Ellie bin Laden?

Somehow it seems simply perfect that the guy who records tapes under the name "Osama bin Laden" has decided to rail against the Bush administration about man-made global warming.

I don't know who is making the ObL tapes these days, but I suspect that some day we'll find out that it's Ellie Light.

Open Mic Night in DC

Only an in-over-his-head amateur would abuse the Supreme Court during a major address to Congress.

Video of the shameless moment is here.

Our State of Disunion

I shall miss the address tonight. No, that's not quite right. I shall not be watching and will not miss it.

Ramirez at IBD.

Elites Departing?

In an otherwise excellent column Michael Barone writes:

"Barack Obama, of Morningside Heights, Cambridge and Hyde Park, still has the support of 'the educated class' -- but not anybody else."

Not quite correct. He still has "the educated class" (as described by David Brooks through Barone) and African Americans. Just before the election of 2008 I observed that his voters were a coalition of PBS and BET viewers. That's still true but a few of those PBS viewers/ NPR listeners have tuned out The Barry Obama Show it seems.

Barone's "Voters Spurn Boob Bait" is a good read on this sunny Monday morn.

The Magical Ellie Light

This sort of Astroturfing of the print media used to happen all the time. You would think in the age of Internet search it would be easy for the editor of the letters section of a paper to check before publishing... but then again, as long as the sentiment expressed fits the agenda of the editor...

h/t Lucianne

Obama Does Something Right

A market correction has been overdue for some time.

We've been prepared for it for a few weeks.

Therefore, we sincerely applaud President Obama for his attack on the banking system Wednesday.

In less than 3 days of trading since then the NASDAQ has shed roughly 115 points.

Thank you, sir.

But, um, any idea when you might stop trying to kill the nation's economic system?

A Beautiful Day

Wonder if that nitwit San Fran Nan still thinks we're Astroturf?

Crank this up before it gets removed by Youtube.

How Dumb?

For my entire life Democrats and their lapdog media have put Republicans in one of two boxes. R's were either, 1) stupid, or 2) evil. The really best Republicans got the honor of being in both boxes.

I'm 56. I was born when Eisenhower was president. You youngsters might not know this but Ike, the leader of the victorious allied forces in WWII, was firmly placed in Box #1 by the press and their Democrat Party masters. Hard to believe, isn't it. But he was portrayed as disengaged, out of it, and far too busy playing golf to be in charge of the weighty matters of state. His electoral opponent was Adlai Stevenson who was portrayed as an egghead. Seriously, he was more brilliant than Kerry, Gore, Clinton (he & she) combined. When he lost twice it was because the idiotic American voters didn't appreciate his brilliance and opted for the grandfatherly Ike. To this day the 50's are portrayed in B&W. Boring. Dull. Just like Ike. Actually, I was there, and the 50's were fantastic. It was the late 60's-- 67 on-- that stunk.

Anyway, back to the thesis:

Nixon? He was too smart and cunning to be in box #1. He was always a box 2 guy-- evil.

Ford? Played football too long without a helmet the intelligentsia sneered. Get into Box #1, Jerry. On SNL Chevy Chase portrayed Ford, probably the best athlete-president as a bumbler who fell down once every minute. SNL lying about a Republican is hard to believe, I know.

Dole was Ford's running mate in 1976 and he was, of course, evil. Pure evil and mean. By 1996 when he ran against Clinton he was less evil and more doddering old dummy. Lucky guy got to fit in both boxes and never won a national election.

Reagan was portrayed as dumb. A "B" actor, doncha know. Later on when he clobbered them in two elections straight it was harder to call him stupid. If you lose in landslides to Box 1 guys you have to move them to Box #2 before somebody asks why you keep losing to idiots. Ronnie fit in box 2 because he was opposed to the tyranny of the state. Dems and the ink-stained wretches like state-run tyranny over The People, so... evil he became. He brought down the Soviet Union. If you spent much time in "J" school or Dem political salons that qualified you for evilness all by itself.

George H.W. Bush was a wimp. That's how they portrayed him. His heroism in WWII was at least the equal of JFK's, but where the PT 109 fella was a God, GHWB was just wimpy. Wimpy is a corollary to Box 1, stupid. Lord, they even lied about him and a grocery scanner to make you think he was out-of-touch and dumb. Of course, after he left office he became a pretty good guy. (If he had gone out and campaigned for Scott Brown last week he would have gotten stupid again, btw.)

His VP was Dan Quayle. A great resume has Dan Quayle-- look it up. Every step along the way Dan was one of the youngest guys ever to achieve the goal in question. But today even Republicans think Dan is dumb-- so complete was their character assassination of him.

Dubya? You mean DumbYa. And evil too. But not as evil as Cheney, of course. Palin? McCain? You know the answers.

At some point I would think a fairly intelligent person who votes Democrat every election might stop and say, "Hey, wait a minute. Somebody's pulling a fast one on me."

Of course, some do begin to think for themselves. Some of those people look at this Coakley woman in MA and realize that, when asked about her foreign policy experience she referred to a sister who has been to England and the Middle East. She then proclaimed that there are no terrorists in Afghanistan. She even thought Curt Schilling was a Yankee.

Yes, she sounds stupid enough to be a Republican. But today, to the Dems and their legacy press pals, she's still sharp as a tack.

If she loses?

Then she'll be the dumbest woman on Earth.

Spinning Out Of Control

"The notion that the IRS should be able to seize your assets if you don't arrange your health care to the approval of the federal government represents the de facto nationalization of your body, which is about as primal an assault on individual liberty as one could devise."

-Mark Steyn, 1-18-2010

I never thought I'd be paying attention to any election in MA.

Steyn will have a closer look from his perch in NH.

Good Grief

Tim Blair passes this stupefying comment along from Australia.

It is interesting to see that people who are outraged by Pat Robertson have nothing much to say about Danny Glover. Personally, I don't think either one is correct-- but Glover was pretty good in "Lonesome Dove".

I Can't Even Imagine

Could Mr. Brown go to Washington?

Talk about a Game Change.

Destruction in Knoxville

Sometimes you just have to admit that Al Davis isn't insane.

"Lane Kiffin is a flat-out liar. He lied to the team, he lied to the fans, and he lied to the media. He will try to destroy that university like he tried to destroy the Raiders." - Al Davis, June 8, 2009

This Cat Isn't Going Away, Thankfully

Washington is buzzing about the strategic marketing leaks from the latest gossp book. That's fine, but the real action is with Blago. The "must read" of the week is Scott Raab's interview with The B Man in Esquire.

Excerpts here:

"We had all kinds of offers to do reality shows," says Blagojevich. "This bullbleep where they come in the house — Keeping Up With the Kardashians — I won't do that bleep."

"The two biggest sellers this Halloween in the Chicago area were Michael Jackson's jacket and wigs of my hair."

"Where the bleep is Woodward and Bernstein? It's shocking that this could happen in America. Because I'm telling you, I am innocent of every single allegation. Every one. I've been falsely accused, I've been lied about, I've been maliciously treated. Worse than that, my family and my children have to suffer. And larger than that, the people of Illinois had their governor stolen from them based on false accusations that were made knowingly."
So you're saying ...
"He (Fitz) falsely accuses me, falsely says things that the four hundred hours of taped conversations would show, and after he does it — by taking snippets of conversation out of context — he goes into court and gets a protective order that prevents those tapes from being heard by the public and prevents me from telling you what's on those tapes. Now how's that America?"

But if the ...
"That's the truth of this. That is the truth of what's happened here. And to think that this could happen in America is shocking to me. As the son of an immigrant, whose father fled Communism, as I write in my book, I've lived the American dream. Now there's an American nightmare going on — these malicious prosecutions that are basically undermining the very principles and the liberties that we Americans expect."
When does the ...
"When the full story's heard, and my conversations on those telephones — hundreds of hours that were secretly recorded — are heard and people hear me motherbleeping these phony politicians and how sickening they are, because the people are getting screwed, it'll correct itself. Here's a guy who believes in the power of the simple truth, and he doesn't care who's out to get him. He's going to fight back, and he believes that the strength of the truth in America is still more powerful than all these people — and that's what my story will be when I'm vindicated. Don't pass judgment — just wait to see the result. You'll see."

This sort of hero requires an epic villain, naturally, and Blago's is U. S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who headed the Blagojevich investigation and held a press conference after his arrest to trumpet that the governor was nailed "in the middle of ... a political-corruption crime spree" and to tell the world that Blagojevich's "conduct would make Lincoln roll over in his grave." It was, Fitzgerald added, a "moment of truth for Illinois," which — given Chicago's rich legacy of graft, corruption, and political buffoonery, plus the fact that the governor before Blago is serving a six-year sentence on federal corruption charges — is like swatting a mosquito and calling it a landmark in the fight against malaria.

What sets the Blago case apart, of course, is the little matter of Barack Obama's Senate seat.
"It's a bleeping valuable thing," the governor allegedly announced in a phone call taped by the feds the day before Obama's election. "You just don't give it away for nothing."
On a second call, the day after the election, Blagojevich allegedly said, "I've got this thing and it's bleeping golden, and I'm not just giving it up for bleeping nothing."
Allegedly not. In New Jersey, where I live, some yutz named Jon Corzine made his political debut by spending $60 million of his own cash to buy a Senate seat in 2000, followed the next year by another political tyro, Mike Bloomberg, forking over $70 million for the mayoralty of New York City. So ten years later, figure a Senate seat may be worth $100 million. Giving a Chicago politician naming rights to that seat, what the hell would any sentient American adult expect that pol to do?
Sorry — allegedly do.

"They didn't stop a crime spree," says Blago. "They stopped a routine political deal that would've put five hundred thousand people to work, given fifty thousand to three hundred thousand people access to health care, helped keep four thousand people a day in their homes — that's what they stopped."
The deal, says Blagojevich, was to name Attorney General Lisa Madigan, daughter of the Illinois Speaker of the House, Mike Madigan, to Obama's seat.
"I hate her and him," Blago says. "But if I could get a public-works jobs bill, if I can get the expansion of health care, if I can get foreclosure relief" — all of which, Blago claims, were being held hostage by the Speaker — "I'd hold my nose and make her a senator. Rahm Emanuel, we talked to him — my chief of staff was talking to Rahm about putting this deal together, and I was prepared to do it because it was the best I could get for the people.

"The day before they arrested me, I directed my chief of staff to work out the tactics and get it done, and all of a sudden, the next morning, they're arresting me? The whole thing's upside down. They stole me away from the people of Illinois. Now that's the truth, okay? So someone's lying here, about whether I'm selling that Senate seat for financial gain, or whether I was positioning and working to try to get a political deal that would benefit the people. Somebody is lying here, and that's an unbelievable lie."

"David Axelrod called me the day after John Kerry lost to Bush — Wednesday — and he said, You need to think about running for president in 2008. A new face from the Midwest to challenge Hillary Clinton. He used to work for me. He had Obama in his stable already — he's a consultant, so he's just gathering potential talents. That's what these guys do — it's all about picking winners."
Which reminds him: "I'll show you where Rahm lives," he says. We're in my rental; Blago's ride these days is a 1988 Volvo owned by his brother, and alleged coconspirator, Rob.
"That house with the flag, and then there's the lot right next door — he bought that. When he left the [Clinton] White House, he got into some deal where he made a quick $15 million through his connections with Exelon ComEd — amazing. Fifteen million — it's that white-collar stuff people do. He's using his connections in the White House, but I'm the guy facing what I'm facing. And I'm broke."
How ...
"He makes that money, and he's where he is. I'm busted, I'm broke, because I've worked as an honest public official, and the federal government, my very accusers themselves, say I'm indigent. It's unbelievable."
So ...
"People out there who are getting bleeped by big, powerful forces in faraway places — they don't know who's doing it to them, or they have some idea who's doing it to them, but they don't feel like they have any control over it. I will show you can fight back when you have righteousness and the truth on your side."
You ...
"It's such a cynical business, and most of the people in the business are full of bleep and phonies, but I was real, man — and am real. This guy (Obama), he was catapulted in on hope and change, what we hope the guy is. What the bleep? Everything he's saying's on the teleprompter. I'm blacker than Barack Obama. I shined shoes. I grew up in a five-room apartment. My father had a little laundromat in a black community not far from where we lived. I saw it all growing up."

It's nearly impossible to imagine Rod Blagojevich on the witness stand, but it's wholly impossible to imagine that Rahm Emanuel and Barack Obama — who has had ties with Chicago real estate developer, alleged Blago coconspirator, and convicted felon Tony Rezko — have not pondered that very prospect.
"I'm absolutely going to testify," Blago promises. "Absolutely. I'm going to go up there and tell the whole truth — and the complete truth."

Ba-da-da-da-dah, I'm lovin' it!

Headed In The Wrong Direction

The unemployment percentage is derived from the household survey not the non-farm payroll number. Many wondered why unemployment stayed at 10.0% while there was a net job loss was 85,000 for December. The short answer is that the numbers are derived from two different surveys. But, ponder this:

"About 661,000 people stopped looking for work in the US in December. If they had not done so, the unemployment rate would have gone up to roughly 10.4 per cent."

- Michael Feroli, JPMorgan economist

It's understandable that many people wouldn't bother looking for work in December. Let's assume those people are now looking. We would expect unemployment to lurch upwards to 10.3 to 10.5% in January 2010. DC's reaction to that would be to spend more money in their usual wrong-headed pseudo-Keynesian manner. If they do more borrowing and spending expect unemployment to rise dramatically further. Drink up lads.

Happy 75th

The King is 75 today. Last we knew he was living quietly in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Happy Birthday to Elvis. Still the King of rock 'n' Roll.

photo by Alfred Wertheimer, Memphis, TN, 4th of July 1956

Revolting

The Governor of California is reported to be ready to ask Washington DC for a bailout for the formerly golden state. Rasmussen polled this issue and found that 27% said "OK", 55% said "no way", and 17% said "huh...wha?"

All I can say is if you ask the citizens of 49 states to pay for the out-of-control spending in Sacramento you will have a revolution that will make the Tea Parties of 2009 look tame. I'm not sure anyone in DC gets it yet. The California delegation is enormous and they will apply pressure to hand over dough to California but... if this bailout happens the word secession will be heard in the United States. And it won't be a joke.

The largest city in our county has an unemployment rate of 23%. The county just south of ours has a countywide unemployment rate of 25%. If the Dems in DC think they can take money from us and send it California in the form of a bailout they are nuts. Dodd and Dorgan are just the beginning.

Upset

Congratulations to coach Bobby Cremins and his College of Charleston Cougars for their upset victory over the fellows from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. We don't care a bit about basketball but we do know that the Tar Heels are well regarded in that athletic endeavour and have allowed the national media to call their school "Carolina" over the years.

The report on the exciting battle is here. Frankly, we haven't read the story because, well, it's basketball. But, good job Cougars.

2010. And so it begins.

I've always believed that the new year doesn't actually begin on January 1, it begins on the first work day after January 1st. So here we are. Could we get a few more days off, please? No? Harumph.

-------

It's been since December 17th that I wrote anything here about our president, Lord Zero. I accomplished this, for the most part, by not writing anything at all. Frankly, by the end of November I was to the point that if I heard another word about "Healthcare Reform" my eyes were going to glaze over-- just before I drove the ice picks in. And those DC dopes went right up to Christmas Eve with their electoral deathwish debacle. By the way, the whole thing isn't about "healthcare" it's about power and control... and it isn't about "reform" since, by definition, reform means improvement. But you knew that.

Then, the day after the 60 vote "victory" by Sad Sack Reid and company we get the Detroit plane bomber. Merry Christmas. At the time I believed that the next few weeks would be a discussion about process and, so far, I've been correct. Unfortunately. Look, we can't harden every target in the (formerly) free world. But one thing we must do is be forward leaning and on the hunt for those who would do us grave harm. The people of the United States elected, for various reasons, a guy who is 180 degrees from what you need if you want to fight back against the terror masters. He isn't about to keep Gitmo open, fire Holder for the lunacy of giving KSM et al citizen's rights in our court system, fire Bruno Napolitano (I'd look up the spelling but I don't care enough) for being a tool, and so on.

Our enemies know what we know-- Lord Zero's a weakling. Hell, they didn't even haul the terrorist who blew his bait and tackle off in the airplane to a facility for strenuous interrogation. It's bad enough when, what Mark Steyn called "The Flying Dutchman", is your "system" that "worked". It's far worse that the captured enemy combatant was treated like a guy busted for selling crack on the street corner. Lawyered up and silent.

Rolling over and showing a soft belly to the perpetrators of evil gets people killed. A president with an enormous need to be adored by the world is a very dangerous thing.