Without Comment

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NYeT! They Don't Exist!

clipped from hotair.com And the prospect of winning was too irresistible. After all, Mr. Obama has already envisioned the day when he could welcome the world to his hometown, never mind that small matter of reelection. “In 2016, I’ll be wrapping up my second term as president,” he told a rally in Chicago in June 2008. “So I can’t think of a better way than to be marching into Washington Park … as president of the United States and announcing to the world: Let the Games begin!”… “They shouldn’t try to make politics of this,” Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff and a Chicagoan himself, told ABC News. “I think they should take some pride in the U.S.’s win, and you know, we’ll make sure they get some good seats once Chicago does host the games.” An old Soviet joke: “The future is easy to predict. It’s the past that keeps changing.” RBMN on October 3, 2009 at 1:58 PM

COTD: The Scary Joke

clipped from pajamasmedia.com “i’m surprised at how limited he seems to be” Barack Obama is a shallow and poorly read man. His Harvard law degree is something of a joke. It merely means he should be able to pass a state board exam. Harvard’s standards continue to decline. A soft science credential from this overrated academic university is often not worthy of respect. Its graduates should be considered idiots until proven otherwise. Our host is probably the exception to the general rule. “Obama could be curled up in a ball, sucking his thumb, by spring.” That’s what I have been saying for awhile. The odds are at least 50/50 that Barack Obama will experience a mental breakdown. He will unlikely finish his term in office. Joe Biden will have to take over the duties of the presidency.

The Electric Socket

clipped from pajamasmedia.com People, bless them, mostly listen to themselves. A change of heart is unlikely until their own experience convinces them of the futility of their former course. Because democracies are ruled by whoever has the current majority, each side gets to try out its formula. However until final, irretrievable and undeniable consequences ensue the results will be ambiguous and no side will win the debate. The postwar legacy made it possible to avoid stark catastrophes and thus avoid clear endings to the debate; it gave two whole generations enough of a margin to philosophically consider the most blatant nonsense and insulate themselves from the immediate effects of their follies. Now that the design margin has worn thin, the “learning moment” nears. What will we learn when we turn the page? What will we find when we stick our fingers into an electric socket. Some may already guess; but others must discover it for themselves. They’re going to do it, no matter what.

Well, it's a comment. But it's on his own post so I skipped the COTD tag.

On Never Being Wrong

clipped from pajamasmedia.com SO I GUESS HE’S NOT PLANNING ON RUNNING FOR OFFICE EVER AGAIN: Bill Frist on Health Bill: I’d Vote For It. I’m disappointed in this. UPDATE: Reader C.J. Burch emails: “Always expect the worst of the political class and those who report on them. That way you will never be disappointed, and you will never be wrong.”

Looted

clipped from pajamasmedia.com MICKEY KAUS: BREITBART’S LEGACY? “Rasmussen’s latest poll finds, rather unbelievably, that voters say ‘government ethics and corruption’ is now a more important issue than ‘the economy.’ With unemployment at 9.8%! Hello? Is this all James O’Keefe and Andrew Breitbart’s doing? I can’t think of any big recent corruption-related events other than the ACORN and NEA scandals. … I doubt it is all liberals concerned about the power of the insurance lobby. … P.S.: This might explain why, while the MSM still gives the ACORN scandals restrained coverage, the pols are running for the hills. They have pollsters too.” UPDATE: Reader Stan Brown writes: Why does “government ethics and corruption” have to be considered a separate category from the economy? Yes, “corruption” goes beyond individual scandals to encompass things like Geithner’s tax problems, as well as general cronyism and a sense that the Treasury is being looted for the benefit of special interests.

Trick And Treats

clipped from news.yahoo.com What parent hasn't used candy to pacify a cranky child or head off a brewing tantrum? When reasoning, threats and time-outs fail, a sugary treat often does the trick. But while that chocolate-covered balm may be highly effective in the short term, say British scientists, it may be setting youngsters up for problem behavior later. According to a new study, kids who eat too many treats at a young age risk becoming violent in adulthood. The research was led by Simon Moore, a senior lecturer in Violence and Society Research at Cardiff University in the U.K., who specializes in the study of vulnerable youngsters. Moore had been investigating the factors that lead children to commit serious crimes, when, during the course of his work, he discovered that "kids with the worst problems tend to be impulsive risk takers, and that these kids had terrible diets - breakfast was a Coke and a bag of chips," he says. (See nine kid foods to avoid.)

Ugly And None

clipped from pajamasmedia.com DANES EXPLAIN WHY OBAMA FAILED: “It comes down to respect. President Obama showed none. . . . He was ill-prepared and his staff failed to lay the foundation for his appearance. He came off as an ugly American who knew nothing about the territory and who felt the world somehow owed him something.”

Deep, Deep Trouble

clipped from campaignspot.nationalreview.com There's actually something worrisome about this whole Chicago fiasco, and it goes back to President Obama's inexperience. Diplomacy 101 tells us that your head of state only shows up on the high-profile stage when a deal is complete. The lesson that most politicians learn well before they gain positions of power is that diplomacy is done by diplomats, professionals who work through all the negotiations and the hardball tactics and the carrot/stick combinations. Why were you and Ramesh surprised? Because you thought that President Obama at least knew this very basic lesson. Today's announcement suggests that he does not, and it just got advertised big-time to countries who already were pretty sure we had a rookie at the helm who didn't know how to use international power. President Obama just got upstaged by an organization against whom no retaliation is acceptable, and he wants to meet with the Iranians next month? We are in deep, deep trouble.

Top Ten Reasons Why Chicago Didn't Get The Olympics

clipped from corner.nationalreview.com 10. Dead people can't vote at IOC meetings 9. Obama distracted by 25 min meeting with Gen. McChrystal 8. Who cares if Obama couldn't talk the IOC into Chicago? He'll be able to talk Iran out of nukes. 7. The impediment is Israel still building settlements. 6. Obviously no president would have been able to acomplish it. 5. We've been quite clear and said all along that we didn't want the Olympics. 4. This isn't about the number of Olympics "lost", it's about the number of Olympics "saved" or "created". 3. Clearly not enough wise Latina judges on the committee 2. Because the IOC is racist. 1. It's George Bush's fault.

Stolen whole.

Nooooo

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Wow

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com The National Post reports that the video has become something of an internet sensation since it was uploaded this past Wednesday. "Nine seconds into the film," the paper adds, "a 13-year-old Anne is seen leaning out of a second-floor window, smiling and looking down at the street to see the bride and groom." How utterly, utterly sad.

What If?

clipped from raymankojast.blogspot.com "What if President Obama held up a photograph of Neda, the young girl murdered by Iranian authorities, at his next press conference? What if he did that at every press conference? I bet that would unnerve President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and even the supreme leader far more than the loss of some German machine tool imports or Dutch tomatoes." More @slate.

$1000 to O Duce's favorite charity -- ACORN I'm guessing -- if he'll do it. What are the odds I'll lose? About 1 in 10^33 is my guess...

And That's AFTER The Hedonics

clipped from pajamasmedia.com DON SURBER compares actual unemployment with what the Obama Administration promised from the Stimulus.

Senator From Big PhRMA Confused

clipped from www.moonbattery.com Demonrat Senator Tom Carper (D-DE) admits that no one has a clue what the language of the ObamaCare Bill means, nobody else does, and so there's no point in reading it. I don’t expect to actually read the legislative language, because reading the legislative language is among the more confusing things I’ve ever read in my life. . . . When you get into the legislative language, Sen. Conrad actually read some of it, several pages of it, the other day, and I don’t think anybody had a clue, including people who had served on this committee for decades, what he was talking about. There's a video clip at Patterico in case you think I'm exaggerating. Am I alone in thinking that if your job description is "law-maker," you ought to have a minimal level of competence in writing and understanding... you know... the law?

Not Workin'

clipped from www.moonbattery.com A curious article was featured just below the fold on the Washington Compost front page -- curious in its apparent honesty (if tempered with a hint of innocent "how could this be happening" ignorance). You see, it reports what was stunningly obvious any sensible conservative or libertarian: the porkulus was never going to help our economy. The fragile economic recovery has relied heavily on government stimulus spending, but new data show that as the money runs out, a sustained rebound may be elusive. Hm. Elusive. The government's wildly popular "Cash for Clunkers" program drove consumer spending to its highest level in eight years in August. But after it ended, so did the growth in auto sales.

Not Okay

clipped from www.moonbattery.com 1 - A rich, famous brother of a Democrat President who drives drunk off a bridge and murders a young woman who was not his wife: OKAY 2 - A famous Hollywood Director who intoxicates, then rapes a 13 year old girl, confesses to it and then runs from the law for 30 years: OKAY 3 - A Democrat President who sexually harasses an intern under his employ in the Oval Office then lies under oath: OKAY 4 - A Republican Congressman who texts with 17-18 year old boys but never met them: NOT OKAY 5 - A Democrat Senator currently with leadership status who was the elected “Exalted Cyclops” in the Ku Klux Klan and repeatedly used racial slurs on television until he became too old and his words slurred: OKAY 6 - A Republican Congressman who yelled at a President who happens to be African-American: NOT OKAY 7 - A Democrat school teacher, now Presidential “Safe Schools Czar”, who did nothing when a teenager told him of dangerous sex habits with older men: OKAY

Lost (Part 87,283)

clipped from pajamasmedia.com He was on his way the next day to Branford College at Yale, where he spoke before some 65 Yale students and faculty. Rabbi Jon Hausman was at the event and, guess what, the “Yale community” was the opposite of welcoming. “The crowd was hostile, Rabbi Hausman reported in an interview. There were a number of self-described Muslims. Those who did ask questions expressed displeasure with Westergaard’s work. The questions from these people were repetitive. One person described himself as a mildly Evangelical Christian who lived for a number of years in a Muslim country working. Yet, he took what I call a dhimmi view in his question — how far can Westergaard go in his work before endangering Christians who live in Muslim countries? I found this to be the most disturbing question and attitude of all. Further, it is clear that the university suffers from the malaise of relativist truth and the multicultural ethic. In the final analysis, I believe that the university is lost.

20%

clipped from pajamasmedia.com UH OH: Foreign policy polling badly. “The latest Fox News/Opinion Dymanic poll is chock-full of bad news for the president. But on foreign policy, the results are nothing short of stunning. On who they trust more to decide the next steps in Afghanistan, 66 percent say military commanders, while only 20 percent say the president. Even Democrats have more faith in the military commanders (by a 45 to 37 percent margin). On Iran, 69 percent say Obama has not been tough enough, including 55 percent of Democrats. Sixty-one percent favor a U.S. military action, if needed, to keep Iran from getting nuclear weapons. Fifty-one percent think Obama apologizes for American too much. . . . In short, Obama has already achieved what it took Jimmy Carter an entire term to attain: the conviction of a large majority of the American people that he is not protecting our interests or performing adequately as commander in chief.”

A Fool And His Lap

clipped from pajamasmedia.com I suppose it’s a tribute to the president’s tenacity, or perhaps his inability to think outside the box of conventional wisdom, but he seems to be totally unwilling to accept a Divine gift. the Iranian regime is on the edge of doom.  The events of the past few weeks demonstrate that the Iranian people will no longer accept repression, and the security forces are no longer able to shut down the demonstrations.  On “Quds Day,” there were too many people in the streets, and the Revolutionary Guards and Basij could only stand by. The leader of the opposition Green Path of Hope, Mir Hossein Mousavi, has long said that any government he heads will terminate support for terrorism and open the country’s nuclear facilities to international inspection, thereby ameliorating all three of Obama’s major headaches with Tehran. But Obama does not seem to recognize the golden opportunity that has fallen into his lap.

Fountain Of Youth Update

clipped from www.breitbart.com The fountain of youth may exist after all, as a study showed that scientists have discovered means to extend the lifespan of mice and primates. The key to eternal -- or at least prolonged -- youth lies in genetic manipulation that mimics the health benefits of reducing calorie intake, suggesting that aging and age-related diseases can be treated. Scientists from the Institute of Healthy Ageing at University College London (UCL) extended the lifespan of mice by up to a fifth and reduced the number of age-related diseases affecting the animals after they genetically manipulated them to block production of the S6 Kinase 1 (S6K1) protein. The genetically altered female mice lived 20 percent longer -- living a total of 950 days -- or over 160 days more than their normal counterparts. Male mice showed little difference in lifespan although they also demonstrated some of the health benefits "We are suddenly much closer to treatments for aging than we thought," said David Gems of UCL

Against Us

clipped from pajamasmedia.com INDIANS VS. ENVIRONMENTALISTS: Navajo tribes say environmentalists not welcome on reservations. “Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. and Hopi lawmakers say environmentalists’ efforts could hurt the tribes’ struggling economies by slowing or stopping coal mining. . . . ‘Environmentalists are good at identifying problems but poor at identifying feasible solutions,’ Shirley said in a news release. ‘Most often they don’t try to work with us but against us, giving aid and comfort to those opposed to the sovereign decision-making of tribes.’”

Hamilton's Curse

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Today's Obama/ACORN/SEIU "Surprise"

clipped from corner.nationalreview.com With the revelation that White House Director of Political Affairs, Patrick Gaspard, has close ties to Bertha Lewis and to ACORN, Matthew Vadum and Erick Erickson appear to be onto something significant. While the Gaspard matter needs further investigation before we form any hard conclusions, it certainly seems to confirm that President Obama’s ties to a whole series of ACORN-controlled organizations are neither minor nor by any means long-past. There’s been a good deal of attention to ACORN of late, and deservedly so. Yet for all the fuss, what is arguably the most important Obama-ACORN tie of all has gotten short shrift. During the 2008 election, Obama’s close links to the far-left New Party were revealed and explored (although not by the mainstream press). Yet many seem to have forgotten that the New Party, particularly in Chicago, was dominated by ACORN (and by an ACORN-controlled SEIU union local).

Ignored

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com Charles Gasparino reports that, although they will not admit anything of the sort in public, people like Morgan Stanley's John Mack, BlackRock's Larry Fink, Greg Fleming (once at Merrill Lynch), JP Morgan's Jamie Dimon, and Goldman Sachs' Lloyd Blankfein, who backed Obama at the time of the financial crisis last Fall, are now, in private, expressing grave misgivings. Even more to the point, he reports, I'm told that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and chief economic adviser Lawrence Summers have both complained to senior Wall Street execs that they have almost no say in major policy decisions. Obama economic counselor Paul Volcker, the former Fed chairman, is barely consulted at all on just about anything -- not even issues involving the banking system, of which he is among the world's leading authorities. At most, the economic people and their staffs get asked to do cost analyses of Obama's initiatives for the White House political people -- who then ignore their advice.

But Not Until After The Mid-Term Election I'm Guessing

clipped from finance.yahoo.com WASHINGTON (AP) -- To prevent inflation from taking off, the Federal Reserve will need to start boosting interest rates quickly and aggressively once the economy is back on firmer footing, Fed officials warned Tuesday. "I expect that when it comes time to tighten monetary policy, my colleagues and I will move with an alacrity that, if needed, will be equal in speed and intensity" to when the Fed was slashing rates to battle the recession and the financial crisis, said Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Although Fisher has a reputation for being one of the Fed's toughest inflation fighters, it marked the second such warning by a central bank official in recent days. Fed member Kevin Warsh on Friday said the central bank will need to move swiftly when the time comes to raise rates.

Now The Pain Is Almost Gone

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com Various interest groups use patently bogus statistics to try to convince us that socialized medicine would be a good thing. But those who live under government medicine have a different story to tell: When the pain in Christina Woodkey's legs became so severe that she could no long hike or cross-country ski, she went to her local health clinic. The Calgary, Canada, resident was told she'd need to see a hip specialist. Because the problem was not life-threatening, however, she'd have to wait about a year. she drove across the border into Montana and got the $50,000 surgery done in two days. When the relationship between supply and demand is broken by government controls, one common if not inevitable result is rationing by queue. Thus, in the Soviet Union you had to stand in line for hours to buy milk. In Canada (and anywhere else where socialized medicine prevails), you have to wait in line for months or years for medical treatment. Costs are saved because many patients die waiting.

Pluto Was The Correct Answer

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Too Late

clipped from pajamasmedia.com It is events in the United States that have really provoked the crisis. European socialism was fantasy viable only while the US successfully performed the role of global system administrator. With Barack Obama crashing subsystem after subsystem, the socialist appendages are powering down. Without free energy from the capitalist system they despise, socialism is indeed doomed. What no one anticipated was how quickly the end might come. It would be really interesting if the key problem in the next few years turned out to be not about how to defeat the left, but how to survive the maelstrom left by its sinking. There is some sense in the Left that things are no longer the same. But that’s a mistake. They have never changed. Mr. Judt argues that European Socialists need a new message — how to reform capitalism, “recognizing the centrality of economic interest while displacing it from its throne as the only way of talking about politics.” Maybe its too late for that now.

Not So Hot

clipped from www.climateaudit.org The quote of the week is: I hardly know where to begin in terms of commentary on this difference. - Steve McIntyre, Climate Audit in Yamal: A “Divergence” Problem The graph above shows what happens to the “Hockey Stick” after additional tree ring data, recently released (after a long and protracted fight over data access) is added to the analysis of Hadley’s archived tree ring data in Yamal, Russia. All of the sudden, it isn’t the “hottest period in 2000 years” anymore.

A Sunny Day

clipped from online.wsj.com At the heart of the problem is not simply the nuclear program. It is the Iranian regime, a regime that has, since 1979, relentlessly waged war against the U.S. and its allies. The brutality without is more than matched by the brutality within—the rape, torture and summary execution of civilians by the tens of thousands, down, quite literally, to the present day. This is a corrupt, fanatical, ruthless and unprincipled regime It is, therefore, in the American interest to break with past policy and actively seek the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. Not by invasion, which this administration would not contemplate and could not execute, but through every instrument of U.S. power, soft more than hard. And if, as is most likely, President Obama presides over the emergence of a nuclear Iran, he had best prepare for storms that will make the squawks of protest against his health-care plans look like the merest showers on a sunny day.

Poles For Nothing, And Your Kicks For Holocaust

clipped from www.washingtonpost.com The administration has sought to display a united front with its partners in the talks -- Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China. But Russia and China are especially wary of imposing more sanctions beyond those contained in three U.N. Security Council resolutions aiming at deterring Iran. Russian officials on Monday began backing off from statements made last week by President Dmitry Medvedev suggesting that Russian resistance to sanctions was weakening. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Russian news agencies that the missile launches were "worrisome" but added, "I am convinced restraint is needed." Similarly, a Foreign Ministry source told Russian news agencies that Western powers needed to restrain themselves. Both Russia and China have veto power on the U.N. Security Council, and reluctance by either to support additional sanctions would make it extremely difficult and time-consuming to erect additional international measures.

The Terrorist Arm Of The Democratic Party

clipped from brianakira.wordpress.com Robert Byrd (D-W.Va., KKK): “I will never fight with a Negro by my side. Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.” Robert Byrd is part of a long tradition in US Democratic Party politics. That of the K.K.K. Robert Byrd filibustered the 1964 Civil Rights Act. His comrade, Al Gore Sr., vehemently opposed the bill, as did most of their fellow Democrat senators. Robert Byrd opposed the nominations of the Supreme Court’s two black justices, liberal Thurgood Marshall and conservative Clarence Thomas. Robert Byrd’s press secretary Tom Gavin is not sure whether Senator Byrd lynched any Black people or not. History shows that the Ku Klux Klan was the terrorist arm of the Democrat Party.

The U.N.: International ACORN

clipped from washingtonindependent.com “It’s time to say enough of the American taxpayer’s dollar being spent on something that may have been a noble idea, but has become a disgrace!” said Huckabee. “It has become the international equivalent of ACORN and it’s time to say enough!” Huckabee continued, suggesting that the U.N. be handed over to one of the nations that attacked America. “Let’s end the diplomatic excesses that these people enjoy,” he said. “Let any country that is willing to spend the money that the United States is hosting–let them have it. Give it to the Saudis and let these diplomats suck the sand out of the Saudi desert for a few summers and see if that’s where they’d like to go, and make their ridiculous speeches.”

It Only Gets Worse

clipped from www.moonbattery.com Electing an unqualified ultra-left punk on the basis of his skin color, Muslim name, and ability to keep a straight face while reading outrageous lies off a teleprompter has been a disaster in all other respects, but at least the rest of the world loves and respects us now that we've abandoned the concept of acting in our own interest, and have embarked on a policy of "engagement" with our enemies. That is, the rest of the world, with the exception of our friends. Here's the view from India: He may not relish the comparison but it is now becoming increasingly obvious that Mr Barack Obama is the most hostile American President for India since Richard Nixon. In the eight months he has been in office, Mr Obama has snubbed India more than once. He has sent repeated signals that New Delhi is not integral to his Asian security architecture. Partly as a result of his country's economic crisis, he has bent over backwards to accommodate China.

COTD #2: ACORN-a-rama

clipped from esr.ibiblio.org Ways of Looking at an ACORN ACORN: Alien Children Offered Regularly Nationwide ACORN: Authorities Caught One Registering “Napoleon” ACORN: Assembly of the Complacent: Organized, Registered & Non-productive! ACORN: Association of Crooks O’Keefe Revealed in a Nanosecond ACORN: “Audacity” and “Change” that Obama Represents Nationally ACORN: Assorted Crazies, Oddballs, Reprobates, and Nincompoops ACORN: Association of Criminals Obama Represented in the Nineties ACORN: Advising Criminals, Organizing Radical Nutjobs ACORN: Assisting Call-girls, Obama, Reid & Nancy ACORN: Advancing Communism, Obamamania, Reparations Now! ACORN: After Clinton, Obama Retards a Nation ACORN: Alike Carter, Obama is Regretful and Negative ACORN: America, Could Obama Resign Now?? ACORN: Against Conservatives, Order, Republicans, and the Nation ACORN: American Cash Outflows to Rathke’s “Nonprofits” ACORN: Apparently “Community Organizing” Really is Nefarious ACORN: Andrew Clearly Outplayed the Resentful NYT

COTD: Fraud Machines

clipped from esr.ibiblio.org As a former Democratic campaign worker and Dem Congressional staffer, I can personally confirm your impression that ACORN-style vote fraud machines are the core competency of the party. If anyone has any doubt, they can stand outside a Dem Congressman’s campaign HQ the morning after a successful election. There’ll be a swarm of thugs passing out and collecting “walking around money”, basically bags of cash for delivering their neighborhoods. Sadly, African-American churches are another leg of the corruption stool — where black preachers auction off their ‘endorsement’ among a field of Dem candidates; with that ‘endorsement’ coming in the form of a sermon the Sunday before the election with the preacher screaming “It is your Christian duty to vote for X on Tuesday, the other guy is a RACIST.” I got disgusted with the entire machine. If only the rest of the public could see what I saw, they’d blow the Dem party up.

Bent

clipped from www.analyzethis.net Like I said, I’m a fan. His famous keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention moved me to tears. The Democrats – not to mention America – need a mixed-race spokesperson who can connect to both urban blacks and rural whites, who has the credibility to challenge the status quo on issues ranging from misogynistic rap to unfair school funding. And yet I’m disappointed. Barack’s story may be true, but many of the facts are not. His larger narrative purpose requires him to embellish his role. I don’t buy it. Just as I can’t be inspired by Steve Jobs now that I know how dishonest he is, I can’t listen uncritically to Barack Obama now that I know he’s willing to bend the facts to his purpose.