I have a clear memory in the aftermath of 9/11 of pundits chastising President Bush for failing to "connect the dots" to prevent the attacks from happening. Apparently there were clues in the Daily Intelligence Briefings that could have -- in a purely hypothetical, hindsight world -- led him to understand that the attacks were imminent. What does it say then about President Obama's seriousness as a leader and as Commander-in-Chief that he's missed so many of his daily briefings? What if an attack happened now? How would the MSM spin Obama's golf-playing and fund-raising and ESPN-watching if thousands of Americans died?
I'm just sayin'.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Monday, September 10, 2012
"No Comment" on Chicago Teacher Strike
When I am cross-examining a hostile witness, there is usually one moment in the questioning where I will stare at the witness with a "you gotta be kidding me" look on my face and say to him, "Now, let me get this straight."
Regarding President Obama's "no comment" on the Chicago Teacher Strike... let me get this straight:
1. Chicago is his hometown.
2. He made his political career as a "community organizer" in Chicago.
3. The teachers' unions are one of his primary sources of campaign funding and support, as well as being one of the primary financial supports for the Democratic Party as a whole.
4. Illinois is his home state.
5. Illinois, along with California, is in the midst of a fiscal meltdown largely driven by high wages and benefits grated to public employees, including teachers.
6. The battle between taxpayers and public employees, including teachers, is a national issue (witness the Scott Walker recall election in Wisconsin when he had the temerity to take on teacher pay and benefits).
And he has "no comment"?
Obama '12: Four More Years of Voting "Present"
Regarding President Obama's "no comment" on the Chicago Teacher Strike... let me get this straight:
1. Chicago is his hometown.
2. He made his political career as a "community organizer" in Chicago.
3. The teachers' unions are one of his primary sources of campaign funding and support, as well as being one of the primary financial supports for the Democratic Party as a whole.
4. Illinois is his home state.
5. Illinois, along with California, is in the midst of a fiscal meltdown largely driven by high wages and benefits grated to public employees, including teachers.
6. The battle between taxpayers and public employees, including teachers, is a national issue (witness the Scott Walker recall election in Wisconsin when he had the temerity to take on teacher pay and benefits).
And he has "no comment"?
Obama '12: Four More Years of Voting "Present"
Romney Ought to Hit This Hard... Obama is Actually Not Showing Up for Work
From the Washington Post:
He plays an awful lot of golf, though, doesn't he?
President Obama is touting his foreign policy experience on the campaign trail, but startling new statistics suggest that national security has not necessarily been the personal priority the president makes it out to be. It turns out that more than half the time, the commander in chief does not attend his daily intelligence meeting.
The Government Accountability Institute, a new conservative investigative research organization, examined President Obama’s schedule from the day he took office until mid-June 2012, to see how often he attended his Presidential Daily Brief (PDB) — the meeting at which he is briefed on the most critical intelligence threats to the country. During his first 1,225 days in office, Obama attended his PDB just 536 times — or 43.8 percent of the time. During 2011 and the first half of 2012, his attendance became even less frequent — falling to just over 38 percent. By contrast, Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush almost never missed his daily intelligence meeting.
He plays an awful lot of golf, though, doesn't he?
Myths
A five second glance at the news headlines suggest that many Americans, including most Democrats, exist in a cocoon of false ideas, myths that they have been told by the media and by their leaders that simply aren't true. Consider just these stories from today:
1. GM loses $49,000 on every Chevy Volt. Yet people believe the myth that Obama "saved" the auto industry and that "green" cars are the future.
2. Chicago teachers strike. Because a 16% raise over four years wasn't enough for them. Yet people believe the myth that public school teachers are in it "for the children."
3. Obama befuddled by iPhone. Yet people still believe he is the smartest President evah!
1. GM loses $49,000 on every Chevy Volt. Yet people believe the myth that Obama "saved" the auto industry and that "green" cars are the future.
2. Chicago teachers strike. Because a 16% raise over four years wasn't enough for them. Yet people believe the myth that public school teachers are in it "for the children."
3. Obama befuddled by iPhone. Yet people still believe he is the smartest President evah!
Friday, September 7, 2012
The Gift That Keeps on Giving
The Romer-Bernstein chart, updated with today's jobs numbers:
This is still literally the only thing voters should need to decide to vote Obama out of office.
Here's the take of the American Enterprise Institute on today's jobs report:
Now the depressing details of the jobs report:
– Nonfarm payrolls increased by only 96,000 in August, the Labor Department said, versus expectations of 125,000 jobs or more. The manufacturing sector, much touted by the president in his convention speech, lost 15,000 jobs.
– Since the start of the year, job growth has averaged 139,000 per month vs. an average monthly gain of 153,000 in 2011.
– As the chart at the top shows, the unemployment rate remains far above the rate predicted by Team Obama if Congress passed the stimulus. (This is the Romer-Bernstein chart.)
– While the unemployment rate dropped to 8.1% from 8.3% in July, it was due to a big drop in the labor force participation rate (the share of Americans with a job or looking for one). If fewer Americans hadn’t given up looking for work, the unemployment rate would have risen.
– Reuters notes that the participation rate is now at its lowest level since September 1981.
– If the labor force participation rate was the same as when Obama took office in January 2009, the unemployment rate would be 11.2%.
– If the participation rate had just stayed the same as last month, the unemployment rate would be 8.4%.
Girl of the Day - Susan Blakely
Susan Blakely was one of the super-models whose face dominated my youth in the 1970s. She turns 64 today. A very pretty lady. Here she is from even earlier, as a model for Seventeen in the 1960s.
The Jobs Numbers
The national debt went over $16 trillion on the first day of the Democratic convention. Today the August jobs numbers were released. On the surface, it looked like good news for the President: the unemployment rate dropped from 8.3% to 8.1%, still a bad number, but a significant uptick. But looking behind the numbers, the report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics is very bad news for the country, and very bad news for Obama. Consider this: the labor-force participation rate dropped from 63.7% to 63.5%, and the civilian labor force dropped by 368,000. That's 368,000 people who dropped out of the labor force, either from retirement or, more likely, from discouragement. If the labor-force participation rate were what it was in January 2009 when Obama took office -- it was at 65.7% -- there would be more than 5 million more people looking for work. Thus, arguably the "true" unemployment rate is something closer to 11.5%.
I've said this before and I'll say it again: the only data to look at that makes sense, that isn't artificial to some degree, is the employment-population ratio, because it measures the most basic data point -- how many of us are actually working. Here's what that graph looks like:
Obama's economic policies have kept us flat for the past three years, when we ought to have been recovering from the recession. He's failed, and he's got to go.
I've said this before and I'll say it again: the only data to look at that makes sense, that isn't artificial to some degree, is the employment-population ratio, because it measures the most basic data point -- how many of us are actually working. Here's what that graph looks like:
Obama's economic policies have kept us flat for the past three years, when we ought to have been recovering from the recession. He's failed, and he's got to go.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Drunkblogging the DNC
Just tuning in at 9:00 pm. Slow Joe Biden in the middle of offering a paean to the American people. You deserve a President who will never quit on you. Meaningless pablum. As opposed to what? A President who plays golf all the time. Oh, wait a minute.
Republicans are dead wrong. American is not in decline. It's never been a good bet to bet against the American people. We will not downsize the American Dream. OK, so now we're going to have a straw man festival.
I see a future where women once again can control their own bodies. Who doesn't? I just don't want to have to pay for some adult law student's birth control pills. I couldn't care less what Sandra Fluke does with her body.
Depend more on clean energy at home and less on oil from abroad. False choice. We have a lot of oil and natural gas here that we can get right now.
Joe is finishing by shouting at us. Forward! He's a very foolish man.
P.S. I'm going to take a sip of ice-cold Gray Goose every time Obama says "fair share."
***
9:15. Dick Durbin. Why? Makes an analogy of Obama to Lincoln... seriously. Because letting two gay dudes pretend to get married is the same as freeing the slaves. Or something like that.
Now we've got the obligatory infomercial about Obama.
More Clinton.
The bailout of GM as politically courageous.
No one really knew the depths of the challenge we were facing.
Do people really think the bailout was a good idea? They say there are 80,000 new jobs in the auto industry. But we spent $25 billion on the bailout. That's about $312,500 per job. Hmmmm...
Obamacare as a "matter of principle." Because his mother got big medical bills when she got cancer or something. Nothing to do with the fact that Democrats have wanted nationalized healthcare on the British model since the end of World War II.
Bin Ladin. I had 100% confidence in our Navy Seals.
This is a guy who has a backbone like a ramrod. Clinton: I hope that's the call I would have made. Oh, bullshit. Anyone would have made the same call based upon the intelligence Obama had.
Michelle Obama introducing Barack. Is this typical? She's getting a lot of screen time in this convention.
Teleprompter alert. Of course. But I might have hidden it until he was ready to speak.
Weird music. Couldn't they have gone a little more urban. This is about as hip as Disney Channel.... oh, wait, it's U2... a sop to the environmentalists?
Here comes BO. More anon.
***
9:27. Hope in the face of uncertainty. Hope has been tested... worst economic times in history. Political gridlock. Campaigns can seem small.
Clearest choice of any time in a generation. Right. Between socialism on a European model, or freedom in the American vein. Romney wants this, based on his choice of Paul Ryan.
Ours is a fight to restore the values that built the world's strongest middle class. Values like abortion on demand. Values like payoffs to public employee unions. Values like....
FAIR SHARE! DRINK!
Republicans say tax cuts are the prescription for everything. Well, yes. That plus cutting spending.
Tax breaks for millionaires won't grow the economy. Lie. He's not proposing to tax millionaires, he's proposing to tax people who make over $250,000 a year. That's a lot of small businessmen.
Firing teachers and taking away student aid... Lie.
The Regular Son thinks BO is being effective. My view: if you think bullshit is effective. Which, sad to say, a lot of Americans apparently do.
I'm taking an ice cream break.
***
Back at 9:38. Obama is now saying what a great job he's done opening up new oil and gas fields. He's kidding right? Does anyone think that the Democrats are in favor of more drilling? The crowd doesn't like this much.
Global warming is not a hoax. O throws a bone to the enviro whackos.
Education is the gateway to a middle-class life. You have a choice: you can gut education, or you can blah-blah-blah. Because Republicans really want to "gut education." Another straw man.
Help me recruit another 100,000 math and science teachers in the next ten years. Again, let's do the math... that's 10,000 teachers a year. There are roughly 50,000,000 school-age children in America. So one new teacher for every 500 children. I'm just sayin'... that's not going to change American education.
Leadership that has been tested and proven. We ended the war in Iraq. We are ending the war in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden is dead. Taking credit for things that any President would have done. Meanwhile, Iran is getting nukes, Egypt is in the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood, and China will have the world's biggest economy before 2016.
My opponents are "new" to foreign policy. He's really saying this. Because he's done such a great job, and he was so experienced in 2008.
It's time to do some nation-building right here at home.
You can choose a future where we reduce our deficit without sticking it to the middle-class. In a word, no.
Kick children out of Head Start so they can give tax breaks to millionaires. Demogoguery.
If you can't afford health insurance, hope that you don't get sick. Demogoguery. Caricaturing Republican positions.
You have inalienable rights.... apparently you have an inalienable right to have me pay for your kids' college educations.
I'm drinking just on principle now.
***
We don't think banks should be able to trick people into signing mortgages they can't afford. Has he ever been to a closing on a mortgage loan? How exactly can people be tricked into signing a mortgage? There are umpteen disclosures that the law requires be made. That's how it's been for decades. You have to be a certified moron to sign a mortgage you can't afford. Don't you know what you make every month?
It sounds like he's building to a climax. You did that!
If you buy into the cynicism that the change we fought for can't happen... I don't know why we should be cynical... after Solyndra, or Fast and Furious, or $5 trillion in new debt, or pushing through Obamacare on a party-line vote in a reconciliation process in the Senate that was never intended for major legislation.
Oh, shit... another Lincoln reference. I want to puke.
9:59. I'm hopeful because of you. You give me hope. Family business... with 4,000 employees?
Wait, what? That's probably a $220-300 million payroll. Sounds like a pretty freakin' big business to me. Again, these speechwriters can't do math and don't know anything about business.
If you reject the notion that this nation's promise is reserved for the few, you need to stand up in this election. Says the guy who spends his time fundraising with Hollywood elites.
10:03. America, I never said this journey would be easy. The Obama campaign is essentially that we haven't been successful as a President, but I never said that I would be successful, but the other guys are rich guys who don't care about you, so you should vote for me again.
They're playing Bruce Springsteen's song, "We Take Care of Our Own" after the speech. I am not drunk enough at this point.
Republicans are dead wrong. American is not in decline. It's never been a good bet to bet against the American people. We will not downsize the American Dream. OK, so now we're going to have a straw man festival.
I see a future where women once again can control their own bodies. Who doesn't? I just don't want to have to pay for some adult law student's birth control pills. I couldn't care less what Sandra Fluke does with her body.
Depend more on clean energy at home and less on oil from abroad. False choice. We have a lot of oil and natural gas here that we can get right now.
Joe is finishing by shouting at us. Forward! He's a very foolish man.
P.S. I'm going to take a sip of ice-cold Gray Goose every time Obama says "fair share."
***
9:15. Dick Durbin. Why? Makes an analogy of Obama to Lincoln... seriously. Because letting two gay dudes pretend to get married is the same as freeing the slaves. Or something like that.
Now we've got the obligatory infomercial about Obama.
More Clinton.
The bailout of GM as politically courageous.
No one really knew the depths of the challenge we were facing.
Do people really think the bailout was a good idea? They say there are 80,000 new jobs in the auto industry. But we spent $25 billion on the bailout. That's about $312,500 per job. Hmmmm...
Obamacare as a "matter of principle." Because his mother got big medical bills when she got cancer or something. Nothing to do with the fact that Democrats have wanted nationalized healthcare on the British model since the end of World War II.
Bin Ladin. I had 100% confidence in our Navy Seals.
This is a guy who has a backbone like a ramrod. Clinton: I hope that's the call I would have made. Oh, bullshit. Anyone would have made the same call based upon the intelligence Obama had.
Michelle Obama introducing Barack. Is this typical? She's getting a lot of screen time in this convention.
Teleprompter alert. Of course. But I might have hidden it until he was ready to speak.
Weird music. Couldn't they have gone a little more urban. This is about as hip as Disney Channel.... oh, wait, it's U2... a sop to the environmentalists?
Here comes BO. More anon.
***
9:27. Hope in the face of uncertainty. Hope has been tested... worst economic times in history. Political gridlock. Campaigns can seem small.
Clearest choice of any time in a generation. Right. Between socialism on a European model, or freedom in the American vein. Romney wants this, based on his choice of Paul Ryan.
Ours is a fight to restore the values that built the world's strongest middle class. Values like abortion on demand. Values like payoffs to public employee unions. Values like....
FAIR SHARE! DRINK!
Republicans say tax cuts are the prescription for everything. Well, yes. That plus cutting spending.
Tax breaks for millionaires won't grow the economy. Lie. He's not proposing to tax millionaires, he's proposing to tax people who make over $250,000 a year. That's a lot of small businessmen.
Firing teachers and taking away student aid... Lie.
The Regular Son thinks BO is being effective. My view: if you think bullshit is effective. Which, sad to say, a lot of Americans apparently do.
I'm taking an ice cream break.
***
Back at 9:38. Obama is now saying what a great job he's done opening up new oil and gas fields. He's kidding right? Does anyone think that the Democrats are in favor of more drilling? The crowd doesn't like this much.
Global warming is not a hoax. O throws a bone to the enviro whackos.
Education is the gateway to a middle-class life. You have a choice: you can gut education, or you can blah-blah-blah. Because Republicans really want to "gut education." Another straw man.
Help me recruit another 100,000 math and science teachers in the next ten years. Again, let's do the math... that's 10,000 teachers a year. There are roughly 50,000,000 school-age children in America. So one new teacher for every 500 children. I'm just sayin'... that's not going to change American education.
Leadership that has been tested and proven. We ended the war in Iraq. We are ending the war in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden is dead. Taking credit for things that any President would have done. Meanwhile, Iran is getting nukes, Egypt is in the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood, and China will have the world's biggest economy before 2016.
My opponents are "new" to foreign policy. He's really saying this. Because he's done such a great job, and he was so experienced in 2008.
It's time to do some nation-building right here at home.
You can choose a future where we reduce our deficit without sticking it to the middle-class. In a word, no.
Kick children out of Head Start so they can give tax breaks to millionaires. Demogoguery.
If you can't afford health insurance, hope that you don't get sick. Demogoguery. Caricaturing Republican positions.
You have inalienable rights.... apparently you have an inalienable right to have me pay for your kids' college educations.
I'm drinking just on principle now.
***
We don't think banks should be able to trick people into signing mortgages they can't afford. Has he ever been to a closing on a mortgage loan? How exactly can people be tricked into signing a mortgage? There are umpteen disclosures that the law requires be made. That's how it's been for decades. You have to be a certified moron to sign a mortgage you can't afford. Don't you know what you make every month?
It sounds like he's building to a climax. You did that!
If you buy into the cynicism that the change we fought for can't happen... I don't know why we should be cynical... after Solyndra, or Fast and Furious, or $5 trillion in new debt, or pushing through Obamacare on a party-line vote in a reconciliation process in the Senate that was never intended for major legislation.
Oh, shit... another Lincoln reference. I want to puke.
9:59. I'm hopeful because of you. You give me hope. Family business... with 4,000 employees?
Wait, what? That's probably a $220-300 million payroll. Sounds like a pretty freakin' big business to me. Again, these speechwriters can't do math and don't know anything about business.
If you reject the notion that this nation's promise is reserved for the few, you need to stand up in this election. Says the guy who spends his time fundraising with Hollywood elites.
10:03. America, I never said this journey would be easy. The Obama campaign is essentially that we haven't been successful as a President, but I never said that I would be successful, but the other guys are rich guys who don't care about you, so you should vote for me again.
They're playing Bruce Springsteen's song, "We Take Care of Our Own" after the speech. I am not drunk enough at this point.
DNC and Competence
The blunder of not putting God and Jerusalem-as-the-capital-of-Israel in the DNC platform. Then, the blunder of having delegates boo putting them back in on live TV.
The blunder of scheduling Obama's speech in a huge stadium and then having to move it to a 20,000 seat arena because of the likelihood that there would be thousands of empty seats.
The blunder of starting the convention with a video entitled "Government Is The Only Thing We All Belong To," and then the blunder of disavowing your own video.
The blunder of a delegate on camera stating a desire to kill the candidate of the GOP.
The ongoing blunder of permitting people like Sandra Fluke -- utter non-entities-- speak in prime-time at a national convention.
The blunder of putting Elizabeth "Fauxcahontas" Warren front-and-center. Is that the best your party has to offer?
The blunder of not convincing Hillary Clinton, your Secretary of State, to make an appearance.
The blunder of giving prime time to Bill Clinton so he can overshadow you.
When will people wake up and realize that the consistent attribute of everything Obama has touched as President has been incompetence, sheer, unadulterated incompetence?
The blunder of scheduling Obama's speech in a huge stadium and then having to move it to a 20,000 seat arena because of the likelihood that there would be thousands of empty seats.
The blunder of starting the convention with a video entitled "Government Is The Only Thing We All Belong To," and then the blunder of disavowing your own video.
The blunder of a delegate on camera stating a desire to kill the candidate of the GOP.
The ongoing blunder of permitting people like Sandra Fluke -- utter non-entities-- speak in prime-time at a national convention.
The blunder of putting Elizabeth "Fauxcahontas" Warren front-and-center. Is that the best your party has to offer?
The blunder of not convincing Hillary Clinton, your Secretary of State, to make an appearance.
The blunder of giving prime time to Bill Clinton so he can overshadow you.
When will people wake up and realize that the consistent attribute of everything Obama has touched as President has been incompetence, sheer, unadulterated incompetence?
Breitbart Lives!
The strategy of very calmly asking liberals questions that make them look at their own contradictions, which in my mind was popularized by the late (and great) Andrew Breitbart, lives on in this Reason video from the DNC, in which a nice young man asks delegates whether they are pro-choice on abortion, and then asks them why they aren't pro-school choice, pro-right-to-work laws, pro choice in matters of diet (i.e., against Bloomberg's nanny state large soda bans), pro-choice in what light bulbs to buy, pro-choice in being able to smoke cigarettes if you want, etc. Not surprisingly, these Dems are fine with choosing to kill babies, but otherwise want government telling you what to do,
File This Under "If a Republican Said This..."
Well, of course, if a Republican delegate to their convention had been interviewed on camera and had expressed a desire to kill Obama, it would be national news and a sign of the "climate of violence" on the right. But, of course, this Democratic delegate from New York named Julia Rodriguez won't make the evening news at all, I suspect:
The direct quote: "Romney will destroy this country. If I see him, I would like to kill him." You can see the video here at The Blaze.
Now, do I think that this crazy old lady is really going to kill Romney. No, of course not. The real point for me is simply to ask: How does a person like this who has such obviously low intelligence get herself into a position of being a delegate to a national political convention? Are the Democrats really proud of having these sorts of folks be the face of their party?
The direct quote: "Romney will destroy this country. If I see him, I would like to kill him." You can see the video here at The Blaze.
Now, do I think that this crazy old lady is really going to kill Romney. No, of course not. The real point for me is simply to ask: How does a person like this who has such obviously low intelligence get herself into a position of being a delegate to a national political convention? Are the Democrats really proud of having these sorts of folks be the face of their party?
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Unforced Errors III
These people are fools. Here is a clip from the Democratic convention in which the chair rams through two amendments to add language back into the party's platform recognizing God and recognizing Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel. Neither should have been controversial, but, as you'll hear, a substantial portion of the delegates voted no, and then booed when the chair essentially lied and decided that 2/3rds had voted "aye."
They call that stepping on your own message. Is there any way the GOP won't be running ads using this clip? I'll bet they have an ad up on Youtube by tonight, if they don't already.
They call that stepping on your own message. Is there any way the GOP won't be running ads using this clip? I'll bet they have an ad up on Youtube by tonight, if they don't already.
Not as Big as Wisconsin, But Still Big
A dollar bill is about 2.6 inches by 6.1 inches in size. $16 trillion of them -- the national debt -- would, by my calculations, cover an area of more than 63,000 square miles. That's larger than 27 of the 50 states, and just a tad smaller than my home state of Wisconsin.
At President Obama's current pace, if he's re-elected, we should add about another 20,000 square miles in debt by 2016. Idaho, here we come!
I'm Just Saying... Mike Trout is RIDICULOUS!
In case you've missed it, Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels, age 21, is having one of the greatest seasons by a player that age in the history of baseball. 25 homers, 108 runs scored, 75 RBIs, batting .333, 43 stolen bases and only caught four times. 8.3 WAR. And there's nearly a month to go, and he missed nearly a month at the start of the season! I looked it up... in the past 100 years, only four players at that age have had years even approaching Trout's. Their names?
Albert Pujols.
Ted Williams.
Joe DiMaggio.
Frank Robinson.
And their seasons aren't as good as Trout's, at least from a WAR perspective (Wins Against Replacement-Level Player). If you go back one more year, to 1911, you find the only 21 year-old in the history of baseball (since 1871) who had a better season in terms of WAR. His name?
Shoeless Joe Jackson. All he did that year was hit .408 and score 126 runs in the dead-ball era.
In other words, baseball fans ought to put this year in the time capsule. What Trout is doing doesn't come around very often. Maybe once in a lifetime. If you're lucky.
Unforced Errors II
Hard to imagine a Republican prankster could come up with a more damning video than the one the Democrats showed to start their convention, with the tagline "Government Is The Only Thing We All Belong To":
I am not a slave to government. I don't "belong" to government. I do not think of myself as being part of the government. I am an American. Our government is not the same thing as our country. It is a function, not a creed, not a family, not even a nation. The nation "America" exists apart from our government and is composed of people and organic traditions, beliefs, history, and ideas. Ronald Reagan said it best: we are a nation that has a government, not the other way around.
But Democrats think differently. They think that we all "belong" to the government, which means that government can confiscate the fruits of our labor, and that our very existence is granted to us by our lords and masters in Washington.
I am not a slave to government. I don't "belong" to government. I do not think of myself as being part of the government. I am an American. Our government is not the same thing as our country. It is a function, not a creed, not a family, not even a nation. The nation "America" exists apart from our government and is composed of people and organic traditions, beliefs, history, and ideas. Ronald Reagan said it best: we are a nation that has a government, not the other way around.
But Democrats think differently. They think that we all "belong" to the government, which means that government can confiscate the fruits of our labor, and that our very existence is granted to us by our lords and masters in Washington.
We're All Racists Now
This is the way out of our current societal morass on "racism"... make fun of liberals' tendency to shout racism at any disagreement:
Girl of the Day - Michelle O
Have to give it to her: she gave a good speech last night. I increasingly have the feeling that she is the one driving the bus in that family.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Unforced Errors
I've taken a look at the cliche-ridden festival of banality that is the Democratic Party's platform. It's filled with what Orwell would have called "dying metaphors" and "meaningless words." So what would it have mattered if they had included a few references to God? But they chose to leave out all such references, presumably on purpose, and thus to offend the majority of Americans who are believers. Are they brain dead? Do they finally not care whether they win this election or not?
On the other hand, they also chose to leave out reference to Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to insert language supporting government-funding of abortion. So maybe they've figured that, if people are going to believe that they are hard-leftists (which they are), they might as well be true to themselves in their platform.
God is dead.
Jews will be dead.
Babies ought to be dead.
The modern Democratic Party.
On the other hand, they also chose to leave out reference to Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to insert language supporting government-funding of abortion. So maybe they've figured that, if people are going to believe that they are hard-leftists (which they are), they might as well be true to themselves in their platform.
God is dead.
Jews will be dead.
Babies ought to be dead.
The modern Democratic Party.
Let the Hysteria Commence
"Hysteria" is the best noun to describe what will happen this week at the DNC, because it captures the hormonal, feminized, ovary-driven politics that will apparently be the Dems' mantra. There will be plenty of "Get Your Government Off My Ovaries!" buttons on display.
Anyway, here's idiot Cory Booker today on Republicans' "war on women":
These people are nuts.
Anyway, here's idiot Cory Booker today on Republicans' "war on women":
At a Planned Parenthood rally today, Newark mayor Cory Booker tore into the Republicans on abortion, delivering a harsh criticism of speakers at the GOP convention who had said they “love women.”
“Then I heard something that is one of the reflections, an echo of some of the most insulting things we’ve been hearing for a long time,” Booker said, referring to watching the convention. “I heard people stand up and say, ‘I love women.’ I heard people stand up: ‘I’ve got a sister. I’ve got a mother.’”
“That’s like saying you’re not a bigot ‘cause you have a black friend,” Booker retorted, drawing cheers and applause from the crowd. “That’s like saying I love Latinos, I go to Taco Bell every week. That is like saying that you are a person that is just and right because you know what, you like Jewish people.”
These people are nuts.
Incomplete!
This is a major gaffe, and I'm sure the GOP is readying ads as we speak to exploit it. You can't be President and give yourself an "Incomplete" for your main task -- getting the economy moving again -- and expect to be reelected.
Beyond the main gaffe, consider the embedded gaffes. He cites three positive "accomplishments" on the economy: (1) the auto company bailout; (2) making college more affordable; and (3) investing in green energy companies.
IS HE SIMPLY OBLIVIOUS TO WHAT'S ACTUALLY HAPPENING?
I capitalize this because GM's stock price is in the toilet, which means that the federal government, holders of some 500 million shares of the company's stock, has lost something on the order of $25 billion on the GM bailout. And the bubble in college education is so stretched that it's only a matter of time before it pops. And his investments in "green energy" like Solyndra are either failures or felonies, depending on your perspective. These are his accomplishments?
The Emperor Has No Clothes. Say it out loud. Rinse. Repeat. The Emperor Has No Clothes.
Beyond the main gaffe, consider the embedded gaffes. He cites three positive "accomplishments" on the economy: (1) the auto company bailout; (2) making college more affordable; and (3) investing in green energy companies.
IS HE SIMPLY OBLIVIOUS TO WHAT'S ACTUALLY HAPPENING?
I capitalize this because GM's stock price is in the toilet, which means that the federal government, holders of some 500 million shares of the company's stock, has lost something on the order of $25 billion on the GM bailout. And the bubble in college education is so stretched that it's only a matter of time before it pops. And his investments in "green energy" like Solyndra are either failures or felonies, depending on your perspective. These are his accomplishments?
The Emperor Has No Clothes. Say it out loud. Rinse. Repeat. The Emperor Has No Clothes.
File This Under "It's Not 2008 Anymore..."
I'd call this political malpratice:
Democrats are poised to avoid the danger of President Barack Obama accepting his party’s nomination before a partially-empty stadium by shifting his speech to an indoor arena and citing ‘severe weather’.
The Obama campaign have been working desperately to ensure that the 74,000-seater Bank of America stadium in Charlotte would be filled.
Buses for students from across North Carolina and even members of black churches in neighboring South Carolina have been arranged.
Images of rows of empty seats at the stadium, home of the Carolina Panthers, as Obama speaks on Thursday night would be politically disastrous – an enduring image of the contrast between his campaign of ‘hope’ and ‘change’ in 2008 and his dour, negative struggle for re-election in 2012.
Now, it looks like the weather has come to the President's rescue.
As officials prepare to begin the convention this afternoon, there are strong indications that the speech will be moved to Time Warner Cable Arena, which has a capacity of just over 20,000.
Democratic convention sources have indicated that the ‘contingency plan’ is at an advanced stage and that a move to the stadium appears certain.
‘It looks like a done deal to me,’ said one convention worker. ‘The decision’s apparently been taken and it’s just a matter of spinning it as being forced on us by the weather.’
Girl of the Day - Mitzi Gaynor
This was an easy one: the great Mitzi Gaynor, from one of the great movie musicals ever, South Pacific, turns 82 today.
Triple Whammy
Three datums should, in a just world, dominate this week's news.
First, sometime within the next day or so, the national debt will exceed $16 trillion. It is at $15,999,488,000,000 as I write this. No, wait, it's gone up a million since I typed that last sentence. Oh, wait, it's now at... well, you get the picture. Spin that, MSM!
Second, today it was also announced that we now have a record 46.7 million people on food stamps. I'll be blunt. I do not believe that more than 15% of Americans are starving. And, absent starvation, I do not believe it is my responsibility to feed my fellow free citizens. Does that sound harsh? Too bad. When there are more people on food stamps than people who don't have cell phones, or don't hae Internet access, or don't have cable TV, or don't have flat screens... well, something is very, very wrong. We are becoming a nation of moochers, and the Democratic Party is the party of mooching.
Third, on Friday the latest unemployment figures will come out. I do not believe that the August numbers are going to be very good, partly for unfair reasons... nothing much happens in August anyway. But they'll come out on Friday morning, the Friday after the Democratic convention ends, and the number, if bad, will dominate the news over the weekend.
Debt, food stamps, unemployment. Are you better off?
First, sometime within the next day or so, the national debt will exceed $16 trillion. It is at $15,999,488,000,000 as I write this. No, wait, it's gone up a million since I typed that last sentence. Oh, wait, it's now at... well, you get the picture. Spin that, MSM!
Second, today it was also announced that we now have a record 46.7 million people on food stamps. I'll be blunt. I do not believe that more than 15% of Americans are starving. And, absent starvation, I do not believe it is my responsibility to feed my fellow free citizens. Does that sound harsh? Too bad. When there are more people on food stamps than people who don't have cell phones, or don't hae Internet access, or don't have cable TV, or don't have flat screens... well, something is very, very wrong. We are becoming a nation of moochers, and the Democratic Party is the party of mooching.
Third, on Friday the latest unemployment figures will come out. I do not believe that the August numbers are going to be very good, partly for unfair reasons... nothing much happens in August anyway. But they'll come out on Friday morning, the Friday after the Democratic convention ends, and the number, if bad, will dominate the news over the weekend.
Debt, food stamps, unemployment. Are you better off?
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Protein Wisdom
Jeff Goldstein at the blog Protein Wisdom provides a spot-on description of the modern Democratic Party:
There are no real undecideds left. The economy is in the tank. The private sector is largely foundering. The takers make up nearly 50% of the electorate. And the Left has institutionalized, through the media, academia, pop culture, and its political messaging, a grievance and entitlement society that is meant to Balkanize us. This is their voter bloc, and they have decided to sit back, rail at the capitalist system, and justify their own enslavement to the state that provides for them. People who view national politics through the lens of their own identity grievance group have already made up their minds. The Left has cut loose the religious; they’ve embraced the secularists, be they in the various ethnic identity group movements, the gay community, the “feminists”, or the environmentalists. These people, nasty sorts, make up the rhetorical and intellectual apparatus of the modern day Democratic Party.
Saturday, September 1, 2012
Belated Bird Birthday
Charlie "Bird" Parker's birthday was Wednesday too. Greatest jazz saxaphonist ever? Maybe. (You could get arguments from John Coltrane fans, Dexter Gordon fans, etc.) But certainly the most iconic:
Girl of the Day - Ingrid Bergman
I was out of town this week in trial, so I missed out on an important birthday girl on Wednesday:
What could be better?
Oh, Mark, You Funny, Funny Man!
Mark Steyn might be the best aphorist working in journalism today. Funny, funny stuff, as every Saturday:
Time’s Mark Halperin wrote this week that “Obama can’t win if he can’t swing the conversation away from the economy.” That’s a pretty amazing admission. The economy is the No. 1 issue on the minds of voters, and, beyond that, the central reality of Obama’s America. But to win the president has to steer clear. That doesn’t leave a lot else. Hence, the racism of golf, the war on women, the carcinogenic properties of Mitt Romney. Democrat strategy 1992: It’s the economy, stupid. Democrat strategy 2012: It’s the stupidity, economists.
Clint Eastwood's Speech
Always watch who the left-wing media attacks to find out who they fear. The media attacked Sarah Palin in 2008. They attacked Paul Ryan after his speech this year, saying he had "lied" about the closing of a Janesville GM plant. (P.S. He didn't.) Now the media is attacking Clint Eastwood for his ten-minute "empty chair" speech. That's how you know that they know it was very very effective. Think of the points that he has now made memorable:
1. The empty chair is now a metaphor for the President. Empty chair makes you think of empty suit. Makes me think of the famous line that "there's no there there." Brilliant.
2. People supposedly didn't like the "blue" material, where he has the imaginary President Obama telling Romney, and then Eastwood, to go f*** themselves. (Eastwood says it more obliquely, and with more humor, but that's what he was talking about.) I think it too was brilliant: it makes you think that, in addition to being an empty suit, Obama's not a very nice guy, but instead is kind of angry. He made the point again later when he noted that "maybe he's not so nice when you see some of his ads that are running."
3. He contrasted Romney the businessman with Obama as an "attorney" who's always arguing and "bifurcating" things. Brilliant again. What is it that the Obama campaign is always trying to pin on Romney? That he's a heartless businessman. But however heartless businessmen might be in the collective unconscious, people really really don't like lawyers. Believe me, I know.
4. He gave moderates and independents and Reagan Democrats who voted for Obama a rationale and a kind of permission to vote against Obama this time, saying we own the country, government works for us, and when an employee doesn't do the job, we have to let him go. Again, brilliant.
5. And he did so quickly, with humor, and with a kind of shambling Grandpa charm that I think most Americans who aren't pundits would have enjoyed and responded to.
As I said: brilliant. And the left knows it. That's why the long knives are out.
Here's the whole thing, for your re-viewing pleasure:
1. The empty chair is now a metaphor for the President. Empty chair makes you think of empty suit. Makes me think of the famous line that "there's no there there." Brilliant.
2. People supposedly didn't like the "blue" material, where he has the imaginary President Obama telling Romney, and then Eastwood, to go f*** themselves. (Eastwood says it more obliquely, and with more humor, but that's what he was talking about.) I think it too was brilliant: it makes you think that, in addition to being an empty suit, Obama's not a very nice guy, but instead is kind of angry. He made the point again later when he noted that "maybe he's not so nice when you see some of his ads that are running."
3. He contrasted Romney the businessman with Obama as an "attorney" who's always arguing and "bifurcating" things. Brilliant again. What is it that the Obama campaign is always trying to pin on Romney? That he's a heartless businessman. But however heartless businessmen might be in the collective unconscious, people really really don't like lawyers. Believe me, I know.
4. He gave moderates and independents and Reagan Democrats who voted for Obama a rationale and a kind of permission to vote against Obama this time, saying we own the country, government works for us, and when an employee doesn't do the job, we have to let him go. Again, brilliant.
5. And he did so quickly, with humor, and with a kind of shambling Grandpa charm that I think most Americans who aren't pundits would have enjoyed and responded to.
As I said: brilliant. And the left knows it. That's why the long knives are out.
Here's the whole thing, for your re-viewing pleasure:
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