Catnaps

Never take legal advice from the prosecutor

2011-12-05T11:19:00.000-08:00

Re: More problems for Eric Holder – Gunwalker: Justice Dept Violated US Laws.

From Instapundit, a very good article by Michael Walsh on the NY Post

Fast and Furious Lies

So the gun dealers who were assured by the Justice Dept. that they should go ahead and make the sales to the cartel buyers under the legal umbrella of the Justice Dept, were placed in legal jeopardy by actually following the advice given to them by the Justice Dept. How much do you want to bet the gun dealers get charged with a crime, while the same people who gave them this insane advice, and the Justice Dept. higher-ups who crafted these plans are never touched?

Also if this happens, what will happen to any future attempts by the Justice Dept. to coordinate any real criminal gun tracking with gun dealers? The Law of Unintended Consequences will make the bodycount of the Gunwalker program look small.

Wizards of Smart --- Not

2011-11-26T06:21:00.001-08:00

Zerohedge brought the a rather delusional posting by the Fed to my attention, and I had to respond. I have no confidence that the Fed will treat my comment any more respectfully than ZH's, so it is attached below.

When a prediction does not match reality, there are three possibilities. The behavior is too complex to predict, the predictor is incompetent, or the predictor is biased. You seem to think “Nobody saw it” is a good excuse, when in fact a large number of people saw the upcoming collapse, warned about it, and were roundly bashed at the time, and ignored afterwards. But this is not a new phenomena, a student of history should be well aware of the phrase “you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children”

Myself, I would rather believe bias.

General Motors Again Ripping Off Americans: Warranties Edition

2011-08-22T09:04:00.000-07:00

General Motors Again Ripping Off Americans: Warranties Edition

Isn't the Impalla a *Police* car too? Wonder what all those police officers will think when the car they are driving is not going to be fixed, due to an Obama policy....

Quantitative Easing for Dummies

2011-04-26T09:02:00.000-07:00

Legal Insurrection has a nice post on Quantitative Easing. I could not help myself, I had to put in my two cents worth.

Putting Galls Law, the Evil Overlord list #12, and Matthew 11:25 into one smoothly-integrated post will be tough, but here goes.

Anybody who listened to the Administration try to summarize their Quantitative Easing plan realized very quickly that QE had a solid disconnect between Cause and Effect. Galls Law states “A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked…”. Since this complex system had no basis in a set of simple well-working systems, any attempt at summarization looked very screwy, very fast. Any rational Evil Overlord attempting QE in their scheme for World Control would have passed this by a 5-year old child and promptly disciplined the minion who came up with it (might I suggest sharks with laser beams on their heads).

This is not a recent insight either, a student of history should be well aware of the phrase “you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children”

Might I suggest that our president run his ideas past a few young children next time, before dumping billions of taxpayer dollars down the rathole.

Obama declares Justified War on Libya

2011-03-21T13:48:00.000-07:00

Our President recently set a new record. Most cruise missles fired by a Nobel peace prize winner. Summarized so well by this commentator to the Just One Minute blog and brought to my attention by Instapundit .

Stolen shamelessly and posted below:

What I like about Obama

Obviously, the biggest problem with Bush was sending the military into an Arab Muslim country that hadn't even attacked us. Among the several things that made that offensive were
* the rush to war - it was only several months after the possibility of military involvement was raised that combat operations began
* lack of United Nations sanction - only 17 relevant resolutions were ever passed before they were enforced
* lack of Congressional oversight - the President authorized the use of military force based on the flimsy pretext of a bill passed by Congress titled "Authorization of the Use of Military Force", rather than seeking a document that had the words "declaration of war" in it; that's every bit as bad as getting no Congressional approval at all
* obvious financial motives - clearly no one approved of the murderous dictator or sought a normal working relationship with him besides the French; at the same time, one couldn't help but be suspicious of the fact that the population we were ostensibly protecting was located conveniently near the oil fields
* stretching our military - we were overburdened as it was, and our brave military despite its courage lacked the resources for yet another operation
* inflating our military - the only way to keep the bloodthirsty Pentagon beast fed was to give it the hordes of jobless young men who had no prospects in an economy that saw unemployment skyrocket above 4% in most states
* ignoring our generals - the decision to go to war was made by political hacks who had never worn a uniform
* inflaming the Arab Street - despite some touchy-feely talk about Islam, it was impossible for the Muslim world not to notice how the President made repeated, insistent proclamations of his Christianity, how he only ever used the military against Muslim targets, and how at the time the war started he'd kept the concentration camp at Guantanamo open for over a year
* wasting money - it was completely irresponsible to commit the military to an expensive mission when the President's fiscal mismanagement had resulted in a budget deficit of over $150 billion in 2002

But anyway, what I really like about Obama is that he's gone 29-3 in his bracket picks over the first two days. You have to spend a lot of time watching college basketball to be that good.

the Perfect is the Enemy of the Good-Dental Version

2010-11-13T12:36:00.001-08:00

Just when I thought I saw it all, we have Dentists in Alaska who are fighting the introduction of "Those Guys Who Didn't Go To Dentist College" into areas where there are not enough dentists anyway. Despite being from the New York Times, it is still worth reading.

Bed Bugs at Time Warner Center CNN (correction)

2010-08-16T06:54:00.000-07:00

Earlier reports said that thousands of bedbugs were found at the Time Warner Center where CNN has its headquarters. This report is incorrect. Upon further inspection, the bloodsucking parasites were identified as CNN reporters. We regret the error.

Spraying won't help either, unless you spray with pink slips.

Aflunenza strikes, NPR is there

2010-04-15T09:00:00.000-07:00

It appears that NPR has unearthed a pocket of that rare but treatable disease, Afluenza. Symptoms include swollen bank accounts, overwhelming guilt, and a complete lack of common sense leading to bizarre hypocritical personality traits such as requesting the Government to take more of their own money while structuring their own finances to keep that from happening. (See Warren Buffett pre-2006). Upon successful treatments, former sufferers can become useful and productive members of society again. (See the Bill and Malinda Gates Foundation, Andrew Carnegie and Warren Buffett post-2006)

Seriously now, a huge number of wealthy people have found the greatest pleasure found in money is in giving it away. (See Dave Ramsey). Like Millard Fuller, founder of Habitat for Humanity. Or Chuck Feeney, founder of what is now The Atlantic Philanthropies. Or Priscilla Collins, who gave away over $100 million dollars in her lifespan with the condition that she get absolutely none of the credit.

If nothing else, the abject failure of “Tax me more” funds set up by several states (Virginia’s fund received $19.36 in 2006) shows that even if there are a few millionaires who claim to want to pay more taxes, talk is cheap (and so are they).

I would suggest these few rare sufferers of Afluenza be treated to a 3 hour a day dose of AM Radio radiation therapy, from noon to 3pm Eastern time, where they will hear about how to channel their guilt into more productive activities, and learning of such needing and deserving charities such as the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation who will be glad to receive their donation, putting it to more practical use than simply throwing their accumulated assets of a lifetime of work into Washington D.C. bureaucrats.

Happy Birthday President Reagan

2010-02-08T14:48:00.000-08:00

In honor of Reagan's Birthday, Washington D.C. has been closed, and decorated with trillions of tiny snowflakes, one for each one of the dollars the existing administration plans on spending.

Residents have been urged to celebrate by going out and conducting commerce, resulting in many neighborhood stores sporting empty shelves.

HT: Instapundit Gawker and Tigerhawk

ACORN strikes back

2010-01-27T12:05:00.000-08:00

Uh oh. Looks like O'Keefe is going to have a few days in court, much earlier than ACORN. At this point, he has been arrested for entering a federal building without..um...something. The Press seems to think this is another Watergate, complete with "Bugs" and "Listening Devices", with a "Conservative" in the crosshairs. I'll link to the hyperventelating NPR Morning Edition story as soon as it becomes live, you can almost hear them clutching their chests in excitement. Expect the usual stream of distortion and "leaks" as left-wing reporters go about making things up and writing long-winded articles about them over the next few weeks.

Look, Patterico has it much better than I can describe, and I attempted to make a comment (page hiccuped, not sure if it got posted)

I agree with commenter 72. Nobody films themself committing a felony (well, nobody smart at least), and if he was trying to make a point, I could see a hypothetical video coming out in the next few days looking like this:

(Outside of office building)
This is Mary Landrieu’s office. We called her to find out what happened with her vote on the health care bill and this is what we heard
(busy signal) and this (busy signal) and this...
Being concered citizens, we visited her office in person to find out if perhaps her phone system had problems
(video of "repair guy" checking phone)
No, the phone in her office seems to work just fine. (brief montage of person making phone calls to office and getting busy signals while phone sits there not ringing)
Well, lets go check the phone cabinet. Perhaps there is a wire unplugged, and as good citizens we can plug it back in...

And as for "let's hear O'Keefe's side of the story", at this point *anything* he says can and will be used against him in court. Any comments on what was really going on will come out from "sources close to the defendent".
---
Updated Feb 4 2010

Transcript from NPR is here

-----
Looks like a nice article on American Thinker about how the press is treating this story. I have my own opinion (of course):

By the time this is over, Sen. Mary Landrieu is going to be begging the Feds to let O’Keefe go. Think about it for a minute. Every time this comes up on TV and the papers, her name will be mentioned, along with the meme that the Senator had her phones unplugged, and the obligatory mention of the Louisiana Purchase. So the longer the mainstream media tries to pound O’Keefe for the “crime” of investigative reporting, the longer they keep labeling Sen Landrieu as a bribe taking, constituent ignoring, corrupt politician.

Six Phases of Democratic Defeat

2010-01-15T13:37:00.000-08:00

While reading Jonah Goldbergs excellent column, I came to realize there are generally six phases when any Democrat loses:

The phases of Democrat Defeat
1) “The Republican is not a threat, this is a Blue seat.”
2) “The Republican popularity is strictly with the far-right wing wackos, there are not enough of them voting to matter.”
3) “The Repug is close, but we still have tons and tons of slime to use on him, plus calling him names and making up stuff. Have the DNC send over a couple mil and some of their best thugs.”
4) “Behind? We can’t be behind! Dig up the graveyards, start up the ballot printing presses, bring out Acorn, twist arms at the newspapers, lie like a rug!”
5) “Lost? Protest and sue, slip in new ballots, have ballots ‘discovered’, recount, scream discrimination, punch out chads, disqualify military absentee ballots.”
6) “Obviously blame must be laid at the feet of ______ (anybody but me)”

It appears that Coakley is rolling into Phase 4. The fun part will be when she hits Phase 6, and starts to point fingers.

Mathmatical Zombie Model

2009-08-17T18:34:00.000-07:00

When I saw that Slashdot had a post on the Mathematical Modeling of a Zombie Infestation, my first thought was:

"First assume a spherical zombie, of uniform density..."

Round and round they go

2009-07-21T12:28:00.001-07:00

Roundabouts have been a fairly contriversial deal here in my home town for a while, so when I saw that Slate had an article on them, I thought it worth a look. And I couldn't resist, I had to put in my two cents. (from my comment, with typos fixed)

Couple things that you seem to have missed in
this article.

30% of accidents occur in intersections with signals just *might* have something to do with signals being used on the most busy intersections, right?

Emergency vehicles approaching a traffic signal use a strobe light to "trigger" a green light, making traffic all flow in the direction of the emergency vehicle. Approaching the same traffic circle, most of the traffic will have to "slow and flow" through before the ambulance can get through (and to your house, where minutes count).

Large emergency vehicles such as fire trucks and large delivery trucks have problems working their way through the intersection, in particular those useful bits of concrete that direct regular sized cars in the right direction. And while the large statue or landscaping feature in the center blocks vision, here comes a car around the circle and right into the back of the slow moving truck picking its way through the obstacle course. Europe uses a lot more smaller trucks, and has less of a problem.

A lot of these city officials have fallen in love with the idea of traffic circles, despite the downsides, simply because of the construction/upkeep costs (lights take power, and maintenance). The main problem is that with circles, *everybody* get inconvenienced. And a lot of us just don't like that, and much prefer a light that is smart enough to see us coming and change, so we can just drive, instead of having to slalom our way down the street.

Define Schadenfreudemocrat

2009-07-16T13:07:00.000-07:00

Schadenfreudemocrat: The feeling you get when watching a Democrat on TV self-destruct. A feeling much like seeing your mother-in-law drive off a cliff in your brand new uninsured car.

History: Originally came up with when looking at Nancy Pelosi's problems explaining just how profitable companies should not be flying corporate jets, while she took ~~a 757~~ Gulfstream III C-20B back and forth to California every time Congress took a break.

Examples to follow as I find them. (and corrections made)

As Obamas popularity plummets

2009-07-13T08:19:00.000-07:00

Read Tigerhawk's article on how the declining popularity of Obama is causing him to attempt to distract the public with talk about War Crimes Trials for the Bush Administration. Strange how those Third World despots seem to haul out the concept of "trials" for their former rulers whenever their own regimes become shaky.

My vote for best quote in the comments by JPMcT "Do you sometimes feel that Washington regards us like kittens...and hauls out the squeaky toys everytime we need to have our attention diverted?"

Sara Palin resigns-We wish her well

2009-07-03T16:15:00.000-07:00

Looks like Sara Palin will be resigning the Governorship of Alaska near the end of this month. (Roundup over at Instapundit)

In hindsight, it becomes fairly easy to see why she's resigning now. She's has been having to expend personal funds to defend against the trivial lawsuit-a-day haranguing from the Dems in the Alaska legislature. Since she's the Governor, she can't accept the kinds of speaking fees or engagements that would be necessary to break even, and still maintain her position. If she is to help the Republicans defeat the Dems in the next election without her going personally bankrupt and spending all her free time in an airplane based commute, she about has to resign. (expect a book and a speaking tour shortly)

At this point in time, the Republican party needs a Palin much more than it needs a McCain, or another ancient white-haired Rino stepping to the plate, talking about how to “coexist”, how they managed to “compromise” on only 900 billion dollars of new spending instead of 935. Go Sarah Go!

My only concern (and it is a fairly small one), is the number of Palin Delusion Syndrome sufferers who will be driven into Sulliven-eske fits of frothing while trying to find some horrible super-secret ulterior conspiracy theory motive for the resignation, such as a secret agreement to sell Alaska back to Putin, or a trans-American highway from Mexico to Fairbanks designed to carry Chinese immigrants to the secret Alaskan diamond mines or some foolish twaddle like that. Then again, it will be entertaining. (Cross-posted on Tigerhawk)

Obama Burger Battle leaves MSNBC with egg on their face

2009-05-20T16:45:00.000-07:00

From a story at Legal Insurrection that I was unable to comment on before the comments were closed. (Yep, I'm that slow)

This has come as no grate surprise to me, with Obama being under constant asalt. MSNBC proved they could not cut the mustard when they attempted to carry the President's water, and have since been peppered with criticism from their attempt to make Obama look good, leaving him to play catsup before he is creamed by rising public ire and leaving him with egg on his face. His best approach to avoid getting his buns toasted, is to jam a sock in it and ignore the whole mess, hoping the MSM will continue to skim the cream off other stories, and keep this one in the freezer.

Speaker Pelosi does the Crab

2009-05-15T12:14:00.000-07:00

Heh. I don't normally read the Washington Post's Dana Milbank. I'll have to start now.

"Nancy Pelosi is a woman of many talents. Yesterday, she performed the delicate art of backtracking while walking sideways."

Classic.

Obamas news conference translated

2009-03-25T21:26:00.000-07:00

While listening to the Obama press lecture and Legacy Preservation attempt on March 24, 2009, I noticed some minor sub-text errors that seem to have slipped from his teleprompter. Additions that seem to have been skipped are in red, parts that need to be stricken are in ~~strikethrough~~. Credit to MMIX of See- BS for the transcript. Caution: This post has been processed on machinery that may have traces of Carter-era peanuts or sarcasm. Exercise caution before reading.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Hello, everybody. Please give me your wallets and have a seat.

Good evening. Before I take a series of fawning questions from the pre-picked campaign workers and correspondents I want to give everyone who’s watching tonight ~~an update~~ a fantasy story on the steps we’re taking to move this economy ~~from~~ to recession to from recovery and ultimately to ~~prosperity~~ abject poverty.

It’s important to remember that this Republican caused crisis didn’t happen overnight, and it didn’t result from any one Republican action or Republican decision. It took many years of Democratic rule in the House and Senate and many Pelosi/Reid failures to lead us here, and it will take many months and many different solutions that will change every day depending on the Magic 8-Ball I’m consulting to lead us out. There are no quick fixes, and there are no silver bullets other than cutting Government regulations and wasteful spending, and reducing taxes to something rational, but nobody wants that kind of silly talk other than about two Ron Paul supporters.

That's why we’ve put in place a comprehensive strategy designed to ~~attack this crisis~~ soak the rich and introduce socialism on all fronts. It’s a strategy to create Government jobs, to help irresponsible homeowners, to restart lending to people who could not afford a mortgage if they won the lottery, and to grow our ~~economy~~ Government over the long term. And we're beginning to see signs of progress.

The first step we took was to ~~pass~~ ram through a recovery plan to jumpstart job ~~creation~~ destruction and put money in Government’s ~~people’s~~ pockets. This plan has already saved the jobs of Government teachers and unionized police officers. It's creating union construction jobs to rebuild roads and bridges if they have time after going to AIG protests, and yesterday I met with a man whose company is reopening a factory outside of Pittsburgh that’s rehiring workers to build some of the most energy-efficient windows in the world. And this plan will ~~provide a~~ tax ~~cut to~~ 95 percent of all working families that will appear in people’s paychecks by every April 1st.

The second step we took was to launch a whole series of fuzzy plan to destabilize the housing market and help irresponsible homeowners stay in their homes. This plan plus the fact the Fed has lowered interest rates to the point where we give a toaster to anybody who borrows a twenty, is one reason that mortgage interest rates are now at near-historic lows. We've already seen a jump in refinancing of some functional mortgages, as homeowners take advantage of lower rates, and every American should know that up to 40 percent of all mortgages are now eligible for refinancing provided you have a real job, or any savings, or have a prayer of paying them back, but we’re working on this and should have it fixed by…uh…soon. This is the equivalent of another tax cut which I had nothing to do with, but I’m glad to take credit for it. And we're also beginning to see signs of increased antacid sales and stabilizing home prices because zero is stable, right? Um.. for the first time in a very long time.

The third part of our strategy is to restart the flow of credit to from families and businesses to government to pay off that massive walloping debt. To that end, we've launched a program designed to ~~support~~ take over the market for more affordable auto loans, student loans, and small business loans -- a program that's already securitized more of this lending in the last week than in the last four months combined as people scramble for free money they think we will yank away tomorrow. Which we will. Yesterday, Secretary Geithner announced one of a whole series of thrown together a ~~new~~ plan that will partner government resources with private investment companies that have made contributions to our administration to buy up the assets at way below market prices to ensure profits for these insider companies that are preventing our banks from lending money to insolvent people, which is what got us into this mess in the first place, but this time it will work. Honest.. And we will continue to do whatever is necessary in the weeks ahead to ensure ~~the banks Americans depend on have the money they need to lend even if~~ the economy gets worse.

Finally, the most critical part of our strategy is to ensure that we do not return to an economic cycle of bubble and bust in this country by remaining in the bust part. We know that an economy built on reckless speculation, inflated home prices, and maxed-out credit cards does not create lasting wealth unless you are a Democrat voter, in which case it is OK, we’ll just get you some money from Republicans. It creates the illusion of prosperity, and it's ~~endangered us all~~ my goal.

The budget I submitted to Congress which they promptly expanded with all kinds of stuff they were not able to get past Bush’s Veto will build our economic recovery on a stronger foundation tested and proven in the Former Soviet Union and Red China, so that we ~~don't~~ face another crisis like this 10 or 20 years from now. We invest in the renewable sources of energy that will lead to new Government jobs, new Government businesses, and less ~~dependence~~ ~~on foreign~~ production of domestic oil. We invest in our schools and our unionized teachers so that our children have the skills and mindless dependence on socialist government they need to compete with any workers in the world who are saddled with tax rates similar to ours. We invest in ~~reform~~ Government control that will bring down the cost of health care for families, businesses and our government by eliminating high-cost procedures like surgery and high cost medications like aspirin. And in this budget, we have -- we have to make the tough choices necessary to cut our deficit(*) in half by the end of my first term -- even under the most pessimistic estimates made by hyperactive unicorns on acid.

(*)deficit defined as the most hugest massive amount we could possibly think of, then doubled, and adding Michael Moore’s weight.

At the end of the day, the best way to bring our deficit down in the long run is ~~not~~ with a ~~budget that continues the very same policies that have led to a narrow prosperity and~~ massive debt. It’s with a budget that leads to broad economic ~~growth by moving from an era of~~ borrowing and spending ~~to one~~ ~~where we~~ and avoiding anybody who advises to save and invest.

And that’s why clean energy jobs and businesses will massively increase the cost of doing business do all across

America

. That’s what a highly skilled unionized workforce can do all across

America

. That’s what an inefficient government run health care system that controls costs and entitlements like Medicare and Medicaid will do. That’s why this budget is ~~inseparable from~~ ~~this~~ incapable of recovery -- because it is what lays the foundation for a secure and lasting ~~prosperity~~ bankruptcy.

The road to ~~that~~ prosperity is still long, and we will hit your share of bumps and setbacks before it ends. But we must remember that we can get there if we travel that road as one Glorious Socialized nation -- as one ~~people~~ Volk. You know, there was a lot of outrage and finger-pointing that we pushed last week to evade any blame for this disaster, and much of it is understandable. I’m as angry as anybody about those bonuses that we approved of and made sure were written into the bailout that went to some of the very same individuals who brought our financial system to its knees who then failed to kickback the amount we expected -- partly because it's yet another symptom of the culture that led us to this point and partly because these greedy individuals thought they could actually keep the money they earned. Fools.

But one of the most important lessons to learn from this crisis is that our economy only works if we recognize that ~~we’re all in this together~~ Government is the answer, and the only answer-- that we all have responsibilities to each other and to our country. Bankers and executives on Wall Street who do not donate to the Party need to realize that enriching themselves ~~on the taxpayers’ dime~~ their own labor is inexcusable; that the days of ~~outsized~~ rewards ~~and reckless speculation that puts us all at risk~~ from risk taking have to be over.

At the same time, the rest of us can~~'t afford to~~ demonize every investor or entrepreneur who seeks to make a profit. That drive is what has always fueled our prosperity, and it is what will ultimately ~~get these banks lending and our economy moving once more~~ be punished.

Despite my best efforts, We'll recover from this recession, but it will take time, it will take patience, and it will take an understanding that when we all ~~work together~~ give everything to the government, when each of us looks beyond our own short-term interest to the wider ~~set of~~ ~~obligations we have towards each other~~ Socialism -- that's when we succeed; that's when we prosper just like Russia. And that's what is needed right now. So let's look towards the debt-ladden future with a renewed sense of common purpose, a renewed determination, and most importantly, a renewed confidence that a better day will come. And we will tax it.

All right, with that, let me take some pre-screened questions. And I've got a list here on the teleprompter, along with answers. Let's start off with Jennifer Loven, AP....

So, did I get the transcript translation right?

Chinese Underwear

2009-03-11T21:21:00.000-07:00

Summary: US unarmed sonar vessel in international waters gets crowded by a number of Chinese ships, supposedly in a game of "chicken" much like the one the Chinese played with that unarmed reconnaissance airplane back in 2001. Only this time nobody bumped into anybody else, but they did get close enough that the US vessel took a fire hose to the Chinese ships, and for some weird reason the Chinese sailors responded by taking off their clothes and running around in their underwear. Which got me wondering. Are Chinese uniforms dry-clean only, so they stripped to avoid ruining their suits? Are they that hard up for showers that they had to get a US ship to hose them down? Were there female sailors on the US ship that they were trying to flirt with?

Took a little bit, but I found the answer to the Chinese underwear question in the Guardian

"In the annals of great naval battles, the contretemps may not rank alongside Trafalgar or Jutland. But it must be a contender for this year's award for naked aggression"

Who says the Brits don't have a sense of humor.

Stock Targeted Financial Unification Plan

2009-02-26T07:38:00.000-08:00

A careful observation of the stock market oscillations over the past few months has revealed a disturbing trend that we hope to change with this new plan. It seems that whenever President Obama, or his treasury secretary, or certain members of his staff and Congress get onto the news and begin speaking of some new stimulus for the economy, the stock market goes into a free-fall that sometimes lasts a day or two past the initial speech. Then some other Democratic member goes on television, and the whole cycle starts over again.

To eliminate this death-spiral which threatens to reduce the stock market to single-digits with the Obama administration timeframe, we have a simple plan that we call the Stock Targeted Financial Unification plan. In brief, what we propose is to take President Obama and a crack team of his economic advisors and congresspeople, everybody from Treasury Sec. Geitner to Sen. Reid and Rep. Pelosi, and all Democrats that have served more than a month in an administrative position at Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, and sequester the whole economic team in a secure location to hammer out a stimulus package that will bring back the stock market. The most secure location we have found is the White House bunker, a Cold War era construction stocked with a six month supply of MRE’s and toilet paper once protected presidents from the threat of nuclear annihilation, now can be used to protect the country from financial annihilation. Once the strategic team is locked into this electronically secure bunker, and a member of the Secret Service takes a bolt cutters to the hardwired internet and phone lines, and Vice President Biden receives a Botox injection into the tongue, a redundant protection mechanism to prevent him from saying anything coherent to spook the markets, the country will settle down for a six-month period of tense calm. With no panicky nightly announcements to upset worldwide financial investments, the market should more than make up the over two thousand point drop it has experienced since President Obama’s election.

At the end of six months, Ben Bernanke will descend into the depths of the White House to ceremonially break the seal on the bunker, and lead the inhabitants back out into the sunlight for a three-day rest and conjugal visit break. In the event the markets react positively to this plan, the whole project can then be replayed for another six months, needing only a few crates of MRE’s and toilet paper (or the past 6 months of the New York Times, which can serve double duty) to restock the bunker, and a few days to lasso and corral the planning team back into the bunker. Even if by some miracle an economic plan is produced by the team, it will be over six months out of date and can be updated during the next six-month cycle in the bunker. If handled correctly and repeated for eight years, President Obama would not even have to campaign for an easy re-election, and could go down as the most successful two-term president in US history.

Despite security precautions, details of this plan appear to have leaked out. Former President Clinton has been seen delivering a set of pink luggage to the White House with instructions to “hold it until needed”, Speaker Pelosi has been caught stashing a Gameboy and box of batteries in the bunker, and the recent announcements made by Vice President Biden make us suspect the Botox tongue injection has already been completed ahead of schedule. If true, we anticipate the implementation of the STFU plan is imminent, and the sooner the better.

Signed:
Everybody With Stock Investments

h/t Various posters at National Review and Opinion Journal

Weapons of Cash Destruction

2009-02-26T07:05:00.000-08:00

Recons Black Ops has a neat post about China being strongarmed by Hillary to keep buying our debt. Read it, its cool.

My Comment:
So we have gone from the Cold War where the Communists and Capitalists faced off with Weapons of Mass Destruction, each not attacking for fear of Mutual Assured Destruction, to the Cash War, where the Communists and Capitalists face off with Derivatives of Cash Destruction, each not selling out the other for fear of Mutual Assured Bankruptcy.

I think I like this one better.

Offsite Backups - A Reminder

2009-02-25T13:49:00.000-08:00

Yes, that was *all* the backup tapes for that office. So where are your offsite backups stored?

Meet the new boss same as the old Bush

2009-02-17T13:24:00.000-08:00

Spur of the Moment Post:

A google search of the exact phrase "Obama Administration today announced that it would keep the same position as the Bush Administration" done today comes in at 628 hits. Wonder what that's going to be one year into his administration, instead of just one month.

H/T to Kevin Williamson over at National Review

Updated as of 11/13/2010: 3,890. Looking up.

Total Money Makeover-Federal Edition

2009-02-11T13:30:00.000-08:00

Dear Dave Ramsey,

I run a huge organization which is suffering in this economic downturn. We have scads of employees nationwide, and hold a controlling interest in many subsidiaries, but over the years we have made some really bad investments and frankly have been spending like there is no tomorrow, leaving ourselves heavily in debt. Our employee retirement system is built similar to a Ponzi scheme, and we’ve been borrowing heavily from it in order to finance our spending, our health care system has been having financial and technical issues, and every time we take over a section of it, it just gets worse, and our finance system has been so heavily oversold that many of our strongest competitors hold the vast majority of our debt.

Now our creditors have begun to get restless, and in order to placate them, we are putting together a massive spending scheme that could well double our expenditures without any chance at all of our revenues increasing to match. There are a minority of people within our organization who oppose this spending, and I’m afraid they may interfere with the progress of the spending plan the point where our debt structure collapses like a house of cards, leaving me to take the blame. Recently some of them suggested that I read your book, which would be quite easy to slip into the spending plan, but it seemed like such a waste to only buy one with so much money to spend.

So what kind of deal can you give me on one million copies of your “Total Money Makeover” book?

Sincerely,
“O”

82 thousand tons of money

2009-01-30T08:38:00.000-08:00

Ok, from Instapundit

Eight hours of debate in the HR to pass a bill spending $820 billion, or roughly $102 billion per hour of debate.

My thoughts:
If that money was printed at $10 bills, at one gram per bill, what we would have would be a fleet of semi-trucks carrying 40 tons of bills each, departing at 4 per minute, every minute, for eight hours, for 1,920 trucks full of ten-dollar bills, all money that has to be taxed from us, all taxed from us without a single Republican vote.

Now which party is the party of Tax and Spend?

(for the math challenged: 820 Billion dollars=82 Billion ten dollar bills at one gram each is 82 Million Kilograms, at 1000 kilo per metric ton is 82 thousand tons. I rounded down on my numbers above to a hundred billion per hour to make the numbers rounder. Plus the difference between 76.8 thousand tons of money, and 82 thousand tons of money is only about One Dirkson)

Chili Cheese Bean Dip

2009-01-26T18:02:00.000-08:00

Budget Chili Cheese Bean Dip

Ingredients:
$1.70 - 32 oz Refried Beans (Mexican style best, can use 2x16oz cans)
$.75 - 16 oz can Regular or Chili or Pork and Beans
$.75 - 16 oz can of generic Chili
$2.00 - 16 oz container of Salsa (mild)

$1.99 - 16 oz container of Guacamole Dip (or small container of Guacamole and 16 oz of sour cream if cheaper)
$2.00 - 2 cup bag of shredded nacho cheese (Mexican if possible)
$.79 - Small can of chopped olives (Only use half a can or its too Olive-ie)
$.79 - Small can chopped Green Chilies

$2.00 - Big Bag of Corn Chips (round ones work better)

Total: $12.77

Try to drain the cans of excess water before mixing (or the dip is awfully liquid)

Basic Recipe: (or Dip in an Emergency) Mix it all together (except the chips). Refrigerate. Don't let the kids take it into the living room (its messy)

Fussy Eater Variant: Use extra mild Salsa, leave out the Chilies, use normal shredded cheese

The Al Gore Variant: (The Burning Earth) Add a small can of chopped Jalapeños, use Hot Salsa, a quarter-cup of grated onion, and a half-teaspoon of Beano. Add one teaspoon of Tabasco if you are a glutton for punishment.

The Leisure Time mix: (The way I do it normally) Take the Chili and Beans and put in a pot on the stove on LOW. Stir frequently while mixing the rest of the ingredients except for the cheese. Go stir the chili again. Keep stirring until the chili simmer and bubbles slightly. Pour the chili/bean mix CAREFULLY into the rest of the ingredients, stir vigorously. Ok, now you can add the cheese (that way it does not melt). Pop the whole thing into the fridge for a couple hours until its nice and cold. If you are making it for taking somewhere, keep a bit of the cheese back until it is all mixed, then sprinkle it across the top (that way people don't ask “What is this?”)

The Difference Between Men and Women

2008-11-28T12:39:00.000-08:00

A Penultimate guide on the differences between Men and Women.

Men kill things.
Women dialogue.

That's it, that's the answer to the entire problem that has bedeviled the human race for thousands of years. You can go ahead and address that Nobel Peace Prize to me now, thank you very much, and I'd like to thank the people of the Academy for this great honor. No applause needed, just throw money.

What, you don't believe me? It must be true, my employer told me so. During one of our company "Sensitivity" training sessions, they were showing a Government approved video on how Male and Female bosses were different. Mrs Boss had talked with Mr Subordinate and laid out a problem that was facing the department. In the next scene, Mr Subordinate sought out Mrs Boss with the great news that he had solved the problem, and what would she like him to do next. I was deeply shocked when, instead of showing praise on the eager young man, Mrs Boss promptly called him on the carpet and subjected him to a humiliating lecture, insisting that he clear future actions with her first.

Next they showed Mr Boss speaking to Mrs Subordinate, laying out a problem for her to solve. Much later, Mrs Subordinate meets Mr Boss, telling him how, instead of working on the problem, she had developed several complicated solutions and was investigating further. To his credit, Mr Boss politely removed the problem from Mrs Subordinate and gave it to someone else who would display more initiative on actually fixing the problem, instead of simply delaying action and building models.

I was shocked to find out that Mr Boss was wrong, although I already knew Mrs Boss was far off base (for those female readers, that means wrong also, but politely). As they described the differences between Male and Female management styles, it boiled down (for male readers, that means a summary) to Men Kill Things, and Women Dialogue. I suppose that would rule out a Nobel Prize, since the Government not only already thought of it, but produced a Training Video, but despite the fact the Feds know about it, doesn't mean everybody else does.

Upon my return home, I informed my spouse of this monumental discovery (ranking it only slightly below Fire) and she acknowledged that indeed it was a monumental discovery, and that the trash needed to be taken out that evening. Since then I have used the concept on a daily basis, she will say “I thought we should do X or possibly Y, or even Z”, I will say “Do you want me to kill it or are we dialoging?” and she will say “Just dialoging”, we will discuss it for a while, and after a bit if wants a decision from me, she will say “Kill it!”. Over the several years we have practiced, it has a 100% success rate.

In order to make this clearer for Men (who sometimes require extreme measures), I shall include a pop quiz. Women will probably skip this and go straight to their section, although you will be missing some really important pointers. But go ahead, you won't pay attention to me anyway. Go on. The section on Women is titled (of course) Women. I'll meet you down there.

Men
Male Pop Quiz:
Let us say that you are relaxing in your La-Z-Boy recliner with the paper on a sunny spring morning when the wife makes a comment somewhat like "My what wonderful weather we're having today. We should get out and enjoy the day." In Male-Speak, she is actually saying

1) Grab the fishing gear and the kids, and let's go to the lake!
2) I want us to go visit my Aunt Ruth.
3) The gutters need cleaned. And she doesn't want to do it.
4) I am toying with the concept of going outside the house and doing something as a family today.
5) Blah, Blah, Blah

Circle your answer with a #2 pencil (unless you are reading this on the Internet, in which case it will make an ugly mark on your monitor) and proceed to the answers below.

Male Pop Quiz Answers:
1) You are indeed a Male of the species. I predict you will soon find yourself at the lake, surrounded by squabbling children and a grumpy wife, who are all expressing a desire to return to their warm, cozy, insect free, TV equipped home.

2) Possibly correct, women tend to disguise unpleasant desired outcomes with vague starting lines. If you suspect this is the case, you may want to approach the upcoming Dialogue with the following response prepared for later use. "If we go to Aunt Ruth's today, I would like to go fishing tomorrow." If Aunt Ruth lives near a pond, perhaps you can have both.

3) Another possibility, not to be discounted. This is a good time to quickly review your list of Honey-Do projects and see if any of them have been mentioned casually more than eighty or ninety times in the last week. If so, you are being Prompted, and your next line should probably be "Yes it is. I was planning on cleaning the gutters/washing the car/mowing the yard/spaying the dog right after I got done with my paper. Wouldn't want to miss such a nice day." But remember, if you don't follow through, things will rapidly Get Worse. Follow through!

4) Correct! At this point you must be very careful Not To Push! Think of it as playing the Game of Life with the children. If one of the kids just picks up his car and drops it in Millionaire Acres, you get mad at him. He's broken the Rules of the Game. He has to Spin, and Draw Cards, and Move his Car until the game is Over. Hopping up, grabbing the kids and dashing out somewhere will get you Exactly The Same Reaction. STOP! You have now entered the Dialogue Zone, where you must Spin, Draw Cards, Move Your Car, and follow The Rules until the Dialogue Zone empties out into the Resolution. Think of it as a game, because you need to think of it as a game. If you take it too seriously, you're just going to get mad when you lose, and since you are arguing with a woman, you're going to lose one way or another. Be a man. Lose with dignity. And you get to sleep indoors afterwards.

Men, during the Dialogue Game, your job is to gently feed the wife lines to allow her to travel leisurely through the decision making process. Under most circumstances, you are free to make Suggestions. You may even make Strongly Worded Suggestions. Avoid Threats, Ultimatums, and Sanctions. Think quickly and try to stay ahead, there will be occasions where a wife Suggestion will need to be quickly countered with a husband Second Alternative or Downside. "Go to Aunt Ruth's this weekend? I thought you were allergic to Uncle Harry's cigar smoke?" Stay patient, if you have the patience to sit for hours in the rain to get a shot at a champion buck, or stand for hours in icy water to hook a fish, you can certainly sit back and engage in game (not battle!) of wits with your significant other. Just be very careful that at the end of the Dialogue Game to avoid things like Spiking the Point, Hooking the Conclusion, or Shooting the Champion. Victory should be savored quietly, with a small smile and a quick hustle to the bowling alley/lake/bar before she changes her mind. Defeat should be handled gracefully, because you're going to get a lot of them. You may Express Disappointment, Accept Defeat Gracefully, or even Put The Best Face On It. Avoid Sulking, Scowling, and Stewing, this only puts you at a disadvantage for the next Dialogue Game.

Women

For the rare Woman who is reading this, go ahead and try the following pop quiz. It won't hurt, and I promise you will win more arguments this way. Really. Honest. Even if you skipped down to this point and missed the important section on How To Please Your Man.

Female Pop Quiz

Your Significant Other is lazing about in his chair and you notice the grass in the back yard has approached the height where small children and dogs can get lost in it. In order to get his reclining rump outside and the back yard mowed, you quietly offer the following suggestion.

1) Gosh, the grass in the back yard is tall.
2) Sure is sunny out there today.
3) My what wonderful weather we're having today. We should get out and enjoy it.
4) I'm going out to mow the back yard, after I pick up all the toys out there.
5) Hey lard-butt! Get out there and mow the dammed grass!

Since Women are too smart to circle answers in #2 pencil on the monitor, I won't even make that joke, but if you selected the wrong answer, don't go back with correcting fluid. It's too hard to get off the screen :)

1) or 2) indicates that you have not read this article fully, or you have been paying it the same amount of attention an article in Womens World would get at the checkout counter. Men are not wired this way! Only in the most rare of relationships can you say "I stacked the dishes in the sink" or "The car's dirty" or "The dog is getting fat" and expect your husband will do the dishes, wash the car and take the dog for a walk. Read farther. And re-read the article.

3) Again, you're not listening, or you have your husband well trained. If you insist on starting a Dialogue Game this way, at least give the poor man some choices, like "My what a wonderful day. I'd like us as a family to go out and do some activities. Do you have any suggestions?"

4) A good start. Any red-blooded male will recognize the fact "The back yard is about to be mowed", and should spring into action to grab the mower before it is sullied with Female hands. You should still go clear the yard of toys, or the mower will do it for you. Real Men don't pick up toys. In the event of a shortage of "Red-Blooded" in your spouse, you may scatter comments like "I can't get the mower started" or "I stalled it" or "Does the blade need sharpening" or "Oh heck, I'll just pay your friends kid to mow it".

5) indicates either a closeness of incredible intensity between two people sharing a love beyond words, or an indication that even memorizing this article would not help your relationship.

What follows here is for Men and Women, and mostly gained by experience. For you newlyweds, you're going to read through this and laugh. "We would never do that!" Ha.

Women, since you ignored my advice and skipped the Men part, you'll never know the secret I put in there for you women to keep the attention of your men. And you aren't going to skip back and read it, because that would make you admit you were wrong. Admit it! Ha, I knew you couldn't admit that I might be right.

And that's one problem you both will encounter later. The three little words that can melt a mans heart are "I love you." Certainly. You say them to him every day, don't you? When was the last time? Go ahead and ask him, he won't remember. But here's one thing you can say that will melt his or her heart, and he will hold in memory forever and ever. You will be able to ask them when you said them last, and they will say "Seven months, twelve days, four hours and twenty seven minutes ago." And they are words that will hurt so much for you to say. Try saying the following words out loud, without laughing, or sneering, or whispering, "I was wrong."

Hurt, didn't it. But the more you practice, the better you will get at it. A good spousal relationship should result in those words being used effortlessly (but not too frequently). "I love you" should be used a lot, and without restriction. "I was wrong" should be able to be used by both people in a relationship. Now quick, you just thought "Him first", didn't you? If you're wrong, admit it quick before you can build up defenses, if your spouse is wrong, Don't Push! They may admit it later, they may never admit it, but if you hold it over them forever it will mar your relationship badly. Besides, you may be wrong after all :)

November 2008 Crystal Ball

2008-11-05T09:18:00.000-08:00

Now that Obama has been elected, let me get my crystal ball out of the bowling ball bag I’ve kept it stored for the past couple years. It’s cracked a little, but maybe we can get something good out of it.

Georg’s Crystal Ball as of November, 2008

Foreign Policy

Israel will *not* nuke Iran within the next 2 months. However there will be an *incredible* amount of behind the scenes debate about the possibility. In a vain attempt to gather international approval, in the end the Israelis will grit their teeth and wait to be nuked before returning fire. Hamas will begin “test runs” of dummy bombs into Israel in preparation for the real thing.
Eavesdropping on foreign calls into the US for the purposes of preventing terrorist acts will continue. The NY Times will not report on it.
All of the foreign terrorists will be released from Gitmo to foreign countries, where they will return to the battlefield sporting fantastic tans and great abs. Guantomo Bay will be given back to Cuba. Castro will demand money to go along with it, to clean up the mess the Americans leave behind.
In order not to anger the Russians, SDI will be scotched, and any deployed antimissiles will be withdrawn. To show their appreciation, the Russians will take over management for the failed countries of Georgia, the Ukraine, and one other country to be named at a later date.
Bin Laden will remain uncaptured, but will die of old age. Dems will declare victory.
The US will withdraw totally from Iraq and Afghanistan. Both countries will plunge into full-fledged civil war. The Dem reaction will be able to be paraphrased as “Whew, good thing we got out when we did or we would be caught in that.”
Billions of dollars in military budget will be transferred into social programs, which will not have a significant impact on reducing poverty. Dems will still claim more money is needed. Billions of these dollars will go to foreign aid. These countries will still hate us.

Politics
A lot of judges will get appointed who believe the Constitution is unimportant. This will not begin to screw us up for years down the road. Probably two of them will be Liberal Supremes. Their replacements will be Liberal-er. Abortion law will remain unchanged.
Millions of dollars will be found to have been illegally contributed to the O campaign by way of Visa. The press will yawn. A few thousand will get given back. Nobody will go to jail.
All the fuss about illegal voters, fraudulent registrations, people who are on tape about voting twice, etc… will fade into the background. ACORN will collect a nice chunk of change post-election and get all set up to do it again in four years.
At least one Republican will be found to have been denied their election by fraudulent votes. The press will run a brief story on page 12.
Republicans in the Senate unite behind a leader and form a filibuster blocking group which prevents the most egregious of the Dems plans from going forward. It eventually breaks down as Sen. McCain leaves and votes with the Dems. (Like last time too)
Senate Majority Leader Hillary Clinton will announce new massive health care legislation which will double in size by the time it passes Congress, resulting in an incomprehensibly twisted snarl of laws that doctors must negotiate in order to treat patients. The Dems express shock as Health Care costs rise.
Illegal Immigrants will suddenly become US citizens. Nobody will quite know how, but INS will begin handing out green cards stapled to Democratic voting registration cards.
An unofficial list of rates will begin circulating in Washington, listing the amount of Democratic political contributions it will take to get your company government contracts, H1B visas, etc…. Republican contributions by your company will suddenly become unofficially a reason to kick you from the same contracts.
Yet another Assault Weapons ban will go thru Congress, defining them so broadly as to include about anything that goes *bang*. Some Republicans actually vote for it, explaining that it will be held unconstitutional. They are wrong.

Economy
The economy will continue a downward plummet as anybody with capital gains gets them out before Jan. The Dems pass another Ex Post Facto tax increase in February, raising cap gains back to Jan 1, 2009. Despite its unconstutionalisty, it remains in force. (Just like last time)
My taxes will go up, despite the fact I only make a fraction of that 250k number that was so handily waved about. I will get a check from the federal government, but it will be for only about half of my increase (Here’s your $1000 check, that will be $2000 please).
Carbon dioxide legislation will “breeze” thru congress and get signed into law. Gas, electricity, and other energy costs will begin skyrocketing. People who buy plug-in hybrids will suddenly wonder why they are not saving money.
Gas prices will start back up the ladder as oil companies discover that regulation means it is cheaper to import all oil as refined products than to attempt to produce it here.
Immigrants begin sneaking back home in order to get good paying jobs at Mexican oil refineries/oil fields. So do Americans.
Inflation will begin roaring back. Congress will attempt to squelch it by printing more money, borrowing more, and taxing more. Unemployment will soon follow until they both hit double-digits. The phrase “Carter” will begin to be used in the same sentence as “Obama” a lot more.

Comments welcome.

Biden his time until the election

2008-10-28T07:32:00.000-07:00

The Obama campaign screwed up bigtime when they let Joe Biden out of his soundproof room and into a satellite interview with WFTV reporter Barbara West. You have to go to Hal Boedeker's web site and take a look at his comments, as well as the tv clip from the interview.

Heh. And they try to say Palin has a "deer in the headlights" look. Biden=Bambi

Democratic Standard Playbook Defined: The Story Produced

2008-10-16T11:28:00.000-07:00

This is written in response to many of you who are not following the correct path when writing major media articles, incorrectly referred to by the Republicans as the “Big Lie” technique. Once you have your juicy bit of dirt on a Republican, here is a refresher on how to treat it.

1. Lie Big, Lie Everywhere: Push your story as far to the front top fold as you can, and synchronize the release with the major Progressive blogs.
2. When your story is found to be lacking any thread of truth, switch to a covering story. “Fake but accurate” has already been over-used (Sorry Dan), try “Functionally correct” or “Maybe it didn’t happen over here, but it has been happening elsewhere”. Decry the horrible lowering of standards in Public Debate.
3. Stick with the story as it crashes flaming to the ground, but do not debate the issue. Do not go on radio talk shows to discuss the issue unless you can guarantee only your supporters will be allowed to call in. Allow your story to be used by others to expand and detail it.
4. Stall. In the event that your job becomes at stake, you may feel free to write a over-brief correction and publish it on page 95.
5. Repeat.

Examples:
Dan Rather and the Bush National Guard
Gov. Palin and any dozen or so stories about her
McCains cell phone tower
McCains supporters making noises during rally

Sarah Palin Phobia aka PDS

2008-10-08T18:06:00.000-07:00

I'm determined to do a "Who is this Sarah Palin and why does the Left hate her so much" post, but the comments on this blog make a pretty good start. Ignore the post, it's pure drek about Why isn't Sarah on her hands and knees thanking Feminists and mouthing the usual Feminist tripe.

Update: PajamasMedia has a couple of good articles from Dr. Helen and Bob Owens that show some of the more rational PDS sufferers in the comments (I won't link to the Washington Post, those comments are Weapons Grade from people who have escaped their chains and need recaptured)

Update: Best Anti-PDS comment I've seen so far. "Sarah Palin has been assigned to protect a 15-person Secret Service detail." Heh

Response to Daylights Mark

2008-09-29T14:19:00.000-07:00

HT: Belmont Club

I was only planning on writing a few lines in response to your article. Then it kind of snowballed to the point where I didn’t want to hog the comments area. So I linked it on my blog, I hope you don’t mind.

Sometimes it seems like half the country is making an irrational choice for their presidential candidate. It is nice to see somebody make a rational explanation of their vote for Obama on something other than “Hope” and “Change”, but as a (reluctant) McCain voter myself, I can’t help but see a couple of points where your logic looks a little fuzzy.

Iraq/Iran
I am glad to see you share the same general opinion of Iraq as most of us, that I would paraphrased generally as “I wish we didn’t have to do this, but after 9/11 we cannot take the risk that Saddam would pass on chemical/biological/nuclear technologies or weapons to terrorist allies, Plus he is an offensive advocate for military opportunism in the Middle East, Plus he is a cancer that sits astride the major blood/oil vessel of the world economy, Plus he has never abided by the terms of the cease-fire that ended his first little attempt at expanding his empire. So we will take this action, get a democratic government that will not foster terrorism set up in his place, and quietly leave as soon as practical.”

And I agree with you that McCain’s view of the Iraq war is much like this. And that Hillary’s taking this general view was much more based on opportunity than on her actual feelings.

But Obama has stated from the very beginning that we should not be there, and should leave as fast as possible. Only recently has the word “win” come into his vocabulary on this issue. If we leave the country with anything other than a functioning government with an effective military, it would not be more than a year before Iran would suddenly become much larger. And to claim that somehow a soft-peddling on the Iranian nuclear issue was a quid-pro-quo to get the Iranians to quit sending men and arms to the insurgents is most likely quite wrong, and quite possibly backwards. The Iranian leaders know that Bush has been quite serious about the issue, trying to prove the opposite with a UN report (ha!), and a quickly debunked travesty of a NIE is weak. The truth is there is little we can do to stop the Iranians from getting “The Bomb” short of a massive bombing campaign across their entire country, of which there is almost no national will on our part to do. Israel however, being the target, may not be as reluctant, and lacks the air force to carry out such a campaign without using nukes. Yes I expect this to become bloody. No I do not see an easy answer.

Economy
I have *no* clue on how the bailout is going to help/hurt, if it is better to set up a government insurance plan (Newt) or a giant mortgage wash-and-scrub system (Paulson). But I do know that the first thing the Democrats did when they got their hands on the bill was to immediately pork it up with handouts to ACORN and their other little buddies, and advocate allowing judges to re-write mortgage contracts (as if mortgages were not variable enough in value as is). Which President do you think would have the nerve to veto that kind of idiocy?

Fiscal Policy
There is no way in the world that Obama can take office and push his economic plan without a pocket of Magic Pixie Tax Dust. Right now the top 50% of incomes pay over 98% of all income tax. He claims he will cut taxes for all the “middle class” taxpayers, I believe that as much as I believed Bill Clinton’s plan of the same claim, which within the first month of him taking office turned into the largest tax increase in US history. In order to enact even a fraction of what he has promised, he is either going to have to tax the rich into poverty, or run the taxes behind a cover plan such as a massive tax on companies, that gets passed on to the consumer. And you can not claim that McCain will tax less, I have no confidence in his ability to even maintain the Bush tax cuts while facing a Democrat dominated legislature. They are going to expire, and it will hurt the economy when they do. But at least McCain has shown a history of being a cheap (censored) sonofa(censored) in his voting record and promises, as opposed to Obama.

Health Care
I have issues with both candidates too, but Obama’s health care plan is almost a photocopy of the HillaryCare plan from the 90s, only mandatory instead of voluntary. The last thing I want is “Here is your Government created health care plan, you have no options, we have already docked your pay for it, goodbye”. McCain’s plan at least makes some sense, historically we have forced each company to provide their own individual health plan, McCain tends to a plan that would give everybody the option to have their own individual plan they can carry with them from job to job and into retirement, much like a 401K/IRA.

Governor Palin
All of the negative points you list about Gov. Palin sound like they came right off the DNC website. She’s a sitting Governor of the only state we have that borders two foreign governments, who has a sky-high approval rating in Alaska, who has strong feelings on abortion and God, and has shown as governor that she will not cram them down your throat. She has defeated two former governors, managed to get that natural gas pipeline going without the massive state spending her predecessor wanted, and has not even crested fifty years old yet. For crying out loud, she has more executive experience than either presidential candidates. The Obama camp is scared stiff of her and has unleashed the most slime-filled campaign of hatred and bias that I have seen, up to and including professionally produced videos from Obama’s PR firm. And she is maintaining her “chirpy” demeanor during it all. God bless her.

Trivia: If Obama supports off-shore drilling, that’s news to me. Last Democrat I saw supporting off-shore drilling was that useless plan that only allowed drilling more than 50 miles off the coast, and did not permit any revenue sharing with the state. Since 95% of our off-shore resources are within 50 miles of the coast, and states will not be very cooperative to drilling without getting something in return, it went down like a dead duck.

The whole campaign season has felt a little like watching two little boys: one with a stick trying to knock his kite out of the power lines, and one playing in the flooded creek.

Update 10/15/08 in response to his response:

I do think you are doing yourself a disservice by accepting the Media's portrayal of Palin as some sort of backwards Alaskan while accepting the carefully crafted glowing image of Obama that they have put forth. Both of them are quite effective politicians, one who managed to capture a Senate seat almost bloodlessly by short-sheeting his opponents, the other who ran a populist campaign against former governors and beat 'em both. Both of them are short-timers, having less than one complete term in a state-wide elected position. But Palin will be Vice-president, a position that has become somewhat of an apprenticeship program, and only once in my lifetime has become a sudden promotion. Obama will become President, and will draw from his friends and co-workers for his Presidential staff.

After seeing who he has made friends with on his trip up the ladder, that does not make me want him in command, quite the contrary.

--Georg Felis

Operation Pitbull Putdown

2008-09-11T09:20:00.000-07:00

Post: Intercepted by Special Operative “Lipstick” inside the DNC
Advice: Place tongue firmly in cheek before reading
Caution: May contain parody, those suffering from BDS or the early symptoms of PDS (Palin Derangement Syndrome) are advised to read with caution. Close captioned for the humor impaired. Do not blog while under the influence of alcohol, drugs, Democratic talking points, or other mind-affecting substances.

---------------

From: H.Reid
To: (dem.candidates)(media.slaves)(sane.bloggers)(insane.bloggers)(kos.drones)
RE: Operation Pit Bull Putdown

Dear friends, colleagues, and associated nutball bloggers:

Operation Pit Bull Putdown has been running pretty well in the last week. Over a hundred rumors generated and still no end in sight, good work! Since that old geezer announced he was putting a skirt on the ticket, it threw our carefully produced and expensive collection of ads and scandal for the Mormon and the New York philanderer (not Bill) into the trash and we had to start off fresh. And what a good job you all did in such a short time. Over a hundred of the best and juiciest rumors and scandals all produced at the spur of the moment and disseminated to all of our editors worldwide, flooding all the papers and important internet pages. Good job!

But we must not become complacent. Some of the items you have come up with are pathetic, I mean trying to show her disabled baby actually belonged to her daughter? Get real! Not even a complete idiot over on KOS would buy that one. Next time you come up with a story like this, run it by a 5th grader to see if they break out laughing. If they do, it needs work.

Even now, that puffy old geezer and his tart are touring the country to huge crowds, even bigger than The Chosen One, collecting money like Al Gore collects calories. This Must Be Stopped! We need time for the ~~dirt-diggers~~ Investigative Reporters to complete their work in the seedy bars and dives of that frost-bitten hellhole of Alaska. We need money for them to buy drinks for the drunken natives, we need money to purchase the best forgeries possible, to buy Photoshop for our legions of photo-editors we hired from some middle-eastern country, to buy the expensive meals that our news anchors and editors need while covering this story. And most of all, we need more stories.

So get out there and get back to work, this ain’t over yet. Turn over more rocks, dig deeply into the sewer, grab hold of some mud and throw! Is Bristol’s new husband-to-be registered with the draft? Do they owe taxes anywhere? That cute little Muppet that she has following her around, give her some candy and ask some questions like “Aren’t you supposed to be in school” or “If you’re bad, do you get punished?” If she doesn’t say what you want her to say, make something up. Or find some little twerp who sounds a little like her and get her to say some embarrassing things on tape. Come on people, work with me here! If we do not step up to the collection plate and start filling it up to the brim, people will start to ask questions about our policy in Iraq and taxation and that dammed drilling, we just can not afford that at this time. Just remember the primary rules, if it’s too good to be true, print it. If they say something bad about a Republican, headline it. If your source does not want their name used, they must be really important and do not need verified.

For crying out loud, if we wanted a woman in the White House, we would have sent Hillary back.

Palin Delendo Est!
H. Reid

-------

Hopefully Agent Lipstick will be able to get more internal memos like this in the future.

Until then, here is the list of things I’m expecting the Dems to try next:

- Getting Piper/Willow/Bristol Palin in a corner and questioning her with intent of distorting/misquoting for dirt. I do not think they will go as far as to pretend to interview Trig.
- Announce that Piper was spanked once, and this only shows how unfit a mother she is and her support for torture, murder and death from Republican hit squads.
- Insinuating that Track will get/has gotten preferential treatment in the Army, complete with a half-dozen well-armed bodyguards (that we would call “the rest of his platoon”).
- Announcing that they have telepathic proof that Sarah planned on aborting their son Trig, but only decided to keep him when she thought of her Presidential career.
- “Finding” out that Bristol’s fiancé Levi has some horrid secret in his closet, too horrible to mention. (“You must face the peril! No, it’s too perilous!”)
- Having some child welfare agent of great reputation announce that Trig’s Down Syndrome is a direct result of (insert behavior here) of her mother, taken foolishly without regard to the baby, and how can we have a VP who would endanger a child that way?
- Claim that the Palin pick was a desperate last-gasp resort of a dying man who knows he will die on the campaign trail or while being sworn in or while climbing the steps to the White House or in office and picked her just to annoy the Republican party, and besides she does not have the critical Community Organizer qualification that real Presidential Candidates have so why even consider her when there is a much better candidate available? (Oh wait, they did that one already)

It's going to be a muddy campaign season, looks like we are going to get 'Change' no matter who gets elected. Policy changes from President McCain, or loose change from President Obama.

Update 9/22/08: I did not realize how close to the mark I was with this parody. Take a look at the Jawa Report where they show a professional PR firm behind a number of the Palin slimes as of late.
Update 9/23/08: Charles Martin has a good list of already debunked Palin smears, some of which are just gut-busting funny how somebody could fall for them. Even aliens.

Words Mean Something---but I dont' know what

2008-09-09T06:48:00.001-07:00

While browsing Tigerhawk links, I happened upon a site called Wordle, which can show you a pictoral representation of what your document/blog looks like. Here's me:

Have fun with it.

Racism in America

2008-06-12T08:33:00.000-07:00

Until I read this post , I had no idea what a racist I was.

November 5th, I'll have to go see what I need to do to repent.

Scoring Points with McCain

2008-05-23T09:54:00.000-07:00

HT: Michelle Malkin

It is my understanding that McCain is offering “points” to bloggers who post positive comments about him. To that regard, I am going to make the following comments, in order to ~~suck up~~ attempt to get behind our party’s nominee.

Positive Things about John McCain
(as opposed to his opponents)

McCain’s voice does not make me reach franticly for the “off” button on the radio every time I hear him laugh (vs Hillary)

McCain’s spouse is much more pleasing to watch on TV, and says much less wacky things (vs both of them)

McCain’s speeches do not drip venom and class warfare (vs Hillary) or are stuffed with platitudes and fluffy concepts (vs Obama), but actually say what he has done and what he plans on doing.

McCain’s bowling score is higher than the two of his opponents put together.

In the event Air Force One’s pilot is incapacitated, McCain has at least a chance of landing without plowing into something important.

Assuming they live to a hundred years old, McCain is going to be the cheapest of the candidates to get lifetime Ex-President Secret Service protection.

McCain’s military experience trumps them both (vs Hillary’s experience in being “shot at” in Bosnia, and Obama’s experience in surviving Chicago politics)

Obama says he will meet with violent criminal thugs who wage war in ways contrary to the Geneva Convention. McCain has already (involuntarily) met with this brand of thug, spent a considerable time as their guest, and knows how to treat them in return.

The Democrat candidates believe we should fight Al-Qaeda everywhere in the world, unless we are already there, in which case we should leave. McCain has seen firsthand what happens when we abandon an ally to the thugs, and will not let this happen again.

McCain is strong on keeping earmarks out of spending bills. Hillary and Obama have attempted to mark every ear they could reach.

McCain at least supports an attempt to slow illegal immigration at the southern border, and some attempts to find, fine, and deport those who violate our nation’s immigration laws. Hillary and Obama have done everything except stand at the border fence with a set of wire-cutters and a stack of Democrat voting registration cards.

McCain at least has voted for a majority of the highly-qualified candidates Bush has nominated for the Supreme and other courts (even though Conservatives are miffed at his behavior with the “Gang of 14”), while Hillary and Obama have spent every effort to reject anybody to the right of Lawrence Tribe. And I have no interest in seeing Supreme Court Justice Bill Clinton.

Last but not least, the Democrats have put forth a pair of candidates who are bound and determined to raise taxes by revoking the Bush tax cuts and impose an involuntary Socialized medicine system on every legal US citizen, while McCain...um... Never mind.

Feel free to chip in your own Plus/Minus comments, and I promise to give them more thought and less erasing than the Daily KOS (checking...yep, my comment there is gone again).

208 Outstanding political appointments on hold

2008-02-07T07:33:00.000-08:00

Today I saw an article in the WSJ showing that the President has over 208 outstanding nominations being held up in the Senate without a vote. This is stupid, and deserves some bright light to be shone on these dim bulbs.

Mr President, you will never get this information to the American people without a dramatic gesture.

I would propose that you make a Evening Prime-Time announcement, where you announce "There are X political appointments awaiting action in the Senate that have been there for over three months. Now many people say it takes forever to do things in Washington, but waiting three months for what in most cases is a formality is foolish and stupid. Waiting for confirmation in the Senate are..." and then list them ALL, along with their qualifications and how long they have been waiting. Then finish up with "I will give the Senate another month to act, but then I will use my authority under the Constitution to recess appoint any nominee who has been sent to the Senate and been waiting in excess of four months. Thank you and goodnight."

Let ‘em scream and show what babies they are. There is a reason the Senate is called the “100 Kings”, there are a full hundred stiff-necked people there who all think they can run the Presidency better than whoever is in office.

Supertuesday Wild Predictions

2008-02-05T10:23:00.000-08:00

I’m going to make some predictions, most probably wrong, and will leave them up no matter how wrong they turn out to be. Go ahead, throw rocks, I’m building a rock garden :)

Democrat:
Hillary Clinton will win enough primaries to be the undisputed victor by the time the coronation… errr, the Democratic Convention. At which time she will announce Obama as her Vice-Presidential running mate, the objective here is to have 16 years of Democratic domination over the Presidency, National Health Insurance paid for by rich people, National Education paid for by rich people, National Paid Everything For The Poor paid for by rich people. At the end of which, there will be no rich people, only poor downtrodden peasants convinced that the Government should provide for all their needs. I’m exaggerating a bit, but that’s basically their goal. When 98% of income tax is collected from the upper 50% of income earners, it does not take a rocket scientist to see the potential of buying votes from the lower income earners with Bread and Circuses.

In the wildly unlikely event that Obama manages to squeeze out enough votes to make the Democratic Convention competitive, or even wins the nomination, there is no way in heck he will pick Clinton as a Veep. The idea of Hillary being one heartbeat away from the presidency would scare the heck out of anybody, particularly when that heartbeat is yours. My wild guess is some East or West coast former governor, or Nebraska’s Kery (the other one, the legitimate war hero), most probably white, and male.

Republican:
John McCain will continue to trounce Mit and wind up with enough votes to assure his position in the Republican Convention. At which point the Press will turn on him like savage badgers and run one long series of hit pieces until November. The Media only loves McCain while he is trashing Republicans, after the Primaries his target will be a Democrat (whoever it is), and they *never* have supported him against a Dem.

If McCain has the sense God gave a blade of grass, he will offer Mit the Veep spot, announce that Rudy is his pick for AG, make peace with Rush Limbaugh… No, I don’t really expect any of that. I really expect McCain to pick another Senator to run as his Veep, probably Brownback, as the race goes down to another defeat. Arrogance your name is McCain. Please prove me wrong.

End Result:
In November, the team of Clinton/Obama, Bill Clinton, the Media, Soros and various socialist groups that have been promised great things will clash with McCain/Romney, who will have by that point have been bled white by six months of bad press. President Hillary will make her legislative agenda priority another Health Care Plan of extreme size and scope, a huge slug of text that promises free health care to all people within the borders of the country paid for by the Evil Rich. This Titanic plan will be about twice the size as they really want, they will compromise with the Republicans to bring it down to just Huge, and the rest of their legislative agenda will follow in much the same way.

Now if you will excuse me, I need to get a shovel and bury some money in the back yard :)

Hillary plants a reporter

2007-11-11T13:48:00.000-08:00

Uh-oh. Hillary is in trouble for planting a reporter in the audience.

Now most people do not mind Hillary planting reporters, what really irks them is she fails to plant them deep enough. You see, if you only plant them to the six foot line as she has done, they tend to come clawing back to the surface and stagger back into town, moaning about how John Kerry is not running this year and how the military has not been stricken from the budget and the money used for important things such as the tragedy of elderly pet care, etc...

I’m quite sure if she were just to plant them a few feet deeper and perhaps throw in a handful of flower seeds, the people would once again love her and cheer her innovative use of carbon sequestration.

Phony Outrage from Phony Senators

2007-10-03T09:55:00.000-07:00

The CEO of Clear Channel Communications has responded to the recent letter sent to him by our illustrious Senate Majority Leader (until 2008), in regard to the Phony Outrage incident. The original is at The Politico.

I think my version would have been much more appropriate.

To: Harry Reid (D-Nev)
From: Mark Mays, CEO Clear Channel
Re: Your recent letter suggesting that I impose censorship on Rush Limbaugh because you stupidly misinterpreted his recent comments.

Mr. Reid, you are an idiot. Thank God we have the First Amendment to protect us from idiots like you in high office who would use their position to stomp out any opposition.

Say goodbye in 2008,
MM

Rove Retires

2007-08-14T07:21:00.000-07:00

I first saw that Karl Rove was retiring on the Captains Quarters blog , but when I went to write my comment it kind of expanded into a blog posting on its own.

(begin Tongue in Cheek mode)
In a response to the resignation of Karl Rove, the Democrats have offered the following concessions if he would agree to stay on an additional year:

Congress and the House would restrict themselves to only five (5) subpoenas per Democratic member per month instead of the normal twenty served to Mr. Rove. Previously filled out subpoenas will be bundled into paper logs and used to heat the Vice-Presidential residence as a source of alternative energy for the next six years.

Democratic members would be requested to turn in any voodoo dolls of Mr. Rove, as well as any pins in excess of twelve (12) inches long into the industrial-sized dumpster outside the building. The dartboard in the cloak room will remain and additional darts purchased to replace the ones pounded into the walls up to the fins.

Members of the press will restrain themselves while in the public eye from accusing Mr. Rove of any felonies or treasonous acts. There will be an exception for this in their news articles (of course) while misdemeanors and social errors may still be attributed to Mr. Rove via third parties or rumors.

Also both the press and Democratic members will in the future please restrain from throwing any stones in excess of 20 oz or the size of Mrs. Pelosi’s clenched fist at Mr. Rove or any immediate member of his family or his aides. That includes vehicles and residences. The stockpile of such stones will be found in Sen. Reid’s office, and have all been suitably examined and approved by Union representatives, and may be purchased at cost.

Acknowledgement will be made by both the House and Senate of Mr. Roves background as a homo sapiens, and any resolutions stripping him of human status will be removed from the floor. This also goes for resolutions criminalizing the title of Presidential Advisor, the last name of Rove, or Being Partially-Bald in Public.

It shall no longer be an offense punishable by defenestration to mention the name “Rove” without spitting, cursing, or kicking a dog while within the Capitol. Grinding teeth will still be permitted, and the Senate dental plan will be expanded to cover denture replacement not to exceed seven (7) sets per month.
(end Tongue in Cheek mode)

Congratulations Mr. Rove, I don’t know how you did it for so many years.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix reviewed

2007-07-11T17:48:00.000-07:00

Yea! It's finally out, and the Baltimore Sun has a fairly well written review.

Except for one line in the middle where they go a little nuts. So I posted a comment

Wonderful movie review of a wonderful movie with one exception. Umbridge is part of the establishment who refuses to see the threat of a mass-murdering killer, and takes extreme steps to suppress any attempt to fight him. I see parallels in the real world, but not quite the same as your review.

It's sad when BDS even gets into movie reviews. Wonder how long the comment will remain up before the Sun toasts it?

Update: Well, that was fast. *poof*, just like magic.
Update2: Nope, I was just too dumb to see where the comments got stuck. It's still there.
Update3: Forgot to define BDS as Bush Derangement Syndrome, a phrase coined by Charles Krauthammer who defined BDS as "the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal people in reaction to the policies, the presidency—nay—the very existence of George W. Bush". The term reflects a belief that some criticisms of President Bush—for example, a description of President Bush as the greatest current threat to American lives—are of emotional origins rather than based on facts or logic (Credit: Wikipedia)

Irans Dumb Reasons for taking British Hostages

2007-04-02T08:22:00.000-07:00

Let me see if I can summarize the possibilities for the Iranian actions that fit roughly into the following templates. (Where I use “Iran”, I’m actually referring to “Iran’s leadership, both their nutty Prez and his nutty Mullahs)

A) Iran wants the Brits to nuke them and therefore bring out the Twelfth Imam.
B) Iran wants to push Brits and the Americans into a military action to ravage their country and do billions of dollars worth of damage to their military (fill in reason here).
C) Iran is using the sailors as propaganda tools, forcing them at gunpoint to make stupid statements in order to score propaganda points in an attempt to keep their nuclear program, quash internal dissent and loosen sanctions on their country.
D) Iran has been blasphemed and insulted constantly over the years and is just taking their just due from the oppressors and capitalists who have been grinding them down. (Their official position?)
E) The poor Iranians captured evil British sailors tromping over the civil rights of Iranian boats in Iranian waters, and now the big bad British are threatening to blow them up, boo hoo.

These templates seem to be adopted by the E) Press and other Dhimmis, D) Islamists and KOS, C) Republicans and other optimistic thinkers, B) Republicans and other pessimistic thinkers, and A) Wingnuts.

Tigerhawks article seems to have him solidly down as a C, which is where I would put myself, slowly sliding into a B as time goes on and Iran does not release their hostages.

Nail House

2007-03-27T08:19:00.000-07:00

I don’t normally read the International Socialist New York Times, but This peaked my attention. And we thought the U.S. had problems with Eminent Domain being used to hand property over to private business.
Update: This is a better story.

Photos posted direct in case you don't want to follow the link.

Credit: Ariana Lindquist, NYT

Credit: Lyn Jeffery

Update: Nails can be pulled

Looking for Surge News from the Source

2007-03-08T11:01:00.000-08:00

The surge in Iraq is well underway. Wonder where I can find some information on how it is going? Hm. New York Times? Nine stories on Scooter, one on how the Democrats want out of Iraq by the next Presidential Election Or Else, one on how we should be talking to terrorists instead of shooting them, two on how poor Valerie Phlame will be retiring from the CIA to live in poverty on the few pennies she will be making on her speaking tour of Democratic Fundraisers. Hm. TV is about as bad, the only reports from Iraq are from Fox News. CBS seems to be in shock that the hundred journalists covering the trial of Scooter will now be unemployed, Anna Smith is being buried, and where will they go?

Ah, here we go. Iraq the Model reports on the state of Iraq. From Iraq. In the Wall Street Journal.

(Begin Side Comment) And inside the WSJ Comment section is an amazing display of liberal cluelessness. First we have a very good sarcastic comment (no, it’s not mine, I’m just miffed that he beat me to it):

Haven't You Heard? We're Losing!
R. Young - Fort Wayne, Ind.

Have you not been listening to the anti-war leaders? Everything you said is just not true. I have a TV; I know what's going on. The American people have already spoken and the Democrats were voted in. So, don't tell me your first hand experiences cause their just talking points from the war supporters. Things are really, really bad and there's no way to win. Gee, this has already been decided. Get with the program!

----
And then just a little bit farther in, we have an amazingly clueless incoherent comment, the kind that should be framed for future generations:
---
In Time All Will Be Revealed
H.D. Schmidt - Loma Linda, Calif.

Open up liquor stores etc, in Baghdad, how great is that anyway? Maybe America should also introduce the American lottery and casinos, a la Las Vegas? Are these guys paid by someone to paint these rosy page, when just yesterday 10 American soldiers died plus over one hundred Iraqis?However, what might be true, time will in the end tell the truth, but nothing, but the truth!

----
Well, that was thoughtful. In a absence-of-thought kind of way. Here we have a couple of guys actually inside Iraq who have been blogging constantly for a long time in an exceedingly accurate manner, with actual on the site long-term reporting that does not match H.D. Schmidt’s world view, and his first thought is “Who’s paying them?”. Obviously the Bomb to Bomb coverage of the NY Times is the gospel truth, and the on-the-ground words of a citizen of the country in question is some sort of cooked up false front, right? Particularly when commented on by somebody on the Opposite Side of the Globe!
(End Side Comment)

Blogs like ITM disturb the High Towers of the Times (and other Lefties). When we have a choice where we go for news, we tend to go to sources we trust, and that actually have pertinent information. When a couple of guys running a website in the middle of a war zone can give more complete and less biased information than the entire news organization of the Newspaper Of Record, there is a problem (for the paper). Papers who actually care about the news publish stories about the actual events, even if they have to get them from people who do not work for their paper. Papers who don’t care about the news print whatever comes down the newswires (hence, a great number of easy stories about Scooter).

I have great deal of concern and worry about the way “Things” are going in Iraq. On one side they have people who want to kill, maim, and murder their way to dictatorial power. And on the other side they have the Ostriches (ignore it and it will go away), the Sheeple (Peace Goooood, War Baaaaad), and the Follow-The-Wind Airheads (Well, yes, I voted for the war, but if I knew now what I knew then… Besides, people are dying, we should run away before anybody else gets hurt). And in the middle are a great number of brave people, all of which have their own ideas on how to build a country, and who are building good things despite the attempts to destroy or dismantle them.

Keep up the good job ITM.

Moonbat Quiz Time

2006-12-13T19:52:00.000-08:00

Moonbat quiz time! Just a quick rule of thumb quiz for the rare blog viewer who wants to figure out where in the spectrum they fall.

1. The collapse of the Twin Towers in New York on 9/11/01 was caused by:
A: Mossad agents who planted bombs in the towers, then detonated them when the holographic projections of aircraft were shown striking the building, after first warning all the Jews in the towers not to show up for work (10 points).
B: CIA agents working for President Bush who planted bombs and detonated them when the aircraft hit. (8 points)
C: Aircraft piloted by special Mossad agents and loaded with explosives (5 points)
D: American commercial airliners hijacked by suicidal Moslem terrorists from the Middle East. (0 points)

2. The fire at the Pentagon that same day was caused by:
A: An Israeli cruise missile (10 points)
B: A US cruise missile (8 points)
C: A drone aircraft flown by the CIA (5 points)
D: An American commercial airliner hijacked by suicidal Moslem terrorists from the Middle East. (0 points)

3. The US invaded Afghanistan because:
A: To gain control of her mineral resources (10 points)
B: Because Russia paid the US to invade in revenge for the Russians failed invasion (8 points)
C: In order to secure an oil pipeline route for Bush’s Big Oil friends. (5 points)
D: Because the ringleader of the 9/11 attacks was there, and the government of Afghanistan refused to turn him over. (0 points)

4. Osama Bin Laden is presently located:
A: In France, where the Bush Administration is hiding him (10 points)
B: In southern Afghanistan, under Israeli protection (8 points)
C: In Pakistan, under Official Government Protection (5 points)
D: Hiding in southern Afghanistan, in a friendly village, and jumping whenever he hears a jet aircraft (0 points)
E: Dead, under a few million tons of rock in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan (1 point)

5. The WMDs in Iraq were:
A: A total fiction. Iraq never had any chemical, biological or nuclear weapons or plans for making any of them. Iraq was a peaceful place until Jewish agents convinced Saddam to invade Kuwait. (15 points and you need professional help)
B: Saddam used to have chemical weapons way back during the Iraq-Iran war (which Iran started) purchased with a personal check from Dick Cheany, but they all spontaneously evaporated into harmless vapor as soon as the UN sent inspectors into the country after Gulf Aggression War I. (10 points)
C: Saddam used to have chemical weapons, but destroyed them all after the Iraq-Iran war. The chemical shells and rockets found recently were in reality a new form of long range agricultural spraying, used to eradicate the boll weevil from bases as far as 30 miles away from the infected fields. (8 points. And you should probably look up boll weevils)
D: Iraq used to have chemical weapons, destroyed them all under UN supervision, and only kept one or two hundred chemical and biological rockets and shells as personal mementos of the Valiant Struggle against Islamic Extremism, with full knowledge that they would never ever ever be filled with anything more dangerous than confetti. (5 points)
E: Saddam had chemical weapons, used them in the Iran-Iraq war, used them against the Kurds, lost a great number of them to American bombing in Gulf War I, destroyed a bunch to show the UN what a good guy he was, and had a certain number of them buried or sent to Syria during the invasion, along with most of his nuclear plans and biological warfare stocks and gear. (0 points)

6. The Republicans lost the elections of 2006 because:
A: The Democrats ideas were far superior, showing that their plans for winning in Iraq, cutting the deficit and taxes, and promoting democracy are widely loved by the American people. (8 points)
B: The Republicans have proven themselves to be lying weasels, who want to rob from the poor, pollute the environment, sell their influence in Government for campaign contributions and throw their friends in Saudi Arabia all of our money by keep us burning oil forever. (8 points)
C: The Americans have seen the war in Iraq as being a Miserable Failure and think the Democrats can win it better. (3 points)
D: Normal Americans are tired of the war and just want it to be over, do not like the way Republicans are out of control in spending, and do not like having an open border without enforcement in that order. (0 points)

7. The American Press is:
A: Scrupulously neutral in its treatment of issues, except for that right-wing partisan rag Fox News. (10 points)
B: Fairly good about showing what is really going on in the world, from Iraq to politics without any real bias except for the Jewish controlled newspapers (8 points)
C: A noble profession with a few notable flaws, but generally a good way to keep up on real news, not like those out-of-control bloggers (5 points)
D: A poor shadow of a formerly good institution, who has sold their integrity for instant ratings and mindless schlock, willing to accept and repeat any news that makes Bush look bad without question, but unable to report the whole truth. (0 points)

8. The first priority of the Democratic Congress in 2007 should be:
A: Minimum wage increases so that nobody needs to live in poverty, and we can all get paid a Living Wage (11 points)
B: Defunding the War (12 points)
C: Lobbying reform, so those out of work Republicans can not come back and talk to their former colleagues. (5 points)
D: Social Security Reform, by raising taxes (10 points)
E: Voting the Bush Tax Cuts away retroactively, so those fat cats are forced to pay their fair share (8 points)
F: Bringing Iraq’s neighbors to the bargaining table so they can take part in peacekeeping activities (10 points, 15 if you count Iran in this)
G: Impeaching Bush for getting us into this war (15 points)
H: All of the above (50 points)
I: Push through legislation to reduce earmarks in budgets to a small number and make it mandatory to show the congress member who introduced the earmark (0 points)
J: Push through legislation making it mandatory to show the source of campaign funds on a candidate’s web site BEFORE those funds can be spent. (0 points)
K: Push through Senate rules making it mandatory for the Judicial Committee to vote on judicial nominees within 5 months of the nomination, and placing the nomination before the floor of the Senate within 6 months of the nomination regardless of the committee vote, and requiring a full recorded floor vote on all judicial nominations within 7 months of the original nomination (-1 point)

9. Pick your second and third priorities of the 2007 Democratic Congress from the list above. Take 50% and 25% of the point value respectively. If you can not figure out how many points that is because you took New Math in school, just take the full value.

OK. Add up your score. If you are incapable of adding up your score without an accountant because you took New Math in school, add 10 points to the total.

Score:
0 points – Sorry, you are not a moonbat. You will never be taken seriously by the mainstream press, but you don’t care. You voted for some Republicans last election.
1-20 points - Well, a little batty. You engage Conservatives in debates and lose, but everybody has a good time and goes out for a beer afterwards. You know what NPR is, but do not listen except on weekends so you can catch “Puzzlemasters”
21-40 points – People look at you a bit funny when you start talking, but that’s just because you are such an intelligent thinker. You voted Democrat in the last election, except for one Republican to show how thoughtful you are. You know Screwy Hooligans as a drinking buddy. You listen to NPR occasionally when the game is not on.
41-60 points – Getting into serious moonbat territory here. People respect you so much they give you *lots* of space when you start talking. You consider Jimmy Carter to be a successful president. You voted the straight Democratic ticket. You have a login on Daily Kos. You have NPR on a button on your car radio.
61-80 points – Full Moonbat. You consider Jimmy Carter to be a right-wing loon and Howard Dean to be a rational presidential choice. You voted for every Democrat you could find, except where a Green candidate was running. You moderate on the Daily Kos. Your car radio is stuck on NPR.
81-100+ points – Frothing Moonbat. You are Howard Dean. You give interviews on NPR. You not only voted for every Democrat you could find, you registered everybody you knew for an absentee ballot and “Helped” them vote. You tithe to Al Gore and the Church of the Boiling Earth.

Carters Newest Disaster

2006-11-14T10:02:00.000-08:00

I had planned on an article detailing the flaws in former (thank God) President Carter’s new book, "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid". The American Thinker beat me to it by a mile, and did a much better job before I could even sharpen my crayon.

Read it.

Bush Loses Grip

2006-11-09T07:46:00.000-08:00

Sometimes headline writers like what they write so much they just can’t stop
(from Google news)

Reply to Paul Krugman-Limiting the Damage

2006-11-07T07:57:00.000-08:00

What is it about me writing replies to Liberals in the press. I know they won’t read them, they are immune to logic, humor or facts. Don Quixote Syndrome I guess, I just can’t resist the windmills.

(Lets see if I can get this link to work, the Times normally doesn't like links, unlike Timeswatch )

http://select.nytimes.com/2006/11/06/opinion/06krugman.html?em&ex=1163048400&en=bb587f3c190e00b3&ei=5087%0A

Normally I do not read your column, because of your predictability, except on rare occasions where I use it to manage my retirement portfolio. When you say the economy is on the rise, I sell, and when you say the economy is tanking, I buy. So far you have been an exceedingly accurate counter-indicator, and my retirement is secure.

When you refer to our President as an insecure bully, I just shrug it off as projection of your own bias. When you wax poetic about the government’s reluctance to pay to resettle poor people into an area below sea level in a hurricane zone, I think it is just a harmless delusion. When you complain about political cronyism in jobs where this President has been appointing supporters the same way Presidents have been doing for over 200 years, I just sigh. And the comments about the vicious campaign are normal in this season where the Dems have spent half their time throwing slime and the other half complaining about it.

But suddenly there is a hiccup in the normal Democratic talking points. “it’s still possible that the Republicans will hold on to both houses of Congress" And talk about vote suppression and electoral fraud. Could it be that Paul has seen the light? Could my one source of constantly wrong information have actually gotten something right?

No, the rest of the article slumps back into the dust of negativism and a fantasy world where Bush controls the entire government. *whew*

Keep it up Paul. My retirement savings depend on your predictions. And when the Republicans get Private Retirement Accounts enacted, I will need your advice even more so I can retire in comfort.

Australia falls victim to Bush Derangement Syndrome

2006-11-03T09:30:00.000-08:00

I saw this linked on the Google home page, and was so irked after I read it that I had to respond, even though I know it is a futile effort. Once Bush Derangement Syndrome sets in, it takes something awfully dramatic to shake it loose.

And due to the International Date Line, I managed to respond to the article a day before it came out :)

So how do we fight people who live in this kind of fantasy land? And will their heads explode if the Republicans manage to hold onto the House and Senate in a week? Even the most delusional polls show the Republicans losing far less than the average number of seats in a off-year election when the President is of another party.

Then again, if the trends continue as they are going, in ten years the New York Times will have a circulation of One, so maybe it is fixing itself?

To: Sidney Morning Herald (scoop@smh.com.au)
Re: Article “Lame duck in their sights” published November 4 by Michael Gawenda

Link: http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/lame-duck-in-their-sights/2006/11/03/1162340050213.html

It is sad that the malady known as Bush Derangement Syndrome has spread from the pages of the New York Times all the way across the world to Australia. As our country over here goes through a nasty and brutish election, headlined by the daily constant vitriol spread by the anti-war crowd, it is useful to take a step back and examine the Iraq strategy proclaimed by both sides. The Republicans have stated that we are attempting to secure Iraq from the lawless elements who would use bombs and guns to kill all who oppose them, while attempting to build democracy (with a small “d”) and build up the infrastructure of the country until we can withdraw, leaving behind a stable democratic country. The proclaimed Democratic strategy has been all over the map, from Rep. Murtha who seems to think we can fight this war from 5,000 miles away in Okinawa, to countless Democrats who voted for the war, don’t think we have enough troops in the country to make it as peaceful as a major American city, think it is too expensive, and want all our soldiers pulled out right now.

Only one of these strategies pays any attention to the aftermath. Only one of these strategies pays any attention to what would happen to millions of Iraqis unfortunate enough to be in the country as the Americans flee and the murderers move in wholesale. American success in Iraq would be disaster for those who have invested in our defeat. A free and democratic Iraq would cause the people of Iran and Syria to examine their leadership, it would crush the Islamic line that America hates the Arab people. And it would destroy the reputation of the New York Times, which has taken sides against the US, and been wrong so constantly that it boggles the mind. Thousands of important stories have been shuffled off to the back pages while the Times has been carrying on its own crusade against Bush.

This story buries an important fact far in the back, “As for the Democrats, their challenge will be to move beyond the politics of negativity - from being anti-Bush and all his works - to developing policies on issues…” which hits the proverbial nail right on the head. The supposed policies of the Democrats are completely null and void, without basis in fact or any strategy other than “Bush is Bad”

That is not completely true. If Democrats secure a majority in the House, the Democrat Leadership has made it crystal clear that they will do everything in their power to raise our taxes, defund the troops in Iraq, and bring legal proceedings against every Administration official they can. In the Senate they have announced that no Judicial Nominee or other Presidential appointment with a taint of Republican values will be permitted to take office. Political gridlock, economic disaster and increased partisanship will follow. But all of this will pale in comparison to the bloodshed that will happen if the Democrats manage to force a premature pullout in Iraq.

Thank God that we have intelligent people in charge for now who can see what the results of their actions would be instead of the New York Times. That we have adults in charge, instead of the chorus of “Are we there yet” and “Bwaaaa, you’re a meanie” that we get from the Democrats. Thank God for George W Bush and the Republicans.

Where there's smoke, there's Firedog

2006-09-16T14:06:00.000-07:00

Looks like Firedoglake has dived deeply into the Moonbat pool and invited people to make the Perfect Liberal Post (Yes I know this is from July, I'm slow posting, I have a real job thank you very much :)

http://www.firedoglake.com/2006/07/17/dont-talk-with-your-mouth-full/

Hm.
-- Spontaneous conspiracy theories unrelated to reality, check.
-- Comparisons of the President to various derogatory items, check.
-- Overhyping a set of comments said in private that mirror the official statements of the President, check
-- Great moral indignation that the President could consider Important Foreign Officials at this event as overtalking blowhards, check.
-- Standard references to left-wing websites, check.
-- Standard reference to Juan Cole, check.
-- Standard comment referencing the "Chimp", check (although it took 200 posts,which shows hope)

++ Deep philosophical comments on the event... Nope.
++ Any realistic suggestions on how to improve events in the Middle East... nope.
++ Possiblility that the Left can see the light at the end of the tunnel before the train hits... Nope.

Ike Skelton and the Verified Voter

2006-09-15T10:52:00.000-07:00

Let me comment for a minute on a story I heard on NPR.

I find it beyond belief that Democrat Ike Skelton, a 29 year veteran of Congress and presumably a responsible adult familiar with the law, would go by the voter registration area in Missouri to get his voter ID, and NOT have correct identification to get his ID, unless he was doing it as a political stunt.

Add in the fact that he seems to have immediately gone out and given an interview to National Public Radio, and anybody else with a press pass, and one can not help but draw conclusions. It will be quite interesting to see the demographic shift that happens under the new election law as only people verifiable as legal voters cast their ballots. Perhaps a few less grandstanding Democrats might even be elected?

(Updated)
Well, it appears that a Judge in Missouri has decided that requiring positive identification of voters is too much trouble to be legal, so I guess Ike Skelton won’t have to dig up his birth certificate now.
http://www.firedupmissouri.com/node/4874
Of course this is the Democratic viewpoint expressed in the link. I would be interested in finding out if any of these people would accept a check with nothing but a utility bill as identification. (I would guess not) And also it is strange, that one of the defendants (Sec of State Robin Carnahan (D)) in the lawsuit should put out a press release so quickly expressing her joy that she lost.

How To Post Like a Liberal

2006-05-15T13:03:00.000-07:00

Recently I’ve become appalled at the poor quality of Liberal posts at my favorite web sites. (You know who you are) Therefore I have decided to provide a posting guide for Liberals who would like some assistance with their poor quality posting. Admittedly this probably won’t help, due to the resistance of most Web Liberals to acquiring knowledge in any form, but I feel it is necessary to make the attempt. Notice I did not use the word “Education”, which means something else to them, involving Unions, Quotas, Diversity, and Acceptance, but very little new knowledge.

Verbage of Indeterminate Origin
Never quote facts if you can help it. Facts can come back and bite you. Stick with opinions, inference, and quotes from friendly sites. Don’t worry about being consistent with previous posts. You always can say you’ve “grown”. Or claim you’re being stalked. Use big words, the bigger the better, even if you don’t know what they mean. Grammatical errors and misspellings are fine, people will bitch about your words and you can feel superior about how they missed your idea. If you feel you have to quote a source, use Progressive websites such as the Daily KOS, Democratunderground, The Guardian, and the BBC. Why the BBC? Fox New’s London bureau chief Scott Norvell wrote in the Wall Street Journal Europe: "…Mr. Aitken, a 25-year veteran reporter now retired, has put his finger on it: institutionalized leftism. The BBC's world is one in which America is always wrong, George W. Bush is a knuckle-dragging simpleton, people of faith are frightening ignoramuses, and capitalism is a rot on the fabric of social justice. Through this prism, the United Nations is the world's supreme moral authority, multiculturalism is always a force for good, war is never warranted, and U.S. Republicans sprinkle Third World children over their Cheerios for breakfast."

Words, not Deeds (Thanks to Squawpeak)
It is not the action that defines a good Liberal idea, it is the idea itself. As a Liberal, all you have to do is state your desires, and you have instantly fixed the problem. Any Conservative idea must be immediately disparaged as being unrealistic if it has not been tried yet, failing if it is being used, and an obsolete idea worthy of dinosaurs if it was tried before and worked. Be obscure. “We need to truly understand the problem of poverty in the Third World, and how to alleviate it. This only shows the pressing need for Universal Health Care, to assist the poor and elderly with their pressing needs. The nation’s poor women are being denied a basic health service when told they have no right to choose.” Never point out a problem without putting the blame on somebody else, preferably somebody Republican, rich or white (bonus points for all three).

Mud.
First thing, no matter what the topic you are commenting on, you should complain about how the Repuglicans smear, lie and distort. Use profanity. Call them names (see “Special” words). Then smear, smear, smear, lie and distort. When they squeal back, call them more names and complain about how they have lowered the tone of social discourse. Its all their fault, if they weren’t such (fill in insult here), people wouldn’t hate them so much.

Strawman Attacks.
Claim that the Repubs are meaning something other than what they said (make it extreme), and mock it. If Repubs want tax cuts, claim they want to steal all the money from the poor and give it to their rich factory owners. If the Repubs complain about anything related to education, claim they want all the poor children to grow up uneducated and poor. If the Repubs want to spend money on Defense, claim they want to steal money from the poor to give to rich defense contractors. If the Repubs want to ban late term abortions, claim they want to enslave all poor women and forbid birth control. If the Repubs want to fight terrorists inside the US, claim they are using it as an excuse to steal our Civil Liberties. If the Repubs claim Affirmative Action is no longer needed, claim they want to bring back slavery. Never go on the defensive, if a Dem is attacked, respond by accusing a Repub of an even more terrible offense.

Paranoid Conspiracy Theory (PCT)
If you’re going to make a good PCT, you have to do your “homework”, no matter how much that word offends you. Rent, no, go buy every copy of every movie Michael Moore has ever made. Watch them twice. Take notes. Yes, notes. Go watch the Loose Change movie. You may have to go visit the Loose Change Rebuttal website in order to figure out just which PCT is which, due to the sloppy nature of the film and the way all the PCTs get lumped together in one contradictory mass. Try to avoid using PCTs being used by terrorists, you can only blame the Jews for so much before you sound repetitive. Just remember, everything that is bad that happens in the world can be blamed on Jews, Rich, White, Republican, Corporations, Military, United States, Illuminati, or some combination.

Better Off Red.
Socialism is good. Capitalism is bad. Socialism is all people of the world, voluntarily working in harmony and goodness, with common respect and happiness, each being paid a living wage by their fellow workers, producing only products that do not corrupt the environment. Capitalism is the forced subjugation of the poor, forcing them to labor for excessive time in dank dangerous factories in exchange for barely enough money for them to buy the most degrading of necessities from stores controlled by these same rich Capitalists. (Yes, I know that sounds like Communism. Just ignore reality, we are talking about Liberal perceptions.) Our ideas are Progressive. Theirs are throwbacks to a fascist era. Make them sound like they hate the poor, that they steal their money from the poor, that no matter what they suggest, it will crush the poor, women and minorities. Any Evils committed by a good Socialist society were caused by evil Capitalists corrupting the system. (See Paranoid Conspiracy Theory)

Machine-Gun Fuzzy Thoughts.
(A Thousand Points of Blight) : Nobody can fight back correctly if you throw the whole kitchen sink at them, so dig deep in your feelings and go into free-association mode. Using vague language, link a dozen or so Bad Things to your target as rapidly as possible. The theory is to make a maximum of logical jumps and turns using common and general chestnuts like “Bush lied” or “Tax cuts for the rich” or “The war in Iraq was unneeded and bungled” designed to tug at the heartstrings of any good “feeling” liberal while any conservative reader will become confused by the multitude of targets and be unable to reply unless they write a huge multi-page post that nobody will read (like this guide). Use run-on sentences, unsourced quotes, and accuse Republicans of malice or incompetence with regard to anything that can be considered “wrong” and you too can become a national columnist for Vanity Fair. (h/t Tigerhawk

“Special” words.
Use certain special words to help spice up your post. Make it a blame game. Keep track by points.
1 point: Halliburton, Chimp, corrupt, hate, rage, threat, warning, nuclear, global warming, exploit, exclamation points, ALL CAPS, misspellings
2 points: Jewish, conspiracy, Nazi, goose stepping, imperial, Cheney, fascist, unwitting tool, right-wing, crony, illegal war, profanity (any),
5 points: wrong war, wrong time, blood for oil, Christian religious fanatics, tax breaks for the wealthy, peaceful Iranian nuclear power, rush to war, impeach
10 points: Creative compound words such as Bushitler Bushaliberton, McChimpy
10 points: Wild conspiracy theories.

Example Post: “You are such a tool of the faciests, go back to natzi germany and take Bushitler McChimpy with you! The Jewish cruise missiles that destroyed the twin towers were paid for by Hallibertun cronys of Cheany in order to rush to war, making our children pay blood for oil in this illegal war! IMPEACH NOW!!!” = 43 points. Have fun with it. Grade fellow Liberals on their postings (and Link ‘em here).

Follow this guide and I will expect to see a much improved quality of Liberal posting on my blog. Perhaps you too can get your posts into even the most prestigious of Progressive blogs, such as the DailyKOS.

Rumsfeld Redux

2006-04-20T08:36:00.000-07:00

Wonderful article on Redstate.org about the present Rumsfeld kerfuffle. Redstate.org
Personally I think he’s been doing as good a job as anybody could in his situation, and that a number of Ex-Generals seem to be padding their resume for his job. However, whoever the next President is, I would hope they would have the moral fiber not to nominate anybody who would backstab like the Gang of 6 (now 7) has.

To Impeach or to live in Realityland

2006-02-07T18:50:00.000-08:00

The following is a response to an email I received after the Bush Landon Lecture. There are a number of good hearted liberals that have bad tendencies to believe the Mainstream Press and the Left-Wing loons. (sometimes a bit difficult to tell apart) Comments are welcome, I have many non-Conservative friends of all stripes and I try to keep ahead of their leaps of fantasy.

I’m glad to hear from you again, and would be more than happy to try in my own small way to shed a little light on this subject. Sometimes the Forces of Ignorance are a bit free with the truth and need a bit of rationality, so I’m going to try to respond to each one of the arguments listed in your email, why they’re wrong, and how to gently respond with a question in a way that should drive true Bush-haters into a frothing frenzy, and ordinary thinking liberals like you into long thoughtful pauses.

I do differentiate between the two, because the Bush-haters will never change their opinion, their minds are made up and no fact can influence them. The others are capable of rational thought.

1) Bush lied to (fill in the blank) about the reasons for invading Iraq: This supposes that the President has such amazing mental powers that he was able to make the intelligence agencies of every major power, every news agency, the UN inspectors, the countries around Iraq, and Saddam himself all believe that Iraq had chemical and biological weapons, and that he would be willing to use them against…anybody. This also supposes that the vast collection of mass graves we have found were locations of mass suicides, that the empty chemical artillery shells and rockets that we have found were meant to be filled with flowers, that the terrorists that were in Bagdad were only there for the sights, and that they managed to sneak into the country and collect paychecks from the dictatorial regime by pretending to be French tourists. This includes such notable tourists as Abdul Rahman Yasin who was involved in the first World Trade Center bombing, and Abu Abbas who participated in the murder of Leon Klinhoffer during the Achille Lauro hijacking, later captured there by American Forces and Abu Nidal who died in Baghdad in 2002. (see Husseinandterror.com )

Pre-9/11 we probably would have left the murderous dictator of Iraq to bribe his way out of sanctions and resume his brutal rule over a frightened populace, hoping that he would contain his activities within his own borders. For many years that was his plan, as the Oil-For-Bribes scandal assisted the slow ratcheting up of international pressure to this goal. Post-9/11 increased the hazard of that course of action to unacceptable levels.

The Question(s): In 1998 President Bill Clinton bombed the heck out of Iraq for three days in Operation Desert Fox to degrade Saddam’s WMD program. Did Saddam have chemical and biological weapons back then, or did Clinton lie to the American people? Follow-up: If Saddam had WMD back then, and didn’t have them in 2003, and was unable to show the UN Inspectors that they were destroyed, then where were they moved?

Admittedly this is a cheap shot, because the same people who fervently believe Bush Lied would never admit that Clinton even shaded the truth in the slightest. It’s just so fun to watch these people tie themselves up in knots.

2) Bush conducted illegal wiretaps of American citizens. First of all, the electronic intercepts were supposedly made between persons inside the US borders and suspected terrorists outside the borders. Secondly, these intercepts were made for reasons of foreign intelligence, such as attempting to discover terrorists within our borders who are taking orders from terrorists outside our borders, not for domestic criminal cases. Thirdly, the electronic intercepts were supposedly made with keyword/phrase searches, not by the traditional method of wiretapping involving a dark van full of FBI agents and tape recorders. So the initial premise is wrong on three levels.

This is an area known as Foreign Intelligence, a responsibility of the Executive branch (read President), with Congressional oversight. By all reports, the program in question was vetted by the Justice department, and regular reports were made to members of the House and Senate Intelligence committees, which would be a strange way of committing a crime. The US has been spying on communications crossing our borders since its inception when Benjamin Franklin was a member of the Committee of Secret Correspondence in 1775, which had among its many activities the authorization for the opening of private mail, with a few hiccups here and there (see Historynet.com ), later to evolve into the State Department. This spying accusation is not a slam-dunk in the Conservative arena of ideas (see TigerHawk )
because many Conservatives are also worried about their civil liberties and restricting the reach and power of the Federal Government.

The Question: How did President Clinton keep tabs on foreign terrorists on US soil? And President Reagan? And President Carter? (Hint: They all used programs much like this one, and kept them highly classified. You know, classified. That means the person who leaks them to the press is guilty of a Felony.)
Second Question: If Hillary/Al Gore/whoever is elected, will they be using a program very much like this in order to track communications between foreign terrorists and people within the borders of the US? How about if you became President? (answer: Yes, they just will not admit it, or they’re deluded.)
Third Question: If a third country (such as Brussels) were using this type of evesdropping on international calls by terrorist suspects, would it be legal? If they were to pick up a call with information involving an imminent threat on US soil, should they tell the US?
Fourth Question: (Yes, I like this one) Should foreign terrorists be free to operate a telemarketing campaign into the US without fear of being overheard by the Government? “Hi, I’m from AlQeuda in Quash, and we’re taking a survey. Could you take a few minutes out of your busy schedule and answer a few questions for us about that nuclear power plant in your back yard? Would you care to make a contribution to keep your neighborhood safe?”

3. Bush violated International Law by invading a sovereign country for illegal purposes. Well, not being an International Lawyer, lets stack up the facts and look at them. Firstly, there were an endless string of UN resolutions issued after Saddam invaded Kuwait, giving the US and coalition partners full authority to use military force against Iraq. Then was never an end to the first Gulf War, simply a cease fire (what is commonly known as a Negotiated End of Hostilities) where Saddam agreed to withdraw his few surviving army from Kuwait, and to destroy all weapons of mass destruction under the supervision of the UN weapon inspectors. This “peace” was promptly violated by the dictator when he used helicopter gunships to suppress riots (in plain language, this means using military firepower indiscriminately on unarmed civilians), resulting in Iraq no-fly zones, where US pilots were shot at every single day for ten years. He failed to destroy a great number of his weapons and production facilities under UN observation, cheated on the terms of the treaty for ten years, and in that time attempted an assassination attempt on former President Bush with members of his security forces. Then after 9/11, President Bush got a resolution from the UN Security Council, and approval from Congress before he started the war. I do not believe in all history that there is a country that has been invaded with such reluctance, such care to avoid civilian causalities, and such concentration on leaving a functioning respectable government when we leave.

Questions: Did Saddam break International Law by invading Kuwait? Did Clinton break International Law by conducting 3 days of bombing during Operation Desert Fox in 1998? What UN Resolution or Congressional Approval did Clinton get before bombing Serbia? Didn’t Russia and China veto the military intervention in Serbia thereby making it an Illegal War too?

4) Bush violated the Geneva Convention by torturing prisoners of war. A bit fuzzy, since the Geneva Convention covers members of an armed force fighting for a nation. (see the text at www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org ) And the vast majority of the captured insurgents/rebels/(fill in name of guys with guns) are not in uniform, or fighting for a recognized nation ever since about the first week of the war. There have been some very bad instances with our soldiers, which we see because of the publicity around their court-martials. I would argue that this shows our attention to making this as sensitive and as legal a war as we have ever fought.
How about this entry in the Geneva Convention? Sound a little like a terrorist?:
Art. 5 Where in the territory of a Party to the conflict, the latter is satisfied that an individual protected person is definitely suspected of or engaged in activities hostile to the security of the State, such individual person shall not be entitled to claim such rights and privileges under the present Convention as would, if exercised in the favour of such individual person, be prejudicial to the security of such State.
Question: Which side would you rather be captured by?

5) Bush was negligent in his slow response to American suffering
caused by Hurricane Katrina. First of all, the original reporting from LA was horribly warped, from the tall tales of rape gangs in the Superdome, to the reports of cannibalism in the city and scores of floating bodies. Almost no attention was paid by the MSM to the hundreds of locals who got their own boats out and went to help their neighbors, or the Navy helicopter carrier that was off the harbor within 24 hours carrying out search and rescue operations.

True, the blame on the response to Katrina is sufficient that a good thick layer can be smeared on every link in the chain. From the Democratic Mayor, to the Democratic Governor, to bureaucracy in FEMA, up to the President. But compare the Katrina response in LA to the response in TX to the same hurricane, where the local and state level response was excellent. Response to disasters is bottom-up, not top-down. And when you put thousands of poor people living below sea level in a hurricane zone, all of them expecting The Government to save them, you have a recipe for disaster. It would be completely stupid to put those people back in their underwater homes, but it will probably happen. Just look at the people who rebuilt in the hundred year flood plain in Manhattan after 1993. My sole light of hope in this is the number of news reports from the area, all bemoaning the fact that, for some strange reason, people have been a bit reluctant to move back below sea level under the damaged levees.

6) Bush feels contempt towards our Constitution and our democratic ideals. Strange that somebody who feels such contempt to our founding documents takes such great care to nominate judges who are strict constructionalists. I would argue that the Democrats are the ones that feel contempt to the Constitution, from the laundry list of things that they see in there that you can not find written down, and from the inconvenient things that they do find there that they try their darndest to ignore. (Right to bear arms? Naa, they can’t have meant that :)

Question: What Article and Section of the Constitution has Bush violated? (Most Liberals will flounder here, having no idea what an Article or Section is.)

Mind you I don’t agree with everything this President has done, but he has done a heck of a lot better job than I thought when he was first elected. (which he was, despite your previous email. In 2000, he won the original machine count in Florida, he won the recount, and he won the manual recount. And he won the statewide manual recount that the MSM did that took months.) Then to top it, he won a greater percentage of the electorate in 2004 than any President since Reagan. Every time I think of how President Gore would have reacted to 9/11, or the economic effect of President Kerry cranking up taxes, I give a relieved sigh. And get a little worried about how President Hillary would rule.

This is too the real America

2005-11-27T20:36:00.000-08:00

This is too the real America

My first instinct after seeing the article in the Los Angles Times that former President Carter had written, was that he was due respect from his former position, that certainly any commentary written by a former President would respect the office. How wrong I was. It was one long string of negativity, snide attacks and innuendo, all directed in a vague and unspecified manner, much like watching the evening news.

I was just barely fourteen when Governor Carter became President Carter. It was a young and idealistic time of my life, we were leaving the era of Watergate and Vietnam. We had landed a man on the Moon a mere seven years before, and a total of a dozen men had walked its dusty face since. I was looking forward to Peace, Prosperity, and a blossoming of freedoms that the young man from Plains was promising. We would reduce the military, because we would not need to interfere with other nations, and the vast sum of money saved would reduce inflation and make our economy the envy of the world and our environment a garden. By the time I started college, my opinion of the man was in ruins. Instead of worldwide respect, my country meekly acceded to the surrender of the Panama Canal and the capture and degradement of our Iranian embassy. Our military had been downgraded and decimated to the point of being the employment of last resort. The economy was a wreck, battered by oil prices, inflation, and high interest rates, and the ecology went downhill as a maze of paperwork sprang up to slow development. The aftermath of Three Mile Island prevented any clean power and drowned any nuclear plants, both planned and being built, making old fossil fuel plants produce far beyond their lifespans.

And then came an old man named Reagan.

Where Carter had emphasized the value of compromise, Reagan believed in leadership, doing the Right Thing, stating a belief and convincing people to come to him, instead of betraying principles just to find somewhere to agree. He believed in confronting dictators instead of treating them as equals, that agreements must be verifiable when made with untrustworthy people (see Korea, nukes). He believed in Peace as a National Priority, but not the Peace of Acquiescence, but the peace you get when good men trust and respect you and bad men fear you. He believed in American dominance of the world instead of America as a second-rate power, because America stands for Freedom, and only Tyrants can call that Imperialism. He believed in that which governs least, governs best, and that taxes are a necessary evil that should be kept as low as possible, and not used as a punishment for success. The contrast between the two men could not be sharper.

Now, turning to the Former Presidents LA Times piece.

The primary problem I have with his article is the blind partisan belief that if the Democratic Party stands for something, then the Republicans must be against it. For the most part this is quite false. Conservatives believe in the limited institution of government to protect our rights, where Liberals believe the government exists both to protect everybody from everything, and to make society into what they consider ‘Fair’.

I thought of doing a point by point rebuttal of his article, but it is written so vaguely it would be easier to put a point on a bowling ball. As you read the article, notice he never singles out anyone by name, but points the accusing finger at “our political leaders”, and “those who believe”, and the Imperial “we” (although I sincerely doubt he has any “me” in that “we”) This allow him to make general attacks through innuendo on the president and his administration while claiming to remain “neutral”. Part of this specific vagueness allows him to complain about the U.S. dropping out of treaties (certainly none that “he” negotiated, right?) with countries that no longer exist, through processes built into the treaties. I’m surprised he didn’t manage to criticize the U.S. for not following the Kyoto treaty, even though it was voted down unanimously in the Senate. The most specific part of his article is the section on “extraordinary rendition”, a policy that has Liberals upset supposing violent terrorists might possibly be exported secretly to another country and questioned strenuously about their playmates, and has Conservatives nervous that a future Liberal administration might turn the law on Americans who disagree with whoever holds the current Presidency. Good people on both sides of the aisle have disagreements over this policy, there is no good that will come of simply declaring it “embarrassing”, without having at least some idea on how we should handle a future Mohammad Atta should we capture him in advance of some unknown major terrorist event. Or should we just allow him to post bail and treat him like a common criminal, unable to charge him without revealing what information sources we have emplaced at great expense within the terrorist organizations?

We have reached a new point in world history. In Carters age, a hijacked aircraft would be en-route to Cuba, or some other socialist paradise, in the hands of a deranged idealist. Now aircraft are hijacked by organized groups of suicidal terrorists, determined to kill as many Americans as possible. He worried about carbombs in Ireland and Occupied Israel. We worry about tactical nukes in containers being shipped into New York Harbor. He withdrew our athletes from the Olympics to protest the Russians invading Afghanistan. We are dismantling Russian nukes (by treaty) and storing the components, never to threaten anyone again. He negotiated treaties with tyrants and dictators, and pampered terrorists like Yasaar Arafat on his trips to the U.S. We bring terrorists on tours of our bases too, but they wear blindfolds and shackles, and don’t talk to many reporters.

The world has changed since James Carter became President. Some good, some bad. But the bad policies of the 60s have not magically come back into style in the 21st century like bellbottoms and tie-dye. I still have some respect for the man, he was a dedicated Christian who believed that all men have good intentions, and promoted the ideals of Christianity much as our current president. But I had hopes that he would have learned from his mistakes in government. Grown. Matured. Seen the damage that can be done to a country by weak leadership in times of crisis. And I was wrong.