The (new) two Americas: Public V Private Sector employees

This means something:

Nearly half, 44 percent, of government employees rate their personal finances as good or excellent. Only 33 percent of private-sector employees do.

And, it should frighten you.

About one-third of the $787 billion stimulus package passed in February 2009 was directed at state and local governments, which have been facing declining revenues and are, mostly, required to balance their budgets.
The policy aim, Democrats say, was to maintain public services and aid. The political aim, although Democrats don't say so, was to maintain public-sector jobs -- and the flow of union dues to the public employees unions that represent almost 40 percent of public-sector workers.
Those unions in turn have contributed generously to Democrats. Services Employee International Union head Andy Stern, the most frequent nongovernment visitor to the Obama White House, has boasted that his union steered $60 million to Democrats in the 2008 cycle. The total union contribution to Democrats has been estimated at $400 million.
In effect, some significant portion of the stimulus package can be regarded as taxpayer funding of the Democratic Party. Needless to say, no Republicans need apply.

Adds Nick Gillespie:

There is a looming showdown in American society between public-sector employees and the rest of us, in terms of job security and, especially, unsustainable gold-plated retirement and health benefits that are working hard to bankrupt whole states such as California, New York, and New Jersey ... Do you want to spend your life (and have your kids spend their lives) to pay ever-increasing taxes for teacher, cop, and bureaurat retirements at early ages? Especially while you're expected to fully fund your own? This is a social contract that needs to be redrawn ASAP.

If you don't understand why an ever-expanding public sector is a danger, than you prolly suck at math.

But BUSH !!!!!!111!!

Via RSM, this news from the Prowler

"This White House doesn't view the Northwest [Airlines] failure as one of national security, it's a political issue," says the White House source. "That's why Axelrod and Emanuel are driving the issue."

The what is this wonderful advice these two fellows are giving Obama, to keep us safe:

On December 26, two days after Nigerian Omar Abdulmutallab allegedly attempted to use underwear packed with plastic explosives to blow up the Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight he was on, and as it became clear internally that the Administration had suffered perhaps its most embarrassing failure in the area of national security, senior Obama White House aides, including chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod and new White House counsel Robert Bauer, ordered staff to begin researching similar breakdowns -- if any -- from the Bush Administration.
"The idea was that we'd show that the Bush Administration had had far worse missteps than we ever could," says a staffer in the counsel's office. "We were told that classified material involving anything related to al Qaeda operating in Yemen or Nigeria was fair game and that we'd declassify it if necessary."

Such a relief! I sure hope they can find something that happened under Bush so Obama doesn't take a political hit we'll all know how safe we are now ...

Update:

I think the White House fears Cheney more than they do terrorists. Politics first, always.

But what I can't wrap my head around is that it took the President four days to acknowledge what he termed a "catastrophic" national security failure, but Cheney criticizes the administration's handling of the war on terror and they have a rapid response on the White House blog in a matter of hours? Priorities!
Then again, it took six days to respond to the riots in the streets of Tehran during their election, so four days seems about right for a barely averted domestic catastrophe.
Also, is the White House aware of how small they look when they are so obviously spooked by Cheney's every utterance? Remember when the President rescheduled a press conference earlier this year to deliberately conflict with a pre-planned Cheney speech?

Hope and change, folks.

Predictable

The left is so fucking classy.

I wonder how much scrubbing as occurred on this thread.

weebils
I just censored myself. But I don't know how long I can hold it in.

Katavideo
don't worry, huffpo will do it for you. they've been doing me all night.


- normalintexas
Me too...weebils.


- JacklynD I
I know exactly how you feel. My posts saying the same thing keep getting lost.

How sad that Huffpo is STIFLING YOUR FREEDOM OF SPEECH. Just horrible. Don't worry, though, Twitter is there for you to spew your bile.


Futant7:its the last day of "celebrity death year" and Rush Limbaugh is hospitalized w/chest pains. FINGERS CROSSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I didn't say it ...

But [dang] I wish I had. From the Anchororess:

And certainly this president, for a young, athletic man, is exhibiting a worrisome lack of stamina for his job. But I suspect that Obama’s listless speechifying is betraying a restless impatience. I suspect Obama is bored with being president, and it’s not because he is too smart for the office, but because the office is too much like real work.

I suspect all he ever wanted was the campaign glory (though not the inconvenience of interrupted waffles), the adoring headlines, and the ability to pick up a phone and ask for anything he wants without hearing a “no” on the other end.

I suspect that what Obama wanted was to be the King, not the President. The King’s role is largely ceremonial. In time of national tragedy the King goes before the camera and says, “this is very sad.”

I know it's hard pulling yourself away from your luxurious Hawaiian vacation, but you said you WANTED this job.

Shelby Steele, on Obama's emptiness:

I think that Mr. Obama is not just inexperienced; he is also hampered by a distinct inner emptiness—not an emptiness that comes from stupidity or a lack of ability but an emptiness that has been actually nurtured and developed as an adaptation to the political world.

The nature of this emptiness becomes clear in the contrast between him and Ronald Reagan.

According to Steele, Reagan became "Reagan" through dissent. Though taking, at times, unpopular but principled positions, so by the time he became president he knew who he was.

Mr. Obama's ascendancy to the presidency could not have been more different. There seems to have been very little individuation, no real argument with conventional wisdom, and no willingness to jeopardize popularity for principle. To the contrary, he has come forward in American politics by emptying himself of strong convictions, by rejecting principled stands as "ideological," and by promising to deliver us from the "tired" culture-war debates of the past. He aspires to be "post-ideological," "post-racial" and "post-partisan," which is to say that he defines himself by a series of "nots"—thus implying that being nothing is better than being something. He tries to make a politics out of emptiness itself.

Obama was a symbol. The potential. The post-modern poster boy.

A greater problem for our nation today is that we have a president whose benign—and therefore desirable—blackness exempted him from the political individuation process that makes for strong, clear-headed leaders. He has not had to gamble his popularity on his principles, and it is impossible to know one's true beliefs without this. In the future he may stumble now and then into a right action, but there is no hard-earned center to the man out of which he might truly lead.

Ascribed to Obama is all that is good, it is his narrative. He is handsome. He is fit. He has a beautiful family. He was a wonderful student. He worked to serve. His less desirable ideas (Ayers and Reverand Wright) have all been brushed aside as not belonging to him. Hope and Change.

Mr. Obama won the presidency by achieving a symbiotic bond with the American people: He would labor not to show himself, and Americans would labor not to see him.

And the media was oh-so helpful. Read the whole piece, 'cause I've only cribbed the money quotes.


But, moving on ... it's politics as usual:

Rep. Peter King of New York, the leading Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, tells National Review Online that the Obama White House has built an “iron curtain” around national-security information in order to block Congress from investigating Northwest Airlines Flight 253. “This administration is not cooperating,” says King. “They have a stonewalling mentality.”

The Obama administration’s handling of the Christmas Day terror plot has been “schizophrenic” says King. “It’s reflective of their handling of other incidents. They still haven’t given us any information on Fort Hood. Even with the gate crashers, they’ve refused to give us on information on communications between the White House social secretary and the Secret Service. They’re giving us nothing and Democrats in Congress are very reluctant to have any meaningful investigations.” Politics, not national security, is driving these decisions, says King. “They’re holding back because they don’t want to share embarrassing material.”

In other news, Obama says Napolitano's job is safe. Whew! And Abdulmutallab has acquired a defense attorney and has "restricted his cooperation." I am SO GLAD we don't waterboard these folks anymore.

Another racist against the Dear Leader's Health care reform

Hater.

The tax on health benefits is being sold to the public dishonestly as something that will affect only the rich, and it makes a mockery of President Obama’s repeated pledge that if you like the health coverage you have now, you can keep it.

Man, he's got ODS bad.

Washington Word

Apparently they've realized the error in the UNPRECEDENTED use of the word unprecedented, and have gone searching for a new buzzword. The new word is [whispers]: Pivot.


"Hard" pivot seems to be popular, with "a very hard pivot" thrown into the mix.

Most recent sighting:

Senior U.S. officials said the Obama administration recognizes that it is now at a "pivot point" in its strategy toward Tehran.

You see here they varied from the "hard pivot" to "pivot point." It's genius!

I'm wondering though ... the idea of "pivot" is that you haven't really moved, you're just just swiveling from a fixed point. That works, I suppose, with the "pivot" from health care to jobs, but how does that work with Iran?

I'm thinking that the Senior U.S. official meant "pivotal."

of crucial importance in relation to the development or success of something else .

Pivot pivot pivot.

Let's all try to use it in a sentence today.

The Two-bit Mook

More on the way. But, you keep golfing Obama.

But, as long as those detonators keep failing, the "system works!" Ja No's even changed her mind on that one.

Ed Morrissey brings the snark:

The rules on the lists have been in place since 2006. The Obama administration has been in office since January. If the rules on transferring people from watch lists to no-fly lists are a problem, shouldn’t that have been a higher priority than, say, revamping the entire American health-care system or pushing cap-and-trade bills? It seems like a bigger priority than flying to Copenhagen twice and coming home empty-handed both times, once on climate change and once on the Olympics. Of course, Barack Obama doesn’t have to worry about flying with radical jihadis from Nigeria when he travels abroad.

Ed, it's all part of Obama's strategy. This isn't terrorism. It's a failed act of terrorism which certainly doesn't warrant canceling one's golf game.

As I said. As long as those detonators keep failing, we're SAFE!

Climate Post du Jour

Watts Up With That? explains why "simple physics" explanations don't work when discussing global warming climate change.

I keep reading statements in various places about how it is indisputable “simple physics” that if we increase amount of atmospheric CO2, it will inevitably warm the planet.

"Simple" physics is simple. Climate isn't.

The climate is comprised of five major subsystems — atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere. All of these subsystems are imperfectly understood. Each of these subsystems has its own known and unknown internal and external forcings, feedbacks, resonances, and cyclical variations. In addition, each subsystem affects all of the other subsystems through a variety of known and unknown forcings and feedbacks.

Then there is the problem of scale. Climate has crucially important processes at physical scales from the molecular to the planetary, and at temporal scales from milliseconds to millennia.

As a result of this almost unimaginable complexity, simple physics is simply inadequate to predict the effect of a change in one of the hundreds and hundreds of things that affect the climate

Go read to learn about flow systems and Constructal Law.

Then come back and tell me this is all settled science. So I can laugh at you.

Ba haaa haaa haa. Bob, you may want to click on that link.

Or not.

In August, CPC forecast that most of the US would have above normal temperatures from October through December, and perhaps more importantly did did not predict that any areas would have below normal temperatures.

October turned out to be the third coldest on record and December is headed in the same direction.

Things aren't looking much different for Europe.

On the other side of the pond, The Met Office forecast 2010 to be the warmest year ever, as they last did in 2007. On cue, the weather turned bitter cold immediately after the forecast and it appears that the unusally cold weather will continue at least through mid-January. As in 2007, the Met office 2010 forecast is not getting off to a good start.

Now's when Bob tells us how MILD it's been by him. Go ahead. Do it again. That never gets old.

Extra lol, from the comments over there :

Pennsylvania, see the lower-left spot of warming, stands right out. Where are they getting their readings?

See map of Pennsylvania. It looks like the spot is at Altoona, not much else around. What could be causing warming at Altoona?

What is at Altoona? Penn State Altoona. That’s right, Michael Mann’s Penn State, Altoona campus

They've got a serious warming problem going on in that one spot of Pennsylvania. Perhaps Al Gore should make a visit?

Rahm in hot water?

Prolly not. Obama won't be back in Washington for another week or so, and by then he's got an outside chance everyone has forgotten this "stale" news that was barely reported. (Linky in title)

See how new politics works???

Rahm Emanuel was appointed to the board of Freddie Mac in February of 2000 by Bill Clinton, after serving as White House political director where he was a vocal defender of Mr. Clinton during the Monica Lewinski matter. He served there until leaving to run for Congress in 2001, which qualified him for $380,000 in stock and options and a $20,000 annual fee.

According to the Chicago Tribune, during his tenure the board was notified by executives of their plans to misstate the earnings of Freddie Mac: “On Emanuel’s watch, the board was told by executives of a plan to use accounting tricks to mislead shareholders about outsize profits the government-chartered firm was then reaping from risky investments. The goal was to push earnings onto the books in future years, ensuring that Freddie Mac would appear profitable on paper for years to come and helping maximize annual bonuses for company brass.” (3/5/2009)

Oh, there's more. Way too much to quote it all. But there's a bit of Chicago-style politics that should be noted:

In Congress, Rahm Emanuel worked to pass a bailout of Fannie and Freddie, cosponsoring the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, which also dissolved OFHEO. It moved their regulatory authority to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which took Fannie and Freddie under conservatorship in September 2008. The same act abolished the Federal Housing Finance Board (FHFB) and replaced it with the FHFA.

After Mr. Emanuel was named Chief of Staff, the White House denied a Chicago Tribune Freedom of Information Act request for information on his Freddie Mac activities: “The Obama administration rejected a Tribune request under the Freedom of Information Act to review Freddie Mac board minutes and correspondence during Emanuel’s time as a director.

This is not new. It has been going on for a while. Why doesn't anyone (but intense political junkies) know about it?

Humn. Let's think about this. Well, you got me, I'm flummoxed.

So, will Jane Hamsher's letter cause any reaction?

We write to demand an immediate investigation into the activities of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. We believe there is an abundant public record which establishes that the actions of the White House have blocked any investigation into his activities while on the board of Freddie Mac from 2000-2001, and facilitated the cover up of potential malfeasance until the 10-year statute of limitations has run out.

The purpose of this letter is to connect the dots to establish both the conduct of Mr. Emanuel and those working with him to thwart inquiry, and to support your acting speedily so that the statute of limitations does not run out before the Justice Department is able to empanel a grand jury.

The New York Times reports that the administration is negotiating to double the commitments to Fannie and Freddie for a total of $800 billion by December 31, in order to avoid the congressional approval that would be needed after that date. But there currently is no Inspector General exercising independent oversight of these entities. Acting Inspector General Ed Kelly was stripped of his authority earlier this year by the Justice Department, relying on a loophole in a bill Mr. Emanuel cosponsored and pushed through Congress shortly before he left for the White House. This effectively ended Mr. Kelly’s investigation into what happened at Fannie and Freddie.

Add that to this Christmas eve story:

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac disclosed that they had received approval from their federal regulator to pay $42 million in Wall Street-style compensation packages to 12 top executives for 2009.

The compensation packages, including up to $6 million each to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's chief executives, come amid an ongoing public debate about lavish payments to executives at banks and other financial firms that have received taxpayer aid. But while many firms on Wall Street have repaid the assistance, there is no prospect that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will do so.

Hope and Change, folks.

Another Great VDH article

Here. Snippet:

There is class warfare going on in this country — but it’s not against the established rich. It’s against those who are trying to become wealthy.

President Obama has declared that those who make over $200,000 will pay higher income taxes. Caps on payroll taxes are supposed to come off as well for the upper class. Envisioned estate taxes will take 45 percent of individual inheritances valued over $3.5 million. Many states have also hiked their income taxes on the upper brackets.

Again, most of those targeted are not the already rich — a Warren Buffett or Bill Gates — but millions of the wannabe rich. They may have achieved larger-than-average annual incomes, but they’re not the multimillionaire speculators on Wall Street who nearly wrecked the American economy in search of huge bonuses and payoffs. Most are instead professionals and small-business owners who take enormous risks in hopes of being well-off and passing their wealth on to their children.

The rich will remain rich. They will hide their money, set up trusts, move funds offshore. It's the little folks, the small business owners, the hardworking wanna-be-rich who will suffer. Class warfare pits the poor and the working class against the lower strata of "rich."

Cloward/Piven

Yesterday, a commenter at the Hostages wanted to talk Cloward/Piven. My local radio host has been talking about it for months (and months), and Rush brought it up yesterday.

Cloward/Piven from American Thinker:

The Cloward/Piven Strategy is named after Columbia University sociologists Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven. Their goal is to overthrow capitalism by overwhelming the government bureaucracy with entitlement demands. The created crisis provides the impetus to bring about radical political change.

According to Discover the Networks.org:

Rather than placating the poor with government hand-outs, wrote Cloward and Piven, activists should work to sabotage and destroy the welfare system; the collapse of the welfare state would ignite a political and financial crisis that would rock the nation... [Emphasis added.]

Some argue that Democrats are using this strategy now. How do you destroy the welfare system? By overloading it. By increasing benefits. By extending unemployment, which is paid by the employers, who are then further financially stressed in a time of economic uncertainty.

Making an already weak economy even worse is the intent of the Cloward/Piven Strategy. It is imperative that we view the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan's spending on items like food stamps, jobless benefits, and health care through this end goal. This strategy explains why the Democrat plan to "stimulate" the economy involves massive deficit spending projects. It includes billions for ACORN and its subgroups such as SHOP and the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. Expanding the S-Chip Program through deficit spending in a supposed effort to "save the children" only makes a faltering economy worse.

Increasing taxes (on a Federal and State level) during a time of high unemployment and recession dovetails nicely. Cloward/Piven were anti-Capitalists. Much of the Spendulous went to prop-up State governments, NOT to encourage capitalism and increase employment. It "made up" for the loss of tax revenue. How was this supposed to help anything?

It wasn't.

Can't let a crises go to waste.

Someone forgot to tell this guy about that consensus stuff ...

Global Warming, Climate Change Climate instability is settled! Now someone tell this guy:

Most remarkably, the total amount of CFCs, ozone-depleting molecules that are well-known greenhouse gases, has decreased around 2000,” Lu said. “Correspondingly, the global surface temperature has also dropped. In striking contrast, the CO2 level has kept rising since 1850 and now is at its largest growth rate.”

In his research, Lu discovers that while there was global warming from 1950 to 2000, there has been global cooling since 2002. The cooling trend will continue for the next 50 years, according to his new research observations.

As well, there is no solid evidence that the global warming from 1950 to 2000 was due to CO2. Instead, Lu notes, it was probably due to CFCs conspiring with cosmic rays. And from 1850 to 1950, the recorded CO2 level increased significantly because of the industrial revolution, while the global temperature kept nearly constant or only rose by about 0.1 C.

Lots of debate at that second link.

New buzzword

First it was global warming.

Then it was climate change.

Next? "Climate instability."

Those Michigan Sluts didn't get nuthin

Landrieu got something for her state. Montana got something. Ben Nelson got something for Nebraska. Bill Nelson got something for Florida. What did Michigan get? The state with the worst unemployement in the nation?

Nothing.

Because Debby and Carl and all our representatives are sluts. Not whores, who would have made Obama and Harry and Nancy pay for their vote.

Except, of course, Nancy and Harry paid for these services with our money.

What did the whores get?

Nebraska, Louisiana, Vermont and Massachusetts. These states are getting more federal help with Medicaid than other states. In the case of Nebraska — represented by Sen. Ben Nelson, who's providing the critical 60th vote for the legislation to pass — the federal government is picking up 100 percent of the tab of a planned expansion of the program, in perpetuity. Vermont and Massachusetts get temporary increases in the federal share of their Medicaid tabs. In Louisiana, moderate Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu negotiated $100 million for 2011 before announcing her support for the legislation.

Fucking whores. " Most important legislation" EVER bought with our money. Read that paragraph over and over and let it soak-in. Understand it.

Here's another:

Beneficiaries of Medicare Advantage plans — the private managed-care plans within Medicare — in Florida. Hundreds of thousands of them will have their benefits grandfathered in thanks to a provision tailored by Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., that also affects a much smaller number of seniors in a few other states.

In FLORIDA. Not Michigan. Not Ohio. No, this perk is for the voters in Florida.

Fuck you all sideways with a swordfish. Honestly, I've never meant that more than I do right now.

Here's another special perk:

Doctors and hospitals in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming, who will get paid more than providers elsewhere under formulas in the bill.

Oh, and little noted? They bumped up the taxes even MORE (proposed .5% increase pumped to .9%) than proposed to those making over $200,000.

What was it Obama said when he was running? Something about no tax increases for those making under $275,000, which then was reduced to $250,000 and then later turned into $225,000. Well, apparently he meant $200,000. Which probably isn't indexed to inflation.

Oh, this from The Hill, via NRO

Nebraska will receive $100 million in assistance for its Medicaid program under provisions in the Senate's healthcare bill negotiated by Sen. Ben Nelson (D).

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) informed lawmakers on Sunday night that the section of the manager's amendment to the Senate's health bill would cost $1.2 billion over 10 years.

Nice going! What did YOU get us Debby and Carl? Oh yea. Nuthin. I can't wait until my taxes go up so I can give Nebraska my money.

update :

Which senator got this little goodie inserted:

(a) APPROPRIATION.—There are authorized to be appropriated, and there are appropriated to the Department of Health and Human Services, $100,000,000 for fiscal year 2010, to remain available for obligation until September 30, 2011, to be used for debt service on, or direct construction or renovation of, a health care facility that provides research, inpatient tertiary care, or outpatient clinical services. Such facility shall be affiliated with an academic health center at a public research university in the United States that contains a State’s sole public academic medical and dental school.” (Manager’s Amendment To H.R. 3590, Pg. 328)

Apparently there are 11 states with medical schools that would qualify, and the Secretary of Health and Human services decides who gets the check.

$1,000,000,000. That's nine zeros.

Which is better, a whore or a slut?

Bill Nelson got got extra funding for poor Nebraska by playing hard to get.

What did Debby and Carl get?

Bill Nelson is a whore. Debby and Carl gave away our goodies* for free. That makes them sluts.



*that would be our paychecks which will be taxed

Riddle me this ...

From the WSJ:

Slowly, slowly, the Democratic health agenda is turning into a political suicide pact. Congressional members have been dragged along by momentum, by threat, by bribe, but mostly by the White House's siren song that it would be worse to not pass a bill than it would be to pass one. If that ever were true, it is not today.

Worse for whom?

Overlords break Senate rules, media fails to notice

I know, you're shocked.

When an amendment is introduced, it has to be read on the Senate floor unless the rest of the Senate agrees to cut off the reading, and typically, the requirement is waived through "unanimous consent." Yet today, Sen. Tom Coburn insisted that Sanders' 767 page bill be read on the Senate floor, which was on pace to take more than 12 hours.
But about three hours into the reading, Sanders withdrew his amendment, and this stopped the reading of the bill -- even without unanimous consent.

See Riddick Senate Procedure.


Of course, the media was shocked, SHOCKED, that Coburn demanded a reading of the amendment. One toady complained that it didn't seem fair to the clerk who had to do the reading.

Kill the bill. For Howard Dean.

But Mr. B+ really wants his pretty pony for the State of the Union next month, which would bring his grade up to an A, so fuck everyone in the country!

The bill doesn't cover everyone, it will raise taxes (on those making under $200,000, it will NOT control costs, and it will RATION CARE.


Link? I'm too lazy. Go to national review. It's all there.

Schumer v the little people

It's never pretty when our betters have to interact with the people they work for peons, but having to follow the same rules? That's just going too far! Who does that bitch think she is? That the people they work for the peons should wait for the senator to finish his conversation shouldn't be questioned.

But moments after the flight attendant had told Schumer to shut it off, the phone rang again.

“It’s Harry Reid calling,” the source quoted Schumer as saying. “I guess health care will have to wait until we land.”

Drama. Queen.

So .. what is it for?

It appears that Democrats have lost sight of what they set out to accomplish with the health care bill. Worst. Bill. Ever.

This legislation will not reduce health-care costs; the Obama administration’s own actuaries have just reported that it will increase them. It is unlikely to make Americans healthier: The evidence tying extensions of insurance to improved health outcomes is surprisingly weak. Insurance will reduce the financial anxiety of some people; but others will find theirs increased. Some will still lack insurance, but now have to pay a fine for the privilege. Some will be paying higher premiums and taxes.

So, why do they continue? So Obama can give himself an A.

Bravo.

The Copenhagen boondogle

So, on Monday the G-77 (the Third World) walk out of the talks for a few hours because the shakedown wasn't really going in the direction they wanted. Because, let's be honest, this is all about money. The Third World showed up for the cash.

In theory, the money is supposed to help poor countries pay for their transition to a carbon-neutral future. But the developed world has been pouring trillions of dollars into development aid in various forms for decades, with little to show for it. The reasons are well-known: Corruption, political oppression, government control of the economy and the absence of rule of law combine to keep poor countries poor. And those factors also ensure that most aid is squandered or skimmed off the top.Recasting foreign aid as "climate mitigation" won't change any of that.

Still, Copenhagen's fixation on who pays for these huge wealth transfers is instructive because it lays bare the myth that greening the global economy is a cost-free exercise. The G-77 scoffed at a European offer of €7.2 billion ($10 billion) over three years. Instead, the Sudanese chairman of the group, Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping, suggested in an interview with Mother Jones magazine that something on the order of a trillion dollars, or more, would be appropriate.

Gee ... how about a CAJILLION dollars?!



But, I'm not telling you folks (except Bob) anything you didn't know.

What media bias?

The AP has no credibility when reporting on the climate. None.

So, when you read stuff like this:

“E-mails stolen from climate scientists show they stonewalled skeptics and discussed hiding data — but the messages don’t support claims that the science of global warming was faked, according to an exhaustive review by The Associated Press.”

Feel free to ignore.

Oh, and here is a vid of those Hitler Youth:

Howard Zinn's Opus was on last night...

Did you watch? I did for a bit. Long enough for my husband to hear, in his own words, that all you really need to know about Zinn's ideas and his books (he appears to have engaged in a bit of Capitalism himself spinning off from his ONE book into other related projects, graphic novels, posters for classrooms) ... was originally in The Communist Manifesto.

But don't believe me. Let's see what the L.A. Times has to say ...

Class division is a drumbeat throughout "The People Speak," which is a primer of liberal ideology with a decided bent toward socialism; no one's reading a few rousing passages of Ayn Rand's, for instance. The letters and journals and speeches selected cover the American timeline, from the abolitionists through AIDS activists, but the theme of personal and political enfranchisement, tolerance, peace and American humility is the consistent theme. Equal rights, protection of workers, protection of children, even rent control are celebrated while concepts such as patriotism -- the last refuge of scoundrels, according to pacifist and anarchist Emma Goldman -- and national security are portrayed as the whip and cattle prod used by the power elite. Even World War II is cast as a false model for American military domination.

But, the review laid a turd with this one:

Without exception, the performances are thrilling, but it is the authors, not the actors, who are the stars here.

The "readings" I watching were uninspired. Don't actors memorize their lines anymore? I was shocked that they read their bits.

And, Bob Dylan's performance was painful.

Pain. Ful.

Man he sucked.

Lord Monckton v Greenpeace Campaigner

What an idiot. I'm so embarrassed he's on my side.

Best part? The woman doubts what Lord Monckton tells her because she needs to read the data herself. But, earlier she admits she trusts the summaries that Greenpeace has provided for her. Why? In her own words:

"I have faith in organizations."

Yea, that's a bit of a problem.*

Watts Up With That has another killer post today.



Clicken to emgibben





*h/t SeaNm, in comments over at the Hostages.

We're Screwed, part 1,000,001

Where in the fucking Constitution ...

The 1,279-page House bill would create a new federal agency dedicated to consumer protection, establish a council of regulators to police the financial landscape for systemic risks, initiate oversight of the vast derivatives market and give the government power to wind down large, troubled firms whose collapse could endanger the entire financial system. The legislation also would give shareholders an advisory say on executive compensation, increase transparency of credit-ratings agencies and set aside billions of dollars to aid unemployed homeowners.

But, don't worry. The bill was crafted by Barney Frank, based on a "white paper" drafted by Obama himself.

But, don't worry. Frank was willing to "compromise."

He cut a deal with the big banks, Republicans and moderate Democrats who objected to a provision that would allow state consumer protection laws to exceed federal standards. He exempted groups such as retailers, lawyers, auto dealers and real-estate brokers from oversight by the new consumer agency

The fuck you say? He cut a deal with lawyers? Imagine that.

In other news ... this sums up rather nicely the tactic we hear so often of "THEY DID IT TOO!"

Democrats have excused their binge-spending and oversized deficits by pointing back at Republicans and saying, "Look who's talking." And it's true: Republicans have to own their inability to control spending when they were in power. But any independents out there who thought they were getting more honest and less partisan government with the election of Barack Obama should take a good hard look at how this year's appropriations fight is shaping up.

As Brian outlines below, the omnibus spending bill that just passed the House rivals any of the earmark-laden monstrosities from the Dennis Hastert era, both in baseline inflation and in pure waste. It is solid evidence that Democrats' jibes at Republicans for failing to control spending are mere rhetorical lures designed to attract independent voters. The other way to exercise fiscal discipline is to raise taxes. But, as Obama never tires of pointing out, his party has cut taxes, or more accurately it has handed out billions in payroll-tax rebates and other forms of "targeted" tax relief. At some point, Democrats will almost certainly let the top tax rates snap back to pre-Bush levels, but that won't be enough to pay for all the spending they want. Hark, independents: The only thing the Democrats have changed with respect to the nation's finances is the magnitude of the deficits and the duration of time that we are likely to endure them.

Now, pay attention. This is important. I brought this up yesterday.

First, while most people have focused on health care and cap-and-trade, discretionary spending has leaped by 25 percent since the Democrats took the Congressional majority three years ago — plus $311 billion in additional “stimulus” discretionary spending. This comes to $561 billion more in discretionary spending over these three years than if they had limited growth to the baseline inflation rate. Worse, this new spending has pushed the 2011–2020 discretionary spending baseline $1.7 trillion higher than three years ago. We’ll be paying this bill for decades.

Even with a massive budget deficit, this Congress raised their own office allowances by 8.4 percent, and gave huge increases to LIHEAP (120 percent), the Corporation for National and Community Service (mostly Americorps, 30 percent), Transportation Security Administration (20 percent) and the NEA and NEH (8.1 percent each).

Second, remember President Obama’s pledge to “slash earmarks to no greater than 1994 levels” of 1,318? He followed up that promise by signing a pork-laden omnibus bill in February, and then promising once again to cut pork next time. House Democrats made similar pledges. Well, this bill contains 5,224 earmarks, bringing the year’s total to 8,939, and with a remaining defense bill that will likely push the total past 10,000 (this year’s whoppers includes $750,000 for the World Food Prize in Des Moines).

Congress comes up with this shit. It's up to the president to sign or not. Bush didn't have the power or clout to refuse, and he got blamed for the spending (which was presented to him). Will Obama do as he promised? Refuse to sign the pork? Cut earmarks?

We anxiously await.

Heh:

Not that the press corps cares anymore, but the omnibus also continues the earmark explosion that Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowed to end when she was trying to oust Republicans in 2006. The Heritage Foundation counts 5,224 earmarks, bringing the total for the year to about 10,000, or about 23 for every Congressional district. There is money for bike paths, skate board parks, museums, water-taxis to resort towns, and other absolute necessities.

But, you know, it's not really funny.

After so much double talk, we've concluded this is all part of a conscious political strategy. Spend so much and run up the deficit to unprecedented levels, then turn around and claim that there's a fiscal crisis that can only be solved with higher taxes. They spend, you pay.

Think about that. They're gonna raise our taxes, and you and I are going to have to figure out how to make it by with less, while THEY spend more and more to buy their political power. With bike paths and water-taxis. And then Obama turns around and says we need to make "hard choices."

Obama has a GREAT opportunity to show he can make one of those hard choices.

Free Christmas Music

On iTunes. A sampler of 20 different artists/styles.

Even the stuff I wouldn't normally purchase is nice.

Good until the 17th.

Obama lied, earmarks multiplied

Another broken promise. Did anyone even believe him when he made this promise? I mean, I knew folks who said the MAIN reason they were voting for Obama was because the Republicans had been fiscally irresponsible. We needed someone who would put a stop to it.

Ha ha haa ... they thought Obama was their man!

President Obama promised to reduce earmarks down to the 1994 level of 1,318. He then signed into law most of the 10,160 earmarks for FY 2009 and appears set to sign over 10,000 earmarks into law for FY 2010.

The President also pledged to veto defense earmarks and eliminate all earmarks with "no legitimate public purpose." Yet the President has not threatened to veto the pork-laden defense bill and is not known to have tried to eliminate a single earmark.

House Democrats pledged to reduce earmark spending to 1 percent of all discretionary appropriations (or approximately $11 billion).[11] However, the appropriations bills have already topped $11 billion in earmarks even before the defense bill is expected to add several billion dollars more.

House Democrats also promised to require that all House Members post their earmark requests online.[12] Dozens of lawmakers failed to do so by the deadline.[13] Many who did post their earmarks buried them in obscure parts of their office Web sites.

A few of these pork projects?

750,000 for the World Food Prize in Des Moines, IA;
$350,000 for the Museum of Aviation in Warner Robins, GA;
$250,000 for a bike path between Lexington and Port Sanilac, MI;
$350,000 to widen Bristol Street in Santa Ana, CA;
$300,000 to Carnegie Hall in New York City;
$200,000 to renovate the Laredo Little Theatre in Laredo, TX; and
$400,000 to renovate the historic Ritz Theater in Newburgh NY.

I'm sure these are all worthy projects. Which is why we have state and local governments; to fund them at THEIR discretion, and appeal to local taxpayers (who will benefit from them) to foot the bill.

Very disturbing

If this doesn't upset you, then you prolly failed history. Or were taught history by a socialist.

The number of federal workers earning six-figure salaries has exploded during the recession, according to a USA TODAY analysis of federal salary data.

Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession’s first 18 months — and that’s before overtime pay and bonuses are counted.

Federal workers are enjoying an extraordinary boom time — in pay and hiring — during a recession that has cost 7.3 million jobs in the private sector.

This should have absolutely everyone upset.

When the recession started, the Transportation Department had only one person earning a salary of $170,000 or more. Eighteen months later, 1,690 employees had salaries above $170,000.

Every day, we get one step closer to this having a very bloody ending.

We're Screwed, part 1,000,000

About that EPA ruling ....

Mark Tapscott:

Among the first effects of EPA enforcement of its "endangerment" ruling granting itself authorit to regulate greenhouse gases will be forcing the owners of six million buildings to get new permits certifying that they comply with mandated CO2 emissions reductions.
The Institute for Energy Research (IER) estimates the cost of obtaining those permits will average about $125,000 each, but the ultimate costs will quite likely be far higher, once the toll from lost jobs, lost productivity and lost opportunities is calculated.

Of course, they won't have to do this if Congress approves Waxman's cap-and-trade legislation.

Which will kills jobs as well.

This is a feature, not a bug, of our green future.

This naked assertion of vast executive power in the name of the environment is the perfect fulfillment of the prediction of Czech president (and economist) Vaclav Klaus that environmentalism is becoming the new socialism, i.e., the totemic ideal in the name of which government seizes the commanding heights of the economy and society.

Socialism having failed so spectacularly, the Left was adrift until it struck upon a brilliant gambit: metamorphosis from red to green. The cultural elites went straight from the memorial service for socialism to the altar of the environment. The objective is the same: highly centralized power given to the best and the brightest, the new class of experts, managers, and technocrats. This time, however, the alleged justification is not abolishing oppression and inequality, but saving the planet.

See Critical Theory.

I used to watch this show

But in all honesty, it's been a couple of years.

Fuck You Dick Wolf. I hope you continue to lose viewers.

Garrison, Limbaugh, Beck, O'Reilly, all of them, they are like a cancer spreading ignorance and hate. I mean, they’ve convinced folks that immigrants are the problem, not corporations that fail to pay a living wage or a broken health care system.

The regular Law and Order became wearisome a few seasons ago with it's moralizing. Now SVU joins-in on that strategy. I hope these asshats keep it up. In their movies, and on their tv shows. Then they can scratch their heads and wonder why no one is watching anymore.

Al Gore, Liar or Idiot? (a continuing series)

In today's edition of Al Gore: Liar or Idiot I offer the following to aid us in our quest to answer that question.

From (my new favorite site) Watts up with that, commenter Dr Ross Taylor brings us more from Al Gore on TeeVee:

Al Gore, on CNN yesterday, pronounced to the world that humans were responsible for the majority of CO2 in the atmosphere. Of course, no-one picked up on it. I could not believe what I was hearing:

“CHETRY: And that goes along with what David in Arizona asked you. He wants to know, please tell us what percentage of carbon dioxide is caused by human activity relative to other sources of carbon dioxide.

GORE: Well, the majority of it is caused by human activity…”

Sigh, Al, Al, Al, surely even you know that humans contribute only 3.225% of CO2, whereas 96.775% is entirely natural. Since when is 3% a majority?

Humn ... liar or idiot? I'm leaning toward "liar", but "idiot" isn't out of the running.

Now, on to the Sciencey stuff! We turn our eyes to Greenland. Which used to be GREEN, back in the days when the Vikings named it such. Before they all froze and starved after the medivial warming period (MWP) ended and we got into the little ice age. The cool think (heh) about Greenland is that we can get ice core temperature from ONE SPOT for the past 50,000 years. If you look back at the past 500 years alone, what do you see? That "hockey stick" we've grown to know so well.

But, if we look a tad further back ...

[O]ver the period of recorded history, the average temperature was about equal to the height of the MWP. Rises not only as high, but as rapid, as the current hockey stick blade have been the rule, not the exception.
In fact for the entire Holocene — the period over which, by some odd coincidence, humanity developed agriculture and civilization — the temperature has been higher than now, and the trend over the past 4000 years is a marked decline. From this perspective, it’s the LIA that was unusual, and the current warming trend simply represents a return to the mean. If it lasts.
From the perspective of the Holocene as a whole, our current hockeystick is beginning to look pretty dinky. By far the possibility I would worry about, if I were the worrying sort, would be the return to an ice age — since interglacials, over the past half million years or so, have tended to last only 10,000 years or so. And Ice ages are not conducive to agriculture.

They've got more, and cool graphs over here.

Any wonder why this, and healthcare, are both being rammed-in under the distraction of Christmas?

Kookie talk

While I was working, this story from yesterday:

Fourth- and eighth-graders in Detroit Public Schools scored the worst in the nation in math, according to national test scores released Tuesday, highlighting the expansive task administrators face in trying to right a district beset by multiple problems.
The Detroit scores on the National Assessment of Education Progress test were the lowest in its 40-year history. Among fourth-graders, 69 percent scored below basic levels, as did 77 percent of eighth-graders.
Those scores on the prestigious test are in the same range as would be expected from children who never attended school and simply guessed at the answers, said Robert Bobb, emergency financial manager of Detroit Public Schools, during a press conference Tuesday.

What's the salary of those hard-working Detroit public school teachers who produce this phenomenal failure? $56,973 a year.

In other news:

The list of schools to be demolished includes Finney High, Chadsey High, Munger Middle and Brietmeyer Elementary, all recently found worthy of historic preservation by the Detroit Historic Designation Advisory Commission, said Julie Long, member of the city's seven-member Detroit Historic District Commission. Long said she had unsuccessfully tried to meet with school officials in recent weeks to urge them to keep many of these schools off the demolition list.

What? WHAT DID THEY SAY? Finney High is worthy of "historic preservation"? This school is around the corner from my house in Detroit. It has to be the UGLIEST school I've ever seen.

Next time I'm over there I'll take a picture. It looks like a prison from the 60's or something. And, it is in horrible shape.

Climate round up

Al Gore. Idiot or liar? You decide. I'm going with liar, myself.

So, what's up with Copenchange? Reading through their working draft ... here's a funny bit:

[It also][takes][taking] into account environmental, evolving national circumstances, including social and economic [and politica] conditions [, the specific needs and special circumstances of developing countries, precautionary approaches, the right to development and sustainable economic growth][and other relevant factors]]][as reflected in the Convention], and ensuring that global crises, such as the financial crisis, should not constitute an obstacle to the provision of financial and technical assistance to developing countries in accordance with the Convention.

Shorter: I don't care if your economy is busted, you're still gonna be shaken-down for cash.

Here's another:

[[All]][[Developed country]Parties], [in accordance with national capabilities, and other developed Parties included in Annex II of the Convention][Tje developed Parties that have commitments under the Convention and other developed Parties in a position to transfer environmentally sound technologies][shall][should][take efforts to] strengthen their national technology research, development and demonstration (RD&D) programmes [and provide appropriate support][with the aim of a substantial increase in private and public energy=related RD&D compared to current levels, working towards at least a doubling of global energy-related RD&D by 2012 and increasing it to four times its current level by 2020, with a significant shfit in emphasis towards safe and sustainable low greenhouse gas emitting technologies, especially renewable energy][towards][[to developing country Parties] through], inter alia;:]

(bunch of boring stuff I'm skipping - but then it gets good again)

Technology development, diffusion and transfer [shall] be promoted by operating the intellectual property regime.

What does this mean? An "intellectual property regime"? They're not sure how this will work, but a few of the options:

Specific and urgent measures [shall] [should] be [instituted in [a] relevant forum[s] [established] [and mechanisms developed] to remove barriers to development and transfer of technologies from [developed][the developed Parties that have commitments under the Convention and the other developed Parties in a position to transfer environmentally sound technologies] to developing country Parties arising from the intellectual property rights (IPR) protection, [including] [in particular}:
(a) {all necessary steps shall be immediately taken in all relevant fora to [mandatorily exclude from patenting] [revoke all existing patents on essential/urgent][implement compulsory licensing for] [specific][climate-friendlyl][environmentally safe and sound] technologies [in developing countries][held by Annex II Parties which can be used to adapt to or mitigate clmiate change][, including those developed through funding by governments or international agencies];]

ALL YOUR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY SHALL BELONG TO US.

Group-think editorial

Dead tree media:


Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security. The dangers have been becoming apparent for a generation. Now the facts have started to speak: 11 of the past 14 years have been the warmest on record, the Arctic ice-cap is melting and last year's inflamed oil and food prices provide a foretaste of future havoc. In scientific journals the question is no longer whether humans are to blame, but how little time we have got left to limit the damage. Yet so far the world's response has been feeble and half-hearted.

Now hush, your betters in the media are lecturing you.

Meanwhile, in Copenhagen ....

Ms Jorgensen reckons that between her and her rivals the total number of limos in Copenhagen next week has already broken the 1,200 barrier. The French alone rang up on Thursday and ordered another 42. “We haven’t got enough limos in the country to fulfil the demand,” she says. “We’re having to drive them in hundreds of miles from Germany and Sweden.”
*****
The airport says it is expecting up to 140 extra private jets during the peak period alone, so far over its capacity that the planes will have to fly off to regional airports – or to Sweden – to park, returning to Copenhagen to pick up their VIP passengers.

As well 15,000 delegates and officials, 5,000 journalists and 98 world leaders, the Danish capital will be blessed by the presence of Leonardo DiCaprio, Daryl Hannah, Helena Christensen, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Prince Charles.

I leave you, gentle reader, with a poem.

One thin September soon
A floating continent disappears
In midnight sun

Vapors rise as
Fever settles on an acid sea . . .

Snow glides from the mountain
Ice fathers floods for a season
A hard rain comes quickly

Then dirt is parched
Kindling is placed in the forest
For the lightning’s celebration . . .

The shepherd cries
The hour of choosing has arrived
Here are your tools

Did Gore just compare himself to Jesus Christ?

Copenhagen: Private Jets and Limos!

Ba haa haaa .

A day that will live in hypocrisy.

Things I learn reading the Sunday paper

(bad language warning)

This little tidbit, yesterday:

All retired public employees are excluded from the 4.35% state income tax -- teachers, state, federal and local government workers.

So, if you are a retired public employee you now have NO RIGHT TO AN OPINON REGARDING INCREASING STATE TAXES. It is with that spirit that I give a hearty FUCK YOU to Jo and Jack Ellis of St. Claire Shores:

They don't pay any state taxes on their combined annual pensions of $62,000, or the $17,500 that Jo Ellis gets in Social Security benefits. He is taxed on earnings he gets from his position as a paid church music director. They said taxing retired teachers with much smaller pensions would be a hardship, as their out-of-pocket medical costs have risen.

"We have teaching friends who retired 20 or 25 years ago and get less than $18,000 a year. I don't know how they're eating," said Jo Ellis, 65.

She said the state should raise taxes to improve services. She said if teachers' pensions were taxed, smaller ones should be exempt -- say, those less than $20,000 -- and the extra revenue should be earmarked for public schools.

"The State" is me, not you. Who doesn't pay any state income taxes. You've got no fucking say in the matter. Shut the fuck up.

And, here's a cluebat for these folks. You have teaching friends who retired 20 or 25 years ago? Did they retire at 58 like you did? Perhaps that wasn't a good life choice? Perhaps they should have saved a bit more, or worked a tad longer.

What is the fucking deal with allowing teachers to retire (with full pensions, paying no state taxes) in their fifties? You are fucking PUBLIC EMPLOYEES. You work FOR US. You're not some entitled class. Shit you only worked 9 months out of a year anyway.

No wonder we're so screwed.

Just in time for the job summit: Unemployment numbers

Wow, it's working already! 10%

Is there no problem Obama can't solve?

Ba haa haa haa

Al Bore bails on Copenhagen. H/t SDA.

Still no Google "Climategate" help/suggestion, despite the fact that when you type the ENTIRE thing in you get 29,000,000 hits.

My earworm

What do these two things have to do with each other?

Kate from SMD (referring to Canadian media, although the exact same picture is seen in the US):

For perhaps the first time in the history of mass media, the gatekeepers broke a major scandal to an audience fully 10 days ahead of them.

It's a spin doctor's worst nightmare.

As I've been saying from the beginning, they're hearing the sound of all hell breaking loose. And as much as it's being directed at the research institutions and the policy makers following along like so many imprinted penguins, the bulk of public rage has focused on the media.

I don't think my friends in traditional news gathering truly appreciate what it is they've done. I don't believe they fully comprehend how gravely they have injured themselves, and how they're driving home the razor into an industry already struggling for survival with abbreviated, dismissive, misleading reports and "denier" and "conspiracy nut" slurs.

The bloggers tried to warn them. The opinion columnists tried to warn them, the talk hosts tried to warn them. Their readers, viewers and listeners tried to warn them.

The news media perfected the business of bombshells. They wind them up, drop them, film the explosion, and move on.

And this from Reuters:

A top Democratic lawmaker predicted on Wednesday that the government will be involved in shaping the future for struggling U.S. media organizations.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, saying quality journalism was essential to U.S. democracy, said eventually government would have to help resolve the problems caused by a failing business model.

Waxman, other U.S. lawmakers and regulators are looking into various options to help a newspaper industry hurt by the shift in advertising revenues to online platforms.

Tweaks to the tax code to allow newspapers to spread losses over a greater number of years, providing a nonprofit structure to allow for public and foundation funding, and changes to antitrust laws are being considered by lawmakers and policymakers.

Adds Jeff:

Which means that, followed to its logical conclusion, we can readily envision in the proposed paradigm shift from news as commodity to news as public service, a scenario in which the federal government gets to determine which media outlets are really “news” outlets to begin with, and so which outlets get included in regulatory relief — in effect, determining how to use the government to overcome the market in order to give a leg up to those messengers the market has rejected, while simultaneously punishing those messengers the market (and so the consumer) has chosen.

But hey, how could such an investment into who gets to determine what is news and what is “hate speech” or “faux journalism” possibly pressure the tenor of the message? Right? Right?

The media doesn't seem to realize that folks are rejecting the commodity they're offering. Do. Not. Want. I can't even read the paper on a Sunday morning around my kids, because it is guaranteed at some point I'm going to throw it on the floor with an outpouring of profanity.

The idea that the government needs to come to the aid of a "failing business model" make my head 'splode.

uhm, about that job summit

This doesn't look promising.

Confirmed attendees include liberal economists credited with shaping the $787 billion stimulus package, union leaders, environmental advocates and executives from Google and other blue-chip firms.

Ed Morrissey heh: Apparently, the purpose of this summit is not job creation. It’s job protection: Obama’s.

Two groups absent from this "jobs summit": U.S. Chamber of commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business.
Guess which way those two swing on health care?

From the Washington Times article:

"My chief concern is that the list features no serious and prominent labor economist, which seems essential to offering a sound, long-run policy to put us on a path of lower unemployment," said John Coleman, an economics professor at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business.

Representatives from NFIB and the Chamber of Commerce said their organizations were not asked to attend, but representatives from some of the country's largest unions, Change to Win and the United Steelworkers, will participate.

See, Obama isn't serious about creating jobs. He's a partisan politician who cares only about his agenda. He doesn't care about the 17% plus who are unemployed. He cares more about reaching across to the Mullahs in Iran than reaching across the political isle here in the U.S.

Remember? He told us to go get a mop.

The Mean Street gives us a prediction of what's gonna happen at this event:

And here’s how it will likely play out. A senior White House official — perhaps the president — will give a welcome pep talk to the 130 gathered “summiteers.” He’ll ply them with thanks and stirring patriotic words.

But then he’ll urge them to not waste the day in conference fuzzy talk. Instead, the summiteers should turn words into actions and actions into jobs. After all, it is a “jobs” summit.

And then the summiteers will shuffle off to one of six working groups — where of course they’ll end up wasting the day in conference fuzzy talk.

It is doomed to fail, so I guess it's irrelevant that Obama's invited only sycophants to the event. More Mean Street:

And so the jobs summit will fail for the same reason Obamanomics is failing: The White House mistakenly believes economic growth and new jobs are created by society’s stakeholders — business, labor and government — cooperatively working together.

But that’s not the way capitalism works. It doesn’t take a village to create a new job. It takes a businessman trying to make another buck.

Word.

I see why he cheated

I mean, coming home to this every night HAS to get old.

Must miss movies playing this month

Big Hollywood dishes.

Is it too much to ask for a movie that an adult male might be interested in? Oh, well how about Brothers? Tobey Maguire plays a Marine, yet it’s not a comedy. He goes to Afghanistan and, as Hollywood teaches us, he must therefore return a psychotic PTSD-ravaged ticking time bomb. Oh, and the hero’s brother nails his wife while he’s gone. Good times!

Oh, but there's more!

I have not seen The Twilight Saga: New Moon, but it’s on my “want to-do” list too – right after the colonoscopy. I’d make fun of this goofy phenomenon but that would be like tripping a guy in a cast – amusing, but hardly sporting. I do love the pretension of the title…it’s a saga, damn it. That perfectly captures the way teenagers not only imagine themselves the first to ever, in all of human history, experience the feelings and emotions they are experiencing but also to believe their routine internal turmoil is of epic significance. Kids, you’re 16 and horny. It’s not The Odyssey. And I’ll just interpose one bit of advice for starlet Kristen Stewart – staring blankly with your mouth half-open does not constitute a performance.

As a woman who has received no less than FOUR diatribes from her husband about "Twilight" and it's popularity with women, I would like it to please simply go away. It has provided so much ammunition for men/my husband to ridicule and mock I get hives just seeing the movie posters.

Now seems like an appropriate time to link this piece, "The Top 20 Unfortunate Lessons Girls Learn from Twilight. Sigh. I hate to jump on the female-bashing-ness that this movie inspires, but they've got a point. I could defend the books (not the movies) but instead I'll just say that girls are better off reading Jane Austen.