucracy; instead they lash out at the voters who were only doing what people in other nations fight and die to do...vote.

Don't even begin to think that this is all about the vote yesterday. It goes back to Prop 8 when the state voted against gay marriage that really pissed the editorial board at the Times off.

The statist mindset has set in in every newsroom even more in Obamanation.

Just another example of why the sorry rag called the LA Times is in bankruptcy.

Ted Kennedy Cancer in Remission

I find it ironic though that Ted Kennedy has been a hawk on pushing socialized medicine but it free market health care that helped him in this case. In a socialized medicine world akin to Canada or Britain, the average person would never get the care they get in the US. Senator Kennedy was saved by the medical advances we only see in the American system as it's been for generations.

I'm happy for the Senator and wish him well.

"I see a scrawny cigarette-smoker who plays basketball."

This is humorous (second item):

Men's Journal, one of the more popular magazines available at newsstands, recently featured a glowing cover story on Barack Obama, the in-shape athletic jock.

Now the magazine's editors have published a pair of letters, sent in by readers Jim Koepke of Minneapolis and Skip Schmidt of Columbus, Ohio, neither of whom, suffice to say, were impressed with the reporting.

Mr. Koepke: "I'm sad that you seem to have joined the media lovefest for Barack Obama. With each issue, you slide toward left-wing, politically correct eco-nonsense. I don't recall a cover of George W. Bush biking. And Dubya could probably kick Obama's [expletive] in a footrace."

Mr. Schmidt: "You might see a jock when you look at Obama, but I see a scrawny cigarette-smoker who plays basketball."

Ah the fawning media. They have no idea that people see through their little bias game.

Note the first item as well where Palin was not the preferred candidate but Joe Lieberman was. McCain would have lost by twenty points if that ever came to pass.

More On Maureen Biden Dowd

I thought for sure we see some entrepeneurial blogger find another incidence of MoDo stealing from blogs but then it hit me: no self-respecting blogger would be caught dead writing anything she'd want to steal or would fit her style...except Josh Marshall that is.

Let's Put Liberal Tax Policies to the Test

In every recession and the great depression, liberals have always called for higher taxes on the rich. It's been shown that such policies always fail. This recession, however, is different than others. In the current economic climate, we are seeing the so-called "rich" losing money just like everyone else. The meltdown of the mortgage and financial industries has reduced the number who can be considered wealthy dramatically. The press has also been loathe to publish anything that would be contradictory to Obama policies so the debate hasn't even been started.

That's not stopping some states from instituting confiscatory taxes on the segment of the population that government considers wealthy. Those states are the usual suspects including my own state of New Jersey, which has suffered a devastating loss in high-paying jobs due to the previously mentioned economic meltdown since a good amount of executives on Wall St. call the Garden State home.

So let's do a study and see which states make out best. We'll compare New Jersey, Massachusetts, New York, Illinois and California with states like Alaska, Texas and Florida that do not raise taxes and keep policy on the conservative side. Let's see who comes out ahead and who falters. I know the answer as mush as you but it's well past the time we jam in down liberals' throats once and for all.

The Wall Street Journal has a great piece on just what happens when liberal governors and legislatures raise taxes and the response of those who are targeted by the higher rates. It's well worth the time.

Maureen Dowd Plagiarizes Blogger

The end of the NY Times op/ed page is upon us. I say this with great glee and in full enjoyment of the schadenfreude. See here where it clearly shows Dowd straight up stole the words of TPM's Josh Marshall. TPM lays it out in all its glory:

Now, I'm all for cutting & pasting. As a blogger I do it all the time, but I always give credit.

So, if this isn't outright plagiarism by a top NY Times Editorialist, than I'm a happily married, straight man with 4 kids, 2 dogs, a lovely 2nd wife of 15 years with a girl half my age on the side.

Which I assure you all, I am not.

Dowd, of course, gives a weak response to the charge:

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, in an email to Huffington Post, admits that a paragraph in her Sunday column was lifted from Talking Points Memo editor Josh Marshall's blog last Thursday.

Dowd claims that she never read his blog last week but was told the line by a friend of hers. In a follow-up email, she forwarded her desire to apologize to Marshall, writing that had she known, she would have gladly credited Marshall.

Dowd notes that the Times is fixing her column online to give proper credit to Marshall and that a correction will run tomorrow...

She heard the line and remembered it nearly verbatim and used it in a column? Uh, okay MoDo.

Note in the TPM link she was all over Biden for stealing the words of Neil Kinnock so the hypocrisy level is somewhere close to an eleven.

I've always been a huge believer that Dowd has mailed it in. Now I'm sure. Much better writers have been fired for less than this.

Old media gets done in by new media again.

Update: What he said.

Friday Night Videos--All Cover Edition

Yeah, I know it's Saturday but what the hell. Nothing like a few beers with nice weather and good music.

Here's a great cover of Eric Clapton's classic Promises done live by Tom Hell and Marit Larsen. Based on her name I'm guessing this in Sweden. Marit's voice is phenomenal:



Next we have Cake doing Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive. Not many songs improve on the original but this does:



Next we have the lovely Natalie Merchant doing David Bowie's Space Oddity in 1999. Her voice is perfect:



Finally we have the Allman Bros. and the Dead putting it together for the Band's classic The Weight.

Sweet:

Obomateur: Partisanship and Inexperience Come Back to Bite

When Obama released the "torture" memos a few weeks ago, he did it for purely partisan purposes. He wanted to stain the Bush administration once more, give some red meat to his zealous base and all under the guise of us coming clean for past sins.

Little did he know that he was setting off what could be the downfall of the first woman Speaker of the House:

CIA Director Leon Panetta challenged House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s accusations that the agency lied to her, writing a memo to his agents saying she received nothing but the truth…

Panetta, President Obama’s pick to run the clandestine agency and President Clinton’s former chief of staff, wrote in a memo to CIA employees Friday that “CIA officers briefed truthfully on the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, describing ‘the enhanced techniques that had been employed,’” according to CIA records.

“We are an agency of high integrity, professionalism and dedication,” Panetta said in the memo. “Our task is to tell it like it is — even if that’s not what people always want to hear. Keep it up. Our national security depends on it.”

Obama decided to go to battle with the CIA by releasing the memos and learned of his mistake rather quickly. He atoned for that by going to Langley and pumping up the staff there. He also declined to release pictures of alleged enhanced interrogation techniques (although they are slowly leaking out anyway by someone with access). He knew he screwed up and he knew it looked partisan and shady.

Nancy Pelosi jumped into the fray and then was rebutted by Dick Cheney. She went on the offensive yesterday and looked guilty as hell doing it. Now we have an Obama appointee saying that Pelosi is a shameless liar. Panetta would never have even considered this were it not for the tacit approval of the White House since he basically has no spine.

The saga continues and it's probably going to end with Pelosi stepping down and Steny Hoyer assuming the leadership post. San Fran Nan appears to have done herself in.

Friday Afternoon News & Notes

TGIF my friends.

Here's what's news on this fine May weekend:

-Looking back at afterschool entertainment when we had only 13 channels and not 600 like my kids have today. I was always an Ultra Man and Johnny Socko and his Flying Robot fan myself. A less than feverish debate erupted over who was better. I'd be in the minority and take Johnny and his robot; the dude could shoot missiles out his fingers.

-No one is safe in Obamanation. Axelrod likens Carrie Prejean to a dog. The progressive misogyny continues unabated and uncommented upon by NOW or other womens groups.

-Reflecting on what could have been and how it would have been portrayed. Sarah Palin's first 100 days.

-Gingrich unloads on Pelosi. With good cause mind you.

-Cap and trade isn't playing so well in Indiana. It's a plan to suck the wealth from hard working people and redistribute it to California & NY. More here.

-Gallup Poll: More Americans now pro-life than pro-abortion. I would imagine partial birth was a huge factor in the switch. Historic.

Obama: You Know Those Bush Military Tribunals Weren't Such a Bad Idea

And another promise goes down the memory hole:

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says he is restarting military tribunals for a small number of terrorist suspects at Guantanamo though with several new legal protections for defendants.

Obama said in a statement Friday that his approach is “the best way to protect our country, while upholding our deeply held values.”

The decision puts Obama in the position of reviving a Bush-era trial system he once assailed as deeply flawed — and opposed as a senator.

Political expediency at its absolute finest. If anything defines the first four months of the Obama administration, it would have to be the near-daily 180-degree turns. On the stump, the dude was good and sucked in a whole lot of people who should have known better. Now they're ruing their vote in myriad ways.

Savor the schadenfreude my friends; those who were his biggest supporters are being cast aside and their opinions deemed worthless. They are lashing out of course but anyone who didn't get caught up in the hope and change hype saw this coming months ago. Obama is not ready and about faces like this show just how unready he really is.

More thoughts here.

Alienating Yet Another Ally

And this time on our northern border and the one nation that we simply cannot afford a trade war with:

Ordered by Congress to "buy American" when spending money from the $787 billion stimulus package, the town of Peru, Ind., stunned its Canadian supplier by rejecting sewage pumps made outside of Toronto. After a Navy official spotted Canadian pipe fittings in a construction project at Camp Pendleton, Calif., they were hauled out of the ground and replaced with American versions. In recent weeks, other Canadian manufacturers doing business with U.S. state and local governments say they have been besieged with requests to sign affidavits pledging that they will only supply materials made in the USA.

Outrage spread in Canada, with the Toronto Star last week bemoaning "a plague of protectionist measures in the U.S." and Canadian companies openly fretting about having to shift jobs to the United States to meet made-in-the-USA requirements. This week, the Canadians fired back. A number of Ontario towns, with a collective population of nearly 500,000, retaliated with measures effectively barring U.S. companies from their municipal contracts — the first shot in a larger campaign that could shut U.S. companies out of billions of dollars worth of Canadian projects.

I thought the Obama administration was supposed to fix all the alleged broken relationships we had with our allies. So far he's belittled Britain, France, Israel and now Canada.

This isn't just an embarrassing gift mishap like with Gordon Brown, this is an issue that can cause long-term damage to our relationship with a crucial trading partner. Sure, it may not resonate in DC but it does in states like the Dakotas, Idaho, Wisconsin, Minnesota and the reeling state of Michigan.

Liberals never, ever consider the ripple effect their policies will generate and the lib we now have in the Oval Office is more oblivious than most. Isolationism breeds hatred that cannot be easily turned. We are not hurting Canada by putting tariffs on Molson but actually affecting their job market and business climate. Those are things not easily forgotten and will fester for as long as the isolationist policies continue.

Obama has done more damage to our standing in the world than Bush could have in four terms.

Reason #195 the LA Times is Bankrupt

The LA Times parent company is in bankruptcy as we speak. Of course, they've been pretty much bankrupt for years in an editorial and hypocrisy sense but we all knew that.

But today, their editorial board has outdone themselves. Follow the line of thought here:

The release of dozens of new, graphic images of detainees being abused by their American captors would almost certainly reignite international rage. It could lead to an angry backlash in the Middle East and to more jihadi recruits, as the Abu Ghraib photographs did in 2004. It could even lead to new outbursts of violence at a moment when the Obama administration was finally hoping to put the last eight ugly years behind us.

Pretty much what I've been saying up until the last half of the last sentence. Letting these photos be released would kill American service personnel. But then they go far off the rails into the fever swamps of the left:

It's terrible that the president was faced with such an unpalatable choice, but it's just one of the many awful results of the culture of torture and lawlessness put in place by the Bush administration. This country has already alienated allies and seen its moral standing crumble. Now, as we try to get to the bottom of what happened during those years, we have to acknowledge that doing so might put us in further danger.

If some photoshopper created a picture of Bush waterboarding KSM in the Oval Office, the Times would probably run it. Their hatred of Bush runs long and deep. Poor Obama, he's left a difficult decision by the evil Bush junta and has opted wrong. Perhaps if the Times actually vetted Obama, they'd have noted that he's not the best decision maker having voted present most times when he even bothered to vote at all.

Anyway, it gets better:

Photographs are part of the historical record. Think of these images: black men hanging from trees in the American South; emaciated concentration camp survivors; prisoners shackled into cramped "tiger cages" in South Vietnam. Would this be a better world without those photos?

Got that? Waterboarding is akin to lynching blacks, Hitlers concentration camps and the treatment of POW's in Vietnam by the Times' reckoning. Let's see, Jews were systematically exterminated while Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded. They sound exactly the same to me. In the mind of the Times editorial board, they are. Bush was Hitler and Cheney was Robert Byrd or some other KKK'er in their minds. I guess the fact that waterboarding isn't torture and even if it were never was designed to kill or liquidate civilians is beyond their capacity of understanding.

Trying to cover up atrocities because someone might be angry isn't right and won't work. Instead, the Pentagon should release the photos while making it clear that the U.S. repudiates such barbaric behavior and is committed to dismantling the culture that allowed it to occur.

Hasn't Obama spent the last three months apologizing to the world about everything we've done over the last eight years? The Times joins in with the rest of the netroots because these pictures are like porn to them. They get off on America portrayed as evil and that's why they want them released.

I would guess that views like this will ensure the continued slide into irrelevance and eventual dissolving of the paper. Good riddance.

GOP Gearing Up For Climate Change Battle

The two central issues facing the GOP right now are universal health care and global warming climate change spending. With the US credit rating dropping like a stone and enormous amounts of money still needed to pay for the two Obama programs, the GOP is starting to form a lucid battle plan.

On climate change, the Republicans are playing on the memories of $4 gas we experienced last year and using that to fight the Obama global warming agenda:

Republicans believe that rising gas prices are their trump card against a Democratic-sponsored climate change bill.

The GOP is struggling to regain footing after two successive electoral blowouts, but party leaders are relishing an opportunity to debate what they call a “national energy tax.”

The Democrats’ plan of moving a cap-and-trade bill this summer plays into GOP hands because as the cost of gasoline spikes, so does the public’s awareness of energy prices, Republican leadership aides say.

The prices of everything will rocket up once inflation kicks in but gasoline is an easy one to focus on as people fill up every week and see the prices going steadily north. If we approach $3 a gallon, most people will listen and the passage of any legislation raising prices will be vehemently fought. The GOP needs a clear, coherent strategy that conveys to the public exactly what the Obama plan will cost.

The health care battle will be tougher but this one is a good beginning.

Update: Oops, spoke to soon. Rep. Jeff Flake is signing on to a carbon tax with other Republicans. What the hell are they thinking? Count on the GOP to screw up any advantage.

Obama Treats Israel Like Wayward Child

Imagine you live in a neighborhood that was once okay but has steadily gone downhill. You're stuck there and can't move. You have a neighbor who has been harassing you, your wife and your kids with threats of violence and death. They live four houses away and you have a fence and a dog but it doesn't stop their threats. You call the police and they blame you because of your heritage.

Your closer neighbors have already invaded your home but you fought them off thanks to that trusty nine mil your uncle gave you. Since you popped one in their ass, they still are menacing but less threatening. Yet, that other neighbor is arming himself with bigger, better weapons that will make it easy for him to harm you from the privacy of his own back yard. He now presents a direct and deadly threat to your family.

What to do? The police don't care and the other neighbors hate you as well so what recourse do you have? You prepare yourself to take the offensive and take out the neighbors newer, better weapons before he uses them and are pondering your actions. But at that moment, your uncle admonishes you to wait and not take action without his say so. Yeah, he lives in that nice Mcmansion in the nice part of town and rarely, if ever comes to your neighborhood. He's not currently threatened and when he was he took action to ensure his safety.

Do you take the offensive action and risk that your rich uncle will cut you off or sit and wait for the hostile neighbor to take aim at your house?

Oh, by the way, your name is Israel:

U.S. President Barack Obama has sent a message to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanding that Israel not surprise the U.S. with an Israeli military operation against Iran. The message was conveyed by a senior American official who met in Israel with Netanyahu, ministers and other senior officials. Earlier, Netanyahu's envoy visited Washington and met with National Security Adviser James Jones and with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and discussed the dialogue Obama has initiated with Tehran.

The message from the American envoy to the prime minister reveals U.S. concern that Israel could lose patience and act against Iran. It is important to the Americans that they not be caught off guard and find themselves facing facts on the ground at the last minute.

Obama did not wait for his White House meeting with Netanyahu, scheduled for next Monday, to deliver his message, but rather sent it ahead of time with his envoy.

Why does Obama treat Israel like a petulant child but treat Ahmadinejad with kid gloves? The entire Arab world could be massing at the borders and Obama would do that most liberal of things: scold Israel.

Netanyahu should have attacked while Bush was still president but Israel seems to have gotten caught up in hope and change (TM) as well and now it will cost them dearly.

Wednesday Night News & Notes

-Pelosi loses Stewart who destroys her. Speaker Steny Hoyer anyone?

-Israeli's getting prepared to go it alone.

-Even more proof that Robert Gibbs is a complete idiot. As if any more were needed. Ari Fleischer, Tony Snow and Robert Gibbs. one doesn't fit.

-When we go here, we cease being human.

Obama Breaks Lefty Hearts Again

You poor liberals, The One is not delivering on yet another promise; and this one you were desperately waiting for:

President Obama defended his decision to fight the release of photos showing detainee abuse, saying it would only put American troops in harms way and create a backlash against Americans.

"The most direct consequence of releasing them, I believe, would be to further inflame anti-American opinion and to put our troops in greater danger," the president said before departing on his trip to Arizona. "Moreover, I fear the publication of these photos may only have a chilling effect on future investigations of detainee abuse."

The Left was excited in that it makes America look bad, war is evil, voyeuristic way they tend to favor. They wanted these released as yet more proof of just how evil our military, intelligence agencies and the Bush administration were and still are. The wanted to see the pictures so they could post them and make them iconic like the pictures from the disturbed few individuals that perpetrated the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib. They consider the picture of the shrouded man with wires protruding more representative of America than the iconic image of victory at Mount Suribachi in Iwo Jima by Joe Rosenthal.

Besides that, haven't we on the right been saying that releasing those photos would be disastrous for American service personnel? Why yes, yes we have. The release of the "torture" memos will also have a great effect but The One didn't realize that in time or more likely, probably did but didn't count on the backlash from the public and his own CIA and the subsequent public relations disaster it's turned out to be. We all know that Obama does things for political expedience and not conscience or the good of the nation.

Sorry lefties, you lose again. American won't be portrayed as the evil torture machine you know deeply in your heart it really is. Sucks bad for you.

Update: More heartache for the hand-wringers: Obama thinking about "indefinite detention" for Gitmo detainees on US soil. not that they'll ever consider voting for a conservative but it sure is enjoyable watching them whine about Obama not being the man they thought they elected. the schadenfreude is quite enjoyable.

Fed $ For Chinese Hookers

We have a winner.

In the contest for most outrageous use of tax dollars, the new champ in this hopey-changy world is this:

The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAA), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will pay $2.6 million in U.S. tax dollars to train Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly on the job.

..."Previous studies in Asia and Africa and our own data from FSWs [female sex workers] in China suggest that the social norms and institutional policy within commercial sex venues as well as agents overseeing the FSWs (i.e., the 'gatekeepers', defined as persons who manage the establishments and/or sex workers) are potentially of great importance in influencing alcohol use and sexual behavior among establishment-based FSWs," says the NIH grant abstract submitted by Dr. Li.

"Therefore, in this application, we propose to develop, implement, and evaluate a venue-based alcohol use and HIV risk reduction intervention focusing on both environmental and individual factors among venue-based FSWs in China," says the abstract.

As someone who has never freqented a Chinese whore, I can only hope that my tax dollars ensure that when they get drunk before going to work or while on the job, they do it as responsibly as ever. I also hope when they get wasted (responsibly), they think to themselves to at least thank the American tax payer.

Hey, look on the bright side; at least it's not a picture of a Chinese hooker submerged in urine we're paying for so we are making progress I guess.

Thanks Obama.

Tuesday Night News and Notes

On the road again.

Here's what's news:

-Uber liber Richard Cohen asks: "What if Cheney's right?" He better make sure his car is not known by any of the nutroots considering this blasphemy.

-Black couple pledges to only buy from blacks. A similar stunt by whites would be racist.

-Pelosi may just be on her way out. Hit bottom, stop digging Nan.

-Blair's site is a year old. A good one at that.

-Pic at right of my boy catching in a tourney this weekend in the Poconos, PA.

Obama Embarrases Brits Again

George W. Bush supposedly killed our relationship with Europe; Obama is burying it and pissing on the grave to boot:

The Obama administration says it may curtail Anglo-American intelligence sharing if the British High Court discloses new details of the treatment of a former Guantanamo detainee.

A court filing from the British Foreign Office released recently includes a letter from the U.S. government, identified as the "Obama administration's communication." Other information identifying the U.S. agency and author of the letter appears to have been redacted.

Hit the link and read the letter. Obama is threatening one of our greatest allies saying he will withhold intel in a crucial moment. We need MI-5 and the other Brit intel sources on everything from Iran to north Korea as they may have better placed agents, spies and an overall better covert operation--and one that will take more chances than our recently neutered CIA.

Instead, Obama talks to them as if they were a child and in doing so alienates us more than Bush ever could have.

What does Obama have against Her Majesty's Government any way?

More here.

Specter-Bashing as National Sport

It's the new national sport: pick on the traitorous weasel:

First Chip Bok:

Tony Auth, he of the anti-Semitic cartoons is even getting in on the action.:

Playing Politics With Pay to Play

New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine is in a bind. He's trailing in most polls and faces an uphill battle to maintain the chief executive spot in the state. So what does he do; lower property taxes? Lower the sales tax? Uh no, he cheats:

A sweeping pay-to-play ban that curtails the ability of candidates to raise money - effectively handing an advantage to wealthy politicians who can fund their campaigns - will be tested for the first time in this year's governor's race.

...The untested campaign-finance law was written by former Gov. Jim McGreevey in 2004 just before he stepped down. At the time, McGreevey's administration was awash in a series of scandals.

McGreevey's executive order banned the state from awarding contracts of more than $17,500 to companies in which high-ranking officials contributed more than $300 to a gubernatorial candidate or state or county party organization.

So what does that mean? That means that challenger Chris Christie or Steve Lonegan will be unable to tap into the companies who have business with the state effectively cutting them off and in this state, everyone has a contract where state money is involved, me included.

But Corzine didn't just stop at the McGreevey parameters, he strengthened it more under the guise of stopping pay to play:

McGreevey's order covered contributors who controlled 10 percent or more of companies getting state contracts. Corzine included any partner, officer, or principal of a vendor firm, further limiting the number of people who would be willing to contribute to gubernatorial campaigns.

Because Corzine is funding his own campaign, he won't have to worry much about that law. But independent candidate Chris Daggett and the survivor of the increasingly heated Republican primary will.

Corzine is scamming the system to protect his seat and that is about as anti-American as any law can be. He's put together an elaborate ruse and effectively has shut down his opposition from obtaining money from a major source.

We're not Illinois politics but we're a close second.

Investors Balk at US Treasuries

The minority GOP may not be able to stop the juggernaut known as the Obama recovery plan but the free markets actually may:

NEW YORK (AP) — Weak demand at a Treasury bond auction touched off worries in the stock market Thursday about the government's ability to raise funds to fight the recession.

The government had to pay greater interest than expected in a sale of 30-year Treasurys. That is worrisome to traders because it could signal that it will become harder for Washington to finance its ambitious economic recovery plans. The higher interest rates also could push up costs for borrowing in areas like mortgages.

I think that's a wrong analysis; I believe that investors couldn't care less about financing the recovery plan, they really care about how the hell we plan on paying for it. The recovery plan spending has already occurred, it's now new program spending and a bloated budget that needs to be funded and how can it be done if no one buys bonds?

It appears that Americas very own debt is quickly becoming a "toxic asset" and the last thing China wants is to become the Lehman Brothers of the world markets. Oil producing nations have already cut back on our treasuries.

How far have we fallen?

ACORN Workers Indicted For Voter Fraud Activities

Seven workers for ACORN--a group of felonious liberals community organizers are in hot water:

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Seven Pittsburgh-area ACORN workers were charged with falsifying voter registration forms, with six accused of doing so to meet the group's alleged quota system before last year's general election.

District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr. said he's hoping the workers charged Thursday will help authorities determine whether Allegheny County ACORN officials will be charged with requiring the illegal quotas or otherwise directing that voter registrations be faked.

"You should consider the investigation as ongoing," Zappala said.

Six suspects forged a total of 51 cards, a felony that carries up to seven years in prison. The same six also were charged with illegally accepting payments to meet a quota of 20 registrations per day — a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.

Only twenty per day? These scammers weren't thinking high enough. I would have required the slackers to get at least fifty before they saw any damn money. I wonder if they were paid a "living wage".

Anyway, let's hope they get the conviction and punish them enough to dissuade it from happening again...said with heavy sarcasm.

It's all good for ACORN though, with a chunk of $50-billion in stimulus tax dollars, they could probably hire on hell of a good lawyer.

So Much For Transparency On Stim $

We were promised that every single dime would be tracked of the $700+-billion dollars injected into the economy to create a stimulus effect. We were told that this would be the most transparent administration the country had ever seen. We were told that the culture of corruption was a thing of the past and that our money would be watched like a hawk to be sure that it went where it was supposed to go.

We were lied to:

WASHINGTON — Although President Obama has vowed that citizens will be able to track "every dime" of the $787 billion stimulus bill, a government website dedicated to the spending won't have details on contracts and grants until October and may not be complete until next spring — halfway through the program, administration officials said.

Recovery.gov now lists programs being funded by the stimulus money, but provides no details on who received the grants and contracts. Agencies won't report that data until Oct. 10, according to Earl Devaney, chairman of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, which manages the website.

Devaney told a House subcommittee Tuesday that it will be a challenge to have the site ready to present spending data in five months. He said after the hearing that the board doesn't have enough data storage capacity, for example.

Here's a novel idea; why didn't we spend some of the stimulus money on more "data storage capacity" instead of funneling it to groups like ACORN? I'm sure we could have reduced the amount we gave to the NEA so that we could upgrade our data storage capacity and allow Americans to see where their money is going. A few less "Piss Christs" and other "art" projects may have been put off but we would at least have some clarity on the stim dollars.

Money for community organizers and Democrat votes is good. Transparency is bad. This was predicted of course.

Hope and change my friends, hope and change.

The Idiocy of Global Warming Spending

As I've mentioned about a thousand times before, the great Global Warming Swindle is exactly that; a ploy to scare people into spending billions of dollars that will not benefit the environment but benefit those who have made this an industry.

We have further proof just how inane the thought of carbon reduction reducing temperatures really is:

Editor Note: Using mainstream models and assumptions, Mr. Knappenberger finds that in the year 2050 with a 83% emissions reduction (the aspirational goal of Waxman-Markey, the beginning steps of which are under vigorous debate), the temperature reduction is nine hundredths of one degree Fahrenheit, or two years of avoided warming. A more realistic climate bill would be a fraction of this amount. The author will respond to technical questions on methodology and results and invites input on alternative scenarios and analyses.

Emphasis mine. Think about that, we'll spell untold billions for a reduction 0.019 degree reduction. Hardly worth the pixels I'm producing as I write.

Here's the picture version for you people up in Boston who have trouble reading the written portion:

Wednesday Afternoon News & Notes

Happy hump day to you.

Here's what's new:

-Why they hate Sarah Palin. Thoughtful yet highly edited.

-Hooray! I live in one of states where freedom is an afterthught and liberty is but a dream. Hey, at least New York is even less free.

-Speaking of New York; the Phillies open up another short series against the Mets at Debits Field tonight. They face Johann Santana who has essentially owned us (although Howard, Ruiz, Ibanez and Werth have feasted on him) but the Phillies are now in first place and the way they're hitting, I'll bet they stay there for awhile.

-Yeah, that whole hope and change approach to dealing with Iran is working out just great...for Iran.

-Americans think quite differently than Pelosi and The One on "torture".

-Juxtaposing the economies of two Caribbean nations. Spoiler: the one with more government intervention performed much worse.

Union Bosses Very Happy With Obama

It always amuses me the pull that unions still have with the Democrats. They kiss the unions asses more than they do women's groups, African-Americans and anti-gun groups combined. They court them and stroke them and generally support them against the mean, evil corporations who are keeping them out (think WalMart) or the greedy CEO who won't bargain nicely. The only time they don't speak out for the unions is when it's the NY Times doing the screwing but I digress.

Well, the unions are getting their moneys worth from The One who worked them for donations the entire campaign:

Fifty years ago, Congress passed the landmark Landrum-Griffin Act to protect rank-and-file union members from malfeasance by union leaders. Senate hearings had uncovered serious corruption and other unethical practices inside the labor movement, and a bipartisan coalition emerged to shine the light of disclosure on union practices.

Nevertheless, Democrats in Congress and in the executive branch have often attempted to undercut that law's financial reporting and disclosure requirements. Prior to reforms adopted in the George W. Bush administration, for example, one union could get away with reporting a $62 million expenditure as nothing more than "contributions, gifts, and grants to local affiliates" -- with no further explanation. Unfortunately, the Obama administration is already showing that it wants to return to this nontransparent standard of financial disclosure.

Within days of the inauguration, the new leadership at the Labor Department moved to delay implementing a regulation finalized in January that would have shed much needed light on how union managers compensate themselves with union dues. The regulation required disclosure of receipts for expenditures and for the purchase and sale of union assets -- disclosures that would help deter embezzlement. The administration has since moved even more aggressively, initiating proceedings to rescind this rule and others promulgated when I was secretary of labor.

Now why should we be concerned about union bosses scamming the members, that never happens, right? I mean, the case where a mobster was scamming the operators and the laborers unions was an anomaly, right? And the case where the Business Manager of Operators Local 825 was charged for bribery was something that almost never happens, correct?

In light of that, I can't imagine why would need more transparency for unions instead of less.

Update: Obama isn't even trying to hide it anymore. He's now telling the UAW that they don't have to pay back the billions of our tax dollars given them.

More Democrat Crushing of Free Speech

It's only year one in Obamanation and we're already seeing bills introduced that would curtail free speech in ways never before considered:

Proposed congressional legislation would demand up to two years in prison for those whose electronic speech is meant to “coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person.”

Every single one of my posts is meant to "coerce...or cause substantial emotional distress" to liberals. That's by design. This is a great example. So is this.

The proposal by Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Los Angeles, would never pass First Amendment muster, unless the U.S. Constitution was altered without us knowing. So Sanchez, and the 14 other lawmakers who signed on to the proposal, are grandstanding to show the public they care about children and are opposed to cyberbullying.

The meaasure (sic), H.R. 1966, is labeled the Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act. It’s designed to target the behavior that led to last year’s suicide of the 13-year-old Meier.

And there you go, we must pass this un-Constitutional bill because it's "for the kids". How the hell could you oppose this, do you hate kids?

There slippery slopes and slopes lined with Crisco oil. This would be the latter. I mean, it would be like a Democratic president using his authority to round up a certain ethnic group and interning them because their ancestral homeland attacked one of our Navy bases or something. That couldn't happen, right?

Who would be the arbiters of what words "intimidate," "harass" or "cause emotional distress" anyway?

I could see conservative bloggers being investigated for every single post and it will effectively shut down the newest and some may say most important form of free speech that we now have. Of course, the Democrats led by Sanchez have exactly that goal in mind.

Wednesday Morning News & Notes

Still raining, still gloomy, people are sick of it. If they say we are suffering a drought, the backlash will be enormous.

Anyway, here's what's new:

-The Kennedy's are fighting over Teddy's seat even though Teddy is currently alive and still occupying it. These people are shameless. American royalty my ass.

-Anti-gay marriage proponent semi-nude pictures found, Wait for the backlash.

-The Mafia is intruding on the idyllic world of greenies. Hell, the thuggish governments of the world are stealing billions, why should La Cosa Nostra be left out?

-Now this is just plain weird.

-Dealing with politics at work in the age of Obama.

How's That Switch to the Dems Working Out, Arlen?

Many people just can't seem to understand Pennsylvania politics. Hell, I live next to the state and can't understand the shenanigans across the Delaware River at times. They elected John Murtha after he called them racist but I digress.

But what of Specter?

The GOP establishment didn't push Specter aside; the voters did. In the weeks leading up to Specter's defection, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, heartily endorsed him. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's PAC gave $10,000 to Specter's campaign.

Institutional Republicans were trying to bail Specter out - just as they did in 2004, when the NRSC gave him $320,000 and individual Republican senators kicked in $83,000 to protect him in the primary.

The problem was with actual Republican voters, who, much to the consternation of the elites, don't always follow orders. The party couldn't have "kept" Specter if it wanted to (which it did), because Republican voters didn't want him! Once upon a time, the spectacle of voters defying party bosses out of principle would have been seen as healthy and virtuous.

Pennsylvania is a blue state, but it's not Massachusetts. One of the assertions surrounding Specter's switch is that only a moderate Republican such as Specter can win in true-blue Pennsylvania. Really?

Rick Santorum won two elections here, and the Democrats who have been successful statewide (Gov. Rendell, Bob Casey, Bob Casey Jr.) have been well to the right of the Democratic mainstream.

Exactly right. The Keystone State elected Santorum--a conservative ideologue--twice and only failed to re-elect him because he was unfortunate enough to have come up for re-election during the downturn in Iraq. He was on Bush's coat tails and they led to the abyss.

As for Specter becoming a traitor and bailing on the GOP, it seems his new party wants him even less and is treating him in ways the Republicans never could have sunk to. He's probably realizing that those mean things said about the Dems being liars are really quite true.

Specter has made his bed and it's small and lumpy. I am enjoying the schadenfreude so damn much.

Look for Tom Ridge to be the next Senator and beat Specter in 2010 by five or six points.

Update: Specter seemed to have a senior moment yesterday and forgot which team he now plays for.

Tuesday Night News & Notes

It's been a busy day but everything is sunny for the economy if you just ask Ben Bernanke.

Here's what's going on in the solar system:

-Strong arm tactics more akin to the Corleones than the government of the US. Life in Obamanation continues unabated but a great deal poorer.

-Remember when liberals used to complain we weren't doing enough about Darfur? I've not heard Darfur mentioned in about 106 days or so.

-Don't you love it when those who still believe global warming is man-made try to rationalize away clear concise facts rebutting global warming staring them in the face?

-More great moments in socialized medicine.

-The Obama administration will not release the pix of Air Force One scaring the bejesus out of New Yorkers and Bloomberg unloads on him for it. He will release incendiary pictures of "torture" at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo that will inflame Muslim nations, however.

Another Conservative Woman gets Trashed by Media

She was asked a question by a mutant, gay radical about same-sex marriage during a beauty contest and answered truthfully that marriage should be between a man and a woman. She lost because of that answer and has endured the wrath of the gay marriage gestapo in concert with their media toadies. The pageant organizers threw her under the bus as well.

The National Organization for Women has rallied to her defense with all the zeal and gusto they defended Sarah Palin...which is to say none.

Now, Miss Prejean is being slammed for pictures that may have been considered risque' in the fifties but are incredibly tame by today's standard. NBC says it's too blue to show when they are the network that has had far steamier live action on shows like ER and...er, the peacock is so bad I can't name another show on the network.

So here's the picture that the homosexual Nazi brigade is bandying about as proof that Prejean has no moral compass, isn't a Christian and whose opinion should be not only squashed but gutted, burned and the ashes scattered all over San Francisco:

Hot? Damn straight she is. Hot enough to make a gay man straight...er, except for that ingrate Perez Hilton. Immoral? Not even close. If she were a liberal this would be a resume enhancer. Hell, even as a conservative it's a resume enhancer.

From Hot Air's comments linked above:

When do the Janine Garafalo nude photo get released to try and destroy her….sorry I couldn’t finish I just threw up.

portlandon on May 5, 2009 at 4:13 PM

And on that note, I think I'll skip dinner.

Tuesday Morning News and Notes

Still raining and has been for what seems a week. I'm going to build an ark.

Here's what's new:

-The Most Eloquent President of All Time is not.

-Are the Dems suffering buyers remorse on Specter. Let's hope so.

-DENIED! Living in a world of Obamatons.

-I was wondering when they would deal with particular brand of pond scum. We've all gotten the call.

-Murtha is 10 times more corrupt then any Republican could dream to be. Every day brings a new allegation of how brazen this guy was with our money.

-Ryan Howard (pictured) hit his league-leading second grand slam of the young season and Phillies record tying 7th af his career last night. Some guys never get one in a career, Howard has two in less than two weeks. Nothing like some of Mamas home town cookin'.

Selena Roberts is Smearing A-Rod

Now I'm no Yankee fan--in fact, where I grew up most kids first words were "mama" or "dada", mine were "Giants suck". I hate NY sports teams with a passion that may be borderline insane. You have to live here to understand it.

That said, I still must stand up for A-Rod as he's facing the worst smear job of his career. Yes, he shamed the game by using steroids but the latest allegations are a different story and the person making those allegations is the same one who tried and convicted the Duke lacrosse players before they even were able to speak before a judge. Once they were exonerated, she never once wrote a word retracting her slurs or apologizing to the players. She ruined the lives of three young men because they were rich, white and, well, men.

That person is former NY Times reporter Selena Roberts. She's the first to write anything bad involving a male athlete because she's a typical hypocritical women's libber.

Here's a great quote from the excellent piece by Jason Whitlock in the Kansas City Star:

Instead, she moved on to Sports Illustrated, a seat on ESPN’s “The Sports Reporters” and a new target, baseball slugger Alex Rodriguez.

Last week, the New York Daily News and The New York Times acquired “leaked” copies of Roberts’ soon-to-be-released biography, “A-Rod.” In it, according to the two New York newspapers, Roberts paints a highly unflattering picture of Rodriguez as a human being and, among other things, speculates that Rodriguez used steroids in high school.

Roberts’ speculative opinions are deemed as so credible by ESPN and others that the Worldwide Leader ran all-day updates stating that Selena Roberts believes that it’s “irrefutable” that Rodriguez used performance-enhancing drugs while a teenager.

At no point did ESPN’s TV anchors or radio broadcasters mention that Roberts was the same person who led the media charge against the Duke lacrosse players. I listened to Roberts’ interview on Dan Patrick’s radio show. Patrick never asked her about Duke lacrosse or why we should trust her reporting.

In its news story about her book, The New York Times failed to allude to her position on the Duke lacrosse case:

“Some of the accusations in the book are based on anonymous sources, and others are simply presented as knowledge the author has without an explanation of how the information was obtained.”

And that is essentially the Times M.O. for all stories critical of men, the Masters, Republicans and anyone else that is not a terrorist, abortionist or Democrat.

I think I hate Selena Roberts more now than ever because she made me defend a scumbag like A-Rod. Plus, she seems a bit creepy and bizarre.

Iran Attacks Inside Iraq; How Will Obama Respond

Seemingly small incidents carry huge clout in the Mideast. When I was in Kuwait after Desert Storm, we were schooled incessantly on the local customs and how generally every action meant something in the local culture. Whether it be the Persians or Arabs, actions and reactions carry weight that western cultures can't even begin to comprehend.

This is one of those moments:

Iranian aircraft attacked three villages inside Iraq over the weekend. The airstrikes — Iran’s first on Iraqi soil since the U.S. invasion — could complicate the Obama administration’s efforts to normalize relations with Tehran.

“The bombardments appeared to have targeted the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), an Iranian Kurdish separatist group which has launched attacks on Iran from rear-supply bases in the mountains of northern Iraq,” AFP reports. Iran has attacked the Kurdish group before, with artillery. But this is the first time the Iranians followed up, with assaults from the air.

“The incident comes a week after reports of a clash between Iranian police officers and suspected PJAK fighters in the country’s western province of Kermanshah,” Al-Jazeera reports. “At least 10 policemen and 10 fighters were killed in the gun battle.”

This is a direct slap at the Iraqi government and by extension at Obama. His response (or lack of) will have ramifications that could harm our long-term strategies in the region. A non-response will send the signal that we are backing away from our commitment to Maliki and the Iraqi nation in which case Ahmadinejad will be further emboldened.

The only response is to covertly execute a mission that lets Iran know that we will never stand by and allow them free rein to attack within another nations sovereign borders. Something that will embarrass the regime in such a way that they will not even disclose it in the same vein as the Israeli attack in Syria that was covered up by everyone. Perhaps we take out one of their anti-aircraft radar installations or some other such action that will send a clear message.

I can't say I'm even remotely confident that Obama will authorize such a thing but one can hope.

Granted, the Kurdistan issue is one that concerns Iran, Iraq and Turkey but Iran clearly broached Iraq's border and that can't go without some response. As Uncle Jimbo notes, we own the airspace so we may have allowed this to occur but that seems doubtful.

The simple scenario is: today Kurdistan gets attacked, tomorrow the Straits of Hormuz are blocked unless we act quickly and decisively.

Obama, Andrew Sullivan and Palin

A funny thing is happened last week. President Obama quoted almost verbatim an Andrew Sullivan blog post where he said that Churchill didn't condone torture. It turned out to be woefully inaccurate as Churchill encouraged it in some cases.

Here's what's really interesting: Obama is quoting a man who writes erroneous information on his site right next to posts about Trig Palin being born to Bristol and not Sarah Palin. Sullivan's been on this extremely creepy conspiracy theory for months.

It's funny, the right side of the blogosphere has been smacking down our own for spreading the rumor that Obama wasn't a citizen and thus can't legally be president while Obama quotes a hack journalist in prime time who wallows in conspiracy theories on a daily basis.

Monday Morning News & Notes

Happy Monday...or not.

Todays news in cartoons:

Classic:


About right:

It's On: Specter vs. GOP

Sen. Arlen Specter blames GOP policies for the death of Jack Kemp:

"Well, I was sorry to disappoint many people. Frankly, I was disappointed that the Republican Party didn't want me as their candidate," Mr. Specter said on CBS's "Face the Nation." "But as a matter of principle, I'm becoming much more comfortable with the Democrats' approach. And one of the items that I'm working on, Bob, is funding for medical research."

Mr. Specter continued: "If we had pursued what President Nixon declared in 1970 as the war on cancer, we would have cured many strains. I think Jack Kemp would be alive today. And that research has saved or prolonged many lives, including mine."

It didn't take long for "single bullet theory" Arlen to learn the Dem playbook, did it? You find an issue or an event that is in the news and bad and blame it on the GOP. It's simple. It used to be that everything was blamed on Bush but he's gone now so they just use the generic "Republicans" now. Specter always creeped me out but now the guy is just plain reprehensible.

But our hero Sen. specter has riled his new friends and there's serious rumblings that he will face a challenge from his left in Joe Sestak; a primary battle he could lose if Sestak had the guts to go against Senate leadership and the Obama administration. Add to that the fact that Pat Toomey will be a considerable foe--especially if the economy remains in the tank.

I would be surprised if Senator Specter is in the Senate after the 2010 general.