It's Not a Coup

In Honduras. From Hot Air

Zelaya was violating his country’s constitution with his referendum that would have, Chavez-style, repealed term limits on the presidency. The Honduras Supreme Court ruled the referendum illegal, and the military refused to distribute the ballots. Instead of backing down, Zelaya fired the head of the military, which precipitated the ouster.

Clearly, democracies cannot abide armed overthrow of elected governments, but that presumes that the government acts within the rule of law. Zelaya had no intention of doing so, and his flagrant violations and attempt to accrue personal power made that crystal clear. Zelaya had begun seizing dictatorial powers, and the military responded by arresting him. The military then handed power back to the legislature rather than keeping it for themselves, which makes this less of a coup and more of a military impeachment.

The military did what a military should. In the US, the armed forces swear to uphold the President the Constitution, so it is my fervent hope that should OUR president act in a manner that goes against our constitution, they would do exactly what the Honduran military did.

So, where is Obama on this? Well, surprise, he's on the same side as Hugo Chavez.

In Washington, Obama said he was "deeply concerned by reports coming out of Honduras regarding the detention and expulsion of President Mel Zelaya."

A senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the United States would work alongside the Organization of American States to restore Zelaya, and the official predicted that the organizers of the coup would find themselves isolated and facing stiff pressure to allow Zelaya's return.

About what happened last friday

From The Corner:

The news that President Obama's much vaunted transparency promises have already gone the way of all flesh comes as no surprise to me. The farce on the House floor yesterday was a good example of why they couldn't survive. For those who missed it (and Andy's post doesn't quite convey the whole story of the farrago), Rep Mike Pence started the debate yesterday morning by pointing out that the House leadership had dropped a 300-page amendment to the already 1200-ish page Waxman-Markey energy tax bill at 3:09 in the morning. Clearly, debate started before anyone had had a chance to read it properly, but the House leadership just didn't care. Then, mid-afternoon, Reps Louie Goehmert (who did a splendid job all round) and Energy & Commerce Ranking Member Joe Barton (who clearly couldn't believe what was going on) raised a series of Parliamentary Inquiries as to whether there was a copy of the amended bill anywhere in the House for members to read. Chairman Markey was dismissive, saying there was a copy on the wesbite, which, Rep Barton pointed out, was not much help to members on the floor of the House actually, you know, debating the bill. Eventually the Chair, who was very fair throughout the afternoon, admitted that the Clerk was in the process of integrating the amendment into the hard copy in the House. So for most of the day the House was debating a bill that didn't actually physically exist, never mind having had a chance to read, digest and consider it.

Let me just state this as simply as I can: this is a gross abuse of the Parliamentary process and represents nothing less than contempt for the people of the United States of America.

Iain Murray has started a website dedicated to insuring that our representatives are actually READING what they are voting for, Read the Bill.

In related news ... Not One Red Cent.

On June 27, eight Republican members of the House voted "yes" for Nancy Pelosi's top legislative priority, the Waxman-Markey energy tax bill. Until these eight RINOs are terminated -- by retirement or by defeat in the GOP primaries -- then the National Republican Congressional Committee deserves the same answer: Not One Red Cent!

Mary Bono Mack
Mike Castle
Mark Kirk
Leonard Lance
Frank LoBiondo
John McHugh
Dave Reichert
Chris Smith(NJ)

In case you haven't seen Serr8d's photoshop.

Obamacare

Erm ... about that no tax hikes for the middle class promise Obama made ....

Apparently the expiration date has expired. Axelrod, speaking for Obama, says that all options are on the table. Or, as he calls it, "formulations."

And then there's this. Canada sure has come up with some amazing cost-cutting measures, haven't they? A couple shows up at a hospital to have labor INDUCED, yet as the labor progresses, no one shows up to help. The father delivered the baby, because the two "nurses" (excuse me, what about a doctor?) were too busy. There was also this little interesting tidbit:

"Both nurses were hard at work" in the pre-natal waiting area where Lachapelle had been placed. She was sharing a room with two other women with at-risk pregnancies.

WHAT? You know, while giving birth I didn't need too many creature comforts. I didn't need one of those fancy bathtubs, or a rocking chair, or a special dinner afterwards. But, I did want my OWN FREAKIN ROOM. Matter of fact, that would be pretty much on the top of the list.

h/t: Mark Steyn.

Interesting

Who wrote Obama's books? Read the whole thing before you start criticizing. Or don't comment.

Mr. West independently came to the same conclusion that I did, namely that Ayers was not meaningfully involved in Audacity. These two Obama books almost assuredly had different primary authors. What should be transparent to any literary critic is that the author of Audacity lacked the style and skill of the author of Dreams. There are a few pockets in Audacity that evoke the spirit of Dreams but without the same grace.

A likely suspect for these imitative passages, perhaps the whole of Audacity, is Obama's young speechwriter, Jon Favreau. Favreau joined the Obama team in 2005, time enough to play that role. The London Guardian reports that Favreau carries Dreams wherever he goes and can "conjure up his master's voice as if an accomplished impersonator." If so, in Audacity he played the classic role of the ghostwriter -- one who absorbs his client's thoughts and relates them in a refined version of his client's voice.

h/t :Serr8d.

Call!

Your Congresscritter now. Seriously. Now.

Candice Miller is a no vote. Michelle Malkin has the target list for those leaning, and thus those that REALLY need a phone call.

Now.

Links du Jour

The collapse of scientific consensus.

The number of skeptics, far from shrinking, is swelling. Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe now counts more than 700 scientists who disagree with the U.N. -- 13 times the number who authored the U.N.'s 2007 climate summary for policymakers. Joanne Simpson, the world's first woman to receive a Ph.D. in meteorology, expressed relief upon her retirement last year that she was finally free to speak "frankly" of her nonbelief. Dr. Kiminori Itoh, a Japanese environmental physical chemist who contributed to a U.N. climate report, dubs man-made warming "the worst scientific scandal in history." Norway's Ivar Giaever, Nobel Prize winner for physics, decries it as the "new religion." A group of 54 noted physicists, led by Princeton's Will Happer, is demanding the American Physical Society revise its position that the science is settled. (Both Nature and Science magazines have refused to run the physicists' open letter.)

Memo to grandpa and grandma: how 'bout just taking a pill instead of that lifesaving surgery?

What Mr. Obama is describing is his preferred health-care future. If or when the Administration's speculative cost-cutting measures under universal health care fail to produce savings, government will start explicitly limiting patient access to treatments and services regarded as too expensive. Democrats deny this eventuality, but health planners will have no choice, given that the current entitlement system is already barreling toward insolvency without adding millions of new people to the federal balance sheet.

Ok, now this is funny. Maxine Waters and David Obey push each other or something on the house floor.

Waters and Obey have had an ongoing dispute about an earmark for a public school employment training center in Los Angeles that was named after Waters when she was a state representative.

Obey rejected that earmark as violating policies against so-called “monuments to me.” Waters revised her request to go to the school district’s whole adult employment training program, so the district could decide whether the money would go to the school named after Waters.

Thursday was the committee markup of the spending bill that would include the earmark, and Obey let it be known that the earmark would be denied. She approached him and complained.

I dunno, perhaps we could hire some "fat police.":

As the USDA puts it, "Easy access to all food, rather than lack of access to specific healthy foods, may be a more important factor in explaining increases in obesity." The concentration of the obesity crisis in high-poverty areas thus brings us back to a pretty well-accepted hypothesis: The problem is with low-income areas where the cheap food is the bad food.

It's really hard to conceive of a trickier public policy problem than this one. You can solve the problem of people being unable to choose an apple and they still won't choose an apple. People like crap food. It's convenient. Brilliant, highly paid scientists have spent millions of dollars precisely calibrating it to the modern palette. Innovative, award-winning advertisers have spent billions of dollars making us want it. And it's cheap.

You can ask, of course, why it's a public policy problem. And the answer, in short, is that we're not willing to let diabetics die in the streets. And if that's the case, then it's a public policy program, because a world in which 25 percent of Americans are chronically ill by middle-age is a world in which we can kiss our low tax rates goodbye. I'm increasingly coming to the position -- a position held by Tom Philpott and others -- that at some point, public money is going to have to make healthy food cheaper. People instinctively rebel against that idea, but is it really so much better to pay for the consequences of unhealthful food later?

So, yes, obesity affects us all, in so much that it raises health care costs. I suppose it would be too much to ask that those heavier folks pay a higher rate? Would THAT perhaps encourage them to make healthier lifestyle choices.

Of course, that doesn't address those on any sort of public plan. Which, I fear, we all may be on some day soon. If we abdicated responsibility for things such as our health care, we will, in the end, have a less free society. Bank on it.

Exercise and Diet! For FREEDOM.

Uhm ... Jenny ... about those Green Jobs you say are going to save Michigan .... (h/t: Maggie's Farm.

Heh. Don Surber

Never buy a Ford from a guy who drives a Lexus.

Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy voted for Medicare.

He is eligible for Medicare.

When he got cancer, he did not use Medicare.

If they won’t use it, you don’t want it.

My point, from yesterday, exactly. But funnier.

My comment on Sanford

Since it's been requested.

What a douche.

That is all.

What he said, isn't what he meant

There are so many angles from which to attack Obamacare, but knowing how hard it is for some to focus (and click links), I'm going to make today's criticism simple.

Obama's "line" has been, in regards to health care, that the changes he hopes to make won't affect a person's health care if they are pleased with their provider. Paraphrasing, if you like your plan and your doctor, you can keep it.

Anyone want to take issue with me on that? I can hunt and link if you'd like.

But, this is patently untrue. Because, as employees, you can only take what insurance is OFFERED to you by your employer. So, if your employer decides that the government option is cheaper for THEM, guess what choice you're going to have in the matter?

In an interview today on Good Morning America, the backtracking continued, with the President telling ABC’s Diane Sawyer, “I can’t pass a law that says, ‘I’m sorry, employers, you can never make changes to the health care plans that you provide your employees.’” In other words, the Administration has gone from “If you like your plan, you get to keep it” to “Well, we really can’t promise much of anything.”

Of course, Obama won't have to worry about something like this.

Dr. Orrin Devinsky, a neurologist and researcher at the New York University Langone Medical Center, said that elites often propose health care solutions that limit options for the general public, secure in the knowledge that if they or their loves ones get sick, they will be able to afford the best care available, even if it's not provided by insurance.

Devinsky asked the president pointedly if he would be willing to promise that he wouldn't seek such extraordinary help for his wife or daughters if they became sick and the public plan he's proposing limited the tests or treatment they can get.

The president refused to make such a pledge, though he allowed that if "it's my family member, if it's my wife, if it's my children, if it's my grandmother, I always want them to get the very best care.

(Updated!) Or, as LTC John said over on PW “Good enough for you - Not good enough for Obama”.


Neither will Kennedy, nor any union workers or Federal employees.

Last September Sen. Barack Obama promised that under his health-care proposal "you'll be able to get the same kind of coverage that members of Congress give themselves." On Monday, President Obama repeated that promise in a speech to the American Medical Association. It's not true.

The president is barnstorming the nation, urging swift approval of legislation that is taking shape in Congress. This legislation -- the Affordable Health Choices Act that's being drafted by Sen. Edward Kennedy's staff and the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee -- will push Americans into stingy insurance plans with tight, HMO-style controls. It specifically exempts members of Congress (along with federal employees; the exemptions are in section 3116).
Members of Congress "enjoy the widest selection of health plans in the country," according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. They "can choose from among consumer-driven and high deductible plans that offer catastrophic risk protection with higher deductibles, health saving/reimbursable accounts and lower premiums, or fee-for-service (FFS) plans, and their preferred provider organizations (PPO), or health maintenance organizations (HMO)." These choices would be nice for all of us, but they're not in the offing. Instead, if you don't enroll in a "qualified" health plan and submit proof of enrollment to the federal government, you'll be tracked down and fined (sections 3101 and 6055).

Interested in who is funding all the support for Obamacare?

Riddle me this ...

New Study shows that African Americans are opposed to cap-and-trade.

Mostly for economic reasons.

What's wrong with this picture?

Graph swiped from Powerline.

This just in ...

There's no such thing as Sharia law. I know, I'm as shocked as you. From an exchange at a panel discussion following a viewing of "The Stoning of Soraya M."

One such jaw-dropping assertion – “There is no such thing as Sharia” – will come as thrilling news to those awaiting lashings, amputations, beheadings, and stonings in communities from Somalia to Nigeria to Afghanistan to Saudi Arabia, etc. where Sharia is in full effect. Another Aslan stunner: “Mohammed was a seventh century feminist.” Surely, I thought, this outrageous soundbite would elicit guffaws from the audience!
But the audience sat guffaw-less. Instead, applause greeted almost every one of Aslan’s opaque, vaporous commentaries. I’d like to believe that this was because he had finally finished talking, but the disappointing reality is that he was simply affirming things that many in the audience, Iranian and otherwise, desperately wanted to believe: that there is no connection between Islam and the Sharia-sanctioned brutality we’d just seen dramatized onscreen, and that Iranian authorities actually disapprove of it.

The Obama effect and the U.S. Media

Great article by Caroline Glick.

THE REAL OBAMA effect on world affairs relates to the US media's unprecedented willingness to abandon the basic responsibilities of a free press in favor of acting as propagandists for the president. From Cooper - who pretends that Obama's unreciprocated open hand to the mullahs is what empowered the protesters - to Newsweek editor Evan Thomas who referred to Obama earlier this month as a "sort of God," without a hint of irony, the US media have mobilized to serve the needs of the president.


It is hard to think of an example in US history in which the media organs of the world's most important democracy so openly sacrificed the most basic responsibilities of news gatherers to act as shills for the chief executive. Franklin Delano Roosevelt enjoyed adoring media attention, but he also faced media pressures that compelled him to take actions he did not favor. The same was the case with John F. Kennedy.


Today the mainstream US media exert no such pressures on Obama. Earlier this month NBC's nightly news anchorman Brian Williams bowed to Obama when he bid him good night at the White House.


On Wednesday ABC News will devote an entire day of programming to advancing Obama's controversial plan to nationalize health care. Its two prime time news shows will be broadcast from White House. Good Morning America will feature an interview with Obama, and ABC's other three flagship shows will dedicate special programming to his health care reform program.


On the other hand, ABC has refused Republican requests for a right of reply to Obama's positions. The network has also refused to sell commercial advertising time to Republicans and other Obama opponents to offer their dissenting opinions to his plans.

I'm at work, but wanted to throw this up.

Discuss.

Let me start it off with the expected Bob comment:

ODS!!! Crazy wingut! Obama is the foshizzle!

Things I learned from reading "The Hostages"

Don't Even Reply. The guy emails folks with classified ads. Hilarity ensues.

Content Warning.

You've been warned.

Today's musical interlude

Go Read

This Post from our new commenter Staghounds.

Rather appropriate right now.

Today's Racist Post/Updated for those with poor reading skills

-2

The Huffington Post is ON the case: First Dad: Obama's Cutest Fathering Moments (SLIDESHOW).

In other hard hitting political news:

The president snacked on vanilla custard with hot fudge and toasted almonds in a cup, said the shop's owner, Liz Davis. Sasha ordered a brownie sundae treat with vanilla custard, hot fudge and chocolate sprinkles. Malia walked out of the shop, eating the remains of a waffle cone with vanilla frozen custard.

I don't know where our country would be without our serious, hard-working press.

Update: At NO point in this post do I bring up the idea that Obama shouldn't be eating ice cream with his daughters on the day before Father's Day. Or, do I criticize his golfing on Father's day. REally. It doesn't say that anywhere in this post. I promise. Go back an re-read.

I'm making fun of the media for covering it. That I will not deny.

Upated 2

Now THIS:

Obama spends Father's Day with Joe Biden while Iran is in turmoil!



... would be me snarking.

But, I didn't do that. Until now. Because you pushed me. To demonstrate what I could have done.

h/t for the picture Hot Air.

Everything you need know about Obamacare.

It's in the bold.

The president is barnstorming the nation, urging swift approval of legislation that is taking shape in Congress. This legislation -- the Affordable Health Choices Act that's being drafted by Sen. Edward Kennedy's staff and the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee -- will push Americans into stingy insurance plans with tight, HMO-style controls. It specifically exempts members of Congress (along with federal employees; the exemptions are in section 3116).

I've got a single response to anyone in the government advocating this plan.

You. First.

GO IRAN!!

I haven't posted about it, because this week has been kinda hectic, but I assume everyone's been following it closely.

Musiloon says that the Iranians need our help. What can we do? Well, go read.

Reader's digest for you non-clickers?

1. blog about it.
2. a) Pressure the media
b) Twitter, facebook, and google are better venues that pressuring the Iranian government
3. Join with liberals. Put aside differences to unite.
4. Wear green. On your icons, on your blog, etc.
5. Support cyber-revolutionary activities.

As a kind of funny side-note, yesterday the Khamenei brought up the Branch Davidians episode in his sermon yesterday.

Even inside the U.S., one is amazed, during the time of the administration of these very Democrats, the Democratic Party in America, the time of the presidency of the husband of this so-called “lady” who expresses her opinions, 80, 80 something people who were a part of the Davudi sect, were burnt alive; there’s no room for denying this. These “excellencies” did this deed; it was these very Democrats…the Davudi sect which they themselves call BRANCH DAVIDIANS. For some unknown reason, these people incurred the wrath of American and inside a house…they went over there and besieged the place and whatever they did, they didn’t come out and so they ended up setting the house on fire and 80 something men, women and children burned alive! You think you know something about human rights.

For "some unknown reason" ... that guy is a hoot.

I'm off ...

To Detroit. To oppress some black folks. Either that, or garden. I'll decide on the drive down.

And the name is ....

Zelda. Unless someone comes up with something more magnificent than that, which I doubt anyone can.

Yellow Girl it IS!

Another Racist Post




Even "I" cannot help but see the underlying racism in this post. T

Today's Racist Post

I'm not sure how this is racist, but I'm sure we could wait for Bob to come around and tell us.

Michigan's unemployment rate has now hit 14.1%. That means it has gone up 1.2% since LAST month.

Yea Democrats! Congrats!!!

'Cause I'm cool like that

I just killed a fly.

Ignore this post

Because, I'm sure later I'll make some snarky comment about teh One or his wife or bring up Sarah Palin, and then you can get your OUTRAGE on and call me a winger. Get ready for the reality of Obamacare:

Speaking at the American Medical Association yesterday, President Obama promised a painless plan with no costs to the middle class and protections that would allow anyone who likes his current coverage to keep it. The details of what Democrats are pushing through Congress tell another story. To pay for Obamacare, Congress must either impose deep, cost-shifting cuts in Medicare, thereby raising insurance premiums, or they must raise taxes on the middle class. Neither measure will be easy to pass. Moreover, employers, not consumers, will get to decide where their workers get coverage. In practice, that means that tens of millions of people are going to be forced out of their current plans, which they generally like, and into a government program.

Of course, if Congress does this, then Obama can claim that he didn't personally break his promise. It was Congress, you see.

So, which is the better option? Higher insurance premiums or a tax on the middle class?

Discuss.

chuckle du jour

Monica Conyers has been offered a plea deal in the bribery probe. Monica's got nothing to say, so far.

n her TV show, she stole a moment to call herself "a child of God," and told viewers "if you're not praying for me, then you're just adding to the problem."

And then she added: "All these things that are going on right now ... I believe in my heart that God will deliver me from them."

Of course, it was the end of the article that really got me.

I'm not going to talk to you today, tomorrow, next week," she told reporters from the Free Press and Associated Press. "What difference does it make?"

With that, Conyers put on sunglasses, climbed into a silver Ford Crown Victoria, and was driven away.

Conyers has a DRIVER. Oh, I see, it's not a "driver", it's protection.

Typically, only the council president has a police officer, who can also serve as a driver, accompany her regularly outside council chambers.
But individual council members can request protection.

Queen Vics are undercover police cars, you see.

This is such a clusterfuck of wrong.

You Scare me ...

Letter, posted by Chuck Norris, written by Lou Pritchett

Dear President Obama:
You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike any of the others, you truly scare me.

You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you.

You scare me because I do not know how you paid for your expensive Ivy League education and your upscale lifestyle and housing with no visible signs of support.

You scare me because you did not spend the formative years of youth growing up in America, and culturally you are not an American.

You scare me because you have never run a company or met a payroll.

You scare me because you have never had military experience, thus don't understand it at its core.

You scare me because you lack humility and "class," always blaming others.

You scare me because for over half your life you have aligned yourself with radical extremists who hate America and you refuse to publicly denounce these radicals who wish to see America fail.

You scare me because you are a cheerleader for the "blame America" crowd and deliver this message abroad.

You scare me because you want to change America to a European style country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector.

You scare me because you want to replace our health care system with a government controlled one.

You scare me because you prefer "wind mills" to responsibly capitalizing on our own vast oil, coal and shale reserves.

You scare me because you want to kill the American capitalist goose that lays the golden egg which provides the highest standard of living in the world.

You scare me because you have begun to use "extortion" tactics against certain banks and corporations.

You scare me because your own political party shrinks from challenging you on your wild and irresponsible spending proposals.

You scare me because you will not openly listen to or even consider opposing points of view from intelligent people.

You scare me because you falsely believe that you are both omnipotent and omniscient.

You scare me because the media gives you a free pass on everything you do.

You scare me because you demonize and want to silence the Limbaughs, Hannitys, O'Reillys and Becks who offer opposing, conservative points of view.

You scare me because you prefer controlling over governing.

Finally, you scare me because if you serve a second term I will probably not feel safe in writing a similar letter in 8 years.

Lou Pritchett

Chuck adds to Pritchett's letter, and it's good. Go read. Snippet:

You scare me because your media team will not address or diminish in any way your deification before the world, epitomized by the editor of Newsweek, who was on MSNBC's Chris Matthews' show and recently stated, "I mean, in a way Obama's standing above the country, above the world. He's sort of God." (How much scarier can it get than representative statements like that in a republic that once stood for equity among political powers and a government "by the people and for the people"?)

H/t Hot Air

Offered w/o comment

Perhaps if she'd worn a stylish scarf?

Obamacare

Starting NOW, we are going to be deluged with tv ads promoting Obamacare; I saw one just last night on Fauxnews! What isn't going to be told, is that it is the intention of the democrats to get rid of private insurance. They are not saying that now for obvious reasons, but Obama has stated it in the past, and other democrats are admitting it before friendly audiences.



The public system will slowly (or not so slowly) eat away at all the private insurers, until employer provided insurance is no more. Don't take my word for it, watch the video. It's right there.

So, no one will need to work in order to get health insurance. No one will feel any sort of loyalty toward an employer because they offer a "good insurance" policy, even though, tax-wise, they are in effect paying the bill.

No, the "thanks" for "free" healthcare will go to the "government" and the democrats who brought it to you.

And, what do you want to BET (I'm telling you now) that politicians will have a different plan? Just like liberals are the biggest supporters of the status quo in public education yet send their own kids to private schools.


H/t Hot Air.

AmeriCorp IG Fired for investigating Obama supporter?

“Trust me” government asks that we concentrate our hopes and dreams on one man; that we trust him to do what’s best for us. Well my view of government places trust not in one person or one Party, but in those values that transcend persons and parties. The — The trust is where it belongs — in the people. The responsibility to live up to that trust is where it belongs, in their elected leaders. That kind of relationship, between the people and their elected leaders, is a special kind of compact.

That's the problem I have. I don't trust 'em

Grassley had written Obama a letter pointing to a law requiring that Congress be given the reasons an inspector general is fired. He cited a Senate report saying the requirement is designed to ensure that inspectors general are not removed for political reasons.
Grassley said Walpin had identified millions of dollars in AmeriCorps funds that were wasted or misspent and "it appears he has been doing a good job."
The inspector general found that Johnson, a former all-star point guard for the Phoenix Suns, had used AmeriCorps grants to pay volunteers to engage in school-board political activities, run personal errands for Johnson and even wash his car.

In August 2008, Walpin referred the matter to the local U.S. attorney's office, which said the watchdog's conclusions seemed overstated and did not accurately reflect all the information gathered in the investigation.
"We also highlighted numerous questions and further investigation they needed to conduct, including the fact that they had not done an audit to establish how much AmeriCorps money was actually misspent," Acting U.S. Attorney Lawrence Brown said in an April 29 letter to the federal counsel of inspectors general.

Walpin's office made repeated public comments just before the Sacramento mayoral election, prompting the U.S. attorney's office to inform the media that it did not intend to file any criminal charges.

No criminal charges. Yet, Johnson is paying back $425,000 in grants the academy received from AmeriCorps.

Apparently that, according to Obama is nothing but sloppy bookkeeping, and IG Walpin gets removed because Obama has lost faith in HIS ability to investigate AmericCorps.

Oh, did I mention that Johnson is a big Obama supporter? I mean, except in the title?

Heh

Comment by Jeff over at his blog.

Where in Napolitano’s warning were we asked to be on the lookout for 80-year-old Democratic WWII vets who parrot a good deal of the progressive platform and idolize Margaret Sanger?

A tax on the non-rich

The million dollar (or do we talk in trillions now?) question is what manner of funding the democrats are going to trot out to pay for their health care plan. Being floated? That idea that Obama blasted McCain for proposing; taxing health care benefits as income. At issue?

. "Apparently, Senator McCain doesn't think it's enough that your health premiums have doubled. He thinks you should have to pay taxes on them, too," ran one Obama ad.

Yes. That could be problematic. But nothing Obama can't overcome with his boot licking media that will be at pains to explain it for him.

Another sticking point? Unions are against this idea. Well, problem two solved!

> Mr. Baucus officially floated his plans for a tax this week, only with a surprising twist: His levy will not apply to union plans, at least for the duration of existing contracts. In other words, Mr. Baucus intends to tax the health-care benefits only of those who didn't spend a fortune electing Democrats to office. Sen. Ted Kennedy, who is circulating his own health-care reform, has also included provisions that will exempt unions from certain provisions.

The union carve-out is designed to allay the fears of many Democrats who remain outright hostile to a tax on health-care benefits, whether out of principle, political fear or union solidarity. Much will depend on the union reaction, which might remain ugly. Manufacturing unions in particular view their health-care benefits as sacrosanct, and even a delayed tax is still a tax.

So, a tax for you and me, but not for those golden union folks. GENIUS!

The pay-out for taxing health care benefits is huge (half-a-trillion over a decade), and that is a mighty tasty fruit for Obama. But, how to get it to go, without looking like a total hypocrite on so many levels?

The administration, for its part, is bobbing and weaving. Peter Orszag, Mr. Obama's budget director, said in a recent hearing that a benefits tax "most firmly should remain on the table," a comment immediately followed by White House assurances that, honestly, it hated the idea. Mr. Baucus also recently reported that the president remained open to the idea, a comment again instantly refuted from above. The president may well be attracted to the dollars of a benefit tax, but he's waiting to see if he can blame Congress for dragging him into it.

Sounds like a plan that could work. I can't wait.

Hot Air's Greenroom has a good post why we don't want Obamacare anyway, no matter how it's paid for.

More of this, please

Opposition is growing to Cap and Trade.

Now, I'm off to drive around aimlessly and try to warm Michigan up a bit. 61 degrees here.

This is the post where ...

... I simply link to Dan's post about the Holocaust Museum Shooter in response to Bob's query in comments.

I wish I had the ability to do a Venn Diagram, 'cause I'm missing where MY views* intersect with the shooter's.

**And, I'm a right winger's Right Winger.

Linky links and a boring rant

Light presence on the web while I name the 1000 worms I got yesterday in the mail wait for my bandwidth to return (DEATH TO HUGHESNET!)


Links Bob won't read:

Resercons and why they suck.

About that inflation stuff Ocean Cat said wasn't happening last week .... But WAIT, there's more more bad news.

Letterman is not funny. I hear he has a show on tv. Not that's I'd know, since I stopped watching him around 1988. I think my favorite response is a comment at Protein Wisdom by Joe of Cold Fury:

I would encourage Todd Palin to look that Letterman punk up and punch his lights out, and to do it soon. Some things are ‘fighting words’ and require an ass-kicking, and that kind of public insult should not go unanswered or unpunished. I doubt you could find any jury with a father on it that would consider a good mouthful of fist and plenty of lost teeth as anything but that loathsome turd’s just desserts. And if we wish any kind of a return to civility, that type of immediate physical correction of progressive nastiness is exactly what is required.

But what’s really needed here is a little more tit for tat, expressed in a manner the dimwits might understand, to wit:

I think that by way of apology, raping Letterman with a baseball bat live on his own show might be a bit much. Maybe just his fugly wife. But hey, wouldn’t Palin actually be doing Letterman a favor by knocking out those nasty teeth? I mean, the ones in her vagina?

See how I did that lame and unfunny rape joke, lefties? Just as lame and unfunny as Letterman’s, but without the kids. So Learn it. Live it. Love it. Because if one of you nasty little ‘comedians’ ever says something like Letterman did about Palin’s kid to me, you’re going to wake up in a hospital. Yup. From now on I’m going to be all about “no, fuck you up if I can’t take a joke”. See, I’ve learned. No more self-imposed limits or silly moral rules. No need for any consideration or tolerance of any opinion but my own. Yeah. Finally. At long last.

I’m just like you.

I'm gonna start using the it was just a joke defense a LOT more.

Warning. Totally irrelevant rant ahead:


Well, this now stretches my limits of patience for waiting for pages to load with the gawd-awful HughesNet service. F*#k-You very much, HughesNet. $100 bucks a month ($600 bucks for equipment) and I can't even download/upload a single thing w/o limiting my service (for 24-fraking hours). Yes, folks, you are limited to a certain amount of bandwidth per 24-hour period, and if you go over, you get basically nada NOT until that 24 hour period is up ... but for the FOLLOWING 24 hours.

So, exceed your allowance on hour 23 of HughesNets calculation? Sorry, you aren't limited for that last hour, but for the next 24.

We don't game here. He don't download movies. I basically don't do anything but read blogs.

HUGHESNET SUCKS. /rant over

Grim Milestone

Remember during the height if the Iraq war, we had all that talk about the military death toll? 1000. 1500. 2000 was a big one.

Well, Obama's got his own grim milestone dealo, although I doubt the media will give it nearly the same amount of attention. Eclipsing the 10% unemployment mark will be bad news for Bush Obama. this article dovetails nicely with my point:

Politically, it is the point at which people start looking for someone to blame. Obama and his people will blame the president's predecessor. This is appropriate, as George Bush's economic and regulatory policies were incredibly unsound and destructive.
The problem, of course, is that the blame game gets harder when it becomes possible to link a sitting president's actions to soaring unemployment figures.
States that have been especially hard hit by the current recession -- Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, among others -- and urban areas that have been devastated by it (according to the Labor Department, 93 metropolitan areas registering an unemployment rate of at least 10 percent in April) now face the prospect of significant additional job losses in the coming months as a result of the administration's auto bailout scheme.

Ut oh, looks like shuttering the dealerships could nullify those 150,000 jobs Obama "saved or created":

Additionally, the companies plan to shutter roughly 3,000 car dealerships could cost as many as 150,000 additional jobs.

Heartache!!

Blaming Bush is legitimate -- as is blaming Bill Clinton, who gave us the job-killing North American Free Trade Agreement and permanent normalization of trade relations with China.
But there comes a time when a president "owns" his recession.
If the country is socked with a double-digit unemployment rate, and if the actions of the administration that is in charge are seen as feeding the increase in joblessness, that's the political point of no return.
Voters, especially in Great Lakes battleground states where Democrats picked up lots of House seats and electoral votes in 2006 and 2008, will start looking for alternatives. And even Republicans who have not come up with much more than a monosyllabic message -- "no" -- could start to look wise, if not particularly articulate.

Jenny Granholm has played the "It's John Engler's fault, It's George Bush's fault" ever since she got elected. Michigan is in the toilet, as is her popularity. There comes a time when people are just sick of excuses. So, Obama's got .6% left of "I'm not responsible" until he hits the GRIM MILESTONE of 10% unemployment.

The current "deciders" appear to be members of Obama's economic team -- led by the likes of Larry Summers, Tim Geithner and rest of the "public servants" formerly known as Wall Street insiders. Their bad calls, especially on the auto bailout, could give America a "jobless recovery" and a politically-vulnerable president.

Of course, I fully expect the media to provide ample cover for teh One. Will there be banner headlines announcing 10% unemployment? Yesterday, I decided I was no longer going to call the media "Liberal." It's not liberal, because that is giving it too much credit. If it were liberal, it would apply the critical eye equally. They, so far, have carried Obama's water. We'll see if there is a shift in the coming months. If not, I will dance (happily) on their grave.

Just to be fair ...

Obama keeps talking about how he's saved or "created" 150,000 jobs. Now, I'm sure he didn't just pull that figure out of his arse, but I think he should subtract from that grand total those affected by Dealershipgate, which, according to this site puts the figure at 100,000.

Job losses he is directly responsible for. Congrats!

Certainly makes his made up number of 150,000 seem kinda ... unimpressive. 'course, I wasn't impressed anyway, since I know it was just kookie Obama-talk that only the kool-aid drinkers accepted has having any meaning.


But, as for THIS blog, we've got TWO jobs saved and two jobs lost.

Did Obama save your job?

'Cause I'm thinking we should start tallying these numbers. Now, if you were employed BO (before Obama), and STILL are ... Obama may have saved your job.

"It's Fantasia", say Krauthammer.

PDS

As in "Palin Derangement Syndrome." Honestly, it's just unhinged.

The Bible thumpers might love her, but those of us that believe in civil liberties are terrified, of the likes of her! I personally feel that someone who bears mongoloid children, doesn't have the genetic make-up to be President! Please go back to Alaska and preach your hate there. The lower 48 don't need to hear your rants!

That's a keeper. You folks are so precious.

Even Carter understood better than this dude.

Remember Carter and his sweaters? Turning down the thermostat in the White House? He sucked as a president, but even I have to admit that he probably honestly did "felel our pain."

A common little game folks play in politics is the "Are you better off now, than you were X months/years ago?"

Well, for some, that answer is Yes. Date night in New York city one weekend, Paris another.

I don't know which is in worst taste; the Obamas taking full advantage of their presidential privilege during these very difficult times, or the tone deaf media following them like love-sick puppies flaunting it to what they assume is an adoring public.

Lapeer County, where I live, just arrived at an unemployment rate of 16.9%. How do you think all those folks who lost their job this week feel about Obama, and family, living it up in Paris?

In further tone-deaf fashion, the House just passed a bill that will tack on more benefits for federal employees. With a $938 million price tag, HRC 626 give "parents" four weeks of paid leave after the birth or adoption of a child.

"These are tough times, regardless of what industry you're in," said Rep. Christopher Lee, R-N.Y. "Think about the retail workers who are being forced to do more with less. Think about that, when Washington turns around and offers more generous fringe benefits to public sector employees."

Rejected were amendments that would have required federal employees to use their available leave first, or to take an advance on future leave. It's not as if Federal employees didn't already have a generous policy in regards to "time off"

VACATION/SICK DAYS: For your first 3 years of service you earn vacation at 4 hours per pay period (26 pay periods per year) for a total of 13 days. After 3 years of service you earn 6 hours per pay period and adjusted to total 20 days per year. After 15 years service you earn 8 hours per pay period or 26 days a year. For part-time employees, leave earned is prorated. You may accumulate 30 days and carry it over from year to year. However, any time earned over the 30 days you must use or lose. Sick leave is accrued at 4 hours per pay period (13 days per year) and does not change with length of service. Leave Bank and Leave Transfer programs provide the voluntary option of donating annual leave and, in turn, applying to use leave from the bank in medical or family emergencies. The Family and Medial Leave Act makes it easier for you to use sick leave to care for family members up to a 13-day maximum per year.

You get 13 days from the get-go, which is almost three weeks. After three years, that goes up to four weeks. In addition, everyone gets 13 sick days" ... which we know most people simply use as extra vacation days. So, a federal employee gets, from day one, 26 days off. Yet, that isn't enough. God forbid an individual actually USED their vacation or sick days for their own baby. No, they need MORE!

Federal employees already make significantly more than those in the private sector ( $77,143 versus $48,035) and when you add in their total compensation, the disparity goes through the roof.

Heh

Both Ace and Allah have brought this up, so I'd say the angle was pretty well covered for most of the audience of this blog, but sometimes I just can't help myself but repeat.

Obama's Flip-Flops for the Public Good

President Obama has been shifting gears, and reversing some of his policies, at a remarkable rate. But so far, he hasn't paid much of a political price for it, a testament to his popularity and the willingness of Americans to give him a chance to get results.

The media is prepping the way for the biggest flip-flop of all. Come on. You know what it is.

But, it will be for our own good.

It's not hard to see where Universal Healthcare will lead us

Because, we don't have to imagine. It's right here for us to see.

I know, I know ... we'll do it "better", right?

h/t Dan Collins.

Exit question, when the U.S. socializes health care, where will the Canadians go?

The Canadian system is supposedly one of the main models upon which the coming American health care revolution will be based. And yet this wondrous Canadian system seems to be more and more incapable of providing relatively common medical procedures to Canadian citizens, even in Canada’s most populous province. Because the system is controlled by a bureaucracy, it doesn’t respond to market pressures (goodness knows that most of the time, bureaucracies barely respond to political pressure) and in fact can’t even figure out what the market is demanding. All of this results in the Canadian government relying on the supposedly inferior US system to provide lifesaving care in many instances. No wonder 3 out of 4 Canadians live within easy driving distance of the US border.

Discuss.

Apparently, Obama just pulls things out of his arse

How many times have we heard Obama say that he has "saved or created" 150,000 jobs with his stimulus package? Personally, I don't know anyone from whom that is true, and how many times can the MSM cover that story of those guys who got jobs repairing that bridge in Tennessee? Every day it seems I meet or talk to someone who has been laid off. Apparently we're just supposed to swallow Obama's pap whole. Well, if you wish to remain cloaked in Obama's hope and changiness, do not read this.

Mr. Obama has an ingenious approach to job losses: He describes them as job gains. For example, last week the president claimed that 150,000 jobs had been created or saved because of his stimulus package. He boasted, "And that's just the beginning."

However, at the beginning of January, 134.3 million people were employed. At the start of May, 132.4 million Americans were working. How was Mr. Obama magically able to conjure this loss of 1.9 million jobs into an increase of 150,000 jobs?

As my former White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto points out on his blog, the Labor Department does not and cannot collect data on "jobs saved." So the Obama administration is asking that we accept its "clairvoyant ability to estimate," and the White House press corps has let Mr. Obama's ludicrous claim go virtually unchallenged.

Of course, since Karl Rove wrote this, feel free, liberals, to ignore.

Bad news

But not unexpected. Looks like they found Nevaeh Buchanan's body.

Every ten years, or so, an abortion provider gets murdererd. Stories such as Nevaeh's are a tad more common. There's been a lot of hand wringing about who is responsible for "creating" the atmosphere that caused Tiller's murderer to become who he was and do what he did. Pandagon devoted countless posts to the issue. They were pretty much similar to Obermann's opinion on the subject.

MSNBC Host Keith Olbermann went much further, flatly blaming Fox News Host Bill O'Reilly for inciting the murder of Tiller. Olbermann noted that O'Reilly aired 28 stories on Tiller, with such statements as: "Killing babies in America. That's the subject of this evening's "Talking Points Memo."

How about we show just a fraction of that concern for the hows and whys we create monsters who prey on our most vulnerable? Can we assign blame to Hollywood, that presents a hypersexualized image of youth? How about the creators of children's clothing?

Did you read your Ayn Rand?

Because, you should have.

The inherent danger of socialism, is that the government is then able to pick the winners and losers.

Barney Frank's "assistance" in the case of a Massachusetts GM plant is exhibit A. Barney Frank is, you know, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee which oversees TARP.

Less than a week ago, Obama told us the government was not interested in running GM. That didn't last long.

Last night, on the All Stars/updated

Krauthammer has a problem with Obama's moral equivalency.

Serr8d has the video.

In an article today, Krauthammer specifically addresses Obama's statements regarding Israel and Palestine, and his administration's "No Growth" policy toward Israel. Tidbit:

In his much-heralded "Muslim world" address in Cairo yesterday, Obama declared that the Palestinian people's "situation" is "intolerable." Indeed it is, the result of 60 years of Palestinian leadership that gave its people corruption, tyranny, religious intolerance and forced militarization; leadership that for three generations rejected every offer of independence and dignity, choosing destitution and despair rather than accept any settlement not accompanied by the extinction of Israel.

That's why Haj Amin al-Husseini chose war rather than a two-state solution in 1947. Why Yasser Arafat turned down a Palestinian state in 2000. And why Abbas rejected Olmert's even more generous December 2008 offer.

In the 16 years since the Oslo accords turned the West Bank and Gaza over to the Palestinians, their leaders built no roads, no courthouses, no hospitals, none of the fundamental state institutions that would relieve their people's suffering. Instead they poured everything into an infrastructure of war and terror, all the while depositing billions (from gullible Western donors) into their Swiss bank accounts.

Let's not forget the $900 MILLION Obama is sending to Gaza...

Update:

This piece from Legal Insurrection dovetails nicely with the Hammer video. He addresses, which Krauthammer did, the weak moral equivalence Obama makes between the rights of those women in the east and west. On the larger point, he addresses Obama overall style of argument:

You see, "some say" that Obama has a huge ego which necessitates that he create strawman arguments as part of his self-aggrandizing personality. "Some argue" that Obama uses false moral equivalencies and dichotomies because he has no real, substantive arguments.

H/t: the Other McCain.

Informational Friday

Now you can write an inspirational/transformational Obama speech in thirteen easy steps! Instructions here.

Comments are cute. I think this one is my favorite:

This is the ultimate hack article. For JFK the line is a quote from a classical greek. Ditto for RFK.
For Bush, the line would be: Dur, unintelligible, dur, unintelligible, dur, dur, dur.
This speech helped saved lives; so shut up until you think of something interesting to say.

Criticize Bush for being stupid, and then say something so astoundingly stupid I'm left to wonder if you're the love child of Chrissy Mathews and Keith Olberdouch.

This speech helped save lives.

Just had to see it again.

H/t to Hot Ari

More

The labels will range: joking, teasing, semiserious and OUTRAGED.

Working

On that Outrage meter for you bob.

I was hoping I wouldn't have to simply go the Label route, but I don't know what else could work.

A trip on the wayback machine

And, we're going way back to 2003.

Exhibit A

As if this would surprize anyone - the turkey Bush served the troops for Thanksgiving is FAKE! Everything about Bush is fake. What you're looking at is Bush serving the troops a PLASTIC turkey. But - its consistent. A fake turkey for a fake war served buy a fake president.

We live in a fake democracy with fake freedom. This is an example of what the Bush government is trying to feed us.

The picture is from the FAKE NEWS MEDIA who is trying to get us to believe the fake news. And if you believe any of what Bush is saying then you'll probably believe in the fake economic recovery and we're going to send a man to Mars!

Now, the fun thing about this stupid story was that it was completely untrue.

Then, there's this Bush/Plastic Turkey doll . If you read the comments, you will see that the plastic turkey myth goes deep, as people still apparently believe it.

But, it isn't limited to stupid dolls on Amazon, here's yet another article about the untrue plastic turkey story. I could go on, and on, and on, but I'm bored now.

Leftards couldn't get enough of this plastic turkey story.

Do you get what I'm saying?

Catch it if you can

What's wrong here? First this:

First lady Michelle Obama got her hands dirty has she planted the first fruit and vegetable seedlings in the new White House garden.

(dated April 10)


Now, this:

On a warm Monday in late April, the president dined with some of the sharpest critics of his handling of the financial crisis. Just that morning, one of his guests, Nobel prize winner Paul Krugman had complained in his New York Times column that the administration "will probably let the bankers off with nothing more than a few stern speeches."
For roughly 90 minutes, over plates of savory roast beef and the first lettuce from the new White House vegetable garden, President Obama and some of the nation's leading economists debated the fine points of bank restructuring and financial bailouts. The half-dozen attendees included another Nobel prize winner, Joseph Stiglitz; former Federal Reserve Board governor Alan Blinder; Harvard University's Kenneth Rogoff; and Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University.

Uhm, you don't go from lettuce seeds to lettuce salad in a few weeks. It takes a good 7 days for it to even germinate.

Of course, if Michelle didn't plant SEEDS ... which, if you ask me goes against the whole idea of getting back to a simplier time. If you plant a Victory Garden Propaganda Garden of shit that's just about to mature, you're not really "gardening" are you?

Discuss.

THANKS, US post office

Just got 30 pieces of mail back from the post office. Said they were "too thick" and required another 44 cents of postage. The 61 cents wasn't enough.

Of course, when I took them to the local office near work (they were our statements - you know, how captialists collect money it's owed) I was told they WERE NOT too thick. A few were iffy, and the postal worker with the bad attitude where I mailed them decided today would be a good day to fuck with one of the private sector business that still exists in Michigan

So, about half of our invoices are going out a week late.

Boy, I can't wait until MORE of our economy is run by goverment employees.

Not Tucker Carson

RSM has a new site. A news aggregate joint. I like the little bowtie NTC "ad" he has more than the actual "Not Tucker Carson" banner, but the site is nice.

This just in ....

Someone making $400,000 isn't making "that much" and is forced to live on a budget. Allah on why the taxpayers fund the Presidential Date Night:

Because shut up, that’s why. Gibbs happily ducks the question of cost — it was at least $24,000, which admittedly is just one grain of sand in the vast desert of Hopenchange spending — but see the second clip below for a more spirited defense from Captain Legthrill. As usual, he’s wrong. No one begrudges The One his right to conduct presidential business from Camp David or Chicago or wherever he pleases. What grates is the needless expense for pure recreation in another city when D.C. would have done just as well. A venial sin, to be sure, but a sin nonetheless given how the media would have demagogued the hell out of Bush for behaving similarly. If you want conservatives to lighten up, address your double standards first.

Oh, and that $24,000 estimate is a lowball. Triple that, at least.

As an aside, something I've been wondering about. Apparently I'm not alone. Why is Obama late for everything?

The Black Sphere was ON this story way back in February. He was an hour late for the Broadway Play on date night. The actors, of course, waited. As did the audience.

Pravda on America

Pravda piece brought to us by File It under:

First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas then the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their "right" to choke down a McDonalds burger or a BurgerKing burger than for their constitutional rights. Then they turn around and lecture us about our rights and about our "democracy". Pride blind the foolish.

This has been a complaint of mine for years. I read in the local high school catalogue that one of the Senior year books of study was "The Five People You Meet in Heaven." The fuck?!

Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different "branches and denominations" were for the most part little more then Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more then happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the "winning" side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another. Their flocks may complain, but when explained that they would be on the "winning" side, their flocks were ever so quick to reject Christ in hopes for earthly power. Even our Holy Orthodox churches are scandalously liberalized in America.

Faith is under constant attack. Little do people realize the motivation for it.

The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America's short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.

YES! HELLO?!?! Anyone paying attention?

Now, Bob. OC. No where in this post did I mention Michelle's guns or George Bush. I know it's hard to focus, but can we please attempt to keep our comment relevant?

It's Good to be Czar

Steve Rattner is building a $15 million "summer home" on Martha's Vineyard.

Ironic, ain't it

I'm pro-life, but I'm fully supportive of giving murderers the death penalty.