Democrats UNEXPECTEDLY tied to Big, Hard to Trace, money.

Update: Newsweek / Daily Beast publishes. Scroll down

Breitbart: Obama.com Owned by Bundler in Shanghai with Business Ties to Chinese Government

In an explosive[*] report set to send shockwaves through official Washington, the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) released a 108-page GAI investigation into the threat of foreign and fraudulent Internet campaign donations in U.S. federal elections (visit campaignfundingrisks.com to download the full report).

Breitbart News obtained an advance copy of the bombshell report which reveals that the Obama.com website is not owned by the president’s campaign but rather by Obama bundler Robert Roche, a U.S. citizen living in Shanghai, China. Roche is the chairman of a Chinese infomercial company, Acorn International, with ties to state-controlled banks that allow it to “gain revenue through credit card transactions with Chinese banks.”

'Acorn International'.. isn't THAT a special name!

* Original Breitbart text said 'Daily Beast'.  Will they print it, or not.
Hell.. is it TRUE or not.  Someone getting cold feet?  How many Republicans are doing the same?

Best bet - go directly to Campaign Funding Risks' site and read all the pertinent stories

Remember the Clinton bundler in California?  He took one for the team and went to jail. Also in 08, the DNC turned off the security that should block shady contributions.

We shall see.  "Look.. over there.. isn't that a Koch brother?!"
heh..

UPDATE:   It's out now on Daily Beast.  Must have been a hell of an argument at Newsweek..  whether they act like real journalists or not.

 http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/08/the-illegal-donor-loophole.html

Budget Deficits - by the Numbers Chart

- Instapundit at PJMedia
When the President says he inherited a mess from Dubya, he's right. No one disputes that.
But that is apparently where the truth serum runs out.
Note that the 08 peg is when the Toxic Assets Relief Program happened.  This was when all those risky mortgage instruments blew up.  Why all that junk instruments came to be is another issue.. traceable directly to Democrats, Barney Frank, for one.

If you're like me, you wanted TARP because we weren't sure how damaging the financial failure might be.  It DID take down several large banks.. and maybe it SHOULD have have taken down more.
The '00 number is the culmination of the 'Tech Bubble' as it burst, leading to a mini-recession even prior to 9/11.
And no matter who had been elected in '08, the first few years would have been deep in the red,  especially since McCain doesn't really have a clue when it comes to economic matters.
But blaming the current situation on Iraq?  Pretty much any finance/economist can easily blow that out of the water.  The current deficits stem from safety net entitlements and subsidy expenditures.  The former, you cant do much about in real time.
The 'Stimulus'.. It aint stimulating because it is not generating business activity.  This especially applies to 'Green Energy' where, time after time, those companies receiving the gifts then go belly up shortly after.
Coincidently most of these companies owned or managed by campaign fund bundlers.  Solyndra is only a typical example.
Here's a smaller fish, but with the same smell.

Abound Solar under investigation by Weld County district attorney; received $68 million stimulus

American History: Is the Big Picture being taught, anymore?

In 2008, we the people elected a man of color to the Presidency of the US.  Even if we didn't vote for him, we hoped.. beyond logic, in most cases.. this would be a change in the direction of the racial divide.
But even before being elected, the One showed how foolish that was, rewriting history by claiming the government didn't care about New Orleans. 

In heated ’07 speech, Obama lavishes praise on Wright, says feds ‘don’t care’ about New Orleans [VIDEO]

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/10/02/obama-speech-jeremiah-wright-new-orleans/#ixzz28EpTf2gr

Thus pretty much rewriting history by shifting blame away from typical bureaucratic incompetency on all levels, particularly local Democrats, to an 'establishment attitude'.  Never mind the military's extraordinary response, since it is the ONLY organization fit for rapid reaction.

That this was not reported or commented on at the time is not an accident.  Higher education in it's left leaning paradigm is not interested anymore in turning out well read and informed individuals.  It's interested in promoting special interest viewpoints.  Read what the University of Michigan is doing as noted by KC Johnson on Minding the Campus
In History—the Obsession with Race, Class and Gender

With the rise of the race/class/gender approach, subfields perceived as excessively “traditional" or overly focused on “dead white males” have gone into decline—or, in the case of political history, have been “re-visioned” in the hopes of transferring focus to topics oriented around themes of race, class, and gender. Since (at least in large departments, or at elite institutions) U.S. history hires in the national (post-1789) period come in subfields, looking at personnel specialties can give a sense of exactly how a university does—or does not—fulfill its obligation to train future citizens in the foundational events of their nation.
Most of Michigan’s handful of active scholars researching historical topics deemed “traditional” do so in a way that conforms to the department’s preferred view of the American past. Michigan has no U.S. military historians on staff. (It does have several specialists in Native American history.) The department’s sole specialist in U.S. foreign relations, Penny Von Eschen, describes her research interests as “transnational cultural and political dynamics, and race, gender, and empire” and “the political culture of United States imperialism”; her most recent book, Satchmo Blows Up the World: Jazz Ambassadors Play the Cold War, certainly would not be confused with traditional diplomatic history. The department’s political historians tend to focus on themes of race and politics—again, an important theme, but obviously not an all-encompassing one.

 This isn't too extreme a viewpoint, either.  It extends to independent historical organizations.  Special Interest views now focus on race and gender rather than time, place and sociological/economic conditions

Look What they've Done to U.S. History

If you doubt that leftist activists now dominate the study and teaching of U.S. history, take a look at the program for the 2013 American Historical Association conference in New Orleans. The pattern  is similar to the University of Michigan’s history department, discussed here yesterday—a heavy emphasis on race, class, and gender, with more “traditional” topics frequently reconfigured to conform to the dominant paradigm.....

Multiple other U.S. history panels deal with race and gender, while in general, the preferred tactic seemed to be finding any excuse to tack on race (race and education, for instance). Or consider an environmental history panel entitled, “BLACKOUTS: Using Energy Regimes to Narrate Place, Race, and Ethnicity.” Almost comically, the panel organizers appear to have worried that they didn’t sufficiently stress race, so they selected a specialist in African-American history as commentator; they said they did so “in part because [the commentator] is not an environmental historian.” So much for the idea of the importance of academic expertise.

 I don't think any of this is a big surprise to someone who's kept their eyes open.  After all we've noticed that the prevailing motive of Journalism students is that 'thgey want to make a difference.  Meaning ACTIVELY SHAPE opinion.  A total corruption of the Fourth Estate's traditional charter.

Why should historians be different?  Any wonder why our leaders urge us to send more of our kids to college?

Foreign Policy Nutmeg: 'Why Don't they Love Me?'

WSJ: The Three AM call came at 5 in the afternoon..

The logic here is akin to supposing that because the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center failed to bring down the towers, nobody need have been concerned thereafter. But let's still make allowances for the kind of bureaucratic ineptitude that knows neither administration nor political party.

The more serious question is why the administration alighted on the idea that the attack wasn't a terrorist act at all. Also, what did the White House think it had to gain by adopting the jihadist narrative that a supposedly inflammatory video clip was at the root of the trouble?
Nobody can say. All the administration will acknowledge is that it has "revised [its] initial assessment to reflect new information that it was a deliberate and organized terrorist attack."
That's from James Clapper, the director of national intelligence. It suggests that our intelligence agencies are either much dumber than previously supposed (always a strong possibility) or much more politicized (equally plausible).

No doubt the administration would now like to shift blame to Mr. Clapper. But what happened in Benghazi was not a failure of intelligence. It was a failure of policy, stemming from a flawed worldview and the political needs of an election season.

 In case it's not clear, the official line on what happened in Benghazi came from the West Wing. To say it was a failure in State makes Hillary a goat.. she is not stupid. 
And Susan Rice, {UN Ambassador} who must have vomited before and after blaming the video certainly didnt believe it. She's spent her whole adult life on Middle East affairs.  Andwas the GO TO source of policy for the Libya incursion.
 
No.. this is all the earmarks of Valerie Jarret and David Axelrod.. they both really believe you can make a lie true just by repeating it enough. It's the Chicago Way.

Discordant Narrative: Time to start counting bumperstaickers and yard signs

http://pjmedia.com/rogerkimball/2012/10/01/the-narrative-in-london/
There was some surprise (not to say incredulity), then, when I repeated my frequent refrain (like a broken record) that I thought Mitt Romney would not only win but win big. I was not surprised by the wonder with which my prediction was greeted. The Narrative, nearly seamless in the United States, is positively monolithic in the UK. And there is this difference: in the U.S., the idea that Barack Obama has the election sewn up, while assiduously disseminated by the media, is at least treated to some of the skepticism it deserves by a large and vibrant dissenting commentariat, to whose mast your humble correspondent proudly nails his colors. That is one reason that, although you’ll rarely hear a peep of dissent on the “major” networks or politically correct organs like The New York Times, there is nevertheless a strong and indeed growing current of contrary sentiment, broadcast by venues like PJ Media but underwritten by a vast electorate that is seething with discontent over the top-down, socialist, spread-the-wealth-around policies of our handsome but shockingly incompetent president.

Breibart: 41 Million Tea Party Supporters Set to Vote

 _______________________________________________________

http://www.buzzfeed.com/bensmith/how-the-economy-collapsed-as-a-political-issue

In August of 2011, Americans of all parties said the news was mostly bad, with only minor differences showing between members of different political parties.
A year later, a survey taken in early September found a "record partisan gap." A full 60% of Republicans said they were hearing “mostly bad” news. Only 15% of Democrats reported the same. And independent voters split on the question, with 36% saying they were hearing mostly bad news.
 _______________________________________________________

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/breakout/wall-street-secretly-loves-obama-bleier-141915787.html

West Wing / Bartlett vs Reality / Obama: It ain't Easy being Prez

Good news... You can get the complete series set on Std DVD for $150.

Amazon - The West Wing: The Complete Series Collection (2006)

 Bad News..  Watching in real time and comparing to the Bush administration, Lefties came up with unreasonable expectations of what a 'Progressive Administration' might look like.

If you're sick of the current political environment, and wish to make a trip to the Alternative Earth, where most is goodness and light in a Progressive Democrat administration.. this is the way to go.
On the other hand, you may wish to send that $150 to President Obama's campaign, instead.
After all.. you've already sent the wedding gifts, birthday money and the $20 instead of having 'Pizza Night'.
By the way..can someone who watched every episode point out where the major media cleared their stories with the White House press office? I dont remember that.

And,  while you think about West Wing, how about considering how the series would have treated the Benghazi attack.
Would THEY have blamed it on some non-starter demonstration about a youtube crap video?
Really? And how stupid would they have looked, especially when the people of Libya are almost all on 'our side'?
Then.. there's the pathetic State Dept. apology video

Which seems the more professional?  Obamaville or West Wing.

Yep.. what most of us knew all along. It aint easy being Pres.

They Told Us 'If you vote for John McCain'....

.. then Dubya's fascist warrant-less snooping will only increase.  Well, I did and it has.
- via Instapundit

Slate: 

How Many Anarchists and "Animal Conservationists" Are the Feds Spying On?

What do anarchists, animal conservationists, and military deserters have in common? They were all spied on by federal law enforcement agencies between 2010 and 2011, according to newly released government documents.

...

The documents show that the use of this sort of surveillance by federal law enforcement agencies, which does not require a search warrant, has rapidly increased in recent years. Between 2009 and 2011 alone, the number of orders for pen and trap authorizations increased by 60 percent—from 23,535 in 2009 to 37,616 in 2011. The increase is even more striking when compared with older figures. Between 2001 and 2011, for instance, there was a sixfold increase—from 5,683 original orders recorded in 2001 to the 37,616 in 2011. What that means is that more people were subjected to pen register and trap and trace surveillance in the past two years than in the entire previous decade, as ACLU’s Naomi Gilens has pointed out.

 

 

Go figger!

 

Why are Scott Brown and his supporters such meanies!

Surely the charges about Warren's claimed indian heritage and even her disputed law practice are small potatos to the issues.

Yep... they are.  It's ridiculous. And aren't Republicans supposed to follow a higher road?

Well.. it's become apparent that doesnt work real well.  A lot of us knew that in 08.. why we really couldnt get excited over McCain who is willing to play the goat to any democrat who puts him in that position. Like Russ Feingold who suckered McCain into a campaign finance bill that did the exact opposite of what McCain thought it did.

So now some candidates are playing it smart and going Alinsky on the folks who thought they had a lock on that playbook.  Well the intellectual property copyright has expired and now we're using it too.

Identify-Isolate-Ridicule.  Especially easy when the victim doesnt expect it.

If you Dems dont like it.. tough nuggies!

____________________________________________

Speaking of Isolate and Ridicule.. Celebrity Dumbass Quote of the Week

“Maybe he’d rather talk to me than Netanyahu. Ever think of that?” 

- Joy Behar of The View tweeting on criticism that Obama ducked talks with world leaders but always has time for talk shows

I mean.. is there currently any better example of not getting the plot?  That's exactly the point.
Compare and Contrast Elisabeth Hasselbeck

Obamas 'View' Interview: President Brushes Off Elisabeth Hasselbeck's Tough Question (VIDEO)

What's behind Obama's China tire dumping charges against Romney.

First, let me say I'm a car guy. I not only fix my own cars, I research what parts /mfrs are best in quality and reliability.
Chinese auto parts,  especially tires, are crap.  But they are cheap and low income people can keep their cars going much cheaper than in the past.

However.. Simpleton campaign charges piss me off. {Sorry but I am not going to mince words}. It makes me mad when politicians treat you like you are stupid. You aren't REALLY stupid, are you?

The most sensitive area of foreign policy is trade. The most idiotic response to trade imbalance is to slap tariffs on imports, willy-nilly.  And this is a perfect example of Obama doing the basically right thing, then making charges against Romney because Mitt advised caution.  Mitt remembers when Dubya tried to help out the US steel industry when Europe was dumping product and it didn't work.

China Trade Complaint Puts Auto Industry at Center of Dispute – and US Election Battle

Romney is a businessman. Obama is a community organizer and knows how to rouse the Rabble and diddly poop about international trade. His advisors on same are academic and you can bet your booty they are looking at union support first and economic health last.
Note: The writer says Bain Capital manages hedge funds. Not ALL they do.. they rescue companies in trouble and try to make them profitable. If that means production in China.. so be it.
The bottom line is that, if one of those companies go under, the products they make, if any, are probably going to be sourced to China anyway.  And when that happens, many or most of those who work at, or have retired from, those businesses are out of luck.  Of course we know that already dont we.. Don't we?  

Well that's what Obama says Mitt WANTS to do when Bain buys into a failing company on its last legs. Send jobs to China. Does that make sense or is someone treating you like an idiot?

Finally..

I am assuming you all are going to read the link and find for yourself what China's response to the tire dump penalty was. Cuz I DONT think you are stupid enough to just go by what I said.

And another thing.. if we had real journalism anymore I wouldnt have had to write this. For that matter if academia did their job. Back in the day.. we learned this stuff in high school and first year of college. 

WaPo: The American Dream is Dead

The American Dream’s empty promise

 It’s time to retire the American Dream — or at least give it a long vacation. We ought to drop it from our national conversation. This would be a hardship for politicians and pundits, who use “the American Dream” as a rhetorical workhorse embodying goals embraced by almost all Americans.

This is just more 'lowered expectations' propaganda from the Main-Stream media.  Any of you who read this and think you learned something ought to be ashamed. I read it. I can agree ONLY with the line you see below. 

 The American Dream has become so expansive in its meaning that it stifles honest debate and harms some of the very people it is intended to help.

Because the 'educated informed' writer then takes it on himself to define the dream. And when the concept came about.. and he's wrong.
Those of us who were educated, rather than indoctrinated, {and it only took high school to know this} realize the concept was borne in the eyes of Alexis de Tocqueville and chronicled in his "Democracy in America".
Of course back then, government was sorta weak and out of the way of anyone really seeking to achieve something on their own, so I suppose it doesnt count in Samuelson's eyes. He's talking about 'Julia' and 'Did you build that'

If you look closely, he conflates the meaning with group associations.  Home-owners, Students, I'm sure he thinks even races and nationalities.
In fact, he goes overboard to remove home owners from the list of achievable in the American Dream.  He even names WHY.. without pointing to the real problem. Government interference in achieving that dream.  The end result being that many who WOULD have achieved it lost it because of good intentions in the housing market.
To be blunt.. lots of low income black Americans would now have a house with the mortgage paid off if not for that.

What I recall is that de Tocqueville pointed out that group associations hindered personal achievement LESS in the new world than the old.  You could neither count on your group identity for success.. or blame it solely for your failure.
Tell me this ... did you really achieve your American Dream by joining a union?  Or was it because of what you did and where you worked?

I'll have to concede this: Obama followed the American Dream but he didn't make it on his own.
But people with real talent will always be able to achieve their dreams. Until the government totally assumes the role of vocational placement.

And btw: MAYBE I immediately thought of de Toqueville because I dropped out of college and missed being indoctrinated in the new Progressive-Think. Of course I picked up the details from 'Democracy in America" on my own.. reading at home. 

Thank you Mom!!!

Behold the NYT MetroLuddite! How to use real fact to provoke outrage among the Masses.

NYT Section A1: Data Centers Waste Vast Amounts of Energy 

While I was reading this I was thinking.. "Why you Patronizing Condescending Prick!" Then I realized I wasn't the target audience because I could compare and contrast the technical points.

I dare this clown to invite Glenn Reynolds - Law Professor to debate the details on this. As pointed out on his site..

"..just wait ’til the NYT discovers the amount of pollution printing opinions and information on a wood byproduct and delivering it via a fleet of trucks generates!"

Increasingly apparent to anyone who bothers to think and research:
All the News thats fit to line your birdcage.

Stupid Human Tricks: Dressing to Menace and Sue

I dont keep a firearm let alone carry one.   I'm for concealed and even open carry by responsible people. 
I'm against anyone acting like this guy.. who seemed to be dressing for effect.  Wearing camouflage gear, strapped an ak-47 with sawed off stock and full clip then walking through a state park.  
He apparently wants to challenge several laws through the one testing act.

Inviting A “Stop and Frisk” By Openly Carrying an AK-47 Pistol with a Thirty Round Clip In a Public Park: An Unusual Fourth and Second Amendment Case

 How to unite the Brady freaks and NRA, I guess.  The guy might claim  he's doing a good thing...  I dont think he is.  It's against all common sense.  I can't see how it could benefit anyone but the anti-gun people.

It's like those school kids who dressed and acted "Gangsta" at bus stops then got upset and cried racist when Grandma Whitebread was afraid of them.
In my opinion the guy should be brought up on public menacing and his license revoked.
Problem being.. how to prove that.

The Mess Obama Inherited was Clinton Built

DailyBeast: The Housing Bubble? Clinton Helped Build That

CRA 1999 

...the decision to leave derivative trading unregulated, the decision to allow deposit-taking institutions to engage in proprietary trading, the pressure on banks to relax mortgage lending standards, the decision to allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to grow enormously large thanks to the implicit subsidy of the government guarantee of their bonds and borrowing.

Clinton later acknowledged it was a bad deal. Republicans went along. In fact GOP Sens from Texas, Phil Gramm, shared culpability in CRA 99.
 Dubya tried to address it but was told to shut up and go away.. by...
You guessed it.. Barney Frank and Chris Dodd... and, I'd forgotten, Maxine Waters.

Added: The Libs on DailyBeast are going ballistic on this.  But whatever the take.. Blame it all on Phil Gramm, I dont care; the core is that you never saw {esp on radio commercials} 110% financing on no money down and relaxed lending standards until CRA 1999.
I even blame Dubya.. he should have made a big deal of it.

Post Labor Day.. consider this.

In my Labor Day post I said:
There are no 'low jobs'

The king of that premise, Mike Rowe, has expanded on that on his site:
mikeroweWORKS
It's a must read... unless you actually think that the union bosses speak for the everyday working guy.  But it's not anti-union or management... it's about us appreciating the folks who do what needs done and using that as a leg up instead of sitting in some room listening to a lecture.
Every speech we hear, it's about 'raising productivity' through higher education. 'Send more kids to college'! 'Job Training'
To do WHAT?  Engineering and Sciences, sure.  Liberal Arts?  Gimme a break.
If you dont read the blogs I do, then you still know about all the grads that cant find work.
What you probably DONT know, when you ignore all but lefty sites, is that Academia is about to implode, throwing thousands of liberal arts and administration drones into the unemployed ranks. It will not happen overnight but it will happen.
Seth Godin
Mark Cuban
'Net Academia is about to take off big time and the smart Universities are getting ahead of the curve. Thing is though.. how many Poli-Sci majors do we need? I say we already have way too many but some think it's the perfect panacea.. let em work in the government.
And you know exactly what they'll do there. Make and enforce EPA / OSHA / HHS policy.

Happy Labor Day..And Why we in NA Do Not Celebrate it May 1st

There are no 'low jobs'
I know, I've done just about all of the job categories, other than fast food, and I appreciate those people, too.

Saturday I dealt with a sewage backup in an Apt house. If it had been an easy case, I would have done it myself.
I called in a Professional and assisted him.
He was easy to get along with, proud of his skills and doing a job right. And I cleaned up the sewage mess so he didn't have to.

There are no LOW JOBS! Only low class people, and I've found those types to be distributed widely over education, ethnic and income strata. 
The job should never define the person.
Because in a free society there is no work that can't be used as a lever for self-betterment.  And that happens by making sure you do that job right and taking pride in your work.  When your peers chide you for working too hard, you're not in the wrong job, you've got the wrong friends.  I have experience in a couple unions where I learned that.
So who is it defines the person by their job.. take a guess. They celebrate on MayDay.

Wiki: International Worker's Day

Carping Tunnel Syndrome

I gotta get an attitude adjustment!
All I've been posting on FB the last week or so is negative stuff.  Even looking at this record the only views that aren't totally negative are making fun of idiots, whatever the stripe. And of course, that offends some in itself.

I've been looking for good news.. HONEST!  But when I typed into the google box 'only good news' the top hit was a site which last post was mid-August!!!
And there should always be something on the Yahoo home page.. and was for a few hours about a 19 year old rookie who homered in his first major league at bat.

And then Michael Clarke Duncan dying at 54 broke that.

Meanwhile, on FB, a friend posts:

So, does anyone out there have anything to say that isn't politics or religion-related? I vote and I'm spiritual...both very personal and private. I may have to take a FB hiatus until Thanksgiving. Just saying'.....

Oh well.. take the light stuff where you can get it.

Like how's about that 'Empty Chair Meme'?

Today was National Empty Chair Day!  Why it seems like just last Thursday the elite beltway news commissariat were agog at the confused and disoriented Clint's senile diatribe.  And how no one could possible get a message from that.  Least of all those whitebread hicks on the convention floor, or the goobers at home watching their 'Make My Day' hero.

Guardian: 
The 82-year-old's rambling gravel-voiced conversation with an empty chair – supposedly supporting an invisible Barack Obama – proved a bizarre and confusing warm-up act for Romney.
"Mr President, how do you handle promises that you have made when you were running for election, and how do you handle them? I mean, what do you say to people?" he asked. He berated Obama for not learning from the Russian experience in invading Afghanistan. It was George W Bush who ordered US troops into the country.

Lefty twit!!  Read the Transcript! He was talking about ramping it up in Afghanistan.. Bush left it in a holding situation because you simply cannot win the peace there. That's what the Russian reference is about.

And of course it was racist  ..

According to Mike Elk, labor journalist for In These Times magazine, Clint Eastwood's empty chair routine at the GOP convention was racist, Twitchy reported Friday.
"Eastwood chair rant was RACIST, white man putting dirty words into mouth of black man like a puppet, (sic)" he tweeted.

 Well.. if it was racist, rambling dissonant and confusing the Dems wouldn't have leapt onto the idea, would they?
Note.. Clint didnt abuse the chair did he?  But a union thug just cant help it.. it is who he is.

And this poor recent journo grad got it WAY wrong {That's Juli w/o the 'e' - cute!}

It’s possible Eastwood, confused and bored, just wandered into the Tampa Bay Times Forum, seemed like he had a lot of issues to work out with a certain chair, and the R.N.C. simply offered him its stage upon which to do so. Or was it the chair’s idea? Did Chair Eastwood convince Clint to head down to Florida on some sort of rusty moped? We might never know, but what we do know is this: 

There are already two (2) Twitter accounts honoring Eastwood’s remarks: Clint’s Empty Chair and Invisible Obama. Their half-life was probably this morning, but they’re worth a look, if not a follow.)

Really.. I should be able to laugh at cluelessness like  that.  But even psyching myself into laughing at Chris Matthews doesnt last.  I find it an affront that anyone listens to someone projecting his inverted racism onto others.

Say it to the Chair - DNC 2012's Counter to Eastwood will be??

Like, surely, 95% of everyone watching .. my initial reaction to Clint's soliloquy was ..
"What the.....!!!"
First I had to get over the mixmaster hair do.  Then I had to recall "Tonight Show" type Eastwood guestings.. he is not a good guest when it comes down to smooth repartee...

Then I realized this was all him.. there was no script, he was winging it.  Then the chair.

And then I got it... "Oh.. this is Eastwood doing 'Performance Art!'" a sort of SNL type skit. A guy to guy.. or boss to employee exit interview.
Where the 'boss' is us.  Slightly dithered. Reluctant to shame but pointedly showing failure to perform. 
All in Eastwood's personna of course.

"You meant well, you tried, it didn't work.. we're moving on."

I missed a couple delicious touches.. like one blogger pointed out Eastwood didnt use a teleprompter but the chair had one.
And HuffPo had a 'Who said it' quiz, between Eastwood and Grandpa Simpson.. that is FUNNY!
 And Forbes asks: "Who's Responsible for this Fiasco?"
meaning "disruption of the smooth message delivery for the GOP "

The problem with that idea is.. I GOT the message.. and so did a lot of other people. That's why the blogs arent full of quotes from confused delegates and convention goers.
Sure it broke the scenario and scripting but I listened and it conveyed how I think.

So.. what can we look for in way of counteraction from DNC?  I assume it might be a break from what's promising to be a Celebration of Abortion.. aka Women's Rights.

And it should be Entertainment Celebs doing it. Probably will be chairs involved.. hopefully without a podium {That distracted from Eastwood's Performance Art}

Here's what I would like to see:
Four Chairs...In them are
Larry David
Ed Begley Jr
Rosanne Barr
Samuel L Jackson

Alternates:
Perez Hilton
Danny Glover
Ellen Barkin

Note I left out easy fodder like Charlie Sheen.  And Oprah

But someone with half a brain or more will probably drag out Ellen DeGeneres. 
That would be brilliant.  Everyone loves Ellen D.
Because she does what people want to see.. she doesnt insist she is an expert on everything.  Or that people should think how she thinks.
Which is probably why that wont happen.

UPDATE:  But a State Labor leader used it... He lectured Chair Eastwood in front of a state delegation.  Then he kicked Chair off the stage.
Is that any way to treat a Hollywood Icon?

Barbed Humor: How the midwest will be Won

WSJ: Healthy Ridicule 

Of course the Left doesn't see it that way 

But they understand this..

The GOP Goes Alinsky on Obama

And it's driving them crazy.  In some cases, maybe literally. 

But let's leave Chris Matthews, and his racial dog whistles heard from his near all white enclave, out of it.

 Here's a gentle dig from Mitt's speech:

 President Obama promised to slow the rise of the oceans and to heal the planet…My promise is to help you and your family.

To which an apparent lunatic NYT expert responded:

Seriously, Romney's speech esp troubled me by mocking rising seas/climate change. The dismissiveness was appalling.

The fact the seas ARE NOT RISING, and the case for CO2 caused climate change being weaker than ever, aside..  Just how the hell did Kristof get from point A to Point B?!!!

Ladies and Gentlemen, on that and other dissonant correlations, we will rest our case.

 

Coming: "Romney Got a Bailout" Foofraw

From the Obama Partners at Rolling Stone, Sept 13 issue,

The Federal Bailout That Saved Mitt Romney

Except it wasn't really a bailout. 
FDIC accepted a deal for 5 million and forgave 10 million owed to a bank it had taken over. 

Whether the Bain Capital partners 'looted' the Bain & Co. consulting house depends on your point of view. A consulting house doesn't invest.

What's stated then ignored is Bain Capital wrote off  75 million owed them.
It will be interesting to see how this shakes out.

UPDATE:
- On writing this I've not looked at any rebuttal.  Just the RS article.  {But I was jogged into it by a progressive on another site, wondering how I would explain it.}

Indeed Rolling Stone DID include all the pertinent facts, As far as I've read so far...kudos to them for that.
It's just their interpretation that's a little odd... to anyone who has the least idea of how corporate systems work.  I barely know, but the holes in the bailout argument were apparent to me.  While I DO understand how 'Progressives' would see it.... HOWEVER..
Key Point: A 'bailout' implies that tax money was somehow involved. Ummmm... nope.
I suggest anyone who doesnt understand how it's not especially shady or illegal read the article over several times until they at least understand the viewpoint.  It's all there.
Key points:
1. Bain and Company is a consulting house. 
2. Bain Capital is an Investment house.
- How much operating capital - Reserves- are required for each. The idea that the partners, being the same in both, somehow 'raided' the consulting house is ludicrous.

RS explains how Bain and Company came on hard times. As a separate corporate entity it would have been ethically wrong, if not outright illegal, for the Bain Capital partners to just inject cash to keep it afloat.
RS implies that it would have been better for the consulting house to go into bankruptcy. Better for whom?  FDIC as the operator of the seized bank would still have taken the hit, If not a bigger one.
RS correctly points out that Bain and Company... whose business it is to advise  clients on avoiding bankuptcy and hostile takeover... would have been effectively killed by declaring.
And FDIC was simply doing what it does in these cases, I see no evidence of 'cronyism' or special favors.

Leading us to the poison pill: Using the 30 million reserves still held for unearned bonuses.  That is standard operating procedure and meant to be used AGAINST takeover and milking assets, then selling off the remainders.
Exactly what Bain and Company counseled their clients to do, one would assume.

Update - Third Thought: What Rolling Stone wrote around, and didnt focus on, was why Bain and Company had all those loans outstanding in the first place. 
Why would any bank extend such credit lines to a floundering company? 
Perhaps THAT is the devil in the details. Just sayin'...

.. but I'll defend your right to say it!

... cuz the more you talk the dumber you look.  And it's great entertainment.
Probably not to the death, though.

Chrissie doesn't like being being heckled

That 'tingle' is now a running sore spot.

Chrissie Still Worries about a rising tide, calls 'soooo-ey!'
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Jason Biggs, American Idiot

sends out sick tweets about Paul and Janna Ryan

Then doubles down to include Christians and the Romneys

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Ignorance, thy name is Joe Robinson
- Read down the comments!
BeBe Winans hatefest

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Occupy RNC ends in tears, frustration.

“I love that we have an anarchist forum here, and I really love us, but I hate that our forum can’t even talk with their conservative forum,” he said. “The police just silence us, the Republicans just silence us. We are just getting silenced everywhere we go. It’s like no one wants to even hear what we have to say.”

- Insta-tip: "It’s easier to have an “open discussion” with people when you’re not dressed as a giant floppy vagina. "

And what's there to talk about?  You're a freaking anarchist.

Why I -and most Tea Partiers- Accept Mitt

Actually I wanted Mitt in 08.  Like most conservatives, I cannot trust John McCain.  And Mitt is, first and foremost, an excellent businessman/ CEO.  And that is certainly what we need.
Conservative griping about 'Romneycare' brushes over the facts.
MA was going to pass some healthcare legislation. Romney was Governor in a  capital where 80% of the elected were Democrat.  He had the choice of vetoing and being over-ridden, or guiding the inevitable program.

But people dont instantly 'Like' Mitt.

Learning to Like Mitt

Andrew Ferguson, reluctant Romneyite

 I never liked Mitt Romney. My distaste for him isn’t merely personal or political but also petty and superficial. There’s the breathless, Eddie Attaboy delivery, that half-smile of pitying condescension in debates or interviews when someone disagrees with him, the Ken doll mannerisms, his wanton use of the word “gosh”—the whole Romney package has been nails on a blackboard to me.

Well, there it is.   Not only that.. what you see is what you get.. he is almost too good to be true.

The Romneys present a picture of an American family that popular culture has been trying to undo since—well, since An American Family, the 1973 PBS documentary that exposed the typical household as a cauldron of resentment and infidelity. 

And now, here, 40 years later, it’s as though it all never happened: a happy American family, led by a baby boomer with no sense of irony! Romney is the sophisticate’s nightmare.

..that last is worth a few million votes right there.

And then, there's his personal and private sense of charity..

Obama usees 'Brothers Keeper' in a speech to raise taxes but wont give a dime to his own brother. But Mitt will help out a total stranger with thousands.

Well there must be a flaw somewhere.. oh, yeah!

He put his dog on the car roof.

But if ..
The Campaign Is A Battle For America’s Heartland.

Then it's about people who like all the above values, once they see they are real.
And know that dogs love their muzzles to be in the wind.

 

I Helped Build That.. government just watched

NYT - The Secret Weapon: All of Us

In which a liberal digs the hole deeper... some people just NEVER get it!
Kristof have any idea how risky and hard it is to start a business? I do. I was in one at startup. I helped it succeed but if it didnt I could just walk away and look for another job.  And the owners had to see I got paid when they didnt.

I didn't even try to start my own business when I had the chance. I didnt have the guts because I saw how tough it was.
Roads highway yadadda-yadda! Gimme a break!  That's sixth grade argument.. 'Socialist? You dont dont like police fire teachers' logic.

SBA.. YES! So what. And not every small business success happens because of SBA.

Government Contracts.. WHAT?!!!! Think about that, again. I suppose bought from private vs government manufacturer/vendor?
Did that guarantee success? Who paid those taxes in the first place? How... From their inherited legacy?

The entire Obama text is available. Its tone stands. "All things good come from Government "

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=192oEC5TX_Q

Yes, our taxes developed the Internet. For use by other government agencies.  

Private and corporate initiative expanded it out to you and me.

Why we despise Urban Intellectuals

The class warfare schism is no more evident anywhere than in Australia.

It runs the gamut from Illegal Immigration Boat People to Carbon Taxes to things as silly as as a moving van impeding a Bikeway fashioned from what previously was curb and sidewalk.

Tim Blair is one of the most interesting and humorous aussie scribes finding fun poking holes in these city leeches' hubris. Elizabeth Farrely is one of his favorite targets..  A holder of a PhD in Architecture which certifies her to critique all things mundane that despoil the cityscape, as it were..
Immediately on writing a thinly disguised treatise, for the Sydney Morning Herald, on banning motorized vehicles altogether, now the academic gentry  are biking through urbania... 

Bike haters parked in the Jurassic

...she spares no acerbic semantics in flogging a working stiff just trying to do his job.  Because to make his delivery he has to park somewhere, that being the bike lane.. and .. 
Horrors! She has to get off and walk her bike around his truck.
But it gives her fodder for her blog.

Not one but three

- you really must read it all. It's entertaining and informative.

After marveling at the coolness of the van driver.. who might just as well have told her how to fold and park her bike where the sun wont hit it...Immediately I conjure the location of her stylish walkup {wouldnt be on street level, of course}.. situated in a very upscale gentrified part of old Sydney. Right on the Bike Path, naturally.
 And picture how the removal vans got to her place.. or the deliveries of whatever stylish new accoutrements are made.
Might they not ALSO have to block the bikepaths?  Or is rear alley access a primary concern when selecting new nests for harpies?

***

Unasked and unanswered, as of yet, is:  Come the apocalyptic time and it IS coming, when everything breaks down, what does this woman have to offer in the way of reestablishing civilization?

Bless his heart: 'Can we just let the South secede?'

Remember back when the Hollywood libs threatened to leave the country after Dubya was elected.. and some great minds said the NE, NW and SoCal should secede?

How MANY of us wished they would.. or could!

Well here's a guy that goes em better.  He says the South  and those who thought like southerners ought  to be pushed out so the country would be better off.
That's be okay with me.. if all of Ohio from 50 miles south of Lake Erie is included. Or just Columbus and south.

Let's go back to just the deep blues seceding, okay?  They can have NY,  NJ, Boston, Philly, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, St Louis, the Twin Cities of Minnesota, Western WA and ORE, The SF Bay Area, LA County. All of Maine, All of Vermont.

Yes, that's ALL the main financial, Business, intellectual and Cultural centers of the US.

Oh MY!  The rest of us would be left destitute and barren.  Except maybe we could get infrastructure jobs for a while building a big wall to keep us out of those Centers of Enlightenment.
Okay.. as long as we get to keep them in. 

Only one little problem. Who we kidding.. within 10 years, the 'New US' would invade to get their fled money back.

Here's the book in question:
"Better Off Without 'Em: A Northern Manifesto for Southern Secession"

WSJ: Review

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Because there always has to be something about Race..

Does Paul Ryan's Black Ex-Girlfriend Matter? 

Ten plus paragraphs

summary:
Ryan is probably not a racist and Lou Dobbs isnt either, despite his 'anti-immigration' rants.. but if they don't agree with me and Obama, it's all the same. After all Strom Thurmond certainly loved and supported his black daughter and we all KNOW he was a racist.. because REPUBLICAN.

 

Funny.. with Face Palm

Women in Vagina Costumes demand Respect!

If you ever thought Westboro Baptist and Occupy Wall Street couldnt be outdone in invoking Alice in Wonderland logic, you discounted Code Pink..

As a female FB friend said:  "I'm not sure what to think about that"
- exactly!
Even Betty Friedan might wonder.

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Seriously.. you couldn't make this stuff up!  Wait.. I guess you could because it is being made up.

Cutter: People Mag ‘equally important’ as WH press corps

Monday Morning in WH Press room:

 What are the President and First Lady's views on whether or not Jennifer Aniston will ever re-marry?

You'll remember Stephanie Cutter from last week's foof where she forgot she was was the one who discovered the steelworker whose wife Romney killed.

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Yet MORE lunacy;  this time on the GOP side:

GOP Senate Nominee: Victims Of ‘Legitimate Rape’ Do Not Get Pregnant

Idiot! And you're running for the Senate. YOUR correct answer is:  "I'm against abortion in all cases but that should be an issue for states to decide."

And let it go at that.  Why?  Because of Federal mandating for provision under health care funding .. we just covered that in the Supreme Court. 

- not to mention that really dodgy position on a woman's body preventing contraception.

________________________________________

If that isn't 'alternate universe' enough for ya.. how about:

Poo Power from your dog

or..  

A urine based ‘potion’ can act as a CO2 absorbent

 Now.. the former is ridiculous.  Burning waste and trash for power has been tried countless times and it's money loser EVERY TIME.

The second might work.. if ALL the objectionable aspects can be overcome, however there are many sewage treatment issues actually caused by household water usage reduction, and I'm pretty sure the inventor hasnt addressed those.

WWJD: The 50/100 % Tax on the Rich

Jesus believed in a tax rate of at least 50 percent. So how does Paul Ryan's budget proposal stand up?

Oh, yes.. now I remember from Sunday School how Jesus organized a Crowd to Lobby Pilate so Rome would increase taxes.  Just need to find it in scripture...
But, here's what contextual search, in my own head, turns up:

"Thou shalt not take the name of thy Lord in vain"

Since Jesus is the son of God, seems to me if you put the wrong meaning in Jesus words you are blaspheming. Of course I'm not God.. and I'm not able to judge Christakos' heart so I guess it's just 'good intentions'.
Along with these other oddities, distilled from the last five commandments:

Do not envy your neighbor for that which he has and you do not.
Do not take that which is not yours to take.  Don't even THINK about it!

In fact, I don't recall Jesus ever organizing a crowd.  As I recall, when he 'spoke to the multitudes', he was addressing each individual in those crowds. He never organized a community, or addressed the iniquities of Rome. He said: Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's.."   That's pretty much it.

His only 'political action' was to upset the moneychanger tables inside the House of the Lord.

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Romney pays only 13%!!!!
Hmmm... ever wonder why you dont see the American Bar Association and H&R Block {check Joel Hyatt's political contribution history} lobbying for a flat fair tax or reducing the number of deductions?
{sarc}
'Me too!'
{/sarc}

Mitt Goes 'All-In' with Ryan

First, a prediction:
Expect many Democrat wonks to start pushing for the Obama Campaign to replace Joe Biden. He's a joke, even within the party, and in head to head debate on ANY ISSUE the Democrats pick.. Ryan will grind him up and spit him out.
As another blogger sees it:

 

- Rightreactions

I'm serious.. you read it here first.

That said.. to get support of the various grass roots Tea Party activists and voters, Romney couldn't have made a better choice. Both Pawlenty and Portman are policy liteweights compared to Ryan.

But unlike the 2008 ticket, where Palin would have been nothing but a cheerleader like Biden is now, this one promises a working partnership.  A good executive doesn't need to know all the facts about everything.. or anything, for that matter.
A good executive only needs to have the vision and execute the vision, leaving the details to his operational staff.
For President Obama that has meant his key cabinet appointments.  And if you need to know where the President really stands, you vet those people.
- Sadly, most people HAVENT read their bio's or noted their politcal positions, prior to joining the executive branch.

What Romney is going to promote is a working team.. in the full sense of the word.  Much like the left claimed Cheney was, Ryan is going to actually be the candidate for 'Chief Operating Officer' of the US.  Those familiar with corporate hierarchies know THAT is the guy who gets things done; as opposed to the Chief Executive Officer who proposes (to the Board or Country in this case) and executes.

It's a dream team in every sense of the word for those who want to save this country's economy.
But it's going to make it harder for Romney to get elected.

Because there is no way to skirt the terrible economic straits we are now in.  And fixing the problems, mainly health care and the deficit, wont be easy... the pain is going to be very much akin to pulling an infected wisdom tooth.

I propose this election is not going to be just about issues and how to resolve them, it's going to test whether or not average voters are as ignorant and fearful as the Democrats think we are.

That's why I say 'Mitt went all in'.  He just made it harder for himself to win the November vote.  
Because if Romney tells the truth he will admit it's going to hurt everyone for a while, and may possibly not work.  Hopefully he will be able to make the case that disaster is certain on this track.
When folks see Ryan point out just how bad things are and the unsustainable direction we are heading at this time.. lots of people will prefer to put disaster off as long as possible.

UPDATE:  An article in Reason.com points out that even Ryan's budget plans don't really address much of the deficit. Maybe.. but we have to start someplace.

Ryan Plans: Radical or Weak Beer?

The Genius of Justice Roberts

The blog reaction on the rulings on Obamacare illustrates why I am MOSTLY 'Libertarian' in my politics.
Many radio talkers, like Neal Boortz, are ranting non-stop about onerous taxation.
Those who see the big picture, though, realize this - PERHAPS- was a colossal win for fiscal conservatives and federalists.
By stating that a penalty to both states and individuals under the Commerce Clause was unconstitutional, there is now precedent AGAINST the Fed withholding of state funding for ALL activities under agency programs should states refuse a new addition to the program.  Not to mention unfunded mandates threatening previously accepted funding.

The Commerce Clause has been used and abused to force compliance for years.  This may be the beginning of the end for the big nasty hammer.

On the other hand, a tax may be repealed much more quickly than it's enacted.

Keynes Addiction

Someone said 'all politics is local' and indeed it does start locally... and ends up manifested with local outrage.

But it carries down from the very top.

Every time you see a 'Tax Reform' package purporting to fix inequities and injustices, you see a few clauses in there that favor the 'friends of...'. Most often those who make their living preparing taxes and litigating tax law. You think it's an accident that Joel Hyatt -H&R Block, Hyatt Legal Services- is a Liberal.. or is that 'Progressive'?
And after all the years of trying to make sure the 'one percent pays their share' how is it exactly that wasnt fixed long ago? Hmmmm?
My long term outrage at how the economy works bears very much on taxes and government manipulation of the economy and it started 45 years ago, in the first few months of my one year in college.. when Keynesian economics was presented.
I realized I was not suited for academia when I realized I would have to listen to drivel like:
'You reduce inflation by raising interest rates and taxes.'

Indeed that's true.. if all you care about is the next two years. But when you carry those forward for more than a few business cycles and especially union contracts {remember that was the sixties} you find all you did was push inflation forward.

It seemed to me that anyone with a least degree of common sense should know that everyone is going to at least TRY to get theirs back.

You have to remember that Keynesianism DOES provide effective short term tweaks. If it didnt, it wouldnt still be around. But it also encourages market manipulation by those entrusted to promote good for all by manipulating for gain.
What economic model was used to promote the 1999 CRA? ANd the subsequent housing bust.. Keynes. See how we fixed the mortgage problem? By keeping at the same thing that caused it in the first place.

And it's self-perpetuating. When you try to fix an economy distorted by Keynes, you have to go slow. Being an addiction, withdrawing from Keynesian situation, where we borrow one third of our federal budget, must be carefully done.

So it REALLY pisses me off when I see bullshit like this:
Why Don’t Republicans Mind When Romney Talks Keynesian?
Why Don’t Republicans Mind When Romney Talks Keynesian?

Romney: Well because, if you take a trillion dollars for instance, out of the first year of the federal budget, that would shrink GDP over 5%. That is by definition throwing us into recession or depression. So I’m not going to do that, of course.

Chait notes, bemusedly, that this deviation from orthodoxy has provoked no outrage on the right, which to him is further proof of just how cynical the Republican anti-Keynesian stance really is:

So Mitt tells the TRUTH. And people with the least degree of common sense understand that.. and it's used AGAINST him? And them?

This is why I despise 'Liberals'. Either they are too stupid to be allowed to write that BS.. or they are evil in intent. You tell me.

The bottom line is that Keynesian Economics not only lends itself to Central Planning, but REQUIRES Central Planning to fix the results of applying Keynesian Economics

It's your world...

Gee.. I havent posted in months.  And I'm starting to overload and annoy my FB friends. So I thought I'd better come back here.
Items of Interest to me:
What has Tebow done to deserve having to play for the Jets?
 
Hallelujah: Tebow trade to Jets hits a snag

I say this as an atheist, a lifelong Jets “fan,” and a Tebow admirer: If fate intervenes at the last minute to spare this poor kid from having to play for this hopeless loser franchise, it really is a data point in favor of believers...

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Onions Make you Cry

What does it mean when real Science Journal articles read like they are trying to compete with 'The Onion'?
You tell me...
Note these are NOT from Onion.. just seem like it.

Climate Science From the Onion?

___________________________________________

Related?  Astrology and Climate Change

Doesnt SAY that but it's what it means, IMO. 

Interesting. Makes at least as much sense as Gore's dumb Temp and CO2 chart.
If it's true.. we aint warming, folks. We'll need all the CO2 we can pump out.

Scafetta’s new paper attempts to link climate cycles to planetary motion

 Anthony is.. well.. skeptical

___________________________________________

Finally...
 In 1942 a flight of P38's and B17 crash landed on Greenland ice cap. In 1992 one of the P38 was dug out from under 80 meters of ice. In 2008 another P38 in the same flight was dug out from 100 meters of ice.
Certainly, left alone, those planes will end up in the rocks under the ice cap.

Something to think about, nonetheless.
 

Hitchens goes to meet his Maker

Christopher Hitchens Dies at 62...

"The author and prominent atheist Richard Dawkins described him as the "finest orator of our time" and a "valiant fighter against all tyrants including God

He maintained his devout atheism after being diagnosed with cancer, telling one interviewer: "No evidence or argument has yet been presented which would change my mind. But I like surprises."

And, indeed, I believe he will be surprised. I wont speculate as to what happens now.
However...  God evidently has a sense of humor.
How else to explain Jesus' statement to Peter: "Upon this rock I build my church."   At once both a pun and highly ironic, as Peter had just denied Christ three times.

I've read Dawkins and I've read Hitchens.  Dawkins rails a lot against God,  a  more accurate depiction of Hitchens' views would be 'Religion Poisons Everything'.  I don't think that is true but, on general terms, it's not incorrect, either.  And I defy the most devout religionist to negate THAT.   Especially if you follow contemporary news.
But EVERYTHING?

No.  Compare and contrast, for discussion's sake, the Shaker Cult v the Amish community.
Religion poisoned the Shakers.  Where is the malignant effect on the Amish?

If Hitchens cited the Westboro Baptist freakshow.. or the global mission of the devout to kill, convert or gather tribute from all 'Infidels' he has a valid point.
Like I say, though, that isn't God, that's man's Religion.

 I've observed over many years, that there are two general types of Atheist:  Those who don't believe because they don't 'see' hard and fast proof of the greatest mystery of the universe.. and those who deny to avoid self-judgement and guilt. Of course it is usually a blend of philosophies, but with Hitchens I think it was mainly the former..