Barack Obama: Deficit Hawk? Or Pathetic Poseur?

Were this the 80's, I would simply say, "NOT!"

Today, I suppose, the girls would say, "Really, Barack? C'mon....really?"

You know someone told Barack Obama he'd better act like he's serious about cutting the deficit, since he's now going to... deliver a speech about it. This Wednesday. Which has not worked out too well for him lately. And being that our insensitive Clod-in Chief will be disrupting American Idol and Dancing with the Stars in order to once again display his self-importance, I can't imagine American voters (especially those of the female variety) will be much disposed to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Especially when his plan for deficit reduction is right out of the socialist play book, a manual that got him by for the first six-odd months in office but has failed him and pissed off Americans ever since. From the New York Times, which graces the story with a gratuitous photo of Obama being mobbed by his last fifteen fans:

In a speech to be delivered at a university here on Wednesday, Mr. Obama will in effect come off the sidelines on the debate over reducing the nation’s debt, which is reaching dangerous heights as the population ages.

After months of criticism that he has not led on budget talks, Mr. Obama will urge bipartisan negotiations toward a multiyear debt-reduction plan tha

t administration officials said would depart sharply from the one proposed last week by House Republicans.

The Republican plan includes a shrinking of Medicare and Medicaid and trillions of dollars in tax cuts, while sparing defense spending. Mr. Obama, by contrast, envisions a more comprehensive plan that would include tax increases for the richest taxpayers, cuts to military spending, savings in Medicare and Medicaid, and unspecified changes to Social Security.

Tax increases and a weakened military? Just what every American has been clamoring for! And "savings" in Medicare & Medicaid? No doubt similar to the health care "savings" he projected in Obamacare, which creates a mere trillion-dollar hole all by itself within the deficit. And that's just over the first ten years, where we get taxed for a decade but get services for only six years. And after that? We get "saved" into bankruptcy....

And you'd better bet those changes to Social Security will remain unspecified, or it will be a promise of simply more benefits - in the future, of course - to be paid for by...tax increases today.

You know what '80's phrase describes Obama perfectly? "Posuer." If I may:

Poseur is a pejorative term, often used in the punk, heavy metal, hip hop and goth subcultures to describe a person who adopts the dress, speech, and/or mannerisms of a group or subculture, generally for attaining acceptability within the group or for popularity among various other groups, yet who is deemed to not share or understand the values or philosophy of the subculture.

Except tax-cutting and deficit reduction are no longer part of the conservative "subculture", it has gone seriously mainstream. Perhaps this definition of "Poseur" fits better:

One who groups him or her self in a particular social clique in order to appear trendy or "edgy" but doesn't believe in the principals held by said clique and is only leeching onto it in order to avoid the social ridicule of not being part of a clique. A poseur will probably change their "style" once every 6 months, possibly more.

The common thread is insecurity- the insecurity to be yourself and be happy with it. Poseurs are the kinds of people who only appear "cool" to people who are just as insecure as they are. But no one ever found success lying to themselves for acceptance.

Yeah, that's the ticket...

Usually, poseurs were easily pinned out, and roundly mocked, for their insincerity and cluelessness. Expect Obama to experience the same, by, oh...Thursday morning, latest.

Which which certainly be graded, 2011-style, as a "fail". Possibly an "epic" one at that...

Ben Bernanke: Murderer?

Yup, according to investor Marc Farber. Via the New York Post, which talks about the effects Ben Bernake's inflationary tactics are already having on the American people:

The Bernanke Fed, of course, maintains that its money-printing spree has resulted in little inflation, other than in stock prices, where Bernanke happily takes credit for the recent rally above 12,000.

To be sure, essays on long-term income and asset disparities can make compelling reading, but they won't hold a candle to the inevitable daily drumbeat of reports about families struggling with $5 dollar a gallon gasoline. Unwittingly Bernanke (and by extension Obama) has positioned himself to take the blame for the inflation that looks to be coming on fast.

Investor Marc Faber put it most bluntly this week, accusing Bernanke of "murdering" the middle class in America by his excessive printing of money in recent years.

He argues that all that money is ending up in the wrong places. As Faber told King World News: "Money printing doesn't go into housing because we have an oversupply of housing, but it goes ... unfortunately into commodities. And this is lifting the cost of living of the median household. Mr. Bernanke is a murderer, he is a murderer of the middle class and the working class."

The question is, are "the inevitable daily drumbeat of reports about families struggling" really inevitable? The media, which flipped out when gas prices went into the $3- range under Bush, has been surprisingly mute about the $4+/gallon gas we are seeing now. Occasionally they will make note of it, but never, ever, do they place the blame on the president. And as we know, last week when Barack Obama mocked a citizen for complaining about the high price of gasoline, the AP and related news sites quickly scrubbed the anecdote from their stories, leaving web searchers to look for cached versions or saved screenshots of the president's bizarre retort.

Thankfully, as Wisconsin has recently shown, people clearly see through what the media is and is not telling them these days. So I have faith. However, it seems as is Marc Farber does not. More from his recent discussion with Guru Focus:

I think people will be surprised at how high interest rates will eventually go."

"If you print money everything will go up...and now the money printing doesn’t go into housing because we have an oversupply of housing, but it goes into equities and for Mr. Bernanke unfortunately into commodities. And this is lifting the cost of living of the median household, of the typical household in the U.S."

the U.S. has a "crony capitalism" and there could be civil unrest and secession movements in the U.S.

I think we are already seeing the civil unrest, but not from the folks you'd expect. If Farber is right, this will get worse - way, way worse - before it gets any better....

What Barack Obama has in common with George McGovern...

Not exactly news to warm the heart of the few remaining True Believers in The One...from The Sun:

Though some in the press are covering for him, his announcement is the earliest of any modern president. It continues a trend that began in 1972. That was when Senator McGovern captured the Democratic presidential nomination, though he lost in the autumn of that year in a squeaker. Richard Nixon stole the election, 47,167,319 to 29,168,509. Tricky Dick got 60.7% of the vote, the largest in history except for Lyndon Johnson’s 61.1%.

Using what came to be called the McGovern reforms in the 1972 Democratic Convention, the very same Mr. McGovern captured the nomination....Thus did the Reagan Democrats begin to crystallize. And thus began the trend, the era of the chronic campaigner. Since 1972 the Democratic Party has nominated a chronic campaigner every time....

Mr. Obama has been running for president since his first day in the Senate. All through his presidency he has been running for reelection. His filing the other day was a mere formality. The problem with the chronic campaigner is that, though he is a swell candidate, he is a lousy chief executive. He cannot sit still, as in an office. My guess is that Mr. Obama has spent less time in the White House than his predecessor. Now he will be on the campaign trail full time.

So maybe Congressman Paul Ryan will run the country....

A man can dream...

And although the McGovern of our time, Barack Obama, got the nomination and the win this time, the Reagan Democrats have re-formed, either as independents or full-throated members of the Tea Party.

One would hope Obama get a similar, Nixon-esque, beat-down in 2012....

Man, These Liberal Women Are Just Horrible...

...and I'm not just talking about their looks. It's the ugliness on the inside, the frothing, churning hatred that churns within them that I'm talking about. It's a horrorshow that goes on live any time someone has the temerity to disagree with liberal dogma. Which usually means their bile is directed at Republicans, but explains why it is often directed to the American people at large.

Two "beauties" today (and boy, do I use that term loosely). The first bit of butt-ugly comes from Rep. Louise Slaughter (the inventor of the "deem and pass" option the Democrats threatened to use during the Obamacare debate)...via Ricochet:

Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) said today that the new Republicans elected to the House of Representatives last November came to Congress "to kill women." She also likened Republican efforts to prohibit federal funding of abortion except in cases of rape, incest or where the life of the mother is endangered to actions taken by Nazis.

“This is probably one of the worst times we’ve seen because the numbers of people elected to Congress. I went through this as co-chair of the arts caucus," Slaughter said. "In ’94 people were elected simply to come here to kill the National Endowment for the Arts. Now they’re here to kill women.....

....“You are allowed to have an abortion if you have been raped or it’s a matter of incest,” said Slaughter. “However, you have to keep a receipt. Did you know that? It’s sort of like an old German Nazi movie. Show me your papers!” [read the link, the receipt statement is demonstrable false -ed.]

Now let's look at a tweet tweeted by one Katrina vanden Heuvel, the editor of The Nation, a publication that claims to be the vanguard of the liberal intelligentsia, but is so rife with illogic and factual errors that one could easily mistake it for the output of a third-world government's propoganda division. Katrina, upon sensing of the imminent victory (not!) of Joanne Kloppenburg in Wisconsin, vomited this up:

Wrong again, Katrina. What do you say now about the "referenda" of the Wisconsin election? What's that? Cat got your tongue? Or are you just choking on your own bile?

Plain ugly, both of them. What's the source of their hatred? Well, there are no people more intolerant of women than leftists (note their treatment of Palin, Bachmann, O'Donnell, or any female that takes a position opposed to theirs. Talk about cruelty...). Perhaps their womenfolk, bitter at being trapped and enslaved on the liberal plantation, living in fear of leaving lest they be "Palin-ized", have no choice other than to lash out in anger and frustration at those who refuse to join them, who would rather live free on the outside than enslaved on the inside...

Prosser Defeats Kloppenberg: The Left Dies, While The Media Lies...

And when all is said and done, it wasn't even that close, as it looks like Prosser will win by a margin so large (7,000+) that their will be no recount. What does this say about the regard that liberalism, and public unions, are held within the body politic? Here's what I said when Kloppenberg looked like a winner:

With all of the screaming done by the Left, all of the support given by the media to their cause, all the money poured into the election by the unions, the best their candidate can do is hope to cheat their way in at the last minute. And this is in a state that is traditionally liberal...

What does that say about the level of attention the people of Wisconsin are paying to the issues at hand, as opposed to the noise machines around them? Barack Obama is attempting to raise $1 billion dollars (cue Dr. Evil) for his 2012 re-election effort. If an underfunded, obscure Republican judge can hold his own against violent leftist protests, biased media, and a ton of union cash, does it really matter how much money Obama spends in 2012?

Ace points out that if you - like most of us - weren't actually in Wisconsin, and you got your reporting from the media, you would have expected the ass-kicking to go the other way:

Even if it had been an even split -- what the hell? We heard for weeks about how outraged the left was, how animated.

Because I still get my news, even second-hand, from the media, I got the impression the left was roaring back.

But they never bothered to report how animated the right still was, huh? They sort of wishcasted that all away, huh?

So, at the end of the day, in an election the left poured money and energy in to, and had the media faithfully singing from their hymnals... we won.

In Wisconsin...

And no doubt this entire crucial election, one that the entire nation was watching, one that would show the Republicans they couldn't "step on the little guy", will now be flushed down the memory hole as just some meaningless local election in Oshkosh (or Waukesha - it's all the same to the MSM).

And speaking of the MSM, did they intentionally try to delay reporting true results in an attempt to create a fait accompli for Kloppenberg? The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

Kristine Schmidt, the clerk in the city of Brookfield, said in a separate interview that she shared the results with the news media on election night....

And yet they never changed their totals. Hmmm....more:

In Winnebago County, officials now say Prosser received 20,701 votes to Kloppenburg's 18,887. On Wednesday, The Associated Press - which gathers the votes for most of the media in Wisconsin - had 19,991 for Prosser to Kloppenburg's 18,421.

Just enough to push Kloppenburg over the top. Reminds me of the 2004 general election, when the TV networks "stopped the clock" on the results just past midnight, with Bush holding a 50,000 vote lead in Ohio, due to" discrepancies" that did not actually exist. I remember the shock on the anchor's faces when Bush declared victory anyway, without their say-so....

I think we've seen how fat the media intends to go in order to get Democrats elected in 2012. They'll fudge the issues, overestimate the support and strength of the Left, disparage and demean the Right, and when the votes are counted, they'll lie about the totals in an attempt to force a concession from any Republican dumb enough to be fooled by them.

We are going to need eyes in the back of our heads next year...

Prosser: By A Landslide...!

Well, even I, in my most optimistic scenarios, did not see this coming...some 15,000 lost votes found, with over 10,000 of them for ...Prosser?

Via The Corner:

At a press conference just moments ago, Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus explained how “human error” caused nearly 15,000 votes from the city of Brookfield to be excluded from early county tabulations.

A clearly nervous Nickolaus said that she first discovered that data for Brookfield was missing when she uploaded a database of county votes to a state system, and noticed that all rows and columns for the city contained zeros....

Heavily red Brookfield, she said, had cast 10,859 for Prosser and 3,456 for Kloppenberg, netting the incumbent over 7,000 votes and a lead that could put him beyond the legal trigger for a mandatory recount.

Nickolaus assured reporters repeatedly that “This is not a a case of extra votes or extra ballots being found.” The canvassing process is a standard part of election results certification in the state, and its purpose is to catch errors just like this one....

“This is human error, which I apologize for, which is common in this process.” She said huge turnout — 47 percent of the county — was part of the reason she didn’t notice thousands of missing votes from the totals...

At one point Ramona Kitzinger, a Democratic representative on the canvassing board and vice-chair of county’s Democratic party, stepped up to podium to confirm Nickolaus’s account. “We’re satisfied that it’s correct,” Kitzinger said of the numbers.“We went over everything and made sure the numbers jibed.”

So the people have spoken again, and again they voted for the Walker agenda? Now that the people have spoken clearly in Wisconsin - again - will the unions and their Democratic blow-up dolls in the state legislature once again try to overturn the results of the election, and thwart the clearly stated will of the electorate?

Are they suicidal?

We're about to find out...

Prosser Now Leads In Wisconsin!

So much for Kloppenburg's victory lap:

Winnebago County returns posted by the clerk's office give Justice David Prosser 244 more votes there than JoAnne Kloppenburg compared to the results The Associated Press tallied.

Kloppenburg led Prosser in the final AP statewide tally by 204 votes.

Both candidates received more votes in the clerk's office numbers than the AP tally. Prosser netted 710 votes for a total of 20,701, while Kloppenburg netted 466 votes for a total of 18,887.

Those numbers are not official and could still change. The county was working on its canvass today and tomorrow, according to the clerk's office.

Gee, how could the AP had made such a mistake? It's not as if they have any type of clear agenda, or any axes to grind...

All this money, all this press, all the anger and death threats...and this is the best the Left can do in Wisconsin?

A major defeat for them, if it stands, or even if it doesn't, and the Democrats cheat their way to victory. No wonder Obama is suckling at Al Sharpton's teat, and planning to shut the whole shebang down...

UPDATE 5PM: Prosser's lead continues to grow...

Obama MUST Shut Down The Government...

...in order to survive. That's the conclusion he's drawn, either by taking the wrong lessons from 1994 or by reading some new, secret polling that might have come in overnight claiming the American people will blame the Republicans for a government shutdown. Thus he released the following statement within the last hour, declaring he will veto a continuing resolution that dares to cut spending:

The Administration will continue to work with the Congress to arrive at a compromise that will fund the Government for the remainder of the fiscal year in a way that does not undermine future growth and job creation and that averts a costly Government shutdown. It is critical that the Congress send a final bill to the President’s desk that provides certainty to our men and women in military uniform, their families, small businesses, homeowners, taxpayers, and all Americans. H.R. 1363 simply delays that critical final outcome.

If presented with this bill, the President will veto it.

Why this sudden rage, after all of Obama's happy talk about working out a deal? Possibly because it bans taxpayer-funded abortions in Washington, D.C. - and the right to kill the unborn is so paramount to the Union that Obama is prepared to shut the entire government down in order to protect it. But if that's true, Obama is not saying so, as Boehner rightfully points out:

“I have just been informed that the White House has issued a veto threat on a bill that would keep the government from shutting down, without stating a single policy justification for President Obama’s threatened veto. Neither the President nor Senate Democrats have identified a single policy provision they find objectionable in the bill....

Or maybe abortion is just an excuse. Obama's on the ropes, and everyone knows it. He needs help from the Republicans if he's going to win in 2012, so he's trying to point their guns at their own feet. Doubtless he believed that Paul Ryan's budget plan would help give him an easy target, but the plan has earned grudging praise from the Left, possibly more than Obama expected, while many of its critics (Nancy Pelosi) have been roundly mocked. So in a panic, Obama will go back on his word, and do everything in his power to force a shutdown, in the hopes that he, personally, can capitalize on it.

While we "suffer". Of course, once Obama realizes we aren't suffering, that we don't need government as much as he wants us to believe, and that folks start shifting the blame over to him, why, he'll sign a continuing resolution ASAP. And claim all the while, Charlie Sheen-style, that he's winning.

What? Not the change you had been hoping for?

Hillary Clinton Pal Way Too Important To Be Stuck In a Jury Room!

What? A nauseating, smug, self-important Democratic fundraiser thinks she's better than the rest of us? I'm shocked!

A screaming, name-dropping juror with ties to Hillary Rodham Clinton nearly brought deliberations to a halt in the Robert De Niro art-heist trial, threatening to storm out -- and claiming that 20 million Afghan refugees needed her to return to Washington, a fellow panelist said yesterday.

Juror Stanley Cohen insists that for four days, he tried to convict art-gallery director Leigh Morse of grand larceny on charges she pocketed the $77,000 sale proceeds of two works by the late noted abstract painter Robert De Niro Sr., whose estate was managed by his "Meet the Fockers" star son.

White, he claimed, was in such a rush to get out that she invoked Clinton's name and pompously boasted about her own importance in restoring world order. "She bragged about knowing Hillary Clinton," Cohen griped. "She kept saying that 20 million people are in trouble in Afghanistan because she was here."

White threatened to bolt from the jury and screamed at him that he was a "child" for disagreeing, claimed Cohen, 57, of Morningside Heights.

White -- a former Democratic Party national finance chair who was also a co-finance chair for Clinton's 2008 presidential bid -- conceded yesterday that she lost her patience, complained that she needed to get back to the refugees and called Cohen a "child" in the heat of deliberations.

White's husband, Rattner, led President Obama's restructuring of the auto industry and also served as an investment adviser to Mayor Bloomberg. He ended up settling a civil suit from the state for $16.2 million over his role in a pay-to-play scandal....

Isn't it grand? This leftist swell is too important to actually do her civil duty and, you know, deliberate the case at hand. No, because without her healing hand, 20 million Afghanis are lost, utterly and totally lost... And besides - the defendant was a De Niro, a liberal family of good standing. Everyone knows the law doesn't apply to them. Or Ms. White's husband, who botched the bailout and narrowly averted a ruinous lawsuit in a case where others were sent off to jail.

And these are the folks who want to run your life. And they will, if we keep voting Democratic....

George Clooney's Charity Kills In Sudan

...and I mean literally. Andrea Peyser in the New York Post brings it:

George Clooney discovered Sudan as a tool for cleansing guilt at Oscar time...

"You really do campaign, like kissing babies. So by the time it's over, you sort of want to do something that makes you feel better," he told Newsweek.

Road trip! Traveling to war-torn Africa, the actor gave money to a village for a well, huts and a community center. "A year later, the next-door villagers -- who wanted water and shelter -- ended up killing some of the people to get to that well and to get to that shelter," he admitted. "Sometimes helping is not throwing money at a problem."

But hey - his intentions were good, right? And isn't that all that matters to the liberal heart - making themselves feel better about themselves, thus giving them the opportunity for public moral preening, especially when it comes to comparing themselves to those nasty Republicans, Tea Partiers, and other assorted wingnuts?

Clooney at least has the decency to admit their may be a flaw in the game plan. But let's see who he supports come 2012. That'll tell you whether he actually learned anything from being an accessory to murder, or if he is willing to sell his morality for continued huzzahs at Hollywood cocktail parties...

Barack Obama: "Well, Sir, You Are A Cowardly Son Of A Bitch"

So Barack Obama decides to bomb Libya, and rather than speak to the American people or consult Congress about it, he simply signs an order and gets the hell out of town, fast as his little feet will carry him, hiding behind his wife and kids (in a completely different hemisphere).

And when the nation's economic future hangs in the balance, by a thread, with the government on the verge of shutting down completely, Obama leaves DC once again and heads to New York and into the cozy arms of Reverend Al Sharpton, despite declaring only a day earlier that he'd work with the warring parties for as long as it takes to hammer out a deal:

According to guidance sent to reporters, Obama plans to leave for Philadelphia and New York on Wednesday, despite promising the day before that he would host Boehner and Reid at the White House if they didn’t reach a budget deal.

Obama told reporters on Tuesday that he’s “prepared to meet for as long as possible” with them, and he said that if they didn’t make a deal at a meeting later that day, “then I want them back here tomorrow.”

However....

Obama plans to get his daily briefing at 11 a.m. and leave at 12:15 p.m. for Philadelphia, where he’ll talk at a town hall about his energy agenda. He’s then going to New York City to speak at a National Action Network gala with Rev. Al Sharpton, and he’ll return late in the night.

As of late Wednesday morning, Boehner's office confirmed that the White House hadn't yet offered an invitation to a budget meeting...

Boehner shouldn't hold his breath. Because he's hiding out in the few remaining Blue cities, where he can still feel the Brotherly Love, be it from Al Sharpton's gang of merry racists, or the Muslim Brotherhood whom he let loose to terrorize voters. Truth be told, when he's not surrounded by thugs (union or otherwise), and when he doesn't have his wife's ample bottom to hide behind, Barack Obama is not a very courageous man.

Looks like it will be a battle between Harry Reid and Paul Ryan to see who gets to step into the shoes of leadership that the president left outside the White House door. My bet's on the kid, for what it's worth....

Oh, and the post title? That's Gene Hackman talking to Clint Eastwood in "Unforgiven" - right around the 2:00 mark:

Prosser/Kloppenburg: A Loss For The Left

As of now, this Wisconsin Supreme Court race is too close to call, with the incumbent conservative Justice Prosser leading by barely 600 votes over liberal firebrand/avowed judicial activist/admitted union tool JoAnn Kloppenburg.

The fate of Governor Scott Walker's agenda lies in the balance, of course, as Kloppenburg has essentially made it clear that she will void his new budget-balancing, union-busting legislation. Who cares if the state goes bankrupt? Kloppenburg has got backers to pay off....

First things first: I expect Kloppenburg to win. 600 votes is not enough to overcome the "margin of fraud" in states with a strong Democratic infrastructure. Expect mystery ballot boxes to appear in the 11th hour containing votes strictly for Kloppenbirg, votes that her machine will be quite disinclined to disallow. And as for the police preventing any fraud, well...if you saw their actions (or lack of) during the occupation of Wisconsin's state capital, you'll know they are the last ones to look towards to prevent election-rigging. You'd stand a better chance with the Mexican Policia....

But here's the key: With all of the screaming done by the Left, all of the support given by the media to their cause, all the money poured into the election by the unions, the best their candidate can do is hope to cheat their way in at the last minute. And this is in a state that is traditionally liberal...

What does that say about the level of attention the people of Wisconsin are paying to the issues at hand, as opposed to the noise machines around them? Barack Obama is attempting to raise $1 billion dollars (cue Dr. Evil) for his 2012 re-election effort. If an underfunded, obscure Republican judge can hold his own against violent leftist protests, biased media, and a ton of union cash, does it really matter how much money Obama spends in 2012?

As the 2008 election was allegedly about "change", it looks like 2012 is going to be strictly about the message, not the messenger or the packaging. And Barack Obama is a poor salesman with a defective product. No slick ad campaign is going to change that fact. Looks like Obama's going to have to win on substance. Uh oh... The people are listening. Just not to the unions, or the president....

The truth, apparently, is not "fit to print" at the New York Times...

Interesting....

So Richard Goldstone, he of the hateful, biased, antisemitic, UN-financed "Goldstone Report" - claiming Israel deliberately and with full intent targeted civilians in the last Gaza War - decided he wanted to recant and withdraw his report, finally realizing that he was hoodwinked into producing a blood libel. His belated "Whoops! Sorry about falsely accusing you of genocide" piece was printed on Friday in the Washington Post.

But I note that Johnathan Tobin at Contentions is reporting that the story was apparently either offered first, or simultaneously, to the New York Times. Apparently, the Times flatly rejected the opportunity to produce this shocking and relevant confession that indeed, Israel may not be the monster that most of the world make it out to be.

Via Ynet:

The editor gave no explanation as to why the article was rejected, but the source believes this was due to the newspaper's political agenda. The New York Times said in response that they do not comment on the editorial or reporting process.

In recent years the New York Times adopted a highly critical line of reporting towards Israel. Lately, its senior commentator Thomas Friedman has been publishing extremely aggressive articles against Israel and its current government.

How far the New York Times has fallen from its original, lofty goals:

It will be my earnest aim that The New York Times give the news, all the news, in concise and attractive form, in language that is permissible in good society, and give it as early if not earlier, than it can be learned through any other reliable medium; to give the news impartially, without fear or favor, regardless of party, sect, or interest involved; to make of the columns of The New York Times a forum for the consideration of all questions of public importance, and to that end to invite intelligent discussion from all shades of opinion.

-- Adoph Ochs, Owner- Publisher / New York Times August 18, 1896

This seems more to the current liking of Adolph's great-grandson and current publisher, Arthur Ochs "Pinch" Sulzberger:

All of us who professionally use the mass media are the shapers of society. we can vulgarize that society. We can brutalize it.....

--William Bernbach, of DDB Needham Worldwide, 1989

It's Been A Long Time Since Israel Kicked Egypt's Ass...

...and it appears they may need to have certain lessons re-learned:

Former International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, who had previously announced his intentions to run for the presidency of Egypt, said Monday that “if Israel attacked Gaza we would declare war against the Zionist regime."

In an interview with the Al-Watan newspaper he said: "In case of any future Israeli attack on Gaza - as the next president of Egypt – I will open the Rafah border crossing and will consider different ways to implement the joint Arab defense agreement."

Bring it, you whiny little UN functionary. Dollars to donuts says you find this cowardly little son of a bitch hiding behind woman and children right after the first rock is thrown over the border....

And remember when we were told to take ElBaradei's word that Iran’s nuclear development was strictly for civilian purposes (despite their more candid remarks about wiping the" Zionist entity" off the map), as he fought against US/EU-backed sanctions against the Iranian Republic?

I remember. Makes me wonder how much the Iranians were paying him off back then to turn a blind eye. Or how much his famous hatred of Israel and the Jews weighed into a decision to let a potential Second Holocaust advance under his auspices.

Makes me wonder, too, how heavily invested Iran is in his presidential candidacy. Sure would make it much easier for them to keep the caliphate under control - and keep the Jews in terror, should there be any left - if the mullahs could place their missiles on the Suez...

Lindsey Graham Seems To Have Forgotten His Oath

...and maybe that's what happens when these guys get continually re-elected...they go thru the motions, take it all for granted, and forget where the real power lies in America.

When animals in Afghanistan, whipped up by the US-supported President Hamid Karzai reminding them over and over that an obscure pastor in Florida burned a Koran, went on a beheading spree, killing 11 UN staffers, Graham decided to blame his fellow Americans for exercising their freedom of speech, and seemed to imply that it should be curtailed as he, Lindsey Graham, sees fit:

I wish we could find some way to hold people accountable. Free speech is a great idea, but we're in a war. During World War II, you had limits on what you could do if it inspired the enemy.

Let's remind Graham of his oath:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.

Graham has it backwards. Our enemies are trying to limit our freedom of speech with this type of murderous behavior, and rather than defend Americans and their Constitution, Graham seems willing to accept the Islamic veto upon our First Amendment rights.

Dhimmi. Or is it...dummy? Mark Steyn:

I agree with the Instaprof: Lindsey Graham is unfit for office. The good news is there’s no need for the excitable lads of Mazar e-Sharif to chop his head off because he’s already walking around with nothing up there.

Here's an earlier act of treachery by Lindsey Graham, one in which he furiously worked out back-room deals with Democrats and lobbyists in an attempt to impose a "Cap and Trade" economy upon the American people. Ironically, he was only thwarted bya double-cross committed by the one and only Barack Obama, who saw greater use hanging Graham out for the tax hikes in the "compromise" bill than in the actual bill itself.

More dummy then dhimmi, I guess. But dangerous either way. 2014 can't come soon enough in South Carolina...

Is ObamaCare designed to kill Republicans?

Look, everyone knows the thing is a clusterf*ck. The president lost interest in it about five minutes after he signed it into law. Kathlees Sebelius, who will administrate this monstrosity, doesn't even live in this reality. And the rest of the administration seems to be making it up as they go along. But they seem to be aware of the obvious: That this legislation is going to kill a lot more people than it is going to save. And to that end, they are offering waivers to their own legislation hand over fist - but only to their political base.

Hey - can't let them die off, right? It's waiver Monday!

The Obama Administration has rolled out another 129 waivers to one provision of the new health reform law, with almost half of those new exemptions going to various union groups.

The extra waivers bring the total to 1,168, giving businesses, health plans, unions and others an exemption from a portion of the law that in 2011 requires an annual benefit limit of no less than $750,000. In other words, these 1,168 waivers allow companies to limit health insurance payouts to less than $750,000 - those annual benefit limits will be phased out by 2014.

The waivers now cover almost three million Americans, but the feds argue that is "less than 2 percent of all Americans who have private health insurance.

A figure that will no doubt be rising until it hits - how many registered Democrats are there today? - about 28% of the population. Think I'm kidding? Look who just got a "get out of ObamaCare free" card:

•Teamsters Local 237 in New York, covering over 51,000 workers •Carpenters District Council of Kansas City Welfare Plan, for 20,898 workers •Southeastern Iron Workers, for 5,143 policies •Minneapolis Retail Meat Cutters and Food Handlers for 10,720 •the Fulton Fish Market Welfare Fund for 1,211

Abe Greenwald:

We are deep in banana- republic territory here. The head of state forces an eccentric law onto his subjects and then lets his closest supporters get out of it so that they alone may continue to prosper. To call this more of the “same old” cynical Washington back-scratch machine is to underestimate the extent of the damage taking place before our eyes.

Hey - why do you think Obama greets the Hugo Chavez's and Daniel Ortega's with such enthusiasm, and treats our fellow democracies with such disdain? We know who his heroes are, and what social models he is looking to emulate...

Review: The Nissan Leaf – Truly, An Epic Fail

Kyle Smith of the New York Post gives us a scathing review of the Nissan Leaf:

The Nissan Leaf has just arrived in New York City. It’s a real breakthrough for anyone who was getting tired of all the old synonyms for failure….

Nissan’s Leaf isn’t as flawed and ridiculous as the Edsel. It’s far worse….

But at least only Ford lost money on the Edsel. We’re all losing money on the Nissan Leaf, thanks to the taxpayer subsidies that willed it into the marketplace. Each time you see one of these glorified golf carts flit by, you should be thinking: There goes $7,500 of my money.

The Leaf’s range is a joke — early reviewers have been startled to notice the gauge of a fully charged car warning that it expects to go only about 65 miles, a bit shy of Nissan’s claims last year of a 138-mile range.

One owner complained that the real range is only 50 miles….

…lies my government told me…

At 300 W. 57th St., Popular Mechanics has installed what seems to be the first Leaf-charging station in the city. The cost? Over $2,000. But PM’s home is a major commercial building. Your house probably isn’t, so it won’t be able to handle that kind of an outlet without a costly upgrade of the electrical system. You’ll also need a special permit and inspection.

Hey, wait — the Leaf is supposed to run on ordinary household current, right? That means it’s useless for most apartment dwellers (go ahead, ask your landlord if you can run an extension cord to the building’s power supply) but fine for suburbanites. Only those suburbanites who have a lot of time on their hands, though: a PM test driver said it took 34 hours to recharge his Leaf using ordinary 120-volt household power. “For most people,” the gearhead magazine sheepishly noted, “the time constraint might preclude using the Leaf for everyday commuting.”

Ya think? A vehicle that takes a day and a half to charge can’t be used every day? Wasn’t the whole purpose of the Leaf supposed to be short everyday commuting….?

The Leaf, the clean, green vehicle, which even with the subsidy costs over $25,000, isn’t powered by that nasty carbon-packed fossil fuel gasoline. Nope — it’s most likely powered by coal, which is what supplies about half of the power stations where households get electricity.

President Obama is not in the habit of admitting to being wrong about anything….The US has about as much chance of becoming “energy-independent” this century as the earth has of becoming independent of the sun.

Read it all, and find out why the expression “to turtle” will become emblematic of the electric car era/error, as well as the Obama administration…

(Here – while you’re at it, have some fun with the Chevy Volt too…)

$4 Trillion Dollars? Expect Dems To Channel Dr. Evil...

Finally, real money:

In a Fox News Sunday appearance, [GOP Rep. Paul] Ryan said the GOP 2012 budget blueprint would exceed the $4 trillion in spending cuts previously recommended by a presidential debt commission "by cutting spending, reforming entitlements and growing our economy."

The Democratic response - just substitute "cut" for "make":

Bruce Springsteen Gives Advice To Kevin Drum

Kevin Drum, onetime war-hater, full time Bush-hater, and liberal douchebag par excellence, speaks about the Libyan War, and Barack Obama in Mother Jones:

If it had been my call, I wouldn't have gone into Libya. But the reason I voted for Obama in 2008 is because I trust his judgment. And not in any merely abstract way, either: I mean that if he and I were in a room and disagreed about some issue on which I had any doubt at all, I'd literally trust his judgment over my own. I think he's smarter than me, better informed, better able to understand the consequences of his actions, and more farsighted. I voted for him because I trust him, and I still do...

Bruce Springsteen, onetime defender of the middle class, full-time Democratic fund raiser, and liberal douchebag par excellence has advice to his fellow liberal traveler:

"Blind faith in your leaders, or in anything, will get you killed.”

Drum won't listen to the onetime "Boss", however. It might require him to actually, you know...think. Which, based on the above, is something he he vowing, in print, not to do. If he ever did in the first place...

(More on Springsteen's liberal douchbaggery here, and here. And when it comes to tax time, Springsteen claims, no, he's not a millionaire rock star, he's a mere New Jersey farmer, to get a 95% reduction on the property tax on some 200 spare acres of land he happens to possess...

Chris Christie, of course, had the best revenge: after Bruce refused to play at his inauguration, Christie hired a Springsteen cover band instead. No one missed him.)

Sarah Silverman On The Uses Of Blatant Antisemitism

Foul-mouthed comedienne Sarah Silverman was on Piers Morgan the other night, and made an interesting claim - that Jews like the occasional anti-Semitic rant because it proves their paranoia is justified:

“I mean, if there’s one thing we should realize is that it’s in general the world hates Jews, you know....” [click the link above for the video, watch Piers Morgan profess shock at this comment]

Silverman insisted it was true and alluded to Mel Gibson’s 2006 anti-Semitic rant during at a DUI arrest in Malibu, Calif. She explained instances like that give Jews an opportunity to show anti-Semitism is real and not just an abstract invention.

"I mean, I think when stuff like Mel Gibson, when he said you know, like Jewish stuff or anything like that — there is outrage,” Silverman said. “But I think secretly there’s nobody that likes blatant anti-Semitism more than Jews because it’s something you can point to. It’s not just a gas in the air anymore, you know.

I think what Sarah is trying to say is that it is occasionally satisfying when the mask falls off and the world gets to see the truth about the width and depth of antisemitism. It acts as a justification for their concerns, and gives them a weapon to use against those who claim that folks aren't really anti-semitic anymore, they're simply anti-Zionist. Right.

I suppose it is similar to the way conservatives feel when folks like Van Jones and Anita Dunn openly display their blatant anti-American and pro-totalitarian views - it acts as vindication for the claims of the Right, and puts lie to the counter-claims that the cries of impending socialism are just Tea Party fantasies.

Which begs the question, of course: Do politically correct speech codes actually harm the eradication of hatreds, since it forces such speech underground, among like-minded people, who discuss their prejudices freely with each other but mask it "on the outside"? And does this then make it harder to expose the haters (of all stripes), allowing them either quietly to spread their twisted ethos, or to act it out in a potentially tragic way?

The question is rhetorical, I suppose. But let's give cheers to Sarah Silverman for talking about the scourge of antisemitism on national television, and let's appreciate the fact that she is every Jewish boy's secret fantasy: The sweet, innocent-looking Jewish girl next door, who just happens to have the mind - and foul mouth - of an adult film starlet.

Now if she would only disown that Obama fellow....well, regardless, I still think Rule 5 applies here:

Tea Partier Rankles Dumb-As-Dirt Democrat

Rand Paul vs. Harry Reid? Really? No promoter would even take that bout, as one-sided as it is. But Reid was elected by his peers in the majority as their leader, so he's gotta stand up front and take the punches. And right now, he's reeling among the ropes, ducking and cringing from every head-bob and feint thrown by....Rand Paul (Tea Party-Ky.).

Paul is a bit displeased that Obama consulted the Europeans, NATO, the UN, and even the freakin' Arab League before bombing Libya, causally leaving out one key body in his deliberations - Congress, which the constitution requires must be consulted. And he's making it known:

On Wednesday, Paul, with little notice, attached an amendment to the small-business re-authorization bill. The amendment, which chastises President Obama for his actions in Libya, urges members to adopt the president’s own words as “the sense of the Senate.”

To make his point, Paul quoted, in the legislative language, from Obama’s 2007 remarks on the subject: “The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.” According to Paul’s office, “the measure aims to put the Senate on record affirming Congress as the body with constitutional authority on matters of war.”

Harry never saw it coming. Confused and staggering about blindly, groping for purchase anywhere he can, he finally grabs the timekeeper's hammer and gives himself 90 seconds of relief by ringing the bell:

GOP sources tell National Review Online that Paul’s proposal flummoxed Reid, who does not want his members to have to weigh in on Obama’s dusty quote about congressional authority, even if the vote is only to table the measure.

Republicans speculate that Reid was already irked, sensing disarray in his caucus over the McConnell-Inhofe amendment to block carbon regulation at the Environmental Protection Agency. Paul’s proposal simply added fuel to the docket fire. Senate Democrats who are up for reelection in 2012 are quite sensitive to tricky amendment votes, and Reid, some say, may have simply thrown up his hands. For Democrats, a weekend to sort things things out is more appealing than a tense Friday in the cloakroom.

It's all falling about for Reid's thin Senate majority. Most of these political animals still have some sort of a sense of smell, and they are catching the scent of the Tea that America is brewing. Any Democrat with half a brain (which excludes Schumer, Levin, Reid, Lautenberg, and many others) knows that Obama and Reid are leading them off a cliff, and many of them are starting to get nervous, and looking for places to compromise, if only to save their own sorry asses in 2012. Given Obama's blundering, and Reid's ability to be outworked, out-thought, and outfought by a rookie Senator, well...I can't help by believe many Democrats are not exactly of a mind to goose-step behind leadership right now.

Especially when, confronted by a Tea Partier with a plan, said leadership cuts and runs...and runs...

Kathleen Sebelius Is Batshit-Crazy....

...but I suppose you have to be, to say something along the lines of this - via Politico:

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says patient outcomes in the United States are like those in “a developing country” – and that they’ll stay that way if the health care reform law is repealed.

“The delivery system changes are what will affect underlying costs, and that impacts everybody,” Sebelius said Thursday. “We pay 2 1/2 times what anybody else pays in the world, and our care outcomes look like we're in a developing country.”

Interesting how the Politico article rebuts her instantly:

The United States actually ranks well above developing countries on multiple health indicators, coming in right above the European Union on infant mortality and slightly below Portugal on life expectancy, according to the CIA World Factbook

Maybe it's just the panic talking here. After all, Sebelius will become the most powerful person in America once ObamaCare goes into full effect. She will decide who gets ObamaCare "waivers", and who gets forced to pay the full freight for everyone else's health care. She will become Doyenne of the Death Panels as well; with one whisper into a commissioner's ear she can change the course of treatment for a certain "preferred patient" so that they may live, while other, less fortunate folks - perhaps those belonging to a different political party - are told they best get their things in order.

And this is all slipping away from her, as the public remains markedly opposed to this "historic" legislation and an invigorated Republican House majority chips away at funding where ever and whenever they can. So Sebelius has no choice but to resort to hysterical rhetoric - comparing our health care system to, say, a lost Amazonian tribe - in a desperate attempt to hold onto her position and power.

A modern American maternity ward, or an Amazonian hut? Kathleen Sebelius, pioneer of "smart medicine", is uncertain...

She may yet get her wish, though. Give the Democrats control of our health care system for, oh, fifteen minutes, and who knows what the hell it will look like...

The Zen of Tina Brown, and Newsweek...

Mickey Kaus reports:

Newsweek Maintains Meaningful Silence: The Newsweek with the “Apocalypse Now” cover (featuring a giant wave) is apparently a double issue, meaning it will sit on the stands this week while competitors produce fresh editions....

I can think of circumstances in which an editor might find skipping a week appealing enough to justify missing some news–say, if printing and distributing each issue put you many thousands of dollars further in the hole. … P.S.: In fairness, Brown more or less told us she wasn’t going to be newsy. She did promise “an insight or synthesis that connects the crackling, confusing digital dots.” You’d think that would be hard to do if you don’t come out. But Newsweek’s silence is even more eloquent, in its own way. …

Wow. So Tina Brown really has elevated the level of discourse coming from liberal America. By shutting the f*ck up.

Or perhaps, she's just a Zen genius:

Do not speak - unless it improves on silence
~Buddhist Saying I

f you understand, things are just as they are; if you do not understand, things are just as they are.
~Zen Proverb

Ah, I'll think I'll go with the former explanation, as opposed to the latter...

Seems as if the Palestinians don't enjoy being treated like Jews...

The gods have forever delved deep into the chasms of irony, as the Palestinians are about to find out. After leading the charge to blame the Israeli people for all the ills of the Middle East for the better part of the last three decades, they stare slack-jawed and frozen like the proverbial deer in the headlights as they suddenly find themselves...Jew'd! And by their former "friends", no less! From the J-Post:

Palestinian officials on Wednesday appealed to Arab leaders to stop inciting against them by accusing them of instigating unrest in their countries.

The appeal came after the Syrian authorities claimed that Palestinians were behind the recent wave of violence that hit the country.

Buthaina Shaaban, an advisor to Syrian President Bashar Assad, said last week that Palestinians had joined Muslim Brotherhood supporters in attacking residents of the cities of Latakia and Deraa.

The Libyan authorities had also made similar charges against Palestinians.

Government officials in Tripoli claimed that opposition forces have recruited many Palestinians living in Libya as mercenaries to fight against the regime.

Is it true? Who knows? Since when does the truth matter as far as the Palestinians are concerned? Did the matter of truth ever stop these people from making the most outrageous, libelous, baseless claims claims if they thought it could advance their anti-Semetic agenda one freaking inch?

Can you say, "Jenin"?

Their counter-charges are a bit...familiar:

Hafez Barghouti, editor of the PA funded Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda newspaper, said that the Syrian charges against the Palestinians were a sign of “political bankruptcy.”

“The Arab regimes have turned the Palestinians into a scapegoat. The Palestinians have nothing to do with the Arab revolutions, although they have 1,000 reasons to intervene to settle scores with the Arab regimes.”

Palestinian political analyst Adel Abdel Rahman warned that the Palestinians have become the “rack on which Arab leaders hang their cowardice and collusion against each other...."

If that rack looks familiar, it's because you have used it for a generation in an attempt to hang the Jews.

The Palis will survive this; without them, the UN would lose its raison d'être. Can't have that. But the question is, when the smoke clears from this "Arab Spring", or - depending on how it all turns out - this "Arab Midnight", will the Palestinians, having tasted the cruelty of their own lash, have second thoughts about using it again against the Israelis?

Are you kidding me?