Wednesday, October 31, 2012

So it's been a rough few days...

...as this blogger has been without power, heat, hot water, and cell service since early Monday evening (moments after my last post, actually). I've since evacuated west, where I won't freeze to death as quickly.

I'll return to regular blogging as soon as I have access to regular power. In the meantime; fare thee well. And be assured that things are actually a bit worse than they seem, as I have seen opportunistic robbery and looting even within my little town in Jersey. Not sure if this is even being reported, as I have not been able to catch much coverage.

Which leads to another issue - the lack of information to those affected by the storm. It's amazing how many government officials have told us to "log on" for more information. Hey, assholes, I'm listening to you on a hand-cranked radio by candlelight - how the f*ck am I going to "log on" to anything?

So rumor abounds at the few establishments that are open; with the worst news (true or false) traveling the fastest. You would hope government could do better. Or perhaps, knowing the nature of government, I should have expected the worst, and allowed myself to be pleasantly surprised by any show of actual competence...

Monday, October 29, 2012

Atlantic City Boardwalk Destroyed By Sandy

The oldest and largest boardwalk in the nation has been destroyed over the course of 24 hours by Hurricane Sandy.  It's in pieces and floating throughout the deserted streets of a destroyed city:









Photos via Buzzfeed.  Here's what the AC boardwalk looked like this past summer:


Tragic.

Are We Hours Away From A Major Flood In NYC?

Here's the bottom line...a storm surge of greater than 10.5 feet would send salt water spilling into the New York streets and cascading down through the subways, causing unimaginable damage to an aging infrastructure system.  The system would flood as ancient pumps sputtered, corroded, and failed,  movement between the boroughs would cease, and economic calamity would follow.

So - are we there yet?

High tide at the Battery is 8:53 PM. So how do we look, approaching Zero Hour?  NOAA reports:

Date           Time      Normal  tide     Sandy Surge
20121029   17:48         2.57                 9.33
20121029   17:54         2.68                 9.48
20121029   18:00         2.80                 9.62
20121029   18:06          2.91                9.74
20121029   18:12          3.02                9.95


We may - may - be saved by the fact that Sandy hooked it east a few hours early and it will be making landfall right off of Cape May, New Jersey, as opposed to the earlier predictions placing it some 50-75 miles north, and that much closer to New York.

We'll know in less than 90 minutes...

At The Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier...

The fierce gale of Sandy's winds, and the bitter stinging of her biting rains, count for nothing in this holy place, where men with bayonets stand their ground against the onslaught.  The blessed dead will be protected, come what may:





"....We did what we were trained to do, what we were bred to do, what we were born to do..."


Via the Facebook page of The First Army Division East

Sunday, October 28, 2012

New Jersey's Oil Refineries Begin Pre-Sandy Shutdown

Yeah, admit it - you've long been ashamed of the eyesore running from Exits 12 -14 on the Turnpike.  And not without due cause, as it is a vision out of hell - endless wastes filled with harsh industrial architecture, seemingly producing only huge, belching plumes of smoke shot with the red/yellow flash of refinery flames. Flanked by 12+ lanes of superhighway on one side and the rancid Kill Van Kull on the other, it even comes with its own soundtrack:  Ceaseless heavy-truck traffic mixed with the roar of jet engines throttling back as they land in Newark (directly across the street, seemingly) every 45 seconds.



It's made the state the butt of jokes from time immemorial.  But at least for the moment, those smokestacks are going cold, and we are all going to feel it - in our wallets:

The second-largest refinery on the U.S. East Coast was shutting down on Sunday and three other plants cut output as Hurricane Sandy threatened widespread power outages and a massive storm surge across the region.

Phillips 66 has begun shutting its 238,000-barrels-per day (bpd) Bayway, N.J., refinery, nicknamed the "gasoline machine" because of its key role supplying motor fuel to the New York City area. The plant, the only one to close during Hurricane Irene last year, should be completely shut by early Monday morning, the company said in a statement....

Oil traders were already factoring in a potential squeeze on fuel supplies. Benchmark gasoline futures jumped 1 percent and heating oil rose 0.6 percent as New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) trading began on Sunday evening, U.S. time. Crude oil prices dipped by 0.4 percent.

The storm comes as low inventories of refined products, especially distillates and heating oil, have stirred concerns of potential price spikes during the winter heating season....


Oh, we're gonna see a spike, all right.

But, most importantly (well, this is a political blog) - are there implications here for the presidential election as well?

While I have already postulated that Hurricane Sandy could play to Obama's benefit, any disruption of oil supplies in the cold nights that will follow the storm may work against him.  Obama will blame the weather and those damn oil companies for the escalating gas prices and shivering families, but in the wreckage that may follow Sandy, no one will be in the mood for excuses.  The Republicans will be eviscerated by the media, but they'll still point out that the president has worked his entire first term to eliminate any expansion of these types of facilities.

That message, despite poor timing, will find better traction than Obama's blame game.  Plus, it empowers the affected population to take what they might perceive as "direct action" against their situation by...voting against Obama.

More than one storm may be brewing out there.

Sandy: Don't You Hate It When You're Living The "Worst-Case" Scenario?

Is this that "Oh, sh*t" moment we always see in the movies, when the eggheads and the armchair generals realize that every single thing that can possible go wrong has, in fact...gone wrong?

The projected storm surge from Hurricane Sandy is a "worst case scenario" with devastating waves and tides predicted for the highly populated New York City metro area, government forecasters said Sunday.

The more they observe it, the more the experts worry about the water - which usually kills and does more damage than winds in hurricanes....

In a measurement of pure kinetic energy, NOAA's hurricane research division on Sunday ranked the surge and wave "destruction potential" for Sandy - just the hurricane, not the hybrid storm it will eventually become - at 5.8 on a 0 to 6 scale


Prediction map for 8pm tomorrow evening.  Not loving the black blotch over New Jersey:




Were this actually a movie, this is the part where two lone (and long-ignored) scientists, studying data under the glow of a green screen, would look at each other in horror.  One would slowly shake their head, while the other would whisper, in a non-believing voice, "Oh...my...God..."


(More Sandy-blogging here and here .   And if you are wondering if Hurricane Sandy is in fact the ultimate "October Surprise" -  if Barack Obama in fact stole Dick Cheny's Haliburton-designed, Katrina-tested weather machine, and jacked it up to "Killstorm 5000" in a last-ditch effort to win re-election...go here)

Best Sandy Track Imagery, So Far...

Via Brendan Loy's Twitter Feed:


Once we get here, we're screwed:


About To Switch To Sandy-Blogging....

Well, this should be interesting.  Looks like Sandy is going to come barreling into my front yard:


(click to enlarge)


Truthfully, I am just ever-so-slightly north of Freehold Township (in yellow), and this track at the moment has it smashing head-on into Atlantic City, which is about 85-90 miles south of my modem. Other storm models have Sandy heading into Toms River, a mere 25-odd miles due south of my terminal.  But in the scope of a storm whose reach is now exceeding 800 miles, these are rather small variations...

More to follow, of course.  One odd thing:  Local CBS affiliate did a split-screen on the Jets game to broadcast a Chris Christie news conference on the storm; the governor sounded and looked really sick.  Drawing breath through his mouth, he was almost wheezing; his voice was nasally and the bags under his eyes had bags under them.

I have no doubt he'll lead us through this, but I fear for the long-term ramifications on his health. Constant exposure to a hurricane's full force while ill and weighing over 300 pounds -  likely on no sleep for what may well be days - is another form of danger that the governor would be well advised to monitor...


UPDATE: Video of Christie at this link (I removed the embed, I hate auto-starts).  What do you think?

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Anecdotal evidence, to be sure. But...

Spent some time driving around Central Jersey today.  Not exactly a bastion of conservatism.  And still....

I saw a group of around 6-7 people standing at a intersection a mere few blocks from my home, holding Romney signs and American flags, enjoying  the honks of  passers-by...

Another suburban crossroads, a few miles away, I spied the same thing.  A handful of individuals,with raised home-made expressions of  support for Mitt Romney.

On Route 9, one fellow stood on the side of the highway, smiling, facing traffic with his own placard supporting Mitt.

These people were not part of any organization, as far as I could tell.  The demonstrations of support looked haphazard, hastily thrown together, yet fully earnest and joyful.

There is no real Romney field organization to speak of in New Jersey.These were true grassroots enthusiasts, in every sense of the word.

Not a pro-Obama "rally" to be seen anywhere. And Romney/Ryan yard signs outnumbered Obama signs by about 7-1.

I'm not saying Romney is going to win here.  Most recent polls show Obama with about a ten-point edge, down from the 16 margin he enjoyed in 2008.

But if Obama's support is waning in Blue Jersey...how is he going to win the "swing states"?  And how will this affect the down-ticket races, if Jersey Democrats are as lifeless as they seem?  And especially if the Obama edge in New Jersey is actually less than 10 points?

Just from looking around a state called Blue Jersey, in a place called Obamatown, well...I think things are not what they once seemed.

~Posterity makes the judgments. There are going to be a lot of surprises in store for everybody.
Irwin Shaw

Taking Nate Silver With A Very Large Grain Of Salt

He's #1 on the list of people whose reputation will be in tatters after the oncoming Mitt Romney landslide.  Coming off a very good 2008 prognostication season (49 of 50 states accurately predicted, in a season where the result was a fait accompli) that earned him a gig at the New York Times, Silver has been consistent in predicting an Obama 2012 victory, even in the face of the rapid post-debate poll swing towards Romney.

Democrats have been clinging to his stats and story-lines the way a scared villager clutches a sacred talisman during a storm, but Bob Krumm tells us their wonder boy is nothing of the sort:

Eleven days before the election he predicted that there was a 70% chance that Republicans would gain less than 60 seats. They won 63. That alone should be enough to remind observors that there shouldn’t be so much certitude about Silver’s 70% predictions a week and-a-half away from a vote.


Apparently, Silver's modeling leans heavily on one single metric: - the spread between candidates. and especially on the spread in state level polling. Frumm points out the flaws as related to 2012:

The incumbent’s level of support, not the spread, is the most important metric in a re-election race. That is because it tells you how safe the incumbent is from the effects of a last-minute surge. On that metric, Barack Obama is not safe at all. Since at least 2010, when the creation of Obamacare led the news, Barack Obama has struggled with his support, only briefly breaking the 50% barrier.


Does this look like a guy with a 70% chance to win-re-election?


Rasmussen shows that for a long time well over 40% of the electorate has strongly disapproved of the President, but only about 30% now strongly approve. Neither the support for the incumbent nor the strength of it appears to be a metric in Nate Silver’s model. Therefore, the over-reliance on the spread as a predictor of success makes for a model that doesn’t account for hard ceilings and soft support. If you were a well-funded challenger, where would you rather be two weeks before an election: 4 points behind an incumbent stuck at 47%, or 2 points behind an incumbent at 49? Even worse for Obama, is that he is stuck at 47 and already behind.


Is Silver a blinded partisan, or an earnest guy who concocted complex mathematical models around an obvious election result, which appears more and more to be a one-time electoral anomaly?

Either way, his time on the top of the numbers game is almost up.  But like all failed liberal icons, the Left will keep him on a pedestal, and he'll make a fortune on the talk shows as "the guy who predicted the 2008 landslide".  Especially when they need him to make wild, unrealistic predictions about 2016...

Friday, October 26, 2012

Hurricane Sandy: Obama's "October Surprise"?

The ingredients awaiting Hurricane Sandy appear to be coming together to create what forecasters are calling a monster combination of high wind, heavy rain, extreme tides and maybe snow that could cause havoc along the East Coast just before Halloween next week.

"We looking at one of the worst storms on record that we've seen in this region," said Hurricane Specialist Carl Parker...


This bad girl is going to come crashing on to the East Coast, maybe right here in Jersey, by Tuesday - one week shy of Election Day.

And what an opportunity it will be for Barack Obama to use the pedestal of the presidency.  He will adopt a grim tone on television, he will take helicopter rides to asses the damage and console heartbroken (female) homeowners, he will speak of strength and hope.  But perhaps most importantly, Obama will do what he does best:  Hand out tens of millions of dollars in federal aid to hard-hit states and localities, promising that the government will be there to help them rebuild.

And in an election where the margin is razor-thin, it just might be enough to push the final few fence-sitting voters to jump for Obama. And thus hand him the presidency. Again.

I remember when Hurricane Katrina was blamed on Dick Cheney's Halliburton Weather Machine, which created and steering a monster storm into New Orleans so he and the president could dance as black people died. Has Obama taken control of the weather machine, and created a bizarre yet powerful storm, a possible combined hurricane/blizzard, and navigated it into the East Coast in order to give him the crisis bump he so desperately needs to win the presidency?



Or is this actually the handiwork of Satan himself, seizing a chance for his favored son to stay in power, and continue to destroy the one nation always thought to be under God's providence?

God is the Creator; Satan is the counterfeiter.
~Edwin Louis Cole


Sure sounds like our president...

Yeah, Maybe He Shouldn't Have Returned That Bust Of Churchill After All...

Governments have long, long memories when it comes to those who done them wrong.  And sometimes an act of nonviolent national humiliation can burn longer and hotter than a military defeat.

So it must have given the Brits great pleasure to kick a bowing and scraping Barack Obama in his teeth:

Britain has rebuffed US pleas to use military bases in the UK to support the build-up of forces in the Gulf, citing secret legal advice which states that any pre-emptive strike on Iran could be in breach of international law.

The US approaches are part of contingency planning over the nuclear standoff with Tehran, but British ministers have so far reacted coolly. They have pointed US officials to legal advice drafted by the attorney general's office which has been circulated to Downing Street, the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence.

This makes clear that Iran, which has consistently denied it has plans to develop a nuclear weapon, does not currently represent "a clear and present threat". Providing assistance to forces that could be involved in a pre-emptive strike would be a clear breach of international law, it states.


Apparently, British law now states we can only annihilate Iran after they finish their long-planned Holocaust, Part Deux.  Gee, I am sure this will reassure Israel (not that they need any more empty Western promises, as they've recently proved). No surprise coming from a European nation, of course, but...who wants to bet that if George W. Bush made the request, it would have been granted?

Or perhaps the Brits would have OK'd the request coming from any American president who didn't seem to find pleasure in insulting their heritage and belittling our long-standing alliance.

Just a short list of recent events that the British are pissed about:

-Siding with Argentina over the Falkland Islands
-Calling France America’s strongest ally
-Lecturing Britain on a federal Europe and undercutting British sovereignty
-Placing a “boot on the throat” of BP (British Petroleum)
-DVDs for the Prime Minister ("...this insult...remains a powerful example of breathtaking diplomatic ineptitude that would have shamed the protocol office of an impoverished Third World country".)


And this excludes the aforementioned bust, which they are still fuming about...

Forget sahred military facilities - four more years of the Obama/Hillary brand of "smart diplomacy", and Air Force One won't be able to find a friendly nation to touch down in...

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Israel Sends A Pointed Warning To Iran...And Obama

This hasn't gotten much press, as it appears to be a successful Israeli military incursion, but no doubt interest will pick up once the UN gets involved:

Yesterday, it was reported that a “huge fire” had broken out at a weapons factory in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. The Sudanese government, after some consideration, claimed that it was a bombing by “four planes” coming in “from the east,” and blamed Israel.

....FP reports that the Sudanese government will lodge a formal complaint against Israel with the U.N. Security Council. This wouldn’t be the first time Israel’s performed such a strike: In 2010, Israel bombed a convoy of trucks with weapons likely being used to supply Hamas that was traveling through northeastern Sudan.

...the factory struck seems to have been an Iranian Revolutionary Guard facility


The Atlantic has more:

The defense ministers of Sudan and Iran signed a "military cooperation agreement" in 2008. Sudan has hosted Iranian Revolutionary Guard personnel, and allegedly served as a transit point for weapons bound for Hamas, in the Gaza Strip.



So no doubt this attack angers up the blood of the Iranian mullahs.  They've lost a training facility of their own, and a deniable weapon-production plant used to arm allies who fight Iran's proxy war against Israel.  So that's gotta sting.  But there is even a larger message here, kind of an "oh...shit" moment for the mullahs, in which they realize they are nowhere near as safe from an Israeli attack as they believe:

Assuming it was also Israel's doing, the destruction of the weapons facility would represent another level of audacity. "I would say that if the Sudanese government's claims are correct, then this is longest strike -- the farthest strike -- ever executed by the Israeli air force," says Ehud Yaari, the Israel-based Lafer International Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "We are talking about something that is 1,800 or 1,900 kilometers [from Israel], depending on the route. That's farther away than the range from Israel to the main Iranian nuclear installations in Natanz and Qom."

Khartoum isn't just further away and more densely populated than either of Israel's previous alleged targets inside the Sudan. It's probably better-protected as well. According to the 2012 edition of the International Institute for Strategic Studies' The Military Balance, the Sudanese air force still consists of 61 combat capable aircraft, as well as Russian-built Divina 2 anti-aircraft missiles.



Check out the "fireworks" at the 30 second mark...


So here's what the Iranian power structure is digesting today:
-Israel would have no problem getting it's jets to their primary nuclear facilities
-Iran's defensive systems, both mobile and stationary, would provide virtually no resistance to an Israeli assault
-The Israeli Air Force can conduct a surgical-strike mission while causing very little loss of civilian life, and minimal damage to civilian infrastructure

There's a fourth point, perhaps directed at Iran, or maybe at one Barack Hussein Obama:
-Israel can pull off a long-range strike against Iran without any permissions, or help, from the United States.


Looks like Iran has just found out their best friend is now as useless to them as he has been to us. And Obama has been put on notice, as well. He can get on board with the inevitable Israeli attack, or be perceived as standing on the sideline, unwilling to help an ally pull of one of the boldest(and necessary) military strikess in decades. Regardless, Obama will be forced to choose sides, and it will be a hard, hard thing for him....

Most likely, he hasn't even been paying attention. And President Mitt Romney will likely give the Israelis any aid and assistance they need.

But the truth is, it really doesn't even matter any more.  Israel just sent a signal to the world they can act on their own, and will do so, to protect their existence  Politicians, terrorists, and pundits ignore this message at their peril...

Cowardice In Milwaukee

When I first read this story, it offered me a chuckle, as it appeared as if the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel -  given a slate of unappealing Democratic candidates -  choose instead to forgo the pre-election editorial endorsement process entirely.

 Romenesko reports:

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel — Wisconsin’s largest and most influential news organization — won’t be endorsing in the very tight presidential and Senate races this year.

Inside the paper, I’m told, there’s the feeling that “we have two tough picks to make and we’re taking a pass,” and the paper is less relevant because of it.

...The Journal Sentinel endorsed Barack Obama in 2008.


Can't quite pull the trigger on that one again, I sneered.  And Tammy Baldwin is just a wee bit Left of where the state of Wisconsin is these days, isn't she?  And by a wee bit, I mean...well, you know.

But then I caught the update at the bottom of the page:

Veteran Wisconsin journalist Bruce Murphy writes: “Sources tell me the newspaper felt the heat of endorsing Republican Gov. Scott Walker in the bitterly contested recall election and decided it wasn’t worth it.”


No doubt the Journal Sentinel  got the blast of hatred from the Left that is reserved for those whom they feel by birthright belong to them, but have dared to stray off the plantation. And it seems as if these ugly intimidation techniques have succeeded.  Why else would the paper suddenly refuse to make any endorsements at all, in one of the most important elections in our history, unless they were afraid of retribution for endorsing two Republicans - Mitt Romney and Tommy Thompson?

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel  may have saved itself from the mob today, but now they are beholden to them.  Rather than act, as our Founders intended, as a beacon of free speech and political accountability, they have abandoned both in order to avoid retribution.  For the moment.

Liberty shines a bit less bright throughout Wisconsin today.  Which is always the case when cowardice rules the day.

“In a word, I was too cowardly to do what I knew to be right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be wrong.”
~ Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

“Tolerance of intolerance is cowardice.”
~ Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

And The Netroots Wonder Why They Are In Decline...

Pity the poor liberal blogger.  The "netroots" were once the darling of the Democratic party (and the media),  reaching their nadir in 2006 as they helped put Congress into (very) liberal hands.  But Obama didn't need them much in 2008, and their influence has waned considerably, as the nation has rejected  Democratic candidates at every level since 2009.

David Freedlander has a piece on these forsaken keyboard-pounders in the Daily Beast. But you don't have to read past the first sentences to see why this was a movement doomed to fail, a movement not in sync with America, a movement that was, in many senses, opposed to America:

Susie Madrak started blogging in 2001, just after Sept. 11, back when the country was hurtling head-first into war and the blogosphere was a mysterious frontier on the far edges of the Internet.

“It was infuriating,” Madrak recalled of the political moment that spurred her to start throwing her own commentary online. “I could see that they were fabricating the reasons for war. Blogging was what I did instead of throwing a brick through the window.”


As the bodies within the wreckage of the World Trade Center smoldered, as the scattered pieces of the heroes of United Flight 93 were picked up off a Pennsylvania field, Susie Madrak's chief emotion was..rage. Not at the terrorists, but at her own country.  For planning on fighting back.

The question, of course, is not how they (the netroots) could have fallen so far so fast so soon.  Reading the statement above, the real question is, how could they have gained such prominence in the first place?

I suppose the American people are fooled sometimes, usually out of a sweet, naive belief that a certain person or movement really does have their nation's best interests at heart,  is really being honest about their intentions, and really wants the best for their county.

But we don't oft get fooled twice.  Hence the election of 2010, the coming rebuke of Barack Obama, and the dismissal of the Netroot nation...

Barack Obama As...Sheldon Cooper?

Donald Sensing, on why Barack Obama's ill-fated remarks about bayonets and horses may have been his most epic fail of the campaign season:

Sarcasm and condescension only work if the speaker's presumption of lofty superior knowledge is borne out by his command of actual facts. You can't successfully accuse your opponent of being an ignoramus when you don't know what you're talking about yourself.


I think of theoretical physicist Sheldon Cooper's character on  The Big Bang Theory. A self-proclaimed genius, full of pomposity and arrogant self-regard, the audience roots for the insufferable doctor to receive his comeuppance.



It's when he leaves his intellectual comfort zone that Cooper is most vulnerable to ridicule.  Obama didn't first leave his last night when talking about foreign policy, he left it as soon as he became the nation's Chief Executive.  Yet he's been lecturing the American people on their failures - primarily, their failures to appreciate him - while looking down his nose at us, for almost four years.



It's time for a certain snooty college professor to get his due.  And the American people will come out in droves this November to deliver it...

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Finally, A Polling Metric We Can Rely On!

Molly Hemingway over at Ricochet gives us all the latest polls, and a pattern emerges quickly:

(IBD/TIPP)   Romney 43, Obama 47  Obama +4

(WashTimes/JZ Analytics) Romney 47, Obama 50  Obama +3

(CBS News) Romney 46, Obama 48  Obama +2

(ABC News/Wash Post) Romney 48, Obama 49     Obama +1

(Monmouth/SurveyUSA/Braun) Romney 48, Obama 45     Romney +3

(Rasmussen Reports) Romney 50, Obama 46     Romney +4

(Gallup) Romney 51, Obama 45  Romney +6


The top four polls are all done by, or in tandem with, what one would call the mainstream media.  The final three are all  conducted solely by true, full-time polling organizations.

So there should be little to no surprise that the media-based polling results all favor Barack Obama - seemingly against all reality - while the data provided by the pure polling companies show Romney beginning to break away.

You don't need to mine these polls any longer to find the ridiculous sampling errors that create such odd results (like this CBS News/Quinnipiac poll showing Obama +5 in Ohio, with a +D9 sample in a state that broke evenly along partisan lines in 2010).  Just look at who is presenting the data;  if there is a MSM name attached, just throw it out.  Delete is as you would spam; it's about as useful.

On second thought, keep a few on file.  Looking forward to holding some of these folks to account when their Obama +3 claims turn out to be Romney +4 in the voting booth....

America Sees The "Obama Death Stare"

...OK, it is still preferable to the stoner cackle of Joe Biden, but many debate viewers found it bizarre and off-putting..




NRO has a video, where Obama's incessant blinking as he holds the stare incessantly makes him seem all that much creepier...

But while most of America hasn't seen the Obama Death Stare before, plenty of Barack's other adversaries have.  Here he is giving it to Paul Ryan, as our future VP methodically takes apart Obaamcare:



"Good, honest hatred. Very refreshing"
~Commander Kor to James T. Kirk ("Errand of Mercy")


He fixed that glare on Ryan for some six-plus minutes, and Ryan didn't flinch.  That's why he was on the top of the short-list...

Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu is used to it already:



Even the media has seen it, on those rare occasions where they have actually dared questioned His Excellency on matters of State:



The fact is, the "death stare" is Obama's go-to face:






While we want our presidents to appear dignified, Obama's grim facade seems more like an attempt to intimidate than communicate.  Unless, of course, intimidation is the message he wishes to communicate.

Of course, I might be simply mistaking anger for what is actually childish petulance, the screwed-tight face of a peevish youth, who was just told something he or she didn't want to hear.  Normally the actions following "the face" will be denial, fruitless arguments, and finally, a tantrum.

Well, those are Obama's actions, anyway.  A well-reared child will oft react better...

Monday, October 22, 2012

Is Nanny Bloomberg Abandoning The Nanny Party?

You can view Michael Bloomberg is a liberal in moderate's clothing. Or you can look at him as a harbinger of political fashion trends, running for mayor of New York  first as a Republican in 2000, but labeling himself an "Independent" by his final run in  2008.

But in either guise - limousine liberal or weather vane - these remarks, made to the New York Times, cannot help Democrats feel good about their chances some two weeks hence:

On his support for Scott Brown, and on Elizabeth Warren:

"You can question whether he’s too conservative. You can question, in my mind, whether she’s God’s gift to regulation, close the banks and get rid of corporate profits, and we’d all bring socialism back, or the U.S.S.R.”

On Obama's "signature achievement":

“It’s not clear to me that the health care law is an intelligent way to get costs under control and improve the efficiency of health care.”

On the folly of class warfare:

“I particularly don’t like a step function where anybody over or under ‘middle class’ — I don’t know what middle class is. But it’s different in every part of the country. It’s easy for me to say ‘You should live this way.’ But he shouldn’t, or I shouldn’t....

This business of ‘Well, they can afford it; they should pay their fair share?’ Who are you to say ‘Somebody else’s fair share?’


Mind you, this is all coming from a guy who's new PAC...

... Independence USA PAC, which was officially unveiled last week, has pledged to spend up to $15 million in the next two weeks on state, federal and local candidates whose views align with Mr. Bloomberg’s in support of gun control, same-sex marriage and overhauling public schools.


I don't think for a minute Nanny Bloomberg is the political center of anything, except his own universe.  He's just another liberal who claims to be moderate (like many "independents").  And yet if he cannot find common cause with Barack Obama or his cadre of candidates, how will the actual middle American react at the voting booth come November 6th?

That rumble under your feet...oh, hell, you know what that is...

Benghazi Massacre: A Military Failure As Well?

Did our Commander-in-Chief really watch video of our Libyan embassy being attacked, and refused to order any air or military support to its aid?

Apparently, yes:

Our diplomats fought for seven hours without any aid from outside the country. Four Americans died while the Obama national-security team and our military passively watched and listened.

By 4:30 p.m. Washington time, the main consulate building was on fire and Ambassador Stevens was missing. In response, the embassy in Tripoli launched an aircraft carrying 22 men. Benghazi was 400 miles away.

At 5 p.m., President Obama met with Vice President Biden and Secretary of Defense Panetta in the Oval Office. The U.S. military base in Sigonella, Sicily, was 480 miles away from Benghazi. Stationed at Sigonella were Special Operations Forces, transport aircraft, and attack aircraft — a much more formidable force than 22 men from the embassy.

Fighter jets could have been at Benghazi in an hour; the commandos inside three hours. If the attackers were a mob, as intelligence reported, then an F18 in afterburner, roaring like a lion, would unnerve them. This procedure was applied often in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Conversely, if the attackers were terrorists, then the U.S. commandos would eliminate them. But no forces were dispatched from Sigonella.



Lined up at Signonella; but the order never came...

In the meantime, while untrained and poorly led by American standards, the terrorists at Benghazi were proving to be lethal...

...the 22 men from the embassy in Tripoli ...drove to the annex to assist in its defense against persistent terrorist attacks. Around 4 a.m. Libyan time — six hours into the fight — enemy mortar rounds killed two of the defenders on the roof of the annex....

It is bewildering that no U.S. aircraft ever came to the aid of the defenders. If even one F18 had been on station, it would have detected the location of hostiles firing at night and deterred and attacked the mortar sites. For our top leadership, with all the technological and military tools at their disposal, to have done nothing for seven hours was a joint civilian and military failure of initiative and nerve....


Any military commander with a shred of honor would resign his post (as Roger Simon suggests) over this appalling dereliction of duty.  But then again, the man who was charged with giving that order was...Barack Hussein Obama.  Who apparently saw his responsibility at the time as making a few offhand remarks about the death of Ambassador Stevens, while checking his watch to make sure he wouldn't miss his flight to Vegas.   Who won't even fully back down from his bullspit cover story about a YouTube video causing the whole damn mess, even as he is roundly being mocked for making the suggestion in the first place.

Think the media will ever come to ask our feckless CIC what his decision-making process was.during the Benghazi Massacre?

Yeah, me neither.  But maybe Mitt Romney can...



Sunday, October 21, 2012

Sandra Fluke Holds a A "Rally"; Draws....Ten People

Not such a good showing for an "Obama surrogate" and a speaker at the DNC:

Sandra Fluke, the woman at the center of a media firestorm earlier this year after Rush Limbaugh called her a “slut,” spoke Saturday in front of about 10 people at the Sak ‘N Save in north Reno.

The speech was part of a daylong effort by Democrats to get Northern Nevadans to the polls on the first day of early voting.

“I’m trying to do everything I can for an election that I feel is very important. I have a unique opportunity for how I get to do that,” said Fluke, who is coming off recent campaign trips to Colorado, Iowa, New Hampshire and Florida as a surrogate for Democratic President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign.


"About" ten people... wonder how many of them were media?


Via Linda Serratro...I think the"ten" figure sounds generous indeed, and includes Ms. Fluke.  Note that the entire crowd fits into a single parking space...

Here's video:



Not unlike Spinal Tap's "selective" new audience...




The comments to the article linked on top are priceless:

Only 10 people interested???? Great turnout Sandra. You and the Dems keep up the good work. This juat shows me the people in Reno are not buying what you are trying to sell

Horishny thought, I bet she's an easy lay, and she's only a one bag er saker.

Sak N Sav...is the new condom Fluke is promoting. ;)

ON a side note, I wonder how much the SEIU paid these 10 people to watch the Mr. Fluke speak?

MSNBC will probably report there were 10,000 cheering crowds

Hopefully this is a reflection the Dem turnout on election day.

How many were looking for a good time?

An embarrassment to independent, thinking women everywhere. Fluke is a weak, dependent woman who needs Big Poppa Daddy government to take care of her

TEN PEOPLE!!! I can draw a crowd of ten people in a parking lot just by pointing at the sky

Fluke and the democrats are an offense to intelligent women everywhere.

Throw some birth control at her. Maybe she'll go away


Failed Democratic meme #6,372 this election year...and counting.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Bill Clinton, Now Reduced To Insulting The American People...

The surest sign of an impending liberal defeat?  When they start lashing out at the American people for being just too dumb to understand their subtle brilliance.

The latest angry Democrat?  None other then Bill Clinton, who's apparently gone from feeling our pain to wishing to inflict some upon us:

Campaigning for Obama in Green Bay, Wis., Clinton urged voters to stay the course as more signs of a recovery sink in. Clinton said voters should judge Obama on the past three years, in which private sector job growth has made up for lost ground.

“This shouldn’t be a race,” Clinton said. “The only reason it is, is because Americans are impatient on things not made before yesterday and they don’t understand why the economy is not totally hunky-dory again.”


Oh, impatient, are we?  We just don't understand, do we?  We're just simpletons who expect life to to be "hunky-dory", are we?

I don't think so, Mr. Ex-President.  What's pissing you off is that we see right through your empty promises, your hollow rhetoric, and your failed policies, and no amount of your good 'ol boy bullshit can cover up the fact that your (and Obama's) liberal policy prescriptions have failed America, both domestically and abroad. So we have decided to take another direction - based on fact, reason and reality, and have ignored attempts to appeal to our emotions, pull at our heartstrings, or to divide us up by race and class.  In other words - We The People have taken the high road.

So take your insults, Bill, and shove them up your ass.

What's most shocking is that the man we coined "Slick Willie" has apparently lost all his rhetorical charm and argumentative powers; save for preaching to the choir, as he did at the Democratic Convention.  For now that the American people have listened to him and rejected his case, Clinton has resorted to the nasty name-calling that is more typical of the Debbie Wasserman Schultzes and Chris Matthews of the world, and has abandoned any attempt to keep his tone more in line with his beloved "elder statesman" status.

Which says a lot about Bill Clinton.  And even more about the direction the 2012 race is rapidly heading in... 

Yahoo! Works Feverishly To Reassure The Base

Over at The Corner, David French notes the Obama campaign's recent focus on abortion (of all crises, the most compelling, apparently), and makes two salient points:

If a Republican launched a similar base-focused blitz three weeks before the election, the MSM would see that as an unmistakable sign of trouble; and

...The MSM likely won’t report the signs of trouble because they are in part the base that’s being reassured.


If you doubt any of his conclusions, just turn to your local Yahoo! homepage (click to enlarge):


(The final two may seem innocuous, but the "Republican Governor's" story is a plea for tax hikes to accompany and spending cuts, while the last one simply reinforces the anti-Israel, anti-Semetic worldview of the Left.)


One is left to wonder, though....is Yahoo! re-assuring Obama's base, or are their news editors (like the infamous David Chalian) simply trying to reassure...themselves?

Friday, October 19, 2012

Obama's Impending Loss Brings Out His Inner Anti-Semite!

Maybe now that the inevitability of his defeat is beginning to dawn on him, Barack Obama has decided to drop the pretenses and return to his ideological roots, the ones steeped in resentment and hatred.  How else can one explain this blatant pre-election slap in the face to Israel and to American Jews?

An outspoken critic of Israel who once said the Jewish state should be added to the list of 9/11 terror suspects was recently selected by the Obama administration to participate in an international forum on human rights -- sparking outcry from watchdog groups.

The participant, Muslim Public Affairs Council founder Salam al-Marayati, was tapped to be part of the U.S. delegation to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe forum in Poland.

The State Department defended the selection....


Yeah, about as well as they defended Benghazi:

He was invited to participate in this year’s (event) as a reflection of the wide diversity of backgrounds of the American people.”

Well, I do suppose there are a fair amount of anti-Semites in America...nice of Obama to give one such a prominent role in policy-making.  Here's al-Marayati speaking late in the day on September 11th, 2001:

If we’re going to look at suspects, we should look to the groups that benefit the most from these kinds of incidents, and I think we should put the state of Israel on the suspect list because I think this diverts attention from what’s happening in the Palestinian territories so that they can go on with their aggression and occupation and apartheid policies.”


And the ensuing decade has not dampened his hatred.  Government appeasement of al-Marayati and his toxic views have not moderated him any, instead it has provided him with a venue to steep his hatred, and make it a stronger brew.  As recently as this January, al-Marayati played the "U.S. government-as-Zionist-puppet"s canard:

“The United States has done a lot of dirty work that has served the interests of Israel," al-Marayati said in January. "It destroyed Iraq. It supported the destruction and crippling of Egypt. It has crippled the Gulf. And now, it is looking to Iran as the next target for crippling and destroying. Who is driving our foreign policy -‑ President Obama or Prime Minister Netanyahu?


Did Obama think this would slip under the radar?  Maybe; the media has been covering his ass for so long now could be he just assumes they will continue to do so, like some pair of magic underwear.  Or maybe he sees polls like these and just figures, "f*ck 'em":




Some outlets have been trumpeting the 10/11 data, but to me, the truth seems closer to 60/40 Obama, which will likely turn out to be 57%-43% in the voting booth.  Quite the change from 78%-22% margin he enjoyed in 2008.

Which will likely cost Obama Florida.  And maybe Ohio.  And dare I say...even Pennsylvania?

Would a man like Barack Obama - whom some have called a "a wounded child with a fractured ego"  - lash out against the people whom he may believe will cost him re-election? A people whom his former pastor inveighed against, a people whom he has viewed as oppressors, a people whose homeland has chosen a leader (Bibi) who has thwarted his ambitions at every turn?

The appointment of anti-Semite like Salam al-Marayati is the least Obama could do, should he decide to take the ideological  road trodden by so many of his liberal fellows, and blame the Jews for his woes.

In fact, the Jews look to be in pretty deep sh*t no matter how this ends:  Turn against Obama, and feel his wrath for the remainder of his term.  Support him, and watch him twiddle his thumbs and smirk while Iran places nuclear warheads on intercontinental ballistic missiles and points them at Israel.

Wonder what the "78 from 2008" are feeling right now...?

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Intellectually Bankrupt Obama Dragging Down Entire Liberal Establishment

As in business, where one failure can cause a cascade of collapses...

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air lays the marker:

If a campaign’s messaging revolves around Big Bird, binders, and dirty dishes three weeks before the election, it’s a sign of political exhaustion and intellectual bankruptcy.


And maybe that's why we are seeing things like this:

GALLUP: Romney 52, Obama 45 among likely voters.


And wither the media?  Oh:



What was that about intellectual bankruptcy again?  Candy Crawford wet the bed, Yahoo jumps in the sack and rolls around in it...

And someone ought to tell "the ex" that it's a little too late to bite your lip and claim to "feel your pain".   We are beyond emotional reactions as substitute for policy prescriptions,  and nobody's gonna believe it coming from Barack Obama anyway.  Here's Bill Clinton, speaking at a campaign event for Barack Obama:

"Governor Romney's argument is, we're not fixed, so fire him and put me in," said Clinton. "It is true we're not fixed. When President Obama looked into the eyes of that man who said in the debate, I had so much hope four years ago and I don't now, I thought he was going to cry. Because he knows that it's not fixed."


I think he might cry, too.  Our president is, as Sarah Hoyt says, a wounded child with a fractured ego.  Certainly, his entire re-election campaign seem like the work of  one.   Makes me feel a little bad for him.  But not bad enough to vote for him.

Intellectual bankruptcy, as well as financial bankruptcy, are bad enough.  No need to go for a trifecta by re-electing the emotionally bankrupt as well....

Live By Pop Culture, Die By Pop Culture

John McCain was right back in 2008, calling out Barack Obama as little more than another feckless celebrity.  Obama, rather than deny the charge and/or rebut it with some gravitas, preferred to wallow in the celebrity adulation, play off of it, and be a part of it.  After all, how better to excite and motivate the untapped potential of young voters?

Well, they adored him in 2008.  But for celebrity to last more than four years, you either have to prove yourself as truly great at whatever it is you do, or stay cool.  The president, alas, has done neither .  And so:

If there was any doubt that the tidal wave of enthusiasm among young voters that fueled President Obama’s 2008 run has long since receded, a new poll on the millennial generation’s political leanings in the upcoming election cements it.

The Harvard Institute of Politics’ national survey of 18- to 29-year-olds, released on Wednesday, found that while likely young voters favor Obama by a 19-point margin—55 percent to Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s 36 percent—only 48 percent say that they definitely plan to vote next month.

On every issue, from the economy to immigration to health care to foreign affairs, young voters said they trust the president more than Romney. Nonetheless, the Romney supporters appear to be more enthusiastic, with 66 percent who support the former Massachusetts governor saying they will definitely vote, compared to 55 percent of Obama backers.

In 2008, Obama won Indiana, North Carolina, and Virginia with the help of young voters. If all the under-30s had stayed home, the historically red states would have remained in the GOP column....


Who were some of the other biggest celebrities of 2008? Hmmm...Shia LaBeouf? Lauren Conrad? John Mayer? Kevin Federline? Russell Brand? Rosie (gack!) O'Donnell? Duffy?

Yeah, you've still heard of them, they ain't quite dead, but they are as hot as yesterday's coffee.  Such is the life of a celebrity....

Obama confused fame with success.  So did the Nobel committee  apparently.

"The present condition of fame is merely fashion", said Gilbert K. Chesterton.  And our president, who rode into office on fame, has suddenly found himself as unfashionable as bell-bottoms.  And no amount of spin is going to convince America that either one of them deserves a comeback...

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Mitt Romney's "Binder" Gives Him A New Friend In the Democratic party...



When this is all the Democrats have left to throw at Mitt Romney - the phrase "binder full of women", and Big Bird - you know they are feeling the rumble of the landslide beneath their feet...

All over but the voting...

No Wonder The Obama Campaign Is So Big On "Early Voting"

Seems like they are expecting the final jobs report -due November 2nd, a scant five days before Election Day - to be a stinker:

Last week’s jobs report provided President Barack Obama with perhaps the only bit of good news since his disastrous debate against Mitt Romney, but there are suggestions that the figure could wind up having been too much, too soon for Obama.

“Of course we’re worried about it,” admitted an Obama campaign aide, on the prospect of an eleventh hour jobs report showing a spike in the unemployment rate. “But thankfully a large portion of the country will have voted by then.”

Indeed, a higher figure is not just possible; many on both sides see it as likely.

“The unemployment rate in the next jobs report will likely be higher than 7.8,” said American Enterprise Institute economist Michael Strain. “Whether that is 7.9, 8.0, 8.1, I don’t know.”

“The conspiracy stuff is BS and a distraction,” he added, saying that the data fundamentals provide enough reason to consider a so-called “November Surprise” a major possibility. “That being said, it’s also true that 800,000 jobs weren’t created in September.“ 


Personally, I don't think it will matter much.  It has been foreseen that Barack Obama himself will locate the villains culpable for the Benghazi Massacre, and launch an attack on Thursday, November 1st.  Our media will trumpet his heroism with patriotic fanfare (and none of the world-weary, "Fahrenheit 9/11" skepticism that accompanied any military maneuver by George W. Bush), and any bad economic news will be swept under the rug as reporters rush the podium to pin another medal on Dear Leader...


Tuesday, October 16, 2012

...And The French Ask Nervously, "Qui est John Galt?"

The French dumped capitalism for socialism in their last national election.  How's that working out?

Some business leaders are in a state of quasi-panic,” said Laurence Parisot, head of employers’ group MEDEF.

“The pace of bankruptcies has accelerated over the summer. We are seeing a general loss of confidence by investors. Large foreign investors are shunning France altogether. It’s becoming really dramatic.”

MEDEF, France’s equivalent of the CBI [the Confederation of British Industry], said the threat has risen from “a storm warning to a hurricane warning”, adding that the Socialist government of François Hollande has yet to understand the “extreme gravity” of the crisis. The immediate bone of contention is Article 6 of the new tax law, which raises the top rate of capital gains tax from 34.5pc to 62.2pc. This compares with 21pc in Spain, 26.4pc in Germany and 28pc in Britain.


Nigel Farage, the last sane man in Europe, calls it a "hate tax".

Barack Obama calls it "spreading the wealth"...and while we are not in French territory yet, we are edging there.  If he gets four more years, and the "flexibility" that comes with it, well...



Debate Prep: How Romney Can Shut Obama Up Tonight

Just ask about...Benghazi.

Watch "The Benghazi Effect" here:




 Reporter: How are you feeling about tonight?

Obama:  I feel fabulous. Look at this beautiful day. Hope you enjoy the weather.

Reporter:  Are you aware Michelle voted for you yesterday?

Obama: Thank goodness!

Reporter: Is Hillary to blame for Benghazi?

Obama: [Silence].


Is he saving his answers for tonight, or is the above going to be his answer for tonight?  Or, with CNN's Candy Crowley on the case, does he know that the fix is already in?


  (video via The Washington Free Beacon)

Yahoo's #1 Douchebag Finds A New Home

Remember Yahoo's former Washington Bureau Chief, David Chalian?  I do:

In video broadcast Monday night by ABC and Yahoo over the Internet, Chalian can be heard claiming that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his wife Ann are unconcerned about the fate of residents of the New Orleans area who are currently being hit by Hurricane Isaac.

“They aren’t concerned at all,” Chalian can be heard on the live broadcast. “They are happy to have a party when black people drown.



That was too much even for the left wingnuts at Yahoo; they fired him moments later. But another almost-mainstream media outfit didn't mind the stench at all - smelled like home to them. And presto! - six weeks later, David Chalian is back in business. Via Politico:

David Chalian is getting back in the business.

The veteran journalist has been named vice president of video programming at POLITICO to enhance video quality and content across new and existing platforms, including the POLITICO LIVE programs, according to an internal memo.


Note how Politico describes Chalian's downfall:

The remark, a reference to the fact that the convention was taking place while Hurricane Issac was battering the northern Gulf coast, was deemed "inappropriate" by Yahoo News.


Are those scare quotes??

It's comedy gold, actually. But black comedy.  Like Doctor Strangelove meets Heathers in Fargo...

POLITICO Editor-in-Chief John Harris said management took Chalian's remark into consideration prior to hiring him.


And then asked himself,  "How could such a valuable free agent still be on the market! Let's grab him quick, and pay him whatever he wants!"

Harris goes on:

This is a journalist who carries with him more than a decade of accomplishment and a well-earned reputation for fairness. We do not believe that lapse in one moment negates a reputation held in high regard by political professionals in both parties.


Actually, he and his previous employer have exactly the opposite reputation. And this blogger can prove it.  See here, here, here, here and here, and here and here...and here. Oh, and here.

The "one lapse" comment is priceless, coming from a news organization who has spent the entire election cycle trying to pin "lapses" on Mitt Romney so as to make him un-electable. I'll keep this one on file, the next time Politco plays the "gotcha" game...

And I'll let a commentator over at Red State finish the job:

Why does Politico think it relevant how he's regarded by "political professionals in both parties"? Isn't that a bit like a watchdog who's "well regarded" by the wolves?


Yeah, but that's the incest that has been part of the government/media matrix for some time.  It's why they've lost all credibility, but it also explains why they don't care: They are more than willing to act as propaganda fops for the Left if it affords them the opportunity to get a government job.  Who needs private sector risk when Big Government will give you security, fame, and access to power?

No wonder they hate us.  We're trying to yank the rails out from beneath their gravy train...

In Which We See The Genius Of Yahoo News At Work...

Their analysis of the race to capture control of the Senate is really...something. David Rothschild writes for their in-house news blog, "The Signal", and concludes:

The more competitive races there are, the more the possible outcomes multiply. The Democrats could end up with a comfortable margin, or easily lose the chamber.


And they call this..."news"?  Inconcieveable....

Hey, it's Yahoo...

Truly, Mr. Rothschild, you have a dazzling intellect....