Wednesday, October 28, 2009

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

ARES 1-X launched on schedule at 11:30 EST - a perfect flight.

Does that ever bring back memories of my years at Cape Kennedy and downrange. Just watching on NASA TV I could feel the familiar tension building as the telemetry systems were brought on line and the vehicle took command of its own destiny.

I miss it.

[Update] Liftoff.



Image via CNN.

[Second update] Slide show of ARES 1-X launch here.

THAT WAS THEN

This is now.


Via Don Surber.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

RED OCTOBER

Will "Red October" sink the U.S.S. Obama in November?

YUPPIE 911

From Don Surber:

The quote of the day has to go to Matt Scharper, head of California’s Search and Rescue operation, who spoke of On-Star and other GPS devices: “With the Yuppie 911, you send a message to a satellite and the government pulls your butt out of something you shouldn’t have been in in the first place.”

Rescuers are a tad peeved at people who take on the wilderness but still want someone to save them at the first sign of trouble.
The least we can do is to let these people pay for their own rescues.

A SMOKING WAFFLE

"Afghan President Hamid Karzai's top challenger called for a 'dramatic increase' in troops to ensure security in his country, suggesting a failure to send in reinforcements could put Afghanistan 'at risk' of falling to insurgents."

"President Obama pledged on Monday not to "rush the solemn decision" to send more troops to battle in Afghanistan as he weighs military options on what to do next in the troubled war."

The President's waffle has been on the griddle for so long that by now it must surely be burned to a crisp.

BROKEBANK MOUNTAIN



To be released in time for Halloween ....

A BENEFIT OF ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS

According to a radio advertisement by Kaiser Permanente, electronic health records will prevent global warming ....

By saving more trees.

Well, that's something, I guess.

ECOLOGICAL INSANITY

But it's for Gaia, of course.

David Thompson mocks an article by Alex Renton, which can be summarized quite succintly:

Poor societies - like Bangladesh - produce very little C02 per capita; rich societies - like us - produce large amounts of C02 per capita. Therefore a cull of rich societies would be at least 60 times as productive (for Gaia) as one of poor societies.
So Gaia is best served by a poverty-striken, disease-ridden , pollution-filled society, where life is brutal, hellish, and short? This is the progressive vision for Gaia?

I think not.

Original link via Hot Air.

GLOBAL WHATEVER

Dan Miller on the unknowable results of climate alarmism. Key grafs:

The only thing to be said with certainty is that there has been an increase in studies. “In 2008 alone, there were some 4000-odd peer-reviewed papers published on the topic.”

Despite the vast self-importance of humans, changes in the Sun seem to have a substantially greater impact on the Earth’s climate than we do, and there is nothing much we can do about that.

[Global waming alarmists] seem to have taken to heart the old poem “When in danger and in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout” without knowing whether there is a danger.
A lesson in systems engineering: “The law of unintended consequences puts their proposals in the realm of madness.”

Monday, October 26, 2009

ON AFGHANISTAN

Victor Davis Hansen: Voting "present" is not an option.

HOW TO WIN THE SENIOR VOTE

Tax such frivolous luxuries as pacemakers, stents, artificial heart valves, defibrillators, automated wheelchairs, mechanized artificial limbs, replacement hips and knees, surgical gurneys, laparoscopic equipment and the like.

PROGRESSIVES AND DIVERSITY

Why move to the suburbs of your stodgy Midwest city to escape African Americans and get criticized for it when you can move to Portland and actually be praised as progressive, urban and hip?


Among the media, academia and within planning circles, there’s a generally standing answer to the question of what cities are the best, the most progressive and best role models for small and mid-sized cities. The standard list includes Portland, Seattle, Austin, Minneapolis, and Denver.

But look closely at these exemplars and a curious fact emerges. [These] “progressive” cities aren’t red or blue, but another color entirely: white.
It's so much easier to be progressive if you don't have to worry about diversity.

Via Instapundit.

THE SHOT (NOT YET) HEARD AROUND THE WORLD

Republican Sarah Palin endorsed Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffmann in the New York 23rd district Concressional Race over Republican Republican nominee Dede Scozzafava. In her endorsement, Palin wrote:

Political parties must stand for something. When Republicans were in the wilderness in the late 1970s, Ronald Reagan knew that the doctrine of "blurring the lines" between parties was not an appropriate way to win elections.
That’s a clear shot across the bow of the Republican ship of state. If the Republican Party doesn’t get its act together soon and start acting like a conservative party, it will soon go the way of the dodo – and deservedly so.

IT’S OFFICIAL

The mainstream media is certifiably insane. My favorite part:

Journalists have been laid-off across the country, because of the media’s broken business model. Surely, the Key News can recruit a less-biased reporter.
Except that in a nut house, the selection is limited.

NATIONAL EMERGENCY?

President Obama signed a proclamation declaring the H1N1 influenza a national emergency, giving doctors and medical facilities greater leeway in responding to the flu pandemic.

Mickey Kaus wonders if it’s a trumped-up crisis (scroll down).

So do I. Scare tactic is more like it.

[Update] And Michael Fumento has the data.

OBAMACARE IS FOR PEONS

Like taxes, ObamaCare is for little people.

Via Instapundit.

POLISH MISSILE DEFENSE

Biden wins Polish OK for new missile plan.

The Poles are going to do just fine under the new missile defense plans, ... They were smart not to make a fuss and fight the Obama administration, but instead to try to figure out ways to enhance their security with the “new guys in charge."
As the English idiom goes, “beggars can’t be choosers.” My sympathies to the Poles – they’re between a rock and a hard place.

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH

On the MSM meltdown with Fox News over Obama. What bothers the MSM is that they no longer get to control what is defined as “news” – now I do.

IT'S HERE



Obamanism.

VOTING ROUGE

No, it’s not a typo. The anti-Palin forces, led by The Nation, are publishing Going Rouge the same day that Sarah Palin’s book Going Rogue is due to be released.

Coincidence? I think not. The “progressives” are fearing for their agenda.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

OH, SHUT

Closed doors, closed minds.

ARES TO LAUNCH TUESDAY

A day after its successful move to launch pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center, the Ares I-X flight test rocket is being prepared for a planned Tuesday (Oct. 27) morning liftoff.

Here are some pictures of the 327 foot long vehicle as it is moved to Pad 39B on the mobile transporter.





Tuesday's flight is a suborbital flight to verify vehicle systems. Go Ares!

UNDEREDUCATED

The President may be a graduate of Columbia and Harvard Law School, but he’s woefully undereducated where it really matters:

He was enrolled in Ms. Sakai’s kindergarten class at Noelani Elementary School [Hawaii public school] in 1967, but he was only there a couple or three months before he was off to Indonesia.
So he missed out: All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten.

- Share everything.
- Play fair.
- Don't hit people.
- Put things back.
- Clean up your own mess.
- Don't take things that aren't yours.
- Say you're sorry.
- Live a balanced life.
Life is tough when all you have going for you is an “elite education.”

NEW YORK VOTER FRAUD

Election likely tipped to Democrats. Why am I not surprised?

Voting needs to be made more restrictive, so only the motivated - and hopefully knowlegable - vote. In-person registration; in-person voting, and mandatory ID at both registration and in the voting booth would do for a start.

AN IDEA FOR TORT REFORM

Repeal soverign immunity. Let lawyers loose on the nanny state where they’ll (possibly) be useful.

GOVERNMENT HEALTHCARE

Weren't there supposed to be at least 50 million doses of swine flu vaccine available by now?


“President Obama’s late-night declaration of a nationwide public health emergency last night shouldn’t be allowed to obscure the most important lesson of the developing swine flu crisis – The same government that only weeks ago promised abundant supplies of swine flu vaccine by mid-October will be running your health care system under Obamacare.”

Photo via Instapundit.

ONSTAR IS WATCHING

It's not comforting.

MAKING SOMEONE (ELSE) PAY

If only. “You, however, may have an ATM-like role.”

To me, the key graf, mentioned almost in passing, is this:

Assurant, one of the nation's bigger writers of individual policies, ... leads in high-deductible plans of the kind Obamacare would ban (emphasis added).
My suspicion is that it is exactly these high-deductible plans that are keeping the cost of health care from rising even faster than they are. Ban them and watch annual cost increases accelerate.

WALL STREET CRACKDOWN

The White House has decided to restrict compensation at seven firms that got special bailouts, and the Federal Reserve proposed to review pay practices at 28 unnamed giant banks. while critics are concerned that reining in pay makes it hard to keep talented employees.

Fortune magazine: ”Who cares if Wall Street talent leaves? It's not as if the best and brightest were doing a good job to begin with.”

True enough. But Fortune misses the real point: “Can the second-raters do better?”

[Update] Others are noticing, too.

[Another Update] And for the Obamanauts, recognition that the rules don’t apply to their side.

HHS: OBAMACARE WOULD MAKE COSTS RISE

“The nation's medical costs will keep spiraling upward even faster than they are now under Democratic legislation pending in the House, a report from government economic experts concluded. [T]he report from the [HHS] Office of the Actuary ... carried an unusual disclaimer, saying that it "does not represent an official position" of Health and Human Services.”

From Hot Air: “We should ask why the administration doesn’t pay attention to its own analysis. Perhaps it’s because the ObamaCare push has always been about ideology over rational policy.”

Ed Morrissey has the right idea:

A combination of health-savings accounts with a move away from comprehensive insurance to catastrophic coverage would not only better serve Americans but would result in a massive boost to the health-care industry.
If only the Obama administration was half as smart.

IRAN DOUBLECROSS

Obama stiffed again.

An Instapundit reader has a good point: “he [Obama] turned his back on the Iranian people because that whole free election fight of theirs wasn’t nearly as important as the nuclear deal he was working out with Iran’s regime.”

So much for liberal “sophistication” ....

Saturday, October 24, 2009

HEALTH INSURANCE MANDATES

Mandates do not drive down premiums.

In Massachusetts, they’ve had the opposite effect. After the enactment of Commonwealth Care in 2006, every provider group — from the fertility doctors to the substance-abuse counselors — persuaded the health-care officials that no plan would be “comprehensive” without their services. The result? Cheap insurance isn’t just hard to come by in the Bay State — it’s illegal.
I would note that I just got notified by my company of a new Federal mandate (the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008) that will almost certainly drive up my health insurance premiums next year.

Here’s a thought: non-comprehensive health insurance. Why not let me select which benefits I’m willing to pay for?

CNN VS “FAUX” NEWS

The White House communications director, Anita Dunn, contrasted Fox News with CNN: “Fox News is just a Republican opinion outlet ... while CNN is a real news network.”

Hmm. Well, I once posted the lead stories on each service’s web site. I think it’s safe to say that CNN and FOX certainly cater to different viewership, but I would be hard-pressed to argue that FOX’s selection of news stories for its “top stories” is more opinionated than is CNN’s selection.

Via Instapundit.

COLLEGE BANS CROSS-DRESSING

Almost sounds like they’re religious bigots - or not.

The story is here.

AUTUMN VIEWS

Some views from around the neighborhood.



The beginnings of change in the yard. Still mostly green, but some reds and yellows are appearing. We've had rain, so it may be a colorful autumn this year.
A spectacular red.

Red highlights in the tree tops behind the neighborhood homes.

The yellow leaves alongside the house are spectacular in the evening sun.

Friday, October 23, 2009

SPINE TRANSPLANT

Has the mainstream media (NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN) found some backbone?

Maybe. More likely, the “finally they came for me” principle has been rediscovered.

GOOD INTENTIONS AREN’T ENOUGH

Sarah Palin on ObamaCare.

See also JoeC’s comment (posted earlier) at the bottom of this post on the cost of ObamaCare.

THE PERPETUAL CAMPAIGN

Is he aware he won the Presidency?

Just nine months into his presidency, Obama has appeared at 23 Democratic fundraisers, including the two he attended Tuesday night, according to Mark Knoller of CBS News, who keeps a detailed log of presidential activities.

By comparison, George W. Bush attended six political fundraisers and Bill Clinton went to five during their first year in office.
Maybe it’s time to tell him to shut up and start cleaning up all those messes he claims he “inherited..”

HOW TO KEEP SOCIAL SECURITY SOLVENT

Cut Medicare. Let the oldsters die early.

MANDATORY VOLUNTEERISM

Michelle Malkin: ”Hollywood hearts Obama. Obama hearts government-directed national service. That is why you won’t be able to change the TV channel all week without getting lectured about the need to get off the couch and Do Something.”

And it’s not just television. I’ve noticed a number of comic strips boostering volunteerism: Rose is Rose, Mutts, Red & Rover, Pickles, Curtis, Zits, Baby Blues, Big Nate, Frazz, ....

BC and Dilbert seem to have a contra attitude ....

SURBER ON OBAMA ON BECK

"Glenn Beck is America's favorite rodeo clown. He used to be one. His critics keep sneering about it."

"Every White House has its bull. This White House's bull comes from the Ivy League. At the top of the roster is the president - a graduate of Columbia and Harvard Law - and his wife, Michelle Obama, a graduate of Princeton and Harvard Law."

"America needs a rodeo clown, because the key to being a rodeo clown is knowing where the bull is coming from - and be[ing] smarter than the bull."

"Beck is scoring on both counts."

WHERE ARE THE MODERATES?

E.J. Dionne asks “Is there room in the Republican Party for genuine moderates?”

Since in E.J.’s mind a moderate is someone just to the right of MoveOn.org, I suspect his answer is “No.”

My answer is the same.

THE GRATING COMMUNICATOR

Ann Coulter eviscerates Keith Olbermann.

Read the whole thing.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

RECONSTRUCTING DEAD WHITE MALES

From the 2009 Combined Federal Campaign advertising:

“Our greatest destiny is to serve ourselves and our fellow man (and woman).” -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

“We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give.” -- Winston Churchill.

Hmm ... haven’t we been taught by our 'intellectual betters' to disregard the opinions of ‘dead white males’?

TURTLES AREN’T EXTINCT

Though they may be an endangered species.




I’ve been a member for 40+ years, and had long thought that our species had gone extinct, so I was pleased to see an “Order of Turtles” group on the career networking site LinkedIn.

You may ask, “Who are Turtles?"

They are “an illustrious group and include in their membership some of the country's foremost leaders in fields of government, finance, entertainment, aerospace and other areas where aggressiveness, a feeling for fair play, clean thoughts and a sense of humor are keys to success.”

More realistically, Turtles are a widespread, loosely-knit group of fun-loving individuals with a somewhat wry sense of humor. There is no organization, no membership roll, no meetings, no dues, and no obligations – except an implied one to recruit more Turtles.

Membership is open to anyone who is (a) breathing, (b) has an IQ above room temperature (Celsius – and that may be waived), (c) wants to join, and (d) can answer the Questions correctly (coaching is allowed).

The origin of the Turtles is uncertain, to say the least. The most common – and I think most likely - explanation of its honorable origin refers back to the Second World War, when a group of American fighter pilots stationed in England formed a semisecret drinking fraternity among its squadron's members, and put prospective candidates for membership through a mock initiation.

Are you a Turtle?

OBAMACARE OPTIONS

From a Don Surber post on ObamaCare taxes. JoeC comments:

“If You’re An Employer Who Can’t Afford To Provide Health Insurance To Your Employees, You Get Taxed”

What part of “can’t afford” is it I do not understand? I must be missing something somewhere. Come to think of it… it might be cheaper to pay the tax than to pay for the health benefits for my employee (myself). My catastrophic plan costs my company close to $500/month for me and my wife. So I could go to a slightly more expensive plan that actually paid for things like dental, prescription drugs, and eye care…. and get taxed because I had the expensive plan (over $8000)… which would cost me even more. Hmmmmm…. let me think about this for a moment. So I can:

A) Pay a tax (say $1000) because I have no insurance and get ‘free’ gov’t care
B) Pay $6000 for a minimalist plan (which I have now)
C) Pay $8000+additional tax for a better plan that still costs me a co-pay

Lemme think about that for a bit.
And if you don’t think that there are lots of people out there are making exactly JoeC’s assessment, you’ve got a lot to learn about human nature.

VOTING PRESENT

Again.


Via Chris Muir (10/19/09).

OBAMANOIA

Victor Davis Hansen:

Somehow we went from revolutionary fervor to the boring Ministry of Truth in nine months.

Personally I found the left far more interesting when they were suffering from Bush Derangement Syndrome than Obamophilia.
Read it all.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

HEARD ON THE RADIO

For the last several weeks, WTOP radio here in DC has been regularly airing anti-soft drink/juice tax advertisements. I can’t recall hearing anti-cigarette tax or anti-liquor tax advertisements, at least not at the frequency and decibel level of the anti-soft drink/juice ad campaign.

Sin taxes are OK, unless it's my sin being taxed.

WHY DO PEOPLE LISTEN TO RUSH?

CNN aired a segment with a psychiatrist to analyze conservative talk radio listeners. According to the psychiatrist, Rush Limbaugh has an audience because he’s “operating like the bully, and if you’re on the playground...you want to be...under the bully’s wing and go along with him and get...some power by proxy.”

It’d be interesting to see FOX News air a similar analysis of people who watch CNN, MSNBC, etc.

BREAKING NEWS

Obama has authorized 40,000 troops for combat ... with Fox News.

THE GIBBS SEAL OF APPROVAL

FOX News’Brit Hume wonders whether American journalists from other news organizations really will become the lackeys of the Obama administration by ignoring news stories originating at Fox, just because Robert Gibbs disapproves of FOX News.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

RIDE AT YOUR OWN RISK

Via WTOP radio.

[Washington DC] Metrobus operators have been disciplined hundreds of times for speeding, running red lights and striking pedestrians since 2004. During the same time period, many drivers have been caught driving while distracted, including one case where a bus operator was watching television behind the wheel.

Documents obtained by WTOP through a public records request show that since 2004, bus operators have racked up almost 400 violations for running red lights, as well as 260 speeding violations. In one instance, a bus operator was driving 59 miles per hour in a 25-mile-per-hour zone.
One has to wonder how many are affirmative action employees hired in spite of bad records ... but that question will never be asked.

To be fair, Metro has several thousand drivers, most of whom have never had a violation. But still ... how do so many get through the screening process, and why are they still employed?

VOTING RIGHTS?

U.S. Justice Department blocks North Carolina city's nonpartisan vote.

Voters in the city [Kinston, NC] decided overwhelmingly last year to do away with the party affiliation of candidates in local elections, but the Obama administration recently overruled the electorate and decided that equal rights for black voters cannot be achieved without the Democratic Party.

The Justice Department's ruling, which affects races for City Council and mayor, went so far as to say partisan elections are needed so that black voters can elect their "candidates of choice" - identified by the department as those who are Democrats and almost exclusively black.
Republicans need not apply ....

POST ENDORSES DEEDS FOR VA GOVERNOR

I knew I was correct in deciding to vote for Bob McDonnell for Governor of Virginia.

Polling agrees: McDonnell, 59%; Deeds, 40%. One commenter snarks “Do you have a nest of racist, right-wing fascists in your newsroom? It will only encourage the sheep to vote Republican, against their own best interests. Get another polling firm quick -- one that produces the correct results.”

Glenn Reynolds wonders if there’s time left for the Washington Post to produce another “Macaca moment.”

DOES OBAMA BELIEVE IN HUMAN RIGHTS?

Of course he does. It’s all in the definition of “human.”

WHOLE FOODS DEFENDS CAPITALISM

"As long as it [capitalism] is seen as a philosophy of “greed,” [Whole Food CEO John] Mackey warns, then it will remain vulnerable to statist alternatives that kill economic growth, liberty, and technology."

The interview is here.

Monday, October 19, 2009

IN A CATEGORY BY HIMSELF

Believe it or not:

The Magazine Publishers of America's American Society of Magazine Editors has added a category to its annual magazine cover awards: Obama. This new category is the only ASME category focused on a single person, and highlights the reverential attitude for the President widely held in the magazine publishing community.
It's true; scroll to the bottom for details.

JUST ASKING

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Debra Saunders: "If the Democrats' health care package is so great, why are President Obama and Democrat congressional leaders so hungry to share the credit for its passage with a Republican?"

LETTERS TO CAMILLE

Paglia responds to her readers:

On Obama's administration:

Yes, ever since week one of the Obama administration, I have been doggedly calling for heads to roll. As months of crass ineptitude drag on, however, the blacklist of those who should be tagged for the guillotine gets longer and longer. The most recent fiasco, of course, was sending the president of the United States on a humiliating fool's errand to beg for the Olympics as a Chicago boondoggle. I cheered when splendiferous Rio de Janeiro rightfully got the gig.

You are correct to argue that the cluster of appointees around a person in power reflects his or her belief system and modus operandi. However, it is a mark of leadership to recognize the need for professional evolution beyond an old comfort zone. Obama is approaching a turning point which will define his political future, if he has one. He is surrounded by some mighty small potatoes who need shoveling into the dumpster. The petty provincials need to go, and far more sophisticated and world-savvy analysts must urgently be brought on board.
On Sarah Palin:

I too have been repulsed by the elitist insults flung at Sarah Palin in the massive, coordinated media effort to destroy her. Hence I have been thoroughly enjoying the way that Palin, despite all the dirt thrown at her by liberal journalists and bloggers, keeps bouncing back as if unscathed. No sooner did the gloating harpies of the Northeastern media think they had torn her to shreds than she exploded into number one on Amazon.com with a memoir that hadn't even been printed yet! With each one of these amusing triumphs, Palin is solidifying her status as a bona fide American cultural heroine.

Yes, the snobbery about Palin's five colleges is especially distasteful, given the Democratic party's supposed allegiance to populism. Judging by the increasingly limited cultural and factual knowledge of graduates of elite schools whom one encounters working in the media, blue-chip sheepskins aren't worth the parchment they're printed on these days. Young people forced through the ruthlessly competitive college admissions rat race have the independence and creativity pinched right out of them. Proof? Where are the major young American artists, writers, critics or movie-makers of the past 20 years? The most adventurous and enterprising minds have gone into high tech. We're in a horrendous cultural vacuum because our status-besotted education industry is geared toward producing not original thinkers but docile creatures of the system.
There's more. Read it all.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

This is what a "big mashed-up bag of meat with lipstick" looks like.


And this is what a blithering idiot looks like.


Via PowerLine.

WHO'S PARTISAN?

The Obama administration has declared political war on the Fox News Channel, claiming that "it really is more a wing of the Republican Party."

Well, maybe.

Fox's news operation ... slants conservative ... in the choice of topics: fiscal irresponsibility, the expansion of big government, an imperial judiciary, the war on terrorism, radical Islam, crime, teenage out-of-wedlock pregnancy, and the culture wars.

Fox has filled an ideological vacuum left by the likes of CNN and MSNBC.... Fox consciously - even proudly - caters to God-fearing, gun-toting, red-state viewers. It speaks to the populist, patriotic and conservative values embodied by Middle America - principles that have been consistently mocked by media elites.
Which, perhaps, is the reason its ratings are soaring while its competitors are moribund.

THREE YEAR COLLEGE DEGREES

The three-year solution. Think of how much money could be saved if the Ivy League schools would just send a diploma on acceptance. And the new graduates would probably be better off, too ....

Linked through Hot Air.

BLACKBALLING CONSERVATISM

Diana West on the vicious, public campaign to blackball Rush Limbaugh as a potential owner of an NFL team.

Keith Olbermann. In addition to his nightly gig on MSNBC -- a numbing blend of Leftist politics and something approaching Tourette's syndrome -- Olbermann is a co-host of NBC's "Football Night in America," the pre-game show that leads into "Sunday Night Football." Naturally, that would be Sunday night NFL football.

Olbermann calls an accomplished and best-selling conservative author, commentator, blogger, wife and mother a "big mashed-up bag of meat with lipstick," but such dehumanizing venom doesn't count as controversial, or even lightly strain his NBC-NFL connection.

A must read.

Link from Michelle Malkin.

GIVE ME A CHOICE

At present, I don't have a choice - at 65, I have to sign up for Medicare if I want to receive Social Security benefits, even if I have excellent coverage on my wife's plan. No Medicare, no Social security.

But that may be changing.

Seniors who want to collect their Social Security benefits and opt out of Medicare won a court victory recently that hopefully will pave the way for them to be able to do just that.

U.S. District Court Judge Rosemary M. Collyer denied a motion to dismiss the plaintiffs claim [that] the federal government has no right to force them into Medicare while holding their hard-earned Social Security benefits hostage.
If Ross Perot - and I - want to pay for our own health care, shouldn't we be allowed to?

Sunday, October 18, 2009

WHITE HOUSE ANKLE-BITERS

The New York Times insults bloggers, comparing the White House Reality Check web site "to the blog of some unemployed guy living in his parents’ basement.”

Via Instapundit.

[Update] Hmm. The White House "Reality Check" site seems to have changed from that described by the Times. Embarrassment?

[Another Update] From the Fox News website. Jeez, it it my imagination, or does the Obama administration really look petty?

THE (NON)TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS

Sometimes I think the desire for coercion comes first, then the theory to justify it. . . .

MUST-READS FROM VICTOR DAVIS HANSEN

Confessions of a Cultural Drop-out.

Have you stopped reading, listening, watching, and paying attention to most of what now passes for establishment public or popular culture?

I don’t particularly like the idea that I want little to do with contemporary culture. But I feel it nonetheless ....
Confusions of the Age.

Sports: "But with the Limbaugh matter, the entire Potemkin edifice is exposed .... Is Ted Turner never allowed to buy another sports team, given his outrageous political statements about Iran, Israel, Bush, global warming, etc?"

Russia: "When we serially cried out “reset” button, blamed Bush for the new Cold War with Russia, and promised to “listen”, we knew the US was walking blindfolded up the steps of Putin’s guillotine."

Sexual hypocricy: "[I]f popular culture has all but suggested that heterosexuals who engage in such an act are depraved when carried out consensually, and especially worthy of odium beyond that accorded to the rapist, when as an act of coercion, why is the subject simply taboo in matters of public discussion of male homosexuality?"

Racism: "[I]n just 9 months there have been more racially charged rhetoric and more charges of “racist!” than we’ve seen in the past decade."

Wealth: "The rich offer bromides for the poor, but are exempt by their capital from the consequences should such social policy prove ill thought-out."
Read them both.

FOOLS OR KNAVES

Tom Blumer on government spending:

We’re surrounded by either fools or knaves.

The support for the “knave” alternative is becoming more compelling. People who are serious about their desire for an economic recovery simply don’t do the things they have done and don’t propose the things they are proposing. What they want are things you would expect from the government of a banana republic, not the supposed leader of the free world.
My suppport for the “fool” theory is wavering. Read the whole thing.

MR. PRESIDENT



It's about time.

[Update] The source for the photo - a protest in San Francisco during President Obama's visit on October 15.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

HEALTH CARE EXPLAINED

Congressman Mike Rogers (R-MI, 8th District) on the Democrat's health care bill.



Congressman Rogers appears to be correct in his description of Section 142 of the Democrats' bill. It does in fact give the government the authority to define what constitutes a "qualified plan" and suspend inrollment or remove plans from the insurance exchange. So, for example, if you have/want high-limit hospitalization insurance only, and the government decides it isn't "qualified" - e.g., doesn't offer benefits the government deems necessary, then you will be disenrolled and your plan disqualified.

Don't believe me? Then go here, enter "America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009" in the search box, click on "beginning" and scroll down.

If what you read doesn't scare you, then you're not human.

DRILL, BABY, DRILL

Sarah Palin on energy and the environment.

In effect, American environmentalists are preventing responsible development here at home while supporting irresponsible development overseas.

Tempting as they may be to central planners, top-down, one-size-fits-all solutions are recipes for failure.

Building an energy-independent America will mean a real economic stimulus.

[E]nergy independence is not just about the environment or the economy. It’s about freedom and confidence.

Petroleum is a major part of America’s energy picture. Shall we get it here or abroad? Palin understands it's better to be independent.

Read it all.

DIE QUICKLY

The Democrat’s health care plan:



Berkeley Professor and (Clinton administration) Secretary of Labor Robert Reich on what an “honest president” would say about health reform (at Berkeley, Sept. 26, 2007). “We’re going to have to, if you’re very old, we’re not going to give you all that technology and all those drugs for the last couple of years of your life to keep you maybe going for another couple of months. It’s too expensive, so we’re going to let you die.”

Via Don Surber.

Now idiot Democrat Representative Alan Grayson (D, FL, 8th district) accuses Republicans of wanting to implement Reich’s health reform plan.



In psychological terms, it’s called projection bias.

ASTROTURFING?

That is what they call a phony grassroots campaign cooked up by special interests or political parties afraid to show their own faces.”

[The Democrats] concocted two groups — Americans for Stable Quality Care and its predecessor, Healthy Economy Now (I think the term is “front organization”) — to push the White House’s health-care agenda.
Since the Democrats did it, it’s not astroturfing; it’s “Fake But Accurate.

Setting aside the astroturfing charge, here’s the part I found amusing:

Not surprisingly, an ethics expert interviewed by Politico (we need experts because ethics is a subspecialty, knowledge of which is not commonly found among ordinary politicians) thinks the whole thing raises “questions.”
Ethics are sooo ... nuanced.

Link via Instapundit.

Friday, October 16, 2009

LOAVES AND FISHES

Richard Fernandez on Robert Reich’s “unsayable truths.”

In ostensibly addressing Reich’s “we’re going to let you die” speech at UC Berkeley in 2007, Fernandez got to the heart of the matter: choice. According to Reich,

Things come down to choices: lower costs versus death panels; torture versus intelligence; equity versus growth.
But there are deeper, more fundamental, choices to be made.

The missing pairs of choices in Reich’s list are these: creativity versus certainty, risk versus return, bureaucracy versus innovation. We can live only if we take the risk. That is the most unsayable truth of all.
Reich’s view is that the “loaves and fishes” must be supplied by a benevolent government to ensure equity. My view is that I’d rather bake my own bread and catch my own fish.

Or, as Fernandez eloquently put it, there’s no life without risk: “There’s no reason to believe in a valley over the next hill, or a new world across a sea of stars. But if [we] are going to ... die anyway, then what have we got to lose by trying to get there?”

THERE IS NO NEW FRONTIER

Peggy Noonan on recessions, bailouts, healthcare, etc.: “Now the national terrain is thick with federal programs, and with state, county, city and town entities and programs, from coast to coast. It's not virgin territory anymore, it's crowded. We are a nation fully settled by government. We are well into the age of the welfare state, the age of government. We know its weight, heft and demands, know its costs both in terms of money and autonomy ....”

Bottom line: government has grown too big, too invasive, too controlling.

OBAMA TO CONSERVATIVES

Grab a mop and help me clean up your mess.

Conservatives to Obama: We’d rather grab a broom to sweep you out.

THE WILL TO COWER

Charles Krauthammer on the new liberalism and the end of American ascendancy.

Facing the choice of whether to maintain our dominance or to gradually, deliberately, willingly, and indeed relievedly give it up, we are currently on a course towards the latter. The current liberal ascendancy in the United States--controlling the executive and both houses of Congress, dominating the media and elite culture--has set us on a course for decline. And this is true for both foreign and domestic policies. Indeed, they work synergistically to ensure that outcome.
There’s still time to vote “NO.”

Link via Powerline.

WHITHER COMMON SENSE?

“The upstate New York school superintendent who suspended an Eagle Scout for 20 days for keeping a 2-inch utility knife locked in his car is unwilling to speak to the teen's family or bend in his ruling.”

“The ruling from [Lansingburgh Central School District Superintendent George J.] Goodwin has outraged Whalen's family, which said if district officials are unable to use their own judgment, their roles aren't necessary. 'You could have a trained monkey ....' ”

I think the monkey was just insulted.

BARNEY FRANK, PREDATORY LENDER

This would be funny if it weren't true.

OBSESSED WITH FREEDOM

Unfortunately, this argument makes sense to altogether too many Americans.

ROBOT MOONWALKS ON MAGNETS

A unique robot design for monitoring bridge dynamics in real time.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

UNMANNED COMBAT





"At this very moment, at any given moment, three dozen armed, unmanned American airplanes are flying lazy loops over Afghanistan and Iraq. They linger there, all day and all night. When one lands to refuel or rearm, another replaces it. They guard soldiers on patrol, spy on Al Qaeda leaders, and send missiles shrieking down on insurgents massing in the night."

Read the rest.

POTUS, NOT (Wh)OTUS


At least George W. Bush was Commander-in-Chief, not Whiner-in-Chief like the current occupant.

NO NEW TAXES

Nope. None. Well, as long as you don’t include future raises, fees (Ed. - hmm, fees. Fees aren’t taxes? Uh, not according to Obama.) and corporate taxes.

A list of the ”revenue enhancements” included in the just-passed Senate [Baucus] healthcare bill:

-- $201 billion in new taxes on high-premium health care plans.

-- $83 billion in new taxes paid by workers who will receive less employer-sponsored coverage or lose that coverage altogether but will be compensated with higher wages or monetary benefits, which are taxable.

-- $23 billion in penalty fees paid by employers who do not comply with the federal insurance mandate.

-- $4 billion in penalty fees paid by individuals who don't have health insurance.

-- $16 billion in new income and Medicare payroll tax revenue due to changes in Medicare.

And $180 billion in other tax revenues items, including: A new tax on prescription drug makers that would account for $22.2 billion over 10 years; a new tax on medical device manufacturers that would bring in $38.6 billion; and a new annual tax on insurance companies would net the government $60.4 billion.
Are you starting to notice a trend here?

ENOUGH ALREADY

Obama: Let me be clear ....

Terrorists? ‘Now let me be clear: We are indeed at war with al-Qaida and its affiliates.’

Student testing? ‘Let me be clear: Success should be judged by results, and data is a powerful tool to determine results.’

Iran? ‘Let me be clear: Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile activity poses a real threat, not just to the United States, but to Iran’s neighbors and our allies.’

Auto bailouts? ‘Let me be clear: The United States government has no interest in running GM.’

In Moscow: ‘Let me be clear: America wants a strong, peaceful, and prosperous Russia.’

In Ghana: ‘Let me be clear: Africa is not the crude caricature of a continent at perpetual war.’

In Italy, bemoaning poor U.S. leadership on climate change: ‘Let me be clear: Those days are over.’

In Trinidad, announcing new aid: ‘Let me be clear: This is not charity.’

Can’t TOTUS teach him a new phrase?

THE “I’M NOT BUSH” PRIZE

Frank J: [S]hould Obama have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize? "Of course he should have; it’s a useless-moron prize. Obama is the most prominent useless idiot out there right now; I can’t name a better candidate.”

Read it all.

Plus, Frank J. answers the bonus question: can you get post-traumatic stress disorder from reading?

IS OBAMA OBNOXIOUSLY ARTICULATE?

No. Obnoxiously omnipresent.

WASHINGTON IS NUTS

So what’s new?

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

A BLINDING GLIMPSE OF THE OBVIOUS

Brit Hume on the Senate health care bill:

In breaking with her Republican colleagues to vote for that Senate committee bill, Senator Snowe said she still has reservations about it, especially about its cost. And with good reason. Consider what just happened to the bill in recent days.

Central to it was a tradeoff. Insurance companies would no longer be able to refuse coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. Nor could they charge sick people higher premiums. In return, the bill would require everyone, sick and healthy, to have insurance, thus providing the companies a stream of new premiums from the healthy to cover the care of the sick.

But the committee then voted to weaken the penalties on those who refused to obtain coverage. That made it inevitable that millions would opt out of the system, choosing to pay the modest penalties, and wait until they got sick to get insurance, knowing they could not be turned down because they were sick.

The insurance industry responded with a report Tuesday that said the bill would end up raising health care premiums for everybody. No kidding. The report was immediately denounced by the White House, but that's almost beside the point, which is this:

The major cost of this whole new insurance entitlement is supposed to be paid for by about a half trillion dollars in unspecified Medicare cuts.

Does anyone believe that a Congress that can't put teeth into its insurance requirement, would actually make those kinds of cuts in Medicare, perhaps the most popular program ever passed?”
Where is ObviousMan when you need him?

OH, MY

Geithner aides reaped millions working for banks, hedge funds.

I am shocked. Shocked, I tell you. Absolutely shocked.

THANK GOD

The headline sent my heart racing. I scanned the article under ‘Pope Canonizes Five New Saints,’ doing a quick search of the five holies. Relief. None was named Obama.”

IS OBAMA WORSE THAN CARTER?

Frank J. describes the Carter years - and reminds: “[H]e’s still eligible to serve another term.”

HATING OBAMA'S AMERICA

Ben Shapiro responds to Eugene Robinson: "I don't root against President Obama because I hate America. I root against President Obama because I hate his vision for America."

PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN

More bluster from the White House.

The Wizard of Oz had the good sense to recognize when he was unmasked.

Obama doesn’t. And it shows.

THE IRONY OF IT ALL

Thomas Sowell on the politics of health care: "The crowning irony is that the problems caused by insurance companies refusing to pay for certain medications or treatment are to be solved by giving government bureaucrats that same power, along with the power to prevent patients from using their own money to pay for those same medications or treatments."

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

EVERYONE GETS A TROPHY

There once was a time when you actually had to do the things you promised to do before someone gave you a trophy.

DAVID V. GOLIATH

So the White House is “at war” with Fox News.

Brit Hume: “[I]t's a bad idea to get into a public fight with someone smaller than you are, because it diminishes you and elevates your opponent. Fox News may be the biggest news channel by far, but it's not as big as the presidency.”

I’m betting on David.

I'M NOT RUNNING

Hillary isn't running for President again - no, not ever (about 4:40 into the video).

Pity - she could win in 2012.

Link via Hot Air.

INCENTIVIZING PROFIT OVER CARE

Massachusetts health care: incentivizing physicians and hospitals to render as little care as possible:

Under the Massachusetts proposal, if your care costs less than the annual allotment, then they keep the unused portion. If your care costs more, then the difference comes out of the providers’ pockets.
Rationing under another name.

Monday, October 12, 2009

"SCILLY"-NESS

From Best of the Web (scroll down):

"A world-first experiment to try and reduce energy use for the day on the Isles of Scilly was foiled after a turn in the weather caused participants to use more electricity," London's Daily Telegraph reports.

In the day-long experiment, Scilly people were asked to follow "a series of guidelines including switching off unnecessary lights and TVs when not in use and only filling kettles with the exact amount of water required." Result: Energy use dropped, but by only 1%.

The reason: "Organiser Dr Matt Prescott said the experiment was undermined by bad weather--which saw people using more power than usual." The experiment might well have been a success had it been conducted a day earlier, when it was sunny and warm.

Which leads us to a thought. What if there were a way of changing the climate so that the weather was warmer all over the world? We realize this is probably unrealistic, but if it could be done, it would be a great way to save energy.
The link is here.

HELL IS DOWNWARD MOBILITY

Robert J. Samuelson thinks health care spending will threaten our children’s future living standards by squeezing their disposable income: “The road to downward mobility is paved with good intentions. The health debate has focused on insuring the uninsured and de-emphasized controlling runaway spending, much of which is ineffective.”

Hmm. Haven’t I seen this somewhere before?



Why, yes. Yes, I have.

A HINT OF FALL

Some pictures from the neighborhood ....








.... taken 12 October 2009

TIME FOR A REMINDER

First, federal spending:


Source: TaxProf.

Second, unemployment rate:


Source: Don Surber.

Third, projected deficit:


Source: Heritage Foundation.

Need more be said?

Sunday, October 11, 2009

IRAQ DECLINES OBAMANOMICS

"The overall level of violence in the country continues to decline, despite the occasional terrorist bombing. This has led to continued economic growth, and more Iraqis are using their freedom of movement, and action, to protest government incompetence."

"I guess that's why our own government is trying to stifle entrepeneurship — to get rid of that embarrassing contrast . . . ."

PROBATION, FINE, FINANCIAL RUIN

The penalty for not committing a crime:
Accidentally over billing the Federal Gummint: $22
Prosecuting a clerical error: $450,000
Abusing your power for a political agenda: Priceless.
For all the things you want to destroy, there's the grandstanding US Attorney's Office.

ANOTHER REASON TO FEAR BIG GOVERNMENT

It could never happen here, of course.

From the comments: “And this is the wonderful “service” the morons in Congress (congressmorons) want to deliver to all of us via ObamaCouldCareLess. If that POS passes, I hope every congressmoron that voted for it breaks his or her back in a waterpark in England.”

CENSUS 2010

"With such a tight grip on the Census by the Obama administration and its allies, one wonders what the end result will be and if it can be trusted."

Via Instapundit: “This is looking like a train wreck.”

OBAMA'S UTOPIA



Baghdad, Iraq - 2006.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

TUCSON'S LAST STAND

About 6,000 people attended the Tucson Tea Party event, billed as Tucson’s Last Stand, today.

Pictures here and here.

SOME STATES ARE MORE EQUAL

How good is Sen. Max Baucus's health reform bill? So good that Democrats have made sure some of the most costly provisions don't apply to their own states.

Some interesting comments (edited slightly):

[1] Yes Mr. Reid ... from each (state) according to its ability ... to each (state) according to its need. Well done, sir.
It’s more akin to “my state because I need to be re-elected” but the thought is a close cousin.
[2] Hmmm ... their logic opens some interesting possibilities. If they can essentially graduate the level at which the tax on benefits kicks in based upon the cost of benefits in given states, it seems to follow we should lobby for differentiating the federal income tax brackets by cost of living in a given state.
Jeez, I wouldn’t give them ideas.
[3] The desire to help other people is admirable. The insistence on doing it with other people's money is less so. The willingness to carve out special exemptions for you and yours, at the expense of everyone else, is despicable.
Which is phrasing it politely.
[4] [U]nfortunately, the Republicans have shown themselves to be lesser versions of evil than the Democrats. While going to hell slowly is better ..., the destination is the same.
Yes. This reminds me of the quote attributed to Mark Twain: "A lie will go round the world while truth is pulling its boots on." It’s always a choice between the lesser of two evils; good never seems to get in the race.

POETIC JUSTICE

Without health insurance in Massachusetts.

Another liberal mugged by reality.

WEBSTER’S UPDATE

Old definition: affordable - able to bear the cost of

New definition: affordable - taxpayer-subsidized (cf. affordable housing; affordable health care)

OBAMACARE OPTIMISM

Mr. President, the public option for healthcare has been tried.
Despite these state-level failures, President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats are pushing forward a slate of similar reforms. Unlike most high-school science fair participants, they seem unaware that the point of doing experiments is to identify what actually works. Instead, they've identified what doesn't—and decided to do it again.
It’s the classic definition of liberalism: doing the same thing over and over again, each time with the expectation that the outcome will be different.

RUBE GOLDBERG GOVERNMENT

Megan McArdle explains why single payer healthcare won’t work in the United States:
“[T]his ridiculous hodgepodge, this hypertrophied Rube Goldberg apparatus, is not some startling aberration of the political process, induced by some Republican dark magic. This is the kind of thing the American political system produces. This is why all of our programs have a substantial element of the inexplicable and bizarre.”
And she is absolutely right. The only way to significantly reduce the cost of healthcare in the U.S. is to significantly reduce government’s role in healthcare.

It’s true across the board, by the way. Reduce the role of government in the development and production of almost any commodity and you’ll reduce its cost. [You may not want to, but that’s a different question.]

THIEVES AND LIARS

”[E]co-conscious ‘green consumers’ are ‘more likely to steal and lie’ ....”

I’m inclined to disagree with the comment at the bottom of the post. For all its faults (read the announcement and study), and there are many, it seems to me that the research captures the essential nature of the eco-warrior mind: the unalterable certainty that the correctness of their views entitles them to not be bound to the standards required of their lessers (cf. Al Gore).

A DREAM CRASHES:

Via Instapundit: “The state of New York has cut off unemployment benefits for a 2008 law grad after she reported collecting $1.30 a day in advertising income from her blog.”

Hopefully, social security isn't next.

CHAVEZ TAKES SWING AT GOLF

[Venezuela] President Hugo Chávez has disparaged the sport as an elitist endeavor with few friends in his populist government.

I’ll bet his handicap is nothing to get excited about ....

DOES THE POST GET IT?

Headline in today’s print edition of the Washington Post:
Nobel Peace Prize is Given to Obama
“Given” as opposed to “Awarded” – a subtle swipe at the President, or just the Post’s usual sloppy reporting? I’d like to believe the former, but smart money is on the latter.

THE JOKE’S ON US

Is Obama becoming a joke? Undoubtedly.

If we only had a parlimentary system of government, he could be laughed out of office. But we don’t, and he can’t, so it’s going to be three very long, very dangerous years before he can be removed.

Vote wisely in the 2010 mid-term elections.

Friday, October 09, 2009

FAIR AND DECENT?

The “benefit” of a post-racial president - draw your own conclusions.

BEST PROTEST POSTER EVER

This one came to me via email, so I don't know where the Tea Party took place ...


... but I sure admire the author. My sentiments exactly!

MEDICAID FRAUD

A new GAO report says that in fiscal years 2006 and 2007, prescription drug fraud in Medicaid cost more than $63 million in just five states: California, Illinois, New York, North Carolina and Texas.”

And you want the government to take over healthcare? And it’ll only cost $829 billion over 10 years?

WHATEVER

The most annoying term of 2009.
It can be an all-purpose argument-ender or a signal of apathy. And it can really be annoying. The poll found "whatever" to be consistently disliked by Americans regardless of their race, gender, age, income or where they live.
Whatever.

IT'S OFFICIAL

Barack Obama is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

The world has gone completely insane; the inmates have taken over the asylum.

[Update] Even Richard Cohen is astonished.

[Another update] Why didn’t Obama win the Nobel Prize for Literature? And Instapundit is on a roll ... keep checking.

[Yet another update] Perhaps the Nobel Committee [Committee? or Committed? - Daisy] should rename it the "Good Intentions" Prize.

[Final update] Meet the people who didn't win.

WE’RE NUMBER ONE!

Systems Engineers. “Demand is soaring for systems engineers, as what was once a niche job in the aerospace and defense industries becomes commonplace among a diverse and expanding universe of employers ....”

Well, yes. I’ve had a mostly enjoyable career as a systems engineer, but don’t let anyone tell you that it isn’t a very volatile occupation. Read the comments.

I MAY BE FAT

But you’re ugly ... and I can diet.

More here.

CONGRESSIONAL “CLAWBACK”

Obama's pay czar proposes taking back monies already legally paid to executives.

Why not try the same thing with our congresscritters?

OBAMA DEMOLISHED

What comes around, goes around. Read it all.

DEMOCRATIC UNDERGROUND

WARNING: “F-bomb” content.

Democrats: do you really want these people on your side?

And this is in the “Greatest Threads” section.

Thursday, October 08, 2009

DEVASTATING CRITIQUE

CBS foreign correspondent Lara Logan provides a devasting critique of Obama’s (apparent) Afghanistan policy.


Watch CBS News Videos Online

Via Hot Air.

FACT-CHECKING “SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE”

Well, CNN recognizes that most viewers get their news from the comedy channels.

What they don’t recognize is that most viewers get their news from the comedy channels (unless they think CNN stands for Comedy News Network).

Reader Kafir comments: “Hey, fair is fair. Remember all the times the MSM fact-checked SNL skits about Bush? Wait …”

ONLINE TRACKING

”[S]ome two-thirds of Americans surveyed object to their being tracked online by advertisers. Further, once people learn about the various ways marketers can follow their online movements, the percentage climbed even higher.”

Uh, what’s new?

FOUR MORE YEARS?


When pigs fly ....

BLESSING IN DISGUISE

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, March 30, 2006: “The American people ... have to work five days a week. I don’t know why we shouldn’t.”

Politico just reported that the House no longer works 4 days a week. It works 2 1/2 days — a half-day on Tuesday and full days on Wednesday and Thursday.

Missouri Republican Congressman Roy Blunt looks on the bright side: "Two and a half days a week is plenty of time to consider the ideas coming out of this Democrat-led House. Imagine the damage they could do with five-day workweeks."

And from a comment at Don's place: ”[A]s long as the Democrats are in power, a two-day Congressional workweek should be seen as a blessing.”

A ZEPTOSECOND

A zeptosecond is 0.000000000000000000001 second. (10^-21 seconds). Instapundit defines it as “the interval between passage of a tax increase, and legislators starting to think about the next one” but reader Jonathan Bailey corrects him ....

BURDEN OF PROOF

“[Orly] Taitz -- dentist, lawyer, wife of a software executive, mother of three and a leading proponent of the ... birther campaign against President Obama -- walks briskly past her law office, which is conveniently beside the dental practice. Inside the law office is a modest conference room with a table, eight chairs, a couple of abstract paintings and a houseplant. It is here that Taitz dreams of deposing the U.S. president, proving that he is a citizen not of this country but of Kenya, maybe, or possibly Indonesia, perhaps even -- who knows? -- that he is secretly controlled by Saudi Arabia.”

When the “birther” controversy began, I was against pursuing it, citing the presidential order of succession: Vice President Joe Biden, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, President pro tempore of the Senate Robert Byrd, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner ... how bad could Obama be?

Now Biden’s beginning to look better and better ....

STEYN ON OBAMA

Forget the first part: "That’s just his usual narcissistic 'But enough about me, let’s talk about what the world thinks of me' shtick. But the second is dangerous in its cowardly evasiveness: For better or worse, we are defined by our differences — and, if Barack Obama doesn’t understand that when he’s at the podium addressing a room filled with representatives of Iran, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Venezuela, and other unlovely polities, the TV audience certainly [does]."

Read it all.

Some other Mark Steyn favorites: The Long Retreat; The Omnipresent Leader; Where Is Obama’s ‘Center’?

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

ON OBAMA’S UN SPEECH

Michael Gerson translates: "I know you adore me because I am better than America’s flawed past. But don’t just stand there loving me, do something."

A late post is Better than none.

THE EGO HAS LANDED

Crashed is more like it.

The embarrassment over Chicago finishing dead last in Copenhagen was also felt by the multitude of Obama promoters in the media that almost unanimously jumped to the supine conclusion that victory for Chicago was assured once the president announced his plan to bless the International Olympic Committee with his presence.
But of course it had to be the Republican’s fault:

MSNBC's Ed Schultz, ... blamed Republican negativity for Chicago's defeat, and then truly lost control of his mental faculties: "They only support America when it's good for their political agenda. What the Republicans did, I think, rivals Jane Fonda sitting on a gun in North Vietnam."
Poor choice of imagery, Ed. Just in case you forgot, Jane Fonda was/is a Democrat.

ALFRED E. OBAMA

When you lose Mad magazine ...


... it's all over.

Reminds me of Lt. Gen. Russel Honore's "let's not get stuck on stupid" to reporters following hurricane Rita in 2005.

Via Don Surber.

PORN POLICY

A simple “not on my campus” statement should do it.