Posted on 01/31/2003 5:07:21 PM PST by backhoe
At the request of members, I am restarting those "Tales from the Dark UnderBelly Of the Beast"-- the stories and issues that the press and media either ignore, won't even talk about, or will mention once and forevermore claim "it's old news..."
Naturally, some will be stories which interest me, or things I think we all need to be aware of.
I am experimenting with a minor change in presentation- when I can, I will cut to
with a keyword or two and see what kind of links to "mainstream" stories I can find in contrast to what we see here and on other sites.
May I remind you of a couple of points to bear in mind?
Each link usually has many other links within- follow them all to get "the rest of the story."
Don't forget the "open multiple browsers" trick with control-n -- this allows you to hold your place with one, and use the others to follow links, run searches, etc.
Rather than go back and rehash old links, I'll give you links to the original posts here:
-DUBOB 10- the *best of* the Dark Underbelly Series--
-DUBOB 9-- even *more* tales from the Dark Underbelly of the Beast..... --
DUBOB 8-- still *more* tales from the Underbelly***
DUBOB 7-- even *more* tales from the Dark Underbelly of the Beast.....
DUBOB 6-- yet *more* tales from the Dark Underbelly of the Beast.....
DUBOB 5-- even *more* tales from the Dark Underbelly of the Beast.....
DUBOB IV- yet more Tales from the Dark Underbelly of the Beast-
DUBOB III -- "Tales from the Dark Underbelly of the Beast"
DUBOB 2-- more tales from The Dark Underbelly of the Beast-- thread II
-The Dark Underbelly of the Beast- Stories the Media won't Discuss...--
A heckler shouted “Liar! You liar!… You should be impeached.” as Barack Obama gave an impromptu speech to supporters on a bus during his rained out Memorial Day speech.
Via CNN:
Click on Photo For Video
White House Photo
"Many in Europe agree with me but are afraid to voice their opinion," he added.(hat tip Armaros)
That question is a variation of one I have heard (or read) over the past 40-some days, as the crude continues to wreck havoc on the Gulf: “Is it possible to vacuum up and recover that oil from the surface of the water?”
I am not mechanical and had not thought it a serious question. But take a look at this Modern Marvels Video which looks at hopper suction dredges. Yes, they’re meant to dredge up sand from the ocean floor, but couldn’t they be used to suction oil off of the water and contain it?
I don’t know how true this is–it’s not in the mainstream press, but these days that doesn’t mean it’s not credible–and AOL News picked it up. Is such a thing as this truly possible?
And if it is, why haven’t we done this from the very start?
“No one’s listening,” says Nick Pozzi, who was an engineer with Saudi Aramco in the Middle East when he says an accident there in 1993 generated a spill far larger than anything the United States has ever seen.
According to Pozzi, that mishap, kept under wraps for close to two decades and first reported by Esquire, dumped nearly 800 million gallons of oil into the Persian Gulf, which would make it more than 70 times the size of the Exxon Valdez spill.
But remarkably, by employing a fleet of empty supertankers to suck crude off the water’s surface, Pozzi’s team was not only able to clean up the spill, but also salvage 85 percent of the oil, he says.
“We took [the oil] out of the water so it would save the environment off the Arabian Gulf, and then we put it into tanks until we could figure out how to clean it,” he told AOL News.
Quick calls to my engineer friends and family revealed that, theoretically, this should be possible but whether appropriate equipment is available or not is an issue. It seems dredging arms are not like snap-on tools, easily refitted with readily-available watervacs, or something. Who knew?
From the article:
Pozzi suggests that the U.S. government tell the Saudis: ” ‘Hey, we helped you out, can you help us out? Lend us some supertankers.’ For a little payback for helping them out during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.”
Moreover, he says, “there are many, many, many other countries that have oil tankers” that, for a price, could be deployed off Louisiana.
Stephen Reilly, CEO of Slickbar, a leading oil spill equipment and vessels manufacturer, says that while he’s unfamiliar with supertankers being used in this way, Pozzi’s proposal could well work.
“Any containment area or barge or tanker can be used for reception, and they certainly have the pumping system on board,” Reilly says. “So in terms of using assets like that to pump stuff into tanks, by all means.”
Too simplistic? I admit, it sounds a bit too pie-in-the-sky-just-ask-the-Sauds-for-help idealistic, to me.
Is this something that is possible? I have no idea, but let’s find out! Seems like something the government ought to already be aware of. And if they did know of it, I have to assume they’d already be using all of the smart diplomacy and good-will points they have to pursue such a fix.
UPDATE: Reader Sarah writes:
I lived in Louisiana for about 15 years off and on. Including about 7 years working as a CPA in the oil patch and as the controller for a commercial diving company. I loved the place. And, I know how difficult it will be to get oil out of the marshes and swamps (whats the diff? Marshes don’t have trees.) once it gets in there.
I couldn’t understand why they didn’t burn it. Its been 23 years since I was working down there; but, that was a common way to deal with it back then. Louisiana sweet floats really well and doesn’t have to be supplemented to burn, so why not? Well, the first problem was not enough burn boom and then I understand the EPA nixed it.
Somebody needs to have a sharp case of reality here.
I’m guessing that a spill of this size, and the visuals of black smoke pouring into the sky made the burn-off idea unpalatable both politically and environmentally.
Over the last twenty or so years, Vagina Warriors have claimed the label of “Feminism” and have scribbled reams of column inches about how anyone that didn’t march in their ideological boots was “anti-woman.”
Of course, the VW “Feminist” ideology is basically Leftist ideology in Birkenstocks. In Jessica Valenti’s anti-Palin screed, she makes this quite clear.
Now, there’s no grand arbiter of the label, and the tremendous range of thought in the movement means there isn’t a singular platform one can look to as a reference point. And the sad reality is that there are plenty of self-identified liberal feminists who exhibit not-so-egalitarian ideals, such as racism or homophobia. So is it possible to exclude women such as Palin from feminism if we don’t have a conclusive definition?Absolutely. If anyone — even someone who actively fights against women’s rights — can call herself a feminist, the word and the movement lose all meaning. And while part of the power of feminism is its intellectual diversity, certain things are inarguable. Feminism is a social justice movement with values and goals that benefit women. It’s a structural analysis of a world that oppresses women, an ideology based on the notion that patriarchy exists and that it needs to end.
Leftists aren’t interested in equality of opportunity, but in equality of outcome; which is why arguments that Obama and the Democrats’ great rush to expand Government will impoverish America falls on willingly deaf ears. As long as everyone is “equal”, no matter how poor, it is preferable to allowing the talented or the hard working to be more successful than their “unlucky” neighbors.
Vagina Warriors take the Leftist ideology and expand it to the Triumph of Irresponsibility — from medical care to The Pill to abortion to education, all must be “unlimited and free” if women are to be “equal”. No criticism or discussion allowed.
Feminists — or anyone who cares about women’s progress — need to stop Palin from turning feminism into yet another empty slogan.
Actually, Ms. Valenti should look at herself and her Vagina Warrior Female Supremacist sisters, with their perchant for one-upsmanship in political correctness, for the snarky reactions to “Feminism.”
Palin and other pro-liberty Feminists are wresting the term back to its roots.
[Classical] liberals should take notes.
After seventeen months of huge majorities in both Houses of Congress and a fawning press the President went to Pittsburgh today for his much needed fix and launched an attack on...George Bush and Republicans.
PITTSBURGH--President Barack Obama, his presidency bogged down in the Gulf oil spill, lashed out at Republicans Wednesday, linking their deregulatory philosophy to misdeeds by bankers, insurers and oil companies.Congressional Republicans, he said, have a "sincere and fundamental belief" that government has "little or no role to play in helping this nation meet our collective challenges.
"If you're a Wall Street banker or insurance company or oil company, you pretty much get to play by your own rules, regardless of the consequences to everyone else," Mr. Obama said.
Republicans, he said, "gutted regulations and put industry insiders in charge of industry oversight."
For the umpteenth time let's break this down: the bankers and financiers that Obama attacks as instruments of Republican influence gave more than two to one to Obama and the Democrats in the 2006 and 2008 election cycle. The insurers have given more to Democrats in the 2010 election cycle. President Obama is the biggest recipient of British Petroleum largesse during the last decade. So how do we square these facts with the President's statements in Pittsburgh today? The answer is that the President's demagoguery and the facts can't be reconciled any more than oil can mix with water. These statements, all blatantly false, are the inevitable result of an Executive being consumed by events. Simply put, he's in Denial and completely out of touch.
President Obama predictably hit the road today to do the only thing he knows how to do: campaign. What he is campaigning for is not quite clear given the notable absence of several Democratic politicians who chose to avoid the event in Pittsburgh today. This President does not require Republican cooperation to accomplish any of its legislative goals yet he continues to run against them as the members of his own party avoid him. Has anyone seen Joe Sestak?
Clearly an intervention is in order.
November can't get here soon enough.
That exactly how I see.
Like we say down South about a fella like this?
"He ain't much of a man..."
Second Amendment: Chicago is deciding whether to prosecute a great-grandfather and Korean War veteran under its handgun ban. He refused to be a victim, and now there's one less armed thug roaming the streets. What's the problem?
If the 80-year-old vet living on the city's West Side didn't have the gun the city said he shouldn't have, he and his 83-year-old wife and 12-year-old great-grandson might have joined those victims of gun violence about whom gun-control advocates constantly chirp.
The vet obtained the gun in violation of the city's handgun ban after a prior incident in which the couple was robbed at gunpoint by three armed intruders. So when Anthony Nelson — a parolee with a record of drug and gun arrests — tried breaking into their East Garfield Park home, they were ready.
Nelson fired twice at the as-yet-unnamed homeowner, who walks with a cane but retained enough of his military marksmanship to drop the intruder with a single gunshot to the chest. Yet in some quarters, instead of being hailed as a hero, it's the homeowner who's being considered a threat and the armed predator a victim of gun violence.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Able Danger, 9-11 Report, Gorelick, and so much more...
Click the picture...
I think it could work too.
Surely we could test it somewhere safe on some old well on a smaller scale perhaps or on land.
Bottom line, it probably would work, so government would never do it.
=================================================
Our “Peace Prize winner” could not lead a starving person to a meal.
What he is going to do is lead the United States back to the stone age...
In response to a flood of Facebook and YouTube videos that depict police abuse, a new trend in law enforcement is gaining popularity. In at least three states, it is now illegal to record any on-duty police officer. Even if the encounter involves you and may be necessary to your defense, and even if the recording is on a public street where no expectation of privacy exists.
The legal justification for arresting the "shooter" rests on existing wiretapping or eavesdropping laws, with statutes against obstructing law enforcement sometimes cited. Illinois, Massachusetts, and Maryland are among the 12 states in which all parties must consent for a recording to be legal unless, as with TV news crews, it is obvious to all that recording is underway. Since the police do not consent, the camera-wielder can be arrested. Most all-party-consent states also include an exception for recording in public places where "no expectation of privacy exists" (Illinois does not) but in practice this exception is not being recognized.
(Story continued...)
(Excerpt) Read more at gizmodo.com ...
All three states are among the most screamingly liberal in the nation. Citizens, submit to the police state.
Those who disparage offshore drilling - and seem eager to ban it - ignore that the Gulf of Mexico accounts for one-third of U.S. oil production. Without domestic production, we would be spending even more on imported oil - which already is running $1.5 billion a day.
Any sensible response to the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig - and the huge oil spill that's fouling Gulf waters - needs to recognize two facts: First, the demand for oil is expected to increase. Second, America cannot suddenly stop offshore drilling.
The best place in the United States to find new oil is in the Gulf's untapped deep-water areas, in the Atlantic and off Alaska. These three new drilling areas combined hold as much as 22 billion barrels of oil, which is more than our current total estimated reserves. This oil would help meet U.S. energy needs for decades.
But if those areas are closed to oil production, we would need to import more oil from overseas, probably from countries that are nationalistic and, in some cases, hostile. Some of the countries are run by despots such as Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.
The reality is that the cards are stacked against us. U.S. investor-owned oil companies hold only 6 percent of the world's petroleum reserves, while state-owned national oil companies in Venezuela, Iran, China, Nigeria, India, Russia, Saudi Arabia and other countries control 80 percent of the reserves. Coincidentally, even some of these countries are drilling for oil in Cuban waters just 50 miles from Florida.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Another good article today.
Badlands: From ground zero of the immigration crisis along the Mexican border
White House political team stumbles, bumbles.
Related: Political problems converging on Obama White House all at once.
Video: Hecklers tee off on Obama during surprise appearance on bus.
It is said that government workers now make, on average, 30% more than private sector workers. Put that fantasy aside. It far underestimates the real figures. By my calculations, government workers make more than twice as much. Government workers are America's fastest-growing millionaires.
Doubt it? Then ask yourself: What is the net present value of an $80,000 annual pension payout with additional full health benefits?........
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.forbes.com ...
VDH does his own version of Back to the Future:
We have sowed and now we shall reap, and so soon we shall endure our first post-national, post-racial, Nobel Laureate president treated quite shabbily by those whom he was supposed to mesmerize. In places like Teheran or Damascus, Obama’s racial heritage, his Harvard Law Review billet, his membership in the Trinity Church, his brotherhood with Wright and Ayers, all that and more mean less than zero. To such thugs, Obama is the face of America, and he is to be tested rather than worshipped. Hugo Chavez is not a Harvard dean; Putin is not a senior Newsweek editor. Their legs do not tingle when they hear the president, except perhaps in giddy anticipation of what they might wrestle from him. They are not impressed with identity politics; they care little for degrees or titles; they have no elite white guilt. Again, Obama is just an American president who must be analyzed, tested, and if need be dared and humiliated. ( Along with America- elections have consequences, O fools... )
Bonus entertainment, a comparison.
The only Republican Governors with the guts to do what’s needed to defend their people no matter what are Sarah Palin, Jan Brewer, Chris Christie, and Haley Barbour...
Chapter, hellI'velostcount, 470 in why Chris Christie eats lightning and craps thunder.
VIDEO AT LINK
"The teachers union is about the accumulation and exercise of raw power."
I'm just an idiot from Texas, where we speak plainly through locally familiar metaphors, like "go piss up a rope."
This guy speaks plainly, like "You punch them. I punch you."
I continue to be impressed with his approach.
video and tip via Allahpundit and Cubachi on Twitter.
Also I use Youtube 448 width because it's slimming.
Corruption: A presidency that promised to take the high road on ethics has veered off into scandal after scandal — Sestak, Romanoff, Blagojevich. Whatever happened to changing the ways of Washington?
'The American people elected a president who promised to change the status quo and business-as-usual practices of Washington," House Oversight and Government Reform Committee ranking Republican Darrell Issa of California and House Judiciary Committee ranking Republican Lamar Smith of Texas wrote this week in a letter to White House counsel Robert Bauer.
"Has this White House become a part of the establishment they once opposed?"
Bauer last week issued a page-and-a-half of evasive legalese to make the Rep. Joe Sestak job-offer scandal go away, but Issa and Smith are demanding specifics on whatever jobs the White House offered to the Pennsylvania lawmaker to entice him not to run for Arlen Specter's Senate seat in the Democratic primary last month.
The Republicans want legal documents, e-mails and telephone records regarding the overtures made to Sestak, as well as notes and transcripts of interviews involving White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, former President Clinton, Sestak's brother and campaign manager, and Sestak himself.
Bauer's memo admitted that Clinton was used as an intermediary to convince the maverick Democrat not to target Specter, who switched from Republican to Democrat several months after President Obama took office last year.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
My favorite bumper sticker: “How long before you admit that Obama was a mistake?”
Obama Heads to Gulf as Spill ‘Furor’ Shifts Toward White House. “Spending about 15 minutes on a largely unsoiled beach is as close as Obama has come to the worst oil spill ( GUSHER! ) in U.S. history, one that is challenging his presidency as even some fellow Democrats complain that he has been too detached.”
UPDATE: Well, the campaign ad using this video pretty much writes itself . . .
"See, I told you so," part 2: Why Can’t Obama Shake Chicago-Style Government? “While millions of Americans are out of work and millions more have even given up looking despite a gazillion dollars of so-called stimulus spending, the ongoing spectacle of aides and Democratic pals of President Barack Obama offering taxpayer-funded jobs to fellow Democrats not to do something has raised the eyebrows of even the most obsequious members of his following.”
STEWART BAKER: Smallpox In The Garage.
Related: New frontiers in terrorism?
The Summer of Corruption plot thickens
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2010
In Chicago politics, there’s an old term for the publicly subsidized pay-offs and positions meted out to the corruptocrats’ friends and special interests: boodle.
In the age of Obama, Hope and Change is all about the boodle. So it was with the stimulus. And the massive national service expansion. And the health care bill. And the financial reform bill. And the blossoming job-trading scandals engulfing the White House.
READ IT ALL AT THE LINK... plenty of documentation
Obama sold America a Chicago-tainted bill of goods. A nation of slow learners is finally figuring it out.
The difference between the 15 million who voted the first time in 2008 and the tea party members is the system construct. Both could be considered Complex Systems. The difference lies in what motivates the members of the system and how the systems are connected.
In the Dems case, it is a centralized motivation surrounding one man. Think of that as a hub and spoke system. Such a system is not particularly robust because it rises and falls on the success or failure of one man. This goes to the second point. The system is primarily centralized, which weakens it, because it's focus is on an individual.
In contrast, the tea party members are motivated by personal conviction. Specifically, fear and anger. Fear for the financial future of the country - especially for their children. Anger at elected officials who have violated the sacred trust of representative government. These convictions are tightly and individually held and are not easily moved. In fact, the attacks on the tea party only strengthen them. The system itself is extremely decentralized with thousands of small pockets across the country. That makes it resilient, robust and powerful.
From a computer system stand point, the Dems are client/server and the tea party is peer to peer.
As with any Complex Adaptive System, there are emergent properties that develop that cannot be observed at the scale of individual members. We have seen such emergent behaviors in the tea party movement in the growth of participants in marches. On April 15, 2009, 3,000 march in DC. On 9/12/2009, 1 million marched. That is exponential growth. We also see emergent behaviors in the "unexpected" election results in VA, NJ and MA.
I have seen a lot of people try to describe the tea party in linear terms. They try to understand it but they are using incorrect system descriptions. For example, Ed Rendell says that it is weak because it doesn't have a national infrastructure, not realizing that the decentralized nature of the movement gives it tremendous power.
My father was talking about such dynamics 20 years ago as it applies to everything. He is still talking about it at http://29thday.org.
A man in London sticks his video camera out of his car window as he drives to capture the face of immigration. You can even hear the "call to mosque" over the loudspeakers. Amazing.
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
I have to correct this just a bit : “. .....we are witnessing a huge acceleration of the decline and destruction of the greatest economic machine that the world has ever seen. ...”
Clearly we were on the wrong path before Obama but he, Pelosi and congress (and some local democrat governments), have put the US economic car in high gear to hell.
I bet you're right- professionals versus amateurs...
Seriously, I often wonder why shows like Sex in the City don't have episodes where the tarts, err, I mean girls spend time visiting their docs and treating the exotic strains of venereal diseases they are incubating...
For those who read yesterday’s Obamateurism of the Day and followed the links, this won’t be new material, but the new presentation is powerful enough to revisit it. Kevin Kristy did the legwork at PolitiPage, at least up to the holiday weekend. While Obama claimed a “singular” focus on the Deepwater Horizon blowout and oil spill in the Gulf since Day 1, the Singular Sensation spent a lot of time at parties, golf courses, and political fundraisers:
VIDEO AT LINK
Just to remind people of the unofficial count:
In comparison, how many days did Obama spend at the Gulf? Three, during this span of time, and he’s back again today.
Day 46– VIDEO AT LINK The Daily Beast reported, via : Carol Browner, director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, told Obama at one of the earliest briefings in late April that the blowout would likely lead to an unprecedented environmental disaster, senior White House aides told The Daily Beast. Browner warned that capping a well at such depths had never been done before, and that they ought to expect an oil spill that would continue until a relief well was drilled in August, the aide said. That early briefing on the scope of the spill—and enormous technical challenges involved in fixing it—might help explain the sense of fatalism that has infused Obama’s team from the start. Little that has happened since has changed their mind-set. Now six weeks later, the president’s top advisers expect the oil spill—and the negative stories—to continue through August. ++ Dear President Obama and Secretary Salazar [I am writing to express my grave concerns regarding the severe economic impact of a six-month (or longer) suspension of activity at 33 previously permitted deepwater drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, including and in particular the 22 deepwater drilling rigs currently in operation off the Louisiana coast.] Louisiana deserves answers, Mr. President [We're already reeling from the loss of thousands of fishing industry jobs. We now could see an estimated 20,000 oil-services jobs vanish due to your six-month federal moratorium on deepwater exploratory drilling. That could do even greater damage to the economy than the well-chronicled fishing industry losses. ] more @ links (both short but informative reads).. June 4th, 2010 From a cheering Associated Press: By Nancy Benac, Associated Press Writer June 4, 2010 WASHINGTON – Determined to project both command and compassion, President Barack Obama is returning to the Louisiana coast for a fresh reality check on work to stanch the oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico and the spiraling effects of the nation’s worst environmental disaster. You see, even the AP realizes it’s all for show. He will also undoubtedly find the time to wash an oil soaked pelican. Still, it doesn’t sound like he will be doing anything to “plug the damn hole.” 10 Comments » "Why doesn’t President Miracle just walk out on the water, take a deep breath, dive down and fix the leak using his super powers? I mean, what’s the problem?" "He should send Slick Willie down there to charm the pipeline. There’s a man who knows how to “plug a hole”." "I know a lot of people have given you a hard time for your vacationing instead of leading this country, but from what I have seen of your leadership, I’d much rather you continued to go on vacations, maybe you can make a halfway decent golfer if you practice more. God knows you are a lousy president."
Posted by Jim Hoft on Friday, June 4, 2010, 8:34 PM
Obama knew from the beginning that the oil leak would likely last until at least August.
Maybe that explains all the parties and golf outings?
"Hey, treehuggers: the worst environmental disaster in US history happened with Democrats in charge..."
"Obama wanted the spill to become big enough to justify halting drilling. That is why he did nothing for so long."
Former Shell Oil Chief, Engineer: Supertankers Could Save the Gulf, So Why Won't BP ( Or Duh!1 "in charge" ) Listen?
(Obama's) Killing The Drilling
"Things are bad in the Gulf and on the beaches now. In two years hardly a trace will remain. This is truly a press-made disaster and obastard is loving every minute of it. His minions are getting their tree hugging dreams fulfilled and he and his puppet masters are getting their dreams of a devastated America."
‘Furious’ Obama Heading To Gulf – Again
‘Furious’ Obama heading to Gulf for spill update
We Don't Believe You, Mr. President [Fr. Euteneuer "on fire"]
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Those Troublesome Jews. “The whole point of this relentless international campaign is to deprive Israel of any legitimate form of self-defense. . . . The world is tired of these troublesome Jews....
THEG SEZ AGAIN: They are being South Africanized. Pay attention, dammit.
Moar: June 4, 2010 04:13 PM by Doug Powers113 Comments | 6 Trackbacks Frightening on many levels.... THUGOCRACY, when the guy at the top is rotten, what do you expect? Rep. Phil Hare (D-IL) doesn’t care much about the US Constitution but he’s a big fan of the DMV. On Monday, May 31, 2001, Mr. Hare and I were engaged in a conversation concerning the statements he is making around the district about being a veteran. After I pointed out that according to the law he is not a veteran, he became very upset and demanded to know my name. I refused to tell him my name, saying that this was about his claim of being a veteran and not about me. Mr. Hare then told one of his aids who was with him, to follow me to my car and get my license plate number so he could find out who I was. I have since been told that Mr. Hare’s daughter works for the DMV. I then asked Mr. Hare if he was going to stop telling people that he was a veteran. Mr. Hare again demanded to know my name, and again told his aide to get my name or to follow me to get my license plate number so he could find out who I was, so he could tell all the former reservist what I said. I asked Mr. Hare if he as a public official was going to use his official office to run name checks on private citizens, in order to intimidate them into not asking questions he did not want to answer. As Mr. Hare was turning to walk away form me he paused, and turning back to my direction, he glared at me intently, and while leaning forward pointed his finger at me, and in a threatening and intimidating manner said, “I’ll find out who you are!” Given the nature of Illinois politics and Mr. Hare’s reputation as a mean politician, I felt intimidated by the power of Mr. Hare’s office and what he might do. During partial birth abortion babies are pulled feet-first from the womb and stabbed through the back of the skull. A newly-produced document today from the Clinton archives is the second to show Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan defending ex-President Bill Clinton’s veto of a bill to ban partial-birth abortions. The memo, and others, may increase Republican opposition to her nomination. In one of the documents that comprises the 46,000 pages of material the William J. Clinton Presidential Library released today, Kagan opined on the ban for Clinton as an attorney with the administration’s Office of Domestic Policy. In a February 27, 1997 memo to top White House staff, Kagan referred to the startling admission from Ron Fitzsimmons, at the time the executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers. The debate then had been on whether the partial-birth abortion procedure was done for health reasons for the mother or essentially on healthy unborn children for elective reasons only. Leading pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood and NARAL made claims that flew in the face of medical practice by saying the three-day-long abortion procedure would somehow be able to save a woman’s life in a life-threatening medical circumstance. Fitzsimmons signed on to that mantra but eventually relented, saying he “lied through my teeth” about the statistics and supposed reasons for the abortion procedure. According to CNN, the new memo showed Kagan advising Clinton, saying it “it would be a great mistake to challenge” Fitzsimmons’ statements give how embarrassing they were for abortion advocates. “The president’s position today remains what it has always been,” Kagan added, defending Clinton’s veto in the face of the admission, “that he will sign a bill banning partial-birth abortions, but only if it has an exception that will protect those women — even if few in number — who need this procedure to save their lives or prevent serious harm to their health.” Of course, the fact that Barack Obama would pick some leftist this radical for the Supreme Court surprises no one. Related… Of course, CNN says the newly released documents show Kagan had a pragmatic approach on the abortion controversy… If you believe stabbing babies in the skull is pragmatic. The Recoveryless Recovery, ...and here's what it looks like at my side of the swamp: Duh!1 explains it all... Do aliens live on Saturn's earth-ish moon Titan? The spectacular decay of the abandoned city of Battleship Island, once the most densely populated urban area in the world, now a crumbling ruin. I never heard of that before. All I can do is wonder why Hollywood doesn't make a lot of post-apocalytpic B-movies and cut down on expenses by just photographing the city as it is actually is, no special effects or set-dressing required. I guess the answer is: Because most of the buildings there look like they're one 3-on-the-Richter-scale foot-tickler from toppling over. Thanks to ArthurK (who posted the Titan item in the sidebar) and EdwardR.
Thanks to rdbrewer for that.
EdwardR. suggests a RedEye "Pinch" joke... but I can't think of one.
Helen Thomas Should Go Back to Mordor or the Star Wars Cantina and Get Out of Reporting
Attention, insupportable photographs! STARVING GAZA! ( some good pictures)
Posted by Jim Hoft on Friday, June 4, 2010, 7:55 PM
After an embarrassing confrontation at a public meeting last week Rep. Phil Hare threatened to follow a constituent and Vietnam veteran to his car and get his license plate number so he could find out who he was.
Bob McCarty at Big Government reported:
"This shows you why we have to get rid of the mass of self-important public officials who are no longer public servants."
Posted by Jim Hoft on Friday, June 4, 2010, 4:10 PM
Barack Obama has voted in favor of infanticide. So it really comes as no surprise that his Supreme Court pick, Elena Kagan, supports partial birth abortion.
Life News reported:
Well, Duh! "A Nuke for every Kook"--
'Armageddon scenario': Iran could give nukes to Hamas, Hizbullah
Moar "well, duh!" Blind squirrel, stopped clock, occasionally right:
Reich: Crumbling Labor Market Pulling US Back Into Recession(rips census worker gimmick)
"They’ve been roasting hot dogs and marshmallows over the books that have been cooking for the last 500 days."
Well, I'm the guy who coined the phrase
When jobless benefits run out. (They suggest you apply for welfare and food stamps!)
Hopi
Changi
Yes We Can! We are the Ones we bin waiting fo'...
Uhh, Nevermind!
News Report with Eyewitnesses Held in Illegal Immigrant Drop Houses (Very Insightful)
Mexican Drug Cartel Reportedly Plotted to Blow Up Texas Dam
Jest Doin' the....
As the Sun Awakens, NASA Keeps a Wary Eye on Space Weather...
Families Of Killed Rig Workers To Visit WH
Apparently oil widows are worth more to the Messiah than Coal mine windows.
Waxman Drops The Bomb, We Cant Afford Obama’s Healthcare
According to dummiecrats (or commies) you have to spend money to save money. I still haven’t figured that one out.
Hummer-driving Ashton Kutcher mocks Republicans for wanting to "drill", drill" for oil (video)
=================================================
Cool Sci-Fi Stuff: Possible Life on Titan; Ruined City of Battleship Island
—Ace
This island does look like a battleship from this angle:
And... "The Expendables," a movie which actually doesn't look all that interesting -- except I need to see The Expendables to appreciate The Making of The Expendables featurette that'll be on the DVD, which should be really interesting.
Now It Can Be Revealed: Everyone in TV shows and movies reads the exact same edition of the exact same newspaper.
Posted by Ace at 08:34 PM New Comments Thingy
174 More on Detroit.
Recently saw a BBC doc "Requiem for Detroit". Lot of film of the ruins. Also a history of Detroit and how it came to this sad state. What happened? Why those rotten auto companies refused to pay more and more taxes! I'm serious - that the root cause according to that doc.
Otherwise, the doc is entertaining viewing. Lots of ruins, great soundtrack (the motown sound!)
NOT LONG: How Long Before We See Christie-Brewer 2012 Bumper Stickers?
You mean like these?
SHOCKING: Report: Obama knew from the beginning that oil leak would likely last months. “This makes all those golf outings, sports-team photo ops, and celebrity jams with Paul McCartney over the past six weeks feel extra special, doesn’t it?” Well, he figured it was a marathon, not a sprint, so better to pace himself.
But there’s this: “The real disgrace here is why, if he really did know right away that this was the oil equivalent of an asteroid strike, he didn’t scramble some sort of all-hands-on-deck emergency operation to protect the coastline. Remember, Jindal reportedly requested five million feet of hard boom back on May 2, long after Obama (according to Wolffe) knew about the magnitude of the disaster. By May 24, not even 800,000 feet had arrived. What happened?”
UPDATE: Reader Martha Hearron writes:
I hate to be a cynic, but have you looked at how the affected states have voted? How many of them did Obama carry? Also, at least 3 of the 4 governors are Republicans, although Charlie Crist is questionable.
I bet if it was California it would be all hands on deck from day 1.
Nonsense. If that cynical analysis were correct, we’d have seen Obama ignoring the Nashville flood, Kentucky ice storms, etc.
MORE: Further thoughts from Moe Lane.
MICHELE BACHMANN: Helen Thomas Needs To Go.
UPDATE: Ari Fleischer: Hearst Should Fire Helen Thomas.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Hearst Newspapers Refuse To Say Whether Helen Thomas Will Keep Job.
MORE: Reader Israel Lipschitz writes:
When my father was growing up in Poland in the ‘30s, the local anti-Semites often demanded that the Jews get the hell out of Poland and go to Palestine (after all the Jews had only lived in Poland for 1,000 years and were not really “Polish”). Now Helen Thomas wants the Jews to get the hell out of Palestine and go to Poland. Makes you think that perhaps these folks don’t want the Jews to be anywhere. We have a name for such people – Nazis.
Well, as far as I know she’s not in favor of eliminating gypsies or homosexuals. Then again, maybe nobody’s asked her about them, yet . . .
IT’S THE THIRTIES ALL OVER AGAIN — Time To Blame The Jews! “Consciously or not, our President — with his increased, and pompously self-righteous, pressure on Israel — has sent a message to the world. It’s time to blame the Jews. And the world, in economic extremis, is all too eager to find someone to blame.”
THE NEW CONVENTIONAL WISDOM: “While the Turks call for a ‘final solution,’ Carly Fiorina says there has been more condemnation of Israel than there was of North Korea when it sank a South Korean ship. She says bad things are happening in the world because Obama is displaying weakness.”
The reality is that she is brighter than Obama and many of the pundits who have done their best to describe her as an idiot. I have friends who buy lock stock and barrel into the crap the media has sold about Bush being stupid, but Gore and Kerry being geniuses. They also think Obama is really, really bright, but Palin is stupid.
Being bright is not defined by where you went to school, and definitely not by how smoothly you speak. It is evident in the way you are able to look at facts and make sense of them. Using that measure Palin has shown quite well that she has substantial intellect. A lot of Ivy graduates in this administration haven't.
Interesting post on BH by a guy named LostFan:
Kuchie,
Investigate this and get back to us:
Seems that a crew from Schlumberger, on contract to BP, hightailed it off the platform at their own expense 6 hours before the blowout because BP refused their recommendation to shut down the well. This lends more credence to Thom’s suggestion that corners were cut because the bigwigs were coming for a visit.
“BP contracted Schlumberger (SLB) to run the Cement Bond Log (CBL) test that was the final test on the plug that was skipped. The people testifying have been very coy about mentioning this, and you’ll see why.
SLB is an extremely highly regarded (and incredibly expensive) service company. They place a high standard on safety and train their workers to shut down unsafe operations.
SLB gets out to the Deepwater Horizon to run the CBL, and they find the well still kicking heavily, which it should not be that late in the operation. SLB orders the “company man” (BP’s man on the scene that runs the operation) to dump kill fluid down the well and shut-in the well. The company man refuses. SLB in the very next sentence asks for a helo to take all SLB personnel back to shore. The company man says there are no more helo’s scheduled for the rest of the week (translation: you’re here to do a job, now do it). SLB gets on the horn to shore, calls SLB’s corporate HQ, and gets a helo flown out there at SLB’s expense and takes all SLB personnel to shore.
6 hours later, the platform explodes.”
Does any of that sound like a Republican was involved?
TALK of the New Politics in Britain, at its most inflated, is understated compared to the millenarian, "Millions now living will never die" hysteria that swept the United States on 20 January, 2009, the day of Barack Obama's inauguration as President.
"...never more than a soundbite-emitting hologram."
The author hits the nail on the head and doesn’t mince any words.
I Googled him and found another gem written by him, about a year ago (April 2009) and his predictions were right on the money:
Barack Obama: President Pantywaist - new surrender monkey on the block
That was little more than 16 months ago, but it seems like another age. Never has any US politician's reputation crumbled so quickly.
“Watch out, France and Co, there is a new surrender monkey on the block and, over the next four years, he will spectacularly sell out the interests of the West with every kind of liberal-delusionist initiative on nuclear disarmament and sitting down to negotiate with any power freak who wants to buy time to get a good ICBM fix on San Francisco, or wherever. If you thought the world was a tad unsafe with Dubya around, just wait until President Pantywaist gets into his stride.”
I'll never forget a line in either Choppers or Big Bike magazine, many years ago-
Some fella wrote a letter to the editors regarding the running war between Harleys and virtually every other motorcycle- and bear in mind both magazines were 90% Harley at that time, I guess the early seventies-
He wrote, "It takes a Real Man to start one, a Real Man to ride one, and a Real Man to make 'em say 'Uncle!'"
And the terse comeback?
"Yessir! It takes a Real Man to pluck out his beard with a clamshell..."
Seriously, in those days I did shave with a straight razor- had two of them, can't remember the brand, but they did give a nice, close shave provided you had very steady hands and did all the rituals. ( hot water to the face, work the lather in, strop the blade carefully, and re-strop it and coat it with castor oil when you were done )
Went back to my folks house circa 1991 when Mom was selling it and looked in the cabinet for them...
The had turned to dust- nothing left but the handles and a trail of red rust. Dammit.
-File at age 62, bank/invest all your benefits until age 70.
-Withdraw your retirement claim and repay the benefits you drew between age 62 and 70.
-Then refile for benefits at age 70 & your benefit will be significantly higher. Basically you were receiving a zero-interest loan from SSA for 8 years which you have invested.
CHANGE: Obama’s Youth Brigade Burns Out. Hmm. See below.
OBAMACARE POLLING BADLY IN MICHIGAN: And this is interesting: “Young people ages 18-29 were more against the changes than any other age group, with 69% opposed.”
"Obama fooled enough of the people, for long enough. Don’t blame them for wising up now. Better late than never."
Wait, what?
Critics have bashed President Obama for being slow to seize the political initiative in combating the BP oil spill in the Gulf Coast, now widely believed to be the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. The White House has battled back, releasing a timeline of events showing that Obama was briefed—and deploying the Coast Guard—within 24 hours of the Deepwater Horizon blowout.
What has not been previously disclosed: The president was not only briefed on the real-time events of the spill, but also on just how bad it would be—and how hard it would be to plug the hole.
Carol Browner, director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, told Obama at one of the earliest briefings in late April that the blowout would likely lead to an unprecedented environmental disaster, senior White House aides told The Daily Beast. Browner warned that capping a well at such depths had never been done before, and that they ought to expect an oil spill that would continue until a relief well was drilled in August, the aide said.
That early briefing on the scope of the spill—and enormous technical challenges involved in fixing it—might help explain the sense of fatalism that has infused Obama’s team from the start.
Publishing this at 8:46 PM on a Friday night, when it is least likely to be noticed, Richard Wollfe sends out a trial balloon, to see if it will float some sympathy toward the White House: Hey, America, Obama knew it was going to be really bad, and there was nothing he could actually do about that, so he did nothing about anything.
Hey, America, I knew it was hopeless, and I couldn’t change anything, so I couldn’t see the point of accepting the help of 17 nations offering their technology and their expertise in attempting to contain the damage as much as possible; no point in even attempting to use supertankers to try to remove as much oil from the surface as possible, even if they have to do it for months.
Hey, America, I knew it was bad, so there was no sense in telling you anything, or in helping Governor Jindal try to protect the marshlands and coasts of Louisiana.
President Obama surely cannot be blamed for (or personally do anything about) “the damn hole,” that–even “capped”– is still gushing oil into (and beyond) the Gulf of Mexico, and that’s why reasonable people have not been the ones insisting that the president play superhero, or display reassuring “concern” by doing a public freak-out. In a crisis, you want the president to be calm and collected.
But Obama just as surely could have informed the nation that we were facing a long-term assault on our environment that would have wide repercussions.
He could have put his legendary oratorical skills to work, communicating an appreciation of the gravity of the situation, and an assurance that everything that could possibly be done to protect the environment was being done.
That was his fundamental job as president: clear communication of the struggle ahead, and reassurance that all possible efforts at collection and containment were operational. That is what he could have done, and did not; six weeks into it, he still has not really managed it.
We’ve just spent years listening to ungenerous, miserable people excoriate President Bush for calmly taking 7 minutes, after learning of the attacks of 9/11, to allow his Secret Service to do their thing and to–with a great deal of composure–take his leave from a classroom without managing to scare the children or give an impression of fear that would be put before the nation and the world.
After watching President Obama take six weeks to process the terrible news he was given–pressing forward with golf, vacations, parties and fund-raisers in order to not scare the nation–even if that it meant he seemed a little disengaged from the BP Oil disaster, I never want to hear another sneering, idiotic My Pet Goat joke, again.
A president needs to be calm and deliberate in the face of crisis, and he even needs to say puzzling things like “go on vacation, go shopping” or “go to the beaches” when it is clear the crisis has precipitated a long, hard slog.
But he also needs to promptly stand on a pile of rubble with the firefighters, or in a marsh full of dead wildlife and a slick, red tide, and say, “we’re going to respond; we’re going to protect and we’re going to rebuild and restore. We are going to get through this long hard slog, together.”
And he has to be able to convince people that he means every word he has said.
Wolffe writes:
“. . .Obama’s team is focusing on the options at their immediate disposal—methods of news management and presidential communication.”
There will be a slow but continual drip of bad-to-worse news about this issue, coming out of the White House. President Obama needs to shake off the fatalism and show the nation that he is willing to try things, fight back against the rising tide of suffocating red death.
The president who rose to office riding the notion of hope cannot be the guy who meanders around, wishing things were not so damned hopeless.
Allahpundit: “. . . if he really did know right away that this was the oil equivalent of an asteroid strike, he didn’t scramble some sort of all-hands-on-deck emergency operation to protect the coastline. Remember, Jindal reportedly requested five million feet of hard boom back on May 2, long after Obama (according to Wolffe) knew about the magnitude of the disaster. By May 24, not even 800,000 feet had arrived. What happened?”
Kim Priestap says the Obama administration’s “fatalism” looks like “gross negligence”:
He could have ordered the mobilization of as much of the government’s resources as possible and put out an SOS to private companies and organizations with expertise in disaster clean up to try to prevent the oil slick from entering the gulf’s coastal waters. With the advanced notice that he was given, he could have had them ready and waiting.
But he didn’t do anything.
Instapundit and reader note Obama’s weak responses to any disasters that don’t affect a Democrat-majority. And Moe Lane has the chart to prove it.
What did Tony Hayward Know? and when did he know it?
Also writing:
Brutally Honest
The Dawning of the Day of Incompetence
Jim Geraghty
Protein Wisdom
Taylor Marsh
Radio Patriot
Moderate Voice
Gateway Pundit
River Daughter
Related:
Pelicans back in danger
Caught in the Oil
Jesus, Good Pelican
Witnessing the heart at it cracks
MAX BLUMENTHAL whiffs. Blumenthal thought he had landed the big fish, catching the Israel Defense Forces "doctoring" an audio tape in which statements like "shut up go back to Auschwitz" were shouted by participants in the Gaza flotilla:
The IDF’s propaganda is increasingly unbelievable, yet the media is enthusiastically playing along. This audio, which purports to show flotilla passengers telling the IDF to “go back to Auschwitz,” appears to have been doctored by the IDF General Press Office or someone connected to it.
I addressed this earlier. When I first heard the tape, I assumed that the comments were accurate, but static and down-time were edited out.
I was right. The IDF now has released the full audio (below).
Below are both the edited and unedited version of the exchange:
Edited
Edited transmission 26 seconds
Unedited:
Israel Defense Force Spokesperson
OBAMA WHITE HOUSE SIDES WITH HAMAS!
The Obama White House is now siding with Hamas over Israel. Despite the documented ambush on the Israeli soldiers this week by radical Islamists in the Mediterranean, the White House is pressuring Israel to end its blockade of Gaza essentially undermining Israel’s last wall of defense against the Islamic killers of Hamas.
President Obama refused to side with Israel after the attack and told Prime Minister Netanyahu to go back to Israel out of concern that the Israeli Prime Minister would use the White House as his backdrop while discussing the flotilla ambush.
Reuters reported:
The White House said on Friday Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip was unsustainable and urged a Gaza aid vessel sent by pro-Palestinian activists to divert to an Israeli port to reduce the risk of violence.
“We are working urgently with Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and other international partners to develop new procedures for delivering more goods and assistance to Gaza,” said Mike Hammer, spokesman for the White House National Security Council.
“The current arrangements are unsustainable and must be changed. For now, we call on all parties to join us in encouraging responsible decisions by all sides to avoid any unnecessary confrontations,” Hammer said in a statement.
Israel was preparing to intercept the Irish-owned ship the Rachel Corrie, bound for Gaza with aid and activists, after its naval operation on Monday in which nine Turkish activists were killed on another ship when it was boarded by Israeli forces.
The White House is asking Hamas to act “responsibly”? Since when has Hamas acted responsibly?
As Charles Krauthammer wrote this week:
Without forward or active defense, Israel is left with but the most passive and benign of all defenses — a blockade to simply prevent enemy rearmament. Yet, as we speak, this too is headed for international de-legitimation. Even the United States is now moving toward having it abolished.
But, if none of these is permissible, what’s left?
Exactly. Obama wants the Jews defenseless.
There can be no other explanation.
==================================================
POLLY WANTS A RUM AND COKE: Drunk Parrots Litter Australian Town.
It was pretty much mandatory for every guy my age to have this cassette in his car. "Flirtin' With Disaster" called the tune to many a drunken rampage.Continue reading
Posted by Monty at 04:55 PM New Comments Thingy
The first piece of legislation passed and signed into law when Clinton was elected, was the "Motor-Voter Law. The first test of this law was the contest between Sanchez and the long-time and very conservative Congressman Robert K. Dornan (AKA B-1 Bob, for his outspoken support of strengthening national defense in supporting the B1 bomber)and it proved to be his downfall. The initial result was that Dornan had won by a very narrow margin of slightly less than 1000 votes, and in a subsequent series of recounts, ALA Florida 2000, the vote gap found her closing the gap and eventually winning the seat by a margin of less that 600 votes. It was later found that over 1000 of those votes were proven to be illegal aliens!
Since then, she and the Dems have controlled that seat, and even gotten her sister in a neighboring district elected!
I applaud Van Tran, and pray that he will prevail, if for no other reason that to gain a bit of poetic justice....
June 5th, 2010 | 10:45 am | #13
Does anyone remember this from Rahm Emanuel?
“Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it’s an opportunity to do things you couldn’t do before.”
In the Summer of ‘08 Obama’s campaign was starting to seriously flounder when Dem Senator Chuck Schumer “publicly taunted bank regulators last week about IndyMac Bancorp’s financial condition, which helped trigger a sudden outflow of deposits from the Pasadena thrift.” (LATimes 7/2/08)
The result was a domino effect that quickly led to the collapse of the sub-prime market (and thanks to Democrat housing policies through derivatives) the world market as a whole.
And VIOLA! Just like that- Obama had a “CRISIS!” that he and his lap-dogs in the mainstream media used to misrepresent and demonize evil Wall Street and their greedy Republican accomplices in crime. It was a complete game-changer for the Dems at just the right time. How very convenient. What were the odds? And uhm- what was Schumers explanation for his reckless actions? He never said.
Since this Regime took office, we have had one “CRISIS!” after another:
The “stimulus” had to be passed quickly! Right now! And as large as possible! It’s a “CRISIS!”
ObamaCare had to be passed quickly! ASAP! It was a “CRISIS!”
What was next on Obama’s agenda? Why, Cap And Trade of course. And wouldn’t you just know it-
On April 5th we have the worst coal mining accident in 20 years in WV. And then, just 15 days later on April 20th VIOLA! The BP underwater pipeline blows out and we have the worst oil spill and ecological disaster in our nations history.
That’s two mega-environmental catastrophes involving energy companies within a 15 day period and right at the time when Obama was beginning to demonize the industry, and just shortly after he bribed and lied ObamaCare down our throats. Another set of amazing coincidences that just happened to be timed perfectly for his agenda. A perfect time for a “CRISIS!” or two. What are the odds?
Only this time- the amateurish Obama Regime discovered that merely demonizing the oil industry wasn’t enough to sway public opinion in their favor. The country wanted leadership, solutions, and compassion to deal with the “CRISIS!”.
But the problem is- The Chicago Way doesn’t do leadership, solutions, or compassion. It’s not designed to.
In truth, The Chicago Way doesn’t solve problems at all, it never has. On the contrary, it creates them. And it relabels them under the politically expedient tag of “CRISIS!”
And if you think I’m being a little too conspiratorial, just remember the Saul Alinsky/William Ayers/Reverend Wright community-agitator political playground that Obama was nurtured in. And then ask yourself-
What Are The Odds?
June 5th, 2010 | 7:19 pm | #58
What’s Obama been doing since the day of disaster in the Gulf?
13 Parties/Dinners
7 rounds of golf
2 vacations
in Louisiana…a total of about 6 hours in all this time….photo ops all
-
Day 1 – April 20
Explosion in Gulf
Obama returns from L.A. – fundraiser for Baraba Boxer
DAY 2 – April 21
Obama attends reception for G-20 Labor Ministers
DAY 3 – April 22
Obama hosts Rose Garden reception to honor earth day
Obama flies to NYC to push Wall St Bill
DAY 4 – April 23
Hey, let’s go on vacation to Ashville North Carolina
Lunch at Twelve Bones for ribs and mac & cheese
No worries! How about a mountain hike?
Obama squeezes in a round of golf!
DAY 5 – April 24
Let’s go golfing again — at Grove Park Inn
A nice gourmet dinner at the Biltmore
DAY 6 – April 25
A scrumptious brunch at Grove Park Resort
DAY 7 – April 26
Obama hosts NY Yankees for White House event
DAY 8 – April 27
Obama visits Iowa for rhubarb pie at Jerry’s Diner
DAY 9 – April 28
Obama flies to Missouri for lunch at Peggy Sue’s Diner
DAY 10 – April 29
Obama attends DNC fundraiser at swank DC residence
DAY 11 – April 30
Obama flies to MD to view Secret Service binoculars
DAY 12 – May 1
Obama joins Leno for comedy routine at WHCD
DAY 13 – May 2
Obama finally visits Lousiana
DAY 14 – May 3
Obama hosts the Navy football team
DAY 15 – May 4
Obama private lunch with Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel
DAY 16 – May 5
Obama hosts Cinco De Mayo party at White House
DAY 17 – May 6
Just chillin’. Summers gives updates on economy
DAY 18 – May 7
Wizbangs give Rose Garden speech on ‘economy’
DAY 19 – May 8
Obama hits links at Ft Belvoir
Dining out at ritzy DC restuarant — Komi!
DAY 20 – May 9
Obama gives commencement speech at Hampton U.
DAY 21 – May 10
Hey, during a crisis, let’s pick a SCJ!
DAY 22 – May 11
Private (golf?) lunch with Joe Biden
DAY 23 – May 12
Obama hosts private reception for President Karzai
DAY 24 – May 13
Obama flies to Buffalo for Duff’s hot wings
DAY 25 – May 14
Obama finally makes speech on oil spill in Rose Garden
DAY 26 – May 15
Enough of the oil spill stuff… Obama off to golf!
DAY 27 – May 16
Obama golfs (again!) at Fort Belvoir
DAY 28 – May 17
Obama hosts UConn women’s basketball
DAY 29 – May 18
Obama tours plant in ‘Ohio’ (um, oil spill’s in LA!)
DAY 30 – May 19
Obama hosts glitzy state dinner for Calderon
Dance the night away!
DAY 31 – May 20
Obama meets with Bono for some reason
DAY 32 – May 21
Obama Rose Garden speech on… Wall St reform
DAY 33 – May 22
Obama goes golfing again at Andrews Air Force base
DAY 34 – May 23
Obama discusses basketball with Marv Albert
DAY 35 – May 24
Obama hosts Asian American celebration
DAY 36 – May 25
Obama flies to San Fran to party with Getty Oil family
…And raise millions for Barbara Boxer
DAY 37 – May 26
Obama spends day 2 in CA — with fellow economic wiz Gov. Schwartznegger
DAY 38 – May 27
Obama welcomes the Duke Blue Devils
Obama, Clinton hang with the U.S. World Cup team
Obama hosts party for Jewish Americans
Obama family heads off for a weekend vacation
DAY 39 – MAY 28
Obamas back in Chicago for weekend vacation
…Obama interrupts vaca for some PR
DAY 40 – MAY 29
Obama leaving U Chicago after some basketball…
…The Obamas heading out for an evening of barbecue
DAY 41 – MAY 30
After a night of barbecue and beers, let’s hit the gym!
June 5th, 2010 | 8:10 pm | #63
Can someone look into the veracity of this?—
‘Bombshell expose. The real reason the oil still flows into the Gulf of Mexico.’
Ties to the company that produces the toxic dispersant chemical NALCO is associated with Warren Buffett, Maurice Strong, Al Gore, Soros, Apollo, Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, Hathaway Berkshire.
While the Gulf oil spill has dragged on I've been waiting for an old chestnut to be dusted off by the media. Now that the news is plastered with images of birds covered in oil it's finally happened courtesy of the New York Times. We're informed that the brown pelican - at one time near extinction - is now besieged once again.
Pelicans, Back From Brink of Extinction, Face Oil ThreatBy JOHN COLLINS RUDOLF and LESLIE KAUFMAN
Published: June 4, 2010FORT JACKSON, La. -- For more than a decade, the hundreds of brown pelicans that nested among the mangrove shrubs on Queen Bess Island west of here were living proof that a species brought to the edge of extinction could come back and thrive.
The island was one of three sites in Louisiana where the large, long-billed birds were reintroduced after pesticides wiped them out in the state in the 1960s.
But on Thursday, 29 of the birds, their feathers so coated in thick brown sludge that their natural white and gray markings were totally obscured, were airlifted to a bird rehabilitation center in Fort Jackson, the latest victims of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Another dozen were taken to other rescue centers.
...
At the turn of the 20th century, observers estimated the brown pelican population in Louisiana at close to 50,000. But by 1961, no nesting pair could be spotted along the state's entire coast, according to LaCoast, a Coast Guard Web site. Like another subspecies of the brown pelican found in California, the local birds had been hard hit by DDT and other pesticides, which acted to thin the shells of their eggs. The eggs were crushed when the adults sat on them. (DDT was banned in the United States in 1972.)
Funny thing, radical Islam and radical environmentalism are pretty much the only two groups that embrace terrorism to advance their ideologies. Although the green crowd doesn't actually go about beheading apostates, so they've got that going for them.
But the reality is that there is no scientific evidence of DDT thinning egg shells. There is no scientific evidence brown pelican populations were wiped out by DDT The myth of DDT may be the penultimate case of a post hoc fallacy. Luckily for America we succeeded in eradicating malaria and other vector borne diseases before DDT was arbitrarily banned by an EPA administrative judge.
Another funny thing is that a chemical whose patent holder was awarded a Nobel Prize in Medicine and is credited with saving upwards of 25 million lives could be transformed into an environmental boogie man solely through misinformation. What's not funny is the 1.5 million very poor people who contract malaria every year because greenies would rather see dark-skinned humans in third world countries die than risk exposing Saint Carson to the ridicule and derision she so rightly deserves.
The NYT may have been the first but almost surely won't be the last to trumpet the fraudulent DDT = dead pelicans story line. Fight the lie with the truth - Rachel Carson is in large part responsible for deaths of more people than Joseph Stalin. At least Stalin helped crush the Nazis.
Trust me, watching this video is four minutes of your life well-spent:
VIDEO AT LINK-
No, no, it's okay. You can thank me later.
"The teacher's union is about the accumulation and exercise of raw power ... When they say it's 'for the kids' -- 4% to 5% increases, free health insurance for life ain't about the kids."
All I can say is, it's about damn time. In days past they called this kind of honesty "speaking truth to power."
Someone ought to ask the New Jersey teacher's union representatives how many textbooks, computers, musical instruments, or school buses could have been bought with the $6 million that they spent in the last three months to produce and air TV and radio ads attacking Gov. Christie.
You'll also note the absence of Telepromters as Gov. Christie makes this extraordinary little speech.
I have a feeling that most Americans who have spent their adult years working within the system, trying to utilize the often feeble economic and political power that it accords individuals, trying to make the best of their lives and the world around them; those Americans would deeply understand the fight that Gov. Christie has chosen to undertake against Big Government and Big Labor -- two truly huge obstacles in Middle America's pursuit of liberty and happiness.
And after another two years of listening to our arrogant yet terribly weak, finger-pointing yet prickly and thin-skinned College-Professor-In-Chief who continually confers with one coterie of experts after another, yet regularly shies away from real decision making, a lot more Americans may begin to identify with Gov. Christie too.
And it will be about damn time.
h/t The Anchoress, Allahpundit
…and Little Running Mouth is about to get a time out. Grampa’s gonna get worse since he armed the little bastard for the photo.
As for the rugrat’s Mom and Dad, they’re elsewhere, happily enjoying a quiet Overnight Open Thread.
The truth is that until 1920, Britain’s gun laws were so relaxed they made Texas look effeminate, but we had virtually no gun crime. That only really began to increase here after we abolished hanging.
But that truth doesn’t fit the Leftist dogma which has everyone, including the Tories, the media and the police, in its grip, so the facts will be ignored.
FYI, an old post of mine:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/754551/posts
Answers for Anti-Israeli, anti-Jewish Propaganda
various links | 09-20-02 | The Heavy Equipment Guy
Something very unexpected happened this week, with no notice from the liberal media (surprise, surprise). The world’s top economies just smacked down the massive deficit spending being employed by Obama and the DC liberals in Congress, in no uncertain terms:
The communiqué of the meeting made it clear that the G20 no longer thought that expansionary fiscal policy was sustainable or effective in fostering an economic recovery because investors were no longer confident about some countries’ public finances. “The recent events highlight the importance of sustainable public finances and the need for our countries to put in place credible, growth-friendly measures, to deliver fiscal sustainability,” the communiqué stated.
Emphasis mine. In other words, cut spending and taxes. Stop saddling businesses with naive wish lists of socialist ’share the wealth’ nonsense. The lone hold out to the international consensus? Team Obama:
But there were concerns around the G20 that the rush to reduce budget deficits, necessary though officials now thought it was, would undermine the recovery in the near term.
In a letter to the rest of the G20, Tim Geithner, US Treasury secretary, argued: “Concerns about growth as Europe makes needed policy adjustments threaten to undercut the momentum of the recovery”.
What damn recovery? There is no recovery. The stimulus bill, tax increases, health care take over are all stalling and delaying any recovery. And this nation will pile up over $2.5 TRILLION in national debt in the first two years of Obamanomics! What does that tell you?
The May jobs report was a wake up call. You cannot pretend an economy is growing when 90% of the new jobs are temporary and exaggerated. Those jobs will be gone in September, and many of them will be gone before then.
When the other top 18 or so economies around the world declare your approach wrong headed and economically destructive, it is no surprise people conclude you are not competent:
What started out as a whiff of rookie incompetence has become a suffocating odor. It’s hard to find a single area where Obama’s policies are a convincing success.
Friday’s poor jobs report, showing only 41,000 private-sector jobs added in May, helped send the stock market into a tailspin
…
They ought to finally hear what employers have been telling them: Washington’s taxing, spending, borrowing and red tape are holding back job creation. Nearly 5 million Americans have been out of work for more than a year, a dismal record of long-term unemployment.
Business is screaming it out, the world’s top economies are screaming it out. And Team Obama keeps pretending they have a monopoly on economic wisdom!
Related: 100 comments
"Here’s a question for TEH WON: where the hell is my damn job? Where is it? I’ve been unemployed for two years, am a trained teacher, but have a fallback career as an admin assistant. Where’s all this blessed relief promised for military spouses like myself?"
Philip K. Dick envisioned a drone war against mankind, waged by a Skynet-like computer. Published as an Ace Double Book (turn the first one over and there was a second novella printed 180 degrees to the first). Link, if anyone cares.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulcan%27s_Hammer
Computers were pretty primitive in 1960, but Mr. Dick’s paranoia was already fully developed. Link to this Comment
.jpg) |
||
MY SUNDAY WASHINGTON EXAMINER COLUMN IS UP: Higher Education Bubble Is About To Burst. (Bumped.)
Oil slick, joblessness may stymie Dems’ rebound. “The Democrats’ stimulus package kept many unionized public employees on the job. But, as liberal economists Paul Krugman and Robert Reich have pointed out, it has not done much to stimulate private-sector job creation. Maybe the contrary. We may be seeing something like the ‘capital strike’ of the late 1930s, when investors and entrepreneurs held onto their money and refrained from creating jobs because of high tax rates and intrusive government. Meanwhile, the Obama Democrats’ legislative agenda threatens recovery.”
ON HELEN THOMAS, JIM TREACHER EMAILS: “Remember: You’re a Nazi for saying we should enforce our own immigration laws… But not for telling the Jews to beat it.”
NALCO is associated with UChicago Argonne program. UChicago Argonne received $164 million dollars in stimulus funds this past year. UChicago Argonne just added two new executives to their roster. One from NALCO. The other from the Ill. Dept of Education.
If you dig a little deeper you will find NALCO is also associated with Warren Buffett, Maurice Strong, Al Gore, Soros, Apollo, Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, Hathaway Berkshire.
Goldman-Sachs, Blackstone, and Apollo are all involved in NALCO.
Arab-Americans’ investments in companies that were aligned closely with key Chicago and Illinois politicians (including former Governor Rod Blagojevich).
Arab-American businessman, Ali Atta, had ties to Nalco.
PROSECUTING BP: Um, won’t that be a little awkward, since the regulators gave the Deepwater Horizon a safety award just last year? Not to mention this.
I noticed FR had gone down last nite while trying to locate this handy, "all you ever needed to know about Kommander ZerØ, click the picture" file here:
ObamaCare to Doctors: Accept our prices or face jail [Darleen Click]
…and don’t you DARE even have lunch with your peers to “talk shop”, ’cause we will charge you with conspiracy.
As I’ve long suspected, “health care reform” has emboldened the Justice Department to take a more active role in enforcing government price controls against physicians. Today the Antitrust Division, joined by Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, forced a a group of Boise orthopedists to accept price controls for worker’s compensation and HMO contracts as part of a settlement accusing the doctors of “price fixing” [...]The proposed settlement prevents the Idaho Orthopaedic Society and the named orthopedists from agreeing with their competitors on fees and contract terms. The settlement also prohibits them from collectively denying medical care to patients, refusing to deal with any payer or threatening to terminate contracts with any payer.
This case is a watershed for two reasons:
First, until now the Federal Trade Commission, not the Justice Department, has taken the lead in prosecuting physicians. Since 2000, the FTC has brought about three dozen cases against physicians (all but one of which settled without any trial). But the FTC only has civil and administrative jurisdiction; the Antitrust Division has civil and criminal jurisdiction. The Sherman Act makes no distinction between civil and criminal “price fixing,” so in a case like this, it’s entirely a matter of prosecutorial discretion whether to charge the doctors with a civil or criminal offense.
Based on the descriptions in the Antitrust Division’s press release, there’s certainly no reason they couldn’t have prosecuted the doctors criminally and insisted upon prison sentences — and there’s little doubt such threats were made or implied to obtain the physicians’ agreement to the proposed “settlement.”
The second reason this is a landmark case is that the Justice Department has unambiguously stated that refusal to accept government price controls is a form of illegal “price fixing.”
So, it’s ok for SEIU or Teacher’s Unions or any other labor entity to strike, threaten to strike, or get the Obama government to do their dirty work (take over GM, toss investors to the curb and hand over an equity share to the Union), but if a doctor says “hey, I’m not going to accept any more Medicare/Workers Comp/Blue Cross patients” that doctor is engaging in criminal behavior and, by golly, Barry will have none of it!
Oh, btw, Obama’s DOJ also says Doctors don’t have Constitution right of Free Speech, either:
The DOJ has released the proposed order and other documents. It’s a naked censorship order that restrains the physicians from(A) encouraging, facilitating, entering into, participating in, or attempting to engage in any actual or potential agreement or understanding with, between, or among competing physicians about:
- any fee, or other payer contract term or condition, with any payer or group of payers, including the acceptability or negotiation of any fee or other payer contract term with any payer or group of payers;
- the manner in which the defendant or any competing physician will negotiate with, contract with, or otherwise deal with any payer or group of payers, including participating in or terminating any payer contract; or
- any refusal to deal or threatened refusal to deal with any payer;
Oh, yeah. Take out student loans of $100,000 or more to become a doctor and become a second-class citizen.
Yeah, that’s going improve both the quantity and quality of future physicians.
(h/t Simon at Classical Values)
On June 6, 1944, the D-Day invasion of Europe took place during World War II as Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, France. America lost 2,499 of its finest men that day.
(Enterprise News)
It’s too bad Barack Obama missed the anniversary today.
The White House website has nothing posted today on the 66th Anniversary of the D-Day landing.
The president had other things on his mind.
He was attending his second party this week, tonight at the Ford Theatre.
According to the Ford’s Theatre website, the event tonight is described as follows:
Ford’s Theatre Society will host its annual gala on Sunday, June 6, 2010, at Ford’s Theatre (511 10th Street NW). The evening’s performance, titled “America Celebrates July 4th at Ford’s Theatre,” will be taped for broadcast on the ABC Television Network to air July 2, 2010 (9:00-10:00 p.m. ET). Modern Family cast member Ty Burrell hosts a star-studded program with appearances by Kelly Clarkson, Renee Fleming, George Lopez, Lionel Richie, Robin Roberts, Dick Van Dyke, Laura Michelle Kelly and Gavin Lee from the Broadway Company of “Mary Poppins,” the Soldiers’ Chorus of the United States Army Field Band, and cast members from the Ford’s Theatre production of “Little Shop of Horrors.”
The President will also be honoring far left Bush-basher and Jew-hater Archbishop Desmond Tutu at the gala.
Everyone must have their priorities.
U.S. President Barack Obama (C) and first lady Michelle Obama (R) attend the performance of “American Celebrates 4th of July” at Ford’s Theatre in Washington June 6, 2010. (REUTERS/Yuri Gripas)
UPDATE: Here is what Desmond Tutu told the party crowd tonight:
“Security is not something that comes from the barrel of a gun.”
And, he said this on the anniversary of D-Day?
By the way… Isn’t that some version of a Mao quote?
Why, "It's for the sake of our Chillunz!" Again: Why should education be exempt from recession budgeting? “We are witnessing a familiar government dance, the Prosperity-to-Hysteria Two-Step: When revenue grows, governments put in place permanent spending streams; when revenue falls, governments exclaim that any retrenchment, even back to spending levels of a few years ago, is a ‘catastrophe.’”
We need more of this: SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER: New Jersey Style. FASTER, PLEASE....
KEEPING A WARY EYE on solar weather. “The National Academy of Sciences framed the problem two years ago in a landmark report entitled “Severe Space Weather Events—Societal and Economic Impacts.” It noted how people of the 21st-century rely on high-tech systems for the basics of daily life. Smart power grids, GPS navigation, air travel, financial services and emergency radio communications can all be knocked out by intense solar activity. A century-class solar storm, the Academy warned, could cause twenty times more economic damage than Hurricane Katrina.”
POLICE STATE, 2010 ALERT:
BUT IF SOMEONE HAD SHOT A VIDEO, IT WOULD BE A FELONY: Off-Duty Officer Fatally Shoots Unarmed Marine.
According to Baltimore City police, Tyrone Brown — a 32-year-old Marine who has served two tours of duty in Iraq — was shot 13 times at close range. He died a short time later.
Baltimore police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the officer shot and killed Brown, saying Brown made advances toward a woman who was with the officer.
“After the advances, the officer and the individual exchanged words,” Gugliemi said. “There was an argument, and the altercation turned physical. At that point, the officer pulled out his service weapon and fired multiple shots at our victim.”
I’m beginning to think that cops in Maryland should be watched all the time. But instead, they’re granted anonymity: “The officer, who Guglielmi said is a 15-year veteran, has not been named. Police said they are investigating whether alcohol was a factor. The officer declined to take an alcohol breath test.”
Jew hater ALERT:
HELEN THOMAS UPDATE: Lanny Davis says Helen Thomas must go.
Plus, Helen Thomas Dropped By Speaking Agency.
Also: Translating Helen Thomas’s non-apology “apology.”
UPDATE: ADL Says Helen Thomas Apology Insufficient.
All racism, alltime: “BLACK FLIGHT” changing the makeup of Dallas schools. But there’s also this: “Many black parents are concerned about the attention and money spent bringing native Spanish-speakers up to speed. Some say their children are ignored.” (Via NewsAlert).
Suicidal PCism: when a search for facts might give offense, flush the facts [Darleen Click]
TSI points out dhimmi posturing in a NYTimes opinion piece that perpetuates the whole “cycle of violence” canard in support of forever offering jihadists the comfy chair.
Now it looks like the decision in Britain in 2005 NOT to launch an inquiry into 7/7 bombings arose out of fear of … you guessed it … “offending” Muslims.
The warning was delivered in a briefing paper to Charles Clarke, the then-home secretary, as he considered whether or not to launch an inquiry into the 2005 bombings, in which 52 innocent people were killed.In the paper, Sir John Gieve, the Home Office permanent secretary, said that upsetting Muslims would be a “potential cost” of ministers agreeing to demands for a full inquiry.
After receiving Sir John’s paper, Mr Clarke decided not to order a public inquiry – a decision which infuriated many survivors and relatives of those killed. [...]
Sir John’s note, written four months after the bombings but newly-released under Freedom of Information laws, outlines the determination of senior civil servants to ensure that any inquiries into the atrocity were “low key”.
Are Islamists mollified by such double-standards or do they just take such obsequiousness to their superiority as their due? Certainly, the blatant pro-jihadist propaganda project of building a towering 13-story mosque at Ground Zero, provocatively named “Cordoba House”, has engendered enough apologetic rationalizations among the kuffar to make Islamists feel as if 9/11 was really worth it.
If Americans forget how, or refuse, to stand up for America, (or any Westerner stand up for Western Civilization) why shouldn’t those interested in establishing a new Caliphate feel encouraged?
Do we need an area for pilgrimage for Muslims in New York? Do we need a holy mosque on Ground Zero? They will come and pay their pilgrimage right here in New York at the mosque. We have 3,000 dead Americans looking down on us today. They are saying, “We don’t want to hear ‘Allahu Akbar’ any more.”
Noni Darwish
Mega-Mosque Protest
New York City
June 6, 2010
Thousands turned out today to protest the Mega-Mosque planned for Ground Zero.
They were expecting 500 but over 5,000 came out.
Pamela Geller has a report.
Urban Infidel were there and have several photos and video from the protest.
This really is unbelievable.
The 15 floor Mega-Mosque and prayer space will be built in the shadow of Ground Zero.
Pamela Gellar was on CNN this morning to discuss the mosque plans.
Egyptian-American human rights activist Noni Darwish spoke to the crowd today.
Urban Infidel posted the video:
=================================================
Some notes from flyover country:
Head out on the highway…
As I mentioned last week, I’m with my family on our first ever RV trip. (Thanks to readers and e-mailers for sharing your wonderful travel memories.) Internet and phone access on my trek have been quite spotty – blissfully so. Doug Powers will continue to hold down the fort here on the blog, along with La Shawn Barber and Val Prieto, as I head back home in coming days. Please be sure to thank them for their terrific work.
Some notes on the journey:
Over the past seven days, we’ve hit Mount Rushmore, the Crazy Horse memorial, Cody WY, and Yellowstone. The scenery is cinematic; the frontier history is larger-than-life. And the RV community is full of friendly, independent, and amazingly resourceful people.
If you ever need your faith in our country’s resilience and beauty renewed, a Great American Road Trip does a body and soul good.
RV’ing is not everyone’s cup of tea, of course... But if you make sure to pack some RV must-haves — sense of humor, spirit of adventure, industrial-strength rubber gloves, duct tape, extension cords, wrench, multi-tool, Petzl headlamps, tarp, S’mores ingredients, marshmallow roasting sticks, walkie-talkies, and Dramamine — you can live the RV dream. Experienced friends recommended we watch the movie “RV” before we started our trip. Aside from a few p.c. tirades against big corporations, it’s definitely good prep viewing.
A rainbow over the Chinatown Restaurant in West Yellowstone, MT:
This is truly “America, the Beautiful.” How humbling, how blessed we are to call it home.
Amen.
THEG Sez:
They- the latte-sipping elitists in the Axis of NYC, DC, and LA-- called us "flyover country."
When they realized how much we- the great Unenlightened-- hated that, they changed it to "throwaway country"-- cute, boyz, cute.
If you think you are getting away with that?
Think again. We have long memories.
[Image from here.]
No news is good news but old news was better. Sometimes I wish we had more old news instead of the current barrage of doom and gloom. Markets are down, unemployment is up, we have daily reports of blatant lies in the MSM shoring up a failed congress and a worse presidency. The only light at the end of the tunnel might not show itself until November.
Even that’s an iffy proposition, as flipping congress into a conservative majority won’t have any immediate effects on the economy as long as current spending programs remain in place. History proves that welfare states are unsustainable, and with close to 50% of the U.S. populace working in government jobs paid for by those who don’t, things look pretty bleak.
It’s going to get worse before it gets better. I’d rather read about meat driving girls sex crazy instead, and that’s a great cynical lead-in to an Overnight Open Thread.
They were the hate-filled, homegrown terrorists next door -- ready to cut your head off if they got the chance.
"They only fear you when you have a gun and when you, when you start killing them and when you take their head, and you go like this, and you behead it on camera," hissed terrorist wannabe Mohamed Alessa, 20, of North Bergen, NJ, during an undercover operation in 2009, a federal complaint unsealed yesterday revealed.
"My soul cannot rest until I shed blood." Read more at nypost.com ...
apparently he’s been parteeein’ for a long time. check him out at 1:01 into this video. Whoomp, there he is. lol.
This video still montage details the first 42 days of the President's response work to the Gulf Oil Spill. From the looks of thing whenever someone said "Gulf Oil Spill" Obama thought they said "Go Golf still" and so he did! This is a very amusing (though tragic) detailed timeline of what the prez did and didn't do during the first 42 days of the crisis. (The background music is Hands Across The Water by Wings). Dittos Rush! ^
A friend of mine just took this shot at a local BP Gas Station. Oh, the IRONY!
I kept telling you all what we are really facing:
“Obama’s civilian army....”
BINGO!!!SO THAT’S how they’ll “fix” Arizona and Governor Brewer...
i'm fairly certain this was one of the grievances in the Declaration of Independence
"For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:"
"For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. "
and of course:
"He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. "
"For imposing taxes on us without our consent:"
"He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance. "
i could go on...
27 grievances listed in the Declaration of Independence... at least half are applicable today.
Some folks seem to think there is a creepy cult of personality growing up around President Barack Obama...
Obama's agenda: Overwhelm U.S. economy For Systemic Failure, Economic Crisis & Social Chaos
As gun rights activists await the upcoming decision in the McDonald vs. Chicago Supreme Court case, new evidence emerges that, in this post-Heller decision world, the public has soured on the bitter taste of gun control.
The latest evidence of the declining public support for restrictions on gun rights is in the data released today by the Federal Election Commission on the private donations and expenditures of the Brady Campaign to End Gun Violence - Voter Education PAC (Link goes to actual FEC reports).
The Brady Campaign to End Gun Violence is the flagship group for the gun control effort. The Brady Campaign absorbed the Million Mom March in 2001 when that organization's membership dropped so low as to be no longer self-sustaining.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
"...And revolution is coming if a lot of other things don’t get fixed."
Damn Straight- throw 'em all out and try it over again.
The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gang banger, and a single guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.
God created all men. Sam Colt made them equal.
Interesting how the media lies to itself - then repeats the lie!
I don’t doubt that Mr. Bush left plenty for Hussein to handle. Just as Clinton did for Bush; as Bush1 did for Clinton; as Reagan did for Bush1; etc., etc., etc.
So what!?!
Hussein campaigned as the One who would cool the earth and lower the sea levels. He was going to change all to sunshine and lollipops. He was just a little less than God according to some. And so far he hasn’t shown any particular ability to even cope with the demands of the office let alone institute the marvelous “change” he promised.
You're Barack Obama, and you're not the first black president (Bill Clinton beat you to it), the first incompetent president (Jimmy Carter was there for us in the modern era), or the first professor president (Woodrow Wilson brought his Princeton University-blessed master race theories to the White House). But you are the first party president, with more social affairs than any White House in the nation's history. "Party on" was the way WorldNet Daily described it; another summed it up in a headline, "Obama During Oil Spill -- Golf, Parties, Photo-Ops...and More Golf!"
With George and Martha looking down from their framed perches on the walls of the stately East Room, you've turned the White House into "a showcase of glitzy extravagance." Welcome to Barack Obama's Animal House...er, National Lampoon's White House...no, let's get this straight, Barack Obama's White House.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
It’s not listed, but if Israel,Hamas and Iran tangle and Mideast Oil is disrupted, one could expect serious economic consequences.
Gas prices will triple overnight while creating a ripple effect throughout the rest of the economy especially the distribution of food via semi trucks.
Most people have no clue to just how fragile the supply chain to grocery stores is in this nation.
One little event could make food scarcity the number 1 priority in the 2010 election.
=================================================
I'm going to riff off this post over at Ace of Spades a bit on something I was thinking about anyway while driving home from the office today. Perhaps in response to a couple of queries Gibbsie had to parry at a press briefing, Obama has now tacked to incoherent rage in response to the Horizon event - proclaiming "I Want To Know Whose Ass To Kick." Ace hypothesizes that Obama's problem is not communication (as is claimed by left-leaning folks in their tepid criticisms of Obama) but in his actions in response to the leaking crude.
I'm going to have to disagree with that notion to an extent because Obama's biggest problem dealing with the oil leak has been an utterly dunderheaded communications strategy. Underlying that, though, are a couple of realities that will almost surely make Obamaphile heads explode when articulated.
Now I'm not an expert on offshore drilling and my public relations experience is limited to the daily one-on-one and small group dynamics of a corporate recruiter. But there are some aspects of salesmanship I've internalized that translate well into general PR/crisis response situations.
Much like President Bush in the aftermath of Katrina, there is very little Obama could have done to significantly change the situation as it stands today. Let's get that out of the way up front.
Obamaphile head exploding reality the first - Obama is such an incredible narcissist he refuses to be perceived as powerless or anything but supremely intelligent. This led to a couple of PR blunders right off the bat. The declaration that "we're in control". Okay then, you own the crisis. What should we do now? Plug the damn hole? Brilliant, why didn't BP think of that? Wait around until we can decide whose ass gets kicked? How does that help mitigate the damage?
I'm not convinced of it, but Obama may indeed be of above average intelligence. We can argue that another time but it's obvious he does not think well "on his feet" as the saying goes. I'm sure that's why he scheduled his first presser in almost a year during the day when nobody was watching rather than during primetime. The only difference I can see between Obama and Biden is that Biden is secure enough in his own skin to not care what people think while Obama has spent so much of his life crafting a cool, contemplative persona he fears ridicule over any other outcome.
Obama needed to make clear from the outset there is little the government can do stop the spill itself and the vastness of the Gulf coast makes oil-soiled birds and beaches inevitable. Working a mile deep in the ocean is extremely difficult and we should expect the worst case scenario. If he had set realistic expectations - i.e. under promised - he could have avoided the blowback he's now doomed to experience. But that's not his style. So now he's stuck picking at tar balls on the beach like some puzzled child and trying to deflect blame through manufactured outrage.
Obamaphile head exploding reality the second - Barack is not a decider. He'd never been in a leadership role prior to 1/20/2009 and it shows. His actions during the campaign made that clear enough. What did Obama do when the financial crisis hit? Sit on his hands, wait until a consensus position arose, adopt that consensus position, and snipe at Bush. That's fine for a congress-critter and the campaign trail but a recipe for failure as a leader.
This dovetails a bit with the point above. He'd rather be perceived as contemplative (i.e. indecisive) than have to accept responsibility for a bad decision. Unfortunately there are times when a bad decision is better than no decision. In the case of Horizon, Obama stalled, let the situation get ahead of him, and was forced to be reactive rather than proactive. All he can do now is feign anger as his administration belatedly rushes to adopt desperate solutions that might have helped if implemented when proposed weeks ago.
Jindal wanted 1,000,000 feet of booms and he wanted to build sand berms. Why didn't he get it? There's no way in hell you're going to seal off Louisiana's 400 miles of coastline, but you damn well better make sure the effort fails after you've given it your best shot. Instead we've got ourselves a top-quality talking point for 2012. Not fair, you say? There's nothing Obama could have done? True that, but the same is true of Bush and Katrina. Perception is reality, and the reality today is that Obama isn't doing everything he should.
Which is again a communications problem directly resulting from realities the first and the second above. Obama's generally a prick, he refuses to humble himself, and he's unwilling to accept blame. So we went from "I'm in charge" to "Plug the damn hole" to "Did you plug the hole yet, daddy" to "It's not my fault" to "Now I'm really mad." The only clubs left in his bag are funneling billions of taxpayer dollars to his union cronies under the guise of cleaning-up/stimulating the Gulf coast and blaming Bush.
Or maybe there's no viable communications strategy for a disaster of this magnitude. Up to now he's made hash of it and I doubt vindictive Obama is going to sway public opinion. As much as it sucks to find out you're screwed, it's sucks worse when you're left to find out for yourself. Well now we know. And Obama will pay a heavy price for failing to clearly define that reality up front.
News service, Reuters is back to its old tricks. You may remember during the second Lebanese war Reuters was caught making news pictures look worse than they were with a little touch of Photo Shop.
...
Reuters is now doctoring its pictures from the violence aboard the Guerrilla Flotilla.
You'll need to see it to believe it.
Or if you're a Hamas supporter, you'll need to not see it to believe it.
Reuters is to news wires what Helen Thomas is to journalism.
A joke... that's not funny... at all.
Crossposted at Brutally Honest.
Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
Washington Times, March 5th - Undaunted by a rash of scandals over the science underpinning climate change, top climate researchers are plotting to respond with what one scientist involved said needs to be "an outlandishly aggressively partisan approach" to gut the credibility of skeptics.
Anthony Watts, June 7th - Today my life and my office was disrupted by the unannounced and uninvited presence of a person who seems to be convinced that I’m in the employ of “big oil” (I’m not) and that my opinions and the opinions of others here is so wrong, that this person must take up a crusade against me.
June 7, 2010 03:06 PM by Doug Powers57 Comments | 1 Trackback
Flee, Willy!
"Ironic(?)–the petroleum business was born because of the reduction of the whale population.
Nothing but Freaking morons running the country.
From day one of Bambi’s campaign,the majority of people in this country have chosen to believe in fantasy instead of using their God given intelligence to direct them.I still know people who don’t believe they made a mistake voting for Bambi."
June 7, 2010 10:20 PM by Doug Powers16 Comments | 1 Trackback
The thrill is gone
"If only Obama had had the same effect on all of Congress, we wouldn’t have had all of the horrid legislation passed this past year."
June 7th, 2010
From the DNC’s own flagship, the New York Times:
Political Memo – Democrats Skip Town Halls to Avoid Voter Rage
By JEFF ZELENY
June 6, 2010
BEL AIR, Md. — … If the time-honored tradition of the political meeting is not quite dead, it seems to be teetering closer to extinction. Of the 255 Democrats who make up the majority in the House, only a handful held town-hall-style forums as legislators spent last week at home in their districts.
So much for having a representative government.
You see, “images” will be used against lawmakers. Not their record of voting against the expressed will of their constituents.
Define Irony: Democrats regularly claiming to want a more populist, democratic country who are too scared to actually listen to “the voice of the people”.
I say…cap some spending on them, curtail their budgets and examine how they spend the taxpayer’s money very carefully every quarter. Hey, if the military can do it, so can congress and the senate.
From the opinion page of the Wall Street Journal:
Tax Hikes and the 2011 Economic Collapse
By ARTHUR LAFFER
June 7, 2010
People can change the volume, the location and the composition of their income, and they can do so in response to changes in government policies.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that the nine states without an income tax are growing far faster and attracting more people than are the nine states with the highest income tax rates. People and businesses change the location of income based on incentives.
Likewise, who is gobsmacked when they are told that the two wealthiest Americans—Bill Gates and Warren Buffett—hold the bulk of their wealth in the nontaxed form of unrealized capital gains? The composition of wealth also responds to incentives. And it’s also simple enough for most people to understand that if the government taxes people who work and pays people not to work, fewer people will work. Incentives matter.
People can also change the timing of when they earn and receive their income in response to government policies…
On or about Jan. 1, 2011, federal, state and local tax rates are scheduled to rise quite sharply. President George W. Bush’s tax cuts expire on that date, meaning that the highest federal personal income tax rate will go 39.6% from 35%, the highest federal dividend tax rate pops up to 39.6% from 15%, the capital gains tax rate to 20% from 15%, and the estate tax rate to 55% from zero…
Now, if people know tax rates will be higher next year than they are this year, what will those people do this year? They will shift production and income out of next year into this year to the extent possible. As a result, income this year has already been inflated above where it otherwise should be and next year, 2011, income will be lower than it otherwise should be.
Also, the prospect of rising prices, higher interest rates and more regulations next year will further entice demand and supply to be shifted from 2011 into 2010. In my view, this shift of income and demand is a major reason that the economy in 2010 has appeared as strong as it has. When we pass the tax boundary of Jan. 1, 2011, my best guess is that the train goes off the tracks and we get our worst nightmare of a severe "double dip" recession.
In 1981, Ronald Reagan—with bipartisan support—began the first phase in a series of tax cuts passed under the Economic Recovery Tax Act (ERTA), whereby the bulk of the tax cuts didn’t take effect until Jan. 1, 1983. Reagan’s delayed tax cuts were the mirror image of President Barack Obama’s delayed tax rate increases. For 1981 and 1982 people deferred so much economic activity that real GDP was basically flat (i.e., no growth), and the unemployment rate rose to well over 10%.
But at the tax boundary of Jan. 1, 1983 the economy took off like a rocket, with average real growth reaching 7.5% in 1983 and 5.5% in 1984. It has always amazed me how tax cuts don’t work until they take effect. Mr. Obama’s experience with deferred tax rate increases will be the reverse. The economy will collapse in 2011.
Consider corporate profits as a share of GDP. Today, corporate profits as a share of GDP are way too high given the state of the U.S. economy. These high profits reflect the shift in income into 2010 from 2011. These profits will tumble in 2011, preceded most likely by the stock market.
In 2010, without any prepayment penalties, people can cash in their Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), Keough deferred income accounts and 401(k) deferred income accounts. After paying their taxes, these deferred income accounts can be rolled into Roth IRAs that provide after-tax income to their owners into the future. Given what’s going to happen to tax rates, this conversion seems like a no-brainer.
The result will be a crash in tax receipts once the surge is past. If you thought deficits and unemployment have been bad lately, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Mr. Laffer is the chairman of Laffer Associates and co-author of “Return to Prosperity: How America Can Regain Its Economic Superpower Status.”
We don’t usually post editorials, but Mr. Laffer has proved that he knows whereof he speaks.
It has been 1200 Hours since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico.
There have been dozens of dead sea turtles found washing up on the beaches.
And dolphins:
And young herons:
Pondering these heartbreaking pictures, I tried to find out what serious steps the Obama administration has taken to bring every available resource to the Gulf of Mexico, in order to try to take as much oil as possible out of the equation, and to try to protect the sea life, the marshes, the coasts.
You would expect there to be tons of headlines, everyday, about what aid Obama has accepted from other nations, what serious, concrete steps he has taken to aggressively counter the ongoing threat to our coastlines, and to entire fishing and tourism industries. But there aren’t any.
Options are being discussed. There are headlines like this one, from June 1: Obama administration moves to distance itself from BP on oil spill response.
But there are no headlines, between that date and today that suggest that any all-hands-on-deck direction is going on, beyond the taking of meetings and preparing a criminal probe:
President Obama also plans to hold a full meeting of his Cabinet — not a common event during his first year and a half in office — to discuss what the administration is doing to stop the leak and to clean up the coastlines of several states.
It’s all kind of vague.
Once the leak is finally plugged, perhaps by the end of the summer, the economic effects of the oil spill, both locally and worldwide, will continue to be an issue for Obama.
That’s the big story out of the Washington Post. And then, just now, comes this:
The Gulf region will recover, but needs help, Obama said, as he again called on BP to be “quick and responsive” to damage claims from residents and business people. Obama said he does not want the oil company “nickel and diming” people whose livelihoods are threatened by environmental damage from the spill.
So, restitution and…
“This is a resilient ecosystem and these are resilient people down on the Gulf Coast,” Obama said.
Surrounded by members of his Cabinet, Obama said 15 agencies have been activated and he wants to make sure to get “every asset that we have” down to the Gulf to “make sure that we are minimizing the amount of oil that is actually coming to shore.”
Emphasis mine. 1200 hours after the explosion, we’re going to finally make sure that we are minimizing the amoung of oil coming to shore.
I’m sure Gov. Jindal will be glad to hear this. I bet he wishes that Dolphins and Sea Turtles could vote.
Let me show you what kind of real, concrete action had been taken (with or without headlines) 100 Hours after the Katrina Stormfall:
Between 2,500 and 3,000 people have been rescued by the Coast Guard, National Guard and First Responders.National Guard and Regular Army have deployed 50,000 troops…the biggest domestic relief effort in U.S. history after Monday’s onslaught by killer Hurricane Katrina.
The Navy is sending the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman to join an armada of vessels off the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
The Air Force said it was adding a high-flying U-2 spy plane to the relief effort to take pictures to help relief efforts at the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The Army has put on alert roughly 3,000 active-duty ground troops from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to be prepared to deploy to New Orleans…The brigade-sized force, likely to be from the 82nd Airborne Division, would engage in crowd control and site-protection activities.
Pipelines are being restored and refineries are beginning to get back into operation.
Levee repairs are underway – reportedly one break has already been fully repaired as of this evening.
Now, obviously, capping a gusher 5,000 feet below the surface was not as easy as “plugging the damn hole,” nor as simple as ordering ships to an emergency situation (or was it?) but over the course of 1200 hours, the Obama administration should have made a more vigorous response to the effects of that gushing, which did not take experts to predict, or 50 days time to understand.
This disaster could have been a moment for Obama to have shown dynamic leadership. He could have been there with Bobby Jindal saying, “we’ll build the berms; we’ll do whatever it takes to save these coastlines.”
Instead, writes J.R. Dunn:
Well, we’ve seen Obama frowning. Obama sticking his fingers into the sand. Obama saying he’s frustrated. Obama telling us a heartwarming story about his daughter. He even, according to spokesman Robert Gibbs, said “damn” at one point. (Though this has not yet been independently verified by a third party.)
That’s it. That’s the sum total of accomplishment by Barack Obama, his administration, his party, and his bureaucracy, in facing his first major domestic crisis.
The hardware and ancillary equipment necessary to deal with a seabed blowout is well understood . . . Floating booms trap the oil and keep it from dispersing. Burn booms isolate floating oil and set it ablaze. Tankers can be equipped to sweep the oil off the ocean surface. Not a single one of these items was available to any of the parties responsible for responding to a potential disaster in the Gulf. Not BP, not the Interior Department, not the federal government as a whole. The feds tried to borrow a fire boom from a private party. To what purpose is difficult to surmise — a single boom would be about as useful as a plastic bucket in a disaster of this magnitude. Much of the past month and a half has been spent playing catchup on the equipment front, and we have not yet seen the end of it.
The president, this afternoon:
VIDEO OF THE MORON-IN-THIEF at the link...
1200 Hours after the explosion, the president, who was described by some in the press as so monumental that accepting the presidency was “a step down” for him has finally sounded some right notes, but like a distracted percussionist, he has struck them too late, and without much force.
Interestingly, one notices that those members of the Democrat party and the press who were daring to express impatience with the process of responsive engaging have been muted, or they’ve fallen back into line.
UPDATE:
Now he is the ass-kicker in chief. Sigh. Can you imagine if Bush had said it? The criticism of Obama has been fairly mild compared to what we’ve seen other presidents experience. He can’t seem to handle any. Sir, the job is about more than kicking ass. It is about leadership, and communication and giving people a sense that one is competent.Maybe he should kick his own ass for foregoing the public campaign funding he’d agreed to, in order to collect 600 million dollars in donations, a million of it from BP. Or maybe he should kick Rahm’s ass for also having close associations and taking favors from the BP-connected.
Back in January 2009, Barack Obama told Americans that,
“Everyone must sacrifice… Everyone must have some skin in the game.”
VIDEO at link--
"all you ever needed to know about Kommander ZerØ, click the picture" file here:
Well… Everyone but Barack and Michelle Obama.
Guests gather for the entertainment segment of a state dinner in honor of President of Mexico Felipe Calderon inside a party tent on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, May 19, 2010. (Reuters)
In 2009 the Obamas spent over $10 million of taxpayer money on drunken White House parties.
Canada Free Press reported, via FOX Nation:
The same hypocrite who says our energy costs must “necessarily skyrocket” to fund his political ambition, is giving Marie Antoinette a run for her money when it comes to spending national treasure on personal luxuries.
While much of the country is struggling to pay their bills, the President and First Lady are partying like rock royalty. The collection of talent that has made the pilgrimage to the White House to entertain Obama and friends is nothing less than amazing: Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Tony Bennet, Paul Simon, Marc Anthony, Herbie Hancock, Martina McBride, Queen Latifah, The Foo Fighters, Faith Hill, and recently foot-in-mouth Paul McCartney to name a few.
This has the makings to be the greatest ongoing concert series ever to be seen on this Earth just to entertain one man … all paid for by the American taxpayer.
…The executive branch does not provide detailed information regarding entertainment expenses, however, it has been estimated the Obamas spent at least $10 million on “drunken White House parties” in 2009 alone.
Seriously, I truly anticipate that when Miss Emily or myself reach the point that we cost too much money to all this "free" healthcare, we will get shipped- against our will-- to the "Old Folks Really Carefree ( literally! ) Retirement Home, err, I mean Organ Donation Center, so our parts can be harvested to keep the younger drones paying taxes into all the government's Ponzi schemes...
The unserious punks running the white house
via Hot Air and FamousDC
That's the President's speechwriter on the right.
http://famousdc.com/2010/06/07/white-house-gone-wild-shirtless-favreau-and-vietors-sundayfunday-beer-pong-match/
/and we were just talking about the turds -
http://www.grouchyconservativepundits.com/index.php?topic=16450.0
Don’t think that her recent anti Semitic comments were something out of the ordinary for the old wind bag. She has been getting away with saying outrageous, hateful things for a long, long time (ever since her first appearance during Grant’s second term).
Update - The old biddy (crazy old aunt who lives in the attic), has officially retired! I guess those emails we sent to Hearst worked!!
by Rich Noyes
Longtime White House correspondent Helen Thomas has issued a statement of “deep regret” after telling an interviewer that Israeli Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine” and “go home” to Germany and Poland.
Thomas has been widely admired by the liberal establishment in the media. NBC’s Ann Curry, for example, last year saluted Thomas as “a woman who inspired me….I’ve tried to emulate her.” CBS’s Harry Smith has described her as “legendary,” adding: “What she does day after day after day, I’m not sure we value enough.”
Thomas has not been shy about expressing her left-wing views and reliably anti-Israel opinions since she became a White House “columnist” in 2000, after a lengthy career as UPI’s straight news White House correspondent. But a review shows Thomas was expressing solidly liberal opinions even as a supposedly neutral reporter:
Nearly twenty years ago, she dismissed the idea of liberal bias as nothing but compassion: “I don’t know what a liberal bias is. Do you mean we care about the poor, the sick, and the maimed? Do we care whether people are being shot every day on the streets of America? If that’s liberal, so be it.”
In 1993, she slammed Ronald Reagan as soulless: “A President should care about all people, and he didn’t, which is why I will always feel Reagan lacked soul.” But a few months after Bill Clinton left office in 2001, Thomas fawned: “The human spirit — to me and millions of others, President Clinton has always personified that. He is the man from Hope, and that is what he has given us, hope. We miss him.” And, a few months after 9/11, she ridiculously insisted that the security measures were worse than FDR’s internment of Japanese-Americans: “The chipping away of our civil liberties is unprecedented. Even in World War II, I never saw anything like that.”
In 2006, Thomas admitted the obvious: “I’m a liberal, I was born a liberal, and I will be a liberal ‘til the day I die.”
Here are some of her more legendary outbursts collected by the MRC over the years:
■ “I think he left an uncaring society….a government that was not as concerned.”
— UPI White House reporter Helen Thomas talking about Ronald Reagan on CBS News Nightwatch, December 30, 1988.■ “All of us who covered the Reagans agreed that President Reagan was personable and charming, but I’m not so certain he was nice. It’s hard for me to think of anyone as nice when I hear him say ‘The homeless are homeless because they want to be homeless.’ To my mind, a President should care about all people, and he didn’t, which is why I will always feel Reagan lacked soul.”
— UPI White House reporter Helen Thomas in the July 1993 Good Housekeeping.■ “A liberal bias? I don’t know what a liberal bias is. Do you mean we care about the poor, the sick, and the maimed? Do we care whether people are being shot every day on the streets of America? If that’s liberal, so be it. I think it’s everything that’s good in life — that we do care. And also for the solutions — we seek solutions and we do think that we are all responsible for what happens in this country.”
— UPI White House correspondent Helen Thomas on C-SPAN’s Journalists Roundtable, December 31, 1993.
Read the rest here: Long list of liberal eruptions from media’s Mt. St. Helen
James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal weighs in
by James Taranto
Helen Thomas is American journalism’s crazy old aunt in the attic. Peter Beinart is a starry-eyed nephew. She loathes the state of Israel; he claims to love it–though both sided with the so-called Free Gaza flotilla that tried to break Jerusalem’s naval blockade and allow the arming of the terror group Hamas, which has been firing rockets at Israeli civilians. Both Thomas and Beinart have caused a stir in recent weeks with their comments about the Israel–not about the flotilla episode in particular but about the Jewish state more generally.
Thomas, White House correspondent for Hearst Newspapers, showed up at the White House’s May 27 Jewish Heritage Celebration, where she gave an interview to Rabbi David Nesenoff of RabbiLive.com. Late last week Nesenoff posted a clip from the video on YouTube. Here’s the transcript:
[...]
Beinart, a former editor of The New Republic who now writes for TheDailyBeast.com, last month published a portentous essay of nearly 5,000 words in the New York Review of Books titled “The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment.” To boil down his argument: Support for Israel has become unfashionable among young liberal American Jews, and it’s the fault of old Jews. Beinart cites the results of a focus group of such young liberal Jews:
[..]
As he lectures his elders, it does not seem to occur to Beinart that the young liberal American Jews may be the ones who have it wrong–which we suppose is not surprising, since he is one of them. Fortuitously enough, however, Beinart’s worldview vis-à-vis Israel faced a real-world test shortly after his essay was published. It was found wanting.
[...]
Commentary’s Jonathan Tobin pointed out in response that “the activists’ empathy”–or, rather, their lack thereof–is crystal clear:
Before the flotilla that Israel intercepted was launched in Turkey, the family of Gilad Shalit begged the organizers to take a package of letters and food to the Israeli being held in Gaza. In return, they promised to lend their voices to a call for lifting the blockade. Accepting this offer would have cost “Free Gaza” nothing and would only have given them good publicity and probably would have caused the Israeli government to seriously consider letting them through the blockade. But, in a decision that Beinart and other critics of Israel seemed to ignore, they refused the Shalit family.Why? It’s not that hard to figure out even if your grasp of the Middle East is as dim as that of Peter Beinart.First, they don’t care about Gilad Shalit. Like his Hamas kidnappers, the “Free Gaza” group is composed of anti-Zionists–people who don’t think there ought to be a Jewish state and that Jewish soldiers who defend it are, by definition, criminals who deserve what they get from Hamas. Most think the same about Israeli civilians who live under the threat of rocket fire and terrorist attack from Hamas.Second, they are not humanitarians. They are Israel-haters.
[..]“Go back to Auschwitz,” say the Turkish “humanitarians.” Go back to Poland, says Helen Thomas. Beinart claims to be pro-Israel, and we don’t doubt his sincerity. But his determined denial of the nature of Israel’s enemies leads us to doubt his grip on reality.
Read the rest Helen Thomas and Peter Beinart
He's too far behind to ever get ahead.
You don't even catch up when you're so busy playing golf, having vacations, BBQing, playing basketball, zipping around the country for fund raisers, entertaining pop stars, etc.,
Too late, bambam.
The only thing he does well is dither, when it comes to things that are crucial for the country.
If he had shown half the concern and time on this that he did on obamaCare, things would not have gotten so out of hand.
Right from the get go, 17 countries offered their help, expertise and equipment. He blew them off - only accepted from TWO! Mexico and Norway.
He should have said, HELL YES!
And just maybe the oil wouldn't now be creeping up on the Florida shores = where it will run down the west coast, around and half way up the east coast, then veer off for Europe.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64420A20100505
Why no headlines on that story?
===============================================
Reading William Saletan's 8-part series is really worth your time. Maybe research can actually lead to pro-active ways we can save our true memories and our sanity. Check it out:
http://www.slate.com/id/2254054/
It’s not “dems” or “pubbies” that the voters are kicking out -
it’s ELITISTS.
However, the MSM are, in total, all ELITIST, so they just can’t fathom that the electorate hates THEM.
OKAY, I SEE THE ARGUMENT THAT OBAMA’S “ASS KICKING” BIT WAS UNPRESIDENTIAL, but to me, the biggest negative was that it made clear that we’ve got a President who doesn’t know whose ass to kick.
Related: Who’s In Charge Here?
Also: Spill reveals Obama’s lack of executive experience.
HOPE & CHANGE – Chicago-style
Barack Obama gave his marching orders:
Obama: “They Bring a Knife…We Bring a Gun”
Obama to His Followers: “Get in Their Faces!”
Obama on ACORN Mobs: “I don’t want to quell anger. I think people are right to be angry! I’m angry!”
Obama To His Mercenary Army: “Hit Back Twice As Hard”
Now it’s Kicka$$ time…
Add this one to the list:
“I don’t sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar, we talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick.“
Great. Obama’s now taking advice from Spike Lee.
Here’s something we’ve noticed living in Boystown all these years: the biggest sissies feel the need to talk most about “kicking someone’s ass”.
READ IT ALL at the link- these guys are good...
...When President George W. Bush picked up that bullhorn, nobody saw THAT asskicking coming. He just did it, then brushed himself off and went on talking with the guys.
He desperately wants to appear tough and have a Bush “bullhorn” moment because his approval rating is tanking. He is a sissy elitist who will NEVER have a bullhorn moment.
There is nothing presidential about Barack Obama–never has been, never will be. I have a former co-worker who drank a gallon of Obama kool-aid who is now singing the blues–and I get to say and take great pleasure in saying “told ya so”. So now that she is a recovering Obamaholic, she is now referring to him as the “Resident” in the White House.
"Captain Kick-Ass," all the young people are calling him now.
The Myth of the Obama Boom is over. Wall Street continues to decline as it realizes the emperor has no clothes. The once great and heralded economic boom, doesn’t exist. It was invented by Rahm Emanuel and the Progressive Propaganda Media. Last Friday’s anemic jobs report showed 41,000 private sector jobs. A dismal figure and the one that exposed the lie of the Obama Economic Boom!
This boom in government spending was supposed to produce a boom in the private economy. So far, we’re one boom short. The May jobs report is a perfect distillation of Obamanomics, with its emphasis on short-term help to the economy — the stimulus package, the cash-for-clunkers program, etc. — that is as sustainable as a sugar high.
The headline jobs number of 431,000 looked good, but 411,000 were temporary census jobs. They will soon disappear, unless we want to employ Americans in the counting of one another in perpetuity. The 41,000 new private-sector jobs were about 60,000 short of what it takes just to absorb the natural growth of the labor force.
The driving force in the private economy has been companies pulling back on the liquidation of their inventories, a natural effect that would’ve occurred even absent President Obama’s various stimuli. The reaction of the Democrats to the failure of all the stimulus is to support yet more stimulus.
Read the rest: Where are the jobs?
The Obama Boom is just another in a series of lies to prop up the failing regime of Barack Hussein Obama. The American public are tired of the lies yet our press keeps deceiving like claiming Obama is still popular. The press will do anything for their glorious leader!
I’VE MENTIONED THIS BEFORE: A Self-Appointed Teacher Runs a One-Man ‘Academy’ on YouTube: Are his 10-minute lectures the future? “The lo-fi videos seem to work for students, many of whom have written glowing testimonials or even donated a few bucks via a PayPal link. The free videos have drawn hundreds of thousands of views, making them more popular than the lectures by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, famous for making course materials free, or any other traditional institution online, according to the leaders of YouTube’s education section.”
And, from a supporter:
“The next bubble to burst is higher education,” he said. “It’s too expensive for people—there’s no reason why parents should have to save up a hundred grand to send their kids to college. I like that there are alternative ways of thinking about teaching.”
Hmm. Where have I heard this before?
Oh, God. We're taking the Emoting Offensive to a whole new level now, aren't we?
It is to laugh -- Norah O'Donnell is not just neutrally reporting these "facts," but insisting on them, really trying to convince you of them (and their relevance).
To her, it's not important that real oil is hurting real animals and damaging a real fishing economy and doing real harm to real people's lives and Obama is not doing a damn real thing about it.
The only thing that matters is the White House's emotional connection to these facts, and if they're guilty of anything, it's of not convincing the public of how emotionally engaged they are.
Pushing the New Narrative like the trooper she is.
So, how bad are White House staffers' nightmares?
Bad enough, apparently, that only Beer Pong can chase the evil dreams away.
John Favreau's recurring cold-sweats nightmare:
White House Spokesman Tommy Vietor slams back his serve,
right into his cup of golden-smooth Miller Genuine Draft,
forcing him to chug, and, just as he's downing the sweet barley nector,
the beer turns to ash in his screaming mouth
And some of you scoffed at the relevance of this picture!
I knew it was going to come in handy.
Accept The Pudding, Norah O'Donnell: You will accept the pudding. You must accept the pudding.
Admiral Benson Makes a Statement: Finally.
Last Friday, April 30, 2010 Rush gave a time line which was an inspiration for the pictorial timeline shown as the subject of this thread.
Here is an excerpt of his commentary on Friday:
Obama Pays Oil Slick Lip Service; He’s Interested in His Agenda, Not His Job
April 30, 2010
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_043010/content/01125106.member.html
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: What a teachable moment! Obama had a press conference today, the original purpose of the press conference — not a press conference, he had a ceremony outside the Oval Office in the Rose []Garden — and the purpose of it was to tout a nonexisting economic growth rate. The actual growth rate’s about 1.6%. I’ll explain how that happens in mere moments. But something got in the way of this. That damn oil slick. Obama’s Katrina...
END TRANSCRIPT
Read the Background Material...
•AP: Feds Open Criminal Probe of Gulf Oil Spill
•NYDN: BP Told Government in 2008 it Could Handle Oil Spill 10 Times the Size of One Plaguing Gulf
• Wall Street Journal: Gulf Oil Spill Clips $100 Billion from Value of Connected Outfits">
Day by day activities of Obama since day 1 of the Oil Gusher:
http://politipage.com/2010/05/28/obamas-days/
Video of Obama’s activities from Day 1 to Day 42 of the Gulf oil spill.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzllR24e-FY&feature=player_embedded
Minor point of semantics for everyone?
Any time you hear
“Oil Spill”
be sure to correct it with
“Oil Gusher...”
A spill is knocking over a 55 gallon drum on deck and having it drain out the scuppers.
A Gusher
is what we’ve got...
“...just one more setback for people along the Gulf Coast. And it is precisely what we feared – the moratorium will cost us more jobs and economic devastation, on top of the repercussions of the spill itself, as energy companies move their businesses away from the coast."
(Excerpt) Read more at thedeadpelican.com ...
Read the above, then ask yourself,
"Do these clowns need to be given even more power over my life?
“A lot of the anger is really not ideological; it’s anger against the system.’’
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Geezer Geek ping.
This is a very low-volume ping list (typically days to weeks between pings).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
Is The Obama Presidency Doomed? ( No, just America if this keeps up... )
http://nicedeb.wordpress.com/2010/06/02/is-the-obama-presidency-doomed/