Friday, August 31, 2012

COTD: Clint

A salute to Clint Eastwood | Power Line:
Ron Kearns · Top Commenter · Colorado Springs, Colorado
Things are getting interesting:
1) The Demos go all gansta on Dirty Harry (do they really feel that lucky?)
2) Romney goes to the flooded areas and Obama invokes lead-from-behind and quickly follows.
3) By making the GOP convention about American excellence, the Demos will be forced to counter with... with... with... ah, well, whatever DWS comes up with will be a howler.
4) We learned 1000% more about Mitt in one night than the media was able to scrape up on Obama in 4 years. They will counter with what? His Chicago-style knee-capping of political opponents? His affection for his "typical white" grandmother? I'm sure DWS will come up with something sweet.
5) One more, the "horrifying" Todd Akin has moved from 9 points behind to 1 point behind. So much for that shiny object.
Heh.

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Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Where Everything Is Free But Us

Instapundit » Blog Archive » ADVICE FOR THE RNC: A reader emails: Hi, first of all, if you’re even reading this, thank you. …: "Your comment, “It’s a shame that American politics have descended into such a reign of terror” regarding reformed liberal readers’ requests not to be identified is telling. I work in an industry that is almost exclusively conservative, in a very conservative state (Texas). I’ve worked with a few liberals, and they were quite open about it. While we sometimes discussed politics at lunch or around the coffee pot, I never saw any of my fellow conservatives berate, threaten or ridicule the liberals. No one was ever called names. We respect them, even though we disagree with them.

My wife, on the other hand, works in a liberal profession. The few times she’s let her true feelings show, she’s been met with disdain, antipathy and outright disgust. She’s afraid to put a Romney sticker on her car for fear of it being vandalized in the employee parking lot. What is it that causes liberals, the so-called champions of diversity, to react so violently to conservative thoughts?
Tribalism and intellectual insecurity."
In case you can't figure out the title, it's my pick for Ryan's best line tonight.

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If You Missed Ryan's Speech, Here Are The Key Bits

RNC Schedule of Speakers: Paul Ryan Speech LIVE, Condoleezza Rice, Susana Martinez Speech Highlights: ""We're a full generation apart, Governor Romney and I ... there are the songs on his iPod that I've heard on the campaign bus, and in many hotel elevators ... my playlist it starts with ACDC and it ends with Zeppelin."

"None of us should have to settle for what this administration has to offer ... a country where everything is free but us."

Standing ovation for idea that college student's should not living in their childhood bedrooms staring up at fading Obama posters.

"The United States is still the greatest force for peace and liberty that this world has ever known."

Reagan evoked once more, this time via Jack Kemp.

"The choice is whether to put hard limits on economic growth or hard limits on the size of governement -- and we choose to limit government."

"We have a plan for a stronger middle class ... we will keep federal spending at 20% of GDP or less because that is enough."

"My Mom is my role model." A nice moment and standing ovation for Ryan's mom.

"So here we are $16 trillion in debt, and still he does nothing." Speech focusing on Obama's inaction, and his verbosity.

"These past four years we have suffered no shortage of words in the White House, what is missing is leadership in the White House."

On health care: "Our nation needs this debate, we want this debate, we will win this debate."

"A Romney Ryan administration would protect and strengthen Medicare for my Mom's generation, for my generation..."

"The greatest threat to Medicare is Obamacare, and we're going to stop it."

Job creation should be the president's first order of economic business. Obama did not do that, instead he squandered time on health care. "Obamacare comes to more than 2,000 pages of rules, mandates, taxes, fees, and fines that have no place in a free country."

"Nearly 1 in 6 Americans is in poverty." "Without a change in leadership, why would the next four years be any different from the last four years?"

"Let's get this done. And that's exactly what we are going to do."

Ryan introduces the audience to his family.

"With all these attack ads, the president is just throwing away money and he's pretty experienced at that."

"I am honored by the support of this convention for vice president of the United States. I accept the duty to help lead the nation out of a jobs crisis and back to prosperity ... I accept the calling of my generation to give our children the opportunity that was given to us." "
He did an excellent job. And he had great material.

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The Great Inversion

2012: Campus PC Goes National - By Stanley Kurtz - The Corner - National Review Online: "For decades, our college classrooms have steadily been converting the study of history, the reading of our finest novels, and the practice of philosophy into little more than a debunking of the supposed race, class, and gender “domination” hidden within. Now our politics pulls the same reductionist nonsense on a brilliantly successful businessman, some of our finest religious institutions, and Americans who hope to build a pathway from welfare to work.

The college-educated suburban swing voters critical to Obama’s coalition are susceptible to this sort of nonsense, in no small part because they went to college. I’ve been arguing that these suburbanites are going to be the targets of the president’s second-term redistributive schemes. They’d rethink their support for Obama if they knew that. Yet these same suburbanites are part of a great inversion of the American electorate in which college-educated voters have migrated over time to the Democrats."

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Monday, August 27, 2012

The Horror!

Keynesianism vs. the Gold-Coin Standard - Gary North - Mises Daily: "Here, he identifies the enemy position of all Keynesians.
What they tend to ignore is that the world has tried the gold standard before and it was, in most respects, a disaster.
Here is a statement. It is a conclusion. It is not an argument.

The world tried the international gold standard from 1815 until the outbreak of World War I 1914, which was the greatest period of economic growth in recorded history. The world of 1900 would have been unrecognizable in its wealth for the masses by someone getting out of a time machine activated in 1800.
At present, as the economy grows and produces more goods the central bank can expand the money supply to keep up with output. Under the gold standard, as output increases, the money supply will be fixed and with more goods but the same amount of money, prices will tend to fall.
So, prices tend to fall under the gold standard. The horror! Why, the whole consumer price index would begin to resemble the cost of computing: ever less expensive."
This is a RTWT.

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Sunday, August 26, 2012

Another Reminder

The Original Birthers? - By Victor Davis Hanson - The Corner - National Review Online: "The Left went apoplectic over Romney’s recent joke about birth certificates — perhaps a tit-for-tat shot across Obama’s bow for the prior week’s presidential evocation of the old story of Romney’s dog on top of Romney’s car. But if pundits wish to be so angry at the birther joking, then they should go after the original birthers, who may have started the  myth — the literary agency Dystel & Goderich, which for over 16 years in their promo bio listed Obama as Kenyan-born — 1991–2007 — without any apparent complaint or questioning by those who read it. That fabrication was an odd thing to do for two reasons: One, authors are customarily asked to submit biographical information to their agents and publishers, and often periodically update and edit that information in catalogues, promo material, and booklets; and, two: The Kenyan-born reference disappeared abruptly in 2007, without any explanation, right about the time that Senator Obama began his campaign for the presidency."
Either Obama was the original birther or he is a complete boob. But I repeat myself...

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Ca-llapse

California Dreaming, Chapter 2 | Power Line: "One of the great glories of California in the mid-20th century was the fact that growth liberals, like Jerry Brown’s dad, Gov. Pat Brown, built stuff.  Lots of stuff.  Especially highways, water projects, and public universities.  Stuff middle class people could use, unlike Jerry’s stupid high speed rail project and expensive boutique energy projects.  Anyone with a little gumption and halfway decent grades could attend a relatively decent public state college almost for free.  Not any more: under the rule of liberalism, tuition at our formerly low cost university system has soared, and now you can’t even get in.  Several state universities have stopped admitting in-state residents to graduate programs in favor of out-of-state and international students for the most craven of reasons—they pay even higher tuition rates, and the university system wants to fill is classrooms with out of state students to balance their bloated budgets.  Another epic failure of liberalism—a system meant to favor in-state California citizens now discriminates against them."

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Lucky For Us...

What Goes Around, Comes Around :: The Circle Bastiat: "This is rich.  Brazilizan central bank employees have gone on strike to press for a 23 percent wage increase to compensate for inflation that has taken place since June 2008.  HT to Mark Thornton."
... that inflation is only something that happens in Brazil. Riiiiight...

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Neil Armstrong, RIP

Belmont Club » The Eagle Has Landed: "A short time before he died, Neil Armstrong gave a presentation in Australia matching the footage of his landing on the moon against a modern Google map of the moon.  Anyone who has any doubts that the moon landing was real should watch it at this link. The browser will not automatically open on the correct episode. Be sure to choose Episode 4 in the videos below."
Run, don't walk to watch this. And you need to watch all 4 parts to start to get a sense of what an extraordinary yet unassuming person Armstrong was...

UPDATE:

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The Fantasy

oftwominds-Charles Hugh Smith: The Fantasy of Debt: No Trade-Offs, No Sacrifices: "Easy, cheap credit has created a fantasy world where everyone "deserves" everything right now, and trade-offs and sacrifice have been banished as unnecessary.


Debt offers a compelling fantasy: there is no need for difficult trade-offs or sacrifices, everything can be bought and enjoyed now. In the old days when credit was scarce and dear, buying a better auto required substituting 1,000 brown-bag lunches for restaurant meals: yes, four years of daily sacrifice.

Sending a child to college meant no meals out (or perhaps once or twice a year), driving an old car, no vacations other than camping, working overtime to make a few extra dollars, summer jobs for every teen in the family and a hundred other sacrifices and trade-offs. All too often, only the oldest got to go away to university; younger siblings had to sacrifice their education for the greater good of the family."

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Saturday, August 25, 2012

From The Album "Electile Dysfunction"

Moonbattery » Blame It on Bush: "The wondrous Moonbat Messiah has inspired many songs, but none better than this gem by The Voters:"
Nice.

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The Mother O Tyranny

Fellow SEAL Calls Bin Laden Book ‘No Easy Day’ Author ‘Benedict Arnold’ | TheBlaze.com: "It’s hard not to be bitter at times, especially as you watch the American sense of entitlement grow exponentially while its sense of contribution, service and sacrifice dwindles. The further those ideals drift from one another, the more likely they will eventually meet in violent collision. Ten years of war without rest creates a hollow place inside you that cannot be filled by anything on this earth and it’s easy to allow the bitterness and hate build inside you.

The American military must remain a living example of the purest form of American ideals. Entitlement leads to weakness and weakness facilitates dependency and dependency is the mother of tyranny. When you are hard and disciplined you can be principled. People fear you because they have no leverage against you. It’s the truest form of liberty."

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Friday, August 24, 2012

Cronies

“Why be a taxpayer, when I can be a tax spender?” [Darleen Click] | protein wisdom: "Dream big …"

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In Sync

Cool - By Jonah Goldberg - The Corner - National Review Online: "When you sync your camera’s shutter speed to the speed of a helicopter’s blades it looks really cool (hat tip to @ThinkGeek):"

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FIAL!

OIHO, the Cartoon | Power Line: "People who read Power Line and similar sites always get Michael Ramirez’s cartoons. But I sometimes wonder: when they appear in liberal newspapers, how many readers understand his references? Especially since Ramirez’s cartoons ride the heart of the news cycle, rather than lagging days or weeks behind. Today’s cartoon is a case in point:"
Heh.

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Thursday, August 23, 2012

Coming Soon To The US: Eliminating Burdensome Men

Instapundit » Blog Archive » ANNALS OF GOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE: Prostate Cancer Drug Not Funded. There are two tiers of men wi…: "A pill with few side effects, Zytiga targets an enzyme needed to make a hormone that feeds the cancer and studies have shown it to slow its progression, leaving men living months or even years longer and without as much pain.

It was quickly approved in the United States and by Health Canada.

But Ontario rejected the application, a decision that’s left heroic patients such as Percy Bedard of Zurich calling on Ontarians to ask their government why it has abandoned so many men to suffer and die before they should.
(1) They’re men, and nobody cares as much if men die. (2) On average, they’re past their earning years and if they die earlier it helps the pension problem. And men who live too long are just a burden on society anyway.

Expect this sort of thing here, soon, under ObamaCare. Probably with rules designed to discourage doctors from telling patients about treatments the government would rather not pay for."
Welcome to your new overlords.

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FAIL-O-RAMA

Instapundit » Blog Archive » TODAY ENDS IN “Y,” so I guess it’s time to run that graphic again! You know, the one comparing the …: "TODAY ENDS IN “Y,” so I guess it’s time to run that graphic again! You know, the one comparing the Obama Administration’s stimulus promises with what was actually delivered. . . ."

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Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Faber Forecasts

Marc Faber's forecasts for the global economy - YouTube: "Marc Faber discusses what opportunities are likely to emerge for institutional investors if sovereign debt continues. Furthermore, he assesses the possible impact of social and political unrest in North Africa and the Middle East, and how hedge funds can invest in emerging markets."
WTWT.

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Tuesday, August 21, 2012

The Real Rape Problem

Bill Clinton has the real ‘rape’ problem: "Bill Clinton: It was only when money came out, when the tabloid went down there offering people money to say that they had been involved with me, that she changed her story. There’s a recession on.

A master politician, even in this moment of deepest political peril, candidate Clinton remembered to remind the American people “there is a recession on.” For the record, Clinton would admit the affair with Flowers under oath but lie about the details. Perjury, rape, no big deal!

While Todd Akin is stewing in the woodshed, Bill Clinton is preparing to speak at the Democratic National Convention, and the women most offended by Akin’s dumb remarks will be queuing up to cheer Clinton on. Yes, it is a mental disorder."
Of course Akin is a doofus and should step aside. But the double standards about rape are stunning...

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2012 DNC NATIONAL CONVENTION SCHEDULE

Heh:

2012 DNC NATIONAL CONVENTION SCHEDULE | Stix Blog: "4:00 PM Opening Flag Burning Ceremony
4:05 PM Singing of “God Damn America” led by Rev. Jeremiah Wright
4:10 PM Pledge of Allegiance to Obama

4:15 PM Ceremonial ‘I Hate America’ led by Michelle Obama
4:30 PM Tips on Dodging Sniper Fire , Hillary Clinton

5:00 PM UFO Abduction Survival , Joe Biden
5:30 PM Eliot Spitzer Speaks on “Family Values” via Satellite
5:45 PM Tribute to All 57 States

6:00 PM Joe Biden Delivers 100,000-Word Speech Featuring 23-Minute Question and 2-Hour Answer
8:30 PM Airing of Grievances by the Clintons
9:00 PM Bill Clinton Delivers Rousing Endorsement of Obama Girl

9:15 PM Tribute Film to Freedom Fighters at Gitmo , Michael Moore
9:45 PM Personal Finance Seminar – Charlie Rangel
10:00 PM Denunciation of Bitter Gun Owners, Rosie O’Donnell

10:30 PM Ceremonial Waving of White Flag for Iraq & Afghanistan
11:00 PM Obama Energy Plan Symposium/Tire Gauge Demonstration
11:15 PM Free Gov. Blagojevich rally

11:30 PM Obama Accepts Tony and Latin Grammy Awards
11:45 PM Feeding of the Delegates with 5 Loaves and 2 Fish , Obama Presiding
12:00 AM Official Nomination of Obama by Bill Maher

12:01 AM Obama Accepts Nomination as Lord and Savior
12:05 AM Celestial Choirs Sing
3:00 AM Biden Delivers Acceptance Speech"

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2016: Obama's America Opens In NoCo This Weekend

Box Office Report: Anti-Obama Doc Drawing Big Crowds, Even in New York City - The Hollywood Reporter: "Already the No. 2 grossing documentary of the year, "2016: Obama's America" expands nationwide this weekend.

An anti-Obama documentary based on conservative author Dinesh D’Souza’s book The Roots of Obama’s Rage will expand nationwide this weekend after doing notable business in select markets across the country -- including in liberally minded New York City."

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Monday, August 20, 2012

But Not Both

Less Tea, More Flash - By Mark Steyn - The Corner - National Review Online: "I wrote here yesterday about the accelerating campaign of “green-on-blue” violence — that’s to say, NATO-trained, NATO-paid Afghans turning on their western “allies” and killing them. A handful of readers reminded me of this passage from George MacDonald Fraser’s very first Flashman novel, set 170 years ago in the First Anglo-Afghan War:
This I will say for the Afghan – he is a treacherous, evil brute when he wants to be, but while he is your friend he is a first-rate fellow. The point is, you must judge to a second when he is going to cease to be friendly. There is seldom any warning."
And the finale:
The phony-baloney Three Cups Of Tea is handed out at American grade schools and by the Pentagon to ‘Stan-bound officers. I take it as read that it would be a hate crime to read Flashman in an American schoolhouse, and probably affront the diversity-celebrators at the Pentagon, too. In the end you can be politically correct or you can be a great power — but not both.
Yup.

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QOTD

Quote of the week – wisdom from Bob Phelan | Watts Up With That?: "“To do what is popular is not always right. To do what is right is not always popular.” "

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Tax Returns

Instapundit » Blog Archive » HEH. …: "Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 10:44 am"

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Big S.I.S. Stakes

Instapundit » Blog Archive » SHOCKER: The Dirty Little Secret of (Estate) Tax Reform. “The secret is not that special interests…: "SHOCKER: The Dirty Little Secret of (Estate) Tax Reform. “The secret is not that special interests give boatloads of money to politicians. Of course they do. That may well be dirty, but it is hardly secret. The dirty little secret I come to lay bare is that Congress likes it this way. Congress wants there to be special interests, small groups with high stakes in what it does or does not do. These are necessary conditions for Congress to get what it needs: money, for itself and its campaigns.”

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 12:22 pm"
Du'O.

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Sunday, August 19, 2012

negOtive

The New York Times: "This op-ed obfuscates the fact that Obama is, in fact, a groundbreakingly negative campaigner. I say this as a volunteer for his campaign who is concerned with addressing Obama's flaws as much as his virtues, of which there are many.

GGGblanes
Durham, NC
Aug 19, 2012 10:28 AM"
Whoops. Hope that isn't his actual name or he won't be working on O Duce's campaign for long...

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Saturday, August 18, 2012

This

This: "Presented without additional commentary, because it needs none.
129 As a small business owner all I can say is that I think the current sentiment in the small business community is that we didn't sign up for this shit. Y'all can vote for whatever the hell you want but we are not going to be a part of it."

I have seen more owners get out of the business or retire in the past couple of years than ever before and with the ACA on the horizon the jobs these businesses produced will not be replaced. The economics no longer work. This is why unemployment is always so high in socialist countries. What you have to go through to have employees is just brutal.

But here's the thing about what Obama said --- he has it exactly backwards. The government didn't build any of that shit he is talking about --- we built it. We are the ones who paid for it. Not only did we build our businesses we built the schools and the roads and everything else he thinks was generated out of thin air. If you want to get technical about it the businesses and taxpayers that came along before we did built it all and now we are building what comes next.

And not only that, but we did it with the albatross of a predatory, corrupt and overbearing government hanging around our necks at every juncture.

And now we have had enough.

I haven't made more than $50k from my business but one or two years of the past 15. But now that it is time to cash out after providing literally hundreds of jobs I get the stink eye and get castigated for being a member of the 1%. Even though I can remember sitting on the edge of the bed and holding my head in my hands wondering what I had done risking everything I had to create a business and wondering how it would all work out when I had just finished working several days in a row with no sleep... I am the enemy. Even though I didn't take a paycheck for the first year of the business and later skipped other paychecks to meet payroll or to pay taxes I am somehow at fault for the fact that all of these people sitting on their asses or working their cushy government jobs with the large pensions funded by armies of tax collectors and regulators may have to go without.

Well, I already went without so they can bloody well shut the fuck up and take their turn in the barrel! If they want to risk everything they have or work their asses off with no guarantee of success only to be told at the end that they were not responsible for their own success and don't deserve their rewards then they are welcome to go down that path and see what it is like. But the number of people who will pursue the American dream and build the economy from the roots up will be greatly decreased in the current atmosphere and all of these self-entitled idiots will sit around wondering why the government is still going broke and why no one is hiring.

No country can survive socialism. It just doesn't happen. Sooner or later the bill comes due. But before it does you always get demagogic idiots like Obama, or Chavez who try to blame their failures on the only people who are keeping everything afloat. It is not enough they sank the damn ship... they have to come after the people in the life boats too.

That is the sort of mentality we are dealing with.

Posted by: Voluble at August 18, 2012 12:58 PM (qYvEa)

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Failure In The Victim Selection Process

Perfect:

Gunpowder and Lead | Power Line: "Martha Lewis of Dora, Ala. told WVTM-TV it was about 3 a.m. Tuesday morning when she heard a loud noise, which turned out to be someone kicking in her door. Lewis said she called the police and grabbed her gun, then went to her daughters’ room and told them each to get something to defend themselves with. She said one grabbed an ax and one got a butcher knife.
Heh. A North Carolina gun blog comments:
When momma’s got a gun and her two daughters can quickly lay their hands on a butcher knife and an axe, you’ve become the very definition of “failure in the victim selection process.”"

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The Man with No Plan

Steyn again:

The Man with No Plan - National Review Online: "As for those once-fat newspapers, they’re now so thin that they’ve only got room for the very mostest important news, like whether 30-year-old law-school coeds have sufficient access to federally-mandated contraception and (breaking!) the dog Mitt Romney put on the roof of his car in the early Eighties. You have to be able to prioritize.

That’s the genius of Romney’s vice-presidential pick: It explicitly invites Americans to “do the right thing.” Insofar as he’s known to the electorate at all, Paul Ryan is the man with the plan — the guy who understands that multi-trillion-dollar spendaholic government cannot continue. On that subject, Obama is the man with no plan, and no plans to get any plan. Yet the mere selection of Ryan has already improved the quality of the Obama campaign: Two weeks ago, they were denouncing Romney for killing a woman by cunningly giving her cancer five years after laying off her husband. Now they’re denouncing Ryan for killing off Medicare."

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Crucified

Arab Spring run amok: ‘Brotherhood’ starts crucifixions: "The Arab Spring takeover of Egypt by the Muslim Brotherhood has run amok, with reports from several different media agencies that the radical Muslims have begun crucifying opponents of newly installed President Mohammed Morsi."
Amok -- the new normal.

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How Can I Resist This One?

Instapundit » Blog Archive » HEH: “They told me if I voted for McCain we would have a stupid lightweight as Vice President….. …: "HEH: “They told me if I voted for McCain we would have a stupid lightweight as Vice President….. and they were right.”

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 4:08 pm"

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Well Surprise, Surprise

Garry Kasparov: When Putin's Thugs Came for Me - WSJ.com: "The only surprise to come out of Friday's guilty verdict in the trial here of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot was how many people acted surprised. Three young women were sentenced to two years in prison for the prank of singing an anti-Putin "prayer" in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Their jailing was the next logical step for Vladimir Putin's steady crackdown on "acts against the social order," the Kremlin's expansive term for any public display of resistance.

In the 100 days since Mr. Putin's re-election as president, severe new laws against public protest have been passed and the homes of opposition leaders have been raided. These are not the actions of a regime prepared to grant leniency to anyone who offends Mr. Putin's latest ally, the Orthodox Church and its patriarch."
RTWT. But W could see deep into his eyes and O Duce is wetting himself to do Putin's bidding.

For once moron Joe was right: Chains are coming. He just has no clue what kind.

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Moonbattery » Open Thread

Moonbattery » Open Thread: "Via Hope n’ Change, on a tip from Shawn."

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Friday, August 17, 2012

Nasty But Incompetent

Instapundit » Blog Archive » MICHAEL GERSON: Obama’s Betrayal. In the innocent, bygone days of February, President Obama told…: "Not since Gary Hart urged reporters to follow him around because “they’d be very bored” has an assurance been more of an indictment. The Obama campaign has targeted and intimidated Republican donors on an Internet enemies list. It has engaged in the juvenile mockery of Mitt Romney’s singing. It has suggested, without evidence, that Romney may have committed the felony of falsifying Federal Election Commission documents. It has speculated, without proof, that Romney has avoided paying taxes. When Joe Biden engages in racially charged hyperbole, he is awkwardly but accurately reflecting the spirit of the 2012 Obama campaign. . . . The Obama campaign is veering toward antinomianism. Since it regards its own motives as pure, it feels it can dispense with the normal rules of accuracy, civility and decency. So we get the political methods of Spiro Agnew combined with the moral self-regard of Woodrow Wilson. It is not an attractive mixture.
Nasty, but incompetent. That’s been their hallmark all along.

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 2:47 pm"

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Thursday, August 16, 2012

O Course Not...

No One Will Charged With a Crime for the MF Global Collapse - Yahoo! News: "Authorities are winding down their criminal investigation of the failed brokarage firm, MF Global, and despite the lack of oversight and the loss of more than $1 billion in customer funds, it now seems unlikely that anyone at the firm will face criminal charges. "
... why would you let one of your best "bundlers" go to jail? What are you, nuts?

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George's Real Brother?

How I became George Obama's 'brother' | Fox News: "So what’s the real story here?  Where’s George Obama’s “fair share”?  George’s tragic situation exposes President Obama as a hypocrite.  Here is a man who demands that others pay higher taxes to help the poor—even poor people who are not related to them—while Obama himself refuses to help a close relative like George.  

Yet I believe there is a deeper explanation that goes beyond hypocrisy for why Obama wants nothing to do with George. After all, it would cost Obama so little to raise George out of poverty, and yet he won’t do it. This isn’t mere negligence; it suggests an active animus. The reason for that animus emerges in George’s book and also in my interview with George in the film 2016. In that interview, George rejects the anti-colonial philosophy that was espoused by Barack Obama Sr. This is the “dream from my father” that President Obama celebrates in his own autobiography."
Wow. This is a RTWT. Get busy -- I'll wait...

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Wednesday, August 15, 2012

That Stupid Voltaire Again

Moonbattery » New Black Panthers Light the Path to Zimbabwe in North America: "As Voltaire put it:"

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Mirror, Mirror, On The Wall...

Instapundit » Blog Archive » PROF. JACOBSON: SPLC’s Hatewatch Gives Cover To Hate. UPDATE: The Hill: Shooting spurs heated …: "PROF. JACOBSON: SPLC’s Hatewatch Gives Cover To Hate.

UPDATE: The Hill: Shooting spurs heated debate on gay rights, ‘hate group’ label.

Related: DC Shooter Carried Chick-fil-A Bag With Him to FRC HQ – Was Volunteer at LGBT Center.

Now if he’d been a Tea Partier, it would be news. Or even if Brian Ross could have found a Tea Partier with the same name on the Internet . . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: John Hinderaker: Thoughts on the Family Research Council Shooting. “Liberals should take a deep breath and re-think how they talk about public policy issues. If they are looking for haters, it would seem that the mirror is a good place to start.”

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 10:54 pm"
Who's the shameless-i-est O them all?

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Tuesday, August 14, 2012

nO Character

New Romney Ad: ‘America Deserves Better’ - By Katrina Trinko - The Corner - National Review Online: "Script of the ad: “What does it say about a president’s character when his campaign tries to use the tragedy of a woman’s death for political gain? What does it say about a president’s character when he had his campaign raise money for the ad then stood by as his top aides were caught lying about it? Doesn’t America deserve better than a president who will say or do anything to stay in power?” Watch:"
Not bad for being too timid to point out who Obama's FMD Jr.'s character really came from.

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Who Is Destroying Medicare Again?

Romney’s New Medicare Ad - By Rich Lowry - The Corner - National Review Online: "It’s difficult to do it better than this:"

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Poof

Review & Outlook: Mathematically Possible - WSJ.com: "Scholars at the American Enterprise Institute examined what happens to the Tax Policy Center math when this error is corrected. AEI economic research associate Matt Jensen found that "Both of these exclusions largely benefit the wealthy, and, according to the Treasury Department, added together their repeal would net upwards of $90 billion that could be redistributed to lower-income individuals. That would go a long way towards balancing the supposed $86 billion windfall for the rich and tax hike on the middle class and poor, and it could make the impossible suddenly possible."

The AEI analysis warns that these numbers change from year to year, but it concludes that by eliminating these two deductions and a few other smaller ones, Mr. Romney can make his math add up. In other words, poof, no tax hike on the middle class."

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Obama's Second Worst Fear: Old Videos Of Himself

Fact Check: Dems Lie about Ryan's Medicare Plan: "According to FactCheck.org, “Democrats are still hammering an old, and since replaced, GOP proposal, claiming it would ‘end Medicare,’ and cost seniors $6,000 more a year for their health care.”

The newest Republican budget, proposed by Ryan, keeps traditional Medicare — unlike his plan from 2011 — and the increased cost claim is no longer applicable. Ryan’s current plan offers a “premium support” alternative, where seniors would be granted a certain amount of money to use for Medicare, which would continue in its present form, or for alternative programs.

Also, as has been made abundantly clear by those interested in a fair discussion, none of Ryan’s suggestions would impact today’s retirees – or indeed anyone who is 55 or older. His plan does not kick in for ten years; a decade during which Medicare’s trustees, by the way, say the plan will not be “adequately financed.” A decade that will bring us to 2024, when the trust fund will go bankrupt. Yes, this is a program, as even President Obama has said, that begs for reform."
Heh.

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Monday, August 13, 2012

Out O Their Minds

The Fed's inflation 'solution'- MSN Money: "Now we have the Fed advocating that we pursue the same insane policies that have been the source of our economic ills -- as I noted earlier and have protested repeatedly for 17 years,. Does anyone in America really think that the inflation rate isn't high enough? Don't we all want lower prices?

It is just insane that the Fed (or its supporters) has a shred of credibility left. Historians are going to look back on this period and say people were literally out of their minds to fall all over themselves buying government paper -- bonds -- when nominal (and actual) rates were negative and while the Fed (and every other central bank) was intent on creating even more inflation."

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The New China Syndrome

Instapundit » Blog Archive » MARK KITTO: Why I Am Leaving China. “The Communist Party of China has, from its very inception, en…: "MARK KITTO: Why I Am Leaving China. “The Communist Party of China has, from its very inception, encouraged strong anti-foreign sentiment. Fevered nationalism is one of its cornerstones. . . . The alternative scenario to a world dominated by an aggrieved China is hardly less bleak and illustrates how China already dominates the world and its economy. That is the increasing likelihood that there will be upheaval in China within the next few years, sparked by that property crash. When it happens it will be sudden, like all such events.”

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 2:23 pm"

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Nightmare (T-Shirt Edition)

Instapundit » Blog Archive » IN CASE YOU MISSED IT YESTERDAY: I QUOTE IOWAHAWK in my USA Today column on the Ryan choice. “Paul…: "IN CASE YOU MISSED IT YESTERDAY: I QUOTE IOWAHAWK in my USA Today column on the Ryan choice. “Paul Ryan represents Obama’s most horrifying nightmare: Math.”"

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Sunday, August 12, 2012

A Reminder

"How can you tell when a politician is lying? His lips are moving." -- Long since forgotten American political folk wisdom

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The Mentor

Watch the Exclusive Frank Marshall Davis Clip From Dinesh D‘Souza’s ‘2016’ Documentary | Video | TheBlaze.com: "In the clip, D’Souza takes viewers through the intriguing — some would argue disturbing — relationship between Obama and Davis. In the footage, D’Souza speaks, in detail, with Kengor about this connection and attempts to break it down for viewers."
(Pardon the web page formatting but it's the best that can be done and you need to see it.)

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Cheating -- It's Apparently What's For Breakfast Now

Wrongdoers Feel a ‘Cheater’s High’ - At Work - WSJ: "Ever wonder why workers do things like pad their expense reports or commit even worse financial fraud?  Turns out that cheating, no matter how small, provides an immediate rush rather than remorse.

In a series of experiments, a team of researchers found that acts of dishonesty, theft and fraud seem to cause what they term a “cheater’s high.”

The researchers say that cheating may provide not only financial benefits but also ample psychological rewards which may motivate people to behave unethically. Indeed, a recent survey of 500 senior managers by a British whistleblower law firm found that a quarter of respondents saw unethical conduct as a key to success."
I'm sure it will work out well for all of us...

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Scrub-a-dub-dub

They're going to scrub away not just inconvenient pictures but you entire suburb while they're at it:

Kruglik-Obama Photo Scrubbed? - By Stanley Kurtz - The Corner - National Review Online: "Breitbart News has discovered that a picture of Barack Obama’s old community organizing mentor Mike Kruglik meeting with the president in the White House appears to have been scrubbed from the Building One America website. That picture used to be the first thing to greet new visitors to the site. Now it’s gone. Fortunately, you can see the photo as it was captured by Breitbart a couple of weeks ago here, and in today’s Breitbart story as well.

Readers of my new book, Spreading the Wealth: How Obama is Robbing the Suburbs to Pay for the Cities, will know that this picture was taken on the day Kruglik’s new community organization, Building One America, held a conference in the White House. That conference was part of an ambitious effort by Obama and Kruglik to undercut the political and economic independence of America’s suburbs. I tell the full story behind the picture in Spreading the Wealth. The tale extends from the decades-long political partnership between Obama and Kruglik right through to the current administration, and ultimately to Obama’s audacious second-term plans."
Calling Winston Smith... and bye-bye to the suburban Smith family too...

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About That Deficit

Re: And Another Thing . . . - By Mario Loyola - The Corner - National Review Online: "Ramesh, the Obama team’s claim about Ryan voting for the “Bush economic policies that exploded our deficit” really is ludicrous. Here is the federal deficit as a percentage of GDP through the Bush and Obama years. (Source: White House historical tables):"

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Saturday, August 11, 2012

Gazillions

What Rand Paul Learned From Secret Security Hearings - Reason.com: "Gazillions. That's the number of times the federal government has spied on Americans since 9/11 through the use of drones, legal search warrants, illegal search warrants, federal agent-written search warrants and just plain government spying. This is according to Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who, when he asked the government to tell him what it was doing to violate our privacy, was given a classified briefing. The senator -- one of just a few in the U.S. Senate who believes that the Constitution means what it says -- was required by federal law to agree not to reveal what spies and bureaucrats told him during the briefing."
And just think, no more torture or any bad, bad, bad Bush stuff like that either! No, wait...

Well, isn't it better after all that O Duce just has them -- and eventually us -- assassinated?

Much less messy for him don't you think?

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No Disclaimer On This One

EDITORIAL: The Civil War of 2016 - Washington Times: "The scenario presented in Small Wars Journal isn’t a literary device but an operational lay-down intended to present the rationale and mechanisms for Americans to fight Americans. Col. Benson and Ms. Weber contend, “Army officers are professionally obligated to consider the conduct of operations on U.S. soil.” This is a dark, pessimistic and wrongheaded view of what military leaders should spend their time studying.

A professor at the Joint Forces Staff College was relieved of duty in June for uttering the heresy that the United States is at war with Islam. The Obama administration contended the professor had to be relieved because what he was teaching was not U.S. policy. Because there is no disclaimer attached to the Small Wars piece, it is fair to ask, at least in Col. Benson’s case, whether his views reflect official policy regarding the use of U.S. military force against American citizens."
Must not be a heresy then, huh?

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Friday, August 10, 2012

The Sheer Nastiness Of The Left

An American Gentleman - By Jay Nordlinger - The Corner - National Review Online: "I wager, my friend knows more about hardship and work and economics and the human spirit than all of Team Obama put together. Those “Occupy” people, the ones who defecate on police cars and so on? I’m sure they think they care more about people than a man like Jack does. They don’t have a clue.

It has been so long since I became a conservative, sometimes I have trouble remembering why I did. And then something will happen, and I’ll remember. A big part of it was the sheer nastiness of the Left — the “totalist” instinct, as WFB would say. The sheer, destructive viciousness. There is a debate to be had about statism versus free enterprise. It is an important debate, and people have long had it. They always will. But the Left seems to need to make the rest of us out to be monsters.

In coming years, there will be monuments to Barack Obama. There will be none to Jack, this splendid American gentleman — none except in the hearts of those who knew him. I certainly know which man I admire more."

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The Evil Twin

Collusion between Obama for America and Priorities USA on ‘their’ lying Soptic ads. | RedState: "The Story So Far: two days ago, the Obama administration – using the fig-leaf/cutout of Super PAC Priorities USA – accused Mitt Romney of being a murderer because a company that Romney used to own closed down a steel mill (several years after Romney left that company) and that meant that the wife of the husband who lost his job at that steel mill (one Joe Soptic) didn’t have any insurance after the wife left her job several years after the layoff and several years after all of that the wife was diagnosed with cancer and then died. As Erick notes in the link above: if that’s an acceptable logic chain that legitimately leads one to a charge of murder, then (to give just one example) this administration murdered US Border Agent Brian Terry and Eric Holder needs to give himself up right now.

But wait! It gets even more convoluted. You see, the Media is balking – absolutely balking - at taking this line of attack seriously, and the Obama administration has already done its best to distance itself from the Priorities USA ad, to the point where Obama for America (OfA) spokesman Stephanie Cutter denied that they had any knowledge of Soptic’s story.

So… who’s that voice at the end of this conference call, Stephanie? Your evil twin?"
Du'O. Why else would the media be furiously trying to bury this? Yup, because if we lived in a society of laws and not of men then Obama and his minions would be sitting behind bars for illegal political coordination.

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Thursday, August 9, 2012

A Tax Raise I Can Support

Why not start with a 20% excise tax on the film industry? [Darleen Click] | protein wisdom: "Steven Spielberg, George Clooney and other 1%-centers of Hollywood just can’t get enough of Barry Obama and his plans to redistribute the wealth.

Well, guys and gals, time to put up or shut up. Time to lead the way or get out of the way. I mean, in the early 1950′s Hollywood continued to cheer on FDR’s 20% excise tax … right?"
I love this: Advance to about 19:00 and you'll see the movie industry inventing and promoting the Laffer curve before Laffer did!? LOL

B*llsh*t you morons. This is all just capitalist lies!

Let the 20% movie excise tax revocation expire!

/sarc

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Friday, August 3, 2012

Tolerance

Moonbattery » Open Thread: "Compliments of Val."

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Road Warrior Is Here

Works and Days » California: The Road Warrior Is Here: "Sometimes, and in some places, in California I think we have nearly descended into Miller’s dark vision — especially the juxtaposition of occasional high technology with premodern notions of law and security. The state deficit is at $16 billion. Stockton went bankrupt; Fresno is rumored to be next. Unemployment stays over 10% and in the Central Valley is more like 15%. Seven out of the last eleven new Californians went on Medicaid, which is about broke. A third of the nation’s welfare recipients are in California. In many areas, 40% of Central Valley high school students do not graduate — and do not work, if the latest crisis in finding $10 an hour agricultural workers is any indication. And so on.

Our culprit out here was not the Bomb (and remember, Hiroshima looks a lot better today than does Detroit, despite the inverse in 1945). The condition is instead brought on by a perfect storm of events that have shred the veneer of sophisticated civilization. Add up the causes. One was the destruction of the California rural middle class."
I have not linked to VDH as much lately as I should. This is a RTWT to make up for it. He is a national treasure.

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Thursday, August 2, 2012

You Must Be At Least Twice As Shocked As I Am...

Ace of Spades HQ: "If you've become president, you didn't do that on your own. You didn't build that Teleprompter or program in that script. Someone else did that.
President Obama spoke to supporters in Florida this afternoon, but was careful to stick to his script, relying heavily on his teleprompters.
The president campaigned without teleprompters last month, when he made his controversial "you didn't build that" remark about business owners."
... to find TOTUS reconditioned and back on stage. Heh.

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Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Only Dumber

The Obama Campaign: Like Demagoguery, Only Dumber | Power Line: "Well, Nancy, I have a few questions for you. Didn’t the Democratic House of Representatives pass a two-year extension of the Bush-era tax rates in 2010? And didn’t the Democratic Senate likewise pass a two-year extension of the same rates? And what president signed that extension of the Bush era tax rates–just like the one the House passed today–into law? Wasn’t that Barack Obama? So, when the Democrats extended the same rates in 2010, was it “reckless tax cuts for the wealthy?” Was it “putting millionaires and billionaires ahead of the middle class” when the Democrats did it? Back then, Barack Obama said it was a bad idea to raise taxes in a recession. What’s changed? Is Obama now willing to raise taxes because he thinks “the private sector is doing fine?” Or is this whole thing nothing but craven political posturing for November’s election?"
2010? What 2010? I didn't see no 2010!

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crOnybama

Instapundit » Blog Archive » TRANSPARENCY: W.H. declines to address off-site meetings. “Carney dodged questions about White Hou…: "TRANSPARENCY: W.H. declines to address off-site meetings. “Carney dodged questions about White House officials arranging official meetings at a coffee shop near the White House to avoid having names of who he was meeting with show up on official White House visitor logs.”

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 10:55 pm"

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