Sunday, September 30, 2012

Quickies




.

A round-up of news items, articles, columns and blog posts that caught our eye this past week.







When your career has pretty much become known for how much swearing is in your tirades.



Thinking about sitting out this election? Or maybe voting for Romney just for the hell of it? You may want to think twice. If the above video is any indication, Samuel L. Jackson may appear out of nowhere to give you a profanity-laced nursery rhyme about the dangers of voting Republican this November.

Ostensibly a parody of his viral-ready rendition of the children's-book-for-adults "Go The F*ck To Sleep," Jackson magically shows up in the homes of seniors, young people and other disaffected voters to encourage them to start paying attention, using colorful language that, we can only assume, is not approved by Barack Obama.

The Academy Award nominee, 63, comes as a natural and unapologetic surrogate for the Obama campaign. Earlier this year, he caused a stir when he told Ebony that he voted for Obama in 2008 "because he was black."


“Wake the eff up!”



Besides the inappropriateness of the entire clip, two things grabbed us about this particular campaign cry: 1) is that not a peculiar slogan for an incumbency? 2) Rather ironic considering the zombified support Obama has enjoyed from his base ever since he announced his candidacy back in 2007.







B-Daddy on the state of California's new and creative way to steal workers' money.

A pension plan administered by a board of folks mostly selected by the governor... what could possibly go wrong?







Leslie of Temple of Mut was kind enough to pass along to us this fun little info graph displaying what out beer preferences say about our politics:



(click to enlarge)





Alas, our anecdotal suspicions have been confirmed: craft beer drinkers are generally politically engaged libs. sigh.






Congrats, gang, all those years of camping out in a ditch somewhere outside of Crawford, Texas has really paid off...


The ACLU released a report this week that shows that under Obama and his Attorney General Eric Holder, warrantless wiretapping and monitoring of American's electronic communications is "sharply on the rise."

After months of litigation and Freedom of Information Act requests, the ACLU obtained documents from the federal government proving that real-time monitoring of electronic communications inside the U.S. has climbed 60 percent since 2009 and far surpasses monitoring under President Bush.

The ACLU reports that the Dept. of Justice used "pen register" and "trap and trace" techniques 23,535 times in 2009 and 37,616 times in 2011.

A "pen register" captures outgoing data from a phone or email account while "trap and trace" captures incoming data.


During that same time period, the number of people whose telephones were the subject of pen register and trap and trace surveillance more than tripled. In fact, more people were subjected to pen register and trap and trace surveillance in the past two years than in the entire previous decade.


(ACLU's bold above)

"The number of authorizations the Justice Department received to use these devices on individuals' email and network data increased 361% between 2009 and 2011," the ACLU said.


but... but... but... Hopenchange!


Losers





OK, gang, a combination of a wonky connection and being very under the weather has tested our patience so we're going to cut things short for today. See you all tomorrow.

.

















Saturday, September 29, 2012

Free speech Saturday





.

We returned from sea on Thursday evening to learn that the maker of the allegedly anti-Islam Youtube video had been arrested.


From ABC News:

The Southern California man who wrote and produced the controversial anti-Islam film "Innocence of Muslims" was ordered detained without bail by a federal judge for allegedly violating the terms of his probation.

Citing a "lengthy pattern of deception," Judge Suzanne Segal said that the court had a "lack of trust" in Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, and believed him to be a flight risk who posed "some danger to the community."

Nakoula, 55, appeared at the U.S. District Court preliminary hearing in Los Angeles. He had been asked to report to an office of the U.S. Probation Office, where U.S. Marshals officially arrested him.

Authorities have been investigating whether he violated the terms of his supervised release from a 2010 conviction in a bank fraud case.

Nakoula had met with federal probation officers on Sept. 14 about whether his involvement in the film violated the terms of his probation, which barred him from accessing the internet without prior approval and from using any name other than his legal name.

The inflammatory film has been blamed for violent protests across the Middle East, including in Benghazi, Libya, where four Americans died, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, when militants attacked U.S. diplomatic facilities there on Sept. 11.



First off, it's good to know that the lap dog media continues to carry the regime's water in continually linking the violence in the Middle East, and particularly the sacking of the Benghazi consulate and the murder of our ambassador to a Youtube video no one has seen.


We've been told that Nakoula is a "flight risk" and that he is "some danger to the community".


When considering the regime has conferred upon itself the ability to detain U.S. citizens indefinitely without cause and the fact that wiretaps and other means of electronic surveillance has risen dramatically from that of the Bush years, you have what can be politely called a credibility gap.



And with respect to free speech, provocation and "fighting words", Allah Pundit at Hot Air has an excellent piece, here.




In related news, Leslie at Temple of Mut has a great piece on the abject failure of the U.S. media complex in their coverage of the shamble of lies the regime has cobbled together with respect to Benghazi.

.











Friday, September 28, 2012

Radio KBwD is on the air





.

Is it an uniquely American folk tradition to anthropomorphize, sorry… give human traits to bodies of water? Johnny Cash’s Big River springs to mind in that of the male form and the following suggests that of the female form.

Someday, when we make our months-long cultural road trip through the American South, which is the only region of the country that would hold the answer, we’ll get back to you.




Ladies and Gentlemen, in pretty much a no-brainer, from Wall Lake, Iowa, it’s Andy Williams from his self-titled variety show back in 1970 performing “Moon River”.


.




".. my huckleberry friend..."





Exit question No. 1: When did wholesome family-oriented shows try to get their hippy groove on by having some of the younger audience members sit cross-legged on the floor down in front?



Exit question No. 2 (and an entirely hypothetical one at that): Similar has been done before, but if we sent a rocket ship out into space and inside it we had 25 songs that best represented the American culture to the E.T.s out there, would “Moon River” make the cut? Remember, all genres would be considered: rock, punk, R&B, blues, soul, Cajun/Zydeco, gospel, jazz show tunes, standards, country and western and any other variant or mash-up of the aforementioned. It would be a crowded field, right?


.





What we've been tweeting








.


We got back Thursday evening after a couple of days at sea and there were two things trending on Twitter: the crappy anti-Islam Youtube video-maker being arrested for, ahem… alleged parole violations (we’ll have more on that on Free Speech Saturday, tomorrow) and a free Obama cell phone give-away program.








Tweet: 47%... and growing.


Tweet: Four years ago, dude was paying peoples’ rent. Now he’s just giving away crappy free cell phones. #downgrade


.


Thursday, September 27, 2012

Now about that individual mandate penalty tax



.

One of the reasons we've heard for the justifiability of the individual mandate comes from a moral standpoint, as in the "we're all in this together"/"we're all one big risk pool, now" and so, (you've heard this before "everyone needs to pay their fair share".

What this demonstrates to us is that there has been no real reforming of a broken system only a doubling down of dumping 30 million more Americans into that broke system.

But let's take that argument at face value and bounce it against a recently-released CBO report on who it is that is going to be paying the tax penalty for not signing up for health insurance.


No big surprise that the overwhelming majority of Americans who will have to pay the penalty tax (6 million people) because they are uninsured are from the lower income brackets. The CBO upped this estimate from 4 million people in 2010 because of the recent Supreme Court decision on ObamaCare which has led to states not expanding their Medicaid rolls, thus dumping 2 million more people into the uninsured category. (Yet another negative unintended consequence unleashed by ObamaCare)


6 million people in this gray area: Not poor enough to be granted an exemption but still poor enough to not be able to afford the still rising cost of health insurance and because of it - for their troubles - they will be dinged $695/person per year (children will be penalized around half that amount).

The total collections from the penalty tax will be about $7 billion in 2016 and will rise to $8 billion from 2017-2022.


Now, aint that a turn?:how's that for "paying your fair share" and how's that for "compassion"?


ObamaCare: being built on the backs of those who can't afford it.

.


.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Your martini-worthy, mid-week image of the day


.

As if brought to you by James Lileks' Institute of Official Cheer...



(click to enlarge)







... but, not. Just part of Seagram's whiskey Men Who Plan Beyond Tomorrow post-WWII ad campaign that featured the advent of sports bars, cell phones, the internet/Skype and gourmet roach coaches. No word on why they couldn't wish away the Tet offenive, disco and paneled dens to the cornfield.


Go to Ultra Swank to see more of what Seagram's own admen had in store for us in the future.



.





Seeing is believing



.

From the President's speech yesterday in front of the General Assembly of the United Nations:



Efforts to restrict free speech can quickly become tools to suppress.


.







To which @JimGeraghty tweeted:

That's why the filmmaker had a completely coincidental parole meeting.





To those of you out there thinking that perhaps were over-blowing this whole thing just a little too much, fair enough. However, count us squarely in the camp of those over-reacting to what we see as suppression of our 1st amendment rights as opposed to under-reacting to the same.


.




Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Video clip of the day


.

Alternate headline: High school kids send a shout-out to their parents vote for nanny-statism back in 2008.




The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 finds some kid not so hunger-free.







It's definitely not a stemwinder nor an explicit rant but it does appear that they would have to have received some level of cooperation from the school(s) to cut this video.


Exit question: The tune. We know it, we just can't place it. It has an 80s Euro-synth sound to it, though. New Order?

.





What we've been tweeting





.

Tweet: Seriously, like there was any way that #OCCUPY and Ahmedinejad weren't going to be spooning eventually.





From the Weekly Standard:

A report today in an official outlet of the Iranian regime claims that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, will meet with members of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Ahmadinejad is currently in New York City for the United Nations General Assembly, where these reported meetings will take place.

"Ahmadinejad is also set to meet American university students, artists, intellectuals and elites, including Occupy Wall Street anti-capitalist protestors, despite the ongoing efforts made by the pro-Zionist lobbies to prevent direct link between American people and the Iranian president," the Iranian organ Fars News reports.


American university students, artists, intellectuals and elites..?

Can he take them with him?



Anti-semitic socialists with scant to zero respect for American ideals. A natural fit if there ever was one.




Monday, September 24, 2012

More Chik-fil-A shenanigans






Last week we reported out on negotiations between Chik-fil-A and Chicago Alderman, Joe Moreno in what appeared to be a squeeze in getting the company to drop its financial support of pro-traditional marriage groups in return for being able to open a business in Moreno’s district.

From the comment section of the linked article, many people were not convinced at all that Chik-fil-A was making any such concessions whatsoever and, indeed were continuing their support of these groups. Chik-fil-A statements afterwards tended to support that contention but it still was not entirely clear to us what exactly Chik-fil-A had agreed to.

We tended to think that the mere fact that Chik-fil-A was even talking to this thug represented a victory for PC intimidation over free speech.
‘But back to Alderman Moreno because even he is now confused as to what, if anything, he was able to muscle Chik-fil-A into.



A Chicago alderman says Chick-fil-A's president is publicly contradicting what company executives personally assured him for months -- that the fast-food chain is changing its stance on gay marriage -- and he asked the company Sunday to clarify.

Alderman Joe Moreno made news last week when he announced Chick-fil-A has ceased making donations to anti-gay groups and has enacted workplace protections for its employees against discrimination.

Moreno said the two concessions were the result of 10 months of negotiations he had with Chick-fil-A executives as he weighed whether to support a new Chick-fil-A restaurant in his Chicago ward. He said the executives gave him documents backing up the new positions.

Chick-fil-A, in a statement Thursday, affirmed the workplace protections. Friday, however, company President Dan Cathy denied the company has ceased making donations to groups that oppose gay marriage and said Chick-fil-A "made no such concessions."

"There continues to be erroneous implications in the media that Chick-fil-A changed our practices and priorities in order to obtain permission for a new restaurant in Chicago," Cathy said in a statement to Mike Huckabee, the former Republican presidential candidate who now runs a conservative website. "That is incorrect."

Moreno said Sunday that Cathy's statement "at the least, muddied the progress we had made with Chick-fil-A and, at the worst, contradicted the documents and promises Chick-fil-A made to me and the community earlier this month."

Moreno said Chick-fil-A executives gave him a letter earlier this year saying the company's non-profit arm, the WinShape Foundation, will not support organizations with political agendas. "We were told that these organizations included groups that politically work against the rights of gay and lesbian people," Moreno said.

He said the executives confirmed to him that both the foundation and the company in 2012 has not given money and will not give money to those groups.

Cathy's conflicting statement, Moreno said Sunday, is "disturbing."

Moreno said Sunday he has yet to introduce legislation for the new Chick-fil-A restaurant in his ward and will wait for Cathy's response before moving forward.



No. What is disturbing is this continual thuggery displayed by Moreno in getting Chik-fil-A to bend to his will and his opinion of correct thinking in return for opening a restaurant there in Chicago.

We don’t understand Chik-fil-A’s thinking here. Why are they even speaking to this man? They have ample evidence that he is blocking them from opening a business there in his district based upon no acceptable legal reason. If they sued, we don’t see how they would lose. Yet, here they are playing this charade with this Windy City punk. We don’t get it. What are we missing?

And as for Moreno, you would think that someone running things in a town that has over 350 murders so far this year would prioritize bullying a private enterprise a little lower on this "to-do" list.

As always, your comments on the matter are welcome.

.










Not so random thought of the day



.

But first, from BuzzFeed:

On Saturday night, State Department spokesperson Philipe Reines slammed CNN for its “disgusting” handling of Ambassador Christopher Stevens’ diary. The diary helped confirm, as the network reported, that Stevens had been worried about the threat of an Al Qaeda attack, and even feared his own name was included on a hit list.

The blockbuster news contradicted the line the State Department and the administration had been pushing since the horrible tragedy took place almost two weeks ago: that there was no intelligence of a coming attack. In fact, the Ambassador himself was aware of a persistent high level threat against him.

“Perhaps the real question here,” CNN responded to the State Department criticism, “Is why is the State Department now attacking the messenger.”
That is the real question, and State Department’s bizarre criticism of CNN gives clues to the answer. Foggy Bottom is now in full-on damage control mode, with the primary goal of keeping Hillary Clinton’s legacy in Libya — and in Washington — intact.





So, let’s get this straight: For nearly a week, the administration lied its ass off with respect to what went down in Benghazi where a well-coordinated terrorist assault overran our consulate their resulting in the deaths of the Libyan ambassador, Christopher Stevens, and three others, instead choosing to blame it on an unruly mob whose rage was stoked by a the maker of a crappy Youtube video alleged to have dissed Mohammed.

No biggie, right? All administrations lie. And certainly any administration that reserves the right for itself to whack any of its country’s citizens without due process can certainly be forgiven throwing one of those citizens, like aforementioned crappy Youtube video-maker, under the bus in order to save its news-cycle hide. It’s still all good, right?

Here’s where were lost, though Where’s the press? Where have they gone? They’ve been played for fools in all this. Absolute fools and they are nowhere to be found… except sitting in their news trucks outside of the filmmakers home in Cerritos, California all but signing his death warrant.

They’ve been used by this administration and they simply don’t care. They’ve given up and the lack of outrage they have expressed with respect to how they’ve been played while the administration’s Arab Spring strategy has blown up in its face is stunning.
Congrats to the administration.

When Obama promised us a transformational change, he wasn’t lying: In just over 3-1/2 years he and his administration have managed to transform an entire media structure from what should be a naturally skeptical, if not confrontational, 4th estate into one that has decided to just lay down if not be entirely complicit in promoting the deception and hypocrisy of this administration.

Again, congratulations to the administration on a job well done and for inviting perilous damage to the republic.


Sunday, September 23, 2012

4 more years?


.



.




.




.


Flag-abusing narcissism and creepy, fan-boy/girl zombie-like, government teet-sucking dependency.


When we awake on November 7th, we'll have our bases covered: happy or grateful. Happy that this abjectly horrible administration will return from whence they came or grateful for the 22nd amendment to the Constitution.

.








Saturday, September 22, 2012

Free Speech Saturday




.

One in a hopefully regular series devoted to our most cherished freedom as guaranteed in the 1st amendment of the Constitution.



The following is a re-posting of an article we did a couple of years ago during the whole Ground Zero mosque dust-up. What was never clear to us was why many, especially those on the left, felt there was an inconsistency between voicing an objection to building a mosque in such close proximity to Ground Zero and realizing the people that wanted to build the mosque had every right to do so.

As we recall, there were vigorous arguments and demonstrations from both sides, however... no one was killed. No embassies overrun. No blood shed. We make this point for historical clarification.



From August 2010:


Of mosques, hate speech and gay bars

Greg Gutfeld's plans to build a gay bar adjacent to the Ground Zero mosque (Al Gayda? The Velvet Sword? Sharia Spa?) as a way to build a bridge to understanding with the Muslim community that is, we understand, somewhat hostile to homosexuals, brought this reaction from Megan McArdle:

This is kind of a jerk move. But it's a brilliant jerk move. I am hoping that at least one person will attempt to explain why we should support the mosque near Ground Zero, but not the gay bar next to the mosque near Ground Zero. I would find that very entertaining.


Indeed. After all the lecturing and tut-tutting the left has been doing with regard to center-right Nation's horrified response to the mosque proposal, it's time to turn the tables.

(For the record: though we believe building this mosque there is strictly an act of provocation and an incredibly insensitive one at that, we can see no legal standing to prevent them from building it there)

And McCardle gets her "one person".

The Ground Zero mosque spokesperson tweeted Gutfeld the following:
You're free to open whatever you like. If you won't consider the sensibilities of Muslims, you're not going to build dialog


Well, that's certainly a matter of opinion, now isn't it, champ? Just consider this a lesson in that whole American freedom and liberty thing cutting both ways.

But Gutfeld's gay bar got us to thinking about offensive/hate speech and actions. In some places, what Gutfeld is attempting to do, would get him frog-marched to in front of some civil rights commission (think Canada or parts of Northern Europe) but that's not what we do here.

In one of our posts regarding free speech in America, we talked about what constitutes hate speech and how, because we view free speech in this country much differently than other countries, the bar for hate speech is set much higher:

Precisely because the bar is set higher, the legitimization of hate speech is much more infrequent. Rather than officially recognize alleged hate speech in courts of law, the rantings of say, a Jeremiah Wright or the suggestions by Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson that the acceptance of homosexuality in this country was, in part, responsible for 9-11, it is instead held up for public scorn, ridicule and mocking…. as it should. The question of legitimacy is taken off the table and in fact, it is viewed not as court-defined “hate speech” but rather, “illegitimate speech.” In other words, speech that is outside the legitimate circle of polite and civil discourse.

We will not take you to court, we will, however, make fun of you and then simply ignore you.


And this is what Gutfeld is doing. He has turned the tables on the mosque builders. He is gutting (no pun intended) the spiteful intent of these people with mockery and satire. He is de-legitimizing the mosque with this brilliant Alinsky-like tactic.

There is a parallel here and it occurred just 3 years ago in the same city:

A perfect case-in-point for this is the Iranian mad-bomber, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, who came to New York last year to make a number of speeches and appearances. We understood the calls for banning and/or boycotting his speeches but we generally came down on the side of letting the man speak knowing that the true Mahmoud would reveal himself and sho’nuff, the raving lunatic, homophobe and anti-semite we knew him to be did not disappoint.

Despite the serious nature of what he said, we mocked and ridiculed the guy, essentially turning Ahmedinejad into a late-night punch line effectively neutering and delegitimizing his message.


This is part of American exceptionalism so bring it on. Instead of cowering in a corner or behaving like a bunch of humour-less, politically correct, Euro-scolds, Gutfeld has embraced his inner wild, wild West(ern civilization) and is fighting this fight on his terms.

America: where freedom and fun happens.

.



Friday, September 21, 2012

Radio KBwD is on the air





.

One of our favorite songs of all-time finally popped up on Youtube a few months back and we just located it this past week. The band is the Untouchables, a mod/ska/soul outfit from Los Angeles and this is their Ode to Joy.

Remember that walking-on-air, pulse-quickening feeling you had over the brunette in your sophomore geometry class back in high school where life was one massive hook after another? These dudes bottled it in the form of this song.

If this doesn't get you going, please check your pulse and your heart.





The Untouchables what it do with "Tropical Bird".






.


They don't want "active participants", they want zombies




.

From the Washington Examiner:




The Obama campaign has launched its “For All” campaign, encouraging supporters to take pictures of themselves with their hands on their hearts and a note explaining why they support President Obama.

Actress Jessica Alba uses the Pledge of Allegiance as an example of the campaign in an email to supporters.

“Growing up, my classmates and I started every day with a ritual: We’d stand up, put our right hand over our hearts, and say the Pledge of Allegiance,” explains Alba. “To me, that gesture was a promise. A promise to be involved and engaged in this country’s future. A promise to work for liberty and justice — and for affordable education, health care, and equality — for all.”

Alba joins Hollywood actresses Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson by photographing herself with her hand on her heart pledging to vote for Obama.




Taking a pledge to vote (ostensibly for Obama) is not cool, it’s not cute and it’s not hip. It’s undemocratic but we suppose that’s the point. It’s downright creepy but totally in keeping with a voting bloc that went completely nuts when three people were water-boarded during the Bush administration but support a President who granted himself the power to indefinitely detain U.S. citizens without cause and who casually dials-up drone strikes because he can’t be bothered with the messy business of intelligence-gathering.


It’s also the same voting bloc that sees no contradiction in supporting a civilian trial for Club Gitmo detainees but doesn’t bat an eye when the President and Attorney General tells us not to worry because people like Khalid Sheik Mohammed would never see the light of day even if he were convicted.


This is all not the result of “active participation”. It’s all good, you see, because it’s our guy.

Hooray, our guy!






Thursday, September 20, 2012

Yet another blow to free speech


.

When we first got wind of this we thought, “Wow, that kiss-in thing really worked?” Then we read about it and almost became physically ill.

We can’t begin to describe our disgust in the following:


From NPR, Chicago:

Chicago Alderman Joe Moreno says he will no longer stand in the way of Chick-fil-A opening a restaurant in his ward since it will stop making donations to groups that oppose gay marriage. It was a month ago that supporters filled Chick-fil-A restaurants and gay activists protested after the CEO of the restaurant chain said he opposed same-sex marriage.



RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

And Chick-fil-A fast food restaurants became the focus a few weeks ago of protests and counter-protests, after the CEO of the restaurant chain said he opposed same-sex marriage. Now, after a change in policy the chain, a Chicago alderman says he will no longer stand in the way of Chick-fil-A opening in his neighborhood.

NPR's Cheryl Corley reports.

CHERYL CORLEY, BYLINE: There's just one Chick-fil-A restaurant in Chicago. The second will be located here, on Chicago's northwest side. After months of negotiating, Alderman Joe Moreno says he's fine with the company locating here.

ALDERMAN JOE MORENO: They had funded groups that were outspokenly, in my opinion, hateful, and one of their offers was, look, we're not going to give to these groups anymore.

CORLEY: The Alderman says Chick-fil-A also took a step forward when it said, in an internal company document, the company will treat every person with respect, regardless of their beliefs or sexual orientation.

Anthony Martinez the executive director of the Civil Rights Agenda, an LGBT advocacy group in Illinois, also calls that a good first step, but says...

ANTHONY MARTINEZ: We would still like to see them have an anti-discrimination policy in their company manual.

CORLEY: That would address what Martinez says has been a culture of discrimination at Chick-fil-A.

The restaurant chain declined to comment beyond offering a statement saying it planned to leave the policy debate over same-sex marriage to the government and political arena.



This is not a matter of Chik-fil-A changing their stance with respect to who it is they give their money to. This isn’t about gay marriage. This isn’t even about a change of heart brought about by public pressure. The only thing this is about is a company caving to open threats made by elected officials. This is sickening. Chik-fil-A laid down and allowed thugs like this Moreno, the Chicago mayor, Rahm Emmanuel and the one from Boston, Thomas Menino, their victory of intimidation.

In the comment section of the article, there is a debate regarding whether or not Chik-fil-A is really going to shut down its funding to outfits like Focus on the Family. Guess what? It doesn’t matter. The moment that Chik-fil-A sat down at the table with Moreno, the damage had been done. The moment they sat down and gave even the appearance that they were negotiating in any way, shape or form, the thought police mentality of the statist thugs represented by Moreno and his ilk had won.

This is horrible. This sends a signal that the un-American and quite simply, the illegal behavior of denying a business license on the grounds that you don’t like what somebody thinks, says or does will be complied with. So, this went down with Chik-fil-A. What’s to stop tyrants like Moreno from squeezing other businesses? And what’s to stop him from, umm, broadening the aperture to muscle companies that give to outfits that advocate against abortion as an example.

From our vantage point, not a whole hell of a lot because we are shocked in the casual, ho-hum manner in which this was all handled.

Photo image of the day


.

Hey, ladies....



.







That's Jim Messina, the Obama 2012 campaign director. This image, which circulated around social media yesterday, was the subject of much photo-shopping. Why bother?


In its uncut form, what better illustrates the creepy, paternalistic, don't-worry-your-pretty-little-head-we know-what's-best-for-you mindset of this administration as demonstrated through its signature piece of legislation?


We don't want a warm, fuzzy, cuddly government. We want competence and efficiency. Don't think "relationship", think "friend with benefits".



.


.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Your Fast and Furious update




.

The long-awaited and much-anticipated Department of Justice Inspector General report on the federal government's wildly successful gun-running scheme, Fast and Furious, was released today.

Here's Fox News with some of the details:


A major report released Wednesday on the Operation Fast and Furious scandal faulted a range of federal agencies for the failed anti-gunrunning program — and has resulted in the resignation of one Justice Department official.

Jason Weinstein, the deputy assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division, is resigning in the wake of the Justice Department inspector general report on Fast and Furious. The report essentially concludes that he is the most senior department official who was in a position to stop Fast and Furious.

The nearly 500-page report was completed after investigators reviewed 100,000 documents and interviewed 130 people.

The reports also says that no one responsible for the case at ATF Phoenix or the U.S. Attorney’s Office raised a serious question or concern about the government not taking earlier measures to stop Fast and Furious.



And here's CBS News:


The Justice Department’s inspector general cleared Attorney General Eric Holder and his top deputies Wednesday of knowing about the gunwalking operation known as Fast and Furious that allowed thousands of weapons to cross into Mexico, CBS Radio News reports.

Two of those weapons turned up at the scene where Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed during a shootout in 2010 with drug traffickers.

While the inspector general heaped most of the blame for Fast and Furious on investigators in Phoenix, one senior official, Jason Weinstein, is blamed for not acting to stop the tactics.

Weinstein resigned Tuesday night. His lawyer told CBS Radio News that the report was badly flawed.


Former acting director of ATF, Kenneth Melson, of whom the report was highly critical retired upon release of the report.

It's a pretty damning and scathing report that casts a wide net of blame but most importantly, for the administration, it doesn't place any of the blame at the feet of the miserable hack that runs the Justice Department.

The question remains, then: if Holder did not know about Fast and Furious then what was the purpose of the President shielding him with executive priviledge?

We are still finding it unlikely that an operation that was by definition "international" was carried out without the knowledge of the top dog.

At best, we still have a federal department that exhibited a complete lack of institutional control and wound up getting people, including two American agents killed. At worst, Holder knew about it and gave it either his tacit or active approval and support.

We're sorry. There are still unanswered questions out there. We aren't satisfied. Are you?

.
.









What we've been Tweeting





.

Tweet: #Mediabias Dead ambassador/servicemen and ruined Harriers. Imagine unholy S@%t storm if ol’ you know who were in office this past week.



It’s barely been a week since U.S. ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, in a scene similar to that of Mogadishu nearly 20 years ago, had his body dragged through the streets as the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, where there were no Marines, no bullet-proof glass and, not-coincidentally, no bullets was over-run in a coordinated assault… and the President goes on Letterman.



Honest to god… we feel as if we are living in some sort of parallel universe. The press has completely abdicated their role as watchdog, foregoing possession of what should be, in a republic, a healthy skepticism and even confrontational relationship with the powers that be, whether in D.C., Sacramento or here in San Diego.


The reasons are myriad for why this is so but when we said recently with respect to the formal harassment of crappy Youtube filmmaker, Nakoula Nakoula, who is the official scapegoat for the government’s foreign policy failings in the Middle East, that the liberal-left had fallen in line with the administration’s vision of a police state, we didn’t realize how much so.


Based on a cache of internal Justice Department e-mails obtained by the Daily Caller, Attorney Gen. Eric Holder's press staff has been collaborating all along with left-wing media "watchdog" Media Matters to smear any reporter asking uncomfortable questions, to discourage whistle-blowers, to discredit political watchdogs and to suppress damaging news about what's going on in the Obama administration.

The Daily Caller found dozens of pages of e-mails between DOJ Public Affairs Director Tracy Schnakler and Media Matters staffers planning and discussing how to attack reporters who covered scandals such as the Black Panther voter suppression case, and the Fast and Furious scandal where DOJ sold thousands of guns to Mexico's notorious crime cartels — the truth of which DOJ didn't want to get out.

These weren't just instances of over-sharing between political allies or a quest for access, such as the New York Times was caught doing when one of its reporters submitted an unpublished story to a CIA flack.

This was the Obama administration planning and directing operations from on high in a grotesque example of the state with all its powers using an off-the-books nuisance organization to harass its critics.

After the acts, the DOJ then praised them: "Great piece," gushed Schmaler after Media Matters attacked DOJ whistle-blowers J. Christian Adams and Christopher Coates.



We may need to take a break from things for a little bit because this is some 3rd world banana republic non-sense for which we neither have an explanation nor the stomach.

.







Tuesday, September 18, 2012

It's not a new tax but it ought to be considered one


.

C’mon, you didn’t possibly think that essentially pushing 30 million additional Americans into Medicare on top of more rules and regulations to be interpreted and complied with was just going to be an absorbed cost for small and medium –sized businesses, now did you?


A week after small businesses warned that Obamacare taxes will eat up to half of their profits, a new government report reveals that simply complying with the new tax rules in the health care act will cost American families and businesses nearly 80 million hours--essentially a whole new tax.

Based on Internal Revenue Service figures, the House Committee on Ways and Means has compiled an estimate of the total amount of hours it will take to comply with the tax rules. The bottom line: 79,229,503 hours, most of which will fall on small businesses.



ObamaCare compliance fun facts:

"So, what can be done in 79,229,503 hours? The Empire State building, which took 7 million man-hours to build, could be constructed 11 times. The Curiosity Lander could travel from Earth to Mars 13,048 times. Halley's comet, seen from Earth once every 76 years, could be spotted 119 times."

The committee said that Obamacare has resulted in thousands of pages in IRS and Treasury rules including 17 regulations, 5 revenue procedures, 2 revenue rulings, and 14 Treasury decisions.

"Given the enormous impact the regulations will have on job creators, it is no wonder that a recent survey found that over 70 percent of small businesses cite the health care law as a major obstacle to job creation," said the panel headed by Rep. David Camp.



Uncertainty. If you want to know why so much private equity is setting on the sidelines (no, the evil rich aren't doing swan dives into pools of $100 bills inside their bank vaults), it's because of the uncertainty created by this administration's regulatory regime.

Oh, businesses know they are going to get clipped by all the new regulations in ObamaCare that will hit them in full force come 2014, they just don't know how badly they are going to get clipped.

And the economic illiterates within this administration who have created this anti-growth, anti-jobs Leviathan can't figure out why we haven't busted out of the recession yet.

.







Link of the day


.

We don't want to get tunnel vision but, right now, is there anything more important than this?

Right now? How about ever?






Here's B-Daddy:

I thought the making of the film Innocence of the Muslims was badly done, in poor taste, mildly offensive and something I would never do. It was not and never should be considered a crime. Nakoula's rights as an American are being abridged by a President adored by the left; the same left that is always making a big stink about free speech. Where are the defenders of free speech on the left now? The DailyKos is in full throated defense of the actions of the administration; they have totally sold out to Obama's would be totalitarianism. The claim is that this was a probation violation because Nakoula can't use a computer or the internet without permission from his probation officer. Do we have any doubt that such provisions are routine and routinely ignored, except when convenient not to? Regardless, it is only the act of mocking the story of Mohammed that has this guy in trouble; how is that not a step towards repression. From moveon.org, crickets on this subject.





The events that have transpired this past week have confirmed what we've always suspected about the liberal-left in this country and that is their highly selective view of free speech.


Piss Christ? Hey, it's cocktails on the upper West Side, baby. A crappy Youtube video that outs Mohammed as queer? Uh, now we've got some problems.


Similar to how you don't hear a peep from these hypocrites about the President's ability to detain U.S. citizens indefinetely without cause via the American Defense Authorization Act he signed back in November of 2011, the liberal-left have bought into entirely the Dear Leader's police state.

.












What we've been tweeting







From the news yesterday:


Some black clergy see no good presidential choice between a Mormon candidate and one who supports gay marriage, so they are telling their flocks to stay home on Election Day. That’s a worrisome message for the nation’s first African-American president, who can’t afford to lose any voters from his base in a tight race.

The pastors say their congregants are asking how a true Christian could back same-sex marriage, as President Barack Obama did in May. As for Republican Mitt Romney, the first Mormon nominee from a major party, congregants are questioning the theology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its former ban on men of African descent in the priesthood. The Mormon church lifted the ban in 1978, and the church has repeatedly condemned racism.


Tweet: Black evangelicals suddenly sour on NARAL AAA-rated black pol over gay marriage. mmm-K.




Don't want to get into the litmus test game and not to go all single issue but considering dude refused to vote for an abortion survivor law while he was a state senator in Illinois, we'd question your evangelical chops if you supported this guy.



Monday, September 17, 2012

If you read nothing else today...



... check out this from KT of The Scratching Post:


Spontaneous protests by primitive religious people* are spreading around the globe, focused on American embassies. American embassies have not been targeted because the Obama Administration has shown itself to be a sniveling pack of flaccid wieners, no sir, but because an obscure video that no one ever heard of made fun of Mohammed. American forces here at home are moving as quickly as they can to hunt down and expose the Americans who insulted the Prophet, but it's not going fast enough for the freedom-loving, open-minded Facebookers of the Arab Spring. Soon, we may find American embassies from Tunisia to Malaysia wiped off the face of the map.

Who cares?


The man has got a great money and, now, American-lives saving solution. Read about it here.

,

We should have seen this coming


.

The White House and State Department continue to play film critic, blaming the violence in the Middle East which started on 9-11 on a "heinous" and "deplorable" Youtube video that had been up for months prior to said rioting.


And with the voluntary questioning of the alleged filmmaker over the weekend, we probably should have seen this administration's commitment to civil rights and free speech coming with the weaseling of a very simple question asked of Edward Perez, the assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division.

This is from a House of Representatives hearing from back in July and for the sake of clarification, Congressman Franks (R-AZ) is not questioning Perez about economic policy or immigration reform, rather a singular issue about which Perez, given his job title, ought to have some pretty damn strong convictions.






Disgraceful. There's no other word for that performance.



(h/t: Michael Totten via Instapundit)



.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Free Speech Saturday







In light of recent events that have occurred both in the Middle East and here on our very shores, we have decided to start a Free Speech Saturday series where we devote a post each Saturday to the 1st amendment and the protections to what we can shout from our rooftops that amendment affords us.

And, yes, we realize it’s Sunday… Events beyond our control prohibited us from getting this up and out before this morning.





On Friday, the filmmaker who is alleged to be responsible for the rioting and killing over in the Middle East was brought in for “voluntary questioning” by the L.A. Sheriffs Department.


Just after midnight Saturday morning, authorities descended on the Cerritos home of the man believed to be the filmmaker behind the anti-Muslim movie that has sparked protests and rioting in the Muslim world.

Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies escorted a man believed to be Nakoula Basseley Nakoula to an awaiting car. The man declined to answer questions on his way out and wore a hat and a scarf over his face. He kept his hands in the pockets of a winter coat.

Sheriff's officials could not be reached by The Times, but department spokesman Steve Whitmore told KNBC News that deputies assisting the federal probation department took Nakoula to the sheriff's substation in Cerritos for interviewing.




(image courtesy Leslie at Temple of Mut whose views on the matter can be found here).



Because nothing says “police state” like “Just after midnight Saturday morning, authorities descended on the Cerritos home…”.



And we care not a lick that Nakoula was released without being further detained or arrested. We care not a lick that he is a previously convicted felon and that the Sheriffs were just doing some potential parole violation follow-up. It doesn’t matter anymore. The man has been outed by his own government, aided and abetted by a media who has done more leg work in getting into this man’s background than they did in vetting a certain presidential candidate back in 2008.

In the aftermath of 9-11 we came to the quick realization that the jihadists would prevail not by felling our buildings nor by killing our people but by making us question that which we formerly valued. When authorities are swooping in on you in the dead of night for some “voluntary questioning” because of a crappy Youtube video you made, the 1st amendment is in the “formerly” cross-hairs. Congrats, jihadists, you've got first and goal at the one.

People who should absolutely know better like a religious studies associate professor from Penn, Anthea Butler, are penning articles titled:

Opposing view: Why 'Sam Bacile' deserves arrest


Our favorite line from the horrible article:

If there is anyone who values free speech, it is a tenured professor!


Anthea, the exclamation point won't detract from the deplorable state of higher education in this country demonstrated by your excrable article.

Her logic that the crappy Youtube video provoked a violent response from believers in Islam sent us scrambling for our own copy of the Constitution to see if there was some sort of "incitement exemption" in the 1st amendment. She definitely has a different version than we for there are no such qualifiers in our copy.




With Nikoula’s release, it reminded us of a quote from Canadian journalist/publisher, Ezra Levant who was eventually acquitted of any wrongdoing by the Alberta Human Rights Commission after a 900 day investigation for his role in reproducing the Mohammed-as-terrorist Danish cartoons.


Pardeep Gundara – a second-rate bureaucrat, a nobody – had to give me his approval for me to be allowed to go back to my business. For 900 days I was in the dock, waiting for this literary giant to pronounce his judgment on me. And I found favour in his eyes – but barely.

Sorry. I don’t give a damn what Gundara or the HRC says. Getting his approval is not a success. I won't legitimize his arrogant "authority" by saying "thank you, master". I'll say: "who the hell are you? Besides a busy-body bureaucrat?"

Look at his rationale for acquitting me: because the Western Standard met Gundara’s home-made tests of reasonableness. We published the cartoons in “context”; we published letters that “criticized” them; and my favourite, the cartoons weren’t “simply stuck in the middle” of the magazine. Gundara must have thought for ten whole minutes to come up with that list of journalistic do’s and don’t’s. And – phew! – he likes me. He really likes me!

Sorry again, I don’t give a damn if he likes me. In fact, it rather creeps me out that a whole squad of teat-sucking bureaucrats spent 900 days inspecting me and the Western Standard. I positively want to offend them. In fact, that’s pretty much the only test of my freedom: can I do exactly what Gundara says I shouldn’t? I’m not interested in publishing recipes or sports scores. I’m interested in bothering the hell out of government.

(italics, ours)


A man to be admired, this Ezra Levant - we could not have said it better ourselves.


We hope you enjoyed this initial installment of Free Speech Saturdays of which we hope our resolve and this country's respect for the most fundamental right continues to make happen.

.








Friday, September 14, 2012

Radio KBwD is on the air: the covers edition





.

A match-up like this will not wait for anything as pedestrian as a scheduled first Friday of the month appointment.



.



First up, from Minneapolis, MN, it’s Prince performing “Raspberry Beret”:


.












A few years later, say 1990, 1991, the members of R.E.M. sans lead singer Michael Stipe got together with the late, great Warren Zevon to form Hindu Love Gods. They put together a one-off, self-titled album of blues and R&B covers and which also included “Raspberry Beret”. Have a listen:





.





Thursday, September 13, 2012

Wait, what?


.

One in a series where we take a look at the unexpected, the unusual and certainly, the absurd.


So, with violence breaking out around U.S. embassies and consulates in the Middle East and which resulted in the deaths of 4 Americans, including the ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, you would be confident that the U.S. is mobilizing its assets to not only protect our people over there but also to bring to justice those responsible for the deaths of our citizens.



Federal authorities have identified a southern California man once convicted of financial crimes as the key figure behind the anti-Muslim film that ignited mob violence against U.S. embassies across the Mideast, a U.S. law enforcement official said Thursday.


Wait, what?


Attorney General Eric Holder said that Justice Department officials had opened a criminal investigation into the deaths of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other diplomats killed during an attack on the American mission in Benghazi. It was not immediately clear whether authorities were focusing on the California filmmaker as part of that probe.


Holder. Of course.


Unfortunately, this is not The Onion, it's the Associated Press.


More from the AP article:


A federal law enforcement official said Thursday that Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, was the man behind "Innocence of Muslims," a film denigrating Islam and the Prophet Muhammad that sparked protests earlier in the week in Egypt and Libya and now in Yemen. U.S. authorities are investigating whether the deaths of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans in Libya came during a terrorist attack.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation, said Nakoula was connected to the persona of Sam Bacile, a figure who initially claimed to be the writer and director of the film. But Bacile quickly turned out to a false identity and the Associated Press traced a cellphone number used by Bacile to a southern California house where Nakoula was found.

Bacile initially claimed a Jewish and Israeli background. But others involved in the film said his statements were contrived as evidence mounted that the film's key player was a southern Californian Coptic Christian with a checkered past.

Nakoula told The Associated Press in an interview outside Los Angeles Wednesday that he managed logistics for the company that produced "Innocence of Muslims," which mocked Muslims and the prophet Muhammad.




We'll stop there as we don't wish to make you as ill as we were by the time we got to the end of the article.


Suffice to say, the Associated Press did more leg work in this single article than they did in vetting candidate Obama back in 2008 and most certainly more than what they have expended in investigating the federal gun-running scheme, Fast and Furious, that was operating under the auspices of that miserable hack that runs the Justice Department.

Good to know our government, aided and abetted by the 4th estate, is in the business not of protecting its citizens and defending their free speech rights, rather outing them when they have done no wrong.

That Nakoula… Bacile… whatever the hell his name is, is being investigated is an enraging travesty. There is no clearer violation of one’s 1st amendment rights and violation of one’s civil liberties than what is going on here.

You’ve got a weak economy, a sustained run of record unemployment numbers and a thug administration led by constitutional illiterates who can’t seem to figure out who the bad guys are.

Good, god… November 6 cannot come soon enough.



P.S. Filmmaker, Spike Lee, tweeted out George Zimmerman's address when the whole Trayvon Martin case blew up (the jack-ass tweeted the wrong address, by the way). Well, our federal government, just Zimmermaned Nakoula.



.



Good news...



.

...Middle-Eastern views on free speech align pretty strongly with those of a major American media outlet.


Amid violence, terrorism and murder in Egypt, Libya and now, apparently, Yemen, over what we are being told is because of some amateur film production of the life of Mohammed, justice must be served.


What sort of justice? Here's Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi to explain:



Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi asked the Egyptian embassy in Washington to take legal action in the United States against makers of a film attacking the Muslim Prophet Mohammad, the official state news agency said on Wednesday.

Mursi had requested the mission take "all legal measures", the MENA agency said, without giving further details on what that might involve.

Protesters who demonstrated outside the U.S. embassy in Cairo on Tuesday had demanded action by the president.




And perhaps, not so oddly enough, talking heads at MSNBC tend to endorse this message:






MIKE BARNICLE: Given this supposed minister’s role in last year’s riots in Afghanistan, where people died, and given his apparent or his alleged role in this film, where, not yet nailed down, but at least one American, perhaps the American ambassador is dead, it might be time for the Department of Justice to start viewing his role as an accessory before or after the fact.

DONNY DEUTSCH: I was thinking the same thing, yeah.





We've never heard of this Mike Barnicle cat and Donny Deutsch only in passing but we can, from that clip alone, confirm they are idiots and as not fit as members, allegedly, of the 4th estate to hold their jobs any longer.

Their current employment absolutely depends on a commitment to free speech to a degree for which they don't seem to have the stomach (we might add that it's being called into question whether or not, Terry Jones, the pastor in Florida, had anything at all to do with this film. Similar to the George Zimmerman fiasco down there, it's lynch first, ask questions later now days).


Perhaps Barnicle and Deutsch should get their own boots on the ground over there and as representatives of the American media show some solidarity with the mobs in expressing their highly selective interpretation of free speech. I'm sure it would be appreciated.


That members of this nation's media can so casually toss around ideas like this based upon no logical evidence (it was 9-11, for chrissakes... it's what they do over there, film or not) should be cause for alarm.

The 1st amendment was established precisely to protect unpopular opinions and speech. If we all shared the delicate sensibilities of these two gentlemen at MSNBC then we would not need a 1st amendment. But we do.

We fought a war for the right to speak out, inform, agitate and, yes, offend. How it is that this is lost on the professional practitioners of this right is completely lost on us.


.




Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Video clip of the day


.



Bill Whittle takes on the 6th deadly sin and with it progressives/statists both here and abroad.



(video about 6-1/2 minutes)





If we can't get envy out of our hearts maybe we can at least get it out of our government.



This whole notion of “paying your fair share” and the “1-percenters” is laughable on its face when we have a progressive tax code whereby half the country doesn’t even pay income tax. Puts a whole new light on “paying your fair share” when it's viewed from that angle, now, doesn’t it?

We could never figure out why a flat tax rate or a national sales tax (that would tax consumption rather the wealth you produce) in lieu of the federal income tax never got more traction. Woops – that’s right. Because it would be reflexively opposed by half of this country that doesn’t pay federal income tax and a good number of their minders who do pay federal income tax and are counting on for political and/or twisted philosophical reasons, in keeping these people in a permanent underclass status.

Whittle’s right, though. If everyone paid the same income tax rate, tax hikes would be a lot less politically viable and, yep, which represents another reason why our flat tax/federal income tax championing never seems to get off top-dead-center.



Oh, well. Guess we’ll take a seat over in the corner with the tin-foil hat and flat-earth types and just keep our mouths shut before anyone starts getting to suspicious of us.


.

It's a Republic, as it should be


.

People ask us to defend Romney. We won't. It's just an election, after all. One in a, hopefully, long-running series of such events where we can judge at some point down the road whether or not we made the right decision in the relative comfort of a safe and free Republic.


Here, however, is someone who will:


Romney is a decent business manager. He’s a decent man. He likes America. He wants America to like him. He’s not going to actively dismantle our way of life, as will the one now in power. There will be no attacks on freedom of religion, no wild power grabs for the Internet, no executive orders that violate the laws of the land. He will not hanker for more “flexibility” so he can give more to Putin. And — this is petty but important for how the world sees us — he will neither apologize nor bow to foreign leaders.

Is he perfect? Oh, goodness, no. Is he exactly what we need? Probably not. Who is? Do you know the trouble we’ve got ourselves into by trusting presidents for this long? It’s a big hole. No one man can get us out of it. Only we can. And it will take time.

But that’s fine. He won’t be anointed by any gods. There will be no halos and no Greek columns. Instead, he’ll be the elected by the people and the people — the sovereign people of this free land — who are now awake will stand ready to make sure he knows it.

Perhaps we will once more save our democratic republic for another generation. Perhaps we’ll turn the tiller and start the long way back from deep blue statism.

In the end, as someone said, perhaps we’re the ones we’ve been waiting for. No hero will ride to the rescue — we will.




Go to the link and read the whole thing. It's good - real good.


The linked piece represents more of a defense of the American ideal than a defense of Romney.

It's totally healthy and totally American to be skeptical of our leaders. Hell, it's even healthy and American to be skeptical of the person we will be pulling the lever for come November. It's who we are and it's in our DNA as Americans.

We don't need a Reagan - we don't need a saviour. We need us. We need an informed, enlightened and engaged people which, in our opinion, has been missing for a while. That is the backbone of a strong republic, not its leaders.

We don't need school children singing songs in praise of the President. We don't need creepy, insipid fan boy/girl pledge videos to the President. That really hasn't solved anything, now has it?

During the Republican National Convention, we were tweeting during Governor Chris Christie's keynote address and something he said triggered this response from us:

Christie nailed it. If Romney won't lead, we'll show him the way.


Now, get your asses to the polls in November.

.









Tuesday, September 11, 2012

9-11: Eleven years on




.



It's human nature to let that horrific day sink further and further into our mental background. If there was one day, however, that we have to fight this instinct, it would be Sept. 11, 2001.

Leslie at Temple of Mut reminds us of why noting that her 10-year old son has known nothing but this country at war with our enemies:




And here’s a passage from Lee Harris’s Civilization And Its Enemies.


Forgetfulness occurs when those who have been long inured to civilized order can no longer remember a time in which they had to wonder whether their crops would grow to maturity without being stolen or their children sold into slavery by a victorious foe.

They forget that in time of danger, in the face of the Enemy, they must trust and confide in each other, or perish.They forget, in short, that there has ever been a category of human experience called the Enemy. And that, before 9/11, was what had happened to us. The very concept of the Enemy had been banished from our moral and political vocabulary. An enemy was just a friend we hadn’t done enough for — yet. Or perhaps there had been a misunderstanding, or an oversight on our part — something that we could correct. And this means that that our first task is that we must try to grasp what the concept of the Enemy really means.

The Enemy is someone who is willing to die in order to kill you. And while it is true that the Enemy always hates us.





A special thanks to the first responders who instead of running away from the sound of chaos, instead, ran towards it, especially those FDNY firefighters who knew they were probably not going to make it back once they started up the stairtowers of the soon-to-be felled Twin Towers.

And a special thanks to those men and women in our armed forces who took the fight to our enemy ensuring as much peace and tranquility on our shores as could be hoped for over these past 11 years.

May God bless them and may God watch over the souls of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice in aiding their fellow Americans and those defending us from our enemies.





Pretty much doing in just under two minutes what we've been trying to do for 3 years...



... and that is breaking down ObamaCare in one, long run-on sentence.


Dr. Barbara Bellar, who is running for Illinois State Senate, breaks down the Affordable Care Act thusly.



Via Hot Air:







So, let me get this straight. This is a long sentence. We’re going to be gifted with a healthcare plan that we’re forced to purchase and fined if we don’t, which purportedly covers at least 10 million more people without adding a single doctor but provides for 16,000 new IRS agents, written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn’t understand it, passed by a Congress that didn’t read it but exempted themselves from it, and signed by a President who smokes — [laughter] — same sentence! — with funding administered by a Treasury chief who didn’t pay his taxes, for which we will be taxed for four years before any benefits take effect, by a government that has already bankrupted Social Security and Medicare, all to be overseen by a Surgeon General who is obese — [laughter] — and finally, financed by a country that’s broke.

So what the blank could possibly go wrong?



Please feel free to share this with family, friends and otherwise.




Monday, September 10, 2012

Photo image of the day


.

Just got back from Vegas and we were knocking around our Twitter feed and caught this beauty.








Perfecto!



Obama may defy conventional wisdom that an 8%+ unemployment rate will doom his designs on a 2nd term but think about it: this is an administration that not only celebrates how many people they can get on food stamps but touts said food stamps, not the private sector job growth, as an economic multiplier.


Considering the unemployment rate, the record Americans on food stamps and the fact that half of Americans pay no federal income tax, this is what political observers might refer to as a "Karl Rovian shoring up of the base."


Call us cynical but we're coming around to the fact that Team O has forgotten about strengthening the economy some time ago and is absolutely counting on the disaffected, soured on this economy but being held afloat by a gossamer's thread of faded hopenchange and continued government bennies to bring him home the vote.

.







Tales from Bailout Nation to be remembered... and shared




.

During the Democratic National Convention last week, Team O took great pains to avoid the American Recovery Act of 2009 (aka Porkulus) which cost the American tax-payer upwards of $800 billion and which had little noticeable effect on the private sector economy and the health-care reform act (aka ObamaCare), instead choosing to focus on the killing of Bin Laden and the auto bailout of General Motors and Chrysler.

As loyal subjects American citizens, we’d love to do our part in getting the word out (well, we have been already, if you are familiar with this blog) and in this case, it is with respect to the Chevy Volt.



From Reuters:

General Motors Co sold a record number of Chevrolet Volt sedans in August — but that probably isn't a good thing for the automaker's bottom line.
Nearly two years after the introduction of the path-breaking plug-in hybrid, GM is still losing as much as $49,000 on each Volt it builds, according to estimates provided to Reuters by industry analysts and manufacturing experts.

Cheap Volt lease offers meant to drive more customers to Chevy showrooms this summer may have pushed that loss even higher. There are some Americans paying just $5,050 to drive around for two years in a vehicle that cost as much as $89,000 to produce.
And while the loss per vehicle will shrink as more are built and sold, GM is still years away from making money on the Volt, which will soon face new competitors from Ford, Honda and others.

GM's basic problem is that "the Volt is over-engineered and over-priced," said Dennis Virag, president of the Michigan-based Automotive Consulting Group.

They are over-priced even with the $7,500 tax payer-provided subsidy.
And no wonder people are leasing instead of buying. Who wants to fork over another 10 grand in 5-7 years when that battery needs to be replaced?

GM's quandary is how to increase sales volume so that it can spread its estimated $1.2-billion investment in the Volt over more vehicles while reducing manufacturing and component costs - which will be difficult to bring down until sales increase.
But the Volt's steep $39,995 base price and its complex technology — the car uses expensive lithium-polymer batteries, sophisticated electronics and an electric motor combined with a gasoline engine — have kept many prospective buyers away from Chevy showrooms.

Some are put off by the technical challenges of ownership, mainly related to charging the battery. Plug-in hybrids such as the Volt still take hours to fully charge the batteries - a process that can been speeded up a bit with the installation of a $2,000 commercial-grade charger in the garage.

Another $2,000 you can sink into battery technology whose price won’t decline appreciably in the near or mid-term as long as China has an effective corner on the lithium-ion and rare earths market that are essential for these batteries.

Oh, and the greenies haven’t shared with us how it is we are to dispose of these batteries.




Back to the article:

"I don't see how General Motors will ever get its money back on that vehicle," countered Sandy Munro, president of Michigan-based Munro & Associates, which performs detailed tear-down analyses of vehicles and components for global manufacturers and the U.S. government.

It currently costs GM "at least" $75,000 to build the Volt, including development costs, Munro said. That's nearly twice the base price of the Volt before a $7,500 federal tax credit provided as part of President Barack Obama's green energy policy.

Other estimates range from $76,000 to $88,000, according to four industry consultants contacted by Reuters. The consultants' companies all have performed work for GM and are familiar with the Volt's development and production. They requested anonymity* because of the sensitive nature of their auto industry ties.



Basic math, even that taught in California’s public schools, will tell you that selling a product for half the amount it took to produce it will not reap your company its intended profits.

With apologies to the voters of Michigan and Ohio, don’t expect to hear anything but happy-speak out there on the campaign trail when one doesn’t have to scratch too far beneath the surface to get to the ugly truth of the auto bailouts.




* Allow us to translate: As long as the U.S. Government still owns a large share of General Motors, we don't want those thugs in this administration knowing it was us sharing the bad news.