...just not in the direction that Americans were hoping. Oh, he's got a plan all right...and if you've read Stanley's Kurtz's magnificent Radical In Chief, you'll know exactly where he intends to take this nation.
Mr. Kurtz explains what Obama is up to, and suggests a way to stop him:
It seems disrespectful to attribute an ideology to the president that he himself won’t own up to. Words like “radical,” much less “socialist,” sound impolite. Yet, without defining the president in a way that happens to be not only politically advantageous, but true, I doubt Obama can be stopped. Telling the truth about this president is how we shellacked him to begin with.
Obama gains immensely by fudging or simply keeping silent about his ideological commitments and long-term plans. (The imaginary ten-year out projections in the current budget, of course, are a cover for next year’s expansion of government and do not represent the president’s actual long-term plans.)...The real disrespect, of course, is Obama’s failure to own up to his own ideology. Yet Republicans have retreated of late from attempts to (accurately) define the president. That is a recipe for failure.
It will not do to chastise Obama’s budget proposal as a simple “refusal to lead,” a “punt,” or a “cynical political maneuver.” Obama isn’t failing to lead. He is very cleverly leading us toward an irreversible expansion of the welfare state. If Obama is reelected and in control when the entitlement crisis finally does hit, he will manage the country toward Euro-style taxes and Euro-style socialism....
The notion that Obama plans to use Republican proposals for cuts to kick off a movement of “angry and mobilized” beneficiaries is exactly right. Obama’s 2010 attacks on the Chamber of Commerce and his infamous “punish your enemies” exhortation were efforts to do the same thing.... And in the absence of an honest avowal of his plans and motives in the present, only the past reveals the truth about this president’s vision of the future....
Kurtz is suggesting a philosophical attack that both Ayn Rand and Aristotle would have recognized: "A is A".
In Aristotle’s words, "A is A". It means that a thing is itself and no other thing. It means that a thing has a specific nature and no other nature. It means simply that there are no contradictions in reality.
And thus, you cannot claim to be a budget cutter when you lay out a ten-year projection that increases spending and deficits. You cannot claim to be a capitalist when you seek a command-and control economy fronted by the EPA. You cannot claim to love freedom, and then block out the press like a third-rate governor of a banana republic.
Kurtz says tell it as it is, and point out the contradictions between what Obama says he is doing, and what he is actually doing. And then ask if A=A.
In Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, the denial of this equation by politicians and labor leaders causes almost the complete breakdown in society. Something that seems less fanciful now than it might have when many of us first read her epic tome.
Kurtz, like Aristotle and Rand, is right. The American people can do the math. It's the media and the President that are trying so hard to obscure this most simple equation.
Let's not play the economic version of "the religion of peace" game. Call a thing what it is, and prove that A=A. Once the logic becomes inescapable, and the math easily provable, all the distracting racket that Obama, the Democrats, and the media create won't drown out where this budgets is planning to take us.
To Europe. If we're lucky. If we're not, well....ever wonder why Obama seems to light up every time Hugo Chavez walks into a room?
วันอังคาร, กุมภาพันธ์ 15, 2554
So Obama Attempts To Punt....
...on the budget. He's trying to push the Republicans (and the American people) back as deep as he can, so when they try to move forward - to get the budget cuts they need to survive as a nation - they will face a long and difficult road to the end zone.
Obama will play defense, fighting tooth and nail to prevent the American people from keeping their earnings and keeping their house in fiscal order. His plan is to wear us down, with insults, innuendo, lies, and sob-stories from the media, in the hope we will grind to a halt, exhausted, around midfield. At worst, he believes, he will surrender a long field goal, which he can then call compromise as he walks off the field with a bankrupting victory.
Don't let him.. His punt - the word of the day - must be blocked. Let's get our hands on it before he kicks it aloft, let's send it spinning back to the ground, and let a mad scramble ensue.
Because at that point, anything can happen....
Obama will play defense, fighting tooth and nail to prevent the American people from keeping their earnings and keeping their house in fiscal order. His plan is to wear us down, with insults, innuendo, lies, and sob-stories from the media, in the hope we will grind to a halt, exhausted, around midfield. At worst, he believes, he will surrender a long field goal, which he can then call compromise as he walks off the field with a bankrupting victory.
Don't let him.. His punt - the word of the day - must be blocked. Let's get our hands on it before he kicks it aloft, let's send it spinning back to the ground, and let a mad scramble ensue.
Because at that point, anything can happen....
วันจันทร์, กุมภาพันธ์ 14, 2554
The Madness Of Barack Obama's Budget
Jaw-dropping at best, deeply, deeply cynical at worst. The voters spoke in November, and Obama has decided to ignore them. A few of the numbers that jump out:
$3.73 trillion — total spending this year (25 percent of GDP).
$46 trillion — total spending over the next decade.
$8.7 trillion — total new spending over the same period.
$26.3 trillion — Total new debt, including entitlement obligations, predicted by 2021.
$7.2 trillion — Total deficit predicted by the end of the decade.
$1.1 trillion — How much the White House estimates the proposal will reduce the deficit over the next ten years.
$4 trillion — How much the president’s deficit commission recommended reducing the deficit over the next ten years to avoid financial catastrophe.
$1.6 trillion — The revised deficit project for 2011 (11 percent of GDP), up from $1.3 trillion in 2010.
$2 trillion — Amount the budget will raise taxes on business and upper-income families over the next ten years, which includes letting the Bush-era tax rates expire in 2012 (for incomes $250,000 and up).
$50 billion — Amount the administration plans to spend this year on infrastructure and transportation “investments.”
$9.9 billion — Funding allocated for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a 30 percent increase from 2008 levels.
8.2 percent — Predicted unemployment rate in 2012. (ha!)
Yeah. It's as insane as it looks. The reviews are in, and they ain't too kind:
Fred Barnes:
Let’s be candid about President Obama’s budget. It’s pathetic....
Obama’s plan includes spending hikes in some areas. The most egregious may be $53 billion for construction of high-speed rail in Florida, California and several other states. This is one of the least cost-effective projects in the history of wasteful government spending. Yet it’s one of the president’s pet projects, and he appears more wedded to it than to taming the rise in the national debt.
The Obama budget is so unresponsive to the fiscal situation that it prompts this question: it’s merely a tactical budget. ... Obama has set the stage to attack Republicans for proposing spending cuts certain to be deeper than those Obama is advocating...
Yuval Levin:
The message of the budget the Obama administration released today is the same as the message the president delivered in his State of the Union address: All is well, full speed ahead, and let’s invest a little more in solar panels and high-speed rail.
This message seems clearly to be a function of a political calculation: that voters do not want to face the coming debt crisis, and so it would be bad politics to force them to do so.
Whether they’re right or not, however, the substantive result of their political premise is a willful blindness that makes for a budget that is completely detached from reality.
The president appears to have decided to spend the next two years pretending there is no problem to solve, and therefore that Republican proposals to rein in spending are just mean-spirited cuts offered up for kicks.
This is, above all, an appalling failure of leadership. When we look back on this period a decade or two from now, I think we’ll identify this moment — the president’s decision about how to approach the budget battle of 2012 — as the last real opportunity we had for a gradual bipartisan course correction. That option now seems closed off...
Kevin Hassett:
President Obama’s budget actually lifts 2012 spending significantly over the current CBO baseline. This increase signals that he has decided to try to push the Republicans towards a high-drama showdown on spending. He clearly thinks that he can win such a showdown, but I wonder...
Grover Norquist:
The “budget” unveiled by Barack Obama doesn’t pass the laugh test. It is a pretend feint to moderation...Now we see that Obama is back to his last two years as the committed man of the left driving hard left as fast as he can push without pausing to see how the nation reacts.
Oh - and about those tax increases Obama is praying for - they were DOA in a Democratic controlled Congress, so is he just playing games, is he deeply and dangerously delusional, or has he decided to go down as the person he really is - a devoted socialist?
The plan unveiled Monday includes tax increases for oil, gas and coal producers, investment managers and U.S.-based multinational corporations. The plan would allow Bush-era tax cuts to expire at the end of 2012 for individuals making more than $200,000 and married couples making more than $250,000. Wealthy taxpayers would have their itemized deductions limited, including deductions for mortgage interest, charitable contributions and state and local taxes.
To be redistributed thusly:
Obama's proposal would extend tax credits for college expenses and child care, as well as a more generous Earned Income Tax Credit for the working poor. The plan would...provide tax breaks for investing in advanced manufacturing and for making commercial buildings more energy efficient.
$3.73 trillion — total spending this year (25 percent of GDP).
$46 trillion — total spending over the next decade.
$8.7 trillion — total new spending over the same period.
$26.3 trillion — Total new debt, including entitlement obligations, predicted by 2021.
$7.2 trillion — Total deficit predicted by the end of the decade.
$1.1 trillion — How much the White House estimates the proposal will reduce the deficit over the next ten years.
$4 trillion — How much the president’s deficit commission recommended reducing the deficit over the next ten years to avoid financial catastrophe.
$1.6 trillion — The revised deficit project for 2011 (11 percent of GDP), up from $1.3 trillion in 2010.
$2 trillion — Amount the budget will raise taxes on business and upper-income families over the next ten years, which includes letting the Bush-era tax rates expire in 2012 (for incomes $250,000 and up).
$50 billion — Amount the administration plans to spend this year on infrastructure and transportation “investments.”
$9.9 billion — Funding allocated for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a 30 percent increase from 2008 levels.
8.2 percent — Predicted unemployment rate in 2012. (ha!)
Yeah. It's as insane as it looks. The reviews are in, and they ain't too kind:
Fred Barnes:
Let’s be candid about President Obama’s budget. It’s pathetic....
Obama’s plan includes spending hikes in some areas. The most egregious may be $53 billion for construction of high-speed rail in Florida, California and several other states. This is one of the least cost-effective projects in the history of wasteful government spending. Yet it’s one of the president’s pet projects, and he appears more wedded to it than to taming the rise in the national debt.
The Obama budget is so unresponsive to the fiscal situation that it prompts this question: it’s merely a tactical budget. ... Obama has set the stage to attack Republicans for proposing spending cuts certain to be deeper than those Obama is advocating...
Yuval Levin:
The message of the budget the Obama administration released today is the same as the message the president delivered in his State of the Union address: All is well, full speed ahead, and let’s invest a little more in solar panels and high-speed rail.
This message seems clearly to be a function of a political calculation: that voters do not want to face the coming debt crisis, and so it would be bad politics to force them to do so.
Whether they’re right or not, however, the substantive result of their political premise is a willful blindness that makes for a budget that is completely detached from reality.
The president appears to have decided to spend the next two years pretending there is no problem to solve, and therefore that Republican proposals to rein in spending are just mean-spirited cuts offered up for kicks.
This is, above all, an appalling failure of leadership. When we look back on this period a decade or two from now, I think we’ll identify this moment — the president’s decision about how to approach the budget battle of 2012 — as the last real opportunity we had for a gradual bipartisan course correction. That option now seems closed off...
Kevin Hassett:
President Obama’s budget actually lifts 2012 spending significantly over the current CBO baseline. This increase signals that he has decided to try to push the Republicans towards a high-drama showdown on spending. He clearly thinks that he can win such a showdown, but I wonder...
Grover Norquist:
The “budget” unveiled by Barack Obama doesn’t pass the laugh test. It is a pretend feint to moderation...Now we see that Obama is back to his last two years as the committed man of the left driving hard left as fast as he can push without pausing to see how the nation reacts.
Oh - and about those tax increases Obama is praying for - they were DOA in a Democratic controlled Congress, so is he just playing games, is he deeply and dangerously delusional, or has he decided to go down as the person he really is - a devoted socialist?
The plan unveiled Monday includes tax increases for oil, gas and coal producers, investment managers and U.S.-based multinational corporations. The plan would allow Bush-era tax cuts to expire at the end of 2012 for individuals making more than $200,000 and married couples making more than $250,000. Wealthy taxpayers would have their itemized deductions limited, including deductions for mortgage interest, charitable contributions and state and local taxes.
To be redistributed thusly:
Obama's proposal would extend tax credits for college expenses and child care, as well as a more generous Earned Income Tax Credit for the working poor. The plan would...provide tax breaks for investing in advanced manufacturing and for making commercial buildings more energy efficient.
Out of all the things we have seen from Barack Obama in the last 2+ years, this is assuredly the most irrational. Does it all come down to politics, and the hope that he can paint Republicans as evil curmudgeons, with an assist from the media, who will fall over backwards to present human interest sob-stories?
Deeply, deeply cynical. Almost criminal, in terms of a dereliction of duty. Where are all the Leftys who told us how smart he was, and all the media mavens and RHINOs who assured us that deep in his heart, Obama was a "moderate".
They're probably doing what I've already done. Buried my money deep in the woods, in sealed mason jars....
How The West Became Wealthy...And How We Can Get It All Back
It's not about "stimulus" plans, or "smart investing", or bullet trains or green jobs...
Can you believe all it might really take is...the freedom to work, think, and believe untethered from government coercion?
The result was that for the first time in human history the ordinary people, and especially the very poor, were made much better off. Much, much better off...
Explains why places like the Middle East have barely moved past the Middle Ages. Explains why China, as it has become more "liberal" (with a long ways to go) has become so much more dynamic. Explains why the "Social Democracies" of Europe have been mired in the economic mud for decades.
Explains why that despite all the potential of our great nation with its great people, we are going nowhere, fast, as our leadership works harder and harder every day to burden business with excessive regulations and to limit American's freedom of choice in a no-longer-transparent design to have the government exert control over virtually every aspect of our lives.
The results are all around us - in the boarded-up storefronts, the unemployment lines, and the world's race to tie their chariots to a new horse...
Good luck trying to tell Barack Obama, though. He's knee-deep in Alinsky and Mao...and alas, so are we....
Can you believe all it might really take is...the freedom to work, think, and believe untethered from government coercion?
Yeah:
Starting in the 1700s with Franklin’s lightning rod and Watt’s steam engine, and going nuts in the 1800s, and nuttier in the 1900s, the West, which for thousands of years had played technological second fiddle to China, became astoundingly innovative.
Give the middle class dignity and liberty for the first time in human history and here’s what you get: the steam engine, the automatic textile loom, the assembly line, the symphony orchestra, the railway, the corporation, abolitionism, the steam printing press, cheap paper, literacy, cheap steel, cheap plate glass, the modern university, the modern newspaper, clean water, reinforced concrete, the women’s movement, the electric light, the elevator, the automobile, petroleum, vacations in Yellowstone, plastics, half a million new English-language books a year, hybrid corn, penicillin, the airplane, clean urban air, civil rights, open-heart surgery and the computer.The result was that for the first time in human history the ordinary people, and especially the very poor, were made much better off. Much, much better off...
Explains why places like the Middle East have barely moved past the Middle Ages. Explains why China, as it has become more "liberal" (with a long ways to go) has become so much more dynamic. Explains why the "Social Democracies" of Europe have been mired in the economic mud for decades.
Explains why that despite all the potential of our great nation with its great people, we are going nowhere, fast, as our leadership works harder and harder every day to burden business with excessive regulations and to limit American's freedom of choice in a no-longer-transparent design to have the government exert control over virtually every aspect of our lives.
The results are all around us - in the boarded-up storefronts, the unemployment lines, and the world's race to tie their chariots to a new horse...
Good luck trying to tell Barack Obama, though. He's knee-deep in Alinsky and Mao...and alas, so are we....
วันอาทิตย์, กุมภาพันธ์ 13, 2554
Sunday Snark, Featuring Al Gore, Gilligan, & Mary Anne
From Rex Murphy at Canada's National Post:
Shakespeare never fails. When I read that Gaia's First Messenger Here on Earth, the very face and clammy palms of global warming itself, Al Gore, had invited the Edward R. Morrow of the Twitterverse, latterly of the compulsively progressive MSNBC, Keith Olbermann, to join his Current TV cable network, the familiar "Let us not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments" unfailingly suggested itself. Gore-Olbermann: never so fruitful a partnership since Gilligan and the Skipper.
With Gore as the morbidly obese Skipper, of course, chasing around his, ahem, "little buddy"
Gilligan, if only to whack him with his cap, a comeuppance to some barely conceivable act of stupidity.
Alas, there won't be much "hat-whacking" between these two lovebirds, as they have way too much in common. But if Murphy is going to quote The Immortal Bard, well, I will avail myself to his words equally, and present a portion of Love Sonnet #29, now renamed "Keith's Lament":
When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf Heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featur'd like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least:
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising....
And coming soon to Current TV:
Although, if Gore really wanted to improve the ratings on Current TV, perhaps he should have skipped his "little buddy", and gone for the gusto with Ginger and Mary Anne (NNSFW):
Shakespeare never fails. When I read that Gaia's First Messenger Here on Earth, the very face and clammy palms of global warming itself, Al Gore, had invited the Edward R. Morrow of the Twitterverse, latterly of the compulsively progressive MSNBC, Keith Olbermann, to join his Current TV cable network, the familiar "Let us not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments" unfailingly suggested itself. Gore-Olbermann: never so fruitful a partnership since Gilligan and the Skipper.
With Gore as the morbidly obese Skipper, of course, chasing around his, ahem, "little buddy"
Gilligan, if only to whack him with his cap, a comeuppance to some barely conceivable act of stupidity.Alas, there won't be much "hat-whacking" between these two lovebirds, as they have way too much in common. But if Murphy is going to quote The Immortal Bard, well, I will avail myself to his words equally, and present a portion of Love Sonnet #29, now renamed "Keith's Lament":
When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf Heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featur'd like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least:
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising....
And coming soon to Current TV:
Although, if Gore really wanted to improve the ratings on Current TV, perhaps he should have skipped his "little buddy", and gone for the gusto with Ginger and Mary Anne (NNSFW):
วันเสาร์, กุมภาพันธ์ 12, 2554
Mubarak Slams Obama On The Way Out....
...the bitter words of a departing despot or a prophecy of doom? Time will tell, but one thing he's right about, for sure: Barack Obama is an idiot.
Ironic that he should cry on the shoulder of an Israeli lawmaker, but as sanity slowly (ohm so slowly) comes to the Middle East and Europe, some folks are finally starting to see who the good guys really are. Except Barack Obama, of course. Because he's an idiot.
Anyway - the Book of Mubarak, as told by former Israeli cabinet minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer
"He had very tough things to say about the United States," said Ben-Eliezer, a member of the Labor Party who has held talks with Mubarak on numerous occasions while serving in various Israeli coalition governments.
"He gave me a lesson in democracy and said: 'We see the democracy the United States spearheaded in Iran and with Hamas, in Gaza, and that's the fate of the Middle East,'" Ben-Eliezer said.
"'They may be talking about democracy but they don't know what they're talking about and the result will be extremism and radical Islam,'" he quoted Mubarak as saying.
U.S. support for pro-democracy elements in Iran has not led to regime change in the Islamic Republic, and Hamas, a group Washington considers to be a terrorist organization, won a 2006 Palestinian election promoted by the United States.
Well, he's right about our track record of hoping for the best with groups whose behavior has been the worst, but one is starting to see much less tolerance and acceptance internationally of handing over more power, moneis, and land to to the likes of Hezbollah and Hamas. One would hope that if the "international community" made it clear to the Egyptian "transition team" that the Muslim Brotherhood would not be a "helpful" political partner, perhaps they could be elbowed aside.
If Obama were smart (sigh), he would hold a little chat with the Egyptian generals - play ball with us, and we'll keep you flush with cash, weapons, and intelligence. Play with Islamists, and you're on your own - and expect your military to be depreciated and degraded by the end of the decade, susceptible to attack by any gaggle of fundamentalist flame-throwers...
The Egyptian military is, for now, saying all the right things:
Egypt's new military leadership vowed Saturday to pave the way for democracy and abide by its peace treaty with Israel, as Egyptians basked in their victory a day after Hosni Mubarak's overthrow.
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces said the current government would remain in place for a peaceful transition to "an elected civil authority to build a free democratic state," although it set no timetable.
Will our hope finally be repaid, or will Mubarak's prophecy of doom be realized?
Not even the wisest can say...
Ironic that he should cry on the shoulder of an Israeli lawmaker, but as sanity slowly (ohm so slowly) comes to the Middle East and Europe, some folks are finally starting to see who the good guys really are. Except Barack Obama, of course. Because he's an idiot.
Anyway - the Book of Mubarak, as told by former Israeli cabinet minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer
"He had very tough things to say about the United States," said Ben-Eliezer, a member of the Labor Party who has held talks with Mubarak on numerous occasions while serving in various Israeli coalition governments.
"He gave me a lesson in democracy and said: 'We see the democracy the United States spearheaded in Iran and with Hamas, in Gaza, and that's the fate of the Middle East,'" Ben-Eliezer said.
"'They may be talking about democracy but they don't know what they're talking about and the result will be extremism and radical Islam,'" he quoted Mubarak as saying.
U.S. support for pro-democracy elements in Iran has not led to regime change in the Islamic Republic, and Hamas, a group Washington considers to be a terrorist organization, won a 2006 Palestinian election promoted by the United States.
Well, he's right about our track record of hoping for the best with groups whose behavior has been the worst, but one is starting to see much less tolerance and acceptance internationally of handing over more power, moneis, and land to to the likes of Hezbollah and Hamas. One would hope that if the "international community" made it clear to the Egyptian "transition team" that the Muslim Brotherhood would not be a "helpful" political partner, perhaps they could be elbowed aside.
If Obama were smart (sigh), he would hold a little chat with the Egyptian generals - play ball with us, and we'll keep you flush with cash, weapons, and intelligence. Play with Islamists, and you're on your own - and expect your military to be depreciated and degraded by the end of the decade, susceptible to attack by any gaggle of fundamentalist flame-throwers...
The Egyptian military is, for now, saying all the right things:
Egypt's new military leadership vowed Saturday to pave the way for democracy and abide by its peace treaty with Israel, as Egyptians basked in their victory a day after Hosni Mubarak's overthrow.
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces said the current government would remain in place for a peaceful transition to "an elected civil authority to build a free democratic state," although it set no timetable.
Will our hope finally be repaid, or will Mubarak's prophecy of doom be realized?
Not even the wisest can say...
Atlas Shrugged: Part I
So they are really making it. And it looks better than I thought. Love the release date - April 15th, 2011.
The most anticipated trilogy since the The Lord of the Rings? Maybe....
The most anticipated trilogy since the The Lord of the Rings? Maybe....
วันศุกร์, กุมภาพันธ์ 11, 2554
The Pharaoh Phalls; Ahmadinejad Shrieks "Death To Israel!"
Chaos, thy name is the Middle East. Mubarak has flown the coup, and left the military in de facto charge of the Egyptian nation. In Iran, the hardliners celebrate the 32nd anniversary of the revolution that brought them to power, and issue a call to arms to the radical factions within Egypt:
Iran's president said Friday that Egypt's popular uprising shows a new Islamic Middle East is emerging, one that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claims will have no signs of Israel and U.S. "interference."
Despite all the (West's) complicated and satanic designs ... a new Middle East is emerging without the Zionist regime and U.S. interference, a place where the arrogant powers will have no place," Ahmadinejad told the crowd.
He also urged Egyptian protesters to persevere until there is a regime change. "It's your right to be free. It's your right to exercise your will and sovereignty ... and choose the type of government and the rulers."
After his address, Ahmadinejad carried a placard reading, "Death to Israel."
Bizarre, as Ahnadinejad tends to slaughter regime protesters in Iran. Of course, if Obama had supported the "Green Uprising" in Iran - instead of supporting the mullahs to fulfill his own self-delusional destiny of making peace with, or surrendering to them - then perhaps the Egyptian people would not have to deal with the spectre of a madman calling the armies of the fanatical into a regional war with Israel and America.
Nature abhors a power vacuum. As President Hamlet dithers and preens, the sick and evil fill the space that should be held by the righteous.
And the saints weep...
Now my mind is filled with rubber tires and forest fires
And whether I'm a liar
And lots of other situations
Where I don't know what to do
At which time God screams to me
There's nothing left for me to tell you
Nothing left for me to tell you
Nothing left
Oh well, oh well, oh well, oh well
~The White Stripes, Little Cream Soda
Iran's president said Friday that Egypt's popular uprising shows a new Islamic Middle East is emerging, one that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claims will have no signs of Israel and U.S. "interference."
Despite all the (West's) complicated and satanic designs ... a new Middle East is emerging without the Zionist regime and U.S. interference, a place where the arrogant powers will have no place," Ahmadinejad told the crowd.
He also urged Egyptian protesters to persevere until there is a regime change. "It's your right to be free. It's your right to exercise your will and sovereignty ... and choose the type of government and the rulers."
After his address, Ahmadinejad carried a placard reading, "Death to Israel."
Bizarre, as Ahnadinejad tends to slaughter regime protesters in Iran. Of course, if Obama had supported the "Green Uprising" in Iran - instead of supporting the mullahs to fulfill his own self-delusional destiny of making peace with, or surrendering to them - then perhaps the Egyptian people would not have to deal with the spectre of a madman calling the armies of the fanatical into a regional war with Israel and America.
Nature abhors a power vacuum. As President Hamlet dithers and preens, the sick and evil fill the space that should be held by the righteous.
And the saints weep...
Now my mind is filled with rubber tires and forest fires
And whether I'm a liar
And lots of other situations
Where I don't know what to do
At which time God screams to me
There's nothing left for me to tell you
Nothing left for me to tell you
Nothing left
Oh well, oh well, oh well, oh well
~The White Stripes, Little Cream Soda
Friday Special: Alison Haislip Stars In "Hot Girl With Big Guns"
G4 is the best cable network for males - save for late-night Cinemax - as it primarily focuses on 
video games, snarky commentary, and violent tongue-in-cheek action flicks...all served up by the likes of Olivia Munn and Alison Haislip.
What is it about women with automatic weapons that drive a man wild? I can't answer the question, but if you want to, ah, "research the issue further", check out this video below of Miss Haislip at the Oklahoma Full Shoot and
Trade Show, basting away with everything from Uzis to an M-134.
My favorite parts? One is at 2:19, where she turns from the gunsights and cracks an ear-to-ear, shit-eating grin as she is consumed by the thrill of the massive firepower at her command. And at the 2:49 mark, where she says exactly what I was thinking throughout the entire video: "God Bless America!"
Enjoy:
Hat Tip: Barking Moonbat
Hmmm....will a few more pictures of Alison Haislip make this a Rule 5-worthy post? Let's see:
video games, snarky commentary, and violent tongue-in-cheek action flicks...all served up by the likes of Olivia Munn and Alison Haislip.What is it about women with automatic weapons that drive a man wild? I can't answer the question, but if you want to, ah, "research the issue further", check out this video below of Miss Haislip at the Oklahoma Full Shoot and
Trade Show, basting away with everything from Uzis to an M-134.My favorite parts? One is at 2:19, where she turns from the gunsights and cracks an ear-to-ear, shit-eating grin as she is consumed by the thrill of the massive firepower at her command. And at the 2:49 mark, where she says exactly what I was thinking throughout the entire video: "God Bless America!"
Enjoy:
Hat Tip: Barking Moonbat
Hmmm....will a few more pictures of Alison Haislip make this a Rule 5-worthy post? Let's see:
Obama Gets Bitch-Slapped By The Pharaoh
No doubt Obama was walking around the White House yesterday pounding his chest and expecting to come out of the Egyptian Crisis as King of the Arab World (and perhaps secretly believing he would show the naysayers that yes, he was Nobel Peace Prize worthy) as he awaiting Mubarak's surrender of power yesterday.
Alas, the Pharaoh p'wnd the president once again - and singled him out for a bitch-slap as he spoke to the increasingly restive Egyptian people:
And I tell you here, as a head of state, I do not find any embarrassment at all in listening to the youth of my country, and to satisfying their demands. But the embarrassment would only lie in the fact — and I would never permit — is that I would listen to any sort of intervention that would come from outside, from the outside world, whatever the source is, whatever the intention behind them are.
I had never ever been accepting any sort of foreign intervention in Egyptian affairs.....
We are going to prove that we the Egyptians, our sense of awareness, of the demands of its people through a national dialogue, through the wise dialogue, we're going to prove that we are not followers to anybody, we're not going to take instructions from anybody, and no one is going to take decisions on our behalf, except only the rhythm of the street and the demands of the people...
Look like you f*cked this up too, Baracky. Regardless of who holds power in the future, you have irreparably ruptured the Egyptian-American relationship by allowing us to be cast as Western provocateurs. Your pathetic attempts at strong-arming in the Middle East has now completed a trifecta of failure - ignored by Israel, mocked by the Palestinians, slapped away by the Egyptians.
You want to learn how to strong-arm in the Middle East, little bitch-boy? Talk to your predecessor - maybe George W. Bush didn't speak well, but he carried a real big f*cking stick. Alas, your cowardice is well known throughout the region, and your words now fall on deaf ears.
Alas, the Pharaoh p'wnd the president once again - and singled him out for a bitch-slap as he spoke to the increasingly restive Egyptian people:
And I tell you here, as a head of state, I do not find any embarrassment at all in listening to the youth of my country, and to satisfying their demands. But the embarrassment would only lie in the fact — and I would never permit — is that I would listen to any sort of intervention that would come from outside, from the outside world, whatever the source is, whatever the intention behind them are.
I had never ever been accepting any sort of foreign intervention in Egyptian affairs.....
We are going to prove that we the Egyptians, our sense of awareness, of the demands of its people through a national dialogue, through the wise dialogue, we're going to prove that we are not followers to anybody, we're not going to take instructions from anybody, and no one is going to take decisions on our behalf, except only the rhythm of the street and the demands of the people...
Look like you f*cked this up too, Baracky. Regardless of who holds power in the future, you have irreparably ruptured the Egyptian-American relationship by allowing us to be cast as Western provocateurs. Your pathetic attempts at strong-arming in the Middle East has now completed a trifecta of failure - ignored by Israel, mocked by the Palestinians, slapped away by the Egyptians.
You want to learn how to strong-arm in the Middle East, little bitch-boy? Talk to your predecessor - maybe George W. Bush didn't speak well, but he carried a real big f*cking stick. Alas, your cowardice is well known throughout the region, and your words now fall on deaf ears.
วันพฤหัสบดี, กุมภาพันธ์ 10, 2554
Arianna Huffington and Slave-Era Economics
What else would you call someone who earns tens of millions of dollars off of unpaid labor? The Huffington Post was built on the back of earnest (liberal) bloggers, who apparently have seen nary a dime since day one:
To the extent that some of the backroom folks still aren’t getting paid (according to Wikipedia, the operation has about 60 employees), they have lots of company. Since start-up, HuffPo hasn’t paid its bloggers either, despite getting $1 million, $5 million, $5 million, and $25 million, respectively, in angel, first-stage, second-stage, and third-stage funding, and achieving revenues of about $30 million...
And apparently AOL paid Arianna and her partner $315 million (the exact amount of which AOL stock dropped by over the five days following the sale) on the basis of the continuation of this exploitative business model. R.S. McCain casts some doubt, however, that this can continue, now that our liberal whoress has been exposed as a plantation-era slave master:
If you are relying on unpaid contributors for a significant amount of content at a site where the proprietors are earning enough revenue to pay full-time salaries to some people, how do you justify paying nothing to most of your contributors?
To the extent that some of the backroom folks still aren’t getting paid (according to Wikipedia, the operation has about 60 employees), they have lots of company. Since start-up, HuffPo hasn’t paid its bloggers either, despite getting $1 million, $5 million, $5 million, and $25 million, respectively, in angel, first-stage, second-stage, and third-stage funding, and achieving revenues of about $30 million...
And apparently AOL paid Arianna and her partner $315 million (the exact amount of which AOL stock dropped by over the five days following the sale) on the basis of the continuation of this exploitative business model. R.S. McCain casts some doubt, however, that this can continue, now that our liberal whoress has been exposed as a plantation-era slave master:
If you are relying on unpaid contributors for a significant amount of content at a site where the proprietors are earning enough revenue to pay full-time salaries to some people, how do you justify paying nothing to most of your contributors?
"Come on, baby -don't you want to be my blog-slave?"
Better yet, how do you justify your liberalism? While hosting a blog pushing progressive values - equality of pay, equality of labor, spreading the wealth, and the tar-and-feathering of CEO's who earn outsized bonus - it seems as if Arianna was instead getting rich(er) off the hard work of people she refused to pay(talk about inequality!), while eventually earning an outsized bonus.
At least Wall Street CEO's and bankers help create jobs by generating and lending wealth. Arianna got $18 million plus a $4M/year job at AOL when she transferred ownership of the HuffPost to AOL, and she still shows no intention of "spreading" a dime of it.
Arianna is no liberal. She's no capitalist either. She's a slave owner, albeit with useful idiots willing to trade their labor for zero return while their boss gets rich.
Al least the old plantation owners used to give slaves Christmas bonuses. Arianna keeps it all, and will now be forced to push her unpaid minions even more, all under the guise of helping the progressive cause.
"Get back to your keyboard and stop complaining about your medical bills! Do I need to get out the bullwhip?"Funny how liberalism works in practice. From Stalin to Castro to Arianna Huffington, the masses are starved - for their own good.
There's a lesson in here somewhere...
วันพุธ, กุมภาพันธ์ 09, 2554
Michelle Obama: Food Fascist About To Remove The "Happy" From Kid's Meals...
Michelle is, in some aspects, a much more horrible human being than her husband. An overtly racist, hostile woman with a chip on her shoulder, she plays the role of Marie Antoinette - or perhaps Imelda Marcos - to a 
"T". Pain and privations for everyone else, sloth, wealth, and decadence for her and her own.
Her upcoming food fight against the parents and children of America may be her Waterloo...Jeannie DeAngelis over at the American thinker reports:
A team of advisers to the First Lady has been holding private talks over the past year with the National Restaurant Association, a trade group, in a bid to get restaurants to adopt her goals of smaller portions and children's meals that include offerings healthier than French fries and soda.
Michelle is uneasy over other people's children consuming "more saturated fat and less fiber and calcium when they eat out."
Do you know what will happen if Michelle Obama takes the "happy" out of Happy Meals? Kids will not want to go out to eat, and parents, not wanting to pay extra monies for the privilege of having their children stare glumly at their food, will simply stop taking them. The entire restaurant industry will lose the "2-18 demographic", which represents about 40% of the American population. And thus, restaurants will close, franchises will fail, and more unemployment and boarded storefronts will be the result. Harmed most will be the working single moms and trying-to-scrape-their-way-out-of-poverty working poor, who often survive on these waitressing/bussing/cleaning type jobs.
I suppose they will resort to eating out of garbage cans now, with perhaps their children getting the luxury of canned meat. And what will Michelle Obama be eating?
Well, let's go with Miss DeAngelis as she takes us on a food festival with Michelle:
During last year's tasting tour of NYC the "FLOTUS ate at Grimaldi's pizzeria in Brooklyn and Dinosaur Bar-B-Q in Harlem," and dropped in on Magnolia Bakery and Dylan's Candy Bar.
In April, Michelle Obama and hubby "landed in the Blue Ridge Mountains and made a quick stop at Twelve Bones Smokehouse ...the first couple ate ribs, macaroni and cheese, greens, baked beans, corn bread and corn pudding and washed it down with sweet tea."
In Panama City, Florida it was: "tuna appetizer and a course of fried oysters [and] lobster." Sasha had mommy-approved pasta Alfredo ... the President New York Strip and shrimp" followed by a full round of crème brûlée for all. At Bruster's Real Ice Cream, "First Lady Michelle Obama ordered a Hot Fudge Sundae with no whipped cream and extra fudge." Little Sasha had a "genuinely healthy" cup of Cake Batter Oreo.
There was cholesterol-laden lobster and ice cream in Spain, lobster, corn and slaw and Mt. Desert Ice Cream in Maine, and lobster tempura, the Sweet Life Café, and Mad Martha's Ice Cream Shop on Martha's Vineyard.
Then foie gras, lobster lasagna, and soy-braised short ribs at Alan Wong's in Hawaii, and for a home cooked meal for Super Bowl Sunday, "Bratwurst, kielbasa, cheeseburgers, deep-dish pizza and Buffalo wings with sides of German potato salad, twice-baked potatoes and assorted chips, dips and ice cream."
Her ass will get wider as our kids get skinnier. But maybe - if we are good socialists and contribute to The Party and "go green" - the Obamas can find it in their heart to grant some of us "food waivers", so that we too may enjoy as a luxury what we used to take for granted....
"T". Pain and privations for everyone else, sloth, wealth, and decadence for her and her own.
Her upcoming food fight against the parents and children of America may be her Waterloo...Jeannie DeAngelis over at the American thinker reports:
A team of advisers to the First Lady has been holding private talks over the past year with the National Restaurant Association, a trade group, in a bid to get restaurants to adopt her goals of smaller portions and children's meals that include offerings healthier than French fries and soda.
Michelle is uneasy over other people's children consuming "more saturated fat and less fiber and calcium when they eat out."
Do you know what will happen if Michelle Obama takes the "happy" out of Happy Meals? Kids will not want to go out to eat, and parents, not wanting to pay extra monies for the privilege of having their children stare glumly at their food, will simply stop taking them. The entire restaurant industry will lose the "2-18 demographic", which represents about 40% of the American population. And thus, restaurants will close, franchises will fail, and more unemployment and boarded storefronts will be the result. Harmed most will be the working single moms and trying-to-scrape-their-way-out-of-poverty working poor, who often survive on these waitressing/bussing/cleaning type jobs.
I suppose they will resort to eating out of garbage cans now, with perhaps their children getting the luxury of canned meat. And what will Michelle Obama be eating?
Well, let's go with Miss DeAngelis as she takes us on a food festival with Michelle:
During last year's tasting tour of NYC the "FLOTUS ate at Grimaldi's pizzeria in Brooklyn and Dinosaur Bar-B-Q in Harlem," and dropped in on Magnolia Bakery and Dylan's Candy Bar.
In April, Michelle Obama and hubby "landed in the Blue Ridge Mountains and made a quick stop at Twelve Bones Smokehouse ...the first couple ate ribs, macaroni and cheese, greens, baked beans, corn bread and corn pudding and washed it down with sweet tea."
In Panama City, Florida it was: "tuna appetizer and a course of fried oysters [and] lobster." Sasha had mommy-approved pasta Alfredo ... the President New York Strip and shrimp" followed by a full round of crème brûlée for all. At Bruster's Real Ice Cream, "First Lady Michelle Obama ordered a Hot Fudge Sundae with no whipped cream and extra fudge." Little Sasha had a "genuinely healthy" cup of Cake Batter Oreo.
There was cholesterol-laden lobster and ice cream in Spain, lobster, corn and slaw and Mt. Desert Ice Cream in Maine, and lobster tempura, the Sweet Life Café, and Mad Martha's Ice Cream Shop on Martha's Vineyard.
Then foie gras, lobster lasagna, and soy-braised short ribs at Alan Wong's in Hawaii, and for a home cooked meal for Super Bowl Sunday, "Bratwurst, kielbasa, cheeseburgers, deep-dish pizza and Buffalo wings with sides of German potato salad, twice-baked potatoes and assorted chips, dips and ice cream."
Her ass will get wider as our kids get skinnier. But maybe - if we are good socialists and contribute to The Party and "go green" - the Obamas can find it in their heart to grant some of us "food waivers", so that we too may enjoy as a luxury what we used to take for granted....
Great. Now The Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse Has Descended Upon Egypt...
...that's all I need. Like I don't have enough issues getting to work every day, earning a living and paying my bills without the freaking book of Revelations unfolding before my eyes...
When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come!" I looked and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hell was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.
Check out the video, skip to about the 1:18 mark, and see the pale, ghostly horseman laugh as he ride above the madness and chaos taking hold in Egypt:
Well, as we've already established that Barack Obama is in fact the Antichrist...
The Antichrist will spend many years working silently behind the scenes to consolidate his power...When his time comes he will take advantage of the political situation in a country to rise to power. It will not matter that he is not a native of the country. He will take advantage of loopholes and contrive positions...The Antichrist will foment rebellions within the countries he's aiming to take over...Because of his Middle Eastern heritage he will have already united North Africans, who are sympathetic to his cultural background, with his Asian and Middle Eastern conglomerate.
...it should be no surprise that his support staff is rising up from the depth of hell to help him finish us off...
When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come!" I looked and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hell was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.
Check out the video, skip to about the 1:18 mark, and see the pale, ghostly horseman laugh as he ride above the madness and chaos taking hold in Egypt:
Well, as we've already established that Barack Obama is in fact the Antichrist...
The Antichrist will spend many years working silently behind the scenes to consolidate his power...When his time comes he will take advantage of the political situation in a country to rise to power. It will not matter that he is not a native of the country. He will take advantage of loopholes and contrive positions...The Antichrist will foment rebellions within the countries he's aiming to take over...Because of his Middle Eastern heritage he will have already united North Africans, who are sympathetic to his cultural background, with his Asian and Middle Eastern conglomerate.
...it should be no surprise that his support staff is rising up from the depth of hell to help him finish us off...
วันอังคาร, กุมภาพันธ์ 08, 2554
Muslims Try To Erase Jewish History From Temple Mount
Seems like they even have their own Dr. Zaius, to boot...
Why is the Temple Mount important to Judaism? A quick biblical lesson:
The Temple Mount is the location of the two ancient Israelite Temples (also known as the Jerusalem Temple) mentioned in the Bible. (First Temple: 957-587 B.C., Second Temple: 515 B.C. - 70 A.D.) These Temples were the place of Israelite centralized worship and national identity. According to Jewish Law, the Temple is the only place where animal sacrifices can be made to God.
According to Jewish tradition, the location of the Temple was decided by the Biblical King David. He believed the site to be Mount Moriah, where Abraham was stopped by God from sacrificing his son, Isaac, (Genesis 22).
It is also considered the third holiest site in the Islamic faith. To the Muslims, this is a problem, to have to share something - even acknowledgement of the divine - with the Jews. So they are doing something about it.
Dr. Zaius would be proud:
Muslim religious authorities are concluding a clandestine eight-month dig on the Temple Mount that is intended to erase traces of the Jewish Temple's Altar, Temple activists charge.
The digs have been taking place under the Dome of the Chain, believed to have been built over 1300 years ago. For eight months, the dome - which has a diameter of 14 meters - has been surrounded by a metal fence and black cloth, which hide whatever activity has been going on there from outside inspection. The Muslim Waqf religious authority has claimed the activity is simply a refurbishing of the structure, but refuses adamantly to let Jews or tourists near.
Jewish activists made various attempts to enter the Dome, but met with no success. In the end, the Our Temple Mount news outlet found an Arab who was willing to take photos inside the compound in return for a handsome fee. The man said that it appears the Waqf has already completed its digs and is now covering the dig with dirt....
And thus wiping the legitmacy of the Jewish claim off the face of the Earth. Much like Dr. Zaius, in the original
Planet of the Apes, wiped out evidence that man was once the dominent species on Earth :
Zaius was the keeper of a great secret. He was one of the few apes who knew the true origins of simian culture, as well as that of humans. While the Sacred Scrolls established the edict that apes evolved from man, Zaius knew that apes were once in fact subservient to man. To end any doubts planted in the minds of apes and humans, (human astronaut)Taylor had to be killed. At the end of Planet of the Apes, Zaius then had Cornelius's archaeological findings (human artifacts, predating the Ape society) destroyed, and Cornelius and Zira arrested on heresy charges.
Dr. Zaius, to Taylor:
You are a menace. A walking pestilence.
Sounds like something the Muslims would say about a certain group of people who appear to have predated them as well....
Why is the Temple Mount important to Judaism? A quick biblical lesson:
The Temple Mount is the location of the two ancient Israelite Temples (also known as the Jerusalem Temple) mentioned in the Bible. (First Temple: 957-587 B.C., Second Temple: 515 B.C. - 70 A.D.) These Temples were the place of Israelite centralized worship and national identity. According to Jewish Law, the Temple is the only place where animal sacrifices can be made to God.
According to Jewish tradition, the location of the Temple was decided by the Biblical King David. He believed the site to be Mount Moriah, where Abraham was stopped by God from sacrificing his son, Isaac, (Genesis 22).
It is also considered the third holiest site in the Islamic faith. To the Muslims, this is a problem, to have to share something - even acknowledgement of the divine - with the Jews. So they are doing something about it.
Dr. Zaius would be proud:
Muslim religious authorities are concluding a clandestine eight-month dig on the Temple Mount that is intended to erase traces of the Jewish Temple's Altar, Temple activists charge.
The digs have been taking place under the Dome of the Chain, believed to have been built over 1300 years ago. For eight months, the dome - which has a diameter of 14 meters - has been surrounded by a metal fence and black cloth, which hide whatever activity has been going on there from outside inspection. The Muslim Waqf religious authority has claimed the activity is simply a refurbishing of the structure, but refuses adamantly to let Jews or tourists near.
Jewish activists made various attempts to enter the Dome, but met with no success. In the end, the Our Temple Mount news outlet found an Arab who was willing to take photos inside the compound in return for a handsome fee. The man said that it appears the Waqf has already completed its digs and is now covering the dig with dirt....
And thus wiping the legitmacy of the Jewish claim off the face of the Earth. Much like Dr. Zaius, in the original
Planet of the Apes, wiped out evidence that man was once the dominent species on Earth :Zaius was the keeper of a great secret. He was one of the few apes who knew the true origins of simian culture, as well as that of humans. While the Sacred Scrolls established the edict that apes evolved from man, Zaius knew that apes were once in fact subservient to man. To end any doubts planted in the minds of apes and humans, (human astronaut)Taylor had to be killed. At the end of Planet of the Apes, Zaius then had Cornelius's archaeological findings (human artifacts, predating the Ape society) destroyed, and Cornelius and Zira arrested on heresy charges.
Dr. Zaius, to Taylor:
You are a menace. A walking pestilence.
Sounds like something the Muslims would say about a certain group of people who appear to have predated them as well....
UPDATE: Muslims have done this sort of thing before, BTW... what happened in Bamiyan, Afghanistan was a travesty...
ObamaCare: Now In Comic Book Form!
...because we Americans are too f*cking stupid to understand the benevolence being graced upon us by the Democratic party and Fearless Leader, the intellectual elite who brought us such best-sellers as "The Stimulus', "The Reset Button", and "Government Motors", are now giving us health care reform the only way we can comprehend it: In comic book form!
The MIT economics whiz who crafted President Obama’s national health-care overhaul now plans to explain the complex and controversial plan to the masses — in one long comic book.
Unlike most comic books, Gruber’s won’t have a superhero like Batman or Captain America or a villain like the Joker, he said.
“I’m going to use the facts to tell the story,” Gruber, 45, told the Pulse yesterday. “I’m the narrator guiding the reader through the law. It’ll have lots of pictures and text.”
Hill and Wang, a division of publishing powerhouse Farrar, Straus and Giroux, plans to release Gruber’s book, tentatively titled “Health Care Reform: What It Is, Why It’s Necessary, How it Works” this fall.
It’s an unusual venture for Gruber, a brilliant Massachusetts Institute of Technology academic and a key architect of Romneycare, who spent much of the last decade telling national leaders why the American health-care system is broken, and how to fix
Now Gruber is breaking down the president’s 2,400-page legislation into illustrated, bite-sized panels for non-wonks who either don’t understand or don’t like the national plan...
Because that's how stupid we are - we need to be force-fed things we don't like in "bite-sized panels", in baby talk ("non-wonks") - with pictures! - to learn to love that which our gut tells us to hate.
Sorry, Gruber, if you were as brilliant as you think you are, you would have come up with a better plan, and would have figured out a way to sell it without insulting our intelligence.
If you are going to write a comic book, though...may I at least suggest a villain?
UPDATE 3-31-2013
It's 13 months later, and it turns out Gruber was wrong. About everything:
Last week, major insurers warned of double-digit premium hikes for small businesses and individuals when Obamacare goes into effect next year. Likewise, the nonpartisan Society of Actuaries this week estimated that costs to insurers that provide coverage to individuals will rise 32 percent on average within the first three years of the law, with premium increases sure to follow.
Similar analyses last year had already forced MIT’s Jonathan Gruber to admit that his projections that the law would lower premiums for young and old alike were wrong — even though his projections were instrumental in securing Obamacare’s passage. Gruber’s revised estimates now show that even the least affected states, such as Colorado, will experience premium hikes of nearly 20 percent by 2016.
The MIT economics whiz who crafted President Obama’s national health-care overhaul now plans to explain the complex and controversial plan to the masses — in one long comic book.
Unlike most comic books, Gruber’s won’t have a superhero like Batman or Captain America or a villain like the Joker, he said.
“I’m going to use the facts to tell the story,” Gruber, 45, told the Pulse yesterday. “I’m the narrator guiding the reader through the law. It’ll have lots of pictures and text.”
Hill and Wang, a division of publishing powerhouse Farrar, Straus and Giroux, plans to release Gruber’s book, tentatively titled “Health Care Reform: What It Is, Why It’s Necessary, How it Works” this fall.
It’s an unusual venture for Gruber, a brilliant Massachusetts Institute of Technology academic and a key architect of Romneycare, who spent much of the last decade telling national leaders why the American health-care system is broken, and how to fix
Now Gruber is breaking down the president’s 2,400-page legislation into illustrated, bite-sized panels for non-wonks who either don’t understand or don’t like the national plan...
Because that's how stupid we are - we need to be force-fed things we don't like in "bite-sized panels", in baby talk ("non-wonks") - with pictures! - to learn to love that which our gut tells us to hate.
Sorry, Gruber, if you were as brilliant as you think you are, you would have come up with a better plan, and would have figured out a way to sell it without insulting our intelligence.
If you are going to write a comic book, though...may I at least suggest a villain?
UPDATE 3-31-2013
It's 13 months later, and it turns out Gruber was wrong. About everything:
Last week, major insurers warned of double-digit premium hikes for small businesses and individuals when Obamacare goes into effect next year. Likewise, the nonpartisan Society of Actuaries this week estimated that costs to insurers that provide coverage to individuals will rise 32 percent on average within the first three years of the law, with premium increases sure to follow.
Similar analyses last year had already forced MIT’s Jonathan Gruber to admit that his projections that the law would lower premiums for young and old alike were wrong — even though his projections were instrumental in securing Obamacare’s passage. Gruber’s revised estimates now show that even the least affected states, such as Colorado, will experience premium hikes of nearly 20 percent by 2016.
Obama Sweet-Talks Business Leaders, Then Stabs Them In The Back
No wonder the Chamber of Commerce only applauded Obama twice yesterday, and even then rather tentatively. They know that when President Two-Face shifts his gaze from right to left, an entirely different 
song will be sung, one which is likely to be a lot less pleasant to their ears.
To the Chamber, Obama says:
"As a government, we will help lay the foundation for you to grow and innovate and succeed," he told members of the pro-business group that has opposed many of his initiatives, particularly health-care reform.
... we'll work to knock down barriers that make it harder for you to compete, from the tax code to the regulatory system."
So what's the first thing on Obama's new "business-friendly" agenda? Why, adjusting the tax code in a way that will allow states to bleed businesses even further:
Rising unemployment has placed such a burden on states that 30 of them owe the federal government $42 billion in money borrowed to meet their unemployment insurance obligations. Three states already have had to raise taxes to begin paying back the money they owe. More than 20 other states likely would have to raise taxes to cover their unemployment insurance debts. Under federal law, such tax increases are automatic once the money owed reaches a certain level.
Under the proposal, the administration would impose a moratorium in 2011 and 2012 on state tax increases and on state interest payments on the debt.
In 2014, however, the administration proposes to increase the taxable income level for unemployment insurance from $7,000 to $15,000. Under the proposal, the federal unemployment insurance rate would be adjusted so that the new higher income level would not result in a federal tax increase, the person familiar with the plan said.
States, however, could retain their current rates, meaning employers could face higher unemployment insurance taxes beginning in 2014.
Though the administration could face criticism for enabling states to increase taxes, the thrust of the administration's argument is that federal taxes would not increase...
So Obama will force the states to raise taxes on businesses, rather than pay out the extra unemployment dollars himself. Nobody will be fooled, Mr. President, least of all the businesses that will have to plan for drastically higher tax rates in three years.
Add that to ObamaCare, and what business will be able to survive the onerous taxation Obama has planned for 2014? Better yet, what business will expand and hire knowing what a burden faces them down the road?
song will be sung, one which is likely to be a lot less pleasant to their ears.To the Chamber, Obama says:
"As a government, we will help lay the foundation for you to grow and innovate and succeed," he told members of the pro-business group that has opposed many of his initiatives, particularly health-care reform.
... we'll work to knock down barriers that make it harder for you to compete, from the tax code to the regulatory system."
So what's the first thing on Obama's new "business-friendly" agenda? Why, adjusting the tax code in a way that will allow states to bleed businesses even further:
Rising unemployment has placed such a burden on states that 30 of them owe the federal government $42 billion in money borrowed to meet their unemployment insurance obligations. Three states already have had to raise taxes to begin paying back the money they owe. More than 20 other states likely would have to raise taxes to cover their unemployment insurance debts. Under federal law, such tax increases are automatic once the money owed reaches a certain level.
Under the proposal, the administration would impose a moratorium in 2011 and 2012 on state tax increases and on state interest payments on the debt.
In 2014, however, the administration proposes to increase the taxable income level for unemployment insurance from $7,000 to $15,000. Under the proposal, the federal unemployment insurance rate would be adjusted so that the new higher income level would not result in a federal tax increase, the person familiar with the plan said.
States, however, could retain their current rates, meaning employers could face higher unemployment insurance taxes beginning in 2014.
Though the administration could face criticism for enabling states to increase taxes, the thrust of the administration's argument is that federal taxes would not increase...
So Obama will force the states to raise taxes on businesses, rather than pay out the extra unemployment dollars himself. Nobody will be fooled, Mr. President, least of all the businesses that will have to plan for drastically higher tax rates in three years.
Add that to ObamaCare, and what business will be able to survive the onerous taxation Obama has planned for 2014? Better yet, what business will expand and hire knowing what a burden faces them down the road?
And Obama sits there, like the class dunce, wanting to know why businesses still aren't creating jobs, why the nation grows increasing restive towards him and his policies, and why 2+2 does not equal 5, no matter how much he wants it to...
วันจันทร์, กุมภาพันธ์ 07, 2554
Sarah Palin: Reagan's True Heir ?
Beauty is only skin-deep, but sometimes what a person carries with them on the inside - in their heart, their soul - can be discerned by the way they move, by the way they stand, by the look in their eyes.
Case in point - Sarah Palin at Ronald Reagan's "Western White House" over the weekend. Via Big Government:
After touring the grounds, Governor Palin even mounted a horse—confident in the saddle—and road the very same trails the President loved with Agent Barletta. She had asked if it would be possible to ride, wanting to experience the Ranch as Ronald Reagan did....
The day was crystal clear, and our small group could look out over the rolling hills of ranchland and wine country framed by the peaks of a distant mountain range. I shared with the Governor something the president told Barbara Walters in an interview at Rancho del Cielo in 1981. Why does this remote property mean so much to you, Walters wondered? The president’s answer was simple:
I suppose it’s the scriptural line, “I look to the hills from whence cometh my strength.” I understand it a little better when I’m up here.
We paused at this spot and Governor Palin walked a few feet away from the rest of the group, to take in more of this dramatic California Central Coast vista, and, I think, to reflect on the experiences she had at the Ranch that day.
Or to perhaps stand for a moment where Ronald Reagan once did, and to see the world through his eyes.
Many of our officials pose at monuments, cemeteries, and memorials, aping the body language of reverence and respect, silently ticking the seconds off the clock until they can fall back into the decadence that is their "normal selves".
I don't see that in Sarah Palin. I see a soul that loves her nation, who is a part of its land, its water, and its people - perhaps the polar opposite of the man who occupies the White House right now, a stranger even to himself, one who views his Americans the way a zoologist observes his animals, as no more than caged stimulus/response subjects that can be played like fiddles once they are properly conditioned to do so.
I have thought for some time that "Palin for President" was a long shot. For some reason, the simple act of viewing her here, in the land of the Great Communicator, makes be believe - like Reagan did - that anything is possible....
Case in point - Sarah Palin at Ronald Reagan's "Western White House" over the weekend. Via Big Government:
After touring the grounds, Governor Palin even mounted a horse—confident in the saddle—and road the very same trails the President loved with Agent Barletta. She had asked if it would be possible to ride, wanting to experience the Ranch as Ronald Reagan did....
The day was crystal clear, and our small group could look out over the rolling hills of ranchland and wine country framed by the peaks of a distant mountain range. I shared with the Governor something the president told Barbara Walters in an interview at Rancho del Cielo in 1981. Why does this remote property mean so much to you, Walters wondered? The president’s answer was simple:
I suppose it’s the scriptural line, “I look to the hills from whence cometh my strength.” I understand it a little better when I’m up here.
We paused at this spot and Governor Palin walked a few feet away from the rest of the group, to take in more of this dramatic California Central Coast vista, and, I think, to reflect on the experiences she had at the Ranch that day.
Or to perhaps stand for a moment where Ronald Reagan once did, and to see the world through his eyes.
Many of our officials pose at monuments, cemeteries, and memorials, aping the body language of reverence and respect, silently ticking the seconds off the clock until they can fall back into the decadence that is their "normal selves".
I don't see that in Sarah Palin. I see a soul that loves her nation, who is a part of its land, its water, and its people - perhaps the polar opposite of the man who occupies the White House right now, a stranger even to himself, one who views his Americans the way a zoologist observes his animals, as no more than caged stimulus/response subjects that can be played like fiddles once they are properly conditioned to do so.
I have thought for some time that "Palin for President" was a long shot. For some reason, the simple act of viewing her here, in the land of the Great Communicator, makes be believe - like Reagan did - that anything is possible....
Black Eyed Peas Serve Up Mixed Political Messages, And A Dose Of Irony
I was a bit surprised to see the Black Eyed Peas slip a political statement into their Super Bowl halftime performance; certainly those can be just as toxic as a nipple slip or an unbleeped profanity. Wasn't surprised it was a liberal plea, as Fergie and her crew have been toeing the Democratic party line loud and up front since shortly after 9/11:
“Obama, let’s get these kids educated / Create jobs so the country stays stimulated”
Nice, although I'm not sure how much education our children would benefit from coming from a man like Obama, who doesn't know his Constitution, is clueless about economics, and thinks we are a nation comprised of some 57-odd states...
Of course, shortly before demanding that the president educate our children, the Peas sent out a completely contradictory message:
....their performance included a short rendition of “Let’s Get It Started” (originally titled “Let’s Get Retarded”) in which they called on the audience to “get stupid.”
I don't think Fergie and the Peas really get children. Fergie, especially. Check out her disaster of an appearance at the White House Easter egg hunt in April 2009:
The Black Eyed Peas front woman was the headlining act at the annual family affair, but the pop diva seemingly forgot she was performing on the South Lawn for hundreds of young kids.
...it wasn’t until she began singing “Glamorous” the parents present might have understood why her album “The Dutchess” comes with a Parental Advisory label slapped on the front.
Lines like “wear them gold and diamond rings” and “I’m not clean, I’m not pristine” may not be the dream lyrics for their daughters to emulate, but the song’s repetition of the line “If you ain’t got no money take your broke a** home” made a few parents cringe.
Final irony? The "Auto-Tune", a device so clearly used last night to keep the Black Eyed Peas sounding tight and musically on-key, was not invented by a slob in a recording studio. Apparently, our environmental warriors did not realize their saving musical grace was invented by...an oil company:
Auto-Tune uses a phase vocoder to correct pitch in vocal and instrumental performances. It is used to disguise off-key inaccuracies and mistakes, and has allowed singers to perform perfectly tuned vocal tracks without the need of singing in tune.
Auto-Tune was initially created by Andy Hildebrand, an engineer working for Exxon. Hildebrand developed methods for interpreting seismic data, and subsequently realized that the technology could be used to detect, analyze, and modify pitch.
Sure. Oil-financed musical expertise for thee, but not for me....
The Black-Eyed Peas are hypocrites, Fergie is an idiot, and even with oil-company financing, they sounded like sh*t and made fools of themselves with mixed messaging.
Other than that, though....
UPDATE: R.S. McCain lands a haymaker:
The Black-Eyed Peas were exposed as the Milli Vanilli of the 21st century. Take away their studio effects, and what are you left with? A rap group with a white chick dancing around, pretending she can sing. I’ve seen better acts at a karaoke bar...
“Obama, let’s get these kids educated / Create jobs so the country stays stimulated”
Nice, although I'm not sure how much education our children would benefit from coming from a man like Obama, who doesn't know his Constitution, is clueless about economics, and thinks we are a nation comprised of some 57-odd states...
Of course, shortly before demanding that the president educate our children, the Peas sent out a completely contradictory message:
....their performance included a short rendition of “Let’s Get It Started” (originally titled “Let’s Get Retarded”) in which they called on the audience to “get stupid.”
I don't think Fergie and the Peas really get children. Fergie, especially. Check out her disaster of an appearance at the White House Easter egg hunt in April 2009:
The Black Eyed Peas front woman was the headlining act at the annual family affair, but the pop diva seemingly forgot she was performing on the South Lawn for hundreds of young kids.
...it wasn’t until she began singing “Glamorous” the parents present might have understood why her album “The Dutchess” comes with a Parental Advisory label slapped on the front.
Lines like “wear them gold and diamond rings” and “I’m not clean, I’m not pristine” may not be the dream lyrics for their daughters to emulate, but the song’s repetition of the line “If you ain’t got no money take your broke a** home” made a few parents cringe.
Final irony? The "Auto-Tune", a device so clearly used last night to keep the Black Eyed Peas sounding tight and musically on-key, was not invented by a slob in a recording studio. Apparently, our environmental warriors did not realize their saving musical grace was invented by...an oil company:
Auto-Tune uses a phase vocoder to correct pitch in vocal and instrumental performances. It is used to disguise off-key inaccuracies and mistakes, and has allowed singers to perform perfectly tuned vocal tracks without the need of singing in tune.
Auto-Tune was initially created by Andy Hildebrand, an engineer working for Exxon. Hildebrand developed methods for interpreting seismic data, and subsequently realized that the technology could be used to detect, analyze, and modify pitch.
Sure. Oil-financed musical expertise for thee, but not for me....
The Black-Eyed Peas are hypocrites, Fergie is an idiot, and even with oil-company financing, they sounded like sh*t and made fools of themselves with mixed messaging.
Other than that, though....
UPDATE: R.S. McCain lands a haymaker:
The Black-Eyed Peas were exposed as the Milli Vanilli of the 21st century. Take away their studio effects, and what are you left with? A rap group with a white chick dancing around, pretending she can sing. I’ve seen better acts at a karaoke bar...
วันอาทิตย์, กุมภาพันธ์ 06, 2554
Barack Obama Gets P'wnd By The Pharaoh
Clarice Feldman made me laugh this morning - well, it was more like the chuckle of the damned, actually, but nevertheless she hits it dead-on:
This week saw a showdown between the man whose most significant achievement before 2008 was that he very nearly got the asbestos removed from the Altgeld Gardens tenements in Chicago and the third-longest-ruling head of Egypt since the Pharaoh Ramses, whose reign lasted 67 years. The Egyptian, an 82-year-old with terminal cancer, easily bested the community organizer, the man elected by people who quite clearly confused the last presidential election with an American idol contest. While many who elected the American president probably do not yet realize it, it is lucky for them that he lost the showdown, for had he not, the results would have created worldwide havoc and devastation.
The man who in 2009 in Cairo said, "So let me be clear: no system of government can or should be imposed on one nation by any other" was now dictating to Mubarak the kind of government Egypt should have and when it should have it. Mubarak noted only the obvious: that if he stepped down immediately, the situation would devolve into chaos. The rulers of Egypt have a stake in its continued existence which supersedes Obama's adolescent moral preening. Had Obama any real interest in democracy in Egypt, he would have followed Bush's lead and done something to help bring that about before this.
We are now represented across the world by a first-class chump, folks. Thank you Democrats, and 52.7% of America.
Although I usually do not like to title my posts using soon-to-be-obsolete slang that will make it un-findable in a future Google search, I thought the definition trail here was apt, and well worth using and repeating - via the Urban Dictionary:
P'wnd: to be owned, to have the smack down place on you, most often occuring to noobs
noobs: Someone who does not know how the world works, what is going on, or anything. They aren't as new as annoying. [as opposed to a newbie - someone new but isn't an idiot]. A n00b is the most annoying thing on this earth!
President Noob, p'wnd by the Pharaoh.
God help us all....
This week saw a showdown between the man whose most significant achievement before 2008 was that he very nearly got the asbestos removed from the Altgeld Gardens tenements in Chicago and the third-longest-ruling head of Egypt since the Pharaoh Ramses, whose reign lasted 67 years. The Egyptian, an 82-year-old with terminal cancer, easily bested the community organizer, the man elected by people who quite clearly confused the last presidential election with an American idol contest. While many who elected the American president probably do not yet realize it, it is lucky for them that he lost the showdown, for had he not, the results would have created worldwide havoc and devastation.
The man who in 2009 in Cairo said, "So let me be clear: no system of government can or should be imposed on one nation by any other" was now dictating to Mubarak the kind of government Egypt should have and when it should have it. Mubarak noted only the obvious: that if he stepped down immediately, the situation would devolve into chaos. The rulers of Egypt have a stake in its continued existence which supersedes Obama's adolescent moral preening. Had Obama any real interest in democracy in Egypt, he would have followed Bush's lead and done something to help bring that about before this.
We are now represented across the world by a first-class chump, folks. Thank you Democrats, and 52.7% of America.
Although I usually do not like to title my posts using soon-to-be-obsolete slang that will make it un-findable in a future Google search, I thought the definition trail here was apt, and well worth using and repeating - via the Urban Dictionary:
P'wnd: to be owned, to have the smack down place on you, most often occuring to noobs
noobs: Someone who does not know how the world works, what is going on, or anything. They aren't as new as annoying. [as opposed to a newbie - someone new but isn't an idiot]. A n00b is the most annoying thing on this earth!
President Noob, p'wnd by the Pharaoh.
God help us all....
วันเสาร์, กุมภาพันธ์ 05, 2554
Anti-Semitic Left Keeps George Bush Out Of Switzerland
This is a first, I believe, for an American president:
A planned visit to Switzerland by former US President George W. Bush to attend a fundraising gala evening has been canceled, organizers said Saturday.
The visit was canceled because of "threats and risks surrounding his arrival," according to Swiss newspaper Tribune de Geneve.
And who are making these threats? Radical Leftists, and the Swiss government:
Bush was to be the keynote speaker at Keren Hayesod's annual dinner on February 12 in Geneva. But pressure has been building on the Swiss government to arrest him and open a criminal investigation if he enters the Alpine country.
Criminal complaints against Bush alleging torture have been lodged in Geneva, court officials say, and several human rights groups signaled that they were poised to take further legal action this week.
Leftist groups had also called for a protest on the day of his visit.
Keren Hayesod organizers felt the atmosphere had become too threatening because the protests raised the specter of riots that erupted in the Swiss city during the G8 summit in nearby Evian
Reuters, so obviously writing this article with heartfelt glee, quotes a six-month old statement from the UN to add some moral support for the Bush-ban:
Navi Pillay, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, has said that the treaty on torture makes clear it is prohibited in all circumstances, including war, instability or emergency.
"And no one is left off the hook -- neither the actual torturers themselves, nor the policy-makers and public officials who define the policy or give the orders..."
And who or what, might you ask, is the Keren Hayesod organization? Reuters describes it as a "Jewish charity"; it is involved in such nefarious acts as:
Strengthening Israeli society by providing educational and cultural opportunities to the socially and economically disenfranchised
Facilitating Aliyah and Absorption by supporting the immigration of Jews from the Diaspora to Israel and easing their integration into Israeli society;
Furthering Jewish Zionist Education around the world in order to deepen Jewish identity and strengthening the sense of connection to Israel amongst the next generation
Noble, if it were, say, Muslims collecting money for terrorists or blacks trying to re-connect with African roots. Evil, of course, when it is Jews doing the same thing.
Will Europe do to President George W. Bush what it currently does to Israeli officials - limit their overseas travel by threatening them with arrest on frivolous "war crime" charges in whatever nation they land in?
It's a disgrace - after all, were it not for the blood of American servicemen, the noble spirit of the American people, and the courage of leaders like George W. Bush, Europe would be a slave continent under the yoke of fascism. Ironic that they have used their freedom to persecute the very nation who has guaranteed it for almost tree-quarters of a century.
Meanwhile, the liberals have killed two birds with one stone - forcing George Bush to bend to their wishes while harming a Jewish charity at the same time.
It's ominous, and its success will only breed more attempts to do the same. Were Barack Obama a real man, he'd be standing up to the Swiss in outrage against this attack on the freedom of movement of a former president of the United States (a position he too will soon hold).
But Obama's just a bitch of the Left, and right now no doubt he is laughing with them. Alas, he will not have the last laugh, and he will reap what he has sown...
A planned visit to Switzerland by former US President George W. Bush to attend a fundraising gala evening has been canceled, organizers said Saturday.
The visit was canceled because of "threats and risks surrounding his arrival," according to Swiss newspaper Tribune de Geneve.
And who are making these threats? Radical Leftists, and the Swiss government:
Bush was to be the keynote speaker at Keren Hayesod's annual dinner on February 12 in Geneva. But pressure has been building on the Swiss government to arrest him and open a criminal investigation if he enters the Alpine country.
Criminal complaints against Bush alleging torture have been lodged in Geneva, court officials say, and several human rights groups signaled that they were poised to take further legal action this week.
Leftist groups had also called for a protest on the day of his visit.
Keren Hayesod organizers felt the atmosphere had become too threatening because the protests raised the specter of riots that erupted in the Swiss city during the G8 summit in nearby Evian
Reuters, so obviously writing this article with heartfelt glee, quotes a six-month old statement from the UN to add some moral support for the Bush-ban:
Navi Pillay, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, has said that the treaty on torture makes clear it is prohibited in all circumstances, including war, instability or emergency.
"And no one is left off the hook -- neither the actual torturers themselves, nor the policy-makers and public officials who define the policy or give the orders..."
And who or what, might you ask, is the Keren Hayesod organization? Reuters describes it as a "Jewish charity"; it is involved in such nefarious acts as:
Strengthening Israeli society by providing educational and cultural opportunities to the socially and economically disenfranchised
Facilitating Aliyah and Absorption by supporting the immigration of Jews from the Diaspora to Israel and easing their integration into Israeli society;
Furthering Jewish Zionist Education around the world in order to deepen Jewish identity and strengthening the sense of connection to Israel amongst the next generation
Noble, if it were, say, Muslims collecting money for terrorists or blacks trying to re-connect with African roots. Evil, of course, when it is Jews doing the same thing.
Will Europe do to President George W. Bush what it currently does to Israeli officials - limit their overseas travel by threatening them with arrest on frivolous "war crime" charges in whatever nation they land in?
It's a disgrace - after all, were it not for the blood of American servicemen, the noble spirit of the American people, and the courage of leaders like George W. Bush, Europe would be a slave continent under the yoke of fascism. Ironic that they have used their freedom to persecute the very nation who has guaranteed it for almost tree-quarters of a century.
Meanwhile, the liberals have killed two birds with one stone - forcing George Bush to bend to their wishes while harming a Jewish charity at the same time.
It's ominous, and its success will only breed more attempts to do the same. Were Barack Obama a real man, he'd be standing up to the Swiss in outrage against this attack on the freedom of movement of a former president of the United States (a position he too will soon hold).
But Obama's just a bitch of the Left, and right now no doubt he is laughing with them. Alas, he will not have the last laugh, and he will reap what he has sown...
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