Dog Follows Master: EPA Takes Paid Time Off To Play Golf...

Hey, if the boss can do it, why not his loyal underlings?  I'm talking taking paid time off - paid for by the American taxpayer - to work on your golf swing.

And this is the EPA, no less - Obama's environmental stormtroopers, writing the regulations on a daily basis that are literally choking our economy to death:

And these guys wonder about the "upswing" in negative attitudes towards government employees, and why the tar starts boiling, along with the anger, when the Democrats start talking about higher taxation on the private sector as a form of "patriotism..."

Via Right Field, the best conservative sports site on the web....

Remember When Barack Obama Promised To "Raise Our Standing" In The World?

...well, now we're being mocked by former banana republics who can truthfully brag about producing a higher economic output over the past few years than Uncle Sam:

After three decades spent battling their own debt crises and getting constantly lectured about them by Uncle Sam, many Latin Americans are watching the countdown to a possible default in Washington with a mix of schadenfraude and fear of what a collapse might mean for them.

For everybody from presidents on down to street vendors, seeing U.S. politicians argue over where to make painful budget cuts has also been a reminder that those days are over in Latin America. For now, at least, as most of the region enjoys an era of economic prosperity and comparatively tiny deficits.

"When did the American dream become a nightmare?" gloated Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez, whose own country defaulted on about $100 billion in debt a decade ago....

I suppose Barack Obama has proved once and for all there is no such thing as American exceptionalism. And the fact that the Democrats still insist on minimal spending cuts and maximum tax hikes shows they won't be happen until we've spiraled down to third-world nation status, or perhaps Palestinian-style tribalism.

No surprise, really. Especially as some of America's biggest producers of wealth have, wittingly or not, gone Galt...

"Spenditol"

If conservative groups keep coming up with ads like this one - from the Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee (CWALAC) - all the dirty union money in the world will not save the Democrats in 2012:





More here.

The Gang Of Six Can Kiss My Ass

The House Republicans passed the Ryan budget, the Senate did nothing.  The House Republicans passed Cut/Cap/Balance, and the Senate did nothing. 

No, wait, sorry - they did do something:

Like clockwork, the self-important “pragmatists” in the Senate are banding into their little gang so they ride to the “rescue” and save us from ever having to decide something on principle. Then they clap themselves on the back for it...

And apparently, their "plan" is a clusterf*ck:

The documents were surely thrown together quickly reflecting a rapidly evolving process.

No doubt the authors’ first task will be to clarify the proposal. For example, by one reading the proposal suggests a tax increase/spending cut ratio of better than three-to-two. President Obama only suggested one-to-three, so the Gang of Six Plan suggests a curious negotiating style on the part of the Republicans.

A "quickly thrown-together" plan that raises taxes? What the hell is this, Obamacare redux?

Short answer: yes. It's a solution mismatched to the problem, one that offers glory to those who author the plan (what great compromisers are we!) but offers zero to the American people:

So to recap, the Gang of Six budget plan is to promise at a later date to pass legislation. And this legislation would (details forthcoming) cut some spending immediately, possibly raise some taxes immediately (though this is unclear), and then promise to raise taxes a lot more and cut spending a bit more in subsequent legislation. On its face and even with this vague outline, the substance of the plan is unacceptable. A massive tax hike to address massive overspending is a non-starter.

How stupid do they think we are? Their "grand plan" is to pass a minimal amount of spending cuts, then wait until the heat dies down, and eventually, maybe, go into committee meeting in the Democratic-controlled Senate to hammer out "further cuts" (ha!) and tax hikes? Gee, how the hell do you think this is going to end up?

I'll tell you. In a whole slew of new Tea Party challenges to Republicans who dare lift a finger to vote yea for this continuation of business as usual at a time when we need to change course simply to survive as a nation.

A vote for the Gang of Six proposal is a betrayal, of both the nation's future and of people who voted Republican in 2010. Let it be on their heads....

Obama winning the debt ceiling fight like the Mets are winning the NL East...

Yeah, gotta love that narrative about how Obama is coming out as "the man above the fray" in the battle over the debt ceiling, and how those intransigent Republicans are going to feel it on the campaign trail.  It's sounds reasonable, I suppose, if you are a desperate Democrat surrounded by like-minded thinkers who are clutching at straws to convince themselves that everything is going to be OK come 2012.  To bad it has as little to do with reality as my aforementioned baseball analogy...

Peter Wehner in Contentions:

Last week, a Gallup Poll showed President Obama receiving only 39 percent of the vote against an unnamed Republican candidate. Today we learn, courtesy of Scott Rasmussen , that his poll, too, finds the president now earns his lowest level of support yet against a generic Republican candidate in a hypothetical 2012 election matchup (a generic Republican earns support from 47 percent of likely voters while the president picks up 41 percent of the vote). And over the weekend, according to Gallup, Obama’s approval rating sank to 42 percent approval v. 50 disapprove.

What’s interesting is these sinking polling numbers are occurring in the midst of the debt ceiling debate, which (we’re constantly being told) Obama is not only winning but dominating. What I suspect is happening is that everyone involved in this matter is being hurt, from Republicans on Capitol Hill, to Congress as an institution, to Obama himself. And one individual who is not being stained by this mess is the eventual GOP nominee, whoever that person is.

No matter how this turns out, Obama will always be playing defense, as neither he nor his side ever offered a budget, or even the compromise plan they keep harping about on the debt-limit issue. All they've done is attack the Republicans, and block their attempts at legislation, from the Ryan Budget to "Cut, Cap, & Balance" (which may yet see the light of day in the Senate?)

The American people see that, unlike the media, for whom the thrill still tingles. Let them have their narrative. We'll take Rick Perry, and the victory, please...

"Green" auto company steals over $500K from liberal "marks" in Salinas, CA

Out of California, of course:

A Salinas car manufacturing company that was expected to build environmentally friendly electric cars and create new jobs folded before almost any vehicles could run off the assembly line.

The city of Salinas had invested more than half a million dollars in Green Vehicles, an electric car start-up company.

All of that money is now gone, according to Green Vehicles President and Co-Founder Mike Ryan.

It's more than a half-mil, actually:

The start-up company set up shop in Salinas in the summer of 2009, after the city gave Ryan a $300,000 community development grant.

When the company still ran into financial trouble last year, the city of Salinas handed Ryan an additional $240,000. Green Vehicles also received $187,000 from the California Energy Commission.

Mike Ryan: A grifter who saw the City Council of Salinas as deep-pocketed marks.  And hit the jackpot...

That a total $540K of Salinas taxpayer money pissed away by their dumb-as-dirt leadership, total of $727K. The funny part, of course, is that Salinas threw good money after bad. Does their city council have anyone on it with practical real-world investing experience?

Salinas Mayor Dennis Donohue said he was "surprised and disappointed" by the news. City officials were equally irked that Ryan notified them through an email that his company had crashed and burned.

You're "disappointed", Mayor Donohue? I think your constituents may be a bit more than that, seeing how you wasted their hard-earned money on a pig in a poke.

What's incredible is how easily our intellectual superiors get taken in by the green energy equivalents of "Three-Card Monte" dealers:

The start-up company promised city leaders that it would create 70 new jobs and pay $700,000 in taxes a year to Salinas.

Ryan had lofty goals, listing his company's mission as: "To make the best clean commuter vehicles in the world; To manufacture with a radical sense of responsibility; To engage in deep transparency as an inspiration for new ways of doing business."

Or, as Jerry Seinfeld once said, "yadda, yadda, yadda..."

Note to readers: Regarding the debt ceiling negotiations, what is one of the core "investments" that Barack Obama says must be funded by higher tax rates? Why, green energy, of course. As they say on the boardwalk, "what a pigeon!" (Of course, "mark" in this case is equally appropriate.)

Perhaps Obama needs to watch this video of Republican Presidential candidate Thadeus McCotter teaching us "How to Speak Democratic":

"Invest" translates to..."Waste"
Used in a sentence..."Democrats will invest your money".
Translation: "Democrats will waste your money".

Yup...

Rupert Murdoch Assaulted in Parliment

This is where liberal hatred takes us, to a place where an 80 year old man is assaulted in Parliament, one of the first foundations of democracy.

Via twitter feeds, I see things like:

Someone appears to launch themselves at R Murdoch, police run in, R Murdoch's wife appears to jump in to try to protect him.

Rupert #Murdoch 'hit in face with plate covered in shaving foam' by audience member at #hacking hearing

Chris Bryant, MP, says plastic plate with shaving foam on it: "Despicable". "No way to treat any witness, let along someone who's 80."

I hear, around the building, that the pie-man has been held in contempt of parliament and arrested. Unconfirmed.

OK, here's video:



That's his wife delivering the bitch-slap to the perp, by the way...


 Funny - the standard, if whispered excuse amongst the MSM for not always reporting the races and religions of folks involved in suspected terrorists attacks is that they fear public retribution against Muslims.

But it turns out that the only segment of society that imbibes propaganda to such an extent that they feel compelled to attack an octogenarian are liberals.

Fed on lies and hatred, their morality twisted beyond comprehension, they lash out at great men. And the media covers for them by continually accusing the Tea Party of violence, but turning a blind eye to the terror being wreaked by the Left, whether in Wisconsin, Greece, and now England.

No wonder Obama is working so feverishly to disarm the American people...

Update:  Glenn Reynolds:

Amazing that he’s the target of such hatred that he can’t be protected even at the center of government. It’ll be interesting to find out how the attacker got access....

From a reader: “I wonder if Obama, MediaMatters, Jon Stewart, indeed the rest of the media at large, will accept personal responsibility for creating a ‘culture of hate’ that led to this attack the way they demanded Palin do after the Giffords incident.”

Yeah, right. When to liberals hold themselves accountable for anything?


UPDATE II:  Rupert has decided to continue to testify after the assault.  More balls than your common street thug-liberal, who would already be in a barrister's office preparing a lawsuit...

Geithner Opens His Piehole, Markets Crash...

Call it "The Obama Effect"...

Jeff Carter on Tim Geithner's interview this morning (which he describes as "chilling") on CNBC before the bell rang (video at the link):

With regard to the debt ceiling, Geithner doesn’t offer up a compromise at all. It’s the administration’s way, or the highway...

Listen to his words on Dodd-Frank: “Don’t listen to the bankers because their interests aren’t aligned with the American people.” It could be a phrase right out of Atlas Shrugged....

Hear his words when he speaks about the stimulus. Even in the face of the facts that the stimulus didn’t work, he lies to the public and defends it. We might not even be having the debt ceiling debate if we hadn’t passed a Keynesian fiscal stimulus.

Listen to him talk about tax increases on the wealthy. Geithner is all about using the heavy hand of government to redistribute wealth to the government. 71% marginal tax rates wouldn’t sate him. 100% marginal tax rights might.

Every single statement he makes is all government centric. I guess you should expect no less from a career bureaucrat....

And lo, it is no surprise then to see A follow B:

Stocks take a dive; gold tops $1,600 an ounce

Moody's warns again on U.S. debt

US Stocks Fall In Monday Selloff On Debt Nerves; DJIA Off 174

Except Obama and his acolytes are too smart for the simplicity of A following B.  No, there are other, hidden causes, ones which have nothing to do with them or their policies writ large.  You have to be as brilliant as they are to see that today's crash had nothing to do with Tiny Tim's words, or Obama's polices, oh no - it's the rich, and the Republicans, and their lousy capitalistic system which is causing the markets to tremble in fear every time an administration official opens their fat mouth.

They'll tell each other that, read the crooked polls cooked up by their cronies in the media, and sleep peacefully.  While we writhe in agony, getting poorer every day, and fearing the next inane utterance from the king or his foppish princes...

Anthony Weiner Now A "Victim" - Of Conservatives Ruining His Good Time

Well, that didn't take long.  Columnist and uber-lefty Richard Cohen misses his bomb-throwing pervert, and tries to build a case for his resurrection:

A date has been set - and the candidates chosen - for an election to fill the seat of the disgraced Anthony Weiner. To my disappointment, none of the candidates is Weiner himself, who is surely the last bullying victim of the academic year.

It hardly mattered, it seemed, that Weiner intended his pictures, as lewd and strange as they might be, for specific recipients. Most of the women solicited his attention and the one who appeared on the "Today" show said she had reciprocated in kind. So much for a parade of victims.

Cohen wisely uses most here, thus he extrapolates the teenage girl Weiner was grooming to sext. But she's not the victim here...

In fact, there are victims. One is due process, which envisions a procedure other than a lynch mob for Congress to rid itself of a miscreant. Another is common decency, which means you stand up for someone who's done no legal wrong.

We'll remember that, Richard. Promise. Anyway:

Anthony Weiner and Bill Clinton have much in common. Both had their private lives invaded. Both were clamped in the stocks of mortification, Clinton by his conservative enemies and Kenneth Starr, and Weiner by Breitbart and other conservative stalkers. In both cases, the persecution was supposedly justified because both men had lied. But they had not lied to cover up a crime, but to cover up an embarrassment. There is a difference, and while Clinton crossed a line - he lied to a grand jury - Weiner did no such thing. He lied to save face.

Thanks, Richard. You've given us a clear distillation of liberal morality that we can hold up to our fellow Americans to see. Apparently, is it OK for married politicians to solicit blowjobs from interns and/or to jerk-off to Vegas trash and porn stars, and then lie about it to the public your are paid to represent. Because nobody is getting hurt except the politician's wives, their unborn children, and perhaps the young girls involved, who may be enjoying the celebrity for the moment but are marked as whores by these men for life.



We must accept these disgusting perversions, Cohen tells us, because they were exposed by conservatives, who must not ever be empowered, even when they are right. Better to lie back and enjoy this degrading treatment of women than suffer the fate of being led by a conservative ideology. Better to be led by Clinton and Weiner, who are all for having more control over your lives. The better to jerk off to you, I suppose...

This is all that's left to liberal ideology. Perverts are heroes and victims, the ones that expose their sickness and lies are dishonorable. If it sounds like moral inversion, well, that's what it is and that's all that left of liberalism - the hope that we can be led to believe - if we are told often enough how utterly stupid we are - that wrong is right, debt is wealth, taxes are good and budgets are evil....

God help us if we fall for this sack of crap. Actually, he won't. Which would be just...

Scenes From The British Open That You Just Don't See In America. Unfortunately...

Northern Ireland's Darren Clarke walks up to the 10th green during the third day of the British Open Golf Championship at Royal St George's golf course Sandwich, England, Saturday, July 16, 2011.

And what's that I see in the background?  Three nuclear cooling towers?  Off a golf course, no less?  And not even worth noting in the AP blurb?

Of course, we rarely see photos like this in America.  Nuclear activities have pretty much stopped the use of this clean-burning, planet-friendly power source here, despite the fact it produces a large portion of Europe's energy safely.  We also rarely see background shots of those magnificent windmills we are assured will power our nation either, special interests groups - mostly groups on Congressman, actually - have always thwarted projects where they live or play, forcing them into "wind farms" in the desert or scrub brush, where again environmental activists try to stop them as there is a threat they may force a bird to take a roundabout trip home.

You can sometimes see offshore oil rigs in photos of the beach taken on the West Coast...which enrages residents, as it interferes with their view of the sunset by 1/100th.  Then they pack up and leave when the cost of living becomes to high, and blame...the oil companies.

All I'm saying is this: If we are so worried about how the production of energy looks, and constantly seek out excuses not to produce it, we will soon find ourselves paying a ton of cash for every mile we drive (or fly), and have energy cost-induced inflation as the price to manufacturing anything increases exponentially. 

Oh, wait...

Time to stop worrying less about how it looks and more about what it's going to cost us, and and if we are ready to let our great nation stagnate and die because we can't stand the sight of a few windmills and oil rigs.

Is this really so bad?

Outside my window at the Bellagio Hotel, Atlantic City, New Jersey.  I thought it was picturesque, actually.  Next time I'll pose in front of it...

UPDATE:  As per the comments, it appears as if the picture elading this post is not of nuclear cooling towers, but was once part of a plant that burnt coal, then oil, then Orimulsion, a a bitumen-based industrial fuel that apparently fell out of favor with British politicians.  The plant is now closed.  Yet it changes nothing, as we here in America would never dream of putting any type of power generation plant near the playgrounds of the rich, famous, or politically connected...

Eric Cantor for VP - Bear Bait For The Democratic Party?

Came back form vacation last night and spent some time catching up (oy, what a week it was to miss blogging!  Still, well worth it...) and was listening to Eric Cantor speak of his blowup with Barack Obama via Legal Insurrection.  Professor Jacobson entitled the post "Is it too early to talk about Eric Cantor for VP"? 

To be honest, I hadn't thought about it too much.  Of course, after just a few seconds of mental review, I realized what a perfect choice he would be.  Jacobson points out "Eric Cantor has been fighting the good fight for years".  That's the first reason.  But he's not a Bob Dole legacy-type; he's been in Congress only a decade.  It's the fact that he is a fiscal and foreign policy hawk, who lays out his positions with clarity and intelligence that makes him, by standard reckoning, a strong VP candidate. His background - as a a former small businessman in a family legal firm - will help him make the case about the destructive force of high taxes more personal and effective as well.  Not to mention that his strong pro-Israel stance (as well as pro-life) will help invigorate the Republicans evangelical base.

But there are two other intangibles that would have a tremendous effect on the campaign dynamic as well:

-He gets under Obama's skin.  For Obama the political is personal, and he will be thrown off his game. Note Obama's one-sided feud with Benjamin Netanyahu.  His insatiable lust to force a humiliating defeat upon a man who will not concede to his unquestioned brilliance has been one of the most shocking, and disturbing, ongoing story lines of his presidency.  How will he react to Eric Cantor attacking him on the stump on a daily basis? Expect a sputtering Obama to put forth  bizarre accusations combined with blatently false statements, all delivered with a puerile, adolescent rage that will diminish the president and elevate the cooler Cantor.

-Cantor is a Jew.

I'm not suggesting the "affirmative action" angle, after all, Joe Lieberman was there first.  But it would create two added complications for the Obama campaign: One, the possibility that even more Jews could be peeled off to vote for one of their own, which would force Obama to further defend his Israeli policy, which could be accurately defined as serial attempts to humiliate Netanayhu and bend the Jewish nation to his will while putting the support of the United States behind the moral decrepitude of the Palestinians.

Secondly, and more importantly, it would smoke out the anti-Semitic element of the Democratic party.  For it is the party of anti-Semitism, sometimes hiding behind "anti-Zionism", other times feeling comfortable enough to just come out and Jew-bait.  Expect the Democrats to go after Eric Cantor the way they went after Sarah Palin, with hatred and bloodlust after they dimly realize that he, like she, could take away some of the voters they deem core (or perhaps chattel).  And as they will have little of practical use to go on to prove he will be bad for the Jews - the way it was almost impossible to say Sarah Palin would be bad for women - the assault will dive into anti-Semistim within a few quick news cycles.

And the American people will be horrified. They will not be roused by the anger of the Jews - Obama could nuke Tel Aviv and still  get 50% of the Jewish vote - but by the 3rd-world demagoguery of the Democratic party.  The people of this nation will realize that while they may be seeing strictly one man being smeared due to his faith - and hearing it defended as simply "politics" - it could be any of them tomorrow, depending on whom the president and the Democrats deem as that day's enemies of their state.

Their will be denials and "clarifications" after toxic statements, of course, and plenty of obscurations and smokescreens by the media, but there will be little backing down from the Left.  Even the president, who will act above it all, will not disown the practice, and might possibly slip up himself, with his obvious personal animosity towards Cantor.  The viciousness of the attacks on Cantor, based on his religion, will be a death knell for the Democrats.  Not just for 2012, but possibly for a generation.

Eric Cantor is not only a well-qualified man for Vice President.  He's also bear bait for the hatred of the Democratic party.  Put him out there, and it will come, as sure as the sun rises...

Now put Rick Perry on the top of the ticket.  A successful Texas governor with the admiration of the Hispanic population, running with a wonky Jew.  Imagine the bloodbath.  Yes, rhetorically, from the Democrats, the anti-Semites, and their supporters in the mainstream media.  But I'm talking about in the electoral college... 

In Which This Blogger Goes To The Beach...

....and takes off for a few days, for some sun and fun on the Jersey Shore.  Need to recharge the batteries a bit, and a blazing week on the beaches of the OC (in New Jersey, that's what we call Ocean County) should do the trick. Although I think I might actually be in Cape May County, but that's just nitpicking...

Should be back by Friday.  Maybe Saturday, depends on how much fun I am having.  In the meantime, here's hoping it is...hot, "Jersey-style":

So I'm signing off, so to speak - for a short space of time, anyway.  Which always makes me feel a bit forlorn.  I leave you with this random thought, perhaps more recognizable if you're a tad older, and you remember TV or radio stations "signing off" for the night before going dark:

Thinking about signing off, the listener also could have a curious feeling, too. He/she could be listening to a human voice and feel a kind of connection back then. Announcers were supposed to talk in a relaxed, informal and friendly manner, unlike what you hear on today's radio. You felt as if you were being talked to, not being talked at.

When you heard the sign-off, there was a feeling of disconnection with that person who had been sharing something with you. At the end of sign-off, there would be a brief moment when the sound was over, but the transmitter was still on. Then the transmitter would go off, and the hiss of and open frequency would be heard along with a background scramble of distant stations still broadcasting. The connection was severed, leaving a moment or two of continuation of thought and feeling....

So, for a short while...

Chris Christie tries to cut our electric bills. Predictably, Greenies flip out...

The Jersey Greens have been suckling at the taxpayer teat for years, and like a fussy infant, are wailing now that they are being weaned off:

Investors in New Jersey have feasted on an abundance of energy subsidies, traditionally for fossil fuels, but heavy emphasis has been placed on renewables in recent years. Homeowners also have been cashing in, and more than 9,000 solar projects have gone online in the last 10 years, reaping $354 million in rebates from three state programs.

Christie’s controversial 141-page document strikes at the heart of some of the generous rewards for green projects, saying the costs are unfairly shouldered by businesses and other ratepayers.

Yeah, "controversial". OK.  Maybe because maybe Christie realizes this is the most insane, if not Orwellian, line item that can possibly appear on a consumer's utility bill:

...utility bills typically carry a societal benefits charge (SBC), some of which pays for efficiency incentives and clean energy development. The SBC adds up to nearly 4 percent of the bills. Utility companies spent $698 million on SBC programs last year.

[ The SBC is $1.68 on this imaginary $42- energy bill (about five days of usage for the average NJ home owner).  4% on the nose.  Atlantic City Electric defines the line as "Costs associated with state-mandated social programs".  In other words, passing the cost of the Green initiatives on to you.  Note the "Market Transition" line on this bill, that's "The costs associated with the transition to a competitive electric market".   First Energy, however, defines it as "The provision of electricity to any consumer who has not or cannot choose an electric generation supplier for any reason".  In other words:  Welfare, paid directly by New Jersey's electrical consumers monthly. Note how this makes the state budget seem more balanced, since it's not a appropriation of taxpayer money - it's just forcing energy users to pay it out directly, under threat of having their power cut off. F*cking gangsters. ]


So the "Green revolution" in New Jersey is being funded by each and every homeowner and apartment dweller in the state. Thus it is no surprise that the Greenies are insatiably greedy, and that -

New Jersey’s electric ratepayers pay the fourth-highest retail power rates in the United States.

But that's A-OK with the Greenies, who mix a philosophy of reality and insanity to justify their robbery of Jersey's taxpayers:

But Matt Elliott, the clean energy advocate for Environment New Jersey, argues that a policy maintaining support for renewable energy “is definitely the way to go,” though he concedes renewables currently have a higher cost.

“But that’s primarily because we subsidized fossil fuels for years and years. We’re trying to create a whole new green energy market and that doesn’t happen overnight, though the cost of solar energy is dropping every year and we’ve had hundreds of green energy companies come to New Jersey and set up shop,” Elliott said.

“We’re driving toward the day when solar is as cheap as coal,” Elliott added.

Yes we are. And that day will be in five hundred years, even with the ongoing rape of the New Jersey taxpayer. Of course, if you told Elliot that perhaps the best way is to let the market work it's course, and that market driven in house research might best speed up the pace, he'd turn purple. Because there's no money in it for him that way...

The Sierra Club is flipping their lid as well:

The New Jersey Sierra Club’s Jeff Tittel said Christie is “gutting” environmental best practices by “scaling back renewable and clean energy targets in favor of expanding natural gas generation.”

“These cuts will cost the state green jobs. It sends the wrong message to companies that develop and promote clean energy. The message is to go to some other state,” Tittel said.

That's OK.  Let the carpetbagging leeches go to Massachusetts.  We'll replace those 15 green jobs that we lose with hundred of, you know, regular jobs, from companies who will see New Jersey as more cost-affordable, now that Christie is working to cut energy prices.

And personally, I'd like to see Jeff Tittel and Matt Elliot go up against Chris Christie, arguing why it is important for New Jerseyans to pay one of the highest utility rates in the nation in order to benefit their questionable ideology, and their business connections.

My guess"  It would be like a antelope and a wilderbeast trying to talk a hungry lion out of eviscerating them....

Team USA's Hope Solo: The Force Is With Her

Unlike Hans Solo, Hope doesn't save princesses, young Jedi knights, or the entire galaxy from an evil Empire.

No, our Hope achieved something much more significant - she secured a win for the U.S.soccer team in the Women's World Cup by blocking a penalty kick after time expired with the score tied 2-2, allowing our American girls to move into the semifinals.  This, after the refs robbed Team USA (Funny how - during international competition - those bad calls always seem to go against the Americans) by allowing Brazil a successful re-kick of a penalty shot Hope had blocked cleanly the first time.

But even poor officiating can't stop a driven American women.  And when there's a whole team of them, well...the rest of the world had best stand clear.

So what exactly makes America so great, you ask?  It's because we always have.... Hope:

And if we are talking about women's soccer, we must at least tip our cap to one of the boldest, brashest, hottest, clutch performers in US Women's Soccer history, Miss Brandi Chastain.  Who can forget 1999?

Not me...

"The Scorpion and the Frog", starring the Democratic Party as "The Scorpion"...

In the post-Carter era, the Democrats were known simply as the party high on raising taxes and weak on national defense.  Even when they somehow managed to get elected, the albatross hung around their neck, so much so that little make-work wars were created (Bosnia) just to show their mettle while forays into reason (welfare reform) were touted to show they weren't always about stealing and hiding...

So after a time, the memory of the true nature of the Democrat began to fade, as the party became a traditonal "oppostion" group, slowly regaining power by virulently opposing unpopular actions by current politcal actors, and if they needed to exaggerate, lie, and use double-standards to do so, well...the national media establishment of America, as supportive of the party as any special-interest group, gave cover to their deceptions.

This culminated in the election of radical leftist Barack Obama in 2008, primarily a result of exhaustion over the politcal wars constatnly instigated by the Democrats, and the media's obfuscation of the candidate's ugly background.  After two disasterous years of one-party government, where the nation accepted wild spending and new regulation in the hopes it would stem our economic bleeding, the people grew nervous, and elected enough Republicans to at least slow the tide of Democratic destruction.

The Democrats whined over their portrayal by their Republican and Tea Party rivals.  "We've been misrepresented, we don't want tax hikes, we want spending reductions in the tax code!  We just want everyone to pay their fair share!  And we want cuts, sure we do....and defense is just one area of many that we need to look at..."

They can talk the talk, and the media will amplify it and make it sound almost reasonable, but when the Democrats get down to brass tacks, their true colors come out, and it turns out to be no differnt from what the previous generation had learned the hard way:  The Demcoratic party is simply about spending other people's money, raising taxes, and gutting the military.  To wit:


Senate Democrats have drafted a sweeping debt-reduction plan that would slice $4 trillion from projected borrowing over the next decade without touching the expensive health and retirement programs targeted by President Obama.

Instead, Senate Democrats are proposing to stabilize borrowing through sharp cuts at the Pentagon and other government agencies, as well as $2 trillion in new taxes, primarily on families earning more than $1 million year, according to a copy of the plan obtained by The Washington Post.

Under the blueprint, the top income tax rate would rise to 39.6 percent for individuals earning more than $500,000 a year and families earning more than $1 million. That group, which constitutes the nation’s richest 1 percent of households, would also pay a 20 percent rate on capital gains and dividends, rather than the 15 percent rate now in effect.

In addition to raising rates for the very wealthiest families, the blueprint proposes to obtain fresh revenue by targeting offshore tax havens and corporate shelters. It would also scale back the array of tax breaks and deductions known as tax expenditures.

The blueprint would take nearly $900 billion from the Pentagon over the next decade....


We are the frog, folks. And now we know how he felt when, after all the assurance were given, he was still stabbed in the back:


One day, a scorpion looked around at the mountain where he lived and decided that he wanted a change. So he set out on a journey through the forests and hills. He climbed over rocks and under vines and kept going until he reached a river.
The river was wide and swift, and the scorpion stopped to reconsider the situation. He couldn't see any way across. So he ran upriver and then checked downriver, all the while thinking that he might have to turn back.

Suddenly, he saw a frog sitting in the rushes by the bank of the stream on the other side of the river. He decided to ask the frog for help getting across the stream.


"Hellooo Mr. Frog!" called the scorpion across the water, "Would you be so kind as to give me a ride on your back across the river?"

"Well now, Mr. Scorpion! How do I know that if I try to help you, you wont try to kill me?" asked the frog hesitantly.

"Because," the scorpion replied, "If I try to kill you, then I would die too, for you see I cannot swim!"

Now this seemed to make sense to the frog. But he asked. "What about when I get close to the bank? You could still try to kill me and get back to the shore!"

"This is true," agreed the scorpion, "But then I wouldn't be able to get to the other side of the river!"

"Alright then...how do I know you wont just wait till we get to the other side and THEN kill me?" said the frog.

"Ahh...," crooned the scorpion, "Because you see, once you've taken me to the other side of this river, I will be so grateful for your help, that it would hardly be fair to reward you with death, now would it?!"

So the frog agreed to take the scorpion across the river. He swam over to the bank and settled himself near the mud to pick up his passenger. The scorpion crawled onto the frog's back, his sharp claws prickling into the frog's soft hide, and the frog slid into the river. The muddy water swirled around them, but the frog stayed near the surface so the scorpion would not drown. He kicked strongly through the first half of the stream, his flippers paddling wildly against the current.

Halfway across the river, the frog suddenly felt a sharp sting in his back and, out of the corner of his eye, saw the scorpion remove his stinger from the frog's back. A deadening numbness began to creep into his limbs.

"You fool!" croaked the frog, "Now we shall both die! Why on earth did you do that?"

The scorpion shrugged, and did a little jig on the drownings frog's back.

"I could not help myself. It is my nature."

Pssst! Those 18,000 Jobs "Created" in June? They Don't Actually Exist...

John Crudele in the New York Post explains how we most likely didn't gain 18,000 paltry jobs in June...we likely lost close to 113,000 jobs instead.

It's all in the number-fixing, and the Department of Labor is dancing as fast as it can.  But alas, the American people are smarter than the Left seems to believe, and even this well-prepared scam is falling apart at the seams rather quickly, like a bootleg pair of designer jeans:

Now for the really bad news: that 18,000 gain announced by the government yesterday isn't real.

For one thing, the number of jobs increased in June only because the Labor Department simultaneously revised downward the number of jobs that existed in this country during May.

Without the fence-moving operation in the May employment report, the June number -- yesterday's number -- would have shown a decline of 26,000 jobs.

Then there's another problem with June's employment report. Included in the 18,000 headline number is a guesstimate that 131,000 jobs were created by newly formed -- and, therefore, invisible -- companies.

If you want to send your resume to one of these companies, don't bother. They probably don't exist, and neither do the jobs the government thinks they are creating. These figments of the imagination of the Labor Department's computers will probably disappear when the numbers are checked early next year.

Since this entire column is filled with bad news, I may as well give it all to you at once: The job numbers are only going to get worse in the months ahead...


 Unless Obama and Labor try to cook the books again. Still, the panic setting in within the administration is not without cause. What's that saying about peeing on our legs and telling us that it's raining...?

Steven Chu: Our Own Kim Jong-Il ?

This is what happens when you give the intellectual elite power.  This is what happens when people are told by everyone around them how brilliant they are.  No matter how noble the aim, you get totalitarinism.

Even from Nobel Prize winning physicists.  Or should I say, especially from Nobel Prize winning physicists.  Obama's beloved Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, sneers at us commoners and puts forwards a diktat:

In a conference call with reporters, [Energy Secretary Steven] Chu said the more-efficient bulbs required would save consumers money over the life of the product, even if the up-front price is higher.

“We are taking away a choice that continues to let people waste their own money,” he said.



 The concept of freedom is lost on Mr. Chu, apparently.  So is the concept of morality.

An unemployed and under-employed America is now faced with the prospect of $20 light bulbs, gasoline that the media claims is "cheap" because it has dipped below $4/gallon, and astronomically inflated grocery prices due to Chu's policy of burning our food to create more expensive - but ideological correct - fuel.

We are reaching the point where Americans will soon have to choose between sitting in the dark, or feeding their family, for their will no longer be enough money for both.

This is where our intellectual elite has led us. To third-world status in barely three years.

Ayn Rand would not be surprised:

Socialism is not a movement of the people. It is a movement of the intellectuals, originated, led and controlled by the intellectuals, carried by them out of their stuffy ivory towers into those bloody fields of practice where they unite with their allies and executors: the thugs.

Chu fits Rand's analysis. He's willing to let American families starve and huddle in darkness rather than let them make choices he deems as "incorrect", or that dare defy his radical ideology.

And yet the Left reveres Steven Chu as a hero. They also are pretty defensive of the fellow below - another insane autocrat who forces darkness and starvation on his people based on ideology and a conviction that he is all-knowing.

Come to think of it, Chu has a lot in common with this guy:

Chris Christie Foe Sweeny Almost Struck Down By Lightning On Live TV

This is the dude who called New Jersey Governor Chris Christie a "prick", by the way.

He fills his hands with lightning and commands it to strike its mark
~Job 36:32

And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.
~The Holy Bible (Luke 10:18)

Consider this...fair warning, from above:

Lightning Almost Hits Christie Foe On TV: MyFoxPHILLY.com

Destroying Jobs, Newark-Style!

Liberals, having no understanding of economics, view businessmen as con artists, who can be shackled, tied down, and starved, and yet produce taxable revenue upon demand because..well, they don't understand why exactly, but that's what businesses do, right?  Liberals, especially of the political stripe, have no mind to sully themselves with any understanding of the dirty business of making money, only the taking of it.  So when they pass laws that essentially force businesses to close down, they profess shock, and point angry fingers at the magical businessman, who must be unable to make money for them because he simply refuses to.  See Obama, Barack Hussein, for a perfect example of the genre.

What's my point?  Expect Newark,  New Jersey councilmen (and women) to have the same slack-jawed, stupefied look on their faces by year's end when this bit of legislation kicks in:

Restaurants are required to be sanitary and adhere to fire codes, but in Newark, New Jersey, some of them will also be required to have an armed guard on duty after dark.

Eateries that seat fewer than 20 customers and are open after 9 p.m. will now have to meet the requirement passed by the Newark City Council Thursday.

One restaurant that squarely meets the specifications of the new legislation is the Texas Fried Chicken and Pizza on Lyons Avenue. It also was the scene of a fatal shooting on May 27th. Police say that in a drive-by in a stolen car, Rasul McNeil-Thomas, 19, shot up the restaurant in the Newark's South Ward. The gunfire left two restaurant patrons injured and killed off-duty Newark police officer William Johnson.

The restaurant's owner, Jamil Nahiam, had complained about the new legislation after the city council approved it, saying it was a costly requirement that squeezes small businesses. Nahiam is meeting on Friday with City Councilmember Ras Baraka, who introduced the legislation.

Whether or not an armed guard could have prevented the shooting that killed Officer William Thomas is debatable. Thomas was himself an armed guard at a housing complex on some of his days off.

Stupid/dumb. So where's the hero of the center-left, Cory Booker, with his mighty veto pen? Guess it got stuck up his ass:

What is not debatable is that this legislation will go into effect. It was approved unanimously by the Newark City Council, and Mayor Cory Booker's staff has said he will not veto it. Restaurant owners have thirty days to hire and post armed guards in their places of business.

Or go out of business, rather than operate at a loss. Which will add more folks to the unemployment line, while depriving the city of what revenue they did receive from these small restaurants. Not to mention adding to the urban blight that is the central feature of downtown Newark...

And I thought folks paid taxes first and foremost to be provided with security...perhaps via a police force? So where's the Newark PD? And if you pay taxes simply to exist, and not receive even basic services, isn't that simply extortion on a government level? Pay me to allow you to set up here, and after that, you're on your own. Unless I decide I need more money from you. Nice store you got here....

And they wonder why there is a Tea Party...

Murdoch Shutters "New of the World"; American Liberals Taking Notes?

It is a humongous scandal in Greap Britain, although it has made barely a ripple on this side of the pond. Rupert Murdoch, as loathed by the Left in England as he is in America, has been forced to close down one of his Fleet Street tabloids, "News of the World":

....amid an expanding police investigation of phone hacking into missing girls and grieving families as well as celebrities, and the alleged press bribery of police officers for information.

The timing of the scandal is interesting:

It comes just as media baron Rupert Murdoch is seeking U.K. government clearance for a €12 billion ($19 million) bid for full control of British Sky Broadcasting, a prize far more valuable than his British stable of newspapers.

Of course, the BBC is thrilled:

For the third consecutive day, the BBC devotes a huge amount of resource to further excoriating the Murdoch Empire. Having gained the scalp of the News of the World, the BBC agenda moves on. First, in order to sustain its deluded image of solidarity with "the workers", the BBC line is that lowly journalists have been sacrificed to save those higher up....

If you then listen to the prime time slot, at 8.10am, it consists solely of a BBC journalist interviewing two other BBC journalists...

Just the way state-run media likes it. Would NPR act any differently? Or our own "free" press?

Some more analysis of the dust up...does it sound remotely familiar?

The churnalists are up in arms. The carefully constructed media narrative has it that the News of the World, and by extension the entire Rupert Murdoch empire, has singlehandedly ruined the reputation of journalism.

We are witnessing manipulation par excellence at play, as reports that personal details of families of war dead and serious crime victims were found in the possession of Glenn Mulcaire are spun to suggest their phone messages were intercepted – despite there being no evidence (as yet) that such actions happened....

The hypocrisy and double standards at play here are incredible. The Guardian has not pursued this story for the noble aim of getting at the truth, but in a desperate effort to undermine Rupert Murdoch, with the full connivance of its broadcast arm, the BBC. The phone hacking scandal, while criminal and disgusting, is nothing more than a rider for a campaign where something far greater is at stake – maintaining the left-liberal media consensus that holds sway in this country...

There is a cosy left leaning consensus in the UK media which sees reporters easily slip from the BBC to Channel 4 to ITV because they are all members of the same exclusive club...

Are NPR, General Electric's NBC, the New York Times, and the Obama Administration not watching this and salivating like dogs? Unproven allegations, fueled with faux-outrage, closing a newspaper critical of the establishment as well as a bitter rival of the taxpayer financed media and the leftist "mainstream" press? With the side effect of making future expansion like Murdoch's almost impossible, of course...

Brilliant. Wait for the play here, it won't be long. And as for the Obama administration? Well, the headline from the topmost link is one that will make the president grin, but give right-thinking Americans chills:

UK's Cameron calls for new regulation of press

Prime Minister David Cameron, confessing that British politicians and the press had become too cozy, promised Friday to hold two full investigations into activities at the News of the World tabloid and into future media regulation.

Cameron said press self-regulation had failed and a new body, independent of the media and the government, was needed to properly enforce standardsAnd what reason may Cameron have for eliminating freedom of the press in Great Britain? Why, the same reason Muammar Gaddafi kills his own countrymen - it's about saving his own pathetic ass. Or should I say "arse"?

The prime minister refused to apologize for hiring former News of the World editor Andy Coulson as his spokesman....