Thursday, May 31, 2012

Our apolitical DoJ

In one of the most shocking displays of prosecutorial abuse, the US government prosecuted and convicted sitting US Senator Ted Stevens of corruption.  The timing of the case was shortly before his re-election vote and Stevens lost his seat.  It turns out that Stevens was wrongfully convicted with the help of prosecutor's misconduct during the trial.  But it was still enough to turn over the Senate seat from Republican to Democrat, and to provide a crucial vote for Obamacare.

The judge in the case had appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the DoJ attorney and their behavior.  As the report on that investigation gave details on the case:
The judge who presided over the Stevens trial appointed Henry F. Schuelke to investigate the prosecutors who handled the case. Schuelke’s 524-page report, which was unsealed this week, paints a picture of a  prosecution team so hampered by infighting that disgruntled attorneys cut corners by assigning document-review duties to FBI and IRS agents who were left largely unsupervised. Crucial information — including the  fact that trial witness Bill Allen had once bribed a child prostitute, whom he’d had a relationship with, to commit perjury, and that the home repairs in question were worth hundreds of thousands of dollars less than originally alleged — was never given to Stevens’ defense team.
Now the DoJ has concluded their own investigation.
The Justice Department has found that two prosecutors involved in the botched 2008 corruption trial of Senator Ted Stevens engaged in “reckless professional misconduct,” but it stopped short of firing the men, saying their mistakes were not intentional.

In a cover letter to a 672-page report provided to Congress on Thursday, alongside additional attachments and findings, the Justice Department said the two prosecutors would be suspended without pay — Joseph Bottini for 40 days, and James Goeke for 15 days….

There was at least one major difference, however: the special prosecutor concluded that Mr. Bottini and Mr. Goeke had intentionally withheld evidence, while the Justice Department investigation found that their mistakes — while showing reckless disregard for their disclosure obligations — were not deliberate.
So there you have it.  You can show reckless disregard in the conduct of a trial, but that's OK to the Obama DoJ.  Because you got what was important....a Senate seat on the Democrat side of the aisle.

Details from The Lonely Conservative and from Legal Insurrection.

Fauxcahontas and the bar exam

Seems that Elizabeth Warren has some other interesting qualifications in her background.



First nursing mother.  Did she carry the child to the exam in a papoose?

Of course, this whopper got the official debunking.  From the Boston Herald:

“I was the first nursing mother to take a bar exam in the state of New Jersey,” Warren told an audience at the Chicago Humanities Festival in 2011, in a video posted on the CHF website.

When asked how Warren knows that, her campaign said: “Elizabeth was making a point about the very serious challenges she faced as a working mom — from taking an all-day bar exam when she was still breast-feeding, to finding work as a lawyer that would accommodate a mom with two small children.”

Winnie Comfort of the New Jersey Judiciary, which administers that state’s bar exam, said there’s no way to verify Warren’s claim. Comfort said women have been taking the New Jersey bar exam since 1895, but she’s not aware their nursing habits were ever tracked.
Of course, it doesn't matter whether it is true or not.  What matters, at least to Warren, is that she advances the narrative and talking points of the campaign.  She understands the "working mom".  Yep, a Harvard professor worth millions.  Reminds me of Obama distorting the truth about his mother and grandmother so that they fit his narrative.  And of Bill Clinton saying "I feel your pain."

Frauds.  Each and every one of them.

Fauxcahontas Fesses

The truth is coming out in the Bay State.
Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren acknowledged for the first time late Wednesday night that she told Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania that she was Native American, but she continued to insist that race played no role in her recruitment.

“At some point after I was hired by them, I . . . provided that information to the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard,’’ she said in a statement issued by her campaign. “My Native American heritage is part of who I am, I’m proud of it and I have been open about it.’’

Warren’s statement is her first acknowledgment that she identified herself as Native American to the Ivy League schools. While she has said she identified herself as a minority in a legal directory, she has carefully avoided any suggestion during the last month that she took further actions to promote her purported heritage.

When the issue first surfaced last month, Warren said she only learned Harvard was claiming her as a minority when she read it in the Boston Herald.
Politician keep forgetting the primary lesson of Watergate -- it's not the "crime", it's the coverup that gets you.

Read the story from the Boston Herald.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Red Ink?

From Jack Fowler at NRO's The Corner:
The Nutmeg State will be funding the Communist Party.

Yep, despite massive debt and a mushrooming deficit, Governor Dannel Malloy, with the obedient Democrat legislature in tow, will convene the State Bond Commission on June 4th and push through a $300,000 “grant-in-aid to Progressive Education and Research Associates to finance renovations to the New Haven Peoples Center at 37 Howe Street.” The masquerades of Progressive this and People that aside, 37 Howe Street happens to be the headquarters for the Connecticut Communist Party, run by Joelle Fishman, who also happens to be the regional bureau chief for the infamous Peoples World. Which, yes, also happens to be located at 37 Howe Street.

So here we have a state that is awash in red ink, consciously increasing its red ink, to directly send taxpayer dollars to a place that publishes Red ink.

My pal Tom Scott, former state senator and considered by many to be Connecticut’s primo conservative, called to say “Is there anything this Governor is unwilling to spend our money on? We have the highest per-capita debt of any state, we’re the highest taxed state in the nation, and yet Malloy and the Democrats see fit to spend $300,000 to prop up the Communist Party of Connecticut. This is outrageous. And Malloy is a fiscal misfit. We need to turn the heat up on these Democrats to remove this item from the bond commission agenda.”

While Democrats do their compliant routine, Senate Republicans are said to be planning a press conference tomorrow at the state Capitol to highlight and protest the Commissar’s Governor’s plan.
The OC doesn't live in Connecticut, but if he did, he'd be moving out of self-preservation.

It's all for show

The scandal at the GSA isn't over.  Once they get a taste for the public trough, it never stops.  From the Washington Times comes this news:
More than a month after he was put on leave when a video surfaced showing him joking about the lavish spending — $823,000 — at a taxpayer-funded General Services Administration conference in Las Vegas, a top official at the agency has quietly returned to his job.

David Foley, deputy commissioner of the GSA's Public Buildings Service, was one of the speakers at the convention who has come under sharp congressional scrutiny after an audit uncovered massive waste at the gathering, including a talent show, open bar and red-carpet party.

Introduced before his speech at the conference as a “platinum big leaguer,” Mr. Foley joked at one point with a colleague: “The hotel would like to talk to you about paying for the party that was held in the commissioner’s suite last night.”

Agency sources confirmed Tuesday that Mr. Foley had returned to the GSA after being out on administrative leave. Officials made no public announcement about Mr. Foley’s return. He was placed on leave in April, the same month he apologized in an appearance before Congress for remarks he made in Las Vegas.
First he gets paid leave, which is akin to a paid vacation, then he quietly resumes his work with no consequences.  Is there no shame left in government?

But Foley isn't the only GSA official who's still taking our money.  From Bloomberg:
Taxpayers may get the multimillionaire-dollar “retirement tab” for a former U.S. General Services Administration official who oversaw an $823,000 Las Vegas conference, a U.S. lawmaker said.

The GSA announced without elaboration yesterday that Jeff Neely no longer worked at the agency. He will probably retire with government payments of more than $100,000 a year, Representative John Mica, a Republican from Florida, said today in a statement.

Mica, chairman of the House Committee on Transportation, planned to investigate the terms of Neely’s departure, according to the statement.

The public shouldn’t have to fund multimillion-dollar deals for “government administrators who abuse their positions and snub their noses at Congress and the American people,” it said.
But what the hell, it's less than the government paid out to the Green Energy gang.

Thanks to The Lonely Conservative for the story pointers.

Questions

From Shark Tank, a Florida political blog, comes this exchange
The progressives who attended Congressman Allen West’s town hall meeting managed to drop some choice questions on the good Congressman. One of the questions was about an alleged Article 15 hearing that he supposedly received in the Army-  never mind the fact that West never received an Article 15 hearing before leaving the Army- West left the military with full honors and his pension.

West took a bit of an issue with the question, and posed one of his own to his detractors:

“If you guys want to go back and talk about what happened nine years ago to me, lets talk about the President doing blow.”- Congressman Allen West
West tells it like it is.  Amazing that the illegal drug activities of Obama just never seem to make it into a MSM story.  At least Clinton didn't inhale.

It's about the motives

From John Hinderaker at Powerline:
White House press secretary Jay Carney was asked about Solyndra. He responded that the government made a number of “green energy” investments; some of the companies failed, but most haven’t (not yet, anyway). So an alert reporter asked Carney how that is any different from Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital experience, which has been so bitterly attacked by Barack Obama. As Romney has often said, Bain made many investments, frequently in troubled companies; most succeeded, but some failed. Carney’s deer-in-the-headlights response is entertaining.

Actually, of course, Bain’s record was far better than the Obama administration’s. There is a good lesson here: Bain’s record was better because it decided to invest based on the numbers, not based on favoritism and political influence.



You see...it's different because Democrats care and Republicans just want to make money. 

Public Equity -- the video

From American Crossroads comes this new ad.



Let's see....we have a choice between a candidate that has made money and a president who has lost money.

Duh!!

Follow the money

From Fox News:

Planned Parenthood, endorsing President Obama Wednesday morning, went after Mitt Romney out of the gate with a new ad buy in crucial swing states accusing the Republican candidate of undermining women's rights. 

No, it's not about undermining "women's rights".  It's about the money that goes with that concept.  Planned Parenthood doesn't care about the "rights" of women.  It does care about continuing the gravy train of government funding that keeps the organization in high cotton.  Look at who supports Obama -- those who are getting something.

Follow the money.  Good advice and never more critical than in this election.  Because this is about OPM.  All of these groups and cronies want OPM to become TM.  Other People's Money into Their Money.   And a large and powerful government is just the instrument to coerce that transfer of wealth.

And we won't even touch the issue of abortion.  Not needed - just keep your eye on the Benjamins (as they say in the 'hood).

You and Thee, but not for me

There is just something that bugs the hell out of the OC -- the smug, sanctimonious nature of those of the Entitlement Culture.  Especially those at the top of that feeding frenzy.  News today of the International Monetary Fund's head Christine Lagarde tells of how it's one set of rules for others and a special set for those who are the "leaders".
It was called her "Let them eat cake" moment. Now Greece will be saying: "Make her pay tax".

The IMF chief Christine Lagarde was accused of hypocrisy yesterday after it emerged that she pays no income tax – just days after blaming the Greeks for causing their financial peril by dodging their own bills.

The managing director of the International Monetary Fund is paid a salary of $467,940 (£298,675), automatically increased every year according to inflation. On top of that she receives an allowance of $83,760 – payable without "justification" – and additional expenses for entertainment, making her total package worth more than the amount received by US President Barack Obama according to reports last night.

Unlike Mr Obama, however, she does not have to pay any tax on this substantial income because of her diplomatic status.
The OC remembers Leona Helmsley who said that it was the "little people" who pay taxes, not her.   As for Lagarde -- nice work if you can get it.

Read the story at the Independent.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Into the Sea

What does an Airbus, the Civil War, the Euro and Greece all have in common.  The great Bill Whittle has it all in this edition of Afterburner.



Thanks to The Right Scoop.

Tuesday evening quote

From Proof Positive:

What's the difference between Enron and the Obama Administration? Enron's accounting was more honest.
Read the whole story.

Another disgraceful day

The highest civilian honor that can be bestowed by the United States is the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  And Obama has once again disgraced his office with his latest selections.

President Obama awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Tuesday to Dolores Huerta, an 82-year-old labor activist and co-founder of the United Farm Workers union.

Huerta is also an honorary chair of the Democratic Socialists of America.

DSA describes itself as “the largest socialist organization in the United States, and the principal U.S. affiliate of the Socialist International.”

Huerta has claimed, “Republicans hate Latinos,” and has spoken fondly of Hugo Chavez’s despotic regime in Venezuela.
Way to go, Barry.

The story is at The Foundry.

Public Equity

The Obama campaign has declared that Romney's time at Bain Capital will be their focus.  I hope they keep up that idea, because it's a net winner for Romney.  Especially if he works to contrast how his private equity work compares with Obama's "public equity" investments.

Marc Thiessen writes in the Washington Post:
Despite a growing backlash from his fellow Democrats, President Obama has doubled down on his attacks on Mitt Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital. But the strategy could backfire in ways Obama did not anticipate. After all, if Romney’s record in private equity is fair game, then so is Obama’s record in public equity — and that record is not pretty.

Since taking office, Obama has invested billions of taxpayer dollars in private businesses, including as part of his stimulus spending bill. Many of those investments have turned out to be unmitigated disasters — leaving in their wake bankruptcies, layoffs, criminal investigations and taxpayers on the hook for billions. Consider just a few examples of Obama’s public equity failures:

● Raser Technologies. In 2010, the Obama administration gave Raser a $33 million taxpayer-funded grant to build a power plant in Beaver Creek, Utah. According to the Wall Street Journal, after burning through our tax dollars, the company filed for bankruptcy protection in 2012. The plant now has fewer than 10 employees, and Raser owes $1.5 million in back taxes.

● ECOtality. The Obama administration gave ECOtality $126.2 million in taxpayer money in 2009 for, among other things, the installation of 14,000 electric car chargers in five states. Obama even hosted the company’s president, Don Karner, in the first lady’s box during the 2010 State of the Union address as an example of a stimulus success story. According to ECOtality’s own SEC filings, the company has since incurred more than $45 million in losses and has told the federal government, “We may not achieve or sustain profitability on a quarterly or annual basis in the future.” 

Much more in the complete article which can be found HERE.

Hat tip to Greg Mankiw for the pointer.

Obama Isn't Working

A new campaign video from the Romney camp, highlighting how Obama's "investments" have been working out.  Or not.  Solyndra, First Solar and others make an appearance.



I like it. Hammer this message.  It's what will both resonate with the voting public and shoot down the whole feel-good hopey changey.  The more Romney can focus on reality, the starker the contrast.  And the better he looks.

Monday, May 28, 2012

Government Economics

From 2010:



How did that work out for government planning?

The DNC's 2012 strategy

Could this be the DNC's playbook for the fall elections?  Hey, it's always worked in Chicago.


Stolen from Moonbattery.

Another socialist

Jon Stewart, fessing up to what he actually is. (And no, it's not being a "moderate")


What I really like is how he manages to think that a socialist is an "independent".  Self-delusion on display.

Thanks to MRC for the video, with a hat tip to Moonbattery.

Our socialist in chief

From Buzzfeed comes this historical note about The One:
It's a reminder that the President presented himself as much more progressive during his time in Chicago. In this little-seen advertisement that ran in the Hyde Park Herald in 1996, Obama was listed on a panel sponsored by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), University of Chicago Democrats, and University of Chicago DSA. He also supported gay marriage back then.


Where is the MSM vetting?

Another troubling nominee

This time, it's at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.  Dr. Robert Zubrin writes at NRO:
Allison Macfarlane is the author of the book Uncertainty Underground: Yucca Mountain and the Nation’s High Level Nuclear Waste. This book, which is endorsed by antinuclear activist Victor Gilinsky, makes the absurd argument that rather than risk unknown consequences 10,000 years in the future should geological conditions affecting remote underground desert repositories change, that high level nuclear waste should continue to be stored in cooling ponds adjacent to nuclear power plants located near heavily populated urban and suburban areas. Thus for Macfarlane, as for Jaczko, the clear goal is to not to make nuclear power as safe as possible — which is the purpose of the NRC — but to make it as unsafe as possible — which is the agenda of those seeking to shut down the nuclear industry.

Macfarlane’s fundamental commitments are thus directly at odds with the purpose of the organization she is being nominated to lead. In addition, Macfarlane has no experience or education in engineering, and is also technically unqualified to lead an organization whose purpose is to intelligently regulate the nuclear industry.

Beyond this, Macfarlane’s bias is also shown by her role as a member of the Science and Security Board of the deeply antinuclear Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Quite understandably, her nomination was instantly hailed by Jaczko’s former sponsors, Reid and Markey.

America does not need a nicer version of Greg Jaczko as head of the NRC. The nation’s effort to create safe and secure nuclear waste storage has been brought to a dead halt because Congressional Republicans fell for Jaczko’s transparently dishonest protestations of objectivity. They should not make the same mistake with Macfarlane. Her nomination should be categorically rejected.
Well put.  Tell your Senators.

Best general

Michael Walsh, over at NRO's The Corner comments on a poll asking for America's best general.
I think you can make a strong case for Patton, who would certainly be my No. 3. Audacious, daring, an Olympic pentathlete, the Army’s Master of the Sword, Patton cut his teeth on Pershing’s pursuit of Pancho Villa, then fought in World War I before finding eternal glory in World War II. But Patton was never the army’s top commander, and was subordinate to Ike, who was general of the Army and supreme allied commander.

All Eisenhower did was save the world, so let’s put him at No. 2.

Which leaves Ulysses S. Grant. Please spare me the southern pride in Lee, who may have been a tactical genius but as a strategist was a loser. Lee lost to Meade at Gettysburg, the only time he tried to take the fight to the North. Lee’s reputation in part rests on his personal honor and his gallant-loser status.

Which leaves us with Grant.

Forget the world; Grant saved the Union by crushing Lee and the rebels through force of will and scorched-earth tactics. Like all great commanders, Grant understood that real victory came only when the opponent’s will to fight was destroyed; after he got finished with the Confederacy, “the South shall rise again” could never be more than a resentful slogan. Adopting the outlines of Scott’s strategy, Grant executed brilliantly, defeating the South along the Mississippi, then turning Sherman and Sheridan loose in the interior, making Appomattox inevitable. With Grant, there was no exit strategy, no accommodation, no negotiation, and no bipartisanship. Just total victory and unconditional surrender.

As president, too, he applied the same tactics to the defeated South, enforcing civil rights for blacks and crushing the Klan, aka the terrorist wing of the Democratic party.

In the midst of our own Cold Civil War, America could use a man like Grant again.
I agree completely.

Diplomacy at its finest?

From Yahoo News comes this account of diplomats in action.
United Nations special envoy Kofi Annan arrived on Monday in Damascus to meet with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad on the heels of a weekend massacre that left more than 100 people--including what appeared to be "rows of bloody children"--dead.

On Sunday, the U.N. Security Council condemned the killings "in the strongest possible terms" and called for an independent investigation.

"I have come to Syria at a critical moment in this crisis," Annan said in a statement upon his arrival. "I am personally shocked and horrified by the tragic incident in Houla two days ago, which took so many innocent lives, children, women and men. This was an appalling crime, and the [U.N.] Security Council has rightly condemned it."
Ooooohh.....strongest possible terms. Hiroshima was strongest possible terms. Normandy was strongest possible terms. But for the UN, it means "we won't invite you to be on the Human Rights Council, alongside such darlings as China, Cuba, Jordan, Libya, Russia and Saudi Arabia". Or we won't invite you to our next embassy reception.

I just love how Kofi says:
"I intend to have serious and frank discussions with President Bashar Al-Assad."
Nice deal you have there.  You oversaw the completely corrupt "oil for food" program, yet you are still feeding at the UN trough.  And accomplishing nothing.

Al Capone once said "You can go further with a kind word and a gun, than with a kind word alone." One well-placed Tomahawk cruise missile could solve this issue.  Sure there would be some collateral damage.  But it would accomplish far more than all the talking that Annan and the UN will do over the next several months.

Never forget


Sunday, May 27, 2012

The Boston Globe weighs in

When you are a Bay State Democrat and the Boston Globe says even a little something that isn't fawning adoration, you're in trouble.  From Saturday's Globe comes these words starting a long article on Fauxcahontas, aka Elizabeth Warren.

US Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren has said she was unaware that Harvard Law School had been promoting her purported Native American heritage until she read about it in a newspaper several weeks ago.

But for at least six straight years during Warren’s tenure, Harvard University reported in federally mandated diversity statistics that it had a Native American woman in its senior ranks at the law school. According to both Harvard officials and federal guidelines, those statistics are almost always based on the way employees describe themselves.

In addition, both Harvard’s guidelines and federal regulations for the statistics lay out a specific definition of Native American that Warren does not meet.

The documents suggest for the first time that either Warren or a Harvard administrator classified her repeatedly as Native American in papers prepared for the government in a way that apparently did not adhere to federal diversity guidelines. They raise further questions about Warren’s statements that she was unaware Harvard was promoting her as Native American.
Much more to read in the Globe article.

Two years ago in California

Byron York, writing at the Washington Examiner, looks back to a day two years ago.
Two years ago today, May 26, 2010, President Obama traveled to Fremont, California to showcase a "brighter and more prosperous future" promised by the green-energy company Solyndra.

The solar panel maker went bankrupt last year, taking with it $535 million in taxpayer-funded loan guarantees.  More than 1,000 people lost their jobs.  The Obama administration had cut corners to rush money to Solyndra, with some of the beneficiaries being top Obama fundraisers.  Even as Solyndra failed, the administration considered giving it another $469 million.

But on this day in 2010, with Solyndra already facing serious obstacles, President Obama was filled with optimism. "The true engine of economic growth will always be companies like Solyndra," the president said.  "Less than a year ago, we were standing on what was an empty lot.  But through the Recovery Act, this company received a loan to expand its operations.  This new factory is the result of those loans."

"We've placed a big emphasis on clean energy," Obama continued.  "It’s the right thing to do for our environment, it’s the right thing to do for our national security, but it’s also the right thing to do for our economy…When it’s completed in a few months, Solyndra expects to hire a thousand workers to manufacture solar panels and sell them across America and around the world."

"It's happening right now.  The future is here," Obama said.  "It's here that companies like Solyndra are leading the way toward a brighter and more prosperous future."

Fifteen months later, Solyndra was bankrupt, and that taxpayers' money was lost.
Taxpayer's money.  Try this little exercise from now until November....everytime you hear "taxpayer's money", substitute "my money".  And realize how much has been either outright wasted or sent to prop up a crony of Obama.

If you have a strong stomach, the entire text of Obama's speech at Solyndra is included in York's article at the above link.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Election Proverb

Chinese proverb

Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

Updated Version 2012:

Give a man a welfare check; free cell phone with free monthly minutes; cash for clunker autos; food stamps; Section 8 housing; free contraceptives; Medicaid, a hundred weeks+ of unemployment checks; a 40-ounce malt liquor; access to drugs and designer Air Jordan shoes; and he will vote Democrat for a lifetime (Or, at least on November 6, 2012, which is all Obama really cares about anyway).
Posted at Theo Spark.

Eurozone Crisis Quote

Credit Suisse quote: "The market is currently like a strapless bra; half of us are wondering what is holding it up and the other half are waiting for it to drop so they can grab the opportunity with both hands".

Hat tip to Theo Spark.

Between a rock and a Harvard place

Senator Scott Brown (R-MA) called on Harvard University today to correct the record on Elizabeth Warren’s false claims of Cherokee ancestry. Harvard claimed for years to have a Native American woman on the faculty in federally mandated diversity statistics, based on Warren’s claims about her own heritage – claims that have fallen apart under scrutiny.

“She falsely describes herself as a minority and some of the schools where she worked relied on that information to misrepresent the diversity of their faculty,” Brown said to the Boston Globe. “I call on Harvard President [Drew] Faust to immediately correct the record with the relevant federal agencies and uphold Harvard’s 400-year-old tradition of abiding by the truth.”

Despite Brown’s prior demands that Harvard come clean about its use of Warren for federal diversity purposes, Harvard has stonewalled.
From Breitbart.

Fauxcahontas

From Breitbart:
Breitbart News has uncovered exclusive new evidence that in the spring of 1993, three years before Harvard Law School first publicly stated she was “a woman of color,” Elizabeth Warren likely made that claim while teaching at Harvard, and at approximately the same time the faculty was considering her for a tenured position. Warren, now running for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts, told Politico as recently as May 15 that she had “no idea” why a Harvard Law School spokesman called her a “woman of color” in a 1996 Harvard Crimson article and a 1997 Fordham Law Review article. However, a 1993 issue of the Harvard Women’s Law Journal suggests that she knew very well indeed.

An article, “Women of Color in Legal Academia: A Biographic and Bibliographic Guide,” which was published by the Harvard Women’s Law Journal (since renamed the Harvard Journal of Law and Gender) in its Spring 1993 edition (Volume 16), lists Warren as one of approximately 250 “women of color” in legal academia.
More at the link above.

In the tank?

Brent Bozell writes about our unbiased media in a column at Townhall:
You'd think the largest legal action in American history in defense of religious liberty would be a major news story. But ABC, CBS and NBC don't judge news events by their inherent importance as relates to the future of our freedoms. They deliver the news according to a simple formula: Does it or doesn't it advance the re-election of Barack Obama?

If it doesn't, it isn't news.

On May 21, 43 Catholic dioceses and organizations sued the Obama administration over its ridiculously narrow idea of how a "religious institution" can be defined under the Obamacare law. Never has the Catholic Church -- or any order, for that matter -- undertaken something of this magnitude. It's truly jaw-dropping that ABC and NBC completely ignored this action on their evening newscasts, while "CBS Evening News" devoted just 19 seconds to this historic event.

No, let's be blunt: They spiked the news.

This is the worst example of shameless bias by omission I have seen in the quarter-century history of the Media Research Center. We recall the Chinese Communists withholding from its citizenry for 20 years the news that the U.S. had landed on the moon because it reflected poorly on their government. Never, never would the U.S. "news" media behave thusly -- they just did.

This is not an honest mistake. It was not an editorial oversight by the broadcast networks. It did not occur too late for the evening deadline. This was a deliberate and insidious withholding of national news to protect the "Chosen One" who ABC, CBS and NBC have worked so hard to elect and for whom they are now abusing their journalistic influence. Even when CBS mentioned the suit -- ever so briefly -- like so many others, they deliberately distorted the issue by framing it as a contraception lawsuit when it is a much broader religious freedom issue -- and they know it.

This should be seen as a very dark cloud on Obama's political horizon. The Catholic Church, with 60 million Americans describing themselves as Catholic, has unleashed legal Armageddon on the administration, promising "we will not comply" with a health law that strips Catholics of their religious liberty. If this isn't "news," then there's no such thing as news.

This should be leading newscasts and the subject of special, in-depth reports. So what trumped this story? ABC led their evening broadcast and devoted an incredible 3 minutes and 30 seconds to the sentencing of the Rutgers student who spied on his gay roommate with a web camera. NBC aired an entire story on a lunar eclipse. Both CBS and NBC devoted their first 3 minutes and 30 seconds to prostate-cancer screening.
Add in the deafening silence about Edward Klein's book "The Amateur" and it is clear....they continue to be the propaganda arm of the Obama White House.

Hat tip to What If? for the pointer.

Our judiciary in action

Jonathan Adler writes at the Volokh Conspiracy about judicial rulings in the area of capital punishment.

Back in the 1980s, some death penalty abolitionists came up with the clever idea to sue the Food and Drug Administration to force the regulation of drugs used for lethal injection. Because drugs used for lethal injection could not be considered “safe and effective” for this use — at least not as far as the recipient is concerned — the advocates hoped this would force the FDA to ban the use of these drugs for lethal injection. It was a clever strategy but, as they say, it was too clever by half. The case worked its way up to the Supreme Court where, in Heckler v. Chaney, the Supreme Court held the FDA Commissioner’s decision not to initiate enforcement proceedings against the use of these drugs for lethal injection.

The current cocktail used for lethal injection includes two drugs, one of which (sodium thiopental) is not produced in the U.S. and must be imported. This gave some death penalty opponents the idea to try again, this time alleging that the FDA violated federal law by allowing the importation of sodium thiopental without first ensuring it is effective. They sued in federal district court, and won. In Beaty v. Food and Drug Administration, Judge Richard Leon concluded that because the FDA had not approved sodium thiopental for lethal injection the agency was required to prevent its importation.

The fight’s not over, however, as the FDA plans to appeal. Some states, such as California, also appear ready to resist the ruling and are refusing to return their supplies to the FDA, likely due to hope or anticipation that Judge Leon’s opinion will be overturned on appeal. 
There's a simple solution.  Go back to hanging or firing squad.  Maybe the electric chair.  If you don't use a lethal drug or gas, there's nothing for the FDA to regulate. 

Ministry of Propaganda

No, I'm not referring to ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC and the New York Times.  Buzzfeed brings us the story of legalizing domestic propaganda by the government.
An amendment that would legalize the use of propaganda on American audiences is being inserted into the latest defense authorization bill, BuzzFeed has learned.

The amendment would “strike the current ban on domestic dissemination” of propaganda material produced by the State Department and the independent Broadcasting Board of Governors, according to the summary of the law at the House Rules Committee's official website.

The tweak to the bill would essentially neutralize two previous acts—the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 and Foreign Relations Authorization Act in 1987—that had been passed to protect U.S. audiences from our own government’s misinformation campaigns. 

Moonbattery passes on some possible new poster art from the government, designed by The People's Cube.




Who's "War on Women"

From the Gateway Pundit comes this story from Wisconsin:
You just can’t make this up!

Milwaukee Democrat Mayor Tom Barrett held a rally to recall Governor Scott Walker on May 19 at Washington Park in Milwaukee. Immediately after Tom Barrett blasted Republicans for the so-called “War on Women” he turned the stage over to gangsta rapper Prophetic (aka “Proph”).

As Barrett was off to the side of the stage shaking hands and taking pictures “Proph” launched into his first number, “Sucka MCs,” about “bitches who ride me” and “make a nigga comfortable” because “cash make the women shake they asses” so “get (on) the tour bus, bitch.”
Video at the Gateway Pundit link above.

Hat tip to Moonbattery, who also provided this commentary:
Liberal hypocrisy. Its sheer mass warps time and space.
Yep.  Calling Stephen Hawking.

Logic for today

From Liberal Logic 101:


Via Moonbattery.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Today's quote from history

"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.”

--H. L. Mencken

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Where are the loyalties?

From Moonbattery comes this video link as well as a wise bit of commentary:



What matters isn’t so much where the Manchurian Moonbat was born, but where his loyalties lie. The Bitter Half confirms that his “home country” is not the USA.
Whether or not The One was born in Kenya or Hawaii or who know where, the one thing clear is that he does not believe in America, nor is America in his heart and soul.  And Mooshelle agrees.

League of Progressive Women Voters?

From J. Christian Adams at PJ Media comes this story on the League of Women Voters.  It surprised even the OC.

For decades, the League of Women Voters have presented themselves as an oracle of election related wisdom.  They have sponsored Presidential debates.  They will be cited by the media over and over again this year.

The American public has been hoodwinked into thinking the League of Women Voters is a non-ideological good government group.  After all, the group purports to be nonpartisan.  The League has used the non-partisan brand to increase their credibility to government election officials and the American public.

2012 should mark the end of that charade.  Next time you see the League cited in a news story, be aware of their broad, pro-Democrat party agenda.

When I recently appeared on Al Jazerra and said that the League of Women voters could hardly be called non-partisan, co-guest John Nichols, from The Nation exploded as if I had committed blasphemy.  Nichols rushed to defend the honor of the poor women.
The League of Women Voters are merely focused on the smooth running of elections, right?
Wrong.  Let’s just take a glance at the webpage of the League of Women Voters in Virginia.  Here is a sampling of the stated real issues they are fighting over:
against: “pre-abortion ultrasound”
for: “Access to Women’s Health Care”
In case you didn’t understand it the first two times: “Abortion.”
"regionally balanced transportation systems”
“increase the use of public transportation”
“legal authority to control the use of land. Stronger state control”
“Wetlands”
“Endeavor to prevent mental illness”
“Adoption of the California Standards for low emission vehicles”
“A more progressive state income tax, with an increase in the number of income brackets and a raise in the rates in higher brackets”
“In divorce fault should not enter into the court’s division of marital property. ”
“the state has a role to play in child care . . . [and the government should provide some] form of financial assistance to increase the affordability and availability of child care.”
“smoking in public should be limited to designated areas”
 My eyes are opened.  I hope others eventually get this news.  Share with a friend.

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Vindication

Food for thought.


From Potluck.

Anti-electron??

Well, given that electrons provide the means to record and play back events from the past, the Obama-Biden campaign may wish that Edison and Tesla had never been born.  The RNC uses the past to slam the current Obama campaign.



In the book 1984, the government was continually re-writing history to suit its aims.  Luckily, we still have the ability to go back in time to see what really happened.

H/T to Weasel Zippers.

The One....he's just great

From American Crossroads comes the second in their video series "Great".  Especially listen to the voice-over at the end.



And for those who may have missed the first in the series:



Lots of little subtle zingers....such as the Solyndra reference in the title slide of the first vid.

Hat tip to Weasel Zippers for the links.

The Constitution and Cafeterias

Rep. Rob Bishop talks about the food police and how Congress made a mistake.



"We are now in the silly system".  How true.

Aside from having unemployed bureaucrats, what would really go wrong if we just eliminated tons of agencies and departments?

Thanks to I Own the World for the video.

At Georgetown

Kathleen Sebelius was a commencement speaker at Georgetown and received a bit of the left's own medicine.




She says "I have spent my whole life in public service."  That's the problem in a nutshell.  I'd be ashamed to say that.

Hat tip to I Own the World for the link to Fire Andrea Mitchell.

Elizabeth Warren....the Musical

From a group called the Republican Party Animals comes this gem.  Pay close attention to the lyrics, especially when a "familiar" political face appears on the screen.  You may have to replay it to catch it all, but worth it, especially the shots at Clinton and Weiner.





Political Homonym

From the brilliant Michael Ramirez:



Friday, May 18, 2012

And in news from Brussels

When is wine not wine? When totalitarian EU bureauweenies demand that you call it a “fruit-derived alcoholic beverage made from produce imported from outside the European Union”:




Still more evidence that there is no situation that a government bureaucrat can't stick their nose into and make worse.  Hat tip to Moonbattery.


Thoughts on the agent

Via Powerline, posted on the Facebook account of Tom Lipscomb:
IF YOU WANT A LITERARY AGENCY THAT WILL LIE FOR YOU OUTRAGEOUSLY TRY DYSTEL AND GOEDERICH

A limp statement was squirted out yesterday after the Breitbart item appeared that a woman who worked at the time as a low level assistant at Acton and Dystel, then Obama’s agent (and is now the Goederich who is Dystel’s partner) was now taking full responsibility for making an “error.”

As someone who has run a number of top bestseller publishers, I think this is an amazing MIRACLE.

It is the ONLY case I have ever heard of in which an editorial assistant INVENTED a biographical detail. I have heard of typos, wrong dates, misspellings of names. But to pick a really weird country of origin like Kenya for an author?

NEVER.

After all where do the bios come from? We don’t make them up. And neither did Dystel & Goederich. They come from the authors, like Obama. No one has ever invented a detail like that, and the authors usually review them and scream like hell if we get them wrong.

Can Dystel and Goedrich show us the correction appeal letter they got from Obama about the Kenya birth in over 10 years of using this bio? Or any other incident from any other publisher or agent that is similar to this “error?”

I really don’t care where Obama was born. The continued degeneration of the press in passing on hilarious nonsense as fact is a lot more serious problem. Give Dystel & Goederich the Rose Mary Woods Memorial Award for the Most Absurd Lie to Protect a President of the Year.

Thomas Lipscomb
Senior Fellow
Annenberg Center for the Digital Future (USC)

Food Police

From The Lonely Conservative:

A Utah high school will have to take money from its budget to pay a $15,000 fine to the federal government for leaving a soda vending machine turned on during lunch. Davis High routinely turned off the lunchroom machine during the lunch hour, but forgot to turn off a machine in the library. Somehow the food police got wind of it and the school was punished. What’s ridiculous is that the kids are free to buy soda before lunch, and drink it with lunch, they just can’t buy it during lunch. Thanks to the feds school has lost every cent raised through vending machine sales this year.
A fine for having a vending machine turned on?  This is government run amok, all in the name of protecting you from yourself.  When will America say "Enough is Enough"??

It reminds me of the old line that Popeye used to say before grabbing the spinach: "I've had enough, and enough is too much, I can't stands no more!"

Lovitz and Kelly

Great video of John Lovitz talking with Megyn Kelly.  I love how this lifelong Democrat has opened his eyes to Obama.  Even better, he's speaking out.  As he notes, "People are thanking me for saying what they were already thinking."  Which is so true.  Too many Americans are afraid of saying what they feel for fear of being branded as "racist" or "fascist" or any number of other slams.

Watch and share.

Crony Cheeseheads

From the Washington Free Beacon:
Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett, who is running against Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in the upcoming state recall election, allegedly awarded illegal no-bid contracts to a campaign donor, according to two metal recycling firms who are threatening to sue the city.

The two firms claim they were shut out of business by a third company that obtained exclusive contracts through the city. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports:

A lawyer for Mill Valley Recycling and Waukesha Iron & Metal filed a notice of claim Tuesday, saying they will sue if the city doesn’t rescind its ongoing contract with Miller Compressing and offer other companies the opportunity to bid on the work. …

A contract was awarded to Miller [...] after bidding in 1990 and 1994. The latter was “privately extended” through 2000 without competitive bidding, according to the claim notice. In 2001, when the contract had expired, it was extended “in secret and without public bid” on a month-to-month basis to October 2003, when the parties entered a contract until 2005, and then until 2009.

The other firms contend that the public works commissioner has never made a formal determination that it was best to go without a contract.

In 2010, Miller Compression gave $10,500 to Barrett in campaign contributions immediately after the company was awarded another no-bid contract in 2009.

Republican Party of Wisconsin Communications Director Ben Sparks said in a statement that the arrangement “reeks of pay-to-play politics.”

“Tom Barrett giving away lucrative no-bid contracts to his campaign donors, all while increasing wasteful government spending by $300 million, simply highlights his gross mismanagement of the City of Milwaukee,” Sparks said.

The Barrett campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Milwaukee isn't that far away from Chicago, in more ways than one.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Riffing off DirecTV

The Other McCain relays on a comment made at the WSJ blog.  If you like the DirecTV ads featuring the "chain of events" theme, read this in that style.  (And for another takeoff, see this OC post with a funny video).

When you vote for Obama based on “Hope and Change” you get suckered.
When you get suckered you cry in front of your girlfriend during acceptance speeches.
When you cry in front of your girlfriend during acceptance speeches, she questions your manhood.
When your girlfriend questions your manhood she has doubts.
When she has doubts, she leaves you.
When she leaves you, you question why you voted for Obama.
When you question why you voted for Obama, you surround yourself with other delusional people with degrees in theatre who voted for Obama.
When you surround yourself with other delusional people with degrees in theatre who voted for Obama, you crap in the streets, destroy property, and live in your parents basement.
When you crap in the streets, destroy property and live in your parents basement, you lash out.
When you lash out, you ignore facts and reason.
When you ignore facts and reason, you blame others for your failures.
When you blame others for your failures, you post stupid comments on chat forums.
When you post stupid comments on chat forums your ex-girlfriend reads them.
When your ex-girlfriend reads them she thinks “I am glad I matured and dumped that loser”.
Don’t get suckered again — switch to Mitt Romney.

Follow the money

You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.  From Breitbart:
Eric Whitaker, one of Barack Obama’s closest friends and Michelle Obama’s former colleague at the University of Chicago Medical Center, allegedly offered to bribe Jeremiah Wright $150,000 into shutting up during the 2008 presidential campaign, according to Edward Klein, author of a new book about the Obamas. Obama allegedly met with Wright ten days after giving his famous race speech and pleaded with him to be quiet and cancel his speaking engagements, but Wright refused.

The news of Whitaker’s alleged bribery comes just days after theDepartment of Health and Human Services awarded a $5.9 million grant to Whitaker’s Urban Health Initiative (UHI) at the University of Chicago Medical Center, and months after Whitaker served on a host committee for a January Chicago fundraiser for Obama. In 2011, the feds sent four subpoenas to Whitaker-funded organizations.

UHI is one such program he now heads as a vice president at the University of Chicago. It was one of only 26 grantees awarded out of an applicant pool of more than 3,000. Interestingly, none other than Michelle Obama worked at UHI and received a six-figure salary increase just after her husband was elected to the U.S. Senate. (Her position was eliminated after the Obamas left for the White House.)

Whitaker, who is a parishioner at Trinity United Church of Christ, would have had ample opportunity to bribe Wright. In fact, he may have felt like he owed Obama. In April 2003, Whitaker landed the job as director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, where he oversaw a $400 million budget, until he resigned in October 2007 to serve as an executive at UHI. Obama apparently got him the job by hooking him up with Tony Rezko.

Van Jones pulling punches

Bretibart posts the video of Van Jones speaking on CSpan2 where he says:
Van Jones: “When the oil spill had happened in the spring of 2010, there was another moment to say, ‘Hold on a second, let’s relook at energy policy in America. Should we be subsidizing companies who are risking our health immediately and in the long-term?’” We didn’t do it. You’ve never seen the environmental movement more quiet during an oil spill. I guarantee you, if John McCain had been President, with that oil spill, or George Bush had been President with that oil spill, I’d have been out there with a sign protesting. I didn’t, because of who the President was. Well, that’s a bad, uh, uh…that’s not good for the earth, it’s not good for the cause, it’s probably not good for the President. It’s certainly not the way we should conduct ourselves. And so, I’m very tough on progressive movements and leaders, including myself, who did not stand on principle, based upon who we looked across and saw as President." 
Remember that when progressives brag how principled they are.  They're not.  It's all about protecting their guy.

Shapeshifter in Chief??

Breitbart brings more vetting to The One.  While explicitly not being a "birther" accusation, it hits home with the narrative of the non-vetting of Obama by the MSM in 2008.  Here is the introduction:
Note from Senior Management:

Andrew Breitbart was never a "Birther," and Breitbart News is a site that has never advocated the narrative of "Birtherism." In fact, Andrew believed, as we do, that President Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on August 4, 1961.

Yet Andrew also believed that the complicit mainstream media had refused to examine President Obama's ideological past, or the carefully crafted persona he and his advisers had constructed for him.

It is for that reason that we launched "The Vetting," an ongoing series in which we explore the ideological background of President Obama (and other presidential candidates)--not to re-litigate 2008, but because ideas and actions have consequences.

It is also in that spirit that we discovered, and now present, the booklet described below--one that includes a marketing pitch for a forthcoming book by a then-young, otherwise unknown former president of the Harvard Law Review

It is evidence--not of the President's foreign origin, but that Barack Obama's public persona has perhaps been presented differently at different times.
The story then continues:
Breitbart News has obtained a promotional booklet produced in 1991 by Barack Obama's then-literary agency, Acton & Dystel, which touts Obama as "born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii."

The booklet, which was distributed to "business colleagues" in the publishing industry, includes a brief biography of Obama among the biographies of eighty-nine other authors represented by Acton & Dystel.

It also promotes Obama's anticipated first book, Journeys in Black and White--which Obama abandoned, later publishing Dreams from My Father instead.

Obama’s biography in the booklet is as follows (image and text below):
And then comes the image from the brochure.  In living color, we see:


So, just what is the story?  How many different ways will his background be presented?  Breitbart's article sums it up like this:
The biography does, however, fit a pattern in which Obama--or the people representing and supporting him--manipulate his public persona.
If they ever remake the TV show Deep Space Nine, Obama might well be the natural casting for Odo, the Changling shapeshifter.

Read the complete article HERE.

Government made cell phones?

From the American Enterprise Institute comes this snippet from Mitt Romney's economic speech in Iowa discussing the difference between government and the private sector:
During my time in business and in state government, I came to see the economy as having three big players – the private sector, the states and localities and the federal government.

Of these three, the private sector is by far the most efficient and cost effective. That’s because scores of businesses and thousands of entrepreneurs are competing every day to find a way to deliver a product or a service that is better than anyone else’s. Think about smart phones. Blackberry got things going. Then Apple introduced the iPhone. Now the Android platform leads the market. In the world of free enterprise, competition brings us better and better products at lower and lower cost. Innovate and change or you go out of business. And the customer — us — benefits. …

Imagine if the federal government was the sole legal supplier of cell phones. First, they’d still be under review, with hearings in Congress. When finally approved, the contract to make them would go to an Obama donor. They’d be the size of a shoe, with a collapsible solar panel. And campaign donors would be competing to become the all-powerful app czar.

My point is this: As President Obama and old-school liberals absorb more and more of our economy into government, they make what we do more expensive, less efficient and less useful. They make America less competitive. They make government more expensive.

What President Obama is doing is not bold; it’s old.

Just what does government do better?


Situation Room update

Scott Johnson at Powerline shares this new photo.  I'll let him give the details.
A friend sends along this revealing look inside the situation room at the team that got Osama bin Laden. If you’ve been following the Obama campaign so far, you may be led to believe that this photo more fairly distributes the credit for the operation than the more widely circulated photo and related accounts, such as Peter Bergen’s Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden–From 9/11 to Abbotobad (reviewed here by Joshua Sinai).

The New Road to Serfdom

John Stossel plus Daniel Hannan.  Five minutes of grand rationality and wisdom.  At the 2:35 mark, we have Nannan's great words to Gordon Brown:  "The truth, Prime Minister, is that you have run out of our money.  The country as a whole is now in negative equity. Every British child is born owing around 20,000 pounds."



Why don't we have a political leader who's honest enough to say that for America?

For Hannan's original speech, see it here at You Tube.

Hat tip to Moonbattery for the pointer.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Broken Promises

From Crossroads GPS comes a video on those broken promises of our Politician in Chief.



Via The Lonely Conservative, who has the text of the press release that accompanied the video.

Most transparent....ever

From BuzzFeed Politics comes news of the physical shakedown of donors....or at least their electronics:

In the latest attempt to crack down on potentially embarrassing digital leaks from presidential fundraisers, President Barack Obama's campaign has begun asking donors attending small fundraisers with the president to turn over their cell phones before entering.

Pool reporter David Nakamura of the Washington Post reported that at a $35,800 a head fundraiser at the home of Blackstone COO Hamilton “Tony” James in New York City Monday night, the 60 attendees were asked to place their phones in plastic bags by the door.

An Obama aide called the move it "standard operating procedure," but veterans of a range of other campaigns said they'd never heard of the practice, which is common in secure White House spaces where there are concerns of espionage, but unknown in contexts in which only political secrets are discussed. The new prevalence of sophisticated audio and recording capacities in mobile devices owned by virtually anyone wealthy enough to write a check to a political campaign, however, has put a new pressure on campaigns concerned with staying on a public message.

The fundraising sessions are one of the last vestige of privacy for the president outside of the White House, and a rare opportunity for top donors to hear relatively unscripted remarks by the most powerful man in the world, and to ask him questions. Obama's prepared remarks at the events are open press and covered by a small group of reporters, but the "press pool" is escorted out of the room before the Q&A period.

At Romney fundraisers, attendees are greeted to signs of "Please, no audio or video recording," and like Obama events, larger fundraisers are open to reporters; a Romney spokesperson, however, told BuzzFeed that their campaign allows donors to keep their phones during fundraisers.

Former aides to presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Rick Perry, and Jon Huntsman all expressed surprise at the practice, and they've never seen an instance where a campaign asked donors to surrender their cell phones.

The former Clinton aide called the Obama policy "absurd," suggesting that the Obama policy is almost certainly a response to the infamous 2008 fundraiser where Obama described voters in rural Pennsylvania as "bitter."
Yep.  Can't allow the public to know what you really think.  Or at least those bitter clingers.

Hat tip to Legal Insurrection via I Own the World.

Welcome

For those of you coming over from Moonbattery, a big OC welcome.

Hopefully you'll find items to keep you amused, enraged, informed and engaged.  Comments are always welcome and news tips are always in order.

And finally, a big thanks to Moonbattery for the link!

Meanwhile in Athens

The flight (or non-flight) of money from Greek bank accounts continues to befuddle analysts.
The amazing thing about the Greek banking system since 2009 is not just the 25 to 30 per cent of deposits that have left, but the 70-75 per cent which have stayed. They have stayed through two years of Greece transparently getting closer to leaving the euro and turning these deposits into drachma. We’re being serious. It’s a real challenge to prospect theory. Up to €170bn remained in banks at the end of March.

Although deposits clearly do respond to politics — the Greek President made that fairly clear this week — they have tracked the rate of Greece’s economic decline since 2009 pretty closely too. Maybe that says something about general pressure on Greek household wealth, as a driver of deposit flows. In any case, depositor flight has been what Gabriel Sterne, an economist at Exotix, has previously called a ‘bank jog’. Something to think about. What it becomes now with a month to go before fresh elections is another question.
From the Financial Times, with a hat tip to Richard Fernandez for the pointer.

The Dear Leader

Great video from the Daily Caller.  It actually felt kind of creepy - watch it yourself.


Hat tip to I Own the World.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Why now?

That's one of the questions I have regarding this release of information in the Zimmerman-Martin affair.
Court records show George Zimmerman had a pair of black eyes, a nose fracture and two cuts to the back of his head after the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

The medical records were part of evidence released Tuesday that prosecutors have in the second-degree murder case against Zimmerman. He has entered a plea of not guilty and claims self-defense in the Feb. 26 shooting. A message left Tuesday evening with Zimmerman's attorney was not immediately returned.
Did the special prosecutor have this at the time charges were filed?  Did police have knowledge of these records?  Why is this being released now?  Why is court evidence being released to the public prior to trial?

My own hypothesis.  Prosecutors are going to either drop the charges or significantly reduce them.  Rather than have a Rodney King type situation erupt at that news, or a backlash against the prosecutor and police, they are trying to pave the way for the news with releases of information that shows there's no case to be made against Zimmerman.

Let's see what plays out.  Thanks to Fox News for the story.

He must hate video recording

From the RNC:



Obama's own words are the best argument against Hope & Change, Part II this fall.

Running on Empty

The Obama economy....running on empty.


The Romney campaign has shown that it is willing to throw The One's words back at him, and expose it as hot air.  I only hope they turn up the heat even more in the months ahead.

From Moonbattery and Red State.

The Diversity Racket

More of Victor Davis Hanson at NRO:
It is really amazing that Elizabeth Warren, in Orwellian fashion, continues to say, “I’m proud of my Native American heritage” after being caught in a blatant deception, in which even her theoretical claim of being a Native American on the dubious basis of a great-great-great grandparent was not substantiated. I guess some of us are on a different planet, because both Warren and Harvard University seem to have been unethical at best and unlawful at worst — if she or anyone from the Law School (no less!) signed forms or affidavits attesting to Warren’s Native American status in accordance with federal affirmative action/diversity guidelines. Fabricating an entire identity seems to me right up there with plagiarism, and yet neither Harvard nor Warren is the least bit troubled by the fact that at the heart of this scandal is an outright lie, both spoken and written. How many Harvard Law Schools or Elizabeth Warrens are there out there in academia, that have been untruthful in assessing their diversity profiles, and is that the reason for the complete silence on this matter from various professional academic and scholarly associations?

There's a real story here, if we had real journalists in the MSM.

A Message?

From Iain Murray comes this analysis of a news item:
Hollande’s Plane Struck by Lightning on Way to Germany

Yes, seriously.

There will be some who view this as a divine warning. Others will joke that it has something to do with Zeus and the Greek crisis.

As for me, I think it is the first strike by The Avengers on European socialism. The Mighty Thor led the way. Up next, The Hulk, who will smash France’s economy.
 If only that could be true.

Where is Europe heading?

Victor Davis Hanson has these thoughts:

Over the last four years, almost all of the news about the shaky European Union has been financial, with some attention paid to southern Mediterranean tabloid attacks on Germany and the German media counter-stereotyping of irresponsible siesta-loving sunny Mediterraneans.
But as Greece falls apart, and as panic spreads to other debtors, we are starting to see a stage II political crisis, with socialists and extremists, both left and right, revolting over “austerity” — or rather over the mere taste of austerity that has never been really swallowed in whole. But all the defiant nationalist showboating and whipping up of domestic constituents will not bring salvation, just more polarization outside their borders. (Witness Greek “nationalists” damning Germans as Nazis as they use war-guilt and conspiracy theory to beg Germany for more money without ever acknowledging why it is that they are in need of it.)

So what’s next? Unless there is some sort of miraculous political fix, the bankruptcy and internal volatility will start to transcend domestic politics and manifest itself, as it always has in Europe, in blame-gaming against “them” (pick your foreign bogeyman). Then the question will be not just a common currency but the very viability of the European Union itself, and perhaps of the NATO alliance, such as it is in its present eroding state.

Not since 1940 has Europe found itself so weak and incoherent in comparison to a unified and solvent Germany. And the present disconnect of nations that did most things wrong publicly demonizing Germans for doing most things right — while privately begging them for more bailout cash and guarantees — simply is politically untenable. If this continues, I would not be surprised to see a Mediterranean Franco, Salazar, Mussolini, or Metaxas emerge soon, albeit in pinstripes and with a tasteful villa on the Mediterranean.

The lead-from-behind U.S. is of little or no help. While private consensus grows in Europe that the entitlement state got them into this mess, we in America are racing to embrace the old failed EU paradigm of exploding unfunded entitlements, vast deficits, high taxes, bigger government, and class warfare. And as our first “Pacific president” turns toward Asia, and cuts back on defense, the message is that the U.S. has neither the will nor the resources to offer any financial, military, or political guidance to Europe. We simply are no longer a credible alternative model or a reliable partner for Europe, either materially or financially. In Thursday’s column I will suggest that the long-term political worry may not be the present cheap demonization of Germany — but just how long Germany is going to put up with it.
Hanson is, by training and experience, a historian.  One who can look at the past and see into the future.  And a wise one at that.

Reprinted in full from NRO's The Corner.

Narcissist in Chief - Again

From Commentary comes more evidence that it is all about The One:
Many of President Obama’s fervent devotees are young enough not to have much memory of the political world before the arrival of The One. Coincidentally, Obama himself feels the same way—and the White House’s official website reflects that.

The Heritage Foundation’s Rory Cooper tweeted that Obama had casually dropped his own name into Ronald Reagan’s official biography on www.whitehouse.gov, claiming credit for taking up the mantle of Reagan’s tax reform advocacy with his “Buffett Rule” gimmick. My first thought was, he must be joking. But he wasn’t—it turns out Obama has added bullet points bragging about his own accomplishments to the biographical sketches of every single U.S. president since Calvin Coolidge (except, for some reason, Gerald Ford). Here are a few examples:

  • On Feb. 22, 1924 Calvin Coolidge became the first president to make a public radio address to the American people. President Coolidge later helped create the Federal Radio Commission, which has now evolved to become the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). President Obama became the first president to hold virtual gatherings and town halls using Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, etc.
  • In a 1946 letter to the National Urban League, President Truman wrote that the government has “an obligation to see that the civil rights of every citizen are fully and equally protected.” He ended racial segregation in civil service and the armed forces in 1948. Today the Obama administration continues to strive toward upholding the civil rights of its citizens, repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, allowing people of all sexual orientations to serve openly in our armed forces.
  • President Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare signed (sic) into law in 1965—providing millions of elderly healthcare stability. President Obama’s historic health care reform law, the Affordable Care Act, strengthens Medicare, offers eligible seniors a range of preventive services with no cost-sharing, and provides discounts on drugs when in the coverage gap known as the “donut hole.”
  • On August 14, 1935, President Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act. Today the Obama administration continues to protect seniors and ensure Social Security will be there for future generations.
  • In a June 28, 1985 speech Reagan called for a fairer tax code, one where a multi-millionaire did not have a lower tax rate than his secretary. Today, President Obama is calling for the same with the Buffett Rule.
I imagine Bill Clinton will be especially receptive to Obama’s habit of shoehorning himself into the limelight previously occupied by others. As you can see, the bullet points make clear that while each president has done something historic or notable, Obama is carrying forward every one of those accomplishments since Coolidge. No wonder he always seems so proud of himself.
What more can I say.....he must truly believe the world revolves around him and him alone. And that's who we have leading our nation in a time of crisis?

Growing a pair

From Bloomberg:
House Speaker John Boehner will call for spending cuts and other federal budget changes at least as large as any increase in the U.S. government’s debt limit.

In prepared remarks for the Peter G. Peterson Foundation’s fiscal summit in Washington today, Boehner said his demand may require a series of short-term increases in the legal cap on borrowing.

“This is the only avenue I see right now to force the elected leadership of this country to solve our structural fiscal balance,” Boehner will say, according to remarks released by his office. “If that means we have to do a series of stop-gap measures, so be it.” 
Now to see if they stick too it.

Showing the Hypocrisy

As you might note, the hypocrisy of those on the left drives the OC up the wall.  How does that joke go?

Why don't they put Barack Obama up there on Mount Rushmore?

There isn't room for two more faces.

From American Future Fund comes this ad:



Tell your friends.

Politically Correct with Big Sis

The Daily Caller breaks the story:
President Barack Obama’s Homeland Security secretary, Janet Napolitano, has presided over the hiring of at least four senior staffers and advisers who have no law enforcement experience but align politically with the president.

Jordan Grossman was a special adviser and deputy to the deputy chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security, for instance, yet his resume shows no law enforcement experience. Before Grossman got his post in January 2009, he was a “special assistant” at the Obama-Biden presidential transition team after working for Obama’s 2008 election campaign.

Before that, Grossman worked as a research assistant at the Annenberg Public Policy Center, a communications think tank at the University of Pennsylvania. Grossman also interned for the left-wing Center for American Progress, and for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

He lists no law enforcement experience on his resume, even though the Obama administration had hired him into a senior law enforcement role. Grossman has since left his government position for to attend Harvard Law School.
Obama is great on jobs.  Jobs for the politically connected, paid for with taxpayer money.  Jobs that are given without regard for qualifications, just regard for connections.

Read the whole story for more examples. Hat tip to I Own the World for the pointer.

The New Deniers

From Steven Hayward at Powerline:
John has already noted what ought to have been above-the-fold news in every newspaper last week—the testimony of the GAO’s head of natural resources that the U.S. has recoverable oil shale “about equal to the entire world’s proven oil reserves.”  It wasn’t front-page news, however, because it doesn’t fit the liberal narrative and favorite talking point that the U.S. only has “2 percent” of proven global oil reserves.

I suggest we start calling such people “hydrocarbon deniers,” since only a puritanical fixation prevents the sensible exploitation of our own energy resources.  (Maybe we should call them “Energy Prohibitionists” as well as “hydrocarbon deniers,” since China and everyone else is going to make use of their hydrocarbon energy.)  And anyone who persists in using the “2 percent” talking point again (that would include President Obama) deserves to be labeled an anti-science ignoramus.
For all the blather about conservative "talking points", it is progressives who have to stick to their narrative.  So much is dependent upon the consistent application of that rigid mantra.  Even notice what happens when facts get in the way of dogma for a progressive?  Yep, the discussion shifts from facts to intentions and ideology.

Race War

The brilliant Thomas Sowell has a column at NRO on the hidden race war now on in America:
When two white newspaper reporters for the Virginian-Pilot were driving through Norfolk, and were set upon and beaten by a mob of young blacks — beaten so badly that they had to take a week off from work — that might sound like news that should have been reported, at least by their own newspaper. But it wasn’t.

The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News Channel was the first major television program to report this incident. Yet this story is not just a Norfolk story, either in what happened or in how the media and the authorities have tried to sweep it under the rug.

Similar episodes of unprovoked violence by young black gangs against white people chosen at random on beaches, in shopping malls, or in other public places have occurred in Philadelphia, New York, Denver, Chicago, Cleveland, Washington, Los Angeles, and other places across the country. Both the authorities and the media tend to try to sweep these episodes under the rug.

In Milwaukee, for example, an attack on whites at a public park a few years ago left many of the victims battered to the ground and bloody. But when the police arrived on the scene, it became clear that the authorities wanted to keep this quiet.
I try to avoid generalizations about race.  When you have a nation of 300+ million people, there will be bad, and good, actors in all groups.  And mass generalizations about races or nationalities invariably would have large numbers that don't fit.

However, to ignore reality, especially by the press and police, is to place the public in danger.

Read the whole article HERE.


Calculator in Chief

The calculating side of Barack Obama came to the fore this past week.  As noted by the ever-observant Richard Fernandez:
Perhaps the cruelest thing about President Obama’s “evolution” on the gay marriage issue was the element of cold calculation. Trapped between alienating the white, liberal gay establishment and dissing the black churches who were anti-gay marriage, he decided to curry favor with the white, gay and moneyed constituency because deep in his heart he knew that no matter how hard he stepped on them the black community would not abandon him.
Having now sided with the people who call these black pastors and congregations “bigots,” especially in North Carolina where two-thirds of black voters supported Amendment One, Obama is not at risk of having them flip to Mitt Romney — but he does risk losing that enthusiasm, fundraising, and organization.
It would not of course have worked the other way. Had he sold out the gay community there would have been hell to pay. The lesson everyone should learn is this: cheat on the girl who loves you the most. She’ll forgive you. Ask Elizabeth Edwards.
Yep.  Follow the money.  I can see Obama and Axelrod crunching the numbers, both votes and dollars, and deciding what way to go.
Calculation was always part of Obama’s rise to power. His priorities appear to have been him, him, him and himself. Anything else was a distant second. After the contents of Jeremiah Wright’s sermons were revealed to his embarrassment, the candidate denied ever hearing anything while attending his church. Then Obama sent an emissary to pay Wright to clam up and avoid the press.
Read the whole article here at PJ Media.