Pay through the nose for legislative failure

◼ Senate Democrats late Saturday night approved a plan to raise personal income taxes by 67 percent and broaden the Illinois sales tax to include services such as cable TV...

It can be argued that it is legislator's failure to encourage and create prosperity that is responsible for declining revenues and their inability to pay for everything they want - well that and they will always spend more than they are given.

Their answer - raise taxes, raise taxes raise taxes, never cut spending.

Obamacare Will Lead To A U-Turn On Life-Expectancy

◼ Obamacare Will Lead To A U-Turn On Life-Expectancy: What To Tell The Blue Dogs Hugh Hewitt

Date night. To the winner go the spoils

◼ ..."As President Obama prepares to wing into Manhattan’s theater district on Air Force One to take in a Broadway show, GM is preparing to file bankruptcy and families across America continue to struggle to pay their bills....

Hey he won. He gets to do what he wants - you don't.

“First, we will expand the restriction on oral communications to cover all persons..."

not just federally registered lobbyists. For the first time, we will reach contacts not only by registered lobbyists but also by unregistered ones, as well as anyone else exerting influence on the process. We concluded this was necessary under the unique circumstances of the stimulus program....

◼ White House pushing to gag stimulus critics Michelle Malkin
◼ White House moves to restrict criticism of stimulus projects Washington Examiner

Only 19 percent of Americans, after all, identify themselves as liberal...

compared with 36 percent who say they are moderate and 41 percent who say they are conservative, according to the latest poll by Democracy Corps, a Democratic think tank. (Founders - James Carville, Stanley B. Greenberg)

The author of "Wake Up, You're Liberal: How We Can Take America Back From the Right,"

has this to say about Obama...

We expected broken promises. But the gap between the soaring expectations that accompanied Barack Obama’s inauguration and his wretched performance is the broadest such chasm in recent historical memory. This guy makes Bill Clinton look like a paragon of integrity and follow-through....

..Obama is useless. Worse than that, he’s dangerous.. Which is why, if he has any patriotism left after the thousands of meetings he has sat through with corporate contributors, blood-sucking lobbyists and corrupt politicians, he ought to step down now — before he drags us further into the abyss....

Obama is cute. He is charming. But there is something rotten inside him. Unlike the Republicans who backed George W. Bush, I won’t follow a terrible leader just because I voted for him. Obama has revealed himself. He is a monster, and he should remove himself from power... h/t: STACLU

Wow.

More:
◼ Could Obama’s Left Wing Flap him to Death?
◼ Obama's Battle With the Liberal Wing of the Democratic Party
◼ Obama's Journey from Charismatic to Polarizing

"I'm sure she would have restated it" ...IF...

◼ Obama sure Sotomayor would restate 2001 comment
Obama said he wanted a judge who would "approach decisions without any particular ideology or agenda, but rather a commitment to impartial justice." And, as usual, what he says and what he does are complete opposites. So you knew he would pick someone highly vested in ideology, with a definite agenda and every intention of using her position to 'make policy."

He is the activist's activist. He is turning the Country into the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, expensive boondoggles and experiments in social engineering, righting perceived wrongs by redistributing other people's rights and money. His record was clear, but no one paid attention.

Her record is becoming clear. "I'm sure she would have restated it," Obama flatly told NBC News, without indicating how he knew that.

"I'm sure she would have restated it"... if she knew you were going to pay attention, if she knew it might prevent her from getting this appointment... kinda like Nixon. He was sorry - sorry that he got caught.

Not that it matters. She will be confirmed.

New friends

◼ talkshowamerica.com
◼ nicedoggie.net
◼ kendersmusings.blogspot.com
◼ Ed
◼ MitchellBlatt
◼ Dinah Lord

Another author threatened

◼ FRENCH TURKISH AUTHOR FACES JAIL TIME FOR INSULTING ISLAM Atlas Shrugs

one thing, then another, then another...

◼ Justice Department political appointees overruled career lawyers and ended a civil complaint accusing three members of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense of wielding a nightstick and intimidating voters at a Philadelphia polling place last Election Day, according to documents and interviews.

The incident - which gained national attention when it was captured on videotape and distributed on YouTube - had prompted the government to sue the men, saying they violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act by scaring would-be voters with the weapon, racial slurs and military-style uniforms.

Career lawyers pursued the case for months, including obtaining an affidavit from a prominent 1960s civil rights activist who witnessed the confrontation and described it as "the most blatant form of voter intimidation" that he had seen, even during the voting rights crisis in Mississippi a half-century ago....

...The lawyers also had ascertained that one of the three men had gained access to the polling place by securing a credential as a Democratic poll watcher, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The Washington Times....

...People directly familiar with the case, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because of fear of retribution, said career lawyers in two separate Justice offices had recommended proceeding to default judgment before political superiors overruled them....

....The civil suit filed Jan. 7 identified the three men as members of the Panthers and said they wore military-style uniforms, black berets, combat boots, battle-dress pants, black jackets with military-style insignias and were armed with "a dangerous weapon"and used racial slurs and insults to scare would-be voters and those there to assist them at the Philadelphia polling location on Nov. 4.

The complaint said the three men engaged in "coercion, threats and intimidation, ... racial threats and insults, ... menacing and intimidating gestures, ... and movements directed at individuals who were present to vote." It said that unless prohibited by court sanctions, they would "continued to violate ... the Voting Rights Act by continuing to direct intimidation, threats and coercion at voters and potential voters, by again deploying uniformed and armed members at the entrance to polling locations in future elections, both in Philadelphia and throughout the country."

To support its evidence, the government had secured an affidavit from Bartle Bull, a longtime civil rights activist and former aide to Sen. Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign. Mr. Bull said in a sworn statement dated April 7 that he was serving in November as a credentialed poll watcher in Philadelphia when he saw the three uniformed Panthers confront and intimidate voters with a nightstick.

Inexplicably, the government did not enter the affidavit in the court case, according to the files....

Surely disgust about this crosses party lines. Surely even the most partisan Democrats have to recognize this thuggery is wrong. This is sickening.

Bomb scare

◼ Suspicious package in Montreal métro system neutralized, trains running again
◼ Bomb scare shuts busy Montreal metro station at height of rush hour h/t: AT

Holy sh-t!

◼ Couple Ordered to Stop Holding Bible Study at Home Without Permit in SAN DIEGO!!

"On Good Friday we had an employee from San Diego County come to our house, and inform us that the Bible study that we were having was a religious assembly, and in violation of the code in the county." David Jones told FOX News.

"We told them this is not really a religious assembly — this is just a Bible study with friends. We have a meal, we pray, that was all," Jones said. h/t: Shark

Is there more to this story? Anyone from San Diego have any idea?

Growing evidence

◼ Furor grows over partisan car dealer closings washingtonexaminer.com

Has the 'mainstream' media begun to cover this yet? If so, how are they presenting it?

Answer - not at all.

◼ Chrysler Conservatives Axed - Only Blogs Investigate

...The odds are massively against this pattern emerging – to the tune of 1/10,000,000 of 1% [h/t Doug Ross]. By comparison, you have a better chance of being struck by lightning this year (1/400,000); Mine That Bird had a better shot at being the winner of the Kentucky Derby (a glue-factory refugee which was the longest-shot winner since Donerail won on 91-1 odds in 1913), and Buster Douglas had of knocking out Mike Tyson.

In all fairness, it must still be determined what overall percentage of these small-business owners actually donate to political parties and candidates. One might assume that, since they are small-business owners, they are overwhelmingly supportive of the GOP. But assumption is not the job of a vigilant press. One would at least hope that with the odds being so stacked against the emerging pattern, the professional curiosity of journalists would get the better of them - or at least some of them. Never fear, however; journalists have been inoculated against the disease of curiosity.

It must also be said that proving any of this is a dubious task at best. The idea is not only that the White House is closing car dealerships by monarchial decree [already constitutionally problematic], it further accuses the White House of politicizing the business decisions of a major American automaker. To prove that, one must establish intent. That, however, was nearly the task of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. If nothing else, where is the professional curiosity of the press?

The announcement of a Supreme Court nominee notwithstanding – even if it the nominee is being billed as ‘historic’ – should not, and would not, hold an honestly curious media in such rigid sway. And if bloggers can find the time to investigate, why can the New York Times not spare even a junior reporter to do the same? Why are the part-time journalists asking the questions that should come from an investigative press?...

h/t: wild

More on Sotomayor

◼ Sotomayor ruled against teen blogger... Connecticut news - Sotomayor Ruled in "D-Bag Case" - Ruled teen's blog post created a created "foreseeable risk of substantial disruption"
◼ Ruled that States Not Bound by 2nd Amendment... CNS News - Sotomayor Ruled That States Do Not Have to Obey Second Amendment (drudge)

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor ruled in January 2009 that states do not have to obey the Second Amendment’s commandment that the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

◼ American Bar Association
Profile -- Sonia Sotomayor Member of La Raza, an openly unAmerican, racist organization.

◼ SOTOMAYOR: RADICAL ON THE SCOTUS Atlas Shrugs

"Every aspect of our lives must be subjected to an inventory."

◼ The greenshirts are coming

Pelosi, talking to China. Climate change gives you more power. Human rights are so last week.

Baghdad Bob Gibbs

(RAPH)

Justification for raising taxes

◼ IRS tax revenue falls along with taxpayers' income USA Today

Federal tax revenue plunged $138 billion, or 34%, in April vs. a year ago — the biggest April drop since 1981, a study released Tuesday by the American Institute for Economic Research says.
When the economy slumps, so does tax revenue, and this recession has been no different, says Kerry Lynch, senior fellow at the AIER and author of the study. "It illustrates how severe the recession has been."

For example, 6 million people lost jobs in the 12 months ended in April — and that means far fewer dollars from income taxes. Income tax revenue dropped 44% from a year ago.

"These are staggering numbers," Lynch says.

Big revenue losses mean that the U.S. budget deficit may be larger than predicted this year and in future years.

And that same kind of drop is going to make California's situation worse than expected too.

◼ New Investor Worry: Treasury Selloff Spiking Interest Rates
◼ Americans' credit scores fall as they struggle to pay bills
◼ Once Considered Unthinkable, U.S. Sales Tax Gets Fresh Look

Add that to higher taxes, more fees, lowered incomes, life-savings lost, retirement evaporated, cap and trade coming, higher interest rates and maybe inflation coming, higher gas prices and shortages coming, future generations saddled with massive debt...

How much worse is it going to get?

Hope. And Change.

NICE!!!

◼ Honda showing CR-Z hybrid sports concept... at Tokyo (photo source)

Honda's CRZ hybrid coupe remains on track as a 2011 model, on sale in late 2010. Honda wants sports-car enthusiasts to buy it not because it's green, but because it's fun.

◼ 2011 Honda CRZ: 21st-Century CRX

My '84 CRX was the best car in the entire world, AND it got 55 MPG on trip, 37-42 in town. In its day it had the lowest drag co-efficient around, a unique suspension and charging system. If this is anything like that, I'd buy one in a heartbeat.

◼ Photo Source

Not the first Hispanic nominee - both sides of the Democratic mouth

Sure, being a woman can be a sterling qualification for appointment, but ONLY if you are a Democrat - think Condi Rice and Palin. And sure, your ethnicity is a reason why the other side of the aisle should not dare oppose you, but ONLY if you are a Democrat.

Worth reading - ◼ Why Dems borked Estrada, in their own words. wsj

'He Is Latino' In fact, beholden and hate-filled partisan Democrats engaged in a two and a half year battle to defeat the last Hispanic nominee to high Court, Miguel Estrada.

◼ 2001 - Committee Approves Estrada Nomination

◼ 2003 - White House to Schumer: You’re Wrong.
◼ 2003 - Butchered by Schumer

...Schumer and his bitter-end Democrats have adopted the novel idea that a judicial nominee's "ideology" disqualifies the nominee, if that ideology is not congenial with Schumer. Actually, if the federal government is to have a working judiciary, ideology does not matter. What does matter is that the nominees have integrity, knowledge of the law, and the understanding that judges apply the law to cases. They do not make law.
By opposing Republican judicial nominees over the matter of "ideology" the Democrats have politicized the courts. They have also broken the rules hitherto followed in confirming a judicial appointment. Until Schumer adopted his extremist position a judicial nominee was confirmed or rejected by a simple majority in the Senate. But with the nomination of Estrada (and two remaining judicial nominations), the Democrats commenced a historically unprecedented filibuster. As a consequence 60 votes in the Senate are necessary to confirm a filibustered nominee because 60 votes are needed to end a filibuster...

◼ Democrats Plan Filibuster of Estrada Nomination (racists)

Kennedy told his Democratic colleagues, "If we allow a stealth right-winger on this court, we have only ourselves to blame."

Well, Mr. Kennedy - turnabout is fair play and the opposite is also true - you should not want an extreme Left-winger on the Court either.

This is the kind of thing that matters

more than gender or ethnicity when you're talking about lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court.

◼ Sotomayor reversed 60% by high court

Beavis meets AlGore

◼ “What would Al Gore do?” Gerald and Helen Goode want nothing more than to minimize their carbon footprint. They feed their dog, Che, only veggies (much to the pet’s dismay) and Mr. Goode dutifully separates sheets of toilet paper when his wife accidentally buys two-ply.

GOP Donors targets in Chrysler Dealer Closings? (Video) w/updates

◼ Doug Ross looked at the possibility that the Obama Administration may have targeted GOP donors in deciding which Chrysler dealerships would have to close their doors.
Doug noted that every single dealer he checked out except one were either GOP donors or donated to Obama's rivals in the democratic primary.....

Links to donor lists, and the dealerships being closed, investigation ongoing.

But the suspicion is that the dealerships who donated to republicans, to McCain, not to Obama, were targeted for closure even though they were profitable.

Serious. Wow.
***
◼ Is There a Mopargate on the Horizon? (Update)
◼ Shock! Big Dem Donor Group Allowed to Keep Their 6 Chrysler Dealerships Open ...Update: Their Local Competitors Eliminated!!


Holy F-CK!
Look who owns one of the 'spared' dealerships... ◼ A look at the protected Chrysler dealerships Michelle Malkin
In my analysis of the Chrysler dealers that will remain open, I came across one dealer group that stood out to me.
The company is called RLJ-McLarty-Landers, and it operates six Chrysler dealerships throughout the South. All six dealerships are safe from closing. The dealer locations are:
1. Bentonville, AR (northwest Arkansas)
2. Lee’s Summit, MO (south of Kansas City, MO)
3. Branson, MO
4. Olathe, KS (near Kansas City)
5. Bossier City, LA (near Shreveport)
6. Huntsville, AL
The interesting part is who the three main owners of the company are. The owners are Steve Landers (long-time car dealer, 4th-generation dealer), Thomas “Mack” McLarty (former Chief of Staff for President Clinton), and Robert Johnson (founder of Black Entertainment Television and co-owner of the NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats). ◼ Current Project (RLJ-McLarty-Landers) CHRYSLER DEALERSHIP CAMPAIGN DONATION INFORMATION BLOG

◼ Plan to ax dealers not Chrysler's decision -lawyer Reuters
... "It became clear to us that Chrysler does not see the wisdom of terminating 25 percent of its dealers," Bellavia said. "It really wasn't Chrysler's decision. They are under enormous pressure from the President's automotive task force." He added the government task force, which he criticized for having no members with retail experience was, in effect, attacking U.S. entrepreneurs....

Dealers argue closing dealerships will devastate local communities, with some 50,000 direct job losses nationwide, and as many as 200,000 indirect job losses. Part of their legal argument rests on the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees due process before government can take away a person's property. "We feel there has been a denial of constitutional due-process rights," Bellavia said.

"I think it's unconstitutional," said Jim Anderer, owner of Island Jeep in Lindenhurst, New York.

"The Fifth Amendment clearly states you cannot take another person's property without due process or compensation. Even in eminent domain, there is an appraised price on the property being taken by the state."

Anderer said he has been in business for 22 years and employs 48 workers. He intends to fight the plan. "My business is being stolen from me under the guise of the bankruptcy laws, given to another dealer down the street," Anderer said.

So much for 'saving and creating' jobs.

Reactions to the SCOTUS choice

"...no one should be confirmed to a lifetime appointment to the Third Branch of Government if they cannot uphold the Oath they take, and anyone that would apply a “living Constitution” would be violating that Oath. I favor impeachment for such applications (as did Presidents Jefferson, Jackson and Lincoln)..." ◼ The Issue: Does Sotomayor have empathy for the Oath?

How important is the Constitution? Will Obama walk all over it the way his buddy Ayres does the flag? We believe the Constitution protects us. Does it?

◼ Sotomayor reversed 60% by high court

AP sanitization oddly out of place

◼ Obama observes Memorial Day at Arlington cemetery
In what was supposed to be an article about Obama laying wreaths on soldier's tombs, this odd paragraph is included..."Among those who signed petition is 1960s radical William Ayers. The University of Chicago education professor helped found the radical group the Weather Underground that carried out bombings at the Pentagon and the Capitol. Republicans tried to link Obama and Ayers during the presidential campaign because they lived in the same neighborhood and served on a charity board together...."

Really? It was just because they lived in the same neighborhood? Ships passing in the night as it were? And they served on a 'charity board' together? Really? I mean, REALLY?

Written by DARLENE SUPERVILLE and "Associated Press writer Ann Sanner contributed to this report."

Poor, poor stupid reporters. Soon they'll be out of a job, and they'll will wish they had looked at that Chicago Annenberg Challenge 'charity board' just a tiny little bit closer. Because the words EPIC FAIL come to mind, and it would have allowed them to clearly predict the disastrous path we are on.

But, they couldn't pass up a chance to bash Republicans, could they? Even when they should have been focused on honoring the men and women who died to protect their freedom to write inane drivel and call themselves journalists.

The rest of the article appears to be a press release from the White House.

North Korea launches, Iran watches, Eyes Narrowed

◼ Iran has sent six warships to international waters Reuters
◼ Iran's Ahmadinejad rejects Western nuclear proposal reuters
◼ Ahmadinejad Says Nuclear Issue ‘Over,’ Iran to Pursue Program

It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.

George S. Patton. (ht: bar)



THANK GOD. And Thank all of you who serve and have served.

"man-caused disasters" and "artificial quakes"

◼ NKorea says it has conducted a second nuclear test

...Seismologists from the U.S., South Korea and Japan reported activity shortly after 9:50 a.m. in a northeastern area where North Korea conducted its first nuclear test in 2006.

The Japan Meteorological Agency measured the seismic activity at magnitude-5.3. Quake expert Gen Aoki noted that its depth was "very shallow."

"The area is not active seismically so it is highly possible that it could be an artificial quake," Aoki said in Tokyo.

In Seoul, the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources reported seismic activity in Kilju in North Hamgyong Province—the same area where North Korea carried out a nuclear test in October 2006.

Seismological measurements back North Korea's claim that the test was far stronger than in 2006.

At the Chinese border city of Yanji, 130 miles (200 kilometers) northwest from the test site, an emergency siren sounded shortly before 9 a.m. when officials thought an earthquake occurred. A receptionist at Yanji's International Hotel said she and several hotel guests felt the ground tremble.

An official at Yanji's government seismological bureau, who declined to give his name, said his agency confirmed that some type of explosion occurred, "but it is hard to say what kind of blast it was."

North Korea's 2006 test measured magnitude-3.6, an official at the Korea Meteorological Administration in Seoul said. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing department policy....

◼ Japan says N.Korea nuclear test "unacceptable"

TOKYO, May 25 (Reuters) - North Korea's nuclear test would be a clear violation of the U.N. Security Council resolution and an unacceptable move, Japan's top government spokesman said on Monday after Pyongyang said it had tested a nuclear device.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura told reporters that Japan was asking for an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting and would seek a new resolution by the council.

◼ Britain calls NKorea nuclear test 'breach' of UN resolutions Breitbart
◼ SKorea military forms crisis team after nuke test report
◼ NKorea test-fires short-range missile: Yonhap
◼ North Korea declares it conducted nuclear test myway

President Barack Obama said a nuclear test would constitute an act of "blatant defiance" of the U.N. Security Council and a violation of international law, and only further isolate North Korea.
North Korea's claims "are a matter of grave concern to all nations," he said, calling for international action in a statement from Washington. "North Korea's attempts to develop nuclear weapons, as well as its ballistic missile program, constitute a threat to international peace and security."

◼ North Korea tests nuclear weapon 'as powerful as Hiroshima bomb' guardian.co.uk
◼ North Korea source warns of new nuclear blasts - Tass Yahoo News
◼ Outrage over N Korea nuclear test BBC

It is being reported that North Korea gave warning of an imminent test to the US less than an hour before it happened.

◼ North Korea Conducts Nuclear Test, UN to Meet Today (Update1)
◼ North Korea Tests Second Nuclear Device, Fires Short-Range Missiles wsj
◼ World Condemns North Korea's Nuclear Test sky news
◼ nations prepared for emergency U.N. Security Council talks Reuters
◼ Obama says North Korea nuclear test a "grave concern" Reuters
◼ Little Dictators Get Their Groove On StopTheACLU



Not just an "underground quake" but missiles too?

Is this like - stuff it in your ear, Obama?

Do you think Obama will do anything? Do you think the UN will do anything? What do you think Iran is taking away from this? Are you safer today than before Obama took office?
(headlines & links: Drudge)

Serious issues.

◼ Netanyahu defies Obama... alertnet
◼ Will build in existing settlements... AP
◼ POLL: Half of Israelis back immediate strike on Iran... Breitbart
◼ Iran general says could stop Israel in 'one strike'... Breitbart
h/t: drudge

"...the administration...damages the very economy it is trying to protect"

◼ British banks revolt against Obama tax plan; May refuse American clients...
British banks and stockbrokers may refuse to take on American clients if new international tax proposals outlined by President Obama are passed.
The decision, which would make it hard for Americans in London to open bank accounts and trade shares, is being discussed by executives at Britain's banks and brokers who say it could become too expensive to service American clients. The proposals, which were unveiled as part of the president's first budget, are designed to clamp-down on American tax evaders abroad.

However bank bosses say they are being asked to take on the task of collecting American taxes at a cost and legal liability that are inexpedient.

Andy Thompson of Association of Private Client Investment Managers and Stockbrokers (APCIMS) said: "The cost and administration of the US tax regime is causing UK investment firms to consider disinvesting in US shares on behalf of their clients. This is not right and emphasises that the administration of a tax regime on a global scale without any flexibility damages the very economy it is trying to protect."

◼ Dollar hits '09 low on rating fears; stocks dip

The difference between the Bush Administration and the Obama Administration?

Under Bush, the activists were screaming. Under Obama, the headlines are screaming, "DANGER! Danger, Will Robinson!!"

Obama's birthday is a few months away.

Maybe we should save up to buy him one of these...



Huh? What's that you say? Save what? We already gave it to him? Oh. Yeah.

How 'bout one of these?

What do Dick Cheney and Glenn Beck have in common?

And what can we learn from them?

Say one thing, do another.

But of course he has to say it.
“We have a responsibility to serve all of them as well as they serve all of us,” Obama said. “And yet, all too often in recent years and decades, we, as a nation, have failed to live up to that responsibility. We have failed to give them the support they need or pay them the respect they deserve.

Michelle Malkin has some advice for him, if he wants to try to live up to the rhetoric.
◼ You can say that again, Mr. President ... and the comments are telling. It's kinda like Church. He had to attend it in order to get elected. Now, not so much.
***
And if you need PROOF that this man fundamentally DOES NOT UNDERSTAND what it means to SERVE this Country, and to be prepared to GIVE YOUR LIFE FOR IT - read on... Actions speak louder than words written by anonymous sppech writers:

◼ SWORDLESS SAILORS
Graduating midshipmen of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis are being told in writing to leave at home or in their vehicles all "ceremonial swords" and anything else "that might be considered a weapon or a threat by screeners" for Friday's outdoor commencement ceremonies featuring an address by President Barack Obama.

Inside the Beltway has obtained the academy's list of prohibited items for this year's graduation exercises, which, besides ceremonial swords, includes umbrellas.

Yes, cell phones and texting are still allowed.
***
Blackberries too, i am sure.

How do you title that story? The Chicken in Chief?

Obama - "We're Out of Money."

◼ "You know the numbers, $1.7 trillion debt, a national deficit of $11 trillion. At what point do we run out of money? " Drudge

No kidding.

◼ Momma says “stupid is as stupid does.” - Forrest Gump. LGF2 The Blogmocracy

You know, spending trillions upon trillions that you don't have, without reading what you are signing, mortgaging future generations' well-being for decades if not centuries to come will do that, Senator, I mean, President Oh-bama.

"Playing with the valuation of the currency and not defending it is a VERY dangerous game."

◼ What Does A Declining Dollar Mean? NoQuarter
◼ Dollar hits '09 low on rating fears; stocks dip Yahoo Finance

The dollar's latest decline started when ratings agency Standard & Poor's cut its ratings outlook on Britain to negative from stable, stoking fears other AAA-rated countries which are running huge debt levels could share a similar fate.

A MUST READ from California's North Coast

Today's editorial in the Times Standard
◼ Comedy of government

This is, far and away, the best editorial I have seen in a long, long time. Bravo.

excerpt: ...Now it's crunch time. The worst will come to pass, as the state combs through every nook and cranny searching for fat to burn, and juice to squeeze from the already dehydrated state budget.

In this moment, there are two possible outcomes -- either the state government continues on this same sorry path year after year, hoping against hope that somehow the economy turns around enough to drag our state budget out of the muck. It might even happen someday, and we can all be lulled back into complacency until the next recession sucks every last drop of marrow from the state's rickety bones.

The other option? Rethink everything. On these ruins, rebuild. Recast the state's approach to government through some kind of constitutional convention where everything again becomes possible within the boundaries of American democracy. Nothing should be taken off the table. The problems that confront us are mammoth, and systemic. Only through reinvention will California turn this around for good.

As a state we are hamstrung by an inherited initiative system that has been hijacked by special interests, shackled the hands of government and turned our budget process into a farce. Additionally, aspects of the process are such that conflict is encouraged, cooperation reviled, and grandstanding rewarded. All of this needs to end.

Until the courage is found to break the current mold, we'll wallow here in the shallows. In the meantime, everyone in Sacramento needs to take a long look in the mirror and figure out whether their party comes before their state and the residents of their district.

There's only one right answer.
********

It includes some hard hitting points in response to some quotes from California politicians, who give us the usual mealymouthed "we got the message" crap... One thing to watch out for though - Chesbro's (State Assemblyman Wes Chesbro (D-Arcata)) words "They want the Legislature and the governor to work together in a bipartisan manner to solve the state's budget problem" ... that catchphrase "bipartisan manner" doesn't mean the same thing to he and his colleagues that it does to you and me... to us it means you work together and make the necessary cuts to live within your means, to him it means his opponents are going to have to let him raise taxes instead of making cuts. Those ballot measures were all about how to keep spending and the people said NO.

Now, you'll see them work to cut essential services, like fire and police, so they can get the public all upset and convinced that they have to consent to more fees and assessments and taxes, when the essential services are what we agree must be protected while other things are cut or eliminated.

Hope he proves me wrong. I won't hold my breath.

The end of the world....

◼ as we know it H/t: Zin

Meeting with the stormtroopers

lucianne.com h/t: Wild
◼ Gateway Pundit Obama Rallies Far Left Human Rights Groups Before Security Speech
In a sane world the president might meet with military or intelligence officials before a major speech on national security.

But, Dear Leader Obama chose instead to meet with Far Left sham human rights groups (You know, the ones who somehow manage to blame America for every tragedy in the world while ignoring real human rights abuses) before his major post-Cheney national security speech...
****

Obama's Weak and Apologetic Tour continues, and it is obviously already a failure, with Malicious World Leaders openly mocking him in the most dangerous way imaginable, the launching of missiles with impunity.

Obama's an arrogant enough fuck to know that rolling over and exposing your belly is not going to do anything but get you kicked. Groveling does not earn anyone's respect.

He better figure it out fast. He's going to have to shed his activist skin and realize he has a nation's security at stake. We know he knows how to play cutthroat against his fellow countrymen - he's going to have to realize who the real enemies are, and bring their private divorce records out and ruin them if he has any hope of success.
***
REVIEWS:
◼ CBS!! D.C. Smackdown: Advantage Cheney
...Judging forensics and rhetoric, it is clear that while President Obama came to make a speech, Vice President Cheney came to have a debate. The debater succeeded in making his points better than the speechmaker because while the President is justly celebrated for his vaunted eloquence, he phoned in his speech and thought that the use of pretty words alone would allow him to carry the day. Meanwhile, the Vice President--no one's idea of a charismatic rock star--was forced to make up for his lack of a silver tongue by tightly and carefully constructing reasoned arguments to support his position. It should come as no surprise that the Vice President was quite persuasive and a force to be reckoned with in the debate.

While the President's speech was the longer one, this length did not make it more thorough - in fact, there are so many holes in his remarks it is difficult to keep track of them all....
◼ The 10 punches Dick Cheney landed
on Barack Obama's jaw The Telegraph [UK]
◼ up eight points Favorable opinion of
Dick Cheney on the rise CNN Poll
◼ discussion on lucianne.com
◼ The Buck Stops Elsewhere National Review
President Obama wants you to know that nothing is ever his fault.

He gave a speech on national-security matters Thursday the gist of which was: George W. Bush left me a mess, and I’m doing the best I can to clean it up. A more forthright theme would have been: Radical Islam has thrust the United States into a defensive war, and it’s now my duty to protect the nation — despite legal complications created by left-wing lawyers, many of whom are now working in my administration....
◼ TEXT OF CHENEY'S AEI SPEECH ON NATIONAL SECURITY
◼ I Love This Woman! ibloga on Cheney's daughter's appearance

In the mailbox - Awwww

"...new born offspring of Taskin, the Gypsy Stallion owned by Villa Vanners that was born in Oregon. These pictures were taken immediately after his birth on April 6... The mare laid down and then he trotted around and crawled right up into her lap."

whewwwww - for the hopenchangeybots

h/t: jewels

Voting NO is not enough.

◼ California voters kill budget measures
The "big five" elected leaders -- Schwarzenegger and the legislative chieftains from both houses -- are slated to begin closed-door meetings today...

There's the source of your problem, and it is going to be more of the same. These are the people whose job it has been to keep the state financially healthy, whose job it was to make sure that they did not spend more than they had, and whose job it was to plan for a rainy day.

Instead they spend, and spent and spent, and they fought the Governor when he tried to make needed cuts. Again and again and again. They have had their chance. This last ditch attempt to get the voters to allow them to keep spending has failed. Their caucusing to defeat the opposing party has kept them from working for the people.

Now it is time to remove every last one from office - and failing that, since it cannot and will not happen, strip them of their party associations and affiliation for as long as they hold elected office. Force them back to work for the people they so wanted to serve, and not the party the ended up serving.

The message in CA - NO!

The measure lost in every county in the state and at last count was defeated by 65.8%-34.2%.

The message? Even a very blue state like California doesn’t like taxes.

Perhaps the national GOP can fashion a message off of these results.

Is it any wonder Schwarzenegger was hanging out in DC with his new pal Obama instead of remaining in California?

◼ California Rejects Massive Tax Increases: 'The Biggest Loser Would Be Arnold'
◼ California budget measures go down in flames at the polls
◼ Defeat is sharp rebuke to governor, Legislature

Californians, and pundits are making a mistake of they blame this on Schwarzenegger. Oh, don't get me wrong, he deserves blame for alot of things, but blame for the state's financial destruction must be laid where it belongs, flat at the feet of the Democrats in power. PERIOD. End of story. Throw them all out.

ACORN will be exposed

maybe not all of the many-tentacled behemoth, but enough... the mask is slowly being pulled away. There is HOPE for our country yet.

◼ All the news that’s fit to suppress

RBO - Not everybody on the Left is happy

◼ link
◼ Not everybody on the Left is happy with Obamacare

◼ Howard Zinn : Obama Must Find the Courage to Fight the Old Ways
◼ Has Liberalism 'Jumped the Shark?'
◼ Excuses You Might Believe In: Democrats Are More Powerful Than Ever. How Will They Justify Doing Nothing?

Even under normal circumstances, giving an honorary degree is a slap in the face

to all the people who really worked for and EARNED their degree. In this case it is just inexcusable. Luckily, there are a few people speaking out...



Obama gets away with the phony position yet again. And the very people who should most hold the line, failed. For what? For money?

California Returns

◼ Local Election Results 2009 (8:28, 13% in)
1A No - 63%
1B No - 60%
1C No - 61%
1D No - 62%
1E No - 62%
1F Yes - 75% 77/23 at 9:06 (17% in) 1F is winning at 82% in SF

◼ Ace of Spades California Props Scoresheet Open Thread

Have you checked the Bergler's jockey shorts?

◼ Sensitive data missing from National Archives
WASHINGTON (AP) - The National Archives lost a computer hard drive containing massive amounts of sensitive data from the Clinton administration, including Social Security numbers, addresses, and Secret Service and White House operating procedures, congressional officials said Tuesday.

One of former Vice President Al Gore's three daughters is among those whose Social Security numbers were on the drive. Other information includes logs of events, social gatherings and political records.

The FBI is conducting a criminal investigation of the matter, according to Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and senior committee Republican Darrell Issa of California.....

◼ You do remember President William Jefferson Clinton's National Security Adviser, Sandy Berger? Sandy Berger: What Did He Take and Why Did He Take It?

Maybe it'll turn up on ebay.

A cautionary tale

◼ from KT

If only we'd known. Maybe next time it would be helpful to have a free press, one that actually tries to examine both candidates. Otherwise, we could end up right back here.

BDS In the checkout line

at the grocery store, the woman buying cat foot was telling clerk the her cats had diabetes, and it was all Bush's fault because he raised the price of cat food, and poisoned the cat food. Srsly. :)

What are they thinking?

CONNEAUT — City administrators have sent a letter to a local Website operator, ordering her to remove information related to municipal offices, City Council members learned at Monday's work session.

The cease-and-desist order was sent last week to Katie Schwartz, who oversees the everythingconneautohio.com Web site. The letter was authorized by City Manager Robert Schaumleffel Jr.

Ward 1 Councilman Dave Campbell, who has promoted the Web site, was outraged by the letter, calling it “garbage. We cannot dictate how she runs her business,” he said....

◼ Conneaut says no to Web site

"I am disappointed at the hypocrisy shown by this Administration"

◼ President Obama refuses to meet with Governor Gibbons about tourism comments
Carson City - The Office of Governor Jim Gibbons was notified today that President Barack Obama has refused to meet with the Governor and key business leaders from Nevada. Governor Gibbons requested the meeting in a letter to President Obama so the President could address statements he made that were critical to Nevada and have caused economic damage to convention business and tourism business in the Silver State. Earlier this year, the President told an audience in Elkhart, Indiana, "You can't get corporate jets. You can't go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayer's dime." That quote was seen by many as an insult to Las Vegas and as a message to companies across the Nation to stay away from Las Vegas for corporate meetings and conventions.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority reports over 400 conventions and business meetings scheduled to take place in Las Vegas recently have cancelled. These cancelled events translate into 111,800 guests in Las Vegas and over 250,000 "room-nights". The cancelled conventions and meetings have cost the Las Vegas economy over $100-million, not including gaming revenue.

"I am disappointed at the hypocrisy shown by this Administration," Gibbons said, "President Obama is coming to Las Vegas later this month for a political fundraiser, but he will not help the struggling families in Las Vegas and Nevada who are out of work because of his reckless comments." Governor Gibbons noted, "President Obama is coming to Las Vegas to raise campaign cash for Senator Harry Reid, apparently our money is good enough for the President, but our tourism, jobs, and economic future are not." Gibbons added, "This is politics, pure and simple, President Obama stood for change, but all he has done is brought negative economic change to Nevada." h/t Drudge

How it works

◼ Grover Norquist to Conservatives: Don't Panic (video - I'd embed it but it loads on opening)
◼ Schwarzenegger Unveils Budget Revisions - Californians Vote on $16 Billion in New Taxes Next Week

Vote NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO.

What do all these measures have in common? They ALL allow the runaway legislators to Keep Spending. SAY NO! No more spending. Live within our means. Fire every single legislator who doesn't get it... including Schwarzenegger. Here's The Americans for Tax Reform recommendations: ◼ ATR Analysis of California's May 19th Special Election in clear language...

NO on 1A - Prop 1A is nothing more than a massive tax increase masked as a phony spending limit.

The budget deal reached in February ALREADY RAISED the state sales tax (already highest in nation), income tax (already highest in nation), and car tax for two years.

If Prop 1A passes, CA residents will see those tax hikes continue for yet another two years, at an added cost to the Golden State economy of $16 billion, or $1,100 per household.

NO on 1B - This measure is an attempt to modify some of the terms of California Proposition 98 (1998) in order to free up money to address the state’s overspending problem. Prop 1B would reinstate cuts made in the last round of budget negotiations. Those cuts were made to stave of further tax increases. If these funds are reinstated, taxpayers will yet again be on the hook. Approval of Prop 1B is contingent upon passage of Prop 1A.

NO on 1C - Allows the state to borrow $5 billion against future lottery sales, enabling the state to continue unsustainable spending and avoid needed reforms. The result will be nothing more than an issuance of IOU’s that taxpayers will have to pay back.

NO on 1D - Allows the state to modify the terms of Proposition 10 (1998 tobacco tax hike earmarked for children's health care). This measure is a bait and switch that allows revenue to go toward other purposes in order to support the state’s general overspending problem.

NO on 1E - Allows the state to divert $230 million a year from Proposition 63 (surtax on the wealthy approved in 2004 to fund mental health programs) to offset general fund obligations. Like Prop 1D, this is a bait and switch on California voters that allows unsustainable governance to continue.

NO on 1F - Prevents pay increases for elected officials during budget deficit years. While this may sound good on its face, this proposition has no teeth and is all for show. Prop 1F only gives the Director of Finance the power to prevent the Compensation Commission from recommending pay increases during years in which there is a deficit. The legislature is still free to pass their own. h/t: Adam?\

◼ Dan Walters: Big costs loom for state beyond deficit h/t: Fred
◼ Dan Weintraub: Picture this state's fiscal reckoning, because it's close h/t: Fred
Californians on the left and the right have told me they think the state's finances have to crash and burn before lawmakers and the governor will come to their senses and finally fix the problem.

CNN cannot MOVEON

◼ Cartoon Clicks: What's up with Cheney?

CNN. Stuck on the past, on hate and on stupid.

No More Tax Money for ACORN Tax Cheats

It's way worse than do as I say not as I do. And we all know it. Do Obama's stormtroopers have to play by the rules? Or is he going to bypass the law and reward them for their service (to him.)

◼ "...what Americans are now faced with is a rogue leftwing organization that, on the one hand, is cheating the American people out of millions of dollars in taxes due, while, on the other hand, it is being handed tens of millions of additional tax dollars by its Washington political cronies.
ACORN, the Association of Community Organization for Reform Now, has achieved well-earned infamy for its unrelenting efforts to corrupt America’s political system. The hard-left group is now under investigation for electoral fraud in 12 states during the most recent election cycle alone. And it’s malfeasance dates back at least to 1998, when its Project Vote contractor was arrested in Arkansas for falsifying 400 voter registration cards.

Little wonder that Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) each are fighting hard to bar ACORN from receiving any further federal funding until the organization has cleared its name. In the past 12 years, ACORN has been handed some $19,502,273 in government grants. Every penny of which, of course, has come out of the pockets of hardworking, law-abiding taxpayers.

What makes this all the more egregious is that, according to a definitive study by the highly respected Capital Research Center (CRC), during much of this same period, ACORN and its associated groups were cheating the federal, state, and local governments out of more than $3.7 million in taxes due. The most recent tax lien, according the CRC, is in the amount of $23,383, filed by the IRS in September of 2008 against an ACORN affiliate called the American Workers Associates. The largest lien – for $547,312 – was filed against ACORN, again by the IRS, in March of 2008.

So, what Americans are now faced with is a rogue leftwing organization that, on the one hand, is cheating the American people out of millions of dollars in taxes due, while, on the other hand, it is being handed tens of millions of additional tax dollars by its Washington political cronies. And, despite this and other nefarious behavior, it is being allowed to return to the federal tax trough for millions of dollars more. ###

Something is going to have to be done about the ORGs. Using a 'grassroots' cloak, the operate with impunity, essentially a system unto themselves outside all of the normal checks and balances of our system. How dare we question the motivations of 'community organizers.' How dare we prevent the 'regular people' from having their say, their speaking 'truth to power.?'

The truth is they have long since left the grassroots citizen in the dust, and are in fact an Mafia/corporation-like entity.

Let's limit Wanda Sykes to $250,000 a year.

Not just her, but Bruce Springsteen, Sean Penn, Madonna, Demi Moore, and Al Gore, John Edwards, and John Kerry and his wife - let's have them 'give back' more than just pledging to only flush after a deuce.

Fair's fair after all.

Couple that with raising their taxes, and imposing fees for their excessive 'carbon footprint.'

Somehow I think they'll all be singing a different tune.

5.0 in LA

h/t: RAPH and BC

◼ 5.0 Magnitude Earthquake Hits Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES -- A magnitude 5.0 earthquake hit the greater Los Angeles area at 8:39 p.m. Sunday night and was felt by many in the surrounding areas.

The epicenter of the quake was at 33.940°N, 118.338°W, around 1 mile east of Lennox, 1 mile south by south-east from Inglewood, and 10 miles south by south west from the Los Angeles Civic Center, according to the US Geological survey.

The rumbling lasted about 10 to 15 seconds and was also felt in from Calabasas to Long Beach. The depth of the epicenter was about 8.4 miles.

A 3.1 magnitude occured shortly after at 8:45 p.m. 3 miles southwest of Inglewood, according to Caltech officials...

Listen up lady

How dare you tell graduating seniors who have just invested up to a quarter of a million dollars in an education to "give back!?"
◼ Michelle Obama urges graduates to give back

After they or their parents have mortgaged their own lives for the future, so that the students can go on to build successful lives of their own, who are poised to start promising careers, afford a house, support a family ON THEIR OWN, and someday afford to put their own kids through school - you want them to further delay their futures in order to please YOU?

Oh, yes it all sounds so good - these, the spoiled children who have been "given so much" must now sacrifice their own success to help those who fucked up their own educations and sit on their asses instead of getting jobs and working to make themselves successful.

Like everything the Obamas SAY, it all SOUNDS so good - but when you look at the reality, it is anything but. Just look at the reality of what students have invested...

She was speaking at UC Mercedi in California, while her husband addressed the graduates at Notre Dame

Cost of Attendance
The average 2009/2010 Notre Dame undergraduate student expense budget includes:
Tuition and Fees.....$38,480
Room & Board..........10,370
Books and Supplies.......950
Personal Expenses.....1,000
Transportation..............500

Total......................$51,300 per year X4
Actual costs vary based on housing accommodations, travel costs, and personal expenses.
Annual increases in the cost of a Notre Dame education are anticipated.

Tuition at UC Merced is $11,257 per semester, $22, 514 per year x4 PLUS room and board, plus books and supplies, plus personal expenses and transportation X4. Essentially, someone has invested about $120,000 in their education, and that's before graduate school. Gone are the days when someone can put themselves through school working as a waitress.

Obama's mandatory "volunteering" is nothing more than indentured slavery on a whole new level.

The Obama's should be encouraging graduates to go forth and prosper, because their success means the Country's success. Taking care of themselves IS giving back - it means they aren't on welfare. Making money means they contribute to a healthy economy which helps keep people employed and EVEN provides for those programs that ALREADY give back, like welfare and food stamps. Who does Obama think pays for THAT right now? Why, it is those evil rich people he uses and hates. It is impossible for him to recognize that those successful people ARE giving back. There is nothing wrong with giving back through programs like the Peace Corps, it is certainly not a new concept. But it is not and should not be for everyone. It's time to stop denigrating those who are the bedrock and backbone of the society, solid, stable, successful,working people. Their tax dollars and their grant money makes so many things possible. Their poverty will not.

What part of this is so hard to understand? Maybe she oughtta tell the boys how to become Senators, so they can garner cushy jobs for their wives, teach 'em how to afford a mansion, and live like her.

Hey Michelle, leave my kids alone.

Someone should tell Iman

that we saw her as a beautiful, regal, elegant woman, and as such, rightfully a successful model and cover girl FIRST, and that her race was secondary if it mattered at all.

So I'm sorry to hear her attitude towards her success in this interview. ◼ Michelle Obama no 'beauty' but 'bright': Iman

Why is it that rising to the very top of your profession, with worldwide recognition of the highest caliber is not enough? Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, Obama's senatorial success was not enough for Michelle Obama to feel pride in this country.

You guys were golden, as well as black. And no one begrudged it but you.

Pelosi carried water

for the worst and the nastiest of the Bush haters, with little or no fear of getting caught. Lies and carefully constructed talking points and a compliant, lazy press corps allowed her to stay on her message and drum her points home, with no one to challenge her.

But overreaching and arrogance has finally caught up with her, and those she carried the water for are leaving her to die in the dust. It should stand as a warning to the rest of them. But it won't. And they will meet the same fate.

Because they have been spending our time, not working for us, not working for the people, or the country they are supposed to serve - but for the party. They spend their days, their memos, the strategems, working to destroy the other party, their fellow citizens across the aisle

No sympathy for Pelosi. She has earned every barbed thought that comes her way. And they come, not just from people like me, but from people she counted as allies, if not friends - 'friends' who now savor her twisting in the wind. Because no one really likes a liar.

◼ Krauthammer: Pelosi Is Now At War With The CIA; I Suspect They Will Destroy Her Townhall

"Her charge of the CIA lying to her is utterly implausible. Why would it lie to her and tell all the others the truth? It makes no sense at all; and it was refuted by the black and white Obama CIA memo –– not a memo out of the Prince of Darkness: Bush and Cheney; but Obama CIA –– would show that in the briefing in which she says none of this simulated drowning occurred, they had specifically told her about the Enhanced Interrogation Techniques that had been used on a prisoner, obviously, a month earlier."

◼ Oh my: Pelosi was told the truth, says … Leon Panetta

◼ Top Dem: 'Don't be a Flake' Politico
◼ Barack Obama U-turn over military terror trials dailymail.co.uk
◼ Lieberman: CIA tells me the truth via HotAir by way of Weekly Standard
◼ Lieberman: 'I Totally Disagree' With Pelosi Assertion that CIA Lies


◼ Leon Panetta Says Queen Nancy Lied stop The ACLU

Obama cannot muzzle the leftwing multi-headed Cerberus he unleashed

Pajamas Media's Victor Davis Hanson on Obama -
◼ Cracks in the Façade

...Obama could have had a one-time stimulus, then vowed to balance the budget. He might have praised wind and solar, as he asked the carbon industry to ‘get us through.’ He could have politely disagreed with Bush, but framing differences in the tragic notion of no good choices. He might have cooled the overseas apologies, savvy that other nations have more to apologize for than his own. Obama should have established zero-tolerance for tax avoidance at a time of record tax increases. He could have remonstrated with Wall Street, and sought to rein in excess without Europeanizing the financial sector. He could have proactively reformed entitlements with bipartisan support, rather than, as will happen, drastically address them in the 11th hour. But then to do all that would be to assume he never went to Trinity Church, knew no Rev. Wright, Ayers, Khalidi, etc., did not run mysterious campaigns that eliminated opponents before the elections, was not the most partisan Senator in Congress, and avoided rather crude social and racial stereotyping while campaigning. Most who read this will not agree, given the mesmerizing effect of the Obama charisma. But in time, unless there are radical changes, I think the nation will come to learn that such talent was not put in service to our collective welfare.

It's an amazing and thoughtful post.

leadership would have its eyes on any Democrats even thinking about defecting.

◼ Top Dem: 'Don't be a Flake'

As the House prepared to vote this week on Republican Rep. Jeff Flake’s push for an ethics investigation involving Rep. John Murtha and other senior appropriators, Democratic leaders sent an unmistakable message to their members:

“Don’t be a Flake.”

That was the subject line of an e-mail that staffers for first- and second-term Democrats received Tuesday from Rep. Chris Van Hollen, assistant to Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The message said that Democrats would once again be “voting to table another Flake resolution” — and it made clear that leadership would have its eyes on any Democrats even thinking about defecting.

It's not about serving the people, it is about WAR. WAR against the other side of the aisle.

The good news is - maybe there is HOPE yet:

the 29 Democratic votes the measure got this week was the highest tally yet — and further evidence of a generational divide that’s pitting newer House members who want to “drain the swamp” against veteran members who don’t want to see their colleagues investigated.

Voice of reason?

Abdul Aziz's columns always make you think. This time it is a letter to the editor:

Over the last two months I have watched the Fox News Channel engage in spreading misinformation about Islam. A guest of Megan Kelly stated that honor killing is specific to Muslims -- a patently false statement. This heinous crime is committed even by others. A BBC documentary, run recently, showed a Sikh family from India committed this crime. Megan Kelly, ignoring her responsibility as a journalist failed to correct her guest. Then, Lauren Green, Fox's religious commentator on Huckabee show, commenting on the resistance by some schools to display Christmas icons, stated that “new immigrants such as Muslims” object to these displays. Does she not know that Muslims love and revere Jesus and have no reason to object to the celebrations of his birthday? Mr. Huckabee did not challenge this false allegation. On April 6, John Kasich on Hannity show stressed that America is culturally a Judeo-Christian country while commenting on President Obama's statement relating to Muslims in America in his address to Turkish students. His urge to exclude American Muslims made me wonder about his knowledge of comparative religions. He should know that there are more commonalties between Islam and Judaism on one hand and between Christianity and Islam on the other hand than between Christianity and Judaism. The term Judeo-Christianity is a political hoax. The correct term is Abrahamic faiths. Selfish religious and political leaders have created animosity instead of love among these people. The viewers need to remind Fox Channel the words of Jesus: “A house divided falls.”
................Abdul Aziz, Arcata

fast and loose

Obama's not the only one who plays fast and loose with the truth, with values, with people's perceptions - in the midst of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Clinton made sure he was seen coming out of church with a Bible in his hand, and a rueful expression on his face. And people knew it was phony, but they let it go, as they always let the liberal leftist politicians go.

And when the many currently serving Democrats ran on law and order platforms, attended church ceremonies and played the appropriate roles during their campaigns no one called them on their hypocrisy even when it was well known. "he just has to do it to get elected" therefore it was a-ok.

The most blatant politician of our time, Barack Obama lives large in every way. His deception is so big, so in your face even he is surprised that he gets away with it.

Democrats attack the "religious" contingent at every opportunity, yet use Obama's church attendance to show he is "just like you." They don't 'mind' him attending church because they "know" he doesn't mean it. So they are safe in their anti-religious stance. They knew that Bush was not a phony, thus they hated him for his religious convictions. Same with Sarah Palin.

And same with Obama's stance on gay-marriage. Miss California/USA Carrie Prejean was attacked unmercifully for voicing the very same stance that Obama has taken - why? Because, unlike Obama, she actually BELIEVES what she says.

This cuts both ways. As many Obama supporters, particularly the wealthy Wall St. types also believed that, no matter what Obama SAID, he didn't really mean it, he was only saying it to play to his base, only doing it to get elected - why, he would NEVER raise taxes, disrupt the business community, or sic his ACORN stormtroopers on them.

They never looked at who he really was, never read the tea leaves, never paid attention to the evidence that was so clearly visible during his campaign.

They should have looked closer at his record - his short time in office, the trail of special interest funding, the use of State and Federal funds to reward supporters, his time on the Annenberg Challenge, his full-on use of the Chicago political machine, complete with Michelle's cushy job and his own Rezko connections. They should have paid closer attention to his friendship with the seditious William Ayres, a man who was willing to kill his own countrymen.

Too late now.

But. We are still a nation of laws. We still have a system with checks and balances designed to limit the power of the Presidency. For the moment at least, the Constitution is not just a piece of paper to be trampled underfoot like Ayres' now famous portrait with the American flag.

George Will's hard-hitting piece in the Washington Post is very interesting in this light, detailing Obama's attempts to play fast and loose with the law, and with the truth, and with the very Constitution. ◼ Tincture of Lawlessness - Obama's Overreaching Economic Policies

It affects every single person. It affects on the federal level, it is affecting California, it is affecting the entire landscape.

We have to hope the system works, and the ship rights itself. because if not, we are on a path to disaster.

◼ Obama the Destroyer

Obama/ACLU release Torture Video/

THIS VIDEO IS VERY ****GRAPHIC****. THIS VIDEO IS VERY ****GRAPHIC****. DO NOT WATCH IT IF YOU ARE EASILY SICKENED
h/t: Atlas

Alot of controversy over allegations of torture, what Pelosi knew and when - torture (waterboarding) has become a political football, and Bush hatred has obscured the real problem. I imagine the left will now rise to demand an end to this type of behavior. And if they do not, why not?

ON a "lighter note:

Good cause

◼ Firefighters raise money for burn victims H/t: Birk

"progressivism leads inexorably to totalitarianism"

◼ ...In the end, however slow the process, however seemingly benign the growth of the state may seem, liberal fascism has the same result of all tyrannies before it: hell on earth for most and a self-indulgent feast for the Statists in power.

As Barack Obama speaks, thinking Americans ought to hear the echoes of past fascist demagogues and remember. Remember.... Protein wisdom
◼ Barack Obama, the Quintessential Liberal Fascist American Thinker, Kyle-Anne Shiver

The end of the story is a new beginning

For all of you who sing to your kids: two additional Puff The Magic Dragon verses, added years later, from Amber McInnis' version on Music For Little People's "Family Folk Festival":

Jackie he got married, and they had a little babe.
Jackie's daughter Sophie went adventuring one day.
Happily she wandered down the misty beach alone.
And passing by a hidden cave, she heard a muffled groan.

Bravely Sophie slipped into the place where Puff did dwell.
The startled dragon spun around and frightened her as well.
Then she saw his lonely eyes, and quickly lost her fears.
She kissed the dragon's scaly nose and wiped away his tears.

Puff the Magic Dragon LIVES by the sea
and frolics in the autumn mist....

More alternative endings here

The Mars Hoax

The Mars hoax was an e-mail-circulated hoax that originated in 2003, claiming that Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye on August 27, 2003. The hoax, which has since resurfaced in every year from 2005 - 2009, stemmed from a misinterpretation and exaggeration of a sentence in an e-mail message which communicated the close encounter between Mars and the Earth in 2003 in which the distance between the planets was 55,758,006 million kiometres, the closest recorded distance between the planets since September 24, 57,617 B.C when the distance was 55,718,000. ◼ Mars hoax

◼ A slightly different version of the hoax email:

Subject: 2 MOONS ON 27 AUGUST 2007

27th August 2007, a Monday the Whole World is waiting for.............2 moons on 27th August 2007

Planet Mars will be the brightest in the night sky starting August. It will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. This will cultivate on Aug. 27, 2007 when Mars comes within 34.65M miles of earth. Be sure to watch the sky on Aug. 27 12:30 am. It will look like the earth has 2 moons.

The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287.

Share this with your friends as NO ONE ALIVE TODAY will ever see it again.

Why do you get the feeling that

these people are against waterboarding because it serves their political aims, and that given a shot and a little anonymity, they would bring back the rack. They're against the Patriot Act, yet have nothing to say about the recent ruling that law enforcement can fit cars with tracking devices without court supervision. Why? Because there's no political gain to be had. Has nothing to with any moral principles.



◼ Pelosi defense: couldn't object in '03
◼ Pelosi Knocked Off Her Game

For Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), it’s a new week of old questions: What did she know about harsh Bush administration interrogation techniques, and when did she know it?
Usually a master of message discipline, Pelosi has been thrown off balance by a mounting firestorm over whether she or her staff learned six years ago that intelligence officials were using extreme tactics such as waterboarding.

For weeks, the Speaker has insisted she didn’t, though a declassified report last week suggested otherwise.

And Republicans, sensing a rare opportunity, are moving to keep the heat on the discrepancy over competing versions of what precisely was disclosed at the classified briefings in question. The GOP is demanding the CIA release more documents showing exactly what Pelosi was told in 2002, as they continue a wider offensive targeting Democrats on security issues like the planned closure of the Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, detainee prison.

With a series of torture investigations already in the works, Attorney General Eric Holder set to appear Thursday before the House Judiciary Committee and the likelihood of either a series of Congressional hearings or a “truth commission,” the issue simply isn’t going away.

Pelosi’s camp is braced for the buzz saw awaiting the Speaker upon her return today from a surprise trip to Iraq. Their strategy: stick to their script and blast the GOP attacks as a politically motivated attempt to distract from abuses sanctioned by the Bush administration.

Who thinks Pelosi is telling the truth?

paying off your mistress with campaign funds is to indiscretion what bubonic plague is to toe fungus

...She labels his affair "an indiscretion." No. Kicking your golf ball out of the rough is an indiscretion. Cheating on your cancer-stricken wife, lying about it, and paying off your mistress with campaign funds is to indiscretion what bubonic plague is to toe fungus....

Interesting stuff. Especially the part about the aides plotting to sabotage the campaign as a result of the affair. Wonder if they would have followed through. Wonder how many people knew, how far down that sentiment went. Only the inner circle?

The lies and deception at evidence in this whole fiasco are quite incredible. But bad as Edwards was, and is, I'd rather have him in office than Obama.

Local angle - Eureka City Councilman Chris Kerrigan left his position in order to go and campaign for Edwards. Did he know about any of this? Did he - does he - care?

Will Israel still be here in 4 years?

Can Obama's Stormtroopers/ACORN be stopped?

◼ Politico takes note of ALG's efforts to hold members of Congress accountable for funding ACORN.
...In the House, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) and other GOP lawmakers called on the Census Bureau to sever ties with ACORN, one of several hundred organizations teaming up with the bureau to conduct the crucial Census count in 2010.

At the same time, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), one of ACORN’s most vocal opponents in Congress, tangled with Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) over an “ACORN amendment” she introduced that would have prohibited any organization indicted for voter fraud from receiving certain federal housing grants.

In the Senate, Republican David Vitter of Louisiana introduced his own amendment that sought to prohibit ACORN from receiving federal volunteer funds through the National Service Act. The Senate rejected it on Thursday....