Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Now, I'm just depressed

David Freddoco over at the corner:

Should charities support President Obama's plan to limit tax deductions for charitable donations by high-income earners? Joel Berg thinks so. The executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger (NYCCAH), Berg wrote as much in last Thursday's Washington Post.

Tax deductions for charitable donations, he wrote, "are a highly inefficient way to fund social programs." Moreover, "voluntary private charity is a less equitable way to solve community problems . . . In America, the government is the most legitimate voice of the entire community."


Is Berg's article as bad as that? Oh yes:

[v]oluntary private charity is a less equitable way to solve community problems. While many people assume that the rich amass their wealth on their own, the truth is that their business interests are almost always aided by public efforts such as roads, bridges and ports through which they ship their goods or public schools that educate their workforces. Given that even the wealthiest benefit greatly from this modern "public commons," it is wrong to give them unilateral power to decide whether their taxpayer-subsidized donations should go to, say, well-heeled operas or lavish care of pets rather than to organizations that meet more pressing communal needs.


Taypayer "subsidized" donation? Erm, getting a tax "break" for making a donation is not the same thing as a taxpayer subsidy. This entire argument is so wrong, I'm honestly just too depressed to address it further.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Interesting Tidbit

Surely to be ignored by the MSM. From NRO:

While AIG-Financial Group executives' fundraising efforts for Sen. Chris Dodd are getting attention, other recipients shouldn't be left off the hook, particularly because the big picture so clearly refutes the idea that Republicans are in the pocket of big business.

Employees of AIG Financial Products group — the division at the heart of the company's troubles — have donated $385,452 for all cycles, according to Open Secrets. Of that total, $323,246 went to Democrats, $60,706 went to Republicans — an 84 percent to 16 percent split.

Click now

Harry Reid explains that taxes are voluntary.

It's a hoot.

But, another great post from this blogger is this one which presents a case study in marginal wealth taxation. Must read.

h/t I am Felix

Oakland country to lure Detroit Auto Show if Cobo deal goes down

And, it serves Detroit City Council right. It will be their legacy.

Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson has vowed to lure the North American International Auto Show to Oakland County if a Wayne County judge today blocks the transfer of Cobo Center to a regional authority.
"If this thing goes down, I'm done," Patterson said. "I'm not going to go back to Detroit to try to resurrect the deal. Five years is enough.">

*****

"He's bullying us as usual," Councilwoman Barbara-Rose Collins said on Sunday. "He just wants everything on his own terms."
Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano, who has worked to find regional funding for Cobo's expansion, characterized Patterson's latest proposal as "showboating."
"We need regional players who are going to push our projects forward and stop inflaming the issues on both sides," Ficano said.


FIVE years Mr Ficano. Five years, and Detroit City council members pulling the race card. You need a city council in Detroit that isn't stupid, that's what you need.

Who should Obama fire next?

Now that we're living in a brave new world, where the POTUS can fire CEOs, who should Obama fire next?

The president also needs a scalp to wave before both a Congress growing queasy about federal bailouts and the automaker's bondholders, who aren't happy about granting a huge discount on their GM debt.
The trick now is to find someone to run the automaker. Good luck with the headhunting.
How many top-notch corporate executives will jump at the chance to lead a company that is sinking like a rock? Who will be willing to share the corporate suite with federal bureaucrats? And by the way, the job pays a buck a year, and if you need to fly, it better be coach.


Stay tuned. At 11 we get to hear Obama's plans for GM.

Obama has been banged around the last couple of weeks because of the bonus scandal at AIG. His administration, with the help of Congress, botched the aid package to the failed insurance giant, allowing the indefensible bonuses to be paid and triggering public outrage that is increasingly focused on the White House.
Dumping Wagoner lets Obama deflect attention away from Wall Street, where his Treasury Department is still moving through quicksand, and turn it on Detroit.
He can portray himself as being tough on the corporate executives who are ruining America, without having to draw blood from the bankers.


Fire a banker? Oh lord, we can't do that. I mean, perhaps someone at AIG. But, it's easier to simply beat at the auto companies, because everyone hates them.

Hey, UAW workers? How are you feeling about teh One now? He's going to make you produce green cars that nobody wants. Then, he's going to raise gasoline taxes to force us to buy them,

I can't wait!

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Earth Hour ... WOW!

This is Times Square during the one hour call to action for Climate Change, from the AP:



We are SAVED!

Extra heh:

The celebration then crossed the Atlantic, where crowds at New York's Times Square watched as many of the massive billboards, including the giant Coca-Cola display, darkened. The Majestic Theater marquee at the home of "The Phantom of the Opera" went dark, along with the marquees at other Broadway shows.


MANY billbaords went blan? I can count, maybe, four.

Right to Protest? Denied.

From Redstate via the Pub, one of the Tea Party protests in Florida has been cancelled. You see, the proper forms haven't been filled out. The proper fees haven't bee filed. Unlike those grassroots movement protests funded by George Soros, the right doesn't have a Daddy who knows the ins and outs of patriotic dissent. I guess we've been too busy ... you know ... working.

Americans do not have the rights they always thought they did. There is no right to protest government. There is no right to assemble. The people have no rights at all to voice their displeasure. Shut up people. Go home. Nothing to see here. Go quietly back to your IPods and DVDs. Big daddy government will take care of you. The Obemmessiah will decide what’s best for you. Don’t worry your little heads. Oh, and thank you for your payments on April 15th.



So, hush your mouth and pay your taxes. It's much more patriotic than protesting. Oh, and that middle class tax cut Obama promised you? Down the memory hole. . Well, not really, because Obama's still claiming he's given it to us. I heard him say so last Tuesday. But even Peter Orszag is admitting that they just may not be able to give it to us.

How you like them apples, folks?

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Obama (and Global warming tools) are fucking liars

Bahaa haa haa

President Obama used the flooding in the Red River Valley to insist that society needs to take global warming seriously.

In a White House interview with a handful of reporters, including Janell Cole of the Forum of Fargo, the president said the current flooding cannot necessarily be blamed on global warming, but he said it should be a signal to act.

"If you look at the flooding that's going on right now in North Dakota and you say to yourself, 'If you see an increase of 2 degrees, what does that do, in terms of the situation there?' " the president told the reporters. "That indicates the degree to which we have to take this seriously."


Sorry, Mr. Obama, but the Red River flooding has NOTHING to do with global warming. It's not a signal. Not an indication It's not a NOTHING. You are a stupid tool, and those reporters who dutifully wrote down what he said, and then reported it in the news without pause are complicit.

The river is flooding because the water flows NORTHWARD. Where everything is still frozen. So, it can't flow. Say Anything on the issue:

The flooding in North Dakota is the result of one massive snowfall during what has been one of the longest and coldest winters in almost a decade. We here in North Dakota got a ton of snow. For long stretches of this winter we didn’t see the warm side of zero degrees, let alone the freezing point. So for Obama to suggest that the flooding is thanks to warming is an indication of someone talking about something they know absolutely nothing about.

And you’ve got to love Obama’s response to Cole’s question about valid concerns over what his policies will do to our state’s economy. Essentially, he doesn’t care. He buys into the global warming hype, so who cares what it does to some industries that employ (directly or indirectly) tens of thousands of people.


But, of course, the current warming trend (some call it Spring) HAS caused the thaw. So, there's that, right?

Friday, March 27, 2009

Oh Great

*

Friday fun ...

Things are awfully serious and depressing and it is during times like these that I resort to the guiltiest of guilty pleasures. No, fear not. It's not a Tool Vid. It's ... awfulplasticsurgery.com. Nothing soothes the soul like watching vainglorious celebutards deforming them self in pursuit ofr youth and "beauty." My personal fav is the pouty lip thing they've got going on. If you've EVER watched an episode of "Real Housewives", you'll know how popular this trend is.


(image from awfulplasticsurgery.com)

So, if life has gotten you down, go here and look around. Expand beyond the awful lips. Check out the boob jobs. The eye lifts. Awful plastic surgery can keep you entertained (and disgusted) all afternoon. I swears, it will help. If for just a little while.

Around the Web on Friday

Robert Stacy McCain on the lack of Conservative Gonzo Writers.

Spare me your “insufficients,” your “hences,” and your “narrative conventions,” Mr. Friedersdorf. The problem with conservative journalism is that it is not as ruthless as the free-market economy that conservatives are supposed to favor. There are too many easy 501(c)3 sinecures that attract lazy poseurs who think that subscribing to a certain set of ideological principles entitles them to full-time employment and praise from all their second-rate buddies sucking on the teats of The Movement. Hustling to meet a deadline, trying to score a scoop—that’s for the lowly proles, says the arrogant young intellectual, who covets praise from “serious and thoughtful conservatives.”


And via Mr. McCain, great piece on Sarah Palin and the silver spooned snobs that spurned her:

The snobs got their wish; President Obama. Sarah Palin and all of her witch doctor-religious-fanaticism-and-all-around stupidity went back to Alaska to run the state. So far she's doing a better job up there than President Obama and his collection of Ivy League egghead tax cheats are doing in D.C.. As I type, President Obama who recently gave The Prime Minister of our best ally, England, the raspberry is preparing to board Air Force One to fly him, his limo, and the decoy Air Force One (on another flight path) to Los Angeles. Obama is not meeting with the California governor to discuss the State's terible economic woes. Nor is he not stopping in LA on a lay over before he goes on to visit other another important ally; Japan. Obama is flying to LA to appear on The Jay Leno Show. This appearance on late night comedy television is not only a first for the first Black President, this is a first for a sitting president. Thank you snobs!


But, do go read the whole thing.

You know, now that Obama's "The Give Act" is poised to pass through Congress, I wanna know how I can land me one of those paid volunteerism gigs. I mean, sure I like to help out and all, but if I can get paid for it ... well, then volunteering for free is for chumps, right?

The bill, promoted by the Obama administration as a means of encouraging America's youth to participate in voluntary community service, has received little scrutiny from Congress or the public.

Yet, a version of the bill in the House proposes to establish a Congressional Commission on Civil Service tasked with determining whether a mandatory service requirement for all young people in America could be developed and implemented, though it is not clear that provision will survive a conference committee.


Gateway Pundit points out this WSJ piece. Money quote:

. There has always been tension between the Democratic Party and the private sector. That tension is over. With its vote in the House of Representatives to punish corporate bonus payments, the national Democratic Party has disconnected itself entirely from the private sector.


That's all I gots for now.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Progressive Republicans

Oh HONESTLY. Defining yourself as a "progressive republican" prolly means you are too stupid to be involved in politics.

MCCAIN: I consider myself a progressive Republican. I am liberal on social issues. And I think that the party is at a place where social issues shouldn't be the issues that define the party. And I have taken heat, but in fairness to me, I am a different generation than the people that are giving me heat. I'm 24 years old. I'm not in my 40s, I'm not in my 50s and older. And I think there's just such a generation gap, that the people that don't understand me, I actually take it as a compliment, that sort of this new young Republican can come forward and make progress and be successful in the ways that this party has currently failed.


You are a RINO. Or a moderate. But to call yourself a "Progressive Republican" is going to make my head 'slode.

Let's see what wiki has to say about the term:

The term "progressive" is today often used in place of "liberal". Although the two are related in some ways, they are separate and distinct political ideologies. According to John Halpin, senior advisor on the staff of the Center for American Progress, "Progressivism is an orientation towards politics, It's not a long-standing ideology like liberalism, but an historically-grounded concept... that accepts the world as dynamic." Progressives see progressivism as an attitude towards the world of politics that is broader than conservatism vs. liberalism, and as an attempt to break free from what they consider to be a false and divisive dichotomy.
Cultural Liberalism is ultimately founded on a concept of natural rights and civil liberties, and the belief that the major purpose of the government is to protect those rights. Liberals are often called "left-wing", as opposed to "right-wing" conservatives. The progressive school, as a unique branch of contemporary political thought, tends to advocate certain center-left or left-wing views that may conflict with mainstream liberal views, despite the fact that modern liberalism and progressivism may still both support many of the same policies (such as the concept of war as a general last resort).
American progressives tend to support interventionist economics: they advocate income redistribution[citation needed], and they oppose the growing influence of corporations.


"Progressive" is a loaded term with meaning. It doesn't mean what you think it means, Meghan.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Ace quoted a bit of this Jerry Pournelle piece, but I'm going to quote a bit more. First this bit:

The sad truth is that democracy itself is often unstable. Intellectuals lose faith. Democracy is not flashy. It falls out of fashion. The intelligentsia feel scorned, unappreciated, and turn to new theories.

There are other pressures. Republics stand until the citizens begin to vote themselves largess from the public treasury. When the plunder begins, those plundered feel no loyalty to the nation—and the beneficiaries demand ever more, until few are left unplundered. Eventually everyone plunders everyone, the state serving as little more than an agency for collecting and dispensing largess. The economy falters. Inflation begins. Deficits mount. Something must be done. Strong measures are demanded, but nothing can be agreed to.

In Weimar Germany the price of a postage stamp went to 8 billion marks. In China, Latin America, many of the new African nations, inflation has exceeded 1000%. The middle class is destroyed. The economy collapses. Democratic institutions cannot cope.

Enter the strong man, who will save the state.


Obama is the strong man, who will save the state. But, I'm sure you figured that out. And, no this piece was not written about Obama. It is a forward to a piece of fiction.

The truth is that no nation is safe. Tyrants seldom come openly, their hands dripping with blood, their eyes blazing with hate. More often they come as friends of the people, tireless workers for the public good, heroes who will save the nation; who will cut the Gordian knot of parliamentary babble; who will carry out the people’s will.

They come with promises. If we will disarm ourselves, they will provide professionals to protect us. If we give over our property they will assure us jobs. Crime will be abolished. Poverty will vanish. Together we will build a nation worthy of the future.

The temptation is large, because we all, at one time or another, have longed to have an end to striving; to create the future and have done with it. Can we not, by one supreme act, solve all human problems? The way will be hard, but after heroic effort the straggle will be over. War on poverty; war on ignorance; war on illness; war on cancer, mental illness; one supreme act of war, and then eternal triumph. The strife will cease . . .

We know better, of course. We all know the price of liberty; eternal vigilance. Jefferson said it well: "the tree of liberty is a delicate plant. It must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”


Make of this what you will.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Want to glimpse our future? Look no further than Europe

Alexander Benard, at NRO:

With his stimulus bill and his 2009 budget, President Obama has proposed sweeping changes to our political and economic system that would move the United States squarely in the direction of a social-welfare state. America has no experience with such a system — but Europe does. Americans must learn from our brethren across the Atlantic how social-welfare states operate, and what impact social welfarism has had on European society.



It's a good article. Go read. Link in title. One more bit:

Part of the argument in favor of Obama’s stimulus plan was that America’s infrastructure supposedly lags far behind that found in Western European countries, notably Germany. To the extent that this is true, there should be no illusions about why: Large sums of money are taken from Germans so that their government can build grandiose airports, fancy trains, and extravagant government buildings. This means the average German is left with less discretionary income, which is why middle-class Germans have smaller homes than Americans, more limited personal savings, and less money to spend on entertainment, housing, and food. The German system is a reallocation of wealth from the people to the government. Government ends up with more, so government-funded projects look nicer; people end up with less, so they do not live as well or have as many economic choices and opportunities as citizens in economically freer countries.

The joke's on you, Michigan Dems.

Ha ha ha ... the only thing more unpopular than putting money in the banks, is putting money in the auto industry ... HA HA HA ...

Yea, that's a good one Baracky.



It's called "gallows" humor.

I've got some pictures for you, Mr. Funny guy. Check back later.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

AIG hatefest tour a bust

Moe Lane has a nice summary. And this:

So, to recap: the supposed ‘grassroots’ group of protesters making a big show of attempting to gin up faux-populist hysteria turns out to be a puppet of an election fraud group so blatant that it alarms partisan Democrats… and said group was one that this administration decided to have knock on your door next year and ask you all sorts of personal information.


On a related note, I was all set to do some citizen journalism myself yesterday at an Obama "canvassing" event. I know, I don't get it either, but apparently Obama wants to continue campaigning throughout his term, and called for his volunteers to go out and get people to sign-on their support for his march toward socialism.

The canvasses - more than 1100 are scheduled -- are the first major national project of Organizing for America, the grassroots arm of the DNC. Its director, Mitch Stewart, said that the canvasses, an associated pledge drive and the calls to Congress "are all designed to put our elected officials in Washington on notice that Americans expect that the change President Obama campaigned for becomes reality."
The messaging is fairly generic at this point; the DNC hasn't sent any urgent pleas to its membership, mostly because key votes in Congress are weeks, if not months away.
DNC officials have ways to measure whether their canvassing efforts translate into telephone calls and will be using the results to see whether Obama's campaign volunteer corps can be effectively mobilized to help Obama pass legislation. Pledge drives will be use as earned media hooks in local television markets; the DNC estimates that several hundred thousand Democrats will sign their names toward passage of the budget.


A quick internet search found that one of these rallies was scheduled for my little town. But, when I arrived there was no one there. I'm guessing it was cancelled due to low interest.

Where have all the Obamabots gone?

Exit question; How can something be "the grassroot arm" of the DNC? Up is down. Black is white. If you don't see the problem, the best place to start is here.

And so it begins ...

My property taxes just went up by $1,500 a year.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Worst Movie Ever?

Twenty-Eight Weeks Later. This movie is so bad, I turned it off half-way through. And THAT was being generous, because the desire to end the torture began around the 15 minute mark.

And, I LOVE zombie movies.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Interesting

"Atlas Shrugged" is ranked, right now, as Amazon's 47th best seller.

John Galt is out there.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

What bragging about a nice set of cans can do for you ....

The Other McCain may link you. Even if you just promise to show them one day (I SWEAR I WILL, just be patient with me) but as of yet you've done nothing but rickroll.

But, there are rules involved which I am obligated to follow.

So, honestly, all this blatant linkage is out of my hands. It's almost contractual, so until Congress makes a law I see no other option.

Throw the bums out of office

Fuckity fuck fuck:

WASHINGTON, March 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress took a big step toward shutting down the controversial bonuses American International Group (AIG.N) awarded its executives despite receiving $180 billion in government aid.

But the House of Representatives passage of a bill to slap a 90 percent federal tax on those bonuses is only a first step toward enacting legislation.


Sdferr, in comments to previous post:

Populism in one form or another has been a function of human political life since time immemorial. As for demagoguery, that word was invented to describe a phenomenon born in the 5th century BC Athens and has been an off and on fact of life in democracies ever since. While some form of totalitarianism may always loom out there in thought space, I don't think we're in particular danger of it coming to the US anytime soon.

But we are in danger of losing the center of our unique political heritage, I think. While on the one hand, we want to re-emplace the good ideas with which our nation was founded and with them, the sober and natural ease of function in which they resulted, on the other hand our legal framework has been so impaired over the last 150 yrs with a myriad of rules and regulations, no one of which can be said to have been the poison pill that has gotten our system to the unintended state we now descry, we seem to require a massive pruning away if any hope of such a restoration is to be possible at all.

But as we look on the doings of our national gov't, it is plainer every day that something has gone terribly awry and not just with the other party, not just with the Democrats I mean. The behavior of the Republicans over the years 2000 - 2006 was of much the same character. But what is that character? What is the particular nature of the problem we face? It seems to me that it might best be characterized in the shorthand rubric of "rent seeking". Those powers over the disposition of the vast sums of wealth accreted by our stupendously successful economy drives every possible beneficiary of said dispositions to court/lobby (and pay) our Congress for their piece of the pie, self-interestedly (long hand for greedily, cf. Friedman/Donohue tapes) of course, which self-interest will not often coincide with the longterm interests of the whole nation. Cruel reality intrudes upon our preferred national narrative. In the original conception, narrow interests were to be welcomed as mutually canceling in the struggle for monopoly power, interest vying with interest, thus placing checks on the road to tyranny.

What can be done? I am uncertain. But I do believe that this problem (and likely a far better portrait of it than I have produced here) is where we ought to focus some large portion of our thoughts on efforts at repair.


Certainly, populism has always been a part of politics. The populist aspect of a politician is supposed to be balance out by a media devoted to truth. This entire AIG bonus witchhunt is nothing but a populist PR stunt aimed to deflect culpability for the mess we in.

I agree that the Republicans were guilty as well, but the media didn't let them get away with it.

[Insert swear words here]

Commentary is limited, because right now I just have a bunch of expletives going through my head:

The House is scheduled to vote today on a bill that would levy a 90 percent tax on bonuses paid to employees with family incomes above $250,000 at companies that have received at least $5 billion in government bailout money.

"We figured that the local and state governments would take care of the other 10 percent," said Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.

Rangel said the bill would apply to mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, among others, while excluding community banks and other smaller companies that have received less bailout money.


By what power? By what right? This is scary shit. It may be a good time for everyone to brush up on how "populism" contributed to the rise of Hitler.

Populist movements can be precursors for, or building blocks for, fascist movements.[29][30][31] Conspiracist scapegoating employed by various populist movements can create "a seedbed for fascism."


And this:

A demagogue is a leader who obtains power by appealing to the gut feelings of the public, usually by powerful use of rhetoric and propaganda. H. L. Mencken defined a demagogue as "one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots." The word is nowadays mostly used as a political insult: political opponents are described as demagogues, but people we approve of are "men of the people", or great speechmakers.

In the twentieth century populism gained an altogether more ominous character when dictators such as Juan Peron and Adolf Hitler used demagogery and populist rhetoric to achieve their privileged leadership positions. It could be argued that none of these men were genuine populists because they usually saw the masses as not fit to govern for themselves and therefore their elitist and privileged style of leadership was needed to govern and regulate the behaviour of the masses. Indeed, Adolf Hitler's contempt for the masses was profound; Mein Kampf written by Hitler is replete with sentiments such as "the masses are inherently stupid", not to mention his hatred for democracy and adoration of Social Darwinism.

Though populism is often associated with ideologies such as nationalism and socialism, it is not always necessarily so. Populism can be both left wing and right wing. In the above examples, Juan Peron would be perceived as a left-wing populist; while Adolf Hitler would normally be thought of as a right-wing populist.


Sound familiar?

Thank GOD we're not being led by that idiot Bush any longer ...

Baracky explains his plan for America:






Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Good News!

The Polar bears won't be starving this year! Via Bloomberg news, via Small Dead Animals:

- Three U.K. explorers bound for the North Pole on a scientific expedition to study global warming said they are close to running out of food after “brutal” weather conditions halted three attempts to fly in supplies.


It really sucks when you're studying global warming, and the cold stops you in your tracks. But wait! There's more!

“We’re hungry, the cold is relentless, our sleeping bags are full of ice,” expedition leader Pen Hadow said in a statement e-mailed yesterday by his team. “Waiting is almost the worst part of an expedition as we’re in the lap of the weather gods.”

The severe weather is jeopardizing a journey aimed at projecting when global warming may melt the entire Arctic Ocean cap, a phenomenon that scientists say might trigger further gains in temperature.

Hadow, Ann Daniels and Martin Hartley are 18 days into their 100-day, 1,300-kilometer (800-mile) journey to the pole, during which they planned to use a custom radar to take as many as 13 million ice-thickness measurements. They aim to help scientists gauge how quickly the Arctic sea ice is thinning.


You can't parody this stuff.

Good News!

AI Watch

Ok, this week's review is going to based on whether or not I fast-fowarded through the tune.

FFed:

Michael Sarver- Garth Brook's "Ain't Going Down"
Allison Iraheta- Patty Loveless "Blame it on Your Heart"
Kris Allen- Garth Brooks "to Make You Feel My Love"
Scott Macintyre- Martina McBride "Wild Angels"
Anoop Desai - Willie Nelson "You're Always on My Mind"
Megan Joy - "I go Walking After Midnight"

Listened ATWT:

Lil Rounds - Martina McBride "independence Day"
Adam Labert- Johnn Cash "Ring of Fire" (why couldn't he have done the Social D version ?)
Alex Grace- Dolly Parton "Jolene" (although I didn't think she did that great of a job)
Danny Gokey - Carrie Underwood "Jesus Take the Wheel"
Matt Giraud - Carrie Underwood "So Small"

My guess, which you must take with a grain of salt since I fast forwarded: Allison Iraheta.

The Hammer on the AIG OUTRAGE

Last night on Fox:


…look, the larger issue here is, of course, the administration is really hurt. It is an issue of competence. The Democrats in charge are in disarray.

But the larger issue here—this the best argument against socialism, socialism writ large or socialism writ small, meaning the takeovers of companies in the United States.

When you get politicians ahead of the mob running companies, you get madness and idiocy here. The contracts are legal contracts, and it wasn't as if these bonuses were unknown or sprung at the last minute. They were written into these agreements over a year ago, long before AIG was even nationalized or partially nationalized.

And the problem here is that by the Congress now trying to break the contracts by a ruse, essentially a 100 percent taxation or confiscation, they're going against a few hundred years of common law where you don't do retroactive confiscation or bills of attainder, which are laws aimed at particular individuals. It's just not done.

And to sacrifice all of those principles of democracy and business and contract over, as Rich indicated, a tenth of one percent of the bailout, is absurd, particularly in a Congress which just a week ago signed a bill with enough pork to fund these bailouts for about 20 years.

This and that (since I worked yesterday and was unable to snark on all this shit)

NOOOOO.

In an effort to educate the public on the state of the economy and his plans for improving it, President Obama is considering a series of short televised addresses similar to Franklin Roosevelt's fireside chats. Press secretary Robert Gibbs has told the television networks that the administration may request more time than usual for a president. Gibbs did not provide a schedule but described the addresses as lasting about 10 minutes each.


AddresseS. Plural. Obama, Friday or Saturday evenings are good for me.

You know you've made a huge misstep when the Huffpo reports your screw-ups.

Democrats in Congress are organizing to squash a White House proposal that would require veterans to use private insurance to pay for treatment of their combat and service-related injuries.

In a letter being sent to the White House, a group of House Democrats, led by Rep. Glenn Nye (D-VA), warned that such a proposal "could harm our veterans and their families in unintended, yet very serious ways, jeopardizing their families' health care and even negatively affecting veterans' employment opportunities."

"While we strongly support your plans to increase funding for the VA by $25 billion over the next five years," the letter reads, "it is with equal conviction that we oppose the proposal to bill veterans' private health insurance plans for care and treatment of service-connected injuries or disabilities."


Exit question; would Huffpo have reporated this if Dems hadn't gotten their criticism on?

Commenters are undeterred from their Obama love. It was all a big misunderstanding, you see... a tidbit:

Although, I must say, this does not sound like something Pres. Obama would propose. It does not sound like his way of thinking AT ALL. Something's fishy....


Heh. Another right wing conspiracy, I suspect.

Teleprompter is taking over the world, one world leader at a time:

WASHINGTON – Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen was just a few paragraphs into an address at a St. Patrick's Day celebration at the White House when he realized something sounded way too familiar. Turns out, he was repeating the speech President Barack Obama had just given.


If Obama would switch to the teleprompter hat I posted last week, such things wouldn't happen.


AIG OUTRAGE!!!!!!11!!!! Stay focused people on this irrelevant issue. You know, begin conversations with I just can't believe those folks got their bonuses. THE GREED!

Obama just signed away our children's future, his poll numbers are falling, the economy is in the tank, but let's focuse ALL OUR OUTRAGE on the pittance $165 million given in contractual bonuses. If you don't think that this is a manufactured event to deflect, you've lost perspective. AIG recieved $173 BILLION. TARP could go as high as $700 BILLION. B-B-B- BILLION.

Chuck Schumer should be thrown out of office for this one:

The bombshell revelation from State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo came as Congress warned AIG execs to return their millions in bonuses - or face a possible new law taxing those payouts at up to 100%.
"They should voluntarily return them. If they don't, we plan to tax virtually all of it," New York Sen. Chuck Schumer declared on the Senate floor.
"To those of you getting these bonuses: be forewarned, you will not be getting to keep them."


It gets worse:

The bombshell revelation from State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo came as Congress warned AIG execs to return their millions in bonuses - or face a possible new law taxing those payouts at up to 100%.
"They should voluntarily return them. If they don't, we plan to tax virtually all of it," New York Sen. Chuck Schumer declared on the Senate floor.
"To those of you getting these bonuses: be forewarned, you will not be getting to keep them."


If this doesn't fucking scare you, you aren't paying attention.

Most transparent administration eva!

Because you heard about this, right?

President Obama is quietly ending the federal firearms program, risking public safety on airlines in the name of an anti-gun ideology.


Remember this program? The one that was started because of that tiny little incident on 9/11?

Screening of airplane passengers is hardly perfect. While armed marshals are helpful, the program covers less than 3 percent of the flights out of Washington D.C.'s three airports and even fewer across the country. Sky marshals are costly and quit more often than other law-enforcement officers.

Armed pilots are a cost-effective backup layer of security. Terrorists can only enter the cockpit through one narrow entrance, and armed pilots have some time to prepare themselves as hijackers penetrate the strengthened cockpit doors. With pilots, we have people who are willing to take on the burden of protecting the planes for free. About 70 percent of the pilots at major American carriers have military backgrounds.


I have a great idea, let's take away the guns from those folks guarding Obama and his family. How's about we make Mrs. Pelosi fly commercial, instead of taking an air force jet. Do those folks carry?

Most transparent administration eva!

Monday, March 16, 2009

Heh

From Hot Air:

For the first time in decades and perhaps ever, America chose a President without executive experience in the public or private sectors, and without military command experience. If people expected smooth performance and cool competence from that kind of resume, then the best that can be said about them is that they indulged in self-delusion on a massive scale.

For the rest of us, this comes as no surprise at all. The failed appointments have managed to be less embarrassing than the ones that “succeeded”, such as Tim Geithner and Vivek Kundra. The administration keeps promising plans that never get delivered, and Obama all but abdicated to Nancy Pelosi during the Porkulus debacle. And that doesn’t even begin to cover Obama’s embarrassing performance during Gordon Brown’s visit, and Hillary Clinton’s shameful “I don’t understand multiparty democracy” tour at the EU.


While liberals continue to shun political discussion, Baracky's approval index number has fallen to +4.

Healthcare the way it should be

If there is one thing I think all women can agree on is that pap smears really suck. I hate them. When I was younger, I'd have a glass of wine before my annual spread-em and pap smear. The oppressive American healthcare system "recommends" that women have annual paps starting at age 21 or when they become sexually active, which ever comes first.

But, the enlightened Brits, and their national healtcare system the NHS, have wisely decided that women don't need a PAP until they are 25! Darleen at PW:

An American woman unfamiliar with the UK NHS will look at that age range in confusion. Does British medicine really (and erroneously) only recommend pap smears at 25?

Let’s be clear here, and this is something all Americans should know about the UK NHS — in a country where the legal age of consent for sex is 16 — British women are currently barred from getting pap smears until they are 25 years old. The NHS “invites” women between the ages of 25 to 65 for smears — age 25-49, once every 3 years, 50-65 once every 5 years. American women are advised to start going for paps annually once they are sexually active, or minimally age 21 if not. The UK NHS refusal to allow smears, even to women who are mothers, under the age of 25 leads to startling cases.


I don't know what Darleen's on about, because she seems to actually LIKE pap smears. Must be some pap-smear-lover. Well, SHE CAN HAVE THEM. I, for one, welcome our new Healthcare Overlords and their cost-saving wisdom:

Is it little wonder that the cervical cancer mortality rate in the UK is almost twice that of the US?

Why did the UK raise the age of screenings? Cost, of course. Since cervical cancer is relatively rare in women under 25, why waste money testing them all when it means preventing only a few hundred deaths? What are the lives a few hundred women in the grand scheme of nationalized medicine?


Times are tough. And pap smears suck. What's to debate?

Of course, you'll always have your complainers. And, you know, the whiny headlines write themselves; "Pap smears expense limits use; women and children hardest hit." .

Saturday, March 14, 2009

More on democrat congress suckage

Moe Lane, over at Redstate, is onto the H.R.875 dealo. I tried to drum up lefty concern with Bob the other day, but he shrugged and suggested it was conservative over-reaction. Moe Lane on why liberals should be paying a bit of attention. Two words. Organic Foods.

Come, I will hide nothing from you: I don’t eat organic foods. I am perfectly fine with consuming genetically altered foods. I in fact think that many of the Left-types that I linked to above there are being almost terminally silly in their dietary habits, and I will be happy to fight them over whether or not the Third World should be benefiting from current genetic agricultural research. But none of that means that we should regulate organic farmers out of business - particularly in this economy. If somebody wants to frankly overpay for a tomato that’s never been sprayed with pesticides, and I’m not required to subsidize it with my tax money, let him have the tomato. It does no harm to me, it pleases the tomato eater, and puts money in the pocket of the tomato grower.


Of course, this is about more than just organic food. I doubt my neighborhood fruit stand is organic, they are just small farmers who connect with other small farmers to set up a little stand on the side of the road. I can get, throughout the season, berries and cucumbers and tomatoes and apples. And honey and peppers and melons and onions. Could they deal with a million dollar fine?

- Instituting FSA as food safety law enforcement, allowing it to assess civil penalties and fines for violation of any and all FSA safety laws up to $1 million for each violation. Collected fines would become unappropriated slush funds to be used however FSA deems fit in order to "carry out enforcement activities under the food safety law".


Anyone else a tad nervous that the "collected fines" become a part of a "slush fun" to be used however the FSA deems appropriate? I know, I know. They're from the government and they're here to help us. But, the reality is that small farmers will be unable to meet the regulations (or the paperwork) and will simply stop growing all that locally grown, organic (or not) yummy fresh produce.

All this doesn't even touch concerns H.R. 875 is an infringement on state sovereignty.

More Dem screw-ups

While food safety standards threaten to eliminate the local fruit stand, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, pushed through by Nancy Pelosi's Congress, threatens to close many small business across the country. Home schoolers have been all over this issue, since small curriculum suppliers and second hand books are the bread and butter of what they use.

CPSIA, as it is known among the companies it has greatly damaged, was Congress’ response to the stories over the past two years of products arriving from China with too much lead in them, products that genuinely endangered the children who played with them. Congress got its dander up and passed strict new standards on the amount of lead allowed in products intended for children. For good measure, Congress also added bans on certain levels of phthalates in select products.

Then Congress ordered all untested goods off the shelves by Feb. 19 and imposed criminal penalties for noncompliance. And, for good measure, it allowed for private plaintiffs’ attorneys to bring lawsuits. Finally, the understaffed and overwhelmed Consumer Product Safety Commission was assigned to enforce the law.


The safety testing is outrageously expensive for those small businesses that sell new materials intended for children and many will simply close up shop. And for gently used books, clothes, and toys? Forgetaboutit. It's an impossible situation. Goodwill and Salvation Army stores will simply have to stop offering gently used children's stuff. Second-hand stores (the saving grace of moms with a budget) will disappear. Libraries will be forced to take older books off their shelf. Tip. Iceburg.

Against this backdrop, it is hard to credit the Obama administration’s oft-repeated promise to “save or create” 3 million jobs in the years ahead. The easiest jobs to save in the country right now are those being rubbed out by the blunderbuss of posturing that was CPSIA. But almost no legislators — and zero Democrats — are moving to act.

CPSIA should become Exhibit 1 in the GOP’s efforts to slow down health care reform and cap and trade. If Congress can accidentally unleash such unintended and costly side effects when working in a fairly narrow area, imagine the consequences of their unintended sideswipes when it comes to health care or energy production.

Worse still, voters should take note of the lawmakers’ unwillingness to admit and correct their obvious errors. Not a single sponsor of CPSIA is defending the law or asserting that it was intended to work this way. But nor are any of them doing anything to introduce and push through the simple fixes that are necessary.


Moe Lane notes Henry Waxman's lack of concern for this onerous, job- and business-killing law. Of course, I suppose we must remember that it is for the children.

Educational spending

Don't look here unless you want to be depressed.

I ask, again, PLEASE someone tell me where the money goes. Detroit spends $13,529 per student and has a graduation rate of 24.9%

Friday, March 13, 2009

Teleprompter Jesus's new headgear

Wish I knew who did this:




from Doug Powers blog.

Where does the money go?

Are you aware that DC spends $14,000 PER STUDENT?

A classroom of 20 kids pulls in $280,000. Who here honestly thinks it costs $280,000 a year to teach a classroom of kids?

Underfunded my ass. I wish someone would explain where the money goes.

FTR

I am now, officially, a "Republican Who Doesn't Really Matter." So says, The Other McCain.

Woot.

Kewel

I got linked by Kate at Small Dead Animals.

She's SO going on my (new) blogroll. As if it matters to her, since she's a BIG STAR on AlGore's internet. But, it's the principal.

What's your government doing, II

Bob suggests, in comments, that Darleen is overstating things with H.R. 875. Well, you want to risk it? Seems to me this is something liberals should be upset about ... I know I, a classical liberal, am.

The legality of any type of raw milk distribution across the country is also in jeopardy as H.R. 875 would grant FSA the statutory authority to impose a ban on its sale and distribution, period. If, for example, FSA determines that pasteurization is a necessary "preventative process" for safe milk production, it could override any current state provisions permitting intrastate raw milk sales, an area where even the overbearing FDA does not have legitimate jurisdiction. This limit would not apply to FSA, however, which would be granted unlimited jurisdictional power over all decisions concerning food safety, despite the unconstitutionality of such authority.

Additionally, the bill contains language that would expand the definition of the word "contaminant" for purposes of widening the scope of what constitutes "adulterated food". In other words, the vague, open-ended language would grant seemingly unlimited authority to FSA to arbitrarily levy fines whenever and to whomever it deems fit for breaching its subjective food safety rules.

The full text of H.R. 875 can be found here as well as committee contacts and a listing of the bill`s cosponsors. It is important to keep in mind that Rep. DeLauro`s husband, Stanley Greenburg, works for biotechnology giant Monsanto, the multi-national corporation responsible for the creation of recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) in cows, the perpetuation of "Round-Up Ready" sugar and soy products hidden in conventional foods, and the instigation of lawsuits against farmers whose fields were contaminated by Monsanto`s patented seeds. H.R. 875 provides the means by which corporations like Monsanto can seize control of the last-remaining independent farming operations in the United States


Here's another one of those linky things. Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund:

On February 4, 2009 Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) introduced the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 (HR 875), a bill that would establish the Food Safety Administration (FSA) within the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). HR 875 represents a tremendous expansion of federal power, particularly the power to regulate intrastate commerce. While the proposed legislation tries to address the many problems of the industrial food system, the impact on small farms if the bill becomes law would be substantial and not for the better. HR 875 is a major threat to sustainable farming and the local food movement.


And:

The burdensome requirements the bill imposes on small farms and the intrusive federal control it creates over small farm operations threaten the future viability of sustainable agriculture and the local food movement. HR 875 has been assigned to both the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the House Committee on Agriculture. It needs to be stopped. Anyone who values freedom of food choice and the rights and independence of small farmers should contact their elected representatives and the members of the two committees to ask that they oppose HR 875.


I'm telling ya, Bob, this thing needs to DIE. And, it's coming from your side, complete with "corporate " interests.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Tosser gets three years in Prison

Yea, I go for the easy jokes.

What is your government doing?

Darleen Click over at Protein Wisdom:

The bill’s sponsor is Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), with 39 co-sponsor, all Democrats. It gets more interesting to find out that DeLauro is married to Stanley Greenberg, who counts Monsanto among his corporate clients. It is also is an interesting coincidence that large corporations are much better equipped to comply with the onerous requirements and paperwork this bill dumps on “Food Production Facilities” then the lowly local farmer or backyard gardener.

Oh? Don’t think it will apply to the little guy? Well, here in its entirety is how this bill defines who is included in “Food Production”:

(14) FOOD PRODUCTION FACILITY- The term ‘food production facility’ means any farm, ranch, orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility, or confined animal-feeding operation.


No exclusions, no limitations. You grow it, you’re included.

One of the few things left I enjoy about living in So California is that there are still pockets of small farms and many towns have Farmer’s Market nights where local produce is offered. Also roadside stands selling fresh strawberries or corn.

This bill passes, so will all that. Indeed, my backyard garden will be OUTLAW as far as our fascist Democrat government is concerned.

No wonder Obama doesn’t worry about people Going Galt. He’s making it illegal.


Go read her whole post. If this piece of shit passes, you can say good-bye to the small producers. And, even the medium sized producers. I'm sure that will do WONDERS to further the complete fuck-up of the Michigan economy. Every week I see more businesses closing up. And, this is how the government responds - with more regulations for the children, you understand, with the end result of putting even more people out of work.

Congrats!

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

AI Watch

Kirby from comments:

Watched AI first this year last night.... I think ones to watch are Danny and Adam, from last night anyway.


I didn't watch it all yet - switched over to BSG- and I don't remember who Adam is. I like Danny. I watched the first half of the show, and thought most of them were pretty good.

It is to wonder

Detroit City Council couldn't get any more ridiculous :

Jay Leno's comic relief gesture is coming under scrutiny by the Detroit City Council.
One day after the NBC comedian announced a free April 7 show at The Palace of Auburn Hills for the unemployed, Councilwoman Martha Reeves questioned why it's in the suburbs, rather than Ford Field. That could be an issue: The venue is the site of the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship the night before.
Neverthess, Council President Monica Conyers designated Reeves, a singer and entertainer herself, as the point person to lobby Leno to move the show to within Detroit's city limits.


Martha Reeves is ON the case. PTL.

Last night I tried to post an image of Detroit, but it didn't work too well, and I deleted it. But, go to Google earth or one of those satellite dealos, and put in Detroit. And then scan in close. Those blocks and blocks of empty space used to be neighborhoods filled with houses. A city that used to have over two million citizens now has eight-hundred thousand and change. The city is broke, and mired in scandals. Yet, the city council feels the need to address Jay Leno's charitable gesture. Whateves.

Monday, March 09, 2009

Best thing I've seen on Manbearpig's internet in a while

From Malkin and Hot Air.



Please, more of this.

Cap and Trade - a tax on 95% of Americans

I know the liberals that occasionally visit here have been rather scarce since shortly after Obama ascended to high, but I'm going to keep hammering away regardless.

Cap and Trade is NOT going to cost the pollutors. Green house emissions are NOT going to be reduced. And, it is going to cost those who can least afford it, because this type of tax is regressive. From the WSJ:

The Congressional Budget Office -- Mr. Orszag's former roost -- estimates that the price hikes from a 15% cut in emissions would cost the average household in the bottom-income quintile about 3.3% of its after-tax income every year. That's about $680, not including the costs of reduced employment and output. The three middle quintiles would see their paychecks cut between $880 and $1,500, or 2.9% to 2.7% of income. The rich would pay 1.7%. Cap and trade is the ideal policy for every Beltway analyst who thinks the tax code is too progressive (all five of them).

But the greatest inequities are geographic and would be imposed on the parts of the U.S. that rely most on manufacturing or fossil fuels -- particularly coal, which generates most power in the Midwest, Southern and Plains states. It's no coincidence that the liberals most invested in cap and trade -- Barbara Boxer, Henry Waxman, Ed Markey -- come from California or the Northeast.


But wait, there's more:

And of course Congress is its own "stakeholder." An economy-wide tax under the cover of saving the environment is the best political moneymaker since the income tax. Obama officials are already telling the press, sotto voce, that climate revenues might fund universal health care and other new social spending. No doubt they would, and when they did Mr. Obama's cap-and-trade rebates would become even smaller.

Cap and trade, in other words, is a scheme to redistribute income and wealth -- but in a very curious way. It takes from the working class and gives to the affluent; takes from Miami, Ohio, and gives to Miami, Florida; and takes from an industrial America that is already struggling and gives to rich Silicon Valley and Wall Street "green tech" investors who know how to leverage the political class.


Read the whole think.

Looking for something to do this Monday morning?

The DNC is taking slogan suggestions for a billboard aimed at Rush. Unfortunately, you need to make a donation to the party or they won't accept it.

But, you don't need to donate shit to have your slogan appear here at ITBO!

I'll start us off:

"Our Propaganda Works Better When We Silence the Opposition"

h/t: Srr8d who has photoshopped his recommendation.

Saturday, March 07, 2009

It's not all Bush's fault

Despite Baracky's continued protestations that he inherited this mess, facts are facts. The Dow Jones has fallen 20% since Teh One ascended to high. From Point of a Gun, via The Other McCain.

I am not going to pretend that the current President takes all the blame here – given all of the influences that can affect the market that premise would be ridiculous. But I will attribute the lion’s share of the blame to him. One thing I will not let pass though is the continuation of the infamous “we inherited this mess” line from his administration. The markets are a statement of confidence in the future; not the past and therefore are now more reflective of Obama than GWB. Besides the "we inherited this mess" line reeks with the stench of deceit and dishonesty to begin with.


Confidence is low, and everytime Baracky opens his mouth, it goes lower.

I'm not sure how to tie this in, but I feel it must be mentioned that Chavez wants Obama to wash his ass. Perhaps Sean Penn can explain this one to us?

Behold, in all its [ed. Dan Collins] glory, the power of Happyfeet, AKA (by Sarah W) "The Screed of Wonder"

From comments over at Protein Wisdom:

A toxic political environment? It’s a toxic media environment. Same thing, but calling it political obscures what’s happened. NPR isn’t accidentally dirty socialist. It’s by design. Look at the dirty socialist foundations what support them. Duh. And it’s no different with MSNBC and that gay jewish guy on Comedy Central what used to be pretty but now just looks bitter and more Bill Maheresque every day and well, Bill Maher’s HBO what buys Nancy Pelosi’s bimbo daughter’s movies or Newsweek or Warner Bros. animated penguin movies what they make for your special needs child. They all hate you.

But there’s no convincing the audience if you’re a Republican. The dirty socialist media learned in Katrina that they have impunity to hold the fucking audience in as much contempt as they want. I will tell you how to convince the audience. The way you convince the audience is by laughing at their dumb hopeychangey faces when their taxes go up. When their food spoils cause of rolling brownouts. When they can’t afford gas again cause their dipshit pezzydent canceled tons of oil leases the first week him and his skeezey woman moved their Chicago street trash asses on up into the deluxe bedroom in our White House what George Soros bought them. By giggling at people who spent a fortune getting their kids through college but what can only get green jobs changing lightbulbs in the hood. By pointing and gawking at the maimed people what have less extremities than is optimal cause they couldn’t get a timely appointment with their government surgeons. Learn how to say oh, yeah, paying union dues does kind of suck, but then, you and your slackjawed wife both kinda voted for it didn’t ya? Yeah I think you did cause I remember you had that HOPE sign in your yard what was really impressive cause it told me you were just the kind of white guy that would have no problem voting for a dirty socialist piece of shit black man cause of how sophisticated you so self-evidently are.

No. I’m not interested in persuading these weak-minded losers. Too late for that. I just want to watch their dumb smiley fat hopey faces guzzle every delicious hopey changey ounce of what they’ve done to our little country and give them a friendly, knowing wink as they spew every rancid drop onto the floorboards of their Baracky-subsidized Prius.


Happy elevates commenting to an art form, but this comment deserved to be elevated beyond comment #523 on a thread from yesterday.

Friday, March 06, 2009

Now might be a good time to hit that cornify button ...

Doug Ross asks what my husband has basically been telling me every night at the dinner table.

Is President Obama intentionally attempting to bring the stock market to its knees? Some argue that, indeed, he is. "The free market has failed," he could say, "just as it failed the housing market!"


I warned you, you're gonna need to cornify.

Consider that, in the teeth of a devastating recession, Obama has:

• Raised taxes on small businesses, the engines of entrepreneurship and job growth

• Raised the capital gains tax

• Lied about "tax cuts for 95% of Americans", offering instead $13 a week, achieved not through tax cuts, but by changing the federal withholding tables!

• Destroyed charitable giving by axing the tax breaks for 26% of all giving (or $81 billion in 2006)

• Proposed a carbon cap-and-trading scheme designed to punish oil companies and further tax consumers

Why would Obama inflict these destructive policies while the economy is collapsing? Simple. Each step strengthens the role of government in people's lives.


Certainly he inherited a flailing economy, but absolutely everything he has done has amplified the crises. Every time he, or his administration, opens his mouth, the stock market tanks even further.

Honestly, we're fucked.

Cornify cornify cornify

You gotta hit the button a few times, and then something magical happens to the text in the blog.

Detroit City Council, Racist AND Stupid

Getting rid of Kwame certainly didn't end the hijinks in Detroit. We still have the City Council. The current issue is Cobo Hall and it's future. Cobo is the main convention center in Detroit, and home of the North American Auto Show; a show that we are in jeopardy of losing to Chicago if the building isn't both enlarged and improved. From Mlive.com:

Cobo Hall costs the city of Detroit $15 million a year. The rundown building in the heart of the city needs major repairs. The state has offered $20 million in upfront cash to buy Cobo and put it in the hands of a regional authority -- an authority structured so that it would give the Detroit representative veto power over any decisions. The deal would finance a $288 million renovation and expansion of the crumbling structure.

All the deal needed to become official was approval from the Detroit City Council. Yet Tuesday, despite a push from Mayor Kenneth Cockrel and support from mayoral candidate David Bing, the council, in an act of city-centric chauvinism, voted 5-3 to turn it down.


Why did they vote it down? Because, you see, the racist city council wants to keep suburbans (you can interpret that as "white folks") from controlling their "jewel." Never mind that the jewel has bled money from the city for years. Never mind that Detroit doesn't have the money to fix it up, and will lose the auto show. I say we rename Cobo Hall the "Monica Conyers Mausoleum" should this come to pass.

Mayor Ken Cockrel Jr. vetoed the City Council's actions, but Monica isn't done yet. She plans to seek legal action to stop Cockrel's action. Lovely. But, it gets better:

And there was Barbara-Rose Collins loudly claiming a conspiracy in a deal to transfer ownership of Cobo Center to a five-member regional authority with representatives from the state, the city and Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.

She cried foul at Detroit losing ownership of anything. But someone must have forgotten to explain to her that Detroit can no longer afford to run Cobo because:

1) The city cannot afford the $15 million in annual maintenance fees.

2) The city cannot afford to complete renovations necessary to keep the North American International Auto Show and the 16,000 jobs it brings.

Collins, on a roll, invoked America's past tradition of manifest destiny, saying that "European rulers have traditionally taken what they wanted from other people, be they white, be they black or be they brown.

"No one is taking anything!" she said. Then the room broke into song.

"Onward, Christian soldiers

Marching on to war ... "


Stupid is as stupid does. Plato's philosophy in action in Detroit.

Thursday, March 05, 2009

Yoga

I hate it, personally, but I'm trying to psych myself up to do a bit today before my regular workout 'cause I know it's so good for me and shit.

Anyone have any words of encouragement?

Thought not.

American Idol ...

I just can't get into it when there are so many people ... so I've only watched it sporadically.

The new judge I've very meh on. She doesn't seem to add much, and kinda blathers on.

I think the two to watch out for are the Lil from group 3, and the blond from group 1. Anyone else?

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

What Media bias? (a continuing series)

Not that I ever thought much of him, but Jim Cafferty has gone around the bend.

Mrs. Obama has blown away the stale air in a White House musty from eight years of the Bushes. It's like the sun came out and a fresh spring breeze began wafting through the open windows.

*******
Michelle Obama's unassuming, but dead-on, sense of style has the fashion press gushing all over itself.

Her arms are becoming the stuff of legend. Who appears sleeveless on the cover of Vogue, let alone in front of a joint session of Congress while her husband delivers one of the most important speeches of his life? And the reviews were rave.

Cindi Leive, the editor of Glamour magazine gushed, "Oh my god! The first lady has bare arms in Congress in February at night!" If she keeps it up, Seventh Avenue will soon stop making women's clothes with sleeves.

Ok, I admit it. When it comes to the first lady, I'm smitten.


Jim, you get to stay in the "ignore" pile.

Monday, March 02, 2009

Laugh of the day ...

Mass civil disobedience planned today in DC to fight global warming.

Well, those Global Warming alarmists better bundle up. DC is bracing for a huge winter storm.

Sunday, March 01, 2009

White House V Rush

Rahm Emanuel on Rush:

Emanuel, speaking in deliberately soothing tones, told anchor Bob Schieffer on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that Limbaugh has been up front about “praying for failure” by President Obama.


Erm, not exactly. Rush wants Obama to fail in his efforts to socialize the United States. I want Obama to fail at that too.

“I think that’s the wrong philosophy for America,” Emanuel said. “What Americans want us to do, and what President Obama has been very clear about, is work together setting our goals …

“Our goal, Bob, is to continue to reach out and it’s our desire that the Republicans would work with us and try to be constructive, rather than adopt the philosophy of somebody like Rush Limbaugh.”


Hello, Rahm? We don't LIKE your goals. We think they suck. Besides, I bet if someone were to ask Rahm (or any lefty) what Rush's philosophy was, they'd be hard pressed to give a coherent answer.

Emanuel’s comments, which came unprompted, were in line with a new strategy by White House allies in the private sector to make Limbaugh synonymous with the GOP. But Emanuel’s move for the first time brought that strategy into the West Wing, an unmistakable elevation of the effort to damage Republicans by depicting them as taking their marching orders from a deeply polarizing talk show host.


Good luck with that, because every time they attempt this, they are insulting the intelligence of conservatives, who don't need anyone to give them "marching orders." Rush is nothing but a "community organizer" on a national scale. Unlike politicians, he says what he wants, unworried about getting re-elected for another term.

The other goal, as articulated by Emanuel Sunday and other Democratic strategists over the past month, is to dare Republicans to reject Limbaugh, something few in the party are likely to do given the millions of listeners he commands each week.


Dare me to reject Rush? I've got a big Fuck You directed toward Emanuel and company.

Emanuel’s comments Sunday came only two days after the union AFSCME and Americans United for Change began airing an ad showing a clip of Limbaugh saying “I want him to fail,” along with quick cuts of top Republican congressional leaders saying, “No … No. … No … No … No … No.”

It was the second Limbaugh-focused ad by the liberal groups, who sought to drive a wedge between congressional Republicans and Limbaugh after the unanimous House GOP opposition to the stimulus last month by airing radio ads targeted at Republican senators and asking if they would "side with Rush Limbaugh too?"


I've got a message I'd like to target at Republican senators; Rush is more representative of my views than you are. Polarize him, and you might find it hard to get re-elected.

Some of the Democrats' top strategists, including close Emanuel friends Paul Begala and James Carville, are involved in the shaping of the campaign aimed at making Republicans own Limbaugh.


What are they, the fucking Pravada? What kind of campaign are they running, since there isn't an election on the horizon? You mean, a propaganda campaign.

Scary shit.

And so it goes ...

Gotta love socialism.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has ordered the army to take control of all rice processing plants in the country.

Mr Chavez accused some firms of overcharging by refusing to produce rice at prices set by the government.

He warned that some companies could be nationalised if they tried to interfere with supplies of the grain.

Mr Chavez - who has nationalised large swathes of Venezuela's economy - did not say how long the government intervention would last.

Major rice processors in the country include the US-owned giant Cargill and Venezuela's main food company, Polar.

Last year, Venezuela seized control of plants and offices belonging to Mexican cement giant Cemex.

In 2007, the government said it had taken control of the massive Orinoco Belt oil projects as part of President Chavez's nationalisation drive.


How DARE the producers of rice demand that the sale of their product result in a profit. Profits are for dirty capitalists. I'm sure the government control of the production of rice is going to go just great...

Mark Stein's Six-Trillion Dollar Man

What would we do without him?

Obama is going to do everything. So he needs to be able to spend everything. Only we don’t call it “spending” anymore. Everything government “spends” is now deemed an “investment.” Government will “invest” in “more efficient cars,” it will “invest” in daycare, it will “invest” in a new Federal Regulatory Agency of Fancy Drapes and Window Treatments. It will “invest” in an impact study group that will study the impact of recalling every edition of Webster’s and pasting in it a little Post-It note on the page defining “spend” saying “obsolete — see ‘invest.’ ”

FTR

I hope Obama fails to achieve his vision of the US too.

Suck it Huffpo. Rush was awsome at CPAC:

This notion that I want the president to fail, this shows you the problem we've got. This is nothing more than common sense and to not be able to say it? Why in the world would I want what we just described: rampant government growth, welfare that is not being created yet is being spent? What is in this, what is possibly in this that any of us want to succeed? Did the Democrats want the war of Iraq to fail? They certainly did. And they not only wanted the war in Iraq to fail they proclaimed it a failure.... They hoped George Bush failed. So what is so strange about being honest and saying I want Barack Obama to fail if his mission is to restructure and reform this country so that capitalism and individual liberty are not its foundation?"


Dittos.