Your Random IBD

Turns out I've got a month and a half of IBD editorials in my inbox. Oops. I tried to just trim out some of the more interesting bits for you to peruse:

Insurers Set Up For Next 'Affordable' Crisis

According to the final draft of the [financial takeover] bill, which President Obama will sign this week [last month - sorry] to much partisan fanfare, the office "shall have the authority to monitor the extent to which traditionally underserved communities and consumers, minorities, and low- and moderate-income persons have access to affordable insurance products regarding all lines of insurance, except health insurance."

Apparently, Democrats aren't content with destroying the mortgage industry with "affordable" loans for protected classes of constituents. Now they want to destroy the insurance industry with "affordable" premiums, which will only end up hurting the consumers they deign to protect as surely as "affordable" subprimes hurt them...

Right now insurers are regulated by agencies in 50 states. The Office of National Insurance, however, will ID "gaps" in state regulation and recommend regulations to "streamline" control over the industry. "A new dual regulatory structure featuring federally mandated price controls for auto and homeowners insurance could become reality," NAMIC warns.

Of course, that's the underlying goal of this provision — to socialize the entire insurance industry. The health care overhaul effectively put Health and Human Services in charge of health insurance. Now with the passage of financial reform, Treasury will eventually run the rest of the industry.

Sound familiar? Yup, sounds just like the Community Reinvestment Act that caused the mortgage meltdown. Speaking of which...

Son Of CRA: The Scandal Lives On

In 1995, Clinton mandated banks adopt "flexible" underwriting practices to boost minority homeownership. This triggered an explosion in subprime and other risky mortgages that left communities of color worse off than ever.

No matter, the Fed and the three other federal agencies regulating banks under the CRA are holding public hearings through August to gather input from inner-city activists hellbent on expanding the misguided regulation. "The agencies want to ensure that the CRA remains effective for encouraging institutions to meet the credit needs of communities," the Fed said in a press release, even if the evidence shows it encourages banks to make unsafe loans...

Excuse us, but if there were sound loans to be made in these communities, banks wouldn't need the government "encouraging" them to make them. Studies allegedly proving bank redlining have been thoroughly debunked. That's not the problem. The problem is, CRA loans aren't sound. They have high default rates and underperform traditional loans — as the Fed's own studies show.

Quick sum up of the Journolist scandal that exposed the coordination amongst some members of the media on stories, talking points, anti-GOP and -conservative agendas, etc that was previously only suspected (personally, I never thought this sort of thing was actually going on, but it turns out it was):

The Smoking Gun For Media Bias

For decades, moderates and conservatives have been derided and ridiculed for complaining about the mainstream media's pervasive liberal bias. As it turns out, however, their worst fears were true.

If you don't know about Journolist, you should. It's a semi-secret listserv maintained by Washington Post columnist Ezra Klein...

And who uses it? Almost exclusively liberal journalists and left-leaning movers and shakers. Sound innocuous? It isn't.

Journolist has become a forum for lefty journalists to talk about how to push their progressive agenda on America, protect President Obama and hurt his foes. It is a safe-space for the often-vile expression of hatred toward conservatives and their ideas...

During the 2008 debate over the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, President Obama's personal pastor who repeatedly expressed his contempt for America in shockingly racist terms, some on Journolist suggested ways to squelch coverage. As Spencer Ackerman of the inaptly named Washington Independent suggested, "What is necessary is to raise the cost on the right of going after the left. ... Take one of them — Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists."...

The Tea Party's sudden rise seems to have spooked the Journolisters. Bloomberg's Ryan Donmoyer wondered, "Is anyone starting to see parallels here between the teabaggers and their tactics and the rise of the Brownshirts (Germany's Nazis)?"

Never mind that all Americans, not just those on Journolist, have constitutional rights to freedom of expression. Donmoyer and others of his ilk on the left really seem to think that small-government Tea Party participants are as much of a threat as the Nazis.

When the debate turns to Fox TV, Journolisters become positively unhinged, recommending that the full power and force of the federal government be used to shut up the one network that dares to present center-right viewpoints in its programming.

UCLA law professor Jonathan Zasloff asked on Journolist: "I hate to open this can of worms, but is there any reason why the FCC couldn't simply pull their broadcasting permit once it expires?"

Yes, "professor," there is a reason: It's the First Amendment.

And again:

JournoGate Continued: Pouncing On Palin

When we talked with Alaska's then-governor in the summer of 2008 about plans to develop her state's energy resources, she came across like most other Alaskans we've met — frank, down-to-earth, colloquial, but more than technocratically knowledgeable about the energy field.

The issue then for Gov. Palin was how to balance the development of Alaska's bountiful resources with its near-pristine environment. She also wrestled with how to create a healthy business climate in a state with a history of political corruption involving oil companies...

We also interviewed longtime nonpolitical Alaskan bureaucrats who raved about working with the governor and praised her executive ability.

Sound like the Sarah Palin you read about when she was chosen as John McCain's running mate that fall? Hardly.

Suddenly Palin became a backwoods Christian fundamentalist hillbilly with five kids who couldn't possibly be who she said she was. Her intelligence was attacked, her accomplishments belittled, her verbal slips ridiculed, her family's privacy invaded and her clean record smeared with accusations of corruption, all of which proved false.

Now it's clear what was really going on. On Thursday, the Daily Caller published exchanges from a private forum called JournoList that showed how 400 top mainstream reporters and their activist buddies conspired in an attack against Palin the minute she entered the presidential race.

Wrote Daniel Levy of the Century Foundation: "This seems to me like an occasion when the nonofficial campaign has a big role to play in defining Palin, shaping the terms of the conversation and saying things that the official (Obama) campaign shouldn't say — very hard-hitting stuff, including some of the things that people have been noting here (on JournoList) — scare people about having this woefully inexperienced, no foreign policy/national security/right-wing christia (sic) wing-nut a heartbeat away."

"What a joke," added Jeffrey Toobin, a staff writer at the New Yorker and a senior analyst at CNN...

Politico's Ben Adler (now at Newsweek) said Palin should be criticized because campaigning would take her away from her baby...

And so it went — journalists from the Nation, Mother Jones, Time, Politico, Bloomberg cooking up approaches, arguments, "narratives" and templates to paint a false picture of the candidate.

There are so many things wrong with this, we hardly know where to start. Nominally competitors, these supposedly impartial media mavens colluded in a way that would put airline or insurance officials in the dock for anti-competitive practices. They engaged in activism instead of fact-finding and mixed incestuously with activists whom they also should have been covering impartially.

And, gee, didn't we indeed see the left try just that approach about the 'time away from her baby' line? Quite the coincidence...no?

Your Random Saturday

Hadn't spotted (but suspected) this batch of bias called out by Ann Coulter on those creepy crooks out in California:

There have been hundreds of news stories about Bell city officials' jaw-dropping salaries. In this poor city on the outskirts of Los Angeles, where the per capita annual income is $24,800 a year, the city manager, Robert Rizzo, had a salary of $787,637...

Rizzo was the highest-paid government employee in the entire country...With benefits, his total annual compensation, according to the Los Angeles Times, came to $1.5 million a year...

Not only that, but Rizzo was entitled to 28 weeks off a year for vacation and sick leave...

The police chief, Randy Adams, was making $457,000 -- $770,046 including benefits. The assistant city manager, Angela Spaccia, had a $376,288 salary, with a total compensation package of $845,960...

According to Nexis, there have been more than 300 news stories reporting on the Bell scandal. Guess how many mentioned the party affiliation of the corrupt government bureaucrats?

One. Yes, just one. Now guess if the government officials were Democrats or Republicans? Yes, that is correct. Congratulations -- you've qualified for our bonus round!

The one newspaper to cough up party affiliations, The Orange County Register, admitted that the corrupt officials were all Democrats only in response to reader complaints about the peculiar omission.

It's Come To This

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you read a headline along the lines of:

'Fact Check: Blah Blah Blah'

or

'The Facts About Blah Blah Blah'

or

'The Facts Behind Blah Blah Blah'

or

'Blah Blah Blah: Separating Fact From Fiction'

If you're like me and you look at the mainstream media with open eyes and mind, the first thing you think is:

'Well, which will it be today? Some of the facts? Outright lies instead of facts? Distorted 'facts' presented through a prism of opinion?'

Play along at home, pick any story that fits the mold and see how many facts are really facts, how many pertinent facts were omitted, and how many facts are twisted by the opinion of the writer. The days of sitting down for the evening news or reading through the paper and getting the info you needed on current events is way over.

There's That Name Again

Still Oblivious To Meltdown's Cause

The misery won't end soon, because the federal government is repeating the very same mistakes that created the housing nightmare in the first place — including pushing banks to make home loans to people who can't repay them, and expanding Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's role in housing markets even as their losses mount.

Have we learned nothing? This didn't happen overnight. The causes of our current meltdown go back to the early 1990s, when President Clinton first made it official U.S. policy to encourage lending to what were called "low- and moderate-income borrowers."

By 1994, Clinton's "National Homeownership Strategy" started a nationwide push to lower mortgage-lending standards to get more poor people into homes. But the question arose: How could you force banks to lend to people who couldn't pay them back?

The White House answered by using the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act — originally intended to ensure that banks lent in communities where they had branches — to force banks to make loans to minorities and the poor. To fund it all, the White House turned to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to build a massive, multitrillion-dollar market for U.S. subprime mortgages.

In November 2000, HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo issued a press release trumpeting the government's reckless plans: "HUD Announces New Regulations to Provide $2.4 Trillion in Mortgages for Affordable Housing for 28.1 Million Families."

Despite repeated efforts in Congress by Republicans to reform Fannie and Freddie in 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2007, powerful Democrats refused to cooperate. And Fannie and Freddie continued to feed the housing bubble with trillions of dollars in publicly guaranteed money — until it was too late...

Last August, the Congressional Budget Office predicted that Fannie and Freddie could cost us $389 billion over the next decade. But others say the bill could be as much as $1 trillion. Yet neither Fannie nor Freddie was addressed in the so-called financial reform bill that President Obama just signed.

The Hate Crime That Wasn't

Look at the networks turn themselves inside out as they try to figure out how to portray the slashing attack of a muslim cab driver in NYC into a hate crime caused by that good old right wing hate...

only to find out that the attacker is an volunteer with a church group, a church that supports the building of the Ground Zero victory mosque, and tied to liberal film making...

hey, mass media? don't you hate it when smoke truth gets in your eyes?

ABC Confounded Stabber Not Right-Winger, Still Exploits 'Knife Attack That's Cut Deep Into National Debate Over Faith and Fear'

CNN Joins Media Speculation on NYC Stabbing's Connection to Mosque Debate

ABC, CBS: Did 'Heightened Fear and Prejudice' of Ground Zero Mosque Prompt NYC Violence?

English Teacher To Fox23, Stat!

One million Toyota's recalled

For what? Bad grammar?

You'd think that people that get paid for writing would have a basic grasp of grammar, but I guess the ability to write isn't so important for reporter's nowadays.

Where Does Hate Live On The Radio?

Here's a hint...look to your left:

Instead of talk radio dominated by “ugly name-calling” from “today’s ministers of hate on the right,” [Bill] Press suggested an uplifting liberal version: “I believe talk radio should inform, not inflame. I think it should entertain, not demean. I think it should elevate political discourse, not debase it.” The thought echoed Mario Cuomo, who attempted a radio show of his own after losing the New York governorship in 1994: “We [liberals] believe in subtlety. We believe in telling the whole truth. We don’t want to exaggerate. They [conservatives] write their message with crayons. We use fine-point quills.”

Indeed? Let's see what the MRC has come up with (this is but a small sampling)...

Host Joe Scarborough: “Do you agree with the CIA Director that it’s almost as if Dick Cheney hopes Americans die so he gains a political advantage?”
Ed Schultz: “Absolutely. Absolutely.”
Scarborough: “So you believe Dick Cheney wants Americans to die?...You believe the former Vice President wants Americans to die in a terrorist attack so he can gain a political advantage?”
Schultz: “You got it, Joe. You got it. I think Dick Cheney’s all about power. I think Dick Cheney is all about seeing this country go conservative on a hard right-wing and I think he’ll do anything to get it there....”
Mike Barnicle: “I certainly don’t believe that the former Vice President of the United States is sitting there in McLean, Virginia saying, ‘You know, I hope today’s the day.’ Do you believe that?”
Schultz: “I really do, Mike, I do. I really believe, because I think it’s all about the conservatives grabbing the power and keeping it. These folks hate. Just my opinion. I mean, I don’t want to offend anybody.”
— Exchange on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, June 16, 2009

***

“You crazy sons of bitches, you right-wingers. Do you not understand that the people you hold up as heroes bombed your goddamn country? Do you not understand that Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly are as complicit of the September 11, 2001 terror attack as any one of those dumbass 15 who came from Saudi Arabia? Don’t you get that?”
— Mike Malloy on The Mike Malloy Show, January 19, 2010.

***

“...Now this will be interesting, because the tea baggers are essentially racist...

“Now Clarence Thomas has always, kind of, adopted the attitude of the House Negro..."
— Mike Malloy on The Mike Malloy Show, March 15, 2010.

(Isn't it fun being called a racist by a clear racist? Up the meds, bud.

***

(Remember Oprah-wannabe Montel Williams? Apparently he's still around...)

“If in fact the GOP doesn’t like any form of, of health care reform, what do we do with those 40 to 60 million uninsured? So, from this point on, I’m telling ya, when they show up at the emergency room, just shoot ‘em! Kill them! Drag them off and throw them in a — what are we doing?...do we have enough body bags? I don’t know.”
— Montel Williams on Montel Across America, July 21, 2009.

***

“The Republicans lie! They want to see you dead!...They kind of like it when that woman has cancer and they don’t have anything for her...My God, Democrats! What’s wrong with you?! You can’t deal with these people! At all!”
— Ed Schultz on MSNBC’s The Ed Show, September 23, 2009.

(Bipartisanship! Ah, such lovely bipartisanship from the left!)

***

(Apparently sanity is not a precursor to getting a leftwing radio show)

“...So, with the death of Ted Kennedy last night, liberalism in this country has, has lost its champion, the person who, in the modern era, personified liberalism to a greater degree than anyone in Congress. I think his death heralds the beginning of a very, very, very dark period in this country. I remember feeling that way in 1963 and again in 1968, when his two brothers were murdered by the right wing in this country.”
— Mike Malloy, The Mike Malloy Show, August 26, 2009.

(Uh....yeaaaaah....suuuuuuure...I've never heard of this guy before, like I haven't heard of most rightwing radio show hosts, but he really takes the cake)

***

“I sometimes wonder what people think in this country, when they send someone like, oh, for example, Michele Bachmann to Congress. She represents a district in Minnesota, she’s a Republican of course, and she’s a hatemonger. She’s the type of person that would have gladly rounded up the Jews in Germany and shipped them off to death camps...This is an evil bitch from Hell. I mean, just an absolute evil woman.”
— Mike Malloy, The Mike Malloy Show, October 17, 2008.

(What a fine-point quill!)

***

Host Ed Schultz: “Speaking of sports, [Fox News hosts Bill] O’Reilly, [Glenn] Beck and Geraldo [Rivera] go to a Yankees game this weekend and somehow they ended up in the front row. How in the heck did they ever manage that, Steph?”
Radio host Stephanie Miller: “Ah, Ed. You know if ever there was a time I wish the Yankees would bring back Bat Day, and give a bunch of drunken New Yorkers bats, that would have been the day.”
— Exchange on MSNBC’s The Ed Show, July 23, 2010.

"...Rush Limbaugh needs to choke to death on his own fat...”
— Mike Malloy, The Mike Malloy Show, February 18, 2009.

“Drudge? Aw, Drudge, somebody ought to wrap a strong Republican entrail around his neck and hoist him up about six feet in the air and watch him bounce.”
— Mike Malloy on The Mike Malloy Show, December 19, 2007.

“He is an enemy of the country, in my opinion, Dick Cheney is, he is an enemy of the country...You know, Lord, take him to the Promised Land, will you?
— Ed Schultz, The Ed Schultz Show, May 11, 2009.

“So, Michele, slit your wrist! Go ahead! [chuckles] I mean, you know, why not? I mean, if you want to — or, you know, do us all a better thing. Move that knife up about two feet. I mean, start right at the collarbone.”
— Montel Williams talking about Representative Michele Bachmann on Air America’s Montel Across America, September 2, 2009.

(So, to be clear...it's the right that incites violence...right?)

***

"And I’m hoping, I’m praying, while I — I don’t pray — while I hope that Rush Limbaugh will choke to death on his own throat fat, I also hope that Sarah Palin will drive herself completely, completely into madness, and I think the possibility truly exists.”
— Mike Malloy, The Mike Malloy Show, July 28, 2009.

Yup, we'd all be better off with Rush Limbaugh off the air (or, better yet, DEAD!) and listening to these gilded-age renaissance Shakespeares. Ayup.

It's a good thing this vile hate and deathwishing isn't spilling over into the mainstream left, though, right...uh, right?

Tea Party Group Hit With Death Threats

One of Washington's principal supporters of the Tea Party movement, former GOP Majority Leader Dick Armey's FreedomWorks, has been receiving death threats and profanity-laced phone calls as it gets involved in the fall elections. The number and intensity have reached such heights that the organization is leaving its downtown location near the FBI and moving to a high-security building near the U.S. Capitol...

FreedomWorks provided some of the recordings of the threatening calls to Whispers and they include physical threats and profanity aimed at the group, Tea Party spokesmen and even conservative talkers. "You guys better watch it," says one caller. "Now, we are going to destroy and obliterate Rush [Limbaugh] and Sean Hannity," said another. "Those two guys are dead."

3 Million? That's A LOT Of Spin!

More than 3M seniors may have to switch drug plans

More than 3 million seniors may have to switch their Medicare prescription plan next year, even if they're perfectly happy with it, thanks to an attempt by the government to simplify their lives.

The policy change could turn into a hassle for seniors who hadn't intended to switch plans during Medicare's open enrollment season this fall.

And it risks undercutting President Barack Obama's promise that people who like their health care plans can keep them.

You THINK? I'd say up to 3 MILLION people that must change certainly would "risk undercutting" his bullspit "promise"...as if his "promises" are worth the electrons spent by the teleprompters...

"As a result of this policy, there are going to be fewer plans offered in 2011," said Bonnie Washington, a senior analyst with Avalere Health, which produced the study.

Less choice? Yup, that's about in line with what the Democrats were promising when they forced this pile of carp down our throats against our collective wishes...particularly outraged at the time, of course were, hey! Seniors! Imagine that! Of course the press was busily telling us that conservatives were simply scaring seniors by telling them their Medicare would be cut (it will be, they've admitted that) and their benefits would be harmed (as shown here) and their choices would shrink (ditto). As we all know, fewer choices and reduced competition are the BEST ways to lower costs! I mean, that's how MONOPOLIES work! You get a monopoly on something and then you slash slash slash prices like crazy louie's discount flooring supermart!

While seniors would not lose Medicare coverage, they could see changes in their premiums and copayments.

In case you're wondering, what is left unsaid is, of course, that "changes" would mean "go higher".

When other changes are taken into account, as many as 3.7 million Medicare recipients may have to switch, the analysis concluded.

Oh, sorry...I thought it was only changes to 3 million seniors that we're trying to spin away...but now it's actually 3.7 million!

Are you feeling nauseated by this display of logic? Well, grab your barf bag!

Reducing the number of drug plans has long been a goal for consumer advocates.

Yes! You read that correctly! "Consumer advocates" that want you to have FEWER CHOICES! Why that's so astoundingly stupid that it must be a good thing!

But Medicare is going ahead with the consolidation in a hard-fought election year. Republicans have barraged seniors with charges that Obama and the Democrats raided the program to expand coverage for younger generations under the health care overhaul. Obama's promise that people can keep health plans they like was made in the context of that broader debate, but the president has repeatedly assured seniors their Medicare benefits are safe.

Soooo....left unsaid by the AP - the Republicans are 100 PERCENT CORRECT and Obama is 100 PERCENT FULL OF *HI*.

"We are not reducing the number of quality plans," said Blum, adding that having fewer, more distinct choices will benefit seniors.

Indeed! Why should Grandma have to choose between surgery to give her another 10 good years of joyful existence when she can just "take the pill" and mask the pain for a while? So many choices! We can't be troubling Grannie's poor widdle head with so many choices, now can we? So much better to not have all those confusing (and dangerous!) Medicare Advantage plans, right? Better that nice Mr. Obama take care of them and they use the plan he lets them have...you know, the one his health czar is advocating modeled on Britain's...the one that denies common treatment to seniors that have outlived their 'usefulness'.

I sort of feel like lamebrained leftists that claim conservatives try to scare the elderly and stuff like that...but for crying out loud, they're really DOING this stuff!

I'm Wishy-Washy

I admit it...I can't make up my mind...

Some days I think Obama is a...well, not 'evil', but completely misguided dupe that wants to inflect some sort of socialist or fascist government on us 'for our own good' because supergeniuses like him know better...

Other days I'm convinced he's an utter idiot swept along by people marginally smarter than him (like the Vietnam War-era terrorist that seems to have written his 'auto'biographies, race-hustlers, white apologists desperate to not be thought of as racists, white media entities blinded by the whiteness of their newsrooms that just love that 'clean, articulate' black guy that makes their legs tingle) that now finds himself reading speeches off a teleprompter about stuff he has no ability to comprehend (recall that he is self-described failure at every other job he's undertaken until he became a politician when he started voting 'present' for everything until he no longer could do so) but that people around him have convinced him are great ideas to go along with his utter unpreparedness for the job.

Today is one of those latter days.

Why on earth else would this fool give an address from the Oval Office (after botching his first one that even ultra-liberal knee-tinglers in the press found uncomfortable) about the pull out of combat troops from Iraq

- a process that he screwed up from the beginning when he lied about what he would do if elected, then changed his mind, and now claims that he is 'ahead of schedule' on the schedule that he already revised forward

- a war that he was utterly and completely made to look like an idiot in complete denial when he claimed the surge would not work and then was not working even as the facts showed that it was indeed working

- a war that he wants to take credit for winning despite simply walking in front of the parade that Bush organized and laid out the route for while he himself spent his time saying it was the wrong route and the wrong floats

- a war that he claims he negotiated an end to despite the rather curious evidence of the plan for withdrawal being already signed and approved months before he took office

- while a war is going badly in Afghanistan that he was breathlessly telling everyone we should be focusing on and he would focus on if only given the chance

Why on earth would anyone but a fool be giving an Oval Office address on this??

I mean, if it is anything other than a 5 minute tribute to the men and women that served there, many dying there, to remove a terrorist-supporting tyrant that put people into shredders and had women raped in front of their families before killing them all and to, as the leftists always say, give peace a chance there with a representative government made up of each major faction in the country....well, he's going to have to really pull something to convince me that he's an evil genius or wants to be one instead of just being a clueless, incompetent, ignorant, blundering idiot. The only worse thing he could do at this moment would be to give an address to Congress during primetime about how well the economy is looking these days.

Meanwhile the press wants to talk about his education reform plans...because he hasn't been proven a hopeless idiot in that realm yet, I guess, and underplay the fact that the housing market is grinding to a halt (a whopping 25,000 new homes were sold in the entire country last month....that's the whole US of A...and 25,000 homes...a nation of 300,000,000...25,000 new homes).

Sadly I Missed This NYC Rally

Maybe we can get these anti-violence protesters up here to Albany and Schenectady...

Today’s Anti Violence Rally Has Odd List of Participants

Wednesday, August 25, 2010 New York City

Join hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, former New York Giant Michael Strahan, our New York City/Bronx Million Mom March Chapter, and others this Wednesday, August 25, for the “Tsunami of Peace Ride, Walk & Rally Against Violence” in New York City.

Rappers Jim Jones, Juelz Santana, Fat Joe, Maino, and Salt will also participate in the rally, which was organized as a response to the rise in gun violence throughout New York this summer.

Fat Joe’s latest album is called I Wanna Kill People Vol. 1...

Here are some lyrics from a polka by Maino called “Kill You”:

You gon make me… kill you
You keep on f***in with me
Police gon come and get me
Cuz im a mess around and… kill you

Serenity now!

What Housing Bubble?

Nice pull here by Kim at Wizbang...Barney Frank declaring that there was no housing bubble or impending collapse in housing in 2005:

Ammo

Re: the Ground Zero mosque 'debate', dunno if it was his or if he borrowed it himself, but I caught about 15 minutes of Rush Limbaugh last week and he made the following analogy about things that are 'legal' and 'reasonable'.

He put it this way (and I'm paraphrasing):

Suppose your 16-year-old kid just got their driver's license and has announced their intention of taking the family car on a cross-country trip with their friends.

Is it legal for them to do so?

As a parent, is it reasonable to allow them to do so, despite the fact that it is 100% legal?

No one (rational) is saying that it is unconstitutional to build a mosque 2 blocks from the spot where muslim terrorists slaughtered nearly 3,000 innocents, in a building that was so close to the site (the site itself, of course, was destroyed utterly, so nobody is even close to arguing that we're talking about an actual "Ground Zero" building) that it was hit by debris...

the argument is to whether it is reasonable and right to do so.

Feel free to use in discussions, I think it's a pretty good analogy and I'm sure Rush would approve of it being used.

State Museum

Am I correct, any Albany-ites that have been there, that the State Museum in downtown Albany has the actual landing gear that struck that building where they want to build a mosque to celebrate islam in NYC?

Despite the outcry from the left and their publicity wing (the mainstream media) about how the mosque is not really at 'Ground Zero', the building was, in fact, struck by debris from one of the hijacked plans that islamic terrorists flew into the World Trade Center, killing nearly 3,000 innocents...of course islamists don't consider them innocents, they're fair game since they are not themselves muslims. So, though the left would have you believe that because the building was not itself destroyed by the muslim terrorists, it is just a couple of blocks away and was struck by debris in the terrorist attack by muslim terrorists against innocents.

The State Museum has the landing gear from one of the planes. And I thought the signage indicated that it was the gear that hit the building on Park...as in 51 Park...as in the building where they want to build a mosque to celebrate islam.

Am I remembering correctly? Anybody else seen it? If you haven't, you owe it to yourself and your family to visit the museum. I hate to say 'surprising', but it's a very nice museum with a marvelous tribute to the heroes and innocents that day and beyond along with many other great displays.

Reasons To Ignore Paul Krugman

So what if the leftwing lunatics decided to give him a Nobel, they also gave Obama one for being a part-term junior Senator. So that's no reason. And the fact that, like most leftwing columnists, he has no ability to square his opinions with reality indicate that you can safely ignore whatever this nutjob has to say. Thanks to timewatch.org for the tip:

* "There's a problem: conservative politicians, clinging to an out-of-date ideology--and, perhaps, betting (wrongly) that their constituents are relatively well positioned to ride out the storm--are standing in the way of action. No, I'm not talking about Bob Corker, the Senator from Nissan--I mean Tennessee--and his fellow Republicans. . . . I am, instead, talking about Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and her economic officials, who have become the biggest obstacles to a much-needed European rescue plan."--former Enron adviser Paul Krugman, New York Times, Dec. 15, 2008

* "Why is Europe falling short? Poor leadership is part of the story. European banking officials, who completely missed the depth of the crisis, still seem weirdly complacent. And to hear anything in America comparable to the know-nothing diatribes of Germany's finance minister you have to listen to, well, Republicans."--Krugman, New York Times, March 16, 2009

* "The euro area economy grew 1 percent in the second quarter of this year, a much better rate than had been expected, as Germany's best quarterly performance since reunification compensated for slow growth in Spain and Italy and a sharp decline in Greece, according to data released Friday."--news story, New York Times, Aug. 14, 2010

--

* "The bursting of the real estate bubble and the ensuing recession have hurt jobs, home prices and now Social Security. This year, the system will pay out more in benefits than it receives in payroll taxes, an important threshold it was not expected to cross until at least 2016, according to the Congressional Budget Office."--news story, New York Times, March 25, 2010

* "Social Security's attackers claim that they're concerned about the program's financial future. But their math doesn't add up, and their hostility isn't really about dollars and cents. Instead, it's about ideology and posturing. . . . Social Security has been running surpluses for the last quarter-century."--former Enron adviser Paul Krugman, New York Times, Aug. 16, 2010

Fox News - Fair And Balanced Donations

Brain-dead liberal media bias over a news entity donating equally to Republicans and Democrats. Yes, you read that right.

The Washington Post hyped the news on the front of Wednesday's Style section that Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation has donated $1 million to the Republican Governors Association, "triggering swift criticism from Democrats that a contribution of that magnitude casts a shadow on his media properties, particularly Fox News." In paragraph 13, on page C-10, this apparent outrage of Republican favoritism gets ruined by reality:

Until now, the News Corp./Fox political action committee had given 54 percent of its donations to Democrats and 46 percent to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics -- including $8,000 to Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid's campaign committee and $5,000 to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's organization. News Corp. also gave $45,000 each to GOP and Democratic campaign committees on Capitol Hill.

...Kurtz suggested the RGA donation spurred a new anti-Fox News political campaign by the Democratic Party:

The White House refused for months to make top officials available for interviews and assailed Fox as an arm of the Republican Party -- an attack that was revived Tuesday.

"Any pretense that may have existed about the ties between Fox News and the Republican Party has been ripped violently away," said Hari Sevugan, spokesman for the Democratic National Committee. "Any Republican that appears on Fox should now have a disclaimer that they are financially supported by the network and any coverage of the elections this fall on Fox should be reported with disclaimer for what it is -- partisan propaganda."

Remember when the media used to inform people?

Bias Lesson

Examples are always good and the AP usually comes through: Poll: NY voters opposed to mosque near ground zero

A majority of New Yorkers remain opposed to a mosque proposed as part of a planned Islamic cultural center near ground zero, and the issue will be a factor for many voters this fall, according to a statewide poll released Wednesday.

The Siena College poll showed 63 percent of New York voters surveyed oppose the project, with 27 percent supporting it. That compares with 64 percent opposed and 28 percent in favor two weeks earlier, results that are within the polls' sampling margins.

Democrats nationwide, including President Barack Obama, have defended the proposal as protected by the Constitution's guarantee of religious freedom. Many Republicans have called it an affront to the memory of those killed in the Sept. 11 attacks.

A CNN/Opinion Research poll released last week found that nearly 70 percent of Americans opposed the mosque plan, while 29 percent approved.

Get that? "Democrats nationwide" defend it while "Many Republicans" attack it. Apparently the AP has no trouble claiming that 29% of people nationwide are Democrats while 70% are Republicans. Cripes, what a bunch of morons.

Bingo

Spammity Spam

So far Blogger's comment spam filter is working like a charm. Suh-weet.

Spin And Straight

Want to see what spin looks like? Here's an AP headline mid-day:

Stocks rise on earnings, economic reports

The reality from a technical, non-partisan analysis (briefing.com)?

In other economic news, July PPI increased as expected, but core prices heated up a bit more than expected. Industrial production during July was up more than expected.

Data hasn't had much of an impact on today's trade...

One is desperately trying to spin the economy to make it look not-so-bad to help Democrats in the fall. Nobody's buying it anymore, fortunately. Despite a 'strong' day on Wall Street you should remember what briefing has to say:

Though this session's gains are impressive, there hasn't been much trading volume behind the move. As a note of precaution, thinly traded action can often lead to exaggerated swings among stocks.

The AP mentions none of this when they mention light trading - which means nothing to the casual reader that knows little to nothing about market forces. Their story is full of "enthusiasm", "a slice of optimism", "reassurance", "'ease people's concerns'", "somewhat positive", "'fairly robust'", "'relief'", "positive sign for the economy" and such hyperbole.

Spin vs. getting it straight. The AP will always fall into the former category.

MorOns

If you're wondering what the increasingly irrelevant MorOn.org'ers are up to, I just got up the intestinal fortitude to look through recent emails.

They're still going on and on about the fact that the Target corporation made a donation to a pro-business candidate they don't like. Imagine that, supporting a candidate that supports your interests! I know, this is groundbreaking.

And they're claiming that all the problems with government are the result of Republicans wanting to slash Social Security. You'd think that particular nut would be shiny enough after about 30 years that they'd try something new. After all, it is the Democrats that just raided the food stamp program to pay for a handout to unions. You'd think that raiding food stamps to pay unions off would be the sort of thing that MorOns would dislike. Probably only if Republicans did it. Which they wouldn't. Oh, and they claim that Social Security is perfectly sound just the way it is...in case you were wondering about their mental capacity. I guess that answers that question.

Your Random Saturday

The truth comes out...Michael Gerson:

So how have national Democrats decided to respond? With a series of tactics that make their worst problems worse.

First is the depiction of Republicans as the "party of no," populated by obstructionists blocking needed measures to create jobs and improve the economy. Vice President Joe Biden recently applied this critique to the stimulus package. "There's a lot of people at the time argued it was too small," he said. If it had not been for Republican opposition, "I think it would have been bigger." No doubt it would have been.

This is Biden's response to American economic anxiety: If Democrats had even greater control in Washington -- even larger influence than holding the presidency and both houses of Congress -- they would have spent more than $862 billion on the stimulus...

The liberal tax on the poor and middle class - Jonah Goldberg explains:

And then there's the electric-gas hybrid Chevy Volt, aka the "Voltswagen." At $41,000, about as much as the average American makes in a year, this is no people's car. GM, owned by the government and the labor unions, is pitching it to affluent hipsters who don't need a lot of space for a family. Deloitte Consulting says that the demand for such cars is from "young, very high income individuals" from households that make more than $200,000 a year, which is why the Volt will be rolled out in upscale, trendy urban markets...

Because the Volt's sticker price might be too high for even that crowd, the government is offering a federal subsidy of up to $7,500 (Californians have a state subsidy, too), which means that working-class people will be helping to pay for playthings for upper-income people.

"Like the EV1 that GM tried to peddle in the California market," Kenneth Green, an environmental scientist at the American Enterprise Institute, says, "the Volt is a vanity car for the well-off that will be subsidized by less well-off taxpayers at all stages, from R&D to sales and to the construction of charging stations."

Indeed, the Volt's price is $41,000, but the cost is much higher. "Government Motors" is already selling the car at a loss. According to the blogger Doctor Zero, if you apply the subsidies that have gone directly into the car to just the first 10,000 vehicles, the cost is more like $81,000 per car.

Of course, electric-car boosters say this sort of thing is necessary to get the industry up and running (To which Green responds: "Supporters claim that electric cars need subsidies because they're still in their infancy. Electric cars have been around for over 100 years. That's some infancy.")...

If the government wasn't taking taxpayer money and spending it on toys for upscale urban liberals (Obama's strongest base of support outside of black voters and labor unions), there'd be no reason to care about the Volt. If rich people want to be "early adopters" and buy expensive gadgets that help them preen the plumage of their political sanctimony, that's great. It's not so great when the government gets involved in wealth redistribution, and it's outrageous when it involves redistributing wealth upwards.

Liberal Media Bias Exposed

I'm not sure it gets any easier to prove than this...a rep for a GOP candidate in CA emails info to a reporter who writes back saying not to contact them anymore, that they have no interest in covering the GOP candidate.

A reporter for the Torrance (Calif.) Daily Breeze sent an e-mail to a political consultant saying the newspaper is “not interested” in covering Republican candidate Mattie Fein, who is challenging Democratic Rep. Jane Harman in California’s 36th District.

In the e-mail sent Wednesday (see text below), Daily Breeze reporter Nick Green told consultant John S. Thomas of Thomas Partners Strategies, “Don’t call or e-mail us – we’ll call you if we’re interested. And if you haven’t got it yet, we’re not interested.”

Green also told Thomas not to send Fein campaign communications to his Daily Breeze colleague, Art Marroquin.

According to sources with the Fein campaign, Thomas had contacted the Daily Breeze staffers seeking coverage of the Republican challenger’s response to a recently passed bill that the newspaper reported would “save 215 jobs in Rep. Jane Harman’s district.” A subsequent Daily Breeze story Thursday featured Harman’s statement that a jobs program was the ”best thing out there to keep and create jobs in Los Angeles County,” included no reponse from Fein or any other Republican.

Can you see November from your house, liberal reporters?

500? 1000?

Briefing.com lays out the facts:

Trading volume remains unimpressive as fewer than 650 million shares have been traded so far on the NYSE. At the current pace of trade it is unlikely that share volume will be anything to boast about. Share volume on the NYSE for the past 10 sessions has averaged just 955 million shares, which is well below the 200-day average of 1.21 billion.

The depressed trading volume of the past couple of weeks comes as many investors opt to remain on the sidelines amid increasing uncertainty related to the path of economic recovery and the stock market's failure to extend its rally from early summer lows...

Stock futures started to extend their morning slide shortly before the release of the latest jobless claims count, but they have since taken an even deeper dive with the report's release. Initial jobless claims for the week ended August 7 totaled 484,000, which is more than the 465,000 claims that had been widely expected. It also marks the highest initial claims count since February. Figures for the prior week were revised slightly higher to reflect 482,000 initial claims. In turn, the four-week moving average now stands at 743,500, a near six-month high. As for continuing claims, they eased to 4.45 million from 4.57 million, but the decline is mostly due to the expiration of jobless benefits among the unemployed.

How much do you think the stock market will rise on Nov. 3 if Republicans have a tidal wave type of day on Nov. 2?

Good Money After Bad

A couple of stories in environmental news today that dovetail nicely...and bash the spendthrift democrat party right between the eyes on throwing money at inefficient power systems.

First up is a report that the UK has utterly failed to learn from the experience of the rest of Europe:

A new feed-in tariff 10 times the price of regular electricity is fueling a boom in photovoltaic solar power generation in the United Kingdom...

But at the same time, Prime Minister David Cameron's coalition government has pledged to reduce the United Kingdom's record budget deficit by slashing spending. The United Kingdom has the largest budget shortfall among the Group of Seven leading industrial nations, at 11 percent of gross domestic product. Analysts see a danger that Britain will go down the path of other European countries that stimulated their solar industries to a quick boom, followed by a drastic bust when subsidies were cut.

"Solar power is extremely far from being competitive, so it relies entirely on subsidies," said Stephane Aderca, a renewable energy analyst at Liberum Capital in London. "In the medium term, I would expect some trouble to catch up with the U.K. in the same way that it did in Spain or in Germany because of the fiscal situation. For now, it's a new initiative, so it will continue to grow. Everyone else in Europe is looking to get out of these long-term commitments," Aderca said...

Britain boosted its feed-in solar tariffs just as Germany, Spain, Italy and France -- the solar industry's four biggest markets in Europe -- are slashing theirs after unexpectedly high growth rates and big budget deficits...

In 2008, Spain connected 2,500 megawatts of solar power into its grid and briefly overtook Germany as the world's top solar market, with the aid of subsidies that were 12 times higher than those for electricity made from fossil fuels. Then the Spanish government cut subsidies and put a limit on new solar installations of 500 megawatts per year, and the market collapsed. Only 70 megawatts of solar power was installed last year, according to ASIF, the Spanish photovoltaic industry trade association...

Well, what about electric cars, then? After all, isn't everyone wetting themselves with excitement to buy a Volt for like $40,000? By all means, let's listen to other countries when they tell us what to do or follow their laws instead of our own, but when they try something and it fails miserably, pretend it never happened!

It was supposed to be the centrepiece of Spain's green agenda: within four years a million electric cars would take to the roads, with battery top-up points sprouting up in petrol stations and disused telephone booths across the country...

But figures released today showed that Zapatero's green dream is some way from realisation: in the first seven months of the year, only 16 electric cars were registered for use on Spanish roads. Even that was a sixteenfold increase on 2009, when just one electric car was registered.

Although the plan also includes subsidies for hybrid electric and petrol-driven cars, makers said they only planned to sell half a dozen of these in Spain this year, according to the ABC newspaper...

"The figures are similar to what happened in their day to personal computers or mobile phones," it argued. "The first models are expensive and with few extras and sales are slow. But somewhere around 2012 dozens of electric vehicles with lithium batteries and at a lower price will reach the market – and the recharging infrastructure will be in place."

16. It's an environmental BOOM! And 6, count 'em 6 hybrids! Dayum, I saw we copy them yooropeens on this one! The problem with the 'brave face' is that the government kept the hell out of the PC and cell phone market, allowing market forces to find the successful, workable, and sustainable products, not propping up lousy products or low bidders, throwing money at anyone that produced a "mobile phone", not matter how lame or expensive it was.

And, just because, there's this:

The World Health Organization acknowledged Tuesday that the swine flu pandemic is finally over, long after many national authorities started canceling vaccine orders and shutting down telephone hot lines as the disease ebbed from the headlines.

The official death toll - once predicted to be in the millions - reached 18,449 last week...

Bias Re: Economics

One of the lies the media is bandying about is that anyone saying that extending unemployment benefits discourages employment is nuts, wrong, evil, heartless, stupid...etc.

Apparently this group includes economists (not to mention the actual people interviewed for that story I posted about not too long ago, the ones refusing to get a job as long as they're getting paid not to work).

So then this rolled in today from the Wall Street Journal (at this time it pays to remind everyone that the WSJ has a right-leaning editorial page, but the main body leans left. This is not an editorial.

In Bloomington, Ill., machine shop Mechanical Devices can't find the workers it needs to handle a sharp jump in business. Job fairs run by airline Emirates attract fewer applicants in the U.S. than in other countries. Truck-stop operator Pilot Flying J says job postings don't elicit many more applicants than they did when the unemployment rate was below 5%.

With a 9.5% jobless rate and some 15 million Americans looking for work, many employers are inundated with applicants. But a surprising number say they are getting an underwhelming response, and many are having trouble filling open positions...

Employers and economists point to several explanations. Extending jobless benefits to 99 weeks gives the unemployed less incentive to search out new work. Millions of homeowners are unable to move for a job because the real-estate collapse leaves them owing more on their homes than they are worth.

The job market itself also has changed. During the crisis, companies slashed millions of middle-skill, middle-wage jobs. That has created a glut of people who can't qualify for highly skilled jobs but have a hard time adjusting to low-pay, unskilled work like the food servers that Pilot Flying J seeks for its truck stops...

Some economists fear the U.S. could end up with a permanent caste of long-term unemployed, like those that weigh on government budgets in some European countries...

Longer-term trends are at play. For one, the U.S. education system hasn't been producing enough people with the highly specialized skills that many companies, particularly in manufacturing, require to keep driving productivity gains. "There are a lot of people who are unemployed, but those aren't necessarily the people employers are looking for," says David Autor, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...

Mr. Sperry sees extended jobless benefits as one of the main culprits behind his company's hiring difficulties. Many of the applicants he saw at job fairs, he says, were just going through the motions so they could collect their unemployment checks.

Some workers agree that unemployment benefits make them less likely to take whatever job comes along, particularly when those jobs don't pay much. Michael Hatchell, a 52-year-old mechanic in Lumberton, N.C., says he turned down more than a dozen offers during the 59 weeks he was unemployed, because they didn't pay more than the $450 a week he was collecting in benefits...

Some of the people who dropped out of the Mechanical Devices training program aren't collecting unemployment benefits and offer other reasons why they couldn't or wouldn't do the work. Former truck driver Troy Arnett says the prospect of standing in front of a machine all day was just too restricting after a career spent making about $60,000 a year on the open road.

"I figured in these economic times you've just got to bite the bullet, and I couldn't do it," says the 42-year-old Mr. Arnett...

So, what have we here in terms of possible explanations and who's behind it?

1. Extending unemployment indefinitely. Liberals.

2. Collapse in the housing market. Liberals.

3. Poorly-educated and poorly-prepared workforce. Liberals. (Speaking as an ex-janitor, ex-dumpster painter, ex-garbageman, ex-truck loader, and ex-hazardous waste cleaner-upper, you'll have to forgive my lack of sympathy for someone that refuses to take a 'menial' job.)

4. People that are so impressed with their cult of 'me' that they can't fathom taking a job that is 'below them'. Liberals.

What a shock.

Blogification

Update on blogifying. I'm planning to experiment with, to be blunt, blogging less. Much less.

To remain:
-editoriaLIES
-Albany media local bias updates
-New York-centric blogiworthy topics
-random Saturdays and their ilk (because, again, I use this as sort of a library)
-really prime bias examples that impact all of us
-SCOTUS watches, though hopefully we won't see any more of those for a while...although it may not matter anymore, Thomas seems to be the only one bold enough to actually rule not according to the way justices have decided they need to tap dance around the Constitution, but actually according to what the Constitution says

Out:
-the majority of letters to the editor posts (we've established that the Times Union willingly violates their own written guidelines when it comes to running lies from a liberal that they like, no sense beating a dead horse, let me just say in closing that chapter that I still, in several years, never found a single example of a lie from a conservative standpoint that was printed)
-random posts on whatever floats through my brain (these may still crop up, but probably over at True Falze)
-reviews (again, over at True Falze)

Long story short, if it's local I might bother. If it's media bias I will likely bother. If it relates to the TU or Gazette, I will certainly bother.

Looking back there were just too many days with 4 or 5 posts and I was like, who the hell cares about most of this? I mean, I do, but this was never intended to be a diary, if I tried to pass along something going on, well, that means that wherever I first came across it you can, too. It was a place to blow off steam (that will continue if needed on True Falze), catalog some nice stuff to use in the future (will continue in the condensed way I started a while back with basically only Saturday posts), and directly confront the pathetic liberal slant in the local papers and sometimes other media. That will definitely continue, because even with some notable successes (getting Rex Smith to devote an entire column to defending, badly, the media's coverage of the porkulus vs. their statements following the run-up to the Iraq War and seeing him try to contort his way around the truth), a very notable downward trend in the outright lies and smears printed in the letters to the editor section of the Times Union, a few corrections, of course all my loyal Times Union readers :), and, for a long time, much more honest (though no less slanted) editorials (until recently).

That's not bad for a day's work. Essentially what I want to do is keep my focus on those areas of success and continue just with those instead of writing about Obama destroying the country all the time. We get the point. We've read Atlas Shrugged and We The Living and 1984 and Animal Farm and we know where this is going. Our parents have, for the first time in American history, left us worse off than they had it. We are leaving it worse off for our children. Their children may have little left of the America that some of us can still remember. Oh, sure, it was always with the best of intentions. I think there's a saying about that...

The dearth of feedback tells me that my experiment failed in one way - locals might be interested in what's going on in the world, but conservatives are so downtrodden and muted or just tired that they have no interest in this as a forum for coming together and sharing ideas. Fine. I can live with that. I get it. Given the number of people floating through here on a daily basis I can only assume it's mild curiosity or rubbernecking, whatever, certainly not enough to move people to bother to comment (except those wonderful Chinese spam machines!) even when I expressly ask for feedback. Or it's just a lack of interest in general. Or it's my snazzy drawing ability. Or I've just got nothing to say that anyone wants to hear. Fine. I can live with that. So I'm going to try making my plaything into more of a 'business', not a money-making venture, I don't want Obama in my house, I just mean more focused on the 'business' at hand. Local. Media. Bias.

That's it. Nothing more, nothing less. If you want to keep reading, you are always welcome. If you want to contribute, well, I've been asking for that for years, the offer is still open. If you have more important things to do, like finding horses randomly showing up on your facebook farm, that's OK, too. After all, if over 50% of the population voted to end America as we know it in 2008, you're just part of the majority and, for a while, you'll have a wonderful time.

And happy 8-9-10 day :)

But What About...

Interesting brief piece in the Gazette today about one of the old school domestic terrorists kicking the bucket. It manages to mention that she was a Weather Underground member. And it mentions that she was tied to an armored car heist where a driver was killed.

What missing from the story, utterly and completely?

Hmmm...

What might be a good, newsworthy, current tie?

Maybe...

Bill Ayers? A WU founder? And the guy that just happened to own the living room in which Barack Obama's political career was launched?

Isn't that the sort of newsworthy, current events sort of tie in that newspapers live for?

Gunslinger Kirsten

Can anyone explain why Ms. 'No, really, I love guns!' Gillibrand is getting campaign cash from the virulent gun grabbers at the Brady Center?

Your Random Saturday

David Limbaugh on that AZ disgrace:

Just consider three outrages of this decision highlighted by other commentators, any of which, individually, makes a mockery of justice. Andy McCarthy properly observes that Judge Bolton stretched the federal pre-emption doctrine to absurd limits. Under Bolton's specious reasoning, state law must be struck down not only if it is inconsistent with federal law, which the Arizona law is not, but also if it somehow contradicts federal law enforcement practices. Because the Obama feds refused, as a matter of policy, to enforce their own law against illegal immigration, the state could not be allowed to pass a law promoting enforcement. Note that nothing in the actual Constitution or case law justifies such an extrapolation of pre-emption doctrine. But such trifles don't impede an administration and court determined to keep the immigration floodgates open at any cost.

Mark Levin notes that Judge Bolton correctly enunciated the rigorous legal standard required for a plaintiff to succeed in a "facial challenge" to a law's constitutionality but then proceeded to ignore the rules she had just affirmed. She acknowledged that for the federal government to have prevailed, it would have had to show the law could never be applied in a constitutional fashion. That is, "a facial challenge must fail where a statute has a 'plainly legitimate sweep.'" But she ignored that limitation on her authority, just as she violated another principle she paid lip service to in her opinion: that the court was not to speculate about hypothetical cases.

Heather Mac Donald exposes Judge Bolton's acquiescence to the Obama administration's "carefully cultivated fiction" that the administration's primary motive with the lawsuit was to prevent the application of the law to legal aliens. The judge ignored uncontroverted testimony and legal briefs from Arizona officials stating that only people who were reasonably suspected to be illegally in the country would be required to prove their legal status. So to protect legal aliens from a law that doesn't apply to them, she refuses to apply the law to illegals.

Imagine if a judge ruled it was illegal to have a law letting police question suspects in a murder because it would mean that they would, unless really REALLY lucky, be questioning innocent people about a law they had not broken, the only person they could question, according to the judge per their version of the Constitution, is the actual murderer. Mind you, we're not saying that they judge should let a law stand that allows the police to lock up and interrogate every 6-foot tall white guy with a beard just because witnesses said a 6-foot tall white guy with a beard had done it, merely that they be allowed to ask 6-foot tall white guys with beards where they were at that time, for example. Per this judge, because they didn't do it, it is UNCONSTITUTIONAL for the police, in the course of their investigation, to be allowed to ask someone about their whereabouts at the time...because they might not be the murderer. Sick stuff.

I don't often give you any Hugh Hewitt, he's on a rare kick here:

But the key to the unfolding Democratic disaster are the president's policies. Voters are rejecting TARP, the stimulus. the takeover of GM, Obamacare, wild deficit spending and vast deficits, pending massive tax hikes and pay offs to special interests like those proposed in the so-called DISCLOSE Act.

Voters are disgusted with the waste and the mismanagment, the incredible special interest self-dealing, and the apparently boundless arrogance of Team Obama generally and the president's studied indifference to facts specifically.

The federal fiasco that was and remains the response to the Gulf spill didn't help either, and the threat that EPA will simply take the power to regulate [e]missions that Congress hasn't given it adds to the growing voter anger.

President Obama's approval rating has sunk and sunk again. His fabled ability on the stump failed him long ago and the average voter turns the channel rather than listen to yet another sermon from 1600. The MSNBC chorus sings out every night but the network's ratings reflect the shrinking audience for Obamanomics. And Obamacare's roll out isn't producing converts but pecinct captains --for the Republicans!...

When it happens, the GOP will have to move quickly --within weeks-- to outline a new approach and then dare the president and his remaining allies in the Senate to block it. 2011 will be a full year of confrontation with a president almost certain not to be chastened but angry. To make any impression on the president's certainty about his own gifts will require a huge jolt that only a major electoral defeat can deliver. If next year is to really launch the American recovery it has to begin with a decisive repudiation of the president and the party that led us into this mess.

Pow, right between the eyes.

Bruce Bialosky finished off what's left:

Helen Thomas used to sit in the front row of every presidential press conference and ask the first question. She worked for UPI (MSM) and we were to believe she was a reporter – one just reporting the facts. Then she became a columnist and all of a sudden she was a wild-eyed leftist and anti-Semite (but then I repeat myself).

Case after case, time after time, the trusted people from the MSM tell us they are even-handed and just reporting the facts. But when they retire (or get fired), somehow they suddenly turn into committed leftists – Rather, Cronkite and Thomas are just a few well-known examples. It is any wonder the MSM has lost almost all of its standing with the American people?...

At a recent oncology conference, Bristol-Myers and Novartis announced significant breakthroughs on a drug for leukemia. Pfizer announced positive results from an experimental drug that shrank tumors in lung cancer patients. Bristol-Myers also announced improved survival rates from a drug to cure a deadly form of skin cancer.

You can be assured that all of these developments cost hundreds of millions of dollars. They are all being done in America, where the drug companies still have a profit motive. If these all come to fruition, they will be considered miracles. Yet, there are still politicians who attack drug companies for profiteering. Instead of abusing the drug companies, our elected officials should get Europeans to pay their fair share of the development and approval costs for these drugs instead of suppressing their prices with unreasonable cost controls. Europeans are living off us for all of their medical advancements, just like they have been living off us for their defense for 65 years...

And yet despite this, most European countries are still economic basket cases. The stupefying thing is that some politicians find them a positive role model.

The Little People

Boy, BP's CEO sure took a lot of fire for his comments and behavior during the oil spill (I guess he should have been personally sticking his thumb in the hole). Meanwhile...back on planet Obama:

Of course, no first lady's life is truly ever private, and already plenty of drama is swirling around Michelle Obama's foreign jaunt. Some critics have laid into the trip's price, while others are highlighting an apparent diplomatic gaffe between the United States and Spain.

Fox News reports that prior to the first lady's arrival, the State Department had issued a travel warning to Americans advising that "racist prejudices could lead to the arrest of Afro-Americans who travel to Spain." The wording was reportedly removed from the State Department website Monday, ahead of Michelle Obama's arrival in the country Wednesday. [HA!]

Yet the bigger public furor concerns the cost and appearance of the trip. In a scathing editorial published Thursday, New York Daily News writer Andrea Tantaros trashed Michelle Obama as a "modern day Marie Antoinette" for taking such a glitzy vacation while most of the country is struggling to make ends meet...

As the Chicago Sun-Times' Lynn Sweet reports, by the end of the summer, the first lady will have taken eight vacations. That includes a June trip to Los Angeles, where she and her daughters attended the NBA Finals, as well as an upcoming trip to the Florida Gulf Coast next weekend and a 10-day visit to Martha's Vineyard later this month with the president.

No wonder she's finally proud of her country...the perq's are amazing on other people's dime.

Unemployment

So, in the news today is that Christine Romer, the economist that sold her soul to be part of the old school Chicago DC Obama political propaganda machine, is resigning. You'll recall that Romer was the Larry Kudlow-praised (as "right of center") one that, in academia, was part of a study that showed that tax cuts had a GDP multiplier of 2 or 3 whereas government spending was about 1 to 1, maybe a bit more. In other words, for every dollar in tax cuts you got 2 to 3 dollars in GDP growth (and here's a hint, when the economy grows that means people are making money and tax receipts necessarily increase). Then, after she went to work for Obey-Won, she put on the cloak of a Debt-i Knight and suddenly concluded that tax cuts were miserable at moving GDP (which common sense and history shows is nonsense) and government spending was wonderful at growing an economy (which is ludicrous on its face, otherwise from time immemorial every government would just spend money it doesn't have and get fabulous economies).

Anyway. Romer is the co-author of the report used to justify the porkulus 'stimulus' bill. Remember this one? It's the source of the 'unemployment will stay below 8% claim' made by the Democrats and Obama. It's got some great jokes in it, like this one:

As Figure 1 shows, even with the large prototypical package, the unemployment rate in 2010Q4 is predicted to be approximately 7.0%, which is well below the approximately 8.8% that would result in the absence of a plan.

Think unemployment is going to be 7.0% at the end of this year? How about 8.8%? 9.8% is much more likely.

Finally, in addition to creating high-quality jobs, the program is likely to improve existing jobs. One important way that it will do this is by moving workers from part-time to full-time work.

How's that working out? More and more people are ending up working part-time since the pork started oinking.

The plan needs to include a range of components, such as direct government spending, state fiscal relief, and tax cuts to ensure that jobs are created quickly and throughout the economy.

Well, one part worked...temporarily. The tax cut part where they cut taxes if businesses hired new employees reportedly led to some hiring. Of course the tax cuts were temporary (might be extended), so the jobs could well be temporary as their expiration will have the effect of a tax hike on businesses.

A well designed recovery plan will not only create numerous jobs, but also many jobs paying good wages and providing full-time employment.

A well designed recovery plan would have permanently cut taxes...this clearly wasn't a well designed recovery plan, as was the post-9-11 plan, because it has accomplished none of its stated goals...of course it's real goal of increasing the size of government and paying off unions and political cronies has been a huge success. The report goes on to make it ludicrous claim that cutting taxes makes the economy shrink. Yeah, cuz that makes sense. Cuz when people have more money to spend they use it to light cigars, instead.

In conclusion...what is the real reason Romer is leaving? Could it be this?

Here’s my thought on his team. Summers, Geithner, and Romer will all recommend no tax hikes in a recession...

About a year and half ago economist Don Luskin sent me a long article about taxes by Christine and her husband David Romer, who were writing for the National Bureau of Economic Research. From the introduction: “The resulting estimates indicate that tax increases are highly contractionary. . . . The large effect stems in considerable part form a powerful negative effect of tax increases on investment.”

Later in the article, the Romers write: “In short, tax increases appear to have a very large, sustained, and highly significant negative impact on output.”

Is Romer leaving because she is coming face to face with a conflict between her beliefs and her new wagemaster's orders? Is is because, deep down, she believes the research she has done in the past and knows that tax hikes are extremely detrimental to the economy and that they're particularly bad during a recession...and her boss and his cronies are about to do just that? Does she know something that we can only assume at this point? Does the Romer resignation confirm that economy-mangling tax hikes are, indeed, on their way?

A Bit Less

And today Obama and the Democrats have made us just one bit less free, a march begun about a year and a half ago. Another person that thinks the Constitution is nothing more than a piece of paper with outdated ideas and certainly contains nothing to restrict a tyrannical federal government, a document that is no more important in American jurisprudence than the laws of New Zealand or Burkina Faso, now sits on the Supreme Court. We are another step removed from the nation envisioned by the founders, further down the road where 'there is almost nothing the federal government can't do' as we are hearing Democrats now claim. Those that rely on the rule of law to protect them from the government, the very foundation of our nation, are one more step removed from having a court capable or willing to use Madison's masterwork to restrict the power of the government. Instead we have one more cog that thinks the government can ban books (take that, Sarah Palin!) or base rulings on the laws of foreign nations instead of our own. A tool that thinks that the government can restrict speech it does not like and can force people to buy things they do not want.

Today we are just a bit less free and our children are another step removed from a better life than our parents. The generation now in elementary school, if not sooner, may well see the greatest democracy the world has even seen turned into a limp, punchless, and economically weak nation of soft socialism.

What a surprise that the nation's most inexperienced, unqualified president has given us the nation's most inexperienced, unqualified supreme court justice.

Gag.

Attention Candidates

Any NY candidate for State, Local, or Statewide office that wishes to reach a group of voters unfiltered by the mass media, let me know and I will be happy to post a statement from you or your campaign about where you stand on the issues, your plans if elected, campaign promises, campaign appearances, fund raising appeals, links to your website, etc.

I am a voter and may or may not vote for any candidate appearing on Albany Media Bias, but 'officially' I have no intention of 'endorsing' any specific candidate at this time. However, I am aware that often candidates do not get equal or even reasonably equivalent coverage or treatment in the press. Candidates will likely reach a segment of NY voters dissatisfied with traditional media that may be open to an unfiltered message from a candidate.

Appearance of a message from a candidate, interviews with a candidate, or links to a candidate's website for voters to get more information does not constitute an endorsement from this blog.

Get out there and vote wisely, New York.

Harry Reid Buys Republican Votes To Increase Deficit

You gotta love it. In case you had any doubt which side of the aisle Maine's Senators belong on, just read this story. These two bozos didn't want to vote on a bill that would increase the deficit with MORE federal spending...until Reid pulled out some cuts that would have affected Maine...thereby ending up with a bill that creates an even greater deficit...and they vote for it.

Just pathetic, Maine. Ayuh...just pathethic.

Democrats, who control the chamber with 59 votes, needed to pick up at least one Republican to muster the 60 votes required to defeat the GOP filibuster.

Wednesday's vote to break a GOP filibuster came after Democratic leaders made final tweaks to the measure in hopes of winning over Snowe and Collins. The duo also provided the key votes last month to pass a six-month extension of jobless assistance for the long-term unemployed.

A vote scheduled for Monday was postponed after an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office showed the measure would add to the deficit. Snowe and Collins also had been concerned about cuts to Navy shipbuilding accounts since the Bath Iron Works in Maine is so essential to the state's economy. Majority Leader Harry Reid got rid of the proposed cuts Monday night.

Here's a hint, lame AP, when Republicans vote FOR it, they're not filibustering it. The only time you can say that one party voted to overcome a filibuster by the other party is when they have enough of their own votes to do so. At least this time they didn't claim it was a "Republican filibuster" that actually included Democrats.

I Voted For WHAT?

"...we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it."

That's what Nancy Pelosi had to say about the America-killing Obamacare. She's now been joined by Vermont Socialist Pat Leahy regarding the economy-strangling financial dictatorial bill they just passed, except in his case, he's saying, 'I've been fighting for this thing and got it passed...What? It has WHAT in it??'

Yup, turns out the bill exempts the SEC from most Freedom of Information requests.

Openness! Transparency!!

The Freedom of Information Act is our nation’s premier open government law, and a powerful guardian of the public’s right to know. The Wall Street reform bill that has now become law makes great strides toward enhancing transparency in our financial system. However, I am concerned that an overly broad Freedom of Information Act exemption, originally drafted in the House of Representatives and which was included in the final law, is contrary to the very important goals of the Wall Street Reform bill - restoring accountability and transparency to our financial markets. The SEC should immediately issue guidance narrowly interpreting this FOIA exemption in a manner that is both consistent with the President’s policy of government transparency and with Congressional intent. I will work with the Obama administration and others in Congress to ensure that the SEC remains subject to FOIA and accountable to the American people.

Or, you know...you could have done that BEFORE YOU PUSHED THE SAUSAGE OUT, DIPSTICK!

Another Proud Day To Live In NY

At least I don't live in this tool's district...still, his stink smears all of us here in NY:

One irony of the tax increase that arrives on January 1 is that the it will hit residents of high-income, Democratic-leaning states like California, Connecticut, New Jersey and New York the hardest. This is a problem for pro-tax Democrats.

Enter New York Representative Jerrold Nadler, who wants to exempt his own six-figure constituents from the tax hike he supports. Mr. Nadler's bill would "require the IRS to adjust tax brackets proportionally in regions where the average cost of living is higher than the national average."

In other words, the various tax brackets would apply to residents in certain regions at higher income levels versus other parts of the country. A family with an income of $50,000 or even $1 million in Manhattan would pay less federal income tax than a family with the same earnings in Omaha. The bill is called the Tax Equity Act, but a more accurate title would be the Blue State Tax Preference Act.

Aren't you proud? He actually wants to set it up so blue states pay less taxes. I kid you not.

You have to admit, this is like the Democrat full monty or something...

See, first the Democrats spend spend spend. To pay for it (so they think), they tax tax tax.

Which drives up the cost of living in places with huge social programs.

So they rig the system so that they reward the people that elected tax and spend Democrats with lower federal taxes...but no accompanying cuts in services that are paid for by people that elected fiscally responsible state and local leaders.

If this isn't pretty much a poll tax, a fee to vote for anyone but tax and spend Democrats, I'm not sure what it is.

Well, except for your basic evil. I know we're not supposed to say that, but deliberately plotting to hike taxes on people that don't vote for 'your kind'? I guarantee the founders would roll in their graves over that one...it's right up there with the plot to overturn the electoral college. What's to keep big states from electing people that pledge to hike taxes on the residents of small states?

Taking Credit Where No Credit Is Due

Nice little list to file away here from the CNSNews/Newsbusters crew:Obama Says End of Combat in Iraq Fulfills Campaign Promise, But Withdrawal Deal Was Set Up by Bush Administration

President Barack Obama told disabled veterans in Atlanta on Monday that he was fulfilling a campaign promise by ending U.S. combat operations in Iraq “on schedule."

But the timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops in Iraq was decided during the Bush administration with the signing of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) by U.S. and Iraq officials on Nov. 16, 2008. The Iraqi parliament signed SOFA on Nov. 27, 2008...

At the convention for disabled vets on Monday, many of whom served in Iraq, President Obama took credit for ending the war.

“As a candidate for president, I pledged to bring the war in Iraq to a responsible end,” Obama said. “Shortly after taking office, I announced our new strategy for Iraq and for a transition to full Iraqi responsibility.

“And I made it clear that by August 31st, 2010, America’s combat mission in Iraq would end,” Obama said. “And that is exactly what we are doing – as promised and on schedule.”

On Feb. 27, 2009 -- one month after taking office as president -- Obama in a speech said, "Let me say this as plainly as I can. By August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end."

On his campaign Web site, Organizing for America, however, it states that Obama would end the "war responsibly" within 16 months of assuming office, or by roughly May 20, 2010...

The “surge” by U.S. troops in Iraq was announced by President Bush in January 2007 and involved the deployment of more than 20,000 additional soldiers. By mid-June, the additional brigades were in place and the surge began, focusing on al-Qaeda, Sunni and Shia foes in Anbar, Baghdad, Babil and Diyala provinces.

By September, U.S. commander Gen. David Petraeus was able to report to Congress that “the military objectives of the surge are, in large measure, being met.”

At the time Bush announced the surge in January 2007, then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said, “I personally indicated that an escalation of troop levels in Iraq was a mistake and that we need a political accommodation rather than a military approach to the sectarian violence there.”

Then, in January 2008, after Bush’s state of the Union Speech and when it was evident that the surge had been successful, Obama said, “Tonight we heard President Bush say that the surge in Iraq is working, when we know that's just not true.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who also opposed the surge, issued a statement on Monday this week giving Obama credit for ending the war in Iraq.

"America's brave men and women in uniform have done everything that has been asked of them in the war in Iraq; they have performed excellently,” Pelosi said. “Soon, our nation will begin a new chapter in this effort, ending combat operations on the schedule President Obama promised.”

But in February 2008, Pelosi said Bush’s military strategy in Iraq had failed.

“The purpose of the surge was to create a secure time for the government of Iraq to make the political change to bring reconciliation to Iraq,” Pelosi said on CNN’s “Late Edition.” “They have not done that.”

Watch Your Step

It's been quite a while since an actual, pure pile of sh** rolled down the mass media pipeline. I mean, yeah, the lies, the bigotry, the hate, the propagandizing...but all at once? Not often.

Then I see this manure truckful wanders through from the AP and its writer Phillip Elliott. I don't usually pull out the author themselves unless a story really is an affront to all consumers. This one does just that. Someone so full of s**t clearly needs a new one, so let's rip it for them (metaphorically, of course).

Black members of tea party dispute racist claims

Black members of the tea party movement on Wednesday rejected charges that the group's activists are racist, saying they oppose President Barack Obama because of his policies not his skin color.

The members gathered at a Washington news conference in the wake of allegations about its rank and file, heightened by the recent split with a Tea Party Express leader who had posted a letter on his blog written from "Colored People" to Abraham Lincoln. The post suggested that black people would choose slavery over having to do real work.

The post suggested that THE NAACP was acting as if they felt that way. Are all blacks in the NAACP? Right.

"Democrats have re-enslaved America," said Kevin Jackson, president of the Black Conservative Coalition. He said tea party activists, if successful, would reduce the size of government and set in motion another Emancipation Proclamation, the document that President Abraham Lincoln signed that effectively ended slavery.

Bull**it. The Emancipation Proclamation 'freed the slaves' in states not under the control of Lincoln. In no way, shape, or form "effectively ended slavery". Maybe Mr. Elliott recalls a little thing called the Civil War? I guess not.

"This time, even the white folks get freed," said Jackson, who accused Obama of viewing fellow blacks as "mongrels."

What? Hello?! Earth to AP! OBAMA himself said this! And you publish a story that accuses someone else of accusing him of "viewing" them that way? Without pointing out that he SAID it? Nice.

This is the smelliest piece of carp the AP has put out in a while. Time to polish up that turd known as Obama's approval ratings and smear those evil conservatives, I guess.

Can't Wait To Shop At Target Again

As if I needed another reason to go to Target, I think this might be worth an extra trip. Seems that Target is daring to support a pro-business candidate and the MorOn.orgers are ablaze with fury about it (don't miss the lie about 'unlimited spending' right at the beginning):

Get this: Target, the retail giant, just became one of the very first companies to take advantage of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision allowing unlimited corporate cash in elections.

Target has spent over $150,000 in the Minnesota Governor's race backing state Rep. Tom Emmer, a far-right Republican who supports Arizona's draconian immigration law, wants to abolish the minimum wage and even gave money to a fringe group that condoned the execution of gay people...

Will you send a message to Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel telling him that you're not going to shop at Target unless they stop trying to buy elections? Click here to add your name to the petition...

The stakes are much higher than one candidate and one company. Other CEOs are in "wait-and-see" mode following the Citizens United decision, according to a former Federal Trade Commission counsel quoted on NPR. If we don't push back hard, this will just be the tip of the iceberg. Other corporations will learn that they can pour money into elections to buy the outcome they want—without paying a price with their customers or shareholders.

Yeah, only people like MorOn.org should buying the outcomes they want with Soros' money! :P

So, join with me in repudiating the MorOns and go buy something nice at Target :)

-
apparently that group they're so exercised about is a "punk rock ministry"...whatever the hell that is...if you actually read the story that the MorOn's link to you'll find that the minimal donation from a campaign coffer came 2 years before someone in the group made the ridiculous statement and the candidate's spokesman made clear that he does not condone any such statements or beliefs...not that the truth ever gets in the way of a MorOn...or a dictionary...seriously, "draconian"? Must've been on their 'word of the day' calendar, but they didn't bother to read the definition.

HIRE Me!

Seen a lot in the news lately about the Democrats touting the 'wildly successful' part of the porkulus whereby employers get a tax write off if they hire new workers.

Anybody else see an incongruity in there?

So the only part of that bloated waste that actually worked was...drum roll, please...the part where they cut taxes for businesses.

Yet they still want to hike taxes on the small business owners that hire people along with corporate taxes...forget about cutting them.

Oh...and the tax benefits will expire soon. Rock on.

The Media Can Be So Clueless

What a lovely example of the shameless arrogance and ignorance of the leftwing media. Sometimes they stick their foot so far up their, uh, mouth that they almost act proud of their lack of awareness of reality.

There was a teaser link in a story to the top 10 Secret Service code names...interesting, I thought. Turns out it's from Time. Reliably leftwing nowadays. So #1, as if you had to ask, is Obama. The name Obey-Won picked for himself? Renegade. I kid you not. This tool of the school of Alinsky and discredited socialist thinking who can't talk to a small group of reporters or even school children without a teleprompter picked that.

Anyway, you get to #10 and are hit with this:

Parasol
Cindy McCain

Hailing from torrid Phoenix, the well-coiffed, delicate Mrs. McCain — who once required X-rays for an injury incurred by shaking hands with a supporter — seems like she could use some shade.

Really? Delicate? Remember, these people covered the 2008 election! Yet somehow they missed this:

...Cindy suffered a stroke at the age of 50 partly because she had not been taking her blood pressure medication. Following the stroke, Cindy had to learn to walk again -- and fully recovered, eight months later running a half-marathon.

Did we mention she is a pilot and amateur racecar driver too?

Quite the delicate flower, ain't she?

How elitist and out of touch can you be? I guess Time is trying to find out. Maybe they'll join their buddies on the left, including Obama, and start mocking McCain's POW injuries, too.