Hail to Summer, Oh Hail

It's hard to believe that we're heading into the final week before Labor Day. The crabgrass is at its August zenith of fescue-choking activity. The two college-age Dartlads have been back at school for two weeks already. Other than a three day weekend in the Lowcountry we didn't have a "vacation". (Nothing new there.) No doubt about it-- summer is over in a week. All we can do now is relax vicariously through others more fortunate than we... you know, movie stars, rock stars, big-wigs, poobahs, moguls, and the like.

That Tyler guy from Aerosmith took a nasty fall at the big biker rally in South Dakota. But it looks like he's up and about and able to get out in Boston and rub elbows (ouch! watch the sling, dude!) with the riffraff. Lookin' better than evah, Steve...


We've always enjoyed Jack Nicholson's screen performances despite our lack of enthusiasm for his favorite sport, basketball. Let's catch up with Hollywood's biggest Superstar at the ol' swimmin' hole...


Whoa.

One of the movies Jack made that we missed was that one with Diane Keaton. She was great in Annie Hall, wasn't she. Better put that Nicholson/ Keaton movie in the Netflix queue. Wonder what Diane's been up to this summer?


Ya know... I already have 96 movies waiting in my Netflix list so maybe I'll just hold off a bit on the Diane Keaton film festival.


That "man's man" Harrison Ford was one of our favorite action stars for years. We've kind of lost track of him over the past few years. What's he been up to this summer I wonder?



Apparently he's had an operation that we didn't read about.

Yikes!

Wow, I feel better about my summer already. Thanks Hollywoodsters for showing me how good I have it! Life here is pretty darn good. Ya know, I'm gonna knock off early, head over to the lake, and read my new book.

I heard it's a real page-turner.



Written by Splash.

Happy August, War Is Over

Late summer every year is a time when official Washington goes on vacation and so the news business also tends to relax a bit. But lots of big things can happen in August and this year is no exception.

Exhibit number one is the good news that The Global War On Terror is now over.

Of course, the bad news is that the good guys lost.

September will have to be a ding-dong dilly of a doozy to top losing a war in August.

Ramirez in IBD.

On To DC

The September 12, 2009 Taxpayer Revolt march down Pennsylvania Ave. in DC will begin at 11:30AM. Details here.

The Tea Party Express bus will run from Sacramento to DC starting August 28th. The schedule is here.

Dog Days = Slow News Days

This morning my news feed gave me these three huge national stories:

--In Kentucky a state legislator is filing a bill to remove the prohibition against dueling in the oath of office. Apparently this isn't because he wants to be able to duel and then run for re-election but because he thinks dueling is too 19th Century. I wouldn't be too hasty.

--In Alaska Rat Island no longer seems to have rats. Maybe they could import some from Boston.

--And in Washington state a fellow shot himself in his leg while trying to protect his chickens from a possum. That's not really national news to me. If a possum shot a farmer or a chicken pulled a .22 on a marauding possum... now that's news!

The good news? Apparently nothing important is going on.

Hooray For Skinflints

Legend tells us that years ago when he was a player with the Chicago Bears Mike Ditka was trying to get a pay raise out of owner Papa Bear Halas. The frugal Halas wasn't forthcoming. Ditka said that the owner "throws around nickles like manhole covers."

I'm sure Iron Mike, like lots of us, wishes we had a federal government that threw nickles like manhole covers (as well as Billion dollar bills like they were battleships) today.

We need a lot of George Halas types in Washington DC. Frugality will be in fashion next fall.

Late August Wee Wee

Here's an amiable young chap at a rally in front of the office of North Carolina's freshman US Senator Friday.

I hope Lordy O doesn't "wee wee" his pants when he sees the visage of this evil-monger.

Thanks to Director Blue for the great picture of this dangerous member of the far right militia.

Will You Comply Without a Fight?

Commisar Waxman has a few questions for you, Comrade.

And, he has pictures.

Is this still the United States?

Wednesday Rounds

Trouble might be brewing for The O's Brain, AKA David Axelrod, the man who puts the words in the TelePrompter. Seems like supporters of the government take-over of the healthcare industry are funneling millions of dollars for PR and ad work to the company that Dave ran until Obama won election. Axelrod's kid works there. If Dave is involved in steering work there it's a big problem. Likely it's all been done with a nudge and a wink and no paper trail. Bloomberg is writing about it and Hugh Hewitt is talking about it.





Nat Hentoff, a veteran writer who is often identified as a liberal but is more accurately described as a civil libertarian, says that for the first time in his life he's afraid of the executive branch of the federal government. The cause? Government-run healthcare. His well-argued piece is in The Jewish World Review.



One of our favorite Washington watchers is Byron York. He goes through the latest Gallup poll of Lord Obama's approval rating and unpacks it by demographics. Very revealing it is.


For example, fewer than 51% of the folks in these demo groups approve of BHO: Married people, Men, people over 65, Non-Hispanic Whites, Independents, Weekly churchgoers, Southerners, people who attended college, Republicans, and Conservatives.


While he still has more than 60% of the folks in these demo groups supporting him: People age 18-29, unmarried people, blacks, Hispanics, people with graduate study beyond a college degree, people who make less than $2,000 a month, Easterners, Liberals, and Democrats.


Thank goodness that the post-partisan Obama has come along to save us from the divisive, poisonous politics of the Bush/ Cheney era!

Looks like his core support is what's left. Basically the BET viewer and the NPR listener.

That'll Make Ya Walk Funny

John Cleese is settling up his third divorce. He isn't pleased by the settlement in California.

The Telegraph has the story.

Excerpts:

“At least I will know in the future if I go out with a lady they will not be after me for my money.”

Michael Winner, the former film director and acerbic restaurant critic who has been Cleese’s closest friend for 30 years, said: “It is an extraordinary world which means John is left with much less than his former wife even though he is the star who did all the work. The settlement defies human belief. John is extremely cross about it and I don’t blame him. The settlement comes after two years of harrowing legal argument. John has worked all his life and will now have to continue working because he has seen a huge chunk of what he has worked for going to his former wife who he rescued from a council flat.”

Cleese added: “I got off lightly. Think what I’d have had to pay Alyce if she had contributed anything to the relationship.”

Liberty Rising?

A very busy weekend around here as it involved moving two college men back to school-- two different schools. Family members were deployed in two directions. Miles were driven. Worldly possessions were schlepped. Fast food was consumed. Much gasoline was purchased for $2.27/ gallon.

Good luck in your studies, fellas.
................


And then there's this uniter...



Time for a review. In recent days those of us who oppose a federal government take-over of healthcare have been called...


... Klansmen (and women) by the doddering John Dingell who has apparently forgotten that the KKK was a Democrat terrorist group and that his Capitol Hill Dem pal Bobby Byrd was once a High Exalted Cyclops of that organization. Here's a clue, John and it's free-of-charge. We're for freedom and liberty-- not tyrannical government. Got it?

... Un-American by SanFranNan Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, the leaders of The People's House. She runs a government operation that flirts with single digit approval numbers. It can't be because she openly hates the majority of Americans, can it?


... Fakes and phonies (AKA-"Astroturf") by the same Pelosi. Being called a fake and a phoney by a woman with more plastic surgery work than Joan Rivers doesn't really break me up too much.

... the equal of Bull Connor in civil rights era Alabama by Congressman Clyburn-- part of Pelosi's House leadership team. Gosh, Jim, we don't even own a dog! But we do get to drive under the elaborate $1.8 Million pedestrian bridge over SC-277 in Columbia built by taxpayer money and named after you. We feel so proud every time we pass under that seldom used monument to your porky greatness. Someday we hope to see someone walking over it. By the way, James, those guys with the snarling dogs? They were all Democrats.


... Evil-Mongers by Hapless Harry Reid-- a guy who attributes his 30 something poll numbers in Nevada as indicative not of his unpopularity but of the fact that many people in the state are newcomers and don't know how great he is yet.


We've had the White House sponsor an on-line attempt to have citizens rat out "fishy" neighbors to The Snitch Czar via the flag{at}whitehouse.gov e-mail tip line.


We've been called uninformed people who get marching orders from extremist media and special interest groups who are misleading vulnerable, feeble-minded Americans. Actually, if anybody told me to march anywhere I'd go the opposite way. I'm like that.


Finally, we've been spammed by David Axelrod's minions in the West Wing of Obama's White House.


Now, we aren't waiting for apologies from this collection of sad sacks for any of that. But we can't wait to see all of them pay a price at the ballot box.

The day of reckoning will come.

Nobody Here But Us Evil-Mongers

Many years ago Ronald Reagan called our Cold War opponent The Evil Empire.

Liberals gasped.

A few years ago George W. Bush fingered Iraq, Iran, and North Korea as The Axis of Evil.

Democrats howled in horror.

Now Democrat Senate leader Harry Reid has invented a new term: Evil-Mongers.

Is this odd descriptive being used to describe some nefarious criminals who wish America harm?

Nope.

He's talking about the majority of the American public who oppose Obamacare.

That's quite a re-election strategy, Harry! Might be time to study up on the last Tom Daschle re-election campaign, pard.

Barone On The Dem's Plunge

Michael Barone has an excellent analysis here of why Democrats swiftly get into trouble when they go radically left once in power.

Excerpt:

There are more conservatives than Republicans and more Democrats than liberals. That's one of the asymmetries between the parties that helps to explain the particular political spot we're in. The numbers are fairly clear. In the 2008 exit poll, 34 percent of voters described themselves as conservatives and 32 percent as Republicans; 39 percent described themselves as Democrats but only 22 percent as liberals.
It's been this way for a long time.
------
The result is that the two parties have offsetting political advantages. Democrats tend to win on party identification. Republicans tend to win on ideology. Democrats don't have to appeal to as many independents as Republicans do. Republicans don't have to appeal to as many moderates as Democrats do.
--------------

Republicans win when they appeal to conservatives. Democrats win when they appear to be moderate while Republicans are busy turning their backs on conservatives.

How Much Do We Like Rick Porcello?

A lot.



Monday night the Red Sawx started a beanball war with the Tigers by trying to take out Detroit clean-up hitter Miggy Cabrera with an HBP. Edwin Jackson evened the tally sheet when he delivered a rib-shot to the Beantowner's oafish clod Youk.



Tuesday night the Massachussetts Nine showed they didn't get the message that it was ovah. They got behind 3-0 quickly so opted to hit Miggy again. They sent the slugger out of the game and off to the X-Ray department. Luckily, no broken bones-- but a damn sore hand. So, when rookie phenom Rick Porcello cooly nails Boston's Youk Clown with a BP fastball in the back the hot-headed Oddjob lookalike breaks the code and goes bat-$&!# crazy. As he charges the mound Porcello backs away with the universal hand signal for "What's your problem? I thought we were playing baseball not having a Tupperware Party." Next The Youkey One throws his helmet at Rick in a move last seen on the St. Ursula's School for Girls playground when the 6th graders were in a snit over no chocolate milk at lunch that day. As the Sawx goon attempts to plow over our calm, classy Rick, the 20 year old gives him a hip turn and smooth take down. By my stop watch it ended in a pin in approximately 4 tenths of a second.

Owned.



Time for the chowdaheads to learn how old time baseball is played.

Under Suspicion

We went immediately to the big door marked "RESEARCH DEPT." when we saw this story about Strawberry the stock-pickin' parrot. Our research team of dart-throwin' monkeys has performed well, but there's always room for improvement right up until the day we are all reclining in the swinging hammock of socialism. So, of course, we wanted some answers from J. Fred Muggs, our VP of Research. The best he could come up with was that Strawberry was lucky in a rigged game. And something about how much tougher it was to fling darts than to just drop some balls. He then tried to change the subject by pointing us to this story about the amorous ram who let an unplanned zip line come between him and a field of delightfully embraceable ewes.

That's one hung-up sheep.

Nice try Muggs, but I have my eye on your department during these tough times in Obamerica. You are expendable and your entire department could be replaced by a bird. So, don't try anything fishy.

Dear Snitch Czar

Just wait 'til Snitch Czar Nancy hears about The People's Cube!

There will be hell to pay, Comrades.

Chicago, Venezuela on The Potomac

"They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way!"

-Jim Malone (Sean Connery), "The Untouchables" on how Ness should handle Capone's mob.

“If you get hit, we will punch back twice as hard.”

-Jim Messina, Lord Obama's Deputy Chief-of-Staff, advising Democrat Senators on how to handle their constituents' concerns.

Messina's thuggish comments have been reported to the Snitch Czar, Nancy DeParle at fish(at)whitehouse.gov

Naming Names: Nancy DeParle

Michelle Malkin figures out who The Snitch Czar is. She's one Nancy DeParle and she dwells in a very murky world. She swims around the White House as a Czarina, free from oversight from the US Congress. Pretty fishy that Nancy DeParle.


The details are revealed here.


Nancy DeParle- Snitch Czar

Gone Fishin'

Byron York writes in The Ex:

On Monday, White House director of new media Macon Phillips posted a note on the White House web site complaining of "disinformation about health insurance reform." "These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation," Phillips wrote. "Since we can't keep track of all of them here at the White House, we're asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov."

Being a loyal patriotic American I got the message from Macon's WH office-of-keeping-an-eye-out-for-mobs loud and clear. I decided to watch closely for anything "fishy." Wow! Was I ever shocked at all of the "fishy" behavior going on in my neighborhood. I found a high level of fishiness and am doing my duty by reporting the following to The Snitch Czar in DC:

Lake N.: Taking limits of stripers on live baits worked 40 feet deep along the river channel ledges. The area near Marker 7 has been most productive. Scattered largemouth bass and crappie at night.

Lake W.: Catfish in the 10-pound range on cut baits drift-fished 20 feet down toward the backs of coves. White perch 15-25 feet deep around underwater humps on minnows. Largemouth bass, mainly at night, on buzzbaits, artificial lizards and worms. Crappie at night around lighted docks on minnows.

M.I. Lake: Mainly bream and catfish, including by anglers casting from the banks.

Memo to Snitch Czar-- Some of this information is a little out-of-date and exact locations of extreme fishiness are hard to extract. These guys and gals call themselves "anglers" and can be quite secretive about some of their info. Rest assured, I'll stay on the case! In the meantime, print out this information and then hide in a place where the sun won't reach it.

Meanwhile...

This group looks pretty sinister and downright fishy.

And, Snitch Czar, here's something really fishy: Thousands of people coming to visit DC on 9/12.

35% Support = Wildly Popular

Every article and TV report I see about DC's Cash4Clunkers debacle calls it WILDLY POPULAR. Rasmussen finds that 54% of Americans oppose using taxpayer money to buy up and destroy used cars. 35% think it's swell, and 12% said, "What did you call me? I'll see yo mama out on the porch!" or else they were undecided. One or the other.

This means that ("Get me re-write!") George W. Bush was WILDLY POPULAR in 2008. Who knew?

I have a perfectly good TV I was hoping to replace with a fairly small-- it has to fit in an armoire-- new HDTV. I was going to make this transaction this summer but now I'm holding off. I figure if a million others act like me we can stop HDTV sales dead and we'll get a "Cash4Clickers" program. My recommendation is a $500 rebate. I'll add a couple hundred bucks and be happy with my new TV.


Trust me, it will be wildly popular with everyone who gets $500. As for the rest of you people, who cares? Grow up. In the Age of Obama you have a claim on your neighbors' wealth. Don't be a chump! Get on board and demand more of the Top 1%er's dough for your family economy. Time's a-wastin'. We got the richies on the run. They owe you their money. Get yours now!

A Lowcountry Tale

Here's the story of how ducks, and the people who love to hunt them, saved the unique "Carolina Gold" type of rice in the Lowcountry between Savannah and Charleston, SC.

Read about it here in Guns & Gardens.

El Cheap "O"

Saturday we saw a story about four CEO's going to the White House for lunch with Lord O. The heads of Starbucks, Wal*Mart, Verizon, and Nucor were invited to the WH for Friday noon vittles. The inclusion of Nucor CEO Dan DiMicco was of special interest. Many Americans don't know about the steelmaker Nucor. They tend to erroneously believe America doesn't make steel anymore, such is the power of propaganda. Nucor is based about a 20 minute drive from us, has revenue of about $24 Billion annually, and employs nearly 22,000 people in the enterprise of making steel. DiMicco is a sharp guy so we wondered what he might have to say to our embattled prez.

We learned nothing about what DiMicco told BO about his business in the article in The Carolina Disturber, unfortunately. But we did learn that Dan was asked for his credit card number so President Obama could bill him for his lunch. This struck us as very odd. Has it been standard operating procedure for people to get an invite to the White House and then find out they're going Dutch treat? Does this happen when The One meets with union bosses? Teachers? Veterans groups? Oprahs? Sultans? Senators? New York Times reporters? ACORN community organizers? New Black Panther Party, um, operatives? Or just when the "guests" are... evil... CEO's?

Then this morning we came across a short piece at the American Spectator's Washington Prowler column about the WH practice of billing guests for their meals. Seems as though it's a new innovation from Team Obama. Apparently they've used it about four times and have come up with a cockamamie cover story about "conflict-of-interest." The Prowler believes that, actually, the Obama's have blown through 365 days of entertainment budget in less than 200 days.

I suspect a Cash4Cheeseburgers program will be introduced by SanFranNan Pelosi right after the recess.

The Fed Gov In Action

A simple program costing $1 Billion.

Not a fifth of the entire US economy like health care.

Just a simple little (dumb) idea to use taxpayer money to buy up a couple hundred thousand working used cars before poor people can get them.

The result? Utter chaos. And quick action to increase the size of the program by 200%

Even the NYTimes has to say:

Things sound like a total mess in the showrooms.

“There is absolute frustration across the board. As of this morning, they’re not really confident about any deals, and no one can give them advice about what they should be telling their customers.”

One thing still not clear is how many older cars have actually been sold and scrapped with the original $1 billion, and how many more the new $2 billion will be able to cover. The government Web site where dealers are supposed to register their deals has been crashing, and the dealers haven’t been able to plug in their information.

So here is one question: With the program now on shaky ground, even with a new infusion of money, what consumer and what dealer will risk rendering an engine irretrievably unusable? Well, as it turns out, a lot of them are doing so, because unless the dealers can prove to the government that they have killed the engines and scrapped the cars, the government will not reimburse them for the $3,500 or $4,500 discount that they have given the customer on a new, more efficient vehicle.

The general manager of DCH Paramus Honda, told us he was owed more than $80,000, and he wondered if he would ever see it. The government has said it would take 10 days to reimburse the dealers, but that was before the program apparently ran out of money and devolved into chaos Thursday night.

“Oh my God, what a mess today,” Sally Ann Maggio, who co-owns Hackensack Auto Wreckers, also in New Jersey, said on Friday. Ms. Maggio said she generally makes her profit by reselling the engines, the most valuable parts of the cars she takes, but that’s not posible with the cars coming to her because of the cash for clunkers program, because they have been rendered unusable. That cuts down the salvage value of the cars — and the incentive for salvage yards and wreckers to take them — to almost nothing, considering the time and energy they must spend in going to the dealer, towing back the dead cars, removing the engines, crushing the bodies and shipping them to a metal scrap shredder and recycler.

Dealers are “hitting the panic button” today. “We have been overwhelmed with phone calls from the dealerships,” she said. They have already killed the engines, and want her to pick up the heaps. And on hearing the news that the government might be pumping more money into the program, she said, they are stepping up the process. “They’re worried that the new money might last only two days,” Ms. Maggio said. “But until it’s scrapped and the paperwork is done, it’s not a done deal,” she said. “They’re driving me crazy.”

Mr. Kurkin, the lawyer in Miami, said that many dealers are attaching clauses to their sales agreements, saying that if the government money does not come through, the customer will have to make up the difference.
“If a dealer doesn’t have a separate document addressing this possibility, the dealer will likely have to eat it,” Mr. Kurkin said. “I certainly see a lot of litigation over this.”