Tea Party at Perrysburg

Trump To Endorse Gingrich

2012-02-02T00:12:00.000-05:00

The Donald will endorse the Newt. At least that what's being reported by AJC. Supposedly Trump will announce his endorsement of Gingrich tomorrow in Las Vegas, just two days before the Nevada caucuses. Maybe more importantly if it's true, AJC also reports that Sheldon Adelson, operator of the Sands Corp is preparing to donate $10 million to Gingrich's PAC Winning the Future. Adelson and his wife each donated $ 5 million to WTF last month.

Two Federal Prosecutors Took Bribes

2012-02-01T23:45:00.002-05:00

The Daily Caller is reporting that two DOJ prosecutors accepted cash bribes from allegedly corrupt finance executives who were indicted under court seal within the past 13 months, but never arrested or prosecuted. They remain on the payroll with no indication that they will be prosecuted or even dismissed.The governor of the Virgin Islands along with its attorney general and a number of Virgin Island legislators have accepted bribes yet no one has been arrested or prosecuted. Citing an unnamed source the Caller reports that until the summer of 2011 the two corrupt federal prosecutors were part of a 25 man task force in the DOJ that investigated financial fraud.

Hmm. Eric Holder will be testifying tomorrow before Congressman Darrell Issa's House Oversight Committee on a unrelated matter, Fast and Furious. This revelation should make his day very interesting. Maybe this is another botched investigation where corrupt lawyers are allowed to walk to lead investigators to the top men.

Romney: Index Minimum Wage

2012-02-01T20:04:00.003-05:00

Does Mitt Romney even know what party he's in? He started off the day by telling CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien that he wasn't concerned about the poor because they had a safety but if it had holes in it he would fix it. Just what I wanted to hear! Another fix to the Great Society bag of goodies and we are supposed to cheer? Whatever happened to the idea of moving people out of poverty even if it means driving them out? Whatever happened to the idea of personal responsibility? Is that just a theme that gets trotted out at Republican debates and put back in the stable when pandering to the popular media?

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Then after the liberal press scolded him for pandering to the middle class while not pandering to the poor Romney decided that the minimum wage should be indexed to inflation. From the Huffington Post;

Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney renewed his support Wednesday for automatic increases in the federal minimum wage to keep pace with inflation, a position sharply at odds with traditional GOP business allies, conservatives and the party's senior lawmakers."I haven't changed my thoughts on that," the former Massachusetts governor told reporters aboard his chartered campaign plane, referring to a stand he has held for a decade.

Obama proposed the same while campaigning in 2008 and like Obama, Romney will say anything to get elected. There is no way this man will get my vote!

More On Obama's Anti-Catholic Mandate

2012-02-01T14:42:00.003-05:00

I know the full effect of this policy have not begun to be felt. Opposition to this mandate lends itself easily to the Republican primary where Mitt Romney's wishy washy stand on abortion is not going to help his chances with Catholics. Clearly Catholic Rick Santorum has the inside track on this issue but Newt Gingrich has been the most vociferous critic of the Obama administration's bigotry toward all except Muslims religion. As noted in the video Marco Rubio has sponsored legislation that would overrule the HHS regulation but most likely Harry Reid will keep it coming up for a vote. Watch Speaker John Boehner make sure every congressman has to take this vote. Should the case go to the Supreme Court it will be interesting to hear the questions in the oral arguments from the six Roman Catholic justices. This only furthers the possibility that should the Court strike down the individual mandate it would throw out the entire law and may even cause Justice Sotomayor to do some considerable soul searching. She has no record of deciding an abortion issue and is viewed with some suspicion by liberals on that issue.

Clearly political PACs sympathetic to the Catholic Church could have a field day with this issue. They could raise a tremendous amount of money and by running adds in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Wisconsin do in both Obama and many down ballot candidates including three senators. Even in blue states such as New York some Democratic congressmen could lose their seats if the PACs ran their adds selectively. Remember we were told Anthony Weiner's seat was true blue. I almost view this issue as a belated Christmas present. See Michelle Malkin's excellent First, they came for the Catholics:

Indiana Passes Right To Work Law

2012-02-01T13:18:00.000-05:00

Indiana has passed its right to work law. The bill passed it final step, a senate vote easily by a vote of 28 to 22. It will likely be signed by Governor Mitch Daniels today. The law will take effect on March 14. Essentially the bill forbids anyone from being forced to pay union dues as a condition of employment. In fact, the true effects of the law are unknown as both the negatives and the positives have been exaggerated. Democrats have promised to extract revenge in the fall elections but truly they will have a hard time just maintaining their depleted numbers.

Jonathan Martin: Whites are "crackers"

2012-02-01T05:49:00.000-05:00

Cracker country.
That's okay to call white parts of this country "cracker country."
Of course, anything remotely controversial is considered racist in the other direction, but Jonathan Martin of Politico quite easily and freely called white Republicans crackers.
Watch and marvel. Then wait for the apology when people start to complain.
Not people who watch MSNBC of course because no one does.
UPDATE: Here is the origin of the term "cracker," a "pejorative term for white people" from Wikipedia:

One theory is that slaver foremen in the antebellum South used bullwhips to discipline African slaves, with such use of the whip being described as 'cracking the whip'. The white foremen who cracked these whips were thus known as 'crackers'. ^[2] ^[3] ^[4]

Wagging Fingers and the Principle of Clean Hands

2012-02-01T02:04:00.001-05:00

It seems Obama was just being his usual boorish self when suddenly Arizona Governor Jan Brewer began to wag her finger into the presidential face in a manner that suggested racial overtones. Uncivil and disrespectful we are told. Just not done in polite company.Ok

Obama and Governor Bobby Jindal

Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper

Obama an Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu

Apple And Its Critics

2012-02-01T01:22:00.002-05:00

There's been a lot of hand wringing about Apple's contribution to our trade deficit with China. Actually both Apple and China get a bad rap from politicians of all political persuasion for stealing American jobs and exploiting Chinese workers. First, it's fact of life that the misery of being exploited is nothing compared to the misery of not being exploited. Now to Apple's case. Apple has kept most of its product design, software development, product management, marketing and other high-wage functions in the U.S. There is a petition circulating that has attracted some 40,000 signatures (an infinitesimal number considering Apple has sold 50 million iPhones) calling for an "ethical iPhone" 5. Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, whose online profile boasts of consulting for the DNC, MoveOn org. and the AFL-CIO states that many people are upset with Apple and the way its subcontractors treat the help. She would like to see Apple open its books to independent auditors. I'm sure Apple's competitors feel the same way so I wouldn't be surprised if Apple doesn't politely, but firmly, tell her to go to hell or to go audit the AFL-CIO's books.

Three economists have studied Apple and its effect on the trade imbalance with China. Their conclusion is that Apple's contribution to the trade deficit with China is at the worst marginal. Components for the iPhone and iPad are manufactured in the US, Malaysia, Japan, and various Pacific Rim countries and shipped to China where they are assembled at Foxconn. The assembly process uses about $10 worth of Chinese labor but when the iPhone is imported to the US all the component parts are priced into the final product for a total of $227 to $275. In the muddled thinking of both Donald Trump and Barack Obama China is perceived as an industrial dynamo, when as far as the iPhone is concerned, it is merely a bit player and a source of cheap but efficient labor and deserving of neither the scorn it receives from Trump nor the admiration it receives from Obama.

Getting back to the ethical iPhone lady, Stinebrickner-Kauffman tells us that if only Apple would add another 65 bucks to the price of an iPhone it could pay Chinese workers American wages. In the real world where demand curves slope downward there would be fewer iPhone sold and fewer Chinese working. What makes Stinebrickner-Kauffman think the jobs would stay in China? If not America, Japan or some other developed country would grab the jobs. Why stop with paying the Chinese more when this blessing could be passed all the way through the supply chain until an iPhone costs $1500 and Apple sells 40,000 of them each year? China doesn't want to be another Detroit not does Apple want to be the next GM.

Prof: it's time to spread hatred for the rich

2012-01-31T21:36:00.001-05:00

So what does it mean to be "hungry" in America?

We see the ads. We hear them on the radio all the time, the little girl's voice softly explaining that, though she doesn't show it, she has to hide the fact that she's hungry all of the time, like one in seven children.
They're all around you, she explains, everywhere. You just don't know it because you are ignorant of real hunger because, she implies, you have so much and she has so little.
From the AdCouncil, here's an example:

Hunger is a reality for 1 in 6 Americans, including millions of children, seniors and working families.However, even with the recent economic downturn, many people still separate themselves from the domestic hunger issue with inaccurate stereotypes. In fact, those who are struggling with hunger are just like us. They live in our communities; they work; they have families; they share many of the same interests and values that we do. They're doing everything possible to change their situations-doing everything you would do if you stepped into their shoes.

Where does the Ad Council get its funding?

A. Each Ad Council campaign is sponsored by a national non-profit organization or a federal government agency. They provide the funding to produce and distribute the PSA campaign.

From Feedingamerica.org, which sponsors the commercials:

Although the United States is the wealthiest nation in the world, millions of children in our nation are food insecure, meaning they are either currently hungry or nearing hunger. Children who are undernourished are at greater risk for serious health, social, and educational problems. Today, many public food-assistance programs and private organizations strive to meet the nutritional needs of vulnerable children, but more needs to be done to fight child hunger.

Now we move to the Washington Examiner:

As President Obama crafts a reelection income equality message aimed at punishing the rich and rewarding the poor, his own government finds that the 46 million living below the so-called “poverty line” live and spend pretty much like everyone else.

Forget the image of Appalachia or rundown ghettos: A collection of federal household consumption surveys collected by pollster Scott Rasmussen finds that 74 percent of the poor own a car or truck, 70 percent have a VCR, 64 percent have a DVD, 63 percent have cable or satellite, 53 percent have a video game system, 50 percent have a computer, 30 percent have two or more cars and 23 percent use TiVo.

In fact, The Heritage Foundation has been explaining this story for a long time. There's lots more over there.

Poor Americans, on average, live in larger houses or apartments than does the average, non-poor individual living in Sweden, France, Germany or the United Kingdom.
The media cry with alarm that “nearly one in four kids” in the nation are hungry. Again, government data show otherwise. Fully 96 percent of poor parents stated that their children were never hungry at any time during 2009, despite the severity of the recession, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Let's face it. What's being done here is the encouragement of class warfare. Although Obama's policies are bankrupting people, this administration is encouraging class resentment.
You can have a Playstation and a big screen tv but you're supposed to resent the guy whose house is bigger than yours.
How do we know this?
They're telling us.
From San Francisco, we learn that the Occupy movement, encouraged by Democrats and the President, is founded in, encourages and nurtures the very feelings required to start an internecine war. SF Gate:

"Passionate, organized hatred is the element missing in all that we do to try to change the world," said Ortiz, a retired professor from Cal State East Bay. "Now is the time to spread hate, hatred for the rich."

And who is Roxane Dunbar Ortiz, the professor cited above who is encouraging hate as the foundation of their movement?

Why she's a friend of Bill Ayers, Barack Obama's old friend, that's who! Odd who's connected to whom, eh?

Susan G. Komen Drops Planned Parenthood

2012-01-31T19:24:00.003-05:00

The Susan G. Komen for the Cure has pulled out of its partnership with Planned Parenthood.
Komen had provided grants of roughly $680,000 last year and $580,000 the year before. Leslie Aun, spokeswoman for Komen said the cutoff is a result of the charity's newly adopted criteria barring grants to organizations that are under investigation by local, state or federal authorities. According to Komen, this applies to Planned Parenthood because it's the focus of an inquiry launched by Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., seeking to determine whether public money was improperly spent on abortions.

Sob sisters, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington and Rep. Michael Honda of California - issued statements denouncing Komen's action. Get over it ladies! More

Romney's Scary Future

2012-01-31T14:53:00.002-05:00

Public Policy Polling (PPP) is a Democratic polling organization but it does provide some clever insights which shouldn't be ignored. PPP sees a rough road ahead for Mitt Romney and they furnish the polling data to back it up. It might be going too far to say Florida will be Mitt's last hurrah but PPP paints a bleak near term future for the purported front runner. In Missouri's non binding primary Santorum leads Romney 45% to 34%. Gingrich is sitting that race out and Ron Paul gets 13%. What PPP has found is that there is considerable opposition to Romney and in head to head polling Romney inevitably loses.

Consider Ohio. Gingrich is at 26% to 25% for Romney, 22% for Santorum, and 11% for Paul. In two man races Santorum beats Romney 45% to 38% and Gingrich leads Romney 42% to 39%. The same is true in Missouri. Head to head Santorum beats Romney 50% to 37% and Gingrich gets 43% to Romney's 42%.

" Two takeaways from those numbers: if this ever came down to Romney, Paul, and just one out of Gingrich and Santorum, Romney would be in a lot of trouble. And he'd be in more trouble if the single conservative alternative ended up being Santorum.
Santorum is a stronger long term threat to Romney than Gingrich because he has less baggage and is simply much better liked. Santorum is easily the most popular of the Republican candidates in both Missouri (+42 favorability at 63/21, compared to +20 for Gingrich and +10 for Romney) and Ohio (+35 at 59/24 compared to +10 for both Gingrich and Romney). It's just proving hard for Santorum to get much traction while Gingrich is still in the race."

I have remarked here before that Santorum has almost incredible favorability ratings-the highest in the field. Maybe he should tell Newt to drop out. I could live with a President Santorum.

Congressman Dan Burton Will Retire

2012-01-31T14:08:00.000-05:00

Fifteen term Congressman Dan Burton from Indiana's fifth congressional district has announced he will not run for reelection this fall. Burton cited family health problems as the reason for his retirement. One would imagine this sudden retirement has caught prospective candidates off guard. Indiana holds its primary in early May but the filing deadline is February 10. Expect former Burton aide and Carmel State Senator Mike Delph to seek the seat. Delph had contemplated a primary run against Senator Dick Lugar.

MF Global Bonds Would Have Paid Higher Interest If Corzine Appointed To Government Post

2012-01-31T13:34:00.002-05:00

From MSNBC's web site;

"...MF Global, surprised many Wall Street investors by issuing highly unusual securities notes that appeared to highlight Corzine’s close relationship with the White House: The notes suggested that the former New Jersey governor might be in line for a top administration post should the president get re-elected.

The notes promised to pay an extra 1% in interest rates in the event of “the departure of Mr. Corzine as our full time chief executive officer due to his appointment to a federal position by the President of the United States and his confirmation…by the United States Senate prior to July 1, 2013.”
Some veteran Wall Street analysts said they couldn’t recall ever seeing such a contingency written into securities notes. “It was bizarre,” said Christopher Whalen, a Wall Street analyst."

This is rich! A political figure trades on his known close ties to Obama to facilitate the unloading of $300 million worthless bonds while the SEC hides the risks from investors by hiding MF Global's Annual Audited Report as I reported here.

Occupy Oakland Begs For Bail Money

2012-01-31T12:10:00.004-05:00

It seems things in Oakland have really gotten out of hand. The riots are understandable given that Warren Buffet's secretary is paying too much tax, but a schism in the Occupy movement has emerged. According to the mayor's office the Oakland lodge brothers are rogue outsiders. Evidently the mayor, Jean Quan, by virtue of her office is supposed to have the final word on all things Occupy.

“This splinter group inside Occupy Oakland – the ones who advocate violence – are not in sync with the rest of the movement,” said Sue Piper, Quan’s spokeswoman. “People who have been involved with the national movement – and a lot of people who live in Oakland – are really fed up with this splinter group. This is not what Occupy is supposed to be about.”

Right, so if anyone doesn't know what Occupy is supposed to be about call Mayor Jean Quan's office ask for Sue Piper and she'll clear it up for you. Eventually the city will probably have an Occupy department that can manage protests against the taxpayers and their values. In the meantime many innocent protestors who need their meds are locked up in the city's jail having been arrested without the benefit of a dispersal order and the movement is out of bail money. Until Mayor Quan can figure out how to funnel federal housing funds into the movement the situation is dire. Please be generous.

First, let's kill all the taxpayers

2012-01-31T11:52:00.001-05:00

So I got a small dog. 6 pounds, as a matter of fact.
I've noticed people with small dogs really gravitate toward small dogs when they're away from their own.
Goochy goochy. Wook at her wittle paws? Awww, so cute.
People who own small dogs tend to be big babies who love to nuzzle tiny faces and maybe even get licked across the cheek by a small warm tongue.
Sound dangerous?
So there's this park in San Francisco where people have walked their little dogs off leash for years.
This guy Gary is out walking his two small dogs. (People who are real softies get TWO small dogs so their dogs will never have to be alone. I mean seriously. Real saps. I might mention again I only got one.)
So this guy Gary is out with his dogs, no leashes, frolicking in the park, no ID, enjoying the moment because that's what life's about, right?
Unfortunately the guy didn't know (or care) that this park had been turned over to the feds in December, and, being feds, they have their rules and, being feds, you'd better obey.
One of the rules is that you may not walk your dogs off leash.
Because see it's January, and December was so long ago, and the guy should have known that, now that the feds own the park, those little dogs better be on a leash.
So a park ranger, a female undoubtedly overweight and stuffed into tight shorts with a Groaning Zipper, spots Gary, frolicking with his little dogs without leashes and decides she needs to slink behind him and demand ID so she can cite him for walking those dogs without leashes.
I mean, she's a fed, right? And she gave an order, right?

Gary, being a red blooded able American, naturally gives her a phony name and bolts the other direction.

She who shall remain unnamed tries to catch him and when he won't stop, she pulls out her electric shock gun, shoots him and lays him flat out on the ground because, you know, he "failed to obey a lawful order."

Those who witnessed it called the incident "scary," maybe because everything was copacetic until the federal employee decided to introduce violence into the park scene.

Is Ms Groaning Zipper in trouble? Was her name released to the public? Was she scolded for overreacting, particularly since the rule was a new one and, hey, Gary's a taxpayer and clearly not a threat?

It doesn't appear so.

When questioned about the incident, the government explained her actions this way:

The ranger was trying to educate residents of the rule, Levitt said.

Well, now.
That's improving the quality of life.
An education. That's what we all need.
To be government educated about all their rules.
Maybe we'll end up with police records like Gary, who was arrested for "suspicion of failing to obey a lawful order, having dogs off-leash and knowingly providing false information."

We're bored with Obama's shtick, ok?

2012-01-31T11:13:00.000-05:00

Okay, so the RNC posted this, with the plea that people donate money because the RNC would NEVER have a repeated message, failed policy, right?
But they are catching Obama in his many promises. I especially like the one that says he wants to bring people together.
Ha.

Finger pointing kerfuffle gets interesting

2012-01-31T08:02:00.000-05:00

The elite media is agog that Jan Brewer would have raised a pointy finger at POTUS, as if this were a highly insulting, racist thing to do. Raacist! I say, Raacist!
Bill Maher is shocked! shocked! because HE never says or does anything inflammatory like that!
And liberal wackadoodle Stephanie Miller makes frequent reference to race! as the cause for Jan Brewer's finger wagging:
Al Sharpton, too, is horrified! because he's never done anything that could remotely be construed as racist! Racist!

And then there's the airhead hairsprayed cosmetically enhanced Brian Williams who claims that nothing like it has ever been seen before! Such disrespect shown toward a POTUS!
Oh, REALLY, Brian?

Buffett, pay your own taxes, dammit!

2012-01-31T07:25:00.000-05:00

How nauseating is it to see Warren Buffett, rich guy, on tv claiming other people should be paying more in taxes.
And that silly secretary who's paid so badly by Buffett that she just bought a second home who appeared at the SOTU the other night...how much does she make?
It's really, really tiresome that we keep hearing about her taxes but we aren't allowed to know her income or the specific circumstances of Buffett's complaint, which just doesn't add up by any measure.
And, wow. Could ya get any more bad examples of what not to do? Geithner who doesn't pay his taxes?
And BUFFETT, who doesn't pay his taxes?
Mickey Kaus:

No fair asking why we should take his [Buffett] word for any of this. No fair asking why, if he’s so worried about not paying enough taxes, he doesn’t pay the $1 billion — that’s $1,000,000,000 — he already owes. No fair. No fair. Shut up

And about Buffett's taxes?
His company owes at least one billion dollars in taxes as far back as 2002 under current rates. From The Blaze and Netright Daily:

According to Berkshire’s 2010 annual report, the company has been in a near decade-long struggle with the IRS over its own taxes. Using public documents, a certified public accountant detailed Berkshire’s tax problems to Americans for Limited Government researcher Richard McCarty, revealing the damage could be close to $1 billion. Netright Daily adds:
According to page 56 of the company report, “At December 31, 2010… net unrecognized tax benefits were $1,005 million”, or about $1 billion. McCarty explained, “Unrecognized tax benefits represent the company’s potential future obligation to the IRS and other taxing authorities. They have to be recorded in the company’s financial statements.”

Then you have the "patriotic millionaires" who want higher taxes for everybody, but won't pay them voluntarily themselves.
So what you have here is a group of people who want YOUR money. They won't pay their own taxes, either voluntarily or legally, but they want YOU to pay more.
The socialists' dream.

Bishop Zubik: Obama Administration Is Telling American Catholics "To Hell With You"

2012-01-31T01:41:00.003-05:00

Roman Catholic Bishop David A. Zubik of Pittsburgh says the Obama administration is telling American Catholics: “To Hell with you.” I wonder how Pennsylvania's professional Catholic Senator Bob Casey feels about this? Yes the Senator did vote for Obamacare which is cause of the bishop's ire. Should a cleric in a battleground state talk like that? Mark my word. Write it down. Soon someone will say the bishop's speech violates the principle of "separation of church and state" even thought that principle evolved to protect the bishop and his fold not Barack Obama and the Bob Casey. Last month we learned the Democrats were going to jettison the working class now the President has the temerity to pick a fight with the Catholic Church. It's going to be a cold November!

“This is government by fiat that attacks the rights of everyone--not only Catholics; not only people of all religion,” said the bishop. “At no other time in memory or history has there been such a governmental intrusion on freedom not only with regard to religion, but even across-the-board with all citizens.”
“Last September I asked you to protest those guidelines to Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department for Health and Human Services, and contact your political leadership in the federal government,” said Bishop Zubik. “I asked that you request that this flawed mandate be withdrawn because of its unprecedented interference in the religious liberty and freedom of conscience of the Catholic community, and our basic democratic process.
“You did,” said the bishop. “And you were joined by Catholics throughout the country (and many others as well) who raised their voices against the mandate, raised their voices against a meaningless religious exemption.
“On January 20, 2012, the Obama administration answered you and me,” said Bishop Zubik. “The response was very simple: ‘To Hell with You.’”

My guess is there are a lot of Democratic politicians hoping the Supreme Court throws out Obamacare in it entirety.Glenn Beck and Bill Donohue of the Catholic League discuss what is shaping up to be bloody fight between Obama and the Catholic Church.

Part 1

Part II

Occupy Thugs Throw Condoms At Catholic School Girls

2012-01-30T19:54:00.002-05:00

From Life News:

PROVIDENCE, RI, January 30, 2012, Demonstrators from the Occupy Wall Street movement threw condoms on Catholic schoolgirls, refused to allow a Catholic priest to give a closing prayer, and shouted down a pro-life speaker at a Rhode Island right to life rally on Thursday, according to its organizer. The event marked the third time protesters associated with the movement have disrupted a pro-life meeting in a week.

About two-dozen members of Occupy Providence hiked from Burnside Park to the 39th Annual Pro-Life State House Rally organized by the Rhode Island State Right to Life Committee on Thursday. The pro-life organization’s executive director, Barth E. Bracy, told LifeSiteNews.com that, near the end of the rally, the Occupiers “strategically fanned out with military precision.”That’s when they “started showering condoms down on some of the girls from a Catholic high school.”They gathered around speakers at the podium, shouting them down or otherwise jostling them and members of the audience.

“What they did yesterday was clearly the most outrageous and egregious thing they’ve done so far,” Bracy said on Friday. “I don’t know if this is a sign of what’s to come from them, but I think it’s important Catholics and pro-lifers know who these people are.”

Let's hope voters remember in November that the Occupy movement has been praised and supported Sen. Sherrod Brown Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Rep Marcy Kaptur, and Rep. Betty Sutton.

Oakland Mayor Will Call National Occupy on Local Franchise

2012-01-30T17:58:00.002-05:00

Oakland's air headed Mayor Jean Quan has had enough of Occupy Oakland and she's going to take action. She is going to call the national leadership of Occupy and ask them to denounce her local lodge because they are not nonviolent. Yeah that ought to fix it. Maybe she could call their mothers too.

Quite understandably the mayor has come under scathing criticism for her inept handling of the Occupy movement. First Mayor Quan gave city employees a day off to participate in the protest. A few weeks later she ordered her police to clear the Occupy dregs from their encampment and then apologized to the protestors and blamed her own police force for the violence and one serious injury that occurred when a protestor was struck in the head with a gas grenade. The mayor has put he finger on the reason for the criticism;
"I think it is a different time, I think it is how the media plays it. There is also probably a little misogyny and a little racism, when I looked at what happened in terms of how the national media portrayed it, and how Occupy's internal media portrayed it."

That's the trouble. She's getting bad press because she's an oriental woman.

Priebus Compares Obama To Italian Sea Capt. Who abandoned His Ship

2012-01-30T17:20:00.002-05:00

The Democrats are having a cow over remarks RNC chair Reince Priebus made on CBS Sunday. The " insensitive" Priebus compared Obama's style of governing to cruise ship Capt. Schettino who abandoned his ship. In this video Priebus defends his analogy. So do I.

Sarah Palin Hacker Loses Appeal

2012-01-30T16:57:00.002-05:00

Sarah Palin hacker David Kernell has lost his appeal. Ironically Kernell was convicted under the much dissed Sarbanes-Oxley Act which forbids deleting data from a computer to cover up a crime. Kernell is the son of longtime Memphis Democratic State Rep. Mike Kernell.

COLE, Circuit Judge. Defendant David Kernell was convicted of obstruction of justice under 18 U.S.C. § 1519 for deleting information from his computer that related to his effort to gain access to the email account of then-Alaska governor and Vice< Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Section 1519, passed as part of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, prohibits the knowing destruction or alteration of any record “with the intent to impede, obstruct, or influence the investigation . . . of any matter within the jurisdiction of any department or agency of the United States . . . or in relation to or in contemplation of any such matter or case . . . .” Kernell argues that § 1519 is unconstitutionally vague, and that there is not sufficient evidence to support his conviction. We AFFIRM the conviction and sentence.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Phillips sentenced Kernell to a year and a day in a halfway house. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons sent him to a work camp instead. He has already completed his sentence and was released this past fall.

My eyes! My eyes! Michelle O in lingerie! My eyes!

2012-01-30T09:07:00.002-05:00

Daily Mail:

First Lady Michelle Obama has apparently given British lingerie label Agent Provocateur a boost after a lavish spending spree last year.

Mrs Obama, it is claimed, closed down part of Madison Avenue in the ladies-who-lunch section of Manhattan during a shopping trip that saw her spend $50,000 in the boutique.

New reports suggest the excursion has helped sales at the company jump by more than 12 per cent.

I don't really care if Michelle Obama spent $50,000 on fancy underwear, even though she and her husband preach "sacrifice" for everyone else.
Hell, it's their money and they can do what they want with it. If you want to spend $200 on a pair of fancy underpants, fine, go ahead.
You're a 1%er and you can afford it.
I'm not even sure I resent the fact that these people and their millionaire ilk claim they aren't rich, aren't 1%ers and deserve all the sympathy and compassion of the 99%ers.
What I resent, really, is the images that are burning in my brain of Michelle O in a lacy corset; what was her purpose? to make sure everyone knows what she bought because it was at an upscale exclusive and expensive shop that no one could avoid since she closed off Manhattan to be able to shop there? Or to make us see her as a sexual being, even though she's a FLOTUS?
I'm just trying to imagine Hillary or Laura doing such a thing, Hillary's swimsuit on the beach photo op notwithstanding.
Do she not know she's revealing a part of her life that is inappropriate for us to know? That grosses some of us out? That is undignified for a FLOTUS?
But I'm ranting.
What I really want to do is just forget.
Here's the blurb for the Spring collection:

We looked to the images of David Hamilton and watched hours of softly glowing scenes from erotic films, such as Emmanuelle and The Story of O for inspiration.

The website has lots of randy photos of chicks provocatively humped over couches and window seats and each other. Valerie Jarrett?
Just the kind of thing you don't want to imagine this woman doing:

I really don't need to know annnnything more about this woman, what she wears or even what's under what she's wearing.

Are Climate Change Facts Sustainable?

2012-01-30T05:04:00.005-05:00

In desperation climate change activists have launched a campaign, dubbed Forecast the Facts, that outs television meteorologists who are "deniers" of mainstream climate change science. This should be fun since the vast majority of meteorologists are climate skeptics. Weather Channel founder John Coleman, blogger Anthony Watts and frequent FoxNews guest Joe Bastardi are three good examples. A survey of television weathercasters last summer found that 19 percent attributed climate change to mostly human causes. In other words only one in five are buying into the Al Gore's apocalypticism.

One must wonder exactly which "facts" the Forecast the Facts crowd think are worthy of propagandizing. Last week the British Met Office and the University of East Anglia, dubbed the University of Easy Access by columnist James Delingpole because of its two Climategate email leaks, issued a report that has gone ignored in the popular press. According to that paper there is a 92 per cent chance that both Solar Cycle 25 and those taking place in the following decades will be as weak as, or weaker than, the ‘Dalton minimum’ of 1790 to 1830. In this period, named after the meteorologist John Dalton, average temperatures in parts of Europe fell by 2C. OMG! I wouldn't be too alarmed. If you are old enough to be reading this post chance are, like the global warming catastrophe you've heard so much about, you'll be long dead before the worst of it hits Mother Gaia.

As you can see from the above chart that comes from the citadel of global warming we are back about where we where in 1997 but billions poorer for listening to the Forecast the Facts crowd. The warmingist's argument stresses that the sun is something of a bit player in climate, subordinated to that nefarious villain carbon dioxide. View the next chart and make up your own mind. Maybe solar panels can be recycled into sleds.

Indiana Right To Work Bill Nears Completion

2012-01-30T04:02:00.002-05:00

The fight for Indiana's right to work law is all but over. The measure has already passed the lower house and today Senate Pensions and Labor Committee will debate the matter for two hours. The committee chairman Senator Phil Boots has curtailed debate to one hour to each side saying that minds are already made up and debate isn't apt to change any minds at this point. Once the measure clears the committee today it will go to the full Senate for five hours of debate and then a final vote on Wednesday. As the Republicans control the Senate by a 37-13 margin there is little doubt to the outcome.

In an earlier post I noted that my own State Senator Jim Tomes , who enjoys huge Tea Party, support is a retired Teamster steward who would probably feel conflicted on this bill. Tomes conducted three well attended town halls and in the end opposed the right to work bill. That is fine with me. The man has an A+ rating from Southwestern Right to Life and an A rating from the National Rifle Association and is the founder of a local group called Second Amendment Patriots. He spoke at the first Tea Party I attended and I'm content to let him vote his conscience.

Glittering Joe Lieberman

2012-01-29T19:25:00.001-05:00

Senator Joe Lieberman gets glitter bombed. I seriously doubt if any of the OWS even knew who he is or even care to know. I'm really looking forward to Charlotte. Maybe Elizabeth Warren can give the keynote address and remind her fellow Democrats that she provided the intellectual fire power for these thick headed barbarians.

Oakland trashed: body hanging from structure

2012-01-29T15:51:00.001-05:00

One to 2 thousand people swarmed Oakland yesterday; 400 were arrested.
Cries of police brutality are again heard in Oakland, where the biggest mistake by administrators is that they have been far far too tolerant of the Occupiers.
In fact, the Occupiers destroyed equipment, invaded buildings, sprayed graffiti, smashed glass, burned the flag and generally caused thousands of dollars of damage.
Mayor Jean Quan, who joined the protests at one point and even gave city employees the day off to join the protest, is now frustrated. Apparently the Occupiers have gone too far and she's unnerved.

Saturday's protests — the most turbulent since Oakland police forcefully dismantled an Occupy encampment in November — came just days after the group said it planned to use a vacant building as a social center and political hub and threatened to try to shut down the Port of Oakland for a third time, occupy the airport and take over City Hall.

Quan, who faced heavy criticism for the police action last fall, on Saturday called on the Occupy movement to "stop using Oakland as its playground."

Today a body was found hanging from a structure at ~~Fallujah~~ the Port of Oakland, which has been a point of contention because of its symbolic entrance to the capitalism of this country.
Previously the Occupiers had marched on the port, attempting to stop all commerce.
Here's video of the burning of the flag, complaints about "da Joos" and the demand for "equality" for the "99."

Allen West redistricted by Romney's people- OUT

2012-01-29T15:29:00.001-05:00

It looks like the RINO establishment GOP has won.
They're redistricting Allen West out of existence and it's Mitt Romney's people who are doing it.
He's a Tea Partier, after all, and popular.
He stands for what is right. He wants to cut dollars, which isn't something the GOP wants.
This is about as pathetic as it gets.
What liberals couldn't do, the RINOs have done.
They have their establishment candidate in Mitt Romney. Now they are lining up to bounce any Republican who wants to get control of our budget.
They are as addicted to the money as their liberal counterparts.
A pox be on their house.
And no way do any of these anti-Americans get one of my dollars.
Legal Insurrection:

This has not received a lot of national attention, but the Republican legislature in Florida is about to push through a plan which puts Allen West at serious risk, and the person leading the effort is one of Mitt Romney’s spokemen. As reported by The Shark Tank:
After last night’s [Jan. 26] Republican Presidential debate, the candidates’ respective spinmeisters made their cases to the media as to why their guy won the debate. One of Governor Mitt Romney’s spokesmen was Florida Representative Will Weatherford, and during the course of his remarks in the “Spin Room”, he shed a very dim light on the ongoing redistricting process in the Florida Legislature….

Jackie Walorski Raises $428,000

2012-01-29T01:02:00.004-05:00

Jackie Walorski and Mike Pence
I have posted here before that Jackie Walorski is one of the most popular Tea Party candidates in Indiana. The South Bend native ran a great race losing to Joe Donnelly 48 to 47 percent. Now Donnelly is gone, running for Senate and she has raised $428,776 with $365,786 of that coming from individual contributions. In his Senate race Donnelly has raised just $1,175,536 which is pretty meager for a statewide race but better than the man who claims to be, when the occasion suits him, the Tea Party Senate candidate Richard Mourdock who has only raised $904,084 despite the publicity given to him by Red State and the Post's Jennifer Rubin blog and dumping $100,000 of his own money down this rat hole.
Compare candidate Walorski to Congressman Dennis Kucinich who after serving 11 terms in Congress managed to raise $433,83.

Sheriff Joe Gets Death Threat From Fanatical Obama Supporter

2012-01-29T00:17:00.001-05:00

This is a direct quote from Fox 11 News in Phoenix, Arizona.
"A "fanatical supporter" of President Barack Obama is the prime suspect in an investigation into an Internet death threat against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio."
The fanatical supporter of Obama had the good sense to make his threat from the safety of Tennessee where fanatical supporters of Obama are usually content to hack into Sarah Palin email account. The mother of the fanatical Obamabot, Adam Eugene Cox, 33, confirmed he was a fanatical Obama supporter. Cox is upset with Arpaio because the sheriff is digging into Obama's birth certificate mess. We have noticed that Obama supporters get pretty testy when the subject of birth certificates is broached but we attribute this propensity to a low intelligence quotient as frequently betrayed by their lack of ability to express themselves coherently when commenting on our posts.

Latest Poll Shows Romney Up by 8

2012-01-28T23:26:00.000-05:00

The latest Public Policy Polling (PPP) poll released just hours ago confirms that Romney is leading in Florida. The breakdown is : Romney-40%, Gingrich-32%, Santorum-15%, and Paul-9%. Surprisingly the man with the highest net favorable rating is in third place. Santorum has a remarkable 65/24 rating far and away the highest.

UK studies cited as proof conservatives are stupid

2012-01-28T20:46:00.000-05:00

So is you were reading Yahoo News, you might have found this headline:

Low IQ & Conservative Beliefs Linked to Prejudice

Yes, kiddies, it's true.

You're stupid if you don't agree with social liberals.

The fact that you're stupid has been suggested, even drilled into our society, over and over. In our schools, our universities, the elite who write the laws.

They all live and function in the same dang circle, rubbing each others' massive egos until they swell even bigger, drink expensive wine with their pinkies extended and cluck over the problem of social conservatives.

You're stupid if you don't want to pay more taxes, want to reduce the size of government because EVERYBODY knows bigger government is better because it can do so MUCH for us, like tell us how low to wear our pants and what to eat for dinner.

You're stupid if you value your independence.

Now Yahoo is relying on one Stephanie Pappas at Live Science to objectively explore, even while acknowledging controversy, the facts that link conservatism with low IQ. Of course, liberals get to define "bias" and "prejudice," an you know how that goes. Everybody's a bigot.

The research finds that children with low intelligence are more likely to hold prejudiced attitudes as adults. These findings point to a vicious cycle, according to lead researcher Gordon Hodson, a psychologist at Brock University in Ontario. Low-intelligence adults tend to gravitate toward socially conservative ideologies, the study found. Those ideologies, in turn, stress hierarchy and resistance to change, attitudes that can contribute to prejudice, Hodson wrote in an email to LiveScience.

What facts are these, you might ask, blindly fumbling for some rationale for your dumb politics?
If you shrink from pictures of people eating worms, you're probably a conservative.
Setting aside the fact that LiveScience links to and refers to itself to verify its "research," note the following:

Most people would likely avert their eyes when passing by a man with a mouth full of writhing worms, or, say, the sight of a pile of excrement. But some are more disgusted than others, and new research suggests those individuals who respond with a more intense "yuck" are more likely to hold conservative political views and specifically are more likely to oppose same-sex marriage.

"This is one more piece of evidence that we, quite literally, have gut feelings about politics," said study researcher Kevin Smith, a political science professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. "Our political attitudes and behaviors are reflected in our biology."

So if you're grossed out by a pile of steaming sh#t or really intensely dislike people eating worms, this proves that your conservatism is ignorant.
Because, really, eating worms and stinking sh$t are part of being a liberal.
Now that's real tolerance.
And what about drinking donkey semen?
Now that'd be REALLY stupid, wouldn't it.
NOBODY would do THAT.

The world may never see "Fear Factor" contestants chugging donkey semen -- corporate heads at NBC and its parent company Comcast are having serious 11th hour talks about pulling the episode.

As TMZ first reported, contestants on the show -- shot last summer -- are challenged to drink a glass of donkey semen (and one of urine) ... and several of them did. Theepisode is scheduled to air Monday night.

Does that mean I'm stupid because drinking stuff like that grosses me out?
Note some of the questions ask to determine prejudice and ignorance:

Social conservatives were defined as people who agreed with a laundry list of statements such as "Family life suffers if mum is working full-time," and "Schools should teach children to obey authority." Attitudes toward other races were captured by measuring agreement with statements such as "I wouldn't mind working with people from other races." (These questions measured overt prejudiced attitudes, but most people, no matter how egalitarian, do hold unconscious racial biases; Hodson's work can't speak to this "underground" racism.)

Yeah, so if you think moms working full time aren't necessarily the best thing for kids then you're stupid and a conservative.
So in addition to primarily citing their own research and experts, the "scientists" in charge of these studies got to write the questions, determined by their own prejudices against conservatives.
One might note that the two studies cited were in the UK but are said to be determinative of all conservatives.
Nyuck, nyuck.
Now that don't sound stupid, do it?
Take a look at how this meme spreads, cited by other "authoritative" sources.

Dr. Larry Arrn Endorses Clark Durant

2012-01-28T19:32:00.000-05:00

Dr. Larry Arnn of Hillsdale College endorses Clark Durant for U.S. Senate. While Durant worked at Hillsdale College he co founded that institution's famous newsletter Imprimis.

Fed salaries zoom, but taxes go unpaid

2012-01-28T13:28:00.001-05:00

So if you make a great deal of money (you're wealthy) and you claim you want higher taxes because it's simply not fair that you have SO much money and other people don't.

But the truth is that, though they don't give much of anything away to charity, liberals really just want to redistribute your money to people they choose; and those are usually people who will benefit them politically.
Obama, for example, took $400,000 in deductions rather than donate that money to the government to dispense to the needy.
Conservative OUtlooks has the links and the story:

The “everyone but me” rule applies here.
Obama paid approximately $454,000 in taxes which amounts to 25% of his income, not the 30% he lectures should be paid by “millionaires,” and he is one.

Then you've got the federal employees who owe billions in back taxes.

Data from the Internal Revenue Service found that more than 279,000 federal employees and retirees owed $3.4 billion in back income taxes as of Sept. 30, 2010.

The data showed that 467 employees of the House of Representatives, or about 4.2 percent of the workforce, owed more than $8.5 million. In the Senate, 217 employees, or about 3 percent of the workforce, owed $2.13 million.

Obama's staff was not immune, either, with 36 people in Obama's executive office of nearly 1,800 workers — about 2 percent — owing the government $833,970 in back taxes.

You'll note that we've learned that federal workers make as much as Microsoft, only they're paid in tax dollars and Microsoft actually makes a product that people around the world buy.
Note also that Obama's aides owe almost a million dollars. These are people who actually work directory for The Prince, who has decreed all must sacrifice.
Andrew Malcolm writes:

Nearly one-third of Obama's aides make more than $100,000 with 21 being paid the top White House salary of $172,200, each.

The IRS' 2010 delinquent tax revelations come as part of a required annual agency report on federal employees' tax compliance. Turns out, an awful lot of folks being paid by taxpayers are not paying their own income taxes.

Then Elizabeth Warren, the mother of the Occupy movement and Scott Brown's opponent, claims she's ~~not wealthy,~~ not guilty of having a generous portfolio, even though she made almost $800,000 last year and lives in a multi million dollar house:

“I realize there are some wealthy individuals – I’m not one of them, but some wealthy individuals who have a lot of stock portfolios" she told him.

Hard to see how Warren wouldn't be, by most standards, wealthy, according to the Personal Financial Disclosure form she filed to run for Senate shows that she's worth as much as $14.5 million. She earned more than $429,000 from Harvard last year alone for a total of about $700,000, and lives in a house worth $5 million.

In fact, you've got people like Pelosi claiming that she hasn't benefited from insider trading, even though it's pretty obvious she has. Not only liberals benefit from passing a bill from which they benefit financially but Pelosi is particularly egregious considering that she's self identifying with the OWS movement and claiming that the Republicans are the rich ones in the US trying to destroy government.
The truth is these people are rich*filthy rich, as they say* but they try to inoculate themselves against that truth by claiming to identify with the little guy like you and me.
Like Harry Reid, they try to avoid the "stink" of actually being near the little guys like you and me (I don't stink, btw) by claiming they love you so much, they want your money, they hate "the rich," even while not giving anything much to charities or giving back anything to us to redistribute among ourselves or to ourselves.
Examples of such hypocrisy and errant thinking abound, even among people who don't pay as much as Warren Buffett in taxes but make a lot of money and own two houses.
Being rich is a good thing. It's pretty cool to be able to do whatever you want. But to be rich, claim you're not, and try to take the dollars that you and I earn to redistribute to their friends is from, well, Satan.
There. I said.
The Devil loves what you're doing, Pelosi, Reid and Warren.
Keep it up.
You know where that'll end.
Right?

Ohio Pipeline In Doubt

2012-01-28T12:11:00.002-05:00

As a result of the slowdown in natural gas drilling due to low natural prices the Marcellus Lateral Pipeline is in doubt. In a post earlier this week I noted that drilling rigs were being idled and pipeline construction delayed as drilling capacity shifted to liquid plays such as Ohio's Utica Shale. Last year Kinder Morgan filed an incomplete application with the Ohio Power Siting Board. The board rejected the application and Kinder Morgan has neither refilled nor withdrawn the application. The company says its in the midst of a general reevaluation of its priorities. The pipeline would have run through 15 Ohio counties beginning in the West Virginia panhandle and terminating in Toledo. it would have created 2000 temporary jobs.

The eligibility issue....again

2012-01-28T08:04:00.001-05:00

Something's been brewing down in Georgia. Fear of being labeled a "birther" keeps bloggers from reporting on it, but this is hard news.
Several groups, including hardcore birther Orly Taitz, have filed filed in Georgia to have President Obama answer questions about his social security number, his father's country of birth and consequently Obama's eligibility to be POTUS.
POTUS's lawyers have fought against the group's suit but Wednesday and Thursday of this week may have changed the landscape.
From two American Thinker writers who were there:

Van Irion of the Liberty Legal Foundation presented his case first, followed by J. Mark Hatfield and Orly Taitz. Irion's argument focused on the definition of "natural born" citizen in the holding of Minor v Happersett and the principle of "statutory construction" in the interpretation of the 14^th amendment. Hatfield added the fact that the Interpretations of the Immigration and Naturalization Service recognize the delineation between "natural born" and "native-born" citizenship.

Briefs are expected to be filed by February 5. More here from AT:

Rumors began flying around the blogosphere almost immediately -- primarily one that the judge had informed the attorneys, in the pre-hearing conference, that he intended to enter a default judgment against Obama. If true, that would essentially mean that yet another action against Obama's eligibility has resulted in no decision on the merits.

The fact that Obama and his attorney failed to appear in court makes this situation quite interesting, though the press is not covering this story. The Georgia SoS warned Obama et al that to ignore the state's legal guidelines in this case is to do so "at your own peril." Still, Obama's people ignored it.

Another eye witness account can be found at The National Patriot:

After being subpoenaed to appear and after an endless stream of excuses as to why he shouldn’t, neither Obama nor his attorney were at the hearing.

This means, all the evidence and all the expert testimony was entered into the official record without a response, a peep, or a rebuttal from Obama or his attorney.

At this point, all of it remains unchallenged. All of it.

This begs the question; Can a sitting President be commanded by subpoena, to appear in court? Many claim Executive Privilege prevents it.

They would be wrong.

Fitsnews doesn't make much of it but wonders why no media outlets are interested.

What do we make of this drama?

Again, not much … however by refusing to appear at the hearing Obama’s attorneys did open the door to the possibility that Malihi could rule against them by default. More importantly, they once again stoked conspiracy theories regarding the validity of Obama’s birth certificate – giving those inclined to buy into “birtherism” a reason to believe that they have something to hide.

Do they?

We don’t think so … however the startling lack of national mainstream media coverage is likely to further fuel those theories.

I'll tell you why they're not interested in it. There are several reasons. One is that no one wants to appear to be a wacky conspiracy theorist. Another is that there seems to be something very mysterious going on when it comes to the history of Barack Hussein Obama. Why doesn't anyone remember him from college? Why are his records sealed? Why do so many of the fragments connecting his past seem to vanish and then appear again in a different form?
And what do we do if we have had an ineligible POTUS for the last term? So many pols want to ignore the Constitution that it would cause a crisis in the country if we had to face down such a dilemma.
And what if he isn't eligible? Would we throw him off the ballot? Would Congress try to rewrite laws? Certainly Republican RINOs wouldn't have the cajones to go against so many crazy Obamabots. It would be the 2000 election all over again and for years people would accuse the right wing of cheating.
No matter that cheating to get on the ballot would be exposed.
Drag out the victimhood.

Richard Mourdock Struggles To Raise Funds

2012-01-28T05:15:00.001-05:00

Indiana Secretary of State Richard Mourdock continues to struggle to raise campaign funds in his fight to unseat Senator Richard Lugar in the may primary. Mourdock raised just $386,000 in the last quarter and managed to bank just $362,000. He had $291,000 on hand compared to Lugar's $4 million. Mourdock has received endorsements from national Tea Party groups but no financial backing as they seem to doubt if he is up to defeating Lugar.

Obama's Do as I Say; Not as I Do Energy Policy

2012-01-27T23:19:00.001-05:00

On January 26, 2012, President Obama visited a Las Vegas UPS plant. Stimulus subsidy for said UPS plant to purchase natural-gas-powered trucks: 5.6 million dollars. Stimulus subsidy for North Las Vegas green energy plant that laid off 200 workers yesterday: 5.9 million dollars. Using taxpayer dollars to leave an event promoting clean-energy vehicles in a motorcade of twenty-two fossil-fueled vehicles: Priceless. Add in the carbon foot print of Air Force One, its decoy sister plane and the jet transport needed to transport his limo and we're talking about some serious carbon emissions.

Is Spencer Bachus Really the Face of Greed?

2012-01-27T22:59:00.002-05:00

Thanks to Peter Schwizer's book, Throw Them All Out, Rep. Spencer Bachus is in the process of being thrown out of his chairmanship of the House Financial Services Committee. Having read the book I have to say I wasn't especially outraged by Congressman Bachus' trading behavior. I will admit to lacking a scintilla of moral rectitude which I attribute to a hereditary defect from my mother's side of the family but even setting aside that encumbrance that chapter of the book left my blood pressure normal. There was only one incident in the book that Schwizer cited that I found questionably unethical and that was the Congressman's trading in General Electric stock. The rest of the trades were in SPDR's, exchange traded index funds. Without getting into the mechanics of exchange traded sector funds let me just say the individual is as detached from actual ownership of the stock as he would be in any mutual fund, the now prescribed remedy to congressional insider trading. Yes, Bachus could have known better than the public that the banks were going to take a hit but it didn't take a genius on the outside to arrive at the same conclusion. There are far more egregious examples of corrupt behavior. Bachus began to stake out a short position in July of 2008 and continued to go short until well after the TARP bailout. Yes, he made huge profits on a percentage basis but his net worth according to Schwizer is still less than a million dollars. When I was single I dabbled in options and I can personally say that I, without benefit of insider knowledge, did on a few occasions reap a 100% return virtually over night. There are far worse examples in the book such as Senator John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi, and Dennis Haster where public money was spent to improve property values of the legislators by building a highway or a light rail spur, or in Kerry's case when he invested in drug companies effected by Obamacare while he was writing the legislation. A small player like Bachus, who seemed to be ahead of the rest of Congress and the county does not deserve to be the poster child for congressional corruption.

Criticize Newt, but be honest

2012-01-27T10:11:00.000-05:00

I haven't been enjoying the cannibalism going on in the Republican party. Way too many debates.
What's the purpose of so many debates, particularly moderated by left wing journalists who take great joy in centering the attention on themselves or asking stupid leading questions like when was America last great.
Always starting with the negative, the press wants only to agitate and further roil the base.
Here's a great example of a hair sprayed bimbo asking a really really stupid question with great solemnity, as if the weight of the world is on his shoulders.
So the whole Newt brouhaha is pretty nauseating. He's sure a helium balloon but Romney really is a robot.
We've gone way beyond "vetting" for the actual presidential contest to something that not only isn't healthy, but is doing the work of the Obama slash team.
Without favoring any particular candidate, we might point out that Professor Jacobsen, who is in full blown Newt mode, is tired of conservatives bashing Newt as anti-Reagan. He has a number of columns dedicated to the subject; for example, the video that was pulled out by Drudge was selectively edited.
So the admonition is, hey, put the truth out there. Put it all out there.
But be honest about it. Don't lie. Don't selectively edit. Don't play games.
Here's a link to Legal Insurrection, where it's pointed out that the video of Newt was really not what it was edited to be:

There is something truly obscene about the full blown assault on Newt Gingrich’s strong Reagan conservative history from and on behalf of Mitt Romney, who unabashedly ran away from the Reagan legacy and conservative principles in his 1994 Senate campaign and 2002 gubernatorial campaign. Truly obscene.

The latest iteration comes from Elliott Abrams writing in National Review, quoting pieces of a single speech Newt apparently gave on the floor of the House on March 21, 1986, in which Newt criticized certain foreign policy decisions of the Reagan administration. Abrams does not link to the full speech or to other speeches of Newt at the time.

This dishonesty is the part that makes us sick.
To be a political wonk is one thing.
To be dishonest is another.
They don't have to be the same thing.

Grassley Demands Pow Wow With FCC Staffer

2012-01-27T03:22:00.003-05:00

Maybe we do toughen with age. I never thought Senator Chuck Grassley was much of a fighter but recently the senior Senator from Iowa has become mean as a snake. He is the only senator investigating Fast and Furious and he has been a terror on LightSquared. Yesterday I reported he was mad as hell about someone representing LightSquared trying to bribe him with the promise of a call center in Iowa. Grassley latest show of temper is his demand to meet with
Paul de Sa, chief of the Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis of the FCC before he leaves his job at the end of the month. De Sa was the impetus behind the apparently now abandoned "net neutrality" policy but what seem to aroused Grassley's curiosity and ire is the fact that De Sa has met privately with LightSquared officials, including billionaire investor Phil Falcone, earlier this month. Now de Sa apparently doesn't have time to talk to Grassley. Grassley has pledged to block the two nominees to the FCC until he gets an answer as to how the LightSquared waiver moved so quickly through the FCC. If he sticks to his guns Obama will have to wait until he leaves for the evening so he can make recess appointments.

Comparing MF Global to Watergate

2012-01-27T02:07:00.006-05:00

The adjective competent is seldom applied to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Probably the public perception of the SEC is that it is a great place to work, a pleasant place, where lawyers can download and view porn while Wall Street and Washington anguish over financial meltdowns and collapsing credit markets, an institution that sustained a benign view of Bernie Madoff for 12 years, almost until his arrest, where a shoulder shrugs suffices as an explanation of the flash crash. Alas, the SEC may be about to judged worse than incompetent it may be corrupt.

Under law MF Global was compelled to file an Annual Audited Report on Form X-17-A-5 with the SEC. In the normal course of events this document is scanned by the SEC and uploaded to its site where the public can view it. This is usually done in two to four weeks from receipt of the document. In the case of MF Global the time stamp shows it was received on September 2, 2012. In fact MF Global filed the report in May. When the report was released astute investors began to run from MF Global as if it were radioactive.

A clerical error? If it was it was a $300 million dollar clerical error? From the time the report was filed in May until it was posted in September several things happened. Let me set the time line.

The SEC acknowledged receiving the report on May 31.

On August 2 MF Global sold $300 million worth of worthless bonds.

When the report was released in September it revealed Global's exposure to European sovereign debt and investors began to leave the firm. This eventually culminated in a run on MF Global.

On December 14, 2011 the SEC removed the report from its web site.

On January 3, 2012 the document reappeared with a different time stamp.

It's understandable that the popular media would describe the MF Global bankruptcy as "complicated" and move on. Even with the best of motives that segment of the media is only able to deal with uncomplicated events such as shootings, rapes, and rowdy Tea Party members at town halls but the financial press is not so encumbered. In the financial press there are no angels and certainly Jon Corzine is not portrayed as a kindly civil servant caught up in the snares of greedy capitalists. This is not Corzine's first ethical lapse. As CEO of Goldman Sachs he pioneered the bundling of toxic and non-transparent mortgage debt instruments to professional investors. When the chairwoman of Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Brooksley Born tried to bring transparency to these debt instruments she lost her job. That was during the Clinton years. An Obama administration probably would have jailed her.

Corzine used confidential information from the New York Federal Reserve Bank, Timothy Geithner's former employer, to view Long Term Capital Management's market position and then played the opposite side of the trade. He lied to both LTCM and to the Fed for his personal gain. Richard Lowenstein of the New York Times wrote about Corzine’s Goldman Sachs, “Brazenly playing both sides of the street [Corzine's ] Goldman represented investment banking at its ugliest.”

The document tampering raises some pointed questions about the cozy relationship between Jon Corzine and the SEC but after a one day appearance before the Senate, former Senator Corzine is looking for Wall Street office space while his customers, whose money he stole, languish in bankruptcy court and Eric Holder sits on his hands.

Not everyone in commodity futures is wealthy. Farmers and rancher use commodity futures to lock in the price of their beef or wheat by purchasing or selling future contacts to deliver that product. Being street savvy, Corzine knew who he could screw and who he couldn't. The big players with plenty money for lawyers and political clout seemed to have been taken care of as MF Global sunk into insolvency. There is speculation that the accounts of less affluent customers were raided for the purpose of paying off the heavy hitters. They face a long hard fight. The Sentinel Management Group has been in bankruptcy court since 2007 and its customers have yet to be compensated.

Now enters the surprising character, Louis Freeh, the former Federal Bureau of Investigation director who was appointed bankruptcy trustee of MF Global. Freeh is probably just whoring his reputation for competence and integrity, the memories of Ruby Ridge and the Waco siege no longer fresh in the public mind. He was brought into Penn State's own investigation of the recent Sandusky sex scandal to convey seriousness, integrity, and competence. Now Freeh is impeding investigators with some notion of lawyer client privilege. While Freeh's role has gone unnoticed in most of the press one can expect he will draw attention when this case makes it back to the front page.

In the video below Mark Melin of Opalesque Futures Strategies likens the MF Global bankruptcy to Watergate. Whether he is proven correct or not keep in mind that if you think people should be sitting in jail right now your opinion is shared by many Wall Street insiders and a few good journalists. Evidently getting tired of hearing his rancher constituents complain Senator Max Baucus has requested an investigation in a letter to CFTC Inspector General Roy Lavik. The CFTC? WTF? This is not some regulatory snafu. This is felony fraud. One hopes that by November the public will realize that no brokerage account, no bank account, no IRA or 401K is safe in this atmosphere of lawlessness that is the Obama administration.

Jan Brewer's Book Sales Spike After Tarmac Tiff

2012-01-26T18:16:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was Governor Jan Brewer's lucky day. The President with the thin skin and big ears picked a fight with the Governor, unhappy at Brewer's account of a meeting they had. Displaying the sort of chivalry and deference to the opposite sex we have come to expect from Democratic politicians, Obama threw a temper tantrum. Prior to the "great communicator's" visit Scorpions for Breakfast had was ranked 276,665 in sales at Amazon. Presently it is ranked 20th with and still climbing. Update: It's now number 5.

Another old sex assault accusation

2012-01-26T15:43:00.002-05:00

Here we go again.
Herman Cain. Sarah Palin. Newt.
Someone has gone to the police and accused a prominent individual of assaulting her.
How long ago was it?
October 8.
In late January, we learn that she's so upset she can't function; her current boyfriend claims the individual ruined her life.
It's not inconceivable that the 10 year Marine veteran and Lt. Colonel is guilty of the deed; in fact, nothing is inconceivable.
But to accuse someone of "sexual assault" long after the fact can be proven in any way ruins the life of the accused.
But then, if you're not a Kennedy, who cares.
AP and Century Link:

The woman said she had drinks with him on Oct. 8, then went back to her office, where she was assaulted, the person familiar with the case told The Associated Press.

She went to police Tuesday, according to the person, who was not authorized to speak publicly and did so on condition of anonymity. It's not clear why she went to police weeks later or how long they knew each other before the encounter, though she said they had met on the street at some point.

Greg Kelly is a Fox Channel host and son of Ray Kelly, NYPD commissioner.
Naturally.

EPA Rejects Palm Oil in Biofuels-Thank God

2012-01-26T14:13:00.000-05:00

Just yesterday I reported in a post that Chesapeake Energy would curtail natural gas production. It is doing that because not only are prices soft the country is running out of room to store the stuff. With a mild winter the country is a wash in cheap, clean, natural gas. So what is the focus of the EPA? Palm oil of course. The good news is palm oil flunks the EPA's test so it won't be mandating that we import this loser. Has the EPA never heard of natural gas?

EPA’s analysis of the two types of biofuel shows that biodiesel and renewable diesel produced from palm oil have estimated lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions of 17% and 11% respectively for these biofuels compared to the statutory baseline petroleum-based diesel fuel used in the RFS program. This analysis indicates that both palm oil-based biofuels would fail to qualify as meeting the minimum 20% GHG performance threshold for renewable fuel under the RFS program.

Do we really need the EPA to tell us that we don't want use this buy this junk?

Ener1 Goes Belly Up. Taxpayers Lose $118 M

2012-01-26T12:58:00.000-05:00

Another one bites the dust. Ener1 has filed for protection under chapter 11. Ener1 received $118.5 million in Department of Energy loans's. Reporting assets of $73.9 million and debts of $90.5 million in its Chapter 11 petition, the company blames it failure on competition from Korea and China. Of course news of General Motor's Chevy Volt and the fire caused by the battery probably won't improve the demand for any company's battery. In October, NASDAQ delisted the company due to non-compliance with Securities and Exchange Commission filing requirements. A month later, the company’s president, chief executive, and top financial officer were fired. The company operates its sole domestic plant in Mount Comfort, Indiana

Issa Warns Holder More Subpoenas May Be Issued

2012-01-25T18:31:00.003-05:00

Congressman Darrell Issa is questioning Eric Holder why Patrick Cunningham of the US Attorney Phoenix office who has invoked the fifth amendment was allowed to work in the DOJ if he had in fact committed crimes that warranted his protection from self incrimination. In a letter to Holder Issa wrote;

"Mr. Cunningham’s broad assertion of his Fifth Amendment privilege raises the specter that the Department has allowed him to continue in his position as Chief of the Criminal Division knowing that he might have criminal culpability himself."

“I have reserved the right to authorize another subpoena for his testimony at a future date … Due to Mr. Cunningham’s recent actions, the Committee will be making further document requests of the Department,” he continued.

Holder is scheduled to testify in front of the committee on February 2, 2012

The Cato Institute Fact Checks Obama's State of the Union Speech

2012-01-25T16:58:00.000-05:00

I turned the speech off and played solitary so I'm hearing most of this for the first time.

Manufacturing Tax Breaks? Gimme a Break!

2012-01-25T16:39:00.002-05:00

Hang on to your hats! The White House has provided details to its manufacturing tax breaks announced with much ado in last night's State of the Union Speech. It would be going to far to call them breath taking. Probably "exciting" would be a reach. Actually "ho hum" is about right.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said that the breaks taken with the corporate tax reform outline would actually hurt U.S. businesses but no plan is perfect. The intent of this plan is not to spur manufacturing it's to punish business and drive up energy prices. The six point plan would:

Remove tax deductions for moving costs associated with relocating abroad. The money saved from this change would be used to provide a 20 percent income tax credit for the expenses of moving operations back to the United States.

The second change would target an existing domestic production incentive on manufacturers who create jobs in the United States and double it for “advanced manufacturing"

Another welfare give away. The plan would provide $6 billion to help local communities deal with job loss from relocation.

Provide $5 billion in green energy tax credits. I'll bet that left you breathless!

Occasionally an objet d'art is found in the flotsam and jetsam of Democratic legislation and here it is. It would provide 100 percent expensing on plant and equipment. Too good to be true from this administration. There must be a catch.

Close a loophole that exempts profits on “intangible property,” such as patent royalties, when those properties are transferred overseas.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce chief tax counsel Caroline Harris said that the change to domestic production credits is actually a punishment for oil-and-gas companies, which will make energy prices increase. Same old whore just a new dress.

Gingrich Has Huge Lead In Minnesota

2012-01-25T13:03:00.002-05:00

Newt Gingrich has a commanding lead in Minnesota with the caucuses only two weeks off. According to Public Policy Polling (PPP). The breakdown is; Gingrich, 36% Romney, 18% Santorum, 17% and Paul with 13%. Should Santorum drop out Gingrich would lead 44% to 20%.

Romney's Moderate Instincts May Do Him In

2012-01-25T08:22:00.001-05:00

Newt Gingrich may be a pain in Mitt Romney's neck but he is not the only problem Romney has in Florida. Part of Mitt's problem is the help he's hired. If I expect to win in Florida I'm going to hire the people who ran Marco Rubio's campaign not those who ran Charlie Crist's but not Mitt. Romney has hired Stuart Stevens. Stevens and partner Russ Schriefer are the principals in the high-profile Stevens & Schriefer Group. These are the moderate consultants who offered Crist clever advice when he hugged Obama. Okay, maybe the hug was an ad lib the the general tone of Crist's administration which saw him lose to Rubio was pure Steven & Schiefer. Even moderation should be practiced with moderation.

Stevens & Schriefer specialize in helping Republican candidates running in blue states by flaking off the moderate voters from the Democrats. Guess what? Florida isn't a blue state and this is a Republican primary not a general election. Gingrich has fired up the conservative base and Romney's people are preaching "moderation". Florida political junkies are comparing this race to the Crist-Rubio race and if they are correct Romney may follow Crist into political oblivion.

Obama rep: We're not supporting American values

2012-01-25T08:16:00.000-05:00

This excerpt is from the SOTU speech last night. I confess I was already asleep in my chair, mouth open and dreaming of an island in the sun but here it is:

Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules. What's at stake are not Democratic values or Republican values, but American values. We have to reclaim them.

Now read this, which the newly appointed US ambassador to Russia said publicly:

The new U.S. ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, said that in dealing with the former Soviet Union, he and the Obama administration would be advocating “universal values” and “not American values.” [SNIP]

“And we -- as President Obama has said many, many times -- we’re not going to get into the business of dictating that path,” McFaul said. “We’re just going to support what we like to call ‘universal values’ – not American values, not Western values, universal values.”

Okay, so is it just me, or do these statements seem contradictory?
As always with these weasels, you have to actually observe what they do and not just what they say.
Lying is a way of life.

Chesapeake To Curtail Drilling But Not In Ohio

2012-01-25T07:42:00.003-05:00

As natural gas prices have fallen Chesapeake Energy announced it would reduce the number of working drilling rigs and delay pipeline construction. That comes as bad news for the Marcellus shale in northeastern Pennsylvania, the Haynesville shale in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas and the Barnett shale in Texas but it's good news for Ohio. Chesapeake will focus on liquid-rich plays, including Ohio’s Utica shale that “offer superior returns in the current strong liquids price environment.” It's an ill wind that blows no good and what Chesapeake is saying is that it is shifting its resources to where it can get the greatest return on its investment and that place is the Utica Shale. The Utica is a hybrid play. It yields liquids with its natural gas so while natural gas prices may be in a free fall due to the short term glut; the liquid portion of the play continues to be very profitable. Utica wells produce oil, propane, ethane and butane, all of which are lucrative because they have a wide variety of uses. As rigs are idled in other shales some of them will be shifted to Ohio and he Utica.
.

It's ironic that as Obama announces his long delayed endorsement of the natural gas boom it would go into a stall that probably will not restart until after the 2012 election. As natural gas prices remain low and gasoline prices increase this summer his decision on the Keystone XL pipeline will provide political fodder to Republicans. As export facilities are developed, gas fired power plants constructed, and more vehicles, especially heavy trucks, shift to natural gas it will again be a hot play. As Keynes once said, "In the long run we are all dead." Some may be politically dead in both the short and long run.
Update: The Dayton Daily News has more on this story and it a good read.

Palin; Chris Christie Got His Panties in a Wad

2012-01-24T23:54:00.002-05:00

Sarah Palin says Chris Christie " Got his panties in a wad". We don't know how big of a fan she is of Newt Gingrich but she is no Mitt Romney groupie.

Gingrich Leads In Gallup Poll

2012-01-24T23:40:00.002-05:00

In the latest Gallup daily tracking poll Newt Gingrich has pulled ahead of Mitt Romney. He has erased a 23 point lead and now leads Romney by 4.

LightSquared Attempted to Bribe Senator Grassley With A Call Center

2012-01-24T22:48:00.005-05:00

This blog was one of the first blogs to report the LightSquared scandal. At the time it seemed that the administration was the sole culprit in the case when it pressured Air Force Major General William Shelton to change his testimony about the adverse effect LightSquared's proposed 4G LTE network would have on GPS. Later it was learned that the waiver granted by the FCC which was chaired by Julius Genachowski, a law school buddy of President Obama was tantamount to a $10 billion gift to LightSquared if it could successfully build out its wireless network. Further digging revealed that many in the Obama administration were invested personally in LightSquared and that one Obama crony,
Donald Gips had reaped a $500,000 profit when he sold his stock options and that Senator Obama had once purchased $50,000 worth of Skyterra stock, the company that owned the broadband spectrum which was acquired by Harbinger Capital and renamed LightSquared.

Okay, team Obama got caught with its hand in the cookie jar and unless it can come up with another retirement plan soon they may have to live out the rest of their lives in the middle class. Now a new wrinkle to the case is emerging and this case may turn toxic. Sen. Chuck Grassley has been a consistent and persistent critic of LightSquared and now he is charging that LightSquared is attempting to use "improper influence" to silence him. If one wants to bribe a Senator one should know the Senator's price and in this case it seems LightSquared missed big time. Senator Grassley is hopping mad and has written a letter to Harbinger Capital's CEO Philip Falcone expressing his outrage. Grassley states that twice his staff has been contacted urging him to "pull punches" in his investigation. If the Senator would agree to not rough up LightSquared too much Iowa, Grassley's home state, would be rewarded with a "call center".

On January 6, 2012, at approximately 12:45 p.m., a member of my staff who is investigating the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) decision to grant a waiver to LightSquared, a company owned by your hedge fund, Harbinger Capital Partners, received a phone call from Mr. Todd Ruelle of Fine Point Technologies. Mr. Ruelle indicated that he “only gets paid if this deal goes through” and that “there will be a call center in the Midwest, possibly in Iowa, if this deal goes through.” This statement is of particular concern in light of your e-mail to my staff on October 5, 2011, which read in part, “The last thing I want to do is to make this more political than it already is. It doesn’t belong in that arena. However, since we are already there, I believe I can make this into a win for the Senator, Lightsquared and the consumer.” Taken together, these two statements implied an invitation to pull punches in my investigation. I won’t be a part of that. …

In the course of his phone call to my staff, Mr. Ruelle indicated that while he had not yet been paid by you or Harbinger Capital Partners, he had been offering you advice regarding LightSquared’s negotiations with me and the FCC. Mr. Ruelle stated that he did not appreciate the involvement of lawyers and suggested that you directly ask to meet with me, which you then did.

In addition to this comment, he also told my staff that he had booked you for an appearance on Fox News. A recent FOIA request made public by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) yielded an e-mail from Mr. Ruelle to a federal employee forwarding his e-mails to Fox News bookers where he arranged for you to appear on the Fox News Channel. In this e-mail chain, Mr. Ruelle writes to the federal employee, in reference to your appearance in which you rebutted charges of political influence with the Obama administration and the FCC. Mr. Ruelle wrote: “I have arranged to hit back HARD!” After that email, the government employee asked Mr. Reuelle not to contact him in the future

Grassley has referred the matter to the Senate Ethics Committee which is a pretty savvy thing to do. As of now, since he does not chair a committee Grassley has been hamstrung in his investigation by the majority party but the Ethics Committee is composed of an equal number of senators from each party. Meanwhile LightSquared and team Obama must tread water since the FCC had better not act while LightSquared is stymied in a Senate investigation.

Don't get lipstick on me!

2012-01-24T21:38:00.001-05:00

Obama says. Gateway Pundit.

US Attorney To Take Fifth But Did Nothing Wrong. Video

2012-01-24T20:10:00.002-05:00

Let me make sure I've done my research correctly. I want to get this right. Attorney General Eric Holder says that no one in the DOJ knew about Fast and Furious until he read about it in the newspaper. Strike that. Eric Holder was the only one in the DOJ who didn't know about it until he read about it in the newspaper because everyone else in the DOJ sent him memos that he didn't read. In any event, there was no wrong doing in the DOJ that all we need to know. Now we are hearing that an Assistant US Attorney in the Phoenix office, Patrick Cunningham is resigning, has lawyered up, and intends to invoke the fifth amendment protection against self incrimination rather than speak on the record about wrong doings that never occurred while he was working at DOJ. As I have stated before when US Attorneys start taking the fifth something must be wrong. Right? Congressman Darrell Issa lays it out in the video below. It's getting close to special prosecutor time!

SOTU check list

2012-01-24T19:59:00.001-05:00

Let me be perfectly clear.
Fair.
Millionaires and billionaires.
Green energy.
Fair.
Unprecedented.
Inherited.
Deficit.
Fairness.
For the children.
Health care.
New technologies.
We've only just begun. Ha.
Bin Ladin. Been there. Done that. Ha.
Bringing troops home.
We're all safer now. Ha. Not.
Public service.
College for everyone. Free.
Fiscally responsible. Maybe that'll include a budget for the first time.
Fair share.
Deficit.
Increase revenue.
The wealthiest among us.
Tax the rich.

Mark Oxner Ad: Children Depicted as Galley Slaves on the USS Obamaboat

2012-01-24T15:52:00.002-05:00

Talk about a hard hitting ad. No, this ad which pictures children as galley slaves on the ship of state, formerly the USS Constitution renamed the Obamaboat, is not put out by former loud mouth Florida Congressman Alan Grayson it's being run by his opponent Mark Oxner. It could not have happened to a nicer guy.

Crony Capitalism Spreads to DOD

2012-01-24T15:35:00.003-05:00

Surely it's just coincidence that an American company would be denied a chance to bid on a Department of Defense contract that was shipped off shore to a George Soros affiliated company. Of the twenty green energy loans doled out by the Department of Energy 16 of them went to Obama campaign contributors which is also coincidence. The latest bit of Obama malfeasance is the contract for a new attack aircraft which went to Brazilian company Embraer which is currently under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Justice Department, for possible violations of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Embraer is accused of engaging in bribery in three countries, none of which have been identified publicly. If found guilty, the company could be banned from doing any business with the US government at all. The SEC’s investigation of Embraer went public about three weeks before the Air Force disqualified Hawker Beechcraft without explanation. The Air Force refused to let the American competitor, Hawker Beechcraft, even bid on the project even though there were several advantages to allowing it to have the bid.

The AT-6 is designed and manufactured in the US to be used by the US and its allies.

Keeping this contract in the U.S. will help preserve 1,400 domestic jobs at 181 companies in 39 states.

The AT-6 draws its heritage from the airframe of the number-one training aircraft in the world, the Beechcraft T-6. The company has built more than 725 T-6 aircraft, which are used to train every fixed-wing military pilot in the United States and are successfully operated by six allied air forces around the world. The graduation to the AT-6 light attack airplane would be a natural progression.

The AT-6 is the sum of the Air Force's proven T-6, A-10C mission system and MC-12W sensor suite, which offers the Department of Defense logistics and cost efficiencies that no other aircraft in the competition can match.

The weapons and avionics systems included on the AT-6 are familiar to NATO allies and have been proven effective on many continents and in other NATO aircraft.

Not going quietly Hawker Beechcraft has filed suit in the Court of Federal Claims following notification late last week that the Government Accountability Office has declined to review its protest of the decision by the U.S. Air Force to exclude the company's Beechcraft AT-6 from the Light Air Support competition.

Rep Trey Gowdy; Washington Does Not Have Special First Amendment Rights

2012-01-24T13:32:00.002-05:00

Congressman Trey Gowdy from South Carolina is one of the best Tea Party finds in the 2010 election. Billing himself a just a simple country prosecutor Gowdy grills a Park Service supervisor about his refusal to enforce the law at McPherson Square in Washington.

"Just let me tell my constituents who want to visit DC this summer that they can come to any park they want to and they bring their tents as long as they say they're protesting."

"So you're not drawing a separate first amendment rule for insomniacs versus narcoleptics?"

Another Democrat revealed as liar and leaker

2012-01-24T07:45:00.000-05:00

It's not that Republicans don't lie.
They do.
But to lie in a way that endangers the lives of others is particularly despicable. It ain't just politics anymore. These are crimes.
Yesterday we had the revelation of a Democrat consultant/operative who tried to steal the identity of the Iowa Republican Secretary of State to make it look as if he had committed a crime.
Today the story is of a CIA agent who endangered the life of a fellow CIA operative in an attempt to discredit the Bush administration.
Remember all those notorious leaks to the New York Times during the Bush years? Leak after leak after leak?
It has now been revealed that the leaks originated from former CIA official and former John Kerry staffer John Kiriakou.
If you read the bland Washington Post article yesterday, as I did, you might wonder just how guilty Kiriakou is and how wrong he is.

In an interview with FBI officials last week, Kiriakou denied disclosing the names of covert officers and expressed dismay that defense attorneys, let alone detainees, had learned CIA officers’ names, according to the Justice Department complaint.

The document also cites an e-mail that Kiriakou allegedly sent to the CIA interrogator after the New York Times story was published, denying that he had talked except to warn the reporter that naming the interrogator “might not be illegal” but “would certainly be immoral.”

But Powerline has read the criminal complaint and calls Kiriakou's behavior "sickening."
Kiriakou is alleged to have provided to the New York Times (and the WaPo) extremely personal information about another CIA operative named Martinez who interrogated Al Qaeda members at Guantanamo.
This personal information enabled the NY Times reporter to stalk Martinez and his family; the information was also given to other reporters, who photographed Martinez and passed those photos on to Al Qaeda in Guantanamo.
Hinderaker at Powerline praises Obama's DOJ for doing the right thing in the case of these leakers but also asks why the New York Times editor and publisher are not also charged.
Kiriakou claims he asked the Times not to reveal the name and then lied to the FBI that he himself had given the name and personal information to the Times. All three men knew and acknowledged that the release of Martinez's name would endanger himself and his family.
This didn't stop them.
Theirs, apparently, was the higher moral authority, of getting the Bush administration.

The State Of The Union Mess

2012-01-24T07:44:00.002-05:00

Ever since the glory days of Lyndon B. Johnson days like today, the day of the State of the Union Address had an almost Christmasy feeling. Eager cabinet secretaries giggled in the glee that new federal largess would soon be visited on the many deserving project under their purview. New rights and new freedoms were constantly being discovered in budgetary esoterica. There was "freedom from want" and a "right to a job". Then the "right to affordable healthcare" was discovered and while not a favorite of the public it was loved by the political class who would be exempt from it so it was duly ordained as a natural right, passed into law and then the music died. The president is obligated by law to present a budget not to give a speech but President Obama is better a talking than he is at budgetary concerns so the country will get a speech but no budget and like it. Showing up with an empty sack on a traditional day of giving can be a little awkward especially to blue state legislators so what will the president serve? In the past he has served red meat to his adoring buffoons by attacking the members of the Supreme Court. That's not a good idea this year. The Supremes have been rather testy lately. They have handed the Obama administration two 9-0 losing decisions in recent weeks and during oral arguments in Sackett v EPA the justices all but bitch slapped Deputy Solicitor General Malcolm L. Stewart across the courtroom. The administration may even lose the vote of its own Elena Kagan.

Now Obama, with no money to give must cast about for a new target for his demagoguery or face the wrath of discontented Democrats. Oh, for the glory days of 2009 when then Speaker Nancy Pelosi jumped up and down like a wound up toy, applauding every inanity. Vice President Biden elected to forgo his nap and joined the Speaker in the almost erotic bliss that filled the chamber as Democrats anticipated a near trillion dollar stimulus slush fund. But now as the great orator Jeremiah Wright would say, "the chickens have come home to roost." Probably the Tea Party and its adherents will be called on to sate the blood lust of the party that puts people first. Although thought to be dead by the popular media, the Tea Party can still be vilified as the awful enemy that destroyed so many political careers. It hit the Democratic party like a plague in 2010 and the landscape is still littered with political corpses of the brave men and women of the party that only wanted the best for their friends and allies in business and labor. So if I were to bet, I would bet that tonight the Tea Party and House Republicans will be demonized far more than Ahmadinejad has ever been.

Where Is The Outrage At MF Global

2012-01-24T05:55:00.002-05:00

Since no one else is asking when will the DOJ investigate the MF Global theft of customers' funds I will. Jon Corzine, a former head of Goldman Sachs, former United States Senator, and former Governor of New Jersey has presided over grand larceny to the tune of $1.2 billion dollars yet the mainstream media has allowed this story to slip from public view. The fact that $1.2 billion dollars is missing absent an immediate excuse is prima facie evidence that a theft has been committed yet no grand jury has been convened and no arrests have been made. The video below in which Terry Duffy of the CME Group, the parent of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange is six weeks old. In that video Duffy flat out tells the Senate committee that a senior employee of MF Global stated that segregated funds had been transferred out of the customer accounts and that Jon Corzine was aware of it. Contrast the treatment of MF Global to that of Gibson Guitar where federal agents with guns drawn herded production employees into the parking lot then forced them to leave their personal affects and go home so the feds could investigate some allegedly illegally imported wood. Where is the outrage and where is the justice? BTW where is Occupy Wall Street when the corruption is real?

MF Global Money Still Missing

2012-01-23T17:34:00.001-05:00

Two and a half month after the collapse of MF Global the $1.2 billion in customer accounts has not turned up. The money has been stolen and there is no nice way to say it. By law money in customer accounts must be segregated from the company's money but it wasn't and now it's gone and the most ethical administration with its inept regulators and corrupt Department of Justice has yet to offer the victims of this theft or the public an explanation. There is a theory on Wall Street that the customer funds were Madoff -ed. In other word the trades were never made but the profits from the fictional trades were posted in customer accounts as if they had been made. Why would MF Global do this? Here is CNBC's reasoning;

" The answer might be quite simple. The firm was in dire financial straits. It may have felt pressure to keep customers on board by showing how ably the firm managed their money. A scheme like this need not involve the entire firm—or even the senior management. If this is indeed what happened, a small group of rogue traders at MF Global may have been able to carry off the rouse for quite some time. Perhaps perpetually—if not for the bankruptcy at MF Global".

In any event if this were Halliburton it's a safe bet we would be hearing about this 5 nights a week on all three channels.

TSA; Senator Rand Paul Not Detained

2012-01-23T16:54:00.000-05:00

TSA now says Senator Rand Paul was not detained. I guess the Senator just made the story up. Speaking on Hannity Paul says that he has been told that the beep the scanner emitted was not a machine error but rather it is programmed to beep randomly so TSA agents can do a full body pat down. Paul makes the point that frequent flyers who have a history of flying without incident could be given an id card that let them pass through without a scan.

Senator Rand Paul Detained by TSA

2012-01-23T11:03:00.004-05:00

This sounds like something the late Jim Croce would warn against. There are some things that smart people just don't do. Probably if you are a TSA agent you don't detain a United States Senator especially one named Rand Paul. Senator Paul has been detained by the TSA in Nashville. I'll bet there is weeping and gnashing of teeth in Washington after the libertarian senator arrives. There was an "anomaly" when he walked through the scanner. He offered to walk through again but TSA insisted on a full body pat down which he refused.

video platform video management video solutions video player

Update: The detention was both illegal and unconstitutional. The U.S. Constitution actually protects federal lawmakers from detention while they’re on the way to the Capital.

“The Senators and Representatives…shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same….” according to Article I, Section 6.

The Senate is back in session today at 2 p.m., with votes scheduled at 4:30 p.m.

Hey, Newt! You're not an outsider! Go with it...

2012-01-23T08:41:00.001-05:00

Watching the debates and controversy swirl around the Republican race for the nomination has gotten pretty intense.
It's hard to figure what's going to happen next, which is really good for the process, imho, considering that for Republicans it's usually just the next old white guy in line who gets the establishment nod and nomination.
So Newt's sudden surge has many people perked up; if he can win or not we don't really know although it's pretty stupid that people are comparing money raised and popularity on the Republican side with the current administration considering we DON"T HAVE A CANDIDATE YET and considering the money that's been pouring in has been spread out over LOTS OF CANDIDATES.
But the wonks are eager to get on with the fight, to crown Romney and then declare it impossible for him to win against The Prince.
Newt's, wow, interesting, to say the least.
But it's totally phony for the bombastic Gingrich to claim he's an outsider. He's not and it's foolish and errant and dishonest for him to claim that he's anything BUT an insider:

Toward the end of his appearance, Gingrich positioned himself as an outsider candidate, willing to cut spending and take on the establishment, much like, he said, former President Ronald Reagan. It was a tricky move, considering Gingrich’s long-time residency in Washington and his former leadership role in Congress.

“I represent the largest amount of change of any candidate,” he said. “I’m not representing Wall Street or the politicians in Washington.”

So here's a personal letter to Newt Gingrich, which surely he'll read:

Dear Newt:
You know how the system works. In that sense, you are an insider. But you could play that to an advantage, if you're smart, and claim that your insider knowledge will help you work through the changes that this country needs to make to avoid default.
You've walked the walk of a leader and should play on that. You made real change happen before; you have that experience and can do it again.
Be honest. Don't prevaricate. We've had enough of that.
Quit attacking Mitt, especially on the Bain issue. You REALLY made a whole lot of us mad on that. Throw Mitt off by complimenting and then ignoring him.We're sick of the cannibalism.
Acknowledge your quixotic tendencies. Accusations have been made that you're too chaotic, that a Gingrich administration would be too unorganized.
Surround yourself with calm, decisive people. Just as Mitt has the flamboyant Chris Christie out there to contrast with his own milquetoastism, you need someone phlegmatic to balance your own excitability.
If we're seriously going down the Newt road, you need to start turning positive.
You need to quit attacking the media so directly and instead do it with humor (do you have a sense of humor?) You know, like Reagan did.
You need to start building consensus and good will.
You've taken so many different paths to get where you are now; please consider becoming the voice of reason and not just the voice of dissent. Oh, we love the voice of dissent.
But this election will be a lot more than debates; it will be a lot more than just dissenting with the current administration.
If you're serious about winning, look ahead.
Claiming you're an outsider just won't do it.

Cardinal Dolan; Obama Has Drawn a Line in the Sand

2012-01-23T03:13:00.002-05:00

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), said the Obama administration had “drawn an unprecedented line in the sand” with the decision. Bishop Dolan was referring to the recent HHS ruling that will force many Catholic institutions to include contraceptives including abortion inducing medications as no co- pay benefits in their healthcare insurance plans. While the decision has not attracted much media attention expect this issue to be heard loudly and often during the fall campaign.

“In effect, the president is saying we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences,” the cardinal-designate said in a separate statement. “To force American citizens to choose between violating their consciences and forgoing their health care is literally unconscionable. It is as much an attack on access to health care as on religious freedom. Historically this represents a challenge and a compromise of our religious liberty.”

Arizona to Investigate ATF, DOJ

2012-01-23T01:02:00.001-05:00

They investigated Sheriff Joe Arpaio for racial profiling. They sued the State of Arizona to prevent enforcement of it tough new immigration law and now it's time for Arizona to investigate the Department of Justice. In a nasty tit for tat the DOJ and the ATF will find themselves the target of an Arizona state investigation to determine if federal officers broke Arizona law in Operation Fast and Furious.

Sopa Smopa, Fix it Yourselves

2012-01-23T00:10:00.003-05:00

Chris Dodd the former senator from Connecticut and present head of the
Motion Picture Association of America is having a hissy fit because the lawmakers he bought won't stay bought. Gee, is there no honor among thieves anymore? I recalled a particularly harsh assessment of Mr. Dodd's character during the dust up surrounding the AIG bonuses. That caustic evaluation of the good senator' character appeared in his hometown paper, the New Haven Register and began;

"We’re not going to mince words. Chris Dodd is a lying weasel.

It is hard enough to swallow that the senator had no idea that he got preferential treatment on his home mortgages that saved him thousands of dollars. Or that, simply out of friendship, a wealthy New York man, who was later convicted in a huge stock swindle, picked up much of the cost of a condo Dodd bought in Washington; or that the stock swindler’s business partner out of a love of Ireland did the same for Dodd when the senator bought a waterfront house in Ireland.

Now, Dodd flat-out has lied about his role in legislation that is allowing employees of American International Group to receive $400 million in bonuses despite receiving $173 billion in taxpayer money to keep the failed financial giant alive."

Suffice it to say, Dodd seems to have acquired a reputation for not always being Boy Scout honest. Now the New Haven Weasel is threatening the legislators and the White House whom he thought he had bought with this unvarnished threat right on national television.

"Those who count on quote 'Hollywood' for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who's going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don't pay any attention to me when my job is at stake."

Hear that Barack? Don't ask him to write a check when your job is on the line.

Now a fair minded president would tell Dodd to fight his own fights and leave the taxpayers out of it. How exactly does the taxpayer benefit from the protection of copyrighted material. If a building contractor should egress on your easement don't bother to call Eric Holder. He will tell you that its civil law and that's what courts are for. Oh, but when the property is intellectual property not only the federal government but Google, FaceBook, Reddit, Wikipedia, and every web master should put aside their personal concerns and be about the very serious business of protecting the soft core porn pushed by the clients of the New Haven Weasel. I am sorry that Avatar sold 21 million pirated copies but how did the originals get into the hands of the pirates? Has anyone noticed that Broadway plays don't have this problem? Why? Because they keep their intellectual property indoors. They protect their content. The internet may facilitate the piracy problem but the movie and music industries have only themselves to blame for the loss of anticipated income. Not content to live on the income from theaters and concert halls these industries push their products through live streaming and DVD's then it becomes the public's obligation to protect their rights. The public has a pretty accurate opinion of Mr. Dodd and his clients and has neither the time or inclination to surrender their individual freedom to make greed pay.

Shreveport: The Auto Capital of the World?

2012-01-22T22:52:00.002-05:00

This blog has focused on the development of the Utica Shale from a more or less provincial perspective, essentially documenting what the potential good it can do for Ohio. From time to time the Marcellus Shale is mentioned when it effects Ohio such as being the chief reason for the incipient rebirth of Youngstown's steel industry. The Utica is at newborn age, and the Marcellus a toddler but the venerable Hayneville has been prominent since 2008. The Hayneville Shale, located in northern Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas is the largest shale gas field yet developed and it is in its infancy but its impact has been so profound that a major producer of methanol announced that it had secured land in Louisiana and was weighing moving an idle plant in Chile to the site, a pending decision driven in large part by the state's record gas production and steady shale reserves.

As the industry eyes the export market for the sudden surplus of natural gas work has begun on two new ocean transports. When these ships are completed in Gulfport, Mississippi they will be the only natural gas powered ships in the US merchant marine. Fearing that drilling will decline if the price of gas drops further the gas industry is busy trying to find domestic uses for this cheap and abundant fuel. The idea of producing natural gas powered automobiles in Louisiana is gaining attention although no concrete proposals have yet appeared.

Sure, you say Shreveport will be the next Detroit and Bobby Jindal will be the next Henry Ford. First, Bobby Jindal probably won't be a player unless he puts up his own money. Second the participants in the conference where thinking along regional lines for the launch of the automobile. They imagine they can put enough service stations in place in Louisiana and increase auto production as natural gas fuel stations move across the country. Presently a ten gallon fill up of the natural gas equivalent of gasoline would cost $21.50 compared to $35. for ten gallons of gasoline. At present only Honda produces a natural gas powered vehicle which was reported here. If other automakers do not want to compete in this market the free market dreamers in Louisiana could find a niche that has an awesome upside potential as natural gas becomes abundant in the midwest. Henrik Fisker was an European auto designer who owned no production facilities and had never manufactured so much as a Vegematic but with a $529 million DOE loan did eventually manage to produce an electric car. A group of wealthy investors could hire the expertise and find the idle industrial capacity for much less, not to produce a bauble for the rich and famous but rather to produce a economical car or truck suitable for individual use in a limited locality. There are eight natural gas fueling stations in Louisiana, including three open to the public, and plans under way for 15 more. "If you build it, they will come."

As wild and futuristic as this idea sounds, people in Ohio and Pennsylvania may soon be dreaming the same dreams.

Gabby Giffords says goodbye. For now

2012-01-22T17:48:00.000-05:00

Even though I disagree with some of her political positions, I find this an amazing woman. Her recovery is remarkable but what is most admirable is her desire to do what she thinks is right for the people of her district, and that includes stepping down because she needs to focus on her recovery.
Kudos, Ms. Giffords.

Obama operative arrested trying to frame Republican SoS

2012-01-22T14:56:00.002-05:00

You'll recall that Dems are violently opposed to requiring any kind of ID to vote, even though to vote in unions or even their own primaries, voters are required to produce a government picture ID.
You might also recall that George Soros funded an ACORN operation to put into place as many ACORN secretaries of state as possible, Ohio being a target.
Now we learn that an Obama operative has attempted to get a Republican SOS charged with a crime; the Obama operative attempted to steal the identity of the Republican SOS.
The Washington Examiner has all the links to the important sources today:

It's probably going to be lost in coverage of today's South Carolina GOP presidential primary but the biggest story of the day - and maybe much more than that even - could prove to be the arrest of a former Obama campaign staffer in a scheme to impersonate Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz.

Zachary Edwards was arrested for attempting to steal the identity of the SOS. Edwards performed numerous services for Obama in numerous states; somehow the link to his resume at the Democrat consulting services has been wiped, but not forgotten.
Is there more to come? Is this what we are to expect nationwide from Obama operatives, the Examiner wonders.

WaPo: someone write one negative story about Obama PLEASE

2012-01-22T14:08:00.000-05:00

So the Washington Post feels a little guilty about how they favor Obama, slobbering over him every chance they get.
The liberal media has been in a quandary; we are closing in on another election and what do we do?
Obama's record is so pathetic there's nothing to tout; the only path to his success is to tear down any opponent, aggrandize Obama's record and pretend that their friends represent the majority of the voters.
Meanwhile they hurl invectives at Republican audiences for being blood lusty for being angry with the MSM.
The ombudsman at the WaPo referring to Obama:

I think there was way too little coverage of his record in the Illinois Senate and U.S. Senate, for example, with one or two notably good exceptions. But there were hard-hitting stories too, even a very tough one on Michelle Obama’s job at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

And that’s what The Post needs to do in covering his reelection campaign this year: be hard-hitting on his record and provide fresh insight and plenty of context to put the past three rough years into perspective.

So in pursuit of inoculation and readers, who springs to the forefront?
Why, Maureen Dowd, of course! She's a good party liner, if nothing else.
Dowd mentions that Obama thinks the reason the press corps doesn't like him is because he doesn't attend (or apparently throw) enough parties. In fact, Obama himself says:

My suspicion is that this whole critique has to do with the fact that I don’t go to a lot of Washington parties. And as a consequence, the Washington press corps maybe just doesn’t feel like I’m in the mix enough with them, and they figure, well, if I’m not spending time with them, I must be cold and aloof.

Yeah. Not enough parties. That's his problem.
Dowd goes on to complain that the Obamas are too isolated and, maybe, well, too stuck up.

As Michelle said to Oprah in an interview she did with the president last May: “I always told the voters, the question isn’t whether Barack Obama is ready to be president. The question is whether we’re ready. And that continues to be the question we have to ask ourselves.”

They still believed, as their friend Valerie Jarrett once said, that Obama was “just too talented to do what ordinary people do.”

But Dowd can't help herself.
Though she acknowledges the Obamas feel like victims, she can't resist taking a shot at Newt, who she claims is playing the perpetual victim by slamming the press:

The Obamas truly feel like victims. But Newt Gingrich, who campaigns by attacking the culture of victimization, plays one on stage. He soared at the Charleston CNN debate by brazenly proclaiming himself the victim of “the elite media protecting Barack Obama” (the same Obama who told Time he was victimized by the press). Newt’s gambit was a calculated way of deflecting attention from a charge by his second wife, Marianne, that the family values he preaches are hypocritical platitudes, given his cheating ways with two wives he divorced when they were ill.

The news isn't that the Obamas feel like victims.
What we have to look forward to is a smattering of stories about Obama's faults and a whole buttload of stories about how bad whoever the Republican nominee is.
Like a single "tough" story about Michelle Obama breaking the law. Then let it go.
How about this, MoDo.
How about you actually report on Barack Obama like he's a real politician. How about you actually report on his narcissism, his roots in Marxism, his lack of records.
How about we start with this report, from the Daily Mail that Barack Obama never felt like people appreciated him? That everyone was inferior to him? Maybe that isn't news.

Though she had thrown herself into the campaign, she had been sceptical from the outset about the very notion of her husband running for president.Barack Obama had been constantly dissatisfied with where he was in life. When he was elected to the state senate in Illinois, he immediately began complaining that the body was not serious and referred to his colleagues as idiots.

As soon as he entered the U.S. Senate, he felt frustrated.At his first hearing on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he sat listening to a long-winded address by Senator Joe Biden — later to become his vice-president — and passed a note to an aide that said: ‘Shoot. Me. Now.

That's right. Everybody's an idiot but you, Barack Obama.

Republican "bloodlust," Part Deux

2012-01-22T07:42:00.000-05:00

Again with the "Republican audience bloodlust," now a meme, this time from Politico.
We discussed this yesterday.
Once again the dinosaur and liberal media, this time in the form of Roger Simon of Politico, have called a Republican audience responding to "bloodlust in the air," while at the same time saying Newt was "arrogant, condescending and dismissive" by appealing to the audience's lower instincts.
Why? Because they feel passionately about an issue and somehow the press is trying to twist their reasons as being racist.
Here's video from MRC:

Here's a classic example of the reason that Republican audiences despise the MSM.
In pumping the story on Newt's infidelities as ABC decided to do a retrospective of philandering politicians; their retrospective includes the thinly sourced Thomas Jefferson (whose connection is familial, not necessarily direct), Grover Cleveland and a couple contemporary politicians like Spitzer and some guy named Vito.
Nowhere in the ABC report is the most famous recent philanderer whose actions caused him to lose his law license because of misleading testimony regarding his philandering.
Yes, that's right.
Bill Clinton isn't a more famous philanderer than, say, Thomas Jefferson.
Here's the offending "report." ABC.
In fact, ABC didn't care about European reports about any interest Obama may have had in one Vera Baker. Or John Edwards.
ABC also didn't appear to care about reports that Marianne Gingrich is unstable and that she had boasted years ago that she planned to dash his presidential aspirations with a "single television interview."

Just What the Country Needs, a "Reasonable Profits Board"

2012-01-22T06:36:00.000-05:00

It just what the country needs, a "Reasonable Profits Board". So says Congressman Dennis Kucinich. The board would be made up of three members appointed by the president and it would impose a tax on oil companies that earned above a "reasonable profit" by apply a windfall profits tax to range from 50 to 100 percent of earnings beyond what the board deems a reasonable profit. Why do Rep. Kucinich and the cosponsors think gasoline prices may rise. Primarily because the administration has done everything in its power to drive up energy prices. It has allowed the Iranian government to maintain a credible threat to shut off one quarter of the world's oil supply by blockading shipping in the Persian Gulf. It has refused to allow the construction of the Keystone XL pipe line for reasons at odd with its original environmental evaluation and it has brought oil and gas drilling on federal lands to a near 20 year low. Under the Kucinich plan, The Gas Price Spike Act, H.R. 3784 money raised from the windfall profits would be funneled into more useless green transportation projects such as high speed rail and subsidies in the form of rebates to people who buy cars the normally would not want. Fortunately Congress is in the hands of saner people so this bill is going nowhere but to cynically drive up gas prices to extract higher taxes is a new wrinkle we haven't seen before. Joining Kucinich in this lunacy as cosponsors are; Reps. John Conyers Jr. (Mich.), Bob Filner (Calif.), Marcia Fudge (Ohio), Jim Langevin (R.I.), and Lynn Woolsey (Calif.).

Gingrich Does Well Among Women Voters

2012-01-22T04:39:00.003-05:00

The question was asked ad nauseam since Newt Gingrich blew up at John King. Sure Gingrich won that encounter but what about the women vote? Turns out Gingrich did better among women than Romney. Romney pulled 30 percent of the women vote. Gingrich got 36 percent. How did Gingrich with his three marriages do among the Christian right? Voters who identified themselves as evangelical or born-again Christians, gave Gingrich 42 percent of the vote to Romney's 22 percent. One gets a sense her that among Republican voters that the ability to trounce Obama trumps all other matters. Ninety-seven percent of all respondents said they were worried about the economy and 79 percent they were extremely worried.

Newt wins SC!

2012-01-21T19:49:00.000-05:00

Wow. This is pretty remarkable.
~~37% to 33~~
41% to 26 @ 39%

Hey, OBAMA, life will never be FAIR for everyone

2012-01-21T18:37:00.001-05:00

Man, same old same old in the upcoming SOTU. Green jobs. Economy's gonna pick up. My focus is good paying jobs that will be FAIR and not just for the FEW. Everyone's going to work hard and get great pay and nobody will have stuff other people won't have.
Yeah.
Here's a preview.

Conservative band rocks Occupiers

2012-01-21T17:31:00.003-05:00

From Big Hollywood, it's good to know there are a few people in entertainment who are conservative.

In a story you will NOT hear or read about in the mainstream media, it appears Madison Rising truly did “occupy” the Occupiers and those in attendance were completely oblivious to the fact that they were being entertained by a pro-American, pro-military, pro-capitalism (you get the picture) band. In fact, they absolutely loved the music; they were dancing to it, cheering them on, and even tweeting how “tight” this band was as they performed songs like American Dream, Honk if You Want Peace, Before the Hyphen Came, and Where Was The Media Then. Perhaps they were too stoned to pay any attention to the lyrics or could it be they are just that clueless? My guess is both!

Buffett benefits from Keystone stalling

2012-01-21T17:23:00.002-05:00

Don Surber has the story of how Obama shill and tax dodger Warren Buffett benefits from the delay or eradication of the Keystone pipeline. Crony capitalism, again, destroys jobs in the US:

The Keystone pipeline would create thousands of union jobs and reduce U.S. dependency on Saudi oil, Venezuelan oil, and Nigerian oil.

But the man who pays the piper calls the tune, and Warren Buffett is paying the piper. He will rake in millions, if not billions, by eliminating a potential rival for his oil customers in North Dakota.

More here.

The "bloodlust" of right wing audiences

2012-01-21T11:13:00.001-05:00

I guess I don't have a problem with the press exploring the questions about Newt.
I probably don't have a problem with the press exploring Romney's finances.
To be honest, the moralizing about politics and people's personal lives gets old. We've all been sort of broken when it comes to morality after the whole Clinton debacle.
It's not that character doesn't matter; it does. That's really not a question.
All the excuses Moveon.org tried to push when Clinton was exploiting a 20 something intern were phony and trumped up to excuse inexcusable behavior.
But the whole impeachment thing wasn't about sex. It was about lying under oath and it was about trying to force an innocent person, Linda Tripp, into testifying falsely.
We also know that everyone has problems, suffers pain, makes mistakes, although some of Newt's mistakes are pretty awful.
So liberals broke the sexually problematic candidacy with their guy Clinton.
Now they're trying to drudge up the whole sexual picadillo thing , using opposite arguments to their advantage and it's not working.
It seems pretty naive for Newt to just proclaim, "I asked God for forgiveness, but the truth is that you reach a certain age when you realize that people commit some pretty awful deeds against one another and hide some pretty awful stuff.
So back to the whole Romney's money/Newt's temperament issues.
So why did the audience when Newt laid into John King? Why did the audience cheer in September when Rick Perry approved the death penalty when asked if he had trouble sleeping by the as always left wing so-called "moderator."
Why?
IF THE MEDIA TREATED BOTH SIDES OF THE AISLE THE SAME, WE WOULDN"T FEEL THIS IS SO UNFAIR, BIASED AND PARTISAN.
If the media were doing its job, we'd be disgusted with them and their sex stories, but at least we'd know that they were doing their jobs, searching for truth and clarity, no matter what road we go down.
But they're not doing their jobs.
Thus the other side of the aisle is just going to have to get used to the "bloodlust" of right aisle audiences when it comes to excoriating the media and ripping on Obama.

Thirty-One Percent of South Carolina GOP Prefer Tebow to Romney

2012-01-20T23:03:00.003-05:00

Public Policy Polling likes to ask odd questions. They are a Democratic leaning organization so keep that in mind. That said, 31 percent of Republicans favor Tim Tebow over Mitt Romney.

Gingrich Lead Expands In Wake Ex's Interview

2012-01-20T22:40:00.002-05:00

This is a remarkable statement from Public Policy Polling (PPP): "Gingrich's lead has actually increased in the wake of his ex-wife's controversial interview with ABC. Although one night poll results should always be interpreted with caution, he led the final night of the field period by a 40-26 margin. One thing that continues to work to his advantage are the debates. 60% of primary voters report having watched the one last night, and Gingrich has a 46-23 lead with those folks." I'm sure this isn't what the ex intended.

The poll finds Gingrich surging in South Carolina. In the final week, PPP finds Gingrich going from 24% to 37% while Romney has remain practically unchanged, going from 29 % to 28%. Santorum gets 16 % while Paul gets 14%.

Obamism; Close to Marxism

2012-01-20T20:40:00.000-05:00

The various speakers discuss Obama's unsavory past and his party's plan to win the next election with the aid of Occupy Wall Street and the Department of Justice.

Let's crawl into the mind of a couple occupiers

2012-01-20T20:02:00.001-05:00

What am I gonna pass down to my kids, man? What? (toke) I mean, a living wage? I need it to be happy, man! (toke)

Sen. Boxer Coast Guard Should Train Cruise Ship Passengers

2012-01-20T18:13:00.001-05:00

Since Lincoln Davenport Chafee lost his Senate seat in 2006 Senator Barbara Boxer has been the dumbest United State Senator by even the most charitable estimates. "Please call me Senator" Boxer's latest foray into leftist la la land is the notion that the Coast Guard, in light of the sinking of the cruise ship, Costa Concordia, should train cruise ship passengers on emergency evacuation procedures before they head out to sea. Actually cruise ships do give this training but under current regulations are permitted to delay this tedium until after the ship is asea. Atta girl Babs, the country isn't going broke fast enough and with the proposed defense budget cuts the DOD can always lop off another battalion or two to protect passengers against a once in a generation risk.

Dr. John Drew Exposes Obama's Marxist Past

2012-01-20T17:34:00.004-05:00

Hiding in plain sight all during the 2008 election was Dr. John C. Drew. He wasn't truly hiding but rather was ignored by all of the popular media. Dr. Drew was a student at Cornell and visited Occidental College where he met Barack, "just call me Barry," Obama. Like Obama he was a Marxist. He outgrew his adolescent naivete but Obama instead became president. He described his first meeting with Obama in an American Thinker post:

The taller of the two was Obama, then only 19, who towered over his five-foot-five companion, Mohammed Hasan Chandoo - a wealthy, 21 year old Pakistani student. Chandoo had a full dark black, neatly trimmed moustache, and was dressed in expensive clothes. Nevertheless, Obama was the more handsome of the two. At six foot two, Obama carried himself with the dignity and poise of a model. The diminutive Chandoo, in contrast, came across as more of a practical, businessman type. Obama displayed a visible deference to Chandoo when they were standing together at the vehicle.

Chandoo was vaguely familiar to me as a participant in the earlier anti-apartheid rallies on the Occidental College campus. In David Remnick's book, The Bridge, Chandoo's bona fides as a committed Marxist were well-known to those close to him. Chandoo's girlfriend at the time, Margot Mifflin, told Remnick that "In college, Hasan was a socialist, a Marxist, which is funny since he is from a wealthy family. Young Obama, on the other hand, was completely new to me.

"This is Barack Obama," Boss said.

Since I was not much taller than Chandoo, I remember I looked up at Obama as we shook hands. I was completely mystified by the pronunciation of his name. He did not put up a fight over it, however.

"You can call me Barry," Obama said.

During the introduction, Boss and Chandoo were eager to let me know that Obama was a graduate of the prestigious Punahou Academy, an elite prep school in Honolulu. I vividly remember that Chandoo was intensely proud of Obama's ties to Punahou. This prestige, however, was wasted on me. I had never heard of the school and did not have a clue about what it meant to be one of its graduates. Obama seemed embarrassed by the fuss. Boss, I remember, wanted to make sure I understood that young Obama was not merely an attractive socialite dabbling in Marxist theory. "You've worked with us," she observed. "You've been at our DSA meetings. You've been active in the anti-apartheid movement."

In another long video Dr Drew relates that they walked so closely that he thought they were a gay couple.

In the video linked above Drew maintains that Obama's mother's name, Stanley should be a tip off to the nuts in the Obama family tree. He describes young Obama as a red diaper baby, that is one raised from childhood to be a Marxist. Certainly we will see more of Drew during the upcoming campaign. With a phd in political science, Drew has the gravitas to discuss Obama with dispassionate objectivity and can more than hold his own with the media. The video below is long but well worth the time spent listening.

Top DOJ Official Will Take The Fifth In Fast & Furious Probe

2012-01-20T15:00:00.002-05:00

Oh this looks bad! A senior Department of Justice official will take the fifth when he testifies before congress next week. As I reported earlier Patrick Cunningham from the Arizona US attorney office has been subpoenaed to testify before Congressman Darrell Issa's House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Now Cunningham has indicated his intention to invoke the fifth amendment protection against self incrimination. Congressman Issa has released this statement;

“The assertion of the fifth amendment by a senior Justice official is a significant indictment of the Department’s integrity in Operation Fast and Furious. The former head of the ATF has previously told the committee that the Justice Department is managing its response to Operation Fast and Furious in a manner designed to protect its political appointees. This is the first time anyone has asserted their fifth amendment right in this investigation and heightens concerns that the Justice Department’s motivation for refusing to hand over subpoenaed materials is a desire to shield responsible officials from criminal charges and other embarrassment.

“Coming a year after revelations about reckless conduct in Operation Fast and Furious were first brought to light, the assertion of the fifth amendment also raises questions about whether President Obama and Attorney General Holder have made a serious and adequate response to allegations raised by whistleblowers. Did Attorney General Holder really not know a senior Justice Department official fears criminal prosecution or is this just another example of him hiding important facts? The committee will continue to demand answers.”

Cunningham is making a compelling case for the appointment of a special prosecutor. When a prosecutor takes the fifth amendment something is very wrong. As I said, this looks bad.

Obama Loses Another 9-0 Court Decision

2012-01-20T14:07:00.001-05:00

For the second time in as many weeks the Obama administrator has been slapped down 9-0 by the Supreme Court. Last week the Court sent the EEOC packing by upholding "ministerial privilege" and today the Court threw out the judge drawn reapportionment plan in the Texas redistricting battle. In an earlier post this blog reported that a DOJ employee working on the Texas case had been caught lying under oath but still retained her position. Today in an unsigned opinion that drew no dissent the Court sent the Texas case back to the district court. I'll bet the administration can't wait to argue the constitutional merits of Obamacare.

SOPA begins...1,2,3, retaliation

2012-01-20T08:48:00.001-05:00

As millions of people protest the SOPA and PIPA laws, Lamar Smith, who has taken numerous dollars from the motion picture industry and who was guilty himself of committing copyright infringement, refuses to withdraw the bill.
Republican presidential candidates are lining up to reject it, as Obama has vowed also. At least for now.
But the hacker group Anonymous last night took down a number of websites after the government shut down a peer sharing website called megaupload.
Websites taken down by Anonymous include the RIAA, DOJ, MPA, EMI, the FBI and Universal.
I'm thinkin' this wasn't such a good fight to pick.Woe to be Lamar Smith.
How do these people honestly think they're going to shut down offshore websites. In addition, seriously, these digital immigrants need to learn that the digital natives do NOT see things the way they do.
As of this writing, it appears that many of the links that describe the Anonymous activities are also *inexplicably* down.

This is scary stuff and an ominous foretelling of the future.

Dems: voter fraud is SOP for us

2012-01-20T08:32:00.002-05:00

It's a "normal political tactic" for Dems to participate in voter fraud.
And that's a quote.

Skinny man sings

2012-01-20T08:18:00.000-05:00

I'm just hoping he can find himself a new career.

Top US Attorney Official Subpoenaed By Issa

2012-01-20T03:21:00.005-05:00

Darrell Issa will call his House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to order next week as the investigation into Fast and Furious resumes. It's know that a subpoena has been issued to a top official in the US Attorney’s Office District of Arizona, Chief of the Criminal Division, Patrick Cunningham. It's unknown what Cunningham has to tell the committee but the US Attorney Dennis Burke has already resigned. Apparently Cunningham has been something less than cooperative judging from the tone of Congressman Issa's letter;

“Yesterday, you canceled your interview scheduled with the Committee for Thursday, January, 19, 2012. As recently as last Friday, both your attorney and the Department of Justice had assured the Committee that you would submit to a voluntary interview and that you intended to cooperate with our investigation,” the letter said.

“It is of paramount importance that you appear before the Committee….As a result of your recalcitrance and inflexible position, the Committee is now forced to engage in compulsory process to obtain your testimony,” he wrote, explaining the subpoena.

In the letter, Issa expressed concern about Cunningham’s role in the Fast and Furious case.

“[Senior Justice Department officials] told us that even after Congress began investigating Fast and Furious, you continued to insist that no unacceptable tactics were used,” he wrote.

“Given that the Attorney General has labeled these tactics as unacceptable and Fast and Furious as ‘fundamentally flawed,’ this position is startling.”

Cunningham is scheduled to testify on January 24.

Newt Wipes Up The Floor With John King

2012-01-20T00:46:00.002-05:00

John King should have known better. Newt Gingrich had all day to think of a response to a question he knew would come. He was waiting for that pitch and when he got it the crowd was on its feet. Hell, I stood up and clapped and I was at home. We here at this blog have not been kind to Newt but when we see that he is the only alternative to Romney we are forced to rethink our opinions. Having said that, let me state further that I have not seen another politician display the force that Gingrich possesses. He speaks to the press as if he were lecturing a rambunctious school boy and gets away with it. True, he always has either the facts or popular sentiments on his side but when he speaks ex cathedra he crushes the questioner with brute force. Herman Cain tried to do this without success. He lacked the moral authority in which Gingrich has some how managed to clock himself. I thought it was extraordinary that the archdiocese of Washington saw fit to post a video of one of his debate responses where he accused the Obama administration of bigotry on its web site.

Here in this video Newt wipes up the floor with CNN's John King.

More emerges about Marianne Gingrich

2012-01-19T15:22:00.004-05:00

Let the "vetting" begin.

Marianne Gingrich started her affair with Newt when he was married.

Now she's shocked that Gingrich broke up with her to marry someone else.

She complains that he had a 6 year affair with Callista but doesn't mention that she and Newt were separated for 6 years. ABC:

She said when Gingrich admitted to a six-year affair with a Congressional aide, he asked her if she would share him with the other woman, Callista, who is now married to Gingrich.

Newt asked for the divorced 8 months after she was diagnosed with MS, a fact described as "just months" in the ABC article. From ABOUT:

Bill Sanderson: "Gingrich asked Marianne for the divorce by phoning her on Mother's Day, 1999."
Source: Bill Sanderson. "Newt's Ex Wife Aiming to Pen Book." New York Post.7/18/2000.
Mickey Porter: "Gingrich's most recent ex-wife says he ditched her eight months after finding out she had multiple sclerosis. Marianne Gingrich, 48 ... says the ex-speaker of the House told her on Mother's Day 1999 that he wanted a divorce, after learning she had a neurological condition that could lead to MS [multiple sclerosis]."
Source: Mickey Porter. "Newt's a Beaut." Akron Beacon Journal. 7/25/2000.

Professor Jacobsen at Legal Insurrection has this:

There’s more to the story than you are hearing in the media. Marianne Gingrich is no innocent, and she was the one who broke the marriage and cleaned out the house, via Robert Costa via AP report from 1999 (h/tBurke):

Documents related to the divorce filed Friday in Cobb County Superior Court include a separation agreement signed by the couple and notarized in December 1987. There is no indication it was ever filed.

Gingrich’s divorce attorney, Thomas Browning, said Marianne Gingrich called her husband on his birthday in June 1987 to tell him she was leaving him.

Gingrich, he said, came back to Georgia to find his home emptied out.
Browning said the pair maintained separate residences for six years before reconciling in late 1993 or early 1994.

Suddenly character matters

2012-01-19T12:36:00.003-05:00

It didn't with Clinton because none of his acolytes expected anything of him.

Now there is shock and awe as yet another bimbo comes forward. Ok, that was unfair. An ex-wife is more than a bimbo.
But seriously. Isn't it time we stopped with all this old sex stuff?
And the excuses these women have for "coming forward"?
Marianne Gingrich, who's currently making the rounds shopping her story, maximizing the heart rending details which seem to be clear as day even though it was 12 years ago, explained herself this way, just as the first Mrs. Gingrich did when claiming she had cancer when he told her goodbye.

“Truthfully, my whole purpose was to get out there about who I was, so Newt couldn’t create me as an evil, awful person, which was starting to happen,” she said.

Ginger White, who claimed Herman Cain had an affair with her wanted to get out in front of it too.

White was worried a political tsunami was headed her way. So, she decided to head it off, by confessing she was involved in a 13-year-long affair with presidential hopeful Herman Cain.

“It was pretty simple,” White said. “It wasn't complicated. I was aware that he was married. And I was also aware I was involved in a very inappropriate situation, relationship.”

Sharon Bialek, who claimed she was squealing on Cain because it was the "right thing to do," also claimed this was her reason for coming forward:

“I actually did it because I wanted to help him,” Bialek said in an interview with CBS’ "The Early Show." “I wanted to give him a platform to come clean, to tell the truth.”

So now we have another woman coming forward with horrendous claims saying all kinds of things, including that Newt wanted an open marriage. These claims are inflamed by the press and the Drudge Report and we're supposed to believe every word that comes out of this woman's mouth.
Newt's no angel.
But I'm sick and damn tired of the bimbo eruptions and the press's salivating over trying to destroy every single Republican or conservative on the field except Romney. Oh, they'll move on to Romney when and if he gets the nomination.
But they'll stay clear of all the crooked stuff Obama's done. They'll only report lovey dovey stuff about their dream candidate.
They'll put somebody on the beat to dig up the history of Romney's grandfather's polygamy charges, but Obama's connections with Marxists and a father who obviously had issues with polygamy:

Obama Sr. may have had three wives at one time and was working on No. 4 and oh, by the way, he may have impregnated a high-school exchange student living in Boston while he was in Boston.

Yeah, I'll trust a Marianne Gingrich's determination on who should be president of the United States. She seems look a great gal.
Not.